this immunity challenge comp is ****ing awesome

Did Sebastian somehow sneak some devil's lettuce onto the show?

Ive never seen someone look so stoned constantly in my life

Terrible episode.

Really? Was pretty standard/non-exciting

It's been awhile since Survivor has had such an uneventful episode.

I wonder if a tribe swap was always planned for week six or if they called an audible to prevent another boring Malolo tribal.

this is the downside of the early tribe swap. i actually thought stephanie was a good player, but in this situation there was nothing any of them could do, and it was so early on. frankly the swap at 18 shouldve gone to 3 tribes of 6 to avoid this type of situation. felt sad where these people are just begging for their lives and theres nothing they can do.

heres another gripe: at ghost island, why do they have to smash the urns in order? they should be able to smash one at random. this way is stupid since its already planned out when everything will happen.

glad theres another swap next week, this was such a brutal draw for all of jenna/steph/michael/brendan when they were not only outnumbered but also clearly the weaker team. also lol @ survivor having that reward challenge knowing chris was a college baseball player. theres no way his tribe wouldn't win that.

only other thing is i wouldve expected them to be frantically searching for idols this episode knowing one was just played. do you think they did and it was just not shown? it seems like each of their focus was to beg for their lives rather than search. based on every season ever, it seems like another idol would be put into play on their camp. and especially since this was the idol james had so we know there's gonna be another one of the same kind. o well. terrible episode unfortunately because it sucks when theres nothing they can do. maybe im biased because i had high hopes for stephanie, i really thought she played well on her first tribe, and then gets screwed just because her tribe lost the first two immunities (and then this one lost the last two). i guess thats how it goes though

its still unclear what will happen moving forward because of the domenick/wendell vs chris/angela split. the original tribes are at 9-6 right now, but if either of those pairs go with malolo, then it becomes 8-7 in malolo's favor. obv itll depend how the tribes get swapped

Ugh come on, no more "Lifetime movie" episodes please.

Pretty sure the swap will be 3 tribes (5-5-5). Will be interesting to see if two players get sent at the same time to GI.

making Chelsea do the course twice was Atlanta Hawks level tanking

I assume they picked Chelsea to go not once, but twice, because she would be the lightest to pull, but literally that means nothing. Much smarter to just get someone who swims/runs fast

maybe they were just thinking they wanted their strongest people to be the ones to pull them in. they probably couldn't tell that the bridge would actually be difficult to go across since it looked like you could easily just run to the end. pretty ****ty that michael wasnt even utilized that challenge, or even in the reward challenge he surely woulda been better than sebastian at throwing

I feel bad for Stephanie but at the same time I don't think she did all she could have done. She seemingly did nothing with her time at Ghost Island. I think a better player is able to at least create enough doubt about an idol or some mysterious power that they are safe for one tribal council.

I agree about Steph. I thought she played pretty well and there wasn't much she could do if the tribes were so stuck on old lines. Fantastic body as well.

Think it could have been old Malolo going to tribal every time without a swap though because the tribes were unbalanced physically before the swap as well. But I agree that a 2 to 2 swap so early is not a good idea either.

Real boring episode to what has otherwise been a strong start to a season IMO.

I will say though if it was "rigged" as far as when ghost island offers contests, tonight's episode would've definitely had one in play due to tribal alliance imbalance.

Im interested to hear their reasoning for the vote. I thought Michael was a good candidate since they have no need to keep the tribe strong.

But Stephanie and Jenna seem like a duo, so good job to break them up. Jenna voted with the Navitis so maybe they can use her. she wasnt super close with anyone other than Stephanie on original Malolo

I wasn’t saying rigged, just predetermined. Since there was a game last episode, it was pretty obvious there wouldn’t be one this time

Going to ghost island definitely hurt Stephanie because it provided a reason to vote her off over Michael or Jenna, since she could have an advantage. And I think at this point it seems pretty safe for them to expect that the advantages on GI are not going to just be immunity idols and are more subtle or things to use down the road

I wouldn't say it was a bad episode. I mean if you just watch to see tribal drama it was kind of bad. But we got to see more of the dynamics develop between the players and that immunity challenge was a fun watch.

I'm getting tired of the Ghost Island reflections on life we're forced to sit through. All that's missing on the set out there is a couch, plus a shrink in glasses and a cardigan.

