Survivor 41, Ep. 4: The Hate Me 'Cause They Ain't Me
Previously on Survivor! Luvu is still a challenge powerhouse and enters episode 4 with all of its original 6 and an unblemished immunity challenge record. At both Yase and Ua however, Tribal Council has become their home away from home, both being there twice and knocking their tribe numbers down to 4 a piece. 14 remain, who will be voted out next?
UA (Green Tribe - Post Brad’s Vote)
CBS
We begin on the trek back to Ua from their second Tribal Council where Brad was voted out but not the only one blindsided. Genie’s voice finally is heard and she is pissed! First, Genie feels she can’t trust anyone. She’s not wrong by the way. And second, she feels that she is on the bottom and very much apart from Ricard, Shantal, and JD.
What does someone do when they feel they are a sitting duck, blindsided by their supposed #1 ally going home, and not sure what to do next? Genie decides to isolate herself “you do your food, I’ll do mine” and try to create distance from the others and not support them in any way, shape, or form. We get it Genie. Chances are you are on the bottom. Chances are you are dead in the water. No doubt the position she’s in and the way she must feel is valid and an uphill climb to put it lightly.
But, there is still hope! There always is. Especially in Survivor 41 in an abridged 26 day game, on a 4 person tribe, and with a likely game twist primed to switch things up likely to be around the near corner. Plus, there is always a crack to be found, targeted, expanded, and used to your advantage to stay alive.
The first inkling of a crack for Genie to slip into and take advantage of comes when Shantal “squashes” everything for Genie and shares the info about Brad having the advantages and he never told her. Shantal was Brad’s true #1 and this juicy nugget proved it. It hurts to have your Survivor nuggets shoved down your throat unwillingly like Shantal did, but this news, though toxic for Genie to choke down, did expose something about Shantal. Was Genie tuned into this crack? No, but JD was. The crack was Shantal divulging that information told JD that she “played me”.
CBS
JD handed his extra vote advantage to Shantal as a sign of trust in the previous episode and Tribal Council before Wyoming’s favorite rancher was booted. However, the trust that JD thought he had mutually with Shantal was dynamited by Shantal sharing the nuggets she had about Brad’s advantages and her being his number 1. Credit to JD for recognizing that Shantal had this info and kept it from him. Shantal showed him that she played him, manipulated him, and wasn’t reciprocating the same levels of trust because she kept the Brad info from JD.
So where does this leave JD? It’s a simple choice. Does he continue to trust Shantal despite her “playing him” and target Genie at the next Tribal as an “easy vote”?
OR
Does JD take Boston Rob’s advice for Survivor and life and (with Boston accent) SMARTEN UP?! He has his vote, his extra vote advantage he won, plus Genie’s vote to make a semi move and take down Shantal for playing him like a fiddle?
FIRST REWARD CHALLENGE
CBS
It took 4 episodes but we finally have a stand alone REWARD CHALLENGE!!! Now, I think it’s important to note that not having the same kind of reward challenges we have come to expect is a good thing. It’s kept the tribes’ stomachs more empty than full and more scrappy. This back to basics approach has worked in 41, but it’s nice to have 2 challenges in an episode. Love that action!
The rewards were also unique and non-gluttonous. First place received some direct help at camp on how to survive from a local Fijian and 2nd place got some fish, one fish.
CBS
The rewards were worth playing for and the challenge was a good one too. First, each member of the team had to take a ball and toss it up onto a ramp above some rope hurdles. Next, as the ball rolled down the player had to hurdle the rope obstacles to the other end and catch the ball without it hitting the ground.
Definitely seemed easier from the couch than it likely was on the beach in Fiji.
Once each tribe member completed the ball and rope portion the whole tribe had to dig out a trench under a pole and get the tribe under it. Lastly, the tribe then had to land each ball on a ledge between two pieces of wood to win.
In the end, Ua gets a win and the reward of a visit from the local Fijian and Yase comes in 2nd to grab the single tropical fish to eat. But, the real takeaway from the reward challenge is Luvu finally shows an achilles heal at a challenge finally finishing last.
The achilles heal was none other than Heather, the 52 year old mom that we haven’t hear a lick from all season long. Remember her?
Nice to see Heather really lean into the joke as well by posting the pictures above on her instagram. She knows that she has been virtually invisible in the edit through 4 episodes and her coming out party is one that could have mixed reviews. On the one hand Heather struggles in the challenge, can’t get through the ball toss and rope hurdles, and loses the challenge for Luvu. On the other hand, she didn’t give up, did her best, and not only her tribe but the other tribes as well showed her support and clapped for her at the end of the challenge.
The support came out of Heather breaking down and sobbing. Again, not necessarily how you’d want your first Survivor face time to play out.
