"Survivor 47" Episode 5 Recap - A Brand New Twist
A brutal blindside leaves a player in tears...
Every Wednesday after the “Survivor” episode airs you’ll find a full recap along with individual player grades right here. The next day I’ll have an exit interview with the latest castaway on my YouTube Channel.
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Last Week: Like most of us, Kishin didn’t realize that Genevieve was playing.
39 26 Days, 18 People, 1 “Survivor” Blog…
Alright, let’s check out the tribes as they currently stand…
The Gata Tribe (wearing yellow)
Andy, 31 - AI Research Assistant
Anika, 26 - Marketing Manager
Rachel, 34 - Graphic Designer
Sam, 24 - Sports Reporter
Sierra, 27 - Nurse
The Lavo Tribe (wearing red)
Genevieve, 33 - Corporate Lawyer
Rome, 30 - Esports Commentator
Sol, 43 - Medical Device Sales
Teeny, 24 - Freelance Writer
The Tuku Tribe (wearing blue)
Caroline, 27 - Strategy Consultant
Gabe, 26 - Radio Show Host
Kyle, 31 - Construction Worker
Sue, 59 - Flight School Owner
Tiyana, 27 - Flight Attendant
Post-Tribal Discussion
Teeny is shook! And not surprisingly so. She was comfortable giving up her vote earlier that day. Now she’s lost Kishan and she was on the wrong end of a unanimous vote.
Rome asks Teeny if she was in on it. She admits that she knew about it, but couldn’t do anything because of her lack of a vote. Rome presses on, saying that he thought she had his back. They eventually hug it out, but Rome lets us know that their trust is broken.
During a later conversation with Genevieve, Teeny is told that the vote was always going to be Kishan and her name didn’t come up. Genevieve also assures her that Sol and Rome are on the bottom.
Wait, two people on the bottom of a four-person tribe. That math ain’t mathin’!
Reward Challenge Time
As the tribes walk in, they realize the course is only set up for two tribes.
New Twist: They’ll do a random draw across the tribes to create two teams of seven. These teams are just for this challenge. The teams will compete together and the winning group will celebrate with the reward.
Challenge Rules: The teams will race under obstacles while retrieving keys along the way. They’ll unlock a ladder and use it to retrieve five balls. The first team to shoot those balls into their respective targets will receive a visit to “The Sanctuary: Where Good Things Happen™.” They’ll get to participate in a “Survivor” Social Hour where they’ll get to hang out, play cornhole and cook hotdogs.
The Teams: Blue is Anika, Sol, Rome, Gabe, Andy, Sierra, and Genevieve while yellow is Sue, Kyle, Teeny, Sam, Rachel, Tiyana, and Caroline.
The Result: Yellow takes the lead and never gives it up, they’re going on reward.
Also, great new twist. And it seems so simple, too.
At the Sanctuary
Kyle is giddy that they had a veggie dog waiting for him. And as Teeny is the only person from her tribe in attendance, she gets to tell her side of what happened during Kishan’s blindside. She keeps it pretty straightforward, saying it was a unanimous vote against Kishan and now she feels like she’s on the bottom.
Sam claims that Gata is a very kumbaya kinda tribe, but Sue says the she heard that he and Sierra are running the show. Sam does his best to shut that down quickly.
Tiyana says that Gabe is the only person on her tribe that is looking for idols, and since he’s alone on their beach right now, he’s probably already found it. Sue is not happy that Tiyana is spilling her tribe’s tea.
(That’s what the kids say, right? Spilling tea?)
During a game of cornhole, Caroline, Rachel, and Teeny are able to have a more private chat.
At Lavo Beach
Rome is really down. Between the previous night’s scramble and losing the challenge, he’s pretty spent. But, with Teeny away from camp he can start to mend fences with Sol and use her as the next target.
He spills the beans about Teeny’s amulet and Sol is shocked.
(When I was a kid we “spilled the beans.”)
He also tells Sol that Genevieve doesn’t want to work with Sol long term. All of this makes Sol appreciate that he has no idea what’s going on around camp.
This all backfires when Genevieve and Sol sit down and compare notes.
I tell ya, I love Rome. He is a fantastic “Survivor” character. But, he needs some self awareness before he becomes a fantastic “Survivor” player.
When Teeny returns she says there was one hot dog per player, no condiments, and no sides. What? The Sanctuary Where Disappointing Things Happen™.
She tells the tribe that she told her Sanctuary-mates about their Tribal, but says that she didn’t tell them about Rome stealing Kishan’s vote.
When Rome walks off, Genevieve and Sol tell her about how Rome was playing hard while she was gone.
At Gata Beach
Sierra wants to let the chickens out of their cage because she doesn’t think they can lay eggs while they’re cooped up. She’s even named them! Those chickens are the best survivors on this show.
Anika, Sierra, and Andy bust out the fishing kit and have zero luck.
When Rachel and Sam return, they give everyone the breakdown about what happened, but Sam leaves out the fact that Sue said that she had heard that Sam and Sierra were running the show.
This leaves Sierra in the middle where she can go with the Bread Winners or she can stick with Sam and Andy.
At Tuku Beach
Sue immediately lets Gabe know that Tiyana was throwing him under the bus at the reward. Caroline doesn’t want to ostracize Tiyana, because she thinks there’s a good chance all five of them will make it to the merge.
