Welcome to Give Me Five! Each week, Brent Sullivan will look at the top five moments from the latest episode that could influence the rest of the season.
Another season of Survivor has started and this one had a particular heavy pre-season. I came into this first episode already feeling like I knew some of the castaways. Some of those feelings were quickly washed away (Alan), but either way, it was fun and I am ready to get into another season of picking out impactful moments.
1. Ryan finds the game’s first advantage. This moment had sort of a trickle effect that impacted a few of the show’s other moments. To start with, kudos to Ryan for finding it. While everyone else was hopping off the boat or chucking fruit overboard, he stayed there long enough to find it. Accident or not, he was still able to spot it through all of the madness of the marooning. Next, Ryan decides to share his secret with Devon. Sharing idols is usually something that I disagree with, but since this idol is only good for one tribal, I think that Ryan made a good move and now he and Devon can potentially work together for the first part of this game. Finally, since the Hustler tribe won immunity and Ryan couldn’t use the idol, he had to give it to someone on the losing tribe (in this case, the Heroes). Ryan chooses to give it to Chrissy after seeing her get sick. The move all but guarantees some sort of goodwill between them now. If they can both make it to a swap or a merge together, who knows what can happen. Plus, Chrissy now has a tool to use in the game (see point #5 at the bottom for more explanation).
2. Alan. Does he know what he is doing or is he just crazy? I listened to all of the pre-season interviews for this cast and was impressed with Alan, but now I’m not so sure. I will say that he mentioned that he was going to try to frame some people to get the pressure off of him, however, if what he did had anything to do with that plan, then I think he had poor execution. Not only was he coming off as a little crazy, but in the process, he might have hurt his own game. Ashley and JP already think he is nuts, and his closest ally Ben had a weird look in his eye and had the whole “stick to the plan” mentality. I think that Alan better cool off next week or his time in this game may be short.
3. Mike tries to look for an idol. This is a huge impactful moment for two individuals, both Mike and Joe. Mike went off looking for an idol… and good for him for doing it. You are on Survivor, why wouldn’t you be out looking for an idol? The problem here is not only did Joe approach him all wrong, but Mike looked completely guilty in his reply. The two could have used that moment as an alliance-building step. They could have gone out and looked for the idol together, or Joe could have offered to help him look instead of coming off like an interrogator which pushed Mike into a corner, and clearly, Mike was bothered by it. So now, either Joe can tell the other Healers about how Mike is shady and was looking for an idol or Mike can tell them that Joe is a bully and that he is untrustworthy. Either way, the Healers appear to have a crack already.
4. Chrissy gets sick after the challenge. This is really a small moment, but I felt compelled to point it out just because this is Survivor and people will look for any reason to vote you out. Her being sick and now being the lone older member of the tribe may be all that the Heroes need to vote her out if they lose the next challenge again. The other tribes also took notice, which is why Ryan gave her the idol. Speaking of which…
5. Chrissy keeps the idol. The reason that this is separate from the first point is that it may have different impactful moments going forward. Yes, Chrissy could have very easily used the idol, saved Katrina, and voted out Ashley, but then what? She is now on a tribe with three people who are pissed at her, and she most likely goes home next. Instead, she got to vote with the majority, and she still has an idol. Obviously, the idol is invalid and cannot be used, but the rest of the tribe doesn’t know that do they? I think that she will be able to use this to her advantage by telling her tribemates that she has a Super Idol that can be used after the votes. She even has an official parchment that says so much, as long as she removes the part about it only being used during the first tribal. This may make for a couple of big moments in the weeks to come depending on how she uses it.
There you go. What moments from this premiere week episode do you think made an impact?
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