It was a great week of Survivor NZ with equal parts of drama, laughs, frustrating moments and another blue tribal. Simon and I are here to wrap it all up!
Days 7-9
Post Chani tribal, the castaways are absolutely devo over losing Karla, while JT is already plotting his next move in an impending tribe swap. Shoot straight to Franky who doesn’t trust JT at all and says needs to go! Fair call, if only she stuck to her guns…
At KhangKhaw, Kaysha is FOREVER sweeping the camp. Every episode, you watch. Tara talks about not looking for alliances until she needs to… Josh, if you need a goat, there’s your answer! Dylan and Tess have a really bizarre scene where they might potentially want to flush out some tarantulas. Tess brings up sucking out the tarantulas’ legs, which makes me think she has a leg up at any future gross food challenges. EW. And no girl, you didn’t offend the gays… Yet!
REWARD CHALLENGE
Ahh, the classic totem knocking challenge, and I loved the Cobra design too! Straight off the block Sexy Matt is trying to sweep me off my feet…
Adam tries the cheeky tickle approach on Dave, but it doesn’t work.
Chani are whooping ass and it’s Franky who scores the winning whack! 10-3 to Chani and they FINALLY (thank God) win their first ever challenge!
At Chani, the tribe are celebrating their win checking out their fishing bundle, but no one is looking closer than the devilish JT. The dude probably didn’t blink once as the gear was pulled apart. Looking for a hidden idol clue, JT iss determined to find it, but without looking too suspicious. As he’s sitting with the others, the oh-so-innocent Eve blankly stares at this bit of parchment she pulls out of the gear, and has a total brain fart, “HEY GUYS, WHAT’S THIS!?” Not even realising it’s an idol clue. GIRL, you’re killing me! She then realises she probably shouldn’t have told everyone…
But what can you do, once it’s out, information is public property. The Idol hunt is ON. JT wants it BAAAD. It’s his life dream yo!! Homegirl Eve eventually finds the Idol, but JT is all like, pfft, don’t worry, it’s still mine, I don’t physically have it, but it’s mine. There’s no way JT is keeping Eve out of his sight, or alliance, now! The Immunity Idol becomes a Community Idol (thanks Ivan) and is hung in the Chani Lounge as an art deco piece, maybe as someone’s dream catcher. 
Some are not happy like Franky and Renee who don’t believe the Idol will be played for just anyone. And they are totes right…
Dylan wants to experience ALL OF THE SURVIVORNESS. But look at Brad, Adam and Tess’ reaction to Dyl being all excited… The disgust! LOL.
THE OUTPOST
It’s the battle of the babes at The Outpost this week with Eve and Kaysha competing in a balancing challenge. Looks simple, unless you have shaky hands like me! (I’ve tried this one kids, not easy!) Eve has the perfect posture stance, while Kaysha goes the Hunchback of Notre Dame method, and low and behold, Annabel’s #1 crush wins the second Outpost of the season! And hoorah it’s a delectable selection of western and Asian desserts! Yes, those jelly like squares are gelatinous, coconutty goodness. Yum! But I have to agree with Eve, I’m here for the brownies. While Kaysha is stuffing her face, (honestly, she could’ve done a better job than that), Sexy Matty tells the girls they’re allowed to have a gossip fest if they wish… Alas, none of them budge or ask any questions of interest. No JT skillz here.
Back at KhangKhaw, we see poor Dylan being outcast, mainly by Adam, again. The poor love. He is just seen to be moping around on his lonesome, but as he says, he doesn’t even know why some his tribe mates don’t like him. And NEITHER DO WE! And we are watching the show! They normally show these things in the edit ya know.
Kaysha tells everyone the truth, and nothing but the truth! Even though it was an innocent food reward I like how it shows that whatever story you come back with, honest or not, there’s always going to be one f*cker who doesn’t believe you! The ones to pipe up are Adam and Tess (Kaysha’s #1 enemy). Not surprised at all really. Adam gives Kaysha a cavity search (her teeth guys!!), but maybe she should’ve left some remnants of brownie on her just to be on the safe side…
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE
WOW, this was abysmal to watch in all honesty. Sorry guys! It feels as if Chani drew the short straw when it came to strong swimmers. We see Eve, Franky (who got one disc), Dave and Liam dive down numerous times. I’m sure Arun and JT attempted to dive too, but the editors chose to show them standing there like complete numbnuts! I think only Franky and Renee ended up retrieving discs in the end, and it was almost at the point they should’ve just stopped and not wasted energy. On the flipside, Josh and Matt were absolutely killing it for KhangKhaw, leading their tribe to a landslide win. Poor Chani… They just can’t catch a break. It’s off to therapy with #KiwiJeff again!
TRIBAL COUNCIL
Paranoia around camp involving the idol caused Franky to freak out and target Eve. If you don’t have the numbers, you can’t vote the person with an idol! You’re just putting the target on yourself. Poor Franky seemed to be all over the place and her perception of her alliance with Arun and Dave was not what she thought, with the boys sticking with JT and Eve. Even Liam wants to vote out Eve, but knows it’s a silly idea. Just moments after Franky is loving on homegirl Renee, she freaks and wants to turn on her!
