Dear Producers, wow give us some meat in the next 90 minute episode, OK? Thanks. My week 2 recap is here and fellow Survivor fan and kiwi Simon Knyvett joins me again with his great insights into the game!

EPISODE 3: Day 5-6

Redemption Island. Hannah and Tony reconnect. Tony throws Shady Shay under the bus for his demise in the game, and he’s right! This guy is bitter AF!! Move over Dee, Tony is the real villain of Survivor NZ!

Mogoton. Izzy decides to run a yoga class. Lucky Izzy is one of my faves and better looking than Vytas… Sala doesn’t seem impressed.

It’s OK, neither was Andy on Australian Survivor!

Hermosa. Georgia runs a charcoal teeth brushing class. Okay, my hubby is kicking up a fuss asking why this is a scene, ha! But great to see Georgia’s aunt’s tip came in handy!

The old Deckhands, Barb and Nate, are in an alliance of their own and it’s them against the youngens. No one cares about them, BUT I DO!! Barb, you’re AH-MAZING!

Mike is falling deeper and deeper into Georgia’s web. The rest of the tribe see them as a power couple and things look dangerous for them. No one wants to see a Boston Rob/Amber type situation happen on Survivor NZ! Nate thinks Shannon can be persuaded to vote against Georgia/Mike (I can’t think of a non-fugly ship name here, George Michael?), and she can see the dangers of sticking with the couple. Shannon seems to be at the bottom of the youngens alliance; there may be hope for the oldies yet!!

Mogoton. Avi runs a cooking class, he teaches Lou about some vegetables they’ve never seen before. This is why he’s one of my faves 😉 Just makin’ shit up!

Izzy wants a win for Mogoton, and so do I! Gotta admit I do like this tribe a bit more. Looks like the only win this tribe has was in the first challenge where they stole all of Hermosa’s gear. KARMA! :O

REWARD CHALLENGE

Another classic Survivor challenge with a bit of cat and mouse chasing in the sea! Comfort reward is up for grabs including a tarp and tea and coffee. No pillows and blankie though? Hermosa take forever to decide who sits out so Nate just puts his hand up. Fair enough!

Mogoton have a different strategy to this challenge and almost catch Hermosa! Hermosa quickly let Barb go who struggles, and Mogoton’s strategy seems like it’s going to work… and then they let ALL 3 girls go.., WHYYY?! Now Tom, Avi and Sala have to carry all that extra weight and they struggle badly… Hermosa are on a running spree and catch Mogoton. Hermosa win reward! Mogoton let go of their girls way too early, bad move. Team morale just gets worse for the orange peeps.

Hermosa. Yada yada, we are so great. Don’t ya hate such a winning team!? Someone needs to take them down a peg.

Mogoton. The tribe is absolutely gutted! Izzy said it best, the strategy could have worked, but ya know what? Shit happens. But almost isn’t good enough. There’s a major Pagonging happening right now!

Tom and Izzy agree that Shay really deserves her Shady nickname and is somehow in control of the game. It just shows Shay is playing a smart game, trying to look like she’s not a threat at all. I think Tom is absolutely right thinking Shay is a bigger threat than Sala, she’s running the show! Why are all my faves not working together though? Frustrating!

Hermosa. Barbie needs to see where Shannon’s head’s at, who doesn’t truly know where she fits in each alliance. BUT she knows Captain Sparrow is part of EVERY alliance on the island… Hmm. Barb tells Shannon that Mike wanted to take Nate to the end too. Boom! Watch out Georgia, Shannon might cut ya!

Nate it SOOO over Jak trying to be funny all the time.

Mogoton. The mallow puffs are out. I repeat, THE MALLOW PUFFS ARE OUT! Sala decides to air his cute butt cheeks out for all of Mogoton to see! Shay is not impressed.

My crushes Avi and Izzy go on a foraging date, and Sala crashes, so rude bro! The snails look deeeelicious! Better than Hermosa’s rotten fruit to be honest.

[SIDE NOTE, OMG a 90 minute episode and nothing is happening!! Give us an immunity challenge!! A tribal council.. ANYTHING!]

Hermosa. Shannon realises she needs to watch her back just in case the others catch on she’s been talking to the OLD PEOPLE, who she didn’t want anything to do with last week. Also, how funny is the banter between Nate and Barb? So much shade throwing at the youngens. Mike asks Nate what his strategy is in the game, and he’s not giving him a bar of it! Mike, if you think you’re getting Nate’s help anytime soon you’re sorely mistaken.

