Idol Speculation: “Survivor 41” Episode 5: The Little Mermaid

Exciting new tribe dynamics!  Engaging strategy and misdirection!  Clarification on rules!  A new advantage that doesn’t suck!  And of course, I choose to focus on one throwaway line that had absolutely no bearing on the episode for my title!  Just the kind of focus you’d expect from “Idol Speculation”, my knee-jerk opinion that everyone is entitled to!  

We start off with the Poor Unfortunate Souls at Ua, who are making the best of a bad situation.  Though down to three, they remain upbeat in the bond of surviving so many Tribals together.  That said, Genie has no bones about where she is, recognizing that Ricard and Shan are probably aligned, and so seeks to find the idol that Brad had with him when he was voted out.  At first, she makes what seems the questionable choice to tell Ricard and Shan about this, but considering her situation, it makes sense.  After all, if she finds it and it doesn’t get activated, she’s gone like she would have been without it.  But, if it DOES get activated, letting the tribe know means that you can still engender some loyalty from your fellow contestants, and keep everyone happy, rather than burning your idol to save yourself.  

Yes, it all seems to make sense.  Less sensible is Genie, rather than taking the idol and letting Ricard and Shan know afterward, finding it, putting it back, and then running to tell them about it.  The party all agree to wait until they hear someone from Luvu say the phrase before getting their idol for the next challenge, to use for the tribe.  Not a bad plan, if everyone sticks to it.  

The flaw in the plan is that there’s a lot of incentive for people not to stick to it.  Case in point, after Genie heads into the water to search for Les Poissons, Shan decides that having the extra vote is not enough.  As such, she and Ricard concoct a plan to have Shan take the idol, and replace it with a bracelet to fool Genie.  As for getting around saying the phrase without arousing suspicion, they’ll tell Genie they just plan to say it to test if Luvu has theirs or not.  Get the ball rolling.  Reasonable plan, though it does come with the risk of Ricard and Genie teaming up against Shan, or even forcing a tie.  The latter is forestalled by Shan pulling a JD, and giving Ricard the extra vote to hold, to maintain their majority, though at least Shan has a better reason for doing so than JD.  As to the former, only time will tell.  

Oh, by the way, this scene gives us a more thorough read-through of the note, where they FINALLY clarify that the idol expires at the merge if not activated, but you get your vote back.  Sure would have been nice to know when we FIRST found the idol!  You know your idols are too complicated when…

Happy music transitions us to Luvu.  We get our requisite arrogance from Sydney, as she claims to be one of the Daughters of Triton.  On land, however, the men are plotting.  While still wary of Naseer, Danny and Deshawn are becoming concerned about the lack of women being voted out this season.  They suggest to Naseer that they ought to throw a challenge to get rid of one of the women as a result.  Gee, never heard this storyline before.  And still just as problematic as ever!  However, while Naseer is on board with the alliance as a whole (having evidently let go of his early idol hunting grudge), he’s not in favor of throwing a challenge, not wanting to lose the tribe flint.  Understandable.  Unfortunately, while Danny and Deshawn agree to not throw the challenge, both are not happy with Naseer’s reluctance.  Surprisingly, it’s Danny, the challenge thrower from last episode most unhappy with doing so, that is upset at Naseer for this.  Naseer, unfortunately, doesn’t seem to notice the warning signs, though as we’ll soon see, he just may not care.  

Meanwhile, at Yase, Xander is desperate to be Part of Your World, Evvie!  He takes her to the water well, begging to be let in, and pitching a Liana boot.  Evvie does an excellent job of playing along, but of course, we know it’s BS.  Evvie is too close to Liana to be truly considering this.  Sure enough, part of Evvie’s playing along was to lure Xander away so that Liana and Tiffany could enact the tried and true bonding activity of going through Xander’s bag, finding his idol and extra vote, getting the chance to read the instructions for both.  Xander, still attempting to build trust, reveals these things to Tiffany on his own, but makes the mistake of trying to play off when he found certain advantages, which Tiffany of course knows to be a lie.  Xander is named a target, and as such he REALLY needs that idol activated.  

