Reality TV Thoughts

Five episodes into Survivor 50, and the theme of the season is becoming clear. How do your past mistakes and Survivor outings affect your approach to the game this time around? Do you let your experiences haunt you and sink your game, or do you adapt and change your game to ensure you don’t make the same mistakes? Whoever is able to do the latter will succeed and win Survivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans.

The Kalo Tribe: The Tide Walker

Kalo’s only scene this episode revolves all around Coach. He’s moved on from the fantasy style nicknames, now deciding to base his nicknames on ancient Japanese lore. He’s still focused on building his loyalty alliance, having separate conversations with Joe, Colby, and Aubry. His conversation with Joe was boring, just telling Joe about the new nicknames, which he was seemingly excited about. His conversation with Colby was way more funny, even if unintentional. It was so clear throughout that entire conversation that Colby had no idea what Coach was talking about, but was going along with it because they clearly already had a pregame alliance. His conversation with Aubry felt the most game related for both parties involved. Aubry’s current closest ally is Tiffany, but she needs to branch out beyond that and sees Coach as being the center of the tribe. She approaches him and tells him she wants to work with him. Coach tells her he feels the same way and says in confessional that he’s extending an olive branch to her. Aubry’s always been a great strategic player, but her social game has always been lacking, being part of why she lost Koah Rong. Improving her social game could be what helps Aubry finally get a victory.

The Vatu Tribe: Ozzy’s Temper Tantrum

For something that has been hyped up since the episode preview, this was not anything close to a temper tantrum. Ozzy is annoyed to have been left out of the Mike White blindside, but he keeps his composure and never even raises his voice. It certainly is not anything that it was hyped up to be. Side note, Ozzy’s poncho is awesome.

Christian is still getting tons of screentime, the main character for the entire season so far. He has an amazing personality and way of articulating things, but the question arises, is he getting overexposed? This episode, I at least start to feel it. His description of Ozzy’s temper tantrum just felt so blown out of proportion and like he was more mad than Ozzy. In a continued effort to improve his social and strategic game, Ozzy felt the need to apologize for being upset to Christian, and their storyline becomes the main focus of the Vatu tribe. There’s nothing wrong with this on paper, but this is Angelina’s boot episode. Angelina had just been left out of the vote last episode, her closest ally gone. Yet, she doesn’t get a confessional about this until after the immunity challenge. She feels like an afterthought in this episode, despite being one of the biggest characters of David vs Goliath and the 30s era of Survivor overall. Sure, she’s a pre-merger who likely won’t have much impact on the rest of the game, but she just got completely shafted. When so many of the men this season like Ozzy and Christian are getting massive edits, you struggle to find any woman getting the same coverage. It’s been a reoccurring issue in Survivor, especially in returning player seasons. And it felt so noticeable here, where a huge character like Angelina gets almost nothing in her final episode.

After Vatu expectedly loses the immunity challenge, albeit by less than they have in the past, Angelina seems like the obvious target. While Ozzy and Christian have made up, drama arises, as Ozzy still needs something from Christian to prove that he can trust him. He asks Christian for his shot in the dark, which Christian is hesitant to give. He feels vulnerable without it, like Ozzy could pull off a blindside if Christian doesn’t have his shot in the dark. After Emily tells Christian that Ozzy is targeting him, though, he relents and gives Ozzy his shot in the dark. This seems to be just what Ozzy needs to trust him, and Angelina is voted out in a 4-1 vote. She has a full circle moment where she gives her tribe her jacket before leaving, a nice conclusion to her Survivor story even if this showing was disappointing.

The Cila Tribe: Rizo and the Girls

The culmination of the Rizo vs Charlie rivalry is upon us. Rizo is an easy target. He’s an unknown with no connections, plus, he didn’t vote for his number #1 to win the game! Charlie has three other original Kalo members with him, so that should be all he needs. Devens is also willing to work with him, needing to stick with the numbers now that he’s in the minority. However, Dee is not on board with sticking to tribal lines. Despite apparently being friends with Charlie outside of the game, she tells Rizo that she wants to work with him. Rizo in return tells her about the Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol and that someone from Kalo gave it to him.

