After a wacky Savu Tribal Council where Rob’s master plan to vote himself out fell flat, Carter, Ori, and Rob himself return to camp disappointed. Ana was blindsided 6-4, and the supposedly unified majority alliance wastes no time trying to comfort Carter with every meaningless platitude in the world. He’s so far on the bottom, but he’s woken up to his place in the game, and he’s aiming to find cracks. But Ori isn’t a crack to exploit, because he knew where the votes were going and threw his vote to Eric, knowing Sharonda would be fine with his choice since they already had the numbers.
Meanwhile, Rob retreats to the beach and laments over his failure. He doesn’t want to quit like a wimp, but his foot is killing him after an earlier injury we didn’t see on-screen, and he still misses his family, so he’s mentally checked out and looking for an exit. Eric finds him sitting alone and doesn’t buy any of the sob stories coming out of his mouth after the farce he pulled at Tribal, and when Rob gets back to camp, nobody buys into the medical issue either. To them, Rob’s just salty about being outplayed and looking for an easy out to save face.
And you know who else doesn’t buy into it? The medical team and Jeff himself, who question why Rob hasn’t said anything about the issue until now and changed his story multiple times. When they actually examine him, he shows no signs of a serious injury aside from a tiny cut on his foot. A cut so small we can’t even see it on screen. Does that mean Rob is lying about everything to stage a quit? I don’t know, but the wacky dodo music over every one of Rob’s segments, plus the entire tribe finding time to dunk on him in confessionals during his unceremonious exit, gives a certain impression. And it’s not a good one. Regardless, Rob quits the game in the most unserious way ever, leaves Carter his idol as a parting gift, and the game carries on.
Meanwhile on Toka, Lewis reflects on his disadvantage being so late to the tribe, but sees the five-person alliance of Devin, Jelly, Mike, Brady, and Patt as solid numbers he can align with for the time being, and Jenna is still their number one target. But the wedding photographer may get another shot at survival when Kilby starts overplaying like a madman, slinging mud about Brady’s intelligence and game skills to build bonds through trash talk. Nothing bonds people like a common enemy, but you have to be careful who you try that move with. Eventually Brady learns Kilby’s been talking smack from Patt, sending Kilby right into Brady’s firing line.
But a wrinkle in the game arrives to shake things up. One member from each tribe will go on a Journey to the other tribe and mingle. Carter gets picked by random draw on Savu, a disaster for the majority who saw him as easy pickings. From Toka, honest Devin volunteers for the job. But on the way across the sea, Carter and Devin get clues that give them an advantage on each beach… and the chance to mutiny against their new tribe if they so please. The one twist I begged for in this Open Era is finally back, and both men are considering it… until Devin finds out Savu’s camp is horrendous. But Carter would be a fool not to mutiny, and his tribe knows it.
Sharonda pulls Devin aside at the well to talk and re-establish their Helicopter Alliance after a week apart, and Devin tells her that’s ironically where their new advantage lies. Working together, they find an extra vote tied to the well’s ladle, so the Open Era is now giving people votes for taking risks instead of taking them away by random chance. You love to see it. But Devin’s not done. Player by player, he sells Kilby out as a shady little snake to the entire tribe, ending with his top ally, Ori. Even six days later, he still cares about his friends across tribal lines and cements bonds that could save him later, so Devin can call this visit a roaring success.
On Toka, Carter focuses more on finding new connections and cracks in the existing tribe than on gaining an advantage. He calls out Sharonda and Linnea as the ringleaders on Savu to build trust with new friends. But Mike warns us that Carter could be the next JT (hopefully the Tocantins version and not the follow-ups in Carter’s case) and won’t buy into the good ol’ southern boy act so easily. But while Carter goes off with Mike, Lewis raids his bag, finds the envelope, and exposes the whole twist.
The whole tribe races to the beach to find the oar with the advantage attached, but Brady beats Maggie to it… who’s too weak to break open the oar herself and has to rely on Brady’s strength. But after Maggie politely asks to take possession of it, having found the oar first and needing it more given her position, Brady just gives in, expecting they can work together to use it wisely. Yeah, well, Maggie’s not down for that. That’s her extra vote now, and Brady can find himself up the creek without one of those broken oars for all she cares.
Devin won’t stay on Savu for obvious reasons, but Carter weighs his options on Toka, and Brady goes to work recruiting him to their side for challenges and as a new ally. He’s the exact kind of guy Brady’s used to playing with in real life: that country boy who fishes and gets dirty and is just a real guy’s guy. Brady lays it on thick. But time is limited, and the advantage still calls to Carter, so alliances can wait for another day.
