Survivor is back! Well, the U.S. version, that is. International has been rolling along with a fantastic South Africa season, and an extremely up and down – but ultimately satisfying – Australian season. So even with more than a year separating the Winners at War finale and this Survivor 41 premiere, the excitement levels were down *just* a touch. But come on, this is still Survivor we’re talking about! Even if excitement levels are down, they’re still through the roof!
Big time vibe
We’re ushering in a new era of Survivor, at least according to host Jeff Probst. While we’ll have to give it a full season (at least) to see whether or not that is true, there’s no doubting the building blocks are there. We have a shorter season, at 26 days. There’s less food, fewer rewards, even interactive gameplay for (younger) fans watching at home. But like the challenge stages before a final puzzle, all that is just window dressing. It’s all about what the cast makes of the season in front of them.
But that’s enough preamble. Let’s get into the good stuff.
Marooning
Before jumping into the action, let’s see how the three tribes shake out.
Luvu (Blue)
Danny, Deshawn, Erika, Heather, Naseer, Sydney
Ua (Green)
Brad, Genie, JD, Ricard, Sara, Shantel
Yase (Yellow)
David, Abraham, Evvie, Liana, Tiffany, Xander
Probst preps the players for the rougher conditions of the season ahead. They start with the bare minimum for suppliers, just one pot, one machete, one flint; also no rice or regular food staple. Jeff promises that what lies ahead “gameplay that has never been more dangerous.”
And it wouldn’t be marooning without a good old fashioned challenge. On the barge are 18 color coded paddles, 6 for each tribe. The tribes must their paddles and get off the barge and their onto raft. They race around a buoy and back to the barge to their flint. The first tribe to retrieve the flint earns those meager supplies, while the other tribes have to wait for another chance to earn them.
Yase can’t find their last paddle (we earmarked this tribe as a potential dumpster fire of a tribe in our preview). Luvu apparently doesn’t know how to paddle. However, it’s later (as in after the challenge is over) that Jeff points out they never unclipped the back of their boat, so they were basically trying to pull an anchor. So, yeah, Ua wins this one handily, earning them their flint, machete, and pot.
The food suppliers are going to be something to monitor this season. Production can’t starve the players (or can they?). And lethargic players who just hang around camp doing nothing because they don’t have the energy too is pretty much the exact opposite of fun. We’ll have to see how they strike a balance here as the season progresses.
Ua (Green)
Nothing much happens at Ua early on. JD gets the fire going, after confidently taking the reins and proclaiming he’ll do it with ease. I worry he’s maybe coming on a little strong, but if he can stay within himself, he could definitely make a deep run.
Yase (Yellow)
Arriving at their beach, Yase finds a challenge waiting for them. It’s their chance to win their supplies. But it comes with a twist; they have a choice between the “savvy” or “sweat” challenges. The savvy challenge is a visual riddle, having to determine the number of triangles contained within a larger triangle. The entire tribe can work on it, but the catch is that they only get one guess.
The sweat challenge involves two tribe members gathering ocean water in pots to fill to large barrels. Only the two chosen players can take part, and they are separated from the rest of the tribe while completing the challenge. For either one they choose, they have four hours to complete it. If they fail to complete the challenge within the four hour time limit, they won’t receive their supplies until after first immunity challenge
David, being smart, wants to do the savvy challenge. Why expend so much energy for something that isn’t a sure thing while also willfully separating yourself from the rest of the tribe at such a critical point in the game. But too bad for David, Xander pushes for the water challenge, and specifically asks David to do it with him. David doesn’t have a choice but to say yes. It’s truly unfortunate, as David was right on here.
Thankfully for them, they do complete the challenge. How discouraging for them would it have been had they failed? All that time and energy spent with nothing to show for it. But even still, they didn’t earn *that* much compared to what the put out.
Luvu (Blue)
Luvu has the same decision to make…and they also choose the water challenge! I just, I don’t get it. Deshawn and Danny volunteer to do it, seemingly happy to take on the challenge, not caring too much that they are actively choosing to be away from the majority of their tribe.
