Welcome to Give Me Five! Each week, Brent Sullivan will look at the top five impactful moments from the latest episode that could influence the rest of the season.
I refuse to take the easy way out (this time) and make the tribe swap one of my five moments. Mostly because the majority of moments on this week’s list (if not all of them) happened directly because of the tribe swap. There are just a few quick honorable mentions I want to make before we get started. All three of the new tribes have more original Goliath members than Davids, but we saw how that went this week. Bi left the game on her own, but since they swapped immediately afterward, I can’t really call that an impact. Finally, just a fun note, I enjoyed how Jeff Probst called the tribes by their color instead of the name during the immunity challenge. It was silly, but it also really helped me follow along on what tribe he was talking about.
Okay, now on to the important stuff.
1. Carl gets an advantage. During the tribe swap, Carl drew the short straw, or blank buff if you will, and had to go to Exile Island. Obviously, it wasn’t really a short straw, because unlike him, we all knew that there was going to be an advantage there. So, after a fun montage of him sorting through a batch of floating coconuts, he found the “marked” one with an advantage inside. I’ve been curious about this all season, and now we finally get to see the idol nullifier. I ‘m glad that it has to be played before the vote so that it isn’t too powerful. Also, nothing against Carl, but I don’t really see this being used correctly on it’s first time out. However, this may still be very impactful if I’m wrong about that. Can you imagine someone playing an idol, everyone freaking out, just to have them go home anyway? I think that would make an extremely exciting tribal council. However, I hope that they only have one per season. I don’t want every idol found to be nullified. Let’s see if Carl can figure out how to play this correctly!
2. Natalie hasn’t learned anything. A lot of times, you see people get their names thrown out at tribal council, and they either do one of two things. First, they use that as a chance to change what they’re doing and become part of the tribe and stay unified. The second thing they could do is to get angry and go on a counter-offensive to those people that opposed them. I am not sure if I have ever seen anyone quite like Natalie, where after multiple people called her out at tribal, she didn’t change a thing. I am honestly surprised that she was still sitting there barking out orders to all of them. I thought that if she could somehow survive one tribal that she may do better and last a while, but after this week, I think it is safe to assume that she must be a target if Jabeni (purple) loses the next immunity challenge. That also means that another Goliath would be going home and that would even up the numbers of the original tribes.
3. More alliance naming. I really enjoy Nick on this season, but he has got to cool it with the alliance names. I’m not sure how the other contestants feel about it, but it is almost cringe-worthy to watch him do that. However, with that being said, he has seemingly locked up another alliance with that strategy. He and Mike are now the “Rock Stars!” Mike seems to be mostly on board with it, even telling him about Dan’s idol. Mike may just be playing both sides to gain numbers since he is stuck with Natalie at the moment. This may not go anywhere, but it is still early in this game, and any move or alliance made this early can help you out if you get to the merge.
4. Christian is another one of the bros. The previews for this week actually showed something that happened, the way that it happened. Christian did indeed pour on the charm. Both John and Dan seem to really like him, and he appears to be fitting in with everyone on his new tribe. This may be bad news for Gabby, and she seems to agree with me. She and Christian are still really close and rely on each other, but she can see how well he is fitting in. With there being three Goliaths on this tribe and only two Davids, along with Christian being a likable guy with everyone there, a trip to tribal may be the last call for Gabby. She did well for them as the caller in the immunity challenge, but was it enough?
5. Vuku inherits Carl. I am still trying to wrap my head around Alec’s move. I understand that people need to make big moves in the game to further themselves and pad their resume for the endgame, but to me, a move like this doesn’t help Alec at all. Not only is it too early, but they all knew that Carl would be coming over to join them after tribal. The three Goliaths should have stayed strong and gotten a David out of there. No question! I hesitate to say that it was a bad move since we don’t know the outcome yet, but Carl, Elizabeth, and Davie now have a huge advantage. Alec may get a pass since he is the one that saved them, and Kara may be in trouble, but at the same time, Kara may throw Alec under the bus since he blindsided her as well. Good or bad, this was a big move and will have a huge impact in the next few episodes!
There you go. What moments from this week’s episode do you think made an impact?
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