After a rough/so-so start to the season, Survivor 41 now has two consecutive strong episodes. Last week still stands out as the best so far, but this week was no slouch either. Though it wasn’t without its flaws. Well, one flaw, really. And it didn’t really come into play, but it’s now set up to infuriate fans when it finally does – but more on that in a bit.
Ua
Back at camp after Tribal, Shan, Ricard, and Genie reflect on making it to Day 10. This shouldn’t really feel like a milestone, but in this shortened season, I suppose it does feel like more of an accomplishment? But the real news is the strong three the remaining Ua members have become. After being spared on the vote, Genie now feels solid with Shan and Ricard, after being on the bottom for so long. Unfortunately, she still is on the bottom of this trio. Though it’s debatable as to whether or not she should be.
Genie tells Shan and Ricard she’s going to look for Brad’s Beware Idol (the three way). Knowing he was voted out with it, it’s only safe to assume it would be re-hidden for someone else to find. She eventually does find it, and brings Shan and Ricard to the spot so they can discuss as a group what to do with it. Shan does her thing and gets the other two to leave it.
But of course, that was only because Shan wanted it for herself. She and Ricard still don’t necessarily trust Genie, in that they think she could have snuck back to the spot, opened it to get it fo herself, and then retied the package. And that’s ironic, because that’s exactly what the two of them do. Shan opens it, confirming it is in fact the three way Beware Idol.
Now that Shan can’t vote, she gives her Extra Vote advantage to Ricard, so they can still vote Genie out if they were to go to Tribal Council before Shan’s idol activates. This takes an immense amount of trust on Shan’s part. If Shan can’t vote the next time they go to Tribal, Ricard could easily vote her out with Genie, keeping the extra vote for himself.
Ricard then comes up with a smart plan regarding the idol. Shan has to say the phrase in order for the idol to activate. So how do they get around the fact that Genie doesn’t know Shan took the advantage. So Ricard tells Genie Shan is going to say the phrase anyway, just to see if Luvu responds with their phrase. Whether or not Shan had taken the advantage, I love this idea.
Luvu
Sydney goes spear fishing. Nothing more, that’s all. My girl had a quiet episode, so I had to mention the little bit of shine she did get.
Deshawn and Danny once again discuss the idea of throwing the next challenge. They even talk to Naseer about it, which I found surprising. Everything we had seen from Luvu so far would point to these three as being in opposition, or at least not directly working together. Maybe there’s more to the Luvu dynamics than we know. If only they would stop winning so we could get some more insight.
Anyway, Naseer is against throwing the challenge, and Double D seem to acquiesce to him.
Yase
Evvie talks to Xander about the possibility of the two of them going to the end together. Xander seems to take it to heart, but it’s all a scheme for Evvie. She believes Xander views her as his number one, and she wants to make sure it stays that. But perhaps she’s doing too good a job of it, as Tiffany relays her fears about the Evvie/Xander partnership to Liana.
Liana and Tiffany then decide to go through Xander’s bag, finding both his extra vote and Beware Idol. Liana even reads aloud the Beware Idol parchment, as though she and Tiffany were just learning this information for the first time? They knew, right? There was an entire storyline about it, because Liana and Evvie couldn’t get Tiffany to understand that Xander didn’t actually have an idol. Ultimately not important, but interesting to note.
Soon after, Xander gives a perfect example of ho not to lie, telling revealing the idol to Tiffany, but telling her he only just found it. But he showed her the note, confirming to her his secret phrase, which she’s already heard him say multiple times. Not that I think Xander had much of a chance to gain favor with Tiffany, but still, not his best effort.
Immunity Challenge
Before starting the challenge, Shan says her phrase and Xander replies with his. After a brief pause, Naseer jumps in and says he’s as confused as a goat on AstroTurf. What?! We then get a flashback to Naseer finding the Beware Advantage earlier at Luvu camp. Survivor has used lots (LOTS) of dumb and pointless flashbacks so far this season, but this is how you do it. Easily the best one yet. And then just like that, all three idols are activated. Shan is no longer completely reliant on Ricard, and Xander all of a sudden has new life, with his idol and now being able to actually use the extra vote he has.
But for the challenge, the tribes race up and over a net ramp, where they release key which unlocks a machete. They use the machete to chop a rope, dropping sand bags. They fire the bags out of a slingshot to knock down two targets. They’re also playing for reward. First tribe to finish gets a giant tarp, with the second place tribe winning a smaller tarp.
Yase wins in an example of one of my least favorite things about Survivor. So often the tense or dramatic music completely gives away when a tribe is about to win. I get that the music adds to the moment, but it’s done so often, it immediately removes any tension for the viewers. Something small, sure, but seems like something to look at, what with this whole new era and all. Luvu finishes second, sending Ua back to Tribal.
I suppose it was too much to ask for Survivor to give us two clean episodes in a row, as they go right back to sending two players on a journey together. Yase sends Shan and Liana.
