As controversial as this season has been, I can’t help but be entertained. Perhaps that’s an unpopular opinion, given the internet has put this season on blast, but I can’t apologize for enjoying this absolute mess. It’s half a bizarro version of Survivor and half an old-school throwback, where you have big characters and personal drama… and also things that feel like unintended self-parody and SNL skits that got swapped into the edit by mistake.
It might be insanely goofy, but I’ll take goofy if that’s the identity this season is rolling with. Because with Jeff and friends refusing to abandon this tired and honestly broken format they’ve cooked up, seasons have to find an identity however they can.
But to kick things off, we just kicked off Randen, and Yanu is ecstatic about Tribal’s cancellation… until Bhanu rains on their parade by revealing he leaked the tribe dynamics on the Journey. So now the other tribes know Kenzie is the mastermind, Bhanu is on the bottom, and Q and Tiffany are a tight duo. And said tight duo are pissed.
Even Q, who was willing to coach Bhanu into a potential ally, is ready to give Bhanu the boot already. And once Kenzie finds out, it’s a done deal. Bhanu is gone when they lose again; he should’ve just gone camping if he wanted an outdoor adventure, and if he wants to win a million hearts, he should go volunteer instead. No mercy.
Speaking of no mercy, Yanu shows no mercy in the reward challenge, beasting it without issues to claim their first win of the game! The fish reward is useless without flint to make fire, so they swap it for a shelter-building kit and tarp to make their nights less miserable. But Yanu finally found a win, and with a win should come momentum. Nami finishes in second to win five fish, and Siga goes home with nothing after Maria sets them too far behind to catch up.
With a win to their name, spirits at Yanu should be high. But upgrading their shelter is easier said than done, with Bhanu getting in the way and misunderstanding instructions. Q pulls his ally-in-training aside and gives him more coaching, this time about social skills and awareness. He needs to be agreeable but not so agreeable that he spills their secrets. He needs to shut his mouth, listen, and only say as much as he needs to.
So, of course, Bhanu tries applying these lessons to Kenzie and immediately annoys her when she’s trying to relax. She “snaps” at Bhanu, Bhanu runs off, and Kenzie has to chase him down and apologize so he doesn’t spiral when she’d rather do anything else.
Meanwhile, Nami enjoys their fish reward and has a chill kumbaya day. Soda’s singing songs and socializing with everyone, Tevin’s cleaning fish in honor of his father who passed away before they could have one last fishing trip together, Liz finally has food she isn’t allergic to, and… Hold on, it’s not all kumbaya after all, because Tevin’s having some second thoughts about working with Soda.
Tevin is supposed to be the social glue of the tribe with all the allies and all the connections, but Soda’s beating him at his own game. Pulling Hunter aside, the two plot to backstab her and roll with Liz and Venus instead. A win for both men as Tevin can give an olive branch to the obvious outsiders, and Hunter can remove the source of the singing he hates so much while cementing himself as Tevin’s only number one.
Over on Siga, Maria’s reward challenge choke has dampened her spirits, but the tribe is there to support her. She’s been through a lot being an immigrant child, including the pressure to succeed at all costs with no room for mistakes. But with no more losses in sight, Siga bounces right back into kumbaya mode and continues looking for idols as a team… as in digging to the Earth’s core for an idol that doesn’t exist, courtesy of Jem’s crafty trolling.
Wanting to keep everyone off her scent, Jem plants the Beware Advantage package on an ant-infested tree and has the rest of the tribe digging for hours when Maria takes the bait. As an added bonus, when people finally realize they’ve been duped, they blame Tim instead of Jem, sending him straight to the bottom of the tribe where he… probably already was, given the dynamics we’ve been shown.
At the immunity challenge, jack of all trades Hunter pulls off another come-from-behind sweep to win for Nami, shocking absolutely nobody. Yanu’s chances are crushed when Bhanu, the albatross around their collective neck, skips part of the challenge and has to go back, costing them the win later on when Siga narrowly defeats them in the shooting portion. Four straight immunity losses and still no flint.
