Maldives

The game began with the Celebrity and the Pleb castaways banished to their respective islands by Maldivian officials. There were 9 Celebrities and 10 Plebs, both groups unaware of the other's existence in the game. Settling into the conditions on their islands, the Celebrities and the Plebs were taken to reward and immunity challenges respectively, still unaware of the other challenge or group partaking in the game.

The Celebs and Plebs finally met each other on Day 4, at the second reward challenge. Philicity received a blue buff due to Lukhanyo's elimination the night before. The castaways were introduced to their new tribe names, Raituhn (Yellow) and Goma (Blue). After a grueling reward challenge, the two tribes partook in the Black Cowrie challenge.

Returning from Tribal Council, Goma appeared determined to turn their unfortunate challenge run as soon as possible. The next morning, the entire tribe expressed how MXO's naive approach to the game would be useful for both alliances. Over at Raituhn, Tejan, Malusi and Harry discussed how fellow Pleb Tasleem holding the Black Cowrie would affect them at Tribal Council. Harry nominated himself to divert the celebrities' attention to him, so that a 5-5 tie between Tasleem and a celeb would not occur.

The Celebs from Raituhn were furious over the deceit of Tsepho's removal from the game. Bonnie and Carmel felt blindsided by Tejan, whom they had thought up until then was aligning himself with the Celebs in Raituhn.

Jacques on Goma in the early hours of the morning on Day 10 started to express feelings of withdrawing from the game, causing friction with Pleb Sindi, who thought it was a waste of time where someone else could have wanted the opportunity in playing Survivor. Back at Raituhn, the Celebs were not relieved after the previous night's vote of Tasleem.

After Tribal Council, Hykie took Tejan aside and expressed his anger about the second blindside that Tejan pulled over the Raituhn Celebs. Tejan explained to him that he needed to get rid of Carmel to destroy any lingering division of Plebs vs. Celebs within their tribe. Day 12 came along with Malusi being on the receiving end of Hykie's frustration from the night before. Malusi also confirmed with the actor that the move was necessary to an extent. Over at Goma, morale was down as Jacques was about to quit. Vanessa and Roxy were especially worried, because their alliance would be down to two when the young musician walked. MXO indicated that he needs to align himself with the Plebs on Goma if he is to stay in the game.

After Tribal Council, Vanessa explained her frustration with the group about her situation. The atmosphere around Goma wasn't great especially for outsiders Vanessa and Roxy, who felt betrayed by Simon and the collapse of their alliance when Jacques quit. At Raituhn, Tejan attempted to confirm with Bonnie and Hykie that the strongest players unite and pick off weak players before they get too far into the game.

After the double Tribal Council, Malusi openly confronted the tribe about a lack of unity in the vote. He received an apparently random vote from Bonnie, when the rest of the tribe picked off Harry. Bonnie admitted that she voted for Malusi, leaving him rattled and doubtful about the impending merge. At Goma, Sean noted how, at this situation, Raituhn can pick off the remaining four Goma members off one by one at the merge, to Alison's frustration.

Early in the morning of Day 18, Sean reflected on what was said in Tribal Council the night before about Malusi mentioning that last night's vote was extremely crucial for him. He noticed that Tejan took notice to what his alliance partner said, which let Sean know that there were weak links in the Raituhn 5. MXO, Sean and Alison all started to persuade Malusi into flipping over to side with the former Goma castaways, though all they could manage was to place more doubt on his mind.

The previous Raituhn alliance was left in ruins with Malusi's exit the previous night. Sean and Alison saw that this was their time to strike at staying in the game. Hykie and Bonnie felt that it was time for Tejan to pay for his pre-merge betrayals from Raituhn, and Tejan stopped talking to Hykie.

Letters from home arrived in boatmail on Day 22, leaving the Final 6 in tears. At the reward challenge, Nico surprised the castaways with their loved ones. The visit was cut short though, due to the reward challenge.

Morning on Day 24 was bitter for the entire Eku tribe. Alison felt disgusted with Hykie and Bonnie's confidence in their alliance, Bonnie was hurt by MXO's preacher and preacher's wife comment that he directed to Hykie and herself, and Letshego highlighted that she was the odd one out amongst the Final 5. MXO especially got on Bonnie's nerves during the day.

MXO was the clear target of the Raituhn three. He retrieved treemail for the morning of Day 26, reading it before anyone else. He was shocked to discover that the next challenge was for immunity instead of reward, and he was excited at the prospect of potentially winning the challenge and staying in the game another day.

The Final Tribal Council commenced immediately following the events of the previous episode. Hykie and Letshego were given an opportunity to give opening statements to the jury.