The episode begins not at Goliath Beach post-tribal like we’re used to, but rather with both tribes gathered together at the beach with Probst. So we know something different is happening this episode. Also, the episode preview showed some sort of tribe swap happening, but still. But before we can get to that, there is a bit of sad business to take care of first.
If you remember from last week’s episode, or if you saw the quick recap before this week’s started, you know Bi sprained her MCL during the last challenge. And here she speaks up and says she has made the decision to voluntarily leave the game, as she says “I’m an athlete and I’ve made the decision to leave the game.”
Some might be thinking that it’s only a sprain, she should stick it out. Even Missy stayed in the game in San Juan del Sur after twisting her ankle, and Bi is in much better shape than Missy, is a far superior athlete. But that’s also exactly the thing: Bi is an MMA fighter, a professional athlete. As hard of a decision as it had to be, she was looking at her bigger, long-term picture here. We’ll see what she says in any forthcoming interviews, but it was likely a career-influenced decision. Continuing in the game could have resulted in further injury, which could have threatened her ability to continue in the MMA. It sucks to see anyone go out like this, but I think she probably made the right call.
After Bi leaves, we jump right back into the game. Jeff checks in with the two tribes, asking how the first 10 days have gone. The questions he is asking would lead anyone to believe that some sort of twist was on the way. And indeed there is, as Probst tells them they are in for “another unpredictable twist.” That is an…interesting way of phrasing that. Because a tribe swap at this point in the game is absolutely predictable. At least to anyone who has even a slight idea of how recent seasons have worked. But I digress. On to the swap, which leaves us with the following new tribes, which each player’s original tribe noted by “G” or “D.”
Vuku (Orange) Natalia (G), Kara (G), Alec (G), Davie (D), Elizabeth (D)
Jabeni (Purple) Natalie (G), Mike (G), Angelina (G), Nick (D), Lyrsa (D)
Tiva (Green) John (G), Dan (G), Alison (G), Christian (D), Gabby (D)
There are a few important items to note here. First is that Carl is noticeably absent. And this because there were 16 contestants left, so switching to three tribes would leave one person left out. The show takes a familiar turn as Carl is sent to Exile Island. He will come back to the next Tribal Council, joining that tribe after the next player is voted out.
The other piece is that Goliath has a 3-2 majority on all three tribes. It will already be an uphill battle for any of the Davids to break through. But that could be made even more difficult by the fact that the losing tribe will gain another David in Carl after their Tribal Council. Voting out a Goliath would swing the advantage to 3-2 in the Davids’ favor, at least in theory. Let’s check in at each new beach.
Vuku/Orange Beach
Elizabeth gets to work right away, trying to bond with Kara and Natalia. It looks like she’s making some progress with Kara, as they bond over religion and their shared love of horses. The horse thing really gets them going. And while this happening, Natalia is standing there silently in the background, before awkwardly chiming in, “I wish I had a horse.” Natalia is clearly worried about the apparent budding relationship between the two.
Natalia takes the first chance she has to solidify her alliance with Alec and Kara. They both agree whole-heartedly that they have no reason to flip, that it would be a dumb move to target anyone other than one of the two Davids.
Jabeni/Purple Beach
And in the most shocking development of the episode, Natalie immediately starts bossing everyone around! I mean, nobody could have seen that coming! No, wait, that’s not right. What I should have said was EVERYONE saw that coming.
Because Nick is super smart has eyes, he immediately notices that Natalie could be an exploitable crack in the Goliaths. It will be fun to see how the Jabeni tribe dynamic plays out over the next few episodes. Will the Davids be able to wiggle into that crack
The longer she remains in the game, the more interesting Natalie becomes. From what we’ve been shown, she isn’t forging any strong relationships. I know we’ve seen a few people talk about wanting to work with Natalie, but are those more long-game focused? Natalie is a great person to take to the end, as she likely – at least with where the game currently stands – would receive exactly zero votes. But getting her to the end could prove to be difficult. Anyone not in an alliance with her would have multiple reasons to vote her off. And would anyone actually want to risk having Natalie sit on the jury? Can you imagine a Final Tribal Council with Natalie hijacking the conversation, trying to direct the flow of it and pretty much control the entire thing? That would be brutal for the players. For the viewers too, but even more so for those actually in the game. But on the other hand, with these smaller tribes, challenge performance becomes more important and poor showings will tend to stick out even more. A tribe may not want to risk keeping someone like her around if she proves to be a big liability in challenges.
In other news, wouldn’t you know it but Nick is back on his bullsh*t. And by bullsh*t I of course mean he’s back to coming up a stupid alliance name. This time it’s for a perceived alliance with Mike. This week the genius comes up with the incredibly creative (read that with heavy sarcasm please) name the Rock Stars. Before coming up with the name, Nick says, “Should we name our alliance? Wouldn’t that be awesome?”
