‘Survivor 41’ Episode 9 Recap: “Who’s Who In The Zoo”

I hate when Survivor does split Tribal Councils. Hate it. It handicaps the players, cuts them off at their knees. And when they draw rocks to determine their groups, it only adds luck to a game that relies quite a bit on luck already. But, Survivor seems to enjoy using it. And I guess I get it. It’s an easy way to pick up the pace of the game, and keep to the production schedule. But still. Not a fan. But before we get to this week’s Tribals, we’ve got the rest of the episode to get through.

We spend a good chunk of time at camp post-Tribal and the following morning. Shan and Deshawn are still at odds. At one point Deshawn even says he’s “looking for a new team.”

But the next day Deshawn and Shan talk to try to sort out their disagreements from the night before. It goes alright, until Shan goes right into saying she doesn’t trust Erika or Heather, that she thinks they’re dangerous. Deshawn tries to get his points in, but Shan just keeps talking. The two seem to be okay for now, but it still feels a bit shaky.

On the other side of things, Naseer confronts Heather about her actions at Tribal, and how she voted for him – or so he thinks. Heather asserts that she did not vote for Naseer, that she only put his name out there. That’s…a wild defense. As Naseer points out, it’s as good as the same thing. Heather seems like a perfectly lovely person, which is awesome for real life. But everything we’ve seen so far suggests she’s just not good at playing Survivor.

Later on we get another poor moment from Shan. She’s on the beach with Danny, Deshawn, and Liana. She says, “We should just talk as a four” (they’re also joined by Ricard). And that’s fine. Or, it would be fine if Xander and Erika weren’t sitting literally just a few feet away from them. You just can’t make things that obvious.

So of course Erika and Xander start talking through the idea of voting out someone from the power group, maybe either Shan or Ricard. Not that they wouldn’t have thought that anyway, but you can’t lay the bread crumbs for them like that.

Liana is still obsessing over getting Xander out. It’s getting to the point of being peak entertainment. It’s like she can’t focus on anything else. It might have something to do with the fact that she’s wanted him out for so long, but he keeps coming out on top. It has to be frustrating for her. But it all just makes it so much more fun for us as the audience.

Immunity Challenge

The Christian Hubicki challenge! They balance on narrow perch, with their hands on a handle behind their head.

The two groups are split as:

Yellow: Erika, Shan, Ricard, Naseer, Heather

Blue: Deshawn, Evvie, Liana, Xander, Danny

They’re also playing for reward. The last person standing in the challenge win chicken and beef stew for their group.

Erika wins for the Yellow group, but drops before Blue is done, Deshawn drops after about a little over 30 minutes, giving Xander the second immunity.

Pre-Tribal

Yellow Group

Having immunity plus his idol, Xander thinks this might be the time to take out one of the power players. Danny, Deshawn, and Liana are likely to target Evvie, so he could use his idol to really shake things up. The trio’s talks go the same way, making it seem like a simple, straightforward Evvie vote.

This pre-Tribal politicking wasn’t all that interesting, but there was one absolutely gold moment. Liana and Xander are talking. You know, maybe the two least likely people to work together right now. So obviously Liana thought this was the perfect time to ASK XANDER TO GIVE HER HIS IMMUNITY IDOL. She makes her pitch, saying,  “So if you gave your idol to me, that would make me feel more comfortable. Not to play it, but just to have it to know that you wouldn’t play it.” 

Xander says no (shocker!). It was one of a few laugh out loud moments this week. And in an episode centered around a twist I hate so much, they were much needed.

Blue Group

Naseer talks to Heather and Erika, TELLING THEM HEATHER IS GOING HOME. Going the Laura Boneham route, I see. That always works out well. So then Erika asks Naseer if he would play his idol for Heather. A reasonable thing to ask. It takes about one millisecond for Naseer to answer, “No way.” More gold.

That’s the right answer to have, of course. I just love that Naseer was so blunt about it. No hemming and hawing, no fake contemplation. Just an immediate GTFO response. King.

While Naseer and Shan have their sights set on Heather, Ricard isn’t so sure. He simply doesn’t view her as a threat (correct). So he approaches Erika and Heather about joining them in voting Naseer.

Once they’re seemingly solid, he discusses the plan with Shan. He could have risked it, and just voted with Erika and Heather without Shan. If things went according to plan, they would succeed with a 3-2 vote. But Naseer has his idol, and Shan has her extra vote. It might seem obvious, but it was still a smart move to make sure Shan was in the loop.

But Shan is predictably hesitant. As we’ve seen, she tends to get set in her plan, and doesn’t much like it when someone tries to change things up. They also discuss the extra vote, and it seems like it’s going to get played tonight. It’s only a matter of by whom, and to what end.

Tribal Council

Blue Group

WTF?! Tiffany is already there, waiting for them to arrive? No dramatic juror entrance? No thank you. Really hoping that’s only some weird one-time thing for some reason.

As usual, it’s mostly just the typical Tribal Council talk, blah blah blah. Let’s get to the vote.

Naseer does not play his idol. And we see three votes for Naseer and three votes for Heather. Naseer is voted. Naseer is voted out unanimously on the re-vote. So what happened here?

Shan, Naseer, and Ricard voted for Heather.

Shan (using her extra vote), Erika, and Heather voted for Naseer.

What was the point of the extra vote then? In all likelihood, it was to protect Shan and Ricard against the scenario where Naseer plays his idol and Erika and Heather flipped the plan and went after either Ricard or Shan.

It’s complicated to explain, but it makes sense in my head. Kudos to Shan and Ricard for recognizing this possibility and figuring out the correct way to use their three votes. The extra vote is so often mis-played, I think this is how it should be used, as a safety measure. It doesn’t feel like a big move when used this way, but sometimes the safe move is the right move.

Yellow Group

The second Tribal was much less eventful. Xander holds his idol, and Evvie is voted out 3-2. The question here is whether Xander believed he pulled the numbers to save Evvie, or if he ultimately decided to save his idol for himself. My guess is he decided to save it, thinking Evvie was the vote, while maybe still holding out just a tiny bit of hope she would sneak through. But even if Danny and/or Deshawn turned on Liana, Xander’s position in the game still wouldn’t be great. He probably thought having Evvie but no idol was a weaker position than no Evvie but still having his idol. And I’d be inclined to agree with that.

And that will do it for another uneven episode. We saw some of the season’s funniest moments, but said goodbye to not one, but two of the stronger characters, thanks to a hated (by me, at least) twist. That feels right in line with how most of this season has gone. But things feel like they could be on the precipice of really heating up. Shan and Deshawn, Shan and Ricard, Xander and Liana. There are several relationships that are ripe for a big-time blow up.

In case you forgot, Thanksgiving is next Thursday, but the content schedule will remain the same. Both the blog and podcast recaps will be out Thursday, as normal.

Matt Hambidge