The three original tribes of Civa, Lagi, and Vula had just officially merged before the 7th episode of Survivor 48. David Kinne formed a new alliance of “all the strong people,” including Eva Erickson, Joe Hunter, Kyle Fraser, and Shauhin Davari, to write a new narrative for the game in which athletic players can be more than just shields and work together for one of them to win. This was the first time he spoke with players from all three camps.
Tonight their alliance faced their first test when Jeff Probst split the 12 players into two teams for a challenge, sending both to Tribal Council for a double elimination twist.
Mitch was most uneasy after the first Tribal Council vote as an individual when he realized that he was not part of a large majority decision. He was upset that no one told him about the plan to take out Charity Nelms, leaving him to cast one of the five votes against Sai instead, someone he said he would have been willing to vote out. Shauhin and Joe both explained that the group didn’t think he was close enough to Charity to tell them, but when Mitch turned the conversation into an opportunity to tell them his personal story, Joe realized that he was a bigger threat than they thought because he was so likeable.
With five votes cast against her, Sai understood that within the merged tribe, there are players in a position of power already and that she’d have to make inroads with them to avoid appearing on the chopping block again. She brought Shauhin in for a conversation in which they acknowledged his vote against her and promised to work together more closely in the future. However, Shauhin was aware that she was doing what she had to do as a player on the outside. After Cedrek and Mitch also came to him for private conversations, Shauhin found himself in the middle of the tribe where he felt in control of swaying the game in the direction of his own preference.
Jeff Probst stated, “With respect, Cedrek, you lasted about 15 seconds.”
In this week’s challenge, the safety of immunity was offered to the two players that could endure holding up their pre-game body weight in water the longest. The 12 players were randomly divided into two teams. The team with the longest streak would receive immunity, and the team with the longest streak would also receive a modest peanut butter and jelly lunch. The challenge had a twist in that, regardless of who won the reward, both teams of six would vote one member of their own team out of the game at Tribal Council.
In addition, the player voted out from the first (losing) team would not make it to the jury while the second (winning) team’s player would. Star, Joe, Mitch, Chrissy, Eva, and Sai were on the orange team, and Kyle, Shauhin, Cedrek, Mary, David, and Kamilla were on the purple team. The five members of the strength-based alliance and Mitch were the only ones left fighting for their teams when Cedrek, Star, Chrissy, Sai, Kamilla, and Mary quickly left the challenge. Once Shauhin and Mitch fell out, David, Kyle and Eva began a series of “smack talk” across the podium, taunting one another in the spirit of self-confidence and even Jeff got in on the action, clocking Cedrek for having only lasted 15 seconds himself. By the end, Joe outlasted Eva on the orange team and David lasted longer than Kyle on purple to win individual immunity, but it was David that set a new record for the challenge (just shy of an hour) and earned reward for his team and guaranteed them each a spot on the jury.
Due to the fact that Eva and Joe were a solid block, held overall power among the tribe, and were the easiest votes to cast due to the last Tribal, Sai and Mitch on the losing team were aware that they would be eliminated. Chrissy told the others that she was willing to vote out Mitch because he posed a threat to win the game in the end, despite the fact that she had previously been an ally of his. Feeling the heat on himself, Mitch pitched to Joe that he’d be using his Block a Vote on Sai to help build trust with him and to ensure that Sai is likelier to go.
Mary and David on the winning team informed Shauhin that he is a “smoke screen” vote to inform Cedrek. This gave Kyle and Kamilla a chance to make their move against Shauhin, which Kyle had been considering since Shauhin demonstrated that he was untrustworthy by lying to him and going through his bag. Kamilla spun a lie to David that Shauhin probably has an idol and lied about it so that if they do decide to blindside Shauhin, they will have given themselves a cover story for doing so. This was done in order to make the move while keeping David on board.
At the first Tribal Council with the orange team, Chrissy and Joe argued their perspectives about whether or not the game can be won with loyalty and the timing of making big moves. Mitch kept his promise to block Sai, Chrissy demonstrated her willingness to lie to people’s faces, and Joe maintained his conviction to play a loyal game in the vote, which resulted in a clean 5-0 decision to remove Sai. “I think that they are obsessed with me,” Sai declared after leaving the game, “and these hoochies are lucky that they got me out when they did.”
At the second Tribal Council with the purple team, the debate of “short term vs. long term” and the value of alliances took center stage, highlighting the position of power that Kamilla and Kyle found themselves in this week. While acknowledging that a lot of it is “smoke and mirrors” that makes it difficult to determine what is true until “the smoke clears,” Shauhin offered that displaying panic over a vote could frighten your alliance. Shauhin benefited from the smoke, and he anticipated that Cedrek would be eliminated by a 5-1 vote.