Idol Speculation: “Survivor 42” Episode 6: Now Owned by Disney

I must admit, when I thought about the possible fates in the future of “Survivor”, a channel hop was not one of them.  Then again, Disney is buying up everything even remotely marketable; I guess it was only a matter of time before they got to “Survivor”.  Suppose Probst talking about something happening “For the first time in forever.” and Sydney’s stint at the little mermaid last season should have tipped us off.  

But before we can get into the cornucopia of Disney references, it’s time once again for another round of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

Because having a two-hour episode to recap wasn’t enough, I need to talk about something I neglected LAST episode.  In all my discussion about the activation of idols, and the rules of idols (as a side note, I hate the rule change that if you don’t all say the phrase, the idol activates at the merge anyway.  Wasn’t just Mike misreading things, and I despise it.  Make them risky, I say.), I neglected to mention that we got a good look at the hidden immunity idols themselves, and they’re… underwhelming.  Not terrible, but basically just some colored beads on a string, rather than anything distinct.  Now, I get why the show would do this. By making the idols stand out less, fake idols become more viable.  And that’s fair.  I don’t mind seeing fake idols being brought more into strategy.  But it seems to me that the thing to do is, rather than make the idols generic, have no theming of idols whatsoever per season.  Like, one tribe has this super-elaborate necklace that fits with the theme of the season, while another’s is a tin can with a hole in it.  When an idol can be anything, fake idols gain power, but the idols still look distinct in and of themselves.  Seems like the perfect compromise, but hey, what do I know?  

Rant over, we continue to talk about last episode, or at least Probst does.  Yes, after a LONG absence, the “Previously On… ‘Survivor’!” makes a return.  Much as I might say otherwise, I don’t miss it.  Look, I know in the past I’ve said it’s helpful, but I’ve changed my stance.  The need for it arises when the show only airs weekly with not easy way to rewatch things.  Then, we NEED to make sure new viewers are up to speed.  But, in the age of streaming and on-demand video, that’s just not necessary anymore.  Sort of the same logic for why I don’t rail against the show staying in Fiji full time (I would prefer they continue to move around, but my main argument for why staying in Fiji will kill the show no longer applies).  Really, the only reason you would NEED a recap, and the reason we seem to have this one, is if you need to remind everyone who has what advantage.  If that’s the case, then it seems to me that maybe, just maybe, you have TOO MANY ADVANTAGES!

Vati also wants to talk about last episode, it seems.  Mike, unsurprisingly, is not happy about having his name written down.  Fair enough, though I must disagree when he says the move made no sense.  Chanelle was trying to protect herself in the event that Daniel successfully used his shot in the dark.  Then the vote would be a tie between her and you, and she’d at least have a chance, instead of being out automatically.  You want to be mad?  Fine.  That’s your right, and Chanelle is probably the least-trustworthy person left in the group.  But a bad move?  Can’t agree.  Mike plays it off well for now, but admits that he doesn’t trust Chanelle moving forward.  Probably should have been feeling that way since the Jenny boot, but either way, makes sense.  Mike prays for a merge.  

Despite this perfect segway, we first need to check in with Ika.  Rocksroy is going full Moana (something he will do multiple times this episode) and extolling the virtues of island produce.  The strategy, however, is the main point of the segment.  Shock of all shocks, Tori is causing drama.  Rocksroy, true to his game so far, was completely honest with his tribe about what happened.  It was the prisoner’s dilemma, he didn’t risk anything, and got no information out of Lydia.  We move on.  But no, Tori insists Rocksroy must have gotten SOMETHING from the island, and doesn’t trust him when he says he didn’t.  To put Tori’s argument in the BEST light possible, it’s not outside the realm of possibility for something new to happen on the “journey”, and it’s the sort of thing she’d keep hidden had she gone.  Rocksroy does not help matters by saying “I’m not telling you.” when what he means is “I’ve told you everything.”  Poor word choice aside, though, this is clearly Tori making a mountain out of a molehill.  The man was as open as he could possibly be, and yet she insists on going after him.  Even Romeo and Drea, people who have also targeted Rocksroy in the past, are on his side here, and put Tori on the block, thereby ensuring that Tori will stay this episode.  

So we head off to the challenge and… Oh hey, Probst is talking to us again, Blue’s Clues Style.  There’s something from last season I didn’t miss.  

Speaking of awful things from last season, the hourglass twist is back.  Joy of joys.  Look, I said at the outset of this season that I was not going to hold it against the show if they repeated bad ideas from last season.  They had little time for feedback; little time to correct.  This, however, is the exception.  They KNEW it was a bad idea.  The players last season TOLD THEM it was a bad idea.  It is very much PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE that Danny in particular read Probst the riot act for how this went down.  And yet, they still kept this in?  Madness!

