You can’t trust anybody but yourself and the ones you love, and the loved ones’ visit was the highlight of our Survivor: Edge of Extinction episode 12 recap.
Survivor is a game based on deception, social politics, and strategy. Sure, there are a lot more twists thrown into the game to throw players’ expectations out of whack, but for the most part, you have to place your trust in the right people and hope that gets you to the end with a winning outlook. Rick has not found that trust in a core group yet, but he still fights it out in episode 12.
Ron tried to make Rick feel better about being blindsided by giving him an “idol.” The way he did so was to provide Rick with the ripped-off Advantage Menu, even though it expired before the tribe swap. I guess learning from the Bob Crowley school of winning Survivor as the oldest player in the game may work for Ron, even though there’s a much wider age difference this time around.
On Day 30, the Reward Challenge brought something back for the first time since Heroes vs. Villains but tied it into something that’s been here almost every season; the loved ones’ visit! It was an emotional rollercoaster that was hard not to cry through.
Rick asked his wife Becca about his family back home, Julie embraced her husband Mark and vowed to be a better person from this experience, Lauren hugged the rock that is her dad Joey, Ron fell into the arms of his husband Lloyd, Victoria looked like a freckle in the eyes of her dad Roch, Aurora’s brother Shane was glad to see her proving herself out there, and Gavin finally got to see his wife, Carly, of roughly 32 days (he got married two days before flying out to compete).
The challenge itself is as iconic as Colby Donaldson saying “dammit, Reid!” It involves players tossing water from buckets filled from the beach to their loved ones, who would then dump it into a final bucket. The run-up to the beach on an incline proved to be a lot for the tired players, with Aurora stumbling, Julie hyperventilating, and Rick just having a talk with his wife after stumbling.
Ron won the reward challenge, earning himself a picnic with his loved one. He chose Julie and Mark to go with him first, with the reveal of Gavin’s rushed marriage kind of forcing Ron’s hand in picking him for a delayed honeymoon. Victoria remarked how it was a make-or-break moment for Ron, as she started to question his real allegiances.
Despite it being a personality decision for Ron to pick those players for the trip, it was a strategic decision, as well. “I’m in charge of this game,” Ron told his husband Lloyd, proving that he learned nothing from outwardly saying he was the puppet master earlier in the game and the effect of feeling unnecessarily confident.
Meanwhile, Rick was outwardly looking for an idol, which had the rest of camp paranoid. This saw Aurora dig through his bag at the discretion of Lauren and Julie, only for Rick to catch her in the act. It was very awkward around camp, even though both players understood the reality of the situation; it’s in the rules and it’s a good move to search for an idol if the other player isn’t looking.
This realization of being completely on the outs and viewed as someone looking for an idol kicked Rick’s “time to actually search for an idol” mode into gear. After looking around camp, he eventually found a clue leading to a place atop the camp’s shelter, which proved to be roughly 15-feet high. If Rick was going to get this idol, he’d need to play things right.
As nighttime, Rick Devens went into Metal Gear Solid-style stealth mode, slithering his way up the shelter’s load-bearing tree awkwardly to snag his first found Hidden Immunity Idol of the season. It looks like he didn’t need to be gifted idols for him to earn his safety this time around.
The Immunity Challenge seemed especially rushed, especially with this being a classic Chimney Sweep matchup. Players stood on increasingly smaller perches as long as they could until somebody won.
Rick dropped out within minutes (although it seemed as though everyone “started” on the third perch), with Ron dropping out seconds later. Quite suddenly after a few dozen minutes, Victoria, Julie and Aurora cramped up mightily, with Lauren and Gavin making it to the 50-minute mark. Gavin eventually pulled it out for his second individual immunity win, stopping Lauren from being the first female winner of this challenge.
It seemed as though everyone was open in the fact that Rick was the voting target, although he wasn’t willing to go down without a fight. He pitched to Ron and Julie to secretly vote out Aurora, but they were lying straight to his face. Aurora seemed to be the vote target just in case Rick had an idol.
Victoria had other plans, however, as she was more content to not have fate placed in others’ hands. She found herself placing her trust in Lauren, with the two of them going to Aurora and Gavin in order to try and manufacture the “safe vote” with their numbers and an extra vote advantage.
See, if Aurora is the vote target and things are tied in a backdoor safety vote situation, she can’t use her extra vote advantage in a revote since she’s one of the voting targets. That meant getting Gavin onboard with Aurora’s plan, which would involve betraying Ron’s trust, as they’re all thinking about how much they’ve betrayed the jury. This did put Gavin in the middle with an extra vote that had to be played at this stage.
There’s a lot to be said for preparation and strategy, but at times it’s hard not to play yourself into a corner. As Tribal Council approached, Rick was the pilot of his own fate, not the passenger, teasing the fact that Aurora went through his bag and he could end the speculation right there (but he didn’t).
With the jury members still in the game, the revelation of Ron winning the loved ones’ visit reward hit a little harder than usual. However, the conversation quickly shifted back to what others had planned, with Victoria openly stating that she didn’t want to sit at the end with Rick. He had a great retort about the fact that three people would regret taking him out, as they would have had him as a vote in their plans.
When it came down to the vote, Gavin kept to his word in using the extra vote advantage gifted to him by Aurora. As Jeff called on anybody to use their idols, Rick used that opportunity to order up an idol on the advantage menu. However, upon learning it expired, Rick used the opportunity to plead to the jury about how Ron lied and Julie betrayed him before playing his real idol.
As such, Ron was voted out 3-1 with the help of Gavin’s extra vote, and we are at the Final Six with just one overall “threat” left in the game. It will be interesting to see how Rick comes back now that he’s an idol or immunity run away from winning the game.