For those not familiar with psychology terms “Mirror Neurons” refer not to specific neurons themselves, but to the propensity of the brain to fire off in response to external emotional stimuli. In other words, your brain activates when you see someone conveying a strong emotion. Monkey see, Monkey feel, to put it crudely. Interestingly, the effect even works for a simulated emotion, such as from a drawing or, more on the nose for tonight, on your tv screen. This is something that, as we’ll see, the music uses to great effect.
We pick up immediately after Tribal, where we see that there are surprisingly few hard feelings about getting out Naseer. Danny in particular is ok with the whole mess, which makes sense given his earlier vendetta against Naseer. As we’ll see, Danny has a hard time letting go of his old, earlier targets. To be fair, Ricard actually does a good job of spinning the whole thing, describing Naseer as a “consensus boot”. Where I can’t get behind Ricard is in his noting that Shan used her extra vote to do so. Not only does this reveal to Heather that Shan voted for her, it also reminds everyone that Shan has advantages. I get what Ricard is trying to do: Reduce the threat level of his ally by noting she has fewer weapons now. But it also primes everyone to remember “Oh yeah, idols are dangerous. We should eliminate the people who have them.” Not good if your number one ally is someone who has one of these. As we’ll see, though, Shan may not actually be Ricard’s number one ally.
Sure enough, Erika goes to Deshawn to suggest voting out Shan to get rid of her idol. Way to go, Ricard. Shan sure is lucky to have you as an ally.
You could be forgiven for thinking you accidentally skipped back to last episode when morning comes, but no, we are getting what at first seems a repeat scene. Deshawn and Shan are making amends, though this time it seems to stick a bit more. Both are wary of the other for various moves they’ve discussed, but at the end of the day still want to come together, and this time things seem to stick more. There’s no IMMEDIATE confessional of one of them wanting to target the other, or someone close to the other, at least.
What there is is an explanation for why they keep coming together in spite of these disagreements. Things have been hard for the Black community as a whole in North America this past year. They’re hard in general, but the past year has been particularly hard. There’s no denying that just by looking at the news. As such, despite their disagreements, Shan and Deshawn want this alliance to stick together as a “win” for the Black community. And I can applaud that. I respect that. I like to think I understand it, but then again, I’m white, so I’m not sure I truly do, or ever fully can. And I certainly don’t pretend that I have a right to have my opinion have any weight in this matter. But that being said, if you want to know my opinion… Eh, I’m largely happy, but not fully.
Part of me believes that “Survivor” is at its best when the self-interest of everyone comes up against the group dynamic. Having people play for a greater goal than their own self-interest makes for a heartwarming game, but not necessarily an interesting one. On the whole, though, I’m very happy with this development. If “Survivor” is to truly be a “social experiment” as Probst likes to claim, this sort of subject and reasoning is going to come up, and should be embraced, not avoided. And I also can’t deny that the first 40 seasons could be largely argued to the story of “White people ganging up”. There are exceptions, of course, but it happens often enough that the show got flak for it, helping lead to the “Minimum 50% BIPOC” mandate in casting now. Turnabout is fair play, is what I’m saying. And, if nothing else, it is really heartwarming to see the group come together in this way. I just wish the strategy lined up as well. But strategy or not, I can’t deny the truth of what Shan and Deshawn are saying.
I also can’t deny that this scene is emotionally effective. The pair genuinely tear up when talking about the hardships of the past year, and it gets those mirror neurons firing full speed. A genuinely touching moment to help kick off the show. It would be a shame if something happened later on to undermine this.
CHALLENGE TIME! Yeah, been a while since I’ve used all caps to describe a challenge, but this reward challenge makes me happy. Each individual works their way along a rope their tethered to, only to solve a star puzzle at the end. The winner goes to “Survivor Sanctuary”, which is thankfully NOT a twist where 8 zillion more advantages get added to the game, but basically just a reward cabin with pizza. Probst calls it “a break from the game”, but we all know, until that final vote is cast, the game never really “breaks”. Longtime readers may remember that I find ropes courses overplayed. While I admit their long absence has made me more tolerant of them, I’m still not the biggest fan. Why am I so happy, then? The operative word in that first sentence was “Individual”. Yes, the show has FINALLY deigned to give us an individual challenge post-merge, as I have BEGGED for, so that we can have the drama of deciding who to take on reward.