Ok, ok, let us be completely fair.  Probst does explain in narration that the twist was tweaked a bit from how it went down last season.  Specifically, all contestants will be informed beforehand that whoever is sent into Exile will have some major power in the game, though exactly what is unspecified.  In addition, anyone on the winning team can sacrifice their spot for that power instead.  These are both good additions.  Steps in the right direction.  Sadly, for me, they don’t go far enough, and don’t fix the two major problems with this twist, that being the unfairness and the lack of entertainment.  

So, what changes WOULD this twist need to be ok in my eyes?  Let’s start with the fairness aspect, since they did seem to TRY and fix this one, by noting that the exile got power.  This does add more strategy to how the winning team plays things, and it makes it easier for the players to figure out what said twist might be.  Hell, Drea actually DOES figure it out; good for her!  But the sticking point for me is that Probst still says “The winning team makes the merge and is immune.”  This goes against Danny’s point of fairness, where you say that someone is immune, only then to revoke it, not due to a technicality, but due to a twist.  This undermines the game, and the fix is so simple.  In addition to the changes Probst made, DON’T SAY THE WINNERS GET IMMUNITY!  Just tell them they win a feast, and leave it at that!  Nothing lost, and much more fair!  As to the entertainment part?  Well, we’ll see later that Rocksroy’s “dilemma” is exactly the same as Erika’s, and just as “tense”, as in, we all know what will happen.  If you really want some mystery to the season, the exile should be immune no matter what.  Then it comes down to “which side played it better socially”?  Still not the stuff of legends, but better than what we keep getting, which is a non-choice.  

Oh, and Probst also mentions that the winners specifically get Applebee’s this season.  Guess Karishma from “Island of the Idols” got a job as a producer.  

So little was this whole thing tweaked that they even reuse the exact same challenge from last season!  Probst shows our players the “Whole New World” that is the hemispheres they must unearth and work with, and divides them up.  Our Orange team consists of Hai and Lydia, Jonathan and Maryanne, and Tori, while our Blue team consists of Omar, Mike, Drea, Romeo, and Chanelle, with Rocksroy and Lindsay as our sit-outs.  Orange team is of course favored to win with the presence of Jonathan, and win they do, but Blue manages to keep things fairly close, in spite of Drea’s difficulties getting up the ball.  They get to the puzzle, and get a decent way through it.  I actually thought Maryanne’s impression of Mr. Incredible, saying she “has time” over and over, foretold a come-from-behind puzzle victory, but no, Orange still wins.  

As with last season, Orange gets to take along one person, and here we get probably the only real strategic blunder we see this episode.  Orange takes Lindsay with them, and none of them sacrifice themselves to exile, sending Rocksroy instead.  Um, WHY?  Even if none of you wanted to give up your spot, why not send Lindsay instead?  Literally NONE of you have a tie to Rocksroy, with the only two people who have spoken to him on this team (Tori and Lydia) either not getting much from him, or getting bad vibes.  Why would you want to give someone like that power?  Conversely, Lindsay is more trustworthy, and actually has SOME incentive to not screw your team over, since at least Jonathan is there.  She might be ok screwing over Maryanne, but I have a harder time seeing her screw over both her AND Jonathan.  

At least they get to enjoy their feast.  Jonathan explains that he DID consider stepping down to exile, but felt he needed the nutrition of the food, which for a guy his size I can understand.  He even regales us with his meal plan.  Every morning, he eats five-dozen eggs, so he’s roughly the size of a barge.  Not to be outdone in sucking up to the mouse overlord, Tori notes that she’s gone from “Zero to Hero”, and proceeds to throw Rocksroy under the bus.  She brags about her power over him, and, um, Tori, did you NOT hear Probst talking about the exile having power?  Do you not realize that you have sent someone with NO incentive to save you into a position of power?  My, you really can be blind to your game sometimes.  

Less blind are those back at the Vati camp, which will be the merge camp (oddly no word on the merge tribe name this time), where they discuss what the twist might be, and here’s where Drea pulls out her eye of the fates, and correctly predicts what the twist will be, in hoping that Rocksroy makes them all safe.  Good on her.  She even ups the ante, once she and Mike are alone, by comparing idol notes.  They agree to stick together, and talk about who they’re tight with, with Mike throwing out Hai and Lydia, while Drea names Romeo and Rocksroy.  They agree to stick together and discuss available targets, with Mike pushing hard for Chanelle because of the top of the episode.  Solid strategy all around, you two.  Kudos.  

