Survivor 48 is showing a disturbing trend that has to be on purpose. The Vula tribe is clearly the weakest, by far, of the three tribes. It was apparent from the very beginning of the season.
The Lagi tribe has three strong men and two athletic women. The Civa tribe has three strong men, and while the women aren’t as athletic as the Lagi women, the tribe is still much stronger than the Vula tribe.
It has played out that way in challenges, too. Lagi has dominated, and Civa has beaten Vula. Episode 3 marked the exit of a third Vula tribe member. Granted, Vula has not helped themselves by voting out Stephanie Berger or their two most athletic men, Kevin Lueng and Justin Pioppi. On top of everything else, Kevin hurt his shoulder minutes after the game started, and it was worse than what was shown. Regardless, the deck was stacked against Vula right from the beginning.
Why would the producers split the tribes into such uneven teams on Survivor 48?
There doesn’t seem to be an apparent reason for this decision. Maybe it is because watching one tribe unravel makes for riveting television? It doesn’t really. In truth, it is kind of boring.
Maybe the producers like it when tribes have longer to bond with their tribe mates before having to play the game full blast. That can make for good TV. Often, it puts the players who were initially on the terrible tribe in positions of power when tribes are shuffled or merged. They often serve as swing votes when others finally have to play.
Of course, the producers cannot know how people will mesh with their tribe mates. They may suspect how challenges may play out, but they cannot know that certain things will unfold how they think they might. Season 48, however, was rigged against Vula from the start.
If that is the case, it would behoove Survivor to make the teams as even as possible and let the players determine the outcomes. It is more enjoyable when all the tribes get a chance to go to tribal council early and get a taste of what it feels like to vote a fellow player out.
From the previews following episode three, they are reshuffling the tribes during episode four. Chances are, the three remaining Vula members will become decisive swing votes or easy targets in the episode. Hopefully, it will make this particular season more interesting than it has been so far.
On Survivor 46, three of the first four voted out came from the Yanu tribe. In Season 45, the first four sent home all came from the Lulu tribe. Season 48 makes it three of the last four seasons, and that seems too many to be a coincidence.
Hopefully, this season will be the last with such uneven initial tribes, at least on a physical scale. It takes something away from the game unnecessarily. It will be great to get back to three evenly matched tribes.