Survivor 41, Ep. 6: Ready to Play Like a Lion
Previously on Survivor….
At Ua, the duo of Shan and Ricard were once again up to their deceptive ways manipulating Genie into not opening the Beware Advantage leaving the door open for Shan to gobble up another source of power in the game. At Yase, Tiffany and Liana were finally skeptical of Xander enough to snoop around in his bag to learn about his advantages. At the Immunity Challenge, the broccoli, butterflies and confused goats on astroturf finally emerged granting Shan, Xander, and Naseer a hidden immunity idol before sending Ua back to Tribal Council for a 4th time. In the end, Shan and Ricard like Aladdin, made their wish and set Genie free.
Who will be voted out tonight?
UA Night 11 (Green Tribe, well what’s left of it)
The episode opens with our old married couple last two remaining partners in crime at Ua, Ricard and Shan, bickering back and forth in the wake of setting Genie free about what else, the extra vote. Shan gave it to Ricard before the previous Immunity Challenge to prevent it from losing value if the Beware Advantage wasn’t activated. However, the idol is activated and the extra vote is back in play except it’s in Ricard’s pocket and not Shan’s.
On the one side is Ricard’s argument that the extra vote isn’t a big deal if Shan trusts him. Which he proved to her with voting Genie out like he said he would. Ricard also feels like Shan’s desperate approach to getting the vote back is something out of a middle school drama involving a parent and a teenager’s phone being taken away. On the other side is Shan’s argument. She gave him the extra vote for safe keeping and then once the idols were activated and the extra vote wouldn’t be unplayable, she wanted it back.
That’s where the schism comes in. Ricard is appropriately nicknamed the strategist for a reason. Despite the extra vote being in play, he didn’t give it back to Shan, nor should he have. He was right to hold it as collateral for the Genie vote so that he was not a fool like JD for giving it back to Shan as well as not leaving himself vulnerable to Shan using it to get him out. Shan is also right in wanting the extra vote back at that point, but her desperation communicated her mistrust of Ricard to him, but more importantly to herself. Ricard is her number 1 and has been through 4 votes and it has gotten them to the end of their tribe, but Shan found a replacement at the journey in Liana and now has the “he didn’t give me MY extra vote back” (even though it’s actually JD’s) which she undoubtedly will use going forward into a merge to try to outlast Ricard.
I applaud both of them for the game they’ve played so far. They both proved to be the best players so far and glad that they haven’t turned on each other. Yet.
TREE MAIL - MERGE??
YASE (Yellow Tribe)
Don’t look now but the measly Yase tribe is on an Immunity Challenge hot streak and are now heading into a merge. Sort of. I would love to talk to the people writing and creating the tree mail clues like this one. They must have some fun just making these little love notes and knowing that this news will both send Yase into a dance party of joy for making it into this next phase of the game but also want to vomit because their expectations of making the merge are not being exactly me. That’s Survivor 41 for ya!
LUVU (Blue Tribe)
We end the merge celebrations with our resident princess tribe where they are still YET TO GO TO TRIBAL COUNCIL! Sydney’s bluntness reminds us of the danger that goes along with not going to Tribal Council the first 11 days of the game. Alliances have not been set and it leaves them all anxious to start playing. They know that this won’t help them and that ultimately they are unprepared for this next phase of the game.
Naseer, bless his heart, does his Naseer thing and brings up the fact that if the Luvu tribe votes together that they have the numbers and will be the final six. Deshawn sort of backs him up and says if there is an easy vote to just go along with it, but the reality is the Luvu tribe is screwed. Success in Survivor has helped keep them safe from Tribal Council, but that success won’t lead to success at Tribal now, especially with the merge upon us and the remaining 6 players joining the fray.
Will Luvu get picked off 1 by 1 because the other tribes will be pissed that they haven’t experienced what they had? or will old grudges like Liana’s for Xander leave Luvu still free from a torch snuffing at the next Tribal? We’ll see.
My guess is that the more seasoned players from Ua and Yase will be able to add on Luvu people to their own intentions and strategy. I think that is the disadvantage of the level of success that Luvu has had in the game. When I played an online version of Survivor (Expedition Online - check them out on social media) my tribe won the first four challenges and then we had a swap, but the swap put me with all but one of my former tribe. Talk about luck right? WRONG! Like Naseer’s idea, I thought we should just roll with it and guarantee ourselves final ___, but that’s not the game. People want to play. People want to make moves, ruffle feathers, and roll the dice for a chance at a greater gain and rightfully so. That is the game. Winning every challenge, feeling comfortable, and not having to face the music isn’t Survivor. Like my tribe, Luvu hasn’t had to do face the game yet and it will not serve them going forward. It got them this far, but tougher roads lie ahead for them. So much for early season success.
MERGE TWIST PART 1
I know people are going to have mixed opinions about the show and Jeff breaking the 4th wall and talking directly to the audience about a gigantic new twist to upend every Survivor fans expectations of a merge. Fans will embrace it and like it, not care either way, or be turned off and hate it.
