“Survivor”: Season 48, Episode 2, Reviewed

This was another great episode of Survivor! It is becoming clear that two tribes are strong, while the other is trending towards disaster.

At Civa’s beach, the tribe bonded over their “humble traits”: humorously odd physical characteristics. Chrissy has a deep belly button, Charity has jacked-up feet, David has four nipples, and Kyle has had a massive wart on his hand for the last ten years. He thought it was a callus until his tribemates corrected him. This was a wholesome and funny segment that cemented Civa as my favorite tribe.

At Lagi, Eva was a bit too blunt when assessing who should sit out of the next challenge. With the whole tribe sitting there, she said that they should have herself, Shahuin, and Joe participating because of their strength and Thomas and Bianca participating because of their puzzle skills. To her, this meant Star should sit out. Her logic was sound, but the delivery was not. Star now knew how little value Eva saw her as having to the tribe.

Star took this information and literally ran with it, taking to the jungle in search of an advantage. She secured a beware advantage. It was the same type of cryptogram that Sai found last episode, but where Sai had to match letters to the color of animals painted trees, Star had to hold up a paper guide to wooden planks of these animals on trees. Holes in the paper showed the letters she needed. Like Sai, Star wanted help with her cryptogram. The issue was that Star did not have the tight relationships that Sai did. Star first went to Joe, who brought it to Shauhin, and then to Thomas and Bianca. Her goal was to use her beware advantage to unite the tribe against Eva. Unfortunately for her, bonds had already been set, and her tribemates trusted Eva much more than they trusted her. After Eva told Joe about her autism, there was also no way he would let Star’s plan work. He quickly told Eva about this, and the rest of the tribe conspired about how to keep Star from finding the advantage. It would have been tough for Star to find it alone, but she should have recognized her place in the tribe and done her best to do that. Now, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone intentionally loses her guide in the next episode.

At Vula’s beach, the three men (Cedrek, Justin, Kevin) debated taking out Mary or Sai. Mary had been on the outs from the start, but Sai had an idol and was perceived as the more dangerous player. Kevin pushed hard for Sai to go, which is who they decided on for the time being.

All three tribes were surprised by a boat arriving at their camp with a message: They had to play a game to decide who would leave for a journey. It felt more like Squid Games than Survivor, but I loved it! On the count of three, players had to present a number of fingers from one to five. The lowest unique number won. I don’t know what the optimal strategy is, but I’d just put one and hope others would assume no one would. Thomas did that and went on the journey. Mitch went for Civa with a two. Vula’s game, like everything with them, was more dramatic. Mary called for them to do a practice round, to which Sai responded dismissively. Sai won that round, but Mary claimed it was practice and that they should go again. Mary then won the second round and got to go. I’m not sure who was in the right here — or if either of them was. I do know, however, that Sai should’ve been more tipped off by her alliance members, whose iffy feelings towards her should have become clear when they didn’t support her against Mary.

Upon arrival at the journey beach, Mary, Mitch, and Thomas went to separate stations. Their task was sliding 15 randomly-ordered number blocks into numerical order. They could only slide one block out at a time. This was a really hard challenge, but Mitch and Thomas figured it out before the hourglass emptied. Mary did not and lost her vote.

Mitch’s advantage allows him to block the vote of any one person at a Tribal Council and lasts until the final five. He was honest about this block-a-vote advantage with his whole tribe. The decision was true to his nature and made him more trustworthy, but it also made him more of a threat. Charity and he are outside the majority alliance (Chrissy, David, Kamilia, Kyle). I was pumped for Mitch to win the advantage, but I wish he had kept that knowledge to Charity. The majority four quickly searched for a beware advantage to counter Mitch’s advantage.

The whole tribe had already found their six letters on the trees — E, L, I, S, T, N — without knowing what they corresponded to. Kyle found his cryptogram in a tree, which included a puzzle:

“I am strong and flexible

I help hold or bind

In my loops and coils

Support you’ll find”

Like Sai and Star before him, Kyle enlisted the help of his allies. Fittingly, Kamilia figured out that the word was “enlist.” He opened the contraption and got the idol. The Kyle-Kamilia duo is one of my favorites — I hope they go far together.

The immunity challenge started with Jeff asking Mitch, who has a speech impediment, whether he would prefer help with finishing sentences, or for people just to be patient with him while he stutters. It was a sweet question from Jeff, with Mitch answering that it’s better to wait.

It was a water challenge, with a fishing kit and immunity on the line. In the last part of the challenge, each tribe needed to sink five buoys in a faraway basket while two players rebounded from the water. It was funny that Star, the college basketball player, was sitting out for this, but Eva did a great job in her absence. Mitch did even better, though, making five out of five shots to win Civa first place. Lagi finished shortly after, with Vula two challenge sections behind. It might have taken them upwards of thirty minutes to catch Lagi — it was not close.

Back at Vula Beach, Kyle still wanted Sai out. He was scared of her idol, but figured that even if she played it, Mary would go home, and at least they’d get rid of Sai’s protection. However, Cedrek felt differently. Sai trusted Cedrek, even referring to him as a father figure out there. Cedrek advised Sai to use her idol, having told Sai Kevin’s plan to vote her out. Cedrek and Justin decided that it was best to move forward with Sai and actually voted out Kevin instead of Mary. I thought this plan was overplaying, to be honest. Mary doesn’t trust them and would flip given the chance. I think if they didn’t want to take Sai out, they should’ve just tried to convince Kevin that it was a bad idea. Allies are valuable, and they just threw one away. Regardless of whether it is a good move, Sai’s idol has been flushed and Vula will be the heavy favorites to return to Tribal next week.

Tune in on Wednesday, March 12, to see if Vula’s painful start continues.