best rebus puzzle yet imo – challenging, yet solvable/makes sense 👍🏻
Favorite Quote (of this episode):
“In NFL terms, it would’ve been the equivalent of knocking down the old Tom Brady dynasty + for some reason, we decided to play kickball instead.” – Danny 👏🏻 (talking about how he wished they had voted Ricard out last tribal > Lianna.)
Least Favorite Quote:
“…and it just turned into this very fruitful fruit..” – DeShawn (talking about how he was trying to “plant a seed” in Erika’s mind about going/not going to the end w/ Heather.) k.
Reward Challenge:
knew yellow would win right away b/c DeShawn is good at making baskets + blue was bound to get held back by Heather (sorry, just being honest!)… my favorite part of all this btw was 100% Jeff commenting “confusing strategy by blue” LOL when they only had Danny retrieving the ball in the water since Heather was pretty exhausted.
they also were able to choose between chicken + veggies or cake + cookies. v smart to choose the protein option 💯 lol Xander called the chicken + veggies “Xander candy” 😂
“There was just something about his vibe that shifted and that scares me.” – Ricard once again being observant af. Danny had walked off looking for an idol + didn’t even think to carry sticks or something useful when he returned as a cover… and Heather definitely announced at camp her observation of him missing.
Immunity Challenge:
Wasn’t surprised when Ricard is way out in front w/ the word puzzle portion of the challenge, but did get nervous that DeShawn might execute more quickly after glancing over at Ricard’s puzzle several times. aaand Ricard pulls through first! He is just so, sooo intelligent – really impressive. It’s even more amazing when you remember he didn’t even win the food reward that day. His mind is just IN IT TO MF WIN IT BAYBEEEEE!
Strategy:
Xander says to Heather they should keep Danny around to try to beat Ricard in an upcoming immunity challenge + Heather says DeShawn would beat him before Danny…. have to agree w/ Heather on this one, although not for the same reason. Her reasoning was that DeShawn was only a few letters off from winning the immunity puzzle, but he was cheating off of Ricard on that. My reasoning would link back to the reward challenge (and many other similar challenges this season) – DeShawn’s strength is shooting baskets/really any kind of throwing/aiming challenge.
Tribal Council:
Deshawn says something like “this is where the rubber meets the road and see where all your coins land” and now he gets the same comment I previously made about Erika – can he ONLY talk in clichés??!? Sheesh…and just spits cliches in order to attack Erika at tribal + basically just blow up his entire game… i mean, he thinks was most likely going home anyway, but… #weirdflexbutok 🤨
Xander (to the voting booth cam/holding up a ‘DeShawn’ vote) – “your truth bomb was a little more of a truth kamikaze, my friend.” WORDDD. that’s my boi. always quotable. 😂
side note: thought it was really cute how Danny + Ricard were giggling at each other right after Jeff asks if anyone wants to play an idol + before votes were read. loved just this v pure, v Survivor moment ♥️✨
also thought it was smart they chose to split votes between Danny + DeShawn just in case Danny did find an idol, but to not let that fear of an idol change their strategy.
*Final Twist:
Now the final 5 players in the game are being sent to a new island to “start over” + in the next few days will have 2 immunity challenges, 2 tribals + 1 fire-making tiebreaker = 1 winner.
“DeShawn’s game is confusing to me – he’s very emotional and all over the place.” – laughed out loud at this Ricard commentary. 😂
Deshawn’s mad Shan called him a “snake” on his way out + told Ricard he has her vote for a million dollars…..which doesn’t make sense to me, b/c on the surface it may sound like only an insult to Deshawn’s game, but telling Ricard she’ll vote for him is actually a much worse hit – if anyone’s still awake in this game/strategizing at all, they’d realize Ricard is the bigger threat as he is the only player w/ a guaranteed vote for him in the end. 👁
Survivor ‘Do or Die’ Twist –
The first person out of the challenge will have to participate in a second separate challenge at tribal council – if you don’t complete it, you’re out of the game. You could also choose whether or not to participate at all. I don’t know yet how I feel about this twist, but initially I do like that this forces each player to strategize + think about a lot of different factors in the game (i.e. who else is going to either participate/not, their own personal risk level of going home, how likely they are to be able to at least outlast past the first fail/drop in this particular immunity challenge, how confident they are that they can complete this mystery challenge, etc.).
