SPOILER ALERTS: Recapping Episode 3 of Surviving Barstool and Looking Ahead to Episode 4

WARNING: THIS IS A FULL RECAP OF SURVIVING BARSTOOL SEASON 5 EPISODE 3. SPOILERS ARE INCLUDED THROUGHOUT, SO DO NOT KEEP READING UNLESS YOU’VE WATCHED EPISODE 3.

If you want to watch a recap show for Episode 3, check out the Breakdown Boys!

Episode 3 picks up immediately after the Nick Turani elimination, and Brandon Walker is not happy when he sees one of his allies is gone.

On Rat, Nicky Smokes is explaining to basically anyone who will listen why he voted Nick out, saying Turani told him Dana had an idol, only for Dana to deny having one when Smokes asked him about it. The funny part is that Dana technically doesn't have a real idol yet, but he does have the opportunity to earn one if he can complete The Imposter mission.

Smokes keeps telling people Dana doesn't have an idol, which at some point probably accomplishes the exact opposite and makes everyone think Dana definitely has something going on. Dana knows the only way to turn all of this into something useful is to convince someone to play his fake idol and then have that person get eliminated at the same Tribal Council.

Before leaving, Turani comes back into the bunks to grab his stuff and tells Smokes they'll never work on projects together again! They have since made up according to both of them, but Nick was obviously pissed in the moment. He then waits outside for his Uber and talks to Brandon, telling him that Dana lying to Smokes about the idol ultimately played a role in Nick getting voted out!

For what it's worth, I love Turani, but I hated this. Once you're eliminated, I don't think you should be able to go back and talk strategy with people who are still playing the game. Obviously he needed to get his stuff and leave the office somehow, but giving Brandon information that could impact the game after Nick had already been eliminated didn't sit right with me.

Over on Snake, Rone finally tells Marty that he has an immunity idol and explains why he was so tense during the previous Tribal. He genuinely didn't know whether he needed to play it or if he was about to go home, and surviving that vote without burning the idol continues to look like a huge win for him.

Rat's alliances also start becoming a little clearer. Hannah explains that she's with Tate, Dani and Nicky Smokes, while Tate has to explain that the only reason he voted for Dani at the previous Tribal was to keep Dana convinced that Tate was working with him. Dana also finally admits to Smokes that he lied when he said he didn't have an idol, adding even more confusion to an idol situation that is about to get WAY more confusing.

The Klutz

Tate has been looking everywhere for one of the missions, and he finally finds one hidden in a robe in the hallway. His mission is called The Klutz, and he has to intentionally drop five vases during the next challenge while still somehow helping his tribe win. If he can accomplish both, he earns an immunity idol.

At the same time, Nicky Smokes tells Dani and Hannah that he's seen Dana's "idol." Remember, what Smokes saw is technically the fake idol Dana needs somebody else to play, but there are now so many people who know pieces of Dana's situation without knowing the entire story that it's becoming impossible to keep track of who believes what.

The next challenge is appropriately called Vases Loaded. Each tribe has a picker, two passers and a placer, with the goal of moving five vases using wooden sticks and eventually stacking all five on top of each other. Once they're stacked, they have to survive a five-second count to win.

Rat and Roach both have to sit somebody out, with Brandon sitting for Roach and Nicky Smokes sitting for Rat. Tate immediately volunteers to be the picker, which is obviously perfect for his mission because he now has a legitimate excuse to start dropping shit everywhere.

Completing the first half of his mission isn't exactly difficult. Tate drops his five vases, and now he just needs Rat to win without making it obvious that he spent half the challenge intentionally screwing up.

The challenge ends up being extremely close, with all three tribes getting to four vases at one point. Roach eventually gets all five stacked and survives the count to win immunity, which means Tate's mission is a failure and he doesn't get his idol. More importantly, Snake and Rat are both heading back to Tribal Council.

