Another week, another showing of Survivor 48 being the most dynamic season of the new era. And I am here for it!
After four episodes of strategic blindsides and disheartening losses, "A Masterclass in Deception" finally hit us all in our soft spots with multiple emotional showings, barrier-breaking conversations, and new connections that might just shift the game permanently.
Spoilers for Survivor 48, epsiode 5 ahead!
Two challenges changed fates
In a historic showing, Vula came back from their descent into the losing streak of no return, clenching wins in not one, but two challenges—the first separate reward and immunity challenges of the season, not including episode 1's marooning.
Eva Erickson's gripping win for Lagi gave us another powerful dialogue—the first coming from Mitch Guerra—this season as she opened up to all remaining players about having autism.
And back-to-back losses for the Civa tribe once again demonstrated that not getting a reward and tension between tribe mates can impact overall performance in the immunity challenge, no matter how physically strong the group is.
Alliances continued to shift
After going to their first Tribal Council together, Vula felt more connected and torn than ever. They never want to do that again. Then a deep conversation over food after taking second at the reward challenge lead to a new power alliance between Kyle Fraser, Kamilla Karthigesu, Shauhin Davari, and Joe Hunter.
Over at Lagi, Eva's authenticity during the challenge inspired her adversary, Star Toomey, to confess to her entire tribe that she found the Beware Advantage on their beach. The group worked together to gather the six letters needed for the cryptex, and after Eva ultimately opened it with the word "silent," Star gave her the idol as sort of a peace offering. But with such a public showing, it's highly likely that Star just actually put a big target on Eva's back. She'll need to use the idol sooner rather than later to avoid repercussions.
And last week I predicted that if Civa ended up at Tribal Council, Bianca Roses would be the one going home. However, Sai Hughley was wearing down the patience of original Civa members Mitch and Chrissy Sarnowski—both of whom felt Bianca was less of a threat now that Thomas Krottinger had been voted out—and they decided to pull in Bianca and Cedrek McFadden to blindside Sai. Bianca took this as an opportunity to play both sides, agreeing to anything that would keep her in the game, despite not having a vote to promise anyone.
Yet another blindside hits hard
Though she wasn't on the chopping block initially, Bianca felt that without her day one ally to protect her she needed to put her trust in someone else. However, after opening up to Cedrek—the person Sai told her not to implicitly trust—about losing her vote, the tables were turned and she was sent home for coming off as untrustworthy.
As I said at the beginning of the season, Bianca and Thomas needed each other to survive. As soon as one was gone, it was only a matter of time before the next domino fell for the other.
Bianca wasn't the only one blindsided, though. Both Sai and Mitch had voted based on the original plan, alluding to the fact that Cedrek and Chrissy did not loop either of them into this new development. It will be interesting to see if that comes back to bite either of them.
Episode 5's big reminder
It's become very clear that the castaways of Survivor 48 are all about trust and transparency.
The original Civa and Lagi tribes had co-habitated peacefully (each having only one player they considered to be on the bottom of the main alliance) and triumphantly while Vula was swept up in a tornado of chaos from the very beginning due to the fact they instantly established divisions within the tribe. The lack of teamwork clearly wasn't working for the original green members while our orange and purple players were thriving.
Then instantly after our first tribal shake up, the first two players to go home were two that withheld information and came off as people that could not be trusted in the long-run.
In the past, we almost always witnessed the moment a secret comes back to haunt someone once it's revealed, but so far in season 48, there has only been one successful secret: Kyle and Kamilla's possession of an idol and an extra vote unknown to the former Lagi tribe. But even coming out of that major blindside, Joe and Shauhin felt betrayed momentarily until they agreed it was a move that had to be done and they should all work together from here on out.
So the takeaway of episode 5 is a huge reminder to our players to be careful which secrets you keep. If it's one that can come out through deductive reasoning, this season seems to be hinting it's better to be straightforward from the get-go and not hold onto anything unless you plan to never reveal it until the absolute last second—like Rachel LaMont's brilliant idol play last season.
Next Time on Survivor...
After such a whirlwind episode, we can easily predict that original tribe lines are about to be blurred beyond recognition and new power players might come out as we enter the individual phase of Survivor 48—which has always come at episode 6 in the new era.
I foresee the new underground alliance of Kyle, Kamilla, Shauhin, and Joe to give us a stealth performance, only brining in Eva and not letting anyone else know they are actually aligned. And that will be our majority alliance making the decisions from here on out.
The biggest switch up could come in the form of Sai, this season's cat with nine lives, finally coming to the end of her game. Luck and strategy have been on her side since the beginning, managing to escape every Tribal Council she's attended despite the fact that her name has been written down every time. But she's currently ally-less—except for Cedrek who it's still hard to get a read on whether he actually trusts her or not...—and going into a big group with no connections is a surefire way to find yourself on the losing end of the votes.
But whatever happens, I know it's going to be big, dramatic, and worth talking about it, just as the rest of the season has been so far. You won't want to miss a second of it!
New episodes ofSurvivor 48 air every Wednesday at 8 pm ET on CBS and Paramount+.