Tonight was the Survivor 51 premiere and the first look at the new “Open Era” of Survivor. Thumbs up to the premiere. I enjoyed it tonight. Interesting cast and it’s way too early to be having a live tribal. LOL
I’ll get into the episode. We open up the episode with the cast of 21 people on the boat on the water. Jeff arrives on his own boat welcoming the new cast. He pitches the new term “permanent uncertainty” which means basically Big Brother’s expect the unexpected. Jeff opens up giving a speech that was the same speech from Borneo. He tells the group that they have two minutes to get everything they can off this boat for supplies. Fun to see this old school Survivor start. The cast rows to shore and immediately start talking and socializing. Some hit it off immediately based off similar things such as being from Canada, being from Rhode Island, or just finding similar interests. We also learned that Patt somehow lost her pants during the marooning so she laughs about that saying this is not what she wanted to be known for. They all finally notice a sign off to the side and go for it. It says that one of you will not begin the game with the others. You have to agree on who that person is. Follow the path to the other side of the island. First, they ask for any volunteers to make it easy. Crickets. However, after we hear crickets for a bit, Lewis decides to speak up and volunteer. They send him off on his path to whatever awaits him. Everyone starts working on the camp with some speculating that this is going to be a one tribe situation. We already had people bonding over their countries, their states, but how about romancing each other. Ori and Jelly hit it off immediately and joke about showmance vibes here. The two of them, Devin, and Aaliyah walk off together wanting to form a four but talk about bringing in Sharonda too. Before they can talk long, a helicopter arrives dropping off something in the water. They read it together. Find your name and grab your buffs. They are split into two tribes. Not three. Two which was refreshing to see. The showmance is already separated with Ori and Jelly on separate tribes. The next envelope is read where it’s negotiate for your supplies. Pick one person to negotiate for each side. Mike talks of how he does this in real life for his job but that he doesn’t want them to know that. Kilby steps up saying he wants to do it for Toka which wasn’t the first pick for everyone but they roll with it. Kristin goes for Savu which was a great pick as she is a lawyer. They negotiate on everything but have the last things decided on being a thumb war won by Kristin. Kilby gets the building and shelter supplies. Kristin gets the fishing, pot, machete, and flint. We go back to Lewis seeing him on his path. He arrives….at Exile Island which is back in play. Back at Toka, their supplies arrive. The topic turns quickly to Jenna being kind of introverted not telling everything about herself. In her confessional, she says she’s dealing with things in her personal life that she doesn’t feel like sharing with people. She is a wedding photographer but Devin starts feeling like she isn’t actually a wedding photographer. Jelly, Devin, and Aaliyah are still together on this tribe and are excited about it. Over at Savu, Kristin gets the fire started with the new flint. Ori and Sharonda are still bonded with their alliance on the Savu side. Eric begins to rub people wrong on the tribe with people feeling like he is doing too much.
Day 2 begins with Exile Island. Jeff arrives there telling Lewis he has been there for 30 hours. Jeff brings up permanent uncertainty again and has info. He says Lewis is not leaving exile today and will not participate in the first immunity challenge or tribal council. He also will not be the first person voted out. Jeff brings opportunity but says Lewis will have to earn it. He will get an individual idol if he is successful. Up at the top of a pole is an idol but he has to get it down. He can’t climb or impact the tree such as shaking it down. The only way to get it is to chop down the pole with an axe and he has to do it before the sand glass runs out. Jeff leaves him to it. Lewis hammers this thing to the point of his hands are just destroyed. He does not accomplish it but he left a huge chunk in this pole to the point of I don’t know how that thing didn’t fall over. Back to the Toka tribe, Devin is running that paranoia of Jenna around the camp about him thinking the wedding photographer thing is a lie saying she never gives any good answers when asked about her job. Devin is starting to be seen as the tribal leader. Back at Savu, Eric talks of wanting to be the provider so he goes into the water wanting to catch fish. Rob walks out seeing this and decides to throw a target on him. So much for Rhode Island bonding. LOL. Rob tells the tribe that Eric is gone but doesn’t know where and he is probably out looking for an idol. Rob knows he is fishing and is full throwing him under the bus with a lie. Rob and Carter talk getting on the same page about Eric. Carter then goes to Ana getting on the same page with Eric as the target. Then, we hear a bunch of cheering coming from the water as they all learn that Eric has been out in the water fishing and he comes back with a fish. It was a little one but he still got it. They laugh saying he was out there for two hours and that’s what he got.
