Welcome to Give Me Five! Each week, Brent Sullivan will look at the top five impactful moments from the latest episode that could influence the rest of the season.
Every week, I think we are due for a slow or unexciting episode, and every week I am pleasantly proven wrong. Another fantastic episode led to an even better tribal council. This continues to be a stellar season with an amazing cast. Now, let’s see what was impactful for this week:
1. Alison, Alec, and Kara. This whole episode can almost be broken down into three different things that happened. The first one revolved around whether or not some of the Goliaths were going to jump tribal lines and work with the Davids. When the episode started, we saw Alison, Alec, and Kara sitting on the beach after tribal discussing this very thing. Later on, Kara made her argument for why it should be Dan voted out next, and Alison and Alec seemed to be on board. Finally, before they headed to tribal, Alison and Alec decided that they should once again stay Goliath strong and then broke the news to Kara that Dan wasn’t the target anymore. Earlier in the season, it looked as if Alison, Alec, and Mike were going to make a cross-tribal alliance as well. At some point, I think that someone from the Goliath tribe will start making different moves and it appears that Alison or Alec will be the likely choices for that, but at this point, we have seen three straight votes where they talked about doing something, but didn’t. Unless everyone is okay with a tie vote on the next episode, something is bound to happen very soon.
2. Christian finds an idol. The second thing that happened involved Christian finding a hidden immunity idol. Christian is playing a great social game and is doing well at a lot of the challenges. He has clearly risen to the top of most lists as a threat to win the game. One of the best things a player like him can do is to find an idol to save himself during an important vote, and now Christian has an idol to do that very thing. However, the twist here is that everyone on the original David tribe knows that he has the idol because he told them. I am curious to see if he uses it right or even uses it on himself or someone else (like Davie did just a couple weeks ago). Either way, Christian can make an impact on the game with his idol since he is the only one left with one. Because…
3. Dan plays another idol. The last three points all involve the vote-off. During tribal council, Dan correctly assessed that he was going to be the target and played his second hidden immunity idol in so many weeks. Unfortunately for him, that didn’t go according to plan, and he went home anyway due to the Idol Nullifier. What this means (like I said above) is that Christian’s idol is the only one left in the game at this point. The other thing to consider here is that they may hide another one. With ten players still left in the game, there is no reason to think that another one isn’t going to be hidden. That leaves many possibilities for the last few weeks of the game. The producers want the drama and action that idols bring, so I look for at least one more being found in the next week or two.
4. Two more advantages are gone. Also, during that crazy tribal council, the Davids brought out two different advantages and eliminated Dan. Nick played his vote steal and took Alison’s vote. Then Carl (and the rest of the original David tribe) guessed right on Dan playing the idol, so Carl played the Idol Nullifier on him to wipe out his idol play. Through all of this, the last two advantages in the game are done and gone. Unlike idols, advantages aren’t always re-hidden (especially without Ghost Island to live on). So, we may be in for an advantage-less final few weeks of Survivor. I am curious to see what kind of gameplay comes out of this now.
5. The numbers are even. Because of everything that transpired over the last two episodes, the original David tribe and the original Goliath tribe are sitting at an even five to five split in the numbers. That is huge right now. Not one tribe has an advantage over the other one and with all of the talk about working across tribal lines, we may finally be at the point of someone making a big move here. I would be seriously surprised if they voted across old tribe lines next week, and so this may be a huge turning point in the game for a few players.
There you go. What moments from this week’s episode do you think made an impact?
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Nick’s vote steal was a well-played red herring and scared Dan enough for him to play his idol. I love that the idol nullifier was then correctly used. Great editing for an amazing season too.
Awesome and all as I think Christian is, I have yet to see him actually play the game. Yes, he’s been brilliant at establishing social connections, but I’d love to see him make an actual strategic move.
Strange social dynamics. Goliath’s think Christian is the biggest threat to win the game and want him out right away, while the David’s use one idol and two advantages to save him. Some of those David’s will regret saving him.