Survivor Cook Islands episode 14: Parvati’s case for being a returnee
The fourteenth episode of Survivor: Cook Islands holds a lot of promise for a few seasons down the road and Parvati Shallow’s rise.
Even though Survivor usually gets renewed for two seasons at a time, Cook Islands‘ fourteenth episode, “I Have the Advantage … For Once,” really feels like it’s Survivor‘s way of finally establishing Parvati Shallow as a player of the game (and setting up her to return in Micronesia, the sixteenth season). She flirts a lot over this season. There’s no getting around it. But at the same time, there’s a strategy to it. Let’s dive in.
The numbers were less than ideal on Aitutonga for Parvati and Adam, with the Aitu Four. Parvati started playing some strategy to go with her game, at least to the camera.
It all comes down, you see, to the fact that Parvati read the room and specifically said that she had to make sure not to sell breaking up the Aitu Four in terms of “betrayal.” If nothing else, she learned that that perception was important from the entire Jonathan saga.
Cook Islands constructed a mud pit for the “bring the most mud without using your hands” challenge, and added an obstacle between the pit and the bucket. Ozzy had nearly 50 pounds of mud in 10 minutes. Parvati took second place with 24 pounds, and Yul had 22.5 pounds, just beating out Adam to go on the reward. Adam, meanwhile, didn’t even get to rinse off before going to Exile.
Back at camp, Sundra and Becky began discussing Ozzy’s massive win, with Becky in particular worrying about his skills. Indeed, Ozzy was also the subject of Parvati’s focus at the spa overnight, especially in the hot tub.
When the three of them returned on Day 36, Becky started pitching getting rid of Ozzy, and Yul started building the case for us to see him as a threat, picked up by Sundra as well.
For Ozzy to win immunity this time, he had to build, in Jeff Probst’s words, a “table maze” and complete it twice after carrying the pieces over a set of progressively higher balance beams. In Yul and Parvati’s defense, they made it vaguely competitive, at least.
At camp, Parvati and Adam both did their best to secure their safety with Yul and sway Ozzy. He seemed to be picking up on how the rest of the Aitu Four saw him, and Yul also continued painting Parvati as a “threat” physically to her face, again laying the groundwork for her return.
Yul brought Jonathan’s hat to Tribal Council, which prompted the first topic of “playing to the jury,” which is a way of saying “jury management.” Then Ozzy’s dominance also came up.
But the Aitu Four lived to survive another day, with Parvati joining the jury, 4-2, and Sundra getting two votes, surprisingly. But this was not the last Survivor and Jeff Probst saw of Parvati Shallow. Oh no.
Next: Survivor rewatch: Gabon episode 7
We’ll talk about Micronesia another day, though, for the Survivor: Cook Islands finale is next on the list!