Survivor 48 | Ep. 3
VULA - Night 5
The vibe post Tribal at VULA untrusting. We begin from Mary’s perspective. Poor Mary, right? She’s firmly on the bottom now, however, now she has no doubt about it and the little Jeff Probst voice in my head is saying “well now Mary can play freely, unafraid, and go for broke”. She's got nothing to lose from her position and that can be dangerous.
Speaking of dangerous and untrusting, we turned to Sai. She has dictated life at VULA up until this Tribal, when Cedrek influenced her to play her idol. She did. But, did she need to?
No.
So now, Sai is pissed and definitely untrusting of Cedrek and has made her intentions known, she will be searching high and wide for the idol on day 6. I admire her ability to throw caution to the wind. I really do. I don’t think I would approach the game at this level of tenaciousness and thirst for power and control. She doesn’t seem to care. Sai’s the pre merge Joker of 48 for sure who is willing to play by her own rules and nobody else’s. Plus, she’s going to challenge your rules that you want to play by and see if you are willing to break them.
Buckle up.
CIVA - Day 6
As we turn to CIVA, the vibe on day 6 is emotional as we get a look behind the washboard abs at David, or should I say, the 38 year old living in a trailer in front of his Dad’s house who’s choices in life have brought him to where he is. It sounds like the life of a stuntman is a bumpy one. My guess is there’s a ton of sacrifice and uncertainty. Personally, I don’t care about him doing pull ups and being buff, and I was glad to learn about who David really is and about his dream of starting a family. It seems a little ridiculous that winning Survivor is what may be the thread that helps you and your girlfriend make it work, but for now, I’m going to chalk it up to we haven’t gotten all the meat off the David bone.
LAGI - Day 6
Finally we connect back to LAGI to find Joe building a bonfire for morale and Shauhin breaking down where he sees the lines being drawn on the tribe. The vibe here feels splintering. Bonfires are great for tribe morale and making your kids proud. Bonfires are great for bringing the tribe together and even earning Joe a gift for his daughter from Eva.
Splintering.
Now, nobody would argue that Eva’s gesture wasn’t genuine, heartfelt, and endearing. Nobody. However, this is Survivor. Publicly presenting Joe with a gift for his daughter sets off sirens of concern in the minds of Thomas, Shauhin, and Bianca. Also, it sets off my alarm of this being the next possible example of Eva’s autism preventing her from seeing the social implications of her behavior. I’m fearful that her loyalty to Joe will make her, not Star, the first target of LAGI at Tribal Council.
VULA - Day 7
The situation at VULA feels like we are gearing up for a heavyweight prize fight between Mary and Sai. I can hear the ring announcer, “fighting out of the green corner, desperate to find an idol that was likely rehid in the game and avoid being eliminated, MARYYYYYYYY (crowd cheers) and “fighting out of the red corner because she is out for blood and doesn’t care who knows it, SAAAAAAAAIIIIII (crowd cheers).
Lastly, I don’t think I believe either of them when they say they respected each other as players for one following the other and the other running away. Feels more like a defense mechanism to the version of the game that Sai has decided her and Mary are going to play.
I’m rooting for Mary to find the idol and Sai to be voted out. I don’t want to watch this kind of awkward gameplay.
CIVA - Day 7
The tribal lines are being drawn at CIVA. Mitch and Charity. Mitch and Kyle. Kyle and David. Kyle and Kamilla. Kyle and Chrissy. Kyle and his idol. In other words, the winner of the I find myself in the middle of a tribe that hasn’t gone to Tribal yet award goes to…
KYLE!
Feels like this tribe needs to go to Tribal, but the weakness at VULA has me thinking that they may not be headed there quite yet.
LAGI - Day 7
Speaking of Tribal lines being drawn, when we check back in with LAGI, we learn directly from Eva that her autism prevents her from reading social cues to detect when someone is lying. Eva is so self aware of her limitations socially and I love her for it. I know plenty of people without autism that aren’t 1/10 of her level of self aware. I love how she compensates for it by asking Star a question that she knows the answer to and will use this to see if she can trust Star.
