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.
I’m going to do something just a little bit different this week. Since we had two hours of Survivor and tons to discuss, I decided to break down my points by tribe layout, plus my thoughts on what’s next for number five! I think that these were easily the best episodes of the season so far and I hope that we keep the momentum rolling.
1. Extinction Island. Let’s start with the Edge of Extinction since there is a ton of stuff going on here. There is more going on on the Edge that might impact the game moving forward than I originally thought would be. Despite all the in-fighting amongst the stranded castaways, they’re mostly working together to figure out the clues and maps to the hidden advantages throughout the island. Keith even showed some signs of life here when snuck off to find one for himself. Rick found an extra vote that he could give to someone who was going to tribal council… he chose Aubry, and we saw how that panned out. Chris got a kit to help him practice what will likely end up being the challenge to get back into the game. The only issue with that is Keith’s advantage allows him to slow someone else down and he directly said he would use it on Chris. Now we have to wonder who has the best shot at using their advantage correctly? Also, which one of these six is most prepared for what is to come next?
2. Kama. If Extinction Island has the most going on, then the Kama tribe has the least. That is one of the disadvantages of winning everything all the time! Over the past few weeks, I’ve mentioned how Aurora was working with the returning players, so she and Joe could still be linked moving forward. But the biggest storyline has to be Joe. Even though we saw Ron talking about his second thoughts regarding getting Joe out, that thinking has to disappear at the merge, right? Joe is by far the biggest threat to win every single challenge from now until the end. The three-time player tried a new tactic to get inside Julia’s head to make her think that they are all huge targets because they are all winning, but I don’t think that she really believes that. Joe is in a tight spot, and if he can’t win the individual immunity challenges out of the gate, he may have to look at jumping off the Kama Kool-Aid boat and joining the Lesu bunch with Aurora.
3. Manu. There was a little bit more going on over on Manu. Victoria was extremely impressive at duping a three-time player into thinking that they were in it together. Poor Aubry, who is always on the bottom, believed she was in a good spot because they all had Wendy as a common enemy. In the second episode, in the showdown with Lesu, the four remaining Manus appeared willing to stay strong and vote with Wendy to take out a Lesu member. However, as someone like Victoria made clear, there was no way that they were going to draw rocks for Wendy. It also seems that Eric and Gavin have a pretty good bond together. They were strategizing and plotting their future in the game together. They have been with each other the whole time, so that makes sense, but I don’t know where Victoria fits into their plans. Also, with a merge coming up, will these old Kamas join back up with Ron, Julie, and Julia and go Kama strong until the end?
4. Lesu. Now it’s time to talk about my favorite tribe. I’m not sure if the term train wreck applies here, but I certainly cannot look away! How in the world are there only four people left from original Manu – and two of them are returnees Kelley and David?! I’m happy because they’re both fun to watch; I just can’t believe it. Moving forward, I think the Lesu tribe have a real good shot here. Firstly, now that Aubry and her idol are out of the game, the only two left are the one that Lauren has and the one that Kelley found this week. Sure, there may be a new one hidden at the merge beach, but in the meantime, they hold all of the advantages in the game. We also know that none of them are challenge threats after watching their performances over the last six episodes, so no need to take them out early out of fear of them winning immunity. Lastly, they are in the great spot of being so far down in the numbers that the original Kama can start voting themselves out first. We’ve seen that happen a lot in Survivor history, and if old Kama go that route, they may be in trouble, especially if Joe and/or Aurora jump to the other side. I’m curious to see how this tribe ends up after the first few votes after a merge.
5. What’s next? I normally don’t like to put too much stock in the previews for the next episode, but clearly, the merge is coming up, and that may include someone coming back from the Edge of Extinction. So, depending on who returns, that could affect all kinds of things… including everything that I’ve discussed up until now. If Aubry comes back, I doubt that she works with original Kama after what just happened to her. Rick doesn’t seem particularly salty about his exit, so I could see him joining back up with David and the Lesu group. If it happens to be Reem or Keith, they’ll surely be against those that voted them out and join up with Kama. So that just leaves Chris and Wendy. I’m sure Chris wouldn’t be super excited about working with his original tribe since they blindsided him; however, it looks like he and Rick have sort of been working together on Extinction Island. We only see a tiny fraction of what goes on on the Edge, but could his relationship with Rick steer Chris back to the old Manus? The last one left is Big Wendy… who knows where he allegiances lie? I mean, she did have a pretty good relationship with David, but his group just voted her out, yet so did Eric, Gavin and Victoria. Wendy really would be the biggest wild card moving forward. No matter who returns, I’m excited to see how this plays out, and can’t wait to see the looks on the current players’ faces when their old enemies walk in.
There you go. What moments from this week’s episodes do you think made an impact?
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