Quick question. What do you do when your 51st season is off to an amazing start, in large part due to a return to the two-tribe format, allowing for lots of drama, strategy, and interesting vote offs? Well, the answer is, of course, to go back to the overdone three-tribes of six format that viewers had become so bored off! It is seriously baffling that in the Open Era, marketed to be a drastic change from the New Era, that the producers decide to go back to the New Era format only four episodes in! What was the thought process? The result is by far the most boring episode of the season with an exceptionally boring and disappointing vote off.
Eric + Kilby= ❤
Since nothing of particular interest happened in the post-tribal or morning before the swap segments, let’s skip all of that and get straight into the new swapped tribes. All you really need to know is that Brady wonders if he’s actually been getting played the whole time and the old Savu tribe does some kind of morning yoga ritual. With that out of the way, let’s get into the swapped tribe dynamics.
The first of the three new tribes is Dina, the brand new red tribe that consists of Christian, Eric, Kilby, Lewis, Linnea, and Sharonda. It is four people from the original Savu tribe and two people from the original Toka tribe (Kilby and Lewis). At first glance, it seems like a boring dynamic, as Lewis and Kilby are both in the minority and most of the intrigue will come from the other four debating which of the two should go first. However, what actually happens makes this tribe the most interesting of the three new tribes. It’s about as interesting as a six person tribe could get.
Eric still doesn’t feel particularly great about his old tribemates. They were ready to vote him out at a point and he still doesn’t have necessarily strong relationships with any of them. He’s ready to branch out, and he sees Kilby as his potential Survivor soulmate. Also, Lewis is completely out of comission, having some kind of illness that causes him to sleep through his first day at the new Dina camp. The two hit it off, talking about Nintendo games and all kinds of nerdy stuff together. Although Kilby does seem somewhat annoyed by Eric, he never explicitly says anything, so we’ll just have to assume he loves Eric as well. Unfortunately for the two of them, Eric’s former tribemates quickly see their connection, with Sharonda and Linnea especially being worried about how close they are. The two of them agree that they need to cut Kilby before Eric fully flips sides. This is where the intrigue comes in, as Eric could align himself with Kilby and Lewis, causing a 3-3 Deadlock. Or, his former tribemates could pull Lewis in to force a 4-2 Kilby vote off. The most boring option would be Eric just agreeing to vote Kilby off, but the drama could also be interesting. Or he tries too hard to save Kilby and sinks his own ship? So many possibilities.
Before moving on, we need to address Christian’s lack of content. It is getting genuinely concerning at this point, since everyone else has gotten at least something of substance by this point. All he got this episode was his second confessional of the entire season, a very generic confessional about the initial dynamics at Dina. You have to start wondering at this point, did Christian kill Jeff Probst’s entire family? Is he about to be the victim of the dumbest twist of all time? What could possibly cause him to be this irrelevant?
Kristin on an Island
The new Toka tribe consists of Brady, Carter, Kristin, Maggie, Mike, and Thien An. On paper, this is worst case scenario for Kristin. She is on a small six-person tribe with none of her original tribemates besides Carter, who mutinied and now is connected to the other tribe. Not to mention, she left him out of the Ana blindside! No matter how dire the situation looks, Kristin is not going to give up. She goes around talking to her new tribemates, looking for cracks in their relationships. Eventually, she finds one, realizing that Brady and Mike were left out of the last vote.
For the good, there’s also bad, as Kristin fails to reestablish a relationship with Carter, who does not trust her anymore after he was left out of the Ana blindside. He sees right through what she’s trying to do and now wants to target her. He talks with Thien An, who is now his closest ally. Thien An wants to take a shot at Mike, as she thinks he is a ‘bottom feeder’ and is trying to latch on to any majority he can. Carter, however, still wants to target Kristin. Even though the two disagree on this, they agree that they will both have each others’ backs no matter what. I love this duo and think they have serious potential to run the game.
Jenna and Alexis Fight to be the Sixth Boot Instead of the Fifth
Here is where most of the frustration of the episode comes from. The new Savu tribe consists of Alexis, Devin, Jelly, Jenna, and Ori. It is the worst possible swap in terms of entertainment, as three people from the Helicopter alliance (Devin, Jelly, and Ori) are all swapped onto the same tribe. The only possible intrigue comes from who will go home between Alexis and Jenna. So, of course, the tribe with the most boring dynamics is the one that has to go to tribal council. Jeff, seriously, you couldn’t just tell Dina to redo their maze after their ball didn’t fall into the designated container? You couldn’t spare us from watching this boring tribe go to tribal council?
Devin specifically becomes very obnoxious in this episode. I have defended Devin as someone who may be annoying, but is necessary for entertainment purposes. However, in this episode, he was just grating. He’s partly to blame for two of his allies being out of the game already, his weaponized honesty not working out at all yet. He’s been on the wrong side of the first two tribal councils he’s attended and a lot of people already have issues with him. Yet, he gets put into a lucky swap with two of his only allies and he acts like he’s suddenly the best player of all time? He’s taking victory laps the entire episode, even after his tribe loses. He continues his obsession with Jenna despite her trying to extend an olive branch to him. After the tribe loses, new Savu kills one of the chickens and Devin names it after Jenna (that one was kind of funny, i guess). The whole pre-tribal segment is just Jenna and Alexis trying to see who can throw the other under a bus better. Although, to be fair, there is a humorous scene of the two trying to work together, with Alexis trying to get Jenna to give her shoes up for trust purposes. Jenna thinks she’s safe, as she thinks Devin and Jelly will work with her. However, Jelly is worried about how going against Ori’s wishes (since he’s close to Alexis) will affect their alliance. At tribal council, Jenna is heartbreakingly blindsided in a 4-1 vote. Devin, his obsession continuing, smirks as Jenna is on the verge of tears. Good for Alexis for surviving this vote, but with next episode having two tribes losing, she is undoubtedly just going to be voted out next week anyways.
To end off on a positive note, the scenes between Jelly and Ori were very cute.
Jenna Doore: Wedding Photographer
Jenna had everyone thinking she was winning with the glowing edit she got for these first four episodes. I will say, as many problems as I did have with the vote off, I was legitimately blindsided to see Jenna leave. I though she was at least a lock for the endgame. It is unfair that Jenna never had a fair shot at the game because of Devin having it out for her since day 1, but that’s just the way Survivor goes. She did great with what little time she had and her surviving the first vote off was impressive. I think it was a mistake to vote off Patt since it did seem like Patt liked her, but obviously, that thought is only in retrospect. She had a really compelling story and it sucks we will never truly get to see it play out. Too many women are leaving for my liking, especially considering I feel like three of the four that we lost had a lot of potential to be stars.
Conclusion: Disappointing
All in all, it is so frustrating that they went back to three tribes so quickly. I get that you have time constraints and with three tribes, you can have two tribes lose and two people leave in the same day. You can also do that with two tribes, though. They’ve literally done it in the past. Have the two tribes compete in individual immunity challenges, one person from each tribe wins immunity. Whichever of the two lasts longer, they earn the reward of their tribe getting to watch the other’s tribal council while eating concession foods. Two people still go home and we don’t have to lose the interesting dynamics of two tribes. In the open era, shouldn’t you be reusing old twists like that? Hopefully, next episode can pick up the pace, but this one was a serious let down after the first three.
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