Survivor 48 — Episode 5 Reaction

Another episode of Survivor 48 is in the books! A powerful moment in the immunity challenge makes for a memorable episode. Let’s dive in!

Eva’s Challenge Moment Steals the Show

I’m relieved that Survivor is still able to nail important social commentary moments like this one. It was genuinely sweet to see Joe leave his tribe and comfort Eva in the way she instructed him to do. And I’m happy that Jeff let Eva have the floor and tell her story and explain why she expressed her emotion in the way she did. Survivor went with the “show not tell” approach and trusted that when it was time for Eva’s autism to take center stage, that their castaways would be able to give the moment its proper importance.

Honestly, me talking about the scene won’t do it the proper justice, so just go rewatch it on YouTube and appreciate what Eva was able to do to speak up for those like her.

It’s a far cry for how culturally relevant moments were handled in the early New Era from Survivor 41–43 (think about the awkward referendum on the “Come on in guys” phrase or the overemphasis on Noelle’s artificial leg, when they’ve already had multiple castaways with one leg… and to clarify, I think they tried their best in handling conversations on race in 41 and 42). I have to give Survivor credit for getting its mojo back editing-wise in the past couple seasons and realizing that they don’t need to insert a highly edited “sob story” for every character or force the conversations in a way that could be interpreted as virtue signaling is great for the show. They trust the people they’ve casted for the show to rise up to the moment. Put 18 people from diverse walks of life on an island for a month and you are going to get naturally flowing social commentary out of it.

New Tribe Unity Strengthens Heading into the Merge

Looking towards the future of Survivor 48, I found it telling that tribe unity moments were highlighted within Lagi and Vula. On Vula, the foursome bonding over the most obvious thing to bond over: their dads being in cultural wars. Obviously there’s nothing more bonding than genocide, war in the Middle East, and Jim Crow laws. Speaking on these topics has a new Vula foursome that are tight-knit and ready to attack the merge instead of tense and divided over how the blindside of Thomas went down.

On Lagi, Eva’s autism reveal touched the heart of the rest of her tribe and they find themselves closer than ever. Star especially had a complete 180 on Eva after realizing how she has misunderstood their interactions. The tribe agrees to help her figure out the beware idol, and when Eva cracks the code Star goes as far as to GIVE Eva the hidden immunity idol. From what we’ve seen this is a genuine change of heart from Star, removing the biggest roadblock from a unified front in both old Lagi and new Lagi.

This makes me think that the Lagi vs. Vula alliances from the tribe swap will be dominating the early merge, and Civa will be the victim. There is no sense of unity on Civa and the vote on Bianca did little to build trust. My hope is that tribe-strong alliances will dissolve quickly, but I do have some fears that this will be the strategy of choice for almost all castaways given how the bonds were so emotionally driven this episode. We could be seeing some predictable boots in the early merge, which is sad given that the pre-merge has been filled with chaos and blindsides.

Bianca Breaks and Foils Her Own Plan

Civa goes to tribal council with a lot of tension within the tribe. Sai has done Sai things and is pushing to get Chrissy out because she finds the old lady annoying. Chrissy wants to get Sai out because she’s bristly and lazy around camp. MItch and Cedrek take the side of their original tribemates and Bianca is the swing vote, but little did they know Bianca actually has no vote.

Bianca went into this new tribe with the intention of deception. She wasn’t going to let anyone know she is voteless, and she was hoping she would be recruited into plans for a scenario exactly like this one. Then, when the vote ties and people have to revote, her name is taken off the table. She did a good job of laying the groundwork over the first few days on new Civa by using her social game to ingratiate herself into both groups and build trust. She had succeeded in her mission because both sides assumed Bianca was with them.

However, Bianca started to consider her long-term future in this game based on what she does in this vote. She worried that by lying about her voting status today, she would ostracize herself from these prospective alliances tomorrow. When they merge, would she be thrown under the bus as a threat by Sai, Chrissy, Mitch and Cedrek for leading them on? I imagine Thomas going home also put more pressure on Bianca, as he was her closest ally and left her without a strong alliance in the game. So Bianca cracks and decides to tell Cedrek minutes before leaving for tribal council that she needs him to flip against Sai, or else risk a tied vote.

Now all the power is in Cedrek’s hands yet again: either switch his vote and betray Sai for good, or hold strong and tie the vote… or take the third option: use Bianca’s confession against her. Cedrek is faced with an eerily similar situation to the chaotic Justin vote, but this time he knows which tribemate he can’t count on to vote. Cedrek approaches Chrissy of all people, and convinces her to switch her vote to Bianca, blindsiding and sending their voteless tribemate home. Interestingly, Cedrek goes behind Sai’s back to do this, and Chrissy goes behind Mitch’s back. Will this bite them in the butt moving forward, or will the two be able to explain it away with the excuse that they did not have enough time to introduce the new plan to everyone in the tribe?

