Survivor 44 Recap: The First Juror
After the “merge-atory” episode sending Josh home, Survivor players and fans were gearing up for a huge vote with the official merge members. However, we continue to see the rapidly changing game, once again, provide a new twist that no one has seen before.
The first vote going into the merge was set up to be a war between the Soka and Ratu tribes. Both tribes sit with four players each while the original Tika 3 sit as the typical swing vote. This would be the first time we see all remaining players on one beach, forced to play the game with or against people they have only spoken to for a couple minutes. Not to mention this all was developing hours before the most pivotal tribal council that we have seen this season. I am sure Survivor fans were excited to see how the first merge vote would shake out, especially with all of the twists and advantages in the game pre-merge. Well, Probst’s fun did not end there.
Prior to the first immunity challenge, Jeff drops a game-changing twist. The remaining contestants would be split into 2 teams and compete against each other. The winner of each group would be immune for tribal council, however the overall winner of the challenge would win immunity for their entire team. The losing team would be eligible to be voted out other than the team member that lasted the longest at the challenge. Huge for a first merge vote right? Not enough for Jeff and CBS. In addition, the winning team would not vote at tribal council rather than just sit in and listen. A new perspective of the Safety without Power advantage that we previously saw Jeremy use in S40 Winners at War. Still not enough? here is the icing on the cake, the losing team is sent to another beach, preventing them from strategizing with players on the wining team. Furthermore, Heidi found an advantage at the reward challenge that allows her to control the vote of one player from the losing team, in which she opens up to the group and essentially allows this to be a group decision.
The winning team consisted of Frannie, Heidi, Kane, Danny, Carolyn, and Carson. the losing team consisted of Lauren, Brandon, Yam Yam, Matt,, and Jaime. Frannie was the ultimate winner of the challenge with Brandon winning immunity out of the losing team. The losing team is sent to an old beach, and poor Matt forgot all his bag, leaving all of his advantages back at the merge beach. Off the rip, Matt and Yam Yam were the two up for debate and it was up to Lauren, Jaime , and Brandon to decide who goes home.
Heidi from the winning team ultimately goes with he decision to steal one of Lauren’s two votes (she had an extra vote) and placed that vote on Yam Yam with the idea of saving Matt and “pissing the least amount of people off.” However, due the Soka and Ratu tribal war, their decision to try and save Matt and put votes on Yam Yam was such an obvious “Soka strong” move that it made the decision easy. Brandon, Lauren, and Jaime are all Ratu originals, and they hold the power in this vote as they have the majority numbers plus Lauren’s extra vote. The desperate vote on Yam Yam proved to them that they were on Matt’s side, who is an obvious threat to the Ratu strong. Not to mention Matt and Frannie had one of the more obvious Show-mances we have ever seen.
Matt ended up getting the axe and he was sent home…still without his bag. What is so ironic about this is Frannie had the power to save Matt before the challenge even ended. When she was in a showdown against Brandon for team immunity, she could have thrown the challenge and saved Matt. She would have gone to tribal, however she would have been immune as the winner of her team. Essentially, Frannie played a huge role in Matt’s exit. This is straight out of a Shakespeare novel.
Personally, I was not a fan of the timing of this twist. We have been waiting and listening to the development of all the players for multiple episodes. We were all anticipating a competitive first merge tribal council, however it feels like we went backwards. We made it to the merge, now we get what almost feels like a tribe swap and we do not get to see the merge members play the game we know. Ratu has a significant advantage with the Matt vote out, and now has the trust of Yam Yam, a key member of the Tika 3.
The game is guaranteed to continue changing, however the original Soka will need a big move to shake up the game even more.
Survivor 44 Recap: The Second Juror
Last Vote Out: Matt
Remaining Players: Danny, Frannie, Heidi, Yam Yam, Carson, Carolyn, Kane, Lauren, Jaime, Brandon
After a Shakespearean end to Matt’s Survivor journey in the previous episode , the game finally will have an audience at tribal council while Matt serves as the first jury member of the season. Resumes will start to build, players will start to make their final three plans, and we can almost guarantee more and more fireworks at tribal as more and more castaways are voted out.
Post Tribal: This portion of the show is my favorite. I always wonder how players handle the awkwardness after tribal, especially when you are on the wrong side of the vote. Especially for the previous tribal, Heidi played the Control a Vote where she stole the vote from Lauren to put on to Yam Yam in an attempt to save Matt and keep the original Soka at 4 players strong. As this move was quite public, we knew that Heidi would have to do some relationship rebuilding with Yam Yam. Heidi’s true motive is to try and gain the trust of the Tika members so they can counter the Ratu four with the majority vote.
We also get to see how Frannie responds to her without her biggest ally in the game. I hope to see her really play hard and get herself out of the sight of the Ratu four. We all know she is intelligent enough, however she will need to buff-up her social game to will herself back into a power position. Unfortunately, Frannie is on the ropes along with Danny and Heidi.
