We open with Lavita discussing the extra vote back at camp. Kellyn admits to everything, that the extra vote was hers and that she voted twice for Laurel. Laurel is of course uneasy about it but still feels fairly comfortable. She believes her relationship is still strong with Dom and Wendell and is thankful that they had her back again.
We have a pretty straightforward Survivor obstacle course for the Reward Challenge. Race to retrieve a sand bag, go through series of obstacles, land sand bag on a small standing table. But the reward is a special one: It’s the Loved Ones visit.
The Loved Ones Challenge seems to always be a point of conversation among Survivor fans. The main topic being “Should you even try to win the Loved Ones Challenge?” I say no. I wouldn’t actively try to throw it, but I definitely would hold back. If you win this challenge, you risk making half the remaining castaways irrationally pissed off at you. People take it very personally when they don’t get chosen to accompany the winner on this reward. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that only four winners have also won the Loved Ones Challenge (at least according to Survivor Wikia): Tina Wesson in Australia, Brian Heidik in Thailand, Bob Crowley in Gabon, and Mike Holloway in Worlds Apart. Maybe there’s a correlation, maybe there’s not. But it’s certainly something worth considering.
One last tangent here. Is it just me or were the Loved Ones Challenges way better when the loved ones actually got to compete? Sure, there might be big competitive mismatches depending on the challenge and who said loved ones are. But at the end of the day, it’s still just a reward. And it’s so much more entertaining from a viewer standpoint. Wouldn’t we all be better off with more instances like Colby in the Heroes vs. Villains Loved Ones Challenge? An all-time Survivor moment.
Back to the challenge at hand, Sebastian gets out to a big lead and gets to the final stage well ahead of everyone else. Dom is the second one there and misses a few tosses before Sea Bass finally gets the bag to land.
Sea Bass picks Dom, Wendell, and Donathan to accompany him on the reward. This leaves the four girls alone. Oh, Sea Bass. You beautiful, simple man. Anyone thinking even remotely strategically here would have known better than to take all the guys on the reward, leaving all four girls alone back at camp. I feel completely confident saying that had any of the other seven castaways won, there would have been some kind of gender mix. As much fun as I’ve had watching Sea Bass this season, very little (none?) of that has been due to his actual gameplay.
But before they head off on their reward, there’s one more decision to be made: Who to send to Ghost Island? Probst announces that an advantage will be waiting for whoever goes. No game, no gimmick. You go to Ghost Island, you get the advantage. Sea Bass has the choice of sending himself or choosing one of any of the seven to go. Sea Bass wastes no time denying the opportunity.
At this point Wendell volunteers to go, but was that the right choice? Obviously it’s not ideal having everyone know you will be coming back with an advantage; you want to keep those secret. But someone has to get it. And if you don’t, someone else will. That might be good enough reason to go yourself, simply playing defense. You could argue that Wendell making this decision would only paint a bigger target on his back. But it’s all but guaranteed Wendell knows he’s seen as one of the bigger threats left. We’ve seen throughout the season that he has his finger on the pulse of this game. He knows he’s a threat, he knows everyone sees him as a threat, and he knows they know that he knows all of this, you know?
(I’m getting a lot mileage out of this clip this season and it won’t stop as long as it keeps being relevant.)
Going further, it’s likely that Wendell knew the gender split could likely mean very bad things for his game, so he wanted to take every chance he could to improve his place in the game. I think I would have made the same decision if I were in Wendell’s place, but there is certainly a legitimate argument to be made for the other decision.
Wendell gets the same advantage Malcolm got during Philippines. It was the challenge balancing a ball on a stick by pushing two handles together. If his ball drops, he gets a second chance. He is also able to practice while at Ghost Island.
And we have another bad edit for Kellyn. Maybe it was the food/water/sleep deprivation talking, but her pissing and moaning about the guys, particularly Wendell, seemed way off base. I get that she was upset she missed out on a chance to spend time with her brother. I get that she hated the fact that Wendell – and by extension, Dom, to a certain extent – had yet another thing break their way in the game.