As our challenge is a boring obstacle course ending in a slingshot, it’s really not worth discussing beyond that.  Even our reward (tarps of varying sizes) is not worth discussing, and as per usual, two tribes win immunity.  No, the real show here is the phrases that people need to say to activate their idol.  Ricard gives Shan a softball, describing her as “a vegan going crazy”, which leads her into the broccoli line, which she then compares to an (I’m assuming intentionally) misquoted Xander, who uses the pretense of correcting her to get in his quote.  Unfortunately, Luvu still hasn’t found their idol, so we’ll just have to wait and watch them squirm…

CRASH!  

ME: Oh Christ almighty, this again?!  You know, I ENJOYED not having the wall of my house destroyed twice a year by some random contestant breaking in.  I was really hoping to keep that going.  

NASEER: I’m as confused as a goat on AstroTurf!  

ME: Look, Naseer, brilliant as it was for the editors to hide that you found the idol, surprising us with you answering that, did you REALLY need to come all the way from California, just to say it again?

NASEER: That is Naseer!  

ME: Ok, not dealing with this anymore.  Where’s my nice new Peih-Gee Plays buff?  

(NASEER Exits)

In all seriousness, this is a brilliant bit by the editors, reminiscent of not revealing Gary Hawkins’ idol on “Survivor Guatemala” until the vote.  I applaud this move, and welcome more of it in the future.  So yep, idols are active now.  Congratulations on not voting out Xander when you had the chance, Yase.  Hope that doesn’t come back to bite you in the butt.  

It may very well have a chance to tonight, though.  While this episode was light on pre-challenge content, what it DID give us was quite balanced.  All tribes got some strategy talk, and at least one target named.  Naseer having the idol makes it less likely Luvu goes, in my mind, but it’s still enough to create some tension here.  No tribe’s chances are Under the Sea as yet.  

Fortunately for Yase, Xander’s sharpshooting puts them in first (despite being behind Luvu, and neck and neck with Ua most of the way).  Naseer proves once again to be the anchor for Luvu, as despite Danny actually putting some effort into using the slingshot, only Naseer hits anything.  Ua, meanwhile, feels the pain of getting rid of Brad, and JD not living up to his challenge promise, and Ricard is now left to be the anchor of his tribe.  He gives it a valiant effort.  He even gets the slow-mo of success.  But he just can’t pull it out, and Ua goes back to Tribal Council.  

Not for nothing is this challenge so early in the episode, though!  As the first place finishers, Yase gets to pick one person from Ua, and one from either their tribe or Luvu, to go to “Advantage Island” (I know it’s not named that, but it might as well be called that at this point).  Shan is truly the Belle of the Ball, as she is selected to go, with little reasoning given.  Yes, I know Belle is from “Beauty and the Beast”, but hey, it’s still all Disney in the eyes of pop culture.  Besides, there’s no showmance on this season, so I don’t have a good way to work in every song reference from “The Little Mermaid”.  Don’t see anyone wanting to Kiss the Girl on this season.  

Liana is sent as the other person, as Yase obviously doesn’t want to give Luvu more advantages, making the possibility of sending one of them moot.  Evidently something about the island makes great strategists want to spill their guts, as Shan lays out her entire game plan to Liana as they hike for three hours above the Fathoms Below.  This seems like a poor strategic move…  And it is, but it says something about the bond a shared background can send.  Shan and Liana are both women of color, and while Genie is a woman (and is a woman of color, but ultimately of a different background to Shan), and Ricard is of color, as Shan says there’s something different about having the full shared background that makes one feel secure.  It’s actually a raw, honest scene, and I quite enjoyed it.  Shan also shared more about her background.  Mostly she related the “foster care” story, though she gave us a bit more background this time.  Basically, her mother was a drug user, and they only reconnected in the last five years or so of Shan’s mom’s life.  Again, they use real-life photos to great effect, and the scene tugs at the heart strings.  Dammit, show, you got me again!