But with the Tokas destroying the oars, Carter is out of luck even trying to find one lying around, and the boat back to Savu leaves without him. You know, when I asked for the mutiny and said we could see some entirely new game moves happen with how players are these days, I didn’t think an accidental mutiny was ever in the cards. So, welcome to Toka, Carter. Hope you have that idol handy.
At the immunity challenge, Toka walks in 11 players strong against Savu’s seven. A lot happened to Savu’s numbers, a DIY Blood Moon as Kristin puts it, and their tribe is down some of their strongest players, so the odds are against them. But never tell Savu the odds in a puzzle challenge, because the great equalizer makes up for a lack of physical powerhouses when Toka flames out with a bottom-tier puzzle performance, sending Savu back to camp with immunity and a cage of chickens. That leaves Toka to deal with an 11-person Tribal featuring a mutineer with an idol, an extra vote in Maggie’s pocket, and Kilby walking blind into a blindside if Devin’s majority gets their way.
But the funny thing is… Devin’s majority isn’t really a majority anymore thanks to Carter’s accidental mutiny. Kilby’s frustrated because Devin steamrolled the discussion and forced him to sit out, even though he’s a puzzle guy who could’ve saved them, and he’s catching on to Devin’s dislike of him despite his excuses. But in Devin’s eyes, Kilby is the only one making a mess of an otherwise chill tribe, and he even keeps doing it mid-conversation as he tries to turn Devin against his own alliance. Obviously nobody falls for his lies, and Devin’s alliance wants the kill shot on Kilby even more.
They still need more numbers, though, and Carter and Lewis are huge wildcards. Ironically, both farm boys realize that fact. They haven’t voted on Toka yet, so they can play however they want and decide where the line in the sand will be set moving forward. Each side has pros and cons. If they side with Devin’s cool kids cult alliance, they won’t make waves and can keep Devin as their “fox in a hen house” to use later, as a number, a shield, or both. If they side with the misfit outsiders, that’s an alliance of six that holds a lot of power, but it will piss off some of the stronger players on the tribe who could screw them over at a swap or merge.
Elsewhere, Maggie and Kilby come together and plot for the night. Kilby swears he’s Brady’s number one (I don’t know about that one, man) and aims to target Patt or Mike. Maggie says Patt is off the table for her, so Mike’s the consensus target for their side. He’s just kinda there, not doing much of note, and has no real power in that alliance. Easy pickings. But Kilby’s dead wrong about Brady’s allegiance to him, and when Brady learns about the Mike plan, he starts leaking it and pulls in Lewis as their sixth number. But Lewis trusts his gut and knows this majority cannot be allowed to stay in power.
With the tide turning against the Devin cult, Lewis, Kilby, Thien An, Carter, and Jenna pinkie swear to vote for Patt instead, using Mike’s name as a bluff. As Thien An says, Mike isn’t that threatening, and he has no real power to swing major votes when he plays like a sponge. When Brady learns of the switch-up, he mocks the idea of Thien An, of all people, making a big move. Little does he know this game is two farmers away from flipping on its head and putting the misfits on top as Carter and Lewis set the tone for the vote: the five-person alliance is too dangerous to be left alive, and if they have to answer tough questions after a blindside, then so be it.
By the thinnest of margins, six votes to five, Patt is blindsided, and Chaos Kilby narrowly avoids Devin’s kill shot, leaving him once again on the outs after being so cocky all day, and now he’s got his buddy Brady sharing the shame this time. Maybe don’t make your five-person alliance so obvious next time, because when even the guy who just got there a day ago can see the writing on the wall, you’re just asking for a humbling blindside, and all the cocky confessionals weren’t helping the five’s case.
So. This season is actually kind of amazing so far. Three fun non-unanimous votes, the funniest quit in years, and an accidental mutiny without any of the annoying New Era slop of lost votes. No broken game mechanics stripping everyone of their agency before they’re swept out the door. And no forced sob stories begging us to like and relate to players, instead of letting their personalities speak for themselves on screen through their gameplay and interactions with others.
Survivor is actually back, it seems, and even the threat of a three tribe swap next week doesn’t get my spirits down because I trust the Open Era will find a way to make three tribes interesting again, since both tribes have been battle-tested and proven where the lines stand.
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