"Survivor 48" Episode 6 Recap - The More We Get Together

The merge has arrived!

“Survivor 48” (CBS)

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: Bianca lack of a vote led directly to her lack of a lit torch.

39 26 Days, 18 People, 1 “Survivor” Blog…

Alright, let’s check out the tribes as they currently stand…

The Civa Tribe (wearing orange)

Cedrek, 45 - Surgeon

Chrissy, 54 - Fire Lieutenant

Saiounia, 27 - Marketing Professional

Mitch, 34 - P.E. Coach

The Lagi Tribe (wearing purple)

Charity, 33 - Flight Attendant

David, 38 - Stunt Performer

Eva, 23 - PhD Candidate

Mary, 30 - Substance Abuse Counselor

Star, 27 - Sales Expert

The Vula Tribe (wearing green)

Joe, 45 - Fire Captain

Kamilla, 30 - Software Engineer

Kyle, 30 - Attorney

Shauhin, 37 - Debate Professor

Post-Tribal Shenanigans

OK, we immediately get some clarity on last week’s whack-a-doodle vote. Apparently Bianca told Cedrek at the last minute before Tribal and he only had time to tell Chrissy about it.

But Sai is not pleased. She tells Mitch and Chrissy that she’s willing to talk to them, but she doesn’t want to hear from Cedrek again.

When they all finally get a chance to talk, Sai realizes that Cedrek had her back. And, the reason she was so upset is because she thought Cedrek voted for her.

Mitch apologizes for being the one to cast that ballot, but she quickly forgives him.

Mergeville - Popular 13

Boats arrive at Vula and Civa beach with news of the impending merge. Those tribes will be making their way to Lagi-ville.

It’s all hugs and high-fives and Sai is looking forward to catching up with her bestie Mary. Which is surprising considering the way Sai called her out at the last challenge.

Sure enough, Mary is very nervous about working with Sai. In fact, she doesn’t want anything to do with classic Vula. She goes so far as to say she’d take off her green attire if she was allowed to be naked on national TV.

Well, Richard Hatch, Shirin Oskooi, Max Dawson…

The tribe finds a note that says there will be a challenge where the winners will eat and the losers will not, but only one person will be immune. Also, there is an advantage for this challenge somewhere on the island.

Charity locates the advantage first, but Sai is able to beat her to it.

Later, Joe and David bond over their mutual love for milk. Yeah, I’ve got a four-year-old who would fit right into that alliance.

Also, instead of the California Girls, they can be the Dairy Queens.

Speaking of that alliance, Eva tells Joe that she’s close with David and David is close with Kyle. She also tells Joe about receiving Star’s idol.

Joe’s hope is to form an alliance with that group as well as Shauhin to form an coalition of honest challenge competitors. David and Kyle are completely on board with this, but Kyle is worried that Shauhin will cut their throats if given a chance.

Kyle also wants to keep Kamilla as his true number one.

In other news, Mitch, Charity, and Chrissy are discussing keeping Civa together, with Mitch’s block-a-vote allowing them to cover the number differential. And while everyone seems to want to boot Sai first, Charity wants to get rid of Eva to eliminate her idol and knock out that big potential alliance.

Charity tries to convince Star to ask for the idol back, but Star’s pretty sure Charity is just trying to stir the pot. Star goes to Eva with that news.

Challenge Time: The tribe will be split into two teams of six. They’ll crawl through mud and wood shavings until they get to a cage where they’ll use a grappling hook to retrieve a large bag containing a key. They’ll climb a ramp, then use the key to unlock puzzle pieces. The first team to finish the puzzle wins the merge feast. The winning six will then complete in an individual challenge for immunity.

Quick Aside: This is much better than the whole team being immune. Huzzah!

Sai’s Advantage: She won’t have to compete in the team challenge. She’ll go right to the individual challenge and will get the merge feast no matter who wins.

Teams: Charity, Eva, Shauhin, Mitch, Cedrek, and Joe are the orange team vs. the purple team of Mary, Chrissy, Kamilla, David, Kyle, and Star.

