Survivor 43, Ep. 11: Hiding in Plain Sight
GAIA Night 19
Sami’s game is stripped down to his bare naked game self after he’s left out of the Noelle blindside. Hilarious. He even does this weak as hell avoidance of saying he voted for Karla and then he just comes clean in humiliating fashion. Survivor can break you down to nothing, welcome to the club Sami.
Speaking of the break you down to nothing club, the President and CEO of that club, Owen, once again is left out of the vote. Owen is totally defeated. Nobody likes him. Nobody wants to work with him. Nobody will vote for him. His best shot is being dragged to the end for the classic - zero votes, guaranteed 3rd place, no chance of winning spot at Final Tribal.
Then, there’s Gabler, or perhaps the Alli-Gabler who sees the wounded Owen and has a plan. No longer is the Alli-Gabler lurking beneath the surface of the swamp, I think he’s going to strike this episode. Love it!
GAIA Day 20
Sami is on the bottom and leans on his reward letter from home to remind him to keep pushing forward and fight to the end. Translation, keep lying your ass off Sami! haha. It’s great how he goes from one second of hitting his rock bottom in the game to refocusing and recalibrating his game to adjust to the vulnerable position he’s in. So, he seeks to rebuild trust with Karla by lying about Cassidy wanting to write Karla’s name down also.
Well, Sami got lucky and landed a direct hit!
The next big secret of the game - Karla having an idol - is secret NO MORE! (cue up my usual outrage of why nobody can keep their damn mouth shut?!?!?!) This is gigantic! I understand that Karla telling Cassidy about her Immunity Idol was an attempt to cement trust in this game with the girl/ally she’s been with since day 1, but in one lie from Sami, that trust is shattered! Now, Karla feels she “needs to go on offense” and strike first.
Prediction: Karla pulls a Cobra Kai and strikes first…no mercy on Cassidy! Cass gets eliminated. (This would eliminate the Erika - 41 and Maryanne - 42 under the radar candidate 3-peat victory) Cassidy knowing about that idol is too dangerous to Karla’s game.
BOAT PULLS UP
“GO!”
The boat pulls up and hands the final 7 a clue that sets off a prison break search. The intensity on the island breaks the glass as everyone sprints like it’s day 1 to find the advantage. Now, you’d think the clue was buried somewhere in a bush or high in a tree out of sight leaving the victor that much more satisfied to have found its whereabouts, right?
WRONG!
Instead, the clue is strung up in broad daylight (albeit blended with the tree) on a tree for literally everyone to walk right on by. Do you give up? Do you keep looking? Do you get lucky? Well, Cody did.
“Yeahhhh, baby.” - Cody
Cody caught it out of the corner of his eye and delivers the best line of the season as he wins the advantage.
“CHOOSE YOUR CHAMPION” ADVANTAGE - DOUBLE SHOT AT IMMUNITY
Cody wins a new advantage giving him the heads up on the next Immunity Challenge, a Survivor classic, “Last Gasp”, and he gets to pick one player that if they win immunity, he wins immunity too. Before the challenge starts, Cody has to choose one player he thinks will win and he goes with Owen.
Like the Owen pick - he’s desperate, has nothing to lose, down and out, a perfect recipe for someone looking to win a challenge and avoid a vote where they can be wrong for the 913th time in a row.
Dislike the Owen pick - we don’t know anyone’s ability in water except Cody, I question Owen’s background bringing the necessary grit to stick it out in this challenge.
My pick would have been Gabler or should I say the Alli-Gabler. He’s a surgeon, aka he’s good under pressure.
Prediction: Cody wins anyway.
I liked everything about this advantage - how it was delivered, the wording on the clue, and the desperation it instantly created. This one will definitely be back again.
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE
Jeff adds to the fun of the “Chose Your Champion” Advantage saying that Cody’s choice won’t be revealed until after the votes are cast and before they’re read at Tribal.
Back to the challenge…
Gabler is out first, aka my choice totally sucked. Gabler might be great under pressure but he’s not great under water and a steel grate. Next, Sami bites the dust after a huge swell.
The swells are anxiety inducing.
Jesse’s out next after a loooong slow swell.
“One hour into the challenge” - ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? AN HOUR?!!
Cody's 🌊 next. He literally held his breath, was under, popped back up through the grate, back down, and then…and then… out. Wow! Crazy!!