She can’t.
Star trusts Thomas and Bianca, not Eva. I’m not sure how trustworthy Thomas and Bianca are but Star has to trust somebody besides her locked scroll at LAGI. Star’s social game doesn’t have anywhere near a 99 Madden rating attached to it and based on the power hungriness of Thomas and his diagnosis of Star as a “wildcard”, I feel like this tribe REALLY needs to go to Tribal to draw their lines in the sand. They seem more on edge than CIVA, but similarly, will they even get there with how bad VULA sucks.
Could someone propose throwing the challenge?
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE - Day 7
REWARD - Large Tarp and Hammock, Large Tarp only
The callers are Shauhin (LAGI), Cedrek (VULA), and Kamilla (CIVA). I cannot believe that Sai would not be the caller for her tribe because she loooooooooooves to be in control. Plus, as the finder, Sai has to be a listener and from what we’ve learned about her so far, she doesn’t listen to anyone very well.
Kamilla and CIVA are first to retrieve all three keys with LAGI right there with them at the slide puzzle. VULA in dead last, again.
Shauhin guides Thomas with pinpoint accuracy and LAGI wins immunity and the tarp/hammock combination. VULA was able to get to the puzzle but Kamilla was able to guide Mitch fast enough to avoid Tribal and send VULA back to Tribal for the third consecutive time. Finally, LAGI chooses Bianca (LAGI), Justin (VULA), and Kamilla (CIVA) to go on a journey.
VULA - Day 7
The story here isn’t about Mary’s mind games via swimming instead of idol hunting. The real story is Sai dictating a panicky command to Cedrek for them to split the vote and to see Cedrek just TAKE IT! Hey Cedrek, put your foot down. Stick to your guns. Be the parent of the tribe. Stop letting Sai tell you what to do.
JOURNEY - Day 7
Bianca
Roll 1 - 3 skulls, ouch.
Roll 2 - 3 flames, BOOM!
Roll 3 - 1 skull, BRUTAL. Bianca loses her vote.
Kamila
Roll 1 - 3 skulls, 1 flame, ouch.
Roll 2 - 1 flame, still alive.
Roll 3 - 2 flames, WINNER WINNER, EXTRA VOTE DINNER!
Justin
Roll 1 - 2 skulls, 1 flame. Pizza is in the oven.
Roll 2 - 1 skull. Pizza is cooking.
Roll 3 - 1 skull. BURNT PIZZA. Justin loses his vote.
The Survivor LCR game is a win in my book. I am a sucker for a dice game and you’ll never hear me turn down some Yahtzee. So I’m a fan. My one suggestion here, have them play against each other. Get those competitive juices flowing a bit more.
CIVA - Day 7
Kamilla follows the path Mitch started when he shared his journey victory and the advantage he won. It’s easy to say keep your mouth shut and never tell anyone, but this time I’m going to take Kamilla sharing the truth with her tribe as, at CIVA, they all get along, they all communicate well, they are winning, and they share information openly and honestly.
LAGI - Day 7
The same cannot be said for Bianca. She lost her vote and lied to the whole group about having to beat a former SAVVY challenge. Then, she had to trust someone (feels like a theme at LAGI) and she tells Thomas. However, that didn’t make Thomas feel the need to share the secret he has of having an advantage. Bianca and Thomas are aligned, but my preseason winner pick Thomas, is the top dog at LAGI in the danger department.
Again, it’s easy to say “Bianca, what are you doing???” or “Keep Your Mouth Shut!”, but again as I’ve probably written at some point in 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, and now 48, in the new era of Survivor, people share their secrets. They just do. They need to build trust and they use information to try and accomplish that. Bianca is no different, but Thomas is…for now.
