Warning: DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED EPISODE 1 OF SURVIVOR 44.
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Welcome to Survivor Vibe Check!Each Thursday this season, Blake Schuster and Bryan Kalbrosky will chat about last night’s episode to see who is thriving and who is straight up not having a good time on the islands of Fiji.Season 44 got off to an absolutely chaotic on Wednesday. We saw multiple calls for medics, new advantages introduced and the first tribal council ended with only one vote counted. Let’s dig into it.
Blake: Bryan! What a return to the islands of Fiji. A wild, two-hour premiere for Survivor 44 with tons of new twists and some noteworthy characters. Sum up the premiere for me in one sentence.
Bryan: That felt like a fever dream and somehow required three times as many medics as there were votes counted in tribal council?!?
Blake: Oh, Maddy. Getting voted out first has to suck. Getting voted out first with ONE VOTE is about as brutal as it gets. The title of the episode was, officially, “I can’t wait to see Jeff” but it probably should’ve been “Don’t get cocky, kids”. I’m just absolutely stunned by the amount of mistakes made in just three days. It’s not something we’re used to seeing.
Bryan: It was honestly like playing Blackjack with someone who has no idea how to play and they’re just asking the dealer for more cards and it totally ruins the table. Multiple people weirdly took away their ability to vote when they didn’t have to, and that somehow cost the game of one of the only people who handled tribal council normally.
Blake: If I can take your analogy a step further: It’s like asking for more and more cards and somehow getting to 21 because for the first time ever the shot in the dark was played successfully! I can’t fathom why you would want to take a 1-in-6 chance but congrats to Jamie for actually pulling it off.
Bryan: Just to perfect this Blackjack analogy, though: Jamie had a 20. She was already safe! She hit and happened to get an ace for a 21. But why?! She wasn’t going home. No one was talking about her. I can sort of see why Matthew might have done it — perhaps he felt the tribe viewed him as a risk in challenges due to his totally self-created injury. I was shook when Jamie did it, though.
Blake: I think once Jamie announced it, Matthew had to do it as well because of his injury. If Jamie plays it in secret, I’m not sure Matthew even considers doing the same. And at that point Brandon has to play his idol to make sure he’s not going home.
I want to back up for one second because I thought there was some really smart gameplay going back to the first immunity challenge.
With Claire and Matthew sitting out, Claire makes arguably the best move so far by subtly asking Matthew if Lauren proved that she lost her vote after being sent on the island hike. That immediately helped Claire build trust across party lines and gave Matthew ammo against a threat in his own tribe. Huge points there. Matthew then gives Lauren an opportunity to come clean during tribal council about whether or not she actually lost her vote. And Lauren, smartly, doesn’t own up to it and instead plays her “bank a vote” advantage. So now Lauren can play off the tribal as not having a vote and no one is wiser to it.
Claire and Lauren were the two winners of the first three days, in my opinion.
Bryan: That’s such an ideal way for one of the two newest advantages to, at least optically, work totally in Lauren’s favor. Very strong rebuttal after a savvy move by Claire.
Bryan: Really? You don’t watch Survivor for the moments that most closely resemble an MMA fight? Yeah, that was hard to watch. I was glad he got a chance to stay instead of immediately getting evacuated, but it was so brutal to see the production team give us that. I know if I got hurt on the game, I’d like as few people to see it as possible and if any did see it, I hope they wouldn’t see anything too invasive. But that is one of the myriad of reasons why I’m blogging on it and am not actually on that island, I guess. What did you make of the other medics? Three in one episode is a LOT.
Blake: Bruce’s injury came from trying too hard in a challenge. I can understand that. Matthew just going rock climbing for the hell of it? Dude, what are you doing? It looked like a bad idea even before he fell and busted his arm and foot. He wasn’t even looking for an idol or anything. I just don’t understand. You’ve got to be smarter than that even if your adrenaline is telling you to go for it.
As for Brandon, he had a tough two days with the sweat challenge at camp followed by having to move huge puzzle pieces. I wonder how hot it was out there for him to cramp up as much as he did.
Bryan: Plus, with Brandon, you have to be extra careful after what happened to Bruce. The conditions must feel so awful, though, if this dude played through multiple seasons of NFL and college football. Like, that’s not easy stuff either!
Who are your early favorites to win a million dollars? And who are you most excited to watch on TV every Wednesday?
Blake: It’s so early and I feel like I’m just getting over Jesse not winning Survivor 43, so I hesitate to make a pick right now. That said, I think Claire has her head in the right place and I’m very excited to see her strategy play out.
Bryan: I hope that one day, we all have a Mandela effect moment where we all collectively decide Jesse actually won S43. I think smart money is on Claire, too. I had a good feeling about Frannie, too. But it’s such an impossible game to predict. I probably would have picked Gabler as the last guy capable of winning the season after the premiere of S43, and we saw how that turned out.
Blake: Jesse won our hearts. That’s what matters most.
Claire is already thinking so far ahead. She’s making allies on opposing tribes, not revealing too much about herself and battling hard, but not too hard. Keep an eye on her.
Carson, the NASA engineer student, is hiding just how smart he is but still absolutely nailed those brain teasers early on. He’s a threat to win already.
Yam Yam and Heidi both making fire on their first attempts is the stuff you dream about on Survivor.
So many idols and plenty of new advantages! The Cage in the middle of camp is an awesome twist. Everyone will be looking for the idol anyways, why not change things up and create a new moral dilemma in the process? The “Bank A Vote” advantage is a perfect blend of risk and reward. Lauren played the first part of this correctly by banking her vote from the first tribal council. Now let’s see if she can deploy it correctly. The “Inherit Advantage” seems like it’s going to cause absolute chaos.
Huge props to Brandon for finding the key to the hidden immunity idol cage. That makes up for two extremely strenuous days that saw him require medical attention. Successfully deploying the idol earns him some points, too.
Did Jamie need to play her shot in the dark? Absolutely not. But she goes down in Survivor history as the first player to use it successfully.
Matt and Frannie already have an alliance but it appears there could be a showmance brewing!? These are good vibes as long as you can keep it hidden from the rest of the players — or somehow recapture the magic and strategy of Amber and Boston Rob.
It’s Bruce. No one else on this list will come close. Gashing your head open on the first challenge and getting evacuated 12 hours later is sad, scary and just a downright bummer.
Bruce’s injury overshadowed some rather lackadaisical effort from Carolyn on the ring toss portion of the reward challenge. Let’s see if her effort becomes an issue down the line.
Matthew is going through it as well. First he had to do the sweat challenge carrying all the coconuts. Then he dislocated his shoulder and cut up his foot rock climbing just for absolutely no reason. He’s going to need to heal pretty quickly to keep his game alive.
Matt better hope his alliance with Frannie is as strong as it appears after losing two votes on the island hike.
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