Survivor 47 episode 4, "Is That Blood in Your Hair," definitely lived up to the hype.
Based on what we'd seen in the sneak peeks and previews of the episode, it looked like it was going to feature the biggest blindside of the season, and it definitely did.
Spoilers ahead for Survivor 47 episode 4!
Kishan Patel voted out in Survivor 47 episode 4
After winning or finishing runner-up in the first two immunity challenges, the Lavo tribe lost back-to-back immunity challenges. Accordingly, they paid Jeff Probst another visit at tribal council after voting out Aysha Welch in Survivor 47 episode 3.
Unfortunately, things got messy at the Lavo camp. Rome Cooney basically bullied Sol Yi because Rome and his alliance had the power. Finally, it rubs enough of the Lavo tribe the wrong way, and Kishan Patel reaches out to Genevieve Mushaluk in an effort to blindside Rome. The only problem was that Teeny Chirichillo lost a vote, so it was going to potentially be two votes for Rome and two votes for Sol.
Then, on the revote, Kishan and Genevieve would vote for Rome, eliminating the most eccentric players in the game. But, Rome revealed that Genevieve's name had been thrown out as a decoy from Kishan, which made her mad. In response, she flipped and decided to tell Rome that they were planning to blindside him. Rome stole Kishan's vote while Sol, Rome, and Genevieve voted for Kishan.
Kishan was clearly stunned during tribal council. While he seemed hurt, he quickly got over it.
During his interview on CBS after being eliminated, Kishan had high praise for his tribemates.
"I got blindsided as simple as it can be. Some people might have caught wind of what I was doing, which led to my downfall. So, props to them. I respect the move. I respect what they did. Do I wish I made final three? Of course. Do I wish I won? Yes, but I have no regrets. That's the beauty of the game. You never know what to expect, and that's what makes it fun. "
Kishan nearly pulled off an epic blindside, but he made a crucial mistake that came back to bite him.
During his conversation with Rome, Kishan threw Genevieve's name out to try to get Sol to give up his Shot in the Dark. The plan was for Rome to nicely throw Sol a bone, basically, but then they wold double-cross him once they had his Shot in the Dark. That would allow Rome to keep his Steal a Vote advantage. To convince Sol, they needed a realistic name to tell him, so they chose Genevieve, thinking that she would be cool with it.
Spoiler alert: Genevieve was not, in fact, cool with it, and in her frustration, she made the biggest move of the game so far with Rome's help.
Ultimately, I think Kishan was right in targeting Rome. There's no way that alliance and the way Rome is playing the game is going to last through the merge. Rome will be a target, and it's not good to be that closely allied with someone who plays so fast and loose and rubs people the wrong way. After spending a few days with him so far, the Lavo tribe was ready to vote him out the second that Kishan brought his name up. That's more proof that he's overstaying his welcome.
I also don't blame Genevieve for making this move. I don't think she really trusted Kishan after hearing what Rome said, but instead of talking to Kishan about it, she made the move. Had she talked to Kishan, I think she would have realized that he was simply having a conversation and there wasn't malice behind it, but she didn't. And, the rest is history. Kishan was the fourth person voted out of Survivor 47!
It looks like the game is just starting to heat up. I can't wait to see what's in store in Survivor 47 episode 5, coming on Wednesday, Oct. 16.