Survivor 41, Ep. 5: The Strategist or the Loyalist
Previously on Survivor…
During the Reward Challenge, we finally found Heather, but she was unable to complete the challenge and handed Luvu their first loss. At Ua where the actual game of Survivor has been happening most, Shantal manipulated JD into forking over his not so secret extra vote advantage to her only to be voted out at Tribal. Will Luvu finally go to Tribal? Will Ua go back to Tribal again?
Ua (Green Tribe)
We open the episode at Ua and Genie is feeling on the bottom. So much so that she decides to look for the advantage that she figures (correctly) went back into the game after Brad was voted out. What I don’t understand was why she felt she had to share this with Ricard and Shantal. Why? I mean what if there were a merge or a swap. Her game could be flipped upside down in her favor, so how does she benefit from telling them her every move?
Genie goes one step further. She finds the Beware Advantage yet somehow doesn’t open it for herself?!?! Instead, she decides to tell Shan and Ricard so “we’ll decide together”. HUH???? Didn’t she already write down Ricard’s name at previous Tribal Councils? Didn’t she see Ricard and Shan blindside Brad and JD in front of her very eyes? I get that she is in a tribe of 3 and those are the other two beside her but if you’re on bottom then why not keep some sense of power over them in the form of having an advantage and the knowledge of an advantage to yourself?
As a tribe they decide to not open the advantage and “leave it” where it was. More accurately put, Shantal and Ricard manipulate Genie to not open the advantage for herself so that Shan can open it later on for herself. Coupled with that, Ricard will cover up the evil deed with the idea of saying the secret phrase about broccoli that they learned from Brad out loud, but only in hopes of seeing if a Luvu member found it too.
Shan uses the “our vote is our voice” plea to manipulate Genie into thinking that nobody should grab the advantage and sacrifice their vote. What she’s really saying is “I want that advantage for myself.” Can you blame her? I can’t. You’re on Survivor and you’re having success in the outwit phase of the game, so why not roll the dice (not that die) and try to get an idol/advantage.
CBS
The one catch to Shan’s 🎶hmm, hmm, hmm. hmm, hmm, hmm 🎶is if she takes the Beware Advantage then she cannot vote at all. For her that is doubly troubling because she still has JD’s extra vote. She decides to give the extra vote to Ricard (more on this later), open the 3 way 🥦Beware Advantage, and stash the advantage back to signal to Genie that all of this never happened. Tip of the cap to both of them for working Genie.
LUVU (Blue Tribe)
CBS
More evidence out of Luvu as to why Sydney thinks “they hate me cause they ain’t me” when she begins playing the role of Richard Hatch aka the provider. If nothing else this short portion of the episode gave us some breathtaking video underwater and Sydney doing her thing aka Sydney is smokin hot too, and her spear fishing underwater is a hell of a leap forward from Hatch in Borneo. Sorry Hatch, you know I love ya.
Winning is a great thing and winning solves a heck of a lot in the sports world, life in general, and Survivor. For Luvu it’s been the ONLY thing. However, it does put you in a position in Survivor of feeling complacent or too comfortable. Luvu hasn’t had to “play” the game yet. Because of this we find Deshawn and Danny doing the best strategizing they can think of at this point as they smile and plod along to the well. They revisit the throwing the challenge and voting out Erika idea again. They’ve already failed at this once and they don’t seem like they have much more to offer. Ultimately, it’s a good idea but it needs a high level of support from the rest of the tribe or you risk having the tide turn on you.
Then, Deshawn and Danny decide to let Naseer in on the party and he agrees that Erika should be the one to go. The real victory of the scene comes for Naseer who reminds me of the Grinch when he has the brilliant idea to steal Christmas. Check out that grin!
The timeless fear of the all girls alliance will bring any group of Survivor men together. Naseer is the true beneficiary of this fear shared by Danny and Deshawn. He couldn’t be happier to hear the news, it’s “music to his ears” and for good reason. Despite the success at Luvu preventing the tribe from ever dipping their torch into the fire, Naseer still found himself on the bottom of the tribe. Had they lost in previous episodes it could have very easily been Naseer being thrown under the bus and on his way home instead of creating iconic Survivor moments (more coming soon, promise).
YASE (Yellow Tribe)
Haven’t heard much from Yase since the Vocè exit episode. They have found success in challenges and as a result haven’t had much air time/confessionals save for a baby turtle version of March of the Penguins last week.