Xander – Ricard – Danny (final 3 challenge showdown) *Xander/Ricard drop within .5 second of each other*
Tribal Council –
Very disappointed that the overhyped ‘Do or Die’ challenge turns out to just be “pick 1 of 3 boxes”…… REALLY, SURVIVOR? 🙄😩 Literally just leaves it up to chance – only 33% it goes in your favor.
I actually think that voting out Liana was a great move, because having watched many, many seasons of Survivor, she may seem like a non-physical threat that you can easily take out of the game later, but much too often this person you’re not worried about ends up going on a challenge winning streak and/or gets lucky just enough times to end up making it to the end. Plus, you know Xander’s my mf boyyy … so it’s a smart strategy to keep a bigger threat in the game as a shield.
*eating my words about these being too easy* 😬 struggled w/ it until I said it out loud 😂
Strategy –
FINALLY someone says what I’ve been thinking (get Shan tf out!!!! #blindside) + I can’t believe it was Erika who finally said it. I guess Ricard + DeShawn are also smart enough to be aware of her threat level but where they differ is that they trust her to work with them to the end.
Ricard is really showing his strategizing strength once again in his ability to have this emotional bonding moment w/ Shan on the reward challenge + turn his back on her the next day (for extremely valid reasons ofc – just sayin’). Also in his ability to separate logic + emotion as well as think about each day in the game at a time. We can see this here – “I don’t like him [DeShawn], don’t respect him, he annoys me, but I still think he’s the best choice moving forward today, he can go home tomorrow.”
I also like what he said at tribal about how everyone has their own perception of themself and the ways it differs greatly between Erika feeling insecure b/c she really is on the bottom/powerless + then Xander feeling similarly even though he has great power in his pocket (but insecure b/c people know about it).
Reward Challenge –
At first, when I saw the star puzzle, I was surprised they’d do another repeat puzzle after Evvie knew the one last week by heart almost from practicing at home, but then I was like oh yeah…they DEFINITELY plan all this out way, way, WAY in advance 😂 and conveniently for producers, Evvie just* went home last week so I guess they don’t have to worry about any Superfan advantages anymore.
Also, Pizza Under the Stars is (as Jeff said) absolutely the best reward of any season. I must say, I really enjoy the “pick someone to go w/ you” + “pick one more person to go w/ you” decisions that come w/ the win b/c there’s so much strategy involved. Ricard picks Shan first – makes sense, his #1 alliance. Then he picks Heather + Xander. They play a confessional clip of Danny commenting on it as ‘playing the jury,’ which I think is true, but I would’ve liked the chance to think of it myself….this goes along w/ what I’ve said about the whole season. It’s like we’re just being told/shown everything straight up, when what I and a lot of Superfans love most about the show is analyzing + dissecting each player’s strategy behind each move. IDK – maybe I’ve just become too much of an introvert now.
Immunity Challenge –
Not at all surprised it came down to Ricard + Xander. Was hopeful for another Xander win especially knowing he got to go on reward + eat, but wasn’t surprised Ricard pulled that out. He’s shown he’s very strong when it comes to challenges requiring steady balance. Xander I think is a bit more like me – biggest challenge strength lies in our ability to endure/outlast (discomfort/pain/etc.) which I think is the best, (obviously biased), but the reason I say that is b/c it’s a duality – equally a mental + physical skill – and each 1/2 requires the other.
