Written by Mike Mueller
Survivor kicked off its 41st season this Wednesday, and it is truly like nothing we’ve seen before. The new season, titled Survivor 41 (not their most creative effort), takes place over a scant 26 days, compared to 39, and promises to be a faster, more exciting version than any previous season.
WELCOME BACK
We start out in the jungle, with Jeff Probst breaking the fourth wall, as he often does at the beginning of the season, to tell us what to expect from this all new version of Survivor. He lets the audience know that we are going to be “behind the scenes” more than in other seasons, and at times we will know what’s happening before the contestants do. To exemplify this, Jeff shows us where he is hiding an advantage on the Yase (yellow tribe) beach AND says that it’s no advantage we’ve seen before. This is the “beware” advantage, and it comes with risk. What that risk is, we’ll have to wait to see.
There will be no rice, tribes will incur penalties for losing, contestants have to work for everything and then, even when they get it, it can be taken away. To show how much of a change to the game this season will be, Jeff says that while this is season 41, you might as well drop the “4” and just leave the “1.”
One thing is for certain: before the music even hits, we know that we are in for a Survivor experience unlike any other.
AND THEY’RE OFF! WELL…SOME OF THEM ARE
Once the contestants are on the barge, Jeff gets to know the players a bit and asks them if one of his signature catchphrases, “Come on in, guys,” is antiquated and needs a change. The contestants initially say that they don’t have a problem with it, but later in the episode, one contestant, Ricard, tells Jeff he does feel like it’s time for a change, and Jeff agrees. “Guys” is dropped from the slogan (personally, I vote for “come on in, lifeforms!”). Survivor is working hard to show that they take inclusion and representation seriously.
Okay, now that we have that out of the way, the game can truly begin! The tribes are immediately thrown into their first challenge. They must locate oars on the barge, throw them to a waiting raft in the water, unclip the raft, paddle out, retrieve a flint, and make it back. Only the first tribe to make it back will receive the flint, a pot, and a machete, and that’s it. The two other tribes will have to earn those items in a challenge back at camp.
Ua (green tribe) and Luvu (blue tribe) make quick work of finding their oars and get in the water quickly. Yase (yellow tribe)…not so much. Between the 6 tribe members, nobody could find a rather skillfully disguised yellow oar hiding on a yellow scaffolding and covered in debris. Not a great start for Yase. However, that may not have been the biggest gaffe of the first episode, as Luvu NEVER UNHOOKED THEIR RAFT FROM THE ANCHOR. Six people paddling, going absolutely nowhere, and nobody thought to see if they were anchored. Yeah, the nerves and excitement must be through the roof, but c’mon man. All of this made Ua run away with the first challenge and start the season off with the early advantage.
Luvu and Yasa arrive at their beach and discover the challenge they must complete in order to get their meager starting supplies. They can try to count how many triangles are within a larger triangle, which is not as easy as it sounds, especially considering they only get one guess at it, or two tribe members can carry water from the ocean and fill up two large drums, which will prove to be a much longer and physically draining process. Both tribes go with the water option as it really is the safer bet.
But, because this is Survivor, no challenge is without an opportunity for drama. On Luvu, Danny and Deshawn are elected to be the “water carriers”, which makes sense as they’re the most physically capable for the job. However, they realize quickly they will have more than enough time to complete their task, and instead take a little break to go look for idols. It makes sense, idols are found quickly in this game, and if you’re not looking on day one, you’re probably a sucker. However, they made the critical error of getting caught in the act! Tribemate Naseer spots them idol hunting and immediately goes back to inform the rest of the tribe. Now, Danny and Deshawn have early targets on their back.
But both tribes end up completing the task in time, so everybody gets the machete, pot, and flint. Hooray! As the tribes start to get their camp in order, early bonds start to form. Evvie and Liana from the Yasa tribe quickly connect, while Abraham wastes no time in throwing Tiff under the bus, complaining about her performance in the first challenge. In the moment, Evvie agrees with Abraham, but it’s really just to placate him. Meanwhile, on Ua, JD tries his best to befriend everybody but ends up coming on rather strong and rubs some people the wrong way. At 20 years old, JD might not have the social prowess he thinks he has (he also is a horrible storyteller as we see later in the episode), but he makes a quick, tight bond with Shan, who bears a striking resemblance to Missy from Big Mouth.
TWIST TIME!
Jeff promised us twists and decisions aplenty, and he wasn’t lying! A boat arrives at each of the three beaches and the tribe members are informed they must elect one person to go on a journey alone.
Everybody on Luvu seems to have cold feet about this, so Danny volunteers to go, as a true leader would. The Yase tribe agrees that Xander is the most trustworthy person to go on the expedition (see: worst liar), and Ua comes to their decision through the most Survivor of ways, drawing rocks! JD ends up with the winning rock, and the 3 men get on their boats and meet at a nearby island.
At the island, they exchange greetings and are told to “get to know each other” while taking a long hike up the island. Once at the summit, they reach a point where they must separate and make an individual decision. A “prisoners dilemma” game awaits them. Each person must decide if they want to risk their vote or protect it. If all three protect their vote, nothing happens. If all three risk their vote, they will lose their vote at the first tribal council they go to. However, if the vote is split, those who choose to risk their vote will receive an extra vote that can be used any time up to the final 6.
Danny chooses to protect his vote. This proves to be a smart decision because Xander and JD opted for the risk. This means Danny keeps his vote while Xander and JD will get an extra vote to use at some point in the future.
