Well, it had to happen sooner or later. After such a strong start to the season, a weak episode was bound to occur. And this week’s episode still had its moments, but overall I’d say it was clearly the weakest of the season. But we have the merge coming next week, and the merge episode is typically one of the best of the seasons. So I’m keeping the faith that this (so far) stellar season will pick right back up. But with that in mind, this will probably be a shorter recap than normal (But actually that’s doubtful. I’ve said that before and it never turns out that way ¯\_(ツ)_/¯).
Jabeni
Just a few points of note here after last week’s Natalie vote. Angelina tells Lyrsa she only voted for her with the hope that Natalie would give her jacket to Angelina after they voted her out. Lyrsa’s not buying it – not completely at least – and thinks Angelina going for Natalie’s jacket was petty. She sees it as a mean move, that it says a lot about Angelina’s true character. To Lyrsa, that move says the jacket means more to Angelina than Lyrsa does, and that Angelina can’t be trusted.
Then we get a great little sound bite from Angelina. “Natalie going home was bittersweet. She was bitter, and for the tribe, it was sweet.” Nothing more to add, just a great line.
Tiva
Over at Tiva we get the Christian-goes spear-fishing saga and what a joy that was to watch. There were two highlights. One was his…let’s say peculiar decision to put the flippers on at the top of the beach, forcing himself awkwardly wobble down the beach to the water. Put them on closer to the water dude! And his renaming of the fishing spear to “spring loaded murder machine” was genius. (Side note: I call dibs on Spring Loaded Murder Machine in the incredibly unlikely event I ever start a rock band.)
Reward Challenge
A classic food reward challenge. The 1st place tribe wins cooking utensils, herbs, spices, and four kebabs. The 2nd place tribe goes home with two kebabs. One person from each tribe was attached to a heavy bag of coconuts. The tribe transported the bag to the beach to then lift and hold the bag so the person attached to it could climb over an obstacle to retrieve four rings. The challenge finishes by tossing the rings tossed onto peg targets.
It was a decent enough challenge, made better by a big comeback by Jabeni. They were struggling massively from the start, digging themselves into a huge hole. But they persisted and luckily for them Vuku just couldn’t close out the rings, finishing in third behind Tiva and Jabeni after getting out to a sizable lead.
Tiva
Tiva is where the action is again. We get yet another Brochacho sequence as the Christian-Dan-John bromance grows ever-stronger. But could it be growing too strong?
Gabby realizes she is on the outs with the Brochachos, which likely puts her on the bottom. She still trusts Christian but knows she doesn’t have Dan and John automatically on her side. So she goes to Alison, her one last life-line on Tiva. And yet again, as she voices her concerns and fears, she starts to cry. And that show of emotion seems to make an impact on Alison. At this point I have to wonder, is Gabby simply someone who wears her emotions on her sleeve? Or is she intentionally crying as part of her strategy? It’s helped her strengthen her relationship with Christian. And now it might be doing the same with Alison. That could be something to watch moving forward.
And here Gabby gives us another solid sound bite: “Hope is not a strategy.” Such a great line. It seems so simple, but it’s one of the most important pieces of rationale for any Survivor player to have. To win this game, you need to be an active participant. You can’t sit back and hope it’s all going to work out for the best. Gabby knows this, and she’s now starting to act on it. Could this be a turning point in her game?
Vuku
At Camp Vuku Elizabeth tells a quick backstory about how she came into the game with some back problems. It had been an issue in the weeks leading up to the game, and hasn’t gotten completely better. To help alleviate her pain, she wants to split the bamboo used for the bed to make it flatter, hence more comfortable. A fine idea, but probably one you should run by the rest of the tribe before starting to take apart their bed. Something Elizabeth neglected to do.
This understandably doesn’t go quite as planned for Elizabeth. The rest of the tribe seems like they are okay with her idea. But they would have liked to have been a part of the decision, especially as this particular project would have been one that takes up all, or most of, a day. But Elizabeth started when there were only a couple hours of daylight left. Then she gets upset with them for putting the bed back together, because that was not a group decision. Pretty ironic, huh?
