Kind of a bland title, I know. To be sure, not as eloquent or punny as I usually am. But really, it’s the only word that comes to mind when I think of this episode. Was it fun? Ish. Was there good mystery? Ish. Are the new twists cool? Ish. Just Ish all around. Perhaps you should call me Ish-mael (Ha! Knew I could work in a pun somehow!)
We start off the episode proper (after the logo of this season is shown burning in a fire, where it belongs) at Ua, where we get a little more insight from Shan into why she chose to keep Ricard over Shan. Basically, while she did like Genie, she felt her heart was “too open”, and wanted Ricard around to ring in her nicer tendencies. From what we’ve seen, I’m not sure she really needed anyone to help her play a cutthroat game, but hey, she knows herself better than I do.
Unfortunately, Shan soon begins to realize that keeping Ricard may have been a mistake as well. Ricard is STILL making a big deal out of holding onto the extra vote, even into the night after the Tribal Council he was concerned about. Look, I sympathized with Ricard last episode, but he’s really wearing that argument thin. I can understand him being wary after JD’s exit, but what else can Shan do to prove she’s with you at this point? Besides, you did promise to give it back. You really going to risk alienating your closest ally over a simple extra vote? Ricard tries to argue that if they’re a pair, it shouldn’t matter who has what advantage, but that argument could be turned right back on him, and Shan, I would say, has more “right” to hold the advantage, given that she did the legwork of getting it. Even when Ricard does cave and give it back, he keeps bringing it up like a sore spot, and only making Shan question, more and more, whether she made the right decision.
Over at Yase, they get tree mail confirming that a merge is coming, telling them their rewards and personal belongings will be coming with them. Way to bury the lead, show. You spend all your “Next Time On…” segment from last episode building up whether or not this is a merge, and just drop that news on us in the first five minutes.
And yes, I know press releases spoiled it as well. Those press releases were dumb as well, but this blog is about the episode, not the hype surrounding it.
Luvu gets the same message, and we head to our challenge… Hi Probst! Haven’t seen you talking directly to the camera in a while! Haven’t missed it either. Eh, for all that I complain, this Probst interlude is pretty harmless. Hyping us up for this “merge twist” without going into too many details. It was cool to see a bit of the camera in the shot, I will admit, and Probst did take the time to say “Come on in!” this time. Just unnecessary, not cringe-y.
Thus, we get to our big twist: This is a merge, but first you’ll divide into two teams of five, with two people sitting out. My heart sinks, as I fear we’re going back to the well that is “Survivor Fiji”, and doing the “Divided Merge Tribal Council Twist” from that season. Longtime readers of mine know this already, but this twist is one of my most hated ever, and pretty much the main reason Fiji remained at the bottom of my season ranking list for so long. A patently unfair twist that, combined with leading questions from Probst, screwed over Michelle Yi. Something that should never be repeated, like most of “Survivor Fiji”. Except for the diversity of the cast, and also Yau-Man. Those things can repeat.
Thankfully, despite many dumb decisions even in this season, the show is not THAT dumb. No, instead, the winners get a merge feast, and are immune at the first Tribal Council. The losers go back to camp with nothing but rice, and are vulnerable. We’ll get to what happens with the sit-outs later, as Probst himself does not tell us until later. This I can get behind a bit more. Perhaps a bit of a pointless shuffle, but at least the show is trying something different, and something not as unfair as the aforementioned hated twist.
The challenge itself? Actually pretty decent. Teams work to dig up a giant ball, which they roll across obstacles to retrieve keys. Climb up a few walls to a slide puzzle for the phrase “Merge Feast”. Gets a bit generic once the ball is removed, but giant balls are a “Survivor” staple I can get behind, and digging them up makes for a nice change of pace beyond just rolling them or holding them steady. That said, I was disappointed neither tribe hit upon the hack of just digging up one side of the ball to make a ramp.
Our teams, as mentioned, are randomly divided, with our sitouts being Naseer and Erika. Our Yellow Team consists of Xander, Liana, Tiffany, Heather, and Shan, while our Blue Team consists of Danny, Deshawn, Ricard, Sydney, and Evvie. Think those might be just a BIT lopsided there.
Sure enough, our Blue Team wins it, but not before Probst gets his moment of inspiration. The Yellow Team, exhausted, is barely able to get up the last wall, but manages it. We see the determination in Liana’s eyes, hear their encouragement to one another, and it is inspiring. Shame Probst has to ruin it by talking over the whole damn thing. WE GET IT! THEY’RE TOUGH! WE CAN SEE THAT! SHOW, DON’T TELL!