That was then and this is now. Now, the heat of the game has turned up at Yase. Let’s start with Evvie. We catch up with her buttering Xander up and making him feel secure.
“…love to go to the end with people that like if they win I won’t hate myself” - Evvie to Xander
Evvie is a strategist. Don’t be fooled by the lemons on her button down. Evvie is definitely getting Xander to drink her lemonade. Remember she knows about Xander’s Beware Advantage and extra vote. Plus, she knows the fact that he doesn’t have any vote until the 3 way idol is activated. Xander is powerless at the moment and Evvie knows it, so she has decided to make him feel good while still being tight with Tiff and Liana.
Tiff and Liana have other plans and the edit does a good job of showcasing to schism in Yase.
Tiffany and Liana’s other plans include doing some digging around camp and not for coconuts, but for information. Remember information is everything in Survivor and Tiffany, in a bit of a panicky state, proposes to Liana…
“We should be going through his ____ bag right now.” - Tiffany
This bold strategy move was teased in last week’s Game Within the Game. Check out my Ep. 4 Game Within the Game blog to see how I would handle the situation or comment below how you would handle it. Is it fair or foul? Genius or too risky? Either way, it’s a move, and Liana was 100% in on doing some dirty work.
CBS
With Tiffany on lookout, Liana unearthed Xander’s advantages (Beware Advantage and Extra Vote) and the disadvantage of him not having a vote at all until his dead relatives come back as butterflies. This new dynamic duo now knows that Xander is beyond vulnerable and has no leg to stand on, so should they go to Tribal, he will be an easy target.
As if Xander wasn’t already in a position of zero power he puts a cherry on top by getting caught in a lie about the advantages. In true mother/teacher form (I know because I am a teacher) Tiffany approaches him knowing the truth and he doesn’t own up to it. She presses him and he stammers and backtracks. Xander’s chill surfer guy vibe is no match for Hurricane Tiffany with a background of working with kids who’ve made mistakes before. Her bullshit radar is state of the art.
Despite all of these speed bumps I still think that Xander is going to be okay. Yase has kept itself out of Tribal for long enough that his idol could finally get activated (hint hint) but he won’t just regain his votes he will regain some power that I don’t think the rest of Yase ever wanted him to get back.
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE
Another awesome Reward/Immunity Challenge. The reward is the all important Survival resource, tarps. 2st place gets a large one and 2nd gets a regular tarp. To win it, first, the team has to get up and over an elevated and sloped net. Then, release a key from a braided rope puzzle, unlock a machete and use it to release some sandbags. Finally, to win the challenge you have to slingshot the sandbags into 2 targets. It took teamwork to get the tribe over the first obstacle. Always enjoy seeing people climb other people and get yanked up and over like ragdolls. As you could’ve easily predicted the challenge came down to the slingshot. Xander brought home another 1st place for Yase and a breath of fresh air for his individual game being the hero again. The fight for 2nd came down to Naseer (Luvu) and Ricard (Ua). After some intense slo-mo camera shots of Ricard’s near misses, Naseer tips the final target over to continue Luvu’s unblemished immunity record in season 41. Ua back to Tribal…AGAIN!
As exciting as the down to the wire finish that the challenge was, it was completely overshadowed by the events right before the challenge. Enjoy the video. It was too good that it needed to be recorded and posted to YouTube.
3 WAY BEWARE ADVANTAGE IDOL IS ACTIVATED!
Takeaways from the Pre-Challenge
The 3 way idol requiring each tribe have someone say a ridiculous, yet funny secret phrase prior to a challenge is ACTIVATED!!! Took a while to get there but we are here and it was worth the wait. Ricard and Shan manipulated Genie from opening it for herself and then started the party with realizing that broccoli is just little trees. Not only did they start the tango but they then teed up Xander to land his 3.0 version of butterflies being his dead relatives. Then, a hush came over the tribes and Jeff gestured to move on, BUT Naseer had something to add. He was a little confused like a goat on astroturf.
