It’s Night 15 on Survivor 47, and Andy just nuked Gata from orbit. Sam’s pissed, but he’s grateful for another day in the game and will play nice for now, even if he can’t bear to look at Andy. Rachel might have sussed out everyone’s intentions with her bold Shot in the Dark play, but she’s right back on the bottom as usual. And Andy himself is living the high life, getting praise from Lavo and Tuku for flipping on his old tribe.
But Andy won’t stop playing now that he’s fully evolved into a pivotal player. Sam might be a lost cause after that blindside, but Rachel’s still open for business. These two have had a wild relationship so far, going all the way back to the first episode where Andy melted down and Rachel tried her best to comfort him, only to end up blindsided at the Anika vote when Andy outwitted her. Now he’s done the same thing again by blindsiding Sierra. But Rachel has to take what she can get, and Andy’s in a pivotal spot, so maybe the third time’s the charm for these two.
Meanwhile, Sam tries to court the Lavo trio back to his side and throws Tuku under the bus. Sol, who’s recently become a player with serious ambition, latches onto the idea of getting Gabe out. He’s still an obvious threat, he’s playing hard, and Tuku needs to be chopped down in size yet again. But to keep Gabe on the chopping block, they’ll have to stop him from winning immunity, and today’s challenge comes with a twist: players will compete in pairs, with the last two pairs standing winning reward and competing for individual immunity. Because we can’t have nice things every week, the first two pairs to fail the challenge lose their votes and have to earn them back on Advantage Island. Gross.
In the first stage of the challenge, Rachel and Caroline struggle to keep up while Andy and Sam rip the bag trying to get their plank out of the sand, allowing the other duos to pass them by. Screwed by a twist and screwed by a bag. Gotta love this challenge, huh? In phase two, Sue and Genevieve dominate, only to be tripped up by a balance beam at the last minute, leaving Sol, Teeny, Kyle, and Gabe to advance to the final round: a battle of endurance. Kyle wanted Gabe as his partner because he felt confident about beating him for that fourth necklace in a row, but when it becomes a showdown between the two, Gabe makes Kyle regret that move and takes the win, complete with an awkward victory dance.
So Gabe is off the table, Kyle is finally vulnerable, and four people might have no vote tonight. Meanwhile, everyone’s split off into three groups. The top four enjoy their BLT reward as Sol and Gabe have a burp-off, but strategy is afoot, and Gabe is quick to suggest Sam as the easy vote. Sol’s not fond of the idea, but he’ll go along with any name that isn’t his. Unfortunately for him, Sue and Genevieve have all the time in the world to talk game at camp, and when Sue finds out Sol has been targeting her ride-or-die Gabe, she jumps into action and plots with Genevieve to blindside Sol while he’s feeling safe.
The reward group returns to camp with full bellies and inform the women about the Sam plan, but Genevieve pulls Gabe aside and lets him in on the real plan. If Gabe is down, the rest of Tuku will follow. Using the information she’s gained from Lavo’s conversations with Sam, she makes a perfect pitch against Sol. She gets Gabe onboard, hoping to target sneakier threats who are socially savvy before all the big threats get knocked out first like in past New Era seasons. The only problem? She has no idea who won’t have a vote tonight, and if Caroline loses her vote, Gabe’s numbers suddenly don’t have as much power.
Across the ocean, the four losers arrive on Advantage Island and find another layer to this twist: only one person will actually lose their vote. The other three will get their votes back guaranteed. It’s… better than I expected, but it’s still bad. Just because we have 90 minutes a week doesn’t mean it’s free real estate on convoluted twists. But this challenge is simple: it’s a mix of House of Cards and Jenga where the person who causes the stack to fall loses their vote.
Rachel dodges another bullet when Caroline stacks the deck against her, and Caroline takes the ultimate fall, putting the Sol plan in jeopardy to Gabe’s chagrin. It’s Gabe, Sue, Kyle, and Genevieve versus the rest of the tribe, and they need to pull one person over to make the blindside work. Genevieve goes for Andy, who’d prefer to keep Sol around for another couple rounds. Then she goes to Rachel… and this is where the plan unravels.
Rachel is interested, but Genevieve leaves it up to her to rope Sam into the plan if she wants to. If blood is getting spilled, let it fall on Rachel instead. The weekly underdog is conflicted, but Sam forces her hand by guessing the plan himself, which she confirms outright. There’s a lot of trust between them, but Sam says, “screw that,” and chooses the dark side, spoiling everything to Sol and blowing up the game as the sun sets.
With Sol aware of how much danger he’s in, he scrambles to rally his own troops with Sam’s help, and they settle on Sue as the target on account of her strong social game. Knock her out, and Tuku crumbles completely. But they still need voters like Andy, Rachel, and Genevieve, who have conflicting loyalties (if any) and no time to actually make thought-out moves tonight.
As information spreads, the chaos finally boils over. When the Tuku coalition learns about their Sol plan getting leaked, they start throwing out other options to salvage the round. Lavo and Gata’s loose group throws out Kyle as a backup plan if the Sue vote falls short. And Rachel sits in the middle of it all, knowing she’s the reason this messiness broke out. All because she told Sam the plan. As the sun finally sets, all conversations stop, nobody gets to finish their strategizing, and everyone heads to Tribal ready for a live scramble.
But after a barrage of whispering, the vote is disappointingly simple. It’s a unanimous vote against Sol as the numbers just weren’t there to save him, forcing the stragglers to get in line with the majority and save face. A bit of an anti-climax after such a riveting build-up (except for the twist part, which still sucked), but the ramifications of the vote are going to be interesting though, as a lot of people had their cards shown in the chaos.
Tonight’s questions had one simple answer (Farewell, Sol!) but more questions were left unanswered. Will Sam continue going for broke and stirring up chaos for the sake of it now that he’s a rogue agent? Will Kyle resume his immunity run after escaping elimination, or will Sue finally get her revenge as she dreams about slaying him once and for all? Has Genevieve’s spot been blown up, or can she keep playing the petty middle-man game, making bold moves against her own allies? And can Rachel finally find herself in a decent spot, or is she destined to spend the rest of her game stuck on the bottom?
Written by
Great season so far. Too bad about Sol getting axed. Sol for 50! (we all know it)