“The sneakiest weasel that Survivor 42 has.” Survivor Season 42 Episode 8 recap

Rocksroy gets the idea for a guys’ alliance that he pitches to Mike and Jonathan. And an alliance of those three alone might have worked, but he makes the same pitch to Omar and Hai who are not inclined to align with him, and in fact this makes them more likely to vote him out.

The challenge is the one I like to call the “floating doghouse.” Players have to balance on what looks like a half-submerged floating doghouse, with their feet on narrow ledges on the sides. Its most memorable iteration to date has been the battle between Andrea and Brenda in Survivor: Caramoan Fans vs. Favorites II. Part of the challenge used to be that the players have to gradually move to higher ledges. That’s not part of it this time, but they might have dropped that aspect because the water is really choppy.

How choppy? Four players immediately wipe out within seconds. It is a real battle to stay upright from the very first second. Players need to use their arms every second to try to keep their balance. It quickly comes down to Hai, Lindsey, and Jonathan, with Jonathan outlasting Hai to win. Wow, was this exciting! The producers brilliantly scored it with fast-paced music to heighten the drama.

But let me backtrack: Probst told the players that they would be split into two groups. The person lasting longest from each group would win immunity, and each group would have its own tribal council and eliminate a person. The single player who made it the longest would win a food reward for his group. So Jonathan, who has immunity, gets food along with Tori, Drea, Marianne and Lindsey, while Hai wins immunity in a group that includes Rocksroy, Romeo, Mike and Omar.

In the men’s group it seems like Romeo is on the outs. Omar wants to keep Romeo around and suggests voting out Rocksroy. But Romeo balks, saying “I’m going to have to trust the one person I don’t trust … Hai is the sneakiest weasel that Survivor 42 has.” And Mike is reluctant because he promised Rocksroy he wouldn’t. Mike also tells us Hai is his number-one ally, which I don’t think he had vocalized previously.

On the other tribe, Jonathan finally wants to make a big move, and that’s voting Drea out. The others like that final goal but don’t love Jonathan’s precise plan or the way he’s pitching it. Lindsey has picked up on more nuances among the various players’ relationships and tries to persuade Jonathan to trust her instincts.

Time for the tribal councils, and the guess I write down is that Rocksroy and Tori will be out.

At a rainy, cold tribal council, Rocksroy is indeed voted out 4-1, and he goes right over to the jury to sit next to Chanelle.

When the other group comes in, they are shocked to see Rocksroy sitting there, presumably they thought it would be Romeo. Drea, alarmed to see that two black players in a row have been voted out, announces she is playing her idol. It appears the plan was to put most votes on Drea and some on Tori, but Marianne says she just can’t vote Drea as she also can’t bear to see three black players in a row leave the game, and Marianne says she’s playing her idol too. Probst says there is no reason to go to the voting booth if nobody feels they need to, so the two women hand Probst their idols. Jonathan is wearing the immunity necklace, so the vote can only be for Lindsey or Tori, and it’s obvious the other four want to vote Tori. So Tori announces she is going to take the shot-in-the-dark option. If it works, Lindsey will go home, otherwise Tori will. Lindsey’s facial expression could be described as “worried to the power of 10.”

Probst reveals the scroll and it’s “Not Safe,” so Tori is out. In two seasons there has yet to be a “Safe” result.

Advantage count: Marianne has an extra vote. Drea has an extra vote, an Advantage amulet, and the Knowledge is Power advantage. Lindsey and Hai each have an Advantage Amulet. Mike has a three-way idol.

Contenders: Hai, Drea, Omar, Mike, Lindsey, Jonathan

No chance: Marianne, Romeo

Jury and who I think they’ll vote for: Chanelle (Marianne), Tori (no idea)

“Omigosh, is that blood?” Survivor Season 42 Episode 7 Recap

Early in the episode we go to the reward challenge site, where Jeff Probst tells us viewers he is stashing an advantage underneath the bench where one player will be sitting out. You might recall he did the same last season but Xander didn’t find it.

The player whose name isn’t drawn, and thus who will be sitting out, is Marianne, but Drea offers to switch with her because she says she doesn’t like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which are the reward offered. And apparently that really is the reason.

So it’s Drea who takes a seat on the bench, and she does notice the little scroll underneath. The bench is near the location of the final phase of the challenge, so she has to be quick about grabbing it, which she does manage to do.

After the challenge, Drea reads the clue and it says there is an advantage just five paces from the water well, but it says if she’s caught she will have blood on her hands. She heads to the well, and under a distinctive coconut she sees an artificial hole in the ground. She reaches in and grabs the advantage, but it was submerged in red paint which her hand and forearm are now covered with! She rinses it off as best she can with water from the well. And the advantage is “Knowledge is Power” which gave us a memorable moment from last season. And Drea now has a huge arsenal of advantages, as detailed below.

When she returns to the others, Tori spots some leftover red paint on Drea’s arm, thinking it’s blood, and Drea’s explanation of it doesn’t make sense.

Time for the immunity challenge. Probst offers enough rice for everyone if enough people sit out the challenge, just as he did last season. Drea, Marianne, Lindsey and Omar agree to sit out. The challenge is the one where one has to hold up a ball using two sticks while balancing. It is quickly down to Tori, Chanel, and Jonathan, and we know from last week that Tori has very steady hands. She wins.

