The Third Turd: (S44: Episode 5)

Last week provided yet another unique episode! Let’s dive in.

• Over at the Ratu, Carson is building some seriously strong relationships. He’s Matthew’s emotional crutch. He’s Kane’s nerd buddy. He’s bonding with everyone and seemingly very confident in his place in the tribe. Lauren on the other hand has gone yet another episode with essentially zero screen time. She was originally painted as a potential villain, but since the first episode has barely gotten a confessional.

• At the Tika camp, chaotic energy continues to ensue after the Sarah blindside. Carolyn and Yam Yam are at odds and bickering like an old married couple. Josh makes a fake idol and starts planting the seed that he’ll play an idol again if he has to. In the midst of the chaos, Yam Yam and Josh share their personal stories of coming out to their families. It seems to be a bonding moment that connects the two players more deeply, and potentially begins to shift the tribe alliances.

• Soka proves to be the tribe to be on at this point with their camp days consisting mainly of meditating and flirting. Frannie and Matt both fully admit to producers that they’re crushing on each other, and I for one cannot wait to see pics from their first date eating Ethiopian food together. Frannie continues to be the more strategic seeming player of the two as she continues to keep gameplay at the forefront of her thinking and relationship building, while Matt has pretty much transitioned from being on Survivor to being on Love Island.

• The Immunity Challenge, though a close race, results in yet another loss for the Tika tribe.

• Carolyn, Danny, and Brandon go on a journey together that solely involves eating and chit chatting instead of the usual risking your vote and trying to gain an advantage. Leading into the merge, fuel via food and quality time with other tribe members can be hugely impactful. Danny and Brandon bro out hard, and Carolyn is left to feel completely isolated from the conversation. On one hand, I understand why they’d maybe feel like Carolyn isn’t worth building a relationship with given that she’s got a 1 in 3 chance of going home that night. On the other hand, this is just strategically poor gameplay on Danny and Brandon’s part. Leading up to the merge, any relationship you can build is valuable, and by isolating Carolyn, they’ve developed a potential enemy.

• Carolyn returns to the Tika camp in quite a tizzy. She’s fully ready to crawl back to Yam Yam and vote out Josh thanks to Danny and Brandon lumping Josh into their future alliance of strong physical threats.

• Josh, realizing that he’s being targeted, tries to double down on his fake idol schtick. Yam Yam calls him out on the beads being from treemail, and Carolyn immediately recognizes the note from his previous idol. Josh gets defensive and does a pretty dismal job of convincing them otherwise. Yam Yam's laugh continues to be instant serotonin to my veins.

• Just when all hope seems lost for these three, Jeff unexpectedly appears at the Tika camp via speedboat. For us viewers, this doesn’t come at much of a surprise given there were only a few minutes left in the episode. Jeff announces that there will be no tribal council due to Matthew removing himself from the game after experiencing too much shoulder pain from his injury. The scrappy tribe of 3 is spared and will live to see another day.

• Matthew’s departure is a real bummer as he was proving himself to be a true strategic, social, and physical threat this season. We know we’re likely to see him back for a second chance in another season, but he would have been a dynamic player to watch during the merge. You will be missed Matthew!

• With Matthew now out of the game, we have to wonder what’s going to happen with Jaime’s fake idol. Will they ever end up piecing together that Matthew was the culprit?

THE LEAGUE! x This was mostly a low scoring week with Carolyn bringing in the most number of points of any castaway at only 11 points. For the first time in Vukelulu history, we have a castaway whose total points for the week landed at a negative value: Matthew brought in a total of -4 points due to leaving the game by choice. I hate to say quitting because he really gave it his all, but technically he receives -10 points for quitting :( The Matthew departure is a pretty big hit to the Vukelulu Tribe with Coach Juju, Leigh, Survivor Pete, Lexington, Laura, and JT all losing their Sole Survivor pick. This is an especially tough blow for Coach Juju, who earlier in the season used her Buyer’s Remorse advantage to switch her Sole Survivor pick from Frannie to Matthew. Tommy and Adam both pulled through with a total of 32 points this week putting Tommy back into the first place spot, and moving Adam into the top 10 for the first time this season.

Till Next Time, Your Tribemasters Liv + Brian