Getting back to strategy talk, with so few numbers, and having only just earned her vote back, Shan is reluctant to risk it, and strengthens the bond with Liana by telling her so.  Reasonable move.  Can’t fault it.  As such, Liana gets her advantage, but oddly gets it back at camp, rather than at the next Tribal Council.  Yes, this means we’re NOT playing for an extra vote, but something far more powerful and exciting!  Liana has a new advantage, which allows her, one time, to ask a player if they have an idol or advantage, and they must answer honestly.  If they do, they must give it to her.  If they don’t, Liana is SOL.  

In general, I LOVE this advantage!   Like the best advantages of the past, it relies on social deduction to be the most useful, as you have to have an idea that someone has something, but you have to be REALLY sure.  Plus, you could also use it just to gain information, rather than a full idol or advantage, so it’s got some versatility.  That said, I’m not sure this is the season to implement it.  It’s weird to me to say, but this twist works better with LESS tribe interaction.  Because we’ve had so much chatting between the tribes, it’s a lot easier to know who has an advantage (partly just from gossip, partly from the “three phrases to activate the idol” thing now being common knowledge), and thus requires less deduction.  I think production was relying on people being cagier with their information, but if so, it backfired.  There’s also a lack of clarity on if someone would need to ask about a specific advantage, in the event someone had more than one advantage, but hey, there’s a lot of rules, and this one is clearer than, say, the rules of the hidden immunity idol of this season.  

Before leaving the island, Shan tells Liana that if she’s voted out, it’s because Ricard snaked her, indicating there might be some mistrust in the family.  That said, it seems misplaced, and we soon confirm that Shan is truly in the best seat here.  Ricard DOES talk to Genie about blindsiding Shan, but mostly because he has no other choice.  Ricard even tells us that he’s just doing it keep Genie in the dark.  Genie, like Ricard, is convinced Shan is her number one, and so spills the entire can of beans (shoutout to Clarence Black of “Survivor Africa”) when she and Shan have their one-on-one.  Shan, paranoid, goes to Ricard, and asks for her extra vote back, now that the idol is active.  Ricard, however, has learned from the mistakes of JD, and refuses.  Tensions increase between him and Shan, though Ricard does a good job remaining calm throughout.  He doesn’t give back the advantage, instead promising to give it back post-Tribal, but it leads to at least some tension prior to Tribal.  

Honestly, it’s a good debate.  Both players have been pretty much loyal to Shan throughout, so there’s little leverage there.  Ricard makes a better shield, but also has the potential to betray Shan.  Genie is more loyal, but come the merge, Shan is the more likely target.  Once again, Shan finds herself in a position with no bad options.  On the whole, though, since Ua is destined to be down in numbers come the merge anyway, coupled with Shan being so good at forming bonds, I’m not sure she needs a shield.  Thus, keeping Genie is probably slightly better for her game, though neither move is truly bad.  

We have a very intimate Tribal tonight, in part because of how few people there are, and partly because of how bonded they are.  For all the flaws of this season, it has done a good job, through both text and subtext, of showing us how tight our groupings are, and that works to the season’s strength.  Genie reiterates her loyal, while Ricard, despite mentioning his “strategic prowess”, which could be a threat, reiterates his bond with Shan by noting that they voted together every Tribal so far, while Genie, for all her strengths, has not.  

The whole question for Ua was always “Who was Shan really tight with?”  Everyone seemed to feel Shan was their number one, but who did Shan feel that way about?  Ricard.  The answer is Ricard.  

Genie goes home, and I am sad, though more for the potential than anything.  Genie was a nice character, but sadly not the most memorable in the “Survivor” Pantheon.  Plus, Ricard can be something of a buzzkill at times, so I would have overall preferred he go.  Still like the guy overall, but he’s not living up to my hopes.  

This season, however, continues to make strides.  While lacking in more camp life/social bonding moments, the strategy talk was good, and we ultimately had another well-balanced episode.  Good mystery throughout, intriguing new advantages, an overall satisfying product.  Let us see if the “Not Exactly” Merge next episode can keep things going.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.