IDOLS AND ADVANTAGES
Beginning of ep:
Shan – 1x Immunity Idol, 1x Extra Vote
Xander – 1x Immunity Idol, 1x Extra Vote
Naseer – 1x Immunity Idol
Everyone – 1x Shot in the Dark
End of ep:
Shan – 1x Immunity Idol
Xander – 1x Immunity Idol, 1x Extra Vote
Everyone – 1x Shot in the Dark
This week I look at the split tribes of 5. Interesting how they were divided for tribal voting as well as the challenge. Sounds very Australian Survivor to me!
TRIBE A: DANNY, DESHAWN, EVVIE, LIANA, XANDER
Connections:
Danny & Deshawn (Luvu duo).
Danny, Deshawn & Liana (Campout alliance).
Xander & Evvie (Yase duo).
Liana’s obsession with Xander.
After they drew rocks I immediately panicked seeing Evvie all alone, vulnerable if they lost. They really drew the short straw. After fracturing their relationship with Xander, Evvie’s only hope was trusting Deshawn. Promising not to vote each other out was a stretch as Deshawn’s had such a strong alliance with Danny. I know the edit was showing us he may sway over, but I just couldn’t see it happening. I feel it was completely fair Xander didn’t use his idol to save Evvie either; the guy has been through hell to receive and keep the idol. Not only did Liana try stealing it with her Knowledge of Power advantage, she had the gall to ask Xander for it! Haha. Not to play, but just to hold for the next vote. HILARIOUS! Also, why does she hate him so much?! I think Xander has been quite an intelligent player and loyal to those around him. It’s everyone else who hasn’t trusted him. I put my pride flag up for Evvie’s boot. What a brilliant player to have this season. I think they were fantastic casting and I can’t wait to see them rock the Jury.
TRIBE B: ERIKA, HEATHER, NASEER, RICARD, SHAN
Connections:
Erika & Heather (Luvu)
Ricard & Shan (Ua)
Naseer and anyone who wants to play with him
This was a much more interesting split in my opinion with two power couples and one middle man, so to speak, in Naseer. Erika and Heather were officially shown to us as an alliance; funny how we only find out 9 episodes in!! And Ricard and Shan continued to present to us how well they work together and why they are the biggest duo threat this season. Unable to vote out Erika, Shan’s sights were on Heather. But Ricard’s strategic prowess raised alarm bells with Naseer who has an idol. And why wouldn’t you want to flush an idol out. I understand Shan’s reasoning to keep Naseer as a number, but she still has Liana and co on the otherside. I think its’ even more imperative to keep Ricard as her #1 and vice versa. They are both important to each other’s game and I can see them making it to the end together. As much as I’d love to see Shan go to the end with Liana, Danny and Deshawn, which has a more social foundation, her strategic game is complimented more by moving forward with Ricard. He makes her listen. He can make her see more sense with their decisions. I can actually see Ricard winning this. After being totes confused with the split extra vote Shan cast (1 for Heather, 1 for Naseer), I can see why they did it. Just incase Erika and Heather put votes on Shan. It covered all bases Also, I didn’t realise Extra Votes carry through to the revote. WHO KNEW?! Haha. We did lose another fabulous, entertaining player though :'( I’ll miss you Naseer!! <3
Australian Survivor’s Asian-American queen and pre-season fan favourite, Wai Chim, started out as potential first boot and ended up becoming a fifth boot icon! After being saved by George in the first episode, Wai found her way, so to speak, and navigated through a tribe swap and merge with her other half, Hayley (see Wailey). Flick and George literally carried her in challenges until she won her first immunity challenge on Day 43. Wai only received 3 votes the entire season (incredible!), with 2 of them being in her boot episode. She lasted 44 days and was able to vote for best ally Hayley in the Final 2. <3
Lyndz: Hi Wai, welcome to Reality Ramblings. I’m so excited to have you on the blog this week!
