‘Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X’ Episode 12 Recap: Double Trouble
Warning: This recap for the “Slayed the Survivor Dragon” episode of Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X contains spoilers.
You know when you skip breakfast and think “It’s OK, I’ll just eat more at lunch”? So you stuff yourself silly with hamburgers, fries, and cookies like you’re on the best Survivor reward ever? Then by dinner, you feel bloated, you’re suffering from indigestion, and you can’t enjoy the fancy, delicious meal that’s waiting on the table. That’s kind of like the Survivor double-elimination episode. “Yeah, we could have done this earlier in the season during the slower period of the game, but no, let’s cram two eliminations into a 42-minute episode one week before the finale.” It’s an overload that is ultimately unsatisfying.
It’s often the trouble with 20-person seasons: The race to the finish ends up going at Usain Bolt speed, and you don’t have a chance to catch up with what is happening. We understand why the show doesn’t do the double-boot earlier: In case anyone quits or is medically evacuated, it gives it some leeway. But when that doesn’t happen, you find yourself a week away from the finale with eight players remaining, thinking how the hell are they going to get rid of all these people?!
That was the case in last night’s double-elimination episode, where we said goodbye to Will Wahl and Sunday Burquest. Both players have been under-edited throughout the season, and were equally shortchanged here — Sunday didn’t even receive a confessional! The question is, did they have weak edits all season only because they went home in the double elimination? Or would they have had the same edit regardless of which week they were eliminated in? It’s hard to say.
The episode begins with the tribe returning to camp after last week’s elimination of Zeke. Will is proud of his “big move” and receives some cursory pats on the back from his fellow tribemates. He says that he “came in a kid and left as a man,” referring to tribal council but sounding more like he’s describing a trip to Amsterdam. Will firmly believes he will be able to flip-flop his way to the end of this game and the jurors will reward him with $1 million. When we look at Will, we see a fresh-faced, naive kid; when Will looks in the mirror he sees Tony Vlachos.
Bret, on the other hand, is miffed with all this “big moves” chatter. He thinks the game is getting insane, and he’s sick of being on the wrong side of the votes; he also hasn’t been on a beer reward in a while and is getting tetchy. With Sunday in tow, Bret approaches Adam about striking up a deal to work together to take out David, Jay, and Will, whom Bret calls “the biggest threats.” Adam shakes on it, knowing that he’ll have a tough time beating at least two of those people at the end.
The first immunity challenge of the evening involves players carrying a stack of discs on a pole and maneuvering their way through an obstacle course without dropping them. The first person to reach the end and roll all their discs into a target wins immunity. There’s not a great deal to say here, as it’s mainly watching people walking slowly while holding a long stick. You could attain the same entertainment level watching a senior citizen making his way down the street with a cane. David, Jay, and Bret get to the end first, but Jay is clearly a Skee-Ball whiz as well as a bowling bro, and he dominates the final portion.
It’s lucky for Jay that he wins immunity because he would have been the target heading into tribal council. But now he’s safe and, in his own words, “[doesn’t] need to talk to any of these fools.” Also, he still has a hidden immunity idol in his pocket that he plans to “hold on to until [he] really needs it.” Those words definitely won’t come back to haunt Jay by the end of the episode. Promise.
The target instead shifts to David, one of the other perceived big threats left in the game. David has come a long way from his time on Gen X beach covering his ears because he didn’t like the sound of wood being chopped. He’s made some bold moves, surrounded himself with a solid alliance, and is well liked by the majority of people in the game. It’s reasonable for anybody to want him out. Except that Will is the one “calling the shots.”
After pulling off his “big move,” Will is striding around camp like he’s just been voted student president and his first order of business is free milk in the cafeteria (he really loves milk!). This newfound confidence makes Adam uncomfortable. “I don’t want Will controlling my fate,” he tells Bret. With Will looking to continue padding his résumé with “big moves,” Adam becomes nervous and decides that Will should leave before David. Bret and Sunday are onboard, but Hannah is somewhat reluctant, given that Will saved her last week. (She is, of course, only half-right because it was Adam who saved her with an idol regardless of what Will did or didn’t do.)
At tribal council, there is more talk of “big moves” and how if you don’t make “big moves” you’ll end up being a goat and won’t receive any votes at the end. Jeff Probst declares that “just being a nice person won’t be enough to win this season,” which seems like a not-so-subtle dig at last season’s winner, Michele Fitzgerald. But it’s also a very reductive way of thinking. Survivor is a multifaceted game, and people win for a whole host of reasons. Yes, “big moves” might look flashier and exciting, but this is a social game where having bonds and connecting with people counts. And that is pretty much proven when Will is blindsided, 6-2. His “big move” ended up costing him, and he didn’t have enough solid relationships to protect him.
On to the second half of the episode.
