Survivor 48 — Episode 2 Reaction
Another episode of Survivor 48 is in the books! More idols are revealed, and the Sai storm continues. Let’s dive in!
Lagi Makes it Complicated while Civa Keeps it Simple
The game moves at different speeds across the beaches of Survivor 48. While Lagi and Civa haven’t seen tribal council and probably won’t see tribal council until Vula gets their act together, one tribe is in full strategic chaos while the other has the numbers game figured out.
Lagi was a simple tribe for the first few days. The physically strong tribe is confident in their ability to win challenges and if they do find themselves going to tribal council, they have Star as their easy scapegoat. Then luck smiles on Star, who knows she needs to find an alliance, and she finds the beware advantage. But because the cipher proves too tough for her to solve alone, Star gets everyone on the tribe involved, revealing the Survivor grenade she now possesses and leaves the rest of the tribe scrambling. I think the Lagi tribe feels that if Star solves the cypher and gets her idol, she is sure to play it and guarantee her safety at the first tribal council, removing the easy vote out of their tribe.
Star goes to Joe first with the information, which puts Joe into a conundrum because he can’t refuse to help Star with her idol… but if Star got her way she would want to vote out Eva, whom Joe is tightly aligned with. Joe brings in Shauhin to help him and Star with the idol, and Shauhin is faced with the same problem. Helping Star doesn’t help him, so maybe he should just play dumb and avoid solving the cypher? Then Star goes to Thomas and Bianca for help, who quickly connect with Joe and Shauhin. Thomas goes as far as to suggest that they hide the cypher so it’s impossible for Star to solve the idol, but then Thomas has also shown a willingness to work with Star, so who knows his real intentions. It certainly spooked Shauhin that Thomas could be a snake in the grass waiting to bite. And Eva was not left out of the fun, as Joe notified Eva that Star is targeting her.
All in all, it’s a convoluted mess of a tribe that is going to need a tribal council to solve all these silent rifts. I’m thinking if Lagi continues to quietly scheme up all these plans without being able to act on them, then this tribe is going to go into the merge messy and fractured. Trust is not being built at all in Lagi.
Civa is in the opposite situation to Lagi. They generally like each other, warts and all. Strategically there is a clear divide with Charity and Mitch on one side, and the foursome of David, Christy, Kyle, and Kamilla on the other. There has been no urgency to scramble yet within Civa, and I would not be surprised if they entered the merge “Civa strong”. And while David might think he’s leading the tribe, I would bet that Kyle and Kamilla dictate how Civa plays post-merge, as they seem to be smart players in a strong alliance with the power of an idol.
A Flurry of Advantages Enter the Game
On top of the new idol discoveries from Star and Kyle, we got a journey in this episode that introduced even more advantages into the game. Thomas was able to win the steal-a-vote advantage and Mitch was able to win the block-a-vote advantage, while Mary won herself nothing except a lost vote at the upcoming tribal council.
Finally, we see someone come back from a journey and play the information game right. Thomas lies to his tribe that he protected his vote and did not play the game, and he has committed to… actually keeping his advantage secret! As of now, he plans to not even tell his allies about the steal-a-vote, which makes it such an effective advantage given that people are not planning around his vote steal. Could it come back to bite him if he gets to the merge and Mary or Mitch tell everyone he played the journey game? Maybe. Could Thomas break and decide to inform people of what he won, removing the secrecy? Maybe. But let’s just take a moment and celebrate good gameplay as it happens.
On the flipside, Mitch went the communist route, and his advantage quickly became “our” advantage. This advantage no longer benefits Mitch but weighs him down, as he forgoes his right to play it selfishly and has given others a reason to vote him out.
Kevin Steps out of Line and Pays the Ultimate Price
Due to an enormous crash out in the challenge, Vula goes back for another tribal council. Initially the vote was going to clearly fall on Mary. She wasn’t with Sai’s Core Four and she had no vote, so there was no way for Mary to defend herself. If Vula wanted to take the easy path, it was totally there. However, the game is in full swing on that tribe and the alternatives were more enticing.
Kevin made a big push within the guys alliance to blindside Sai while she was feeling confident. This was always his master plan since Sai found the idol and he feels he controls the tribe if he can make this #BIGMOVE. But Kevin did not have the pull that he thought he did. Cedrek is not on board to blindside Sai so he tells her their ally Kevin is targeting her and that she should play her idol to protect herself. Justin takes it a step further and says that they should just vote Kevin out because he is not trustworthy. And that’s how tribal council plays out. Beneath all the Mary-Sai infighting, Kevin is curtly shown the door by his own tribemates.
