Survivor 41 takeaways: Biggest moments from season 41 episode 9

Another episode of Survivor 41 is in the books and there are a lot of takeaways to discuss from the episode.

Last night yet another player went home holding an idol. Survivor 41 is proving that if you’re comfortable with your gameplay and your alliance, you might be the one going home, but we will delve into that in a moment.  The huge takeaway this week? That on the game of Survivor you should always be aware of and be prepared for possible blindsides.

Survivor season 41 episode 9 recap

Survivor season 41 episode 9 began on Night 16 immediately after tribal council, where we find DeShawn and Heather hashing out her bewildering move just before the vote was to go down causing mayhem and chaos with the predetermined vote. Shock and dismay overtook the council and created more tension and discord in the power alliance.

Deshawn, openly wounded after he went another round with Queen Shantel at that tribal council, was upset at Shan’s continued callous disregard for his opinions.  Time will tell if and when DeShawn will have enough and make the move to put an end to her reign.  My takeaway from all of this is that even though Heather’s move at tribal council may have been lame at least she had the guts to stir things up when all DeShawn does is complain while he sheepishly follows the queen’s orders.

On Day 17, Heather is again in a confrontation with a fellow tribemate. Naseer is irritated with her for causing such a raucous at the previous night’s tribal council where he heard her call out his name to be exchanged for the preset vote for Tiffany.

That same morning there was a new raucous as all members of Viakana were scrambling about as if eggs in a frying pan. The power alliance was openly congregating while all members waited anxiously for “Pastor” Shan to tell them for whom they should vote. Xander, Erika and Evvie all made pleas for their safety and tried to muster up a new power group of misfits.

A reward/immunity challenge ushered in yet another twist.  For this challenge, the Viakana tribe was divided into two groups, the blue team and the yellow team that were drawn at random.  The blue team exists of Evvie Jagoda, DeShawn Radden, Xander Hastings, Danny McCray and Liana Wallace while Ricard Foye, Shantel Smith, Naseer Muttalif, Heather Aldret and Erika Casupanan comprise the yellow team. With this twist, there would be two immunities up for grab as well as two players leaving the game and joining the jury.

Stamina vs. Pain was this challenge with tribemates standing on a small block of wood while their hands, up and over their heads, held on to two wooden dowels. The reward was a hot stew for the team with the member holding on the longest. Both teams would have an immunity winner with the one last standing on each perspective team.

The yellow team’s immunity winner was Erika, who outlasted her team members, and in the end, the blue team’s two last competitors were DeShawn and Xander which won their team the food reward while Xander outlasted DeShawn for the immunity win. My takeaway is always befriend those on the bottom tier, for they seem to always end up at the top in the challenges.

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With Erika and Xander both holding immunity and therefore being ineligible for elimination, this made a challenging dilemma for Shan. Now she has to figure out her next choice for elimination and convince her “subjects” to go along with that choice as well.  With five in each group and one in each group having won immunity the pickings are slim. Also, others held their own immunity idols and advantage moves making it even more difficult to strategize.

Trying to keep up with all the promises made between teammates in both groups was headache-inducing.  Liana, who said she hates Xander’s face while watching him outperform everyone in the challenge as well as betraying him multiple times, had the gall to ask him for his immunity idol.  Evvie also wanted Xander to save her even though she betrayed him as well. Heather, finally getting some air time, was making the rounds too with her rude and elementary gameplay.

DeShawn was making waves as he voiced his vote choices seemingly oblivious to how he was showing his cards to other members of the power alliance to which he belonged. Ric finally held his ground with Shan and told her to vote off Naseer, not Heather, since he was the bigger threat. My takeaway from this is that you play the game smart, tough and hard and always keep your poker face.

Night 17 of Survivor 41 brought back Tiffany as the lone member of the Jury for the first tribal council.  While the yellow team discussed events with Jeff Probst, Heather put on a convincing dramatic act of emotion conveying she knew she was the one leaving the game.  I think it was all faked just to get to Naseer to give him a false sense of security toward his already comfortable safe status so he would not play his idol.

Heather gets an Oscar for her performance as Naseer did not use his idol and after a tie of 3-3 for Heather and Naseer in the first vote, the second vote left Naseer completely blindsided and heading to the Jury bench.

The second tribal council brought in a tribe of well-fed bellies who couldn’t help but rehash the hash they had eaten earlier. Xander, Evvie, Danny, Liana and DeShawn all felt the vote would go the way they had planned it to go from the strategizing of the day. This takeaway proves that you never count your chickens before they are hatched as the vote took a blindsided and dumbfounded Evvie to the Jury bench to join Tiffany and Naseer.

Well, that’s about it for, “who’s who in the zoo,” to borrow a phrase from DeShawn. Next week should be fun to watch as the paranoia steps up another notch, until then, the scribe has spoken.