Survivor Season 41, Episode 5 (entitled “The Strategist or the Loyalist”) finally seemed to strike a balance that the show has been struggling to hit all season. Season 41 has been very advantage-heavy, with not enough focus on the players or their individual strategies - at least, until Episode 4. This week, the show has proven that it will be able to give the advantages and the players and their relationships an equal amount of focus without one overpowering the other (though many fans would be fine if the focus of Survivor leaned more heavily in the direction of the players).
The episode begins with strategy talk right off the bat. It’s the day after the Ua tribe sent J.D. home, and the remaining members are trying to figure out their game plans. Genie finds an idol when she goes to get water and shows it to the group, and they all discuss what to do with it. In this season, even opening the idol package is risky, because accepting it means that you lose your vote until it’s activated. Shan and Ricard convince Genie that they’ll wait to open it until they’re sure the other tribes have their idols, in an effort to get her to leave the idol for Shan to open and take instead.
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They also tell Genie they want to say the activation phrase at the challenge just to see if the other tribes have found theirs before they open it, when they really plan to use that phrase to activate the idol they’ve already opened. It works, and Shan and Ricard decide to risk Shan’s vote and have her take the idol. This plan also includes Shan giving her extra vote to Ricard to hold onto in case the idol isn’t activated in time and she cannot vote if they go to Tribal Council.
This kind of strategic gameplay is so fun to watch because the audience gets to see the layers that Ricard and Shan are working on in their master plan. The show manages to paint them as strategists without making Genie look dumb, which is important because it doesn’t feel like she’s left behind or less competent than her tribemates. She’s simply on the outs numbers-wise and is a very honest person (which is a trait that is mentioned a lot later on in the episode) who is putting her trust in some people who are playing the game a little less honestly (but in a much more classic Survivor fashion).
There are some small moments shown with the other tribes, though Yasa and Luvu feature less heavily in this very Ua-centric episode. At Yasa, Tiffany is growing suspicious of Evvie and her connection with Xander (though Evvie has explained to the audience that she’s just playing Xander and her true alliances lie with her two female tribe members). Tiffany and Liana decide to go through Xander’s bag and find his idol, which is intercut with footage of Evvie and Xander deciding that he should come clean about it to Tiffany and Liana as a sign of trust. This backfires for him a little bit because he ends up being caught in a lie and losing even more of Tiffany’s trust, but this exchange sets up an interesting dynamic in the tribe that will likely be explored in the future. With a merge on the horizon, Xander may be able to find himself in a new alliance and escape from the plans of his remaining Yasa tribemates.
The episode then cuts to the immunity challenge, where Xander and Shan awkwardly try to work their strange idol activation phrases into the pre-game chat. Suddenly, Naseer jumps in to contribute his own wacky phrase, revealing to the audience that he had come across the idol earlier. This season of the show has been using this editing tactic a lot, to flashback to something that happened earlier that the audience wasn’t shown in order to create some surprise in the episode. It’s a really fun reveal in this moment because as far as the audience is aware, only two tribes have found the idol, and so hearing Naseer’s activation phrase is such a surprise (made even more entertaining by the weird way that the idols have to be activated). This also means that Shan and Ricard’s plan worked perfectly, and she now has a fully activated idol.
At the challenge, Ua loses to Luvu and Yasa once again, which means their trio of a tribe is getting sent to Tribal Council once again. Additionally, Shan is sent on a “journey” with Liana to the island with the ship wheel Risk-A-Vote option. Shan reveals that she has really wanted to get to talk to Liana, and they share a really sweet moment of connection as Shan opens up about her mother’s death. The show finally gives us more insight into Shan’s life and backstory as she relays some of the hardships she’s encountered in her life that led her to the current moment. Survivor has been great this season at really giving the audience a fuller picture of the castaways so that more of a connection can be built, and the castaways seem like more rounded “characters”.
There have been so many cross-tribal alliances this season with the inclusion of the advantage “journey” where people from opposing tribes can take a hike together and talk strategy way before the merge. People like Shan and Liana or Deshawn and Evvie have connected while on these treks, and it will be really interesting to see how this all shakes out at the merge, now that so many people have already met members of the other tribes. It seems like a lot of the castaways will be less concerned with sticking to their original tribal alliances, and may choose to work with people from other tribes, or at least include those new people in their original alliances.
Because of the advantage trek, Liana earns an advantage that allows her to ask one player if they have an idol or not, and they can’t lie in their answer. If they say yes, she gets to take it from them and if they say no, the advantage loses its power and nothing happens. It’s a new idea for a Survivor advantage, but it seems counterproductive to the point of the show. A lot of fans have criticized the choice already, as it seems strange to include an advantage where a player can’t lie in a game that’s all about lying and strategy, especially because the whole idol activation sequence has made it really obvious who has an idol this season.
Shan and Ricard have a little tiff when he won’t trust her enough to give her back her advantage before they go to Tribal Council. This shows that the seeds of distrust have been planted in both of them, as they are both very strategic players who could (and perhaps should) vote the other out to further their game. Tribal itself is quite tense, as it’s never clear which way any player is voting, and as a viewer, you really don’t know who’s going to be going home until Jeff reads the names. In the end, Shan and Ricard stick together to vote out Genie, leaving Ua down to two members. Next week’s episode will finally bring the merge…or something a little different, perhaps, judging by the preview. Now that some of the cracks in these alliances have revealed themselves, it will be fascinating to see how many of the cross-tribal alliances finally come to fruition.
NEXT: Survivor: Season 41 Episode 4 Review
