Nick is understandably upset about Carl being voted out. He feels betrayed by Christian and in his eyes the Mason-Dixon alliance is now finished. And thus begins the weekly discussion of someone wanting to vote out Christian. Could Nick be the one to have the magic touch and finally oust the fan favorite? (No.)
Reward Challenge
Ah, the loved ones challenge. Eh. The loved ones is always nice, but I just can’t get into it as much as some people do. However, it consistently delivers on three fronts. One, we get numerous awkwardly hilarious comments about “fighting for love” and “go get your love,” and other gems. Two, it harkens back to the glory days of the loved ones challenge. When the island visitors would also participate in the challenge.
More specifically, it reminds me of one of my favorite Survivor moments of all time. And not talking about challenge-specific moments. I’m talking about all moments. And that of course is the Heroes vs. Villains loved ones challenge. Colby with an all-time freak out and his brother Reed. Pure comedic gold. Dip into some epic nostalgia with the video below. It should jump ahead to the right moment, but if it doesn’t, skip to about 4:10. And yes, I will likely post this video more seasons than not when the loved ones challenge comes around.
And third, we see the challenge winner (in this case, winners) and their chosen guests making their obligatory Final Four agreement. This time our lucky castaways are Nick, Angelina, Davie, and Mike. How did we get there? Let’s run it back quick.
The eight castaways are split into teams of two (Nick & Angelina, Mike & Davie, Alison & Kara, Christian & Gabby). Each pair has to race under an obstacle to a sand pit. They dig through the pit to find a set of keys, one of which will unlock two balls which they then must land on a narrow perch. The reward is a barbecue on a barge. Nick and Angelina start off slow but come back to win. They are allowed to choose two others to join them on the reward, and that’s how Davie and Mike (and their loved ones) find their way onto the barge.
The best part of the entire sequence had nothing to do with the actual challenge. It was Christian’s parting words to his girlfriend, Emily. “Enjoy the flight home, watch movies.” I don’t know why, I just loved it.
Reward/Beach
Nick, Mike, and Angelina all say some version of “this four could be the Final Four.” It was another fantastic bit of editing as the show cut from one to the next, iterating that fact. For whatever reason, this particular reward, seemingly more than any other (don’t @ me if that’s extremely wrong, which it probably is) always has this same conversation. I get it on one hand. When you have an opportunity like this, you need to talk strategy. And when someone offers up a Final Four deal, you’re really not in a position to say no, regardless of how much you might want to go along with that plan or not.
And that brings us to Davie, the lone dissenter from this Final Four agreement. He realizes the other three have legitimate reasons to buy into this agreement. But he doesn’t feel he is particular close to these three so he mainly stays quiet and keeps to himself, though he doesn’t outright deny the Final Four offer.
Back at the beach, Gabby takes up the torch from Nick and talks to Alison about voting out Christian. She then brings in Kara as well, who is immediately on board. I’ll get into this more in a second, but this was the beginning of the end for our dear Gabby.
Immunity Challenge
This week we had another balance-based challenge. Each castaway stood on a narrow perch while holding a pole connected to a bucket of water. If the pole is pushed up too hight, or is allowed to drop too low, the bucket dumps the water on them and they are out. Kara wins.
This was a fine challenge, when looked at independently. But 4/6 of the individual immunity challenges have involved them standing there holding something. Now down to the final seven, let’s hope the challenges start to become more active. The endurance ones are good, but it’s simply better, more engaging television when the contestants are out and running or swimming, or doing, well, anything.
Pre-Tribal
Gabby tries to rally the troops to vote out Christian. Nick is super excited, as he is hell-bent on seeking revenge on Christian. Led by Mike, the others settle on the brilliantly devious plan to use Gabby as the back up vote in case Christian plays his idol.
Davie is not aboard the “Let’s Vote Out Christian” train. He sees Christian as a shield for him. If Christian is voted out, who would Davie use to protect himself? Who could he use? Davie might stick out as one of the bigger threats. So Davie tells Christian that Gabby is gunning for him, setting the wheels in motion for the events to come at Tribal Council.
Christian tries to fix his relationship with Nick. Christian feels like he has repaired it, at least enough, to survive this vote. But Nick tells us in a confessional that he doesn’t think he can ever fully trust Christian again. He is going to play along with Christian to keep him comfortable.
Tribal Council
Christian plays his idol, receiving five nullified votes. Gabby is voted out 2-1, with Alison receiving the other vote. There wasn’t anything especially great about Tribal, aside from seeing yet another perfectly played advantage in Christian’s idol. But let’s close by talking about Gabby for a bit.
First, props to her for recognizing her place in the game. Self-awareness, or lack thereof, is always a key element in Survivor. You have to realize how the others view you as a player and, probably to a lesser extent, as a person. If you’re wrong about that perception, you’re already dead. So credit to her for realizing she had to make a move, and realizing what the correct move was. She absolutely had to get Christian out of the game. She was 100% correct in the fact that any move she made with Christian would be viewed as Christian’s moves. As long as Christian remained in the game, she had zero chance at winning.
I would have preferred Gabby wait a vote or two to target Christian. But I can’t really fault her too much, if at all, for going for it here. If not specifically spoken, “If not now, when?” is a common thread throughout many Survivor seasons. If you see an opportunity to make a move like this, you need to take it. Especially at this late stage in the game. Yes, Christian had the idol, but he didn’t have immunity, so he was still vulnerable. He had already proven himself as more than a threat in the challenges. He could very well have won one or more of the remaining challenges. In the end, it’s better to make a move too soon than be voted out before taking your shot.
We’re left with two episodes left and as far as I’m concerned the field is wide open. I think Davie, Kara, and Nick (not necessarily in that order) are the front-runners right now. I would include Christian but he’s just too big of a threat. With the fire-making challenge at Final Four, he needs to go before then, leaving his fate with no doubt. To save himself, he’ll likely need to find a way to make himself immune at each of the next three Tribal Councils, be it from an idol or immunity win.
Even after those four, though, I can see legitimate arguments for everyone left, even Angelina, though her path is realistically much more difficult. But if she ends up winning the season, she would be a deserving one. I won’t go too much more into the end of the season, as I will have a finale preview coming out sometime after next week’s episode. But however it shakes out, I’m looking forward to a dynamite finish to what’s been a fantastic season.
