Was this episode an exciting roller-coaster ride that kept you on the edge of your seat from start to finish? No. Was it a fun episode with calculated strategy bits and interesting debates on who to vote off? YES! Look, there’s no way this episode goes down in the annals of “Survivor” history as one of the greats, but it’s still a great addition to the season, and a worthy follow-up to last episode’s promise. Even if the outcome is not what I would have preferred in some measure, in other’s it’s still quite good. So let us sit down, and enjoy a friendly game of chess. Not live-action Wizard’s Chess, but regular chess.
Camp is actually fairly subdued considering the major blindside of last episode, though that might largely be due to shell-shock rather than good strategy on their parts. Most admit to being worried in confessional, with Brad and Tai in particular highlighting the difficulties of their current position. Tai in particular bemoans the fact that he himself has never been this on the bottom, which I would normally dismiss as hyperbolic whining, but thinking back on Tai’s game… Yeah. With the possible exception of the vote immediately following the tribe swap and the Nick Maiorano vote out, Tai was never really on the bottom, and even those rare times that he was, he was quickly swept back into the majority. Not to say that there’s no indication that this might not happen again, but it lends credence to what Tai is saying. Kudos where kudos are due, though, and it must be said that most of the now-minority alliance handled the boot pretty well.
Then again, perhaps they just needed a target to direct the hate at. There was confusion from the old alliance as to who flipped, but Sarah soon clears that up by volunteering that she was indeed the flipper. And I have to ask… WHY? Ok, I get that it’s resume building, and no one really seems to take out their rage on her, but that’s a BIG risk for Sarah to be that bold about it. Now, to her credit, she DOES go about it in a polite manner, basically volunteering to explain herself one-on-one to anyone who wants to, but still, why volunteer that? Better to have people ask to know, and THEN reveal it, so there’s no chance it comes off as bragging.
Cirie, though, is not one to sit pretty. She reminds us that one can never get comfortable on “Survivor”, and foreshadows the impending shake-up.
This brings us to our reward challenge, which, true to form for this season, is yet ANOTHER team challenge, and a rehashed one at that. Hailing from “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X”, this challenge will see teams of five pull up one person in a chair, after they’ve raced through an obstacle course, to collect 10 puzzle pieces from a set of 30. Once all the pieces are collected, three people race to solve the winning phrase, which is “Reinventing how this game is played”. Winning team gets food and a night in a nice Fijian resort. As Probst says, well worth playing for, and this challenge in particular I’m not super mad about them reusing. My standing complaints with rehashed challenges and team reward challenges post-merge remain, but when you’re filming back to back seasons in the same location, any infrastructure you can save is a plus, and that chair lift definitely qualifies. It makes for a fun visual, and that puzzle to me is a good balance of being tied to the season, yet difficult to solve. Really, my one caveat is that this is a challenge that REALLY comes down to the puzzle.
Our teams here are pretty even, with the blue team being Aubry, Sarah, Andrea, Brad, and Zeke, while the red team (I refute Probst’s insistent claims that that color is orange) consists of Cirie, Michaela, Sierra, Tai, and Troyzan. If I were a betting man, though, I’d give the edge to the red team. They’ve got a good combination of athletic yet light people for the chair portion, and Cirie is hands-down the best puzzle-solver left. As we start off, it seems I may be proven right. Michaela, as Probst highlights, is finally getting a chance to show her stuff. Show it she does, as she edges out Brad Culpepper, who may I remind you is a former NFL player, in a running and high-stepping competition. Granted, Brad’s been out of the pro-sports game for a while, but there’s nothing to indicate he’s still not in good shape. Our teams end up relatively even throughout, as it seems the blue team has an edge in lifting the chair to make up for deficit in running, and naturally it all comes down to the puzzle. Probst taunts everyone about how their brains aren’t working as well 27 days in, but in fairness, I thinking even on day ONE this puzzle would be somewhat difficult. After a few logical guesses, Andrea breaks open the puzzle by figuring out the word “Reinventing”, and that five some win reward. Brad brings the talk around to strategy, talking about how he needs to bond with these people to save himself.
After our requisite gushing about the reward, history repeats itself as Zeke ends up developing bonds over Oklahoma sports. This time, though, ZEKE is the one being pandered to by, of course, Brad Culpepper. Zeke admits in confessional that there’s something of a bond there, and that he may use it if he feels the need, but this bond does not go unnoticed. Lest anyone think that Andrea had forgotten her feud with Zeke, she outright tells us that she still doesn’t trust him, and Zeke bonding with those outside of the current majority does not ease those feelings.