Tribal Council –
Ricard says to the camera in the voting booth “we both gave each other permission to do this when the times comes.” They had split the majority of votes between Shan/Liana + all went Shan upon the revote. AMAZING. FANTASTIC. I TAKE BACK ANY + ALL COMPLAINTS I HAD ABOUT THE SEASON (*until the next episode anyway…) B/C THAT WAS A BIG ASS MOVE + IT MF ROCKED !!!!!! LET’S GOOOOOO RICARD! 🏅
(also really excited for next week b/c of the preview of Xander saying ‘it’s too good to be true!’… hopefully will actually be good fortune for my #1 boi + not a producer trick)
LOVE this endurance challenge because it’s more of a mental game than anything. I would absolutely LOVE to try + see how long I could endure being perched on a very narrow wooden bar w/ my arms up behind my head. Jeff described it as “pain management.”
Xander looks almost comfortable up there. just chillin.’ XANDER FTW!!!! SO impressed w/ him AGAIN. week after week, this kid finds new ways to blow us out of the mf water. he is making the entire season 41. awwww WE LOVE TO SEE IT (another Superfan winning on the show) “i’ve dreamed of this challenge, since this aired, like so many nights – this is made for me.”
He’s just so adorable lolol sue me – “I’m the prom king.” Rocking the immunity necklace like a mf champ. 💪🏻 and telling Jeff that he “completely undersold” the stew (food reward) hahaha – the only likable personality on this show FR.
Strategizing –
Would be freaking siiiick if Xander was able to take out Lianna. ESP after she’s been obsessed w/ + hating on him this ENTIRE game, even during the immunity challenge w/ blatant disrespect “i hate his face.”
then she has the AUDACITY to ask Xander to give her his idol to hold onto during Tribal. LOL girlwhaaaaat?! 😂
Erika/Heather then also have the audacity to ask Naseer if he’d play his idol for Heather….. are you f*%^% kidding me?!!?! what in the world are these players thinking…
I’m liking DeShawn much more now that he’s willing to go against his alliance + make a big move to take out Lianna….but I’m not sure if I fully buy it… betting things change by the time to vote.
Convinced Ricard is the only one w/ a working brain trying to take out Naseer w/ an idol > everyone else trying to take out Heather who has no advantage + no alliance other than Erika/one person. Unfortunately Shan is so preoccupied w/ what “vibes” she’s getting from people + making her voting decisions (Heather) based solely on that.
Tribal Council –
Naseer – pretty lame use of an extra vote advantage imo, but oh well. at least they made a move + took someone out who had an idol vs. a complete non-threat.
Evvie – I think Xander was smart to not use his idol for Evvie because she hasn’t really helped him that much in the game imo. and i think he kinda distrusted her from when it came out that she had told DeShawn about his idol way back earlier in the game. i think this was a good move for him to save his idol for himself bc he’s going to need it. using it on Evvie wouldn’t guarantee him anything. this way it at least buys him one more day in the game whenever he needs it.
Also, Evvie said at the final confessional “honestly not sure who flipped on me”… how ?! how does she not know about the shan/danny/deshawn/liana alliance…. interesting. 🤔
ok… THIS is definitely the easiest rebus puzzle so far. C’MON. you could just guess it. 😒
Reward challenge –
Xander is so smart LFGGGGG. offered to switch spots with Erika who drew the grey rock to sit out. Xander keeps impressing me in this game. he’s THINKIN’, mfs. that boi is on fireeeee. (and not surprised with Erika accepting that offer. lol.) got SO excited watching Xander look all around/under the ‘sit out bench.’ i thought NO WAY he doesn’t get it. ugh.
not loving the whole Jeff talking to us/in the camera though…. i like not knowing if there’s something in the bench or if they just zoomed in on it. now it’s like we’re 5 years old in school + Jeff’s the teacher showing it to us straight up. booooo.
research + prep just might get you the win – survivor –– Eevie saying i knew that puzzle.
Xander double strategy on taking the bench – he said i like to be w/ the losers bc they’re raw/emotional + looking for someone to work w/ + he needs someone to work w/
Shan vs. Ricard b/c he won reward + got food/grilled cheese + Shan hungry + he had 1 bite of papaya. reminds me of the Clarence thing in Africa when he had 2 cherries while everyone else had 1 + he also opened a can of beans i think it was (?) supposedly for a sick tribe member but she + everyone else turned on him for that + never let it go.
