Survivor 41 has flown by so fast I haven’t been able to keep up with weekly recaps! There are only 2 episodes left and I truly feel that it has picked up as the weeks have gone by. We lost some potentially great players in Voce and Sara, and fantastic casting in Brad, JD and Genie early on. We have an already stacked Jury with Tiffany, Naseer, Evvie and Shan, and the the remaining 7 are all worthy in their own right (yes, even Heather who has no-votes-third-placer written all over her). This week I have a very special guest for a Q&A – one half of “the stowaways” and Survivor Superfan, MJ Rajcic, from this year’s Amazing Race Australia!
A quick recap of last week’s ep:
Liana and Deshawn have a mini fallout post tribal. Many words are said about the black/campout alliance. Deshawn is hurt that he Shan called him a snake and confronted Ricard for a much needed discussion about what really went down pre-tribal.
Xander is excited about being in majority with an actual alliance he likes. Xander wants to keep Ricard as a shield. But is it worth it?
Deshawn, Liana as Danny want to target their biggest threat, Ricard. Ricard, Xander, Heather and Erika talk about voting out Deshawn.
Danny talks about his Dads 25th anniversary of his death. It was a beautiful moment.
Immunity Challenge – Jeff talks to us again and mentions the first person out competes in a Do or Die challenge at tribal. If you lose, you’re out automatically, no tribal vote. If you win, you survive and are immune at the tribal vote. You don’t have to compete if you don’t want to risk the Do or Die. Heather and Liana respectfully sit out. Deshawn is out of the challenge within seconds. Danny wins immunity. A touching win for his dad.
With the possibility of Deshawn being saved at tribal from Do or Die, Ricard, Heather and Xander agree to vote out Liana instead. Erika isn’t completely on the same page. She’s become a swing vote… Or so she thinks. Ricard is still on the radar as a huge threat and she’s not sure if there will be another chance to get her out.
At tribal a large portion was spent on the social dynamics of having other POC and specifically black people to play and align with and how the social dilemmas can affect strategy. Deshawn speaks about how difficult it was to vote out Shan as they had a real chance of making the F4 with all black contestants. Looking at the F7 it fills my heart that it’s so racially diverse! Liana went deeper into the conversation with how far they’ve come in the game and in general life being a black woman. It was beautiful. They should’ve just stopped it there though as we didn’t need to see how clueless Heather was that there was conflict for the POC players. It was a tad cringe. But we’re all learning!
Deshawn goes up to Jeff and plays Do or Die. Pick the right flame box and you’re safe! Deshawn chooses correctly and is immune from going home.
Xander plays his Extra Vote against Liana, I’m assuming incase Erika flips, which is smart. Liana goes home in a 5-3 vote.
Liana – 5, Ricard – 3.
Marijana Rajčić, aka MJ, is an AFLW (AFL Women’s) premiership player for the Adelaide Crows and infamous stowaway on the 2021 season of The Amazing Race Australia. She competed on TARA with her “footy mate”/partner, Chelsea Randall. MJ And Chelsea unknowingly were thrown into the Race in Leg 7 and quickly became fan favourites! People may have been angry with production allowing this abomination into TAR, but there was no denying even haters loved the footy pair. They won 2 First Class Passes, 1st place three times and ended their Race campaign in 6th place. MJ is a certified Survivor Superfan and I’m thrilled to have her on the blog this week.
Lyndz: Hey MJ! Welcome to Reality Ramblings, I’m so excited to have you on the blog for the first time 😁
MJ: Hey, great to be joining Reality Ramblings for the first time.
Lyndz: Firstly, how have you been this crazy past year? How’s footy training? Haha.
MJ: This year has been great. Crazy, but good. Footy pre-season is nearly done with, looking forward to the season starting and getting games under way. Not long now at all.
Lyndz: Secondly, I am a proud AFLW Crows member, so I’m a tad excited to have two of my favourite things (AFLW and Survivor) in one blog, haha. Now, most people know you from The Amazing Race Australia as one half of the “footy mates” (legends), but they might not know you are a Survivor superfan. Are you a superfan? What is your history with Survivor?
MJ: I am definitely a Survivor superfan. I used to have friends that would tell me to keep that information to myself, haha. My history with Survivor goes back to US season 2 (Australian Outback). I got hooked and have watched every season ever since. And back when I was younger I went back to watch Borneo to make sure I had them all ticked off. My favourite player is Boston Rob. He is probably my all time fave. He is unbelievable when it comes to Survivor. Being a superfan, I can’t not mention the Queen Sandra and Tony, the two-time winners. If I was to talk about Australian Survivor, you have to mention Luke (Toki) and Dave (Genat).
Lyndz: On a scale of “1 to I’m super salty” , how jelly were you that fellow footy mate Abbie Holmes got to play Australian Survivor twice? 👀
MJ: HAHAHHAHA – I am definitely super salty – in the best possible way, more so because I know Abbey was never a fan of the show prior to playing the game. I remember chatting to her when she came back from playing the first time, and she said she thought of me when she said yes to going on the show. But it’s awesome to see AFLW girls having the opportunity out there.