But come on, the only person she could be even slightly upset with was Sea Bass. He was the one who picked the other three guys. And Wendell was chosen by Sea Bass BEFORE they learned of the Ghost Island twist. So no, Kellyn, Wendell did not ruin someone else’s family visit. Maybe indirectly, but not directly and certainly not intentionally. That’s now three bad edits in a row for Kellyn. I’d say if she doesn’t have a better episode next week, she’s done for.
The aforementioned ball balance challenge is this week’s Immunity Challenge. Wendell’s ball falls in the second section. His second ball falls shortly after as well. I’m typically not a fan of challenge advantages, but this one has been an exception both times. It’s not as much a seemingly guaranteed win as others have been. I would prefer we never see a challenge advantage again, but this is the way to do it if they’re going to show up again.
The final round comes down to Dom, Chelsea, Sea Bass, Donathan, and Laurel. Dom pulls it out over Donathan for his second consecutive Immunity win.
Wendell and Dom want to target Chelsea given how strong she’s proven to be in challenges. And with Dom’s Immunity win, the girls decide to target Wendell. They try to pull Donathan in as well. This is where it all gets interesting. Laurel never seemed to be completely on board with this plan. She didn’t say much, she never definitively said she was going along with the plan. And, perhaps most importantly, she didn’t tell the others about Dom and Wendell’s idols.
In their standard pre-tribal meeting, Donathan and Laurel discuss their voting options. Donathan is pushing for it, as he doesn’t want to regret not making a move when given the chance. Laurel acknowledges that this could very well be their last chance at a clear opening against Dom or Wendell as they seem to still feel safe enough to not play an idol.
It puts them in a tough spot as there is merit to both sides. Flipping would likely leave them in a 3-2 minority against Angela, Chelsea, and Kellyn. But staying with Dom and Wendell could also leave them in a 3-2 minority. And the longer you wait to make a move on someone like Dom or Wendell, the harder it’s going to be to take them out, especially knowing they both have an idol.
It’s possible Laurel actually likes her chances in a Final 3 against both Dom and Wendell. Maybe she thinks they would take votes away from each other, enough to give her a small-margin victory. Or she could be banking on a case of Bitter Jury Syndrome, where jurors wouldn’t want to vote for either of them, even if they likely would have played the two best games. Whatever the case, it should make a fascinating end run of the season.
**BREAKING NEWS: WE HAVE A CHELSEA CONFESSIONAL. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. CHELSEA WAS GIVEN AN ACTUAL, ON-AIR CONFESSIONAL**
I could be wrong, but was this her first confessional of the season? I can’t recall any contestant who was as invisible as Chelsea was who at the same seemed to be directly involved in a good chunk of the action. And she even won two immunities! I think the best bet is that she simply isn’t a great story-teller, and that’s who gets the confessionals. Production wants to showcase people who can drive the season’s the story. And apparently that wasn’t Chelsea. Nothing against her, she seemed like a perfectly fine, great person. And she kicked ass in challenges! But she just lacked that “it” factor. There’s nothing more you can say, I guess.
Her confessional also served as an unfortunate bit of foreshadowing. When someone has been as invisible as Chelsea was, there are really only two reasons said player would suddenly be given some more screen time. 1) Their game is about to take a turn and will be a big part of the story going forward or 2) Their game is over and they’re getting voted out.
And for our dear Chelsea, it was scenario #2. I get that they wanted to give her some air time before she got voted out, but it took a bit of the edge out of Tribal Council. As soon as I saw her confessional, I became convinced she would be the one to go. As great as Survivor is, and with as much as they do right, this is one of the drawbacks of some of their production habits. This and the music give-aways during challenges are my two main bugaboos with the show. But let’s consider ourselves lucky if those are the two biggest problems.
So we’re down to the final seven, Dom and Wendell each have an idol, Donathan looks to be stirring up some more drama, and Laurel needs to make a move. We have two weeks left and it should a fun ride.
