Surviving Barstool Season 5 Through Episode 10

Five players, three idols, one necklace. Dana Beers won Build and Bash for a second immunity in a row, handed his own idol to Glenny Balls in the open as a show of faith, and at the booth Glenny, Marty Mush and Rone all played one — the most idols ever played at a tribal, Jeff said — which left Brandon Walker as the only man in the ring whose name could count.

Brandon had spent the afternoon telling Dana, Marty and Glenny to their faces that he would never vote for them to win, and walked into the booth knowing the result. It went 4–1, with the 1 cancelled by an idol before it was read; eighth juror, and his exit question — what was the challenge for — was the one Dave Portnoy and Jeff Lowe argued in public for the rest of the night.

Immunity was five Dave Portnoy totems carried through a maze on a pedestal anyone could swat, and then a vertical slide puzzle Jeff said had never been done in any reality competition anywhere. Glenny Balls called for a check that was not right; Dana Beers called his own seconds later and had it, took the necklace into the top five and then declined the chance to hand it away, which made him the one man at the vote who could not be written down.

Every room agreed the name was Brandon Walker, so Brandon stopped walking into rooms. He sat in his studio with the door open, told each visitor the vote had to be Tommy, and called the order they would arrive in before they did — Rone, then Marty Mush, then Dana, with Glenny not coming at all. All three came. Marty showed him the idol he faked an ankle for as collateral on a promise he then broke at the booth. It went 4–2: Tommy Smokes to the jury as its seventh member, on the blindside he had told the council an hour earlier he did not want.

Nine players dropped their buffs, became one tribe called Viva, and were told the night would run three challenges and three eliminations back to back — with the deliberation happening inside the ring on a ten-minute clock, in front of the person being discussed. Dana Beers won the first immunity, every conversation on that clock ended on Tate’s name, and Pat McAuliffe went home 6–3 on the strength of a promise Dana made him and did not keep.

Rone kill-shotted Tate out of the second challenge and won that immunity by default, and Tate’s last pitch — asking Dana to spend the idol on a five against Brandon Walker — got a no. Then Tommy Smokes won the last one and spent the vote itself whispering to Dana that his name was up and he should play his idol on Brandon. Dana played nothing and took zero votes; Nicky Smokes went 4–3. Three men to the jury in one sitting, and the three who have run the season since the swap are all still here.

Immunity was a full-size bar ring-toss, and Glenny Balls — still visibly drunk from the night before — was the best player on the floor, ringing shot after shot to walk Pigeon’s stool down the line. Tate turned up half an idol he could not use alone; John Feitelberg found the other half, refused the mission and tore both up in front of Glenny as a show of loyalty.

That left Worm at council, where Feitelberg had told Rone to his face he was voting him out. Rone worked Tommy Smokes into flipping and it went 3–2 the other way. Feitelberg is the third member of the jury, and Rone has now taken votes at four consecutive councils.

Glenny Balls found a mission called The Faker, read the terms, said he could not do it and handed it to Marty Mush inside four seconds. Marty fell off the beam pulling Dana Beers down with him, sold an ankle to the medic for close to the full ten minutes, got up, won the challenge anyway and bought a hidden immunity idol with the whole performance.

Pigeon then shut Worm out 4–0, sending them to their first council after four straight wins. The tribe was set on Rone all afternoon and Rone spent it arguing he was the one doing the work while Dante watched the Cavs game. It went 5–1 on Dante, and the idol Rone has held since episode 1 never moved.

Three tribes became two out of a bag, and the draw was almost perfectly kind to the tribe that needed it least: all five old Roach players came out together and got Rone added to them on Worm, who won Attack Defend 10–6. Jeff also moved the goalposts on the way in — from here, whoever goes home sits on the jury.

Pigeon’s council was Dana Beers and Marty Mush choosing between Dani Jackel and Glenny Balls, and they took Dani on the reasoning Dana gave out loud: she is the better player, and the weaker one is worth more alive. It went 5–1. Jeff read three cards and stopped, so the count comes from Nicky Smokes at the booth: “if it’s not 5–1, I am going to kill everyone in this tribe.”

The Impostor idol only paid out if it was passed on and played, so Marty carried it to Meek Phill, Meek played it at the Snake council, Jeff ruled it was not an immunity idol — his fourth fake of the season — and Meek was voted out anyway 3–1. The payout went to Dana Beers, who collected a real idol minutes before walking into his own council and swearing on his mother he had never had one.

Rat’s plan was to split votes onto Dana with Hannah Montoya as the safety valve. Nicky Smokes did not write the name he said he would, and it landed 3–2 on Hannah instead.

Nick Turani won Rat the first challenge almost single-handedly, which is what got him voted out of the second: his own split-vote plan was turned around and used on him, 3–2–1. On Snake, Annika Fisher went at Rone a round early and needed one of Marty or Glenny to come with her; Glenny went to Rone instead and told him on the walk in.

Rone’s council is the one to watch back. He has said since that he ran it out loud on purpose — he had watched enough Survivor to decide tribals are better when the drama is said rather than whispered — and it went 3–2 his way.

Eighteen players, three tribes, and a pregame alliance that had already been announced out loud on a podcast before anybody arrived. Both tribes that voted cut a piece of it: Ella Griffin went 4–2 on Roach after repeating something Tommy Smokes told her in confidence, and Michael Katic went 5–1 on Snake when the four New York players wrote the name in front of them.

Rone completed the Clean Sweep mission and found the season’s first real idol on the floor of Dave Portnoy’s office while another player watched him do it. Tommy Smokes was the name everybody said and nobody wrote, which has held for seven episodes: two votes against him, seventeen people saying his name, still here.