Welcome to Season 43’s Next Time On Survivor feature on the Inside Survivor site! It’s a tiny space on the internet where I look at episode preview trailers, attempt to decipher them, and give my thoughts on what I think may happen in the upcoming episode.
Our first NTOS of the season begins with a quick shot of post-tribal Baka in a storm. Gabler tells how “this game is blowing my mind right now” and seems to be lying in discomfort. Such does rather fittingly describe my initial impression of Baka as a whole — a little out of place in an idealised expectation of Survivor, a little unprepared for the intensity of the game, including the survival aspects.
Whether it’s an inertia of the early days or otherwise, I’m not certain. Part of me assumes being the first tribe to go to tribal council will shake them out of their kumbaya energy. Still, another part of me feels like the unity is going to continue for a while more — after all, the remaining players on Baka did unanimously vote out Morriah.
On the Coco tribe, we get a confessional from Karla saying, “They believe that I’m with them, but there’s a girls alliance,” with a cut to the three guys, Geo, James, and Ryan. In the premiere, there was quite a lot of chatter about a girls’ alliance on Baka, which did not materialise. So perhaps this is the real girls’ alliance that will carry through the season.
We saw Karla, Cassidy, and Lindsay group up in Episode 1, and Lindsay said she wanted to pull James in to form a majority. There was also an interesting confessional from Cassidy that “a lot of the times women can’t get away with that in the same way that men can.” All these were edited to be rather level-headed, even stoic. It may be my own hopes to manifest a successful girls alliance, but I’m currently feeling this Coco women trio!
Moving on to the Vesi tribe, the NTOS scene clearly sets Cody up as the target, depicted as unpredictable, bordering on unhinged. Dwight dismisses his chaos with a “god knows what Cody’s doing” before we see him discussing with Jesse and someone else that “our first target is Cody.”
As we know, preview trailers are often deliberately misleading. I don’t think Cody’s in danger of being voted out, but perhaps as an early suggestion before the actual plans kick-off. Instead, I think Dwight, who does not have a vote, or either one of Justine and Noelle are more likely to be sent home if Vesi goes to tribal.
From the premiere, we saw that Justine and Noelle had very obviously cliqued off early, as well as a Cody, Jesse, and Nneka group, though less defined as the former pair. I’m leaning towards either Justine or Noelle, as Jesse tells us in NTOS that “tribe alliances are getting clearer,” which makes me think they really separate off as a pair that the majority can pick off.
It’s extremely early in the season; thus, it’s really difficult to determine anything for sure. My bold prediction is that there will be a successful girls alliance this season — maybe a lowkey one, maybe later on in the post-merge. And for this coming episode, because of their relatively deeper strategy talk in NTOS, I think Vesi will go to tribal where either Justine or Noelle gets voted out. I can’t differentiate the two in terms of their individual standing in Vesi at the moment, so I’m just offering their conspicuous twosome as my prediction.
How do you feel about this season so far? Leave a comment with your predictions for Episode 2 of Survivor 43!
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My guess is that coco goes to tribal and the girl alliance holds strong pull in James and cut geo over Ryan. Or they try to pull in James he doesn’t go for it gets them to split the vote 2-2 in case of idol and then the 3 guys cut Karla.
Or less likely Baka goes back to tribal and since Mike has an idol they all cut Owen as being on the outside.
Even less likely I think if vesi goes to tribal. Cody heard about being a target and flips the vote on Dwight who can’t vote