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
Charity and Mitch Make a Move
Gia: With Civa not yet having to go to tribal council, it makes sense that some players may not feel a need to rush into any alliances. Charity and Mitch have taken this easygoing approach to the extreme, waiting until day 6 to propose an alliance between themselves and David and Kyle, who they believe will be much bigger threats in the merge than themselves. Kyle and David, who already have an alliance with Kamilla and Chrissy, are enjoying the safety net that this new offer provides them. Since they were once again safe this round, we didn’t see more of these dynamics in action, but with a tribe swap looming, I have no doubts that loyalties will be put to the test very soon.
Star Fights Back
Gia: Star may be down, but she is certainly not out. In fact, her social standing on Lagi appears to be improving every day she is there. Eva attempted to talk game with Star to test her loyalties, but this backfired when Star told Thomas that Eva wanted to target him and Bianca. Combine this with Eva’s closeness with Joe, and the California Girls are more confident in the idea that Eva needs to go first. What once seemed like a near-impossible situation for Star is now becoming a tribe ripe with opportunity. Let’s hope the tribe swap doesn’t ruin the uphill trajectory that she is starting to build.
Mary Plays it Cool
Christine: After yet another brutal challenge loss for Vula, Mary’s back was against the wall on the bottom of a tribe of four. After breaking into a dead sprint to find the idol earlier in the episode (to no avail), Mary opted to stop looking and instead play some mind games with her tribemates by pretending like she was safe. While her tribemates schemed, Mary relaxed in the water and shrugged her shoulders at the prospect of being voted out. This created enough suspicion to keep Mary’s rival (but in a respectful way) Sai on edge heading into the vote. Mary lucked out when her Shot in the Dark landed on “Safe,” forcing Sai’s alliance to turn on itself once again and reckon with Justin’s lost vote.
Tribe Breakdown
Lagi
Gia: Lagi continues to overplay despite not yet having to see a tribal council. The California Girls are still reigning supreme, but the cracks in the alliance are getting more exposed with every new segment. This time, Shauhin and Thomas are in agreement that they want Eva to go over Star, despite knowing that this would put them at odds with Joe in the future. Thomas continues to keep information from his alliances, but he was the only one Bianca told about her lost vote after the advantage journey. Star appears to be the odd person out of the tribe, but she’s making some serious headway with a few of her tribemates in hopes that Eva will be voted out over her. They’re a mess, albeit a successful mess, and I’m excited to see what they will do once the tribe swap is in play.
Civa
Gia: Civa has more or less stayed the same this episode. We learned a little bit more about the financial struggles that David is facing back home, which is something I’m sure many of us can relate to in our current economy. The real story of this episode for them is that Charity and Mitch are hoping to upend the current social order by pulling in David and Kyle to join an alliance with them. The other two men aren’t opposed to this alliance; in fact, it appears that they are enjoying the fact that they have options moving forward. However, time will tell where their loyalties truly lie.
Vula
Christine: Our resident disaster tribe was back at it again this week with another loss and a crazy vote. Between Mary and Sai chasing each other through the jungle to find an idol, Justin telling such a bizarre lie about his Yahtzee journey to cover up his lost vote, Mary’s Shot in the Dark landing, and Cedrek continually forcing a tie against Sai, only to vote Justin out at the last minute, Vula was an absolute mess this week. The deepening of the Mary vs. Sai dynamic was the most entertaining development of the week, and the fact that they both survived the episode is just the cherry on top of the Vula madness.
Top 3 Players
Mary
Christine: Mary has survived the vote against all the odds yet again, this time thanks to her Shot in the Dark landing. Sure, this came down entirely to luck, as a lot of New Era Survivor mechanics do. But even if luck played a huge part in her ongoing survival, Mary is going into this upcoming swap as the person who was at the bottom of the smallest tribe. If she plays her cards right, she should have no problem sneaking her way to the merge and teaming up with either a Lagi or Civa faction, depending on how the swap shakes out for her. After being on the wrong side of the very first vote of the season, Mary could very well be in this for the long haul, thanks to a very well-timed swap coming up.
Thomas
Gia: I can’t tell if Thomas is overplaying or if he is just one step ahead of everyone else in his tribe. After this episode, I’m leaning more towards the latter than the former. He made the decision not to share his advantage with his tribe, and so far, no one has called him out on it. He juggles his alliance members around on a whim, but perhaps the fact that they’ve never had to vote someone out makes it more entertaining than concerning. Either way, it’s worked out for him so far and has made him incredible viewing for the audience.
If anything, Thomas is keeping the most “winning” tribe of the season from being stagnant on a show where entertainment proceeds all else, which I sincerely appreciate. I can’t wait to see how he navigates the upcoming tribe swap, especially since it appears from the previews that he and the California Girls will be on the same tribe again.
Cedrek
Christine: For better or worse, Cedrek had all the power at this chaotic tribal once Justin lost his vote and Mary’s Shot in the Dark landed. He didn’t necessarily play this situation well by voting against Sai twice, only to vote Justin out in the end. Moving forward, he’s really damaged Sai’s trust in him as an ally. But it can’t be ignored that this was the second week in a row where Cedrek played a huge role in the outcome of the vote, and he’s now the only person on Vula who hasn’t had his name written down. I’m not sure what kind of longevity he has in the game post-swap, but it’s certainly been interesting watching him navigate his position of relative power on Vula so far, and I can’t wait to see how he rebounds from this messy vote on a brand new swap tribe.
Fallen Comrades
Justin
Christine: After Kevin’s surprising boot last week, I was once again shocked to see Justin go this week. He’s yet another unfortunate victim of the prevalence of random chance journey challenges we see on New Era Survivor. There’s something uniquely cursed about losing your vote and getting voted out of the game after being forced to play Survivor Yahtzee. Had Justin not gone on this journey, Sai almost certainly would have gone home instead of him once Mary became safe.
While losing his vote wasn’t in his control, what was in his control was how he managed his lost vote. His decision to lie about losing his vote to his whole tribe, particularly Cedrek, was unfortunate. Yes, it’s a tough thing to admit and might put you in danger as an “easy” option. But if you lose your vote on a tribe of four, you’re in danger regardless because there’s nowhere to hide, so you might as well confide in a close ally like Cedrek and hope you can find a path to survival together. Justin took his historic elimination in stride, leaving with his head held high. Still, it’s unfortunate that he seemingly didn’t put up much of a fight before his torch was snuffed because he very easily could have stayed this week if he had played things slightly differently.
Gia: This was an unprecedented situation for Survivor, but seeing it culminate in Justin’s elimination is devastating. Justin seemed to be in a solid position moving forward, despite being on this season’s “cursed” tribe. However, everything that could have gone wrong for Justin did in the span of one episode. First, he was chosen for the advantage journey. Second (and perhaps the most egregious of wrongdoings done to Justin, in my opinion), he was forced to participate in the advantage journey challenge. Third, he lost his vote and then did not tell his closest ally, Cedrek, about it, even when they were chatting one-on-one about it. Fourth, Mary’s Shot in the Dark play was successful, and finally, the deciding vote came down to Cedrek, the player he didn’t tell about his lost vote just a few hours before.
Justin himself could have remedied some of these offenses himself, but others were completely out of his control, which makes his exit all the more upsetting to those rooting for him to make a deep run into the game. Still, Justin has kept his head held high when discussing his exit, which shows a lot about his character. Justin’s exit was one of a kind, so maybe our best bet for him is to hope for his return in a Second Chances/Redemption-themed season in the distant future.
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