The first thing that needs discussing about Survivor NZ is the news that broke last week. In a Dee exit interview that the castaways spent 3 days before the show began hanging out, getting to know each other and chatting. That is why we heard from Tom that all the people he had trust with were on the other tribe and people were worrying about who had links on the other side. I find this to be an egregious thing for the producers to have done. Essentially there is 3 days of game play that we the viewers are not privy to. It changes the very nature of the game. Part of the difficulty of Survivor is not knowing anything about the relationships and dynamics on the other tribe until a swap or a merge. But now in the case of a swap there will be pre-built.
Episode 3
Episode 3 opens with Tony being salty as all hell at Redemption. Then at Mogoton Shay leads the tribe in prayer which as a good Survivor fan worries me. If we see anything near South Pacific levels of god being brought into this it will ruin an already shaky beginning to this new version of the show. Oh good and now it’s Tribe Yoga. Tribe Yoga is one of my least favourite bonding exercises you see on Survivor. Word on the street is Mogoton without Tony is a fun, happy, cohesive tribe, let’s see how long that lasts.
The young’uns alliance on Hermosa is brushing their teeth with charcoal but Barb and Nate are doing their own old person thing. Remember when Georgia said she thought Mike was bright? Well he can’t weave or he’s dumb enough to think he’s better off cocking up on purpose so he won’t have to do them. He then says something about how it sucks she has a boyfriend at home. Nate has noticed that Georgia is the head of the snake in the young’uns alliance having Mike wrapped around her finger and begins to work on Shannon. The problem for Nate is 3 into 7 doesn’t go.
Reward Challenge time, it’s the classic chase the other tribe in a circle whilst carrying weight, the prize is a tarp, coffee and tea. Nate is sitting out for Hermosa, which seems odd as he’s a big bloke. The choice looks costly as Barb falls and they nearly get caught. Mogoton lose after having all three women duck out early and having the men carry all the weight. This is the technique Rob C said teams should use to break this challenge; it seems like he was massively wrong.
It’s Tom, Avi and Izzy vs Shay, Sala and Lou at Mogoton. Tom and Izzy are talking about how they want to see Shay go, showing that maybe voting against two solid alliance members early can get you in trouble.
At Hermosa, Barb goes off with Shannon to see where she is but again 3 into 7 does not go. But overall, they feel like Mike is untrustworthy. Georgia comes out to sunbathe and interrupts the conversation which is great work on her part.
Jak wants everyone to think he’s a complete idiot; which is all well and good until people decide they won’t vote for you because you are a complete idiot.
The episode drags on and on with no immunity challenge and we get a little look at Redemption Island with Hannah and Tony.
Then it’s time for the Redemption Island duel. Tony talks about being backstabbed. Shannon and Georgia get all the info. Sala says he didn’t write his name down, Lou says Tony is like family to her. They are throwing Shay hard under the bus. Tony wins!
Bye Hannah, it sucks we didn’t see more of you. Hannah seemed like one of the most interesting characters in the cast.
An hour-long episode without anyone being voted out is hard to watch. A full hour of build up to the Redemption Challenge is way way too much.
Survivor NZ Edgic Episode 3
The Edgic supports what I said last week there is no way that Tom isn’t winning this whole thing.
Episode 4
We open as the past two episodes have at Mogoton; Sala and Lou are back from the challenge and are telling the rest of their tribe that Tony is out for blood against all 4 who voted against him. Good thing for them that Lou and Sala threw them under the bus and told Tony they were nice and didn’t flip.
On the walk back to Hermosa, Shannon and Georgia plan what to tell their tribe about everything they found out at the duel. Only telling them that Tony was blindsided, but making sure to tell the rest of their young’uns alliance the full truth.
Tony is alone on Redemption and he wants to slay Shay in a duel.
Much like in the underrated Survivor: San Juan Del Sur Hermosa’s winning secret seems to be eating all their rations and Barb and Nate are not happy about it. Cheer up Nate, it’s fine, you’ll be at Ponderosa before the food runs out!
Izzy makes a sand cake for Sala to celebrate his daughter’s birthday which is one of those lovely gestures that seems to mean nothing in the game. The whole tribe sings Happy Birthday in Maori, which is also lovely.
Jak has a nice discussion about when people are having a shit. Barb and Mike haven’t had a shit yet. Barb is a bit sick of Jak’s childish humour, which is part of the plan he laid out last week; to be a moron and let people think he’s a moron. So far so good Jak!
Lou thinks she is bringing Avi into the alliance with Shay and Sala, they want to carry Tom for challenge purposes. Izzy is in trouble here.
Challenge time: it’s oddly an endurance challenge, four members of each tribe stand on a small foothold between two walls, after ten minutes they move to a smaller foothold, then they move again, last one standing wins immunity for their tribe. Georgia looks like Parvati up there but Izzy starts to wobble on the second hold. Everyone does make it down to the final smallest hold. Eventually it’s Lou vs three Hermosas. Shannon falls but Lou just cannot manage it and drops out. That’s two in a row for Hermosa and Mogoton is starting to look like they could get Ulonged. I don’t understand why Shay didn’t attempt this challenge instead of Izzy, she’s extremely tall and thin which should have suited it. It was insinuated yesterday that she is lazy and I think that might be right.
It’s raining and miserable but at least there aren’t too many American Survivors watching or they’d be screaming on twitter about how unfair it is these soft Kiwis have been given rain jackets. Shay is pretty upset that her bible is soaked through, she’s had it for a long time and it’s got a lot of notes from when she was a Mormon missionary. Good on her though because she’s not letting her religion hold her back from playing hard.
The post-immunity scramble is a shit show. Shay wants Tom and is taking Lou and Izzy with her. Avi wants Izzy and has Sala and Tom. Tom doesn’t want to vote for Izzy, he wants it be Shay. I think he’s right, Shay has shown she’s willing to turn on anyone. If Avi, Tom and Izzy could get together and all vote for Shay and let Sala vote for Izzy then they could 3-2-1 this. Tom makes his pitch to Izzy and Lou to vote for Shay when he should be talking to Avi about it.
At Tribal everyone talks about how strong the other tribe is. Tom sees that there is a split in the Hermosa tribe and there is the ability to get flippers if they go into a merge early. He talks to Lou when he says that early alliances aren’t always the best thing for you. Izzy digs hard. She tries to sell how hard she is working.
It’s vote reading time. Matt has not improved in his reading of them. Izzy is the 3rd person voted out of Mogoton. She was the easiest vote this round but I can’t help but think for Tom and Avi they needed to try and get Izzy onboard to get rid of Shay.
In the end Shay voted for Lou, I suspect to try and create tension between Lou and Avi/Tom and Lou herself voted for Tom. Lou is starting to make a habit of not voting for the person she and her alliance target, yet she still sees the original target go home. If her tactic is to keep the blood off her hands eventually her alliance will get sick of it.
Survivor NZ Edgic Episode 4: “The Only Edgic Jeff Pitman has ever enjoyed”
It’s amazing how every episode supports the edgic’s week one conclusion that Jak is winning Survivor NZ.
