Survivor Summary
This week on Survivor: The battle of the “bulge” rages at Tribal Council
There are a lot of elements that can turn a season of Survivor into a “great” season, but the one guarantee for an “entertaining” season is the presence of a crazy contestant. Luckily, on the current season, fans have been blessed with the presence of two insane contestants together in one tribe. Here's what we witnessed on episode 2 of season 26.
Immediately following last week’s tribal council for the Favorites tribe, in which Francesca made Survivor history as the first (and most likely only) contestant to get voted out first twice, Brandon flies off the chain before anyone can get a word in. Specifically, he fires a full broadside right into Dawn’s face, raging about the utter immorality of being so cruel to Francesca.
Understandably, Dawn completely breaks down, and Brandon can only threaten going “Russell Hantz” on his own tribe, trying to rationalize it as a moral crusade just like he did in his first season. Perhaps the scariest thing about Brandon is the fact that, the following morning, he steps back from the edge and tries to hypocritically promote tribal cohesion.
Brandon soon butts heads with the crazy, yet calmer, Philip, who tries to draw Brandon into his alliance. Brandon refuses, but we still get to witness the official establishment of Philip’s alliance, christening it as "Stealth R Us" and dubbing every member with a code name. The names are a bit outside the realm of logic — such as Dawn being “True Grit" — because only a veteran federal agent like Philip has the experience to think up such stupid names.
The Fans are dealing with two issues at the moment: Shamar not pulling his weight in camp, and the “Cool Kids Club” making themselves obvious targets by being really pretty.
With this, the Favorites tribe is fine-tuned for future eruptions, but the tribe of Fans will provide more of the inter-tribal drama for this episode.
The Fans are dealing with two issues at the moment: Shamar not pulling his weight in camp, and the “Cool Kids Club” making themselves obvious targets by being really pretty.
The guaranteed way to get booted from the early stages of Survivor is to sit on your ass and make no effort to help anyone. Shamar can only defend it by saying he is “saving his energy,” but he is largely unapologetic about it and welcomes anger; the target is tattooed on his back at this point.
However, the other focus of the Fans tribe soon becomes the beautiful, 800-pound gorilla in the room that is the “Cool Kids Club.” Led by Reynold, this group puts almost no effort into hiding its exclusivity. The club tries to lure in best buds Matt and Michael, but it seems that the duo is aware that they would be at the bottom of the pecking order in the clique.
Moving on to the Immunity Challenge, the lack of cohesiveness among the Fans leads to them falling badly behind, despite the fact that the Favorites make the same dumb decision to give Malcolm, one of better athletes on this tribe, a chance to try his hand at throwing shit at targets again — because that went so well last time.
Despite the lack of poor teammate placements in the challenge, the Favorites grab the win, while the Fans struggle to work together. Going to Tribal Council for the first time, Reynold calls out Shamar’s work ethic, leading to a clash and Reynold's strengthened confidence that Shamar will get the vote.
But Reynold and his gang show just how thick the bubble is as the rest of the tribe targets CKC member Allie, with the swing votes coming down to Matt and Michael; it seems like we have another shot at a neck-and-neck vote.
Things get even harrier when Reynold discovers the hidden Immunity Idol and doesn’t reveal it to his alliance members, but Laura notices a “bulge” in his pants as they start walking to council. Settle down, children. Laura calls him out and the “Cool Kids Club” comes crumbling down, as Allie becomes the second person voted off Caramoan.
What might this lead to for the next episode? My prediction is that Brandon will get the boot soon for his unpredictable mood swings, while Reynold makes a move out of his group to save his own hide. Malcolm will, once again, be misused in an Immunity Challenge.