This episode is my Roman Empire: Survivor 47 Episode 6 Recap and Power Ranking
Episode six of Survivor 47 proved mostly predictable, but overall entertaining, a welcome assessment in the New Era™. We got a merge that Jeff refused to call a merge, a return to individual immunity at the merge, the season’s top villain go down, and a never-before-seen tribal council moment.
Drop your buffs, but don’t expect a new one
We saw a lot of animated reactions to the “drop your buffs” message, which signaled to the players they’ve made it to one of the most iconic stages in all of Survivor: the merge.
Wait, no. It’s not the merge. But it is. But it’s not. This whole dance surrounding “earning the merge” is tired and pointless. The players earned the merge by… getting to the merge — not to this made up next step where Jeff tosses them new buffs. Especially this season where the merge was the classic Survivor version of the merge where they compete against each other in two teams, the next team gets to compete individually for immunity, and only one person is immune.
Anyway, stepping off my soap box, there was an advantage scavenger hunt when they arrived on Tuku beach. I liked this concept, forcing them to weigh the value of bonding with searching. In the end, I think the advantage could have been better than what it was, which may not be enticing enough for future players to go searching if the same mechanic were implemented. It did give us a great Parvati-esque nonchalant moment with Genevieve complaining while doing the smartest and correct thing by swimming out to the buoy that Sam dismissed earlier.
Finding it allowed Genevieve to skip the team part of the challenge, earning her a chance to compete for individual immunity and an automatic feast.
Blood in the water(well)
While searching for the advantage, the merged tribes found red paint all over the area near the well. This was the site of Sue’s discovery of the red-paint-covered idol that fell in a jar. She attempted to clean it all off before people arrived, but the scene of the crime was no match for Sherlock Rome and the rest of the group.
They didn’t solve the murder, but Caroline immediately connected the dots and figured Sue had the idol. She reacted so proudly, as her number one ally, and told Sue the secret was safe with her. Tiyana, though, also became suspicious. This could come back and hurt Sue, who looked guilty as sin while trying to act ignorant.
What a dick
While sitting on the beach, Rome was talking with Kyle about their thoughts on other players, getting info from each other, and talking strategy. Rome decided to use this information to leak it to the people Kyle and him were talking about, framing Kyle as trashing them and plotting to take them out.
While Kyle did say some of the things Rome leaked, in classic Rome fashion, he exaggerated and stretched some words in order to stir up chaos. Tiyana has a gut feeling something is off, talks with Sol, who buries Rome and his game. Sol brings it to Kyle, and this leads to Kyle — who typically speaks like Ned Flanders — to remark: “Damn man, what a dick.”
And then the subsequent “I’m gonna crush him.”
Kyle brings this to the group, airs out his feelings about Rome and the situation, Sol backs him up, and the Rome vote is practically locked in from then onwards.
A “new” Survivor twist, but it’s old… and not a twist… and we actually won’t show it
At the competition, they went back to a schoolyard pick, making a big deal about it but not showing the actual pick. They also went back to competing for individual immunity after competing for reward as two teams.
Jeff enjoyed framing both of these like some sort of twist like it’s not exactly what he was doing back in the Amazon before the iPhone was invented. But hey, if we can convince Survivor and Jeff Probst to go back to the classic versions of the game by framing things as new twists, I’m all on board. I think they should do a new twist where the game is longer… something like 39 days, maybe?
Also, don’t tease a schoolyard pick and not even summarize in the episode where people got picked and who were captains — crazy.
Winner winner, veggie dinner
Kyle won immunity, putting on the Spirit Halloween decoration as his prize after an impressive feat of balancing. My hunch he would be an individual immunity threat is proving real. Hopefully for his game, he can fall behind people like Gabe and Sam on physical threat level for a while because he doesn’t appear as strong.
Without a vote, and Rome gunning for him, this was a key win. Would he have gone home if Sue, the runner-up, had won? Probably not, but you never know how things go.
If I was playing, I would really want Kyle on my alliance. I think he can keep immunity from my enemies, re: Ozzy in Cook Islands, and is very comfortable taking a backseat and riding with others’ directions. Just don’t let him get to the end because his story will crush almost anyone else’s.
Der Untergang Roms
I mean, this was obvious, and I think that’s the best part. The editors did their job with Rome’s fall from the perceived top. He was the confident, boisterous, villain with too much hubris. His ego clouded his game to the point where he didn’t even realize what was going on around him. This was demonstrated well with the edit.
Jeff even let Rome sit on the host’s stump to explain why the amulet was such a bad game element. I not only enjoyed the moment, which was very lighthearted, but liked seeing Jeff and production listen to a contestant explain something dumb they tried to implement into the game in the new era. Maybe they’ll try listening more?
Besides, we got some top tier confessionals. Andy speaking German made me double take and laugh fully out loud. Sam nailed the “Rome wasn’t built in a day, but your game was destroyed in one.” Basic but needed, five stars. And Rome deciding to “mix things up” and vote Sam when he just had no clue what was going on was fantastic. Another entertaining and enjoyable tribal to watch.
I’m noticing
Here’s some random things I noticed, either for fun or things that may be foreshadowing what’s to come.
Nobody tried an alternating grip for the ball balancing immunity — something that has proven helpful in past balancing challenges
Michael Jordan vs Kirk Hinrich analogy, great guy to name
Sol just went with Sue being 45 years old
Everyone thinks Andy is a pariah, this actually works for him
Power Rankings
Sierra
GENEVIEVE (+1)
Caroline (+3)
Sam (-3)
Sue (-1)
Andy (-1)
Kyle (+1)
Gabe (-1)
Teeny (+1)
Sol (+1)
Rachel (+1)
Tiyana (+1)
X - Rome
Biggest Winners:
Not much movement this week, but Caroline is the obvious one from looking at the list. She hopped up to number four in my power rankings. She took the power position in her and Sue’s alliance — she has the idol info, but reassured Sue she will keep it safe. She has good relationships with everyone from her tribe and seems to be mingling really well. I still feel good about her puzzle ability. I’ll call Sol the other winner. With Rome out, he can finally be free to play his game. That should free him up, but I need to see more before I’m fully convinced.
Biggest Losers:
I don’t think anyone really lost that bad, but Sam’s positioning is certainly worse than where he was at. He let Andy be the backup without warning him about it ahead of time, which was an unforced blunder after taking such care not to lose his trust by playing the idol last episode. Sol can also say “Sam told me you were the backup,” which was another unforced error from Sam. Based on the sneak peek for next week, Andy might be gunning for Sam and Sierra now. Sam is also one of the biggest and strongest guys out there, a classic threat that people decide to vote out early merge. I still think he’s in a good position, and can easily recover with a strong No. 1 like Sierra who can work her social game to their voting bloc, but it’s something to watch for.