Each week, Christine Pallon and Gia Worthy will round up the previous week of Survivor 41 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 fourth episode.
Top 3 Moments
Rare Sighting: A Reward Challenge
Gia: God I missed this. Was anyone else confused when there was a challenge less than 10 minutes into the episode? Turns out, it was because they finally had a reward challenge, and it was a welcomed change of pace. Probably in part due to the fact that Luvu still hasn’t found their idol, Survivor 41 took a desperately needed break from advantage talk. The reward challenge and its aftermath gave us something from every tribe, proving once again that it’s the players, not the twists, that make a season great.
Luvu tries to throw a challenge
Gia: Key word, tries. After Erika suggested targeting Sydney to Deshawn, Deshawn was worried that Erika would be too big of a liability come merge. His solution? Throw the upcoming immunity challenge and vote out Erika instead. Results of a challenge throw may vary, but it certainly didn’t get off to a great start when even his closest ally Danny was against the idea. Deshawn still moved forward with the plan, only to spectacularly fail at it when Naseer clenched the win for Luvu. The best part? Deshawn narrating the entire immunity challenge, including all the ways he tried to throw the challenge without making it too obvious.
JD’s collateral backfires
Christine: “HE’S GIVING IT TO HER AGAIN???” was the question heard around the world last White Rice Wednesday as we all watched in shock, awe, and horror when JD gave Shan his Extra Vote for the second Tribal in a row. Last time the gamble paid off, but JD’s risky gameplay ended up being his downfall this week when Shan decided to keep the Extra Vote and take him out instead.
JD’s move here was a pretty obvious misplay. He both overestimated how paranoid Shan actually was as well as the likelihood of her keeping him and returning his advantage. But there’s a little more debate about how good of a move this was for Shan. While in another season, I might argue that Shan is doing too much too early on in the game, her move here makes sense given the fast-paced nature of this season and how small these tribes are. She couldn’t afford to go to another Tribal on the dwindling Ua tribe with JD still in possession of an Extra Vote, so taking him out and pocketing the extra vote for herself was the smart (and incredibly bold) move to make.
Tribe Breakdown
Luvu
Gia: After weeks of being the tribe that we knew next to nothing about, Luvu has finally gotten some much-needed depth. Turns out that, despite their continuous wins, they’re just as much of a mess as the other two tribes. We finally got to see some of Erika’s perspective, who is looking to get rid of Sydney due to her temperamental attitude. Then there was Deshawn, whose one-man attempt to throw a challenge was unknowingly thwarted by Naseer. I’d be remiss to not mention how kind Danny was to Heather after she lost them the reward challenge, a nice change of pace from what we’ve come to expect from Survivor pro-athletes.
Given that Luvu will make up a significant portion of the merge players, we’re more than likely to see them come into their own during that stage of the game. For now, this was a great introduction. Also, side note, they still haven’t found their idol.
Ua
Christine: This episode really started off with a bang with the post-Brad blindside fight on Ua. As much as I want the players to have a positive game experience, I can’t deny that I love a good late-night, post-Tribal fight. While this opening scene seemed to set up an obvious Genie boot as the person clearly on the bottom, Ua’s pre-Tribal scenes complicated the story with Genie potentially playing her Shot in the Dark and Shan snatching JD’s advantage again. Ua kept us guessing this week up until the votes were read, and with only three people left, there’s not much room for anyone to hide if they have to go to Tribal again before a swap or a merge.
Yase
Christine: After a losing streak, Yase is on the up-and-up with their recent challenge wins. We didn’t get any real insight into the state of the current tribe dynamics over there this week, but we were treated to a cute post-reward camp life scene. This episode felt very “old school” in a lot of ways. In recent seasons, we don’t always get to see our players just hanging out at camp, so it was refreshing to see Yase’s celebration with their fish, Evvie’s “previously on Survivor” narration, and the little baby turtle moment.
Stand-out Castaways
Deshawn
Christine: The first half of this episode really felt like it was setting us up for a Luvu Tribal, mostly thanks to Deshawn’s plan to throw the immunity challenge and boot Erika for being a strategic threat. I go back and forth on how good of an idea this was for Deshawn. Yes, the tribe in a three-tribe season that never (or rarely) goes to Tribal tends to be in a tough spot come merge but throwing a challenge is always super risky even if you feel confident in who might be on the block.
That didn’t end up mattering, though, thanks to Naseer’s superior ring-toss skills. Even though Deshawn’s plan was foiled, he still ended up being one of the undisputed stars of this episode with his hilarious mid-challenge confessionals narrating how his throwing plan kept getting foiled every step of the way.
Shan
Gia: The Mafia Pastor has done it yet again! While I’m admittedly sad to see JD take the fall here, Shan’s control within Ua is awe-inspiring to watch. She had to make another tough decision here in whether she wanted to vote out Genie or JD, ultimately deciding that JD outlived his usefulness to her. Watching how easily she’s been able to charm her tribemates has been a delight, but now I’m worried about her having a fall from grace.
Will she be able to maintain control once merge hits? Will she survive if Ua goes to Tribal again? I’m not certain with either one, but I do hope she makes it past the merge vote that so many believe is when she’s getting the axe. I have some predictions, but for now, I’ll just say I don’t believe Genie or Ricard will stick out their necks for her much longer.
JD
Gia: I’m not going to lie, this elimination hurt. JD’s story of growing up with Survivor as his comfort show resonated with me, and I wanted nothing more than to see him go far. Unfortunately, JD had a messy start and never fully recovered from it afterward. The final nail in his coffin was the same as all the other ousted Ua members: trusting Shan. Not even trusting her with his extra vote could save him here… or perhaps that was the deciding factor in sending him home.
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