I liked how this episode was edited, not too heavy-handed, most people got screen time. I get it’s necessary to re-establish the new tribes and give us a glimpse of the new dynamics.
Before the switch, Jessica tells Ken about her future advantage, and it’s cementing their alliance. As they will be staying together after the switch, I guess this is significant and they will be a fearsome duo, that other people should be worried about, except that nobody is really aware of it (David and CeCe maybe?)
The new idol search goes as expected: as David is the only one who knows what to look for, he’s the one who finds it again. In the process, the edit shows us Sunday‘s uselessness one more time. And David‘s edit, once again this week, shows us someone who will probably not win, but who will be this season’s main character and sure returnee.
“Drop your buffs”
I like how switching from two tribes to three mixes things up, however, the third tribe often gets screwed, like they were in Cambodia. Probably not this time. Getting an extra member is a good thing. The apparently good weather also helped.
Of course, the character to look at there is Michaela. The focus was almost exclusively on her during the switch, and it kept on being on her after the switch, when they showed the green tribe (gonna be honest here, not gonna bother learning the names at the moment). She had a very positive and even emotional edit. And in this show, the metaphor of making fire for the tribe is almost as important as your torch being ‘smuffed’ when you’re voted out. One could be tempted to shout “winner edit” and while I don’t exclude it, the rest of her edit this season does not seem to be going that way. Still, we have here another major character to watch for during the rest of the season.
Apart from Michaela not much is happening on that new tribe.
General thoughts about the tribe switch. I gotta admit I’m kinda pleased with it. It’s hopefull going to tone down the Gen X Vs Millennial narrative. Also, every time there’s a switch, it means sure elimination for one poor soul just because they drew the wrong buff. Not this time. Every alliance seems to have been broken into several parts and no alliance is totally dominating a new tribe with no hope for those not in that alliance.
And new alliances are forming very quickly.
I love that Adam and Ken are getting along well. They are my two favorite players this season (and my current first and second picks for winner), with a loyal Jessica, they could run the show to the end.
I don’t think I haven’t called anyone an idiot this season yet. Well, Taylor gets that honor this week.
He still doesn’t get why the whole couple thing is a problem, and worse, he’s convinced that he has the number (i.e. that Adam is with him) even after making it obvious in the Millennial tribe that he was most likely the next to go home.
Now, the orange tribe is where all the fun is this week as they go to tribal council after a disastrous challenge. Did anyone not mess up at one point or the other in the tribe during the challenge?
Talking about three tribe immunity challenges, I sometimes find them a bit underwhelming, as they’re more about not losing than winning.
As a twist, maybe they could have a challenge where only one tribe wins immunity and both losing tribes go to tribal together, voting out only one person. Done at the right moment (when is it exactly?) it could be a very interesting vote, with old and new allegiances coming into play.
Probst, if you read this… (unfortunately, he won’t)
OK, back to the orange team. I’m surprised how loyal Zeke is to Michelle, after finding his new Sooner friend/hero/ally in Chris, I would have expected him to jump ship and join the Gen Xers and vote her out. I thought he was aware that she was running the show in the Millennial tribe and not exactly in his favor. Is there something we haven’t seen between these two?
Funny how when CeCe was very confident that she was safe at the vote, I knew she was toast, but then for the rest of the episode, I really had no idea who was going to go home between her, David or Michelle (OK, it was extremely unlikely it was going to be David).
In any case, I think Chris made a terrible mistake wanting to get rid of CeCe, he really should have targeted Michelle. Zeke must really have worked his magic on Chris, and I still don’t understand why he’d want to save Michelle. Or, if there was no way Zeke would have voted against Michelle, then David should have been the target, he proved to be a much bigger threat than CeCe.
I’m afraid that Chris is just not very good at this game.
And he’s definitely a fool trusting David after being blindsided twice.
It may be surprising that David turned on CeCe in the end, but he was not going to burn his new idol on her after using his first one on Jessica, and as he was starting to appear untrustworthy, I think it was actually a good move to vote with Chris on this one.
Next Time on Survivor:
They’re teasing about Taylor and Figgy couple status again… I think their “romance” is getting a lot emphasized lately with nothing to tell really. Does it mean it’s gonna come into play in a big way sooner or later.
Next person voted out: OK, this time, Figgy is in trouble.
Winner: A toss up between Adam and Ken, with Michaela catching up on them.