Survivor 47 | Ep. 10
BEKA - Night 16
The aftermath of the Sol vote puts the final two members of LAVO, Genevieve and Teeny, center stage to spotlight two completely opposite gameplays. On the one hand is Teeny, who is playing an emotional game and who “believes everyone is telling her the truth” and on the other hand is Genevieve, who is playing an emotionally detached game. This is the second time that Genevieve has left Teeny out of a vote she orchestrated and it leaves Teeny feeling humiliated.
If this scene has any lasting implications, my spidey sense tells me that Genevieve is a winning player and Teeny is, at best, a zero vote 3rd placer. Could everyone else help Teeny avenge Sol and vote out Genevieve, of course, but I don’t think that anyone cares to avenge Sol, nor listen to Teeny.
BEKA - Day 17
The sun rises on day 17 and the smiling assassin Andy is back to weaving his web to catch the rest of the unsuspecting players in without them even knowing it. Once again, I cannot believe the 180 Andy and his strategic game has taken. He has gone from the Survivor mail room to the penthouse, and I think he will continue to reside there.
REWARD CHALLENGE
REWARD - Wraps, Salad, Fruit, Juice, Iced Tea, and Cookies and Cream Cake
TEAMS
YELLOW - Genevieve, Sue, Teeny
RED - Andy, Caroline, Gabe
BLUE - Kyle, Rachel, Sam
Strategies that worked well for moving the ball were pushing it with your shoulder, head butting the ball, and biting the ball to spit it forward. Aside from strategy, this challenge is above all else, exhausting, despite the beatdown that the winning team of Kyle, Rachel, and Sam put on everyone.
SANCTUARY - Day 17
First, amongst the food reward, all I can think about is where the advantage is hidden. Is someone going to bite into it in one of the wraps, is it hidden under the blueberries, or is it going to be revealed as the cookies and cream cake is being cut. The answer (at this point) is a disappointing no, but you can bet your bottom dollar that when I’m at the sanctuary, I will be tasting everything, cutting every cake, and inspecting every inch of everything for any possible clue.
Next, the strategy talk begins with Kyle floating out to Sam and Rachel that he is prepared to take down Gabe. The TUKU has 4 people in the game and though Kyle isn’t the leading strategist in the game, he’s at least self aware enough to know that he’s got a challenge threat target on his back and a chance to take out Gabe is one he needs to take.
Last, we revisit the complicated Rachel and Sam relationship. They are like old friends from elementary school who have moved on many times over, yet find themselves coming back to rekindle a relationship flame that isn’t there because it’s based only on “what was”. I cannot see Rachel trusting Sam, nor Sam trusting Rachel. That ship sailed in middle school.
BEKA - Day 17
After the sanctuary it’s clear that people are trying to find an ally (Sam, Rachel, Teeny, Andy, Sue) or figure out when do you turn on your ally (Gabe, Kyle). When I look into my Survivor crystal ball it seems like either Gabe or Kyle will be the next one voted out and it could come down to who wins immunity.
BEKA - Night 17
More Teeny emotional drama. She’s mourning her relationship with Genevieve. The disconnect and failure in her relationship in this game with Genevieve mirrors her personal struggles in real life pertaining to her identity, gender, sexuality, and ability to fit into a “binary world”. When someone hurts Teeny, she just doesn’t just get over it, move on, or chalk it up to the game and say “welp, that’s Survivor”. It’s FAR more personalized and a mirror to her life outside of Survivor. Teeny’s struggles will resonate with many, but I don’t think it will help her win season 47.
RICE NEGOTIATION
The rice negotiation takes a wicked turn when Kyle throws out a counter to Jeff that all the Shot in the Dark’s for the big bag of rice. Gabe holds Sam’s hand over the finish line and the deal goes through. Everyone gave up a hail mary chance at safety for a bag of rice.
Having said that, I think the player’s gained much more than a bag of rice, they eliminated a layer of uncertainty in the strategic game. That is worth MUCH more than the rice. Now, everyone can rest assured that nobody can play a Shot in the Dark, nobody has to convince someone to play or not play a Shot in the Dark, and that makes the game that much simpler.
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE - Day 18
The challenge is another classic Survivor challenge. Balancing balls 1, 2, and then 3 balls on a flat disc while balancing on a beam. Kyle wins immunity for a fourth time, but the glaring takeaway from this challenge was why I think he won.
Throughout each phase of the challenge Kyle’s hand was holding the disc from underneath but the advantage he had was that his body position allowed his forearm to balance one part of the disc. I can’t imagine this is legal but I also can’t imagine the producers and challenge judges missing this!
PRE-TRIBAL SCRAMBLE - Day 18
The two targets are Genevieve and Gabe. Genevieve is a target because she orchestrated the Sol vote, but the Genevieve threat will continue to be there the next time and on and on. The other target is Gabe because TUKU has 4 out of 9 players and Gabe is the leader of the band. Gabe has a solid #1 in Sue and a solid alliance with the rest of TUKU.
PREDICTION: Gabe will get voted out. The TUKU numbers have been talked about for the entire episode and if we learned anything from the last Tribal, this group doesn’t sway from the original plan.
TRIBAL COUNCIL - Night 18
Community being formed and torn apart. The rice negotiation brings the community of players together and they decide that in this community, the Shot in the Dark is expendable because rice is valuable and simplifying the game is more important.
Despite this community making that decision, people don’t feel the same sense of self within the community without the Shot in the Dark and the small sense of security it offers. Genevieve is getting her first taste of possibly being voted out.
VOTES
Gabe - 8
Genevieve - 2
Gabe getting voted out confirms my prediction that this community made a decision - that TUKU having 4 members was the largest threat - and sticks with the plan to target it. Gabe was the leader of the TUKU 4 and so he got the votes instead of Genevieve.
The Gabe vote also saw Kyle and Caroline turn on their own and vote out Gabe before he could on them, earning Caroline a parding “snake in the grass” farewell from the third jury member.
As far as Gabe the player, his exit interview summed up his game pretty well. He played the game from a position of strength for most of it but his loyalty strategy felt very old school Survivor. He had his Rudy Boesch in Sue, but he could never pull off his own Richard Hatch and Pagong everyone else beside his closest alliance. With Gabe’s vote out, the game has turned, and the target is now pointed solely at the most obvious threats to everyone else’s games, aka the power players.
Thanks for reading the blog. I appreciate the support. Please be sure to Like, Follow, and Subscribe to the blog and my podcast - The ReRACEables Podcast covering The Amazing Race. Info and links below.
The blog has spoken!!!
Follow my blog Website - www.tribalcouncilblog.com
Instagram - @tribalcouncilblog - Click here and Follow the Instagram
Facebook - @tribalcouncilblog - Click here and Outlike, Outcomment, and Outshare
Twitter - @TribalCouncBlog - Click here and Follow
YouTube channel - Click here and Like and Subscribe
