Survivor: Island of the Idols · Season 39

Episode Guide

How Survivor: Island of the Idols unfolded, week by week.

1“I Vote You Out and That's It”Sep 25, 2019Twenty new players hit the beach and meet the season's signature twist: the Island of the Idols, where legends Boston Rob and Sandra wait to mentor whoever gets sent over, teaching a skill and then dangling a gamble, pass a test to win an advantage, fail and lose your vote. On Lairo, pro poker player Ronnie Bardah comes out firing strategically and reads as a threat almost immediately. The tribe figures a shark like that has to go before he gets rolling, and Ronnie is the very first one voted out.
2“YOLO, Let's Play!”Oct 2, 2019Lairo can't win a challenge, and the losing streak only digs them deeper. Molly Byman has quietly built one of the stronger spots on the tribe, tight with an ally and looking like a frontrunner, which is exactly the kind of player people like to cut early. The tribe decides to take out a contender while it can, and Molly is blindsided.
3“Honesty Would Be Chill”Oct 9, 2019Lairo's losing keeps them stuck at Tribal, and the tribe's shifting alliances turn every vote into a scramble. Vince Moua, sensitive and a little on the outs, never quite finds steady footing in the numbers. When the plan finally settles, Vince is the one voted out.
4“Plan Z”Oct 16, 2019Lairo simply cannot stop losing, and the constant trips to Tribal turn camp into a round-the-clock strategy scramble. Plans form and fall apart by the hour, and Chelsea Walker ends up on the wrong side of the one that holds. She's voted out as Lairo's skid drags on.
5“Don't Bite the Hand That Feeds You”Oct 23, 2019Vokai has rolled all season, so their first trip to Tribal scrambles the whole picture. Former NHL defenseman Tom Laidlaw, older and blunt, sits outside the tribe's tighter, younger core, and with the numbers stacked against him there's no easy way out. Tom is voted out, the first real dent in mighty Vokai.
6“Suck It Up Buttercup”Oct 30, 2019Vokai finally has a real decision to make, and Elaine Stott walks in holding the power. She'd won a vote-block advantage over on the Island of the Idols, and she uses it to cancel Jason Linden's vote, then helps steer the rest of the tribe onto him. Jason is voted out, undone by an advantage he never saw coming.
7“I Was Born at Night, But Not Last Night”Nov 6, 2019Right before the merge, the idols come out and the math gets messy. Sensing a blindside, Dean Kowalski plays Kellee Kim's hidden idol to shield their side, and with votes flying and getting wiped away, the count shrinks to a sliver. When it clears, Jack Nichting is the one heading out, the first member of the jury, blindsided on just a couple of votes.
8“We Made It to the Merge!”Nov 13, 2019The merge brings everyone together as Lumuwaku, but this two-hour episode turns heavy. Away from the game, the season's most serious story comes to a head: Kellee Kim and several other women share that Dan Spilo has repeatedly touched them in ways that made them uncomfortable, and after those concerns surface, production steps in to give Dan a formal warning. On the game side, a split Tribal sends two players out the same night. Kellee, holding two hidden idols, senses something is off but keeps them in her pocket and is blindsided on a historic 8-5 vote. Then at the second Tribal, Jamal Shipman, who'd lost his own vote in a gamble at the Island of the Idols, is left exposed and voted out, with Janet Carbin stepping up as a protective voice for the younger players through all of it.
9“Two for the Price of One”Nov 20, 2019Another split-Tribal night, and two more players are gone. The post-merge game is pure chaos now, alliances forming and dissolving from one vote to the next, and two strong personalities pay the price. Aaron Meredith gets caught on the wrong side of one group's math and is voted out at the first Tribal. Then Missy Byrd, who'd been steering plenty of the strategy herself, is blindsided at the second, both of them sent to the jury on the same rough night.
10“Bring on the Bacon”Nov 27, 2019The blindsides keep coming, and this week the whole tribe is gunning for Karishma Patel, who's been scrapping from the bottom the entire merge. Sensing the vote, Karishma plays a hidden idol to save herself and scrambles everyone's plan at the last second. The votes have to land somewhere, and on the revote they fall on Elizabeth Beisel, sent to the jury by her own ally's idol play.
11“A Very Simple Plan”Dec 4, 2019Karishma Patel survived on her idol last time, and she's right back at the top of the target list. Then Tribal erupts: Noura Salman loudly blows up a plan against Tommy, scrambling the vote in real time, and Elaine even burns an idol that turns out to be unnecessary. When the dust clears, Karishma is finally voted out and off to the jury, having drawn a record number of votes against her along the way.
12“Just Go For It”Dec 11, 2019Elaine Stott, the lovable underdog who'd been scrapping from the bottom for weeks, finally runs out of room when her alliance turns on her and votes her out 5-2, sending her to the jury. Then the episode shifts to something far more serious. The next morning, with no Tribal Council, Jeff Probst comes to camp and tells the remaining players that Dan Spilo has been removed from the game over an off-camera incident, and that he will not return or sit on the jury. It's the first time in the show's history that production removed a player, an unprecedented and sober end to his run.
13“Mama, Look at Me Now”FinaleDec 18, 2019Finale night opens on a gut-punch. Janet Carbin holds a hidden idol that would lock up a spot in the final four, but Dean Kowalski plays an idol nullifier on her, voiding it and sending the beloved lifeguard to the jury anyway. Lauren Beck then loses the final-four fire-making challenge to Dean and follows her out. That leaves Tommy Sheehan, Dean, and Noura Salman at Final Tribal, where Tommy's airtight social game carries the night in an 8-2-0 vote, crowning him the Sole Survivor.