Me, I’m in the camp of embracing it and not caring that they switched up the merge with an extra couple twists. 41 is definitely reigning in a new era of Survivor and the unprecedented power to be handed over from to one player is all good.
However, the part where I lean toward being a bit turned off is the fact that you can win the challenge, think you’re safe, and then have it taken away from you. Huh? Rubs me the wrong way. I get the theme of having to earn everything that is woven into the fabric of every piece of 41, but when you actually win a challenge and are lead to believe that you will be on a pathway to being safe at the next Tribal only to have that be potentially taken away by one player’s decision they made on Exile after 2 days alone seems to undermine the integrity of the game.
“YOU ARE….MERGED!…SORT OF”
Great reactions. Great job selling it by Jeff. Players go from overjoyed to utter confusion (see Deshawn’s face). I understand that every aspect of the game has been challenged and flipped upside down with seemingly an unprecedented twist at every turn of the game, but at what cost? Will this twist bring in a new audience?, turn off the base audience? or have no effect?
I’m curious how the larger Survivor community will react to this twist and if it will remain going forward into 42 and beyond. My guess, it will, but it’s not my favorite. Sometimes it’s ok to just get a plain vanilla ice cream cone. You don’t need to get different toppings and combinations every single time you eat ice cream.
MERGE CHALLENGE
Yellow - Xander, Heather, Liana, Shan, Tiffany
Blue - Deshawn, Danny, Ricard, Sydney, Evvie
Gray (Not Participating in challenge) - Naseer, Erika
The winners of the challenge will not compete in the first individual Immunity Challenge, cannot be voted out, and still have a vote at the first individual Tribal Council vote. HUGE stakes. Naseer and Erika find themselves with their fate in the hands of the winning team…or so they all thought.
They drew rocks (everyone’s favorite) to decide the teams and I have to say that they came out pretty one sided for a predominantly physical challenge. Digging up the giant ball, pushing the ball through the bumps and valleys of the course, climbing up on the ball to retrieve keys, climbing up the ball to climb a wall, and creating a human ladder to get up to the puzzle finale. Very physical and very demanding. Yellow had no chance, yet they had a chance. Credit to them. I thought the blue team was at a total advantage with their physical strength advantage. I was right and blue won semi comfortably thanks to that physical strength advantage and Ricard’s high puzzle aptitude.
Winners - Deshawn, Danny, Ricard, Sydney, and Evvie
Reward - boat to sanctuary
Reward - feast (first one in 12 days and only one so far this season)
Reward - don’t compete in 1st post-merge Immunity Challenge
Reward - cannot be voted out at next Tribal Council
Reward - can still vote at next Tribal Council
Reward - choosing Naseer or Erika to join their team and reap the rewards listed above
Reward - choosing Naseer or Erika to live alone for 2 days/nights on Exile Island with no buff, food, or shelter
After Danny provides a weak “rock, paper, scissors” justification, Naseer is chosen by the winning team, and Erika’s face says it all. Naseer is safe. Naseer made the merge. Naseer gets to feast. Naseer doesn’t have to live alone for 2 days and nights. That’s all Erika. Brutal.
Or is it…
MERGE FEAST
Like I said earlier, sometimes it’s nice to just get the plain vanilla cone from Survivor. A merge feast is always a cool moment. It humanizes the castaways, lowers the guards for some, and elevates the gameplay for others. Plus, as a viewer it’s amazing to picture yourself in a hut, in Fiji, on the beach, most beautiful ocean water ever, and having a literal feast.
Lucky for Naseer. He was drunk with joy at this feast. However, the same can’t be said for the juxtaposed Erika over on exile.
EXILE ISLAND
After multiple “journeys” and “excursions” of non specific categorization, 41 surprises me and gives this other place that players have gone to risk a vote or protect a vote a name, Exile Island. Assuming it is the same island of course.
CBS
We learn that the amazing cinematography is about the only amazing thing about being on the latest installment of Exile Island. Erika gets boated out to Exile where she will spend 2 days and 2 nights alone with the most minimal of supplies. Though this is nothing new for this season, it’s brutal to think about being Erika in this moment in the game. She wasn’t included in the challenge, had no control over the randomness of drawing the gray rock, and her fate was decided by the winning team. Now, she gets deprived of even more including social interactions with the merged tribe and not yet merged people and she’s deprived of the ability to play the game at camp during the most important time in the game so far.
If anyone has earned a good cry on Survivor 41, it’s Erika. But, it won’t be all bad…
LOSING TEAM
The pre-merge alliance of Shan and Liana is brought together after losing the merge challenge. They get right to work exchanging info about Liana’s advantage she won via the previous prisoner’s dilemma. They are like two friends meeting at their lockers to discuss the latest gossip of the day, except for one problem. Liana’s old friend in the game Tiffany is right there to get in on the beans being spilt about advantages Liana won. Tiff is that “other friend” who is on the outskirts of Liana’s new friend Shan and she knows it. Did Liana want to share this info infront of Tiffany? Even though the theme of this season is apparently tell everyone your business, I still think Liana didn’t want her advantage secret getting out to anyone but Shan.
