Survivor tribal council shock: ‘What just happened?’

An iron-clad plan backfired spectacularly for some of Survivor’s cockiest players in Monday night’s episode. WARNING: Spoilers.

WARNING: Survivor spoilers below.

The Brains and Brawn tribes finally got to mix in Monday night’s episode of Survivor, as host Jonathan LaPaglia ordered both tribes to drop their buffs for a shake-up.

And it all ended with one very satisfying tribal council for the new-look Brains, as some of this season’s cockiest players were served a big old slice of humble pie.

The shake-up saw Brawn tribe members Emmett, Daini, Kez, Gerald and their newest member Cara move over to the Brains tribe, joining George, Rachel, Georgia and Laura. A clear majority quickly formed, with the Brawns, Cara and George plotting to get out one of the bottom three ‘Brains’ women.

By the time the new-look tribe headed to tribal council, tensions were high among the frustrated bottom three.

“I’m going to call the elephant in the room and say that we’re not a tribe. We’re a strong clique of five and some leftovers,” said Rachel, before turning to the ‘Brawn’ members.

The rest of the tribe are gunning for (L-R) Georgia, Laura and Rachel.

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“You guys have been very clear about the fact you can’t wait to get back to your mates, and you’re brawn-strong, and we’re the collateral that’s going to get left behind,” she told them.

And they agreed. Daini warned that the three female Brains tribe members sat at the other end of tribal council – Rachel, Georgia and Laura – should all be “worried.”

What about George, asked host Jonathan LaPaglia – he’s an original Brains member too?

“Yeah, but I like George,” said Daini.

Daini said he had confidence in his plan.

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“Unfortunately, one of those three are gonna be going home tonight,” Emmett chimed in.

“It is what it is,” said Daini, as they laughed openly at the three girls’ predicament.

But in the game of Survivor, that sort of cockiness is usually a recipe for disaster – and sure enough, their confidence backfired spectacularly.

Before the votes were read out, Laura played her idol for Rachel. Daini seemed momentarily rattled by the move, but confident he’d put plans in place to counter it. “All right, let’s go with plan B … Georgia’s going home,” he whispered to himself.

And so LaPaglia counted the votes:

Three for Rachel – which did not count.

Two for Georgia.

One for Laura.

Wait, what? As the vote was read, the blood drained from Cara’s face. She’d somehow gotten confused about how her alliance was splitting the vote, and voted for Laura instead of Georgia.

RELATED: George in tears over Cara’s ‘selfless’ move

She’s not wrong.

There were three votes left – and all three came from the girls, for ‘Big D’ Daini. He and his alliance all looked stricken – a marked contrast to their confidence just moments beforehand.

Speaking to camera after his torch was snuffed, Daini still didn’t seem to have grasped quite how it had all gone so pear-shaped.

“I don’t know what happened tonight. We had a little plan but … something got stuffed up,” he said.

That “something” was Cara – will her alliance make her pay for the error?

It's bye bye to Big D.

Australian Survivor: Brains V Brawn continues 7:30pm Tuesday on Ten.

Originally published as Survivor tribal council shock: ‘What just happened?’