Naseer is by far the most likable player this season. His smile is infectious. He has the innocence of a child on Christmas morning. His excitement permeates the tv screen and into the viewer’s heart. After he delivers the confused goat line and activates the Beware Advantage Idol, we flashback to him finding the advantage at Luvu’s beach. He’s overwhelmed with excitement and I’m willing to bet that his excitement seeped into everyone watching at home. It did for me. 100%. The guy has that “it” factor that will get him far in the game or voted out too soon because everyone could pick up on their inability to compete against him in a final 3. Speaking of final 3, the guy is so likable that he able to deliver his story or the story of his daughter hiding idols in the backyard with such a light to him that you know his final Tribal speech should he get there will be impermeable. I hope he gets there, and if he doesn’t, we will see him again on Survivor.
The idol shakes up the whole game as always. Naseer, Shantal, and Xander all have Immunity Idols and with the game on a crash course for a merge or major shakeup, those idols will surely come in handy. What I’m most interested to see is how each of them will handle the fact that everyone knows that they have the idols. Does it put a target on them? Does it bring them together to form an idol alliance? Time will tell but I think it’s a good thing that the Beware Advantage got activated. I could see an alternate universe in which they never get there and we never see anything like this again. Glad it worked out the way it did. Lot of outwitting came out of this advantage.
LIANA & SHANTAL’S JOURNEY
After the moment of the season (Naseer activating the idol) and the Immunity Challenge defeat sending Ua back to Tribal for a 4th time, Jeff had another journey for 2 people to go on. Yase being the winning tribe had to select someone from Ua (losing tribe) and 1 other person from the other tribes to go on the journey together. Liana volunteers. Liana and Shantal go off to face a prisoner’s dilemma.
Couple issues. First, with the selection of Shantal. Why? I guess it’s hard to truly know a ton of what has been going on at Ua except for the reveals of who got voted out, but before the challenge she was the one yapping about broccoli. Didn’t you pick up on her now having the idol? Why not choose Genie? She wasn’t part of the idol activation SNL skit and overall she seems like the least threatening person of the three remaining Ua (imo).
The other issue I have is why this prisoner’s dilemma has only been termed a “journey” by Jeff. Why? Seems like there should be a nickname of some sort for this part of the game, yet there isn’t. I guess Beware Island would have been one too many bewares for this season.
As far as Liana volunteering herself. Since Yase was in charge of selecting and the other 3 members of Yase had each gotten an opportunity to go on a journey, Liana was the easy choice. Good job by her. Little did she know how lucky she would get.
A lot comes out of the Shantal and Liana journey. Shan is concerned about being away from Ricard and Genie and the possibility of them scheming to vote her out. Which makes sense especially when your tribe is literally down to 3 people. There is nobody to turn to and no place to hide. This is the advantage of having 3 tribes to start a season and not doing an early swap. Despite Shan’s concerns back at Ua she is able to connect with Liana and try to cultivate trust with her. And she does. They open the book to each other. They are sharing info about idols, agree to play down the journey when they return to camp, and share this moment of sanctuary in being women of color and being united in the game. Ultimately, in Survivor anything can connect people and forge a bond at light speed and we see it in this scene with Liana and Shan. Though I’m not a woman of color, it’s understandable how that shared characteristic brought them to a place of comfort enough to make themselves vulnerable to each other, especially Shan.
Shan shares an emotional story of her life going from being affiliated with a gang as a youth to becoming a pastor, and her relationship with her mother who passed away. In this palpable moment, the Shan we know humming her evil song and running Ua like it’s her congregation she’s in control of, is humanized at a level we haven’t seen to this point. Of all the back stories shared with viewers to this point, Shan’s pierces the deepest. Winner’s edit? Winner’s edit before the actual winner’s edit? We’ll see. From a game standpoint what’s most interesting about Shan pulling back the curtain is that she shared it with Liana, not Ricard. Ricard has been her #1 throughout the game and previous votes, yet in only a flash of time she’s sharing this intimate info with Liana. But, that wasn’t all she shared.
“if I’m here on Day 12, Ricard cannot be trusted” - Shan to Liana
Shan has been dropping bombs left and right through 5 episodes, but that quote, with that message, in that moment of vulnerability, was maybe the most powerful piece of information to be learned by any other player to date. Liana and Shan seem to have solidified a bond that’s sure to carry over into a merge.
