Survivor 41: Takeaways from Survivor season 41 episode 5

Survivor is FINALLY in full throttle! This week’s episode was the first one of season 41 that I really enjoyed.

It opened as the depleted UA Tribe of three members were discussing their morning chores. Genie went off to fetch water and search for the Idol that Brad was sent home with after he was brilliantly blindsided at council, hoping it was put back into play. We are on day 10, so of course she found it; after all, we have to get this new “beware” challenge up and running to actually work the way it was intended.

Genie, being the trusting soul she is and not a strategist like her fellow team-mates are, ran off to proclaim the news that she found an Idol. They all agreed to not open it for now and just put it back until some later point in the game. While Genie enjoyed a little ocean time, both Ricard and Shantel decided to open it and forego the previous group decision.

With this move, the trust had completely disappeared when Ricard and Shantel get down and dirty with their game play. This is a big takeaway from this week’s episode as the game is really happening now.

We moved next to YASE tribe where Xander and Evvie discussed pulling Tiffany in with their plan to vote out Liana should they lose immunity. Xander botched his attempt to lure Tiffany over with his bumbling admission that he found an idol. Tiffany won the sleuth of the year award as she caught him in one lie after another while he explained his ownership of the idol.

Tifanny also won an award for best facial expressions when not believing a word he said. Takeaway number two: If you’re going to bring someone into your confidence, don’t lie with the details or at least be well rehearsed.

Day 11 began with an Immunity/Reward challenge at the hottest place in Fiji and on Earth, coincidentally just as the game heated up with new revelations.

Before the challenge began, Shan spout out her “beware Idol” phrase, followed by Xander’s unique phrase, then suddenly Naseer spoke up to tell Jeff, saying he’s “as confused as a goat on Astro-turf.” This, apparently, is his unique “beware idol” phrase.

Finally, we got a blindside for the fans, which was awesome! Fans were let in on the details of how Naseer discovered the new Idol one day earlier. It seemed his daughter helped him train for just this moment by hiding homemade immunity challenges for him to find.  We will find out later if this secrecy worked on Naseer’s behalf or put target on his back.

The challenge wasn’t as particularly grueling as the hot temperatures, as all teams seemed to make it through each section easily.  In the end, YASE won top place and immunity with LUVU coming in second place, leaving UA to head to Tribal Council, once again proving two’s company and three’s a crowd.

YASE was privileged to send two people on a journey and they chose Shantel from UA and Liana from their own YASE tribe. It seemed the two were a match made in heaven as the women bonded over an emotional conversation.

They worked out how they each would vote to finish their task on their journey; Shan would play it safe and save her much-needed vote, and Liana would take the risk so she could take the “Power Knowledge” advantage with her to the impending merge.

In preparation for Tribal Council, the three UA tribe members pleaded their cases to each other as to why they should vote to keep them on the tribe.

All three members were uneasy knowing it could be their torches up for snuff. I bet Genie wished she had real genie powers and could control Tribal Council with just a few arm crosses and a nod of her head.  Both Ricard and Shantel almost came to blows after Shan asked Ric for her Idol back and he refused, leaving the viewer lost in the dark as to how the votes would go.

In the end after all was said and done, Genie was thrown back in the ocean for a long ride home. On her voyage home, I’m guessing she wished she had used that “Shot In The Dark” last chance.  After all, a roll of the dice is better than a dagger in the back.

Now with the UA tribe down to two, we are assured something will happen next week regarding a merge of some sort. It’s getting good, folks, so keep your torches lit and until we meet again, the scribe has spoken.