Say what you will about this episode. It has its good points. It has its bad points. But no one can deny one thing: It was aesthetically pleasing. From more focus on Evvie’s awesome rainbow shorts to the frankly beautiful merge tribe “Flag”, this was a gorgeous episode to look at. In a visual medium, that’s hardly nothing. Granted, the immunity idol is kind of “blah”, but you can’t have everything.
Fortunately, “Survivor” usually delivers more than a generally good aesthetic, and this episode is no exception. We start off intense, with post-Tribal arguments. As previewed, the feud between Deshawn and Shan has not cooled down one bit. Shan, understandably, is upset at the target being changed, and ultimately falling one someone who wasn’t much of a threat, and had no advantages. Deshawn, meanwhile… Is still unhappy at being told what to do. Look, a Live Tribal is definitely a stressful situation, but this one was pretty clearly Heather’s fault, not Shan’s. Yes, Shan did suggest switching the vote as a result, but so did several other people
All this, of course, is happening in front of Evvie, who we see has a terrible poker face, as they cannot keep from grinning at this implosion. Sadly, their happiness may be short-lived, as Deshawn and Shan seem to make up in the morning. Deshawn apologizes for going so hard on her about the vote, and Shan agrees to try and listen more. This then devolves into strategy talk, where Shan suggests Erika be the next to go. This, for some reason, pisses Deshawn off, and he goes off in confessional again about how Shan doesn’t listen and just wants her way. Again, I’m not denying that Shan HAS done this sort of thing in the past. Ricard knows this all too well. But in this case, it just seemed like normal strategy talk; Shan throwing out a possible name to go next. A name, I might add, you attempted to THROW A CHALLENGE to get rid of! Yes, Shan makes dumb moves sometimes. She makes one here, blatantly calling “The four” to talk, RIGHT IN FRONT OF TARGETS XANDER AND ERIKA! But how she handles Deshawn here? Not one of them.
It’s clear at this point that Deshawn just can’t handle not being in charge of the vote. Shan wanting to share power is a trigger for him. To Evvie’s happiness, he goes back to them to rant about it, increasing their chances down the line.
Ah, but we haven’t had enough negativity yet for the episode! After all, Deshawn and Shan were not the ONLY ones affected by the last vote. They weren’t even the people most affected by that vote. No, that would probably be Naseer, who was targeted in the chaos, and Heather, who initiated the chaos. Not coincidentally, our scene takes place between Naseer and Heather. Naseer, ever the diplomat, says that while he’s not happy about the vote, he won’t hold it against Heather. Heather denies voting for Naseer, which, if you look back at the votes IS true, but even so, initiating a Live Tribal and naming you as the target? I still wouldn’t trust that person, and neither does Naseer. The whole thing devolves into an argument, with Naseer now wanting Heather gone yesterday.
But all this negativity is too much. Let us get some more heartwarming content. Ricard gets asked about his deafness in one ear, and goes on to explain how it makes things like his job challenging for him, since there’s a lot of ambient noise in an airplane. Touching enough, but then the show takes full advantage of the medium it uses, and adjusts the sound so that the conversation becomes blurred. The content of said conversation doesn’t matter so much, but that little peek into even a loose facsimile of Ricard’s world. Genius move. Ricard’s emotional confession about what he’s proving out here is just the cherry on top.
Challenge time already? Well, that’s because we’re doing the mini-de-merge, first seen in “Survivor Ghost Island”. We’ll split into two groups of five, each competing for separate immunity, with the individual lasting the longest winning stew for their group, as well as a higher placement for their boot by going to Tribal Council second. The challenge itself pulls from San Juan del Sur (man, this season loves to pull from that season for challenges, it seems). Contestants stand on a narrow perch, holding their hands on two bars behind their head. Last one standing wins. You may remember this as the challenge where Natalie Anderson accidentally spat on herself, or, if you’ve just discovered “Survivor David vs. Goliath” on Netflix, the one where Christian talked Probst’s ear off for several hours.
Much as the challenge is decent, and as much as I longed for a “De-Merge” twist back in the day, I’ve since grown off of it. Mostly it just serves to try, and fail, to shake up the dynamics, and having to watch two groups strategize separately just ends up taking up more time. It’s ultimately a failed twist.
Save in this instance, for a couple of reasons. First, while previously teams would strategize separately, but at the same camp post merge, this time the teams will be separated after the challenge, the losers going back to the old Ua camp. While this does make it hard for some strategies (such as convincing an ally on the other team to give you an advantage), it does force more self-reliance, and second-guessing of what the other team will do. Second, and more important, is that this season continues to buck the previous trend of the person who needs it not getting immunity. Erika and Xander were our named targets, and when they end up on opposite teams, there’s the chance that both easy targets are immune. Sure enough, they do, with Xander winning the whole thing for himself, Danny, Deshawn, Liana, and Evvie, thus sending an immune Erika, with Ricard, Shan, Naseer, and Heather back to Ua.