Meek Is In Trouble...Again

There's not much mystery about Snake's target this time because Marty basically straight-up tells Meek that it's probably going to be him. I actually love the honesty. Meek knows he's screwed and immediately starts hunting around the office for an idol or basically anything that might keep him alive.

That's when Marty comes up with an idea.

Remember how Dana told Marty about his fake idol? Marty now wants to give that fake idol to Meek at Tribal because Meek is desperate enough to play just about anything at this point. I mean, the guy already tried playing a fake idol in Episode 2, so why wouldn't he try again?

This is where things get really interesting because Marty is the person physically giving Meek the idol, but it was Dana who originally found The Imposter mission. In real time, my immediate question was: if Meek plays it and gets voted out, who actually earns the real idol?

Apparently production wasn't completely sure either.

When Jeff goes to tally the votes, production tells him what's happening and Jeff determines that because Dana gave the fake idol to Marty, the mission was technically transferred to Marty. That would mean Marty should receive the real idol if Meek plays it and gets eliminated.

We'll worry about that later, though, because Meek has a Tribal Council to survive.

And the man comes prepared with basically the entire fake idol collection.

Meek tries to play THREE different fake idols (his fourth total fake idol) hoping one of them will work, and none of them do. The votes are read, Meek loses 3-1 and is officially eliminated from Surviving Barstool. (Hats off to Meek, he legit tried to go for the big dogs and just couldn't get numbers)

Who The Hell Gets The Idol?

Now things get weird.

After Snake's Tribal, production pulls Dana aside in front of his tribe and asks him privately whether he gave Marty only the fake idol or whether he transferred the entire mission to him. Dana's tribe can obviously see something suspicious is happening, forcing Dana to basically tell everybody he doesn't have an idol and doesn't understand why production pulled him away.

I thought Producer Rob handled this pretty poorly. Whether Dana was getting an idol or not, pulling him away from everyone like that immediately right before they are about to walk out to tribal puts a gigantic spotlight on him. In a game where the smallest interaction can make people suspicious, Rat now knows something happened involving Dana even if they don't know exactly what it was.

Then Rat heads to Tribal Council, and we finally get our answer.

When Dana goes to cast his vote, there's a scroll waiting for him containing an immunity idol.

After ALL of that, Dana officially has a real idol!!!

He decides not to play it, and that's the right decision because the vote goes in a completely different direction. Hannah realizes somebody in her alliance flipped, and that person ends up being Nicky Smokes.

WHAT A PLAY BY SMOKES!!!!

Hannah is eliminated, meaning the Tate-Dani-Hannah-Smokes group that looked pretty solid at the beginning of the episode has already blown up. Dana not only survives another Tribal, but now he has a real immunity idol that nobody else completely understands and can potentially use as leverage moving forward.

Not a bad consolation prize taking how bleak things looked for him after Episode 2.

Questions Heading Into Episode 4

My first question is what happens between Dana and Marty. Marty had every reason to believe that successfully getting Meek to play the fake idol would earn him the real one, but Dana is ultimately the person who walks away with it. Does Marty accept the ruling and move on, or does that become an issue between two people who had been working together?

The bigger picture is what happens with the alliances now that we're down to 12 people. It certainly feels like we're getting close to some sort of combination or shakeup according to Sunday's preview, and all of these early alliances could get thrown into complete chaos! People who have spent the first three episodes trying to kill each other might suddenly need each other's votes!

And finally, what the hell happens between Tate, Dani and Nicky Smokes? Those three were supposed to be working together with Hannah, and Smokes just flipped his vote and sent her home. Will it even matter with new teams coming? Tate has played a really good game so far by keeping multiple people convinced he's working with them, but now he's got another situation to manage with one of his own numbers making a move without the rest of the alliance (unless... we just haven't seen a conversation that went down between Smokes and Beers).

Speaking of Smokes and Beers, I need to step outside and enjoy the night after seeing Nick tell BFW about the idol that Dana has and the way Producer Rob looked in that episode.

On to Episode 4 on Sunday.