Therapy Carousel (S50: Episode 2)

I'm hesitant to say this, but I think so far season 50's been a lot of fun! ...a nice mix of personalities, and messy gameplay!

A few things that really stood out to me:

• 

  I always remembered liking Christian, I think I just forgot how much I love Christian. He’s such a breath of fresh air. One of the most dynamic confessionalists, one of the most disarming social strategists, and honestly just a really clever gameplayer. But… his pooped pants?? (Yes, you all got blurred/nudity points for that. One of the first times we’ve given points out for this category in YEARS...and we gave points to Savannah too which is kind of crazy!!) And then his moment with Joe on the hammock, pushing him after his blow up with Devens. It’s all just too good.

  

• Speaking of Joe… apparently we missed a bunch of that confrontation between Rick and Joe. According to Savannah during her exit press, she said that Devens really messed up by lying to Joe about something that was so easy not to lie about (a potential alliance). Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t love Joe’s holier-than-thou style gameplay (it really does make things difficult in a game where lying and deception is literally the whole point), but I somewhat see where Joe is coming from in terms of pressing Rick. He lied to Joe. It was stupid, but he got caught. Sloppy gameplay.

• However… we didn’t see how awkward these two made it around camp for everyone else. And this is where I think the Survivor editors are at play “protecting” clearly two of production’s favorite castaways. It sounds like things got way more uncomfortable than what we were shown. And I just think when you play the “honorable” game of Survivor in 2026, it’s a bit… boring. (I will exempt Coach from this sentiment because his version of honorable is completely all over the place and therefore extremely entertaining.)

• Cirie’s social game. How is she able to have one of the biggest targets, be one of the weakest challenge performers, be a very well-connected player who was literally on the chopping block last episode… and now somehow everyone thinks Cirie is in their alliance? She is absolutely masterful.

  

• And finally, Savannah. I didn’t really want Savannah on 50 because it just felt too soon with so many other faces I wanted to see back. I really think she did all she could, but those pre-gaming alliances in this modern era of Survivor are very real. Her (and Rizo) came in at a huge disadvantage not having any of that. I actually liked the game she was trying to play, it felt like a softer, more refined version of her game on 49. But alas… I think we all kind of saw this one coming given how infrequently she was drafted.

VUKELULU EPISODE 2

Cila tribe really dominated the narrative this week, and therefore the points reflected that. Savannah was this week's top earner, having gone home with an advantage in her pocket...ouch, followed by Christian with 22 points, and Aubry with 19. Otherwise it was pretty even scoring across the board.

Savannah’s exit didn’t cost anyone their Sole, but it did trigger some major shakeups in the standings. Last week’s leader, Bri, slips down to third, Tess climbs into the top spot, and Anthony M makes a huge leap, jumping eight spots to land at number two!

Sorry I got a little back logged! I had to catch up on these last two episodes!

-Tribemaster Brian