Survivor Ghost Island merge episode previews: Mic check

Survivor Ghost Island has been building up a huge conflict between Domenick and Chris, and previews for the merge episode tee up a big payoff.

I’ve been mentioning it ever since Chris left for Yanuya and Domenick stayed on Naviti; the real story of Survivor Ghost Island so far has been the goofy, mic-dropping Chris Noble facing off against the paranoid, scheming, advantage-protected Domenick Abbate. With the merge coming this week, there’s nowhere either can hide, and it seems like everyone is waiting to pick a side.

That’s not to say that Chris is a natural leader of a huge alliance that crosses over tribal lines. On the contrary; Yanuya has been plotting to vote him out in secrecy yet kept winning challenges. Domenick, meanwhile, plotted to vote out Bradley, Kellyn’s closest ally, while taking the first shot at Naviti as a Naviti player.

That puts both players on shaky ground, setting up both the title for this Survivor Ghost Island merge episode preview (“Fear Keeps You Sharp”) and this promo video below:

There’s not much in this video that hasn’t been clear in the episodes prior, but we do get to see confirmation that the Malolo and Yanuya tribes will pack up their things and head on over to Naviti beach as the primal location for the rest of the game. Chelsea, Donathan and Libby are the ones behind Domenick, who’s the first alone to greet the other players.

It seems like Domenick is concerned that he won’t get the chance to explain himself if he doesn’t hit the beach and explain things first, which may play into the back and forth of the Survivor Ghost Island merge episode. Below we can see the first Individual Immunity Challenge of the season behind the scenes, where players will pretend to be boom mic operators.

That’s right, the grandiose challenge spires and relays will be reduced to holding up a big old stick with a totem on top, with players eliminated if they fall off or the totem falls off their stick. It combines dexterity with endurance, although it will be interesting to see if we’ll see differently-sized sticks for smaller players like Chelsea.

Next: Survivor: Ranking all 35 seasons

Survivor Ghost Island’s merge episode airs this Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET. It’s not a two-hour episode, meaning we’ll likely see just one player go home this week. If jury follows, we could soon see Ponderosa videos!