Welcome to the first update of the season! If you’re new to the game, I encourage you to take the time to read each update. Besides my biting commentary, uncanny wit and awful jokes, I add bonus points to each post. They can add up!
On to the update!
We start at Vula (Green), last week’s losing tribe. At tribal, Mary voted for Sai, while everyone
else voted for Stephanie leading to her ignominious ouster and Sai’s fake
forgiveness to Mary for writing her name down.
No one buys that. The camp is a
disaster with flies everywhere. The guys decide to take a swim where Kevin
suggests voting Sai as that locks in the guys alliance.
At Civa (Orange) the mood is much lighter as they probe at
body part imperfections. David sees them as a family and shares that the small
scars on his ribs were 2 extra nipples! He
wonders if he could milk himself
Charity notes that it’s their humble traits which bring them
together (5 points for “Say the title of the episode” [Charity] to Roberta!). They continue to laugh as Kyle thinks the
wart on his finger is callous. Oy.
At Lagi (Purple), no one lags around camp and Eva thinks
they’re a step above, they’re a solid team. Star doesn’t feel quite the same
way when Eva suggests Star sit out the next challenge. Maybe they should pump
the breaks on singing kumbaya next to the fire tonight, eh?
This “attack” leads Star to start searching for protection (1
point for “Mention ‘in this game’” [Star] to Jay!). Recognizing that she’s
not working with anyone and not feeling needed, Star goes idol hunting and
quickly finds a Beware advantage! (2 points each for “Find a Beware
Advantage” and “Open a Beware Advantage” [Star] to Jay!).
She immediately breaks Rule
#1 (STFU) and tells Joe, who suggests bringing in Shauhin. That’s half the
tribe! Star GIVES HIM THE CLUE.
An ethical dilemma hits Shauhin: Help a little, help a lot or full-blown sabotage. This is why STFU is Rule #1! They may act friendly, but they are actively playing against her! Adding to the lunacy, Star brings in Thomas and Bianca, leaving out only Eva. I suppose that’s her way of payback? Does she really think Eva won’t find out? Ugh.
Thomas suggests to Shauhin that he lose the Beware advantage
entirely (!) but Shauhin can’t stoop that low this early, and knows he can’t
trust Thomas at all. Joe decides to keep
Eva safe and tells her too, solidifying their bond. (1 point for “Mention ‘in this game’”
[Eva] to Dalphyne!)
Boats arrive and it’s time for one person from each tribe to
go on a journey! Vula, naturally, has drama at who should go. Following an agreed upon “practice round”,
which Sai wins, Mary wins the “Real round” leading Sai to turn salty at her
tribe not sending her after she won the practice round. I’m already growing to dislike Sai, and I
doubt she’s long for the game. Anyway,
joining Mary are Thomas and Mitch meaning… (6 points each for “Go on a
journey” [Thomas, Mary] to Carol!), (3 points for “Go on a journey” [Mitch] to
Marissa!).
At the journey, they each must complete a puzzle within a
time limit. If they do, they win a secret advantage. If they don’t, they lose
their vote at their next tribal council. For some reason, Mitch thinks his game is on
the line. I suspect that’s overreaction. If it truly is, they didn’t show us! In fact, of the three on the journey only
Mary is truly at risk. In a few moments of time pressure, Thomas and Mitch
finish their puzzles while Mary comes up short. (3 points each for “Risk vote on journey
and succeed” [Thomas, Mitch] to Carol and Marissa!). Thomas wins a steal-a-vote advantage,
while Mitch wins block-a-vote. (7
points each for “Obtain a secret advantage” [Thomas, Mitch] to Carol and Marissa!). Finally, (1 point for “Risk vote on
journey and fail” [Mary] to Carol!)
At Lagi (Purple) camp, Thomas adheres to Rule
#1: STFU. He says he lost and swears he’ll tell no one. Good man!
At Vula (Green) camp, Mary tells them she lost her
vote. Sai openly notes Mary doesn’t seem
too bummed which is good. Sai’s got a
level of in-your-face gameplay here that just irks me. Now I’m actively rooting
against her.
At Civa (Orange) camp, Mitch tells everyone what he won. It
clearly breaks Rule #1, but he’s so open about it that I wonder if he’s got a
plan? David doesn’t see Mitch’s duo with
Charity as a positive (1 point for “Mention ‘in this game’” [David] to Dalphyne!)
because it’s set against his personal alliance.
Fearing their lack of power, David, Kamila, Kyle and Chrissy
go idol hunting and Kyle finds it! (2 points each for “Find a Beware
Advantage” and “Open a Beware Advantage” [Kyle] to Ricky!). Kyle also breaks Rule
#1: STFU by telling David and Kamila, who feels trusted because he told
her. Unfortunately for Kyle, he can’t
solve the puzzle and gives it to Kamila.
I guess that’s better than losing your vote but come on…give it a little
effort first!
