As we open this week’s episode, the castaways continue to get hammered with rain, which unsurprisingly turns out to be yet another Fijian cyclone. And the contestants look absolutely miserable. It gets so bad that each tribe is actually gifted both a fire making kit and a tarp, something you don’t often see on this show. But I thought it was a good move. Look, I enjoy watching a group of people I’ll never meet suffer outside in the elements while I am sitting comfortably on my couch drinking an ice cold Mountain Dew as much as the next person. But at some point, it does get to be a bit much. The show needs the castaways to be able to…do things. And it’s not like the tarp and fire kit are some magical cure-all. If the weather keeps up, there will still be plenty of misery ahead for us to enjoy. Okay, on to the actual action on the show.
David Beach
While nobody (well, hopefully nobody) is ever actively rooting for a player to be medically evacuated from the game, Pat’s unfortunate. injury meant a new life for Nick. He certainly seemed like the clear target had the Davids made it to Tribal Council last week. But that’s one of the beautiful things about Survivor. Anything can change at the drop of a hat out on the island. And luckily for Nick, he realized this. But unluckily for us, it meant he was about to come up with another terrible alliance nickname for himself and Christian. In case you missed it – or, more likely, already managed to erase it from your memory – the genius names them the Mason-Dixon Alliance. Ugh, just brutal. This better be the last time Nick comes up with an alliance name. But I’m afraid it won’t be the last we hear from Nick on this. Anyway, Nick seems to be ready to take advantage of this second chance. And early indications would suggest he is safely off the radar – at least for now.
In other news, Davie finds the idol. It’s not too dramatic; he’s by himself when it happens. It wasn’t particularly exciting, but it is an Immunity Idol, so it bears mentioning.
The Davids start to talk about targeting Lyrsa as the perceived weakest member
Lyrsa goes back to her challenge win as evidence that she’s not the weakest one > but it wasn’t exactly a physical strength challenge > now Lyrsa wants to vote out Carl just because he’s targeting her > not necessarily a bad strategy but you can’t let emotions take control over logic
Goliath Beach
The Goliath Beach is where the real action is this week. Kara is (rightfully) already worried about her relationship with Dan. And the worry appears to be warranted, as the rest of the tribe is seemingly completely aware of their “secret” relationship. They all also seem to be on to the fact that Dan is more invested in the personal side of the relationship than Kara. Kara appears to be using Dan as a strategic pawn. Something he is clearly failing to see. I get the feeling that Dan doesn’t necessarily think things through all the time.
This is further evidenced by the fact that he does an all-time terrible job of hiding his idol. He decides to keep it wrapped up in a jacket pocket. And that jacket is hanging on a pole in camp for all to see. Because, according to Dan, nobody is going to think to look in a place so obvious. And he’s right. For about 10 minutes. Jeremy decides to do a little snooping and eventually makes his way to Dan’s jacket. So of course he comes across the idol in a matter of moments. He immediately relays this information to Mike, who is thrilled that Jeremy is showing this level of trust in him as a partner.
The ladies of Goliath provide the rest of the drama this week. Angelina, Kara, and Natalia have formed a bond and each believe they have a male partner they can string along as part of a three-person alliance within a six-person alliance. And on the surface it sounds like a damn good plan. Until, however, Natalia says this:
“Us three girls are clearly in charge, and we know it…we hold the power.”
And while it wouldn’t come back to bite them this week, any long-time Survivor fan knows these kinds of quotes can often be a kiss of death. So we’ll see how this ultimately plays out down the line.
On from Natalia to Natalie. (One of them needs to be voted off soon, their names are just too similar. Call it laziness on my part, but I stand by it.) Luckily it appears as if Natalie is on the fast track to Ponderosa. For as impressive as her professional accomplishments appear to be, she definitely seems to be lacking in certain social graces. Regarding her strategy, she tells us, “My strategy is to lay low, get along with everybody. And I think it’s working out.” Um, what? She is public enemy number 1 and it isn’t even close right now. Even when she has tribemates trying to help her, she manages to screw that up too.
John goes to talk to her, seeing her as an alliance partner nobody would suspect. Mr. Mayor clues her in to the fact that Dan is angling to vote her out, and asks her to be quiet about it. But does she do that? No, of course she doesn’t. She goes and confronts Dan, and basically everyone else who wants her out.
After that, Jeremy takes a stab at helping her. He very astutely tells her there is a lack of self-awareness on her part, that she’s not able to see how the rest of the tribe views her. And instead offering her thanks – even some fake gratitude might have sufficed here – she turns it back around on him. Jeremy’s confessional after the fact is great. He doesn’t know what to say, can barely even get the words out. Natalie is obviously an intelligent woman, there’s no doubt to that. But it doesn’t look like she has the right EQ to really succeed in this game. It will be very interesting to watch her going forward, to see if she can turn it around.
Immunity Challenge
I thought this was a fun challenge. One member from each tribe would climb a ladder to retrieve a key. That key unlocks boat, where the the team then paddles out to a platform to retrieve block puzzle pieces. Those puzzle pieces are to be put together on a wobbly table. And as always, the puzzle is the only important aspect of the challenge. The ladder and the paddling are just for us, the viewers, to enjoy. As my guy Dalton Ross at EW would say, “It’s all about the puzzle. The rest is window dressing.” And that’s a perfect explanation, especially with the way the challenge played out this week.
The Goliaths jump out to a huge lead. As they are coming back to the beach with their puzzle pieces, the Davids are just starting out into the water. But this challenge was tailor-made for a comeback. But while both tribes eventually end up working on the puzzle at the same time, when the Goliaths win, David had barely any pieces set on their table. So along with immunity, the Goliaths also take home some much-needed fishing gear.
Pre-Tribal/Tribal Council
Back at camp, Lyrsa’s name is thrown out as a potential target, as the perceived physically weakest member of the tribe. Elizabeth hears this and, since she has aligned herself with Lyrsa, is none too pleased with this development. Lyrsa is understandably upset, and now wants to target Carl as he was the one targeting her. And I don’t like that, at least not the way they were approaching it. Elizabeth and Lyrsa were going off of emotion more than strategy. That’s a dangerous way to play this game.
Thankfully they move off of Carl and set their sights on Jess. And with we head into our first Tribal Council of the season and this is one of the coolest Tribal Council sets Survivor has ever put out. Now, there is a reason the set was designed with so much privacy. If you know, you know. If you don’t, you can do some internet sleuthing to find out, or wait to see it play out during the season. I won’t tell you hear, at the risk of spoiling a nice surprise. And beyond the privacy of the voting booth, the entire set simply awesome. Take a look at this great picture from an article by Josh Wigler over at The Hollywood Reporter.
Our first Tribal Council was pretty much a standard, back-and-forth TC session. Jess makes one notable quote, “If that’s the way you’re playing the game, then you need to recheck yourself,” describing those who she saw as playing too little, too late. And there’s the Survivor clincher. Jess is voted out 5-4.
Only two episodes in, we didn’t get a ton of opportunity to get to know Jess, but I liked her. Only 19 years old, but she seemed smart enough to be able to compete out on the island. However, I thought she showed her age at Tribal Council. I don’t know that she would have had the emotional maturity to win the game. But I think she could have been a strong social threat had she been given the chance to get a more solid footing in the game. I’ll be curious to hear her exit interviews and get her perspective on her time out on the island.
This was another solid episode to what is so far shaping up to be a good, entertaining season. Let’s hope they can keep it up. And to finish, I’ll just leave you with this.