So Chanelle seems to be the top target to be voted out. Romeo starts acting so paranoid that some want to vote him out instead, but Mike seems to insist it be Chanelle based on grudges from early in the season.

Chanelle is indeed ousted with (at least) six votes and Romeo getting three. There is also one vote for Hai, by Romeo.

Advantage count: Marianne has an extra vote and a three-way idol. Drea has an extra vote, an Advantage amulet, a three-way idol, and the Knowledge is Power advantage. Lindsey and Hai each have an Advantage Amulet. Mike has a three-way idol.

Contenders: Hai, Drea, Omar, Tori, Mike, Jonathan, Lindsey, Romeo

No chance: Rocksroy, Marianne

Jury and who I think they’ll vote for: Chanelle (Marianne).

“Back home, my average meal is 18 eggs.” Survivor Season 42 Episode 6 recap

The first significant thing in this two-hour episode is Jeff Probst telling us viewers that the show is going to repeat the “turn back time” twist from last season, with some minor tweaks. Since this was filmed before that one aired, the players do not know anything about the twist.

So the players are told to drop their buffs but do not get new ones. They draw rocks, and Lindsey and Rocksroy draw the gray ones. That means they will not compete in the challenge, which is contested by two randomly-drawn groups of five. Whichever one wins will decide the fate of those two.

The first part of the challenge involves unearthing huge (artificial) boulders and rolling them along a course.The group of Lydia, Hai, Marianne, Tori and Jonathan gets out to a huge lead that they never lose. So now that group has to make two decisions: are they taking Lindsey or Rocksroy into their tribe, and secondly (this part is new this season), will they send Rocksroy to Exile Island or choose one of their own group to go, since Probst does tell them that gaining a power is involved? They choose Lindsey to join them and send Rocksroy to Exile Island for two days. Rocksroy is sanguine: “It’s Survivor, this is what you want.”

The winning tribe gets an Applebee’s lunch, and by the way they shrieked for joy when they heard that was the prize. Jonathan chows down and tells us what his average meal is at home: “18 eggs, 9 pieces of cheese, and grits.” Those bodybuilders!

The losing group gets no feast other than a bit of rice. Drea and Mike talk for the first time, since each knows the other has one of the three-way idols. Drea tells him to watch out for Tori, and Mike tells Drea to watch out for Chanelle.

Rocksroy makes the most of his time at Exile, being the only solo castaway ever (that I can recall) to build his own shelter! I love Rocksroy.

Lindsey reminds us viewers that she, Hai and Drea all got Advantage amulets on Day One. They talk and resolve to work together, though Hai immediately worries the others will cheat.

Mike and Jonathan bond. Hai reveals to Omar that Chanelle lost her vote after the island excursion she and Omar made a couple episodes ago, that is to say she risked her vote after telling Omar she wouldn’t. So Omar now knows he doesn’t have a vote at his next Tribal Council.

Hai wastes no time building a coalition of, I think, eight people, and they seem to agree the next vote should target either Tori or Chanelle. Drea tells Jonathan, Omar, and Hai about her extra vote.

Jeff Probst goes to Exile Island to tell Rocksroy about his power. If Rocksroy smashes the hourglass, the results of the last immunity challenge will be reversed and Rocksroy will join the losing group in being immune at the next vote.

The players assemble for the immunity challenge and Rocksroy’s power is revealed, and he reveals that he did smash the hourglass. So the five people who thought they would be watching the challenge are the ones who will now have to compete. It’s the “stack blocks on a wobbly table” challenge that has been used as the final immunity challenge a couple of times. Tori wins, which saves her bacon because she was almost certain to be the one voted out, Chanelle now being immune.

So now, while all players (except Omar) will vote, the only people who can be voted out this time are Marianne, Lindsey, Lydia, Hai and Jonathan. Hmm, Hai and Jonathan have both been featured heavily in this episode…

Back at camp Lindsey is for voting Marianne, Romeo wants it to be Jonathan. Lydia tells Omar she is considering all options, and once Omar hears that this includes possibly going against the alliance of eight by ousting Jonathan who is in it, he decides to try and get everyone to vote Lydia out! In fact he even pitches it to Hai, who drew rocks earlier in the season to keep Lydia around!

So Hai starts campaigning for this not to happen.

As we go to commercial, I’m guessing this is it for Jonathan, that he will be ousted and all the rest is a smokescreen.

Nothing of interest happens at Tribal Council, so let’s get to the vote: it’s Lydia!

The winner in all of this is Omar who orchestrated Lydia’s ouster. The loser is Hai who loses his number-one ally and shows he might not have been as much in control as he thought. And another winner is the viewers, since Lydia was the most boring character left in the game by far.

It is rare for four different people to get votes at a Tribal Council, but that is what happened here, and with just five people eligible! The Lydia votes were: Jonathan, Lindsey, Drea, Marianne … and Hai. I’m guessing he realized at the end he didn’t have the numbers to do anything else and just went along. The Marianne votes were Romeo and Lydia, also odd since we saw them pushing for Jonathan to go. The Jonathan votes were Chanelle and Tori, and then Lindsey was voted for by Rocksroy, very oddly. I’m not ruling out that Rocksroy meant to vote for Lydia and just got confused.