Wai: Ah thanks so much for having me! It’s been so awesome to connect during the Australian Survivor season – I loved reading your recaps throughout. 😊
Lyndz: Firstly, how has life been post-Survivor? How many books have you written since leaving Cloncurry?
Wai: It’s all been a bit surreal. Sydney was plunged into lockdown two weeks after I came back from filming, so it’s only been the past couple of weeks that things have started to feel more or less normal. I’ve done a teeny tiny bit of writing since I’ve been back (one particular piece I’m hoping will become a real project!) but mostly I’ve just been getting back into the swing of things.
Lyndz: What is your history with Survivor? Were you addicted to the show like many of us out there?
Wai: Haha, no I am definitely not a super fan like so many of you; before I went on the show, I was a casual viewer. I knew how the game worked and mechanics of vote splitting and idols etc. and I knew all about the big name players, but I wasn’t as adept at the exact episode by episode breakdown – I wish I had been! I will say I am definitely watching the new season with a MUCH different perspective now. 😀
Lyndz: As my obvious favourite from Survivor AU Brain v Brawn, because “Asian Sensation”, what were your thoughts on seeing such a diverse cast for Survivor 41? I personally think they’ve done a fantastic casting job this season.
Wai: Woot! I love ‘Asian Sensation’ and thank you so much for your support throughout the season. And YES – I LOVE how this cast has come about. I’m definitely for this new casting decision by CBS and it’s really great to see so many POC on the screen where they’re not just a ‘token’ and the conversations that are being had around what it means to be POC. The honest conversations around race and identity that happen all the time among POC because it’s part of our makeup and we don’t see it in media enough!
Lyndz: And, if you were playing, who on this cast would you have gravitated to work with?
Wai: I think I would have loved to work with Tiffany and Shan – they’re big doers with a fair amount of heart. I think I would have loved Erika (Asian Sensation!) and I’m also really vibing with Ricard’s super strategy brain and I can tell he’s always got the numbers in mind and counting moves out which is something that you spend so much time doing especially with so many pieces in play to keep track of – but does that make him a threat or an ally?
Lyndz: You played on a season where there was no shortage of idols or twists, what do you think of the flurry of advantages this season and do you think they’ve worked? We haven’t seen many people play their Shot in the Dark (only Sydney)… Is it TOO risky?
Wai: Oh gosh! The chaos – I’m fully triggered. 😀 So what I didn’t realise until going into play the game is how the twists and turns and unpredictability really affects your mindset psychologically – in a game of strategy where you need information and control, the fact that there is a lot of random chaos really affects how you play – you’re trying your best to come up with contingency plans on top of contingency plans – and you’re STILL not certain.
With the Shot in the Dark, I’m not surprised that not too many people have played it yet, not because it’s too risky, but because they genuinely believed they were fine. Survivor is SUCH a trust game, you know you’re more likely to make it not just through that night’s tribal, but deeper into the game if you have people you trust.
Lyndz: This week A LOT happened and all on Day 17! As someone who made it to Day 44, what do you think of a 26 day season and are you enjoying this vastly different fast-paced game?
Wai: Haha I can’t help thinking, Day 17 we weren’t even at Swap yet, let alone Merge! I do think the lack of rations is a big factor though, so these guys are doing it tough. Because it’s a shorter period with a lot of twists, what I’m noticing is the relationships seem a bit more fractured. It’s clever that they had the journeys up the mountain to form cross-tribe bonds, because I don’t think they would have had the chance to otherwise.
Lyndz: Shan has been one of the biggest power players this season and there are many differing opinions on her. For example, people saying she’s only seen as bossy because she’s a woman and if she were a man she would be idolised. Are your thoughts similar? And do you think it’s a better route for her to stick with her buddy Ricard to the end, or move forward with Liana, Deshawn and Danny? (I love Shan!!)
