Each week, Christine Pallon and Gia Worthy will round up the previous week of Survivor 43 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 second episode.
Become a Patron
Get exclusive content and features by supporting Inside Survivor on Patreon.
Top 3 Moments
Jesse and Dwight’s Island Marriage
Gia: Vesi’s dynamics are fairly clear-cut, but it’s Jesse and Dwight at the center of it all. They were hoping to form a Survivor marriage, but the power dynamics between the two were clear to the viewers and to Jesse. He can say all he wants that he and Dwight will make decisions together, but at the end of the day, Jesse has a vote and Dwight does not. Throw that in with the fact that Jesse has strong connections with Nneka and Cody, and you can see this was always an island marriage headed for disaster. Jesse made the right choice here for his game, but we’ll have to see if he faces any repercussions for betraying Dwight so early.
Baka looks through Gabler’s bag
Christine: Gabler’s idol is public knowledge on Baka after he told his tribe about his summit experience last week. But after winning immunity and reward, his tribemates, particularly Elie and Jeanine, grew concerned about the wording of his idol parchment. Was his idol valid for only the first two tribal councils? Or for the first two that he attended? While an ailing Gabler struggled with the Hawaiian sling (somewhere in Indiana, Rupert is fuming), Jeanine searched through his bag and confirmed that his idol expired after his second tribal council. Good news for Gabler, but bad news for the rest of Baka.
Cody and the BEADware Advantage
Gia: Leave it to Cody to complicate a simple vote right before tribal council. Since Dwight doesn’t have a vote, the power lies with whatever Jesse, Cody, and Nneka decide to do. After Justine seals her own fate with her comments towards Jesse, Cody finds a Beware Advantage and can’t resist the chance to pick it up. In doing so, he loses his vote unless he can convince his tribemates to give him the unique beads on their bags. It seems like a lost cause until Jesse comes up with the perfect solution; tell everyone that he wants the beads for his hat. The plan works. Cody gets his beads and an idol for his (and Jesse’s) troubles.
Tribe Breakdown
Baka
Christine: Following Morriah’s exit last week, Baka got battered by the elements, leaving Gabler in particular in pretty bad shape. On top of Baka confirming the status of Gabler’s idol, the biggest development for our yellow tribe was Sami’s proposal of a guys’ alliance to Owen and Gabler. From what we’ve seen, Jeanine and Elie don’t see this development coming. They seem to be under the impression that the guys aren’t actively strategizing behind their backs, which could end up being a fatal mistake on their part if the men do indeed decide to stick together.
Coco
Christine: This was a quiet episode from Coco, continuing the trend of blue tribes being weirdly invisible in the new era of Survivor. We did at least get an update on tribe dynamics from Karla, who’s well-connected with both the women and James alliance and an alliance with Geo and Ryan. The Geo/Ryan relationship continues to develop as this season’s fun “odd couple” alliance and seems to be one of the major relationships to watch on Coco.
Vesi
Gia: Every season post-40 has had at least one disaster tribe, and it looks like Vesi will be taking the crown this time around. We saw in the premiere how they were struggling to keep their camp in one piece, and now they are dealing with the ramifications of their first tribal council. Even though the episode was clearly building to a Justine ousting, Cody’s shenanigans almost ruined what was likely the easiest vote for the tribe. Despite this, you can’t deny how incredibly entertaining they all are, and I can’t wait to see the fallout in the next episode.
Top 3 Players
Owen
Gia: I always worry about drafting the pre-season favorites, as it is rarely an indicator of how they will actually do on the show. However, this lovable curmudgeon has maneuvered himself right into the sweet spot on Baka. Despite the scheming between the guys and the women, Owen is safe no matter which side he goes with, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. Should he make the merge, he’s golden if his individual game is anything like his pre-merge one.
Cody
Gia: Cody, or as I like to call him, American Chappies, is the life of the party and of Vesi. His name may have been thrown around by Dwight, but his connection with Jesse has kept him safe this round, and I suspect for at least one more. We also learned a bit more about his backstory and how the death of his best friend as a teenager transformed his philosophy on life. I’m still not sure if Cody’s here long-term or not, but either way, he’s definitely entertaining the masses while he’s here.
Jesse
Christine: This was a big episode for Jesse, who ultimately got his way with the Justine boot and solidified his position in the majority on Vesi moving forward. He also got into a duo with Dwight, putting him in arguably the best position on the tribe. It looks like he’ll have some explaining to do to Dwight after this vote, who was pretty surprised to see Justine go over Nneka. So Jesse will have to carefully manage this relationship next week if he wants this duo to be a long-term force in the game. Regardless of how he handles that relationship moving forward, it’s hard to imagine Jesse being targeted by his tribemates anytime soon.
Fallen Comrades
Christine: Justine’s boot was set up pretty well narratively, with Cody putting a target on her back last week for being a salesperson and all the talk this week about Jesse wanting her out. The whole bead chaos clouded the outcome of the vote a bit. I was fully convinced we were going to see a tie and a Jenny-esque exit from Nneka. But Noelle and Justine splitting their votes meant that Justine was always going regardless of the bead drama.
We didn’t get to know Justine too well aside from the fact that her tribemates were threatened by her and/or found her annoying. I, for one, will miss her because she had some funny one-off comments and moments (describing a tree as “suspicious” last week, making eye contact with a spider this week, etc.), and I’ll always have a soft spot for an under-edited woman who gets voted out in the pre-merge.
Gia: Oh Justine, we hardly knew you. She seemed like a fun person who just didn’t secure herself socially in Vesi, but she was a gracious loser who appreciated her time in Fiji nonetheless. She had some missteps in her game, yet I can’t help but feel like she could’ve been great in the long run. Her ouster will likely result in some entertaining fallout on her former tribe, so we have that to look forward to at the very least.
Written by