Welcome to Season 45’s Next Time On Survivor weekly feature on the Inside Survivor site! If you’re new around here, I’m Steph from sunny, tropical, humid Singapore. This is a tiny space where I give my best attempts at understanding preview trailers and make my predictions for the show’s next episodes. For the first time this season, let’s jump right in!
The NTOS trailer begins with a voice-over by Sabiyah, saying, “Emily will just cut my throat in the night.” This opening sequence basically calls Emily out as an outcast on the yellow Lulu tribe, “desperate” and “public enemy #1”. From the premiere episode, we can already tell she’s very willing to speak her mind and doesn’t hold back. Perhaps it’s a lack of awareness or restraint, but I’m more inclined to believe she’s just used to speaking bluntly.
I feel like Emily’s going to struggle and constantly be a target. However, I don’t think she’ll be voted out soon. I believe she’ll be the regular scapegoat or easy option, standing by as a possible target for her tribe but not the primary target being sent home. My prediction is that this will last a few more episodes, letting Emily scrape by a couple votes and not be the next person out of Lulu.
The next portion of the trailer is narrated by an excited Drew reeling over a “solid group” he has on the red Reba tribe. In the sequence, we see him interacting with Julie and then with Dee. However, I wouldn’t read too much into this, as it seems like a relatively standard preview, customary of early episodes highlighting and hyping up the newly introduced players of the season.
Moving to the final section of NTOS, we have a confessional from Katurah on the blue Belo tribe, commenting on Bruce doing “stupid stuff.” This is the same Bruce from Season 44 and the same Bruce that was called out by Emily in the premiere episode, right at the opening challenge, for being more experienced and mentally prepared for the game. Belo also commented about his taking charge and being somewhat domineering, even though he wanted to position himself as the cool and fun uncle.
Maybe this clowning around the preview could just be Bruce leaning into that impression he wants to give others? I see this sequence more as a feature of Bruce, creating a character moment of him for viewers who are invested in his second chance at Survivor, as opposed to one commenting on a perhaps careless gameplay. Even though he’s rubbing off some of his tribemates the wrong way, I don’t think it’s going to impact his game that much in the short term.
Something beyond the NTOS trailer to note: on the official Survivor podcast, Jeff Probst revealed there was a twist that was cut out of the episode: the tribe that won the immunity challenge was allowed to send a player to visit the losing tribe as they were scrambling before tribal council. They were also able to secretly cast a vote against one of the losing tribe’s players. Like many similar twists in past seasons, I assume this will carry on as a feature after immunity challenges throughout the season’s pre-merge.
This throws another consideration into the already complicated and convoluted game. The winning tribe’s player could use this as an opportunity to stir some chaos on another tribe. Still, my prediction is that most will choose stability and attempt to vote with the majority in order not to burn any potential bridges. After all, this game moves quickly, and you never know what relationship you’ll need in a few days’ time.
Finally, for my boot predictions for Episode 2, I just can’t see any other tribe besides Lulu losing! Even on first watch, it was pretty clear early on in the immunity challenge that they would lose. They’re just too physically weak compared to Reba and Belo. I think Lulu will get rid of Brandon next just so they can start being closer to par and having a fighting chance. It’s unfortunate, but I feel like a 26-day season isn’t as forgiving to keep a player that will prevent the tribe from succeeding in challenges.
How did you find the premiere episode, and what do you think will unfold in Episode 2? Leave a comment with your predictions!
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