“Survivor”: Season 48, Episode 6, Reviewed

On Wednesday, CBS released a humorous episode of Survivor 48. Sai’s high self-confidence and lack of social awareness make her a hilarious player to watch, and this week was a good example of why. Combine betrayals and copious amounts of milk — this episode had a bit of everything.

Sai returned from last episode’s tribal, loudly declaring herself open to talking with everyone except Cedrek. She assumed the rogue vote for her was from him and that he blindsided her once again. Shortly after, Sai learned Mitch voted for her. This misstep made her look quite silly.

Apparently, Bianca told Cedrek that she had no vote mere moments before tribal. Cedrek did what he could to tell everyone but could only get the word out to Chrissy. As discussed last week, Cedrek made the move in order to save Sai. Sai apologized, but this was far from the first example of her jumping to incorrect conclusions. She did this in Vula multiple times, including the infamous scene where she incorrectly asserted Mary had an idol.

The following morning, the castaways learned that the tribal phase of the game was over. The players were excited to reach the next section of the season. In modern Survivor, the tribes’ dissolving means limbo. They were done with tribes, but they weren’t merged yet. One more vote had to occur before the official merge.

Sai and Mary reconnected at the newly-shared beach. In a funny contrast of confessionals, Sai talked about how excited she was to work with Mary again, and Mary talked about how stressful working with Sai was. Mary wants to get as far away from her original tribe as possible.

Surprising to no one, Joe and Eva also reconnected. Joe also bonded with David over their love of milk — they both drink a gallon of whole milk daily. Eva wanted her, Joe, David, Shauhin, and Kyle to join forces in the game, viewing them as physical threats who needed to stick together to avoid getting targeted. Another aspect of her thought process was that she viewed them as honest game players. She and Joe wanted a throwback kind of Survivor alliance, with trust instead of frequent backstabbings. David and Shauhin seem to be on board with that idea.

Unfortunately for them, Kyle is slightly more devious. He likes and wants to work with that group but values Kamilla more as his number one ally. That duo has impressively kept their partnership a secret — a rarity in this game. The alliance Eva formed could go far, but if anyone in that group were to move against them, it’d likely be Kyle.

The other major group is the Civa Six (Charity, Chrissy, David, Kamilla, Kyle, Mitch). Somehow, no one from the original tribe had been eliminated thus far. Mitch, Charity, and Chrissy wanted to maintain this alliance going forward, while the other three pretended to agree.

After the welcome hugs, Star noticed a message meant for all of them to read. It said that an advantage for the upcoming immunity challenge was hidden on the beach, ending with “Go!”

All players started sprinting, with Charity eventually having it in her sights. Unfortunately for her, Sai came out of nowhere and grabbed the advantage before Charity did.

Charity made her day worse when she tried to convince Star to take back the idol from Eva. As mentioned in the last recap, Star gave Eva her idol because Eva solved and unlocked the cryptogram. Charity’s brashness and cold demeanor rubbed Star the wrong way — she went right back to Eva and David about this. Eva already didn’t trust Charity and was now hell-bent on sending her home.

For the immunity challenge, the 13 players had to split into two groups of six. The groups competed against each other, with the winning group earning the famous merge feast — the biggest meal of the season. Those six would then compete against each other to determine individual immunity. Sai’s advantage was that she got to skip the group phase and automatically qualify for the individual immunity phase. She also got to go on the merge feast. This was a massive advantage — you could see the pain on Charity’s face.

After racing through mud and wood shavings and then climbing up a steep wooden ramp, Chrissy, David, Mary, Kamilla, Kyle, and Star edged out Cedrek, Charity, Eva, Joe, Mitch, and Shauhin in the puzzle. The individual immunity phase was balancing a ball on a wooden circle supported by increasing lengths of wooden sticks. The final three were David, Kyle, and Star, with Kyle narrowly beating Star to win the season’s first individual immunity. This season’s immunity necklace is gorgeous with its vibrant purple and blue stones— I was giddy at my favorite winning it first.

Back at the beach, the victorious six enjoyed a massive spread of wings, hot dogs, nachos, desserts, and much more. Castaways dished out a significant amount of information during this feast as well. Star pitched taking Charity out, while Chrissy admitted hearing Eva’s name thrown out. Castaways discussed the known advantages as well. Everyone now knew that Mitch had a block-a-vote and Eva had an idol.

At camp, Star consoled Cedrek about his guilt for his group losing the challenge and food. She’s a kind and caring person who is growing on me a lot.

Charity wanted Eva out because of her idol, but she feared the idol enough to push for the six Civas to vote for Sai instead.

Unfortunately for her, Eva, Shauhin, and Kyle wanted Charity gone. She was too sneaky and untrustworthy in their eyes — too much of a wild card to keep around. They also didn’t want Sai around, knowing how wild she was. The option of keeping one of them off the jury was especially alluring. They ended up choosing to eliminate Charity to take a number away from Civa.

That alliance left Mitch out of the vote, so he’s likely in danger in the next episode. Eva and Shauhin also voted for Sai instead of Charity, likely to split the vote in case of a tie.

Neither Charity nor Sai are big targets, as neither have many allies nor are they well-liked. Some would say it was a mistake to take out one of those two instead of going after a bigger fish. However, 13 is an early point for the tribes to dissolve. There is a lot of game to be played, and once the shots start flying, they don't stop.  They could’ve taken a big threat out, but it’s much harder to mobilize a group against more minor threats further into the merge. If they are not dealt with soon, the easy vote-outs could be penciled in to take up spots at the end.

And at the end of it, Sai was the lone vote for Cedrek. Because, of course, she was.

Eva’s physical threat alliance is going strong, at least for the moment. At the start of the season, she mentioned that she plays on an all-male hockey team, which could be what these guys remind her of. I’m glad to see her, Kyle, and Kamilla doing well, and I’m excited for the first episode of the merge next week!

Tune in today at 8 p.m. EST to see what happens next.