Survivor 43, Ep. 4: Show No Mercy
Heading into tonight’s episode, the big questions I have
Will VESI get it together and have their strength over loyalty decision at the previous Tribal pay off?
Will COCO finally face adversity and force them to start playing the game?
On to episode 4…
BAKA Tribe (Day 8)
What the hell is Gabler doing putting palm fronds on people as blankets? We know that he is on Elie’s last nerve and she’s had enough. She’s snooped in Gabler’s bag, tried to find pull the wool over his head with his idol’s power, and now she is losing her patience. I hope that Gabler is smart enough to be poking the bear on purpose to keep her attention on him, knowing that Sami spilled the beans of what Elie is really up to.
REWARD CHALLENGE
REWARD - 10 fresh fish, Steal an item from other camp
Challenge - knock blocks off the platform, block walking on the sand, land sand bags on 3 hanging discs.
In stage one Cody dominates knocking the blocks off the platform out dueling Sami (BAKA) and Ryan (COCO) and keeps his lead through the block walking. After long last, Dwight (VESI) lands the last bag and wins the 10 fresh fish and to steal any item/reward from either BAKA or COCO.
VESI doesn’t have fire, nor a flint, so they opt to TRADE THEIR FISH REWARD in exchange for a large basket of fruit and they are going to steal the tool kit. We don’t learn who they’re going to steal from.
Steal from COCO
Why yes - they’ve never lost or faced adversity and it’s their turn to start to feel uncomfortable
Why no - Only have small tool kit and small fishing gear, 6 people on that tribe so why piss off more people
Steal from BAKA
Why yes - They have the large tool kit and large fishing gear (OBVIOUS CHOICE)
Why no - See “Why yes” section above for COCO
Prediction: VESI will steal from BAKA
VESI RAIDS BAKA COCO
Surprised they went with COCO over BAKA. Could VESI be thinking long term with a BAKA-VESI bond at a merge to have numbers over the unscathed COCO? Maybe.
VESI decides to send Cody, the wild card, but the salesman. He walks into the negotiation and threatens to take their machete aka the most important item. He uses that as LEVERAGE to take their fishing gear and some food on top of it.
I like the negotiation skills Cody put on display. He played COCO, especially Lindsay. She got very defensive when Cody threatened to steal the machete and that told Cody everything he needed to know in order to negotiate to get more than just fishing gear.
Plus, Cody did it with a bit of a friendly aloha spirit vibe that massaged the blow to COCO more than the way he started the negotiation by asking for the machete. Finally, Cody played it off, as best he could at that point, to be just “the messenger” of the group.
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE
Challenge - over baracades with stacked sand bags to find a key, unlock army net to drag bags of puzzle pieces under, untie the bags, assemble 4 piece square puzzle, dissemble puzzle and drag pieces up a cargo net, and finally form a triangle with the 4 pieces
Square Puzzle Checkpoint
1st - BAKA
2nd - VESI
3rd - COCO and far far behind
Final Result
1st - VESI
2nd - BAKA with a HUGE assist from VESI
Last - COCO
COCO is headed to Tribal Council after VESI and most of all, Noelle, helps BAKA to avoid Tribal and send COCO to vote someone out for the first time. Let’s recap, VESI basically pulled COCO’s pants down and smacked them. The bet that VESI made choosing strength over loyalty (aka keeping Noelle and booting Nneka) paid off. They won reward and stole from COCO, won Immunity and avoided a 3rd straight Tribal, and then they cherry on top was completing their attack on COCO by helping BAKA solve the puzzle, win Immunity, and send COCO to vote someone out and lose their numbers advantage.
👏 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏
I love the move and am 1000% rooting for VESI at this point. I think I already was.
