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Survivor 47got off to agood startwith last week’s premiere. It kept things simple, made a couple small but great changes (got rid of Sweat v Savvy, made the Beware Advantages simpler while still keeping them interesting), and showcased the potential of what will hopefully continue to be a strong cast. We even saw a player – Andy – have an epic meltdown and still manage to live to fight another day.
And the second episode delivered as well. If this is howSurvivor 47is going to go all season, we could be in for something special.
Rome is itching to finish the quest for Beware Advantage. The night before he found the box, but was too dark to read the note, so he hid the box to return to later. He also decides he needs to bring somebody else in on this, and settles on Teeny. And Teeny is…less than enthused. Rome had become the initial first target, but this obviously complicates matters.
Teeny tries to play both sides here, immediately telling Kishan, even taking him to and showing him the idol. They go a step further and read the note, only to get caught red handed by Rome. Teeny doesn’t panic, though, and tries to explain it by her desire to want to work with Kishan. With that, she felt she had to tell him. Rome reads the note, and it’s the same note as Gabe. But he decides to take the single-Tribal idol, perhaps unknowingly saving his game.
Rome is outing himself as a showman. He wants to be the fire guy, he wants to flash in front of his tribe. So of course, he can’t make the first. So Kishan steps in and gets it going right away. Rome also talks about his plethora of skills. He could have gone pro in the NBA…if only he was taller and didn’t stop playing in high school. He thinks he could have been a rapper, but then only gets a few words in before saying “he forgot the rest.” His idol may save him for one Tribal, but he’s going to be on thin ice after that.
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TK is trying to shore up his group, and has found Kyle as his number one. He wants to bring in Tiyana next, seeing her as having a strong ability to easily connect with the rest of the tribes. She’s worried about a potential bromance alliance, but TK throws Gabe under the bus to ease those fears. With that, Tiyana is in, and the Tuku trio is set.
The trio discuss who they would want to target if they were to lose immunity. They bring in Gabe as a potential fourth, but that’s not the group Gabe wants. He wants to go all-in with Sue – who he is already tight with – and Caroline. But, Caroline wants nothing to do with Gabe. She doesn’t trust him as far as she can throw him, and doesn’t completely hide her skepticism. Gabe makes a bold play and shows her his idol. Caroline isn’t fully convinced by this, but she’s sat least starting to come around.
TK, Gabe, Tiyana, and Sue go down to the beach for a little nappy time. But TK spends the entire time talking to Gabe, irking Sue to no end. It’s making Tiyana a little less certain about their threesome, but she committed, so she’s sticking with it, at least for now.
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After surviving the first Tribal Council, Andy feels like he has a new life in the game. He’s making better connections, the others are making a conscious effort to make him feel included. And while that’s all well and good, at least for the time being, it’s all a facade. The other Gatas want him to feel safe and comfortable, while also keeping him in their back pocket as an easy second boot.
While Sam is stuck on “Andy duty,” the three girls go looking for the Beware Advantage. But this gives Sam a chance to actually bond with Andy. Sam wants Andy to view him as a “buoy in the ocean.” We see this strategy quite a bit inSurvivor, and it’s a good one. If Andy becomes the consensus boot, with no other recourse, Sam can go along with it. But if Andy continues to survive, he’s likely going to be bringing Sam along on the ride.
When Sam goes to the bathroom, Andy takes the opportunity to go Beware Advantage-hunting himself, and lo and behold, he finds it. However, Andy takes the road less travelled and leaves it.
Sam tells Anika that Andy went out on a little adventure under his watch, and she quickly worries about Andy having found the Beware Advantage. They actually find it, with Sam being the one to actually possess it. As much as I like the simplicity of the Beware Advantages this season, this is also the drawback. Even with each tribe’s advantage being different, big picture they’re all the same. I’m very glad we didn’t see all three in the premiere, so they at least got broken up a little bit.
Sam tells Sierra, his number one, and he assumes Anika told Rachel. Knowing this, he tells Rachel to save face with her. Sam found himself in a tough spot, but it speak highly to his game awareness that he made those connections so easily in real time.
In the mean time, Andy now decides to go back and pick up the Beware Advantage. And what he had viewed as a potentially safety net is now in Sam’s possession (unknown to Andy still). Come on Andy, that’sSurvivor 101. If you want to take it, take it. If you want to leave it, leave it. you’re able to’t waffle like this.
Andy goes back to Sam and explains his saga with the Beware Advantage. Andy assumes one of the girls has it, and Sam plays along rather than revealing the truth. But now Sam is in a tough spot again, with Andy showing so much faith and trust in him.
Sam goes to unlock the box to get his idol, and brings Sierra with. He tells her he wanted to save this part for just the two of them. Sam is good. Something so simple, but could pay huge dividends. They open the box, and he gets the same note, and like Rome, takes the single-Tribal idol.
