Good & Guilty (S42: Episode 2)

Annnndddd we’re back baby!!! This season has been off to a really fun start thanks to a cast that seems interesting, funny, and energized. Let’s dive into Episode 2: Good & Guilty.

• The first bit of the episode gives us some classic Survivor camp-life scenes. We start at the IKA tribe where Tori is hungry and has a headache. Drea is weighing her alliance options: Rocksroy/Romeo, or Tori/Swati. She decides to tell Tori and Swati about her extra vote to try to leverage an all girls alliance, but Swati quickly uses this as a motivation to start gunning for Drea and it could be the reason Drea drops from being in full control at IKA to being the #1 target. (People just loooove telling their secrets in modern Survivor.)

• We pop over to VATI’s beach where Chanelle and Jenny find some crabs for the tribe. We learn that as a lover of all animals, Hai is vegan and came on the show anticipating that he’d at least have some rice to eat. He makes the choice to eat seafood because he knows it’s the only way he’ll be able to keep up his strength in a season without rice. Chanelle and Daniel comfort him with some cute and awkward side hugs, and it gives us the sense that the VATI tribe is really tight (for now at least).

• Over at TAKU, we are #blessed with a classic editing montage featuring Maryanne in all her weird and wonderful glory. We get the sense that she might be getting on some peoples’ nerves, but she’s also generally well-liked and appreciated for her positive energy. Omar shares with the tribe that he’s Muslim, and will be praying from time to time and “not looking for idols.” Sweet Maryanne makes him a prayer mat out of palm fronds and TAKU has a nice bonding moment about faith.

• Now back to VATI, Firefighter Mike finds a “beware” idol just like the ones from Season 41. (We can presume that they’re only able to use this twist again this season because these players haven’t seen Survivor 41 yet). Mike decides to tell Jenny, his #1 ally, about his idol because he knows that without a vote at tribal council, he might be in some trouble. Where things get questionable is when he decides to also tell Daniel about it as an attempt to gain a new ally. Firstly, Mike can’t find where he hid the idol and sends himself and Daniel on a wild goose chase looking for it. When they do eventually find it, Daniel immediately tells Chanelle about the idol and starts plotting ways to never even let the idols be activated at all, either by voting out Mike or convincing him to never say the secret phrase. I love this gameplay from Daniel. We didn’t see this type of strategy in Season 41, and it’s awesome to see his creative approach. Chanelle is on board and it seems like the Daniel/Chanelle alliance could be an emerging strategic/social powerhouse.

• For our last bit of camp-life before the immunity challenge and tribal council, we head back over to TAKU where we get another fabulous montage, this time featuring the budding bromance between Jonathan and Omar, “the odd couple.” One of my favorite parts of Survivor is when alliances like this form. We also hear from Marya for the first time, and learn the sad story of her brother’s passing as the first healthcare worker to die of COVID in the United States. She shares that he always encouraged her to loosen up, and that she came on Survivor to process and get closure. Big shout out to Marya for her bravery and vulnerability!

• Now for the immunity challenge!

  • We learn that Maryanne is DEVASTATED about Zach’s departure because she had a huge crush on him from a distance… Can you say throwback to Cook Islands?!

• Drea, Lydia, and Jonathan are the designated “callers” for this blindfolded obstacle course. I’m always entertained by these blindfold challenges because inevitably, chaos ensues. Some of the quote highlights from this challenge: Lydia saying “Both of ya’ll bitches, come here” and Daniel from the sit-out bench saying, “You gotta protect the balls Rocksroy.”

• VATI starts strong and then falls behind when Jenny and Chanelle get tangled up in some rope. Just when it seems like they have no shot at redemption, Lydia crushes it as the caller during the puzzle portion and they make a huge comeback to win immunity and the fishing supplies reward. IKA comes in a close second meaning TAKU is heading to tribal council for the first time.

• At TAKU beach, it’s pretty clear that Jonathan, Lindsay, and Omar are tight and that either Marya or Maryanne are on the chopping block. There seem to be no efforts made by either of them to turn any of the 3 core alliance members against each other so they’re left to plead their cases to the majority. Maryanne gets paranoid and starts idol hunting to no avail. Marya knows she’s at risk, but makes the argument that she’s a better person to have along for the ride due to Maryanne’s overzealous nature.

• At tribal council, Maryanne talks again about her crush on Zach (I am eagerly awaiting the end of this season so we can find out what happens when they finally meet). Marya says she’s here to put herself first, which may be true, but maybe isn’t the best thing to say when you’re trying to win over new allies. Ultimately, Marya plays her shot in the dark but is unsuccessful and ends up unanimously being sent home. Maryanne doesn’t play her shot in the dark, and finds out that she received an extra vote from the risk she took in Episode 1. Will this be enough to keep Maryanne afloat in the TAKU tribe?

So how’d we do in the league?!

Our MVP draft pick was Jenny who was fully drafted by the beginning off round 2 (average 4.2). Our least popular pick this season was Lydia who was only drafted onto 7 tribes (If we're being savage, Jackson was technically our least drafted pick - he somehow made it onto someone's tribe). Jenny (11 sole survivor picks) and Hai (7 sole survivor picks) are the only two castaways who were fully drafted AND were not "benched," Tori on the other hand while she was fully drafted will be 8 people's "merge bonus" if she makes it to merge. There doesn't seem to be a lot of faith for Lydia, Marya, Maryanne, Rocksroy and Tori as none of them were drafted as a sole survivor. This episode was the first official chance for your tribes to start earning points! We’ve got a four-way tie between Allie. T, Brendan (our reigning champion), Emily, and Maggie - All raking in 47 points this episode. There are quite a few people trailing just a few points behind them, while Freddie takes last place with only 18 points (less than half of what our front-runners earned). The average number of points earned in this first episode was about 35 points. But even if you’re far off from that, never fear! There’s plenty of time left and lots of game play to come.

See you next time!