Advantage count: Marianne has an extra vote and a three-way idol. Drea has an extra vote, an Advantage amulet, and a three-way idol. Lindsey and Hai each have an Advantage Amulet. Mike has a three-way idol.

Contenders: Hai, Drea, Romeo, Omar, Tori, Mike, Jonathan, Lindsey

No chance: Rocksroy, Marianne, Chanelle

“They’re two weasels in a chicken coop.” Survivor Season 42 Episode 5 recap

Early in this episode, Daniel goes spear-fishing. Nothing too remarkable about that until you remember that he dislocated his shoulder in the first episode. And also, as his tribemates on the Green tribe remind us, he has sat out swimming challenges whenever he could!

On the Blue tribe, Drea finds the three-way idol which was the last one that hadn’t yet been found. So will everyone say their secret phrases this time? Back on the Green tribe, Mike doesn’t plan to say his. His thinking is that this way he will get an idol at the merge without anyone on the other tribes knowing he has one. Problem is, everyone on his own tribe will know he has one, so this plan doesn’t make a lot of sense.

We go to the immunity challenge and Marianne says her line once again. Then Drea says hers, to Marianne’s delight, and Mike does jump in after all to say his line, somehow building a lengthy anecdote around it. So all three of them have full-fledged idols now, and can vote at their next tribal councils.

The Blue tribe easily comes in first in the immunity challenge. Orange is way behind thanks to Omar not being able to untangle some ropes, but then they draw even with Green on the final phase and pull out second place thanks to Jonathan (who else) being great at firing bean bags with a giant slingshot. My first impression is that Daniel is going to be in trouble tonight.

The Blue tribe has to pick two people to go on a journey, at least one must be from another tribe. They choose the Green tribe’s Lydia and their own Rocksroy.

At the Green camp, Daniel and Chanelle, former (or current?) allies, are the two potential targets, and nobody seems to trust either of them after what happened a couple of tribal councils ago. In Hai’s book “they’re two weasels in a chicken coop.” Also, Mike and Hai, worried that Daniel and Chanelle might vote together, hope that Lydia doesn’t foolishly risk her vote to put their numerical superiority in jeopardy.

Cut to Lydia and Rocksroy on their hike up a hill. What could be more boring than the two most boring players in the game, Lydia and Rocksroy? How about Lydia and Rocksroy both being determined not to reveal the tiniest nugget of information to each other. We see that Lydia is a horrible liar, not only by body language but also by making the absurd claim that she has no idea who in her tribe might be on the chopping block. Saying that might fly on Day 3 but not this far into the game. When it’s time for them to decide to risk their vote or protect it, they both choose “protect,” so neither gets any advantage or disadvantage.

Let’s just fast-forward this recap to the tribal council vote. It is inexplicably a tie: 2 votes Chanelle, 2 Daniel, 1 Mike! On the tiebreaker Daniel is sent home. We see during the credits that it was Chanelle who voted for Mike. It didn’t come back to haunt her since Daniel was ousted anyway, but I wonder why she did it.

Advantage count: Marianne has an extra vote and a three-way idol. Drea has an extra vote, an Advantage amulet, and a three-way idol. Lindsey and Hai each have an Advantage Amulet. Mike has a three-way idol. Omar has no vote at his next Tribal Council.

Contenders: Hai, Drea, Romeo, Jonathan, Tori, Mike

Not sure: Lindsey, Lydia, Chanelle, Omar

No chance: Rocksroy, Marianne

“That’s called playing me.” Survivor Season 42 Episode 4 recap

In the aftermath of Tribal Council, everyone seems to feel betrayed by someone. Hai even goes so far as to say he feels he was blindsided by everyone except Lydia!

Daniel in particular has damage control to do, which leads to a funny sequence when Mike says Daniel “played” him and the lawyer denies it, whereupon we get this exchange:

Mike: “How many times have you lied to me?”

Daniel: “I lied to you a lot!”

Mike: “That’s called playing me!”

The reward challenge is for a prize of ten fish to be delivered to camp. The orange tribe wins the rope-untangling contest by a huge margin. Jeff Probst asks Jonathan the secret to their challenge success and trying to be nice, the big man says he, Omar, Marianne and Lindsey are just a super-tight foursome. The others later tell us they wish Jonathan hadn’t emphasized what big threats they are…

On the Blue tribe, Swati wants to target Drea, who has an extra vote, and Tori agrees. But they need another person to make that happen, and even though he’s not their favorite guy, they pick Rocksroy. However in recruiting him, Tori reveals that Drea has an extra vote, and when that gets out, Swati wonders how much she can really trust Tori.

At the immunity challenge, Marianne gives her code line about a rabbit in a mailbox, but Mike once again does not say his line.

The challenge is an easy win for Orange (again), who has muscle in Jonathan and two good puzzlers in Omar and Lindsey. The green tribe was way behind when in came to the puzzle stage but they catch up to eke out second place, sending Blue to Tribal Council.

