Survivor
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Weve made it to the halfway mark, and this season is feeling decidedly mid-tier.
Its noThailandorOne World,but it doesnt come anywhere close to the show at its best seasons likeCagayanorCambodia.
People are the key to theSurvivorequation!
Scheming, lying, building, and promptly destroying trust: This is when the show is strongest.
Instead, were back to advantage-palooza.
And based on what we saw, theres practically no explanation for this weeks vote.
Cody calls Dwight eerie once and suddenly the votes are stacked against him?
At this point, an unpleasant pattern is emerging.
So far, seven people have been voted off the island.
First, we lost Morriah, Justine, and Nneka, three women of color in a row.
Lindsay, a smart but paranoid woman whose anxiety blew up her own game, followed.
Next on the chopping block was Geo and, most recently, Elie.
This week, three names caught votes: Ryan, Dwight, and James.
James found an advantage that everyone knew about, creating a giant target on his back.
Okay, I buy it.
I buy that, too, I guess?
But how does Dwight fit into the equation at all here?
Survivorcomes to life in the editing bay, but poor editing also kneecaps the show.
But this week, we watched a whole hour without really learning anything new about the tribes social dynamics.
Why are we being kept in the dark, too?
First, a slight amendment tolast weeks recapwhere I mentioned Gabler is a heart surgeon.
He has, however, been a part of many surgeries as a heart-valvespecialist.
Whether or not Gabler was actually at risk, Im not so sure.
He and Sami are clearly tight, and Owen is so wishy-washy about working with or against him.
There have been no legitimate threats against Gabler, even when his enemy Elie was still around.
Add it to the list of things not adding up this week … Noelle is leading the charge to vote James out because of this new, unknown power.
More importantly, theres a shuffle of advantages in case James has stumbled upon a Knowledge-Is-Power.
Noelle gives her Steal-a-Vote to Owen; again, poor editing makes the rationale blurry for this.
Even more befuddling, Jeanine gives her idol (!)
But when did Jeanine and Dwight even connect enough for this to happen?
All that legwork to make the DIY idol and its flushed away for no reason.
Its a lucky turn for everyone else that Jeanines idol just happened to walk out the door with Dwight.
For a short season with supposedly no time to waste, this episode really felt like filler.
The worst part of it all might be that Dwight didnt even make jury.
A confounding episode at best, this doesnt bode well for the rest of the season.
Things can change in an instant, but were missing a certain charisma from the remaining castaways.
If someone like Karla doesnt shake things up ASAP, this season will just fizzle out.
Another Owen quote for the title of this episode.
Is there anyone out there who has a spreadsheet of any winners who have coined multiple episode titles?
The only positive thing I have to say about this episode:great immunity necklace, beautiful necklace.