Tiva/Green Beach
The newly formed Tiva tribe gives us the bromance everyone wanted: Christian and John. Christian wants the full lowdown on the demographics of Slamtown from the mayor himself. He even inquires about applying for the position of comptroller for the town. Now that’s a town I could get behind. Mayor Shaman of Sexy getting keeping the town in order, and Comptroller Christian doing…um…hm…comptrolling? Is that the word? Does anyone actually know what a comptroller does? Whatever it is, it’s very Christian to choose a position like comptroller, one whose function I doubt the average American would be able to explain.
We get back into the game and poor Gabby is crying again. This time she is worried about how easily Christian is connecting to their new Goliath tribemates. She says she has never been able to connect with “people like that,” meaning the “Goliath” type. She’s scared that Christian is going to leave her behind for his new friends. Christian handles the situation masterfully and does his best to calm her fears.
Exile Island
As we’ve come to expect from recent Exile Islands, Carl finds a clue to an advantage. He deduces he has to find one specific coconut, which he eventually does. And what he finds is a new advantage: the Idol Nullifier. It works much like you would expect it to, with maybe one additional twist.
The person playing the Nullifier will do so in secret, in the voting booth at Tribal Council (part of the reason the Tribal Council set is built the way it is, with a more enclosed voting booth. But it’s not enough to simply play the Nullifier. The player, I’ll use Carl here as an example, must say who they are playing it against. And it even goes a step further. The player Carl is playing the Nullifier against must be the person who will ultimately end up with immunity. If Carl thinks Davie is going to play his idol, he must then decide if Davie will play it for himself or for another player. If Carl plays it against Davie, but Davie plays his idol for Elizabeth, the Nullifier is wasted.
Probst explains it more in this pre-game interview with Josh Wigler of The Hollywood Reporter. He reveals some additional information as well. Not necessarily spoilers, but if you want to continue with the season knowing as little as possible, you may want to skip that article, as good as it is.
I’m really excited to see the Nullifier in play. It can have huge power, but only if used perfectly. You need to know who has an idol, when they might play it, and who they will play it for. This has the potential to cause some big-time fireworks and I am all the way here for that.
Immunity Challenge
This week’s Immunity Challenge is another blindfolded-with-a-caller challenge. The callers sit on a driving wheel directing their two blindfolded callers. They lead them through obstacles, eventually retrieving a ball. Once the ball is in hand, the caller guides the remaining two blindfolded members through a table maze with the ball.
Gabby is the caller for Tiva and leads them to the immunity win, which also nets them a classic Survivor breakfast as a reward. Angelina, as caller for Jabeni, struggles at the beginning but keeps her calm throughout and leads them to a second place finish. No reward for them, but second place secures them the all-important immunity, sending Vuku to Tribal Council
Checking in on my winner pick, this ended up being a good episode for Gabby. She started off crying in Christian’s arms, worried she wasn’t connecting with the rest of her new tribe. She admitted she wasn’t always as comfortable talking and opening up to “Goliaths,” in and out of the game. Then in the challenge here, she is the tribe’s caller, expertly communicating and leading the tribe through the challenge to victory.
Orange Beach Post-Challenge
Elizabeth realizes that it’s likely a 50/50 shot that she is going home but she is intent on finding the idol. She takes Davie into the forest because she thinks she knows where the idol is, not knowing that Davie has it. Davie (smartly, I’d say) elects to keep that information to himself. After they return to camp, Davie tells Kara and Natalia about Elizabeth’s idol hunting and that she also suggested voting out Natalia. Natalia is all aboard the “let’s go after Elizabeth” train.
Elizabeth goes to Alec to try to sway him to targeting Natalia. She frames it as being move that Alec could point to down the line as a resume move. When he doesn’t go for it, she quickly defaults back to going after Davie.
During all this Alec is growing tired of Natalia’s bossiness. You can tell he’s at the very least entertaining the idea of targeting Natalia.
Tribal Council
Tribal starts off normal enough, with Elizabeth and Natalia doing most of the talking. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Alec gets up and starts whispering sweet nothing’s into Elizabeth’s ear. Natalia very astutely says that she “doesn’t like that at all.” Kara reaffirms who trust in Alec, that Natalia shouldn’t worry, which seems shortsighted. Eventually Alec whispers to Kara who then whispers to Natalia. Kara is still good with their original plan, while Natalia is not convinced. And Natalia’s fears are proven correct as she is voted out 3-1-1.
I don’t understand this move by Alec. I mean I do, but I don’t. Sure, Alec found her to be too bossy, and he wanted to make a move he could own. But this early in the game? Good luck using a move on Day 11 as you plead your case to the jury four weeks later on Day 39. Nobody will care by that point. It’s possible the only people who could even support it won’t even be there anymore. And when you take out that effect, what is he left with? A tribe where he is now in a 3-2 minority as Carl comes in to replace Natalia. We’ll just have to wait and see how much life Alec has left in the game after this week.
