Survivor 47 | Ep. 5
LAVO - Night 8
The Kishan vote is the first moment of this season where the heat and fire has been TURNED UP! You have to love that Genevieve turned to Rome, who has proved yet again he’s an extremely loyal player, and made a move that draws a line in the sand.
After this move, Genevieve is sitting pretty with a loyal partner in Rome and doing serious damage control with Teeny. Teeny may be even more blindsided than Kishan was. Being left out of the vote while also not having a vote is a tough combination. Combined with it are the reality that the only other person on the tribe is Sol who actually did vote with Genevieve and Rome, and Teeny is finding herself sitting at the bottom of LAVO.
REWARD CHALLENGE - Day 9
“ONLY TWO TRIBES…TWO TRIBES…WHAT’S THAT MEAN?…THERE’S NO RED” - everyone
A brand new Survivor twist is upon us with only two lanes for the challenge. The twist is a random draw across all players to form two teams of 7 and the winners get to celebrate the reward together.
The Reward is a trip to the Sanctuary “Where good things happen” for a Survivor Social Hour equipped with hot dogs, cornhole, and most importantly, an opportunity to bond with the other players.
THE GOOD - is obvious, you get to eat and the opportunity to mingle with players from other tribes. This could be a million dollar opportunity.
THE BAD - Your tribe could conspire against you if separated and you don’t get to eat.
THE UGLY - If you get screwed over by the rock draw.
TEAMS
YELLOW - Rachel & Sam from GATA, Teeny from LAVO, and Kyle, Sue, Tiyana & Caroline from TUKU
BLUE - Anika, Andy, & Sierra from GATA, Rome, Genevieve, & Sol from LAVO, and Gabe from TUKU.
CHALLENGE
Love that the ladder maze is a summer camp bonding game on steroids that doubles through a practical purpose of the mechanism for releasing the balls from high up.
Love that the balls have to land in one of the 5 cages and from one of the 5 starting points, each a different distance from the targets. Different strategies for different people could all be information to gather for players.
In the end, Sam launches the final ball into the final target to clinch the Sanctuary reward for Rachel, Sam, Teeny, Kyle, Sue, Tiyana, and Caroline. Feels like this reward is most important for Teeny. She’s the only LAVO and after everything that just happened at the Kishan vote, she has an opportunity to use that information to build some connections with the rest of the Survivor social hour winners. On the other hand, Teeny being the only reward recipient from LAVO may seel her position at the bottom of LAVO. The risk/reward of this seems to shine brightest for her.
In contrast, Gabe is the only TUKU to not be at the Survivor Social Hour reward. He returns back to TUKU camp by himself. A risk/reward of another color. The risk being that the rest of TUKU gets to eat and socialize with other tribes without him. The reward is being alone at camp to look for any idols/advantages, eat whatever is possibly there to be eaten, drink as many coconuts as you can open, and have an ally at the social hour to rely on to tell you the 411.
I think you’d rather be Teeny and be at the social hour, but it’s closer than you think.
SURVIVOR SOCIAL HOUR - Day 9
The Sanctuary, where good things happen is back and even has a veggie dog for Kyle.
Teeny starts the party telling about her position on the bottom. Sam and Rachel talk about the kumbayaness on the GATA tribe and Sue is ready to blow up Sam’s spot knowing about the Sierra/Sam bond. Tiyana kicks off the TUKU side of social hour by throwing Gabe out there about looking for idols, he played an idol at Tribal, and stuck a giant target on Gabe for a merge.
I love how the cornhole becomes the distractor from the real game, you know, the game for the million dollars. It’s like the social hour within the social hour. Kudos to Caroline, Rachel, and Teeny for seizing that opportunity.
The Survivor Social Hour feels like a new twist that will be back in 48 but maybe with some beers over soda. Maybe it will elevate the drama even more. I like the twist and the reward. Hope to see it again.
BACK AT LAVO - Day 9
Rome is having his own social hour with Sol back at LAVO and he’s serving Sol a huge amount of humble pie. In other words, he doesn’t know jack squat. I feel for Sol. He looks like a fool until he talks to Genevieve and spoils Rome’s target being Teeny.
The real story of LAVO is despite Genevieve and Rome “being loyal allies” and blindsiding Kishan, they are really competing to be the alpha of LAVO. They each want to pad a resume with moves from the 3 tribe phase and are using Teeny, Sol, and each other to get there. I think Rome has clearly marked himself as an aggressive player and his gameplay puts his threat level through the roof. However, between Rome and Genevieve, the bigger threat to me is Genevieve. She’s the bigger wolf in sheep’s clothing.
GATA - Day 9
Andy, Anika, Sierra and the chickens are back at GATA. They decide to go fishing with their large fishing reward kit and they suck, but they also just let the chickens out. Is that crazy to anyone else??? Like, won’t they run away? Seems like a horrendous idea.
The real story at GATA is Sierra. When Sam and Rachel return to GATA to spill the tea, Sam leaves out the part about Sue calling out his alliance with Sierra and we ultimately learn more about Sierra feeling like the swing vote. She is both tight with “the breadwinners” and with Sam and Andy. If they go to Tribal, she will likely have to make a decision. I lean Sam and Andy. For one, they are not as savvy as Rachel is and they present a contrast to the type of player Sierra is in the game. I think being the one woman with two men in an alliance of three is an advantageous spot, especially with Andy being loyal.
