“Deal or No Deal” episode 8 picked-up right after Stephanie won her game against The Banker last week and sent Alyssa home.  Aron was greatly troubled by losing his number one alliance in the game and made it very known to everyone.

After the group’s walk back to camp, Amy, who was very vocal about supporting Alyssa’s elimination, invited Aron to come sit with her and talk about it.  But, it was just her wanting to scold him for shutting her down when she expressed her happiness of Alyssa leaving.

Aron stormed off to be by himself.  That’s when Nick told the group that he overheard Aron telling Alyssa, before she left the show, that he would “avenge” her. 

Rob attempted to show Aron that he actually cared about him by telling him he would go after the Night Owls (made up of Nick, Dawson, Amy, and Stephanie) should they cause any more trouble for him.  With Alyssa gone, Rob’s group “the Rob mob” was down to just him and Aron. 

Jordan continued to be the odd player out, not being part of either group.  Rob was super worried about his game with Aron not fully up to the task of competing due to him still grieving Alyssa’s elimination. 

THE EXCURSION:

This excursion was about precision.  A skill that Nick says, being a garbage man, he practices on the daily.  The group of players were competing individually this time when they had to match-up unmarked cases hidden deep in the jungle via attached ropes with the case stands (or “pedals”)  that were marked with their monetary values.  

They had 45 minutes to do this.  Anyone not making it back with a case would automatically be put into the bottom.

The highest value case was $4.5 million.  The players who could secure the four highest value cases got immunity.  The bottom three were in danger.  They were all put on sand timers.  

The twist was that each player had to pick one other player to “sabotage” and add sand to their clocks to slow their start time down. Once all of the sand had drained from their clocks, then each player could begin their games.

Pictured: (l-r) Amy McCoy, Jordan Fowler, Nicholas Grasso — Photo by: Monty Brinton/NBC

Each player was not choosing the opponents that they really wanted to choose for fear of causing friction in certain places. For Jordan, she didn’t want to cause concern from Rob and Aron, and she chose Nick instead.

Rob called the players out when he said no one wants to show their hands and he was going to do the same.  He chose Amy instead of Stephanie to add sand to her timer.   

Aron followed suit and added sand to Dawson’s timer. Dawson poured sand into Aron’s timer, making it a second round of sand into Aron’s timer.  This resulted in Aron being the very last player to start the game.

Stephanie ended up being the only player with no sand and this gave her a head start.  But, not really!  Because she took so long choosing the case that she wanted to capture, everyone else caught up to her.  When she brought her case back, she was almost at risk of being in the bottom three.

Rob and Nick both went for the highest case of $4,500,000 million case in order to gain immunity.  The trick, however, was to not lose track of the rope attached to the case.

Pictured: (l-r) Amy McCoy, Nicholas Grasso, Jordan Fowler, Stephanie Mitchell, Rob Mariano, Aron Barbell, Dawson Addis — Photo by: Monty Brinton/NBC

After Rob gave up on trying to beat Nick, he went for another arbitrary case which ended up being the $3,750,000 case.  This amount locked him into the third spot of immunity.  Stephanie miscalculated in her math and got the $3,250,000 case which was not part of the top four amounts.

Stephanie ended up being safe anyway after Aron returned without a case when he decided to give up on the Excursion.  The other two bottom players were part of the Night Owls who were Dawson and Amy.

Nick in fact won the number one immunity spot when he came back with the $4, 500,000 case and he had to pick which of the bottom three contestants would play “Deal or No Deal” against The Banker.

Before the game, Rob tried to convince Aron to sway Nick to choose him to play against The Banker in order to control his fate.   Nick was in a tough spot because he had to choose between Aron, who if he won, he’d send home either Dawson or Amy.  On the flip side, if he put either Dawson or Amy up against The Banker, then he risks losing one of them.   

Nick didn’t reveal his choice until the night of the game. 

Pictured: (l-r) Nicholas Grasso, Aron Barbell — Photo by: Monty Brinton/NBC

DEAL OR NO DEAL GAME:

Nick was set on getting Aron, from “the Rob mob” out.  It was the two Night Owls, vs. “Rob man out” Aron.  Viewers would probably guess that Nick would choose Aron.  That would be incorrect! 

Nick stated that both Aron and Amy both went up against The Banker in past games and won. Now it was Dawson’s time to go against the Banker and win.   Dawson said he planned to spend his winnings (if he won the end game) on retiring his mom.

Dawson’s second round of “Deal or No Deal” left him with amounts on the board of $2,750,00, $3,350,000 and $300.  The Banker offered $1,399,000.  Then, there was the personal offer from The Banker of $100,000 for Dawson to end his game and eliminate himself from the island. 

Dawson took the deal, putting the $1,399,000 in to the overall bank bringing the total now to $4,491,000.  That meant the Rob mob lived to see another day!

When Dawson opened his case, it was the amount that he in fact pulled during the Excursion of $2,750,000 and it would have been a “Bad Deal.” 

“Deal or No Deal Island” airs every Monday at 10 pm ET/PT on NBC and streaming on Peacock the next day.