Meanwhile, Rocksroy makes himself at home on exile, even getting a small shelter for himself.  Since Probst is taking his sweet time to come out and explain the hourglass to him, Rocksroy, feeling alone on this island, looks out towards the sea.  It calls to him.  And he enjoys this look, as he notes that his eyes are degrading, and his eyesight may go before too much longer.  This sort of thing could sound forced, but Rocksroy delivers it with such sincerity that you sympathize with the guy.  Again, this is good, personal content.  Say what you will about this new era of “Survivor”, but they are GOOD at getting you to sympathize with the contestants.  

As our challenge winners now arrive back at camp, the real socializing can begin.  With the tribes so even, and a lot of chances for tribe interaction this season, there’s naturally a lot of good conversations to be had.  Lydia and Omar seem to bond over their quirkiness.  Hai, Drea, and Lindsay agree not to go against each other due to their advantages, presumably based on some sort of mutually-assured destruction fear (i.e. if one of them betrays the other two, the other two have no reason not to tell the tribe about their amulet on the way out), though Hai admits he’s not sure how deep that goes.  Drea loops Maryanne in on the idol holders sticking together.  Maryanne and Tori discuss how much they can trust Drea.  Jonathan and Mike bond over being strong guys who are only ever seen as just strong guys.  Mike and Omar bond after talking about Omar’s love life.  Hai tells anyone who will listen how tight he and Lydia are…  Wait, what?

Ok, perhaps I spoke too soon when I said there was only one bad move of the episode.  Hai is a social butterfly, and will make some good bonds, as we see, but the man goes a bit too far in talking about how he’d die on his sword for Lydia.  Not that he doesn’t frame it well, offering someone that level of protection is a good incentive, but advertising that you’re a tight pair is a bit of a death knell in the game, man.  Might make you more of a target than you want, just saying.  

Like I said, though, Hai is very social, and does make a good impression on a number of people.  One such person is Romeo, who is pleased to see someone in the LGBTQ+ community so open about their sexuality, when he himself is not out to several members of his family in El Salvador, who will find out presumably due to the show.  It’s a real human moment as the two bond, and Hai gives Romeo the encouragement to “Show Yourself”.  Yep, it’s great to have friends like these.  

One would assume that the presence of Omar, who is also a member of said community, would continue the heartwarming conversation, but instead, talk turns to strategy.  Hai is still on the warpath for Chanelle, and quickly turns Omar to his side by informing him that he has lost his vote, his chyron now changing to reflect this.  Despite making pleasant overtures at the merge, this is something that Chanelle, for some reason, neglected to tell Omar, putting Omar now firmly in the “Don’t trust Chanelle” camp.  Again, way to play, Chanelle.  

Our majority does eventually coalesce into a group of 8.  Jonathan, Hai and Drea all agree to work together as the physical threats.  Hai naturally pulls in Lydia and Mike as loyal allies, Jonathan pulls in Lindsay and Omar, and Drea pulls in Rocksroy.  Guess Romeo got dropped between commercials for some reason.  To be fair, though, when they’re throwing out targets, Drea does NOT name Romeo, but instead Tori.  Hai continues the “dump on Chanelle” train, and Jonathan throws out Maryannes name, though in the latter case it’s less that he really wants her out and more that he doesn’t want to let on how tight Taku is, which is fair.  I’d normally criticize this super-majority as being too large and too even to be viable long-term, but between split-votes being the meta right now, and larger merges tending to lead to large consensus boots for safety (yet another reason to hate larger merges), I can understand it.  

This, of course, leaves only Chanelle vulnerable of the targets, thus making her the consensus boot.  They shun her like Belle’s town in “Beauty and the Beast”.  Unfortunately for the majority, Chanelle has the annoying habit of walking in on conversations about targeting her.  Incidnetally, once Omar reveals his lost vote, Drea reveals her extra vote, making it the first time she’s done so that it ACTUALLY makes sense to do so.  The first time Chanelle comes up, everyone splits up as soon as she arrives.  She gives Lydia the third degree, who tries to “play dumb”.  It’s not the worst performance I’ve ever seen, but Chanelle is not an idiot, and realizes something’s up.  The majority then REALIZES that Chanelle realizes that something’s up, and admit they can’t end their conversation right as she comes up.  They then… talk about fish for like 30 seconds and split up.  Way to execute the plan, everyone.  