Tori is looking like the target, but she manages to shift attention onto Swati, who it turns out told Romeo, Drea and Tori that they were each her number one ally in the game, and this is confirmed with video evidence for us viewers. When they get to Tribal Council, Swati wastes no time blaming everything on Tori. After the votes are cast, Swati plays her shot in the dark die, but like every previous one it comes up “Not Safe.” She is sent home with three votes, though it turns our Rocksroy voted for Tori.

Advantage count: Marianne has an extra vote and a three-way idol that is not activated. Drea has an extra vote and an Advantage amulet. Lindsey and Hai each have an Advantage Amulet. Mike has a three-way idol that is not activated. Omar has no vote at his next Tribal Council.

Contenders: Hai, Drea, Romeo, Jonathan

Not sure: Daniel, Lindsey, Tori, Mike, Lydia, Chanelle, Omar

No chance: Rocksroy, Marianne

“I seriously almost stroked out right there.” Survivor Season 42 Episode 3 recap

I started my last post by saying that week’s episode had minimal gameplay, so I will start this one by saying that is most assuredly not the case this time!

It’s Day 6, and Marianne has already revealed to her tribemates that she has an extra vote. She soon finds a Beware Advantage (the same one Mike has) and tells her tribe about that too.

Over on the Green tribe, Daniel pesters Mike to let him actually read the Beware Advantage instructions which so far he has only heard about. He sees in the rules that if the phrases have not all been spoken by the time of the merge, the three idols would each gain power as a regular idol. I don’t think that aspect of it was ever explained last season. Anyway, this causes Daniel to shelve his plan of voting Mike out — he would like to go to the merge being aligned with someone who has an idol.

Dan hands the rule sheet back to Mike, who says he wants the idol and the congratulatory note back too. Dan says Mike never gave him those! Mike’s comment to us is “I seriously almost stroked out right there.” The two head for the secluded spot where Daniel went to read the rule sheet, and sure enough the idol is just lying there! Now they still need the note, which Daniel realizes is still shoved way down in the front of his boxer briefs. Eww.

We go to the immunity challenge, and Marianne says the crazy line called for on her advantage note. The nice thing is, she talks so much and says so many kooky things that this doesn’t really stand out. Mike hears nothing from the Blue tribe in this regard so he opts not to say his line yet. Hmm, it’s odd that we’re at the immunity challenge just 11 minutes into the show!

Survivor doesn’t have that many memorable challenges anymore. Of course there are many where the stakes are extremely high, but not many where the challenge itself is going to stick in anyone’s memory. Well I think this one actually might.

It’s in the water, and the water is extremely turbulent. The players have to dive down to free up a ladder from the sea floor, then maneuver the ladder to near some platforms and hold it up so someone can climb up to fetch bags, then come to the beach and toss the bags onto ledges.

Hulk-like Jonathan is able to move the big heavy ladder all by himself and even rescues some foundering tribemates while he’s at it. He also holds the ladder all by himself, somethign the producers obviously thought would take a team to do. Lindsey climbs the ladder and gets the bags, and for good measure, once they’re on the beach Jonathan tosses the beanbags onto the ledges too, giving Orange the win by a huge margin … at which point Jeff Probst wonders aloud whether either of the other tribes will even finish!

The ladders are so big and unwieldy and the tide is coming in, so the players can’t even get any footing, they are just holding onto the columns of the platform. Finally Probst tells the two tribes to just come to the beach. He says this has never happened before, but he’s just going to have a staffer get the bags so the exhausted Blue and Green tribes can just continue with the beachside part. Thanks to beanbag-tossing by Rocksroy and Drea, Blue barely ekes out second place, which is probably good for us viewers because it means each of the first three episodes will have had a different tribe go to the council.

The Orange tribe has to pick someone from the Green tribe to go on a journey, plus a second person either from the Green tribe or their own tribe. They pick Chanelle to go and their own Omar to go with her. By the way we’re still just 22 minutes into the show!

On the Green tribe, Mike and Jenny want to vote Lydia out, but Mike has no vote. Lydia, Hai, and Daniel want to vote Jenny, but Daniel slips away to tell Mike and Jenny it’s a fake-out and he’s really with them. Anyway Chanelle shapes up to the deciding vote.

But she’s not there, she’s climbing a hill with Omar. When they get to the top, Chanelle says she can’t afford to lose a vote under any circumstances. They agree not to endanger each other, then they split up and have the same Protect/Risk decision as others had earlier. Since Omar heard Chanelle was playing it totally safe, he figures he can risk his vote (since that combination would give him an extra vote and not harm her). Problem is, Chanelle chooses Risk too, so we viewers know that now neither has a vote, Chanelle tonight and Omar at his next Tribal Council! It also seems that this has sealed Jenny’s fate for tonight.

When Chanelle gets back to her tribe, she admits to Daniel that she might have lost her vote. So they opt to try to convince Kydia and Hai that they should split their votes, with Lydia and Chanelle voting Jenny and Daniel and Hai voting Mike (but Daniel secretly voting Lydia, such that the votes end up 3 for Lydia (Daniel, Mike and Jenny) — and one for Jenny (Lydia) and Lydia will be ousted even if Chanelle has no vote). Hai doesn’t really get the need for a 2-2 split and wonders why Chanelle seems so frazzled. He smells a rat. But Chanelle brags to us that she has determined the whole vote without even having one herself. Hmmm…

At Tribal Council we find out that Chanelle told everyone about the Protect/Risk decision but lied and said she chose Protect. As Tribal Council proceeds, Hai looks suspicious, and then for whatever reason Chanelle mouths “Lydia” to Daniel. Did Hai see that?

