Why Did Caleb Go Home on Survivor: Game Changers?

Caleb has become the third person to be voted out on Survivor: Game Changers, but let’s look at how and why that came about.

Survivor: Game Changers showed fans the events of days 7 through 9 on yesterday’s episode, “Survivor Jackpot.” Although the new third tribe, Tavua, had to start completely over and build a new shelter, they still pulled off a second-place victory at the Immunity Challenge, sending the new Mana tribe to Tribal Council. Caleb of Kaoh Rong then left the game in a vote of 5-1.

Yup, it was 5-1. Even Tai voted for Caleb. Check out the tape below:

So, how and why did even Tai swing to burn his closest friend? Let’s break things down a little bit here.

Everyone on the new Mana knew about Caleb and Tai’s friendship from Kaoh Rong. If they hadn’t already, Jeff Probst made sure to mention that the two of them were really close at the swap. And if it hadn’t sunk in then, Debbie, who also played on Kaoh Rong and saw Caleb’s evacuation and Tai’s reaction to it, also landed on the new Mana. There was no way that Brad, Hali, and Sierra would not find out that the two were buddies.

In fact, Brad made sure to talk to Tai about who to pick off should they go to Tribal the same day the swap happened. Hali and Caleb made for the easy targets, because they weren’t formerly of Nuku, but Tai, unsurprisingly, went to bat for his old friend.

The show almost certainly wants us to lay the Tai flip at Brad’s feet here, both based on the above scene and the following. Pointedly, one of the last scenes we saw before Tribal Council was Brad and Tai talking about the benefits and drawbacks of keeping Caleb. Though Tai made the old challenge case, Brad made the stronger case: keeping Caleb means keeping a target placed squarely on Tai.

That’s just it. Alliances are dangerous in Survivor, but friendships and pairs are still more dangerous. They’re more obvious, for one, and there’s just one bond to break instead of several smaller ones to dismantle an alliance.

How does that work going forward? Well, to borrow from a fellow writer, Cody Williams:

Here’s the thing, though: Will Tai play loyally with Brad? It’s not like he hasn’t cut friends off before. Tai just did it with Caleb, in fact. Brad also probably knows this. Hali remains the easiest target on Mana for being the only non-former-Nuku member. However, don’t be surprised if the next target is Tai.

Of course, that all assumes that the three-tribe layout will remain for more than two eliminations. That may be asking a bit too much of Survivor, since it swapped to three tribes within two eliminations. We can assume there will be at least one more elimination before any further shuffles. Let’s do a little math. 17 players currently remain. If it gets down to 16, we could go back to two tribes of eight; at 15, there could be three shuffled tribes of five.

Next: Game Changers Episode 3: A Closer Look at the Immunity Challenge

Keep an eye on the Tai-Brad relationship going forward on Game Changers, though. It just doesn’t seem like it’ll last.