Written by Mike Mueller
Following an intense first episode, Survivor certainly didn’t let off the gas. Episode two had more twists, more advantages, and yet another blindsiding moment.
SECRETS, SUSPICIONS, AND SPY SHACKS
Episode two starts off at Ua, where Brad spots Ricard and JD going to “get water.” Any Survivor fan will tell you it does not take more than one person to get water on a tribe of five. Knowing something is up, Brad does his best Tony Vlachos impression and hides in the bushes near the well, creating his own impromptu Spy Shack. The move paid off. Brad’s suspicions are confirmed, as JD and Ricard are indeed talking about him.
While Brad made a smart tactical decision to spy on the boys, he made a critical error in letting Shan know what he was doing. Shan’s “spidey senses” go off. If he spied on JD and Ricard, she knows he’ll do the same to her. Shan tells Ricard what happened, and now Ricard wants Brad out.
On Luvu, most of the tribe seems to struggle with making fire… except Naseer. Jungle living is nothing new to him. As we get a spotlight on Naseer, we learn that he grew up in an impoverished area in Sri Lanka. Catching fish, foraging for food, bathing in a river, all of it makes him very apt for this game. In a season where supplies are very meager, this is actually very valuable. Fellow tribemate Sydney sees the immediate value in keeping Naseer around, at least until the merge. In previous seasons, Naseer’s skills may not have been so highly valued. Things got a little cushy on Survivor for a while. It’s nice to see them place a higher emphasis on the “survival” aspect of the game. It is a nice nod to the original seasons, and it makes people like Naseer valued members of the tribe.
Things on Yase aren’t going quite so well. The tribe is really struggling with the elements. Tiffany is absolutely spent. She’s tired and starving, and it’s only day 4! This is the Survivor game we’ve all come to know and love.
THE BEWARE ADVANTAGE
At one point on Yase, Leina, and Xander split up to look for the rest of their tribe. Xander, however, has other ideas in mind. He takes this opportunity to look for an advantage on the island. At this point, the “aww shucks” surfer boy has shown his hand. He’s a much stronger player than he lets on. Xander finds the advantage that Jeff planted at the beginning of the game, the one that Tiffany was directly in front of but couldn’t find. We finally learn what the mysterious “Beware Advantage” means. On the outside of the parchment, it informs the player that if they take the advantage, it is theirs and they must do what it says. Or, they can put it back and let someone else take that risk. We learned in the first episode that Xander is not afraid to take risks. He did it once and it paid off by getting him an extra vote. No surprise here, Xander takes the Beware Advantage.
The Beware Advantage is a three-way shared immunity. We’ve seen two-way shared immunity idols before, but never a three-way. Each tribe beach has one portion of the idol, so Xander must first discover who, if anybody, has the other parts of the idol. This is accomplished by saying the “secret phrase” at the next immunity challenge. If another player has found their beach’s Beware Advantage, they’ll respond with their portion of the phrase. Once all three advantages are found and the secret phrase is completed at the challenge, all three idols have power. However, until this happens, Xander loses his vote at the tribal council.
The phrases are, “I truly believe butterflies are dead relatives saying hi,” “I’m as confused as a goat on AstroTurf,” and “I didn’t realize this till now, broccoli is just a bunch of small trees.” The producers are never one to pass up an opportunity for some public embarrassment.
If Xander can survive until the idol has power, he will be in a great position. However, he is extremely vulnerable until then. Knowing he can’t play this game alone, Xander shares the clue with Voce and Evvie, in hopes that they can help protect him in the short term. This is a huge sign of trust, and it immediately proves to be foolish, because while she is currently close with Xander, Evvie wants to take the women to the end. She lets Tiff and Liana know that Xander has both the extra vote and the Beware Advantage.
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE
Before the challenge begins, Xander tries to seamlessly work in his “butterflies” line, but nobody follows up with their portion of the secret phrase, and he’s left standing there looking foolish. Xander will not be able to vote that night and does not have an idol.
Unlike the last Immunity Challenge, this competition does not appear to be quite so strenuous. Looks like the producers do have a heart after all. For this challenge, one player for each team must swim out and unclip a key that is anchored underneath the water. Then, two other players must race across a net bridge and a balance beam to reach the end of the course, where the last two tribemates are waiting to solve a puzzle. Also unlike the last challenge, only the last place team will go to tribal. The first team to finish this challenge will also get a ton of fishing gear, while the second-place team gets a smaller fishing package. The last-place team gets nothing and must forfeit their flint once again.
Xander reaches the key first but can’t unclip it. Given how vulnerable he is at tribal council, this is a mistake he can not afford to make. Sydney gets the key first for Luvu, followed quickly by Xander for Yase and Jeanie for Ua.
The second section of this challenge proves pivotal, as the Luvu and Ua tribes make quick work of their obstacles, but Tiff struggles mightily on the balance beam and Yase falls desperately behind. Liana tries to make up for as much lost time as she can as she blazes through both portions and gives Yase a fighting chance to make a comeback on the puzzle.