Time to vote. Chanelle finds out she really did lose her vote, and Mike already knew he did. Hai looks like he’s agonizing over his vote.

Probst reads the votes: 2 for Lydia, 2 for Jenny, “no votes left.” Despite six people being there!

So this result means Hai switched his vote to Jenny at the last second. In other words Hai and Lydia voted Jenny, and Jenny and Daniel voted Lydia. This being the case, since the next step is a revote with Lydia and Jenny not being able to vote, we would presumably have a 1-1 tie (Hai voting Jenny and Daniel voting Lydia), and that’s exactly what happens. Hai, shocked at the 1-1 result with there supposedly being four voters, says “where are the votes?” Probst says “let me get to it.”

The next step in the tiebreaker, you may recall, is that the people voting have to come to a unanimous decision. If they don’t, the people who received votes become safe and the others have to draw rocks to see who goes home. Probst tells us this is another Survivor first, there have never been only two votes at a tribal council. He also says that unfortunately under the circumstances the people who had no vote have to disclose their identities. Mike and Chanelle raise their hands.

So we have the odd situation where four people are to have a discussion but the two who have to make a unanimous decision are only Daniel and Hai, but if they don’t agree, the two of them and Mike and Chanelle all have to draw rocks. Hai aks Daniel “When did I lose your trust tonight?” He also says he’s not changing his vote and is willing to risk leaving the game on the random rock draw.

Daniel oddly says he only voted Lydia because Chanelle wanted him to, and now asks Chanelle who she thinks should go, Lydia or Jenny. Chanelle refuses to answer, but Hai says he actually wants to know Chanelle’s answer to Daniel’s question. She simply says “I trust you” to Hai, and Hai again says he is willing to draw rocks. Daniel says he’s Hai’s ally because he “just got backstabbed” by Chanelle. (Though all Chanelle said was something very sensible, mainly that it’s ridiculous that Daniel is portraying himself as her pawn and acting like he doesn’t have his own strong opinion.)

Daniel agrees to switch his vote to Jenny, so she is voted out of the game. So Chanelle and Daniel ultimately got what they wanted as far as the vote result, but I can’t imagine that Hai, Mike, or Lydia now trust either of them one bit. And Chanelle created the whole situation by not playing it safe earlier when she knew taking a risk was a bad idea

As for Hai, wow! He has certainly announced himself as a force to be reckoned with. And it was just a great episode, start to finish.

Advantage count: Marianne has an extra vote and a three-way idol that is not activated. Drea has an extra vote and an Advantage amulet. Lindsey and Hai each have an Advantage Amulet. Mike has a three-way idol that is not activated. Omar has no vote at his next Tribal Council.

Contenders: Hai, Drea, Swati

Not sure: Jonathan, Daniel, Lindsey, Tori, Romeo, Mike, Lydia, Chanelle, Omar

No chance: Rocksroy, Marianne

“I am mortified at this gameplay.” Survivor Season 42 Episode 2 recap

I will tell you this right from the start in case you’re pressed for time: this is a human interest-heavy episode with not too many gameplay developments.

I may not have mentioned in my last post that as with last season, the tribes did not start out with any rice. Turns out that was really bad news for Hai, who is vegan. His tribemates catch some crabs but he can’t eat them and is soon in tears. Finally he decides he needs to put the vegan diet aside and eat meat for the duration of the show, as he otherwise would simply lack the energy to endure the season.

Drea has an alliance with Rocksroy and Romeo (which she almost broke up in the first episode) but decides she needs a second alliance, so she tells Tori and Swati that she has an extra vote. However the latter two then immediately talk about voting Drea out!

We do get a real alliance, and an unlikely one at that, with muscleman Jonathan and the Muslim veterinarian Omar.

Mike the firefighter finds an idol …. or rather a Beware Advantage that turns out to be the three-way idol involving the secret phrase that was used last season (and provided arguably the best moment of that season). Mike’s phrase is “There is such grace in the game of soccer, it makes me cry.” Humorously, Mike tells us he actually hates soccer. He also hates the fact that he now has no vote until the other phrases are spoken, which could be never!

Mike tells Jenny about his advantage, because she is his number-one ally in the game. That makes sense. Unfortunately he also tells the Albert Brooks-esque Daniel. As they talk Mike goes to get the advantage which he had buried, but then he can’t find it. He had noted that it was at a fork in the trail, but there are lots of forks in the trail! Daniel tells us “I am mortified at this gameplay.” Finally Mike does find it.

Daniel immediately tells Chanelle all about it, and they agree that this development can only be bad for them. They think they should either vote Mike out or at least try to convince him not to say his phrase. Bizarrely, it appears Daniel already has convinced Mike not to say the phrase. We certainly don’t hear it at this episode’s immunity challenge.

