Survivor 47 recap: Rome gets fact-checked

The goal of Survivor is to keep audiences guessing. The producers’ aim is to keep viewers wondering who is actually about to be voted out as the show heads to Tribal Council each week. The best moments are often not just when a player is blindsided, but the audience watching at home is as well. But every once in a while, the show does away with all of that. It doesn’t bother with any red herrings or pump fakes or alternate possibilities. It tells you exactly what is about to happen and provides you with all the insider knowledge to enjoy every single second of the epic downfall.

I am not sure that editors have ever been provided more material to accomplish that feat than they were this week as they documented the demise of Rome Cooney. Anytime the camera cut to any group in any configuration, the consensus was clear — Rome was the name. It happened so early and so often that I — being so accustomed to the regular rhythm and flow of a typical Survivor episode — naturally figured a late plan would pop up just minutes before Tribal to at least throw the result into a semblance of doubt. But no! The show just kept doubling down that Rome was a goner.

Obviously, this editing tactic of letting viewers enjoy the downfall only works if the person being blindsided is feeding producers a super cocky quote or two about how amazing they are doing in the game. But the blissfully unaware Rome did not give them a quote or two. HE GAVE THEM, LIKE, 80! The dude was a nonstop hype video in human form, talking himself up in sound bite after sound bite. Check out a few of the absolutely delicious doozies he served up:

• “I think I might be a little bit of a mastermind right now.”
• “The fact that there are 13 people in the game and I can corral this many people to vote my way, that must say a lot about how I’m playing the game.”
• “Tonight is about sending a message to Sol, letting him know that I won the war.”
• “It’s all good. I’m gonna be feasting on Sol’s bones tonight.”
• “I got a big old smile on my face because it’s feeling like everything’s going to be rolling my way.”
• “Man, like, I am running this game, This ain’t even Magic vs. Larry. This is Michael Jordan vs. Kirk Hinrich. This is not even a competition right now. I’m playing this game on a whole ‘nother level!”

Do you know how hard it is to say that many overly confident things in a two-minute span? So hard! I don’t think I’ve bragged that much in my entire life, unless it was to my wife for scoring a Jankie World t-shirt and hoodie. And a freakin’ Kirk Hinrich shout-out? Are you kidding me??? But even better than any of these hilarious quotes was the fact that they were all delivered over that goofy Survivor circus music that the show likes to employ in the background when someone is dishing out some of the most oblivious one-liners in franchise history. Just perfect.

And the person we have to thank for all of this is none other than Rome himself. Look, I get it that the narrative is going to be “Hahahahahahaha, what a fool!” — because, yes, he did look foolish talking that much smack only to get smacked back. But the thing is, Rome was brave enough to put himself out there by saying all that stuff. It would have been sooooooo much easier for him to hedge his confessional interview bets so that he did not come off looking dumb, but Rome dove in head-first like there was a water well with an idol at the bottom.

And that’s exactly what you want from a Survivor player, someone that isn’t going to be hesitant in either game play or interviews. I guarantee you that producers loved Rome, because he never held back in his confessionals, which, in turn, gave them so much to work with. (Too much, some may say, at the expense of anything resembling equal time for other players.)

I also found Rome’s final words to be really interesting. “I might have ruffled a few feathers here and there,” he said, evoking my main man Hayden Moss. “But hopefully I brought a bit of entertainment.” Seeing as how Rome is a former battle rapper and current E-sports commentator, one could worry that Rome was simply out there to build his brand. He’s certainly someone that loves attention. I think that’s pretty inarguable. If he were out there only to be entertaining, I’d have a problem with that. But Rome was clearly playing the game — and playing it hard, if not always well. And because he did not hold back on anything — except, it seems, looking for the merge advantage — Rome was the ideal Survivor player (if not person to live with). He constantly created story with both his actions and words right down to his final day, which is what made his exit so wildly entertaining.

Let’s feast on the bones of a few other things from episode 6 of Survivor 47.

New era, same as the old era

I’m super confused. As confused as Andy sawing a rope with the wrong end of the saw. As confused as Sophie Clarke watching an Adam Sandler crossdressing comedy in Samoa. As confused as Charlie Davis learning about Maria’s final Tribal Council vote. That’s how confused I am. Survivor made a big stink back on season 41 about how players would no longer automatically make the merge, but would instead have to “earn the merge.”

Lost amidst the national uproar over the dreaded Hourglass twist was the fact that the other elements of altering the dynamics of the merge were pretty interesting. There would be a two-team challenge. The team that won automatically made the merge, and the team that didn’t would have to fight to make it via both a challenge and social gameplay where they were the only ones who could be voted for. (Again, I am ignoring the Hourglass aspects of this because I think it is best if we all volunteer for immediate electro-shock therapy to beat the memories of that happening firmly out of our skulls. I certainly know Sydney Segal has.)

