Survivor Recap: Manic Merge

Nothing comes easy in new-school Survivor, and that includes the merge. While everyone drops their buffs, only 12 of the remaining 13 will make it to the coveted merged tribe. Even worse, one final player will be yanked from the game just one night before making it to the jury. This state of limbo, of “mergatory,” adds to the already insane chaos of the merge. Luckily, though, for all of the advantages and twists this season has featured, that dreaded hourglass makes no appearance.

Information has always been currency on Survivor, and that’s never more evident than at the merge. Sure, those challenges are significant, but who you share your knowledge with — and when — will always be the trickiest part of the game. When everyone hits the beach at the almost-merge, there are those who listen and those who talk. Noelle makes the first few mistakes. First, she tells Karla that no one on Vesi was able to find the idol. Could be an easy enough lie, but because Karla has the idol from Coco, she’s on high alert and knows exactly what to look for. Noelle’s next misstep begins even more innocently. Everyone’s bonding, telling stories, and trying to get to know each other when she decides to tell Elie and Sami about what a jokester Cody is; he’s so quirky, he made a palm-frond hat woven with beads from everyone’s bags! Cut to Elie literally licking her lips. Noelle has no idea what she actually just told her competitors, but Elie quickly runs to tell Jeanine that Cody has the beware-advantage idol from Vesi camp.

Owen also takes a quick stock of the advantages in play and actually has an impressive amount of perspective on the situation. He knows that Gabler and Jeanine are both holding onto idols and that Gabler’s will only work for the first tribal. He also knows Jeanine and Jesse can’t vote tonight and Noelle has a steal-a-vote from their summit together. The only other powers in the game are Cody and Karla’s idols. He may be feeling overwhelmed by the variables in motion, but hey, knowing the exact location of five out of seven advantages is pretty solid for day one of the merge.

There’s danger looming, and everyone knows it. Perhaps the most daunting of all the challenges so far, today the whole is worth more than the sum of its parts. It’s not just about the safety and reward: they’re playing for their buffs. Picked by random draw, two teams of six will compete, leaving one player alone. The poor soul who pulls a gray rock is sent into purgatory within purgatory, a cursed moment of Survivor inception. When Noelle reveals the gray rock, she’s forced to pick a team to support from the sidelines. She won’t get the chance to turn back time like Rocksroy or Erika, but her place in this game will be determined by who wins. The teams are pretty evenly stacked, and she bets on blue to win, putting her life in Jesse, Gabler, Dwight, Karla, Ryan, and Jeanine’s hands.

Nearly every challenge this season has come down to the final moments, and everyone knows this challenge will take every ounce of physical and mental energy. By the halfway mark, Karla’s hand is dripping blood and her panicky breathing leads me to believe it hurts even worse than it looks. Once again taking a page out of Ninja Warrior, they have to climb a massive ramp to the final puzzle, and with a busted hand, it’s going to be especially hard for Karla. Knowing red has already been working on their puzzle and they’ll have to make a comeback, Ryan launches himself up the wall, places his feet into the rope ladder, and suspends himself upside down to lift his teammates up the wall. It’s an amazing moment of teamwork and ingenuity that quickly brings the blue team back into the game. Going into the last stage of the challenge, red has a solid lead, but word puzzles come together in seconds. Both tribes quickly realize the phrase and it’s a mad dash to align the huge puzzle pieces. Dwight and Jeanine rip through the puzzle, pulling out the win for blue — and for Noelle.

At tribal tonight, all 13 players will vote, although only six are in jeopardy of going home. All six — Elie, Cody, Cassidy, James, Owen, and Sami — have played pretty great games so far. Cassidy and James set both Coco votes in motion, and Cody has done a great job building trust with the other remaining Vesi players. It’s the three from Baka who will stir the pot the most. Elie thinks they’ll stay Baka strong and flits around camp telling everyone who to vote for and what the decoy name will be. She’s far too comfortable and has no idea that Gabler wasted no time throwing her name under the bus at the merge meal.

At this point, I need Gabler gone yesterday. It’s not that I’m particularly pro-Elie, but his strategy is frustratingly thoughtless and shortsighted. Revealing to everyone that she looked through his bag (in front of her closest ally Jeanine, no less!) is just laying his cards on the table. There’s no calculation to his information dump whatsoever. He hasn’t been at risk once since he got the idol and it expires after tonight’s tribal council. And, it’s worth noting, it was Jeanine who looked in the bag anyway! When they return to camp, he continues to run his mouth and even mentions Jeanine’s idol in front of Ryan. As a surgeon, he’s a scientific thinker, and back in the real world, I suspect Gabler doesn’t do much scheming or lying. But the thing about Survivor? It is not the real world.

Elie is absolutely pissed. She immediately confronts Gabler and it’s obvious the bridge between them has been burned for good. While he was at the feast dragging her through the mud, Elie has been trying to manipulate a split vote between James and Cassidy. Naturally, this means she had to lie to both James and Cassidy about voting for Cody. All of her work is flushed down the toilet because the moment you’re labeled a snake, your torch is as good as snuffed. This is where the he-said, she-said of it all hits the sweet spot between frustrating and exciting. Elie is scrambling to get the votes in order, meanwhile, she doesn’t even have the support of her former Baka tribemates. It’s all rapidly falling apart for Elie when Jeanine makes a promise to use her idol if she suspects Elie will go home. There’s nothing more dangerous than a twosome in Survivor, and if Jeanine uses the idol on Elie, she’s all but openly declaring their alliance. Her inclination is understandable, but Jeanine would just be shooting herself in the foot. Word travels at light speed on the beach that Elie is not to be trusted.

As usual, tribal council is a lot of hemming and hawing with no new information revealed. There’s a lot of sideways talking and it’s clear Elie’s time is up. While there was a chance for her to redeem herself from Gabler’s comments, her constant scheming made her the obvious target. She never lied to anyone from Vesi, but she critically underestimated the way people would view her if she was the one calling all the shots. As Jeff asks for any immunity idols, Jeanine chooses her game over Elie’s, making the psychologist the final non-juror of Survivor 43.

Burning Thoughts

• Sami, Sami, Sami. I’m not surprised he continues to work with Gabler, but c’mon, even he called Gabler a “fucking idiot.” Drop the dead weight already.

• Yet another week solidifying the fact that Karla is on her way to winning this game. She’s perfectly under the radar, has an idol in her pocket, and has gained the trust of most people on the beach. Her vote for Owen tonight was a little curious, but I think she was just scared of an idol saving Elie.

• Right before it all came crumbling down, Elie was extremely confident in her position in the game: “I feel like I was made for Survivor… The social element of the game I knew I was going to be good at, but I’m better than I even thought.” It’s been over 20 years of Survivor, people! Haven’t we realized the quickest way to get sent home is to celebrate how safe you feel?