It’s starting to feel like Survivor: Cagayan all over again, not that I’m complaining mind you. Tony Vlachos – who just might be the most entertaining player in Survivor history – does something crazy, gets multiple people pissed off at him (even some of his own alliance members), and then scrambles to do damage control. It’s a tale as old as time. Or, at least as old as 2013.
This time the one leading the charge his Officer Sarah, and she is LIVID. She’s yelling at Tony, telling him he sunk her game, telling us how infuriated she is with him. And then Tony pulls some Vlachos voodoo out of his butt and the next day he and Sarah are buddy-buddy again. I don’t know how the man does it. I don’t know where he comes up with this nonsense or how he maintains this energy or how he keeps all his different lies and schemes straight. But I do know that I do not care. I love all things Tony Vlachos.
And that leads us right into his next little project: the Spy Nest. He of course created the (surprisingly) super successful Spy Shack in Cagayan, and the, shall we say, less successful Spy Bunker in Game Changers (in Tony’s (paraphrased) words: “It didn’t work, but it was fun.” That’s part of why he’s the best.) So now he’s moved to the trees with his newest endeavor. Only Sarah knows about it, opining to the audience, “In the real world, if Tony and I were partners, one of us would be fired.” Sarah often catches flack for not being the best at confessionals, but that’s a damn good – and pretty funny – line.
Tony also got pooped on. While talking to Ben on the beach after Tribal, he falls victim to a fly-by pooping. That’s all. Nothing more to add. Just that I wouldn’t feel right going through a full recap without mentioning it. Carrying on.
With Sophie’s idol back in play, everyone goes hunting. Ben hides the idol while walking with Tony. He tries to hide it from him, but Tony was literally mere feet away. He saw it immediately so Ben was forced to cop to it (no pun intended).
Edge of Extinction
Yay, another Edge endurance challenge. This time around, the unlucky inhabitants had to trek to the other side of the island to bring 20 coconuts each back to the shelter, one at a time. The first six to finish earned two Fire Tokens, with the other five receiving nada. Natalie, Sophie, Yul, Tyson, Parvati, and Wendell earn the Tokens.
It was…fine? I guess? There was no moment like Ethan’s from earlier in the season. Rob did slip partway though, busting up his elbow a bit. It knocked him out of the challenge, but he did finish later on. The decision was all personal, noting he did not want to feel like a quitter. It was a nice moment in a somewhat-dull segment that lasted at least a few minutes too long.
Immunity Challenge
And we have another classic Survivor endurance challenge. Each player stands on a narrow perch with one hand held above their head, with said hand tied to a bucket. When your hand drops, you lose. This time immunity goes to both the last man and woman standing.
Shortly after Ben briefly waxed poetic about wanting some peanut butter, milk, and cookies, (and even more shortly after Ben is eliminated) Probst comes out with, you guessed it, peanut butter, milk, and cookies. It’s the usual Survivor conundrum: Do you take the food and sustenance or keep competing? How safe do you feel? How will the other players – not to mention the jury – react if you give up on the challenge?
Personally, I’m more often opposed to anyone voluntarily giving up on an immunity challenge. There are exceptions of course; there always are. If there is a challenge where you know you stand no chance, then sure, we can talk. But if I’m taking a black and white stance on it, I’m going with competing over eating, no questions asked.
Obviously, though, that decision becomes much harder if you’re actually out there on the island. If it wasn’t, this wouldn’t be a part of Survivor. And when it was down to three women and two men, Michele, Kim, and Nick all chose food, giving Denise and Tony (his third win in a row) immunity. At least Nick negotiated one of Tony’s Fire Tokens out of the deal.
I can see it a little bit from Michele and Nick’s standpoint. By all accounts they’re both flying pretty far under the radar right now. Neither likely felt that they were in danger of being voted out. But an immunity win could be a nice piece to add to the mythic Survivor résumé. But Kim is on the outs, she has been nearly the entire game.
There’s also the jury’s response to finding out you gave up immunity for a quick bite to eat. And we saw that on full display tonight, as many jury members were visibly disappointed in the players’ decision. And it ended up costing Kim the most.
Tribal Council
A couple main things here. First, these live Tribals are way out of hand. This isn’t a novel or unique take, but it is what it is. At least we had subtitles this time, so it was easier for viewers to follow what was happening. But it’s not just the viewers the Survivor production needs to be concerned about. This tweet from Mike Bloom sums it up pretty perfectly.
All I can think of during this Tribal Council is how insanely confusing it must be to be a juror this season. How do you react after 10 minutes of whispering and Jeremy pulls something round out of his pocket, moans, and puts it away? #Survivor
Adam Klein even commented, “What just happened?” There is NO WAY they have a clear picture of what happens at these live Tribals. I don’t have the answer to what can be done, but something has to change. When JT did it the first time in Game Changers, it was new, it was fun. But it lost its charm long ago.
Secondly, Tony Vlachos, ladies and gentlemen! As the Robfather himself said tonight, “Tony is a boss.” Tony is running this game, flipping votes at his leisure. He might now be in a position where it’s immunity or bust, but if he makes it to the end, at this point, I don’t see how he loses to anybody.
And with that, we’re down to our last two weeks of Survivor: Winners at War. But hey, we’re getting five hours out of those two weeks, so it’s not all bad. And that’s two weeks for this season to cement itself as one of the all-time greats. Really, at this point, the only thing preventing that is if the season’s winner ends up being someone from the Edge. But let’s not think about that right now. Let’s just focus on how great this season has been and hope it finishes off strong.
