As pro pilot Gerry makes an emergency landing on the Villains tribe following last night’s twisted Tribal, his presence alone shakes things up. Whereas players on the Heroes saw him as expendable, the Villains are more than happy to have a new face around, both as a number for their tribe and a number for their alliances. Simon is the first to put in some recruitment work, but George won’t let Gerry’s allegiance slip through his fingers. His position on the Villains has always been spotty at best, and if Simon gets another ally, he might as well hop in the ocean and swim to Jury Villa himself.
Meanwhile, the Heroes have to sort themselves out following Gerry’s potentially temporary departure. His close ally Sharni is feeling burned by the Meat Tray Alliance’s decision to throw him to the wolves as a sacrificial lamb with the expectation that he probably won’t come back. Between their sneaky whispering behind his back and the blatant reasoning thrown out to his face, Sharni reckons the boys have only alienated Gerry and left him dejected. Quite a far cry from the super loyal spy they expected him to become.
And Sharni’s read here is spot on. As Gerry ingratiates himself with the Villains, his attitude regarding the entire situation changes overnight. Though he intended to join the Villains as a fly on the wall and survive undercover until he could feed info back to his Heroes, the welcoming nature of his new tribe opens his eyes to the truth. Besides Sharni, the Heroes don’t give a damn about him as an ally. He was just “cool old guy with a bad foot” to them, so why not unleash the beast inside and turn traitor? With a rough life of losses waiting for him back home, he can’t afford to play it safe. His family and business need that half a million to have a secure future, and if betraying the Heroes gets him closer to that prize, so be it.
https://twitter.com/Survivor_AU/status/1622879085549748224?s=20&t=koNlzGXnVLMtIZ6JjBBlfA
At an evenly matched reward challenge, the Heroes take home comfort for the body, stomach, and soul. But the Villains, or at least George in particular, won’t leave empty-handed. In his match-up against Hayley, he asks whether to trust Gerry and gets a firm “Yes!” to wash away any doubts about working with the new arrival. But the Heroes will enjoy their reward, dining on lasagna as they share photos and stories from home. It’s an Australian Survivor staple at this point. There are plenty of good vibes between Benjamin sharing the 20-year history with his partner, Nina giving us a low-res cameo from Queen Sandra herself, and Paige opening up about the loss of her grandmother and how those great memories fuel her to succeed in the game.
And success is the name of the game for the Heroes as another close victory falls in their favor at the immunity challenge, no doubt thanks to Benjamin and Paige’s brilliant use of sign language to solve the word puzzle without tipping off the Villains too early. And once the Villains hit the beach for their fourth Tribal of the season, it’s scrambling time yet again.
The priority for George is securing Gerry’s trust. With Hayley vouching for him and George more than happy to spill the tribe’s dynamics to give him the best possible position, Gerry’s locked in. As he wonderfully says to sum up his future in the game, the Heroes threw him to the wolves expecting him to be devoured, but he’ll be returning with a full pack behind him, hungry for revenge.
Now THIS is the sort of 1 on 1 action we want to see #SurvivorAU pic.twitter.com/VP92lbbfDD
— SurvivorAU (@Survivor_AU) February 7, 2023
True to form, Simon wants to vote George out. With Jordie, Fraser, and Stevie onboard, he just needs one more vote to secure the majority. Shonee and Liz aren’t exactly close with him, and Gerry’s fallen into George’s lap, so that leaves pageant queen Sarah as his best bet. As for Sarah herself, she’s more than happy to vote George out to purge the tribe of snakes. Though she respects George as a player and acknowledges his royal title, she wants to be the only one with a crown on that beach. And so the plan is solid. Allegedly.
George sees the numbers forming on his side, but Shonee and Liz are quick to point out Sarah’s shifting loyalties and suggest her as a potential target. If they won’t target Simon due to his challenge strength, they can at least take out a potential swing vote to weaken his strategic power moving forward. And Sarah herself is no slouch either. She’s a social butterfly, and letting her into a swap could mean the end of the Villains should she find greener grass with the more numerous Heroes.
The Spice Girls agree to gun for her tonight, but there’s a serious problem. Even with Gerry on their side, that’s only four votes. They need to flip one more person from Simon’s alliance to make some magic happen. Fraser is tight with the guys, and though Jordie is willing to work with George, he’s not exactly ready to do that at Simon’s expense. That leaves Stevie in the middle, and he’s got mixed feelings. On the one hand, George is a very respectable player, and voting Sarah out has its benefits. But George himself is also a massive threat, and Sarah could help take him out. All in all, Stevie is just plain confused.
George is prepared to make a villain out of a hero #SurvivorAU pic.twitter.com/ceTBUMl0jg
— SurvivorAU (@Survivor_AU) February 7, 2023
But once Tribal Council rolls around, Stevie is the only one confused because, out of nowhere, Sarah is voted out unanimously. I’m sorry, but where did that come from? Aside from a couple of soundbites of Simon saying Sarah isn’t totally trustworthy, what implied his entire alliance would turn on her without warning and abandon the George plan? It all reeks of fabricated suspense created to cover up an otherwise ho-hum vote, but let’s try and piece things together here.
Sarah didn’t get much, if any, airtime outside of the few jokes about Miss Greece falling down the stairs, but it never seemed like she had a solid footing herself, no pun intended. She was tangentially connected to the Spice Girls but never named as an actual member. She had a working relationship with Simon near the end of her stay, but it was fairly shallow game-wise, to the point where Simon was willing to cut her over George, of all people. And if you take voting and exit confessionals into account, it seems she tried to play both sides and got busted, making her an easy consensus boot for both alliances.
https://twitter.com/Survivor_AU/status/1622890410682220545?s=20&t=koNlzGXnVLMtIZ6JjBBlfA
She never truly committed to anyone, relied on riding the middle as a floater and didn’t provide enough loyalty to keep herself safe on a tribe where it’s basically open season on these newbie Villains. I wish we’d seen all of this on-screen, especially from her own lips, given her underwhelming edit, but this is nothing new for Survivor AU, so the game goes on.
If the first week of the season was a Villains showcase, week two was all about fleshing out the Heroes in return. The dynamics are more transparent, and we’ve met most of the cast on a personal or game level despite the usual editing woes this franchise loves to inflict upon us. So consider me excited and hopeful for week three as it promises a legendary, history-making episode to kick it off with style.
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