Lyndz: Have you applied for Survivor before? Would you play a Blood vs Water season with Chelsea? 😂
MJ: I have applied every season. It’s been a dream of mine to play the game of Survivor since I was a kid. I would definitely play Blood vs Water with Chelsea if that opportunity was there. Chelsea said to me that she doesn’t think she could ever say yes to going on Survivor before me, because she knows it would crush me hahaha, but I said she would have to do it for me.
Lyndz: To season 41, there were many changes due to Covid, and as someone who played in an Amazing Race affected by Covid restrictions, how have you found all the twists implemented this season?
MJ: I actually don’t mind the shorter season of 26 days. I think you can see during this season that gameplay has had to start a lot sooner. It is very fast paced which makes it entertaining for us at home to watch. If there is one thing I’ve learnt from being on the Amazing Race it is that there is an abundance of footage that we don’t see. They have hours of footage that they have to jam pack into 40 minutes. So for us it seems as if the advantages/idols are easy to find. But those contestants might have been out there for hours on end searching.
Lyndz: Should they scrap the Shot in the Dark for future seasons? (only Queen Sydney played hers)
MJ: That’s a tough one. I don’t mind the shot in the dark, especially if you know you are at the bottom and have no other option to play or use your vote. But as you can see, the cast are all gameplayers, so your vote is vital. Not many people would give that up. And in Sydney’s case, if she chose to vote, she would have been safe.
Lyndz: We saw the vote out of Shan last week, what are your thoughts on strong female archetypes who are perceived as bossy and controlling? Deshawn couldn’t seem to handle her, where it was a calculative move by Ricard and I felt he pulled it off brilliantly.
MJ: I think Shan is a strong female character, but it wasn’t because she was female that she was deemed bossy and controlling. It’s her personality. Deshawn felt like he wasn’t being heard. And that is based on his personality. Like most people want to have a voice. We’ve seen it before where the male is the head honcho calling all the shots, and they end up getting blindsided by the minority. But I completely agree, Ricard pulled it off brilliantly. Shan was going to target him at some stage. So like they always say, better get them before they get you. To me he is the biggest threat out there. His strategic game is brilliant and as you can see, the better you are at leaving your emotions out of it, the better you will do in the game of Survivor.
Lyndz: Xander has somehow survived this long with both his butterflies Idol and Extra Vote. Does this dude have a chance of making it to the end? (I think so!)
MJ: I’m glad you brought Xander up. I have no idea how they haven’t flushed his Extra Vote or Idol. He definitely has a great chance of making it to the end. He’s been great at challenges, plus he has been able to bring the minority members together and shift the pyramid.
Lyndz: At the Immunity challenge, Jeff introduced another twist called the Survivor Do or Die (which seemed like a real flop…hello Deal or No Deal!). Would you have preferred Deshawn compete in a game of skill instead of a game of chance? Do you like the idea of someone going home because of it without tribal voting?
MJ: As a fan of the show, it was an interesting twist to watch, but I also feel that if I was out there on the island I would have hated it. You might have been playing the best game ever, and by chance you get kicked out. I have always said, there is always an element of luck involved when playing the game of Survivor. But the do or die definitely adds to that element. I would have much preferred a game of skill over chance.
Lyndz: At tribal, what did you think of the large portion of discussion around the social dymanics v strategic play for having several POC cast this season? I feel a bit sad that after all the truer words spoken by Liana that she was the one sent home.
MJ: I think it was brilliant. As you can see, real life problems happen there too. It’s obviously on a much smaller scale, but it still impacts everyone there and at home. Even in Australia we have a lot of educating to do. And as you can see, more education required world wide.
Lyndz: There was a bit of uncertainty from Erika as she wanted to take out the biggest threat… Would you have voted out Liana or Ricard?
MJ: I think Erika makes very calculated decisions. But I also think it nearly cost her, her own game. She needed to play it off to Ricard that she was definitely on board with him. I think for her own game, if she went to vote Ricard she would be on the bottom. But from the footage we saw, I think she’s bound to get voted out now.
Lyndz: Which players from this season have you vibed with most and could see yourself playing with? (current or already voted out)
MJ: I really like Danny. I think being an ex-NFL athlete I would have been drawn to working with him and would have connected on that level. But really hard to say, I know it would be based on personalities and how I would want to play.
Lyndz: We’re down to the Final 6! Who’s out next?
MJ: There are many different scenarios how that could happen. My prediction would be that out next will either be Danny. I think it’s Ricard or Xander’s game to lose. I see them two working with Heather and Erika to get rid of Danny next. Then Ricard will bring in Deshawn to get rid of Xander. So therefore final 4 will be Ricard, Deshawn, Heather and Erika.
Lyndz: Who’s making the Final 3? And who will be Sole Survivor?
MJ: Erika is pretty good at will-power challenges, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Ricard takes Deshawn and Heather to the final 3. And therefore Ricard becoming the Sole Survivor.
Lyndz: Thanks for you time! Any final words, MJ?
MJ: I’m looking forward to seeing it all unfold!
Follow MJ on Instagram and Twitter
Blog by Lynda Olson.
ALL IMAGES USED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE COPYRIGHT CBS. THIS IS A PERSONAL BLOG AND ALL GIFS AND VIEWS ARE MY OWN.
