With two out of the three tribes having to face Tribal Council, the Immunity Challenge in episode 6 of Survivor: Winners at War was a crucial one.
Being only a few days away from the Survivor: Winners at War merge, this is one of the most critical points in the game. It often marks the distinction between the greats and the subpar players. Once you can get over that hump of going to Tribal with only four or five tribe members, the field is wide open at the merge. That makes winning challenges so much more essential, especially in episode 6 where two tribes had to meet with Jeff.
Immunity/Reward Challenge Overview
Episode 6’s challenge consisted of both water and land portions. The tribes had to swim out to a boat to grab three huge bags of rice. Then they had to somehow get the bags through a tight hole in a structure by squeezing it through. Once the bags made it over, the tribe will carry them to the shore, where one castaway will use a knife to cut open the bags to find three balls.
These balls are then used for a final table maze. The first tribe to land all three balls at the center of their table maze wins immunity, sending the other two tribes scrambling to vote someone out. They will also win a reward in the form of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that Sophie somehow called out before Jeff revealed it. She’s reading people so well that she can even predict rewards now!
Sele got off to an early lead as they were quick to gather their bags and efficiently got them through the structure. Dakal was next until Kim and Denise were struggling to get their bag of rice to shore. That gave Yara the chance to get back into it and boy they did. I wouldn’t want to meet Ben with a knife in his hands! He made quick work of cutting up the bags to find the three balls and got his tribe to the table maze just a second behind Sele.
Nick started it off for Sele and completed the table maze comfortably. It seems like the same person couldn’t solve the maze twice in a row, so Wendell took over for Sele. On Yara, Sophie made quick work of it, landing their first ball and handing over the reins to Adam. Dakal was last to the table maze, but it didn’t matter when they got there because it seemed like none of their members could go thirty seconds without dropping their ball in a hole.
Sele was keeping up their lead as Wendell was moving swiftly through the maze until he got too cocky… which is seeming to happen a lot this season. Just when he was inches away from landing his ball, he muttered “Watch this Jeff”, and maneuvered his ball right into the wrong hole. That opened the door for Yara and they didn’t look back.
Adam finished with his ball, and although Wendell eventually got his to go, the time that he wasted was the difference between win and loss. Sophie landed her last ball for Yara, giving this expansion tribe a much-needed victory and reward. Once again, it wasn’t a unique challenge concept, but the tight competition made it an exciting one.
Challenge Takeaways
Unlike most Survivor seasons that use a three tribe format, these tribes feel fairly balanced. With the next episode likely featuring the last Tribal Council before the merge, this is a huge challenge coming up. I still believe that Yara is the weaker group and Sele is the strongest in terms of physicality, but it can go any way depending on the challenge.
Challenge Rankings:
Creativity: 1/5
Difficulty: 2/5
Entertainment Value: 3/5