Ah, the merge. A staple of any Survivor experience, playing, or to a much, much, much smaller extent, covering the show. The time for alliances to be the put to the test as new relationships form. And there’s the added layer of the Blood V Water theme, with four pairs left along with five singles. Let’s get it on!
Reward Challenge
The first individual reward challenge is one we’ve seen several times before, but with a slight twist. The players have to stack blocks on a wobbly platform, but rather than spelling a word or phrase, they have to build a pyramid. I love the little changeup. The pyramid makes it a bit of a puzzle, which adds a little extra difficulty to the challenge.
The other twist is the reward itself. They’re not playing for food or comfort or an advantage. Nope, they’re playing for cold, hard cash! Yep, $5,000 per month for the next year. I love it so much. I can’t think of any other time, in any version of Survivor, where there was a literal cash reward for a challenge.
After some back and forth and tumbling blocks, Khanh wins.
Lava
Mel and Michelle finally get some (long overdue) screen time. Having a loved one is one thing, but having a twin is another level on top of that. I hope they get featured more and it’s not just for this first post-merge episode. The twin dynamic could add some spice to the game.
Mark and Sam are reunited and they’re happy, but cautious. Their being seen as a power couple is what led their downfall on season 2. They’re both keen not to have that repeat itself this time around. But that could be off to a rocky start when Mark doesn’t tell Sam about his idol. She has to learn about it from Jordie, who casually mentions to Sam how they can use it for their group. To be fair, that was a very safe assumption from Jordie.
Immunity Challenge
Like the reward challenge, the first individual immunity is a familiar challenge, but with a small tweak. The players stand on a platform with a bucket of water overheard. But rather than holding their arm up above their head, they hold a bar, in about a half-bicep curl position.
After a long battle, Jesse outlasts KJ to win the first individual immunity. Shay maybe had it, but she lost focus for just a second, allowing the bucket to tip. This challenge felt tailor-made for her to win. With her a potential likely target, that split-second lapse in concentration could prove costly.
Pre-Tribal
Mark wants Khanh gone. But with his idol, it’s going to take a well-executed blindside to pull it off. He and the other guys plan to split on Mel. Mark says that if Khanh plays his idol, then Mel’s gone, so at least they’ll split up the twins. But if the other three pairs are working together, why not at least entertain the idea of working with Mel and Michelle? This is why it sucks for viewers that we didn’t see any of their game pre-merge. We don’t know why they wouldn’t try to bring them in. Clearly they have reasons, but we have no idea really what they are.
Sam, on the other hand, wants to vote out Shay. Shay could easily beast her way through an immunity run, so why not take her out with this immediate opportunity. She talks to Mark and they are not even close to being on the same page. Khanh has been nothing but loyal to Sam, but Mark sees him as a much bigger threat than Khanh.
Jesse and Jordie have kind of the same problem. Jordie is all in with Mark and the guys to take out Khanh. But Jesse has been tight with Sam for basically the whole game, and he wants to keep that relationship going.
Tribal Council
Once again, Khanh does not play his idol, but this time his number gets called. A big threat is gone, but Sam and Mark’s in-game relationship could be getting rocky.
Episode 14
Lava
Mark keeps talking about the top six, but there are 12 people in the tribe. Yes, his six might be tighter than the other six, and they have a couple other people they’ve been able to pull in to work with, but it’s not some absolute majority that is guaranteed to run the end game. And that six might not be as tight as thinks, and that uncertainty might actually be Sam. You know, Mark’s wife.
She still isn’t over having voted out Khanh, and she wants to make sure this was a one time occurrence of her having no agency in her vote.
And the some other cracks might start forming. Jordie sees how comfortable his alliance is getting, and he’s not sure that suits him. He knows they’ll have to turn on each other at some point, so maybe striking early might be the move. He considers taking out Mark – revealing the idol to Josh in the process – though he’s showing patience and isn’t settling on a decision too early.
Immunity Challenge
Puzzle! We’ve got a puzzle! It only took 14 episodes to get the first true puzzle of the season. But better late than never I suppose.
And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention one of the great puzzle moments in history, Winston in New Girl.
Just incredible stuff. But to the challenge.
The players fill a leaky bucket with water, to level out a table, on which they’ll solve said puzzle. If the water runs out before they can add more, the table will tip, knocking their pieces off the table.
This was a great challenge, lots of fun. And what do you know, Shay wins immunity. Now a possibly obvious vote gets broken down, forcing the tribe to start from scratch.
Pre-Tribal
Sam doesn’t like where thing sit. Shay winning immunity is exactly what she feared would happen. Sam considers Josh, seeing him as the de facto leader of the alliance. But more importantly, he’s having strategy talks with everyone except for Sam. That’s no good. But Mark doesn’t think the time is right.
Josh proposes a 6-4 Mel/Michelle vote split. And that tracks. They’re the one pair not included in the larger alliance, and if you’re not going to work with that last pair, you might as well vote them out.
But then Josh makes the curious decision of telling Michelle that the plan is to split with her and Mel. Dude, what are you doing?
Mel and Michelle take this opportunity to try to work a vote against Josh. With six women on the tribe, they could flip the majority if they can keep it under wraps, and the guys alliance sticks with their split vote plan.
Tribal Council
After being a split vote target on the Khanh vote, Mel sees her time on the island come to an end, with the Mel/Michelle split plan coming to fruition. What’s interesting is that Michelle threw her vote to Jordie? Not sure if I missed something, but that seemed pretty random.
Wrap-Up
Just two episodes, but another strong week nonetheless. Some fantastic personal moments between Mark and Sam, some cracks *maybe* starting to form in the guys alliance. Now that Josh knows the attempt was made to blow up his spot, will he change his game or will he try to keep the status quo?
