On Day 1, the sixteen castaways, already divided, arrived on trucks at a beach. Matt, the host, asked them who would be more than happy to be labeled a villain if it meant winning the game, to which Dee rose her hand in agreement. He later proceeded to give them their buffs for their tribes, Hermosa and Mogotón. Matt also announced to the tribes that each tribe would vote someone out on their first day. He then gave them two minutes to strip everything of value from their boats. During the challenge, Izzy managed to steal from Hermosa's gathering.

As Mogotón arrived at their camp after the challenge, Tony quickly embraced the leading role. Hannah, Izzy, and Shay agreed to vote out Tom first, as they found him untrustworthy. As Shay approached Sala with their plan, Sala suggested voting out Hannah in order to keep the tribe strong in future challenges. At Hermosa, Dee talked strategy with Georgia and Shannon, but the two weren't sure about her. Georgia managed to get Mike on her side, who also talked with Nate about voting out Dee. Georgia warned Mike about Barb and Nate, as they would likely align as the two oldest tribe members. Mogotón arrived at Tribal Council first, where Hannah was voted out unanimously. Later, at Hermosa's Tribal Council, Dee was voted out, also unanimously.

The morning after, Izzy hadn't felt well, as her tribemates looked out for her. The two tribes arrived at an arena with a challenge on set. Matt surprised the tribes by calling Dee and Hannah in. He welcomed everyone to Redemption Island. He explained that after being eliminated from their tribe, they would get a chance to re-enter the game.

• Redemption Island Challenge: The two Redemption Island inhabitants would use rope to tie together sticks in order to make a pole to retrieve three keys. The first two castaways to retrieve all three keys and unlock three locks would remain in the game.

At the Redemption Island Duel, Hannah was in an early lead. Dee managed to catch up to her, but in the end, Hannah won the duel, sending Dee home.

After returning to the camp from the Redemption Island Challenge, Mogotón realized that they might have underestimated Hannah. Avi and Tom made an alliance, while Sala approached Tony to join him alongside Lou and Shay to vote out Tom next. Avi talked with Lou and Shay, who assured him that he was safe and that they were going after Tom, which Avi wasn't sure about. At Hermosa, Lee and Mike bonded while eating termites in search of protein. Georgia and Lee discussed voting out Nate if they would lose immunity, as he was a bit of an outsider due to being older than them. Nate likewise grew wary of Georgia, wanting to vote her out.

• Immunity Challenge: One member of each tribe would act as a caller while two other blindfolded tribe members would navigate the course to retrieve five items and lastly a flag, eventually working with another blindfolded pair who would hoist the items up to the caller's platform. The first tribe to get their flag up to their caller wins immunity.

The challenge started fairly even until Tony from Mogotón, who hoisted the items to the caller while blindfolded, accidentally caused an item to drop, letting Hermosa gain momentum and eventually win immunity. At Tribal Council, Tony was voted out due to costing his tribe the challenge.