Jak finds a mobile phone shaped rock and tunes his inner Greg Buis… how many days in are we? He’s already going cray! Nate is right, Jak is constantly thinking of his next one liner, and I actually love it! He thinks he’s doing a great job trying to be underestimated, but the oldies already caught on to him about 3 days ago. It’s OK Jak, I think you’re funny.

And then Jack runs back to his bros, no what are you doing boy?!

Redemption Island. I heart you, Hannah! And she doesn’t worry about anyone but herself. You go girl! Mogoton’s Lou and Sala sit in on the RI duel and let’s talk about Lou. How precious is she? She’s doing such a great job for an 18 year old and much stronger than we may think. It will be interesting how she continues to play this game. Hermosa’s Georgia and Shannon win a rock-paper-scissor challenge and win the duel movie tickets; girls night out!

DUEL TIME

It’s Tony v Hannah. Tony’s happy his two friends Sala and Lou are there, and then.. he goes on about people in New Zealand not liking backstabbers – blah blah blah is pretty much all I’m hearing. I get that not everyone has watched the show, but surely you’d know this IS a game of deceit and you can’t expect everyone to act the same way you do. Anwyay, Georgia and Shannon are sitting there LOVING Tony’s spat! Tony also admits he WILL flip and join the other tribe if gets back into the game. Tony is out for blood!! In a way, my whole Lou seeing Tony like a father figure was kinda right in the end, haha… But enough tears guys, let’s get to he duel! Hannah looks BORED AF!

Smarty Georgia realises hey, Lou is gonna tell me stuff and asks who voted for Tony, and Lou throws Shay’s name out. PSSHH. Don’t give up information about your tribe to the others.

Back to the challenge and Tony wins the tile smashing challenge. Poor Hannah. She was written off the second she stepped on the island and wasn’t given a shot at all. Unfortunately, we do all judge a book by its cover even if we say we don’t. You never see anyone like Hannah cast on Survivor, so it’s a real shame we didn’t get to see her full potential on the show.

As for Tony, he may well fight his way back into the game. He will bring ALL the drama!

We end the episode with Tony being all:

EPISODE 4: Day 7-9

Mogoton. Lou and Sala inform the tribe that Tony is out to get anyone who voted for him, especially Shay!

Hermosa. Georgia and Shannon are back from the movies and tell their tribe most of what happened at RI. Honestly, I don’t think they even need to tell their ‘alliance of 5’ all the details just yet! But, I can definitely see these girls dominate the game. Bring it!

Meanwhile at RI, Tony is ready to chop whoever’s head comes into camp next!

The divide between the young and old is STRONG on Hermosa, and the oldies just watch the youngens eat all the food. No one seems to be rationing. Nate is getting irate!

Funny guy Jak has a tally going at how many times the tribe members have gone and ‘off-loaded’, and apparently Georgia is winning this competition! Poor Barb is on the bottom on 0. Guess she’s right, you just can’t rush these things. Hilarious.

Mogoton. Lou and Avi agree to form an alliance with Sala and Shay, umm excuse me? And that they should vote out Izzy next. GASP! I don’t like this at all.

Izzy and Lou then grab THE most boring tree mail I have EVER seen in the history of Survivor. Couldn’t they have picked a more creative font?! It’s like they just put creases on that paper about 10 minutes ago!

IMMUNITY CHALLENGE

Gotta say, Survivor NZ is choosing the classic Survivor challenges we’re used to seeing. Good or bad, it keeps within their budget. Each tribe nominates 4 members each to compete and the tribe with anyone left standing wins!

Izzy looks like she needs the loo, where Lee and Tom look like they’ve got some sick boyband moves going!

Georgia’s dancer body is flexible AF and she doesn’t seem to have too much of a problem, until the end. It’s down to George Michael and little Lou from Mogoton. It’s all up to the teenage farm gal, and she’s a fucking legend to be honest!

Alas, Lou falls and Hermosa win their third challenge in a row. Huge sighs from my end. WHEN’S THE TRIBE SWAP?

Mogoton. Shady Shay is upset about her bible being drowned out by the storm; who knew she was a Mormon?! Nevertheless, she agrees that Survivor is a game and should be treated like one. Shay knows where it’s at! Her conversation with Lou and Izzy is all about getting Tom out. It’s the Shay VS Tom show again.

On the beach, Sala and Avi agree they have to vote out Izzy because she’s the weakest. Boo. Tom rocks up and he’s not happy with this Izzy talk as they are kinda close. Not sure he should have told them he had something ‘solid’ with Izzy though! Avi is pissed that Shay wants to vote out Tom, Shay tells Avi she cannot write down Izzy, and it’s just going round in circles.

Yeah Avi! Remember, Izzy even made a faux cake for Sala’s daughter… Alas, the nice ones can’t always win.

