‘Survivor 51’ Recap: Player Leaves Game Due to ‘Little Outage’

Wait, should I start my recap by talking about quitting again? I just did quite a thing last week! I referenced Purple Kelly and everything. And now I have to start all over again?!?

FLY! You’re killing me, bro! I mean, make no mistake, your hilarious attempt to quit Survivor 51 Last week, voting yourself at Tribal Council will be considered an all-time absurdity. But when that plan failed – and after you stated how important it was to you to give Eric a second chance since you thought he was going to be voted out – why didn’t you just arrest Jeff before he read the votes and quit on the spot?!?

Instead, you create a phantom wound immediately upon returning to camp, being told you’re fine, asking poor Dr. Barry if it’s possible that your paper cut sized hole on your foot is infected, which, yes, East possible because it is possible Nothing You might get infected and then withdraw from the game anyway, even after the doctor tells you you can continue.

“I didn’t want to stop,” you told us. “I feel like just quitting ruins the game. If you come out for medical reasons, it’s totally different.”

And on this we agree. Because you know what? IT’S MUCH WORSE!!! Just own the surrender, brother! That’s abandonment. And these are not my words. These are the words of members of Rob’s tribe. Alexis, Ori, Kristin, Linnea, and just about every member of the Savu tribe they put on screen all came to the same conclusion: that Rob was faking. Or at least simulate the seriousness of his situation. And clearly the producers didn’t buy it either. I mean, they even played comedic music about Rob yelling at his tribe to leave because of his “injury.”

Yes, I just used air quotes. Did you see him limping? Before Tribal council? Did he complain about his foot before he wasn’t allowed to vote himself? Did he ever mention that he needed to see a doctor until it was his only way out of the game? The doctor himself described it like this – and these are real quotes and not air quotes – a “small break”.

Let me offer you a little overview of the situation. I have been there for 21 different seasons. I have seen up close how this game terrorizes the bodies of competitors. Every time I went there, I saw several competitors with cuts and scrapes. waaaay worse than Rob’s. LOOK AT PATT’S SHOULDER, FOR CHRISSAKES! LOOK AT THE HANDS OF LEWIS’ POST-EXILE ISLAND! KRISTIN HAS A BROKEN FOOT AND IS STILL THERE!

All this is quite typical for Survivor. And look, I’m not going to eliminate the capital letters and exclamation points to blame Rob for quitting. That’s what it is. He thought he could hack it and he was wrong. He couldn’t sleep at all, and it wasn’t worth him staying, so he wanted to get out of there. GOOD. But pulling a Colton and hiding behind a fake injury is such lame. Like I said, own it! Your tribemates and viewers would be much more forgiving if that were the case.

Can you imagine what the kinder, gentler Jeff Probst would have said to this guy if this had happened 20 years ago? He kept his cool on screen, but he must have been fuming.

And it’s really disappointing because I really thought Rob was going to give us TV gold this season based on what we saw in the premiere. I mean…I guess technically he did inadvertently with last week’s episode, but I thought we’d get a long villain arc where he needlessly threw people under the bus like he did with poor Eric, who was just trying to catch the smallest fish imaginable so he could cry on camera. Instead, Rhode Island Rob wanted out on day five.

Honestly, I can’t wait to chat with Rob for our exit interview on Thursday. Will he now admit that he didn’t need to leave for medical reasons, or will he stick to his story and insist that it was his fear of infection that caused him to leave the game, not the fact that he was simply unhappy about not being able to sleep outside in the elements? If he is intelligent, he will be honest and do first. After all, Ori’s mother called him Ori, that’s not stupid. And the rest of us could say the same thing. (Not that we’re all called Ori. That would be super weird, not to mention confusing. But you know what I mean.)

Okay, let’s move on to the rest of what happened in Episode 3 of Survivor 51.

The mutineers must die!

Wow, that was a pretty harsh title. But these are Ozzy’s words from season 13, not mine. The death penalty seems a bit heavy for changing tribes in the middle of a reality TV competition, but I understand why it provokes such strong reactions.

