Survivor Ghost Island aired another enticing episode on Wednesday, but one of our biggest takeaways was how many dang Hidden Immunity Idols there are.
Way back in the day (I’m talking 2005), Survivor introduced the Hidden Immunity Idol in season 11. Judd had a clue about its location and infamously lied to his tribe and told them, “That thing is definitely on the ground.” Gary then saw Judd looking in the trees, and the rest is history.
Nowadays, however, Survivor has taken the whole Hidden Immunity Idol twist to a whole new level. On this past Wednesday night’s episode, four players had Hidden Immunity Idols and Dom even had the Legacy Advantage, which counted as an idol as well. That’s entirely too many idols, even for the whole Ghost Island concept.
I will say that the Hidden Immunity Idol adds a huge part to the show. Tribal Councils wouldn’t be nearly as exciting if the contestants weren’t terrified of someone pulling an idol out of their pocket and playing it. That could be the unfair end of someone’s game right there.
Contestants are forced to split the votes nearly every week in the fear that someone could either play the idol or pass it off to someone else. It adds a whole new level of fear and paranoia to the game that is Survivor.
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The Hidden Immunity Idol has changed the game of Survivor, but four idols being in play at once is just too many. Dom had one (and his Legacy Advantage, which he then played), Chris had one, Wendell had one and Michael had one at the merge. Michael did not need to play his, but it was a bit surprising not to see Wendell or Chris play theirs.
No one played a legit idol on Wednesday’s show, which was a good thing. Otherwise, we’d have had that whole build-up to the Chris and Dom show only to have quiet little Libby get sent packing.
From now on, Survivor needs to stick with one Hidden Immunity Idol per tribe and maybe throw another one in at the merge. That’s it. We don’t need 20 floating around at any point during the season. If someone plays their idol, even for nothing, then that’s it. It’s gone forever.
I understand this season is different due to the whole Ghost Island concept but does everything on there have to be idol related? Make it some twist where you can only play it right then or something like that.
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Hopefully, all of these idols are just for the sake of Ghost Island and not a permanent staple for the Survivor series.