Immunity challenge –
LOVE endurance challenges. stand on toes on wooden beam + balance a block vertically on the top of their head between their head and a top wooden beam. (record 1 hour 22 mins. – this time ended in like 3 mf minutes….)
twist – an individual can opt out of challenge for single portion of rice, multiple people can sit out for enough rice for everyone to eat for 3 days
negotiated # of ppl w/ jeff – ended at 5, xander says how bout 4? jeff says yes. Xander, Shan, Ricard, Naseer sit out. – Ricard it’s a GREAT move for him to repair his #1 alliance w/ Shan. 👏🏻
Eevie – unbelievable, shocked she won tbh, no offense lol. was thinking she should’ve looked over at the bench when she won the challenge, b/c she would’ve seen everyone’s faces + she’d know without a doubt she’s still very much on the bottom…. 😬
Xander made up my new favorite word – “betraydar”. LOL he know something’s up when they changed the lie from Naseer to Heather. good for him.
but these ppl really need to work together and take out Shan. she’s bossy, a threat, and obnoxious imo.
Tribal council –
Heather freaks out + tries to change vote to Naseer, then they all say let’s take Heather out + honestly i said hell yeah. she caused such a major issue here – mass confusion. you deserve to GOOOOO. i would’ve been PISSED if they voted Naseer, bc he could’ve won that immunity challenge + he only took a seat on the bench to get rice for Y’ALL ungrateful mf brats… anyway…
Danny gets pissed at Shan for not listening to his opinion. wish he would’ve just said fuck it let’s all vote Shan. didn’t lead to anything, but they showed 2 of these tense moments between them so guessing it’s going to come up again next episode.
& Ricard kept bugging Xander to play his idol – sneaky sneaky.. thank GOD he didn’t buy that + waste it. –– big question in my mind though is does he *GET* that they were trying SO hard to flush his idol???? he thanks them after the votes were read like they ‘saved’ him or something.. hm.
tiffany = voted out first member of jury. lame. what a messy tribal for a result equalling a whole lot of NOTHIN. predictable (again)…
dumbest rebus puzzle so far… no, not “pocket idol” or “hidden idol,” it’s “IDOL IN POCKET” – sheesh, TF
Hourglass twist –
Erika decides to smash the hourglass, rewinding time + changing the history of the game, which means the 6 people who were safe have to compete against each other in an immunity challenge.
I thought for SURE Sydney had it in the mf BAGGG. Betting she does yoga. Great balance, strong core + she was focused + taking her time. Ricard snuck up on her + Eevie (who had been in the lead from the start) to win it.
I kinda hate this challenge though… especially if I had thought I was safe + then had to do THIS mf challenge to try + stay in the game…. just sayin’… i’d be PISSED. I think it should’ve been an endurance challenge, but I could see production wanting to save those for when we get closer to the end of the game. The real nail-biters.
Strategy –
Ricard throws out “Eevie” right away upon returning to camp + Shan/Danny/Deshon/Sydney agree to vote that way.
Xander says he’ll play his idol for Eevie + luckily Tiffany spills the beans about Lianna’s ‘Knowledge Is Power’ advantage because Lianna’s dead-set on using it against Xander to steal his idol. So now that they KNOW, the smartest thing to do is for Xander to give his idol to Tiffany to hold onto during tribal council b/c the small print regarding stealing is “must be in their possession at the time.”
FAVORITE MOVE OF THE SEASON SO FAR –
Xander telling Lianna at tribal when she attempts to steal his idol “no, but you can have this fake.” AYYYYYYY, LFGGGGGG!!!!! THIS is what I’ve been waiting all season for. + I kept thinking for like 15-20 mins. of the episode ‘why TF does Lianna think she’s gonna pull this off????’ hahahaha. awesome.