Kevin fell into the trap of thinking he was a lot more influential a player than he really was. I imagine his multiple underwhelming challenge performances did not help. He should’ve taken Stephanie’s strategy and sat on his hands this vote, as he was completely safe until he put his own neck on the line by trying to make the risky move. But instead Kevin was too eager to make resume building moves when all Vula needs is stable, simple votes.
Vula is on the path of complete decimation before the merge. This tribe has zero challenge strength and I can’t imagine the group getting unified enough to overperform their expectations with plucky teamwork and a can-do attitude. A tribe swap is desperately needed but because it’s the new era, I imagine the show just rides out the uneven groups until mergetory because they’ve rarely swapped tribes in the past. However, in Survivor 45 when Lulu was a complete trainwreck they did do a tribe swap, so let’s pray the producers wisen up, mix up the tribes, spice up the game.
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Most Nipples: David
I just want to point out that I’m pretty sure David said that if he could milk himself, he would. Why did the show leave that in? I didn’t need to know that at all… but it checks out for David.
Best Rivalry: Mary and Sai
IDGAF Mary is the best Mary, and she will continue to serve as long as Sai is around to systematically annoy her. The budding beef exploded over the course of the episode as Sai took the “I don’t have a grudge” approach to her grudge, and as Mary fell into deeper despair with her failure at the journey. It all came together in another Sai scorched earth rant at tribal council when Mary no longer could take the childish, say-what-is-on-my-mind behavior of Sai.
With Sai’s idol played and a new one circulating, I expect the beef to escalate even more when Mary and Sai compete to find the next advantage. I understand why Sai played the idol because her name was thrown out there by Kevin and she couldn’t just take Mary’s story about losing her vote at the journey as gospel truth. I’m thankful she did play it, because it gives Mary a puncher’s chance to flip Vula upside down by finding a newly hidden idol. I’m having fun cheering for Mary and if she can somehow survive the Vula mess and get to the merge, it would make for a great Survivor redemption story.
Laziest Move: Letting Someone Else Solve your Beware Advantage
We need to discuss this new subleasing trend with the idols. Are the ciphers too hard? Are people too nervous that they won’t solve it in time? We had Kyle, Sai, and Star basically handing their clues off to other people to solve the beware advantage for them. Where is the ambition? Where is the spirit to face obstacles on your own? I’m disappointed in these castaways.
MVP of the Episode: Mitch
He might not get many other good episodes down the road given he is fifth on the totem pole is his own tribe, so I’ll shout out Mitch this week for winning the journey puzzle, winning the challenge for Civa, and for just being an all-around nice guy,
Goat of the Episode: Kevin
I just wish his burn out was a little more exciting. Where was the drama and tears I needed from my early vote out? Kevin just systematically played himself out of the game… against Sai of all people.
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PLAYER TIER LIST:
OUT OF THE GAME
18. Stephanie
17. Kevin
BOTTOM OF THE TOTEM POLE
16. Mary
15. Charity
These two ladies are the drama-free vote outs, if their tribes go to tribal council.
IN AN UNCOMFORTABLE POSITION
14. Star
While the idol gives her newfound power, she’s overshared it to the point she has become less an ally to join, but a problem to work around.
13. Mitch
Aligning with Charity is bad for Mitch if Civa goes to tribal council
12. Sai
She might be here to stay if Vula can actually win a challenge, but I need to see her survive one more vote before I feel she is safe. I don’t think Sai is a smart player, just a loud one. She could always find a way to get herself voted out, if Justin and Cadrek no longer find value in her as an ally.
IN A GOOD SPOT
11. Cedrek
In the majority alliance, but his bad challenge performances are a concern
10. Eva
9. Bianca
8. Shauhin
Lagi is still in limbo… hard to rank these three right now
7. Chrissy
6. David
5. Pizza (Justin)
Yes, Pizza dictated this last vote by changing it to Kevin. He feels like the silent captain of the Vula sinking ship
IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT
4. Kamilla
3. Kyle
2. Joe
If Eva finds herself in danger once the Star idol situation is resolved, then I will have to move Joe down in my rankings. I’m also worried Thomas could stab him in the back…
1. Thomas
If a big move happens in Lagi, it either goes through Thomas… or it happens to Thomas. RIght now, I feel the groundwork is being laid for him to be a great strategic player by dictating the first big Lagi vote.