Each week, Christine Pallon and Gia Worthy will round up the previous week of Survivor 48 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 latest episode.
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Top 3 Moments
Humble Traits
Christine: This episode’s namesake came from an extended pre-challenge segment on Civa, which is this season’s designated “We’re just a big happy family!” tribe. We’ll see how long the good vibes last, especially as suspicion continues to rise about Mitch and Charity as a duo, but for now, they couldn’t be happier. The tribe compared their “humble traits,” that is, imperfections that God gives us to keep us humble, including Charity’s toes, Chrissy’s abnormally deep belly button, and David’s second pair of nipples. This led to a very bizarre confessional from David where he says he wishes he could milk himself, which is a…strange thing to say on television, to say the least.
A Numbers Game
Gia: We got an Advantage Journey this week, one that Mitch, Thomas, and Mary won the right to participate in. This time, they had to rearrange a slide puzzle one piece at a time until the numbers were correctly placed in numerical order. Mitch won a Block a Vote advantage, Thomas won a Steal a Vote, and Mary lost her vote after she ran out of time. However, the most interesting part of this segment was how the players maneuvered their fates after the challenge. Mitch told his tribe the truth (to their excitement for him), as did Mary (to their skepticism), and Thomas told everyone he opted not to play for fear of losing his vote. We already know that Mary was able to survive this round despite her lost vote, but I wonder if Thomas and Mitch’s choices will come back to haunt them later on.
Kevin Saves Mary… For a Price
Gia: After Stephanie’s exit, things looked pretty bleak for Mary, the only Vula member to vote for Sai at the first tribal council. Then, her chances went from bad to worse after she lost her vote on the advantage journey. But Kevin was determined to save his secret alliance member over Sai, whose idol made her potentially dangerous down the line. He pitched the idea to blindside her to Justin and Cedrek, but there was a problem… Cedrek had no intentions to vote for Sai, and Justin wasn’t too keen on it either. Despite the initial plan to keep the vote on Mary, Sai’s idea to take out Kevin was the one that stuck. When they finally went to their second tribal council, Sai played her idol, Mary got to stay, and Kevin became the second person voted out of Survivor 48.
Tribe Breakdown
Lagi
Gia: Despite not having to go to tribal council yet, Lagi is the tribe with the gamers. The California Girls and their plus ones have the clear majority, leaving Star as the odd one out of the group. So, of course, this means it was Star who was able to find the Beware Advantage at their camp. She was unable to decipher the clues herself, so she enlisted the help of Shauhin in an attempt to build trust. Star’s plan is to eventually oust Eva, which Joe is adamantly against. This led to a crisis of consciousness with Shauhin, who didn’t know how hard he should try to help Star unlock her puzzle. Thomas suggested he purposefully lose the decoder she gave him, but this put a bad taste in Shauhin’s mouth. This storyline hasn’t reached a thorough conclusion yet, but it has clearly exposed some of the cracks within the majority alliance.
Civa
Gia: If Lagi is the tribe of gamers, then Civa is the “love” tribe of 48. Between their ‘humble traits’ segment and the group celebration for Mitch winning an advantage, it’s clear that this tribe is focused on maintaining the positive energy within the group. However, it’d be a mistake to assume that none of them are playing the game. The majority alliance of David, Chrissy, Kamilla, and Kyle immediately went to work after Mitch’s return from his journey to protect themselves against his advantage, leading to Kyle and Kamilla securing the idol for their side. This is currently my favorite tribe to watch, but I can’t help but be intrigued at what will happen should they lose an immunity challenge.
Vula
Christine: And if Civa is our “love” tribe, Vula is our trainwreck tribe. After another loss (a total blowout this time) sent them back to tribal, Sai’s alliance came crumbling down when Kevin made a play to save the voteless Mary and take out Sai with the idol in her pocket instead. At the start of the episode, it seemed unfathomable that Mary and Sai would both stay, which became even more unfathomable when Mary lost her vote. But Sai’s alliance decided to kill two birds with one stone by getting Sai’s idol out of play and taking out a perceived wildcard in Kevin in favor of keeping Mary, who’s obviously on the bottom with little social capital. The question of whether the Vula idol is rehidden and who finds it will be the key factor in determining where things go on Vula next round and beyond.
Top 3 Players
Kyle
Christine: After a rough start last week when he lost the face-off challenge against Kevin, Kyle secured an idol this episode. This spot could easily be shared with Kamilla, who’s working with him in a tight duo and did most of the legwork in cracking the code of the Beware Advantage. But at the end of the day, Kyle is the only one who gets to hold onto the fruits of their shared effort. On top of the idol, Kyle and Kamilla don’t seem to be getting clocked as a duo in the same way Charity and Mitch are, allowing them to hopefully slide under the radar for at least a little longer.
Cedrek
Gia: Cedrek was undoubtedly one of the episode’s stars. He didn’t get much screen time in the first half of the episode, but he was front and center once his back was against the wall. He performed poorly at the balance beam portion of the immunity challenge, but his social game ensured that none of his allies were interested in even considering voting him out. He then paid it forward with Sai when Kevin suggested getting rid of her by letting her know his plan. This eventually led to Kevin’s ousting, while Cedrek didn’t receive a single vote. If this is the type of game we can expect from Cedrek moving forward, I’m excited to see what else he is capable of.
Justin
Christine: While Cedrek was more in the spotlight, Justin got to make the move against Kevin and take out Sai’s idol while being able to stay more in the shadows and avoid blame for the challenge loss. It’s hard to get a grip on exactly the kind of game Justin will play moving forward, but right now, he’s playing a strong, under-the-radar game. Now, on a tribe of four, it’s impossible to play a low-key game when there’s nowhere to hide, so Vula really needs to finally win a challenge next week so Justin can lay low at least a bit longer.
Fallen Comrades
Kevin
Christine: Last week, I famously said Kevin was in a solid position, and oh, how wrong I was. Kevin tried to play a smart game by working with the majority and keeping Mary on the side as a number, but he pushed just a little too hard to keep her. Mary going on the journey threw a wrench in his plan, too. Normally, I think Sai would’ve just wanted Mary out here and would have dealt with Kevin’s shenanigans later, but the possibility that she DID get something on the journey would’ve made a Mary vote a little too risky here.
Had Kevin been willing to let Mary go and ride out his alliance a bit longer, he would still be in the game, but it’s easy to understand why he felt the need to make a move against Sai as their numbers dwindled. Vula’s losing streak meant Kevin had to do too much, too soon, making him seem like more of a liability to his alliance members for trying to make a move against Sai.
Gia: If you told me last week that Kevin would be the next boot, I wouldn’t have believed you. Actually, I probably wouldn’t have believed you up until the last 20 minutes of this episode. Kevin played hard and was a clear star in the two episodes we got him in, but unfortunately, he swung for the fences in an attempt to save Mary and missed big time. It was just too early to try to make such a big move, especially when the person you’re trying to save doesn’t have a vote herself. I’m so happy that he was part of the story of Survivor 48, and am devastated to see him go.
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