Rob wakes up the next morning to find a second Fire Token waiting for him. He (correctly) assumes it’s from Amber, though he thinks it could have come from Sandra. But being fairly certain it’s from Amber, the Robfather is on the warpath.
Elsewhere, Ben tries to shift his focus building better relationships this time around. He knows he can’t count on idols like he did last time. To that end, he goes looking through the jungle with Denise, helping her look for an idol by telling her what kind clues or items to look for. She does eventually find one, but it comes with a twist. The idol has two halves, and one must be given to another player by sundown. And here is where Ben displayed some smart gameplay.
Instead of angling for Denise to give him the second half, he urges her to use it to bring in a third person. It could be a bit of a risk by giving up a chance to hold a little extra power. But it also helps solidify his relationship with Denise, by not seeming selfish and putting the bigger picture ahead of his own immediate, short-term game.
Denise tells Adam about the idol, who is happy she found it, but disappointed that Ben already knows. But then, in a truly baffling decision, Denise asks Adam about giving the other half to…Parvati? Denise! What on God’s green Earth would posses you to think that would be a good idea? Thankfully Adam saw that too, telling Denise, he thinks “that’s a terrible idea.”
Dakal Beach
Over on Dakal, Kim finds their camp’s idol, which functions the same as the one Denise found. That’s good. But then decides to give the other half to Sophie. That’s bad. Sophie is thrilled, of course, but also shocked at Kim’s decision, telling the audience, “Kim should be telling Tyson about her idol. I’m the last person she should be telling.”
And here’s where the real highlight for the week comes in. Tony can barely contain himself. He needs to find different projects to work on to keep himself occupied, so he doesn’t go running off looking for idols or do anything else to draw unwanted attention. And the project du jour this time? Building a huge bamboo ladder the tribe can use to pick papayas.
And the end result looks about exactly like what you would think it would look like. The biggest surprise is that it actually works! Some of the rungs were already coming loose as the tribe carried it over to the papaya tree! Of course Tony was the only one to give the ladder a try, because obviously.
This is a perfect microcosm of why Tony is great to have on any Survivor season. You simply never know what he’s going to do. And now that he’s making a concerted effort not to look for idols, he has to occupy himself somehow. Tony’s not the type to sit around camp and be quiet. He has to find some way to channel all that pent up energy. So bring on the random projects! I cannot wait to see what else he comes up with the rest of the way.
Edge of Extinction
Amber and Natalie search for *something* after reading a riddle left for them on the beach. After searching for a long time and giving up for the day, Natalie finds an advantage at the water well (the clue was formatted in such a way where the first letter in each line spelled out WATER WELL). The advantage is Safety Without Power. This allows a player to leave Tribal Council before the votes are cast and return to camp. The player does not vote, but they can’t be voted out either.
This particular advantage can be fun, because it may not entirely be advantageous. Sure, if someone is clearly on the bottom and their vote doesn’t matter, then it would be. But if it comes into play in the right situation, it could provide some fireworks. Using the advantage does not come without risk. By removing themselves from the vote, the player could be depriving their alliance from a crucial number, choosing instead to focus on their own individual safety. It saves you for the one night, but it might end up putting a target on your back where there wasn’t one before.
Survivor is better when players are forced to make decisions like this. An all-winners season is a perfect time to include this kind of advantage. Everyone out here is a gamer, and should be able to think through all the various outcomes of using it. Natalie sold it to Jeremy, and I have no doubt he’ll take his time in choosing when to use it, unless his hand his forced and he feels he has to.
Challenge
The tribes race out with a cart to retrieve three keys, used to release three chests. They then have to disassemble the cart and move it through barricade, before reassembling the cart and using the pieces inside the chests to solve giant puzzle.
Sele wins in landslide, after Denise and – of all people – Boston Rob did nothing but struggle with the puzzle.
Pre-Tribal
Oh Danni. Maybe this was a case of not being able to adjust to the speed of the game. Maybe it was nothing more than an honest slip. Could be she’s so detached from the larger Survivor community she honestly doesn’t know what season Ben was on. But whatever the reasoning, what she does here is bad.
While talking to Ethan and Ben, Danni mentions the plan for an Old School Alliance. But unfortunately for Danni (my episode one winner pick; *sigh*) this was only her first mistake. Her next comes soon after, as she approaches Rob with a potential plan to vote out Parvati. The same Parvati that is Rob’s current number one ally.
Danni panicked, plain and simple. Whether she couldn’t keep up with the pace of play, or she misread the situation and saw herself on the bottom when she really wasn’t, or whatever the case was.
And that was about it, as far as notable moments. But we still head into Tribal not being completely sure what’s going to happen. While wary of Danni, Rob still has the idea of targeting a New Schooler. Jeremy is on the bottom and could make for an easy, simple vote. And Ben is still on his mind, as the resident wild card. And as we are about to see at Tribal Council, whatever Boston Rob wants, Boston Rob gets.
Tribal Council
Danni is voted out and bequeaths her Fire Token to Denise. But whatever, that pales in comparison to the gameplay highlight of the week. It’s brought to us once again by Survivor legend Boston Rob (yes, there are multiple legends on this season, but he’s a legend legend).
The talk of immunity idols comes up, as it often does. And after some hemming and hawing back and forth, decides to turn out his bag to prove he doesn’t have the idol. And then what happens next is simply unbelievable. As he gets his bag to dump its contents, he politely asks orders the rest of the tribe to do the same, and how do they respond?
Don’t get me wrong, I love it. The Robfather is just straight up flexing right now and it’s got me feeling all sorts of ways. This is different from Rob’s dominance in Redemption Island. He was surrounded by first time players and was just toying with them all for 39 days. Here, he’s surround by winners. Each and every person has the title of Sole Survivor. And he’s making them look like chumps. I don’t know how much longer this can last, though. But I’m going to enjoy it to the fullest for as long as I can.
For the second week in a row, Survivor delivered! Yes, it’s only two weeks, but starting strong is a good start. The show has so far found a great balance between the real game and the Edge of Extinction. Though that could likely change as the Edge’s numbers grow. But it’s so far fostering lots of goodwill, and I’m remaining hopeful that the rest of the season will continue to kick butt.
Final Thoughts
Natalie is on track to build up quite the store of Fire Tokens
Will she be able to put them to good use?
Is it an advantage to go to the Edge early? To have less competition to find the various advantages?
Natalie had no one to challenge for it after being the first boot, and only had Amber to contest with this week
Wendell, Tyson, Nick, Yul, Sandra, and Michele (for the second time) receive the “purple” edits
We’ve now seen two Old Schoolers voted out back to back
Is that simply circumstantial? Or will the winners from older seasons keep getting picked off as they struggle to adapt to the faster gameplay?
