Survivor 41: Takeaways from Survivor season 41 episode 6

Last night’s episode of Survivor 41 had more twists than a Chubby Checker chartbuster!  Episode 6 had so many surprises it was hard to keep track of, but it was oh so awesome to watch!

The show opened as UA tribe members, Ricard and Shan arrived back at camp after Tribal Council where they voted off Genie.  The two quickly became entangled in a one-on-one battle over who screwed the other the most.

After their somewhat heated conversation, Ric gave Shan back the advantage which I believe to be a HUGE mistake on his part. With a possible merge on the horizon, Ric could have gone into that merge with a leg up, but as it went, lost any leverage he may have held.  This encounter may have done permanent damage to any kind of alliance they made previously. The takeaway from this move is that a bird in the hand is worth nothing if you let it fly away.

The teams were all delivered news of a change in the game, a possible merge that left them giddy and excited.  The Tribe of YASE doing the premature coveted “made it to the merge” dance all dreamed of how brilliant they were to have made it this far and how they will continue to play a stellar game that will get them to the end.

LUVA, upon receiving the same news, all relished in the fact that they still had all six teammates and that this would be enough to assure at least some of them a seat at the finale.  I’m guessing they can’t add because if UA joins with YASE they have 6 teammates as well and if you are an avid Survivor fan you know that most times numbers don’t add up to a victory as anything can happen in this sordid game.

Survivor 41 episode 6 twist explained

Day 12 brings a challenge that will soon pop everyone’s collective bubble. Jeff Probst explains how the challenge will work and that there won’t be a Tribal Council. It’s a little confusing, but I’ll try my best to explain how it will work.

First, everyone will draw a colored rock from a bag. A yellow or blue rock means you are on those teams, a gray rock means you are omitted from either team. After the Yellow and Blue teams perform the challenge the winning team will be the only members to earn a new merge pink buff.

The losing team will go back to camp with a little rice and no buff, they will have to earn their new merge buffs later.  The winning team gets to pick one of the two omitted from the challenge to join them in their winning status, the one not chosen will head to Exile Island for two days alone with no food.

After a grueling challenge, Team Blue is victorious and they choose Nasser, one of the omitted to join them sending Erika, the other omitted player, off to Exile Island. Team Blue’s Dan, Ricard, Deshawn, Evvie and Sydney head off to a beautiful sanctuary for a scrumptious feast, and Shan, Xander, Tiffany, Heather, and Liana head back to camp disappointed. Assuredly, the take-away from their preconceived notions of the merge is that you don’t count your chickens before they hatch!

With this new dynamic, we can finally learn more about the other players where before it was all about Shan and clan.  Not only do we learn more, but the players can finally learn more about each other, as well as much-needed info about the status of other players and they all, make moves to form new alliances.  It seems that while this season’s players are all about the diversity of the people chosen to participate in the game they still make conscious maneuvers to separate themselves into alliances of nondiversity, go figure!

Survivor hourglass twist explained

Exiled Erika is holding her own while separated from everyone.  She stares into the fire she skillfully made and tended to all night while contemplating her next game move, she spies Jeff Probst approaching the Island on a boat.  He joins her on the Island giving her a little company for a brief time and also gives her a very special Power Advantage.

He shows her an hourglass half-filled with black sand, he affectionately calls it the History Hourglass and it has the power to change history.  He explains to Erika that she has power never given a player before in the history of Survivor.  With this magical glass, she can choose to smash it and turn back time to change the outcome of the challenge or she can choose to just leave the game as is.  The show ends with mind-blowing possibilities for Erika and possibly mind-blowing outcomes for other players who don’t know what’s coming.

If it was me I would have ended the show with a Cher classic, “If I Could Turn Back Time” playing in the background as Erika sports a devilish grin.  No vote tonight, but I vote this episode the best one yet of this season!  Until next week, the scribe has spoken…