When the tribes get to the challenge site, young chatterbox Marianne is shocked to see that Zach was the one voted out. A pretty strong reaction one episode into the season, no? Well it turns out this is because she had a huge crush on Zach … who by the way was not exactly a hunk from central casting. I guess that just shows there’s hope for everyone to find love (though how Zach feels about extremely talkative women is not known).

The challenge is the tried-and-true one in which one caller from each tribe has to guide his or her blindfolded teammates. A new twist is that this one has more coils of rope for people to potentially get tangled in. Also the concept goes all the way through the final puzzle, which also has to be solved by blindfolded people being guided. Lydia for the green team proves to be great as a caller, leading her team to victory. Blue barely edges out Orange to avoid a second straight Tribal Council.

The Orange team’s tribal council has nothing compelling, so let’s jump right to the vote, at which Marianne finds out what we viewers knew: she got an extra vote by choosing “risk” last episode.

After the vote Marya plays the shot in the dark die, which unfortunately comes up Not Safe. It was the right move to try it, because she, like Zach before her, is ousted by a true unanimous vote.

Advantage count: Marianne has an extra vote. Drea has an extra vote and an Advantage amulet. Lindsey and Hai each have an Advantage Amulet. Mike has a three-way idol that is not activated.

“It’s not even a vote.” Survivor 42 Season Premiere Recap

We return to Fiji for Season 42, and it looks like individual season names are a thing of the past as this is the second season in a row not to have one.

The first player to speak is Jonathan, who tells us he has the world record for pull-ups done while carrying 100 pounds. (I’m impressed even if that record is one!) Then Drea tells us she was an All-American hurdler.

Quite a few minutes are spent telling us how awesome the season is going to be, then we get to Jeff Probst’s traditional “One… Survivor” line, typically spoken just before the camera pulls back to reveal he is standing at some incredible elevation. Nope, he is just standing on the beach this time.

Once the players disembark from their boats, Probst tells them that they will have no rice to begin the game, and a couple of other basics, and we get right to the first challenge. The first challenge involves one player from each team racing into the woods to get a set of oars, then a different player from each team running out of sight along the beach to get another set, before the teams get in a boat.

The very first leg of the first challenge has an injury as Daniel, an Albert Brooks type, dislocates his shoulder.

Then on the second leg, the players run around the bend to find not just oars but a note telling them they have a three-way decision to make — if they so choose they can all conspire to get advantages. The three are the aforementioned Drea, Hai, a gay Asian man, and Lindsey, an outdoorsy-looking woman. They decide to take the advantages. Humorously, the producers have left some mud and fake blood that the players can smear on themselves to explain why they were gone so long — though Hai overdoes it with enough fake blood for two corpses!

After the boating leg, the Orange team is way ahead going into the final phase in which a pole has to be made by tying together pieces of bamboo. Marya makes a convincing-looking pole but it doesn’t quite work, whereas Rocksroy, a middle-aged black man, is able to make a better one for the Blue team and get them the win.

Afterwards, the medics (and a camera crew) come out to see Daniel, and the efficient doctor pops his shoulder into place.

At the Blue camp, in addition to Drea and Rocksroy who is 43, we have a skinny young guy named Zach, and also Tori, who looks like she just stepped out of a sorority mixer but turns out to be a therapist (though she tells the players she is a caregiver). Rounding out the team are Romeo, a thin middle-aged man who is a pageant coach and quickly forms an alliance with Drea and Rocksroy, and Swati, an Ivy League student who is also in the National Guard.

The two losing tribes each get a Savvy or Sweat challenge they need to win to get supplies, as with last season. There is a key difference in that only one person would be carrying buckets of water for hours, not two.

On the Green tribe, Mike, a firefighter with a New Jersey accent, reads the challenge information and knows that as the strongest guy there, he would be the one chosen to carry the heavy water buckets. So understandably he wants the tribe to choose the puzzle option, even though it allows for just two guesses. Also on that tribe are the aforementioned Jenny, Daniel, and Hai, Lydia, a neurotic sort who looks like a Starbucks barista (i.e. the Cochran type who is obligatory on every season now) plus Chanelle, a black woman who is an executive recruiter and is barely seen or heard from in this two-hour episode. This is a very likeable group.

The Orange tribe chose to do the puzzle too. That tribe has Marianne, a very young black woman who is quite the chatterbox, the aforementioned Jonathan, Lindsey, and Marya, an “exotic veterinarian”named Omar, and a tattooed fellow named Jackson … more on him later.

Luckily both tribes, after much pondering, make the same guess at the number of triangles contained in the puzzle image and both get it right: 51.

We cut back to the Blue tribe where Rocksroy has fallen into the role of “obligatory somewhat older guy who barks orders while making the shelter, annoying the younger people.” Drea (after advising Rocksroy to take it down a notch) steals away to finally find out what her advantage note from earlier says. It’s the “Advantage Amulet.” It says it must be played with all amulets remaining in the game (it’s unclear to me what that means). And the fewer amulet-holders that are in the game, the more power it has. If all three are in the game it means an extra vote. With two in the game it’s a vote-steal. And with just one it is equal to an immunity idol. And it can be used until six people are left in the game. Bottom line: while it looked at first like the three people who got this at the start might be teaming up later, it actually is to their advantage to get the other two out of the game as early as possible!