Since Kamila solved the puzzle, I’m awarding her those
points. (2 points for “Complete stage
1 of a Beware Advantage” [Kamila] to Marissa!) but she gives the idol back
to Kyle so (5 points for “Find hidden immunity idol” [Kyle] to Ricky!). Kyle closes the segment telling us he has
power now and intends to use it! (1
point for “Mention ‘in this game’” [Kyle] to Ricky!).
We get to the immunity and reward challenge where Kamila and
Star sit out (2 points each for “Volunteer to sit out a challenge” [Kamila,
Star] to Marissa and Jay!). In
pairs, they have to cross a balance beam while holding a ball between them, and
then sink each ball into a goal. Everyone crosses well except for Cedrek and Kevin,
as Cedrek cannot keep his balance, falling time and again. Lagi’s Eva sinks a
few as Vula’s Sai screams at Cedrek. It wasn’t a great look to would-be merged
tribemates. Mitch goes old-school NBA Rick
Barry and shoots underhanded sinking 1,2,3,4 and 5 in a row leading Jeff to say
the magic words (10 points for “Jeff says ‘that’s how you do it on Survivor!”
[Mitch] to Marissa!). Civa wins the
first immunity and reward, followed closely by Lagi.
(6 points each for “Win Tribe Immunity” and “Win Tribe Reward”
[Charity, Joe, David, Eva, Mitch, Kamila, Kyle, Bianca] to Roberta, Dalphyne,
Ricky and Marissa!). (3 points each for “Win
Tribe Immunity and “Win Tribe Reward” [Chrissy, Shauhin, Star, Thomas] to Scott,
Kristyn, Jay and Carol!) Last-place Vula receives some additional scorn from
Jeff as he calls Cedrek and Kevin’s abysmal failures for not completing the balance
beam. Tough crowd! (3 points for “Jeff says something negative about you in
a challenge” [Kevin, Cedrek] to Jay and Nobody!)
Back at loser camp, the chaos begins. Mary doesn’t have a vote, Sai doesn’t like her. This is easy right? Not so fast.
Cedrek takes responsibility for the loss, and Kevin is with
him going after Sai. Kevin feels this is
the time to go after Sai but he’s a few days late. They should’ve done it immediately, like he
talked about with Justin in the season premier. (1 point for “Mention ‘in
this game’” [Kevin] to Jay!). Kevin feels locked in with Cedrek and Justin,
but breaks Rule
#4: Know Your Audience, and doesn’t pick up that Cedrek trusts Sai more.
Cedrek sells him out and flat out tells Sai flat out to play her idol. And while the easy vote was Mary, Sai now
sees Kevin as the target. Justin and
Cedrek are on board but still have their own plans. Solid gameplay from Justin here. Sai insists she’s playing the idol but we’ve
heard that refrain a thousand times from Survivors who take it home as a souvenir
as their torches are snuffed.
As they walk to tribal, I have to ask…is it Mary? Is it Sai?
Is it Kevin?
At tribal, Sai doesn’t want to be there, Mary feels like she’s
on the bottom and Sai chooses in-your-face when Jeff asks if Sai if Mary in
trouble “Yep”. Why be incognito when you have a majority, says Sai. (Authors
note: Because sometimes you won’t be in the majority, and you’ll need people to
want to keep you around. This should be
obvious, but I guess not). The body language and vibe is all negative here, and
there’s no trust (1 point for “Mention ‘in this game’” [Sai] to me!).
Cedrek sees tribal as a therapy session, and Sai thinks she and Mary need time to work out the kinks leading Mary to ask if “working out the kinks” means voting her out. Sai didn’t say she’s voting Mary, but Mary absolutely believes she is and that level honesty in a dishonest game is more dishonest than being dishonest in a dishonest game. (1 point for “Mention ‘in this game’” [Mary] to Carol!)
It’s finally time to vote, and Cedrek is up first (3 points
for “Chosen to vote first” [Cedrek] to Nobody!). At the vote, Sai keeps her word and plays
her idol for…her grandmother? She definitely did say that but Jeff takes it to
mean Sai is protected. (2 points for “Play hidden immunity idol on yourself”
[Sai] to Scott!).
You can scroll up half a page to see how Mary was the easy
vote. How did the Plinko balls land?
Kevin voted Sai, but everyone else voted Kevin.
He’s voted out by a 3-1 margin. (10
points for “First person voted out after our game starts” [Kevin] to Jay!), (3
points for “Received vote against” [Kevin] to Jay!), (1 point for “Received
vote against” [Sai] to Scott!), and (-1 point for “The Tribe Has Spoken” [Kevin]
against Jay!)
So what does this mean for our scores?
Kamila and Mitch drive Marissa to the top of the initial
scoreboard, while Kevin’s early exit earns Jay enough points to take 2nd. Mary and Thomas have Carol in 3rd,
just 2 points ahead of 4th place Ricky. Roberta and Dalphyne take 5th and
6th while Kristyn and I lag well behind.
As Cedrek is the only lifeline, Jay gets him to replace
Kevin.
- Marissa 41
- Jay 30
- Carol 26
- Ricky 24
- Roberta 19
- Dalphyne 16
- Scott 10
- Kristyn 8
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