Survivor 44, Ep. 4: I'm Felicia
🔥 BURNING QUESTIONS HEADED INTO EPISODE 4 🔥
How will the game be shaken up tonight?
If you follow Survivor and the castaways on social media, you inevitably will have subtle hints thrown at you. This week those breadcrumbs are pointing to a shake up in the game. Swap? Maybe a tribe trade? or maybe another new advantage?
Whatever the case, the Survivor community is ready for a new wrinkle or an old favorite being applied to the now standard 3 tribe format at the beginning of the season in the new era of Survivor. I think a swap or the game morphing into two tribes would be more than satisfactory here. If not, I’m good with it also.
X marks the spot on the Birdcage…
Carolyn dropped this juicy nugget of a teaser via Instagram. The video tells us that TIKA discovers the X on the cage and we are led to believe that Yam Yam, Carson, and Sarah are still unaware of who has been in the cage. When they discover it, Carson says he thinks it was one of them who put the X on there.
I wonder how he came to that conclusion 🤔
Oh Carolyn.
Carolyn tells us that it was her. Of course it was. It’s got Carolyn written ALL OVER IT! 🤦♀️ Maybe it’s Carolyn’s best attempt at elevating her strategy game to throw everyone off her scent at camp, but it feels more like a desperate attempt to relieve anxiety about her dirty little secret at TIKA. I think the jig is up and her secret will come out.
Now, onto the episode.
SOKA Day 8
We join the SOKA tribe at their day 8 meditation retreat with Josh thinking he’s in perfect position in the middle, but Danny, Matt, Frannie, and Heidi have something else coming his way. Foreshadowing???
TIKA Day 8
Judgment day for Carolyn. She reveals her masterplan. She found red sticks and created her own mystery/scavenger hunt at TIKA placing another red X at camp under a log.
The whole thing was sloppy, scrappy, and borderline completely NOT believable.
YET…. IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Carolyn has completely bamboozled me here. The setup of the red X on the cage and the corresponding red X under the log at camp is actually brilliant. That’s right, I said it. Carolyn is brilliant.
Why is Carolyn brilliant you ask?
Because she understood the power and influence of the Birdcage at camp and was able to harness the power it offered her. It took a while (remember she almost left the cage empty), but she figured out how to use this element of the game COMBINED WITH the Fake Idol and the Immunity Idol note to create her own twist at TIKA. Now, Sarah thinks she has an Immunity Idol and Carolyn knows someone has found her trap.
But, in true Carolyn flavor, she doesn’t know who found it. She may be brilliant, but she’s not Danny or Matthew.
REWARD CHALLENGE
LARGE TARP - 1st Place and choice of who’s going on a journey from 2nd place
SMALL TARP - 2nd Place
This giant slingshot challenge looks awesome on screen. The bright colors, the ocean in the background, and Carolyn stinking up the joint and screaming at each failure are great. SOKA totally annihilates the challenge easily winning 1st place.
Down to RATU and TIKA.
Carolyn finally lands a sandbag on a target but RATU was too quick despite Matthew’s shoulder limitations.
JOURNEY
SOKA - Josh, RATU - Jaime, TIKA - Carson
“Take the time to get to know each other, but be mindful of what you share.” Well, nobody said anything.
“Congratulations, you found an Immunity Idol…but you will be joining a new tribe.” First, Josh, Jaime, and Carson each have an Immunity Idol, but the Immunity Idol expires “once they are all on the same beach”. In other words, this Immunity Idol will only help them up until the vote before earning the merge. The catch is, they will have to last until then. Second, they all have to join a new tribe. On the surface, it seems like a layup of a vote for the existing members of the tribe to just vote the newbie out, but the newbie has an Immunity Idol and that complicates everything. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, this twist shakes up the game in the future. The sign at the journey warned to be “mindful of what you share” and I think that piece of it will be pivotal in the new reality of the game for each player and each tribe.
Will Carson share the X on the Birdcage story? Will Josh share that Matt “has” the idol? Will Jaime spill the tea on her alliance with Matthew or Lauren’s Extra Vote?
JOSH starts off by lying about being a surgeon and saying he’s a personal trainer. Maybe I missed it, but apparently he alluded to his “steady hands” needed at work and so Sarah confesses that she thought he was a surgeon, but now he’s basically caught lying. Like, why lie about being a surgeon? I guess Josh is afraid that people will take his intelligence as a threat, or they won’t give a surgeon the million dollars in the end? Well, if that’s true, Josh is going to feel pretty stupid when he sees who the jury gave the million bucks to in season 43. Yam Yam and Sarah are leading the detective work to uncover Josh’s story and dig up his lies.
CARSON joins RATU and shares his story at the journey. He shares the truth that he had to switch tribes, but not the WHOLE truth, you know the part about the idol. See, what I like about Carson is he came in with a full fledged plan and angle of attack upon joining a new tribe. His narrative was to paint Yam Yam as the leader and himself as a number, hoping in turn that someone at RATU will be able to use him as a number should they go to Tribal.
Then, we quickly learn that Jaime’s exit at RATU leaves Matthew yearning for another partner and an opportunity to build trust. So, what does Matthew do? He writes his RATU tell all book and presents the signed copy to Carson. Now, Matthew has the most unique position at RATU because of his scheme to fool Jaime into thinking she found an idol, even though he knows it’s fake, is now paying dividends in establishing trust with Carson through telling him information from RATU. Brandon opened the cage, Brandon played the idol, and Jaime found the new idol put into the game. Wham! Bam! Thank you Carson says Matthew, but I don’t know, Carson isn’t that easily fooled…although Carolyn’s makeshift X was enough to hold him off.
