I’m sure our contestants probably want some Honey and Nuts right now, but unfortunately, they’re stuck with nothing but rice they have to “negotiate” for. Clusters, however, are in abundant supply. “Cluster you know what’s”, as Dolly from “Survivor Vanuatu” would say.
Before we can get into breakfast, however, we have some leftovers to deal with. Yes, it’s time once again for another edition of…
MATT’S MESS-UP!
Yes, so concerned was I with discussing the ramifications of Erika’s time-travel twist that I neglected to mention the ACTUAL fallout in the episode. Specifically, our two different reactions in Danny and Deshawn. Both are pissed, but Danny just wallows in his misery, while Deshawn states that, while unfair, it’s part of the game and best to move on. Both valid, and I think we all probably fall closer to Danny’s reaction, but Deshawn is probably playing the better game out of the two, now.
Getting into the actual episode, we start with some people making peace with Evvie, while others admit they can’t trust her anymore. It’s just not the people you’d expect. Liana, who went full-tilt against Evvie last time, is now bonding back with them. Granted, Evvie says they still don’t trust Liana now, but it’s something. Meanwhile Xander, who did just about everything short of playing his idol on Evvie last episode, is now saying he doesn’t think he can work with them long-term. What is this place, Crazy Town?
No, actually, it’s Viakana. Not to be confused with “Vinaka” from “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X”. The show’s refusal to travel to a new area, if only to vary up linguistic group, rears its ugly head once again.
Only Deshawn’s reaction to Evvie seems remotely appropriate to what happened in the previous episode. While he also plays nice to their face, he admits to the others at the water well that he hasn’t forgotten that they, along with their alliance, wrote his name down, and so won’t be forgiving them any time soon. Evvie, for their part, recognizes that they’re still on the bottom, for once giving us a clever tie-in to their work. As Evvie is studying anthropology, they talk about them being at the bottom of the “social diamond”, and needing to test the waters of how well they can integrate back in.
We then get one annoyance after the other. First, Probst pots back in again, “Blues Clues” style, to show him hiding an advantage on the sit-out bench, a la “Survivor Game Changers”. Because that’s DEFINITELY the season you want to be drawing from for quality content. Admittedly, this Probst interruption is short, and not as bad as some other ones this season, but even now just feels unnecessary. Worse, however, it leads us into another team challenge post-merge. Why, if you want to keep doing team challenges, even merge! It’s an INDIVIDUAL game! Make the rewards INDIVIDUAL! At a minimum, it gives us the dilemma of who to take on reward, which can make for good drama.
Oh, and to add insult to injury, they challenge they’re using? It’s the same as the immunity challenge that led to Aubry’s elimination on “Survivor Edge of Extinction”. Sure, show. Rip open that old wound, and rub in some salt while you’re at it.
We don’t even get the pleasure of team pickings, as we’re randomly divided once again. With an odd number, this means one sit-out, and history repeats as Erika drops out once again. Thankfully for her, Xander has a good heart, and agrees to switch places with her, putting her on the team with Ricard, Deshawn, Danny, and Evvie, up against the team of Naseer, Shan, Liana, Tiffany, and Heather. As will later be pointed out, pretty much the same breakdown as the “merge” challenge (save for the switching of Naseer and Erika), and with the same outcome. It’s not nearly as lopsided, though, as the latter team is actually ahead for a time, but Evvie and Erika beast mode the puzzle to win for blue. And, of course, they have to reference the accursed season by name in noting how they memorized the puzzle solution. Can we turn “Edge of Extinction” into the “Survivor” version of saying “Macbeth” in theatre?
But what of Xander, and the advantage the show wants him to have? After all, Xander showed that he’s not quite the idiot he comes across as last episode. Perhaps he figured the sit-out might get an advantage? While we don’t know if he specifically did the sit-out for that purpose, Xander is at least aware of the possibility. Over and over during the challenge, we see him checking his bench. The one part he doesn’t check? The one part with the advantage. So much worth in seeing Probst hiding the thing there, then. Tune in at the immunity challenge, when they throw the advantage directly in someone’s face to make sure it gets found!
While our winners go off to feast on grilled cheese sandwiches and chips, our losing team consoles themselves with some papaya that Naseer managed to wrangle up. All well and good, but another tiff between Ricard and Shan (I mean a fight, not Tiffany herself, don’t get your knickers in a twist) comes up. Ricard, curious as to how the papaya tastes, grabs a piece to eat. This, however, sets Shan off, as Ricard got both recent reward feasts, and thus, in her mind, does not have the right to any of the food at camp for the immediate future. I get being bitter about not eating, particularly given the low supplies this season, but I have to admit, this seems like an overreaction. Had Ricard taken a full portion of papaya, fine. He just ate, he doesn’t need a second meal. But this is trying a piece to see how it tastes. The tribe won’t starve from one less piece of papaya. This is no Rob and Amber dividing their reward candy into six piles on “Survivor All-Stars” after their reward. This is a test for flavor, not really an eating situation. Let it go. Still, given how Ricard and Shan have been tense, perhaps this is the straw that will break the camel’s back?
