Before the three tribes of “Survivor 44” merged to one in their move to Ratu beach, Brandon Cottom hid a fake idol in order to throw the new inhabitants off their game. Above, watch the “Survivor 44” deleted scene from episode 8, “Don’t Get Cocky Kid,” where Brandon’s ally Kane Fritzler finds the idol instead.
In the clip, Kane and fellow former Ratu member Lauren Harpe wake up early to collect firewood, which in the game of “Survivor” almost always doubles as an idol hunt. The two express their frustration at how unexpectedly hard it is to locate hidden advantages when they anticipated that it’d be much easier. They return to camp empty-handed, but when Kane goes out for another search later, he comes across the rolled up parchment tucked between two rocks.
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Kane opens the secret package and immediately recognizes it as possibly being the fake idol he knows Brandon planted prior to the merge. In a flashback scene, Brandon explains his plan to “throw a little wrinkle in the game” with the fake idol when they play it at Tribal Council thinking they’re safe. Because he wanted to be entirely sure it was the fake, Kane asked Brandon about it back at camp and the two had a good laugh about it was indeed his fake.
In a less funny twist for Brandon, the day that Kane found his fake idol is the same day that Brandon met his demise in the game. Following Lauren’s immunity challenge win and Ratu’s numbers advantage in the game, Danny Massa orchestrated the successful use of his own idol to nullify votes against fellow former Soka member Frannie Marin to blindside Brandon instead. The move re-balanced the numbers in the game to an even three apiece between original Ratu, Soka and Tika players and Brandon became the second member of the jury.
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