Battle Royale (S42: Episode 10)

Can you believe we're almost at the end of this season?!?! It really hit me hard during this episode.

• The episode starts off with a bang by showing us some precious camp life conversations, namely: Maryanne shocks her tribemates when she reveals that she regularly loses her pinky toenails. (I don’t care if you think Maryanne is annoying. This chick is top tier entertainment.)

• We see the big 5 (Drea, Omar, Lindsay, Jonathan and Mike) strategizing on the beach and talking about how they’d rather get to the final 5 together and fight it out amongst each other than let the “goats” get to the end. All the while, the perceived bottom feeders Maryanne and Romeo are banking on them all cannibalizing themselves.

• Jonathan is starting to feel the effects of hunger and let’s just say… hangry doesn’t look cute on him. He’s starting to get snippier with people around camp and it’s continuing to be a catalyst for his name being thrown out there.

• The Immunity Challenge, just like Season 41, involves the controversial Do or Die twist. Castaways choose whether or not to compete for immunity knowing that the first person to drop from the challenge will have to play a game of chance at Tribal Council that will determine their life in the game. To no surprise, everyone but Jonathan and Lindsay elects to sit out of the challenge. Lindsay puts up a noble fight, but Goliath comes out on top. What do you all think would have happened if Jonathan was the only one to choose to participate? Would he have gotten immunity immediately without even competing? Would they have eliminated the Do or Die twist at tribal entirely? Or maybe they would have made everyone EXCEPT for Jonathan do the challenge, and whoever dropped first from that group would be faced with the Do or Die twist. If nothing else, this challenge speaks to the impact that a physical beast like Jonathan can have on strategic decisions in the game. In season 41, only two castaways chose to sit out. In season 42, five castaways chose to sit out. (I’d also like to call out that this was a highly strength/endurance based challenge, whereas the challenge at this point in Season 41 felt more focus/endurance based rather than just physical. Seems like an odd production choice given Jonathan’s physical dominance throughout the season, but I digress.)

• Back at camp, we learn that Lindsay was a football badass as a kid, and it explains a lot about her competitive nature and success in challenges so far.

• Now that Jonathan is safe and Lindsay will be doing the Do or Die twist, the name being spread around camp quickly becomes Drea’s and everyone is on board with it given her threat level. This is until Drea spills the beans about her Knowledge is Power advantage to Omar. At this point in the game, we know Omar is likely to use this information to stir up some big move, and it begs the question, why oh WHY do so many Survivor players (even the good ones) continue to share information even when they know they probably shouldn’t? I’m sure the excitement of the moment just got to Drea, but as we know, it proved to be a fatal decision in her game.

• Omar shares Drea’s news with Lindsay. Omar starts to consider using this as an opportunity to get Mike out. Based on the edit, Lindsay is the one to say that they should take Mike's idol, and vote out Drea instead of Mike. This makes a lot of sense given the fact that Lindsay would benefit from Drea being voted out because she’ll get an immunity idol from the amulet, and Drea is just all around a better player than Mike. This episode is where we really come to see how tight Omar and Lindsay are as an alliance.

• At tribal council, Lindsay ends up winning the Do or Die twist in the same exact way Deshawn did in the previous season. She picks correctly the first time and then doesn’t switch her guess when she has the chance (which is statistically the incorrect choice). Because I think this twist is extremely stupid for so many reasons, I can’t help but question it’s legitimacy. Is Jeff giving something away with his body language or tone, or was it truly a coincidence!? Either way, this needs to be the end of the road for this twist in my opinion. This late in the game, it just seems silly to determine someone’s fate with a simple guessing game. The social and strategic impacts of voting are so essential to the dynamic of the game and the story of each player, and this twist just feels like a lazy attempt to mix things up at the end of the game with no real creativity or purpose behind it.

• With Lindsay saved, they go to a standard vote. Before voting, Drea talks about the observations she’s made around camp that day: the way others are interacting with her and around her. It’s clear she’s in tune to the fact that she’s on the chopping block which makes it even more of an upset when it’s revealed that Omar has in fact alerted Mike about Drea’s plans. Omar is holding onto Mike’s idol for him which means Drea is unable to steal his idol and is ultimately the one sent home. Side note: Mike referring to Drea’s Knowledge is Power advantage as a “trinket” is an episode highlight for me.

• Drea’s exit is playful and endearing which Jeff points out as an example of the unique level of both fierce gameplay and strong camaraderie that has been present throughout the season. I would agree with him although her departure did raise some questions for me in terms of fair gameplay. Those questions are… After the votes are read and it’s clear who is going home, should that person be allowed to speak about the game or share further information with the tribe before they leave the tribal council area? Is your “voice” not really taken away until Jeff formally snuffs your torch? Drea is by no means the first person to ever air out parts of her dirty laundry on her way out, but to what end is this allowed by production? Where’s the line with what can and cannot be shared, and what impact does that potentially have on the game? If it’s considered fair game, what impact does that possibly have on someone’s decision of who to vote for? Maybe I’m overanalyzing, but it’s something I’d want clearly detailed out in the rulebook if I ever had a shot at playing.

• Regardless, I will miss Drea’s long laughs/direct eye contact during her confessionals, and I hope to see her making a strong comeback as a future returnee player!

THE LEAGUE!

As we get closer to the end here, the window of opportunity for a comeback in the league gets smaller and smaller. Although competition remains fierce for our top 10 or so, those of us towards the second half of the pack can begin to kiss our potential goodbye. Lori remains in the top spot with a total of 568 points to date and still has 4 tribe members left in the game, including her Sole Survivor. She’s got a healthy lead, but by no means is it a runaway yet. Matt R. makes an impressive leap from 5th place to 2nd place, but with the loss of Drea, he’s now down to 3 tribe members. Drea’s departure doesn’t bode well for David, Tom, Rachael, Alex, Survivor Pete, Kathryn, Allie B., Christina, and Producer Jim who had her on their tribe, and especially for Matt R., Joe, Vicky, Adam, Bri, and Matt S. who had her as their Sole Survivor. Her departure also marks the end of Producer Jim’s tribe as he officially has no tribe members left in the game. League Newbie, Coach Juju, sneaks back into the top 10 for the first time since Episode 4.

With only two episodes left to go, I can wait to see how this shakes out!

-Tribemasters Liv + Brian