After five players went home with hidden immunity idols in their pockets in Survivor 46, you can definitely see the hesitation and downright fear for some of the new Survivor 47 players when it comes to finding and playing the idols.
Charlie Davis mentioned to Jeff Probst and Jay Wolff on the On Fire with Jeff Probst podcast that he thinks that's causing some lingering issues with how the players are dealing with idols in the new season.
Through two episodes of Survivor 47, three idols have been found by several different contestants. In the season premiere, Gabe Ortis and Rome Cooney found the beware advantages, which then were cashed in for hidden immunity idols after a series of small tasks. In the second episode, Andy Rueda of the Gata tribe found the beware advantage and chose to leave it behind to think about it. While he was thinking it over, Sam Phalen found the beware advantage and then did the tasks and got an idol.
The interesting thing about Survivor 47 is how scared the players are to get the idols and how much they're willing to risk to keep them. Basically, that's by design. Instead of getting an idol immediately, the players must choose to do more tasks and find more things to increase the power of the idol, via the Nesting Box setup of the boxes. The first idol they find is good for one vote. If they want to play for an idol that works for three votes, they put in the smaller box and do more tasks. For a full-powered hidden immunity, they, then, have to put the idol good for three votes back into the box and do more tasks. It's a lot!
So far, no one has gone for the full-powered idol. Rome and Sam took the idol good for one vote, while Gabe opted out after getting the idol that's good for three tribal councils. He already played in during his first tribal council, though.
Charlie Davis, cohost of On Fire with Jeff Probst, had a very interesting take on the idol strategy deployed across the board so far in Survivor 47 and why fewer players are less likely to risk it all for an idol. Remember, Charlie played on Survivor 46, the season in which no idols were played correctly.
"I'll boil it down to the factors I think they are thinking about out there," Charlie told Jay Wolff and Jeff Probst. "Number one is secrecy. Because when you're doing this idol search, you're risking other people seeing you being fishy, so you want it to be secret."
That would be, I think, my worst fear, which Rome and Gabe already got caught doing on the first few days on the beach. Immediately, that puts the target on your back. And, honestly, it doesn't feel like that's gone away for Gabe or Rome.
"Number two would be energy," Charlie continued "You're not eating, but all of a sudden, there's a note that says you have to climb up a mountain to secure a key to get an idol. That's not so fun when you have no energy."
Another good point from Charlie!
"Number three is fear, right?" Charlie said. "Because, when you have an idol, you're worried about misplaying it. So, when you have an idol that's good for one tribal council, it takes away that fear of a misplay."
I'm following along, and I have to say that I agree with Charlie. Those are the three reasons why the players shouldn't be interested in finding idols this early in the game. It seems like it almost does more harm than good, right now, to find a hidden immunity idol. We've seen players get very comfortable with idols recently and do things they normally would not do. It also adds change to the game, and if you're not good at keeping things secret, it can actually shift the target to you, which is what happened with Jem Hussain-Adams in Survivor 46. It's almost an exercise in how much you trust yourself in a way. Do you trust yourself to not allow this idol to mess things up? That's part of the risk, too!
Charlie also made another good point about players allowing previous seasons to drastically impact their strategy and why that's not a good idea.
"So, when you get a group of players who watched five people go out of the game with an idol in their pocket, I guarantee you they are very scared in season 47 of becoming the sixth and creating a streak across seasons, " Charlie said.
"Is that a good thing to let another season affect your gameplay?" Charlie continued. "I always say Survivor is situations. So, the situations in season 47 are very different from the situations in season 46, but you still have an effect from a prior season."
Honestly, it's such a good point. Clearly, Charlie is right. It's all about reading the situation and using it to your advantage or flipping the situation to your advantage. So, if everyone is playing scared and not utilizing every advantage possible, it's leaving the door open for someone else to walk through that door, take that chance, and see how it works out.
We've already seen that somewhat in season 47 so far. Andy had the potential answer to staying in the game in his hands, and he put it back. He didn't want to take that chance, and then Sam and Anika Dhar found the idol.
Will that lead to Sam's exit now that everyone knows he has an idol except Andy? Will it lead to Andy's? Will it cause a rift between the tribemates? We'll just have to wait and see what happens in Survivor 47 episode 3 and beyond!
Someone is going to find and play a hidden immunity idol correctly in Survivor 47! I can feel it!