Day 3 starts over at Savu with them struggling to get camp set up. After throwing Eric under the bus about idol looking, Rob goes out looking for one of his own. He finds an immunity idol. We go to the immunity challenge from here. Jeff talks to the group about the Open Era saying that it means that anything that has ever happened on any season in the past 25 years is in play. Then, Jeff gets back on his hill that he just refuses to see anything different on. He brings up final four fire making AGAIN. And I mean AGAIN cause he will not let this go that fans push back on it so much. He says that he is going to put this in the vote of the players of do they want to do final four fire making. Put it to a vote. A UNANIMOUS vote. I laughed saying Jeff doesn’t want to even put this to a chance of a majority messing up his fire making love. while also making his point of what he prefers. LOL. Only five raise their hands of they don’t want final four fire making but they are overruled. Final four fire making remains while he gives a speech of why final four fire making is great and the fans are wrong. Seriously, find you someone that loves you as much as Jeff Probst loves final four fire making cause that is the hill he will stand on. LOL. He also announces that the Rick Devens coin flip twist from last season will be back. You flip a coin where if you land it right, a million dollars will be added to the prize and you get an idol. If it flips wrong, there is no tribal council and you go home immediately. The money will then roll over to the next season. They would end up flipping a coin worth $2 million. The next season could flip a coin worth $3 million. We get to the immunity challenge. Brady gets banged up at one point with one of the crates. Aaliyah struggles at one point in the challenge. The challenge comes down to a puzzle task with it being Ana and Cristian against Kilby and Jenna. Savu wins immunity sending Toka to tribal council later on.
Post immunity challenge has us going back to the Toka camp. Aaliyah’s name is brought up with how she struggled in the immunity challenge. Jenna’s name is still floating around but Jelly doesn’t want a woman to go. The women start talking about how aggressive Brady was in the challenge. Patt says she likes how focused that Jenna was with the puzzle and wants to keep her. Patt goes on the offensive telling Jenna that the guys have been talking about her thinking her photographer job is fake. Jenna in her confessional reveals that she has been standoffish because she’s been struggling dealing with a divorce in her real life. She says she hasn’t been single since she was 18 and she’s now 30. She then roasts any of the cast watching by giving all sorts of photographer lingo including what camera she uses and all the technical aspects of what she likes to use with settings while she does weddings. I was thinking, mic drop. LOL. Jenna goes on the offensive to stay and says to the guys of how Aaliyah was talking trash on the guys. She tells that to Brady who goes on the offensive immediately with how he’s annoyed of his name being discussed. Devin in his confessional is saying why would Aaliyah say that and put a target on herself. We have a conflict as the two early allies of Brady and Devin have different targets. Brady wants Aaliyah out. Devin wants Jenna out.
We get to the first tribal of the season. Jenna gets the focus of it at the beginning. Devin talks of how he thinks if Jenna survives tonight that she’ll go to the end of the game. He also says straight up that he is going in there tonight and voting for her letting everyone know. This turns into a live tribal behind Jenna immediately. Jenna talks of that she doesn’t know what she’s supposed to do with people feeling like she is standoffish. Patt then says we have two people that are amazing who are in the discussion of a vote. Two? Who’s the second? That’s the question that now forms in tribal. That gets things going when she mentions Aaliyah’s name. Aaliyah says that she knew Jenna was saying her name but she didn’t know others were floating it too. Live tribal picks up heavy here with people roaming around. Calm down everyone. It’s the first tribal of the season and too early for a live tribal is what I was thinking. LOL. The voting takes place. Jenna and Aaliyah both play their shot in the dark. Jenna first and then Aaliyah second. Both are not safe. The votes come in and Aaliyah is voted out on a 6-2 vote.
Very fun premiere with a lot going on. The Open Era of Survivor is underway.
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