Survivor 47 is Good… I Guess (Season Review)

Another season of Survivor is done; this time, it is Survivor 47 in the books, wrapped up. Quite an interesting ride, to say the least—a season I was pretty excited for. The cast seemed genuinely intriguing, and following Survivor 45, which I loved, and Survivor 46, which a lot of other people loved, I felt like this season could be great and continue in those footsteps. In the end, after 14 episodes, did Survivor 47 deliver for me? Not necessarily. While I don't think this is a bad season by any means, I also don't consider it an all-time great. At the same time, I hear a lot of discourse about people loving this season while watching, and for me, it just felt all right. I was never fully invested in this season when it came to the cast, the editing, or just an overarching theme. Overall, something felt off, and I don't think it was production this time. Even if they've been the culprits in many other seasons, I think they made a lot of great decisions and are slowly but surely bringing Survivor back to what I love. They seem to realize that what they were doing in the new era wasn't working. While not everything is going to be perfect—fire-making challenges are going to stay here forever—I think Survivor is on a great path. I truly believe that with a great cast and a great season, we can get some all-time Survivor classics.

I do believe that's possible. I just don't think Survivor 47 was the answer. But that does not mean that this season was bad. That doesn't mean that I had no fun enjoying this. That doesn't even mean that I felt like there were any points in the season where I wanted to gouge my eyes out, like I think I did in Survivor 46.

So I'm here to do what I did in Survivor 46. I will be going from episode one to the finale, talking through everything about this season. I will give my thoughts, provide a recap, and fully dive into this season, sharing what I liked, what I disliked, and anything in between. Before I do that, though, I just want to let you guys know that I'm so sorry. The upload schedule has been terrible, but I have a great excuse.

It's life. Life is tough. Life throws a lot of things at you, but I have a great excuse: it's life. Life is tough.

Life throws a lot of challenges your way, and I had other priorities that I needed to address besides this channel. However, I'm really hoping that in 2025, I can change that narrative and return to doing what I truly enjoy. It makes me feel great to see you all excited about my uploads and wanting more. So, I'm not going anywhere; it's just a little shaky right now. Next year, I'm committed to making this happen, but I can’t get started until I take that first step. So, I'm beginning here. Come along with me as we enjoy the ride and dive into my personal review of Survivor 47. Oh boy, we're here. We're back!

I'm pretty pumped for what we have going on with the Survivor 47 premiere. Heading into the season, I was so excited for Asia, John Lovett, and Andy to be on my TV screen. It felt surreal, and I know they're all going to bring great content. At the very least, for this premiere, they're all stars in their own right. Now, we're just not going to mention how most of their fates went until we have to cross that bridge, but I've always enjoyed the opening scene, and we'll get right into that. We have Matt chatting about everything in between, and it all just means Survivor is back, and I'm obsessed with it. I'm a sucker for the dramatic editing; it does it for me. Nothing super notable from the opening challenge—the whole cast gets covered in mud, which is a new era Survivor staple at this point. The yellow tribe, Gato, wins reward, meaning that the red tribe, Lava, and the blue tribe, Tuku, will have to earn their supplies another way.

However, that's not going to be through sweat versus savvy. I think it kind of faded out, and from the last few seasons of experimenting, you could just tell it didn't hit at all. So, shoutout to Alinsky; smashing that hourglass truly was game-changing. The sweat versus savvy replacement has the two tribes each pick a member to compete for their tribe supplies. Asia volunteers for Lava, and TK goes after throwing paper when the game was literally going to be rock or scissors. That was hilarious to me. We'll pause on that for now to get our tribe dynamics out of the way.

I have no notes on Gata, except for my obsession with John Lovett. With Los Angeles? In WeHo? No, I started in WeHo, where all the gays go. That was a fucking hate crime.

Oh my God, John just got buried. John continues to bring me joy. Now, when people ask me what I do, I have to say that I'm a podcast host. I'm obsessed. On 2Coo, the main focus is Miss Sue, the old trump of the cast.

