Santoni is heated after Tribal, but not because of the vote. She’s got a vendetta out for Nicole, who Santoni thought was taunting her tribe from the jury bench while Nicole and her tribemates were eating. Wardah gives a confessional about being on the outs. But she has a very measured response, saying she’s going to bide her time, waiting for the right moment to make her move. That’s the kind of response you need after a move doesn’t go your way.
Reward Challenge
One member of each tribe dives in from a platform, picking up a floating puzzle piece on their to shore. Two players work on the puzzle. They’re playing for a reward of coffee, tea, and pastries.
Anela and Santoni really struggle in the water for Zamba, allowing Vuna to take a huge lead. Vuna struggles at first with the puzzle, allowing Zamba to get back into it. But they still ultimately pull it out, winning reward.
Dino asks Nico if they can share part of their reward with the Zamba tribe, and Nico…allows it? I’d have no issue if it was an all or nothing deal. But to split the reward? No thank you. It’s a cop out.
Vuna
But what I do like, is that Vuna makes the actual delivery of the food to Zamba. Anything that mixes tribes is a good thing, especially when it’s unexpected like this. Vuna also decides to return the machete they took in the camp raid. None of this seems out of the ordinary to anyone on the tribe; they all seem to be on board with it. I’m chalking it up to cultural differences, but I can’t see players on U.S. Survivor or Australian Survivor being so agreeable with this. Sure, a couple maybe. But entire tribes? Doubtful. But it’s nice to see something different at play here. There’s so much that’s the same from one version of Survivor to another, it’s great to see anything that shakes things up.
Zamba
Unfortunately, there’s nothing exciting to report from the reward share. Marisha stops by, drops off the food and machete, and leaves without further conversation. Maybe she was instructed by production to not linger, but still. It felt like a wasted opportunity.
Immunity Challenge
Before starting the challenge, we’ve got another tribe swap.
New New Vuna
Amy, Anesu, Chappies, Marisha, Nicole, Renier, Shaun
New New Zamba
Dino, Anela, Kiran, Qieän, Santoni, Tyson, Wardah
Three members of each tribe race out to retrieve a ball, to shoot in the other tribe’s basket while preventing the other tribe from doing the same. First to three wins. It could have been a fun, physical challenge, but it was ultimately pretty unexciting. Vuna wins. After the challenge, Nico rewards both tribes with a tarp. Survivor SA seems to be a little easier on the castaways (they get jackets, after all), but you know it’s bad if any tribes ever are simply given a tarp with no exchange or other cost.
Vuna decides to send Anela to Immunity Island.
Immunity Island
Cornhole?!?!
I know I’ve said I’d accepted that the Immunity Island challenges weren’t going to be good, but this is getting ridiculous. At least the sand digging and memory challenges felt like Survivor. But tiki toss and now cornhole? These challenges are admittedly a very small part of what has otherwise been a fantastic season. So the annoyance goes away pretty much right away. But when everything else is firing on all cylinders, you have to find something to complain about, right?
Anyway, Anela has to make 5 bags in the hole before the timer runs out. If he wins, he receives an extra vote, playable through the first vote after the merge. Lose and he receives a No Vote. Anela only makes three, losing his vote. But as always, at least he still has immunity at the upcoming Tribal Council.
Vuna
We get a few minutes back at the new new Vuna. Chappies is beyond happy to be back at Vuna. He feels like he’s got a new lease on life. Renier and Amy reconnect, confirming their previously existing alliance.
Nothing too exciting here, but the bigger picture, production-wise, it’s what’s important. One of the best things about the international versions of Survivor is their longer runtimes. in the U.S., we almost never get any time at the camp of the tribe that loses the immunity challenge. Just one of the many benefits of longer episodes.
Pre-Tribal – Zamba
Wardah is ecstatic to be back with Kiran and Tyson. She wants to go for Santoni this vote, as a way to weaken Chappies.
Tyson, Santoni, and Kiran go looking for an idol. After finding the first idol at Vuna, they think the Zamba idol could be in the same place. And of course it is. This is exactly why it’s stupid for the camp idols to be hidden in the same place. It’s a Survivor staple, but it’s stale and played out.
Tyson and Kiran talk about voting Dino instead of Santoni. Tyson wants revenge on Dino for voting for him at the last Tribal Council. But, what? Tyson asked for votes to come his way so he could play his idol. It was a weird bit of strategy then, and it’s weird justification now. Dino is also seen as a flip-flopper, so there’s some safety in getting rid of uncertainty.
Voting Dino rather than Santoni also leaves the Tyson/Kiran/Wardah alliance in the majority, as Santoni is aligned with Tyson and Kiran.
And as usual, we have no idea where Qieän stands because she goes yet another episode without a confessional, her third such episode. I don’t know what the deal is here. Take a look at the confessional count through six episodes.
She has FIVE confessionals. Jason was voted out first and had 12. Mike was the third boot and had 17. Now, Nicole and Marisha aren’t that far ahead, with only 9 and 8, respectively. But they both have felt like much larger parts of the season. Survivor doesn’t owe anything to the players in terms of coverage or air time, but you always hate to see someone get such an invisible edit. We’re a third of the way through, so there’s still time for a bump in her presence.
Tribal Council
There is a bit of a fiery back and forth between Wardah and Anela, but it’s all for naught, as the alliance of four stuck with the Dino plan, sending out one of the game’s biggest characters.
Santoni also retrieved and played her idol hidden at Tribal Council. But it was a waste, as only Dino and Qieän voted for her. Santoni has fallen back to Earth a little bit after a strong couple episodes earlier on. She’s still in a a decent enough place in the game. But could her idol play signal to Tyson, Kiran, and Wardah that she doesn’t trust them? She might have some cleanup to do after that play.