The Ratu four look like a strong alliance of four and they continue to target the Soka three. Meanwhile, it seems the original Tika three of Carson, Carolyn, and Yam Yam seem to be stuck in the middle with both Soka and Ratu pleading their cases to team up. Tika is being underestimated. They are not being viewed as big threats in the game and they are very aware of this. They are riding along letting the game come to them which allows them to be the recipient of plenty of information about other players. How else will they gain the trust of Tika?
Challenge: Another challenge, another twist. For this immunity challenge, the castaways were instructed to team up into pairs for the challenge, however they were not given any other information. The pairings were Danny and Lauren, Kane and Brandon, Carolyn and Carson, Jamie and Heidi, and Yam Yam and Frannie.
The duos competed together through multiple stages of challenges, with the last duo being eliminated in each phase. Once we were down to our final two teams of Danny/Lauren and Brandon/Kane, the four of them competed individually for the necklace. After withstanding a legendary, cheek-rattling fart from Danny, Lauren secured her first immunity win of the season. More importantly, one of the Ratu four were safe for another tribal.
Post Challenge: The Ratu 4 still have their sights on a Soka member and see an opportunity to take out a big threat in Frannie. You would think Ratu keeps their plan to themselves and just tries to convince the Tika members to vote with them. However, Brandon decided to try and convince the entire tribe, including Heidi and Danny to vote Frannie out. This is a critical error as Danny possesses the bird cage idol from the Soka beach and is in a tight alliance with Heidi and Frannie, the other Soka members. In addition, the numbers sit and 4 Ratu, 3 Soka, and 3 Tika, a prime opportunity to take out a Ratu member and even the playing field heading into the final 9.
Danny tells Heidi not to worry. He plans to play the idol to protect Frannie and send Brandon home as he is viewed as the biggest threat from the original Ratu. However, Heidi must have felt unsure that the votes were going to Frannie because she spills the entire plan to Tika in an attempt to persuade them to vote with Soka and eliminate a Ratu member. Dumb move after dumb move this episode. Why would Heidi reveal that information? Tika can now blow it all up and tell Ratu about the plan, or they can force Danny to play his idol to save Frannie, making him, Heidi, and Frannie more vulnerable. Tika has a big decision to make heading into tribal. Again, they are in the “swing vote” position again, however there is so much more information out there to manage. It is clear that they enjoy being under the radar so their vote at tribal will determine their next move as a trio.
Tribal Council: All eyes were on the Tika 3 and their decision. Did they tell Ratu about Danny’s idol or are they siding with the Soka 3? Well, what if I told you they managed to do both…
Tika kept the secret to themselves. Ratu 4, Yam Yam, and Carson voted for Frannie, knowing that she would be saved by Danny’s idol. Brandon gets the remaining votes from Soka and Carolyn, sending him packing his things and to Ponderosa.
Tika is now poised to convince Frannie that they actually were on her side even though the votes didn’t reflect their intentions as they withheld information from Ratu. They continue to play the swing vote, however now the game has been equalized with three Tika, Ratu, and Soka heading into the final 9.
Takeaways: Frannie is viewed as an obvious threat as her ally was taken out last episode, and then she was the primary target the next day as well. Danny must feel some sort of distrust towards Heidi after spilling the plans to Tika and putting him in danger. Lastly, Tika 3 continue to fly under the radar and they serve as the strongest alliance on the beach.
The game has opened up and I am sure the original tribal lines will be broken eventually.
Survivor 44: Finale Prediction
I know I know, “why are you jumping straight to the finale when you haven’t reviewed the other episodes?” Get over it – life gets in the way sometimes. However, here we are during finale week where we get to see who the Soul Survivor will be for season 44. In a season where there has been a few twists and big moves, we are left with the final three of Carson, Heidi, Yam Yam, Lauren, and Carolyn. In my opinion, the trio of Carson, Yam Yam, and Carolyn (original Tika) have been lethal all season long and have controlled the vote to their advantage all season long. Honestly, I am so surprised that they weren’t targeted earlier in the season. One of the original Tika 3 will win, I am confident in that prediction. However, here is how I think the final 5 will shake out.
The obvious targets are the Tika 3 but the question is how will you separate them all? Who is the biggest target of the three? Lauren and Heidi missed their opportunity to get them out, and now they are realizing how much more is on the Tika resumes compared to Heidi and Lauren.
Carolyn’s game is starting to get seen by Lauren and she wants her out of the final three. In addition to Carolyn’s charm and her story, she has a great plea to the jury on why she should win if she makes it to final tribal council.
Carson and Yam Yam should be considering breaking up the Tika 3. Ideally, only one Tika member makes the final three with Lauren and Heidi and the jury will have no choice but to vote for the lone Tika member. It comes down to who I believe can execute this plan, and I have to say my official winner pick is…….Carson.
Out of the remaining members, I can see either Lauren or Carson going on an immunity run. If Carson doe not win immunity, I believe he will win the fie making challenge and have a stellar resume to present to the jury. Carson has played an excellent social game. He has been able to keep everyone close while playing a deceptive game. Add at least one immunity win, winning fire, and outlasting the other Tika members, he is poised to walk into the sunset with a million big ones.
Time will tell – watching the finale with Ian tonight. I do think Ian picked Yam Yam out of the final five so this will be an fun and competitive finale in the Foley household.
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