This juicy nugget getting out the way it did with Liana wearing “I didn’t really want to tell you this Tiffany” all over her face rubs Tiffany the wrong way and it was great to hear Tiff buzz it. Tiff feels on the outs of this losing team that is headed to Tribal because Liana was in many ways her #1 to this point.
On the other side of the coin is Liana’s feelings toward Tiffany. It was one this at Yase to mosey up to Tiffany and find the good between her humorous side and her “gruff intensity”, but now with Buzz Lightyear, I mean Shan around, Tiffany feels like Liana is “shaky” and likely to not have room for her in the top slot of her trustworthiness people in the game.
TRIBE COMES TOGETHER
Naseer and Xander - come together because they have the butterfly and astroturf goat idols and everyone knows that they have them. Plus, Xander is the only guy at this point on the chopping block at Tribal. They should stick together.
Danny - is perseverating on his fear of an all female alliance that he vomited out to Evvie at the merge feast and now his other oldie but goodie, vote Erika out. The advantage to the latter is that she is going to be coming back from exile and likely will have an advantage. Plus she’s just an easy target.
Shan, Liana, Danny, and Deshawn Alliance - The merge brings together 2 Luvu, 1 Yase, and 1 Ua to form this new bond and potential powerhouse of an alliance in the game. The bonding agent for these four is that they all are people of color and they share that fact quite clearly for the viewer to hear.
To me, it doesn’t matter if you form alliances based on age, gender, race, creed, hometown, or sexual orientation. In the end this is a game for $1,000,000. The only color that matters is green baby! Whatever you need to do to ensure that $1M is more likely to be headed in your direction, then you do whatever is necessary. All the power to Danny, Deshawn, Liana, and Shan. However, buyer beware. Let’s not forget Shan’s little 😈tune she likes to hum, Deshawn’s propensity to throw challenges, Liana’s prior relationships with Tiffany and Yase, and Danny’s paranoia of an all female alliance. Let’s not jump to any conclusions just yet.
JEFF VISITS ERIKA
CBS
Jeff doesn’t just show up at camp or Exile Island to have some water and a cup of rice over a chit chat about the goings on in the game. He is there to up the stakes and give Erika, and more importantly the viewers, some clarity about this merge twist that he teased earlier in the episode.
“If you want you can leave the game in its natural state, and the events that have happened, happened. What is, is. That’s our history. OR, if you want, you can go back in time and change history. You have the power to reverse the outcome of yesterday’s merge challenge, so those that have immunity would have it stripped from them, they would have to compete, and one of the six of them would be voted out. You and the other 5 would be safe and guaranteed a spot in the final 11…If you want to do nothing, then just leave everything as it is, BUT if you want to make history by changing history, smash the hour glass.” - Jeff Probst
Let’s cut to the chase here. No more dancing around this.
Reasons why you HAVE TO smash the hour glass and reverse time in the game…
Immunity
If Erika smashes the hour glass then she reverses what happened at the merge challenge and gives herself Immunity.
Sent to Exile
The winning team sent her to Exile to live alone for 2 days, she can send their asses to Tribal Council for one night.
Opportunity
Erika has a chance to make a mark on the game and the history of Survivor. When given opportunities like this in Survivor and life, you have to take it. If she doesn’t I guarantee she’ll regret it.
Owes it to Survivor
I don’t know if it’s the biggest twist in the history of Survivor but it’s up there. So, if you apply for the show, go through the process, get on the show, make it through the first vote, make it through the first phase, and are presented with this type of opportunity, you take it. Otherwise, you should have never applied to begin with.
CBS
It’s time Erika. It’s time to make history. Smash the hourglass.
AWARDS
Best Move - Shan, Danny, Deshawn, and Liana coming together at the sort of merge and having a real conversation about becoming the next Tagi and seizing control of the game.
Best Moment - Erika gets the choice to change history or be the biggest wuss the show has ever had.
Trending Up - Shan again. She has played an awesome game so far. She has navigated the Ua tribe phase with Ricard and now has moved into the sort of merge with the broccoli idol, an extra vote, Ricard?, Liana, and this new alliance with Liana, Danny, and Deshawn. Hmm hmm hmm, hmm hmm hmm.
Trending Down - X marks the spot for an easy target and Xander is one easy target. Yase is out for his blood. If Erika decides to leave the game alone and do nothing then Xander will likely feel the wrath of Liana’s “Knowledge is Power Advantage”, lose his idol, and then be voted out by his former tribe members Liana and Tiffany leading the charge.
Thanks for reading. Can’t wait to see what Erika decides to do. 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!
CBS
