A Soul for a Sol: Survivor 47 Episode 9 Recap and Power Rankings

This week’s episode was on a downward trend from the rest of Survivor 47 in many ways. The gameplay was messy, both strategically and in execution, and there wasn’t much particularly intriguing outside of the aforementioned messy gameplay.

It’s all about Andy

I’m not one to read too much into the edit because I know sometimes it’s there to misdirect the audience, but Andy is either a finalist or has the greatest pre-final breakdown ever. The editors are obsessed with him. Even when moments aren’t about him, he is somehow inserted.

After getting back from tribal, Sam is connecting with people after his number one ally Sierra was blindsided (with Sam also left out of the loop). Sam is talking with Rachel and says ““I don’t even want to look at Andy.”

Cue a cut to Andy in a confessional calling himself a “certified flipper.” Andy comes and tells Sam that it was going to be him, but that Andy used his social capital to direct the vote from Sam to Sierra because he wanted to keep Sam. I’m not sure how true this was, but it was maybe the first truly good social — not strategic — move I’ve seen Andy make. 

Then we go to Andy and Rachel, where we get a montage of him trying to connect with her early in the game and being spurned. The two reflect on the chance to actually build an alliance and connect with one another at this point in the game.

I love Andy, so I’m not complaining. But, it’s important to note that even when it shouldn’t be about him, it is.

Shoutout to all my pairs

The castaways choose pairs to compete in a challenge. This is made up to be some social dynamic or tension, but it’s really just people pairing with someone they know that they also think they have a chance to beat. Here were the pairs:

• Rachel and Caroline

• Sam and Andy

• Kyle and Gabe

• Sol and Teeny

• Genevieve and Sue

The competition is a classic three teams advance, two teams don’t, after the first part. Then two teams advance in the next part, followed by an individual immunity challenge. The twist was the two that don’t lose their vote (four people), but have a chance to win it back on the journey. The losers were the Caroline-Rachel and Andy-Sam pairs.

The challenge had a couple humorous moments — Teeny saying their “ass is too big” while bear crawling under an obstacle and Andy and Sam’s cloth ripping so they couldn’t pull out their piece. Also perhaps the best part was Sue wearing Rome’s lightning tank top for some reason.

Sue and Genevieve were eliminated in the next part after having a lead heading into a balance beam obstacle. The immunity challenge was a classic, one I think we first saw in Survivor: Guatemala in the Final Three immunity challenge (correct me if I’m wrong), and definitely again in Survivor: Fiji. Contestants had ever-shrinking footholds in a rectangle box where they had to hold themselves up. It came down to a Kyle versus Gabe showdown, and Kyle lost to most everyone’s surprise. Gabe hit the Ray Lewis dance, a tribute to his hometown of Baltimore, after donning the bat.

Jenga!

The journey was pretty dumb, not going to sugarcoat it here. The four vote-losers competed against each other to gain their vote back — only one ended up losing it. That was the loser of… Jenga? It was more like a card stack version of Jenga, but whoever knocked down the tower lost. Caroline ended up being the one who brought the Survivor tower down, losing her vote. The most interesting thing to note here was how supportive and enthusiastic Caroline was of everyone else during the game and after losing.

You’re going to have to Sol me on this

During the reward (and the non-reward, non-vote loss duo of Sue and Genevieve), it seemed the reward group was ready to vote Sam. For some reason, Genevieve proposed to Sue that they vote out Sol. I’m honestly not sure why Genevieve would do this. As far as physical threat goes, Sam is about the same. As far as alliances, this severs Genevieve’s ties with Teeny — a true ally — and cuts Sol out the game who she is certainly closer to than Sam. Maybe Sol is likable, but then just take out someone like Kyle, who is likable and a bigger challenge threat. And now, she’s going to own a “big move,” as its orchestrator, and that will put a target on her back. So, you’re going to have to sell me on this one, Genevieve.

Then there’s the complete scramble after Genevieve lets Rachel in on the plan, who tells Sam and asks him not to blow up her spot. Sam immediately blows up her spot, telling Sol and queueing chaos. It’s a total scramble from here on out.

I like my eggs like a like my tribal councils: scrambled

Except, I actually didn’t like this scramble. It was a scramble due to bad gameplay, not good gameplay. An advantage played, or timely secret revealed — or even a hairbrained attempt to tell people to vote for you — that causes a scramble is fun. Scrambling because of bad planning, bad gameplay, and a typically smart player blowing up her game (and her own plan due to poor information management), is not fun.

It was distracting for the players, and it was fairly distracting to watch. Ultimately, it ended unanimously on Sol. Pretty non-shocking and ultimately uneventful.

Power Rankings

1. Caroline (+1)

2. Sue (+1)

3. Andy (+1)

4. Rachel (+2)

5. Gabe (+5)

6. Genevieve (-5)

7. Sam

8. Kyle (+1)

9. Teeny (-1)

X - Sol (No. 5 last week)

Biggest Winners

Well, obviously I see Gabe as a winner. Not only did Gabe win individual immunity, keeping himself shielded in this mess of a tribal council, but he kept up his mob boss mentality while keeping his mob family together. There are still four Tukus left, and the only reason one is gone is because of a random rock draw, a twist, and a gifted advantage. But, he clearly holds power in that group of four. Sue and Kyle both look to him for answers. I still think Caroline and Sue are in better positions in the whole game because Gabe is still a physical threat and is playing really hard — and Sue and Caroline have better relationships outside Tuku — but Gabe did enough to show he’s not at the bottom.

Biggest Losers

This one is also obvious to me. I think Genevieve blew up her game. She is strategically minded and cunning enough to still go far — even make it to the end — but I feel she’s already lost two votes on the jury in Sol and potentially Teeny (unless Teeny is sitting up there with her). She’s going to lose her alliance with Teeny after Teeny finds out who engineered this vote, lost someone who seemed to be an ally in Sol, and is now the person with the biggest move to her name, making her an automatic threat people will want to remove. She may have a number one in Andy, but Andy is all of a sudden starting to play his game with everyone right now. Genevieve, to me, has just made a potentially good move too early, making it a bad move by default. I wish her luck, but if we’re looking back in an episode or two — or wondering why she didn’t get the jury votes — look back at this move.