So, this season Survivor did something different. Two teams again competed in a challenge, and then the winners of that challenge (who also got a feast) did another immunity contest, with the winner of that challenge (Kyle) winning immunity and receiving his purple buff. Everyone else was in danger of being voted out. Which leads me to ask… not to naysay all the “earn the merge” branding, but, like, wasn’t this pretty much just a regular merge? Sure, some people got some food and others didn’t. And okay, the timing of when people got their merge buffs was a bit delayed. But, like, it’s a merge, right????

I mean, 13 people competed. One person won immunity and was safe. Everyone else was in danger of being voted out. They were all living on the same beach. Oh, wait, I just received Tree Mail, and it says… THAT’S A MERGE! And do you know why it says that? Because it is! I’m not even arguing whether one way is better than the other. I just think we should call the thing what it is. Just because you splash a gray chyron color on people’s names and don’t provide a tribe name does not mean it is not a merge, especially when everyone lived on the same beach together for 24 hours before the challenge even happened.

To say Rome was a pre-merge boot doesn’t really feel accurate at all. He made it to the stage of the game where everyone moved to the same beach and all went to Tribal Council to vote somebody out. Which was him. At the merge. Whether they choose to call it that or not.

When three become one

So many hugs around this (allegedly non) merge. Each individual tribe hugging one another upon reading the Tree Mail. Then, more hugging when they all arrived on the same beach. Hell, Jeff Probst even started hugging people at Tribal Council. It was like Hug-a-Thon 2024 out there! And these were real hugs, too — not the ones that dudes sometimes give each other where they slap each other on the back repeatedly while hugging to publicly affirm their masculinity as they share the warm, inviting embrace of another man.

But the celebration was short-lived since there was a sign on the beach with instructions to be read — instructions that revealed an impending challenge, and an advantage to said challenge hidden somewhere nearby. Immediately, everyone started running like Miss Peppers with her head cut-off. Everyone, that is, except Caroline and Rome. Go back and watch that scene and you can see those two doing their best Bruce Perreault impression and just refusing to go search for the advantage. Not so surprising for Caroline, but Rome is the jabroni who constantly and consistently was looking for idols in the early days on Lavo, so for him to not give a Kirk Hinrich about the advantage seemed very out of character. Luckily, we have much more on why Rome and Caroline chose not to search for the advantage in an exclusive deleted scene, so make sure to check that out for all the scoop on Thursday morning.

Eventually, Genevieve — who seemed oddly concerned about getting wet — finally took the plunge and found the advantage hanging on a mysterious buoy. Advantage: Canadian!

The red scare

That goofy red-paint covered immunity idol Sue found is still paying creative dividends, because when the newbies arrived at Tuku’s beach, the water well area still looked like a reenactment of the Red Wedding… minus the wedding. Any scenario that involves someone having to publicly stand by a terrible lie is aces in my book, so watching 45-year-old Sue squirm as others discussed the apparent assassination of one Miss Peppers was a true delight. Caroline and Tiyana — who had previously caught Sue literally red-handed — of course now knew Sue was hiding something from them.

Surprisingly, instead of being worried that her number one ally in the game was withholding secrets from her, Caroline was positively psyched. I have no idea why! But she was! And it wasn’t fake enthusiasm either. This wasn’t Sam Phalen putting on a brave face and pretending he was still excited his beloved Chicago Bears took Caleb Williams first overall in the draft over Jayden Daniels. This was legitimate enthusiasm.

But while everybody surveyed the blood splatter all over the trees and ground, an actual murder was about to take place — the death of Rome’s game. And it was a Survivor suicide. Inadvertent, perhaps, but self-inflicted all the same. Rome used a strategy sesh with Kyle to then attempt to turn everyone from his previous tribe against him by spitting out not entirely accurate translations of what Kyle said.

What Rome failed to take into account, however, is that people on Survivor talk. We saw this sloppiness last week when he told two things to Sol and Genevieve and they then ran the conflicting stories by each other. This week, it was more of the same, as Tiyana went looking for confirmation that Kyle was actually after her. Sol then did the fact-checking, and Rome’s game was essentially over as now everyone wanted him out. Kind of a bummer for us as we will no longer get to enjoy Rome’s antics, but perhaps all worth it just to hear Kyle say, “Everybody knows I’m one of the most honest dumbasses here.” Yes, we do, Kyle. Yes, we do.