While working the challenge, they decide to stop with the water to look for an idol. Naseer goes to check on them, and sees them off idol searching. So he now wants one of them to go first. He also brings this information to the rest of the tribe. This might seem like a smart choice for Naseer, but you can make the argument either way. In a smaller tribe, you might have a harder time convincing everyone else to vote out the strongest players on the tribe. But, also with a smaller tribe, you might feel more pressure to solidify numbers as soon as you can.
Danny and Deshawn also complete the challenge and are also completely gassed. If Survivor keeps hammering home the physicality, some of these players are going to be useless by the end.
The challenge itself didn’t provide any breakout moments, but what I loved about it – and I’ve mentioned this several times before – is that it forced the tribe into an early decision. Make the tribes and players make choices. Force them into a “this or that” situation with consequences based on your choices and the following actions. It doesn’t always pay dividends, but it rarely is a negative. When production’s worst case outcome is net-neutral, go for it.
Boat Journey
And just like that, more choices! Each tribe must pick one person to head off on a mystery journey, where they will make a decision before returning to camp.
Danny (Luvu), Xander (Yase), and JD (Ua) are chosen as their tribe’s representatives. They all meet up at a summit for the three players. And I am in love with what happens next. They are instructed to follow a path, which is just them climbing a huge hill. When they reach the top, they find another sign telling them to go back down where they will each make individual, private decisions. Simply delicious. The instructions might as well have said “Climb up this hill and then immediately walk back down.” All that energy used for basically no reason.
After their hill adventure, each player has choice to make, Risk or Protect Your Vote, set up as a Prisoner’s Dilemma. If all three choose Protect, nothing happens. If all three choose Risk, they all lose their vote at their next Tribal Council. But if there’s a split, whoever chose Protect keeps their vote, but whoever chose Risk receives an extra vote that they can use at any Tribal through the final six.
If I were out there, I think I would chicken out and play it safe and choose Protect. But in game theory, I think Risk is the correct choice, though I can see the argument for being risk-averse so early in the game. If you lose your vote, this first Tribal Council isn’t the worst time to have that happen. Here’s the thing, at this first Tribal, the vote isn’t going to come down to a single vote. If you’re the target, your lost vote wouldn’t have changed the outcome. If you’re in the majority, because there are six players, your group’s majority will still hold. Sure, goofy things can happen, but if you assume players play and vote correctly, your lost vote *should* be meaningless.
You also might get away with it completely scot-free, if you can convince the others you chose Protect. If you’re in a 4-2 or 5-1 majority, Jeff won’t read all the votes. Because you don’t know the results of the choice until you go to the voting urn, your tribemates would have no way to know for sure what the end result was.
In pre-season interviews, Jeff had talked about “votes being at risk.” If this is what he meant by that, I’m all for it. If players are knowingly risking their vote, that can provide a lot of fun. It worked wonders (mostly) on the recent season of Survivor South Africa (the Immunity Island twist was basically centered around this idea).
Back at Luvu, Danny tells the truth, that he chose Protect. Everyone seems to believe him.
Xander tells the rest of the Yase he risked his vote, but that they don’t know what the result is. The show flashed back to show Xander’s decision, a simple but effective editing trick. The show played around with the editing in some really fun ways this week. Here’s hoping this remains.
JD tells Ua he protected his vote, even though he risked it. Ricard doesn’t believe him, but the others seem to have maybe bought it.
Immunity Challenge
What do you know, another twist! If you go to Tribal Council and you fear you’re in danger, you can use your Shot in the Dark Die, a new addition this season. Every player receives one. When you play it, you forfeit your vote and reach into a bag for 1-in-6 shot at safety. I’m tentatively on board with this. The biggest concern is if too many players hold onto it late into the game. Imagine a final six where the five players who are not immune still have their die. Worst case we get another Advantage-geddon scenario.
I’m sure production is playing the odds and banking on that not happening. And if I were to place a bet, I would think we will avoid that happening. There’s just something about having an idol or advantage in your possession, burning a hole in your pocket. If you’re way on the outs and know you’re the target, why wouldn’t you use it? If your vote won’t matter, might as well take the shot.
What I really like about it is that it’s fair. Everyone has it, everyone received it at the same time, and it’s a known quantity. Everyone knows any other player can use it at any time. Survivor is inherently an unfair game, so I like when something unexpected pops in that is literally completely even and fair.
