Survivor Island of the Idols: Three takeaways from the season premiere

The 90-minute premiere of Survivor: Island of the Idols gave us a lot to think about including the mentors’ powerful role and a possible women’s alliance.

It’s great to see a solid start to a Survivor season even with another controversial twist entering the picture. The new casting director didn’t skip a beat, as these 20 first time players make up one of the most diverse and intriguing groups yet. Here are some of the key takeaways we pulled from the Island of the Idols premiere.

1) Boston Rob and Sandra have an active role

Thanks to Josh Wigler’s preseason coverage, we got a sneak peek of Boston Rob and Sandra’s lesson plan, but there were still plenty of questions. What really struck out to me was how Boston Rob and Sandra took the time to casually chat about her position in the game with Elizabeth before starting the fire-making lesson. It showed that they wanted to understand what was happening and where she fits into this season.

However, the biggest reveal was the fact that Boston Rob and Sandra can leave their island to secretly watch each Tribal Council! Although I don’t like how they’re slightly stealing the spotlight, it is fun to hear their live input on each player. Their knowledge of what goes down at each Tribal Council does give them a lot more power to understand what’s happening in the season. With this insight, could they possibly become jury members?

2) The “older” castaways don’t play old!

It’s been a while since we’ve had a mature cast like this one. If you told me two months ago that Island of the Idols will have two players over 58 and that the youngest is 23, I wouldn’t have believed it! A common stereotype for older players is that they’re bossy, weak, and unaware of how to play a subtle game. That stereotype couldn’t be farther from the truth for this season.

Janet Carbin (59 years old) absolutely killed it in the Immunity Challenge and came up huge by making fire with simply bamboo. On the other tribe, Tom Laidlaw (60 years old) performed well in the challenge and did a good job building an early alliance. Both of these players didn’t push their leadership cards too far and have gained the respect of their tribe members.

3) Could we finally see another all-female alliance?

In almost every season now, the edit teases the viewers with the possible emergence of an all-female alliance. In Island of the Idols, there was that one scene where the five women of the Lairo tribe got to talking away from the guys. It was Missy Byrd who proposed a realistic and decently dope plan for the women to stick together and subtly trim down the guys’ numbers.

Jeff Probst did praise the strength of the women on this season in pregame interviews, and with their first success of taking out Ronnie, this might just be the special group to pull it off. That said, it’s still very early, so until we’re nearing the merge, I can’t see it being a definitive all-female alliance.

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