Each week, Christine Pallon and Gia Worthy will round up the previous week of Survivor 43 as they list their top moments in various important categories. This includes the most essential information, the stand-out castaways, and the key moments from the week.
Here, Christine and Gia break down all the action from the seventh episode.
Become a Patron
Get exclusive content and features by supporting Inside Survivor on Patreon.
Top 3 Moments
Jeanine tries to save her game
Christine: Following the loss of her only ally Elie last episode, Jeanine got to work to solidify her position on the Gaia tribe. Immediately after tribal, Jeanine approached seemingly everyone on the tribe to pitch herself as a useful swing vote. Dwight counts her among one of his close allies moving forward the following day, so it seems like her pitch was at least somewhat fruitful. Unfortunately for Jeanine and Dwight, though, both of their games were about to take a turn for the worst.
A momentous immunity challenge
Gia: Between you and me, challenges are usually when I zone out of Survivor episodes. In my defense, there are only so many obstacle courses followed by puzzles that I can take. However, I couldn’t zone out at this challenge, given that it took up 30 minutes of the episode. There were many touching moments, starting with the players helping Noelle out of the net and ending with Gabler honoring the veterans that he knew over the years. These lovely moments went beyond the game for a million dollars, and I respect the players for being so vulnerable on such a public platform. That being said, I am begging production to never make the challenge that long ever again.
Dwight and Jeanine’s plan backfires
Gia: Baka and Vesi’s plan to blindside James hit a snag when James found an advantage. While he only revealed what the advantage was to his allies, Dwight was able to correctly determine that it was Knowledge is Power. Like in seasons past, Jeanine decided to give her idol to Dwight, just in case James decided to steal it at this tribal. However, while they were prepared for the KIP, what they weren’t prepared for was Jesse and Cody flipping, ousting Dwight and Jeanine’s idol with him.
Top 3 Players
Jesse
Gia: Jesse’s forging a new path for himself, and it’s coming at the expense of the original Vesi tribe. The remaining Baka and Vesi members had agreed to try and take out a Coco member once again, but Jesse felt that he was better off forming a new alliance with Karla. He wanted to target Noelle, but Cody wanted to go for Dwight instead, which he eventually agreed to. He may have had to part with his island marriage, but Jesse is making a name for himself by crossing tribe loyalties.
Gabler
Christine: Gabler was, once again, one of the stars of the episode. Love him or hate him, it’s clear that production can’t get enough of him. His big Christian Hubicki-esque challenge performance scored him a clutch immunity win, which was much-needed after all the chaos he caused last week. With the dust settling after last week’s messy vote, Gabler could have easily gone home here in an attempt to prevent any further chaos. We’ll see how much time this immunity win buys him or if he falls back into his old, messy ways.
Jeanine
Gia: Poor Jeanine, it seems like nothing is going right for her. After losing her closest ally Elie, it seemed like the only thing that could add to her misfortune was if she was voted out. While she was hoping to use her new position to her advantage, things once again went wrong for the sole remaining Baka woman. She gave her idol to Dwight before tribal to prevent James from taking it, only for Dwight to be blindsided, taking her idol with him. Jeanine has kept a positive attitude despite all of the adversity she has faced, so let’s hope she can continue to persevere.
Advantage Watch
Idols
Christine: Jeanine’s idol tragically left the game in Dwight’s pocket, leaving Karla and Cody as our sole idol holders for now. We’ve yet to have a successful idol play in the new era of Survivor, and right now, our best hope of finally having one lies with Karla, who has managed to keep her idol a secret.
Steal-A-Vote
Gia: In an attempt to avoid James’ Knowledge is Power advantage, Noelle gave her steal-a-vote to Owen for safekeeping. I’m assuming she’ll get it back in the next episode, but at the very least, she isn’t suffering the same fate as Jeanine.
Knowledge is Power
Christine: BOO! I’ve made it clear that I’m no fan of this advantage, and I breathed a sigh of relief when it left the game with Geo a couple weeks ago. But since production is apparently hell-bent on having this advantage be successful at least once, they planted a clue regarding its location in the water well for someone to find.
James found the clue and snagged the advantage, but as with every previous iteration of this advantage, everyone ended up finding out about it. It led to some pre-tribal chaos as players passed around advantages, but James decided not to play it this round. I have a hard time believing he’ll be successful in using it in the future, given that everyone knows about it.
Fallen Comrades
Christine: Going into this episode, one of the last things I expected was for Dwight to go home, and I definitely wouldn’t have predicted him going home with Jeanine’s idol in his pocket! I’m still a little fuzzy on why Dwight was the consensus vote here. There was some vague suggestion that Noelle was somehow in a major position of power and that voting Dwight out was a way to weaken her.
We didn’t get much build-up to this, so it felt a little random. I feel like we didn’t get to hear much about Dwight’s gameplay or his position in the game, but he seemed like a really likable guy, and I was really sad to see him not even make the jury.
Gia: Let it be known that Dwight should have made the jury, especially since he technically “earned the merge.” That being said, Dwight was such a delight during his time in the game. I only wish we got to see more of him. He knew not to fully trust Cody or Jesse, but they struck way earlier than he ever could have imagined. I’m sad that he won’t be the official Mayor of Ponderosa, but rest assured, I will be seeking justice for Dwight on this matter.
Written by