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Edgiest Joke: Jeff Probst’s Balls Dropping Quip

Jeff Probst can do it all, folks! At the immunity challenge he shed tears over Joe and Eva’s father-daughter relationship in a cutthroat game… but at the reward challenge he made a testicles puberty joke, and called Cedrek an abysmal failure for good measure. I will always welcome sassy Jeff back into the game so please: more innuendos.

Weirdest Addiction: David’s Love of Milk

Why does the big guy love a nice, cold glass of whole milk so much? Was he breastfed for too long? Or is he just a lover of calcium and sturdy bones?

Merge Vibe Check

I always try to the best of my knowledge to summarize where everything stands entering the merge/mergatory, just to wrap our heads around alliances and advantages.

Old tribes and new tribes have various alliances entering the merge. Original Civa had two competing alliances: a foursome with Kyle Kamilla David and Chrissy, and a foursome of Kyle David Charity and Mitch. Original Civa has a tribe strong mentality, but a couple castaways within that group do not trust Charity. There are also two notable duos in original Civa: Mitch and Charity, and Kyle and Kamilla. Kyle and Kamilla have also formed a tight bond with original Lagi tribemates Joe and Shauhin on new Vula. Joe and Shauhin are allied as refugees from the California Girls alliance, and Joe has a very tight alliance with Eva as her confidant and island father figure.

In the original Lagi, Eva and Star were beefing, but Star has publicly given her idol to Eva on New Lagi in a move of reconciliation. New Lagi has also bonded and consists of Eva Star David Mary and Charity. However, it should be noted that people on this tribe also don’t trust Charity.

Original Vula was a mess and had complicated relationships, centered around Sai. Sai has a love-hate relationship with both Mary and Cedrek, and Sai has also formed a rivalry with new Civa tribemates Chrissy and Mitch. Cedrek voted with Chrissy in the last tribal council and believes he has an alliance with Sai, but Sai behind his back has repeatedly stated she does not trust him (and honestly Cedrek doesn’t trust her either). Mary is disconnected from her original Vula tribemates but is ingratiated in new Lagi, and she has voiced that she likes David as a possible ally.

And to close the section out, the only advantages remaining from the premerge are the Lagi idol in Eva’s hands, and Mitch’s block a vote. The Civa and Vula idols were used before the merge, and Kamilla’s extra vote was used in the Thomas blindside.

MVP of the Episode: Eva

Lost in all of this is that despite nearly falling apart during the table maze in the immunity challenge… she still beat Sai. We can all enjoy Sai losing at the end of the day. Publicly explaining her autism may put her in a tricky position later on as castaways may vote against her as a jury threat, but for now it has opened the door to strong new alliances on Lagi before the merge.

And her story was powerful, plain and simple. It shined a light on what people with autism can achieve.

Goat of the Episode: Bianca

She handled this vote with a “Day 26” mindset, when she needed to handle it with a “get to the next day” mindset. It’s only made worse by the fact that she had done her job to avoid the vote perfectly… only to sabotage herself in the final minutes.

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PLAYER TIER LIST:

OUT OF THE GAME

18. Stephanie

17. Kevin

16. Pizza

15. Thomas

14. Bianca

BOTTOM OF THE TOTEM POLE

13. Sai

Let’s not kid ourselves: Sai is the Rome of Survivor 48. It is likely that she becomes the easy unanimous vote at mergetory. Unlike Rome, I think Sai does have potential as a goat because she is a more predictable player and probably less annoying to live with than Rome was. So I think there is a scenario where she could survive for a while if people find value in her as a goat/shield.

12. Charity

If it’s not Sai, then I think it’s Charity going home given that a lot of castaways have formed a negative opinion of her as sneaky and fake.

IN AN UNCOMFORTABLE POSITION

11. Cedrek

He has weak alliances. I don’t know if people will stick their neck out to protect him if he becomes vulnerable to the vote.

IN A GOOD SPOT

10. Chrissy

9. Mitch

New Civa is the weakest tribe entering the merge… I think Chrissy and Mitch can reconnect with original Civa castaways and find a group to vote with, but I think they would be bottom of the totem pole in those alliances.

8. Star

7. Shauhin

6. Eva

5. Joe

Original Lagi is in no-man’s land entering the merge. Reforming an original Lagi tribe alliance is not an option against the numbers of Civa. I think their best course of action is to stick with the bonds formed in their post-tribe swap tribes and hope they find ways to make big moves as the second half of the game develops. I’ve ranked them by how connected I think each of them are entering mergetory.

4. Mary

She’s in a perfect under-the-radar spot right now if she plays her cards right.

IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT

3. David

2. Kyle

1. Kamilla

This original Civa trio is well-connected entering the merge… they can bring together an original Civa alliance with the numbers formed from the tribe-swap. David ranks lowest because he is the most likely to be targeted as a challenge threat post-merge. Kamilla I rank the highest because I have a sneaky feeling that she could be getting a winner’s edit… she had a comment in her confessional about “keeping her foot on the gas” and it smelled like something the editors would put in if they are developing her winner’s story.