Was a Curse Reversed?
Come on in guys! After last week’s juicy 4-3-1 vote on Survivor: Ghost Island that sent Morgan packing, surely things can’t possibly get better this week. Well, ye of little faith are in for a treat. We pick up back at Naviti beach fresh off tribal, with Angela fuming over being backstabbed by her perceived allies Wendell and Domenick. Said formidable duo realize their dilemma of foreseeably being on the bottom, so Dom reveals to Wendell he does in fact have a hidden immunity idol. Perhaps they’re not dead yet! They pledge to get to work, and work they do. Dom finds the Legacy Advantage that Morgan willed to him last episode, and once again finds himself with power in the game.
We head to a reward challenge for PB&J sandwiches (I’m frothing at the mouth just writing this, and I’m not even starving on an island), where Chris returns from Ghost Island and rejoins the Naviti tribe. Naviti wins the challenge thanks to the challenge prowess of Laurel, among others. In an interesting development, now is when one of the Malolo tribe will head to Ghost Island, returning in time to compete in the next immunity challenge. Since this is the first time in the game we’ve had a standalone reward challenges (all others were combined with the immunities), it means that a Ghost Island visitor will still go to Tribal Council should they lose immunity. Naviti decides to force Malolo to draw rocks, and Kellyn blurts out that going to Ghost Island is her biggest fear. Whoops. Shouldn’t have tempted the Survivor Gods, Kellyn. Sure enough she picks the odd rock and whisks off to the spooky playground. Jeff Probst squeals with excitement at her accidentally executing a self-fulfilling prophecy.
At Ghost Island, Kellyn is lucky enough that it’s her turn to play the game of chance for an advantage. But, there’s a catch: Kellyn is a part of a very slim 5-4 numbers advantage on the Malolo tribe. If she loses her vote at the next Tribal, it will at best be a 4-4 tie and she may be vulnerable to being rocked out. So, Kellyn makes the anti Big Move and opts to not play for an advantage. This in and of itself is actually a pretty Big Move: it secures her numbers and keeps her in control for the short-term. Advantages, schmadvantages.
Back at Naviti, the tribe enjoys their delicious reward, with Chris trying to figure out what happened at the last Tribal he missed. Angela spills that the old Naviti alliance turned on her, while the old Malolo alliance voted out Morgan. Chris immediately jumps on this, saying that was an attempt to come for him by proxy of targeting Angela. They hypothesize that it should now be an easy 6-2 numbers advantage, with Chris/Angela teaming up with the old Malolo alliance to take out Dom/Wendell. However, Laurel and Donathan are having second thoughts. See, they’re not the biggest fans of Chris, and they propose something that’s really important to consider in Survivor: is control more important than comfort? Laurel and Donathan would rather work with Dom and Wendell; they like them more. Even if Chris is giving them a severe numerical advantage, is it worth keeping him around when they aren’t as big fans of him? We’ll soon see no doubt, but as Dom gets to work on Laurel (revealing his idol) and Wendell on Donathan, it seems that this could be a new power foursome on Naviti.
The immunity challenge starts off with a massive blowout; Malolo is just dominating Naviti. To interplay with a sports reference here, Seth Davis would probably say “Malolo: Sharpie,” not unlike he did to UVA before they played UMBC. Well, wouldn’t you know it, that Sharpie might as well stay capped, as Malolo choked at the final stage of the challenge allowing Naviti to complete what could just very well be the greatest comeback in any Survivor challenge.
We head back to Malolo beach for the first time all episode, and Brendan tries to rally the troops and boost morale with some classic sports mantras. But, fact of the matter is, they still have to go to tribal. And the old Navitis hold the 5-4 advantage, as Kellyn so eagerly articulated during her stint at Ghost Island. Guess who else is internally jumping for joy at being in the numbers? Bradley, who is quickly on pace to be this season’s dastardly villain. He very visibly gets a kick out of telling Stephanie that it’s 5-4 and there’s really nothing she can do to avoid her or one of her allies being sent home. Stephanie then goes and cries on the beach because what else are you supposed to do when Bradley’s gloating in your face?
At the water well, the Naviti 5 strategizes who to target. Chelsea (who is quite literally making her first appearance on television despite this being episode 4) proposes that if the Malolo 4 have an idol, they’ll probably play it on one of the girls, thinking that the Naviti 5 would target a girl, thinking that there’s no way an idol would get played on one, so therefore the Naviti 5 should target one of the guys. Phew, still with me? It’s a very 5-dimensional chess gameplan and just makes you wonder why the heck we haven’t seen any of Chelsea before this. Desiree recommends that they target Brendan, being the deemed least expected target. Bradley reminds everyone in a confessional that he’s going to be a fantastic lawyer, while Sebastian riffs in his with some wordplay about Malolo and the word low. It’s… unexpected from him, to say the least.
The Malolo 4 counter-strategize, with Michael revealing to the group he has the idol. They immediately agree that they need to vote Bradley, but they also would just love if somebody flipped. Michael decides Sebastian or Chelsea are the most likely, and the table is set for a lively Tribal. Michael laments how he so desperately wants to reverse the curse of this idol, and decides to use the mystery behind the old idol to his advantage.
At Tribal, the Malolo 4 launch the attack on Bradley, painting him as a puppet-master in a desperate attempt to flip Sebastian or Chelsea. Bradley confidently rebuffs these claims, so Michael decides to turn it up a notch by whipping out his idol. And this is where Tribal Council becomes alive. Michael says that because in Survivor: China, James was eliminated with two idols, that his idol can save two people at once. A bold-faced lie, but a believable one. Not a single person challenges that concept, and Michael implores someone to flip and vote Bradley with the Malolo 4. The votes go, and Michael whispers to Brendan that he thinks the vote is Stephanie. He stands to play his idol, telling Jeff he’ll save himself and Brendan. He pauses, looking for Bradley’s reaction. There is one, and so Michael decides to switch that to just save Stephanie. The votes come, and the Navitis did end up targeting Brendan. A misplay on the idol, but someone still could’ve flipped! Alas, the final vote was to vote out everyone’s favorite dad, Brendan. The Naviti 5 stayed strong, and all the flashiness could not save Brendan.
So no Legacy Advantage movement this episode for once! The Malolo tribe remains fractured and now without an idol, the original Malolos’ prospects aren’t great. The Naviti tribe however has a lot of avenues that their votes could go. Boy, Kellyn’s vote sure ended up being important at the end. It’s pretty clear that she made a terrific decision not to potentially forfeit that, as without her vote it would’ve been far easier for someone to flip. The star of this episode bar none goes to… Michael. Yes, even with the idol misplay, Michael takes the cake in this one for delivering a compelling, articulate case at Tribal, even besting the law student. And oh yeah, he’s 18. Composed beyond his years, he stole the show. The season remains incredibly unpredictable, and next week should be another doozy. Until then, may the Survivor Gods smile down upon you.
If you’d like to catch up on my Survivorology feature, check out my Episode 1 & 2 recap here and my Episode 3 recap here.