Wai: I love Shan too and she’s copping a lot of hate for being aggressive – but I also would like to think that if she was an old white man, other people on the internet would be going after old white male Shan for being a coloniser or something. I think the spectrum of fandom on Survivor is REALLY broad, people watch it for very, very different reasons, from very different backgrounds, so everyone is going to cop hate from somewhere. I also know first hand that it’s so, so, so hard to navigate this when it’s happening to YOU – so Shan, if you’re reading, you’re amazing and you have way, WAY more fans than you realise, I promise!
In terms of her future, I think she and Ricard have built up a genuine, albeit wary, trust so strategically, I think he’s a surer bet. Ricard needs her charisma and people skills to play his strategic game (oh my gosh, him asking Xander to play his idol was so cringe). I do think his strategic calls are pretty sound, so I hope she sticks with him for a bit, but just keeps an eye on her numbers.
Lyndz: Naseer told Heather “you’re going home tonight”. Would you rather be told or be blindsided? And if you were Heather, what would you do?
Wai: Oh Naseer, in the game of Survivor there’s never a sure thing! It’s funny because I definitely knew going into my first tribal in my season that I was supposed to be first boot (I had no idea about George’s advantage!). So I think I learned early on that being told or not being told you’re going home doesn’t mean it’s actually going to happen!
I think Heather did a great job of acting like it was inevitable when they were going to blindside Naseer – good acting is critical for a good blindside.
Lyndz: Shan wants Heather gone and to keep Naseer as an ally, but Ricard wants to target Naseer to flush his idol. Who do YOU target?
Wai: I think Naseer was the right move simply because he had the idol and with the smaller numbers in the split tribal it was easier to control the vote for this type of blindside. Shan seems to think Erika is a huge threat, but from where we sit she doesn’t have much power right now, so I think Naseer was definitely the right move.
Lyndz: Do you think there was any way Shan could have kept her extra vote or do you think the way they voted out Naseer was pure brilliance? (I was so confused xD)
Wai: I don’t think Ricard and Shan HAD to use the extra vote, but I DO get why they did; I think it has to do with the twists and turns that I mentioned earlier. The way Ricard explained it was, they wanted to put enough votes on Heather to make Naseer think that they were still working together in case he survived, by either playing his idol or through some other random twist; then if Heather went home and they could still keep him as a number because they could convince him it was the other girls with the extra vote (Naseer was on the other tribe and was never privy to how their extra vote was obtained). Naseer seems pretty trusting and called Shan and Ricard his biggest allies so it’s credible he would have believed them; this approach meant there was no net loss to them whatever the outcome.
With the last two tribals being SO chaotic, I can really empathise with a plan like this to regain some semblance of autonomy and control – though I do think it was maybe slightly over-engineered. xD
Lyndz: Over at the other tribe, Deshawn seems to be in the middle and eventually votes off Evvie. Do you think Xander should have played his idol for Evvie? Did Evvie just draw the short straw at that tribe split or do you feel like they could have done more to save themselves?
Wai: Xander is playing for himself and gambling with everyone else’s lives (twice he has not played his idol for anyone else) – it’s brilliant, but I’m not sure how much longer that can last unless he keeps winning immunity. It’s hard because I do think the time to form relationships and build trust has really been shortened with this fast paced season, so Evvie was very much relying on her trip with Deshawn as that was the only relationship outside of her tribe. I love Evvie and it’s so sad to see them go, but I just don’t think there was much they could have done in that situation.
Lyndz: Who are your top 3 favourite Survivors this season?
Wai: My favs are definitely Shan and Ricard as a duo and I really want to see Erika go far (but I’m worried). I also do love Xander’s ballsiness and am curious if he can carry that all the way to the end.
Lyndz: Who’s on the chopping block next week?
Wai: I think the majority 5 will likely do a split vote forcing Xander to play the idol for himself and end up voting out Erika. 🙁
Lyndz: Who will be Sole Survivor?
Wai: I’m really hoping it will be Shan!
Lyndz: Any final words, Wai?
Wai: Thanks so much for having me, you’re a legend and an icon. xx
Follow Wai 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.