Next, we get a couple of reveals. First, this merge is a lovely red color buff, which I can get behind! Moreover, however, the winning team gets to bring one person to the “merge” with them (I use quotes because, although everyone has made the merge, only those who won get the buff now), and they are also immune. The Blue Team makes a show of picking someone, with Danny commenting that they ended up doing Rock-Paper-Scissors. Nice call back to the first episode. That said, even though he insists it was true later, I’m not sure I buy that. You see, they pick Naseer, which is the best move for the team that is majority Luvu, and wants Erika out. Best not to give the person you want out immunity. Granted, Erika now KNOWS she’s on the bottom, being sent to Exile Island for two days to fend for herself. Plus, as we’ll see, this move may ultimately screw those people, but they have no way of knowing that at the time.
At our feast, everyone expresses their excitement to have made the merge, Evvie in particular. That said, game talk soon resumes, courtesy of who else but Ricard? He asks Deshawn if they liked Erika, which Deshawn confirms, though this quickly leads Danny into his old saw about a “women’s alliance”. Yeah, we’re DEFINITELY in a new era of “Survivor” if that tired, sexist old line is coming back.
Erika, meanwhile, finally gets her day in the limelight. She notes that she’s not particularly good in the outdoors, and so does not want to be on Exile Island. Still, she puts a brave face on it, and uses her time trying to build a fire talking about the hardships her family had when she was growing up in Canada. As with most of these flashbacks, it’s a nice and touching moment that really helps us connect with the cast. Nothing more or less to it than that. Just a nice little scene.
Our losing team confers after the challenge, with Shan making her first true mistake of the season. True, she’s made some questionable moves this season. I’ve disagreed with a few of them myself. But this is the first one that’s truly, blatantly “What were you thinking?” territory, that to me takes it from “bad move” to full-blown “mistake”. Shan asks about Liana’s advantage (which she thinks is just an extra vote) RIGHT IN FRONT OF TIFFANY! HOW IS THIS IN ANY WAY A GOOD IDEA? Look, Shan has been amazing so far this season. I criticize because I want to see her do well. On this season that has been filmed and over for several months now.
Anyway, Liana fills Shan in on the advantage, but then has to fill in Tiffany as well. Tiffany, understandably, is not happy about being left out, now questioning where she stands in the alliance. She does a bad job hiding it as well, since Liana is now uncertain as well. Adding to the complexity, the winning team now rejoins the losing team, and more discussions take place. Xander buddies up to Naseer, wanting the challenge threats to stick together. Xander says this new merge is an opportunity for his team to band together, and take out everyone else. This is immediately undercut by his own team wanting him gone, with Liana and Shan debating whether to steal his idol or Naseer’s idol. Cross-tribe alliances also begin to form, as Shan, Liana, Danny, and Deshawn all agree to stick together over their shared racial background. Interesting options. We’ll see where they land.
Meanwhile, Erika talks about how the isolation and depravation may be making her hallucinate. No, she is not setting up for yet ANOTHER idol activation phrase, but merely expressing surprise at Probst showing up on Exile Island to greet her. Yes, this is the heralding of yet ANOTHER new twist. Basically, Erika has been made a Time Lord, or whatever time-travel reference you would care to make. She is now effectively a part of the yellow team, and can either keep them (and by extension herself) vulnerable, or else change the outcome to make her and her team safe. This has the potential to be an interesting dilemma, and I like that Erika wins by effectively being left out. Sort of like how the first challenge on “King of the Nerds” would play out, and as I like that show, I’m ok with that part of it.
Unfortunately, this twist ultimately falls a bit flat for me. The best dilemmas are true, well, dilemmas, with no one option being the obvious correct choice. Here, Erika has the choice between leaving herself vulnerable, while keeping the people who rejected her safe, or saving her safe and leaving those who rejected her vulnerable. Not really much of a choice. Really, for this to be an intriguing debate, Erika needed to be vulnerable either way, and basically pick which group she thought would be more likely to keep her safe.
Evidently the show thinks this is a major debate, though, as this is where we end. Yep, it’s the rare “Survivor” cliffhanger, not often seen these days! It’s shown up a few times in the past, such as before the Outcast Tribal Council on “Survivor Pearl Islands”, and at the fire-making challenge on “Survivor Exile Island”. Both events more tense than this one, but hey, the episode needs to be split somewhere. And I am glad they’re splitting this episode. All this would have been too much to take in in just a single episode.
Perhaps that’s why this episode is so hard to judge: It does feel like half an episode. Again, not sure what they could have done different, but it feels like this episode was the instruction manual to the next episode, when exciting things happen. Still, nothing happened to piss me off, so I guess this one becomes a win in my book. Hopefully next week can build on the decent foundation.
-Matt
Title Credit to Jean Storrs.
idolspeculation 
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