A serving of blabbermouth and a side of stupidity led to Survivor 51's weird second elimination

Survivor 51's premiere mostly kept its attentions on Toka, but episode 2, "Weaponized Honesty," was all Savu, all the time.

Toka returned to camp after their chaotic first Tribal Council, where ... no one seemed to be that mad about what went down? Brady Booker and Devin Way reaffirmed their commitment to each other and Jenna Doore's "no hard feelings" attitude seemed to be generally accepted by the rest of the group.

Of course, more might've happened there than we saw, and it could (probably will) come back around in later episodes, but the most interesting part of that postmortem was Lewis Kelly rejoining the group from Exile Island and Danny Kilby not buying that he didn't have some kind of advantage.

The heavy emphasis on Savu's politics through the rest of the episode made it pretty clear that they would be the ones ultimately lighting their torches. We joined voice actor Ana Sani and defense attorney Alexis Levine back at camp, where Ana immediately put a target on her back by throwing out almost every conceivable name, but starting with Sharonda Cox and Linnea Capobianco.

Most of Savu directed their attention toward therapist Eric Macksoud as early as the premiere, based almost solely on the fact that he was a little annoying. (Not that I blame them. He is annoying, and they're all stuck with each other).

But Ana turned around and immediately mentioned Alexis to Carter Krull, only to be overheard. Alexis, vengeful, told Sharonda and Linnea that Ana had been conspiring against them, and the chips landed accordingly—but not without some mind-boggling "strategy" from another member of Savu.

Ana Sani's Survivor 51 exit was overshadowed by some pure idiocy from Rob Antonson

Savu lost their first reward challenge—a camp-furnishing set that included a hammock, tarp, and pillows (pillows!)—but only by a hair. Airline gate agent Rob Antonson was absolutely fuming when they returned to camp, blaming Linnea and Eric for their delay in getting through the obstacle course with Eric blindfolded instead of Linnea. It was rude (and a little misogynistic) and it set Rob up as, if not the villain, then the chaos factor.

I've gotten a feeling throughout these first two episodes that this bunch aren't all as familiar with Survivor as contestants previous. Come on, this is Survivor, and everything is about everything that came before. In the Open Era, when anything from the last 50 seasons is in play, knowledge, as they say, is power. But personal trainer Ori Jean-Charles admitted in the premiere that he didn't know the show very well, and later events would reveal that Rob didn't, either.

Savu lost the immunity challenge, too, and by a landslide (why wasn't resident muscle man Ori up there dragging that 500-pound whale over the wheel?). They headed back to camp to figure out who was on the block.

Eric and Ana were the top two choices, with Alexis, Sharonda, and Linnea trying to rope Ori into their anti-Ana campaign. He and Sharonda are tight, but he still believed in, as he would later say at Tribal Council, "Taking the layup."

This is where Rob came in. He got a moment to himself in the jungle, where a confessional voiceover revealed that he missed his family and was considering putting his own name down and exiting the game. This is where that fundamental lack of Survivor know-how comes in: you can't write your own name down.

Rob clearly thought he was being smart about ... well, something. He pulled Eric aside and told him to hand over his shot in the dark, that Rob would give it back at Tribal Council, but Eric had to do everything he said. He refused to tell Eric what his plan was, but promised it would "change the game a lot."

Come Tribal Council, Rob took Eric aside and told him to play his shot in the dark. If it didn't work, Rob would hand over the hidden immunity idol he found in the premiere.

When it was Rob's turn to vote, he said he wanted to "give someone a second chance," and proceeded to write down his own name until a producer was forced to intervene, "You can't write your own name." Rob was aghast. "That screws up everything." Yeah, dude.

Eric did not play his shot in the dark. Host Jeff Probst read the votes. Ana left by a vote of 6-4. She was a little too surprised by this—what did she expect when she was openly strategizing about four different people at any given time?

The votes revealed that Rob ended up voting for Eric, but that only made sense. Rob had clearly not understood anything that was going on in his tribe from the jump. His thinking, it seems, was that Eric was going out by unanimous vote, that Rob would write his own name down, give Eric his idol, and fall by his own sword.

He seemed to forget that contestants can voluntarily remove themselves from the game. Hannah Rose, back in season 45, asked everyone to let her leave because she missed nicotine.

Rob had to make it more "honorable" than that. He's going to have to come up with some kind of explanation for what happened that night, and nothing he says is going to make him look threatening going forward.

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