We see this drama on full display, as Ricard wins after a fairly back-and-forth challenge. His first pick, Shan, is reasonable. While tight, the two have had rocky moments. Better to shore up that ally, and Ricard makes a good case, pointing out that Shan hasn’t been on any rewards yet. His next pick, Heather, is still a little eyebrow-raising, but reasonable. Heather’s someone you don’t mind strengthening for a challenge, and Ricard can make the excuse that she hasn’t been on a reward yet. But Xander? Ricard does a decent job justifying himself, referring to it as payback for him sitting out to get the tribe rice (I notice that didn’t stop you from voting out Naseer last episode, though). Decent enough justification, but Xander is your main immunity threat competition, and on the outs with pretty much everyone else. Why strengthen him? Especially when you could take a non-challenge threat (like Erika), or someone closer to your alliance (like Liana), and still be all right?
Jury management, according to Danny. Danny is certain he knows what Ricard’s up to, and it’s making nice with future jury members to ensure that he wins in the end. Unsurprisingly, this puts Ricard at the top of his and Deshawn’s hit list. They’re certain Erika and Heather will vote with them, but they need a fifth. Why they don’t think to go to Xander in this situation is beyond me (admittedly, he’s off on reward, but they could ask when he gets back, yet from what we see, never do). Still, they talk to Liana, who’s all about loyalty to Shan at this point, but is willing to cut Ricard for the sake of the alliance. Really, worry about Shan’s reaction is the only thing making the alliance hesitant to turn on Ricard at this point, but Deshawn and Danny both admit that while they want the alliance as a whole to succeed, they don’t want to go against Shan at the end, and so flimsily justify it to themselves.
They may not need to, however. Rather than focus on the reward (presumably because “Treasure Island” isn’t playing), we get more clarity on Shan and Ricard’s relationship. While the two are very close, and are working as a pair, Ricard notes that they never actually made a deal to go to the end together, and each plan to snake the other at some point. Shan never explicitly confirms this is the deal, but does briefly agree when Ricard brings it up to her face, before suggesting they enjoy the reward. Shan is thinking it over, as evidenced by her humming her “evil music” once again. Hilariously, someone other than Shan makes note of it for the first time, with Heather asking her what she’s doing.
Despite having been all-in on the plan earlier, Liana decides she’s closer to Shan than to Danny and Deshawn, and thus, by extension, closer to Shan’s allies. She breaks down about how close she feels to Shan after their trip to Prisoner’s Dilemma Island, and spills the beans. A level of devotion not seen since Brendan wanted JT to win over him on “Survivor Tocantins”. This scene feels a bit more forced than the emotion we got earlier, but it still gets the old mirror neurons firing just the same.
Since Shan does not believe it’s time to snake Ricard yet, she lets him know about the plot. Ricard takes it well, and for once, that’s not sarcasm on my part. Shan seems dumbfounded at Ricard just wanting to “process the news” rather than make anything happen, but I’d say it’s a perfectly reasonable reaction. The two do suggest getting rid of Deshawn, since he’s starting to strategize more, though.
Off to our immunity challenge, which involves balancing a ball on an increasingly long pole while standing on an increasingly thin sloped balance beam. We’ve seen it a bunch of times before, nothing to write home about. Given the trends of this season, we know that one of our targets will win immunity, but we have MULTIPLE targets now, with both Deshawn and Ricard being thrown out. That is, until Deshawn drops, and any tension between our remaining contenders (Ricard and Xander) is gone, as Ricard handily wins immunity. Honestly, the best thing to come out of this challenge was Erika’s quip about Probst retracting her and Xander’s “Friendship Bracelets”.
With Ricard out, the plan defaults back to Erika, being considered the best schemer outside the alliance. Decent plan, though you’d think they’d be more worried about Xander’s idol. Shan’s solution to this is to not name a target to Xander, in the hopes that he spooks and plays his idol. Decent plan. Certainly better than Ricard’s attempt by just telling Xander to play the idol at Tribal with no evidence.
