Recap of two ‘Survivor’ episodes: was it smooth sailing for Ron Clark?

Ron has been a puzzle master and has appeared to play a smart social game. (His air time has been limited in part because his team has never been in a tribal council.) He sat out the second immunity challenge tonight because his team had more players than the other two. Fortunately, his teammates Joe Anglim and Julia Carter did just fine solving a slide puzzle without him and they won immunity yet again.

Better yet, his team won the primary food reward challenges twice in a row, providing them much needed sustenance and calories. It didn’t hurt he’s had returnee Joe on his team. The man is a challenge beast on both the physical and puzzle side. He can’t help himself.

In the meantime, the other teams had to spit out some players. First up was poor Aubry Bracco, back for the third time but with her back against the wall. Fortunately, she found an immunity idol earlier and was gifted an extra vote by Devens over at Edge of Extinction.

But Victoria Baamonde snowed her. Aubry, knowing she was a target, was desperately seeking a strategic ally and when Victoria pretended to create an all-girls' alliance with Aubry and Wendy, she jumped on it like a starving dog lunging at a bone.

So at Tribal Council, she was 100 percent blindsided by the newcomers, thinking Wendy Diaz or possibly Eric Hafemann were going home. At Edge of Extinction, she said she was "JT humiliated," referencing a past player who got horribly blindsided. Aubry of course wants payback, of course, when the seven eliminated players return next week to get back in the game.

During the second hour, the two teams that lost the immunity challenge were placed in tribal council together. There was a chance that each four-person team would vote for the same person and potentially go to random "rocks" if nobody changes their vote. But when it came down to weakened Lauren O'Connell vs. "chicken lover" Wendy , Wendy's Manu team did not want to potentially sacrifice her for Wendy's sake. So she was unanimously cut. (Lucky Lauren: she did not need to use her immunity idol. The only person who knows she has it now is returnee Kelley Wentworth, who also has one.)

So Big Wendy became happiest person ever to get eliminated from Tribal Council. She even hugged Jeff, who uttered, “Wow” as she practically skipped down the lane. It was always hard to tell if she had a strategic bone in her body. She has no chance of winning but she is an amusing sideshow.

Oddly, she didn’t hesitate to go to Edge of Extinction, where the players were shown bickering at each other. Having perpetually peeved Reem yell at Chris was amusing and watching Chris tackle Keith for a clue was worth watching. Nobody has called it quits so that’s something.

Next week: the merge!

I hear that if Aubry finds her way back in the game, her immunity idol and advantage are void.

<< RELATED: Dalton Ross’ much longer and far better written recap if you have the appetite