Most of the talk about Survivor 48 episode 5, "Master Class in Deception," has focused on Joe Hunter and Eva Erickson's moment, Eva's story about how autism has affected her, and the other touching moment as the Vula tribe shared stories about things their parents had gone through. And, rightfully so.
All of those moments are incredibly impactful. It contributes to a more inclusive, diverse, and better experience for the players and viewers. We don't see a lot of moments like this on Survivor. I want to make sure those moments get to shine on their own, but I also want to talk about the disaster that was Tribal Council.
After the new Civa tribe loses the challenge, Bianca Roses, who doesn't have her vote, tries her best to push the vote in one direction. She wants to a 2-2 split on Sai Hughley and Chrissy Sarnowsky. Then, she's banking on Cedrek McFadden flipping on Sai after Mitch Guerra and Chrissy talked a lot with Cedrek about voting out Sai.
Then, for a second, it looks like Cedrek, Mitch, and Chrissy are going to put three votes on Sai, so it doesn't matter that Bianca doesn't have a vote. Guilt about lying to her potential new allies -- Remember, Thomas Krottinger just got voted out -- catches up with Bianca, and she tries to build some trust with Cedrek by telling him she doesn't have her vote.
Instead of just sticking with the plan, Cedrek makes a big move. He sides with Chrissy, and he convinces her to vote for Bianca. When they finally vote, Sai votes for Chrissy, Mitch votes for Sai, and Cedrek and Chrissy vote for Bianca, which was not in the cards at all at any point this episode.
It's literally doesn't make sense. Even Bianca doesn't fully understand what happened. In her exit interview with Entertainment Weekly, Bianca revealed that she's still wondering about what happened and why Cedrek made the choice to vote her out.
Here's what she said, via EW:
"Honestly, Dalton, make it make sense. Make it make sense! I don't know. And I watched Cedrek like a hawk. I was that crazy eyed, panicked Survivor player, and I made sure he didn't speak to anyone. So I don't know, it doesn't make sense to me and I'm waiting for it to make sense. Make it make sense!"
Why Cedrek and Chrissy's move doesn't make sense
First of all, I understand that Cedrek was in an interesting predicament. He learned crucial information right before Tribal Council, and he had to make a quick choice. He might not have had the time to let everyone know what the plan was going to be, but he was never in danger.
He made a huge mistake by making the easy choice for the second straight Tribal Council that he was a part of. He voted for the player without a vote. Bianca was voted out of Survivor 48.
I don't think voting out Bianca was a bad call, necessarily. There's a clear strategy to take out some of the Lagi players because the perception is that they are quite strong and united, but Cedrek and Chrissy made a crucial misstep by not letting Sai and Mitch in on the plan. You want to build trust or unity with some of these votes, and this vote did neither for these players or this tribe.
Now, they're heading back to the beach as a dysfunctional tribe with one player FROM EACH ALLIANCE left out of the vote. It's the worst possible scenario for every player because they basically betrayed their own alliances to vote out a player who wasn't a huge threat.
Cedrek kept Sai in the game, but he didn't tell her crucial information. How do you think she's going to react to that news? She didn't take it very well at Tribal Council. I think the same can be said about Chrissy and Mitch. I don't think that Mitch is going to be very understanding. No one wants to be surprised like that at a key part of the game.
It's basically the opposite of what happened with Kyle Fraser and Kamilla Karthigesu in the fourth episode. Kyle played his immunity idol, and they picked off Thomas. They had their backs against the wall, and they made a strong play to stay in the game. Cedrek and Chrissy had a chance to make a move to shape their game, but instead of actually aligning and bringing a player like Bianca into their alliance, they pushed her away to keep Sai in the game.
There were so many better ways to play what just happened. Did Cedrek or Chrissy move their game forward with this move? Other than surviving one more day, they might have actually made it harder to advance in the game. Now, they've revealed their mini-alliance, and when they lose again, do you think Mitch or Sai will just sit on their hands and be picked off? I very much doubt that.
While I like Sai, Cedrek's best move would clearly have been to vote her out and move forward with this new alliance. Or, if he was loyal to Sai, he would have told her about the vote and then together they would have looped in Chrissy and Mitch to vote Bianca out for not being forthcoming with everyone on the tribe about not having a vote.
That makes sense. What really happened didn't.
It's going to be very interesting to see how this shakes things up. Of the three tribes, Civa is the weakest tribe from a physical standpoint. They lost both challenges in this episode, and they face an uphill battle as such a dysfunctional unit. We'll see if they can pull themselves together after this rough Tribal Council.
We'll see what happens in Survivor 48 episode 6 on Wednesday, April 2.