I'm not gonna lie, Survivor 48's seventh episode, "Survivor Smack Talk" left me with more questions than answers—and not in the same way the rest of the season has.
Let's get into it!
(Spoilers ahead for episode 7!)
Why did we merge just to divide into two tribes?
We've often seen the moment the merged tribe is split into two, fighting for individual immunity and group reward. But to have it happen so quickly after merging doesn't make any sense. This would have been a better twist to add at the final nine—one player being unlucky enough to draw the wrong rock and lose a shot at immunity, but get a chance to bet on the winner and potentially win a reward.
Then having two individual winners at one single Tribal Council would feel much crazier than the separate tribe eliminations. Having two guaranteed safe players attempting to orchestrate a big move would be so insane to experience.
Especially with this cast. We've seen them pull off some incredible stuff this season. It would have been interesting to see how they navigated two individual winners at one tribal.
Why did we merge just to have two separate Tribal Councils?
Yes, the format is dramatic. But it also led to the most boring eliminations of the season. It felt like the twist stopped the game rather than igniting a new fire for the players to dodge.
And in a season where the players are actually driving the plot forward without major guidance from the production team through twists and advantages, it's really disheartening as a fan when the game makers step in at a completely unnecessary time and try to shake things up, only to settle the already brewing storm.
The episode was gearing up for a big blindside of a power player—possibly Shauhin Davari—and then suddenly we're at Tribal Council, and everyone's taking the easy route because they have to? It felt like I accidentally skipped a big episode...
Why did we merge just to have two people not make the jury?
Historically in Survivor, making the merge means making the jury. In the new era, players have had to "earn the merge," putting them in a state of limbo where they're not yet merged, not still in tribes, for the first elimination. It adds a level of pressure to the game where you have to fight as an individual at least once in order to guarantee yourself a spot on the merge.
But with the added twist of a group challenge with two individual eliminations and only one voted out player making the jury, it just feels like too much all at once. It doesn't add the drama that you'd think since it divides alliances and forces people to simply vote out the players on the collective bottom, not wanting to shake things up too much since half the tribe doesn't know who one of the people going home is.
It's easier to follow the rules for a minute and guarantee you're still in everyone's good graces upon their reunion than to try something big only to have it blow up in your face because the other group didn't do the same.
And while that's been the case for the rest of the new era seasons, this is Survivor 48! These players already have a track record of making big moves and pulling off big blindsides every step of the way. It didn't feel right to have such a unanimous vote in both groups.
And that leads me to wonder...
Why did they go with the easy vote and not pull off big moves?
Both the losing tribe of Eva Erickson, Star Toomey, Chrissy Sarnowsky, Mitch Guerra, Joe Hunter, and Sai Hughley and the winning tribe of Shauhin, David Kinne, Kyle Fraser, Kamilla Karthigesu, Mary Zheng, and Cedrek McFadden were given prime opportunities to take out under-the-radar players.
Sai and Mitch could have teamed up and pulled a blindside on Eva. With Chrissy in the know with the majority, they could have pulled her in and convinced her why they needed to flush Eva's idol. She then could have turned around and spread a rumor about Sai or Mitch potentially having something and convince everyone they needed to split the votes just in case—three on Sai, two on Mitch. With their two votes going to Eva instead of Sai, they would have pulled off a major blindside for their resume: removing a power player and an advantage from the game.
Kyle and Kamilla clearly were enacting a plan to blindside Shauhin and I am very interested to find out what happened there that stopped them from pulling it off. If they really had enlisted David like the edit suggested, there's no reason Shauhin shouldn't be on the jury right now: clearly one of the biggest threats in the long game.
What does this mean moving forward in Survivor 48?
But instead of giving us another insane, record-breaking set of Tribals, we got an unsatisfying ending for two of our original Vula members.
I understand that they were the easy vote, and everyone felt more relaxed going with the two people on the bottom/outs while alliances were split up for voting, but we've spent the last six episodes setting up a big Mary vs. Sai vs. Cedrek plotline that will never be fulfilled.
With Sai not on the jury and Cedrek's rational demeanor making it easy to predict who he'll vote for at the final three, it seems we may be hitting a "restart" button with episode 8. All those blindside conversations are destined to come back into play, but it's likely the people initiating the surprise vote outs that are going to be on the chopping block now that they don't have any malleable players to bring in as swing votes.
Was this the calm before the storm? Will "honor and integrity" truly be the name of the game in the end? Tune in Wednesday at 8 pm ET on CBS and Paramount+ to catch the latest episode of Survivor 48 and find out!