“Survivor”: Season 48, Episode 8, Reviewed

On Wednesday, Survivor released episode eight of Season 48. With 10 players left, there aren’t any inoffensive people to vote out anymore — eliminating any one person is sure to damage someone else’s game at this point. The lack of easy votes raises the stakes, allowing for passionate debates about eliminations like the one we saw in this episode.

The episode started with Chrissy frustrated with the strong challenge guys remaining in the game. From her perspective, David, Eva, Joe, and Shauhin were significant threats, and everyone else should be taking them out. I get where she’s coming from, but she’s unaware that Kyle, Kamilla, and Mary are also working with that alliance to different extents. Some people are using those big challenge threats as shields, assuming they can get them out later.

Kyle was annoyed that Mary slithered into the “Strong Five” alliance (David, Eva, Joe, Kyle, Shauhin), making it the Strong Six. Mary had allied with David during the tribe swap and managed to parlay that into a plus-one invite. Kyle wanted that spot for Kamilla, who has been his number one since the start. In hopes of keeping that alliance secret, he did not tell David that.

Shauhin was suspicious of Mary as well because of her apparent connection to David. He also preferred Kamilla as an ally, so he told Joe this.

The next morning, the castaways argued about the largest animal they could take in a fight. Joe’s confidence that he could fight a retired gorilla reminded me of lunch table conversations in high school — this was hilarious.

After this, Chrissy read a tree-mail note that informed the players they had to pair up for the ensuing challenge. Because this happened in past seasons, players knew they would compete with their partner for most of the challenge and then against them at the end. Every player wanted a strong partner, but they were careful to reveal who they were working closely with. Shauhin quickly picked Kamilla, which raised some eyebrows. David then picked Mary, which also revealed his allegiances. Same with Joe and Eva. Kyle and Chrissy, and Star and Mitch, were the last two pairs.

After picking pairs, Eva revealed to the rest of her alliance that Chrissy was hell-bent on taking out one of her perceived quartet of massive challenge threats (David, Eva, Joe, Shauhin). Specifically, Eva told them that Chrissy wanted Shauhin out. This conversation put Chrissy further at the bottom.

Mitch sensed he was in danger, so he tried to pitch the original Civa coming back together (Chrissy, David, Kamilla, Kyle, Mitch) to take out a Lagi (Eva, Joe, Shauhin, Star). Unfortunately for him, David has completely moved on to the Strong Five/Six alliance.

At the immunity challenge, players learned that the two pairs who finished last in the first leg of the challenge would go on a journey where they would have to risk their vote.

The first leg involved crawling through the sand under a barrier and then digging for a puzzle piece. Eva and Joe were the first to finish, followed by David and Mary. Chrissy and Kyle were the last group to finish. This meant Kamilla, Mitch, Shauhin, and Star had to risk their vote later.

The following section was building a staircase out of puzzle pieces and then using planks to cross a rope bridge. Chrissy and Kyle finished this last, leaving David, Eva, Joe, and Mary to compete for individual immunity.

The last section was another Survivor classic — the pole challenge. Players had to hold onto a pole for as long as possible. As Jeff mentioned, the foot ridges were significantly smaller than they’d been in the past. Staying on that pole was about lower body strength and pure willpower. David and Joe fell off quickly, leaving Eva and Mary in a showdown. Eva eventually outlasted Mary to win her first individual immunity.

Back at camp, Chrissy told Kyle that she wanted to cut off the head of the snake, as she called it, by eliminating Joe. Kyle didn’t love this. He wanted to take a shot at that alliance but preferred that shot to be Shauhin. Kyle trusted Shauhin significantly less than Joe and had already put work into setting up Shauhin as a target.

The journey challenge to risk votes was an interesting one. A series of gray and red balls came out of a chute. Players could grab either one or two balls at a time and place them in their chute, but the first player to have three red balls in their chute would lose their vote. I loved seeing Kamilla, Mitch, Shauhin, and Star reason their way through this game, and I was impressed by how Kamilla and Mitch communicated through looks to work together. Star got a red ball early, so they worked to give her two more. Star lost her vote.

During the food reward the top two pairs got, Eva found a rolled-up scroll in a chip. She kept it to herself since the rest of her game (idol and alliance with Joe) was so public. I was delighted with this decision. Secrets are valuable in Survivor — this could pay dividends later on. The scroll revealed that she had an opportunity to get a secret advantage. She had to follow the flames at night to retrieve it stealthily. She didn’t grab it in this episode, but this feels very similar to the advantage Jeremy Collins got by following a path of flames at night in Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance.

At that meal, David and Mary pushed hard to eliminate Kamilla. David’s perspective was that Kamilla was too close to Shauhin. The idea that Kamilla has a secret alliance is correct, but David connected her to the wrong person (she has one with Kyle).

Joe was okay with either Kamilla or Chrissy going home, but David and Mary pushing so hard caught him off guard. Joe told Kyle their plan later, shaking Kyle to his core. He immediately pivoted from the Shauhin plan and focused on keeping Kamilla around. His first move was telling Joe that Chrissy wanted him out as the head of the snake. Now, Joe firmly wanted Chrissy out over Kamilla.

Kyle did not handle the subsequent conversation with David well, though. He needed Kamilla to stay, but couldn’t make a great case for why without revealing his alliance with Kamilla.

Kyle tried convincing the group to vote for Chrissy because of her anti-Joe comments, but David, Mary, and now even Eva still wanted Kamilla out. Because Kyle was pushing for Kamilla to stay so hard, David started catching on to their bond. He wanted her out even more now. As someone who is pulling for Kamilla and Kyle to make it all the way, I was terrified at this moment. Thankfully, something happened to switch the vote to Chrissy.

What people say at Tribal doesn’t usually doesn’t influence votes, but Chrissy fervently argued for someone to take a shot against that majority group. The reason that the alliance voted out Chrissy instead of Kamilla was not revealed in this episode, but Chrissy’s outburst may have been why the Strong Six decided to vote her out instead of Kamilla. She clearly angered David, who misinterpreted her wanting to gain traction in the game as some sort of anti-men statement. David victimized himself, saying that no one complains when women choose to band together on Survivor, so Chrissy shouldn’t dislike it when strong men do. This conversation felt, unfortunately, relevant to how some disenfranchised men act on X today. He responded indignantly to a claim no one made, making himself out to be the victim of a situation he created. I would not be surprised if this argument was why he capitulated in taking out Chrissy. Until we find out next week, I’ll choose to believe it was because Kyle worked some magic. With Chrissy eliminated, nine Survivors remain

Tune in tonight to see that answer!