S47E1

Welcome!

Season 47 of Survivor is about to begin!!!

Ahh, the blue waters of the beginning of the show. They are all riding together in one boat with a yellow tribe, a red tribe, a blue tribe and people wearing black and white. The colours are sitting seperate from each other.

Jeff waits for them on the familiar shore. 3 tribes, turns out the black is actually navy blue. Jeff names the tribes, the players cheer.

Yellow (GATA): Andy, Anika, Jon, Rachel, Sam, Sierra.

Blue (TUKU): Caroline, Gabe, Kyle, Sue,Tiyana, TK.

Red (LAVO): Aysha, Genevieve, Kishan, Rome, Teeny, Sol.

The first test is in the jungle. Muddy net to crawl under, race into the jungle, retrieve 2 puzzle pieces from 3 different obstacles. 6 Pieces total, then 2 tribe members will solve a puzzle to win camp supplies, providing a massive head start in the game for their team. The pieces are heavy. Sue is nice and strong, just like she promised us she would be.

TUKU can start working on the puzzle first. Caroline and Kyle do it for the team. GATA started last and finished first.

GATA wins the camp supplies: a pot, machete and flint, They follow a map to their camp carrying their newly won supplies with them.

Losing tribes send one person each: Aysha for LAVO, TK for TUKU. They will compete off alone some where.

All tribes follow the maps to their camps, while TK and Aysha climb in a boat.

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Yellow (GATA) celebrates as they pull their boat ashore. They go for a swim and get clean, pretty pumped to be part of a winning team. They introduce themselves to each other. I’m happy to see that the celebrity podcaster, Jon, is a likeable guy, and a die hard fan. Jon and Andy walked off together, so Sierra forced what she saw as an obvious alliance with everyone who wasn’t them.

Blue (TUKU), Gabe wants to work with an older person, and he is happy with Sue. He says that an older person knows how to not get caught up in the social of the game. He approaches Sue and she agrees. Sue loves Caroline, calls her the sweetest thing in the world. Sue is the person that Caroline wants to allign with as well. Sue agrees. Sue was pretty sure that she would be the very bottom because of her age. Apparantly TK bonded with her during the challenge, so she sees them as an alliance of four.

Red (LAVO) builds their camp and celebrates that they have an ER doctor on site. Appearing insecure, Teeny asked them to rate her “buff” look out of 10. They gave her a 4.5. Lots of laughter. She knows how to make friends, and she is attracted to the introvert ER doctor as a partner in the game.  Genevieve and Rome hit it off, she says that he makes her feel very happy. She also wants to work with Teeny who wants to work with her too. Teeny wants Aysha and Kishan, but Genevieve wants Rome in there too. This leaves out only one person.

TK and Aysha read their challenge together. One person will get their camp supplies and the other person will go home empty handed. They ran in opposite directions. Aysha is pretty sure that TK will win, because she says he looks like an NFL player. They both seem quite capable of winning. Aysha seems ahead of TK, until she gets lost. Luckily, TK also gets lost. TK reaches the beach first and races into the water for the final key. Aysha is still lost in the woods. In the water, TK searches for a key that is right next to him, but the mud hides it from him. Aysha gets into the water too, TK finds the key, and she tries to grab it from him, but he won’t let her. TK wins: pot, machete and flint.

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GATA Anika excitedly tells the others about the health benefits of a sprouted coconut. She found one. Jon is impressed with how prepared she is. Sam thinks that Anika is taking the leadership role, and he likes that because he wants to be the “glue guy” who holds the team together. Sierra and Anika and Sam and Jon work on the fire which Sierra starts. Rachel really wanted a go at it, but didn’t get a chance.

TK happily returns to TUKU and presents what he won for the tribe. Caroline noticed that when TK returned to camp the guys FLOCKED to him and the guys fell in love with each other. Bromance. Gabe was moving a log with TK and Gabe sees a beware advantage that TK didn’t see. Gabe grabs it as soon as TK walks away. Gabe begins to read it and follow the instructions. He finds a box with a lock on it, and reads instructions about how to find the key on the rock face nearby. He can see the key. Then TK comes to him. Gabe decides to include him. TK thinks they found a key before they found anything else. TK knows that isn’t likely, even though Gabe is lying to him that that’s what happened. TK now knows that he isn’t as close to Gabe as he thought.

Aysha returns to LAVO empty handed. She tells them the truth, she has nothing to hide. Teeny tells her that she listens to the podcast Aysha makes about the show, so she feels like she knows who she is. Good vibes. Teeny promises she won’t give her away, she just wants her to know that she knows. Sol watches Rome sneak away. Rome is looking for a beware advantage and mumbles to himself that it seems like the whole tribe likes him. Everyone is talking about how he is off by himself. He finds it. Finding shelter, he reads the instructions and digs up the path as he is told. Then, he changes his mind and hides his digging tracks, planning to dig again at night time.

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TUKU gathers around their fire and eats gross stuff like worms. Gabe shares his key adventure with Sue. She will keep watch for others while he does his stuff. Sue calls out the code words and Gabe rips the box out of the path, leaving a hole, and he runs off to a place to to open the box. He finds another challenge. The first idol is good for one tribal council. He has his vote back. He can unlock the next box and win immunity for 3 tribal councils. He tries to hide the box, makes a lot of noise, which others in the camp discuss. “What is he doing in there?” He lost his vote again when he decided to do the next challenge.

