Of all the changes in the new era — the small tribes, the journeys, the fire-making challenge — there is one that I think will make all the difference and make former copy editors such as myself so much happier: We need a little chart in the voting booth at Tribal Council so that contestants will spell one another’s names correctly. I said it earlier this season when Cedrek got voted out and no one spelled his name correctly, but this time there were four votes for Shauhin and only two of them got it right. Eva came close with “Shawhin,” but Joe — who we know has never tried Hooked on Phonics because last week he tried to pass off “Got Fun Betrale” as the winning phrase in the letter-block puzzle — totally whiffed with “Sha-Hen.”

While I am a little miffed that he had to be humiliated with those incorrect spellings, it was totally the right vote. Finally, after all of these episodes, someone did something and that move was against Shauhin, who, like so many Greek literary figures, had the fatal flaw of hubris. “You took out the best player. Y’all know it,” he says after his torch is snuffed. Um, sorry, but the best player is the one who wins. But Shauhin suffered from these delusions all episode. At the top, he says, “Everyone says that Joe is playing the best game. I know he’s not playing the best game. I’m playing the best game.” I would say, “You and what army?” But since there are no armies on Survivor, instead I will say, “You and what jury?” Shauhin hasn’t done a thing except sit in Joe and Eva’s collective shadow as they won all the challenges, found all the advantages, and decided on the pecking order all on their own. I hate to say it, but Shauhin is a goat. He’s a goat that gives great sound bites, so we’ve seen a lot of him, but he’s still a goat.

This was yet another frustrating episode of a frustrating season because it is far too late to do anything. Mitch says, “I’ve been waiting to make a move, and the time is now.” Um, no. The move was three episodes ago. The move was when Joe didn’t have immunity. You waited too long. Everyone did. In last week’s recap, I said Eva could use her Safety Without Power this Tribal, and I was incorrect (sorry!). But she didn’t even need it because Shauhin was never serious about flipping. Either Eva or Joe is going to make it to the finals, and one of them is going to win. It’s just an inevitability.

If I had to guess, I would say it’s going to be Joe, if only because at this Tribal, we see Kyle giving a speech, and the words get softer and the editors add a little drone. We see a shot of him looking at Kyle as if he’s thinking. Then when Shauhin is answering one of Jeff’s questions, we get the same treatment. It’s as if the whole thing hinges on Joe and he’s making up his mind right in that moment. It’s a cool effect, but we knew that their minds were already made up when they marched in. So do we need this, other than to confirm Joe as the dominant force of the show?

It says something about the repetitive nature of Survivor these days that Kamilla figures out just from reading the Tree Mail that it’s the challenge in which contestants hang on to a ramp over the ocean and try to be the last one to slide in. Just like the rest of the season, this seems like something that Joe is going to dominate. However, Shauhin and his ganglion cyst (which is a real thing!) somehow pull it out because he wants to not just go to the Sanctuary (where Good! Things! Happennnnnnn!) for a ton of food and a night in a real bed, but he also wants the letter that his mother sent him.

I was about to forgive adorable mama’s boy Shauhin and his bad gameplay until he picks Joe to join him on the reward. Seriously? He wants to give the man who has won all the challenges more food and rest before the immunity challenge? Brother! Kamilla says that if Shauhin goes home, it’s because he fed Joe, and she is absolutely correct. When they have a moment alone in the Sanctuary (where Good! … Ugh, you know the drill), Shauhin asks Joe if there is a world in which they vote out Kyle. Joe says “no.” He thinks the plan is to get rid of Mitch, then get rid of Kamilla, and then take their alliance to the final four.

This highlights a problem with both Joe’s gameplay and this season in general. Joe, like everyone left in the game, is only thinking about getting to the end. No one is thinking about winning except for my girl Kamilla, the only one left worth rooting for. Okay, so these four are going to get to the end together, but who wins final immunity? It’s Joe. And who is he taking? Eva. That leaves Shauhin and Kyle fighting at fire and then the wind can blow the wrong way and one of them loses.

