Ron talks to Devens to try to pull him back in. He gives Devens his expired advantage, hoping he will take it at face value. Devens is surprised but doesn’t immediately dismiss its legitimacy. If you’re in Devens’ position, you have to be wary of this move. Nobody just gives away something this powerful. Either way, Devens plays it correctly here. He takes it graciously and thanks Ron, and doesn’t give off any indications that he might not trust what Ron is doing.
Playing for Love
Okay, Survivor needs to take it down a notch with these loved ones introductions. It takes up way too much time. We barely spend any time with these people, we don’t need to use this much valuable screen time seeing people talk about how much they love they spouse, parent, or whoever else came out to the island. If the shows insists on doing this, make the loved ones episode 90 minutes, or even 75. (I know it’s not nearly as simple as that, but still.).
This season’s loved ones challenge might sound familiar. Each contestant races down to the ocean with a bucket. They fill said bucket with water and run back up the beach, where they toss the water to loved ones, who try to catch it in their bucket. They then fill bucket to raise a flag.
And the reason that should sound familiar is that it’s the exact challenge that gave us perhaps the greatest loved ones challenge moment of all time. The GOAT moment, as the kids say. And that, of course, is Colby getting irrationally upset with his brother Reed for, what? Not catching water well enough?
Seeing this challenge come back was like witnessing a dream come true for me. You might say that’s a small, unimpressive dream. To that I’d say…well, that you’re right. But also that I don’t care, because the Colby moment is not just a great loved ones moment, it’s one of my favorite Survivor moments of all time.
If you’ve been reading my recaps fro the past few seasons, you know that I talk bring up the Colby moment in every loved ones recap. And I normally post an accompanying video. But alas, the one I use has been taken off YouTube. And I can’t even find a GIF (and you better believe I’m not going to take the time to make my own GIF). So this picture will have to do for now.
And the other reason I was so happy to see this challenge come back is that the loved ones themselves got to participate. I’ve always thought these challenges are way more fun when that happens. It’s just a reward challenge, and arguably one you don’t even want to win, so it would have minimal impact on the game. Plus, these people travelled thousands of miles to be there, let them have a little fun.
And yes, I did say this is a challenge you don’t want to win. I might argue that it’s one you actively want to lose. No challenge is more personal than this one (obviously). Players get blinded by the emotion when they aren’t picked to join the winner on the reward. It’s very hard to win the challenge and not ruffle any feathers with who you pick. And we saw that again tonight. Plus, from a pure statistics standpoint, you still stand a decent chance of participating in the reward anyway by being chosen by the winner. Let fate take its course, and if you miss out on spending time with your loved one, at least you haven’t hurt your position in the game.
Ron and his husband Lloyd win the challenge and he immediately ticks off Victoria and Lauren by choosing Gavin and Julie to accompany them on the picnic back at camp.
Everyone should take a page out of Devens’ playbook. I don’t know if what he did was intentional – I choose to believe it was – but either way, follow his example. He was basically throwing water at his wife’s face, not even trying for the bucket. He was laughing and talking to her, asking about people back home. Devens looked like a man who had no desire to win that challenge. And if true, more power to him for doing what probably defines “easier said than done.”
Reward/Vata Beach
Ron tells his husband Lloyd all about how he’s in charge and running the game. He must be feeling confident, if he’s okay saying all this with Julie and Gavin mere feet away.
But the real action (a stretch, yes, but it’s what we’ve got) takes place later on back at the beach, as Devens finds Aurora looking through his bag. This is on Devens. If you leave your bag out in the open, especially this late in the game, you’re asking for someone to search it. But unless she was lying, Aurora did not find the expired advantage in Devens’ bag.
Devens uses this to motivate his continued idol hunt. “And now that everyone thinks I’m searching for an idol, I’m gonna search for an idol.” The extra effort pays off, as he finds a clue to an idol, hidden in the trees above the shelter.
Scavenger Hunt
Devens gets up in the middle of the night to retrieve the idol. He gets it and it doesn’t seem like anyone noticed.
Immunity Challenge
The players brace themselves between two walls with their feet balancing on narrow perches. This kind of challenge is one of the rare occasions where I will actually claim the game is unfair. Bigger players are at an immediate disadvantage in an already difficult challenge. Probst can talk about will power all he wants, but it’s not that simple in this challenge. And it’s nothing that I’m legitimately upset about, just something I thought worth pointing out.
But anyway, Gavin wins immunity again.
Tribal Council aka The Rick Devens Show
Devens is just…the best. He’s smart, he’s hilarious, and both were on full display tonight. He knows he’s the target, so he decides to play the immunity idol off of Ron’s advantage menu. And when Probst tells him the advantage, he acts hurt and upset, implying Ron’s intention was to make him look stupid. He even brought his kids into it. It was a truly good performance. You could see it on the jury’s faces too. They all seemed incredibly sympathetic to Devens.
And the Devens Show continues as he then goes on to pull out his real idol, saving him from the vote, and resulting in Ron being sent to Extinction Island in a 3-1 vote (Devens voted for Aurora).
If Devens makes it to the Final 3, it has to be his game to lose, right? Did you notice how the jury was reacting to everything tonight? That is a group of people that is on the Devens hype train. And it’s not like it’s anything new. Devens has been the biggest source of laughter all season. I’d bet even those he has actively worked against and voted out at least like Devens on a personal level. And as we’ve seen before, that can be the deciding factor in who a jury – either a single voter or the jury as a collective unit – votes for at the end.