Dee is only the first addition to the Rizgod army. He’s determined to grow his army, and work with all of the women once again. Firstly, he talks to Cirie and reveals the Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol. Cirie feels as though she can trust Rizo thanks to this sharing of information, and tells him about her extra vote. She praises Rizo in the confessional, saying that she felt at the bottom of the tribe before, but thanks to Rizo, she feels way better. Rizo is truly living out every Survivor fan’s dream, working with Cirie Fields! Rizo’s final recruit is Kamilla. To recruit her, he decides the best approach is to talk about Kyle as if he’s a fallen soldier that died in battle. He tells Kamilla that before Kyle left, he told Rizo to work with Kamilla. Kamila does not really buy this at all, obviously. Luckily for Rizo, the deciding factor seems to be that Rizo told Kamilla about the Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol before Charlie did. So, at tribal council, Charlie is blindsided in a 4-3 vote, referencing Taylor Swift’s “Teardrops on my Guitar” on his way out.

Angelina Keeley: Underedited

Angelina was one of the most hyped castaways coming into Survivor 50. She’s been on many people’s wishlist for a returning player season since David vs Goliath ended. So to see her make this cast was awesome. Unfortunately, she was never really able to find her footing in the game. She was on the bottom of the original Vatu tribe alongside Aubry and still on the bottom of the swapped Vatu tribe. She was forced to play from the bottom the entire time she was there. And beyond that, she was completely pushed to the side in the edit despite being such a great character. I mean, her immediately trying to negotiate the fishing gear reward after the first immunity challenge was completely cut out! For such a long awaited return, Angelina’s 50 run was not only disappointing because she was an early boot, but because the editors pushed her aside for the short time she was there. I’m glad that she’s spent time in her exit interviews calling out production for underediting her and other women on 50, and hopefully something does change moving forward.

Charlie Davis: Too Much Baggage

Charlie’s loss in Survivor 46 is by far the most polarizing and controversial of the New Era and probably since Aubry’s loss in Koah Rong. On 50, it was pretty much the focal point of Charlie’s short run. Rizo’s lie about Blue Sophi seemed to ignite Charlie’s vendetta against him. Even despite Charlie revealing that wasn’t the only reason he was targeting Rizo, most people will mainly remember him being haunted and dragged down by his past. Out of all the eliminated players on 50 so far, it feels like Charlie’s reputation was damaged the most. From the runner up who many people believe should’ve won to a premerge boot who homed in on Rizo partly due to his own baggage.

Charlie’s run on 50 also reignited discussion around his loss on 46. People online have been way too harsh to him, which he truly doesn’t deserve. Maria not voting for Charlie to win is a two way street. As a jury member, Maria is entitled to vote for whoever she wants to win for whatever reason she wants. Even if the vote did largely seem out of bitterness, it’s her right to be bitter. I mean, she was so close to a million dollars, it’s reasonable to be upset! Just like Maria is within her right to vote however she wishes, Charlie is allowed to feel however he needs to about someone he considered a close friend directly costing him a million dollars. There’s a lot of complicated feelings and emotions there, neither of them should be judged too harshly for how their relationship ended.

Conclusion: Fun Downfall

While certainly a step up from the disastrous Zach Brown episode, ‘Open Wounds’ is not nearly as great as the first three episodes were. It had strong moments for sure, such as Charlie’s entire downfall and Ozzy’s more strategic approach to the game. Yet, the severe underediting of women was more noticable here than in the previous episodes, causing many cast members to start speaking out. With a potential triple boot coming up, there are definitely concerns about how that episode’s editing will transpire. It could end up being a complete disaster, but hopefully, it won’t be, and the edit can somehow become more balanced.