Welcome back 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.
The second episode of a Survivor season is always interesting. This is usually when the real strategy talk starts to happen. I know that it happens in the first episode as well, but many of those day one alliances and plans don’t last very long. The second episode is also when you start seeing cracks in the tribes. They have now had six days together, and sides are starting to form, so let’s see what sort of stuff happened this week:
1. Wentworth vs. Wendy. Manu had some clear lines drawn at the last tribal and Wendy was on the wrong side having not only received three votes but also losing her best ally in the game. She thought that Keith was with them, but we saw how he jumped over to the majority when he realized what was going on. So, Wendy is an easy target, right? Well, we also have Kelley who everyone sees as a giant threat. With Keith as the clear weak link in challenges and him now out of the way, who will go next? It doesn’t look like Kama is ever going to lose a challenge, so it appears that both Wendy and Kelley may be one of the next two to go. Wendy has already talked to David and Rick about voting out Wentworth and Chris was even on board with it. Wendy, however, is the last holdover of the three that were away from the rest of the group and may be an easy vote. I try not to read into the previews too much, but that ankle injury also doesn’t look good for her. It would be thrilling to see Manu win the next immunity challenge and not have to make the decision this soon, but with Joe on Kama, we may see this sooner rather than later.
2. Aubry is not helping herself. Kelley is not the only returning player having a tough time. It seems like no one on the Kama tribe wants any returning players around, and since they need Joe for the challenges, it doesn’t look too good for Aubry. Unfortunately for her, she isn’t making it any easier on herself. As a three-time player, I am a little surprised that she went to so many different people with the same speech. Did she think that they wouldn’t discuss it without her around? She is lucky that they haven’t lost and gone to tribal council yet. Since the rest of the tribe seems to be gelling really well, Aubry may be the first Kama boot if they ever lose a challenge.
3. The first idol is found. There was a small idol hunt party going on this episode. Most of the Manu members were out looking and about half of the Kama tribe. For some reason, the women of Kama felt more compelled to talk about looking instead of just looking, but that isn’t for this discussion. Lauren ended up being the one actually to find it at the Manu camp. Now we have to think about how she will handle it. It is still pretty early, and Lauren hasn’t been on the top of the radar yet (even though she got one vote at the first tribal); however, she is close with Kelley, who is on everyone’s radar. Will Lauren keep it a secret? Will she play it on herself? No matter how it plays out, the first idol is officially in play and now who will find the one at the Kama tribe?
4. The David and Rick alliance. I may have been slightly wrong about the David and Wardog alliance last week, however, here is a new one. It seems that both David and Rick hit it off with a new partnership. They both see the game in the same way, and David appears to trust Rick. It’s still a little early to predict if this can go far into the game, but they have been together for the first six days and are on the same page on game decisions. Not much left to say here except let’s see how long this can last?
5. Cliffhanger! Okay, so the idea of a cliffhanger isn’t a totally new format for Survivor, but it is raised to a whole new level with this Extinction Island twist. We saw that Keith was voted out, but we didn’t get to see what decision he made. Will he grab the torch and go to the Edge of Extinction with Reem or will he decide to quit? Let’s look at this from both sides. If Keith decides to quit, then a domino effect may happen. He would , and Reem will be left all alone for three more days. That may be just enough to put her over the “edge,” and she may also quit. If that happens, then whoever goes out next and chooses not to leave the game will now be the only person on Extinction Island. At that point, it could give them a better chance to get back in the game later with two less castaways to worry about, but they may also not like being alone out there too… whew, that is a lot to spell out. The other option is that Keith chooses to join Reem and they may work together out there to survive. They were close in the game, so they could effectively work together there too. Then whoever joins them next may have to defend against the both of them. There is a lot to digest and I’m excited to see how this plays out.
There you go. What moments from this week’s episode do you think made an impact?
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I actually like the cliffhangers!