There’s really only a few things to discuss from this week’s Survivor. Ricard is (at least for now) in the power position, everyone continues to forget that Xander has both an idol and an extra vote, and Danny may be getting the beginning of a winner’s edit.
Danny spends a few minutes talking us through being on the island on the 25th anniversary of his dad’s passing. His dad died when Danny was just 8 years old, resulting in lots of anger and pain that Danny dealt with for many years after. It’s a very personal moment that just serves to make an already extremely likable person even more likable.
Immunity Challenge
But the immunity challenge is where things really get going this week. The challenge itself is nothing to write home about (I get the possible irony of writing that as I write a recap about that exact thing, but whatever, let’s just move on).
They use handles to balance a ball on a wooden cylinder. They periodically add more sections to the handles. Last one standing wins. But this challenge comes with a twist.
The first person out of the challenge will compete in the Survivor Do or Die. The players have the choice to compete or sit out of the challenge. If they sit out, they – obviously – give up their chance at immunity, but they save themselves from the Do or Die.
If you compete, you risk leaving your game completely up to chance. At Tribal Council, whoever is out first plays a game of chance. Win and they stay in the game and are safe from the vote. Lose and they’re out. Um, excuse me??? Hate this.
The only silver lining is that it operates on a level playing field. Everyone has the same information (though not all the information, as we later find out). They know what they’re risking if they choose to compete. But even still, leaving a player’s fate completely to luck? And especially at this late stage?
The vote is the climactic moment of every episode. How much of a letdown would it be if someone goes out this way? Flipping a coin, drawing the short straw, breaking open an urn (still annoyed with you on this one, Survivor AU), or however they do it? With no vote, there’s no real suspense; it’s all manufactured by production. This ends up playing out okay in the end, but it does so in spite of itself.
But while this twist could have gone a lot worse, what it signals is much more worrying. Production doesn’t trust the players they cast. That’s what it comes down to. If they did, they wouldn’t feel the need to inject all these twists into the game to force gameplay. But think back to literally just last week. No twists, no advantages, just social politicks, personal relationships, and strategy.
Heather and Liana sit out, because apparently they are the only smart players left. There is exactly 0.0% chance I would compete here. For one, there is no way I’m risking putting my life in the game up to something that is 100% out of my control. Second, let’s just think through this.
It’s probably safe to assume the weaker challenge competitors are going to sit out. That leaves you up against the better players. Your odds of being first out can only increase. Put that trust in yourself. At least if you go out, you were able to work against it. But here? Literally nothing you do matters.
Deshawn is out nearly immediately, and Danny wins.
Pre-Tribal
Danny and Deshawn want to set up a move against Ricard. They both – correctly – see him as the biggest threat to win, and want to take the shot while they have it. But they need at least one more, otherwise it’s Deshawn or Liana whose game is over.
Xander plays along with Danny’s plan, but Xander is loving his new position with his group of four. He also sees Ricard as a shield for him, and thus wants to keep him around at least a little while longer.
If the four sticks together, they come out on top no matter what. But Erika seems to be a bit of a wildcard. She also talks to Xander about voting out Ricard, essentially for the same reasoning as Danny.
Tribal Council
We get to Tribal with about 25 minutes left. Pretty much gives away Deshawn is safe, and maybe even a successful Shot in the Dark or two. Orrrrrrr maybe not.
When the conversation shifts to the Shan vote, the conversation delves into an extended discussion about Danny, Deshawn, Shan, and Liana, and how they feel playing the game as Black men and women, how this past year has changed so much, including the diversity initiative within Survivor. I’m going to leave this to the great Dalton Ross to discuss further, as he wrote in his recap for Entertainment Weekly:
The reason Tribal was so long was because of an extended talk about the power of race in the game. I touched on this a lot last week in my recap about how all the discussion about race on the show is not an example of what dissers and dismissers like to label as “woke Survivor,” but rather a fascinating and heightened version of Survivor‘s original raison d’être, so I won’t repeat it here. But I will note that Deshawn’s dilemma about how “the gameplay and morals intersected, and it was so hard” is something that every single player and viewer can relate to. It’s what makes the game so great to play and watch. I don’t know how anyone could not find that riveting.
And holy moly, what about Liana so eloquently discussing “giving Black people something to root for besides everything else that is out there that is killing us” while calmly explaining how “Blackness is not this monolith” and “Everywhere I go, I am a Black woman first”? Regardless of whether you want to hear more or less about race on this show, just acknowledge how effortlessly and intelligently Liana handled that conversation, even addressing those who say they don’t want that conversation to be part of their regular Survivor diet. Really impressive stuff.
He said pretty much what I wanted to say, but in what I’m sure is a more effective way than I would have managed. Ross has long been one of the most respected voices in Survivor, and its writing like this that proves that (among all his other writing).
But now onto the Do or Die of it all. Deshawn has three boxes to choose from. One box shows fire, representing life, signaling his safety. The other two show skulls. They’re bad. If he picks a skull, he’s out. Then we’ve got a Monty Hall Problem on our hands here, folks!
Deshawn picks a box, and before opening it, Jeff picks one of the remaining two boxes to open. It’s a skull. As the Monty Hall Problem goes, Jeff gives Deshawn the choice to stick with his original box or switch to the other remaining one. Deshawn goes against the math and sticks with his gut. And it was the right call, as that box reveals fire, keeping him alive in the game.
(Btw, I’ve never been able to wrap my head around Monty Hall. I’ve seen the numbers, I trust the numbers, but my mind refuses to believe that switching is the correct choice.)
Anyway, with Deshawn safe, the vote comes down to Liana or Ricard. Xander decides to use his extra vote, but it wasn’t necessary, as Erika stuck with their crew, and Liana goes to the jury by way of a 5-3 vote.
We have just one more episode until the finale, and the game is still wide open. Yes, Ricard would be the most deserving winner with how things currently stand. But there’s no guarantee he makes it to the end. And there’s still plenty of time for another player or two to make some moves. But with however it turns out, we should be in for an interesting final two weeks, if nothing else.