We go to one of many commercials for a show called Beyond the Edge, which looks like a ripoff of Survivor. After that, Jackson reveals to his tribemates that he is transgender.

Back on the Blue tribe, Zach and Romeo hit it off, as two skinny guys who are big fans of the show (though these days almost every player seems to be a diehard fan). Meanwhile Tori goes off looking for an idol, thinking no one will suspect she’s looking for an idol. She’s wrong.

Soon one player from each tribe has to get on a boat. Like last season, those three have to hike to a summit, then split up and choose whether to risk their votes or protect their votes. Drea and Marianne both choose risk, Jenny chooses protect, which means Jenny is safe while the other two get an extra vote … though they don’t know yet how this turned out.

We then see Jeff Probst disembarking on the Orange tribe’s beach, as he wants to go have a private talk with Jackson (the fellow we just learned was transgender). Probst notes that applicants for the show have to apprise the show of any medical updates during the casting process. It seems Jackson declared new medical information just one day before shooting, namely that he had been taking lithium to deal with stress. “Why did you wait until the last minute?” Probst asks. Jackson says he didn’t think he needed to take the stuff anymore. But apparently when someone stops taking lithium, things like dehydration and exhaustion can have serious medical consequences, and of course those hardships are an integral part of Survivor. Probst says “we can’t do it,” and Jackson’s season is over. It’s a shame, he was a good character, maybe even great. His teammates, who have only known him two days, are in tears.

It’s Day 3 and time for the first immunity challenge. The tribal immunity idol has a very cool snake design. Probst announces that the team that comes in third not only has to go to Tribal Council, they have to give up their flint. Also the “shot in the dark die” from last season returns.

The challenge begins with teams having to load three really heavy chests from floating platforms into their boats. It’s a great visual, especially since once the third chest is on the boat, there’s not much room for the players! Once on shore, the chests need to be dragged up a sandy hill while the boats are pulled uphill on tracks, before the inevitable puzzle. The players are quite obviously spent from having to move the heavy chests around, all the more so because only five people are competing for each team, to even out the numbers following Jackson’s unexpected exit. The Orange team wins, and Green is second, thanks largely to Jenny’s puzzling skills which we also saw earlier in the “Sweat vs. Savvy” part.

So Blue has to go to Tribal Council. As soon as they get back to camp, Zach apologizes for his poor performance on the puzzle, and Tori announces she does not have an immunity idol. Drea tells Tori she wants to vote out Rocksroy (so much for her alliance with him!). Swati and Rocksroy want to vote out Zach who they think basically gave up on the puzzle. Romeo doesn’t want to oust Zach since the two of them have an alliance, and pushes for Tori. Drea doesn’t know yet if she even has a vote, having risked it after her hike up the summit earlier, so for that reason she eases off on pushing for Rocksroy. Looks like the vote will either be for Tori or Zach.

When it’s time to vote at Tribal Council, Zach is the first one to go to the voting booth. He whispers that he has “the first vote of season 42, and it’s not even a vote.” So he uses the shot-in-the dark die. Given the situation this might actually be a good move.

Soon thereafter Drea finds out she did get that extra vote, and she rolls it up to use later.

Just before the votes are read, Zach unrolls the little scroll he got fr playing his shot-in-the-dark die. It says “Not Safe.” Probst reads three Zach votes and says “that’s enough,” and Zach is out. In his confessional shown while the credits roll, Zach muses that he’s the first unanimous vote in Survivor history, and he’s probably right — even when all other votes are against one player, that player never votes for himself, but since Zach had no vote this was truly unanimous!

All in all a promising first episode, with a cast that seems more likeable than last season’s.

Advantage count: Marianne has an extra vote. Drea has an extra vote and an Advantage amulet. Lindsey and Hai have an Advantage Amulet.

Early favorite: Drea.

Survivor Season 41 Final Thoughts

After the puzzling vote that had Xander ending up with his name on zero ballots, I thought I should go back and look at the games of all three finalists to see if I missed something.

DeShawn can be dispensed with quickly — his one and only contribution to the season was stirring up trouble multiple times! He didn’t deserve to be in the final three.

As for Erika, she helped her team early by being good at puzzles. She saved her bacon by breaking the hourglass to give herself safety when she was all but certain to be voted out. She won an endurance-based immunity challenge. And when she got advantage at the end, she took advantage of it to win that challenge. Two of the above were situations caused by sheer luck (the hourglass and the advantage). Still, I say bravo to her for making the most of her chances.

But… Xander did much more. He chose to risk his vote at the start of the season to gain an extra vote. He made it to the merge despite the rest of his tribe planning to get rid of him for weeks (it’s crazy that Evvie, Tiffany, and Liana, all on the jury, didn’t give him respect for that). He fooled Liana by giving his advantages to Tiffany, and in the very same tribal council he persuaded Tiffany not to use the idol she was holding, which was the right move. He won an endurance immunity and also the final immunity. He was only the second-best player behind Ricard, but no way should Erika have won over him.

