After the Wendell vote, there’s the usually Survivor nonsense of those that were blindsided getting upset about being blindsided. Michele is sick of being left out of plans, Nick wants revenge, Adam thinks the fleur di lis on Jeff Probst’s Tribal Council podium could be an idol. Wait, that last one doesn’t quite fit in, but it’s just as important (and not to mention entertaining). His reasoning being that it’s the same design as was included on Denise’s idol. But alas, we’ll just have to wait until Tribal Council before we can revisit this piece…
Edge of Extinction
Parvati and Danni find an advantage: a 50/50 coin. The player in possession of the coin can flip it one time at a future Tribal Council. If it lands on Safe the flipper has immunity, if it lands on Unsafe they’re vulnerable as normal. There is absolutely no risk to the person using it. On the surface, this sounds like one of the dumbest advantages Survivor has ever introduced. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Reward Challenge
Yes! In case you had forgotten, Survivor still has reward challenges. We just haven’t been seeing them as often. With a focus on tribal dynamics, plus the immunity challenge and Tribal Council (not to mention extra Edge of Extinction and Island of the Idols footage we’ve had to endure recently) the reward challenge is an easy piece to cut from the show.
The reward challenge consisted of two teams of five. Three members swim out to retrieve a net filled with wooden fish. Once they get the net back to shore, they untie fish and put them on hooks on a pole. They then carry pole to the puzzle area, where the fish are used to solve a puzzle. The teams shook out as:
Red: Tyson, Adam, Tony, Nick, Jeremy
Blue: Kim, Sarah, Ben, Sophie, Michele
With eleven players still in the game, that means Denise had to sit out.
Blue wins, and then we see why the show decided to include the reward challenge. Sarah decides to give up her reward to Nick for his birthday. And with that, queue up the Darth Vader gif…
Reward
Sarah, Sarah, Sarah, what is you doing?? She says she gave up her reward from a human-to-human standpoint only. She claims there was no gameplay at all. Okay, sure, whatever you say Sarah. But here’s the thing, even if that is completely, 100% true, the rest of the players view it as a game move. And that’s all that matters. Jeremy even reminds us in a confessional that he did the same thing. And what happened, he asks us? He was voted out. It’s nothing short of shocking that a skilled player like Sarah couldn’t recognize how everyone else would perceive this move.
Now, I’m not saying this is a mark of certain death for Sarah’s game, of course not. But there was HUGE risk here, with minimal reward, if any at all. Nick even tells us later it didn’t do anything for his trust level of Sarah in the game. Yes, he was grateful to her on a human level, but for him it didn’t change her standing in the game. And without that, all that does is give the rest of the players left an easy reason to use to vote Sarah out.
It’s during this stretch that Michele finds and buys the 50/50 coin, spending all four of her Fire Tokens. She doesn’t use it this week, so it still remains to be seen whether or not it was a good investment. She likely felt she had to buy it, not knowing if another advantage would be offered to her again. And while I (initially, for now) hate this one, that comes strictly from a viewer standpoint. I can completely see the appeal as a Survivor contestant, especially one who currently feels on the outs.
Immunity Challenge
We go back to the well for for a classic Survivor balance challenge. Each player stands on a triangular platform with narrow footholds. It’s a decent enough challenge, but usually doesn’t result in much of anything worth writing about, sooo…
Kim wins, outlasting Ben.
Pre-Tribal
The first half of this episode was perfectly fine, but here is where it goes on a rocket ship to the next level. Nick tells Tyson that Sophie was putting his name out there, trying to sow some discord. Tyson, Wendell, Adam, Nick, and Michele discuss voting out Sarah. But in talking to Kim, the vote starts to turn towards Adam.
And then, as Adam tells us, “All hell breaks loose.” We get a fantastic flurried edit of every single player’s name being mentioned as the preferred vote. Everyone is scrambling, seemingly no plan can stick for longer than 30 seconds, Jeremy simply resorts to laughing when yet another name is brought up to him. It was madness and it was awesome. And then Tribal Council.
Tribal Council
We’ve had our share of live Tribals before, but I can’t think of one that rivaled this week’s, at least in terms of pure entertainment. Everyone was talking, everyone was whispering, some even resorted to yelling. Hell, Ben and Adam started yelling across their seats to each other while others were whispering. It was chaotic and amazing.
The reality eventually starts to set in for Adam, resulting in a standout moment of an episode filled with standout moments:
But don’t think I forgot about the fleur de lis! As Probst gives his usually “If anyone has an idol…” mini-speech, Adam gets up and tries to pry the flower off Probst’s podium. But darn thing is pretty well glued on there, and Adam is out of luck. Or is he? Probst dangles one last glimmer of hope, goading Adam by saying, “You’re convinced it’s not [an idol]?” Adam gets excited, exclaiming that if it is an idol, he wants to play it. But unfortunately for the outspoken narrative star of the season so far, the fleur de lis decal is just that, no idol, sending Adam home in a decisive vote, with Nick receiving two votes as the back up plan (sorry Nick, just because other players don’t want to play Survivor with you doesn’t mean they’re not playing Survivor).
But kudos to Adam for giving it a shot. Stranger things have happened on Survivor. Immunity idols didn’t exist at all, and then they did. Idols were never hidden in the middle of challenges, until they were. There’s a first time for everything, and a season like an all-winners season could seem like the perfect time to slip in something like hiding at idol at Tribal Council. So even though Adam kind of received the dodo edit this season, no jokes should be made at his expense for giving it a shot here. Jokes can be made at his expense for his other neurotic – but still thoroughly entertaining – gameplay in the rest of his time on the island. But he took a shot, and he missed. Simple as that.
Final Thoughts
How about Tony basically avoiding being a target through all of this chaos?
There are so many people left in the game that you could argue as being in a great position
These next couple episodes (the rest of the season, really) should offer explosive gameplay and supremely entertaining television
Once again, super out for the 50/50 coin
Make it Immunity vs Losing your vote, put some risk on the person using it
I continue to be beyond impressed that a season that includes the Edge of Extinction can be this good
To be clear, though, Winners at War is succeeding in spite of the Edge’s inclusion
