Each week, Christine Pallon and Gia Worthy will round up the previous week of Survivor 47 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 latest episode.
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Top 3 Moments
Andy’s big mistake
Gia: Genevieve winning immunity all but solidified the plan for the upcoming vote, where she, Sam, Andy, and Teeny all agreed to vote for Rachel. While Genevieve and Teeny were laying out the plan to Sue on reward, Sam and Andy used the time at camp to break the news to Rachel, completely in the dark about the idol she had. Andy, fully aware that the jury didn’t respect his social game, used this time to ask Rachel to consider voting for him, even going so far as to lay out all the moves he has made throughout the game.
Andy’s pitch did sway Rachel… just not in the way he was hoping for. She quickly realized that Andy was a much greater threat to win than she originally thought, and she used this opportunity to take him out over her first target, Sam. Come tribal council, Rachel played her idol, she and Sue voted for Andy, and Andy strategized himself out of the game and onto the jury. In the words of Q Burdette, you could say Andy made a “Big Mistake.”
The mother-off of the century
Christine: We’ve been building to the Rachel vs. Genevieve face-off all merge, and it finally came to a climax at the Final Five. We often get to see players discuss their rivalries in confessionals, but Genevieve and Rachel took it a step further by discussing it openly with each other in front of the entire tribe. Sam questioned whether the two of them were truly the biggest threats left in the game or if someone else might be able to beat them – alluding, of course, to himself.
While Sam’s right that he shouldn’t be written off entirely, Genevieve and Rachel’s respective threat levels in this finale were off the charts. Their long-awaited battle lost a little steam when Rachel won immunity, and it would have been a lot more gripping if they had both been vulnerable here. But the question of Genevieve’s fake idol at least kept us in a bit more suspense about whether Genevieve would survive yet again.
Genevieve comes clean
Christine: Speaking of that idol, Sam exposed it as a fake to Teeny, who then played their role as town gossip and told Rachel and Sue before confronting Genevieve herself about it. After a long season of lying to her Lavo ally, Genevieve told Teeny the truth without hesitation and admitted the idol was a fake. But Genevieve’s truthfulness fueled even more suspicion than if she had lied, because what if she and Sam were working together to get the votes on Genevieve so she could idol someone out?
Genevieve’s vulnerable moment of honesty ended up being an inadvertent Hail Mary move to spook everyone into voting for Sam instead, but in the end, Rachel and Sue voted together to vote her out, believing the idol to be fake.
Advantage Watch
Idols
Gia: After weeks of wondering when these idols were going to come into play, we finally got our answer. When Rachel lost the final six immunity challenge, the Operation: Italy crew and Teeny were all in agreement that she had to be the next to go. Rachel played up her demise to everyone but Sue, the only other person who knew about her idol. Her seemingly defeatist attitude only made her idol reveal all the more sweet to the audience, as well as the build up to Andy’s exit. Rachel’s Funeral (as it has been called online) has quickly become my favorite moment of the entire season. Less excitedly, Sue played her idol at the final five (the last round she could use it), but it did not negate any votes against her.
Vote Block
Christine: In addition to playing her idol at the Final Six, Rachel also played her Vote Block on Sam for good measure. This prevented the majority from attempting a 2-2-2 if they suspected Rachel had an idol, ensuring that Andy would indeed be the vote as Rachel and Sue planned.
Top 3 Players
Rachel
Gia: Rachel Lamont is the run-away favorite to win Survivor 47. Her idol play during the final six was the best moment of the season for me, and the move perfectly summarized her game. Rachel has often been disregarded and underestimated, but that was a mistake on those players’ end, not Rachel’s. Her allegiances to the women in the merge and her ability to keep her advantages close to her chest were some of her greatest assets, but I’d argue that her greatest strength was knowing when to divulge certain information and who to reveal it to. This is how she has been able to last as long as she has after losing Anika (though a few well-timed immunity wins also helped her, too).
If Rachel wins, it will be a one-of-a-kind victory, with a unique storyline that we rarely see succeed with any player, but especially with women players. Of course, there is still a chance she will not make it to Final Tribal Council should she lose the final immunity challenge or the fire-making challenge. She is my favorite player from this season so of course I have a vested interest in seeing her win, but even if she doesn’t it has been an honor to root for her since the premiere.
