After voting out Nneka, Cody feels conflicted. He had such a strong relationship with her, but felt they had to make that move to strengthen the tribe for challenges.
Baka
Gabler is still having trouble to fit in socially. He gives Sami and Elie palm frond blankets, completely unannounced. On its own, sure, it’s nothing. But it’s more indicative of how Gabler is relating, or failing to relate, to the other tribe members. It doesn’t seem like anybody outright hates him, but there’s definitely some level of annoyance, particularly with Elie.
Reward Challenge
We get our first solo reward challenge of the season! I wouldn’t want to see two challenges every episode, but it’s a welcome mix-up here and there.
One player from each tribe throws sand bags to knock blocks off a ledge. Once they have all the blocks down, they walk on two of the blocks, using only their feet, to get to the finish. The three remaining tribe members then must each land one sand bag on three hanging discs.
They’re playing for a reward of 10 fresh fish delivered to camp, plus they get to visit one of the other tribe camps and steal one item. As Jeff reveals later, “item” can also be a previously won reward, like the fishing kit.
Cody gives Vesi a huge lead, and Ryan puts Coco in a pretty big hole. Vesi allows both Baka and Coco back in it, but Cody’s big start is enough, as Dwight lands the third and final bag, securing a much-needed win for Vesi.
But Vesi is still without fire, so the fish are kind of pointless right now. So they decide to trade the fish for the basket of fruit and tool kit. Probst told Vesi that “you can always trade a reward for a previous reward,” but I don’t know that that’s ever been openly established? I’m sure there are plenty of rules that the audience has never needed to know about, and maybe this is one of them. But I would think this would have come up before. Then again, I could be forgetting this exact scenario happening on an earlier season. In that case, oh well.
Reward/Camp Raid
Vesi starts debating who should be the tribe representative for the camp raid. Cody volunteers, but Dwight balks, calling himself the “more diplomatic of the two.” It’s not an unfair note, but it’s still an iffy comment to make.
There’s also the big question of what item to take. This is what I love about the camp raids. You obvsiouly have to take something that benefits you and weakens the other tribe. But Survivor is still a social game. You have to consider how your decision affects the other tribe’s view of you. Cody wants to take the machete, really hit them hard. But Jesse, Noelle, and Dwight want to take something less vital, like a fishing kit.
Vesi sends Cody to Coco, even with Baka having what is perceived as better rewards. But Coco has more people, so they want to weaken the apparent strongest tribe. Cody tells Coco that he came to steal the machete, but it was a tactic. He knew how they would react, and they start bargaining with him. Cody ends up with Coco’s fishing kit and some food.
The result is exactly what Cody wanted, and Coco starts to realize that as soon as he heads back to Vesi. Karla seems to be the first person on Coco to openly say it, and the mood on Coco starts to shift. They thought they got an easy out with Cody sparing them their machete, but they’re beginning to see Cody’s bigger plan.
This was masterfully played by Cody, and he deserves a ton of credit. But it might have been a little too good. He needs to keep in mind that this could out him as a crafty player much earlier than he would like. He’s definitely smart, savvy, and likable, so he very well may be able to navigate through it. But it’s absolutely something to keep in mind going forward.
Immunity Challenge
This challenge looks brutal. The tribes knock heavy sand bags off a ledge, looking for a ring of keys. The keys unlock four large puzzle pieces from a net before dragging the pieces underneath the net. They arrange the pieces into a square, then have to take the puzzle apart and carry the pieces up a cargo net to a platform. The first two teams to make the pieces into a triangle win immunity.
Dwight and Vesi get the triangle, for an absolutely critical immunity win. Then Vesi starts helping Baka, securing them the second immunity. It’s an…interesting choice. At best, you earn some goodwill from the tribe you help. At worst, they don’t care past after the moment and the entire third tribe feels alienated.
This assistance isn’t enough to secure all Baka member’s loyalty going forward, but it might be enough to sever any hope of working with Coco. It just feels unnecessary, especially at this point in the game. Sure, Coco had a 6-5-4 numbers advantage, but that’s not huge. It might make more sense if it was closer to the merge, 6-3-3 or something. Then yeah, you might want to make sure they start losing people before the merge. But now? Seems ill-advised.
Pre-Tribal
Geo gets right to work on making Cassidy the vote. And likewise, Cassidy wants Geo out. Karla is on Cassidy’s side, as she doesn’t like how Geo is playing, as she calls it, “a calling the shots game.”
Lindsay, on the other hand, starts feeling paranoid, that she might be the target. Except, her only reasoning for believing that is because she believes she should be a target, because of how much of a threat she is. The ironic thing is, this paranoia just might make her a target.
Karla seriously considers switching from Geo to Lindsay, as Lindsay is making it near-impossible to play and strategize with her. But she sees how power-hungry Geo is, and she still knows he needs to go, and probably sooner rather than later.
Tribal Council
Poor, poor Lindsay. What an epic downfall, all in the matter of about 5-10 minutes (of show time, at least). Her extreme paranoia got the best of her, as she finds herself the fourth boot of the season. With Coco winning so much early on, we didn’t get as much time with them as the other tribes. So maybe there was more pre-existing friction, but it certainly seemed like Lindsay was on solid ground…until she took a jackhammer to the ground herself. By all accounts, she completely played herself out of this game.
This was a week of poor strategy, from all tribes. It was frustrating to see, but it was still wildly entertaining. I hope the strategy picks up next week, but as long as the bad strategy remains fun, I’ll (usually) take it.
