Survivor Winners at War episode 2 secret scenes: Spice of life

The Survivor: Winners at War episode 2 secret scenes show proper spice usage, fishing techniques, and lessons on how to lie to your fellow castaways.

There is so much that goes on in a traditional Survivor hour-long episode that gets cut. It’s in the nature of cutting down 72 hours into 41 minutes of action, especially when you need to capture at least the Immunity Challenge and Tribal Council every week. Even if CBS wanted to give 90-minute episodes to the show, there’s no way to get absolutely everything that happens onto TV.

There are also player-specific editing reasons why you don’t have certain scenes on television. Thankfully, we have the opportunity to see some of them in the Survivor: Winners at War episode 2 secret scenes, as many of this week’s extras focus on the wonderfully childlike demeanor of Ethan Zohn.

The first of the secret scenes shows why Ethan Zohn is the way he is; being so close to death due to his cancer diagnoses has given him a new lease on life. As opposed to Jamal Shipman napping before heading to Tribal Council, Ethan found the ability to rest on the beach after swimming around with the rest of his tribe on Day 4 as a moment of respite, enjoying a game built on creeping paranoia.

Keeping with all things Ethan, the second of the Survivor secret scenes this week focuses on Ethan getting some help from Parvati on how to lie to Danni about being the voting target of the week. As much as Ethan can’t lie as well as others, you can certainly tell he’s playing down his abilities when messing around with Parvati, further deepening his relationship with her while downplaying his own target down the line.

While Ethan and Parvati were boning up on their lying skills, the third secret scene saw Kim Spradlin boning up on her culinary skills. She knew that you don’t have to be perfect with the seasoning to screw up a dish, so she took it on herself to make sure Dakal was fed well and didn’t have too much (read: any) cilantro.

Speaking of food, the fourth secret scene shows Amber Mariano fending for herself (and maybe Natalie, who’s nowhere to be seen) on the Edge of Extinction. Apparently, they have basic fishing rods without having to spend a fire token, which allowed Amber to use a hermit crab as bait to catch a reasonable honker of a parrotfish. She’s doing remarkably well outside of the game.

Finally, the fifth and final of the Survivor: Winners at War episode 2 secret scenes saw Sele get treemail, describing a “classic challenge” in store for the players. Boston Rob felt the heat heading into the challenge, but I have to turn it around on the producers for describing a challenge from Survivor: Cagayan as a “classic.” You know there are winners from as far back as season 3, not season 28, competing in the 20th anniversary?