Good things about the season:

I think the two things I will remember about this one a few years from now are Xander’s “no, but you can have this fake” moment and the three-way idol storyline that continued for a few weeks, with players having to nonchalantly say lines like “I am as confused as a goat on Astroturf.”

One other good thing is that there were fewer idols than in some previous years — things had gotten a bit ridiculous so I’m glad this was scaled back.

Bad things about the season:

Never has a season concerned itself so much with the players’ personal stories and what they have done outside the game. Jeff Probst obviously loves getting into that, but guess what, every reality show tries to tug people’s heartstrings, so to me it has nothing to do with what makes the show interesting and unique.

The season didn’t have any real “can’t wait to see what happens next week” moments.

Also, while new twists keep things fresh, this season’s pretty much flopped. The break-the-hourglass twist and the do-or-die that DeShawn had to do were both unfair to the players, and the shot-in-the-dark die was only used once, by Sydney, and even then it turned out she would have been better off doing without it.

I also wearied of the self-congratulation this season: Probst tried so hard to tell us viewers how exciting and great and socially relevant it was.

So where does this rank among the Survivor seasons to date? Very, very near the bottom. I have it second to last, ahead of only One World, and I am wavering even on that. For now, my tiebreaker is watchability — if I were forced to watch one of the two seasons again, I would pick this one over One World.

Rankings Update

Ricard played an excellent game, but not on a level that would qualify him for my best players of all time list.

Also, he and Shan had a great run to start the game, but they turned on each other so early, they don’t make my best alliances of all time list.

Also, the likes of J.D. and Tiffany were not bad enough to make my list of the worst players of all time .

You can check out my full rankings of the seasons (including this one) here.

Survivor Season 41 December 15 2021 season finale recap

“The pace has been relentless” says Jeff Probst, as he starts the episode by heaping praise on the season that’s coming to an end. He also tells us that for the first time since Season 1, the votes will be read on-site instead of back in the studio in the USA. That’s only sort of correct — he did read all the votes back in Ghost Island — but only because he knew they would be a tie, and then the tie-breaking vote was saved for the reunion show.

The final five get to their new beach at night. The main topic of conversation is DeShawn’s “truth bomb” from the prior night, and Ricard points out to us viewers that DeShawn made it impossible for anyone to work with him if he stayed in the game, which of course he did!

The day after Tribal Council, the players are each given a clue to a final advantage– they have to anagram some words, rearrange them, and find the location being referred to. Erika finds it and gets the envelope.

At the immunity challenge we find out what the advantage is — the first part of the challenge involves assembling rungs of ladders, and about half of Erika’s are pre-assembled for her. And she does indeed win the challenge, edging out Ricard on the final puzzle — if not for the time Erika gained with her advantage, Ricard would have won.

So now it should be an easy decision to vote Ricard out, right? He doesn’t have immunity and is the best player in the game. But Erika keeps telling us that she doesn’t want to keep DeShawn in the game because she can’t trust him moving forward. But who cares whom you can trust once you’re in the final four?

At Tribal Council, Xander plays his idol since it’s the last time it can be used, but he makes a mini-speech about how he doesn’t really need it and he’s used it pretty successfully for 20 days and he has used it to save several others along the way. Pretty shameless jury pandering. Anyway, the other players obviously have not lost their minds, because Ricard does get voted out.

So our final four is DeShawn, Heather, Erika, and Xander. I can’t say I expected any of them besides the latter to make it this far! They all want to get some sleep before the huge final immunity challenge, but alas there is a rainstorm, and since they are at a new camp they have no shelter. The next day Probst asks if they had rain since it rained where he was — I’m sure he was nice and dry in the concierge level at the Hilton!

The final immunity challenge is the one they seem to use every season now. Which I understand because it’s always dramatic. The players have to stack blocks while walking back and forth on a wobbly platform, and drama is guaranteed because a player can be inches from winning and have to start all over.

Xander wins, which means he has to decide who comes with him to the final three and which other two need to do a fire-making challenge for the third spot. Surely it’s a lock that he will choose Heather? Actually, when they get to Tribal Council he chooses Erika.

So DeShawn versus Heather shapes up as the lowest-stakes fire-making challenge to date, but it gets interesting. DeShawn seems to have a big lead but suddenly his flame is almost completely gone. By the way everyone on the jury except Naseer seems to be cheering for Heather, a bad sign for DeShawn if he moves on! Heather has a roaring fire going that burns the rope, and burns the rope, but somehow it doesn’t snap and then her fire goes back down! DeShawn has built his back up, and burns through the rope just seconds before Heather’s does.

So DeShawn, Erika, and Xander are the final three, and go to Tribal Council the following night. The most memorable moment is when DeShawn lists all of his moves and Shan speaks up to say everything he called a move, she called emotional pouting. The other clear trend is that the Tribal Council seems very pro-Erika. Xander must think so too, because when Probst says he’ll read the votes Xander has a grim expression.

There is a vote for Erika, one for DeShawn, and every other one is for Erika, who wins! The best player left, Xander, doesn’t get one vote! And it’s a fair assumption that Naseer was the one DeShawn vote.

Wow. That advantage Erika found in the woods was a million-dollar envelope, not that she didn’t make the most of it.

I’ll be back soon with final thoughts.