Turkey or Goat? Survivor 47 Episode 11 Recap and Power Rankings
This Thanksgiving Eve episode of Survivor 47 gave us a full menu. Much like the Thanksgiving turkey, the mains were cast aside while the smaller dishes prevailed.
Black Cry-day
We got a Disney-Pixar Inside Out-esque look into the castaways’ heads following last episode’s tribal council where they voted off Gabe. Kyle was emotional after losing his “buddy,” vowing to separate those emotions from the game, and Sue felt she couldn’t trust anyone after being left out of the vote.
In a conversation with Sue to patch things up, we got an emotional look at Caroline’s struggle with failure and ADHD while growing up, and how she felt with Gabe around she wasn’t able to make her own decisions. She expressed how she would rather go home making her own decisions and playing the game her Survivor-loving childhood self would be proud of than let someone drag her to the end. Through tears, Caroline re-emphasized the importance of proving to that little girl version of herself that she is not a failure. To me, this felt like a bad omen — like when an anime spends a lot of time on a side character’s backstory with flashbacks and everything and that character is almost certainly dying in that episode or the next. We’ll see if that’s the case for Caroline (getting voted out, not dying obviously), or if it’s just character development.
Genevieve asserts she would rather be the villain than the best friend and recounts how emotional it was to backstab Kishan. I don’t know then, Genevieve, maybe you could’ve just blindsided Rome? She seems to be going for a cool and calculated strategic gamebot play, except to me her gamebot strategy has been pretty poor. Conversely, Andy says he’s a numbers guy and wants to algorithmically predict everything, but he can’t because people are so variable. He admits his need — and current confidence — in making relationships.
Are we cooked?
Sam, Genevieve, and Kyle have a conversation where they acknowledge their position in the tribe. They’re on the bottom, and they know it. They’re not just looking at this episode’s vote, but the next two. Without a shot in the dark — hope that rice tastes good — they’re pretty much sitting ducks unless they can cause some chaos.
The other five players did solidify an “underdogs” alliance in order to pick off those other three. I’m not sure it lasts, but it would be the smart move to stick with it until final five for everyone but Andy (who needs some real moves to gain respect as he’s seen as a goat). Sue is also seen as a goat, but I think Sue’s best path is through getting to final five with that alliance to then take out Caroline and then somehow Rachel.
In the brine
This episode featured a journey, where Genevieve, Sam, and Rachel volunteered to enter a rock draw. Rachel entered to keep some power away from Sam and Genevieve, and she drew the purple rock.
The journey challenge was interesting. It was sorting different colors of balls into rows, making the rows each one color. They started mixed up, and once they were sorted, you could pull the advantage. At the same time, weights fell into the ocean, with a rope attached to the next weight. Eventually, the final weight would fall and pull the entire puzzle into the salty depths.
Rachel succeeds, just barely beating the weights, and pulls the advantage out before it is yanked into the sea. It’s an anonymous “block-a-vote,” and more importantly she didn’t lose her vote.
On return, she lies to the group that she lost her vote, but tells the underdog alliance separately she got the advantage. Sue felt this was a good gesture, and explained to Rachel how it meant a lot for her trust. This sequence also includes Rachel coming to Andy to tell him Genevieve saw him as a goat to bring to the end, which upset him and illuminated others’ perspective of Andy’s position.
A lot on your plate
The immunity challenge was a fun and obviously frustrating challenge. It was a classic, involving stacking blocks one at a time on a table and balancing it with the correct tension using a rope. The contestants had to go back and forth, painstakingly keeping the block tower from falling. Many got close and faltered at the last block or two, but Rachel ultimately prevailed with Kyle on her heels.
Beyond that, the challenge started with Kyle, Sue, and Andy expressing their appreciation and emotions on making it this far and fighting through the game. Sue was brought to tears, and Andy stepped up to relate to her, outlining his perceived arc in the game.
