At long last, the tribes of Survivor Season 41 are Merged - for real this time. Last week’s episode was essentially part one of a Merge episode, with the conclusion to that particular storyline occurring in this week’s Episode 7, “There’s Gonna Be Blood”. The episode was tense and messy, in the familiar Survivor way where it seems like neither the audience nor the castaways know exactly how the final votes are going to shake out.
The episode starts with Erika on Exile Island, picking up where Episode 6 left off with her having to decide whether or not to smash the hourglass and “change history”. As a quick recap, if she decides to smash the hourglass, she and the other players who were previously at risk of being voted out because they lost the previous challenge are now immune at Tribal Council, and the players who won that immunity and are “officially Merged” will no longer be safe and will have to compete for immunity. However, if she chooses not to smash it, everything will remain as is. Erika essentially has to decide what’s best for her own game, and what will work out best in the long run, considering she’s likely going to burn bridges with people no matter what she chooses.
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The audience doesn’t get to see Erika’s decision right away, and instead is let in on the results as the other players are. At the immunity challenge, Jeff explains to the players what the twist is, and Erika reveals that she did, in fact, smash the hourglass. All of the players who came to this challenge thinking they were immune suddenly have to fight for that safety, and it’s understandably put them all on edge. Some fans were upset with the decision to include this twist, because (they argue) it kind of makes the events of the previous episode meaningless, but when it comes to entertaining reality TV, it’s very fun to watch a bunch of people who felt secure suddenly have to scramble for their future in the game.
It’s a tight race between Evvie, Sydney, and Ricard, but Ricard ends up winning the challenge and taking immunity. Back at camp, the pre-Tribal scramble begins, with everyone immediately starting to strategize. Evvie is the target right away, both because the other eligible players to be voted are all Luvu and therefore have the numbers, but also because she’s clearly a good player. This also immediately adds a sense of tension to the episode, because Evvie has been set up as a major player with plenty of screen time this season, meaning that she’s likely a favorite among many fans. It’s always nerve-wracking for the audience to watch an episode where a player they’ve grown attached to is at risk.
This is where things start to get particularly messy, in classic Survivor fashion, which lent a nice sense of familiarity to the episode in a season that has felt so removed from the ones of the past. Xander and Evvie are trying to stick together, and Xander even offers to give Evvie his idol for safety. He then starts going around the camp informing the other players about his idol as well as Liana’s “Knowledge Is Power” advantage (which allows her to ask one player if they have an idol or advantage and if they do, they have to give it to her). This seems like a dumb move at first, because it seems like it would be better to not let anyone, especially Liana, know that he has an idol he plans on using, but all of this is just planting the seeds for an eventful Tribal Council.
Tribal itself is just as chaotic as the afternoon before it, though it starts off pretty tame. Xander flaunts his idol out in the open, just enough to make every audience member question if he’s really stupid enough to essentially just give it away to Liana like that. Liana, of course, plays her advantage and asks Xander about his idol, prepared for what should be a very clear outcome. However, it turns out that the idol Xander is holding is fake, and he’s not currently in possession of his real idol, meaning that Liana’s very powerful advantage is rendered useless. This advantage was criticized by many fans for taking away from core elements of the game such as strategy and deception, but Xander managed to thwart it using those exact devices and made it so that the advantage had an entertaining outcome at the very least.
This is when the Tribal absolutely explodes and the scramble begins, where everyone jumps up to whisper in the ear of someone else and try to decide on a new plan of action. There are so many names being thrown out that it’s never clear where exactly the vote is going, which is a great way to keep viewers on the edge of their seats. Once again in this episode, a bunch of players who thought they were safe and had their immediate game figured out are thrown into chaos and have to rethink everything. It’s entertaining because it’s like watching the underdog win, and seeing the confident majority be humbled slightly (although it’s probably less entertaining if you’re rooting for the majority alliance).
In the end, Xander decides not to play the idol for Evvie, who is clearly uncomfortable with the decision. Sydney also reveals that she chose to play the Shot In The Dark (the first person to do so this season), forgoing her vote for a 1-in-6 shot at immunity. Unfortunately for her, the scroll she reveals says “Not Safe”, which means that any votes cast for her still count. In the tensest reading of the votes that has happened so far this season, the vote is between Evvie, Sydney, and Deshawn, with Sydney finally being the one voted out. Interestingly, because of Luvu’s winning streak and her choice to use the Shot In The Dark, Sydney went home without having voted once on this season.
And with that, the players are officially Merged. The first part of the Merge episode feels a little underwhelming compared to this one, but at least the show was able to make things more engaging in this second half. There’s always so much tension in watching the players go crazy strategizing before a Tribal Council, and it always gets even crazier during the Merge. This whole episode felt like classic, strategy-based Survivor, with a lot of the advantages and idols that have been building up over the season so far finally paying off. The huge amount of advantages only works if players use them in conjunction with great strategies, and so far they seem to be doing just that. This was such a crazy and exciting Merge episode, and it bodes well for the rest of the season that this cast is clearly very dialed into the game, and a hundred percent ready to lean into the chaos as much as possible.
NEXT: Survivor: Season 41 Episode 6 Review