JAIME starts with an energetic “Hi, family!” and immediately the SOKA skepticism and sniffing begins. SOKA is like a pack of drug sniffing dogs and their camp is Terminal 2 at JFK Airport. Immediately, they are asking all the right questions about “can she prevent us from voting her out?” or “does she have an idol?” and then before you can blink, the highly trained German Shepherd Danny is searching Jaime’s bag for any illegal Survivor paraphernalia. I respect the move. Got to do it.
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE
dive in, climb tower, leap off to grab a key, and cross a floating balance beam
two players use the keys to unlock Manta Ray puzzle pieces.
Matthew and Jaime sit out. Smart move by the now separated alliance.
I love the challenges, especially the water ones. This challenge looks like an awesome thrill jumping off the large platform to grab the key, swimming in the beautiful water, and just looking out at the vast ocean landscape. Don’t mean to go all Bob Ross on this but part of what makes Survivor amazing is how beautiful the show is visually.
Back to the challenge…
Lauren screws over RATU by missing the key on her leap from the platform, forcing Brandon to swim back and redo the course. Yam Yam evens things out with his slug like shimmy across the balance beam on all 4s. This said, SOKA capitalizes on their strength to complete the course and easily finishes the puzzle and wins immunity and their flint back.
Neck and neck are RATU and TIKA. Carson and Lauren vs. Josh and Sarah and RATU pulls it off, sending TIKA to Tribal Council.
PRE-TRIBAL SCRAMBLE
Heading into Tribal Council, here’s what we know about TIKA:
Has Real Immunity Idol - Carolyn and Josh
Has Fake Immunity Idol - Sarah
All idols (real or fake) are secret.
All 4 can vote.
All 4 Shot in the Dark are in play
It seems completely improbable that Josh wouldn’t play his expiring Immunity Idol to live to fight another day. He has to play the expiring idol. Given that certainty and the nature of a 4 person tribe, my prediction is Josh will play the idol and it will set off an idol playing spree. Next, Sarah will play her fake idol and learn of the truth and Carolyn will be faced with either saving herself or letting her original vote and plan ride. The problem there is that if Carolyn and Yam Yam vote for the same person, then Josh’s 1 vote could be the deciding vote.
If all votes are cast and all idols get played, real or fake, Josh and Carolyn would be safe. That’s all we know for sure, i’m hoping all hell breaks loose.
Josh starts the party after Yam Yam and Sarah use Carolyn as the decoy plan toward Josh. Josh shows Carolyn his Immunity Idol in an effort to build trust. Heading into Tribal we are placed into the mind and thoughts of Carolyn. Carolyn feels slighted by TIKA when they use her as the decoy and try to dictate to her what the plan is going to be. On the other hand, Carolyn is the one who has the Immunity Idol, her own voice, and the ability to seize control and make it happen at TIKA and this vote.
PREDICTION: If Josh plays his Immunity Idol for himself, Sarah would play her idol, and if Carolyn had voted for Josh, then she will be forced to play her idol as well. That would leave Yam Yam or Sarah vulnerable. Or, if Josh actually played his idol for Carolyn it would save Carolyn, but leave Josh vulnerable and likely lead to a torch snuffing. I’m going with Josh plays his idol for himself, Yam Yam and Sarah’s votes for Josh don’t count and Carolyn and Josh’s votes for Sarah do count. Sarah goes home.
TRIBAL COUNCIL
I love how Probst calls out the elephant in the room aka the journey bringing Josh, “the new kid” in town, to TIKA. Yam Yam then gets caught with his foot in his mouth quoting Friday and the infamous character “Felicia”. What a dope!!!
Carolyn totally takes Yam Yam’s “bye Felicia” seriously and as a “slip”. Carolyn’s body language is convincing me that she’s truly effected and uneasy by Yam Yam’s comment. Even if that’s all part of Yam Yam’s ploy and shtick, Carolyn is really torn apart.
Carolyn is easily the winner of most entertaining character through 4 episodes. Please, please, please, don’t let this somehow blow up on her!!!
IDOLS/ADVANTAGES
JOSH plays his Hidden Immunity Idol for himself.
VOTES
Sarah 2
Josh 2
😮💨
Sarah’s name gets read and is the 5th person voted out. The good news is Carolyn isn’t voted out. With Sarah getting voted out, the biggest loss is her having the Fake Immunity Idol planted by Carolyn. We won’t get the payoff of her playing the idol, Jeff telling her that it’s fake and the camera panning to the tribe reaction. Other than that, Sarah hasn’t been much of a character or force in the show outside of the Helen vote.
The major takeaway from Tribal is Carolyn joining forces with Josh to vote out Sarah. Carolyn can’t be pushed around and won’t be pushed around by Yam Yam anymore. She has flipped and as a result sent a powerful message to Yam Yam that the real Felicia was Sarah and that he needs to rethink his game and how he approaches Carolyn. Also, Carolyn still has her idol and now a powerful ally in Josh, even if for one more vote, should TIKA find themselves at Tribal again next week.
Lastly, the “mini swap” twist pays off with Josh being able to find the crack on TIKA, in Carolyn, and work with her to keep his game alive, vote Sarah out, and build trust. Josh smartly used his expiring idol correctly to save himself, which I’m sure the Survivor community will have A LOT to say about. Going forward, TIKA may need a miracle to stay out of Tribal, but Yam Yam may need a bigger miracle to avoid being the next to be voted out should the now 3 person TIKA lose at the Immunity Challenge.
TEASER FOR NEXT WEEK
One takeaway here - Matthew at RATU. You know, the guy who has been playing one hell of a game so far except for arguably the single scariest moment in Survivor history when he slipped on the rocks and plummeted to an uncertain future in the game. That fall and his tears make my stomach drop and my heart break at the idea that this could be it for him in Survivor 44.
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 44. See you next week.
The blog has spoken!!!
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