We're through seven episodes of Survivor 47, and there have been some huge moves in the game. Almost every player voted out has been blindsided at tribal council. It's been glorious; it's been devastating. It's been entertaining.
While there have been a handful of great moves in Survivor 47 so far, there have also some bad moves that either lined up a player's exit or just tanked their game.
We shared the six worst moves of Survivor 47 immediately after the merge and basically halfway through the game. I tried to avoid things that happened during the challenges. Those don't count, but we have seen some big blunders there, too.
Andy Rueda's vulnerable moment in the Survivor 47 premiere
In the first episode of the season, Andy gave his all during the immunity challenge, but the Gata tribe lost. Andy, who struggled in the first few days of the game, felt like he was on the bottom and basically had a panic attack for everyone in the game to see.
It's not the panic attack that was bad for Andy! I feel like everyone on that beach and nearly everyone watching empathized with Andy in that moment, but he let slip that he was going to target his only ally in the game, Jon Lovett, to stay in the game. At that moment, I think Andy lost a lot of credibility and future trust with his allies. No one wants to play with someone who can blow up their game, and that's why Sierra Wright and Sam Phalen, Andy's two biggest allies in the game so far, have kept him at almost arm's length.
TK Foster blaming his tribe in episode 2
TK Foster seemed like one of the biggest physical threats in Survivor 47, but he also had a little bit of a meltdown on the mat after the second immunity challenge. He seemed to cast some blame at his tribe, and they did not respond kindly to his idea of how they should be competing.
Tiyana Hallums, who was allied with TK and Kyle Ostwald, flipped on TK and voted him out with Gabe Ortis, Sue Smey, and Caroline Vidmar in the second episode.
Had TK played it cool, it's really interesting to see how things would have played out for the Tuku tribe. They would have headed into tribal council with two alliances of three players. What would have happened then? It could have completely changed the game for Tuku. Instead, TK was voted out.
Teeny Chirichillo losing her vote on the journey alliance
In the fourth episode of Survivor 47, Teeny Chirichillo was chosen for a journey with Andy and Caroline after Lavo lost an immunity challenge. The trio had to pick one person to lose their vote to have an advantage in the game. Teeny ultimately gave up her vote in the upcoming tribal council that saw Genevieve Mushaluk, Rome Cooney, and Sol Yi team up to steal Kishan Patel's vote and then vote out Kishan.
Had Teeny had her vote, do you think they still would have made the move to vote out Kishan? I don't think Genevieve would have looped in Rome about the plan to vote him out if Sol, Teeny, and Kishan were already going to vote out Rome. Even with Rome's Steal a Vote advantage, Genevieve and Rome would have been tied 2-2 against some combination of Sol, Kishan, and Teeny's votes. It's a major what-if in Survivor 47 so far!
This hasn't come back to bite Teeny yet, but she lost her No. 1 ally in Kishan. There's a chance she'll find her footing in the game again, but it seemed like Lavo could have had a strong alliance heading into the merge if they kept Kishan, Teeny, and Genevieve together and added Sol. That's not how it played out, though.
Rome Cooney playing way too aggressively
Rome was the most aggressive player in Survivor 47. While he played the game with so much joy and reckless abandon, it was never going to be a winning strategy. There was a chance that Rome could have survived longer in the game had he turned it down, but instead, when the tribes came together for the first time, Rome started playing even harder. He tried to turn the Tuku tribe against each other by telling other people that Kyle, one of the most genuine players this season, was targeting his main alliance members. It backfired on Rome tremendously.
Rome was voted out in another blindside right before the merge. It's a devastating reminder that playing so hard sometimes isn't what the moment calls for in Survivor.
Sam Phalen throwing Andy under the bus
We haven't seen this come to fruition yet, but Sam just made an incredible miscalculation. After handling Andy for nearly two weeks, Sam let slip that he was fine if others targeted Andy as the backup plan if Rome played an idol.
At tribal council, Sol and Sue voted for Andy as the backup plan to make sure that someone not Sol went home because that was who Rome was going to vote for. He actually voted for Sam, which was quite weird.
Then, in episode 7, Sol revealed to Andy that it was Sam who threw his name out there. Sam is obviously Andy's No. 1 ally in the game. They just pulled off a massive blindside together of Anika Dhar. We know Sam even withheld playing his own idol to be safe in order to keep Andy's trust because Andy didn't know about the idol. It's so confusing that within a few days, Sam is now publicly saying that he doesn't care what happens to Andy.
Now, we see Andy making an alliance with Genevieve and Sol. They are a very unsuspecting trio. They could make a huge run in the game as the targets shift to some of the more "threatening" players.
Tuku not targeting one of their own before they had to
In episode 7, the Tuku tribe somehow magically ended up on the same group after the rock draw with Gata's Rachel LaMont as the lone non-Tuku player. After losing the immunity challenge, Rachel looked to be the odd person out, and she was going home. Instead, Sol sends her the advantage he found during the reward, which gives makes Rachel safe from the vote. She leaves tribal council, and the Tuku tribe votes out Tiyana Hallums.
This was a mistake for a few reasons, but it's not about the vote for Tiyana. To me, the Tuku tribe was worried about positioning themselves as a united five. They worried they would be targeted. Well, they were probably right, and they probably just outed themselves as a united tribe.
The only reason Rachel was safe and the reason they scrambled so much after the twist was introduced was that they were actually voting Rachel out. Had they not, the three players who agreed to vote for Gabe would have just done that. Instead, Caroline, Gabe, and Sue voted for Tiyana while Kyle tried to vote out Gabe.
It's going to be very interesting to see what happens, but it feels like a mistake for Gabe, Caroline, and Sue to let everyone watching know that they are a tight three while Kyle is on the outs. There's a very good chance Sue, Gabe, and Caroline just placed targets on their backs.
So, that's the list of the worst moves we've seen so far in Survivor 47. There are probably a few more, but these feel like the biggest blunders that happened outside of the challenges.