Survivor 51 began last week without preamble by introducing 21 new players and throwing them into the best game in the world, and this is literal since the season began with an iconic marooning. After one player volunteered to go to Exile Island (Lewis Kelly), the other 20 were split into two tribes: Savu (purple) and Toka (yellow).
After Toka lost the first immunity challenge, the tribe split non who to vote out: Aaliyah Puglia (a vote led by Brady Booker) and Jenna Doore (mainly guided by Devin Way). Aaliyah and Jenna later played their Shots in the Dark unsuccessfully, and after a 6-2 vote, Aaliyah became the first voted out of the season.
Multiple storylines are brewing heading into the second episode of the season! For starters, there’s a rivalry that has begun between Brady and Devin at Toka, with the other players already choosing sides. Jenna still seems on the outs, but that could change in the blink of an eye. Meanwhile, at Savu, Eric Macksoud is the odd man out, while Rob Antonson is the only player so far with an idol.
Here's what happened during the second episode of Survivor 51:
It's only day 3 and there's more than one injury already
The episode begins with Toka returning from Tribal Council on day 3. Jenna says there are no hard feelings while Brody and Devin clear the air about the rivalry-but-still-friendly thing they have going on. Devin declares he’s going to use his weaponised honesty strategy in his favour moving forward.
Lewis returns to the Toka tribe, and everyone is shocked to see him still alive; perhaps they actually thought he had perished while being on his own. While Lewis tells them what he went through on Exile Island, some don’t actually believe him.
At Savu, Ana and Alexis talk about working together. They talk about Linnea being highly strategic and about Sharonda also being a threat. Ana decides to tell others, including Carter, about targeting Linnea and Sharonda, but the conversation turns to Alexis.
Just then, Alexis approaches them and Ana, instead of playing it cool, suddenly starts talking about popcorn of all things. (Girl, what?!) Alexis walks away, and Ana knows she fumbled the bag. Alexis obviously noticed that they were talking about her and immediately distrusts Ana now, so she turns to Linnea and Sharonda and reveals to them about Ana's plotting. All three women agree that their sights are upon Ana now.
Back at Toka, the tribe has fun and start to get to know each other more. Lewis bonds with Maggie about both of them having farms, but Lewis still feels uncertain about his future on the game since he doesn’t even have a buff yet.
Out of nowhere, Brody gets a quarter of his thumb sliced off by an axe after cutting some wood, and when I say the camera focuses on his injury, on the blood, and the remains from his thumb quite fixatedly,, I’m not kidding. There are even some zooms, too, so tread carefully if you’re squeamish.
Brody is more worried about getting pulled from the game than about his actual thumb (which is not something plenty of people would do, so kudos to Brody for being a survivalist to his core). Luckily for Brody, he’s not medevaced and can keep playing.
The first reward challenge
At the reward challenge, the Savu tribe is surprised to realise that Aaliyah is now gone, and also by seeing that Lewis is alive and well. Lewis then becomes officially part of the Toka tribe as he gets his yellow buff.
Jeff Probst announces that the tribes will play for comfort items in an obstacle course, where half of them will be blindfolded. Any time there are blindfolds involved, we know injuries will follow. Case in point, Kristin takes a hard fall, and it looks like she injures her foot.
Savu starts falling behind as some members stop helping their blindfolded tribemates. There’s a really funny scene of Brody literally dragging Kilby by the waist, so it’s a good thing he didn't stop competing.
Both tribes then start working on the final phase of the challenge simultaneously, with Savu then taking the lead. Savu ultimately loses plenty of time when various players lose a lot of time as they struggle to make it work, and ultimately, Toka ends up winning their first challenge of the season.
After the reward challenge
Kristin talks about her injury upon returning to camp, and unfortunately, it looks to be pretty serious. Kristin says that she thinks she might have ripped some tendons or possibly broken a bone. She declares she will use whatever is available on the island to remain in the game.
Meanwhile, Rob chastises Eric and Linnea, as Linnea was the one blindfolded as opposed to Eric, as Eric is bigger and could’ve helped Linnea more. However, the way he does it rubs multiple people the wrong way, as he is described as crazy and unreasonable. (Much more of this later)
The Toka tribe enjoys their reward while Jelly decides to look for an idol, since she knows she is potentially on the outs after being on the wrong side of the first vote. Amazingly, Jelly is successful and finds a regular hidden immunity idol to protect herself.
One alliance surges while Eric continues to sink
It’s day four, and Devin, Jelly, and Patt want to work together. Jelly warns Devin’s weaponised honesty can be a double-edged sword. Devin promises he’s always been, and always will be, truthful with them.