VULA - Day 7
Justin makes up his own question mark game that would have won them food, comfort or nothing. I’m glad Justin acknowledged that he didn’t know what the hell he said, because neither do I and there’s no way they bought that. Second, Justin doesn’t appear to be a whiz kid but he’s well aware that Cedrek isn’t much of a strategist. This VULA tribe is headed toward a record setting dark path with their evergrowing dark cloud above them.
Mary lays her cards out there and is “committed to the bit” to play with Sai’s mind. I applaud Mary for this because there is absolutely NO CHANCE that she could have ever thought that this would be the direction her Survivor story would go.
It’s lunacy to “play dead” as a strategy but from what we see, IT’S WORKING! Sai is tangled up in the confusion of Mary being so calm and accepting of her fate. Sai expects her to scramble, expects her to panic, expects her to go out and hunt so that Sai knows she can just follow her and have concrete evidence that Mary is desperate and looking for protection. So when Mary removes the panic and calls off the search, it leaves Sai pickled.
PREDICTION: Cedrek votes Mary. Mary votes Sai. Sai votes Justin. Justin has no vote. We have a 1-1-1 tie vote. Then, on the revote, the truth of Justin lying about losing his vote surfaces, but Sai switches to Mary and Mary gets voted out 2-1.
TRIBAL COUNCIL - Night 7
Jeff presses about the group and the reality of this tribe is Mary and Sai cannot see eye to eye. They can talk about how they respect each other and the competitor that each one is, but all they want is to have control. Sai wants to have all the power and Mary doesn’t want to give Sai any power over her.
MARY PLAYS HER SHOT IN THE DARK
VOTES
Mary - 2 DOES NOT COUNT
Well played Mary! The next edition of the Shot in the Dark playing a major role at a Tribal Council has begun and I’m all about it. Especially within a four person tribe where one member doesn’t have a vote. This is going to get very interesting.
REVOTE
JUSTIN - 1
SAI - 1
2nd REVOTE
JUSTIN - 1
SAI - 1
DEADLOCK!
A historic Tribal Council rages on. There is absolutely no question that at this moment, Jeff and the producers checked with their team to make sure they could explain how the next steps would play out with the vote. Ultimately, the rules played out and Cedrek is the only member of the tribe that has a say. He can vote out either Sai - his “daughter” on the tribe that he just voted for twice or Justin - his number one since day 1.
Sai immediately swoops in and throws a temper tantrum to throw Justin under the bus for lying about his vote and fight for her life in the game. She had to. Then Justin did too, right? NOPE. He just sat there with great posture and left the choice in Cedrek’s hands, reassuring him that he’d always be welcome at Luigi’s Pizza.
Justin, are you stunad?!?!?!
Come on dude. Your ruining the pizza that is your game. Get up, spin it around, check on it, or JUST DO MORE!
I understand this is a historic Tribal Council because of the logistics and that can distract you, but in that moment you gotta put your fists back in the dough and pound out the pizza, aka the game, you want to have, and to me, he just let the dough spoil.
Cedrek picks Sai and sends Justin home.
Such a bizarre ending to this episode, and based on the teaser for next week, the VULA tribe as we knew them. Thank goodness. Put them out of their misery already. With this result at Tribal, they have to have cemented themselves as one of the worst tribes in the history of the show.
Mary’s Shot in the Dark is the lone bright spot from a pathetic three episode run to open the show. This episode was a death defying roller coaster of a ride for all you Mary fanatics out there. I’m hopeful Mary will be able to run away from Sai again at the tribe swap and expand her game.
Wondering how Sai’s game will transition to her new surroundings. Will she repeat the aggressor tactic with a new set of people and try to push the envelope or will she pivot? I think she will repeat her pattern of aggression, try to assert dominance, and push her new tribe out of their comfort zone.
My prediction going forward…fireworks.
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
All photos via @cbssurvivor and @allwinnerssurvivor