Tofurkey time
The consensus in the tribe was that Kyle wasn’t wearing the necklace, so it was time to get him out. There was a push from Andy to get out Genevieve, who he pitched as a more dangerous social and jury vote threat than Kyle. This pitch included a statistical breakdown of Kyle’s chances to win out, which drew confusion from Caroline, Teeny, and Rachel. Andy gave Kyle a 50% chance of winning any given immunity challenge — because he had won two out of four when up against everyone — and given those odds, he had a 6.2% chance (0.5*0.5*0.5*0.5) to win out. The point he was making is they’d have another shot at Kyle, while Genevieve was vulnerable now and more dangerous. He is correct with those odds, and frankly was probably giving Kyle too much credit. They’ve hardly done anything resembling a puzzle, and I’d give Kyle less than a 50/50 when a challenge isn’t purely physical.
Regardless, they went into tribal with the possible vote appearing ambiguous. Kyle played up the physical threat being overestimated, Genevieve expressed she didn’t feel comfortable, and Andy was fairly cocky, bragging about lying to the jury to place them there — much to Sierra’s chagrin.
The votes went to Kyle, booting him from the game. Kyle placed a vote on Teeny, and Andy still voted Genevieve. Then came one of the most wholesome boots ever, where Kyle hugged every single person in the game, gave them a pep talk about giving 120% for their families, and generated some sneers from the jury.
I’m noticing… Thanksgiving edition
This is normally where I mention things I’m noticing. Instead, I’m going to predict whether each contestant this season would run a Turkey Trot.
Jon – lol no
TK – he’d run two
Aysha – don’t think so
Kishan – does it because his family does it
Anika – walks it in a turkey costume with biking sunglasses on
Rome – brags how quickly he ran it
Tiyana – runs it to make Hawaii proud (valid)
Sierra – it’s 50/50 depending on how she feels in the morning
Sol – Sol can do anything
Gabe – as long as it’s before football starts
Kyle – from Michigan, he’s watching the Lions
Andy – no
Caroline – cheering on her friends running it, made signs and everything
Teeny – “I’ll pass”
Genevieve – organized the Turkey Trot, making her whole family go
Rachel – yes, somehow she finds another advantage on the run
Sam – sprinting it
Sue – too hungover after going out and drinking with the other youths the night before, though her contour is still fabulous
Power Rankings
Rachel (+1)
Andy (-1)
Caroline
Sam (+1)
Sue (-1)
Genevieve
Teeny
X - Kyle (previous: 8)
Biggest Winners:
Rachel took the top spot away from Andy. I was torn last week who to put first, but hearing how Andy is largely viewed as a goat to bring to the end, seeing his move to get Genevieve out not work, and Rachel succeed on her journey and win immunity… there’s a lot less up for interpretation. This includes the idol in her pocket, and that she’s one of the two people driving the majority alliance, Caroline being the other. Andy didn’t fall further because I still like his ability to maintain a low threat level, get to the end, and pull some votes by explaining his game — and I think he got Kyle’s vote today. Sam was my other winner, seeming to be the last target of the Kyle, Genevive, Sam trio. This buys him time to ingratiate himself with the majority five or win immunity. He also hasn’t upset anyone on the jury, and likely has Sierra’s vote on lock and a good run at Sol’s vote.
Biggest Losers:
Andy. Any time you put someone’s name out there to vote them out and don’t get your way, you lose. And having other people view you as a goat is hard to break out of, even if you make it to the end. I still think we’re getting a lot of him, and he’s in a decent position to make some moves. But he lost ground. Sue, similarly, is viewed as a goat. She, unlike Andy, doesn’t have an obvious path to win for me. She got Kyle out, which was a huge goal for her (for some reason), and that’s likely going to be the peak of her game. She’s Caroline’s pawn, and she doesn’t have much to her game. I guess she has the idol still…? That plus the low likelihood that she’ll be voted out is what’s keeping Sue in the middle. She could technically pull something off, but it really looks like she’s the guaranteed goat this season.