Journey
Shan reveals her idol to Liana, who in turn tells Shan about Xander’s idol and extra vote. The two form (at least a start of) a pact to work together should they find themselves on a tribe together following a merge or swap. And in an interesting decision, Shan tells Liana that if she (Shan) isn’t there come merge, that Ricard cannot be trusted, because he’s her number one ally.
Now, I’m assuming she means that Ricard would have turned on her in that instance. But if Ricard and Shan both make it to the merge, along with Liana, this small moment could give Liana ammunition to turn Ricard against Shan, should she decide it necessary.
We then get possibly the winner’s edit moment to end all winner’s edit moments. Shan talks to Liana about her mom dying just a couple years ago. This leads to a confessional from Shan telling us how this lead her down a dark path, falling in with a gang, before being invited to church which turned her life around and helped lead her to her career calling as a pastor.
It’s all moving and emotional and all that, no doubt. But it feels like such an obvious “this person win the game” moment, that she can’t possibly win, right? Production has to be setting us up for her downfall. Shan is my winner pick, and she’s one of my favorite players so far on this season. I would be thrilled to see her win. But with the edit she’s received, it feels too good to be true. But I guess we’ll see.
Then, as has become the norm, Shan and Liana discuss and agree how to proceed with their respective decisions. Talk about your diminishing returns (a little Econ 101 talk for ya). Shan says she can’t risk her vote with Tribal coming up, so Liana should risk hers to take whatever the advantage is.
And holy hell, is it a terrible advantage. Not for Liana, though. It’s nothing short of incredible for her. She receives the Knowledge is Power Advantage. She can ask any player one of two questions, one time. Either “Do you have an idol?” or “Do you have an advantage?” The player cannot lie, and if the answer is yes, they must hand it over to Liana. If the answer is no, that’s it, all Liana gained is a tiny bit of information.
I mean, are you serious? There are so many problems with this. First, no lying? This is freaking Survivor! Strategy is built around lying! And then with this season in particular, idols and advantages are so widely known. Hell, you have players literally announcing it at Immunity Challenges. And this isn’t even just knowledge is power! It’s knowledge is power, and then here’s some actual power for you as well. Knowledge is power would be asking and knowing the truth, and just taking that information to do with as you see fit. Big time Littlefinger-Cersei vibes here.
Thankfully this doesn’t come into play any more this episode. But it feels like it’s going to rear its ugly head before too long.
Pre-Tribal
While Shan is off at Decision Island, Ricard and Genie discuss voting Shan out, even though both plan to work with Shan to vote each other out. If this doesn’t speak to Shan’s incredible social game, I don’t think anything does.
Shan, rightfully, is nervous upon her return to camp. In almost any other situation, Ricard and Genie would have actually talked about voting Shan out. Shan asks Ricard for her extra vote back, which Ricard balks at. He says if he does that, she has no reason to keep him around. This is a tricky situation for both. Shan can’t push too hard, because that could lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy, resulting in her elimination. Ricard has to choose his words and actions very carefully, not wanting to push Shan to vote for him. She could use her idol too, so even he ended up deciding to use the extra vote to go after Shan, he might find himself gone anyway.
Tribal Council
Shan does not play her idol and Genie is voted out. I think Shan should have taken this opportunity to vote out Ricard. Their conversation before Tribal demonstrates exactly why. They’re both aggressive, cutthroat players. Two players like this can only play together for so long. They’re clearly both very smart players. They have to know they will need to cut the other at some point. And doing it before the merge could be a prime time opportunity. Get rid of a big threat, and have no risk of any bad blood coming back to bite you on the jury.
On the other hand, though, I get it. Shan wants to work with someone strategic like Ricard. She wouldn’t have that same kind of working relationship with Genie, and she values the strategic back and forth she can have with Ricard. And maybe I’m reading too much into this one conversation between the two, but it seems like the cracks might be starting to form, and she maybe could have benefitted from acting early.
And that closes the book on another (mostly) great episode. The introduction of the Knowledge is Power Advantage and three idols being activated simultaneously weren’t great, but luckily they didn’t directly impact this episode. But it makes me approach the upcoming episodes with a little more trepidation.
The Knowledge advantage sucks, and it’s going to suck when Liana uses it. However, with some sort of swap coming next week (the genuinely surprised reaction could mean something unexpected happens in how the tribes are newly divided), it might complicate matters for Liana. But with so many people knowing where the idols and advantages are, even if she’s separated from Xander, it might not be too hard for her to find out who has something she can steal.
And the “no idols” run has ended. I liked the fresh change of pace of not having any idols impacting any votes so far. But with this week’s events, it’s effectively the same as three people finding an idol in one episode. Doesn’t sound too appealing, does it? Hopefully the idols will all end up on separate tribes next week. If not, could lead to some unwelcome shenanigans. But until then, I’m just going to enjoy the nice little two-week we’ve had, and hope that it can continue.
On the podcast side of things, this week’s Talking Llama episode is delayed. It will be out Saturday, late morning or early afternoon. You can subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.