Tribal Council –
HUGE MAD SCRAMBLE forever…. sorry I’m not a fan of this bc it makes y’all look like amateurs imo…. they can’t even pull together a backup plan in a reasonable amount of time. old school players would literally think out every single possible outcome + have backup plan on backup plan on back- you get the point…
Sydney plays her shot in the dark + sacrifices her vote for a 1 in 6 chance at immunity . Xander tells Tiffany not to play his idol for eevie bc he thinks if they thought eevie had idol they wouldn’t vote for her… he was 1/2 right on this – they split votes between eevie + sydney.
final votes: 4 ev | 3 deshon | 5 sydney
so even if Sydney had kept her vote, she still would’ve gone home b/c there only would’ve been 4 for Deshon, butttt he had also used his extra vote advantage for eevie, so if Syd voted + Deshon didn’t use his extra, could’ve ended up at a 3-way tie of 4/4/4.
Other thoughts/opinions –
Where yellow lacked physical strength/abilitiy to succeed in challenges, they make up for in loyalty + social game.
Overall I feel like this cast is lacking in personality – most obviously Lianna + Erika… but honestly just in general, I feel that a lot of these tribe members are v forgettable.
Xander’s my fav – truly showed his Survivor prowess this episode. that boi’s SHININ’.
“I think part of my problem is that I’m so self-obsessed – like of course everyone’s gonna gun for me.”
– Sydney
(this may be the single MOST relatable AF thing that’s ever been said on the show🙋🏼♀️)
begins w/ drawing rocks – this will split everyone into 2 teams, however, 2 people will pull gray rocks. those 2 people will not participate in the challenge on either team. their fate will be decided by the winning team. the winning team will also receive their first proper meal in 12 days, a special Merge buff + don’t have to participate in the immunity challenge (automatically safe at Tribal Council)
aka HUUUUGE STAKES. (esp. since in previous seasons, usually everyone who makes the merge gets to partake in the feast.)
Challenge Rundown –
1st part – digging a massive boulder out of the sand
2nd – rolling the ball to each key station + one person has to climb it to grab the keys
3rd/final – climbing up the platform + solving a word puzzle
Blue – Ricard, Danny, Evvie, Deshon, Sydney
Yellow – Xander, Lianna, Tiffany, Heather, Shan
blue team had a clear physical advantage from the start yet still almost fumbled the mf bag – yellow team actually solved the word puzzle first, but due to blue’s time lead, they were still able to slide the letters more quickly + secure the win.
blue then chose which person to bring w/ them for the feast – Naseer or Erika. Danny tries to say they did rock/paper/scissors to decide, but Erika knows its a cover + understands she’s at the bottom + now has to spend 2 days/2 nights alone. “i didn’t expect to have moments where i was perfectly safe and felt so powerless.”
Danny later admits at the feast that it’s “important to keep the men’s number up” – commenting that he noticed other tribes kicking out the men, so that’s the real reason they chose Naseer.
Naseer is so cute + happy + loves his new Merge buff haha – “it smells really good + i love the color” 🥰
Shan spills the beans about Lianna’s advantage to Tiffany… now yellow is imploding. Tiffany doesn’t trust Lianna, Lianna thinks Tiffany is a ticking time bomb. Evvie isn’t even in the conversation atm + Lianna still wants Xander out.
Other thoughts –
finding myself like ‘is this a 2-hour episode?? feels long AF. usually the episode’s over before i know it/much too soon, but this one never ends….. #boringgggg’
not a fan of Evvie/others saying this is the hardest season ever…. it’s literally half the mf # of days of every other season….. soooo NO.
is Jeff gonna just pull a donkey kong right now, suddenly appearing on exile island + just hand Erika an idol?! (lol, glad i was wrong about that) 😂
F that cliffhanger ending!!! WE WANNA SEE SOMEONE GO HOME NOWWWWW!!! GTFO.
New Hourglass Twist – power to change the results of the merge challenge… the 6 who are safe would now have to compete against each other for immunity, while Erika + the other 6 would now be safe at tribal. (no real commentary just yet, TBD. let’s see how it goes. pretty sure Erika’s royally screwed either way, but you never know what’s going to happen in this game – it’s not over ’til it’s over!)
