Throughout all of its promotional material, Australian Survivor has been promising “the most explosive season ever” for its second edition of the popular Brains v Brawn format. Network 10 likes to lay it on thick (I still have nightmares of Sue’s Big Move), so it’s hard to know whether the hype is real or just a marketing tactic. Well, based on Monday’s premiere, there may be some truth to this season’s explosivity.
The episode features all the Aussie Survivor hallmarks: over-the-top yet epic intro, gratuitous shots of glistening abs and wedgied ass cracks, cross-tribe smack talk, random background characters who you swear must have joined the episode halfway through and Jonathan LaPaglia’s bulging arm muscles and playful banter. It also features some of the most aggressively dumb opening gameplay ever seen across all franchises.
There is one man at the centre of this episode’s drama: Nash, a salesman from Sydney, who finds the Brawn tribe’s hidden immunity idol five minutes into the game. It’s an impressive feat, sure, but everything that follows is just one baffling decision after the next. Nash immediately shares his findings with hip-hop artist Zen. It’s risky but not unusual for a player to share an idol with a potential ally, especially one nearby when the idol is discovered.
More unusual is Nash’s choice to drape the idol around his neck and saunter back into camp, flaunting it for all to see. Maybe he just thought it looked stylish—it did have a lovely bedazzled skull thing going on. Hilariously, nobody notices Nash’s new jewellery until he practically flashes it in their faces, like a person trying to draw compliments on their engagement ring.
To say the reaction is mixed is to be generous. Most of Nash’s Brawn tribemates find his behaviour to be questionable and more than a little arrogant. Footy fanatic Noonan, in particular, is less than impressed by the Russell Hantz-channeling Nash and is already salivating over the thought of ridding herself of the tribe’s irritating “rash.”
Speaking of Russell Hantz, there’s some hat-burning drama over at the Brains tribe courtesy of business mogul Kent. While not quite as chaotic as the Brawn tribe, the Brains have their share of turbulence following a loss in the first reward challenge, which sees primary school teacher Max costing his tribe by getting a sandbag stuck atop a contraption where they’re meant to be freeing a key.
For some reason, Kent seems to take Max’s mistake as a personal affront and sets about on a revenge mission. In the middle of the night, he sneaks out of the shelter and throws Max’s schoolyard-duty cowboy hat into the fire. This may be a 4D chess masterplan move, but honestly, I don’t understand the strategy. It’s such a weird, petty thing to do to someone you just met a few hours ago. At least when Sandra burnt Russell’s hat in Heroes vs. Villains, it came after 39 days of hearing him talk down and belittle her and her fellow tribemates.
Max is confused and a little ticked off when he wakes up the following day to a missing hat, and Kent tries to pin it on financial analyst Myles. Again, I don’t know the logic behind Kent’s move or why he feels so threatened by Myles. Regardless, I don’t see him gaining much traction, seeing as his blustering, bossy approach to the game is already ruffling feathers.
Self-confessed white witch Laura reveals Kent has one of the most negative auras she’s ever seen. Though, you don’t need supernatural powers to work out the man stomping around with a machete and bellowing orders gives off bad energy. With Kent in her crosshairs, Laura forms an all-women’s alliance with doctor Karin, AFL wag Logan, and PTA Vice President Zara, nicknaming themselves The Coven. Whether they’ll be as memorable as Survivor: Cambodia’s Coven remains to be seen.
Back to the Brawn tribe, it’s pure chaos after they lose the first immunity challenge, in no small part due to Nash’s ineptitude on the puzzle. Yet, Nash has no fears; the idol has given him uber confidence and a total lack of self-awareness, and he believes everyone will be more than happy to follow the simple vote and get rid of model Candy.
Little does he know, the rest of his tribemates are determined to flush his idol, and soon, a split vote plan comes together, with half the tribe piling votes on Nash and the others loading up on powerlifter Ursula. It’s not that Ursula does anything particularly wrong other than being dragged into Nash’s orbit and, therefore, being viewed as one of his closest allies.
The wheels come off, though, when Zen tells Nash that Ursula is copping votes. I’m not sure if this is an unintentional slip-up on Zen’s part or if he does it on purpose to force Nash into playing his idol. Either way, Nash goes into attack mode, letting Ursula know her name is coming up and also putting pressure on DJ/Dancer Kate and Olympic sprinter Morgan to vote for Candy with him.
At Tribal Council, the topic of discussion is Nash’s idol and his decision to show it off, not only to his tribemates but to the Brains tribe, having worn it to the earlier challenge. He faces criticism from the likes of paramedic Paulie and even his buddy Zen, both of whom question the logic behind Nash’s so-called big move and whether it serves a larger purpose.
Nash deflects, continuing to push votes towards Candy, noting that any votes thrown his way will be wasted. In the end, he proves to be correct, as despite talking up how he’s so confident he doesn’t need to use the idol, Nash does the wise thing and plays it. Sure, he didn’t actually need it, but he did cop three votes, and it’s better to be safe than sorry.
With Nash’s idol flushed and the votes for Ursula coming thick and fast, Noonan and her allies look pleased that their split plan is coming to fruition. However, the smiles quickly turn into frowns when two more votes come in for Candy, eliminating her in a close 5-4-0 vote.
It was a tense tribal council to end what was indeed an explosive premiere, but I do think something was missing in the edit to fill in some of the gaps. It wasn’t entirely clear why Kate and Morgan felt so pressured into flipping to Candy. Yes, Kate mentioned how Nash threatened that she’d be next if she didn’t vote with him, but we didn’t really see that in the episode, nor understand why Kate took that threat seriously, given how they had more than enough numbers against Nash.
Hopefully, some of those missing pieces will be put into place in the next episode, and we can hear a little more from Kate and Morgan on why they chose to side with Nash. For now, though, we have all the ingredients for what could be one of the messiest seasons of Australian Survivor ever.
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