Prediction: COCO unwinds and doesn’t come out of this Tribal stronger. It’s been TOO LONG without playing the game. This will get ugly 🩸
PRE-TRIBAL SCRAMBLE
Here’s what we learn
Ryan’s #1 is Geo
Geo wants to vote out Cassidy - can’t trust her via gut feeling
Cassidy throws Geo out there - sassyness level too high
Lindsay, Karla, Cassidy and James - vote for Geo who’s playing a Rocksroy “I told you so” game
Lindsay is PARANOID - she’s thinking a textbook Old School mindset with “the plan is already in place so let’s stick to it”. Combined with paranoia, Lindsay is shook!
Karla and James - Lindsay’s paranoia lead to them flipping to vote Lindsay?
James is the voice of reason on COCO
Lindsay is PA-RA-NOID!!!!!
Karla and James are a pair
Karla is leading the charge for this vote.
Lindsay, Lindsay, Lindsay. I think she needs to contact the Lindsay from 42 and learn more about the medicinal benefits of cannabis because I think she may have just got herself eliminated. If Lindsay gets booted out, I put that kill on Cody’s list. Lindsay revealed A LOT about herself when Cody threatened the machete and she has been in an even greater tail spin since the loss at the Immunity Challenge.
In Survivor, on a tribe of 6, any reason is a reason to vote somebody out. Paranoia is unpredictable and toxic. Geo’s “bossiness” isn’t going anywhere, but at least you know what you’re getting there.
Prediction: Lindsay shot herself in the foot and gets her torch snuffed out!
TRIBAL COUNCIL
CBS
For 9 days, COCO has had fire, had their bellies full, built a solid camp, and avoided Tribal. Now, the alarm went off and the dream phase is over. As I’m watching COCO at Tribal I feel like Karla is sitting in a solid position with James. They know they are the ones running this vote and they talked with everyone else in the tribe.
There is a ton of nervous energy surrounding this Tribal. The questions that everyone may have had, definitely did NOT get answered.
Prediction: Lindsay shot herself in the foot and gets her torch snuffed out!
VOTES
Lindsay 4 (via Karla, Ryan, James, Cassidy)
Geo 1 (via Lindsay)
Cassidy 1 (via Geo)
Well, there ya have it. Paranoia and an Old School mentality confirm my prediction and Lindsay is gone! I like the move by Karla, James, Cassidy, and Ryan. Geo is clearly on the bottom of the tribe and lucky to have not been voted out himself, but it was clear that Lindsay had to go.
I love the juxtaposition of the first picture in the gallery above with Cassidy apologizing and saying “I wish it weren’t you” to Karla avoiding eye contact like the stone cold killer of COCO that she has proven to be the past two episodes.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
At the beginning of the episode I was thinking about these two questions…
Will VESI get it together and have their strength over loyalty decision at the previous Tribal pay off?
Will COCO finally face adversity and force them to start playing the game?
We got some definitive answers in this episode. VESI was able to get it together and their decision to choose strength paid off big time with a win at both the Reward and Immunity Challenges. But, perhaps their biggest move to strengthen their tribe was to help BAKA complete their puzzle and send COCO to Tribal for the first time.
The advantage of going to Tribal twice was apparent for VESI. It forces them to play the game and have an advantage over the other tribes in strategizing. Combined with the Reward of stealing an item from an opponent tribe boosted their game planning advantage over BAKA and COCO even more. VESI is definitely trending upward.
We also got an answer to whether COCO will face adversity. They got bamboozled!!! They got played by VESI’s resident salesman, Cody, when he threatened to swipe their machete and it snowballed from there. They lost at the Immunity Challenge and Lindsay crumbled.
The lesson here is that winning in Survivor, especially early on, has a catch. Are you safe for the first 9 days?, Yes. But, more important, does it serve you in the game?, absolutely not! Proven once again with Lindsay coming apart at the seems and eliminating herself on account of paranoia. This game is not for the weak or those with an abundance of early success in challenges.
That’s it for this week’s blog. Haven’t released the power rankings for a winner yet, still too early, but I think I like Karla’s position at this point best.
The blog has spoken!!!
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