Sam
Gia: If Rachel doesn’t win Survivor 47, then the only other logical option at this point would be Sam. Unfortunately for Sue and Teeny, I just don’t see how the edit we have gotten would justify a win for either of them. Despite Rachel appearing to be the clear odds favorite to win, I don’t want to make the mistake of discounting Sam’s chances completely. After all, Sam has been responsible for a lot of the direction the game has gone, both in the pre-merge and merge. He and Sierra were the undisputed power duo while on Gata, but he was able to outlast her as well as many of her adversaries.
Like Genevieve, Sam was often a target or backup vote once Sierra was gone, but he never gave up and always fought for his spot in the game. He has voted correctly in all but one round, with only Rachel’s idol play thwarting his perfect record. Of course, his crowning glory will always be Operation: Italy, and as the only remaining member of the group, I’m sure he’ll be able to garner a few votes should he make it to the end. The only question now is, will it be enough votes to win?
Sue
Christine: Sue… still hasn’t done a whole lot this season, but this was some of the most we’ve seen her do in a while, so good for her! With her allies gone, she cozied up to Rachel to pull off the blindside against Andy and kept her idol a secret until the very last moment. Again, it’s not a whole lot, and Sue is pretty much drawing dead in terms of win equity, but it was the most we’ve seen her do in the game since she found the idol pre-merge, so I’ll give her this shoutout here for her efforts this week!
Fallen Comrades
Andy
Christine: Oh, Andy. We thought this week would answer the “was Operation Italy a good or bad move” question. Turns out the answer is…”not sure” because Andy’s game ended at the hands of an unambiguously bad move of evangelizing his game to Rachel while she had an idol in her pocket to save herself. Andy has been in a tough position regarding winning potential for a while now, and I understand feeling the need to hype up his game to someone he’s certain will be joining the jury. But with him knowing that Rachel has a Vote Block and that Genevieve’s idol is a fake, it would have been safe for him to assume that Rachel might be able to find a way to save herself, especially since no other idols had been played post-merge at this point.
This mistake sent Andy to the jury, cutting his comeback story short. Andy would be a fun candidate to return and play again, but I think he should take a few years away from the game rather than return immediately. I think Andy with a few more years of growth and life experience would have a lot more potential for a return outing than Andy playing just a year after his first game, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he gets a call for Survivor 50.
Gia: Andy’s character arc from obvious pre-merge boot to undisputed star of the season was truly a sight to behold. Since the premiere, he has been working from the bottom to leverage a better position for himself, often having to take it day by day, step by step, to make it through just one more round. But sure enough, soon, he was in the power position, taking advantage of flimsy relationships and bigger targets to better his own game. It was a masterclass in playing to survive, making the best of his situation by any means necessary.
I don’t know how his case for the win would be received by the jury should he have made it to the Final Tribal Council. But it would have been great to see him fight for the win nonetheless. I doubt this is the last we will see of Andy on our televisions, but I can’t help but be satisfied with the story we did get from him in this single season. Sure, his journey ended right before the final five, but what a journey it was.
Genevieve
Christine: Genevieve is my personal pick for a Survivor 50 candidate from this cast. While she made little impact on me in the pre-season — and clearly made little impact on the editors at the start of the game — she turned out to be one of the more dynamic and compelling players I’ve seen in years and has emerged as one of my favorite New Era players.
She made a clear mistake in strong-arming the Sol vote, forcing her to play a scrappy defensive game for the rest of the merge, which was wildly entertaining as a viewer. It’s a feat that she survived as long as she did, and even when the writing was on the wall this episode, I still wondered if she might find a way to slither out of trouble one last time. She has a lot of potential for growth as a player and if she can find a way to keep her threat level lower in a second outing, she could easily become a Survivor legend.
Gia: From a purpled player in the first three episodes to the undisputed powerhouse strategist of 47, there has truly been no other player in the new era quite like Genevieve. Her alliance with Rome may have been what started her game, but it was her own moves that defined her Survivor legacy. From the moment the Kishan blindside was successfully executed, it was clear that we had a very special player on our hands, someone who wasn’t afraid to make risky moves if it meant better positioning themselves for the win.
I’d argue that her decision to blindside Sol as early as she did was the true downfall of her game because from there on out, she was always a target. Still, her ability to survive for as long as she did (and as one of the undeniably biggest threats to win) is an achievement in itself. I’m a little sad that we couldn’t get the Genevieve/Rachel rivalry to last just one more round, but Genevieve provided us with enough content to cement herself as an all-time great player and character.
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