Survivor Recap: Beating the Tides

Being the swing vote on a tribe means constantly staying self-aware. It’s a powerful position, playing the middle, but blink at the wrong moment, and you might miss the tides changing. Having flip-flopped his way into the right side of the vote since the merge, Sami knows he’s in trouble after his attempted coup against Karla blew up in his face. He’s tried to nurture this relationship, even exposing Noelle’s brilliant plan against James to Karla before that vote. The swing vote knows they have exactly one chance to break out of the middle, and for Sami, it was a game-ending attempt. With his back against the wall, he even told Karla he voted against her because of her idol. If he couldn’t tell how fiercely Karla was protecting her game … well, he has a lot of time at Ponderosa to consider it.

Meanwhile, as the other vote against Karla, Owen is playing up how dumb he feels. He helped vote out Jeanine but repeatedly claims he hasn’t voted correctly since Morriah. Blindside after blindside, Owen is left out of the vote. At this point, it’s a fairly strong argument to keep him around; if he can’t even cast a single vote that sends someone home, he has no numbers supporting him and no ability to make power moves. His vote against Karla is far less threatening than Sami’s. Maybe Gabler sees the writing on the wall here, but he chooses to talk to Owen rather than Sami, letting him know it was Jesse and Cody’s idea. Gabler’s doing a good job trying to protect himself and keep an okay relationship with Owen, but I still think he’s completely misinterpreting his position on the tribe. He believes he’s hiding in plain sight, but no one sees him as a threat because he is not a threat to win. Sure, he’ll most likely find a seat at Final Tribal Council, but I’m prepared to eat Cody’s hat if Gabler is named the next Sole Survivor.

There’s been a lot of complaints about where this season is lacking, and something we all keep coming back to is the comedic relief. As brutal and cutthroat as this show is, it’s always been hilarious. From “this is a fucking stick!” to Parvati cackling while reading JT’s love letter to Russell, the malnutrition and constant paranoia often result in absurdly funny moments. With the new-school Survivor being as short as it is, we’ve definitely lost some of that charm. But when a boat pulls up to the beach and informs the players there’s an advantage somewhere on the island, we finally get some of that good ol’-fashioned silliness. I don’t know if a camera crew is standing right in front of the advantage or what, but almost every single player complains about how well it is hidden while sharing a frame with the advantage hanging on a tree trunk. They’re so used to digging in the dirt or looking high up in tree branches that not a single person is looking around at eye level. It’s just hanging there in front of everyone while they go on and on complaining that the damn thing must be invisible. Finally, Cody parks himself against the tree and still takes a minute to find it. This is no “Knowledge is Power” either; this is a new, massively powerful advantage.

The “Choose Your Champion” advantage puts Cody in a very interesting spot. He knows what the challenge will be and has the chance to bet on the player he thinks will win Last Gasp. If this player wins Immunity, so does Cody. This is an iconic challenge, although it’s only been played a handful of times. It’s also one that is perfect for this new advantage. Unlike the other endurance challenges, Last Gasp is all about panic control. Three weeks into spending every moment together, I’m sure Cody has a good idea of who is inclined to panic and who is calm under pressure. He picks Owen, knowing he needs to win to survive tonight’s Tribal. He also knows that Owen has been playing from the bottom for a while and hasn’t let it break him down.

Last Gasp is basically torture. Torture I would willingly partake in, but torture nonetheless. All you have to do is hang on to a grate in the ocean. That’s all! Slowly, the tide inches up over your chin and eyes and then your mouth, and finally, it fills your nose, teasing until it completely overwhelms your ability to breathe. That slow and steady, frog-in-boiling water element is key to this challenge being as dreadful as possible. But these are not ideal conditions. Almost immediately, swells completely cover the players, forcing them totally underwater. Everyone drops out until Cassidy, Karla, and Owen are the final remaining players. After an honorable two hours, Cassidy bails, leaving Karla and Owen hanging on.

I get a little tickled when Jeff is thrown so completely off guard that he must redefine the game. Unable to believe it himself, Jeff makes the staggering announcement that after three hours, Karla and Owen beat … the actual ocean? No one has ever lasted through the entire high tide before. Because the water had so much movement, tiny gasps here and there between swells kept them both alive — literally. Faced with leaving the players in the water for another 12 hours for the tide to rise again, Jeff decides that Karla and Owen have both won the challenge, making three out of seven players immune at Tribal Council.

Of the four in danger of going home, only Cassidy and Sami are in trouble. Jesse has two immunity idols, and Gabler’s not going anywhere. Sami already planted the seeds of doubt in Karla’s head against Cass, and for a second, it looks like the final two women will turn on each other. But Jesse continues to make a name for himself as one of the brightest strategists this season, seeing that Karla turning on Cass means she doesn’t need her for her endgame plans. Why give your biggest competition any help this late in the game? If Karla wants to go against Cass, she will have to get some blood on her own hands. At this point, the easy vote is the clear middleman, Sami. Jesse tries to throw one more bit of tension into the mix, turning to Owen to vote Sami out while still letting Karla vote for Cass. But all of that gets thrown out at Tribal anyway because this is the last night to use the Shot in the Dark and Sami makes it clear he will use it. He could be bluffing, but everyone knows he has no way out otherwise. This is the perfect opportunity for the Shot in the Dark, and unfortunately, for Sami it just doesn’t work out for him.

Six players remain: two strong duos, one low man on the totem pole, and one Gabler. I’m hoping Owen pulls off another Immunity win next week just to finally force the pairs to go against each other, but with three Idols still in play, I know it will be juicy no matter what.

Burning Thoughts

• Smart, if not a bit naïve, Sami played a great game given his age. He made a great case for future young players, and I loved seeing a little bit of his “I’m an adult now??” epiphany this week. His most convincing lie? Pretending to be 22, an age no one would ever choose to be.

• Jeff saying, “This is old-school Survivor, back when we inflicted a little more pain,” really does undercut his post-COVID marketing that it’s sOoOo much harder now.

• And on that note, they’re really reminding us of what we’re missing by playing the old theme song during the challenge this week. Shoutout to Cass’s Twitter for making me aware of this gem.

• Jesse is making the perfect case here for how you can still viciously fight against your female competitors in a nonsexist way: “I would rather make her look dumb than let her continue to be on the right side of the votes.” He still wants to be petty and cause a rift between the two remaining women but makes a point to articulate why she’s a threat and how pettiness is necessary to his play. Congrats!