TRIBAL COUNCIL DOUBLE-CROSS: RUPERT VOTED OUT
On night twenty-seven, Rupert Boneham, the 39-year-old troubled teens mentor from Indianapolis, Indiana, was shocked to learn he had been voted out of his beloved Balboa tribe. Rupert felt safe going into Tribal Council because of an alliance with Lillian Morris, the 51-year-old scout troop leader from Cincinnati, Ohio. Shocked and dismayed at the five-to-three vote, Rupert shared some parting thoughts: “This would have made my life a lot better. I always get hurt trusting people. I want so badly to be accepted, and I never get the acceptance that I want. I don't fit. So much for my dreams.”

ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY

As morning crept into the Balboa tribe, Jon Dalton, the 29-year-old art consultant from Danville, Virginia, was annoyed by the arrogance within the alliance between Christa, Rupert and Sandra. While Jon and Burton Roberts, the 31-year-old marketing executive from San Francisco, California, fetched water, they devised a plan to break this powerful troika. The key to their plan was to recruit ex-Morgan members Darrah Johnson, the 22-year-old mortician from Liberty, Mississippi, and Tijuana Bradley, the 27-year-old pharmaceutical sales representative from St. Louis, Missouri. It was now just a question of timing. “We didn't know when to tell Tijuana and Darrah that the plan is to flip on our original alliance,” explained Burton.

AN OFFER THEY CAN'T REFUSE

When Rupert went fishing and Christa and Sandra went to get lemons, a window of opportunity opened for Jon and Burton to enlist Darrah and Tijuana into their new alliance. Already on the chopping block due to their Morgan affiliations, Darrah and Tijuana were elated to accept the offer, which gave them both a new lease on life. “I was down in the dumps, thinking that I was going to go home, but all of a sudden that changed. Now I'm ready to stay,” exclaimed a rejuvenated Darrah.