As for the episode, the editors did what they could, especially when we got to see it was a unanimous vote where even the other 2 wrote down her name. I too think the early swap was a net negative, and the merge nest week is direly needed.

Probably always planned. The only times in the last 10 years that they've had a 20-person season with an early swap at 18 were Game Changers and Cambodia. Each time, they had another swap after the 5th vote out, same as this year. (The only other season with an early swap at 18 was Cook Islands in 2006, where they did things differently.)

Going by this history, they will also merge after the 7th vote out, at 13 left.


Maybe, but imagine if the other tribe had gone to TC the last time or two. We would have gotten the minority original Malolo 4 continuing to exploit the Domenick vs Chris feud, along with a Malolo internal battle over who to vote out and possible mutiny, since last ep we saw them seem to side with Chris & Angela against Domenick & Wendell, but then see Laurel & Donathan seem to go against their group behind their backs and go talk to Domenick & Wendell about working with them. Total uncertainty over what happens.

Instead, we got the boring tribe again. But Pagonging often happens after tribal swaps, and an early swap theoretically reduces the overall amount of Pagonging, instead of increasing it.

From a fair game standpoint, I agree. From the producers' standpoint, they probably want to ration when the GI advantages are given out, so that it's not all at once and then nothing later, or vice versa.

Yes. I can't imagine Michael not even trying once to look. Must have just been a boring uneventful search. I still think they should have showed it for like 10 seconds though, just to make it seem more possible and have more uncertainty at TC.

I was hoping for another flip attempt. Threaten a fake idol, try to work on Sebastian and Chelsea, who showed weakness at the previous TC, etc. Something.


Same. Also, the way the editors presented her, I thought she'd go deep. Guess I got got.


The previous couple times, the re-swap was only to 2 tribes, but then again, the initial early swap was to 3 tribes of 6. So yes, you might be right that now they'll make it 3 tribes of 5, since they didn't do that at the earlier swap. Would really suck for Malolo is they get split evenly and are a minority in every new tribe, down 2-3, 2-3, 2-3.

Perhaps the biggest signal that we know the merge will be at 13 is that we know that the legacy advantage can be used at 13.

Yea after some reflection, I think the GI-twist (sending the loser of a two-tribe challenge) makes it more likely for a 2 tribe swap than I originally thought.

S35 went to 3 tribes when there were 15 remaining and S33 split into 3 with 16 remaining (5-5-6), though both of those instances were the 1st swap.

Good point.

I could see it going either way. Yes, GI may increase the chance of remaining a swap into 2 tribes, but 3 tribes makes for more variance and potential for different dramatic interactions, which they like. And it would only be for 2 weeks, so no biggie even if the same tribe loses twice. They're gonna merge right after that.

If they do have 3 tribes, then I would guess that still only 1 person goes to GI, from the last place losing tribe. Especially since that person doesn't even sit out TC anymore and are back before then. We'll see though.

The early swap "omg twist" is so bad. There should be some reward for bonding with your original tribe and letting them live/wear on each other to encourage flip. Splitting into 3 tribes is also stupid.

Yea I think we've already hit peak "3 tribe Survivor". It was a good idea after three straight seasons of Pagonging (S22-S24), but now the pendulum is swinging the other way with fans desiring less variance (though producers might want more variance) - especially after the S34 advantage fest. 3 tribes generally means more variance (though there's certainly a "skill argument" to be made that the best players will be able to work their way through most variants of swaps.)

Cambodia was a good season for the early 3 tribe swap. It likely helped to lessen the effects of pre-game alliances. And by several accounts the pink tribe (Jeremy/Stephen/Savage) was so super solid that we might have seen several post-merge "Pagonging episodes" if it weren't for idols and the two pre-merge swaps. So, just like with poker, there's certainly a midpoint on the continuum of "no structural variance" vs "too much variance" that makes for a good Survivor season.

stoney baloney!

This season sucks.

I'm seriously impressed by the way Michael presents himself, can't believe that kid is almost half my age. Doesn't rly make for good tv though.

As for idol search, I think this is actually a scenario where looking for idols is hurting your game. With numbers dwindling, you wanna make the case that you're becoming a free agent and looking to work WITH them, not give the impression that you're just trying to survive another vote to make it to the merge and run to your old tribe the first chance you get. With so few malolo left, it's not really hard to make that case imo, there's not gonna be much to run back to.

RIP Steph, she def. seemed like a decent player.