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.
After the first watch, I wasn’t sure that I was going to have enough to talk about since this episode concentrated so much on Desiree, but after the second watch, I picked up on a lot more, and some of them are good ones:
1. Somehow Michael is no longer the target. Okay, that is a bit of a stretch, because he will obviously always be a threat. What I mean is that in a perfect Survivor world where people do exactly what they should do every episode, Michael would be gone. But, in this real-world Survivor, not only was Michael not voted out, but his name only showed up on two voting parchments. Plus, he had Domenick coming to him and wanting to work with him to help take out one of the original Naviti members. Kellyn was a little skeptical of how the guys were starting to hang out and even mentioned to Domenick that she wanted Michael out, but she ended up siding with them to go against Desiree. I realize that by this time next week, he could very well be gone, but after the Desiree shakeup, there might just be another person or two to vote off before they come for Michael again.
2. Laurel and Donathan discuss which side…. again. This seems to be a common theme of the season. How many times have we seen Laurel and Donathan talk about which side that they wanted to vote with? It is always the same conversation too; they have a choice whether or not they want to stay with Malolo or Domenick and Wendell. It also appears that Laurel gets her way most of the time. Donathan is the one that always brings up the possibility of cutting ties with the two Naviti men and Laurel is the one that ends up going to Domenick with the information. I do think that at some point in the game (maybe Final 7 or 5), these two will be the swing votes and have a chance to knock out either Domenick or Wendell. At that point, I think that they will try to make the move, but it would probably be too late. All of this is dependent on how many idols and advantages are in the game at that point too.
3. Donathan finds an idol (or two half idols). This was a really weird sequence. Michael and Donathan were talking about the possibility of another idol being hidden since the last one was played. For some reason, they agreed to go out and look for it together. Not sure why they didn’t just go and look for it by themselves a little later, especially if Michael thought that he was in trouble at the next vote. You could tell by the music that it was about to be found, and sure enough, Donathan found half of an idol. He also found out that the other half (which he needed to give his idol power) was hidden back at camp under the shelter. Here is the other weird part, Donathan brought in three other people to help him look for it. I get the feeling that he was super excited and couldn’t wait long enough to go look for it, so he had them help him find it. Now the last weird part is that, unless I am mistaken, Michael actually had his hands on the idol first and then handed it over to Donathan. That would be a tough move to let that thing go. He probably made the right choice for his social game, but for someone who thinks that they are always on the bottom, having an idol would be invaluable. Besides all of that, Donathan now has an idol, and if he sticks with the Domenick and Wendell group, then the three of them all have hidden idols.
4. Kellyn and Domenick finally talk. Even though both Kellyn and Domenick were original Naviti, they both still had their separate sides within the bigger group. This is really the first time that we have seen the two of them “strategizing.” In my opinion, the conversation sounded more like a couple of siblings arguing than a strategy discussion. Seeing the way two of them interacted with each other, I am curious to see what their relationship will be like going forward. I think that we can all agree that the old tribal alliances are all but done, so let’s see how long these two are able to work together before drawing lines in the sand again.
5. Chelsea is all alone. Even though most of this episode was about Desiree and her botched plan to vote out Kellyn, I have to mention Chelsea. First of all, congratulations to Chelsea for winning immunity. Other than that, she was left all alone out there during the vote. The only two votes not for Desiree came from Desiree and Chelsea. Since she doesn’t have Kellyn anymore and Desiree is gone, it makes me wonder where she stands now? She seems like she would be all alone, but that may be the perfect time for someone to scoop her up for a quick vote or two. Regardless of how it turns out, I can’t see her rocking the boat too much. She may hop back over to Kellyn at this point which would be a valuable number for her if she has to build an army against Domenick and Wendell.
There you go. What moments from this week’s episode do you think made an impact?
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The laurel/Donathan thing will be the reason they lose. They need to get Wendell/Dom out before those to suspect something is coming. And i’m not sure that Laurel always gets her way. I think Donathan wants to keep original Malolo for future use. Whereas Laurel is fully with Dom.
My guess is Chelsea, Jenna and Michael will be the next three out. I felt so bad for Chelsea this episode, she sort of was dragged through the muck by Desiree, but then we never actually got to hear her side of it. Did she know? Did she agree? Or was Desiree just so sure she had the two girls, that now she has screwed up their game based on an assertion neither of them would have followed.
One thing I was wondering about is if they will ever change idols now. Since idols last until final 5, and final 4 isn’t a vote, now using idols and being good at fire making can get you right through to the finale, and I wish there was at least one vote the threat of an idol couldn’t save you.
The only reason they introduced the final 4 fire making is so that underdog players will have the possibility to make it to the final. That is way a lot of people hate it, it takes out relationship from the final portion of the game