‘Survivor 48' recap: Mary's ‘weird-ass motley crew' plots a path against Joe's ‘core four'

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08-05-2025

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Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways
Previously on Survivor 48, Kyle Fraser and Shauhin Davari were successful in an ongoing coverup of their offshoot alliance with Kamilla Karthigesu. Clocked as untrustworthy by their allies David Kinne and Mary Zheng, Kyle and Shauhin put in the work to convince Joe Hunter and Eva Erickson to betray David, using his paranoid energy against him in an epic blindside.
This week, Mary attempts to band together a "weird-ass motley crew" after being alienated from her alliance. Does Mary have the social capital to pull off a blindside or is she giving away the all-powerful swing vote position to someone else? Read on for our recap of Survivor Season 48, Episode 10, titled "My Enemies Are Plottin'," which aired Wednesday, April 30 on CBS.
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The players still competing to become "sole Survivor" at the start of the episode were: Eva Erickson, Joe Hunter, Kamilla Karthigesu, Kyle Fraser, Mary Zheng, Mitch Guerra, Shauhin Davari, and Star Toomey. The members of the jury that will decide the winner are: Cedrek McFadden, Chrissy Sarnowsky, and David Kinne.
Photo by CBS - Credit: CBS
CBS
"Bro, I can't take that snorin' no mo'" — Star Toomey
In an attempt to make good with Mary after blindsiding her in the David vote, Eva told Mary that she did what she could to keep the vote off of Mary and promised to let her know in advance if a vote is coming her way. In saying that, Eva also made it clear that she might actually vote Mary in the future as a decoy and confirmed that she will "not be playing the idol" on her behalf. Eva returned to her actual allies (Joe, Shauhin and Kyle) to confess her conversation with Mary and how she told her she should just lay low and be a number for them, underscoring that it would be a smooth sail for them to the final four. At the same time, Mary returned to the others and gathered with Star and Kamilla to build an opposing plan that they all stick together with Mitch against the other four no matter what -- their first target? Joe.
Despite her opposition to his snoring at night, Star approached Mitch with the pitch to stick together as four, even if it means going to rocks in a tied vote situation. Mitch referred to it as "the biggest joke in the game" for Star to be the one to come to him with the plan because she voted for him at the last Tribal Council.
Joe and Shauhin both had their sights set on bringing Kamilla and Mitch in to their core four to get to the final six. When Kyle and Kamilla put their heads together, Kamilla confessed that the bottom four are talking about going for Joe in a 4-4 tie situation, but Kyle countered that Joe is honest about wanting to keep Kamilla around and told her that while he's not willing to go against another alliance member, he could at least give her a chance at going for Joe as long as no one learns he knew about it.
Photo by CBS - Credit: CBS
CBS
"I need Mitch, Star and Mary as pissed off as they can possibly be" — Kyle Fraser
For the Day 18 reward challenge, the final eight had to drag a buoy along a rope through the sand while having their hands and legs tied before landing three rings on a throwing target. The winner would get to escape to a neighboring island for a fried chicken and waffles picnic. Shauhin, Eva and Kyle got the best starts in the sand slithering. The leaders all flopped when trying to loosen their rings from the obstacle, leaving room for those behind them to catch up, but then Kyle held off a late surge from Joe to earn the win for himself. As the winner, Kyle chose to bring Eva, Kamilla and Shauhin as his guests, leaving Mitch feeling disappointed by his omission from the group.
In his confessional on the topic, Kyle pointed out that he purposefully left Mitch, Star and Mary out of the reward so that they'd be "as pissed off as they can possibly be" to work with Kamilla against Joe. Also bothered by Kyle's decision was Joe, but he talked himself down from being upset about it and considered that Kyle chose him to "babysit" Mary. Joe also used it as an opportunity to connect to the players he hasn't spent as much quality time with, like Mary. In their conversation, Joe told Mary that the narrative was that she was in David's head manipulating his decisions against the alliance, but Mary quickly recognized Joe's honesty as a jury management tactic, solidifying her desire to get the "motley crew" together against his "core four."
On Day 19, the final eight returned to the beach for their next immunity challenge. This time they used a tension rope to balance a wobbling platform where they'd have to stack blocks to spell "immunity." Before the start of the comp, Jeff offered them a bag of rice that could last to the end of the game as long as three of them would volunteer to sit out. When all eight refused to sit out, Jeff Probst was curious why the mentality of players had changed in the last few seasons. Shauhin told him that they just all want to compete. In the challenge, Jeff noted that Joe and Shauhin kept a "slow and steady" pace compared to Kyle who went "full tilt" despite multiple failed attempts. By the end, after one fall of his blocks and many from the others, Joe came back to win and claim safety for himself.
Photo by CBS - Credit: CBS
CBS
"With this group of people, it's not slappin', it's not hittin', it's not workin'" — Mary Zheng
With Joe safe from the vote, the "motley crew" needed a new target and Star chose Shauhin. When she tried to bring Mitch in, he warned her that she might need to play her Shot in the Dark, but he was still reluctant to trust Star and Mary enough to make a move with them. Elsewhere, when Mary told Kamilla that they should put their votes on Kyle ("because they won't go to rocks for him"), flags went up for Kamilla and only pushed her to work against Mary instead of with her. Kamilla went straight to Joe (and Mitch) to tell them that in the span of an hour Mary went from wanting Joe out to naming Kyle, hoping that it would move the core four's target away from Star and on to Mary. When Star and Mary realized that Kamilla and Mitch are working with the others they figured that they'd have to write each other's names on parchment.
At Tribal Council, Mitch phrased the structure of their tribe as "individuals within small groups" that are trying to figure out how to move forward with each other. Jeff highlighted it as important because it underscores how there is an alliance and then people out of the alliance forced to work against each other out of self-preservation. The group also addressed the topic of "paranoia," heavily suggesting that it's the reason David is sitting on the jury (much to his chagrin) and asserting that they're all choosing to move forward on the basis of "trust." Trusting her gut over all else, Star did not play her Shot in the Dark and let the votes fall where they would: Star, Mary, Star, Mary, Star, Mary, Star, Star. By a split vote of 5-3, Star became the fourth member of the jury.
Next time on Survivor...
Mary finds "one more trick up [her] sleeve" and Kyle continues to wrestle with the idea of going back on his word against another ally.
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