ET has your "Survivor" scoop!

ALEXIS didn't even see it coming. Going into tribal council on Thursday night's episode of "Survivor," it seemed a foregone conclusion that favorite AMANDA would be going home. But when Amanda played the hidden immunity idol at the last minute, the course of the game changed.

The show opened with JAMES, the popular gravedigger from Louisiana, being evaluated by the medical team due to an infected cut on his finger. It was decided that if it wasn't better by the next day, he would have to go home.

Before his evaluation the next day, however, was the reward challenge. Family members of all the remaining tribemates were brought out, and it was revealed that the winner of the challenge and two other lucky tribemates would win a swim in a (non-stinging) "jellyfish lake" with their loved one.

After a trivia challenge, Alexis was the victor -- winning a swim with her brother, and choosing CIRIE and her husband, and NATALIE and her mom, to come along. She had to choose to send someone to Exile Island, and Amanda volunteered.

While the family members were swimming alongside hundreds of innocuous, peach-colored jellyfish, Amanda was hunting down the immunity idol on Exile. After finding several clues, the final clue informed her that the immunity idol was buried back at camp, under the tribe flag.

Meanwhile, James got the disappointing news that he would need surgery. He was clearly very upset to hear he'd be leaving the game, saying, "I'd much rather have been voted out," but took it in stride and kept his composure.

This shook up the competition, as the alliance of the remaining five women realized that if the last man standing, ERIK, won immunity, they'd have to vote out one of their own. Going by the worst-case-scenario Natalie pitched voting out Amanda to PARVATI, who flat out refused to betray her ally, saying, "I can't have a part of that. I just won't."

In an immunity challenge in which the contestants shot at bottles, the girls' worst fears were realized as Erik indeed won immunity. After going back to camp, Amanda truthfully told the tribemates that she hadn't found the idol, even going as far as to empty her bag to prove it. She polled her fellow tribemates, and found that she was the intended victim at tribal council that night.

She took a private walk with Parvati, confessing that she knew where the idol was, and asking for her friend's help in distracting the other tribemates so that they wouldn't notice her digging it up. When they asked where Amanda was, Parvati responded, "She just wanted to wash her armpits because I told her she stunk."

The last shot of Amanda before Tribal Council showed her digging, not revealing whether or not she had found the idol.

At tribal council, a hangdog Amanda sat sadly on the benches, being comforted by Parvati, but when host JEFF PROBST asked whether anyone had the immunity idol, after a pause, to everyone's shock, she triumphantly played it. When the votes were tallied, the person with the next-highest amount of votes, ALEXIS, was sent packing.

Jeff exclaimed, "You guys are perfecting the art of the blindside. That is the good news, and that it is the bad news."

For her part, 24-year-old motivational speaker Alexis was surprised by the turn of events, saying, "I didn't see that one coming at all," but said, "It's a game so I'm not mad at all." She felt good about how she played the game, which she called the "hardest mental, physical, spiritual thing I've done," noting, "I never lied once while I was here."