Any time Survivor puts out a double episode, you can expect big things. Whether those big things are huge, game shifting moves, new twists, or just two exceptionally fun hours, you know you’re in for a treat. And this season was no exception. I would argue these two hours were the most fun so far of the season. And as we’re now close to the halfway point, that’s exciting to see. This has been a relatively lackluster season up until now, so I’m hoping this week can propel the season into a strong finish.
Hour 1
Reward Challenge
We jump right into the first reward challenge. Each tribe races through obstacles collecting bolos (two balls connected by a rope) along the way. They essentially play Ladder Ball, with each tribe member having to land one bolo to finish the challenge.
Kama wins, Manu finishes in second, meaning Lesu loses…again. This is a fine challenge, but there was one huge disappointment. While the show didn’t call it Ladder Ball, that’s what it was. And do you know what a slang name is for Ladder Ball? That would be the very classy Testicle Toss. And do you know what television host LOVES making sly balls (yes, those balls) jokes on air? Well that would be our beloved Jeff Probst! But do you know who didn’t take this prime, gifted on a silver platter opportunity to make countless gold ball jokes? Again, Mr. Probst. In what turned out to be a very quotable episode, this was a huge missed opportunity for Probst to dig deep into the adolescent humor for some hilarious (if not cheap) laughs.
Kama
We have a Julia sighting! I swear I was channeling my inner Matt Foley when she popped up on my screen. I couldn’t even be sure it was her.
Skip to 3:10 if the video doesn’t start there on its own. Or just watch the whole video because it’s amazing.
But sure enough, Julia is confirmed still in the game. Aaaand that’s it for Kama for now.
Manu
Aubry is getting antsy as life at Manu is pretty boring. She pulls out the classic “I want to play the game” line. As a very general rule, I usually believe people say this when their tribemates are in fact playing the game, they’re just not playing with you. And that’s supported here as Victoria lays out some strategy to keep Aubry off her game.
Victoria wants to propose a fake girls alliance to Aubry to keep her calm. She can easily frame Eric and Gavin as post-merge threats, so it should be a fairly easy sell. And it looks like it works, at least initially. Aubry seems to be buying into it. But will it last? (No.)
Lesu
David comes out hot with a comment I don’t know that I can get behind. He says, regarding his time after playing Survivor the first go-around, “I got up off my couch and started living again.” See?! I won’t stand for couch slander! There is nothing wrong with some solid couch time. In fact, just before watching this week’s episodes, I was setting up a third TV (yes, third) in my living room, prepping for the opening weekend of March Madness. I wouldn’t dream of being anywhere other than my couch for the next four days (besides, you know, going to work to earn money so I can buy food and live and stuff). But I digress.
David goes idol hunting because he feels very vulnerable at this point in the game. Also because he’s David and that’s just what he does. Kelley, Lauren, and Wardog, meanwhile have a little pow-wow on the beach, agreeing that David can’t go off by himself. As he is off by himself. But no harm no foul this time around, as David returns empty-handed.
Extinction Island
The four poor souls on Extinction Island receive a crate, each with their own map. There’s a trick to solve the map, and it points to two specific spots on the island. Chris, Reem, and Rick all agree to go searching together, but Keith, in what’s either the first correct thing he’s done all season or another bad move (it’s the latter; more in a bit), goes off on his own.
Unfortunately for Keith, he is neither fast enough or strong enough, as Chris catches up with him and basically hip checks him out of the way and gets to the box first. In it he finds bamboo rods and a sign with the word “Practice.” That’s all we get but it seems fairly obvious that those on Extinction Island will have the chance to practice for whatever challenge they need to compete in for their chance to get back in the game. At the second spot, Rick finds an “advantage” which allows him to give one person an extra vote that goes to the next Tribal Council.
Back to Keith’s decision. After the group decided to go and look together, it was a major blunder to go on his own. You don’t know what lies ahead. You need to treat the crew on Extinction Island as its own tribe. And that means social gameplay still counts. And think back to the Outcasts twist. The Outcasts voted people back into the game. You don’t want to give anyone any reason, big or small, to not want to vote you back in, if it comes to that.
Immunity Challenge
I love a good water challenge. And this one is great. One at a time, each tribe member swims to a ramp, climb up said ramp and jump off to dive and retrieve a puzzle piece. After all pieces are recovered, they pull their pontoon to a base and build a puzzle. Kama wins, to no one’s surprise. And speaking of no surprise, Lesu continues to struggle, to put it lightly. Kelley and Lauren both give up and go to the pontoon. Wardog eventually gets one for Lesu. Lauren makes a second go at it, and finally manages to get their last piece, but they are have lost so much time by this point, they can’t possibly snag that second immunity, can they?
But on the contrary! Every puzzle challenge comes down to the puzzle; they’re tailor-made for comebacks. And Lesu completes an improbable one, giving them their first immunity win (non-loss, if we’re being technical), avoiding Tribal Council for the first time all season.
Pre-Tribal
Aubry: "What kind of game did you come in hoping to play?"