But on to the challenge. The tribes race over and under obstacles, before loading a sled with bags of puzzle pieces. Two members move sand bags off a track, so they push the sled down said track, before hoisting the pieces to the top of a platform, where they solve puzzle. And of course there’s one more twist. Only the first tribe to finish wins immunity.
Only the first tribe to finish wins immunity. Not only that, but the two losing tribes forfeit their flint, with a chance to earn it back at the next immunity challenge.
Ua gets off to a nice lead, but run into some struggles on the puzzle. Turns out it’s harder to complete a puzzle when you leave a piece in one of the bags and don’t realize that for a long time. That opening may have lost the challenge, as Luvu overtakes them and wins immunity, even after struggling through the physical parts of the challenge. All this proves – once again – is that it’s all about the puzzle.
Pre-Tribal – Yase
This was a pretty uneventful pre-tribal. Abraham has his sights set on Tiffany. He wants to keep the tribe stronger and sees her as a weak link. The problem here, though, is he told this to Liana who likes Tiffany. So their target becomes Abraham.
Pre-Tribal – Ua
There are more fireworks at Ua. Earlier in the episode, Probst told the players they could drop the “4” from “41” and view this as the first season of a new era. Apparently Brad took that too literally, as he made a face-palm move that players after the first season simply can’t make.
Ricard asks Brad who Brad wants to vote out. Brad says Sara and Shan are on the table. Fine, right? Well, no actually. Because both Sara and Shan are literally right next to Brad. As in the four of them were having a conversation. It’s baffling.
Tribal Council – Yase
Just like the lead-up, a ho-hum first Tribal Council for the season. The tribe unanimously votes Abraham out, and Xander receives his extra vote.
Tribal Council – Ua
One episode in and we’re already at one “live Tribal.” But at least there were more subtitles this time around so we could mostly keep up with what was happening. Brad finally gets called out for his Sara/Shan blunder, and it seems the vote is coming down between Brad and Sara. Based on the edit (which we all know needs to be taken with a grain of salt), it looks like Shan tells JD to vote Sara, as she’s voted out 4-1-1.
And let’s talk about that vote split. Sara’s vote on Brad makes sense. But where did Genie’s vote on Ricard come from? I suppose it’s possible I missed something, but I don’t think I did. I can’t remember anything about Ricard being a target. If Genie is that far out of the loop already, that doesn’t bode well for her going forward.
Winner Pick
By all accounts, Survivor nailed the casting for this season. Several players came strong out of the gates. I went back and forth between a few players, but I’m going with the Mafia Pastor herself, Shantel. She really impressed from a social aspect, she seems very smart so she should be strong strategically (though to be fair, we didn’t see much from anyone from a pure strategic standpoint), and should be at least competent in challenges. Her social game might put her in the spotlight as a big threat, but I think she has the savvy to navigate those potentially choppy waters.
Final Thoughts
Shots of players outside the game
LOVED THIS. Australian Survivor has used this for years, and it adds a new element to the players’ stories. However, those backstories were all so sad and dreary. I get it, those are important parts of their stories, but was there really nothing more than the low-hanging fruit of sadness? Will be interesting to see how these go moving forward, and how long they will be included in the season
Lots of mentions of quarantine, covid, mask, pandemic
HATED THIS. Again, I get it. This last 18 months or so has been…well, it’s been. We’ve all lived it, we know. And that’s affected how these players view this grand opportunity. But TV is an escape, we hear enough about covid everywhere else, give us a break for an hour. Both Australian Survivor and Survivor South Africa managed to get through two great seasons without mentioning any of these a single time (at least to my recollection).
Sydney
She received minimal screen time as her Luvu tribe won immunity, but she is looking like an absolute goldmine for content. I think she has a tough road ahead to win, but my goodness is she going to be fun to have around
“Wish it (credit card) was my dad’s but it’s mine.” This is the exact kind of content I wanted out of Sydney.#Survivor
There’s nothing you can say to convince me otherwise, this is a great tweet.
All in all, a solid Survivor premiere. The changes and new twists could blow up in our faces, but I think production set it up well for success. And if they keep forcing the players into making choices, I’ll be happy.
Lastly, this recap isn’t the only coverage I’ll have this season. I also have recap episodes out each Thursday morning on my Talking Llama podcast. You can subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere else.
