Reality TV Thoughts

This is exactly what fans were worried about when the Survivor 50 preview put a heavy emphasis on celebrity appearances. The Billie Eilish Boomerang Idols are acceptable. Just an advantage inspired by a celebrity and named after them that doesn’t take away from the game or players. The excrutiatingly long Zac (Zach) Brown segment though? An absolute disgrace. This is the first episode with a true split vote, betrayal, and blindside but all of that is completely overshadowed by a B-list celebrity talking about how much he loves spearfishing and advertising his music! 3-2-1 votes are always rare and exciting in Survivor, but this one got completely overshadowed by something that’s not relevant to the game at all! The lead-up to the Mike White blindside, with Christian contemplating turning on his David vs Goliath castmates and Emily almost blowing up the entire plan, was gripping television. But all people will remember from this episode is how much the Zach Brown segment dragged the episode down, as proven by it now having the lowest IDMB rating of any Survivor episode, even if it doesn’t truly deserve that distinction.

The Cila Tribe: The Talent Show

Cila’s content this episode mostly revolves around Rizo (and Dee’s adoration for Zach Brown too, I guess). To pass time around camp, Cila puts on a talent show, where Kamilla, Cirie, and Dee will judge the four men’s talent. Rick Devens puts on an absolutely horrendous display of juggling skills, which are mocked by Kamilla in confessional. Rizo gives a surprisingly accurate impression of Mickey Mouse that all three judges are impressed by. And finally, Charlie and Jonathan put on some fake wrestling routine in which Charlie gets manhandled. After very carefully assessing everyone’s performance, the judges award Rizo the victory! Charlie is absolutely PISSED about this result, referencing Liz Wilcox in a confessional. He genuinely hates Rizo for not voting for Blue Sophi to win season 49. This rivalry is amazing television! Charlie has proven that despite seeming like one of the more normal people on Survivor 46, he is just as crazy as the rest of them! And as someone who’s always been a Charlie fan despite claims about him being bland, I feel vindicated.

Rizo also receives the Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol from Genevieve! There is no better person to give the idol to. Genevieve has no idea what she has just unleashed, as Rizo is going to put on a show with his idol. This also brings another layer into the impending Rizo vs Charlie battle. I cannot wait to see how the Rizgod will use his idol!

The Kalo Tribe: Everyone vs Aubry + More Zach Brown Ranting

The tribe notices that Aubry is not at camp. They all assume she’s out hunting for an idol and Genevieve takes it upon herself to find her. She yells out Aubry’s name like she’s a lost child, to which Aubry makes a face while continuing to search for an idol. She doesn’t care about any of her tribemates, they’re all after her anyways! Genevieve eventually finds Aubry though and Aubry has to pretend that everything’s cool. Genevieve takes this opportunity to also look for an idol and manages to find yet another Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol! She sends it to Rizo as previously mentioned, unaware of his idol antics and hoping she can just get it back from him. It must be frustrating to be Genevieve, having found two idols that she can’t use herself unless someone she gave it to gets voted out. Any other season, she would have two idols and could make a huge play with them. It’s also unlucky her biggest rival in the game is one of the people who has been gifted a Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol, truly unfortunate.

Kalo are the lucky winners of the best reward in Survivor history! A visit to the Survivor Sanctuary where good things happen, fish caught and grilled by Zach Brown, and a private concert by Zach Brown! What could be better than that? Probably nothing from the New Era besides maybe Applebee’s, but there are so many better rewards in old Survivor. I mean free cars, visiting the Great Barrier Reef, an early preview of the critically acclaimed “Jack and Jill” starring Adam Sandler?

Survivor is no stranger to product placements and advertisements. But they have never actively taken away from the game. With Applebee’s, a common Survivor reward, there’s a brief 20-second description of the food being served, but that’s it. Movie previews like “Jack and Jill” will show maybe thirty seconds of the film, but nothing more. The focus is still on the players enjoying the reward, and it has led to some great moments: Karishma’s absolute love for Applebee’s on Island of the Idols, Liz’s Applebee’s meltdown on Survivor 46, Coach seriously trying to take away a lesson from “Jack and Jill” in South Pacific. All great moments that have happened due to sponsored rewards. The problem with the Zach Brown reward is that it takes away from the players for an over 10 minute commercial for Zach Brown. Zach Brown did not need to have any confessionals at all, especially when his confessional count is greater than Tiffany’s, AN ACTUAL CONTESTANT ACTIVELY INVOLVED IN THE GAME, has been up until this point. The show did not need to devote time to him talking about his love for spearfishing, how much of a superfan he is, or his musicmaking. If he was just briefly introduced as a country artist and only a 20-30 second (1 MINUTE MAX) montage of his concert was shown, way less people would be complaining. Instead, the show completely pulled away from the castaways to give Zach Brown over 10 minutes of screentime, and that is why this episode has received so much backlash.

