Next Time On Survivor – Episode 6 & 7

Welcome to Season 42’s Next Time On Survivor feature on Inside Survivor! This is a tiny section where I breakdown the trailers and any other previews and give my personal predictions of the week’s upcoming episode.

Before I start proper, this is a warning that I’ll be making references to twists seen in Season 41. Do not read on if you would like to be kept spoiler-free!

In this week’s trailers, Jeff announces his iconic “drop your buffs” but teases something not exactly like a merge. This is most definitely a mergetory situation, as coined by Xander from last season. The Episode 6 description also states that “castaways drop their buffs and rearrange tribes before an intense immunity challenge.” Assuming it’s a twist similar to Season 41, players would have to earn their way to the merge by either winning the immunity challenge or surviving the night’s Tribal Council.

However, there’s another layer to the twist. Jeff then explains that “You will have power to change the game. What is the power, and what will you do with it?” This would be the portion like last season that sends one player to Exile. And that player will have the chance to break an hourglass to reverse the outcome of the challenge—the challenge losers (including this player in Exile) would receive immunity, and the challenge winners would no longer be safe at Tribal.

Looking at the sneak preview more closely, it reveals many things in the upcoming episode. I won’t scrutinise every scene as it truly divulges most of the episode’s outcomes, but I’ll pick two unmissable portions that were really hard to miss. First, we see some scenes from the tribal immunity challenge, showing one team that consists of Jonathan, Maryanne, Lydia, Tori, and Hai. Shortly after, we see Rocksroy and Lindsay on the sit-out bench—one of them will be going to Exile, and I almost 100% guarantee will smash the hourglass. Giving themselves immunity after being on Exile is simply the most logical, unquestionable thing to do.

Seeing how the past episodes’ challenges have panned out, my bet is certainly that challenge beast Jonathan’s team wins the tribal immunity challenge. This would likely mean at least Jonathan, Maryanne, Lydia, Tori, and Hai competing for individual immunity and the losers up for elimination during Tribal Council.

There are also plenty of advantages in the mix this episode. Firstly, Drea, Hai, and Lindsay each have the amulet they received from the first challenge in the premiere. At this point, when all three are still in the game, it gives them an extra vote each. Secondly, Drea, Mike, and Maryanne each have an immunity idol activated from the Beware Advantage. And lastly, Drea and Maryanne both have an extra vote from risking their votes correctly at the Summit.

On the opposite end, Omar doesn’t have a vote at this Tribal. He risked his vote wrongly at the Summit with Chanelle and hasn’t gone to Tribal since, so he’ll be going into this potentially scary Tribal vote-less.

I think the alliances from the starting tribes aren’t solid enough for people to use their advantages in this episode, making them a target early on. I predict that some players will try to get rid of Jonathan if he doesn’t win individual immunity, as he’s a huge challenge threat. Or that the messy Vati tribe will implode under the pressures of the twists and send either Hai or Lydia home.

It’s a two-hour episode this week; who do you think will be voted out? Leave your predictions in the comments below!

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