‘Survivor’ 44 Recap: Drop Your Buffs & Listen to Carolyn

Survivor

Survivor With a Capital S

Season 44 • Episode 6

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[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Survivor Season 44 Episode 6, “Survivor With a Capital S.”]

In this new era of Survivor, the seasons are shorter, and earning a merge buff is harder. That makes the last challenge before the merge the most important one to win. Six players learned that lesson the hard way in Episode 6, with one having their merge dreams crushed in tribal council.

This cast is in the new era of the long-running CBS competition series, but as the episodes roll out, the show is starting to look a lot more like its longer-game predecessors, with more screen time being dedicated to showcasing the interpersonal dynamics each week. It seems the series has taken note of fan complaints that the new format sacrifices what makes each season unique (the players) for the sake of making new plot twists for the main characters.

Episode 6 started with nearly 15 minutes of camp-focused scenes, from the final moments at Tika, Ratu, and Soka before they got that sweet, sweet “drop your buffs” tree mail to starting new alliances on the new group beach. In the all-important reward and immunity challenge, it was Carolyn, Carson, Matt, Frannie, Jaime, and Brandon (Team Purple) against Yam Yam, Josh, Kane, Heidi, Lauren, and Danny (Team Orange).

The winning team would win immunity, their merge buffs, and a merge feast. The losing team would be the only six names eligible for votes at tribal council.

Robert Voets/CBS

Purple and Orange were neck-and-neck until the third leg, when Carson absolutely crushed the puzzle, snagging Purple a victory. At the beginning of the challenge, Danny said that a lot of this show is skill, but a lot of it is luck. Carson made his own luck — literally. He 3D-printed this exact tree-shaped puzzle and practiced it relentlessly before coming to Fiji.

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During the merge feast, Carolyn provided the answer to the question on everyone’s minds: Does Josh have an idol? She told the true story revealing that his idol is fake, but this cast won’t take her seriously for some reason.

Last week, Brandon and Danny ignored her during their summit journey feast bonding, counting her out as one of the weaker players who’s good to keep around for votes but not a threat to anyone’s game. They said as much to her face. This week, no one took her intel seriously. Granted, it’s fair not to trust each other just yet, but there’s a definite trend of not taking Carolyn seriously because of her oddball personality. Plenty of “oddballs” win Survivor. Season 42 winner Maryanne Oketch is a prime example.

Regardless of Carolyn’s future in the game, the vote anxiety could have been curtailed had anyone done any digging into Carolyn’s intel when they got back to the beach. Her story wasn’t even mentioned among the deliberating groups when everyone was back on the beach. If they were so concerned about Josh having an idol, why not explore this story further to see if it carries any weight? They came up with vote backup plans instead, which is good to have, but not investigating Josh’s “idol” was a mistake.

Robert Voets/CBS

Before they met with Jeff Probst on the castle-themed council set, the names on everyone’s lips were Josh, Yam Yam, and Kane. Most people wanted Josh out, as he wasn’t discreet about telling different information to different people. Josh may have believed that would confuse them to the point of not voting for him, but it only made them want him out more. To protect himself, he stopped campaigning for Yam Yam’s elimination and went with those interested in voting out Kane, Brandon’s top pick.

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In tribal, Jeff had the players explain why they feared that night’s decision-making, most of them delivering the same message in different ways: they don’t know who to trust. Imagine how much better they would have felt had they exhausted one very good option! But one thing they all knew was the importance of looking like a good team player in this first full-cast vote, and that informed everyone’s commentary during this discussion.

Josh made a calculated move just before the votes were cast that raised eyebrows. After Jeff called for advantages or idols to be played, he adjusted his bag as if debating whether or not to play his idol, which, again, was a fake. His intention behind the move was to make it look like he was choosing to trust his teammates.

That might have been smart if he made it through this tribal council. After one vote for Kane, three for Yam Yam, and six for Josh, the surgeon became the seventh person voted out of Survivor 44.

Interestingly enough, the three votes for Yam Yam came from Josh, Kane, and Brandon, and Carolyn provided the sole Kane vote. What made Brandon flip his Kane vote to Yam Yam, and what made Carolyn switch from Josh to Kane? More likely than not, it was the pressure to remain in the majority and making the wrong guess at what that majority would be.

Next week, voting seemingly won’t matter, as Jeff shocks the players by revealing they “will have no say in who goes home.”

Between last week’s canceled tribal and next week’s impending vote changes, what do you think of these recent tribal council tweaks? Let us know in the comments below.

Survivor, Wednesdays, 8/7c, CBS