After Avi pretty much told Izzy she’s going home, girl gets Lou on side and Tom tries to wrangle something last minute to get everyone to vote for Shay. It’s just a bloody scramble for votes now! I feel like Avi just keeps saving Tom because he’s a similar body to him and if you’re a meat shield yourself, you need one to protect you. I see Avi and Tom making it deep into the game, with maybe shady Tom making it further; I think he’s a bit more game-savvy.

TRIBAL COUNCIL

It’s pretty much Izzy fighting for her spot right now and the whole Shay v Tom thing is put aside yet again! I’m still unsure where everyone’s loyalties lie in the tribe, it seems to be a bit of a mess. All that’s pretty much concrete is Shay and Sala, and Avi and Tom (with Avi in the drivers seat). Shay voting Lou – was this just a throwaway vote because she didn’t want to write Izzy’s name down? She can’t stand Tom so why did she not write his name? It would then become a tie and someone would have to flip and it would be between Shay and Tom. She just looks way too flippy at this point and everyone should have their radar set on her. Either way I think Izzy was going home. She joins pent up Tony at Redemption Island, who unfortunately I don’t think she will beat. Time will tell. Izzy-3, Tom-2, Lou-1.

SURVIVOR SIMON SAYS

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Let me start off elaborating more on an observation I made last week. The continued rise of Shady Shay. I found her an utter bore in the pre-season. The girl screamed flake to me. After four episodes though and three vote offs for Mogoton, Shay has been completely entertaining, even though she has looked completely out of her depth. I continue to see her in the same light as JT in Heroes vs Villains. First episode of HvsV, JT votes out his pregame alliance in Sugar. Ep 1 of NZ Survivor Shay votes out an early alliance in Hannah. JT then works against who he worked with in the first episode and votes out Stephenie the next tribal. Shay does the same and votes out Tony. JT’s third tribal he flips again and votes out Cirie. Shay, despite her vote not even counting for anything, votes against Lou despite all appearances of them being close. Shay is delightfully awful. If I was Sala I would be concerned.

These two episodes also displayed the continuing generation divide on Hermosa. This really is quite similar to the baby boomer/ generation X split in Survivor: Africa. The elder Barb and Nate seem to be built up as the heroes in comparison to their younger tribe mates. It makes me feel like they are not going anywhere anytime soon. Barb more so than Nate. I feel like Nate’s abrasiveness sets himself up to leave earlier than Barb. Here is hoping a tribe swap is on the horizon or Hermosa just keeps winning. As the young crowd fails to bring in the two I see the demise of one or two of them in these situations #prayforshannon.

I am sure Lynda and me are continuing to have a differing opinion on Avi. While it seems as if he is one of the top dogs on Mogoton I still do not like him very much. His tactics in one of my favourite challenges was woeful. Run in the shallow waters wade through the deeper (even though this was everyone, I blame Avi). I also have no idea why he keeps sticking his neck out for Tom. Eventually I would love to see him get the chop for this, because you should not so obviously want to keep someone around like him. Thirdly what was with his effort in the immunity challenge? He “slipped”. Pffft oh pul-lease even coach lasted longer in Tocantins in the same challenge. Speaking of the challenge though I do not see Hermosa losing that kind of challenge anytime soon. I mean they have a freaking ballet dancer in Georgia, how could they possibly lose that. Although I must say I was surprised Lee exited the challenge so quickly. Does not show much for New Zealand Ozzy.

As for Izzy being voted out. We did not see much of her, but what we did see I liked. I am pretty sure the only one who benefited from her leaving was Tom as he did not directly go home as a result. It seems like every time he gets past a vote he may just keep gathering momentum. Or it may just mean he is like the Baylor Wilson / Phillip Shepherd of the season in consistently getting votes. Depending on the Redemption Island duel I do not see Izzy beating the ever-practical Tony. Unless it is an endurance challenge I see Tony going far in these and exacting revenge on the endless Mogotons that keep coming his way. I do not see him being sent anything but Mogoton’s unless there’s a switch up in the game. Hermosa as a tribe just seem a lot more well rounded.

This week as I have mentioned several times I am hoping for a tribe swap. As a result I see someone like Georgia going home (I know I have been thinking about this a lot lately). If the tribes stay the same I see Shay continuing bringing out her inner JT, finding an idol which she will eventually give to someone she feels is on the outs on Hermosa.

Blog by Lynda Olson

ALL IMAGES USED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE COPYRIGHT TVNZ, CHANNEL TEN AND CBS. THIS IS A PERSONAL BLOG AND ALL VIEWS ARE MY OWN.