The Summit’s prize is lowered as two players leave, and the mountain is evacuated!

The Summit episode eight began with the camp being infiltrated with birds, like a mountainside scene from The Birds, and ended with a helicopter evacuation, like they were in San Andreas and Dwayne Johnson had to pick them up. Along the way, two players were eliminated—and the show reduced its own prize for no reason.

Now that Dennis is gone, we’re hearing more about his relationships with other players (in our exit interview, he told me he’s now friends with Geoff and Amy and others).

“He communicated with me, he helped me,” Jeannie said. “Now, I don’t have that.” Punkin, however, called him “shady boots.”

One thing Dennis mentioned in his interview was all the time at camp we don’t see, like the players playing games, and we got to see a brief glimpse of that, like Therron pretending they were on Survivor (I think!) and saying, “In this game, fire represents your life. And when the fire is gone, so are you.”

Dennis casts the one vote that was not for him to leave The Summit’s competition (Image from The Summit via CBS)

But with just seven players left, Dusty said, “we’re not just on a happy family camping trip.” His target is Amy, who’s he thinks is too slow.

Therron said the same thing: “I think Amy might be holding the group back.” Again, we have yet to see Amy actually slow the group down enough to cause problems or consequences.

Beckylee, though, was thinking strategically. “Now I can start axing people of my own alliance,” she said, and told Nick they should get out Dusty if there’s an elimination obstacle.

And lo and behold, that’s what there was! The Mountain’s Keeper chopper chopped its way nearby, and dropped its sack. They raced to it, discovering there were only enough ice axes for six of them.

“One of you will not have the required equipment,” the letter said, which Therron was reading outloud. “Whoever touched this bag first has the sole power to eliminate someone immediately sending them and their money off the mountain.”

Let’s pause: The show is now requiring the players to lower their prize again? WTF. There are many competition reality series with undefined prizes, like The Mole and The Traitors, on which players have to build their own prize. I don’t mind a show that does the reverse, taking money from the prize. But that needs to be for actual game-related reasons, not just because the production says so.

The prize is now $746,174—a quarter of a million dollars has been subtracted, most of which came from two required cuts. (The first chunk was from the episode-one medical evac.)

Therron now had that power. He read the letter without pausing, as in “to eliminate someone immediately,” but I guess it was actually “to eliminate someone, immediately sending…” because he took his sweet time talking to other people about it.

At this rate, they’re not getting to the summit because of all this talking, not because of Amy. Nick suggested Therron take out Dusty, but Amy was also on the table.

Therron announced his decision, and I was genuinely surprised when he said Dusty. “He’s been our leader, he’s been at the front of the pack, he’s strong physically, socially, and yes we are losing our leader, but I think we’re going to have to step up,” Therron said.

Dusty told us he was annoyed to go out “in this slimy of a manner,” and told Therron he wished he would have told him to his face that “you’re my competition.” Therron admitted that: “What I’m afraid of is these people in front of me are going to choose you over me,” he said.

Nick was thrilled with this, because Dusty’s out and “I keep my hands clean.” Me too, Nick; I always wash my hands after I go to the bathroom.

The Summit’s players in episode eight, after one of them was cut (Image from The Summit via CBS)

They continued on, with Amy falling as they walked up the mountain. But as usual, she got back up and was fine. There was just a lot of attention on her from the editing:

• Jennie: “Amy can’t move”
• Therron: “I don’t know if Amy can do this”
• Manu: A MOUNTAIN LION WILL EAT ALL OF YOU BECAUSE OF AMY

The group got to the first of two obstacles: a wall of ice and snow they had to climb using ice axes and crampons. Therron went first, then Jeannie, then Amy.

Nick said “Amy is struggling,” but guess what? Amy was just fine. She slipped once but easily made it, and quite quickly.

Next, their route took them to a cave, where they basically had to crawl on the ground and up an include while pushing their packs. It was a tight squeeze for sure, and nice to have a different obstacle other than just going across a canyon.

Jeannie said, “I never ever thought it was going to be that small of a hole…” and that’s when I started giggling. I had to rewind to hear the end of her sentence: “…to get to the other side.”

“We don’t have time for this,” Therron said when Amy seemed to have a panic attack. But again, Amy was fine. “Sorry guys, biggest fear ever,” she said.

While waiting for the group to emerge from the cave, Punkin turned to Therron to talk strategy, and he suggested Amy or Jeannie were next. Punkin said, “not Nick”? Could both Dusty and Nick go in the same episode, now that I finally can tell them apart?

Punkin told us, “The smaller the numbers get the more selfishly you have to play.” But she, too, contributed to the anti-Amys sentiment: “I wish Dusty was still here because we would be able to move a little quicker.”

They continued hiking, through snow so deep Therron stepping into a hole up to his waist.

Amy and Nick traverse the cave that was one of The Summit episode 8’s two obstacles (Image from The Summit via CBS)

At their checkpoint camp—to which they arrived on time—Amy decided she’d target Therron, because he almost sent her out. Jeannie told Therron he was going to be blindsided, and he told Beckylee and Punkin. So of course he wanted to target her again.

Other names being floated were Nick and Jeannie—more than half the people left. Punkin talked to Nick and said “you make me nervous,” and he made her more nervous by responding simply “yeah,” and then suggested they vote out Amy.

When Manu reappeared, there were just two nominations:

• Amy nominated Therron, because “playing a pretty flawless game right now”
• Therron nominated Amy, saying she “slowed the whole group down”

Amy was upset, saying “that’s not fair” and “I deserve to go up that mountain with you guys.” Manu channeled Jeff Probst and was like, Are you sure you can make it up? You seem weak and like someone they should vote off right now. “I’ve made it through every storm in my life so far,” Amy said.

That was not convincing; Amy was voted off unanimously. But she didn’t get out an ice axe and start swinging. “I love each and every one of you—I really, really do,” she said.

Her exit was not the end of the episode, though, and not The Summit’s biggest surprise.

As the top five hugged over the fire, a different “safety officer” crew member walked over. “We gotta get outta here. We got a storm coming,” he said. This wind is going to pick up big time. We’re gonna have a bunch of rain and then snow.” He added, “No mucking around; we’re going to get out quick as we can.”

The group got their packs, walked to an open area, a chopper landed, and they were all flown to Fiji where they’ll join the cast of Survivor 48. I kid: They’ll be back on the mountain again for The Summit episode nine, the penultimate episode of their climb. Will the mountain force them to give up more players or more money before they get to the actual summit?