Two challenges for the price of one

We already laid out the structure of the new not-a-merge-that-is-really-a-merge challenge situation, but I just want to say a few quick things about the competitions we saw here.

I wrote just last week about how it was a shame they did not do a schoolyard pick ‘em on last week’s reward challenge where three tribes were randomly divided into two teams. And then this week, we got the schoolyard pick ‘em! First one in the new era! Obviously, Survivor producers read my recap, hopped in their time-travelling DeLorean, went back to May 2024, and put in a pick’ em because they heard me ranting about how dramatic it would be when someone like Rome was not picked first or Sue was picked last. LET’S GOOOOOOOO!!!!

Only the pick ‘em itself was clearly so incredibly boring that they did not even include it in the final edit. Who picked who? I have no idea! (Although the host does reveal the final two picks, which you can see here.) But I trust the editors that it must not have been nearly as scintillating as I imagined, because even with 90 minutes to play with, they still made like Anika Dhar and were like “Nah.”

The one element of the first team challenge I really liked a lot was where the players had to clear all that debris out of a cage while using a grappling hook to retrieve a heavy bag with a ball inside. Reminds me of those old school challenges where tribes would get a certain amount of time to build obstacles that the other team would them have to burst through. Ahhhh, memories.

As for the individual challenge, I’m sorry, but I always found the balance-a-ball-on-a-bow contest pretty boring. Sure, you get a few fun shots where the ball is moving all over the bow and people watching from the bench are freaking out, but it’s mostly people just standing there balancing something. Meh. Because I am an insane person, I did notice that of the six people doing this competition, four had their hands facing up on the handle and two, Sierra and Sam, had their hands facing down. The first two out? Sierra and Sam. So a little field research for all you future players out there.

On the flip side, you would figure that the person who might have the most trouble on this one would be Kyle due to keeping his Sasquatch-sized feet on that tiny beam. Naturally, he ended up winning. Yay for honest dumbasses!

Amulets no more

We’ve already documented how Rome felt super confident that he had masterminded Sol’s demise only to be the unanimous target of a freshly merged tribe. (Do you know how hard that is, by the way?) But, I mean, I’m happy to document it again, if you want. (That voice I hear in my head is recap editor Ashley Boucher begging “NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”)

As great as all that post-challenge material was, I do feel like we were improperly denied some choice footage of Teeny being super drunk. Like, you could just tell from how many shots they inserted of her chugging wine, or the way she was talking and walking in a slightly unsteady fashion back at camp that Teeny definitely did not have a teeny amount of alcohol.  I think my favorite shot was when she awkwardly started kissing Tiyana’s hand for no particular reason, which, I suppose, is the island version of “I love you, man!” RELEASE THE DRUNK TEENY TAPES, YOU COWARDS!

As for Tribal Council, I wonder if Probst lets Rome assume his hosting chair if the guy is not about to get blindsided. It felt a little like a prisoner on death row’s final meal, although Rome had no idea he was on his way to the proverbial Survivor electric chair. It was also of note that the Hostmaster General essentially let a player sit there and pontificate on what a terrible advantage the Amulets were (which I already droned on and on about myself two weeks ago).

Speaking of which, I thought I was sooooooooo smart when I went on my little diatribe about how much brighter I was than Teeny, Andy, and Caroline for recognizing how awful the Amulets could be to their games. Well, I’m not. They figured it out as well — Andy talked about this in our mid-game chat — and they got rid of the thing as quickly as they could. Good on them!

As great as watching Rome fall in a day was, I have to admit, I was a little disappointed by his diplomatic and classy exit — thanking everyone for the experience, asking Probst for a hug, and in general just accepting his defeat way too well. I mean, if you’re gonna go out on the island and Rome, you may as well Rome to the very end. A stare down at Genevieve would have been nice. Some sort of proclamation backed up by no evidence whatsoever that folks had “made a massive mistake” would have sufficed. Refusing to relinquish his new Probst hosting duties, grabbing the snuffer, and snuffing Sol’s torch anyway would have been absolutely epic. (ELECTION DENIER!)

But no, we got none of that. Just a pleasant, appreciative, non-boastful exit. And boo to that. However, if you want more Rome, we’ve got you covered. Not only did we talk to the man, the myth, the legend, but we’ve also got an exclusive deleted scene showing just what happened with him when everyone else went searching for the advantage. Probst is also weighing in on the episode, so check out that business. And if you missed it, you definitely should read my exclusive mid-game interview with Andy, where he talks all about his comeback from meltdown to merge. Follow me on whatever social media platform you desire (even What’sApp!) for links to all that nonsense, and I’ll be back next week with another scoop of the crispy.

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