Cassidy’s next out after 2 HOURS in the challenge leaving Karla and Owen (aka Cody’s pick)
2 HOURS 45 MINUTES and the tide is now dropping. Karla and Owen outlasted the challenge! Crazyness! And, the water is dropping, so what do they do?
THEY END THE CHALLENGE!?!
That’s right, the challenge just ends and Karla and Owen BOTH WIN IMMUNITY! Has never happened in the history of Survivor but I’m glad it did. I like when the players “break the game” or beat it. This time they did and in an impressive way. My thinking is, do ANYTHING for nearly 3 hours without doing anything else and now make that a stress inducing and anxiety ridden pressure situation where drowning or the feeling of drowning is CONSTANT for that 3 hours.
I wish I could sit here and say I would have made it past the tide with them, but I just don’t think I would have, probably not even close. Standing ovation for Karla and Owen, and an even more important silent standing golf clap in the corner for Cody for choosing the right champion and winning immunity.
PRE-TRIBAL SCRAMBLE
After an unprecedented calling off the challenge and crowning two winners in Karla and Owen, 3 people will have immunity at Tribal (Cody chose Owen to win and is safe via “Choose Your Champion” advantage). In other words, Cassidy, Gabler, Sami, or Jesse is going home tonight because they are the only players who can receive votes.
Prediction: Seems like everyone knows who Cody chose, Jesse plays an idol to stay safe, Sami lies his ass off to stay alive, Gabler tries to execute a plan on Jesse, and Cassidy gets taken out stemming back from the early part of the episode where Karla felt she had to be aggressive and on the attack.
The scramble begins and Karla is on the offensive. She’s targeting her number 1 ally. Music to Sami’s ears and Owen’s on board, but Jesse is suspicious. This cements once again that Jesse is first team All-Strategic of Survivor 43. He sniffs out that Karla being on board is a huge red flag and that perhaps the better move is to vote out Sami but let Karla vote Cassidy to make Karla look foolish and then have to answer to Cassidy after Tribal.
Brilliant.
As Tribal approaches, the question is “Would Jesse play an idol for Cassidy, and be the one to take out Sami himself?” Making this kind of move could be HUGE for him, his game, and to help accomplish what his son wants him to do “get that money, baby”.
Prediction: Jesse balks at the chance to make a giant move and Cassidy gets voted out.
TRIBAL COUNCIL
Probst flexes his Emmy winning muscle taking the high and low tide analogy and tying it to Survivor and surviving the high tide of the day. Well done Jeff, well done!
Shot in the Dark has its last chance at this final 7 Tribal. Sami is ready to use his. Aka don’t count on my vote and here’s a monkey wrench for you all to consider. It’s a desperate but reasonable play for Sami at this point. Can’t use it after tonight’s vote, plus, he feels like he’s on the bottom anyway, annnnd he thinks Karla and him are voting Cassidy anyway.
Sami played the Shot in the Dark. Good move, but…NOT SAFE.
VOTES
Sami 6
They took the easy vote. Karla shied away from the big move and voting Cassidy. Jesse and Cody both decided to take the layup vote that was in front of them. Even the reveal of Cody winning immunity by picking Owen seemed a foregone conclusion. Great editing kept the drama flowing in and the uncertainty at high tide, but in the end there really wasn’t any drama and the unanimous vote was a let down.
WINNER RANKINGS WATCHLIST
We are down to the final 6 so the Winner Watchlist is out and the Rankings are in. With 6 people left, here’s my case for who can win.
Jesse - He’s the most strategic player in the game. He gave us a breakdown of how to blindside someone in the previous episode with Noelle’s blindside. He tricked Dwight into giving him an idol, that he still has. On the right side of every vote and has been running the game since the merge.
Karla - I think is a VERY close second, almost 1b to Jesse’s 1a. She got a signature immunity win but nobody cares about that. She has a great story and has been a very strategic player having her hands on a lot of blood in this game.
Cassidy - She has the underdog or under the radar game going. I think she still has a move to make and the nobody saw it coming like an Erika or Maryanne angle in her favor.
Cody - Still playing consigliere Tom Hagan to Jesse’s Michael Corleone but he’s running out of time. In this version of The Godfather, Tom has to turn on Michael to move up to winning contention.
Owen - Prediction: he finishes 3rd with zero votes to win.
Gabler - Alli-Gabler season is over, so is Gabler’s chance of winning.
Thanks for reading this week. Appreciate the support. Be sure to outlike, outcomment, and outshare the rest all season long. I will be writing about each episode all the way through to the announcement of the winner of Survivor 43. See you next week.
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