Sam proposes potentially playing the idol on Andy, to stone cold silence from Sierra. She doesn’t necessarily like it, but she trusts Sam. And if that’s what he wants to do, she’s on board with it.
Immunity Challenge
Upon seeing Gata arrive at the challenge, Tuku and Lavo are actually shocked. And I “actually” because these reactions are usually as fake as can be. It’s all manufactured for the sake of production and the hopes of getting more air time. But this time, after Andy’s very public meltdown, I believe the shock and surprise were legit. It’s nice forSurvivorinclude some reality in our reality TV!
For this challenge, the tribes start on a platform out in the ocean, and jump in the water and swim to a tower to retrieve a large bag of rice. They have to squeeze the bag through a very small hole and then get it to shore. Once there, one person stands behind a caged door and blindly moves a key through a maze on the other side. Once unlocked, they open they bag of rice and dig through it to find a ball. Three tribe members then maneuver the ball through a winding snake table maze.
They’re also playing for reward, with the first place tribe winning fishing gear, and the second place a smaller set of fishing gear.
Gata takes the lead and never gives it up, securing the first immunity. Lavo beats out Tuku for the second. On the mat before going back to camp, TK has his own, let’s say “mini Andy” moment. He calls out his tribe for smiling and not looking angry enough over their loss. He says he hates losing, he doesn’t like being around people who are cool with losing.
Bro, what are you doing? Like, yes, that’s the correct mindset. But someone’sSurvivordream is about to come to an end. They’re just as pissed as you! Andy may have survived his mat meltdown, but we’ll see if TK can survive his. And if Sue has anything to say about it, he won’t. She was already leaning towards TK, and this solidified it.
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Pre-Tribal
TK’s outburst also caught Gabe’s attention. He thought she was in tight with TK, but seeing Tiyana’s reaction to TK, he sees an opening. Kyle tries to talk to TK about Tiyana, that she felt disrespected by TK’s comments. But he doesn’t think he owes her an apology. Kyle convinces him to talk to Tiyana, and he says his comments weren’t directed at TK, that he was speaking in general, and that he didn’t even notice who specifically was smiling; he was just going off what Jeff was saying.
To Tiyana’s credit, she is making a concerted effort to separate her emotions from the gameplay. The emotional response would be to flip and target TK. But she’s able to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. It’s early, but here we have another sign of a potential strongSurvivorplayer. Too often, players give into the emotional decisions, no matter how detrimental it might be to their games. After clearing the air, the three set their sights on Sue.
TK and Kyle talk to Gabe, and Gabe plays his part perfectly, convincing them he’s on board with the Sue vote. Along with Sue and Caroline, the competing three want to bring in Tiyana. Gabe doesn’t want to play his idol, but will consider it if he feels he has to. And then there’s the possibility of going to rocks in the event of a tie.
The Gabe, Sue, Caroline contingent says they’re all willing to go to rocks if it comes to that. It sounds great on paper, but putting yourSurvivorgame in the hands of rocks and the second Tribal Council – and your tribe’s first! – is asking a lot. To be fair to Sue, obviously she would go to rocks – she would be safe!
And as soon as I praise Tiyana for putting strategy over emotion, she literally says the debate between TK and Sue is a struggle of emotion vs strategy. However, she does frame it as not feeling sure if she can work with someone (TK) who disrespected. That’s different. Sure, it technically might be an emotional decision, but if she truly feels TK is going to continue disrespecting her, that goes past some petty personal differences. But she also sees TK’sstrengthand how valuable that could be in upcoming challenges.
Tribal Council
Gabe plays his idol for himself…for some reason? I’ll have to think about this one. Because obviously he received no votes, and TK is voted out 4-2. In thinking about this, I honestly don’t think Tiyana’s decision was emotional, at least not entirely. TK is a dominating personality, trying to strong arm the tribe to go his way. That’s a hard to person to get along and work with in any situation, but especially in such an intense environment likeSurvivor.
Things I Liked
Survivor 47is 2-for-2 to start things off. Production is staying out of things, giving the players room to play. Now, inSurvivor 46, the third episode had the first journey of the season. We’ll see what happens next week, but I’m all in so far. It might be more of a vibe thing, but this feels more like theSurvivorI know and love than any of the other “new era” seasons did this early on.
You can catch new episodes of Survivor 47 every Wednesday at 8pm ET/7pm CT on CBS, and it is also available to stream on Paramount Plus.
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Matt Hambidge
Film Critic
Articles Published :119
Matt Hambidge is a film critic based in Minneapolis, and is a member of the Minnesota Film Critics Alliance.You can also find him covering SURVIVOR on the Talking Llama podcast.
