Fantasy Survivor – Episode 3

Every season on Survivor, the castaways say something you immediately know is false. “I’m going to run this game.” “I will not lie out here.” “I won’t tell anyone what I do in the real world.” It’s rarer, though, that you hear someone say something you know is the absolute truest thing anyone has ever said.

But in Episode 3 of Survivor 42, when Daniel says, “I am not going to win Survivor 42,” he can not possibly be more correct.

Check out our look at Episode 3 of this season of Survivor, with some key takeaways and an update on our preseason picks.

Survivor 42 Episode 3 Recap

Because the episode has to devote so much time to tribal council (we’ll get to that), we get an abbreviated everything-else this week. Coming out of Marya’s unanimous vote-out (sad), there’s a bit of a debrief at Taku. The only real highlight is that Maryanne has an extra vote and tells everyone about it instantly. Also, she explains that she’s seen every episode of the show ever, “except for six episodes from Tocantins,” and I have no idea how you would know that  specifically and not circle back to watch them.

Over at Vati, Daniel loses his shoes, and Lydia and Hai laugh about how he loses stuff all the time. That seems like a throwaway moment for about 10 seconds, until Daniel convinces Mike to let him look at his Beware Advantage … and promptly loses the idol and the congratulations note. I hope Daniel does not want to go into espionage after losing on Survivor, because Maxwell Smart laughs at his ineptitude.

And at Ika, [footage not found]. Seriously, other than the bits of dialogue they get at the immunity challenge, Ika has the week off. 

They go to the immunity challenge, which is your standard “swim, retrieve a ladder, use the ladder to retrieve a key, use the ladder and key to retrieve a bag, throw stuff” challenge. Or at least it would be, if the earth were not conspiring against them — the waves destroy everyone but Jonathan. He carries Taku to victory, lugging people and ladder through the awful ocean and landing every bag on every pedestal. Even Probst is like “Whoa, this dude’s nuts.” And to reiterate something I said in the season preview — Jonathan is going to cruise to the merge. That would be true any season, but it’s even truer this season because … there aren’t any other superhero-looking dudes. After the merge, he’ll win a lot of individual immunities. And the very minute he fails to win individual, he’s gone. Like, instantly. He’ll lose, and everyone will look at each other, like, “We good?” He’s fantastic, but he’s not winning this season.

Anyway, back at the immunity challenge, the waves are so bad that Probst legitimately stops the challenge and lets them skip the “ladder in the water” part, because they were going to drown. Skipping to the “throw stuff” part, Ika barely beats Vati. Taku select Chanelle and Omar to go on a journey, and that’s it for Ika in the episode. Thanks for stopping by, folks!

Omar and Chanelle go on the same “prisoner’s dilemma” journey Maryanne, Drea and Jenny went on in Episode 1. Despite repeatedly saying she cannot risk her vote, Chanelle goes on to … risk her vote. Unfortunately for her, Omar does as well, which means neither one gets to vote at their next tribal challenge.

Back at Vati, Mike’s lack of a vote (because of his Beware Advantage) and Chanelle’s absence for her journey makes Daniel scramble. He wants to vote with Mike and Jenny, he wants to act loyal to Hai and Lydia, he really just wants Chanelle to show up and tell him what to do.

At Chanelle’s return, it sounds like the plan is to convince Hai and Lydia to split their votes, while Daniel and Jenny and Chanelle-if-she-has-a-vote (she doesn’t know her vote is gone at this point) vote Lydia. 

At tribal council, Daniel proves to be the worst spy/law guy/anything secretive ever. He straight up says he is too paranoid to win, he gets Hai’s radar pinging when he doesn’t list him or Lydia as a confidant, and he all but spills the beans. We don’t know for sure if Hai was going to follow the vote-split plan, but the editing appears to indicate it, and instead he switches to vote Jenny along with Lydia, and with Mike and Chanelle voteless, we get a tie, and a tie that persists through the revote. (Hai’s “WTF, there are six of us and four votes?” face is just sublime.)

The tie forces Mike and Chanelle to confess their votelessness, and then Daniel continues his run as the worst in espionage ever by completely throwing Chanelle under the bus, begging Hai and Lydia not to hold anything against him (what else would they say?), and finally agreeing to side with Hai to oust Lydia. So, uh, that’s my two main preseason picks eliminated. Thanks for reading!

Recapping my picks

• Marya left a week ago, and Jenny follows her this week, though I’m at least taking solace in the fact that she wasn’t voted out so much that she was rule-wrinkled out (maybe too many wrinkles, friends?). Still, gone.
• Hai and Omar are my remaining preseason “I like their chances” people. Omar is down a vote at his next tribal, but I’m not terribly afraid for him yet. Hai … well, there’s going to be a whole lot of fallout at Vati next week, and that could put him near the top or the bottom of the pecking order. We’ll see.

Stock Rising

I know what I said about Jonathan earlier, and I stand by it, but he’s just so much more physically dominant than anyone else this season, that I could see him making a deep run of individual immunities, and if he can stumble into an idol or a too-tight alliance, he might just sneak through.

Maryanne finds the Beware Advantage at Taku, which means she’s down a vote until it gets unlocked or she makes the merge. Still, it’s a step in her favor, so long as Taku doesn’t return to tribal.

Stock Falling

Daniel, dude. I know even on the preseason questionnaire you were like, “Yeah, I probably won’t win,” but you so aren’t going to win. My 4-year-old twins are stealthier than you, and they’ve never spoken at less than 120 decibels. His only hope is people carrying him to the end as a goat, and then … I don’t know, the last few players quitting to join the circus.

Tracking the Advantages and Wrinkles

• Amulet Advantage: Lindsay, Hai, Drea
• Extra Vote: Maryanne, Drea
• Beware Advantage: Mike, Maryanne (can become an immunity idol, but cannot vote until that happens)
• No vote at next tribal: Omar