“It’s not who you trust in the game but who trusts you” - Liana
But wait, there’s more…
“THE KNOWLEDGE IS POWER ADVANTAGE”
Enter “The Knowledge is Power Advantage” and following right behind it is the scrutiny of “The Knowledge is Power Advantage”. If you sifted through the slideshow of pictures above or saw the episode you know what this advantage means. It’s a one shot Charlie. One question to one person to be able to gain an advantage or idol. Seems pretty simple for Liana and it is. She’s in an awesome position with this advantage and this no doubt has 4th of July fireworks extravaganza potential.
But all she has to do is ask someone the question and that’s it? Seems waaaaaaaay too easy. I understand that she had to risk her vote on the journey with Shan and hope that Shan would protect her vote to obtain the advantage, but this still feels too easy. The one caveat that I like about this new advantage is you have to do ask the question at Tribal Council. In other words if you use this advantage, everyone will know if you have an idol or advantage because it will be handed over to you in front of everyone. That could be a slippery slope. Lastly, Liana knows that Xander has an idol and extra vote advantage and Shan told her about having the idol too. From that they definitely know that Naseer has an idol too after the pre challenge word vomit.
Easier Path - Liana takes the easy path to an idol and asks Xander if he has one.
Tougher Path - Liana holds onto this advantage until she really needs it to save herself or to screw somebody else over in front of the jury.
Best Path - Liana uses this advantage to take Shan’s idol and then convinces the tribe vote Shan out. (This would be amazing and a huge move compared to the lay-up of taking Xander’s)
Prediction. Liana takes Xander’s idol.
PRE-TRIBAL (at Ua Day 11)
With Shan away on an adventure the opportunity for Genie and Ricard to plan their blindside of Shan is there. However, Ricard doesn’t trust Genie (she voted for him at Tribal before) and Genie doesn’t trust Ricard (she voted for him at Tribal before). Ricard wants to vote out Genie, but his strategy is manipulating Genie by throwing Shan under the bus, but voting Genie out anyway
“Every move I’ve made she has taken credit for and is a way more powerful position than me.” - Ricard
Now, this line is much like the line from Shan to Liana about Ricard not being trustworthy. Shan and Ricard both know that each other are the best players in the game and that they can easily make a case to target one another, yet they’ve stayed together as an alpha pair instead of a solo act. Smart.
Genie needs Ricard to talk to her about voting Shan out. He does. But, Shan has the upperhand in both Ricard and Genie’s voting ideas. In other words, Ricard wants to keep Shan and vote Genie, and Genie wants to keep Shan and vote Ricard. 😈🎶Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm. 🎶😈 Well done Shan. You’ve won the Ua portion of Survivor 41.
Shan returns from her bondapalooza with Liana and tells Ricard and Genie exactly what happens in a lead up to the Ua edition of Shark Tank. Shan needs to pitch to both Genie and Ricard and make her decision of who she wants to roll with. Shan isn’t going anywhere even though Ricard and Genie probably should vote her out, but they aren’t capable of aligning nor do they want to. Plus, Shan could play her idol.
Genie and Shan - Just a lot of “I promise yous” and Shan knowing that what Genie told her about Ricard wanting to blindside her is truth, buuuuut Genie also is easily manipulated and doesn’t know that Ricard was just saying that but in fact wants to vote her out. Ricard is that much better at deception. The biggest impact of Genie and Shan’s Shark Tank is Shan getting paranoid about Ricard having her Extra Vote and she wants it back.
Ricard and Shan - Shan has balls. She blatantly asks Ricard for her extra vote advantage back. LOL. Credit to Ricard (my favorite player of the season) because as soon as she utters this absurd request, his eyes widen with disbelief at the insanity of the question. He’s no JD. If he gives her the extra vote back “then you have no reason to keep me”. Ricard knows what happened to JD and he is not a dope. If he gives up the extra vote then he risks making himself completely vulnerable at this 3 person Tribal. I understand Shan wants insurance and her powers in the game in her pocket, but I love how Ricard holds her accountable and Shan begins to show her desperation. You can hear it in her voice and see it on her face. Ricard turns up the heat again on Shan by telling her to play the idol tonight if she is so scared of what Ricard will do. But, she doesn’t want to “waste it”. The cherry on top is Ricard voicing out loud that the move Shan is making or setting up is the exact move that he told her to do to fool JD. His smile says it all.
CBS
As we head to Tribal, Shan must decide between bringing the strategist (Ricard) or the loyalist (Genie).