Xander is rightfully happy at his win, but should be even more happy about his maneuvering this episode. With Danny, Deshawn, and Liana all aligned at this point, and Xander immune, Evvie is the obvious target. About all that could be done to save them is for Xander to give up his idol, a prospect that probably does more harm than good, given how big his target is right now, and how tenuous the Evvie relationship is. Still, they must work together, and agree to try and maneuver against Liana, referring to her as Shan’s “Right Hand Man”. Liana even tries to invoke this, by first naming Danny and Deshawn as the real threats in a one-on-one with Xander, but then asking to hold his idol as a sign of trust. Unsurprisingly, this is because Liana is actually with Danny and Deshawn, and just wants to make sure Xander doesn’t play his idol on Evvie. But unfortunately for Liana, she doesn’t have quite the same charisma or push that Shan does, and even if he were as dumb as his voice makes him sound, Xander is not that dumb. He plays nice to Liana, since he needs any leads he can get, but makes no bones about not giving her his idol in confessional.
So we’re back on Evvie, right Not exactly. Realizing that Liana’s gambit failed, Danny talks to Xander one on one as well, and the pair discuss going for Liana, especially after hearing their names might have been out there. Xander pitches it well, selling himself and Evvie as solid votes for Liana that Danny can count on. Credit where it’s due: Xander has done a great job positioning himself to get all the information, and is manipulating that as best he can to position himself down the road. Being immune helps, of course, but that still takes some skill. I’m willing to admit he’s a better strategist than I gave him credit for.
The team wondering about the other team transitions us to well, the other team. That was the clearest sentence I ever wrote. Once again, with the main target immune, they switch to the next target, the one most closely allied with the immune person. Unlike our first group, however, this alternate target is not a major strategic threat, like Evvie, but instead, Heather, the person who up until last episode was barely known by the show at large. Naseer, being loosely allied with Shan and Ricard, is fully on board when the pair say they’re too tight to vote another way. Granted, Naseer was never formally allied with Shan’s four, but he has tended to vote with them, and there’s little reason to stop now. That said he does go to Erika and Heather and say that tempting as it is to play his idol, he wants to hang onto it. Um, WHY? Oh, not “Why does he want to hang onto his idol?” That’s understandable. But WHY ARE YOU TELLING THE PEOPLE YOU”RE VOTING AGAINST THIS? IT CAN ONLY BACKFIRE ON YOU!
Oh look, there goes Ricard channeling the spirit of Tiffany, and wanting to vote out Naseer to flush his idol. Yes, I know that has nothing to do with Naseer saying he won’t play his idol to Erika and Heather, but still, it feels like karma. Shan, however, is a harder sell, and this somehow devolves into arguing about who gets to hold what advantage, and who gets to use what advantage. Reprise of song for the pre-merge for these two at this point. What is the smarter move? Get rid of Heather, of course! While Naseer is a bigger threat overall, he has at least shown a willingness to work with you that Heather has not. Plus, if you’re Shan who has the MOST idols and advantages at this point (or is at least tied with Xander), you want the people with idols around AS LONG AS POSSIBLE to shield yourself. Given Shan’s overall popularity with the group, she can easily maneuver that into a longer time in the game than her idoled counterparts. It just seems like such a no-brainer, and Naseer is totally doomed, isn’t he? This is why we can’t have nice things!
In an odd twist, our first Tribal tonight will be the more exciting of the two. Granted, it does have Probst trying to force “This is a new type of gameplay!” on us once again, but it’s made up for with Heather. Her lack of overall screen time at camp is made up for with lively Tribals, in her case. From praying for an idol from the sky at the beginning, to a very touching “This is what being on the show means to me” at the end, it’s just a nice sentiment all around. It also helps to build up that Heather may go, since it’s the same sort of content we got from Voce at his exit. That said, the editors are probably smart enough not to try the same trick twice.
Our vote ends up being a tie. Shan using the extra vote to ensure a split. I was initially confused as to the purpose of this, but the thought then occurred that it helped nullify any power Erika and Heather might have to control the outcome of the vote, should Naseer indicate an idol play to them. It make more sense that way, but still seems like a needless waste of an advantage. You could pretty much tell Erika and Heather would vote Naseer, and an extra vote gets more powerful as you go along, due to fewer players.
A revote sends Naseer home unanimously, and I am disappointed, though not for my usual reasons. Naseer, while by no means BAD at the game, was not the sort of mastermind I usually gravitate toward. However, in a season of complex characters, Naseer was one of our few out and out heroes. Everything about him screamed that he loved being in the game, and even when things didn’t go his way, I never got the sense that he was down on himself, or unhappy. That speaks volumes about his character, and I loved that vibe on this season. That is Naseer!
Our second Tribal, while no less sad, is not worth talking about in detail. Despite his best efforts, Xander’s maneuvering is for not, and the vote predictably goes for Evvie. Unsurprising, and probably the smartest move the group could make. Evvie was too big a threat to be kept around. That said, I am sorry to see them go. They were a real underdog strategist on this season, which is probably the archetype I like the most. They take it with good grace, but MAN is it a painful watch.
This season really just does not want to have purely rootable characters, do they? Well, apart from the pain of losing two nice people, this episode did it’s job well. Decent intrigue, great strategy, and a few heartwarming moments sprinkled throughout. Just another great hour of “Survivor”. Let’s get villainous next week, folks! We’ve shooed out the heroes, time for the “All-Villains”!
-Matt
Title Credit to Jean Storrs.
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