But on the “bright” side, there shouldn’t be any stress about this Tribal. Because Bhanu doesn’t have a vote, can’t roll the dice for another miracle, and the other Yanus aren’t even hiding what’s about to happen. Bhanu’s cooked. Three votes to zero. Easy out. At this point, it’s basically a mercy boot to put everyone out of their misery already (including a large chunk of the audience who’ve grown tired of the Bhanu Experience over the past seven hours of content).
Bhanu won’t go quietly into the night, though. He scrambles for an idol, and when he can’t find one, he begs the others to give him one or at least help him out. When his fellow players don’t offer him anything, he turns to God almighty and vents his frustrations. It’s giving shades of Russell Swan’s breakdown at the end of Matsing’s losing streak, being hard to watch but impossible to look away from because it’s so… strange. But no matter where he looks for support, he’s told the hard truth: he’s going home, and there is nothing he can do about it, so he should make the most of his remaining time.
At Tribal, Bhanu opens up about his life story, revealing he grew up in poverty in India. His father abandoned his teen mother, and she married into another family, which left Bhanu with his grandparents. Forced to survive among the elements, he endured some hardcore struggles. But he never gave up hope, eventually moving to the United States, finding the love of his life, and making a name for himself as a successful man who overcame the odds.
But he couldn’t overcome the odds on Survivor. And that’s okay in his book because his goal was to inspire people, not to win. He certainly didn’t inspire everyone being so polarizing in his short but very visible time on the show, but he left his mark one way or another as a massive wildcard. Every season needs at least one player like him so it’s not just 18 chess pieces peacefully co-existing without disruption.
But no marks were left on the parchment here because Jeff just lets the man leave with a verbal vote. I know it was an obvious boot, but come on now. Did they run out of money in the budget for parchment too?
As gripping as this strange, avant-garde art piece of an episode was, it does raise some valid points against the New Era format and the number of disastrous meme tribes it’s created. Ua, Tika, and Lulu were all great TV, and Yanu is right up there with them. But to some degree, it feels like they lose so much because this format is designed to overly punish tribes and create a snowball of failure. Perhaps it’s just bad luck, as 42 and 43 were even battles in the pre-merge with the same format, but it’s still something to consider as we get more data.
But the overall takeaway should always be to change stuff up. Please. Have two tribes instead of three, even if it’s only after a swap (which this season could’ve used for sure). End the stupid “sorry for you, no flint” rule. Give them a little food to keep their energy up. Stop pretending the 26-day game has to be this non-stop horror movie and admit it’s only to save money so we can do something new with this format already.
I love myself a good trainwreck tribe more than anyone. Like, Gabon is my favorite season for a reason. But when every season has one, the dynamics are rigid and stale with nowhere to maneuver, and the losing streaks feel like the show setting them up for failure; the luster eventually gets lost.
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The rule of no flint for losers has always felt needlessly mean to me, and I’m praying after multiple seasons in a row of one tribe getting steamrolled without fire that they’ll give it up. If budget won’t allow for three pieces of flint, go back to two teams!
Bhanu seems like a great person, and with how much he hyped up what Survivor meant to him in his episode 1 intro I honestly thought he was going to play way harder. As is, it’s hard to wrap my brain around how he can watch as much of the game as he’s claimed and not understand that discretion is key. There have been winners who are emotional and honest players, but it often seemed like he was affronted by the very concept of not saying every thought aloud.
Fingers crossed that coming episodes will focus on the other teams, if nothing else so the Yanu team can finally get a smidgen of rest.
The BEWARE advantage doesn’t seem to be as scary as people make it out. “You have lost your vote until the next time your tribe loses an immunity challenge” – What use would your vote be if you’re not going to Tribal anyways?
Lets not overthink this one. Last szn was rough set up for yellow from the jump…this szn can now be blamed on booting Jelinski.