Brilliant and Boneheaded 'Survivor' Plays of the Week: Chainsaw Massacre
Warning: This recap contains storyline and character spoilers for this week’s episode of Survivor.
The most dangerous thing on the game of Survivor isn’t the elements or wild animals or even stinging jellyfish — it’s power couples.
The Worlds Apart players are all seasoned fans of the game, so they know that if you don’t break up a Boston Rob and Amber, then you might as well hand them the $1 million check. So far this season, several couples have been broken up: Sierra and Lindsey, Max and Shirin, Rodney and Joaquin. This week, the two tribes merge, and the very astute Carolyn and Tyler wisely decide to keep their alliance a secret. Instead, the dominant blue collar faction decides to target the no collar power couple of Jenn and Hali.
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Except, thanks to Jenn’s hidden immunity idol, it’s another power couple that gets broken up: Kelly and Mike. With that one play, Jenn took a chainsaw right to the blue collars. Now, the battle lines are clearly drawn. It’s blue collar: 0, no collar: 1.
Brilliant Play of the Week: Jenn
Even before playing the idol at tribal council, Jenn exhibits some strong play. After the tribes merge, she does a good job of keeping Shirin reined in (despite the fact that Jenn and Hali both strongly dislike her). They need her to bolster their numbers.
She also competes well at the immunity challenge, a pole-holding endurance test. Even though Jenn is stung by a bee, she manages to claw her way to third place behind Joe and Carolyn.
During scramble time, Jenn starts to see the writing on the wall. Even if the no collars stick together — and it seems Will might jump ship — they need Carolyn and Tyler to overthrow the blues. So Jenn wisely decides to bring her idol to tribal council and play it if needed.
She does, throwing the entire group into dismayed disarray. When Jeff Probst reads out the votes, it’s clear that a) the white collars went with the blues, and b) Will jumped ship, too, since he was told to vote for Hali.
So this week, Jenn is sitting in a position of strength. But she still doesn’t have the numbers, and now she doesn’t have the idol.
Boneheaded Play of the Week: Mike
Unlike Carolyn and Tyler, who take care not to be seen together much, Mike and Kelly jump right back into their BFF ways.
Not only that, Mike is starting to get overconfident, which is a killer on Survivor. He thinks he has the numbers, and he does, but not once does he consider that Jenn or Hali might have an idol. Then again, he’s strategizing with the likes of Dan and Rodney, neither of whom are brilliant bulbs themselves.
If Mike had thought through things clearly, he would’ve had his group split the vote between the two no collar women — and his best bud Kelly wouldn’t have been eliminated.
Power rankings: 1. Carolyn 2. Tyler 3. Jenn
Survivor airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on CBS.