Matty is confused as to why the hidden Idol is a community idol now, and calls them all clueless. Hahaha. #KiwiJeff is laying it all out tonight. In the end Franky seemed to have dug her own hole and put herself on the outs of her alliance and tribe. I do appreciate her last minute scrambles, unfortunately she was targetting the wrong people. Should’ve stuck to her guns from the beginning of the episode. Franky-6, Eve-1.
Survivor Simon Says
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Thus far, in season 2 of Survivor NZ, I have mentioned a lot of Survivor Palau and a certain ill-fated tribe. This week however, seemed determined to be an ode to another great P named season in the history of Survivor. Philippines!!! All three of the episode’s challenges featured in some capacity of Survivor Philippines. The totem challenge showed up when the tribes were reduced to Tangdang and Kalabaw; the water challenge that saw Angie’s floatation devices become a hindrance; and the endurance challenge that is bound to make Survivor great Malcolm Freberg shudder on sight (perhaps making his hands shudder even more). JT even seemed in the spirits of referencing Survivor: Philippines. When discussing Philippines it is hard to ignore to another hapless tribe in Matsing. This tribe even coined a term in the Survivor community called an ‘Intentional Matsinging,’ (Definition: purposely dwindling down your tribe numbers to come across as less threatening at a tribe swap or merge). At the beginning of the episode this seemed to be something JT was pondering.
Philippines was not the only season to come to mind in watching this episode. I have made many jibes at Dylan over the course of this season, in good spirits that is. I have felt I can so having somewhat made a friend with him through being in the Survivor community. So it is with this in mind that may give me a biased opinion on what is to follow… Adam and Tess had a mighty fall this episode from my favour at least. Adam came across comparatively as a mighty fine NZ version of Colton Cumbie. That’s right the loathed individual from Survivor: One World. Adam’s willingness to talk behind Dylan’s back and be so snarky, while also act like a camp prince made this comparison a perfect fit. Even like Colton he seems to have really made an impact in drawing his tribe in. In other words, strategy wise looking good, character wise he was more negative. What made the comparison even more apt was his relationship with Tess. She was starkly reminiscent of Colton’s right hand woman Alicia Rosa. She was constantly undermined by the edit, with slightly ditzy comments, for example wanting to represent blonds well before asking cameramen if what she said was correct. The sulking comment was particularly malicious considering he was having some of his own time due to everyone speaking behind his back.
Dylan did not come out of this episode unscathed though and I seriously fear for his future in the game. While he and Kaysha are working hard to distance themselves we only saw this strategy being put in by Kaysha. Upon my rewatch it was also interesting to note Kaysha making a confessional of note putting all her eggs in one basket in terms of Dylan. This especially stood out having watched the “next time on Survivor” where a bad egg is brought up at tribal next week. Is this a sign of Khangkaw finally going to tribal? If the editors of New Zealand Survivor are similar to those in American Survivor this looks particularly ominous. Especially when Dylan also mentioned holding his tongue. The last thing we want to see is Dylan leaving the game in the manner of say someone like Lindsay from Cagayan. You have to feel for Kaysha as well. The outpost seems like it is in the no win zone for those competing. Adam and Tess are also shown to be wrong in her return should make the sympathise Dylan and Kaysha while making us not take their words seriously.
Wow, all that writing and I have barely spoken about Chani asides from JT’s plans. The intentional Matsinging was not the sole agenda on his mind. His idol mania followed on from last week. He reminded me of Tony Vlachos in the way he kept an eye on that fishing gear. Unfortunately for him it was Eve who found the idol in more Keith Nale-like fashion. She retrieved the idol clue from the fishing gear without a clue of what it was and spilling the beans to the entire tribe. This led to an incredible Gabon-like moment where the tribe discussed what they needed to do with the idol. Unlike Gabon they did not toss the idol into the ocean to swim with the fishes. Eve was allowed to get the idol, which is now their “family” idol. There was plenty of shade thrown around. JT was like a Boromir or a Gollum pining after the one ring to rule them all, Renee and Dave did not know whether they could rely on Eve to play the idol on them.
Most of the shade this episode seemed to come from our girl from Ponsonby, Franky. I was pretty harsh on Franky last week leading me to want her to go home this week. So in a way I was happy with the result. She did not do much this week that was particularly frustrating to grind my gears. Oh um asides her talks in her exit press. Franky doth protest that her boot and others so far had been sexist. She was correct in the fact that the first three boots have in fact been women. What was not so clear is that she had a direct impact in both of the votes of Jose and Ka-Ka-Ka Karla. This episode even, apart from a quick mention of not trusting JT, she was still gunning for the women in Eve. The episode even implied that she would be willing to turn on Renee just before tribal even in spite of her being one of Franky’s closest allies… She made her Survivor bed and now she needs to sleep in it.
Blog by Lynda Olson and Simon Knyvett
ALL IMAGES USED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE COPYRIGHT TVNZ AND SCOTT MCAULAY. THIS IS A PERSONAL BLOG AND ALL VIEWS AND GIFS ARE MY OWN.