LAVO - Day 9
Teeny told the truth at the social hour but the more important social hour begins when Rome goes in the water leaving Teeny with Sol and Genevieve. So, the real story here at LAVO is Teeny thinks Rome is too chaotic, we know Sol would love to vote Rome, and that leaves Genevieve to make her choice of what to do with Rome going forward. Is he too chaotic? or is his loyalty enough reason to keep their alliance going?
TUKU - Day 9
First, we didn’t see anything with Gabe alone at TUKU. Little disappointing, but the real story at TUKU is Caroline is the best player and Tiyana’s move of blowing up Gabe’s spot is backfiring. Caroline is trying to keep her alliances at TUKU strong (with Gabe and Sue), keep things smooth at camp and in a potential merge, but also making the most of the journey she went on and the social hour reward. Caroline is the biggest threat at TUKU, another wolf in sheep’s clothing.
CHICKEN NEGOTIATIONS
The GATA tribe shows up at the Immunity Challenge and they brought their 3 not so egg laying chickens. They negotiate with Jeff to trade the chickens for 15 eggs. First off, how did they catch the chickens after they let them wander around? Second, it feels like we missed the entire GATA failures with the chickens. Third, who made the decision to negotiate and get rid of the chickens? Was everyone just ok with it? Was it a moral choice? Purely practical? Sam says that not everyone was comfortable with eating the chickens and so are we to believe that the chickens would have only hurt someone’s game by eating them, so the only choice was to trade them? Finally, I think this is the worst outcome for the show and the “let’s bring the chickens back” plot line, but the best outcome for the chickens.
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE - Day 10
Andy sets GATA back by sawing the rope with the dull side of the pole saw because of course Andy would suck at sawing the rope with the pole saw.
TUKU is first to toss sand bags at the puzzle wall with LAVO close behind. Kyle and Tiyana versus Sol and Rome. TUKU is first to knock all the blocks over and begin assembling the puzzle, LAVO can’t get the final pieces off the platform, and GATA is gaining on them.
The way in which LAVO’s pieces were stuck and the comeback that enabled from GATA makes me think we will be hearing about it on tomorrow’s “On Fire” podcast. In addition, we are sure to hear about the puzzle battle between GATA and LAVO all the way down to the final two pieces.
By the hair on their chinny chin chins, LAVO gets back to their mat first and sends GATA back to Tribal Council and have Jeff strip them of their flint. They may have 15 eggs waiting for them, but they will not have an easy time making fire to cook or hard boil them.
PRE-TRIBAL SCRAMBLE - Day 10
We are reminded that Anika lost her vote at the journey (thank you, I had forgotten) and that Andy is the liability in the challenges. Having said that, Andy is playing a better game then Anika and Rachel are giving him credit for. I love that he has a master plan and is executing it perfectly.
Is Andy the best player at GATA???????? Wow, this fricken guy!
Sam has the one Tribal Immunity Idol so he has to play it tonight. Sam may not know it, but his read on Anika is correct and she should be his target. Same for Anika and Rachel, their target should be Sam. Sierra is positioned in the middle and needs to draw her line in the sand. That leaves the underdog Andy. My hope is that Andy will not get voted out. He’s actually the most interesting GATA member and there was no chance of that had you asked me after episode 1 and his meltdown. Go Andy!!!
PREDICTION: Sam plays his idol for himself. Sierra joins Sam and Andy to vote out Anika. They should be voting Rachel out, that’s what Genevieve and Rome would’ve done, but they will take out Anika.
TRIBAL COUNCIL - Night 10
Once again, Andy is the one providing perspective to us the viewers about the GATA tribe managing the perspective that other tribes see them as. Andy is also managing the perspective of his tribe toward him. Let’s go Andy! Keep Andy around!!
This Tribal doesn’t have many fireworks. Just a lot of fact stating, fence walking, and politically correct statements. Nothing of any real substance is said except a bunch of buzz words like cohesion, confidence and the “we” within the tribe.
VOTES
Anika - 3
Andy - 1
After a looooooooooooooooong and dramatic exit, Anika finally exits stage left, breaks down in tears wondering how in the hell Andy ever got the best of her. She was distraught, she was devastated, but thankfully she was voted out. Her exit was at least a 30 seconds of actual air time and I appreciate it. It’s ok that players are pissed off, upset, and wanting answers from the people who blindsided them to end their Survivor dream. It’s normal. Exits like Anika’s are authentic and tell us that she really gave a crap, unlike exits like Kishan’s.
As we say good-bye to Anika we are reminded of her “take the lead” type-A personality back at GATA clashing with Sam and how that may have been enough for Sam, Sierra, and Andy to not trust her nor want to work with her. Anika didn’t recognize that “vibes” were a major driving force behind the GATA tribe she was put on, or if she did, she didn’t adapt to the tribe and it created a gap between her and the rest of the tribe. My guess is that Anika was devastated from being voted out because she isn’t used to being bad at something. I hope she learns from this experience that it's ok to not be the best at everything and sometimes, she needs to adjust to the people around her.
Going forward at GATA, Anika being voted out signals that Sierra chose the boys over the breadwinners. Yay! Thankfully, we don’t have to hear “the breadwinners” ever again. Rachel was clueless of Sam, Sierra, and Andy’s plans. Sam didn’t play his Immunity Idol which is smart because only his number one ally knew about it and it’s limited to one Tribal power. We will have to wait and see what his next move is with the dead idol.
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