David thanks his fellow tribemates for sparing him. Meanwhile, Jay commiserates as, once again, the person he tried to make a plan with went home. He compares himself to the “Black Plague,” but is determined to keep fighting and finding a way to survive. He makes a pitch to Adam, telling him that David won’t take him to the end, and even if he did, Adam can’t beat David in terms of jury votes. Adam listens and nods, but in confessional tells us that if Jay doesn’t win immunity, he needs to go next.
Ready for the biggest #blindside of the episode? A fun immunity challenge!
Yes, that’s right — not balancing or holding inanimate objects for extended periods of time. Instead, players must complete a block puzzle while keeping a ball rolling through a sort of pinball board at the same time. If the ball falls off the board, they face a time penalty that they must wait out before continuing with the puzzle. It’s different, and enjoyable to watch, as the players try to navigate both portions of the challenge. Ken takes the lead, with David and Jay the closest behind. But before anyone can catch up, Adam starts telling Ken when he needs to catch his ball, giving him a chance to complete the puzzle first — even if he does misspell “millennials” as “maillennils” in his first attempt (to be fair, it’s a tricky word).
Back at camp, Jay is annoyed that Adam helped Ken win the challenge. Adam says that he was trying to stop David from winning. Which is sort of true, as David is Adam’s backup target if Jay plays his idol. But it seems everyone has a backup target. David wants to vote Bret in case Jay plays the idol, while Hannah would rather target Sunday because she fears people might drag her to the end as a goat. By the way, I haven’t neglected any major Sunday scene; we really are near the end of the episode and Sunday has yet to be shown uttering a complete sentence.
Adam joins Jay in the hammock and tells him that he needs to play his idol tonight. Jay swears that he’ll take Adam to the end, but Adam makes it clear that Jay is a threat to his winning. And then he tells Jay about his mother’s battle with lung cancer! Just when you thought you’d ran out of tears after last week’s family visit, Survivor slams us in the heart again. Adam starts crying; Jay covers his face with his buff, which has even more of an emotional impact than seeing his tears. Jay shares the story of his own mother and how she suffers brain aneurysms. It’s a perfect example of what I said earlier about Survivor being multifaceted: It’s a scene of true emotional bonding but also part of a taxing strategic game. Jay says that regardless of what side they’re on in the game, he respects Adam and calls him a “warrior.”
In the second tribal council of the night, the focus is less on “big moves” and more on “friendships.” David says that you have to lean on the friendships you’ve built at this point in the game, which is a bit of a bummer for “Mr. Black Plague” Jay, who is losing friends by the day. But David thinks Jay could prove valuable as a “free agent” in the game. The conversation then shifts to the endgame and figuring out how you can get there and your chances of winning should you make it. Jeff finally allows Sunday to speak, asking her about her chances of winning; she says that while some might perceive her as a goat, she believes people underestimate her (like the editors).
The votes are cast. Jeff collects the urn and asks if anyone would like to play an idol. Jay grits his teeth and begrudgingly plays his idol that he’s kept warm for the past however many days. “Better safe than sorry, Jeff,” he says, as he reluctantly hands it over. But then … Jay receives only one vote. Oops. I guess he did fail to “hold on to the idol until [he] really needs it.”
David receives two. And Sunday receives four, which sends her out of the game, torch and edit snuffed. In the end, the alliance of Adam, Hannah, David, and Ken stick together.
While it’s exciting that some of the season’s biggest players are heading into the finale, it still feels like this episode was rushed. Yes, the Will vote-out was rather predictable. But there were a lot of interesting dynamics at play in the Sunday boot, and rather than fleshing out those dynamics, while also allowing more (any?) insight into Sunday as a person, we had to fast-forward through. That meant particular motivations were left unexplained (like why Adam ultimately voted Sunday instead of David). Hopefully in the future Survivor can figure out a better method to deal with the double elimination (like how about giving them one extra episode per season, CBS?).
Next week is the season finale, and six players remain. Three Millennials and three Gen X. David, the neurotic nerd turned mastermind. Bret, the beer-swilling “funeral director.” Hannah, the worrisome geek with surprisingly good reads. Jay, the underdog bro. Ken, Mr. Loyalty, Respect and Abs. And Adam, the super-duper fan playing for his mom. Who is going to take the crown, and will they need one last “big move” to make it happen or just strong friendships?
Player of the Week
Adam: I’m not quite sure why he voted Sunday, but Adam led the Will vote in the first half, and he succeeded in getting Jay to waste his idol.
Hannah: She pushed for the Sunday vote instead of David. That could be a mistake in the long run if she ends up having to face David at final tribal council. But for now, she got her way.
David: Despite being one of the biggest targets — if not the biggest — left in the game, he keeps surviving, and a large part of that seems to be the bonds and friendships he’s formed. Both Ken and Hannah went to bat for him this episode, and that speaks well of David’s social game.
What are your thoughts on double-elimination episodes? And who is your winner pick heading into next week’s two-hour season finale?
Survivor airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on CBS.