TRIBAL COUNCIL
CBS
Genie makes her pitch at Tribal with the only attribute that she really has to offer, honesty. Being honest is just who Genie is to the viewer and likely even more honest to Shan and Ricard. I mean she made two of the dumbest moves you can make earlier in the episode by announcing she was going to look for the idol and then upon finding it she sprinted back to tell them what she did. In that moment her honesty made her look like a dog showing her parents the toy she dug up from the backyard. Note to self never tell anyone ever in Survivor that you’re looking for the idol land that you found the idol. I guess at some point being too honest can actually see honesty swing the pendulum over to the side of stupidity.
Ricard makes his pitch to Shan about how well they have worked together, but also toots his own horn as the mastermind in the duo and Shan as the executor. The Specialist would be proud of me for the nicknames.
Love how Jeff calls out Shan for her holding the cards of pitching to both of them. It releases a smile on her face that forces her to backtrack and deflect the power that Jeff is trying to point out that she has.
Before the vote Jeff brings up that tonight’s vote, unless the jury starts tonight, has little to zero consequence, but there is and Ricard points it out.
“There is consequence because the two people that are left standing are clearly experienced enough already in this game that they were able to navigate getting rid of their entire tribe. The reality is everybody else has been playing this game, they are not at our caliber yet because they haven’t had this experience. They don’t even know who to trust, they don’t know who’s going to lie to them, and they don’t know what to expect. And so, whoever leaves here is going to be a massive target because everyone’s going to vote for us. - Ricard
Like I said, Ricard is my favorite player this season.
Time to vote.
VOTES
GENIE - 2
RICARD - 1
NO ADVANTAGES OR IDOLS PLAYED
Shan made the right decision in trusting Ricard (for now) and moving forward with the strategist even though he told her no and didn’t do exactly as she wanted. Don’t know if they’ll be sticking together to day 26, but at this point it’s their best move.
CBS
AWARDS
Haven’t done the awards section in a while so let’s bring that back for episode 5. Could do a ton of different awards but let’s keep it simple to close out the blog for this week.
Best Move: Could go a couple different ways here, but let’s go with Liana deciding to volunteer to go on the journey with Shantal. Everyone else on Yase has been to one of these journeys and Liana’s patience paid off. She went at the right time. She connected with frontrunner Shantal, got all the dirt she could, including an admission from Shantal that Ricard can’t be trusted, and finally, she ended up getting an advantage.
Best Part: Easy one. Despite the qualified nominees of Shantal sharing her story about her and her mother and Ricard strong arming Shantal during the pre-Tribal scramble, the choice for best part was a simple one, Naseer finding the Beware Advantage. In less than one minute he showed everyone watching that he is the most likable cast member and not as confused as a goat on astroturf when it comes to playing Survivor.
Trending Up: Yase members Liana and Tiffany. They are sneaking around together like pirates pillaging in the night when they rummage through Xander’s bag of goodies to acquire information. Plus, Liana gained “The Knowledge is Power” advantage.
Trending Down: Chances of someone from Luvu winning the title of Sole Survivor. They are a week and a half into the game and are yet to face any real adversity. They need to go to Tribal Council eventually but not getting a torch yet with the game moving to a new phase isn’t going to serve them well. Unless they stick together. Unlikely.
Who won the episode?: Between Liana and Ricard. Liana’s episode was flashier like a Steph Curry 3 ball from the logo, while Ricard’s episode was like Dennis Rodman outgrinding and outhustling on the defensive end of the floor and outwitting people on the boards. Ricard flexed his strategist persona by concocting plans for handling the Beware Advantage at camp, manipulating Genie, and activating the broccoli idol. He deserves to be still in this thing with an impressive episode worth a win tally.
NEXT WEEK’S TEASER
Don’t usually say anything about it because I think at this point I’ve written enough, but this time is different. We have a MERGE!…Sort of…HUH???
The possibilities of what this could mean are endless. Ultimately, they do drop their buffs and I think there will be a merge of the tribes. Like always. But, this is a new era of Survivor and the show is doing everything they can to reinforce that, so the merge is no different. My one prediction what happens with this new version of the merge will be a choice in the hands of the players like the “come on in guys” question.
CBS
Looking forward to what happens at this new merge, how it impacts the game as a whole and everyone’s individual game. Until then be sure to outlike, outcomment, and outshare the rest all season long. If you like the blog be sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and subscribe to the YouTube channel.
The blog has spoken!