GATA stands in a circle and talks. Jon feels old among them. He tries to see things from their point of view so that he can bond with younger people. Andy saw Rachel and knew that he was someone that he wanted to hitch his wagon to. He also trusts Jon. He found a way to get a word alone with Rachel. She is open to his idea to join forces. She doesn’t think that he is very strategic. Later, in the dark, Andy can’t sleep. Intrusive thoughts, spiraling. He asks Rachel if they can talk. Rachel resists, but goes anyway. Says that it is really suspicious. He just needs a friend, but she sees it as him not following her instructions to not meet in private. Her trust in him is lessening. Andy does not like how Rachel responded to him when he needed her. He sees people having fun without him. He feels like he is on the bottom. Andy’s anxiety makes Jon nervous enough to reconsider whether or not he wants to work with him.

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TUKU: Gabe is out on the beach in the lonely dawn of the day, searching for the driftwood that holds the hidden key. He gets frustrated for a while, but then he finds the key. He returns to the box and unlocks the next box. There is a catch, there is a third box within the second box. He has his vote back, and has won the immunity idol for three tribals. He was given a choice to give it up to win an idol good for the rest of the game until the final 5. He let it go, and kept the 3 tribal idol.

LAVO: Rome is behaving suspiciously while working with his clues. He wants to do it fast, but people are aware of what he is doing. Aysha walks by, “Hello Mr. Gamer.” He doesn’t think she saw what he was doing, but she returned to camp and told on him. The tribe decides to look for him. His task reveals a large sign that says, “The key to the box is at the bottom of the well” He dives into the well and gets the key. Most of the tribe is tracking him: Sol, Teeny, Kisha, Aysha. As they approach, he just walks the other way and doesn’t say hi or anything. If they do end up at the first Tribal Council, Rome is the first person they want to go.

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Water challenge! First Immunity Challenge. They start in the water on a platform. Swim to a boat, paddle boat to pick up a few chests. Reach the shore, solve a puzzle. First 2 tribes to finish win immunity. The immunity idols are stone sculptures of two interesting characters: one male, one female. First prize is more tools. Second prize is a smaller tool kit. The losers go to tribal council and will lost their flint.

First boat that is loaded and moving is TUKU. All teams are pretty much tied at first. GATA goes way off course, but they get there. After their second chest is retrieved, TUKU flips their boat, the boat is upside down, both chests are in the water. GATA then tips too and is upside down too, one chest in the water. Sol is a muscle-bound BEAST!

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LAVO is at the shore, TUKU and GATA work to right their boats and get the chests back on board. LAVO pushes their boat to shore, filled with the three chests. Eventually GATA and TUKU make their way ashore with their 3 chests.

LAVO wins immunity and reward. GATA and TUKU compete for second place. As GATA loses ground, you can see that Andy believes he will be voted out. He collapses into shakes, saying to Jeff that he gave everything. Medical is called. TUKU wins immunity and the smaller reward tools chest. Andy is sure he will be voted out. Jeff tells him that he is overheated and that he is still in the game, he is still. in. the. game. He is given water, he cools down a bit, but he is sure he is gone. Andy: “I was overheated. I’m at the bottom. I cracked open a coconut and they didn’t cheer for me. They don’t like me, I don’t think.” Jeff: “It sounds like you’re conceding defeat.” Andy: “I’m not, I’m a strategist. My best friend here is Jon and I was thinking I was going to throw him under the bus, and then I collapsed….” Everybody heard everything Andy said.

LAVO is given their flint before the two winning teams grab their prizes and return to their camps.

Jeff asks Jon what he thinks about what Andy said, and Jon tactfully responded that Andy is wrestling with the fact that he wants to stay, and that he might have to turn on the people that he cares about. GATA gives up their flint and returns to camp.

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GATA Rachel summarizes that Andy had a meltdown and spewed all his thoughts in front of everybody. Andy tells them that he has gathered his thoughts now and says that he was susceptible to the paranoia of the game. He says that he likes each of them a lot. Sierra is outspoken about how much she appreciates him. Jon and Rachel seem to feel a little shell shocked about Andy now. Jon talks to the three women about how he feels about Andy now. They agree that it stinks. Rachel tells Jon that they should tell Andy that it is gonna be Jon. But they all feel that it will be Andy. Jon isn’t sure if he can trust that. Andy tells Jon that he would not throw him under the bus. They decide to vote out someone who Andy actually wants out, which is Anika.  Jon approaches Sam about Anika. Sam agrees to their faces but to their backs he suspects that Jon is playing hard. Sam approaches Sierra and Anika, Rachel joins in. They want strength, which they think isn’t Jon, but Andy is messy and they don’t need messy. They are torn about what to do.

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Tribal council decor has more of those same sculptures as the immunity idols: characters have their eyes closed and are squatting or sitting cross legged. Tribe gets fire and takes their seats. Sierra describes all the coconuts she has in her back yard at home for practice. She calls Anika the leader. Anika says that she is flattered, but downplays it

. Jon summarizes how everyone is feeling. Andy addresses the emotions of the game by going back to memories of his own childhood, and building a community around himself in adulthood. He thought this would be easier for him than it actually is. Jon kindly says that people shouldn’t be judged by their worst moments. Sam says that his impression of Andy is that he gives 100% but is willing to turn on his best friend. Rachel isn’t sure what to think about Andy. Jon points out that though there is a natural target, Andy, there is also an unnatural target, perhaps himself.

Voting takes place. No idols or advantages are played.

Jon, Anika, Jon, Jon, Jon

Sadly, sweet Jon is voted out.

Jon walks away, Sam pats Andy on the shoulder.

• Andy: Jon
• Anika: Jon
• Jon: Anika
• Rachel: Jon
• Sam: Jon
• Sierra: Jon

• S47 Cast List
• S47E2