Brandon Walker voted out of Surviving Barstool Season 5 at final 5

Surviving Barstool Season 5 came down to five people this week: Marty Mush, Dana Beers, Brandon Walker (BFW), Glenny Balls and Rone. Only one of them left tribal council without a torch, and it was Walker. According to a recap of the episode, Glenny Balls played an idol Dana Beers had given him, Marty Mush played his own idol, and Rone pulled his idol too -- three idols at one vote, all of them protecting someone other than Walker. With nowhere left to hide, BFW was out, and Dana Beers, Glenny Balls, Marty Mush and Rone move on to fight for the last spots in the finale.

Stoolies Clubhouse 🏴‍☠️

@StooliesClub

There was so many missed opportunities in this game. Feits not taking out Rone, Tate gave Dana a great idea to play his idol on Tate so they could take someone else out, Tommy obviously, Marty and Balls taking out Meek and Annika instead of Rone… Everyone with an idol could have made an incredible move at anytime before last nights episode but decided not to

That's the read fans keep coming back to: for a season with this many idols floating around, almost nobody used one until it mattered most. The Stoolies Clubhouse breakdown above lays out the missed windows -- Feits not pulling Rone, Marty and Balls going after Meek and Annika instead of Rone, Tommy sitting on an idol he never played. Every one of those decisions left the board exactly where it needed to be for BFW to walk into a buzzsaw.

Walker, who co-hosts Picks Central and The Yak and has the tagline 'Host of Walk The Line' on his Barstool bio, spent most of the season on the outside of the numbers looking in. Once he realized he was the target, he scrambled -- working the jury, leaning on relationships, trying to talk his way into a stay of execution. It didn't work, but it made for the kind of finish that gets called the most dramatic vote of the season by the people who cover it for a living.

Barstool Sports

@barstoolsports

The most dramatic elimination of the season so far

The aftermath has been its own show. Dana Beers joked that the 'Walk The Line reunion has been postponed until further notice,' tagging it #ImSorryBrandon, and Glenny Balls put out a mini-statement clarifying he was joking about his weight compared to Walker's -- while confirming the two of them talked and shook hands after the vote. None of it reads as real beef; it's cast members ribbing each other now that the season's biggest blindside is in the rearview.

Not everyone was already on Walker's side going into the episode, either. Dani Jackel, who has needled BFW plenty in the past, admitted the vote changed her mind a little.

Dani Jackel

@danijackel_

I might not hate @BFW as much after watching him on the last episode of surviving

The show still has one elimination left before the jury picks a winner from the final three, with the finale set for Monday night. That's four people -- Dana Beers, Glenny Balls, Marty Mush and Rone -- left to fight over who walks away with the $250,000 that all 18 co-workers signed up to chase back in episode 1. Walker now joins the jury, which means the same idol chess that got him voted out is about to decide who gets his vote to win.