Getting back to camp, Aubry reaffirms this assessment, and we see Andrea and Cirie get to work. Both agree that Zeke is becoming a threat to them again, and set about ousting him. However, Cirie points out that they’d need “Office Sarah” for that to work, and that she, meaning Sarah, isn’t inclined to go against Zeke. Cirie is sent to feel out how amenable Sarah would be to this plan. Shock of all shocks, Sarah is not super amenable to this plan. Sarah tells us that Zeke’s a trustworthy ally for her, and that she doesn’t want to give that up just yet. Fair enough, but as I stated last blog, Sarah’s flaw in her game on “Survivor Cagayan” was being too inflexible in targeting, and that seems to be rearing its ugly head. Plus, while having a close ally IS important on “Survivor”, you want it to be a close ally you can BEAT in the finals. For all that Zeke may be loyal to Sarah, he’s perceived as a smarter person, and between that and the sympathy from the Jeff Varner incident a few episodes back, going against him is jury suicide. At first, though, Sarah seems to play things cool, laying out logically to Cirie why she thinks Zeke is not the right move at this time. However, I feel that Sarah may go too far in revealing her vote-steal advantage. I get what Sarah was trying to do: quell the feat that Zeke might soon create an insurmountable majority. From my perspective, though, it could come across as a threat, a sort of “cross me, and I can easily make sure you lose” thing. I don’t think Sarah DID that, but it also revealed a part of her hand to a shrewd player who could easily turn people against Sarah. Sarah’s actually been playing a decent game this season, but I do feel that this is a poor move for her.
Better is her water-well conversation with Zeke (man, what IS it with everyone meeting up there for strategy this season), as the pair agree that Andrea must still be dealt with. They want to get Sierra this vote just to ensure the numbers, but they concoct a plan to pull in Brad, Troyzan, and Michaela after Sierra is gone to ensure a majority. Zeke tells us that the pair of Aubry and Andrea are too tight and too dangerous, hence his plan for a counter-alliance. Ok, Andrea I get from Zeke’s perspective. She’s a ringleader and she’s gunning for him. But when did AUBRY enter into this? Granted, she’s seen as part of the alliance, but it’s been presented thus far as though Cirie and Andrea were the power pair. Did Aubry manage to worm her way in there? I suppose we’ll never know because the show NEVER SHOWS US HER STRATEGY CONFESSIONALS!
Once upon a time, there was an underrated season known as “Survivor Gabon”. One of the greatest things about it was that it had this awesome challenge where people stacked dominos on a beam that went up and down at sharp angles. Because this in and of itself was not difficult enough, trip ropes were added such that the players had to crawl around to stack their dominos, and could upset everything at any moment. The producers recognized the brilliance of this challenge, and so continued to use it. However, they used it so much that they sucked all the brilliance out of it, so that by the time we got to “Survivor Game Changers” it sucked.
To give this version SOME credit, the thinner board for stacking is nice, but with only leg trip-ups and no angling of the board, it’s just feeling too easy. I mean, we had precisely ONE person drop their blocks, and NO ONE who stacked them incorrectly, but did not find out until they tried pushing them down. That’s just lame.
Once again, I bet on Sierra’s legs to give her an edge in this challenge, and once again, I am disappointed. Andrea wins, which is perhaps the most impactful win we’ve seen this season, even though, once again, the winner was not a primary target. At least this time, they could be considered a secondary target.
Emboldened by her immunity win, Andrea suggests moving the plan forward to oust Zeke. When Cirie makes the logical point about Sarah not going along with the plan, Andrea throws logic to the curb! Fortunately, she also has an alternate plan. Sierra comes begging for her life, and tells us in confessional that while she doesn’t WANT to vote against her foursome, she’ll do anything to save her neck. An understandable response, and she’s naturally happy when Cirie and Andrea float the possibility of getting rid of Zeke, she jumps on board. Of course, they also float the possibility to Sarah, which with Sierra on board, I would argue is STUPID since Sarah’s made it clear how she feels, and has a vote steal to potentially muck up your plans. Sarah, though, DOES seem to have learned something from her last time playing. While she still makes it clear that she doesn’t feel it’s time to oust Zeke, she says she’s willing to go along with it, if everyone else wants it. It concerns me that Sarah still can’t articulate what her actual fault was her first time playing, but I suppose actions speak louder than words. Andrea’s words, though, may get her in to trouble, as she says that everything seems foolproof, now.
BREE! BREE!
Sorry, that was the “Impending Alliance Doom” alarm that I had installed. Yeah, Andrea, this ain’t your first proverbial rodeo. You should know never to say things like that.