Ricard, however, has a different plan. While Shan does not believe it’s the right time to get him, he disagrees, and says it’s the right time to get her. As such, he kills any hope of Xander playing the idol by telling him, Heather, and Erika about the plan. Of course, this is only four, and with no split vote, they need a fifth. This comes in the form of Deshawn, who despite earlier wanting Ricard out, is willing to work with him to get Shan out. Deshawn’s flimsy justification for this is that Shan betrayed the alliance by telling Ricard about the plan. Certainly a true statement, but that, Deshawn, could be argued to be in response to you breaking the alliance to target her other ally (rather than one of the others on the outs), and given that you’ve said you don’t want her in the end, I’d say you broke the alliance first, at least in spirit.
Also gee, sure glad that alliance that was so empowering at the beginning of the episode remained tight, and the strategy didn’t retroactively kill that moment.
What’s interesting about this plan is that it makes sense for pretty much everyone involved… EXCEPT RICARD! You know, the guy who suggested it in the first place? Erika, Heather, and Xander should all just be happy it’s not them, while Deshawn takes out a threat without hopefully taking flak for masterminding the plan. This admittedly means he’ll have to take out the true masterminds to get credit, but he’s got time to do that. For Ricard, however, it’s too soon. I won’t deny he needs to take out Shan in order to get credit for making moves on his own, but when someone LITERALLY TELLS ALL ABOUT THE FIRST HINT OF A MOVE AGAINST YOU, YOU MIGHT WANT TO KEEP THEM AROUND! Plus, while tonight clearly shows that Ricard has more social capital than previously thought, it’s still unclear who he would be tight with moving forward. Xander perhaps, but I feel like Xander’s enough of a threat that Ricard will want him out soon as well.
This plan is mana from heaven for those on the bottom, but Erika is not content, rightly noting that if Shan DOES play her idol, then she has full control over who goes. Given that it’s likely to be Erika, Erika is naturally unwilling to go to this. A split vote would be ideal with these numbers, but it’s not feasible with five. Thus, she goes to Danny to make a sixth, which Danny’s initially on board with. Again, reasonable for him for the same reasons it’s reasonable for Deshawn. What gets me, however, is Danny saying that formulating this plan makes ERIKA a threat. Don’t misunderstand, Erika did a great job in approaching Danny, and persuading him to come along with the plan, but the plan itself? A split vote is pretty simple at this point. Erika is definitely smart, but this plan does not a strategic mastermind make. Really, this comes across more like Danny is bringing up his and Deshawn’s grudge from Luvu once again.
Probst claims that Tribal is one of the best in terms of people giving answers that aren’t really answers, and honestly, I’m kind of inclined to agree. For once, Probst hyperbole is not present. Sadly, a cagey Tribal means there’s not a lot to talk about in terms of the Tribal itself. Thankfully, the music makes up for it. For all of this episode’s strengths, one drawback is that there’s little mystery. With all this buildup, there’s no way Shan doesn’t go home. Her not playing her idol is just the final nail in the coffin. The music, rather than try to build tension where there is none, instead gives us a sad, haunting, somber piece, for the death of such a great player. Capping it off is Ricard’s voting confessional after the split vote ties between Shan and Liana, telling her that he respects her, but one of them had to snake the other. It’s a touching vote that reminds me positively of the vote out of Dan “Fuego” Barry from “Survivor Exile Island”. Granted, that one was even more touching, since the tribe was so reluctant and unified, but they give off the same vibes of a true player taken out before their time, and the moment just comes together nicely.
In case it wasn’t clearly, I am IMMENSELY sorry to see Shan go. A villain, to be sure, but an interesting and likable one, who largely played the season well. She made some mistakes, but that showed she was human. She had charm, she had charisma, she even had a fun little jingle! Shan was a fantastic addition to the show, and I eagerly await her return.
If this is not the best episode of the season, it’s a close contender. Yes, there was little tension. Yes, some of the strategy undermined the earlier emotion. But it had both the heart and the strategy of some of the best episodes of the show, and for all my complaints, deserves to be talked about among the best of the best! That said, if the rumors about what’s coming next week are true, like Shan I may soon be singing a very different tune.
-Matt
Title Credit to Jean Storrs.
idolspeculation 