Before we get into this week’s Survivor SA episode, I have some corrections to make from last week’s recap. I had a couple mistakes with how Immunity Island worked. By accepting the Stay and Play option, you give up your vote regardless on whether or not you win the challenge. The first episode was a little confusing, as Thoriso’s potential repercussion for losing the challenge was an additional lost vote. So the repercussion can be different each time, but the lost vote is always the trade-off for taking the immunity.
Zamba and Vuna
Not much happens before the Reward Challenge, so we’ll just lump both camps together here. At Zumba, we see Renier and Amy have a secret alliance. It’s always fun to see Survivor players try something like this, especially so early in the game where neither party can really have any idea if they can trust one another.
At Vuna, Carla and Pinty are butting heads. It doesn’t seem to be anything strategic, just more of a personality clash. Meanwhile, Chappies reveals his Diplomatic Immunity advantage to his alliance, though he says he can send either himself or someone else to the other tribe.
Reward Challenge
The tribes race out into the water in groups of four, to large cages. They have to retrieve fish traps containing puzzle pieces. Once they’re all back to their mat, one person works to solve the puzzle, though they can sub out at any time. They are playing for a classic Survivor reward: a fishing kit.
Santoni struggles mightily in the water, and the rest of the tribe takes note of her potential physical limitations. Whether or not her delay was the cause of it, Vuna does end up losing the challenge, though both tribes were working on the puzzle at the same time.
Zamba
After completing the puzzle for the tribe, Dino’s target is growing. He was already seen as a sneaky player, but now he’s also starting to show some other strengths as well. Luckily, though, he recognizes this for himself. He had a bit of an up and down premiere, and while his threat level seems to be growing, he may be coming into his own a bit now. At the very least, realizing how he’s being perceived shows he’s still got a finger on the pulse of the game.
Vuna
Chappies talks to Paul about bringing in Santoni, under the assumption that she would be sent to Immunity Island were they to lose the next immunity challenge. He views this as an opportunity to gain some knowledge about Immunity Island that others may not be privy to just yet at this point in the game.
Seeing some tension between Pinty and Carla, Santoni decides to play it quiet rather than actively trying to improve her footing after a poor showing in the challenge. She doesn’t want to rock the boat and bring extra attention to herself when other players are making their disagreements front and center. It’s a savvy move.
Immunity Challenge
The tribes race through an obstacle course while carrying bags filled with coconuts and sand bags. Once they complete the course, one tribe member separates coconuts and sand bags, then throwing the sand bags to knock blocks off a table. When that is completed, two tribe members then reassemble the blocks.
Despite being behind for the majority of the challenge, Zamba pulls out the win. And as expected, they send Santoni to Immunity Island.
Listen, I love this game as much as anybody, but for a Survivor challenge? Please. This is a bar game. It’s something people make for their backyard. Hell, Boston Rob made this same game during Winners at War.
I know the challenges on Immunity Island will inherently be less interesting given that the person isn’t competing against any other castaway; only against themselves and against time. But still, it was a bit disappointing to see a challenge like this pop up on the show. After the digging through sand challenge in the premiere and now the ring toss challenge this week, it feels safe to say the Immunity Island challenges themselves won’t be all that compelling this season. The intrigue will come from the players’ decision with the Stay and Play vs Give Up and Go.
Anyway, Santoni decides to play, securing her immunity at the upcoming Tribal Council. If she wins, she receives a clue to an idol. If she loses, she receives an extra vote against her at her next Tribal Council. She wins with mere seconds to spare.
The idol clue is much less a clue and a literal location of the idol. However, it’s not as simple as digging it up under the tribe flag or the water well. Nope, this idol is hidden at Tribal Council – love it. There’s a hollow section in the wall behind the players’ seats, and that’s where the idol is hidden.
There is one potentially interesting plot point with this idol. The clue Santoni receives says she can leave the idol in its hiding spot until she wants to use it. So, once she finds the idol, does that guarantee that it’s her’s forever? Or does the next person who goes to Immunity Island receive the same information, making it a race against time to either use it or physically retrieve it? It sounds like once she “officially” finds it – just by touching it, maybe? – it’s her’s. But I guess we’ll have to wait and see to find out for sure.
But even after her win, Santoni has more work to do. She figures there must be more to Immunity Island than what’s in-her-face obvious. She starts looking around for other clues, advantages, anything at all. And her work pays off, as she finds a clue to another idol, this one more traditionally hidden back at camp.
After not getting off to a great start with her tribe, Santoni flashed some game chops this week. Not rushing to apologize after her challenge performance to let the Pinty-Carla fight take center stage. Being smart enough to look for another clue, even after winning one in the challenge. If she can find her footing within an alliance, she could set herself up for a strong, deep run.
Vuna
Mike and Pinty are the initial targets. Pinty seems to have rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, while Mike and Carla are potentially becoming a power couple. The reset of the tribe also views Mike as a strategic threat and as maybe an untrustworthy player.
It’s all very basic and straightforward Survivor play. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that; it’s just a big tonal shift from the completely chaotic premiere.
Tribal Council
Much like the pre-Tribal action, Tribal Council is a pretty standard fare as well. Nico once again calls out Santoni as having given up her vote in exchange for immunity. Again, really not a fan at all of this, but at least it seems like it’s going to be consistent in how Nico handles it.
Ultimately Pinty is voted out, 6-2-1, with Paul voting for Wardah for some reason. We see in the votes montage that Anesu – who cried after seeing her close ally Pinty voted out – did in fact vote for her with the majority. It’s of course only two episodes in, but Anesu is so far proving to have an impressive hold and understanding of the game.
Final Thoughts
Definitely a step down from the premiere episode, but nothing to complain about. The premiere was so hectic and crazy, it would have been unfair to expect this second episode to be equally as strong or entertaining. But new players got a chance to shine this week, proving – if there had been any lingering doubt – that this is once again an exceptional cast.
Renier, my winner pick, didn’t get much screen time this week. But I’m going to assume that him being featured in what little bit we saw from Zamba as a good sign that his Survivor game still has some serious legs left.
And I’ll close by mentioning it one more time. Anesu is showing herself to be a damn good Survivor player. Still though, the biggest worry for her remains that she’s showing too much too early. But her social game has been so strong so far that she may very well walk to the merge without much trouble.
One last note, regarding next week’s recap. I will be out of town next weekend, so the recap likely won’t be out until Sunday or Monday.