Not the best look for Elizabeth this week, who so far had been playing a solid game. But with the merge coming next week, this little dust up may end up not mattering. Then again, this is Survivor. You never know what might come back to haunt someone.
Immunity Challenge
This was a great challenge. And it wasn’t necessarily the challenge itself that was great. Rather, it was how it played out. Let’s set the stage. Each tribe had to carry a large saucer to a water tower and fill it up. They then carry the saucer through an obstacle course and pour whatever water was left into a well. When the well is filled, a bag of puzzle pieces would drop.
Tiva cruised through with barely any trouble, maybe none at all. They fill their well with just one trip. Then puzzle master Christian and Alison dominate the puzzle, leading Tiva to finish first.
Vuku gets through fine. They had about what you would have expected as a typical performance in this particular challenge. They have a bit of trouble with the saucer, and don’t finish the puzzle as quickly as Tiva had. A perfectly fine second place finish. But hey, it’s immunity. First=second=immunity here.
Then we had Jabeni with an all time challenge performance, but not in the good way. They could not get out of their own way. They spilled constantly, they legit had to stop to take breaks as Mike’s hands were cramping and Angelina’s were bleeding. Poor Jabeni never even filled their well. Right as they were seemingly about to get their puzzle pieces, they straight up dropped their saucer, spilling what little water they had left. Thought it wouldn’t have made any difference, as Vuku finished the puzzle shortly after the drop. Just brutal. As fun as it can be to see a nice, tight race, a good ol’ fashioned blowout can sometimes be just what the doctor ordered.
Jabeni Post-Immunity Challenge
The decision is very clearly between Lyrsa and Angelina. Obviously Angelina’s and Lyrsa’s votes are set, so it comes down to Mike and Nick. Mike had said before he didn’t think he could completely trust Angelina. However, he was tentative about going after another Goliath. Come the merge, he didn’t want the other Goliaths to see him as a Goliath turncoat. But Nick? I think there’s a strong argument that voting out Angelina would have been a better strategic move for him. But you have to think about how firm Mike was in his decision. If he was dead set on Angelina, would Nick be willing to go to rocks for Lyrsa? That’s doubtful. There was a brief mention of a rock draw, so it’s a safe(ish) assumption that a possible rock draw was at least on his mind.
But it’s possible the vote had been decided long ago (well, days, long in Survivor time). And that leads us too…
Tribal Council
We get a lot of talk about trust and loyalty and that’s all well and good. But the biggest nugget comes from Angelina. She tells Probst, “We wouldn’t have made the move last Tribal Council on Natalie if we didn’t have a plan. And I am really hoping that is what we stick to tonight.” So what could that mean? We’ll likely never know 100%, but I think the implication is clear. At the previous Tribal Council, Angelina and Mike could have made a deal with Nick. They vote out Natalie if Nick agrees to vote out Lyrsa if they go to Tribal again. Now of course there would be nothing to force Nick (or Mike, or Angelina) to stick to that deal.
Whether or not that is how the vote came to be, Lyrsa is voted out 3-1. And then in the preview for next week, we see that the merge will be upon us. I always feel a little bad for the person voted out right before the merge. Making the merge is one of the Survivor milestones, kind of a bare minimum acceptable finish. You hear it every so often, some form of “I want to at least make the merge.” While everyone is there to win, you can lose the game and still have a successful Survivor experience. And making the merge would be a part of that for the vast majority (if not all) of Survivor players. And those voted out in Lyrsa’s position come this close.
So with merge coming, I will have a post-merge preview coming out. Not sure when, but over the weekend of early next week is the plan. So be on the look-out for that. Lots of great characters, tons of shifting alliances. This is shaping up to a fantastic end stretch to what’s been a very good season so far.