After the unanimous show of support for Heather, Probst asked her “What are you feeling right now? and she expressed that she felt like she let her team down, and she did. The challenge exposed her. The challenge showed her limitations physically as a 52 year old and nowhere near the athlete or physical threat that the rest of Luvu is. Plus, Luvu has been able to essentially hide Heather at immunity challenges because they have an extra person to sit out. For that reason, the reward challenge was also important because it forced Luvu to play Heather and it caused them to lose, but losing the reward challenge is a hell of a lot better than losing the immunity challenge.
Or is it…(more to come later)
CASTING COMMERCIAL
CBS
Lot of publicity on social media and the show about Survivor casting for seasons 43 and 44 now. Rest assured, my Survivor audition is in the hopper and about 90% ready to go. Stay tuned. I will post it soon.
YASE (Yellow Tribe)
CBS
Post reward. challenge we go to Yase camp to see them chow down on their single fish 2nd place reward which definitely went a long way. Remember, they don’t even have rice at camp this season and there has been essentially no air time showing anyone doing anything with coconuts or fishing at all.
At Yase we also get a little dose of symbolism from Evvie. The tribe discovers a bale of turtles migrating from the beach to the water. The symbolism comes in the form of the turtle pictured above stuck in a hole and having to fight and fight and fight to finally wiggle out of the hole and overcome the challenge, just like Yase. Leave it to Harvard PhD to drop a little metaphor on us. I liked it. Who doesn’t love little turtles battling to overcome adversity. They are cute as hell and nobody would say any different.
NATHAN
Ua took home 1st place at the reward challenge and won a Fijian survival crash course via Nathan, the most interesting character of the first half of episode 4. The guy was unbelievable, even from the couch through the screen.
Nathan’s help came in many ways
climbing palm trees
chopping coconuts with his hand
fish catching advice
spear fishing
cooking fish
flavor for fish
deshelling coconut
Maybe most impactful of all was Nathan helped the entire tribe have survival skills that made Genie’s skills around camp be deemed expendable. Ricard was all over this. I knew Ricard was a major player.
Enjoy the pictures of Nathan doing his thing and everyone watching in amazement.
ERIKA
CBS
We had another first appearance/face time for a Luvu tribe member, Erika. Erika has been virtually invisible, like Heather, as a result of being on the sit out bench in challenges and the success of Luvu dictating her to say “I don’t even have a torch yet…part of me feels restless.”
Erika’s restlessness was probably true from her couch too as she watched the first 3 episodes and saw herself for all of 5 seconds combined. Episode 4 however was the chance for us to get a sense of Erika and learn that she isn’t just sitting back, but rather she is thinking about the game quite a bit.
Erika makes her move on the boat and at on the way to the water well with Deshawn. She confides in Deshawn that when she saw Sydney struggle with the flint and failed to make fire, it exposed Sydney in her mind as impulsive, reactive, very emotional.
Erika’s assessment was the right one. My guess is that Sydney doesn’t struggle in life with much. She’s hot, athletic, and probably has more confidence in her pinky than the average person does as a whole. But, as we know, in Survivor, anything can and will be used against you as a potential reason to see your torch be the one snuffed out.
Erika uses the opportunity to try and make a move and end her silence. She shares her concerns about Sydney going forward and proposes the idea of voting out Sydney if the Goliath Luvu tribe ever gets to a Tribal Council.
So what does Deshawn do with this information? He does what apparently is the common thing to do in Survivor 41 and immediately take someone else’s words and information disclosed and use it to build trust with someone else. We saw Sydney do this to Naseer and Evvie do it with Xander and Vocè. Now, we see it with Deshawn doing it to Erika.
What’s hilarious is when Deshawn tells Sydney that someone was saying her name, it took her 3 guesses to correctly identify Erika as the culprit. (Note - the only remaining tribe member to guess was Heather, but we already covered where Heather stands in the game, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the other enigma of the game so far (Erika) was guessed 3rd. Clearly Erika isn’t seen as a threat from Sydney, but nonetheless, Sydney didn’t like her name being exposed.
““I’m like the threat of threats. I’m savvy as hell. I’m good looking...Wow. What is it about me? I think they just hate me. They love to hate me. They hate me cause they ain’t me.””
I’m a huge fan of Sydney. Make no mistake about it. I think she has a ton of potential in this game and could be her own version of a 2021 Parvati. Her self confidence is over the top and makes you wonder how much is shtick and how much is authentically her? Is this a Final Tribal and compelling enough person to get the votes or would it be seen as obnoxious and as a result she’ll never come close to getting to the end. I could also see her making the jury and being the most bitter juror in quite some time. We shall see, but one thing we learn from Erika’s proposal to Deshawn is that Sydney’s emotions and behavior is on display and noticed.