Loooooooved how he responded to Heather crying + feeling like she let everyone down after struggling + losing the reward challenge. 😍 (‘you can’t win ’em all, that’s not how it works.’ – ‘you gotta get outta that (negativity mindset)’ – ‘nothing to apologize for. you went out there + gave it all you got’)
Really disappointed w/ him for agreeing to go along w/ DeShon’s plan to throw the immunity challenge – especially after saying: ‘as a professional athlete, it would be a SIN.’ 😑🤦🏼♀️
TBH, it was pretty humorous that while Blue was trying SO hard to lose, yellow just sucks SO much that they were still in last place for the most part. Luckily Naseer is a mf BADASS + stepped up to the mf PLATE + won the ring toss challenge for blue because…. IT IS NEVER A GOOD IDEA TO THROW A CHALLENGE. HAVE THESE PEOPLE **EVER** WATCHED THE SHOW??!!?!?!?! C’mon!
Other:
not a big fan of Shan…read on Twitter someone had said she’s getting a v obvious winner’s edit on the show + i’d have to agree….. hope that outcome’s not accurate. she showed limited knowledge of the show saying that this season is the most ‘Survivor’ + that they have to work for everything out there – like having a Fijian local show them how to survive in nature was new… this has 100% been done before…
NGL, got my hopes up that the ‘knowledgable visitor’ was gonna be Ozzy… 🥺
Erika = seems to only speak in clichés… 🙄
Absolutely LOST it seeing Boston Rob’s face pop up on my tv screen…. but then much less excited to see he was only introducing a sneak peek of ‘Tough As Nails.’
WWCD – if Ricard is smart, he’ll now work w/ Genie to get Shan out (v dangerous esp. after the big move she pulled off in getting J.D.’s advantage + voting him out).
Critical mistake:
J.D., self-proclaimed Superfan… SMDH –– Why, why, why, why, WHY did you not even think for a SECOND that Shan might steal your extra vote advantage + vote you out of the game??????????? Welcome to the Dumbest Moves in Survivor History club, bud! 😬
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.) 👀🌴
Sweat v. Savvy Challenge – I thought it was really shocking that none of the tribes chose to attempt the triangle challenge… was really hoping at least one would. David annoyed me right away because initially he shows he understands the game when explaining the concept of it not being a smart move (on day 1 especially) to separate yourself from the tribe, which the 2 players participating in the water challenge would be doing. But when the tribe seems to lean toward the strength option, he offers to help out + says to the cameras that’s because he doesn’t want to be/look like a “weenie” + say “I don’t want to do that.” This shows lack of understanding of the game to me because he had a few other options here –
He could have deflected the attention off of him, complimenting someone else on how strong they are or could’ve asked about people’s jobs to see if anyone’s work is manual labor, or at least more physically demanding than a medical profession. Be assertive. Not aggressive. Not passive. A-s-s-e-r-t-i-v-e. It’s all about the tone.
WCWD (What Courtney Would Do) – He could have appealed to the team’s egos. I would have fluffed people up feeding them lines like ‘we’re smart, guys, we can figure out this triangle thing if we have all of our brains working on it, one of us is bound to come up with the right number.’ Make them feel smart + confident in their mental skill/ability. Maybe even talk down the other tribes a little bit – I would’ve pointed out that the Blue tribe didn’t even unclip their boat from an anchor before trying to row away in the episode’s kickoff challenge – ‘so we’re obviously smarter than them, right team??’ #outwit (*of course, this is still a risk b/c if you do end up failing the puzzle challenge, there’s a target on your back for advocating for it, but in this case his back was really up against the wall already anyway – plus, if you fail the water challenge it’s most likely you or your partner going home, at least with the triangles, you’d have a better shot at being able to spread the guilt since everyone participated.)
