Hello world, this is a section of the internet where I give my plebeian predictions of the next episode of the season based on the trailers and whatever sneak previews we get for the week.
After an episode full of advantages, I’m glad that the previews for Episode 4 don’t seem as advantage-heavy. The NTOS trailer begins on Yase, with Tiffany announcing, “You have to see this” and “It’s so crazy,” beckoning her tribemates to go to the beach. Next, we see some quick shots of Xander rushing over and Liana’s shocked expression before strategically cutting to the NTOS title card.
This may seem like a discovery of a big new twist, which, let’s be real, will happen sooner or later. However, a sneak peek of this scene released a few days later revealed that Yase was, in fact, in awe of some baby turtles rushing to the sea moments after hatching on the beach. It’s a refreshing reminder of the natural elements of Survivor that are often overshadowed by gameplay, especially in recent seasons.
We then get a poetic parallel from Evvie, comparing the tiny baby turtles overcoming odds to reach the ocean to the Yase tribe not giving up despite the challenges that they have lost from the outset of the season.
Jumping forward to the Ua section of the trailer, we have a confessional from JD, voiced over shots of a night scene with him and Shan, saying, “She made me feel terrible. I was like, ‘you played me!'” My guess is that this scene happens right after the Tribal Council of Episode 3. This could be JD reflecting how Shan guilted him into thinking he was going home and essentially forcing him to give her his extra vote to prove his trustworthiness.
I’m guessing that JD finds out about Brad’s two advantages and the logical and frankly obvious plan to get him out. Thus, he feels that Shan’s interaction with him prior to Tribal was overly manipulative of her. I also toyed with the idea of Shan not returning the extra vote to JD. However, I just feel like it’s too early for her to burn that bridge. I think JD would give a more significant reaction if that indeed happens.
The remaining section of the NTOS trailer focuses on the Luvu tribe. First, we get a little character preview of Sydney—we see her unsuccessful in starting fire, getting frustrated, cursing, and then tearing up. All this is narrated by a voice-over from Erika describing Sydney as “very reactive and “very impulsive.”
Then we see Danny stating, “Deshawn wants to throw a challenge. As a professional athlete, this would be a sin.” We see a generic-looking shot of the tribe waiting for the immunity challenge to begin, an interesting B-roll addition of a snake, and then a shot establishing Danny’s confessional.
On the whole, these moments on Luvu hint to me that they are probably going to Tribal Council next episode. Their NTOS scenes, as compared to Ua and Yase’s, seem more like they’re snipped from the later part of the episode after losing the challenge and discussing the vote. And I’m really glad that we’re finally getting to see more of them, as so far, the moments about the Luvu tribe dynamics centre largely on Naseer as framed by comments from Sydney and peripheral others.
To start, I’m predicting that Deshawn proposed throwing the immunity challenge to vote out Naseer. This sentiment of Naseer being the odd one on the tribe has been building up since the premiere episode when he threw Danny and Deshawn’s names out for searching for the immunity idol. Sydney’s comments about Naseer being useful for the survival aspects of camp life but still her choice to eliminate has also primed us for an upcoming Naseer vote.
However, things are usually never that straightforward. I think both Erika and Danny’s comments reveal a blindside in the works. Erika’s confessional about Sydney sounds to me like she’s weighing the potential benefit of voting Sydney out—precisely because she’s “reactive” and “impulsive.” Danny’s confessional criticising Deshawn suggests that they aren’t as tight a pair as suggested so far. I may be reading too much into the snake B-roll, but I’m guessing that while Deshawn follows through with the original arrangement of voting Naseer, Danny deviates from his ally and votes for Sydney instead.
I predict that some Luvu players, though may be peeved by Naseer, will see him as someone loyal they can work with. As such, Naseer may be the decoy name thrown out to disguise a larger blindside of Sydney, who may be seen as less predictable.
To sum up, I’m predicting that the Luvu tribe is going to Tribal and that Sydney will get voted out. Although, I do realise that I’ve zeroed into a very specific outcome without considering the plenty of advantages in play. But sometimes it just ain’t worth the brain cells making sense of the barrage of unpredictable new twists, y’know?
Leave a comment below with your thoughts on Episode 4’s previews!
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