Back at their respective beaches, Danny, Xander, and JD all come clean about what happened on the island, Though, JD chooses to tell a somewhat cryptic and VERY muddled account of what happened and lies about the fact that he chose risk over protect. Ricard picks up on this and lets us know in the confessional that he thinks JD is “Shady boots lying.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1B9PJVGVos
FIRST IMMUNITY CHALLENGE
As the contestants get ready for their first immunity challenge, Jeff introduces yet another new twist for this season. He says: “If you go to tribal council, and you fear you are in danger, but you don’t have an advantage or idol, this is the ‘shot in the dark’ die. Here’s how the shot in the dark works: This die gives you the power to decide not to vote, but instead, reach into a bag and draw for a one-in-six shot at safety that night at tribal council.” The decision will be made in private, in the voting booth, so nobody knows if someone took the chance until just before Jeff reads the votes.
It’s low odds and a big price to pay (sacrificing your vote for the night), but if you know you’re in real danger it might be worth it. This twist is going to make blindsides more necessary now than ever before.
Jeff also lets us know that only the winning team of this challenge will be able to keep their machete, pot, and flint. The others will have to win those privileges back through another challenge back at their camp.
With that out of the way, the challenge begins! Tribes must first go up and over a net wall, army crawl through a stretch of sawdust, and then pile puzzle pieces on top of a sled. Then, they must remove sandbags off of the track onto a platform and push the sled along the track. After that is done, the sled must then be carried up a very tall and steep platform. Once at the top, two contestants will put together a puzzle for the win. Only the first team to finish will win immunity, meaning we are sending two people home in episode one!
The teams are even through the first portion of the event. The first real snafu occurs when Deshawn for Luvu doesn’t balance a sandbag on his team’s platform and costs them valuable time in fixing his mistake. This allows Ua and Yase to get an early lead in pushing their sleds up the platform.
Much like in the first challenge, Ua gets the early advantage by getting their sled to the top first. What Luvu lack in discipline and attention to detail, they more than make up for in determination and pure strength. They make up all lost time and actually get their sled up the platform ahead of Yase, who really struggle with this portion of the challenge.
Despite the early advantage, Ua squanders their lead by leaving one piece behind and taking a LONG time to realize their mistake, “an impossible way to solve a puzzle,” quips Jeff Probst. Glad to see Sassy Jeff didn’t get lost during the extended offseason.
Luvu completes their epic comeback, thanks to the strong puzzle work by Erika and Deshawn, and now Ua and Yase must go to tribal council.
When Yase gets back to camp, Abraham and Tiff continue taking private shots at each other. Abraham argues that Tiff should go in order to “keep the tribe strong”. Evvie leads the counter-charge against Abraham because she feels that “keeping the tribe strong” means eliminating the women, and she would be following Tiff very shortly. Tiff, aware that she’s on the block, goes on the hunt for an idol or advantage. She is standing DIRECTLY in front of the advantage we saw Jeff place at the beginning of the show, but she just doesn’t see it. Looks like she’ll have to rely on her teammates to save her, or perhaps go for a “shot in the dark.”
Ultimately, Evvie proves to be a pretty savvy game player and gets the team on board. At tribal council, Xander says he doesn’t want this tribe to be seen as “a bunch of David’s”, a reference to the theme of season 37, David vs. Goliath. Jeff is quick to point out that a “David” won that season, so maybe it’s not such a bad thing after all.
After a pretty amicable and uneventful discussion, Abraham is the first player eliminated, getting blindsided with a 5-1 vote. Upon his exit, Abraham remains a class act, wishing his tribe mates the best of luck, and gracefully exits the game.
Over on Ua, things aren’t so smooth. Sara takes the majority of the blame for screwing up the puzzle, despite the fact that she and Shan were equally culpable. Fortunately for Sara, Ricard and Shan have her back, and they think JD should be the one to go because he seems to be the least trustworthy moving forward. However, when they try to get Brad involved in the vote, Brad says to their face that he puts a bigger emphasis on keeping the tribe strong, and believes it should be Sara or Shan to go. Part of me admires the honesty, while another part wonders if Brad has ever watched an episode of Survivor in his life.
At tribal council, things are still very much in the air. As Jeff goes about his line of questioning, a discussion breaks out between Shan, Sara, and Ricard. JD notices and is obviously very concerned. At that point, the tribal council becomes “live” and players start standing up and talking to each other, and suddenly chaos is in the air. At one point we see Shan and JD look very intensely at each other and JD says “I’m willing to do whatever you want to.”
In the end, Ricard and Brad received one vote apiece, but the remaining four were placed on Sara, and she was eliminated. After just one episode, we are down to 16 players.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJvUkIu2v24
Overall thoughts:
Heading into this episode was extremely nerve-wracking. CBS let us know that this was going to be a different version of Survivor than we were used to. As a lifelong lover of this show, yours truly understood that change and evolution were necessary, but also please don’t totally alter the thing we love! Fortunately, the core of the game remains the same, and this cast is very promising. A lot of time was spent on letting the audience really get to know the entire cast, not just the 4-5 people the episode revolved around.
Given all the twists and turns, and the fact that the season is almost a full two weeks shorter, it makes choosing a favorite all the more difficult. A lot of time and attention was spent on JD, but it’s unclear if he has enough life experience to make it to the end of the game (that’s a nice way of saying he’s arrogant and gullible and he’ll be blindsided around the merge).
This writer’s “way too soon to make a pick” choice has to go to Evvie. She understood the dynamic of her tribe right away, made tight connections with a couple of people, and got the vote to go in the way that would certainly be better for her long-term game. She’s smart, socially adept, and will be able to stay under the radar for a long time.