Now we head out to our tribute to Angelina of “Survivor David vs. Goliath”, as it’s time for our Probst negotiation. Probst initially offers up an individual portion of rice, at the cost of one person sitting out our immunity challenge. Alternatively, there is a three day bag of rice, but it will cost more sit-outs. After Probst channels his inner Angelina, and forces the contestants to name their price first, we eventually negotiate down to five sit-outs. Shan, the head negotiator for the tribe, agrees to sit out, and of course Naseer agrees as well. Did you really expect anything else at this point? When no one else steps forward, though, the number gets negotiated down to four, and Xander agrees to step out if someone else will as well. Ricard eventually becomes number four, and the only person without an idol to do so. Quite risky, since he and Shan had that fight, and now he’s made himself more of a jury threat. Time will tell if it matters, though.
I suppose there was an immunity challenge along with this negotiation. Forgive me, but this challenge lasted about half as long as the negotiation, in part because it’s that “Hold the block between your head and a frame” challenge originally from “Survivor Cagayan” (so at least we’re drawing from better seasons, now), and these people, frankly, suck at it. As Probst reminds us, Spencer set the challenge record at over an hour. These people? Less than five minutes. It comes down to a duel between Evvie, the person everyone and their mother has thrown out as a target this episode, and Heather, whom you’d be forgiven for forgetting exists this season. For once, though, the show gives us the exciting outcome, and Evvie wins! Good on them!
Naturally, the result of this victory is scrambling back at the camp. We start off with a simple split-vote plan. With the Yase Three (minus Liana) on the outs, and Evvie immune, they’ll split the vote between Tiffany and Xander to get one of them out, and flush the idol in the process. What could go wrong? Well, Deshawn and Danny get their old “Vote Out Naseer Itis” flaring up again, and decide, for some incomprehensible reason, to instead split the vote between Tiffany and Naseer. Better than splitting it between two idol holders, but WHY vote out the person who is at least willing to work with you in favor of the person you’ve had next to no interaction with? Why?
Thankfully, presumably now that she has food in her, Shan is there to NOT be an idiot, and points out how stupid this move would be. This, for some reason, makes Deshawn feel that he is not listened to. Look, you can DEFINITELY charge Shan with steamrolling a conversation, but this is one of her less egregious examples, and she does have a valid point here, not just a self-serving one. To her credit, though, she manages to smooth things over with Deshawn, and all seems good for now. In order to assist in this matter, she talks to Naseer about volunteering himself as an alternate target. Naseer, also not being an idiot, says “no”, and the vote split switches to Tiffany and Heather. Fair enough, except word gets back to Heather that her name is brought up, and now SHE’S running scared, on top of an already informed Xander and Tiffany. Lots of targets leading into tonight, so no real way to say which individual choice is best. The general principle of “One of the Yase Three” holds, but there’s debate even within that as to who is best to go.
Despite this at-camp chaos, it looks like we might have a fairly tame Tribal tonight. Probst asks the sit outs why they sat out, and discusses the alliance dynamics, before saying they were going to vote. Then, wouldn’t you know it, Heather gets scared, and out comes the whispering. Must it be at EVERY Tribal now? The only thing that comes of this is that Heather becomes the primary target for wanting to get Naseer off. Someone that chaotic? Not worth keeping around, even over a minority alliance that is rapidly gaining power.
It seems there was an island in the sea of chaos, though. An island named Tiffany, who now becomes the first member of our jury. Makes strategic sense, so I can’t fault the majority too much. That said, out of all the targets, the only person who rivaled her in terms of character was Naseer, so I am sorry to see her go. At least she gets to be on the jury.
This episode, like many episodes of the past, is “solid”. Not the greatest, but it gets the job done with decent mystery and entertainment. That said, this season has a double-edged sword of complex characters, in my opinion. The only truly two-dimensional hero/villain archetypes I’ve seen (people like Xander, Naseer, and Erika) don’t really have a shot to win, in my opinion. People like Shan and Deshawn, who do, also have both good and bad aspects to them. Leaning into the preview for next episode a bit, Deshawn will continue to ride the “Shan bulldozes” train, and it’s not a good look for him. I like that the show is shying away from straight archetypes, and I think it helps show the strength of the flashbacks to people’s real life, since it helps contrast their game behavior. That said, it does make it hard to realistically root for anyone this season, at least as someone who hopes for semi-realistic outcomes. Time will tell if they can make a satisfying conclusion out of this.
-Matt
Title Credit to Jean Storrs.
idolspeculation 