Survivor 48 — Episode 8 Reaction
Another episode of Survivor 48 is in the books! Tensions begin to rise in the majority alliance as we get closer to the end of the game. Let’s dive in!
Outsiders Feel the Pressure of the Strongman Alliance
Finally, the post merge starts to get interesting. Two easy votes were made last episode, and this episode the power players began to jockey for position against each other and tensions rose from all castaways.
The strongman alliance showed some cracks as certain castaways try to push their agenda into the group’s decision making, the most disruptive being David’s insistence on including Mary. While David insists that Mary is a trustworthy ally, it’s very clear that Mary is only really trustworthy to David and offers minimal benefit to everyone else in the strongman alliance. It was giving shades of Coach and Edna in Survivor South Pacific, where Edna was only a part of that season’s majority alliance due to her singular loyalty to Coach. When David began to offer up Kamilla as the possible vote at tribal council, Mary echoed the sentiments with such fervor that it became unknowingly dangerous to her own game, as people like Joe and Kyle questioned why the heck they are letting Mary have so much say in their decisions.
Outside of the strongman alliance, the original Civa alliance starts to get very nervous about their position in the game. People like Mitch and Chrissy scrambled to reunite all their day one tribemates in hopes to restart the Civa strong agenda and take the fight to the remaining Lagi castaways. Kamilla joins the fight in incredulous rage later on when she realizes that David is lobbying to vote her out. She decries the stupidity of David for not targeting the Lagi tribe and allowing them to gain the numbers unopposed.
David finds himself at the center of everything in this episode because he, more than any other castaway, has tried to forge his own path to the end. Despite being safely tucked in the strongest Civa alliances, David opted to bring together his own alliance of physical threats based on his own Survivor philosophies of “strong players always being targets”. I find it refreshing when a castaway is willing to diverge from the status quo “tribe strong” alliances that have dominated the new era. The ironic part of David’s strongman crusade is that Kamilla could be proven right in her critique of him: Lagi really does have a path to slide all the way to the end and decimate Civa and it’s going to come down to whether Joe and Eva are more loyal to the strongman alliance of David and Kyle, or more loyal to OG tribemates Shauhin and Star. But I also view Kamilla’s distaste of David’s strategy to be a referendum on the failures of her own strategy.
Kyle and Kamilla’s Secret Alliance is Basically Outed
The secret duo strategy executed by Kyle and Kamilla had been highly effective all season long. They straddled the two sides of original Civa in a quiet power position, and then excellently planned the idoling out of Thomas without ever revealing that they were working together. Kyle is brought into the strongman alliance at the merge while Kamilla mingles with everyone in an under the radar position, allowing the two to quietly play off the social dynamics of the tribe like when they planted the lie to David that Shauhin has an idol. The strategy became exposed this week by one simple question: should we vote Kamilla out? Under pressure, Kyle is forced to make a hard decision, and he chooses the path of most resistance by lobbying hard to save his secret ally.
I think this secret alliance could be handled differently for a more successful result, though it would not have been ideal for Kamilla. If Kyle wanted to ensure Kamilla’s safety, he could have done what David did with Mary and lobby early in the merge for Kamilla as a number… he could have posed Kamilla as someone who trusts him from the Thomas vote and is looking for safety and willing to vote whichever way the strongman alliance wanted, giving them the option to reveal the strength of their alliance when they so choose. Obviously, this isn’t what Kamilla would want as it paints her as a weak player. Instead, Kyle is forced to choose between making zero waves and possibly losing his number one or fighting for Kamilla and risk exposing himself as unloyal to the strongman alliance.
Kyle chose the latter and aggressively campaigned to save Kamilla, but not against Mary with the hope that his and Kamilla’s alliance will not be revealed and a line in the sand would not be drawn with David. I think he failed in both facets. I had perceived that Kyle wasn’t the smoothest operator as a social player during the Thomas blindside because I perceived him as a poor actor… while I like the guy he is a bit of a square. Kyle’s fervent arguing was not a good look and only seemed to build more tension between him and David. I can imagine that it leaves David and Mary even more suspicious of Kamilla as a threat to eliminate.
Chrissy’s Canary in the Coal Mine Moment?
While a lot of drama and stink was made of a possible Kamilla blindside and the strongman alliance shattering, the group opted to stay united and make the easy vote against Chrissy, delaying what may be a brutal war for power in the next few episodes. Chrissy had really done it to herself: she loudly campaigned to eliminate Joe and Eva without the numbers to do so. She frustrated other castaways like David by repeatedly throwing physical players under the bus in tribal council, to the point where David started throwing shots back at Chrissy for attacks against him (much to the dismay of Kamilla who rebutted with the “👆🤓 actually, what about your jury management 👆🤓” to David).