Let’s think about Deshawn for a moment. First, we don’t know too much about what’s been going on at Luvu through 3 episodes because of their challenge success and avoidance of Tribal Council so far. We only see members of Luvu (Deshawn and Sydney) face the Prisoner’s Dilemma and the only strategy talk came from Naseer and that was quickly brought to the attention of everyone else on the tribe by Sydney. I think that Sydney’s exposing of Naseer wanting to vote out Danny must have set a tone for the tribe that Deshawn then follows by outing Erika’s thoughts about voting out Sydney. Feels like a safe play for Deshawn because he wants to build as strong an alliance as he can with Sydney and Danny should the day come that they slip up at an immunity challenge OR if they should THROW AN IMMUNITY CHALLENGE and vote someone out.
Heading into the challenge Deshawn tells Danny he wants to throw the challenge and vote out Erika. Ultimately, Erika’s actions convinced Deshawn she can’t be trusted and needs to go. However, the only way to get her out is to go to Tribal Council, and since Luvu has done well in challenges and likely will continue against their depleted competitors, Deshawn wants to throw the challenge and get rid of Erika.
Credit to Danny, our ex-NFL player and third runner up for least film time from Luvu, who tells Deshawn that he’s “not sure I could do it” because it goes against every instinct he has ever known as an exceptional athlete and competitor. It’s not in Danny’s DNA but he agrees to throw the challenge, and the episode 3 Game Within the Game strategy test is on!
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE
Great immunity challenge. Seems like it was exhausting, required a total team effort, and fun. To start, tribes dive into the water and swim to shore untying and collecting three bags of wood blocks along the way. Next, untying the bags of blocks, taking the blocks and pushing them through a tunnel until all are released. One of the blocks has a key which then releases the rings for the final component of the challenge, landing 3 rings on hooks and guaranteeing safety for the tribe.
Deshawn and Danny tried their darndest to stall at the swimming, waste time at untying the knots, and purposefully miss ring tosses. Despite their best effort, the other tribes performed so poorly that it only stalled Deshawn’s evil plan.
At the end, the challenge came down to JD (Ua) versus Naseer (Luvu) who took over for a “trying to throw the challenge at the ring toss Deshawn” with a trip to Tribal Council at stake. Despite JD’s best Kobe impersonation he ended up laying bricks instead of lay ups and Naseer beat him to send Ua back to Tribal for a third time and keep Luvu from even getting a torch.
CBS
PRE-TRIBAL COUNCIL
Back to Genie. Remember at the beginning of the episode she was the one ready to disassociate herself from the rest of Ua after Brad was blindsided. Now, she finds herself with the reality of another trip to Tribal Council and her life in the game in serious jeopardy.
She starts out doing the smart thing and goes to JD. He’s her best shot of having a running mate in this vote, but that requires JD to recognize (as discussed earlier in the blog) that Shantal is the real target and if he and Genie and his extra vote ban together than they can put 3 votes on Shantal and send her “played me” ass to Ponderosa.
Unfortunately, Genie can only muster the thought of rolling her Shot in the Dark die. Which is a viable option at 16.7% chance of granting her safety from the vote. However, that also means its a 83.3% chance of no safety and losing her vote. What the Shot in the Dark die does guarantee is JD freaking out and fearing that if Genie is successful that leaves him vulnerable to being voted out. JD is blinded by Genie being the “easy vote” in his eyes and turns his sights on manipulating her to not use the die, thus ensuring that he can place his vote on Genie and get her out.
There’s no such thing as easy votes in Survivor.
🎶“Hmm, hmm, hmm. Hmm, hmm, hmm!” 🎶 - Shantal
Shantal has her own thoughts on how this vote should go down. She sets her sights on JD’s extra vote and is willing to do anything to get her grips on it. To her credit, she plays the panicky card to JD that she thinks he will blindside her so she eventually gets JD to give it to her.
WHAT A DUMMY!
JD follows suit with his Survivor heroes Woo and hands his game away to Shantal by giving her his extra vote advantage. Shantal feels she has power in her pocket and now thinks that keeping his extra vote for herself and voting out JD is best.
👏👏👏Shantal 👏👏👏
TRIBAL COUNCIL
VOTES
JD - 3
Genie - 1
Shantal - now has JD’s extra vote because he was an idiot to give it to her willingly after she “played him” at the previous Tribal.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, I’m out of Survivor and my dream ends.
CBS
CBS
JD’s EXIT INTERVIEW
“…to be out of the game I love sucks…at least my hair looks cool.” - JD
That about sums up JD. He is authentic and definitely a good dude. He clearly subscribes to the Woo, Ozzy, Malcolm surfer/hang loose island life style, and it looks good on him. With those heroes comes a certain Survivor story, one of missed opportunities and coming up short in the social game. Like his heroes, JD too sees his Survivor dream come to an end by failing at the outwit portion of the game. He may not win the million or the title of Sole Survivor, but not all was lost, at least his hair looked good.
Thanks for reading. Be sure to outlike, outcomment, and outshare the rest all season long. I appreciate it very much and hope everyone is enjoying the season as much as I am.
The blog has spoken!
