Survivor is back! But to be honest, I’m decidedly less excited than I normally am. To be fair, though, it’s still Survivor, so excitement levels are high. But after the twist-filled, somewhat-of-a-letdown season in 41, combined with how easily Australian Survivor (coverage now on Talking Llama!) and Survivor South Africa are outpacing the flagship US version, the hype levels just aren’t going to be as high.
But I’m really excited about the cast, and I’m hoping and praying they’ll be dynamic enough to overcome whatever contrived twists and gimmicks productions come up with this season. And with season 42 filming almost back-to-back with 41, we expect many of the twists from 41 to return. With how poorly that went, I’m not holding out much hope for that part of the game this season. If that sounds a little pessimistic, I’m going to do my best to rein it in, until (if) the show or production choices give me reason to complain again. Let’s hope for a great season, and let’s go!
Marooning
Before we get into it, let’s take a look at the tribes.
Ika (Blue): Drea, Rocksroy, Romeo, Swati, Tori, Zach
Taku (Orange): Jackson, Jonathan, Lindsay, Maryanne, Marya, Omar
Vati (Green): Chanelle, Daniel, Hai, Jenny, Lydia, Mike
One of the first things Jeff talks about is “being safe, everyone quarantined and tested.” One thing I really didn’t want Survivor 41 to be was “the COVID season.” Hopefully this isn’t a hint of things to come.
As usual, we start off with a challenge. One person from each tribe races into the jungle to untie two paddles. They come back and another player races to another area to retrieve two more paddles. Once they have all four paddles, everyone paddles out and around a buoy, collecting a bag of sticks along the way. Back on shore, one player builds a handle with the sticks to retrieve their flint, also winning a pot and machete in the process. Only the first tribe to finish wins anything. Both other tribes start the game with nothing.
On the second leg of paddles, we get to our first twist of the season. They have to wait for all three to arrive at the station. They can either grab paddles and go on as normal, or they can each untie 20 knots to all receive an advantage.
The three decide to take the advantage. And Survivor production was kind enough to include mud and fake blood to cover themselves to cover up their lie. Even just the mud would be overkill, but the fake blood? It seems too ridiculous to be believed. I’m guessing that was the point, so let’s see if any players question it. I like the decision twist. I’ve said before, and I’ll say it again, I love when the game forces players into decisions. However, there wasn’t really a downside here. Sure there was a choice, but it was a pretty easy one.
Ika wins.
Ika (Blue)
We see two pretty clear groups right away. Romeo, Drea, and Rocksroy on one side, and Tori, Zach, and Swati on the other. The RDR contingent is not loving how TZS is working, or maybe, rather, not working. Rocksroy takes control and kind of gets on the other three to get moving. The leader role is always risky, but it’s hard to blame him here.
Tori also decides to lie about her job as a therapist, by telling everyone she’s a caregiver. Um, that’s not exactly a huge difference?
Tori might find have found herself in an early trouble. While out looking for food, she doubles up and does a little idol hunting. She thinks it’s the perfect plan and no one will know…while at the same time the rest of the tribe is talking about how she’s probably out looking for an idol. But that early connection with Zach pays off, as he alerts Tori to Drea putting her name out there.
Vati (Green)
Like Survivor 41, the tribe gets the Savvy or Sweat challenge. For Savvy, they get the same triangle challenge. Count the number of triangles in a large triangle. For the Sweat challenge, one player uses a pot to fill a large barrel with ocean water. With the triangle, the whole tribe works together, and they get two guesses. With the barrel, the one player is isolated from the rest of the tribe. Either way, they have four hours to complete it. They choose the triangle. They get it right, earning their starting supplies.
Taku (Orange)
Taku also chooses the triangle puzzle, and also get it right.
On the first night, Jackson tells the rest of the tribe that he’s a transgender man. He gives this deep, emotional story about that time in his life. It’s a great moment, no doubt about it. But this is still Survivor. A huge emotional hook can be all the reason somebody else needs to vote you off.
Advantage
Lindsay, Hai, and Drea learn about the new Amulet Advantage they gained at the challenge. There was also a mention that the amulets have to be played together. But there’s very little explanation as to what that means or how that works. I see Survivor is continuing the new tradition of poorly explaining new twists and advantages. Lovely.
Thanks to Dalton Ross, there’s some further clarification. The twist is that the amulets can only literally be played together, as in, the players need to be on the same tribe. The extra vote is an extra vote for the group, not on each. The steal a vote is for the twosome, not for each of them.
Shipwheel Island
A boat comes to each camp, to pick up one player from each tribe to take them on a little adventure. Maryanne goes for Taku, Jenny for Vati, and Drea for Ika. The three take the same walk up the hill, before separating to make their own individual decisions.
And what do you know, it’s literally exactly the same as last season. The players choose between Protecting and Risking their vote. If all choose Protect, nothing happens. If all Risk, they all lose their vote at their next Tribal Council. If it’s a split, those that chose Protect still have their vote, and those that chose Risk gain an extra vote.
Drea chose Risk, Maryanne chose Risk, Jenny chose Protect.
Taku (Orange)
Jeff arrives at Taku, to talk to Jackson. Apparently right before filming started, Jackson disclosed some new changes in his medical situation. He had stopped taking some medication, and some of those side effects can have serious side effects when stressed, hungry, low on sleep, aka playing Survivor. They didn’t go fully into it, so we don’t know exactly what happened, not that it’s our place to know anyway.
But Jackson is an absolute champion. He handled it with unbelievable grace. He reacted better that could be expected of anyone in that situation. It only serves to emphasize how big of a loss this is for the show.
Immunity Challenge
Starting on a platform in the water, the tribes swim to a boat and paddle to shore, collecting three chests along the way. Once back on shore, they pull the chests and and boat across a track and under a net to the finish, closing with a large dragon puzzle.
Two tribes will win immunity, with the losing tribe also having to give up their flint.
Taku finishes first, followed not long after by Vati, sending Ika to the first Tribal Council.
Pre-Tribal
Tori brings up the idol, wanting to confirm that she doesn’t have the idol. She takes Drea aside as Tori heard Drea started the idol talk. Drea reassures Tori the talk wasn’t about her having the idol, just that she was looking for it. Drea also then floats the idea of voting out Rocksroy. But Romeo isn’t having it. Rocks is the strongest player, and they need him for challenges. Romeo wants her to vote Tori. And Drea doesn’t know yet whether or not she even has a vote. She doesn’t have tons of wiggle room to rock the boat.
On the other side, Swati and Rocks talk about voting Zach, seeing him as the weak link. They talk to Romeo about the vote, where Romeo tries – and seemingly fails – to convince them. Whatever the case may be, looks like those Day 1 alliances don’t mean jack. At least we head into Tribal without an obvious vote.
Tribal Council
Zach uses his Shot in the Dark, but the shot misses. and he’s voted out of the game.
Winner Pick
No idea, I’m just going to go with Lindsay. I loved her in the pre-season, and nothing this week changed that. So sure, let’s roll with it.
Final thoughts
The cast is great so far, but the rest of the game so far feels like an exact carbon copy of season 41. And that’s not great. So much of what didn’t work last season is back, with no changes. That just feels lazy. I know it’s only the first episode, but my hopes are not high. Hopefully the cast can continue to shine and will be able to overcome the poor production choices.