**note: i did attempt the triangle challenge afterwards + came up w/ 23… #fail (won’t spoil it + give the correct answer in case some people didn’t get to give it a try yet 😉 )
‘Come on in, guys!’ – While I have to admit I am a little sad that Jeff won’t be saying this anymore, since it’s really become a tradition spanning 40 seasons/20 years, I get it. I do. I appreciate their efforts to be inclusive + w/ the times, etc. – it’s one of the best things about the show in my opinion – the way they handle social issues w/ class + grace. I read somewhere on Survivor Twitter (sorry, no idea who to credit, if it’s you, LMK! 😊 ), that someone said they wished Jeff didn’t make it such a big deal (which really, I personally don’t believe this was all Jeff’s idea, more-so CBS team working on the show, but I digress..), and I really liked that point because the phrase could have been phased out without smacking us in the face with it…not once, but twice (2 different scenes). I also would’ve preferred even just the second scene, since the first makes it appear that no change will be made, which is a little deceiving since everything flips returning from the commercial break.
Tribal Council/Vote – I don’t have a whole lot to say here honestly… I don’t have a terribly great feeling about Green team since they started their very first vote w/ one of the shady, messy, everyone-whispering-to-everyone tribals – obviously not very unified, but we’ll see where they go from here. Only other thing I wanted to say is that when I saw the singular vote for Ricard, I thought Genie was just left out of the loop entirely + threw a random name down, but then I saw another perspective I liked better on Survivor Twitter (again, if you’d like credit, please just LMK!) – that Genie may have been thinking that Sara was going to use her dice roll + wrote that down in case Sara was lucky enough to come out of it w/ individual immunity.
Risk/Protect Vote – I knew JD would pick risk + WCWD is the same, b/c… I had absolutely banked on Xander choosing “protect,” which it turns out was not the case at all lol. I wasn’t sure where Danny would land tbh. I had him really in the middle, leaning just ever so slightly over to the risk side. (chose protect) So… this is interesting, because I never would have thought of Xander’s approach….to choose “risk” + then straight up tell your tribe everything… they do seem to genuinely trust him but it’s hard for me to see that working out positively for him. We’ll just have to wait + see on that one….. JD! I knew he would be a terrible liar, so I actually hoped I’d be wrong + he’d play it safe w/ protect, but he was predictable both in his decision + in his storytelling… laughing while you say a lie is a pretty clear/obvious tell, buddy… yikes. (but hey! He did survive this vote, so just goes to show once again, you really never know what’s going to happen in this game!)
Critical Mistakes – (overall) 😬🥲
At this point it hurts to watch people go look for an idol on the first day. In this case, they got lucky to have gotten away with it, but just…yikes.
Never get too confident when you’re in the lead in a challenge…you can lose it all in an instant. (👀Green tribe on the puzzle…not opening all their pieces – but even more than that, it was the panic they allowed to set in at the first sign of a setback.)
Yellow tribe voting out their ONLY strong player… yeah, yeah #oldschool opinion, strongly believe in strength focus/keeping tribe strong for at least the first few votes
Favorite Players – (***right now!) I really find myself rooting for the people who worked hard to get on the show + prepare themselves as well as they possibly could have. There obviously may be more, as we learn + hear more of the cast’s stories about their lives throughout the game, but so far I’m a big fan of JD + Naseer.
JD because he practiced fire for a year until he could do it well, and having attempted several times myself/knowing how difficult it can be, I truly admire + appreciate his tenacity + passion for the game. And he proved his skills on day one, making fire for the tribe. 🔥We love to see it!!! LFG!!!!
Naseer said he learned English from watching Survivor…. I have a lot of admiration + huge amount of appreciation for him as well, especially having lived in a foreign country, plus my experience Teaching English a Foreign Language (TEFL), let me tell you… that is straight-up badass + respectable as hell!!! He should be very proud of himself – what an accomplishment!
These 2 players I can say without a doubt are extremely deserving of their well-earned reward….the chance to play the hardest + best game on this mf earth.
Courtney C: The Next Sole Survivor 