Luvu makes quick work of their puzzle and proves to be the most physically dominant team. Until there is some sort of merge or tribe swap, it’s hard to imagine them losing a single challenge. Yase tries their best to make up for lost time, but it is too little too late. Ua finishes their puzzle, and Yase must go to tribal council for the second week in a row.
A DILEMMA AND A BONDING OPPORTUNITY
The twists keep on coming. Since Luvu is the winning tribe, Jeff informs them that two people are going to leave on a journey and make a private decision, just like in episode one. Luvu must choose one person from Yase, the losing tribe. They chose Evvie, who will return before the tribal council. The second person can either be from Ua or their own tribe. Deshawn volunteers to go, and again nobody from Luvu protests. This tribe does not like conflict (or even speaking up, apparently).
While on their journey, Evvie and Deshawn get to know each other, and Evvie really sees the benefit in making bonds with members of the other tribes. When a swap or merge happens, the original Yase tribe will surely be down in numbers. Before they get to their decision, Evvie lets Deshawn know upfront that she can’t risk her vote tonight, so if there is a risk/reward decision to make, Deshawn should risk it to get the extra advantage. She also reveals to him the trick to the idols this season and that a secret phrase needs to be said. Now, not only is Deshawn aware of how the idols work, he knows that nobody in his tribe has found their clue yet, leaving him free to search for it. This is a huge way to build trust with Deshawn and do a favor for him, which he might be able to repay to Evvie down the line. Evvie continues to be playing the best game, and it’s not even close.
The prisoner’s dilemma is indeed back, with the same stipulation as before. With the knowledge that Evvie is protecting her vote no matter what, Deshawn risks his vote and will be granted an extra vote to use whenever he wants up until the final 6. We also get to learn a little bit about Deshawn. He owes everything to his parents and feels a lot of responsibility and pressure to do well and make them proud. These player spotlights early in the season really allow the audience to connect with every contestant. The closer we feel to the players, the more invested we are in their performance. As much as people might want to knock the changes to this season, the storytelling aspects have changed 100% for the better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXRockmZR2A
JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE PARANOID, THAT DOESN’T MEAN THEY AREN’T OUT TO GET YOU
Back at camp, Tiff tries to do damage control for her poor performance in the challenge. It falls on deaf ears as Xander and Voce put the full blame on her. However, Xander doesn’t have a vote tonight, and nobody knows what’s happening on Evvie’s journey, so Voce tries to pull in Liana to vote Tiff out. Liana struggles with keeping her all-girls alliance intact at the detriment to the tribe as a whole. Will the girls stand as a united front, or will Evvie and Liana cut ties with Tiff to try to keep the tribe from losing another challenge?
When Evvie returns from her journey, the stage seems set for the tribe to blindeside Xander. The guys think it’s going to be Tiffany, and the girls will stay together to take out Xander. However, Tiffany’s paranoia comes through and she worries that Xander’s idol will come into play, despite being explicitly told how it works and that there’s no danger of it having power tonight. She feels like voting out Voce would be the safer choice. Evvie and Liana disagree, thinking the plan is idiotic. On one hand, Tiff is right that Voce is the safest choice for the girls. On the other hand, her paranoia and unwillingness to go with her alliance’s plan sets off a bunch of red flags.
At tribal, the conversation focuses around Yase trying to figure out how to “stop the bleeding.” Tiffany, still desperate to make it through the vote, points out that Survivor is not just a physical game, it is social first and foremost. The decision tonight is going to come down to which is more valuable: tribe strength or the women’s alliance. Ultimately, not only do the women stick together, but Tiff gets her way and Voce is sent home, leaving Xander in the game with the potential to gain an idol and get his extra vote back.
OVERALL THOUGHTS AND PREDICTIONS
Now down to 15 players, it seems unlikely that a tribe swap will happen in the next episode. A swap at 14 seems more likely, taking the three tribes and bringing them down to two. Remember, this game is only going for 26 days this season, so the twists should keep happening every episode, at least up until the merge. Perhaps we’ll get one more “prisoners dilemma” in the next episode, but that should be it for that aspect of the game. If it keeps going, everybody is going to have an extra vote, and what’s the point of that?
As far as whose game position improved the most this episode, it has to once again go to Evvie. People on tribes that suffer a lot of early losses on Survivor tend to actually do pretty well in this game. The ones that do survive the early eliminations are already playing the game on a much higher level than the people on teams that don’t have to go to many tribal councils. The girls’ alliance was tested tonight, and they stuck together. This is going to bode very well for them when a merge or tribe swap happens as they’ve seen that they’re all willing to keep their word. For Evvie, who continues to be the official Pop Break pick to win the whole thing, these early challenges are going to serve her greatly moving forward.
Survivor 41 Episode 2 is now streaming on Paramount+
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf8TzQIRJ6c
