👽 Some thoughts while watching tonight’s episode:

New Advantage Twist – 

If you take it from where you find it, you have to follow the directions (AKA do whatever it says), or just leave it there. Each tribe has one of these idols/advantages, so there are 3 total currently in the game. In order for any of these to have any power, all 3 must be found + activated – by each player speaking a unique secret sentence aloud + all at the same immunity challenge. Until then, you are not allowed to vote at tribal council(s).

I like the uncertainty/mystery aspect of this. It’s really interesting to think about all the factors at play here + the possibility of everything lining up perfectly in sync to potentially have a massive effect on the outcome of the game. 🔮✨

I also don’t like this concept b/c I generally am against anything that depends on other people + their cooperation… ik ik, that’s life.. (but personally would always prefer an individual reward or an individual to be able to work hard + earn their reward).

The fact that there are 3 tribes + 3 idols that must all be found also makes it pretty complicated to figure out the likelihood of that event. You’d have to try to analyze each person on the other tribe’s idol-finding competence levels + the timing around that. Definitely more like a shot in the dark, than a usual idol’s sure thing.

Immunity Challenge –

NGL the entire time, I was hoping the yellow tribe is regretting their decision to send Abraham home last week after watching Tiffany struggle + fall off the balance beam several times + cause them to lose the entire challenge. Abraham was very physically fit/clearly would not have had any sort of physical issue in competitions + who did he want to vote out last week again? …. TIFFANY! At this point, I hope to see most or all of yellow tribe go home, as they’ve already screwed themselves. 🤦🏼‍♀️

And continuing to completely f*** themselves over… Evvie decides to go w/ an all-girls alliance to vote out Xander + I’m screaming at the tv at this point. I understand Xander could be seen as a threat due to items in his pocket (extra vote from last episode + the new advantage), HOWEVER, he is as vulnerable as it gets. He has no power to use anything he has + can’t even cast a single vote for an undetermined period of time. This means at this point in time literally every other player is more threatening bc of the power of their vote.

WWCD –

If I were Evvie in this situation, I would not go the all-girls alliance route. How many times has that actually worked? I can think of ONE. It worked when there were 3 POWER PLAYERS aligned – one of whom belongs on the list of best players to ever play this game (Parvarti Shallow). Point being: It almost never works. Also, I would take advantage of Xander’s powerlessness to deepen that bond w/ him so once he does have an ability to use his firepower, I’m on the right side of it. One way she could easily do this is to just let him know she told Deshawn to look for the idol on his beach (b/c this could actually end up helping Xander out down the line). Plus, he actually reads more loyal to me than Tiffany, which was supposedly the whole point of keeping her…

And if i were Xander, I would try to use my potential (future) power to buy myself some time by deepening my bond w/ Evvie + making a promise to use this extra vote + advantage with her/never against her, if she proves loyal at this tribal (which obviously she didn’t, but since he’s still around, wouldn’t hurt to try it next week as I’m pretty confident they’ll be losing another challenge…). Share the power – even if you get yourself to a better spot in the game/change your mind later, people love to feel that they have power…😈

Tribal Council –

Tiffany basically straight up admits she can’t handle the physical living conditions of Survivor. Now, don’t get me wrong – I am NOT at all saying it isn’t hard, believe me i KNOW i’d be dying out there too – I’m just saying we have all seen proof of her mind + body already starting to give in this very episode + i can’t say the same for anyone else so far this season.

Physically – the balance beam portion of the challenge, obviously – not just because she struggled w/ it, because a few others struggled a bit, but no one else struggled THAT hard. Other people had to sit or crawl across, but she couldn’t even manage that. Was that really even her best effort, you might ask after she admits later at camp to not wanting to scrape up her legs on the beam? I say, if it wasn’t her best effort, she definitely deserves to go b/c anyone giving less than their best doesn’t deserve to play the game. There are so many people out there who would KILL to give this game their absolute ALL so I just plain do not respect that. If it was her best effort…this is only the beginning of the game…so if you’re thinking of keeping her around for loyalty (AKA taking her to the end/at least taking her pretty far in the game)… you need to think longevity. Who do you think can MAKE IT down the line in the game??? (OUTLAST is ⅓ of this, remember??)

Mentally – she becomes very paranoid right before tribal (we know this is right before tribal b/c Evvie just arrives back from her little decision-making island adventure) saying they need to vote out Voce (David). WHICH MAKES NO F***ING SENSE. She does not seem to understand strategy or be able to keep all the moving parts of the game straight in her mind, it’s like her thoughts are all jumbled. 

Tell me why Evvie went along w/ this plan + kudos to you, bro, b/c I just cannot make any sense of it. Evvie SAW the note w/ Xander’s advantage – she KNOWS for sure his idol does not have any power. The only reason Tiffany suggested this move was to protect herself against a possible idol…and now you may have managed to alienate 1/3 of your alliance, as Liana was extremely straight up about not wanting to vote Voce. 😐

Other –

• What would’ve happened if Xander never told anyone about the idol/advantage? Would he have been seen as a threat anyway, since he would’ve then been able to put his extra vote to use at tribal? Or would Tiffany have gone home? It seemed to me that it was more this second item in his pocket that made Evvie decide 100% to flip alliances.
• I expected Voce to go much further in the game tbh. I don’t see Xander making it to the end, but I’m happy he didn’t go tonight b/c i’m interested in his approach. I’m looking forward to seeing at least a bit more of his strategy + gameplay next week. 
• Generally, I’d have to say I’m rooting for the blue tribe – they proved once again to be a very cohesive team w/ a strong balance of physical + mental abilities + pulled off another 1st place challenge win. 
• As previously mentioned, Naseer is an early favorite of mine so I enjoyed learning a bit more about his life growing up in a small town in Sri Lanka + was so proud/happy for him watching him successfully make fire! Also glad that in this case, he is seen not as a threat for these skills, but more so as “essential” to the tribe’s survival. Lfg.
• Right now, I’m hoping the 3 boys who chose to either risk/protect their votes in episode 1 are the 3 (1 per tribe) who find the idols. Math is not at all my strong suit so I’m not sure what the chances are of this actually happening, but I think it’d be neat + right now, I’m a fan of all 3 (Xander, JD, Danny) – let’s gooooo!
• Brad’s spy shack move at the beginning – LOVE to see it!!! YES!!! (If you can’t tell, big Tony Vlachos fan over here.) 👀🌴