Even if they make it to three, how are they going to get votes? How are they going to differentiate themselves from one another? How is what they did better or different or outstanding in a way that everyone else wasn’t? Are they just going to trust their debating skills? Even Joe isn’t a lock to win. He has forged great bonds with nearly everyone in the game and has won a score of challenges, putting him in an elite group of six that has won five challenges in the same season. Of that group, there are only two winners and three runners-up, proving that challenges aren’t enough. Joe hasn’t made a move other than keeping a tight group around him and winning. Will that be enough in this age of Survivor, when many jury members are looking for fireworks?

Shauhin also selects Kyle to join them in the Sanct — I’m not saying it. It is a fateful decision because it gives Kyle the idea that leads to Shauhin’s ouster. Shauhin says to Kyle that they should take out Eva to weaken Joe’s game. Um, okay. This is before the immunity challenge. If he wants to weaken Joe’s game, why feed him? Also, if he wants to weaken Joe, how about vote him out if he doesn’t win. Shauhin can’t make the right decision to save his life — and certainly not to save his life in this game.

Kyle’s response highlights the other problem with this season. “I want to make a move. I just don’t want to make Shauhin’s move,” he says. We’ve heard this more times than Jeff says balls during any given challenge. They didn’t want to make Chrissy’s move. They didn’t want to make Star’s move. They didn’t want to make Mary’s move. They didn’t want to make Shauhin’s move. In most of these cases, that meant no move was made. At least Kyle came up with a plan.

If it didn’t work, I would have said it was harebrained, but at least it’s a plan. After Joe wins immunity (so inevitable I’m not even going to mention the challenge apart from this), Kyle tells Joe that Shauhin flipped and is after Eva. He says Shauhin told him to check in with Kamilla and Kamilla then told Kyle that Shauhin showed her an idol. Of course, none of this happened and Shauhin doesn’t have an idol. Kyle then tells Joe that they should vote out Shauhin. As soon as he’s done talking, Joe says, “Just to recap, because I’m confused …” Yes, it’s confusing. Yes, it’s too intricate. But it eventually works.

Joe goes to check in with Shauhin and starts acting like a crazy person, talking down to him like he knows something that Shauhin — whom he literally compares to one of his children — isn’t admitting. No wonder Shauhin feels infantilized and gets upset at Joe. When he vents his frustration to Kyle, he tells Kyle that he has changed his mind about the vote that night. He says if they vote out Eva, there is a Joe stan on the jury, and he is correct. However, there are going to be nine Joe stans on the jury, so one more doesn’t matter. He also says that Eva has no shot in the final three. Really? The girl with autism who can’t detect lies and who hoarded a bunch of advantages the whole game so no one came after her? The girl with that story has no shot? Be for real for even a second! So Shauhin’s great plan, this master strategist who is so good at the game, his decision is to just go with the majority and vote out Mitch. Excellent gameplay. Never would have seen it coming. Give this guy and his cyst $1 million.

Luckily for us, Kamilla and Kyle’s plan starts to work. Joe goes to Eva to talk about it, he verifies what happened with Kamilla, and then he takes it all back to Eva. They decide that they trust Kyle more than Shauhin, and he’s relieved of being the best game player Survivor has ever seen — or at least the best one since Coach.

There are still a few things I don’t get. The first is what happens to Kyle and Kamilla when Joe and Eva see the votes and realize that Shauhin was not voting for Eva? Do they say he changed his vote? Will they suss out that K-Squared was lying? The other thing I don’t get is why Kamilla voted for Mitch. Yes, they have four votes against Shauhin and didn’t need her vote, but were they trying to make everyone think they weren’t working together? But that means that Kamilla was working with Shauhin, so then wouldn’t Joe and Eva want to get rid of her next? I have no idea. I can’t try to figure out how these people’s brains work anymore. After all, most of them can’t even spell.

 A goat that gives great sound bites is still a goat.