On a more positive note, this reward did lead to some entertaining moments. Cirie and Kamilla both being genuinely confused on who Zach Brown is, Dee being absolutely devastated that she didn’t win the reward, Coach and Joe crying to Zach Brown’s music (Completely on brand for the both of them!). All of this to say, there is nothing wrong with having a private concert as a reward. In fact, it’s quite cool! But when the reward steals the spotlight from the castaways who are supposed to be the stars, it becomes a serious problem.

The Vatu Tribe: The End of a Friendship

After a horrible challenge performance, not even being able to attempt the arch puzzle, Vatu must go to tribal council yet again. What initially seems like an obvious Angelina boot eventually transforms into a 3-2-1 Mike White blindside.

At the beginning of the episode, after Vatu returns from tribal council, Stephenie feels on the bottom of the tribe. She doesn’t think she can trust any of her tribemates at this point, but she’ll have to in order to survive. Emily and Ozzy are still a duo, and Ozzy is set on splitting up Mike and Angelina. He wants to vote out Angelina so he can become Mike’s #1 ally. Emily is grateful to Ozzy for voting with her to blindside Q, so she wants to repay him by following his wishes and sending Angelina home. This is something she will definitely follow through with when the time comes to vote!

Post-challenge, Mike feels in control of the tribe. He has his two David vs Goliath castmates and Ozzy all aligned with him, or so he thinks… When he hears Angelina’s name being thrown around, he is determined to save her. He suggests to the tribe that Angelina is not a threat to win the game, while Emily is a dangerous player who must leave. He already has Angelina and a desperate Stephenie on board with the idea, all he needs now is Christian. This should be easy, right? Christian is Mike’s friend after all! Mike knows that Christian is close with Emily, so he needs to develop a subtle manipulation tactic to convince him of this plan. He decides on reminding Christian of Gabby’s attempted betrayal on David vs Goliath and comparing her to Emily. This backfires on Mike, as Christian for the first time in 8 years cries about Gabby’s betrayal and realizes how dangerous of a player Mike is. He goes to Emily and tells her Mike is targeting her, but that he has a plan. All the two of them need is Stephenie’s vote, Ozzy cannot be involved in this plan because of how close he is to Mike. Stephenie is on board with the plan, desperate to stay alive in the game. However, Emily is becoming paranoid that her name is being thrown out. While Emily, Christian, and Stephenie are sitting at camp, Ozzy approaches them. Emily takes this opportunity to tell Ozzy that Mike’s targeting her, almost blowing up the entire plan while Christian gestures at her to shut up. That whole debacle causes Christian to reconsider if Mike is right about Emily. At tribal, Emily is giving a performance similar to a swan song, only for Mike to be blindsided. He takes it well and Ozzy is more mad about the blindside, something that will seemingly seep into the next episode. There are hurt feelings from Mike about this blindside though, as he has questioned his and Christian’s friendship and revealed they haven’t spoken since the blindside in exit interviews.

Mike White: The Soft Spoken and Cunning Narrator

It’s a shame to lose Mike White so early. He has such a way with words, which is obvious given his prolific writing career, and it is always a pleasure to hear his voice. He’s a great narrator for the show but also a dangerous and capable player. His drunk wine moment was what he was remembered most for on David vs Goliath, but he was also a good strategist. I think even in his short time on 50, he proved that. According to exit interviews, he and Charlie were in the middle of the original Kalo tribe and he did commandeer the Q vote. He’s also probably right in that Christian shouldn’t trust Emily due to her erratic gameplay, but only time will tell. Glad he was included on this season!

Conclusion: Could’ve Been a Great Episode

The ingredients were there for this to be a great episode. The Vatu tribe alone had a lot of chaos leading up to tribal. I’m sure that with 20 contestants still in the game, that there was no lack of content that facilitated for a nearly 11 minute Zach Brown commercial. Unfortunately, the poor editing easily makes this episode the worst of the season up until this point. We can only hope that the Mr. Beast episode will be nowhere near as bad.