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Survivor rewatch: Gabon episode 5, “He’s a Snake, but He’s My Snake”

By Daniel George

Screengrab via CBS
Screengrab via CBS /
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Dan’s eating too much food, while Matty’s biting off more than he can chew. It’s weird alliances time in the fifth episode of Survivor Gabon!

Looking back on Survivor Gabon, despite it being the first HD season, there was certainly a lot of old-school survival talk. The last episode had EatYourRiceGate, and after the opening credits, we get right back to it again with the eating habits. Despite Ken combating Randy’s pleas to stop eating rice so many times during the day, now Ken’s admonishing his tribe for having just six days’ worth of rice left on Day 16.

Over at Kota, they have such an embarrassment of riches that they’re looking at Dan’s fourth and fifth servings of spiced food like it’s the end of the world. Obviously, Dan’s a member of the minority since jumping over from Fang, so there’s certainly a bit of give and take that you need to adhere to. It goes to show you just how liked the guy is; nobody could really slag him off beyond eating habits.

The hunger might be a bit of a folly for Matty as, inexplicably, he made a deal with Ace to keep him and Kenny safe until merge at the expense of keeping Ace and Sugar safe until merge. With the numbers squarely in the majority up until that point (Kelly is certainly loyal to him), it was a deal on his girlfriend’s life that he didn’t have to make.

Hey look, it’s a physically demanding challenge for the malnourished Fang tribe to compete in! This was your basic team-based “drag a heavy thing and try to tag the opposing tribe” challenge, with this version being a gigantic snake.

Bless Matty’s heart for trying so hard, but after two cycles around Kelly, Sugar and Ken drop out so that he, Ace and Crystal can make a bold dash. Once Crystal dies out around the third pass, it’s just Matty hollering at Ace to keep up the pace against five Kota men. He’s a damn trooper, even if he doesn’t see fate in front of his eyes. Kota wins reward and Sugar heads, you guessed it, directly to the Sugar Shack.

Once again, we have a real, human moment when Crystal cries in frustration about her tribe constantly losing. Obviously, being that drained of energy for weeks on end is destruction to the mind, and the viewing audience at home can certainly sympathize with her cause (especially as Randy rubs it in her face – another thing that will be important later in the season).

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Wait a minute, this is Survivor Gabon’s Fang tribe! Ace talks to Kelly and contextualizes Crystal’s crying as “breaking down,” similar to G.C., while referring to Sugar’s crying as more emotional. While G.C. certainly didn’t earn himself any respect amongst his tribemates for his actions, it’s easy to see coded meaning in Ace’s accusations. It’s all part of the game of Survivor, if not reality television as a whole.

Ace’s brash, bullying behavior would become an issue in the Immunity Challenge, as Survivor Gabon brought us a team-based obstacle challenge. Three pairs would navigate through crawling, climbing and weaving obstacles en route to pieces of a flag pole. Once all three are retreived, the team would have to move the pieces through grooved notches and plant it in the ground to win.

Matty carried Fang once more through this challenge, although Kenny kept pace with him as they made up ground on Kota on the third leg of the flag pole retrieval. It was on the “setting it all up” part that Fang’s lack of teamwork burned them. Ace tried to shove a piece into the base for the entirety of the final section of the challenge, while Kota used logic and reason in victory.

Here’s where Matty’s deal goes against him; he has to vote out Kelly. Even though she’s a loyal member of his alliance, and would be crucial at the merge to keep as a number, he’s sworn on his girlfriend’s life to bring Ace to the merge. He’s not going to go back on his word and try to blindside Ace a few days later, and Kelly is perceived as the weakest member of the tribe.

While the rest of the episode becomes yet another predictable, unanimous Fang elimination (seriously, these episodes are super boring after the Immunity Challenges), Ken does expand upon his social game and learn that Sugar willingly gave her idol away to Ace. She’s clearly acting as his puppet, but a second-rate Bond villain can only go so far in this game.

Next: Retro rewatch: Gabon episode 4

Yadda yadda yadda, Kelly goes home and Fang finishes this episode of Survivor Gabon as a tribe of five. The next episode marks a painful goodbye to two tribe members, for two very different reasons. It’s a double elimination episode! That means we’re…still not that close to the merge.

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