Welcome to Give Me Five! Each week, Brent Sullivan will look at the top five moments from the latest episode that could influence the rest of the season.
Wow. How do I talk about anything other than that crazy, historic tribal council? I will touch on a few other moments as well, but I could probably do all five just from that tribal.
1. Troyzan blows the challenge. Okay, so this isn’t a huge moment, but I thought it was worth noting because they actually sit him out of the immunity challenge. It’s not often you see someone like that sit out. It just shows how really on the outs Troyzan is with his tribe. I think that we can all agree 100% that his idol is getting played if they go to tribal before a swap or merge.
2. JT makes a move. The episode starts out with JT clearly still on the bottom, so he is trying to make a power move by getting Malcolm on his side to try to vote out Sandra. Because of what happened later this clearly is not going to happen, but it shows that JT has every intention of doing what he can to get out of his bad situation. I think that he and Sandra working together would have worked out better by having two winners help keep each other safe, but he was stuck and is doing what he has to do.
3. Which side is Hali on? Was she playing double agent or secret triple agent? She ended up voting with Mana, but that doesn’t really prove anything. She got up and was whispering to her old tribe, but then was sort of condescending towards them. I don’t even know what that whole “I didn’t consent” line was even supposed to do. It was great TV, but I don’t think it meant anything else. I am curious to see which side she ends up on after the merge or another swap if she makes it there.
4. JT makes another move. Here is another #wow moment. JT stands up and walks to the other side to talk to Brad. Then everyone else does, and then JT does it again. Not sure exactly what he was thinking here. Was he hoping to lure them all to vote for Sandra, or was he also playing a double agent, or was he in panic mode and just screwed up the whole thing? I cannot wait to hear from JT and find out for sure. The lasting impact here is that even though JT looked upset after the vote, everyone thinks that he spilled the beans. He is on the hot seat even more now than he was before. If Nuku loses, there is a good chance that JT is going home. If they swap or merge and he is still around, then I am curious to see how his relationship is with Brad, Sierra, and Tai. They voted off his closest ally on the Nuku tribe, and Sandra (who he wanted out) is still around.
5. Tai finds and then plays an idol. Tai finding the idol was that big of a deal. In fact, they might as well have had a giant arrow pointing to the spot where it was and saved him some time. The big thing here is that not only did he play it, but he played it on the right person. Sure, it wasn’t him making the decision, but it was still his idol to play. So, Sierra and her legacy advantage live to fight another day, and we lose a significant figure in Malcolm. How will this shape the rest of the season? Well, for one it should make tighter bonds on each side for the ones that stayed loyal. Secondly, the Nuku tribe is not only weaker now, but they have an easy vote off in JT, so they may not even want to win immunity. Third, come merge time, we may get to see Round 2 of this battle take place. Finally, having another big alpha male go out this early may hurt Brad in the future when they start targeting challenge threats.
Whew! There you go. What moments from this week (or more importantly that tribal council) do you think will make a lasting impact?
Written by
I think the “I didn’t consent” thing came from the fact that Hali felt like she hadn’t completely convinced Nuku to vote for Brad instead of Sierra and when Sandra tells Hali that they can go ahead and vote, it’s either (a.) to make Hali think that Nuku was going to vote Brad or (b.) there was no point in trying to convince them, because they were staying with Sierra. Hali then mentions that they “might regret it” as she gets up to vote… and they probably do, considering they don’t listen to Hali and go ahead and vote for Sierra, who is given an idol and Malcolm is voted out from Nuku.
I agree!