The producers decided to bring back a little Cook Islands magic – minus the whole race war angle – is back with the ability for one player from each tribe to switch sides. For some strange reason, the Savu tribe simply decided to pull a Shot in the Dark out of the bag instead of voting for who should go visit the other tribe – the latter would have ensured that the majority alliance could handle the twist the way they wanted. So naturally, it ended up being the one they least wanted to go to in Carter. (Oops !)

Toka’s decision was even stranger, as Devin raised his hand to go and everyone said, “Sure, whatever, go for it!” » (If you’re worried about Devin having all the control and making all the decisions for the tribe, maybe come up with another option?) And naturally, Devin went out there, talked an epic amount of smack about Kilby, solidified all his relationships with the other tribe, and got himself an extra secret vote. (Again, oops!)

As for Carter, who proclaimed himself “the worst Survivor actor of eternal history” – his words, not mine – Before Passing up an easy chance to get his secret ballot by literally walking right next to the trains unsupervised made the journey more complicated. Not only did he waltz on the easy opportunity to take advantage, but the dude then told the Toka tribe that he preferred to leave her bag outside in the rain (???) and I continued leaving him unattended with the clue sitting right on top of the bag.

And somehow, it didn’t even stop there. After his advantage was swept away by the other tribe, Carter spent so much time searching for the dismantled oars that the boat left without him – meaning he had now mutinied against the other tribe… whether he wanted to or not.

And now, even though every tribe had lost the same number of immunity challenges, Soka suddenly found himself at an 11-7 digit disadvantage… that doesn’t really matter when you’re about to drop buffs and shake up the tribes the next day anyway.

Anchors away!

Okay, what I said in the paragraph above about the gap between the numbers not mattering isn’t entirely true. When you suddenly have four more tribe members than the competition, it gives you more options to avoid perceived weak links during the all-important immunity challenge.

Speaking of which, this week’s competition was another long obstacle course with cool elements like using two hooks to hoist a heavy coconut sack before finally ending with — what else? – a riddle. You, long-time readers, have heard me say a million times how all that matters is the puzzle, and Savu proved it once again through the puzzle-solving styles of alternate-spelling heroes Cristian and Kristin.

This dynamic duo dominated on the presenter, giving their tribe a huge come-from-behind victory and increasing the Survivor undefeated immunity winning streak by one tribe after one member mutinies against the other team. Aitutaki won every tribal immunity contest after Candice and Penner switched sides, and now Savu has done the same.

The only other thing I want to note about this challenge is all the shoving that goes on between the teams as they untie their first key bags. We saw Eric block Carter (Mutineers Must Die!) and then Alexis hit Patt with two T’s. Lewis was also in the mix, although I couldn’t tell if he was dishing it out or getting his clock cleaned. I mean, it wasn’t Robb with two B’s smothering Clay in the Thai attack zone, but it’ll have to be done.

The men in the middle

There was so much going on in Toka after their defeat at the challenge that one could almost be forgiven for glossing over the fact that Lewis actually asked Carter, “Do you have big balls, bro?” But rest assured, I have never and will never ignore such a thing.

The mass and volume of Carter’s bullets seemed to be in question when he first explained to us that it was better to play it safe and adhere to the majority alliance of his new tribe. But then the Southern charmer demanded an immediate re-evaluation! That’s because he had a lucky leprechaun whispering in his ear. Was this imp a homicidal maniac bragging about all the stupid people he had murdered everywhere from outer space to “in the neighborhood”? No, it was Lewis!

And while Lewis may not have realized that volunteering to go to Exile Island was undeniably a terrible decision, he did realizing that he and Carter were the deciding votes on Toka. On one side were Devin, Jelly, Brady, Pantless Patt and Mike. On the other were alleged wedding photographers Jenna, Maggie, Thien An and Kilby, who tried to convince anyone who would listen that he was actually one of Brady’s Brodies. (Narrator: It wasn’t.)

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