Jelly tells Patt she has an idol. Patt is overjoyed to find out about this, as she really wants to work with Jelly moving forward. They decide to solidify their alliance alongside Devin, Mike, and Brady.
At Savu, Eric teaches Rob about improv, while Sharonda speaks for most of us about how annoyed she is with Eric. I can only speak for myself, but if I’m stuck on an island while being dehydrated, starving, and getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, the last thing I want around me is a guy doing improv.
The immunity challenge
Both tribes reach the immunity challenge, and Eric starts by exchanging pleasantries and joking with Jeff. While laughing, Jeff tells Eric that he hopes Eric doesn’t get voted out because he’ll miss him, much to the chagrin of everyone who actually wants to get rid of Eric.
The challenge begins, and it is a water race while the rain starts pouring down on everyone. Both tribes struggle with the gigantic 500-pound whale that they must get across through a massive obstacle to reach the beach first. Toka takes an early lead as some Savu members struggle with the swimming portion.
The Toka tribe strategically use their bodies to get the whale across and are able to get to the beach first. Devin and Mike quickly finish their part of the challenge, while Savu is still struggling in the water.
Carter from Savu steps up and starts to make a difference for his team; however, Savu ultimately fails to catch up with Toka, as Maggie seals the deal for the yellow tribe. Toka then celebrate their second consecutive win.
Back at camp after the challenge
Eric is notoriously the one everyone wants to get out, but as always, multiple plans start weaving their way to cause disruption. Ana makes another rookie mistake by continuing to throw names out. As others wonder what name to tell Eric in case he asks, Ana throws Kristin’s name out, as the latter was injured and is believable. Anna immediately knows she has screwed up again and offers her name as the decoy instead. Once no one objects, she realises how much trouble she could actually be in.
For their part, Linnea and Sharonda want to target Ana for mentioning them. Linnea goes to Eric and tells him he is the primary target, mainly because of Ana, Rob, and Carter. In retaliation, Eric agrees to target Ana with them. Sharonda then speaks with Ori about continuing to work together by getting rid of Ana. Ori is reluctant because he wants to vote out Eric first.
Rob has a personal moment and he is shown to be teary, but he later has an epiphany and does a 180. Rob goes to Eric and tells him he has a master plan to save Eric, but it involves Eric giving Rob his Shot in the Dark as a sign of trust, while also Eric doing whatever Rob tells him to do at Tribal without questions. Eric has no self-awareness, but he's not a dummy either, and he says in a confessional that he won’t blindly do whatever Rob wants.
Tribal Council
The Savu tribe then arrive at Tribal Council, shocked and amazed by the whale set surrounding them. As they light their torches, they must now face the prospect of voting out their first member.
Some members start talking about what their tribe needs moving forward, with Cristian mentioning they need to be strong and cohesive, while Sharonda says that even though they are a family, a member still has to be voted out next. Also, while Ori says they haven't heard anything about idols, Sharonda interjects that there have been whispers about an idol, and everyone must be cautious about someone already having one.
Just as Jeff announces it is time to vote, Rob interrupts and announces he needs to talk to Eric. Rob hugs (and sort of strangles) Eric and tells him to play his Shot in the Dark, while also revealing to Eric that he has an idol and will play it for him if Eric doesn’t get safety. The rest of the tribe tries to ignore Rob’s actions and agrees to vote the way they previously promised.
One by one, they all start to vote. Once it’s Rob’s turn, something quite unbelievable asinine happens. As Rob says he’s willing to lay down his sword to save Eric by giving him a second chance, he writes down his own name. Yes, people, you read that part correctly. Rob wrote his own damn name down!
As in he thought he could write his name down, somehow use Eric's SITD in his favour, use his idol on Eric, and then having a vote against him would magically become the biggest move ever. Huh?! Had production not interjected about Rob not being able to write his own name, I think we would’ve had the biggest faceplant in Survivor’s history.
Who knows what Rob's masterful plan was but it was useless anyway since he ended up voting for Eric. Eric then doesn’t use his SITD, and the vote comes down between him and Ana. The latter ends up completely blindsided to be the second person voted out of the game, after a 6-4 vote against her.
There were SEVERAL rookie mistakes in this episode, from Ana being a blabbermouth to Rob pulling a Christian Hubicki, yet Christian HAD to do it when Rob was too distracted by his grandiose speech and plan to focus and actually think this through. So far, Survivor 51 has eliminated two women back-to-back, lost a quarter of a thumb, a possible broken foot, and a clueless Rob left loose after two episodes, so I’m just holding on for dear life to see what chaos will ensue next week on this already messy season.
Add us as a preferred source on Google