Previously on… ‘Survivor’ recap: S41 E7 – “Advantage-geddon”

So that was a lot. After a pre-merge packed with players finding idols and advantages, it all came to a head in the merge(-ish) episode of Survivor 41. This season has become so complicated, with viewers needing a flow chart to remember who has what advantage, that we got a full two-minute recap of who has what at the beginning of the episode. This should have been an early indication that this would not be your average episode of Survivor.

After the jam-packed recap, the episode proper begins with Erika alone on Exile Island, pondering whether she should, like Cher, turn back time and smash the hourglass. For most viewers, there’s little suspense over what she’s going to do, so the segment is largely focused on her personal journey in the game. After an isolating two nights on Exile Island, she feels like she’s becoming a more authentic version of herself. As someone who follows the edit, I can’t help but notice the overwhelmingly positive edit that Erika is receiving, but I’m wondering if her story is less “she’s the winner” and more “love this journey for her.”

Erika reunites with the other 11 castaways at the Immunity Challenge, where she reveals her ability to change history, but doesn’t quite explain it in enough detail so Jeff takes over and drops the news that Erika has the power to flip the outcome of last week’s challenge, making Danny, Deshawn, Evvie, Naseer, Ricard, and Sydney vulnerable and granting immunity to Heather, Liana, Shan, Tiffany, Xander, and Erika herself. Surprising exactly no one, she chose to break the hourglass, forcing the previous challenge winners to compete in the individual Immunity Challenge. What I love about this moment is Deshawn openly expressing how it’s not the game he’s used to (join the club) but he has to adjust to this new era. This won’t be the last time we hear someone this episode express distaste for the twist, and I’m admittedly surprised they kept it in.

The Immunity Challenge is the classic foot fetish fan favorite where players have to stack blocks using only their feet, then maneuver to plant a flag in the middle. It’s a pretty exciting challenge with Evvie and Sydney coming close to victory but it is Ricard who ends up claiming the first individual Immunity of the season. As we come to find out in the tumult to come, both Evvie and Sydney really could’ve used that immunity more.

For those keeping track at home, this leaves five of the 12 players eligible to be voted out: Danny, Deshawn, Evvie, Naseer, and Sydney. Danny is pissed about all his hard work in the previous challenge being erased with the hourglass twist, saying he’s simply not wired to be okay with it. Coming from the world of football, with its distinct winners and losers, it’s easy to understand Danny’s position, but as Deshawn more or less asserts, Survivor isn’t a sport. Take note of how this conversation between them is framed, with Deshawn not pleased either but still able to adapt and roll with the punches. This may be a subtle hint of what’s to come in future episodes.

Now it’s time for a whole glut of strategy talk as Liana is amped to use her idol/advantage steal at Tribal Council. Ricard pitches to Danny, Deshawn, Shan, and Sydney the idea of taking out Evvie, who has proven to be a strategic threat. Everyone seems on board, including Deshawn, despite the connection they made pre-merge on their walk to the summit. When Liana finds out about the plan she isn’t exactly pleased, considering she has a relationship with Evvie, but Shan manages to convince her.

Meanwhile, her former Yase tribemates have their own plan. Evvie, Tiffany, and Xander discuss using Xander’s idol on Evvie if she’s in trouble. It’s sweet to see Xander’s loyalty to his tribemates, but there’s something sad about how they don’t always seem to have his back. Even in the middle of heavy game talk, I like that we get these brief glimpses into character dynamics. I just wish the producers were more invested in them. Alas, we see Tiffany spill the beans about Liana having an advantage steal, so now Evvie and Xander are in the know. They’re all rightfully wary of Liana as she’s very visibly drifted to other alliances.

Things begin to spiral when Xander gives a thinly-veiled warning to Danny: Evvie isn’t going anywhere. He fully intends to use the idol on Evvie if need be, so Danny’s group better come up with a different plan. He also tells him about Liana’s advantage steal, which prompts Danny to go and tell Liana about everything Xander said. This more or less breaks any ties Liana had with her former tribe and makes her realize she needs to play this advantage right. After very slowly reading her advantage instructions again, she approaches the Yase group and has a strained conversation with them where pretty much everyone knows they’re bullshitting each other. She straight up asks if Xander is going to keep the idol in his possession or give it to Evvie before Tribal Council, and Xander says he’s keeping it until Tribal. Something about the weird vibe of their conversation should probably tip off Liana that they don’t exactly trust her, but she’s so giddy about *getting one over on those guys* that she doesn’t quite see that they’re manipulating her in return.

Liana learns that the Yase group intends to target Deshawn, and the loyal soldier marches over to Deshawn to tip him off. Deshawn is shook, especially considering how things could get messy at Tribal Council, and pitches the idea of throwing votes on Sydney just in case. What’s annoying is we don’t exactly get a firm reason why her and not Naseer, considering Deshawn and Danny seemed to have a stronger bond with Sydney since the start of the game. With less convoluted twists to explain, perhaps we could have explored this further! But alas, we get one last confessional with Liana where she mentions wanting to become a more confident player, namedropping Sandra and Parvati, who she’s looked up to in the past. Whether she’ll come close to that pantheon pretty much depends on what goes down at Tribal Council. 

Tribal Council time. After some light chitchat about how the gameplay is starting to ramp up, the gameplay really does ramp up after Evvie not-so-subtly indicates that she feels safe tonight. This prompts Xander to display his idol to the rest of the tribe. Deshawn takes this opportunity to openly reveal that Evvie already told him about Xander’s idol when they were at the summit together. Evvie is a bit flustered and asserts to Xander that he can trust her, which all leads up to Liana getting ready to make her moment. She turns to Xander and confidently asks him if he has an idol, to which he replies… “No, but you can have this fake.” (!!!) We get a flashback to Xander devising the plan to give his idol to Tiffany and to use the fake idol he made earlier in the game as a ruse to trick Liana into this exact situation. Thus, Liana ends up falling pretty short of her expectations of becoming a new Survivor legend.

This wasn’t part of the plan, so everything then descends into madness as it becomes a “live” Tribal. Through a flurry of huddles and whispers we hear a handful of conversations in which Deshawn asks Erika if she’s willing to vote for Sydney, Naseer bounces back and forth between groups, vote splits are proposed, Deshawn’s name is thrown out, and Sydney is the most visibly uncomfortable we’ve ever seen her in the game thus far. The tribe votes, and God help the viewer trying to predict exactly what’s about to go down. Sydney uses her shot in the dark advantage but it does not play in her favor. Tiffany wishes to play her idol on Evvie but Xander asks her not to. Despite Evvie’s pleading, she decides to not play it. In what is by far the closest vote of the season, Deshawn gets three votes, Evvie gets four, and Sydney gets five, which is enough of a majority to eliminate her. As one might expect, she’s not pleased, and she doesn’t say goodbye to her former tribemates.

Well, that was a lot to unpack. For as much as we’ve all complained about the number of twists this season, Xander’s bluff and the chaos that followed was satisfying to see play out. After this Tribal Council, the Knowledge is Power advantage is gone, Deshawn’s extra vote is gone, and we’re done with all the hourglass nonsense. We still have three idols and Shan and Xander’s extra votes in play, but at least we should get more streamlined gameplay moving forward, assuming producers trust the players enough to guide the direction of the season, rather than the other way around.

Photo: Robert Voets/CBS