Still, what’s the benefit to getting rid of Zeke, and is he a better target than Sierra, the other person floated as a boot for the night? Well, apart from the fact that he and Sarah are trying to put together a five-person alliance against the remainder should Sierra go, Aubry correctly articulates that at this late point in the game, you have to oust the smart people before they oust you. While I don’t agree with Cirie when she says that Zeke is a better player than her, it cannot be denied that Zeke is in the top two or three strategic threats left, and is definitely worth targeting, both because of his smarts and his propensity towards making moves for the sake of making moves. See, show? When you bother to SHOW US Aubry’s strategizing, good things happen.
For our counterargument as to why this is not the time to get rid of Zeke, let us turn to Sarah and Michaela, our self-declared (but accurate) swing votes for the evening. Both admit to the alliance that they’re not crazy about the plan, but say they’ll go along with it. When conferring with each other, though, they agree that now may be too soon. They bring up the logical point that if the alliance breaks up now, they lower the ratio to 5-4, meaning only one person (like, say, an upset Sarah or Michaela) needs to flip to shift power away. And THIS is why getting rid of Zeke now is not the smart move for the current majority alliance. Granted, they’re in kind of a similar position to Sarah last episode where both moves have positives, and so no move is technically the “wrong” move. Weighing both options, though, I’d have to say that sticking with the Sierra vote-out is the smart move. As I said last episode, Sierra is both a ring-leader in the minority, and a binding agent for a lot of the people in it. Get rid of her, and you’ve got a lot more free-agents to play around with. Plus, by keeping her in and lowering the ratio, ESPECIALLY when a couple members of your alliance are clearly not on board with the plan, you make it unlikely that you’ll last long term. Additionally, while Zeke is definitely the bigger threat of the two, it’s not by much. Sierra, while no genius, is competent enough strategically, and arguably more of a challenge threat. True, there is the imminent threat of Zeke’s counter alliance, but by eliminating Sierra, you free up people like Tai, meaning those numbers can be replaced, especially with known Tai-whisperer Aubry on your side. I could see Sarah’s vote steal being a disincentive for this plan, but I’d argue that said vote steal is all the more reason to go along with Sarah, and keep her happy. Basically, this comes down to short-term gain versus long-term gain. Voting out Zeke eliminates the short-term threat of his counter-alliance, but destabilizes the majority in the long-term. Conversely, voting out Sierra is an immediate risk, but keeps the six more solid and could lead to more victories down the line.
Now, some may say in response to these comments that I’m being hypocritical with regards to “Survivor Cagayan”, as I’ve often said that Sarah SHOULDN’T have been appeased when demanding her way on that season. There are two key differences here, though. On “Survivor Cagayan” Sarah was DEMANDING her way, rather than asking for it as she does in this episode. This makes it less annoying and better strategy. But the key difference is in WHO the options are. Last time, Sarah was advocating for HORRIBLE options, and refusing to listen to the logical argument of “vote for those less likely to have idols”. Here, the options are more equal, and thus appeasing her less likely to have negative consequences. I’ve said before on this blog, and I’ll say again: this episode demonstrates that Sarah HAS learned from her past season, even if she can’t say why.
Like this episode, Tribal Council is not exciting in an edge-of-your-seat way, but it is fun to watch the political maneuvering. We get a lot of talk about grids from Cirie, and timing a move properly with Andrea and Sierra. Michaela gets in her usual sass as well, bragging that the majority six will stick together on this vote. Frankly, though, this is the ONE thing to convince me that Zeke will go. We’ve gotten screen time from both Sierra and Zeke, but with Michaela and Sarah still seeming so reluctant right before Tribal Council, I’m convinced that no one but Sierra is leaving tonight.
I am sorry, but not because of a Sierra exit. I’m sorry because the show got me again. Zeke has left the building, which gives me very mixed feelings. On the one hand, I enjoy Zeke more than pretty much anyone left (with the exception of Aubry and possibly Michaela), and as I’ve stated, feel this was the poorer strategic move on the part of the majority, being mainly a revenge vote from Andrea. On the other hand, the person Aubry wanted to go home went home. Plus, you know, unpredictable move against a big threat. And again, I can’t say the move was HORRIBLE, just maybe not the optimal choice given the circumstances. I feel like there’s more we could have seen from Zeke, but I also feel like we got enough for the time being. I eagerly anticipate his inevitable third return.
As I said at the top of this blog, this is not an exciting,, edge-of-your-seat episode. But it doesn’t have to be. We got some clever strategizing and setup for later, along with some small but fun moments along the way We’ve got two good ones in a row so far. Let’s hope for a third!
-Matt
Title Credit to Jean Storrs.
idolspeculation 
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