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 seventh episode.
Top 3 Moments
Erika Turns Back Time
Gia: It was the cliffhanger where absolutely everyone predicted the outcome. To the shock of no one, Erika decided to secure her own safety and smashed the hourglass. As a result, the previously immune Danny, Deshawn, Evvie, Naseer, Ricard, and Sydney were now the only ones eligible to be voted out. We can argue all day about how this was unfair (and to Danny’s point, it definitely was), but it certainly shook up how everyone thought this not-merge would go. This isn’t the Survivor we grew up with, but everything that transpired afterwards delivered its own brand of excitement.
Liana asks a question
Christine: With the Knowledge is Power advantage in her possession, Liana sought to take down Xander and claim his idol for herself. After Evvie and Xander’s long conversation at Tribal about a potential idol play, and Xander flashing the “idol” to everyone, Liana revealed her advantage and asked that fateful question to Xander. Unbeknownst to her, Xander had already given both his idol and Extra Vote to Tiffany, leaving Liana with only a now-useless piece of paper and a fake idol.
Live Tribal
Christine: Once Liana’s advantage play failed and it was confirmed that the minority would still have an idol on their side, chaos ensued. Since this is modern Survivor, everyone, of course, got out of their seats and started whispering. As one of the bigger anti-live Tribal advocates out there—it’s against the spirit of Tribal Council! It’s confusing! People whispering usually doesn’t make for good TV!—I actually didn’t hate this one. The chaos felt more than warranted given how public Xander’s idol was and how few viable vote targets there were as a result of the twist, resulting in a 5-4-3 vote that sent Sydney out of the game.
Stand-out Castaways
Xander
Gia: Xander is clearly on the bottom of the merge tribe, but it was his maneuvers that kept him and his closest allies safe. Above all, he was able to keep his idol and his extra vote. Thanks to Tiffany telling him about Liana’s advantage, the Yase trio was able to maneuver the unexpected power to keep at least one part of this twist in their favor. By giving his idol to Tiffany, Xander strengthened his bond with his original tribemates and flushed out the Knowledge is Power. The only problem is that he is a very likely candidate to go soon, as his target is now bigger than ever.
Deshawn
Gia: If Xander was the star of the minority alliance, Deshawn was the star of the majority. He knew that it was his head if the idol was played correctly and adjusted accordingly to secure his safety. He maintained a cool head about the twists even as his safety was taken right from under him. Most importantly, he used his new connections outside of Luvu to survive the round. His suggestion to split the vote between Evvie and Sydney would’ve saved him even if Tiffany played Xander’s idol. Deshawn played incredibly well here and kept himself in good standing with everyone, even his adversaries. He’s down an extra vote, but he’s certainly not out.
Sydney
Christine: Our brief time spent checking in on OG Luvu in the pre-merge hinted at some sort of eventual Erika vs. Sydney showdown. While we didn’t get that showdown directly, we did get Erika taking away Sydney’s immunity with the hourglass twist, ultimately leading to her untimely demise. Love her or hate her, Sydney was certainly one of the more explosive personalities on the season and could’ve made for a fun villain in the merge. But, due to the mechanics of the twist and fears of an idol play, Sydney became OG Luvu’s sacrificial lamb in the chaos of the live Tribal.
Advantage Watch
Immunity
Gia: The vulnerable players had one last chance to reclaim the immunity they lost. This was the challenge where players had to build a structure with their feet, and it ended up being an incredibly close call between Ricard, Sydney, and Evvie. Ricard came out on top this time, securing his safety and a spot in the official merge.
Idols
Gia: Despite all of the drama surrounding Liana’s advantage, all of the idols are still in play. Shan and Naseer both still have theirs, and they didn’t really come into play this round. In order to evade Liana’s advantage, Xander passed his idol onto Tiffany, who honored his wishes to not play it for Evvie. Presumably, she will give it back to him after this Tribal, but the former Yase members should all be worried about their current position.
Extra Votes
Christine: In case you didn’t catch it during the credits, Deshawn played his Extra Vote to cast two votes for Evvie, who was a big part of the reason why Deshawn had an Extra Vote in the first place. It didn’t end up mattering in the end since Sydney was eliminated, but this was a nice defensive play by Deshawn to ensure Evvie would go over him if Sydney ended up being immune (either through an idol play or a successful Shot in the Dark play).
Knowledge is Power
Christine: As overpowered as this seemed on paper, the Knowledge is Power advantage ended up easily being countered by knowledge itself. Once Liana’s advantage became more or less public information, Evvie, Xander, and Tiffany were able to play defense at Tribal and concoct a ruse to get Liana to misplay her advantage. If Liana had been able to keep the details of her advantage under wraps, she would’ve had the element of surprise on her side and could’ve pulled off a big move here, but her former Yase tribemates were just a couple steps ahead of her.
Turn Back Time
Gia: As was said earlier, Erika decided to turn back time and switch the outcome of the immunity challenge. This is the last we will see of this twist for the season, but who knows how long the ramifications of her decisions will last? Either way, it was the right call on Erika’s part.
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