Result: Orange has a decent lead, but Cedrek has a ton of trouble getting up the ramp. Purple completes the puzzle and wins.

Immunity Challenge: The players will balance a ball on a pole. As time goes on, they’ll add more sections to their pole. The last person with their ball in the air wins immunity and the first merge buff.

Result: It comes down to Star vs. Kyle with Kyle picking up the win.

Reward Feast

It’s hilarious to have clean Sai surrounded by six muddy people. When they start talking strategy, Star immediately throws out Charity’s name. And even though Star’s brother-in-law Robbie told her not to throw out any names, she does it anyway.

Robbie sounds pretty smart.

Also, Star is really growing on me.

Although, when they mention that Eva has an idol, Star says she heard that Eva had an idol, but she didn’t know it for a fact. C’mon Star, a whole tribe watched you give it to her.

Pre-Tribal Politicking

Cedrek feels terrible for being the reason his team missed out on a meal, but Joe tells him that they didn’t come out to Fiji to eat.

Man, if Joe could bottle that attitude and sell it, he wouldn’t need the “Survivor” prize money.

It looks like it’s coming down to Eva, Sai, or Charity. Eva because of her idol, Sai because she’s been rubbing people the wrong way, and Charity because she’s coming off as someone who is playing too hard.

When the feast folks return, Cedrek gets very emotional when he hears about the food that his team missed out on. Star gives him a heartfelt pep talk, and screw it…I’m Team Star.

I think she’s making some questionable strategic choices, but she is an amazing character.

Kyle tells Eva that Sai mentioned her name during the feast because of her idol. And when asked about Sai’s game, Mary tosses her right under the bus.

Buuut…Shauhin makes the point that if Sai goes home, there will be six Civa vs. six other players.

Tribal Time

Shauhin compares the merge to hosting a house party when you’re used to smaller dinner parties.

Oh gosh…and Jeff uses this as an excuse to use the term “Club Condo.” Quit trying to make “Fetch” happen, Probst.

Charity is nervous because there are a lot of people that she hasn’t talked to around camp.

They agree that it’s a dysfunctional family, but Star points out that in her regular life she has family members she doesn’t like. Hopefully not Robbie. He gives good advice.

David thinks this season is going to focus on honesty and integrity. Probst makes the point that that’s coming from someone who’s never been to Tribal.

Voting Time: No votes are shown, but Star accidentally chucks a piece of the set around the voting booth.

JPro tallies and returns. He asks if anyone wants to use an advantage and…nobody does.

We’ve got one vote for Sai, one vote for Charity, one vote for Cedrek, one vote for Sai, one vote for Charity, three votes for Sai, four votes for Charity, and the sixth person voted out of “Survivor 48” is…Charity.

We’d later learn that Sai was the Cedrek vote.

Verdict: Now, that’s how you do a merge. Whatever kinda twists you want are fine as long as it leads up to one person being immune and everyone voting.

Also, I like that Eva’s reveal from last week hasn’t held anyone back from playing against her like they would any other player.

A: David and Joe - Challenge beast alliance? It’ll never work. But I bet it’ll keep you both safe for a while.

A: Kyle and Kamilla - I love this sleeper alliance. Pretend to be on the outs with each other and odds are one of you will hear everything said on the island.

A-: Star - Did she do anything amazing this episode? Not really. But she’s playing a great social game and I think she’s someone other people would like to see win.

A-: Mary - Good for you for not letting Sai slide when she called you out at the challenge. People making those kinds of shortsighted, unforced errors aren’t the kind of partners I’d want at this point.

B-: Shauhin - He kinda feels like the odd person out in this new Joe/David/Eva/Kyle/Kamilla alliance.

B-: Eva - She might want to lose that idol. Between that and her alliance with Joe, she’s got way too big of a target.

B-: Chrissy and Mitch - I know you were in on the vote, but the Civa Six was maybe your best shot in the short term.

C+: Cedrek - Another rough week for you, but at least you didn’t almost vote out your closest ally.

C: Sai - You’re eventually going to reach a point where they keep you around because you’re not much of a threat to win.

Welp, that’s it! Check out my exit interview with Charity on YouTube tomorrow.

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