Yep, Wendy is still struggling to put together any sort of coherent strategy. It can continues when Victoria asks her about the plan to vote out Eric and Gavin. And Wendy immediately agrees doesn’t say anything. Come on Wendy, you have to give them something! But even still, it’s pretty clear the votes are going to Aubry. The only question is whether or not she sniffs it out and plays her idol.
But the idol isn’t the only secret weapon she has. She discovers the extra vote from Rick (though she doesn’t know who it’s from). Now she has two tools to work with. But even with both of these, Aubry still can’t quite figure out what to do, bemoaning, “I’m not good with this power stuff. I’m used to playing from behind.” Side note: “I’m Not Good With This Power Stuff” would have made a great episode title.
Tribal Council
A bunch of generic, nothing answers are given. Aubry does not play her idol nor does she use her extra vote (though the vote wouldn’t have mattered). She leaves the game respecting the move, and heads down the familiar path. She wastes no time and immediately heads to Extinction Island.
Yes, on to Hour 2!
Reward Challenge
This one ends with the tribes throwing sand bags at two targets, spinning them around to drop two flags. It was a fine challenge but the real story was how horrible Wardog was at throwing. It was shockingly unathletic.
Probst gets in a great dig, saying, “If you’ve never thrown a baseball, it will show.” And show it did. It was so bad, even my guy Fishbach joined in.
I start chuckling at Wardog in this #survivor challenge and then I remember who I am.
But for the challenge itself, Kama (ie Joe) wins, and Manu finishes second.
Camp Life
Skip. We don’t see anything of any real consequence, so let’s head back to…
Extinction Island
They find more maps. Aubry just follows along as she is the only one of the five that doesn’t really understand how the maps work. And it turns out nobody really knows how this second map works. But Reem wanders around in the water, and sees the box. But instead of keeping quiet and picking it up for herself, she exclaims, “What’s that?” This gives Keith the opportunity to get the box for himself. Inside are a set of knots that he can give to his biggest enemy (Chris, at least at this present time) “when the time comes.”
Then Reem pulls a classic Reem. Chris is frustrated that Reem allowed Keith to get to the box before she did. She completely misunderstands what Chris was saying and blows up in his face. Reem is great in small doses like she has been. But if she gets back in the game, I think her act would quickly tire.
The tribes climb a ladder and maneuver a bag through a bamboo frame. They use the ball inside the bag to drop a caged door before finishing with a slide puzzle. Surprisingly all three tribes are actually working on the puzzle at the same time. David and Kelley are close but Kama – led by Joe of course – pulls out yet another victory.
And here’s another twist for this season. There is only one immunity winner this time, meaning both Manu and Lesu are heading to Tribal Council. But that’s not all, as they are going to Tribal together, where they will vote out one person.
Pre-Tribal
The conversations had at each camp are the obvious ones. The tribes are equal in numbers, at four each. Both Manu and Lesu assume the vote will be a 4-4 tie, so the discussion mostly surrounds whether or not they are willing to draw rocks. In the group setting, they of course say they are all willing to do just that. But on Manu, Victoria tells us she is ready to flip if she feels it’s necessary. And on Lesu, Wardog and Lauren tell us the same thing.
Wardog proposes the most logical idea in voting for Wendy. He assumes there is no way Manu would go to rocks for Wendy. He thinks it will be an easy flip for one or more of the Manu members. In the meantime, Kelley finds the Lesu idol and tells Lauren, who reveals her own idol to Kelley. So now they have two idols to play with if they so choose.
Tribal Council
There is a lot of fun at Tribal Council, even though we the viewers are not privy to much of the actual information being passed around. There are whispers everywhere, as secret plans are made and confirmed. The first vote ends in a 4-4 tie between Lauren and Wendy. Then we have even more side conversations.
People are getting up out of their seats, there’s lots of cross-tribal discussion. Everyone is involved. Well, everyone except Wendy. Wardog’s earlier assumption is correct (everyone probably thought this, but he’s the one we saw say it, so he gets the credit) and Wendy is unanimously voted out.
This was easily the correct call. Wendy did nothing in her time to prove herself as a trusted ally. No one could ever be sure of what she would do next. That is not someone worth going to rocks for. And besides, did you see how happy Wendy was upon being voted out? She is certainly a unique person. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen any player like her. Though calling her a “player” is a generous term, as she never really started playing the game to begin with. She seemed wholly disinterested in doing anything game-play related. It was truly a sight to behold.
ALSO, Wendy, Miss Protector of the Chickens, was literally singing about getting to eat a cheeseburger. Just ridiculous.
There was a small part of me that thought Wendy might take the path less traveled by and head to Ponderosa, but taking the chance at a second chance was seemingly a no-brainer for her, as she heads to Extinction Island.
And next week we will get at least a partial payoff on the EoE twist. We see Jeff announce the merge, along with revealing the Edge of Extinction to the rest of the players. This should be another fun episode. The merge is typically one of the season’s stronger episodes, so hopefully Survivor can build on the momentum from this week and build towards a strong stretch run. With the merge now upon us, I will have a merge preview out before next week’s episode, including full predictions for how the EoE twist will go down.
