Fantasy Survivor – Episode 1

We got two hours of Survivor 42 Wednesday. We got two eliminations (one voted, one removed). We got a visit from medical, multiple advantages and the biggest smile ever from a contestant who wears her emotions on her sleeves more than anyone in the world ever has. Welcome to the new season.

Each week, I’ll take a look back on the episode for some key takeaways and lessons learned and evaluate my picks from the season preview to see how we are faring.

Survivor 42 Episode 1 Recap

We start with three tribes:

• Taku: Chanelle, Jackson, Jonathan, Lindsay, Marya (my pre-show pick to win), Omar
• Vati: Daniel, Hai, Jenny, Lydia, Maryanne, Mike
• Ika: Drea, Rocksroy, Romeo, Swati, Tori, Zach

The first challenge involves two members of each tribe running (one at a time) to spots to retrieve oars, after which the whole tribe has to paddle out and back again, retrieve some pieces, and complete a puzzle. Standard. The challenge itself was only moderately interesting, but the peripherals were fascinating:

• Daniel dislocates his shoulder (seriously, the arm spent the rest of the challenge just dangling until he got medical intervention, and that’s one of those things that feels like foreshadowing for later in the season).
• Based on her dash up the beach, Lindsay is the fastest person on earth.
• Jonathan is clearly confident in his physical abilities, and it’s well-earned … except that Tori smokes him in the knot-untying-while-on-a-rope-ladder part.
• My preseason pick to win, Marya, got the chance to complete the puzzle for the Taku with a decent lead, but squandered it. It wasn’t dwelled on by anyone, but it has me a bit worried, not gonna lie.
• And the most fascinating part: The second leg of runners — Lindsay, Hai and Drea — end up out of sight of everyone else and have to decide whether to get an advantage that would take them time, link them together, and (hilariously) force them to slather dirt and fake blood on their bodies to explain away the time they took deciding. They take the advantage, with Hai freaking out his tribemates over all the “blood” when they returned.

The challenge ends with Ika getting camp supplies and the other tribes getting nothing, which feels significant for approximately two minutes until the other two tribes get the chance to earn the same supplies back at their camps by counting triangles. They both succeed, rendering the Ika early advantage moot.

(The funniest part? The answer to the triangle puzzle is 51. Jonathan’s guess? “It feels too easy. 11?” So while he might be a superhero physically … maybe we don’t have him do the thinking bits.)

We get the obligatory introductions to camp life, but it’s too early to take massive lessons from that. Here’s what we know: Maryanne has the biggest smile in the world. Rocksroy is going to have to mind his bossiness. Those are really the only things I’m pulling from the montage.

Drea, Hai and Lindsay check out their advantage, which is the new-to-the-game “amulet advantage.” It carries a complicated set of rules, but the main takeaway is that as the holders get eliminated, the remaining amulets get more powerful. Sort of like Jet Li’s The One. So the three of them have a bond and shared information, but also they each have a reason to want the other eliminated.

Later, Maryanne, Drea and Jenny get taken from their respective tribes to a summit, a la Season 41, after which they have to complete a Prisoner’s Dilemma challenge and decide whether to protect or risk their vote. Maryanne and Drea both take the shot, and with Jenny declining, that means the former two each have an extra vote going forward. Yes, 45 minutes into the season and Drea has two advantages.

And then the biggie: Jackson. Probst comes to camp for a chat, and what follows is a confusing bit, but apparently production found out only a day or so before they started filming that Jackson was detoxing from lithium, and they let him start the show, but by Day 3 they decided the physical stresses of the game would not be conducive to someone coming off lithium and they had to remove him. (At the news, Maryanne has the sobs of someone who just lost her entire family to a disaster, not someone who sees a guy she had known for 48 hours leaving a game, but she’s very “heart on her sleeves,” so OK.) 

But the obvious question: Why was Jackson allowed to start the show? They always have alternates (if I recall correctly, Bob from Season 17 only made the season as an alternate). Why not just learn that about Jackson and tell him to wait for another season (or, if the show is annoyed at him waiting until the last minute to tell them, boot him) and bring on an alternate? A Day 3 evacuation seems really silly.

And then there’s the immunity challenge, now with Taku down a player. It’s among the harshest immunity challenges I can remember, and I think the show really wanted the teams to all have six members instead of Taku losing a player and Vati and Ika having to sit players out to compensate. But after another bit of rowing that also involved picking up chests that, if you believe Probst’s tone, weighed about 500 pounds each (I’m guessing it was a bit less), the tribes have to maneuver up a track and under a net and then solve another puzzle.

This time, it was the physical part of things that really decides things, as Taku and Vati both get to the puzzle section well out front and maintain the lead through the victory. Ika has to go to tribal council.

There is briefly a debate at Ika’s camp about voting out the very bossy Rocksroy. Normally I think “We have to keep the tribe strong” is overblown, but given that the other men on the tribe (Zach and Romeo) actually mention their weights and they combine for 230 pounds. Drea and Tori and Swati all seem like physical threats, but a Rocksroy-less Ika would be the lightest tribe on record, so they really need to keep him. Thus, it falls to a question of Tori (who the tribe considers a threat because she seemed to go idol hunting) and Zach (who struggles with the puzzle, weighed about as much as their machete, and doesn’t have much else to offer).

Pretty sure he’s on the outs at tribal, Zach tries the Shot in the Dark for a last-ditch chance at immunity. It fails, he gets no vote, and in the end he’s not only voted out, but since he has no vote himself, it’s unanimous. (Has that ever happened before? I don’t believe so.)

Recapping My Picks

My early pick was Marya, and between her struggles in the first challenge and her subsequent lack of screentime, I’m not out, but I’m worried. My other favorite bets — Omar, Hai and Jenny — all did fine-to-better early. No one from my list is out or seems close. I’ll call that a win.

Meanwhile! I pegged Jackson as an early out (not that I knew why). I pegged Tori as someone who says she isn’t a mean girl but seems like a mean girl (her snark at Zach on the beach appears to confirm that). I pegged Zach as someone the tribe would want to get rid of. Basically, what I’m saying is, I’m a genius.

Stock Rising

Drea comes out of the first episode with two advantages and seemingly some power in her tribe. In that sense, she feels like Shan from last season, who came out super strong but fizzled out just after the merge. Still, it’s a very strong start.

Jonathan looks like a physical superstar early. I still think they’ll sprint to vote him out the minute he doesn’t have individual immunity, and he apparently needs to steer clear of the mental tasks, but that physical ability is going to be a help.

Stock Falling

Marya’s only real screentime was “Whoops, I screwed up a challenge.” That’s concerning.

Daniel’s dislocated shoulder might not be relevant again the rest of the season. But if it is, he’s probably screwed.

Tracking the Advantages

• Amulet advantage: Lindsay, Hai, Drea
• Extra vote: Maryanne, Drea