I applaud Chrissy for trying at least to point out that Joe is the real threat of the season. With Eva, the duo finds themselves smack dab in the middle of the three biggest alliances of the season. They are central to the strongman alliance and had both sides of the David-Kyle argument appealing to Joe for his vote… and notably they both acquiesced to what Joe and Eva wanted: voting out Chrissy. Joe and Eva also can return to a Lagi alliance with Shauhin and Star. Shauhin especially has asserted his loyalty to Joe as his fellow California Girl. There’s also an interesting connection between Joe and the Kyle/Kamilla duo based on their time together after the tribe swap on Vula. I would not be surprised if Joe chooses to honor an alliance with Kyle against David if he is forced to choose between the two.
I mentioned last week that if things turn chaotic down the stretch, Joe’s trustworthy demeanor will benefit him greatly. He now enters the final nine with a strong number one and with multiple castaways vying for his loyalties. As long as the tribe does not get wise to his likability and band together to turn against Joe and Eva as threats, then there is a solid path for the two to make it to the end with a real chance at winning Survivor 48.
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The Purple Kelly Award: Star
For the uninitiated, the infamous Purple Kelly starred (?) in Survivor: Nicaragua, where she was basically edited out of the season for no apparent reason. Even though she was in the game for twenty plus days, she contributed only one meaningful confessional about milking, and the fanbase has since rallied around the unfair exclusion of her character from the season.
Star had a horrendous episode this week. She was not shown having a single meaningful conversation, and when she did get on screen it was to show her getting her vote stripped from her in the incredibly dumb “challenge loser journey” twist. The show could not make it more obvious that we are not supposed to care about Star by how they treated her in the edit, which is a disappointment because I think she showed a ton of personality in the past couple episodes.
The “Idol in the Fries” Award: Eva
Survivor is back on their bullcrap as Eva finds a secret advantage inside food at the reward, though we do not know what advantage is available for Eva to receive on her secret midnight mission the show will spend 10 pointless minutes on in the next episode. It’s not a new thing for Survivor to hide clues on rewards, but I have to admit I’m still salty that Rachel was given an idol last season because she just happened to buy the right food item during Survivor 47’s auction. I might get genuinely peeved if this advantage turns out to be a second idol for Eva, not because I dislike Eva but because it just seems like Survivor is giving away a gift to a castaway that just wasn’t evenly available to everyone.
MVP of the Episode: Joe
I feel like this is a momentum shifter for Joe as he gets his biggest critic Chrissy out, and people look to him for stability as the strongman alliance teeters on deterioration.
Goat of the Episode: Chrissy
I really just do not understand what Chrissy’s strategy was. She made multiple unprovoked attacks on the majority alliance, seemingly without any alliance members of her own to back her up.
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PLAYER TIER LIST:
OUT OF THE GAME
18. Stephanie
17. Kevin
16. Pizza
15. Thomas
14. Bianca
13. Charity
12. Sai
11. Cedrek
10. Chrissy
BOTTOM OF THE TOTEM POLE
9. Mitch
Mitch tried to do stuff this week, but nothing came out of it. It was giving zero-vote finalist and pseudo-goat energy. The show wants to spin Mitch in a positive light and a good player and threat to win, but the reality is there is virtually no chance he does… which makes sense if the winner of Survivor 48 is a runaway favorite and they want things to look closer than it ends up being.
IN AN UNCOMFORTABLE POSITION
8. Mary
7. David
The rise of the Mary-David duo is a risk to both of their safety in the game. Mary is more vulnerable as she is less connected in alliances… but David pushing for Mary’s inclusion in the strongman alliance against others wishes could spell his own doom.
6. Kamilla
Methinks Kamilla is not on the pulse of the game as much as we were led to believe, and she probably needs to start making some new friends. For what we’ve seen, she secretly aligned with Kyle and is just kinda floating under the radar with everyone else. This episode showed that enough people see Kamilla as a threatening but disposable tribemate.
5. Kyle
Unlike Kamilla, Kyle has connections with other castaways like Joe and David… but Kyle can’t ruin his connections. How he handles this upcoming episode may be the turning point for both himself and Kamilla. It’s sink or swim time.
IN A GOOD SPOT, BUT KIND OF IRRELEVANT
4. Shauhin
Shauhin feels like a third option in everything. People want to vote him out but have bigger priorities. People want to align with him but have more important relationships. It makes for a good under-the-radar game but a weak case to win the season.
3. Star
IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT
2. Eva
Eva is going to be advantage-laden after she goes on her midnight journey to receive Survivor’s gift, setting herself up nicely for a deep run in the game. If Eva wants a real chance of winning, however, she has to prove herself as more than Joe’s subordinate. While Joe and Eva’s relationship is wonderful, other castaways view Joe as the one calling the shots and Eva as the loyal follower. I’m worried that castaways won’t see much value in directly strategizing with Eva if they know everything they say will go back to Joe, which certainly hurts her jury case if people are looking for a winner who has more than just an inspiring story.
1. Joe