Caroline tells Tiyana that she’s worried that Gabe will learn about what she said at the merge. Her hope is that Tiyana will confess and they can make peace and move on.
Tiyana doesn’t think she needs to apologize, but does so because it’ll help her bond with Caroline and Gabe. That’s actually very savvy gameplay on Tiyana’s part. I hope it doesn’t blow up in her face.
She confesses to Gabe that she only told a few people about Gabe playing his idol. Gabe pretends like he’s cool with it…but..he…is…not.
Ooof…and when Gabe cross references this with Sue, Sue says that Tiyana told everyone about it.
Immunity Challenge Time: The teams will drag a heavy net full of coconuts and sandbags along a course. As they go on, they’ll gather more sandbags and coconuts. Once they’ve reached the end of the course, they’ll throw the bags at a puzzle wall. The first two tribes to knock down their wall and then rebuild it will win immunity.
Umm…and Gata brought their chickens. Apparently, the chickens are bad at laying eggs, so they’d like to trade them for two dozen eggs.
Oh…so I’m assuming eating those chickens is off the table.
Jeff counters with fifteen eggs, Sam wants twenty. They meet in the middle with eighteen eggs.
Alright, let’s get Jeff on “Shark Tank.”
Also, if I were Jeff, I’d make the next reward a plate of fried chicken and make them wonder where it came from.
Sitting Out: Anika and Sue
Result: Gata falls way behind because of Andy inability to cut a rope. But, they’re able to catch up because Lavo has trouble knocking the last pieces off of their platform. Tuku claims first place easily while Lavo is just barely able to edge out Gata.
Pre-Tribal Politicking
Hilariously, the eggs are waiting for the tribe but they have no way to cook them because Probst has their flint.
The narrative early is that Andy is taking the heat for losing the challenge because he had trouble sawing through that rope.
Anika still doesn’t have a vote, but she isn’t nervous because she’s relatively sure that Andy is going home.
Sam isn’t thrilled with Andy’s challenge performance, but he wants to get rid of Anika. As part of this plan, they have Andy pretending to scramble.
Anika and Rachel want to keep Andy from playing his Shot-in-the-Dark, so they say they’re want to target Sam. But, this is exactly what Andy expected them to say.
Sierra isn’t quite ready to get rid of Anika, so she and Sam are trying to figure out the best course of action. Sam also has to figure out what to do with his one-Tribal idol. His concern is if he plays it, it’ll make Andy think he can’t be trusted.
Tribal Time
Andy says that people probably don’t care too much about how good he is at challenges, they want to trust him as a person.
Rachel is very confident that her alliance is going to stick together.
Sam and Anika are both confident. Uh-oh…
Andy hopes this vote will prove that he can trusted.
Voting Time: Andy votes for Anika, Anika can’t vote, but would vote for Andy, and no other votes are shown.
Oh…did they bring Rachel in on the vote?
JPro tallies and returns. He asks if anyone wants to play an idol or an advantage and…nobody does.
We’ve got one vote for Anika, one vote for Andy, one vote for Anika, and the fifth person eliminated from “Survivor 47” is…Anika.
She…is…shook. She turns to them and says, “You’re kidding me, you guys.” She asks if Rachel knew about it, and she says she didn’t. She then asks who owns it and Sam raises his hand. Andy then says it was the three of them.
As she’s leaving, she bursts into tears. Yikes…this is rough.
Verdict: First of all, I love the twist. It’s simple, it doesn’t mess with the game too much. It’s social. Two thumbs up.
And second, I know there’s no legit way to make it so one tribe isn’t blown out, but this is soooo much better.
A-: Sam - Pocketing the idol was risky, but it was the right move. Now Andy doesn’t have a reason not to trust you. Yes, that’s a double negative.
A-: Sue - She did exactly what a good ride-or-die should do.
A-: Teeny - That is Blindsided 101. Don’t freak out. Pick up the pieces. Find a new way.
B+: Andy - Dude should be dead in the water after that first episode, but he’s turned it around. And, the way he handled the Bread Winners shows he’s got some chops.
B+: Sol - Rome is such a trainwreck, that just by listening and comparing notes, you’re moving up in your tribe.
B+: Genevieve - Gathering info, keeping players close, realizing that Rome might be too erratic for a long-term alliance.
B+: Caroline - She made the most of her trip to The Sanctuary. Hopefully that’ll set her up well for the merge.
B: Sierra - Time will tell if turning on the Bread Winners is the wrong move. But, I do know that keeping your tribe from eating chicken is a bad move.
C: Rachel - You just backed the wrong side. Probably not worthy of a terrible grade. But there’s no doubt that you desperately need a merge.
C: Rome - You could’ve gotten closer to Sol without throwing other people under the bus.
C-: Tiyana - I’m not sure how she done a worse job. She smack talks Gabe, it gets back to him, she gives a half-confession, and that gets back to him too.
Incomplete: Kyle and Gabe - I can’t grade you if you don’t show your work.
Welp, that’s it! Check out my exit interview with Anika on YouTube tomorrow.
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And, be sure to check out the official “Survivor” podcast - “On Fire with Jeff Probst”
Great job with the recap!