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.
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