Of course, plans don’t matter when you have TIME TRAVEL!  Probst has explained the twist to Rocksroy, and though he puts up a decent effort at acting like he won’t, citing “not everyone gets a trophy”, we all know he’s going to smash that hourglass.  ALL his allies are on the other side, and the show stupidly allows him to give himself immunity, thereby all but guaranteeing he’ll smash that hourglass.  Yep, there he goes saying that “Change history” thing.  I can only assume that production is priming them to say it, because that phrase is too stupid for BOTH Erika and Rocksroy to say it.  The losers of the challenge now get the pretty purple buffs, and we move on to more fun topics.  

The challenge is standard.  Spell “Immunity” in blocks you balance on a board you hold with a rope.  Pretty standard, but tough, and hardly a bad challenge to reuse.  But the REAL highlight of all this is the new individual immunity idol, which is nothing short of kick-ass.  They keep the Ouroboros as the central image, and build on it with a necklace of what looks like scales,, and some bone spikes for an ominous feel.  It stands out, looks badass, and is overall a great continuation of the aesthetic of the season.  If only the hidden idols could keep up.  

While it might seem that we have more viable targets available, given how Jonathan was really not keen on getting out Maryanne, Tori is still really the only target we’ve heard about.  Naturally Tori wins immunity.  Guess she was able to keep up the “Surface Pressure”.  Note how happy I am.  Also not the sarcasm.  

At least we now get some good mystery out of it.  With all our viable targets immune, the scrambling begins.  Romeo is the first to throw out a name, talking about his “Rally the weak” strategy with Lydia.  You know, since that worked so well with Zach.  Jonathan is naturally the target of such an alliance, and it seems to gain a fair bit of traction.  Unfortunately, Jonathan has several people in his corner who want to use him as a shield, particularly Lindsay.  She then deflects to Maryanne, citing her large number of advantages as a reason to get her.  I would berate Lindsay for targeting someone on her original tribe, but to be fair, if she wants the group of 8 to stay tight, that’s the best option.  

It seems initially like those two will be our only options, but, in an attempt to get Omar in on the plan, Lydia talks about the 8 possible not being as tight down the road.  This is presumably meant to let Omar thing he wouldn’t be on the bottom of such an alliance, but Omar instead sees an opportunity.  While he knows he has no vote himself (and s, from what we see, everyone else knows as well), he can influence the vote, and starts pitching Lydia based on this.  He warns Maryanne and Jonathan (the former even shedding some tears in confessional about this), and seems to also gain some traction, presumably in part because Hai talked about how tight they were beforehand, and people wanting to split that up.  Where Omar may slip up is in telling Hai about this plan.  Hai, understandably, is not on board with this plan, and pitches Maryanne more aggressively as they head off to Tribal.  

So, three reasonable targets, but which one is best?  Well, depends on what side you’re on.  With old Ika seeming to be the most fractured of the bunch, they’ve lost the chance to grab power as a whole, so in some ways, this comes down to whether you want old Vati or old Taku to have power down the road.  Old Taku of course, want to keep power for themselves, and so have the best interest to vote off Lydia.  Old Vati and old Ika, however, have more incentive to de-power old Taku, since they seem to be the most united group.  Of the two, though, who to target?  Personally, I’d go Jonathan.  Physical prowess aside (as we saw today, it does not guarantee individual immunity wins), the man is the glue that holds old Taku together.  Take him out, and they’re no longer a threat to either of you.  Yes, Maryanne has “stuff”, but it can be strategized around, and as we’ve seen, Maryanne has trouble keeping secrets.  Better to weaken the tribe socially than in terms of advantages.  

For how tense and mysterious this tribe is, Tribal Council is oddly fun.  Everyone seems to genuinely get along, and have good rapport with one another.  The highlight is definitely Drea and Maryanne trying to figure out if they’re on the same page or not, but there’s a lot of fun moments from each individual.  

After a decently chaotic vote, with a total of four targets somehow (Rocksroy seems to have thrown a stray vote onto Lindsay.  No harm done, but see little logic when the vote was so split already), Lydia ends up being the consensus.  On the one hand, I’m happy she left, since it gives Taku, and by extension Omar, more power, which is what I want to see.  On the other hand, I did enjoy her presence on the show, more so than, say, Lindsay or Jonathan.  Nothing against either of them, I like both of them just fine!  Lydia was just more entertaining to me.  She will be missed, at least on my end.  

Hourglass shenanigans aside, this episode was great!  “Fun”, above all, is what I think of, but there’s more to it than that.  Strategic intrigue.  Good misdirection.  There’s something in this episode for everyone!  Let us hope the merge can keep up this pattern!  And if not, oh well.  That’s just the Circle of Life.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

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.