She is instantly set up beautifully as Gabe comes to her and claims her as his number one, while she also makes a connection with Caroline, resembling a mother-daughter relationship. So, Sue may not be great, but she is set up very well early on. In Lavo, the only noteworthy thing is Teenie showing off their great social game by being connected with, let's see, everybody. That's the initial vibe on all tribes. The Asian TK situation is a scavenger hunt showdown, and the winner will be the only one who gets to bring back tribe supplies. I appreciate "Survivor" for trying something new; considering how much of this episode unfolds, a scavenger hunt might be the last thing I want to watch, especially something that feels completely unbalanced. But whatever, at least Asia made it close, though TK still wins supplies for his tribe. Back to random tribe dynamics, Tukun seems to be just a bro fest, with all the guys drooling over each other for being guys. I have to laugh.

I don't know. That's embarrassing, but you do, y'all. Regardless, this motherfucker gave me a lot of Gabe. Of all people, he finds the Beware advantage. So now we get to go on another scavenger hunt. Yippee!

Luckily, something actually interesting happens when Gabe is caught red-handed by TK. It's a fun scene; Gabe lies to TK's face, but TK already knows the truth, so he now has the upper hand. All of a sudden, this bro's pack has some trouble in paradise. Lavo again provides us with some wonderful teen content, knowing who Asia is as a podcaster. She knows about the show, and she wants to work with her. However, she's not going to reveal anything because disclosing this information to the tribe would damage their reputation. Now that they know a Survivor podcaster, their threat level increases.

So the Asian-Tini duo is forming, and I'm so here for it. However, I can't go any further without introducing you to Mr. Rome. He's quite the character, and I certainly have opinions on him. But for now, the only notable thing is that he also found the Beware Advantage, so yeah, there's going to be another scavenger hunt. But I will spare you from that for now because back on Two Coup, we got—oh, fuck, it's another scavenger hunt! God damn it! Yep, I'm skimming through this. Gabe tells Sue about the Beware Advantage and finds a box. The dilemma is that he can take an idol that is good for one tribal, or he can complete another task to try and win an idol that's good for three tribals. Blah, blah, blah. He took the idol for three tribals, and then he, like, dropped the box at one point. That's about it. Our Gada dosage is being dropped, and by that, I mean our Andy dosage is being dropped as we speak because Andy is definitely a person. Now, admittedly, Andy has anxiety and insecurities, and that's totally fine. Honestly, it's super relatable.

At night, he was having a complete panic attack and pulled Rachel aside, one of his tribe mates, to talk things out. Rachel, like any person would, completely shut him down and scolded him in confessional. That's not where I thought that was going. I understand where Rachel is coming from because Andy had already grown attached to her, and from a game perspective, Andy pulling Rachel aside in the middle of the night for the entire tribe to see isn't a great look. This only adds a target on her back.

However, Andy's also a human being having a human moment, and I think it's unfair that the only person he felt he could rely on swiftly shuts him down. So even if this scene is edited to make Andy look like he's in the wrong, that does nothing for me except suggest that Rachel is being unnecessarily propped up by the edit. Regardless, Andy is now left on his own, a complete mess, who knows he's on the outs, and is kind of like the unpopular kid in the tribe. All right, we are nearly at the immunity challenge and the moment we all know is coming. First, I needed to talk about Rome.

While, again, this is another scavenger hunt scene, Rome made this moment fun and enjoyable. This guy got caught looking, and now the entire tribe is sketching out about him. He dove headfirst into the water well and produced one of my favorite images in Survivor history. He casually walked in the other direction when the tribe started approaching him, as if to say, "Okay, I don't think you could look more suspicious if you tried." And then, of course, after all of this, he's very confident that he did a wonderful job of not getting exposed.

This is Rome, ladies and gentlemen. Now we can cut the nonsense. I've never been more excited to talk about a challenge in my life. To start, the challenge itself is a complete mess for anybody not named Lavo. We have multiple tip boats, chests flying everywhere, and Lavo won so decisively that they didn't even show them doing the puzzle because that's how far ahead they were.

And then Andy damn near passed out during the challenge and started talking crazily, which led to him losing the challenge. Of course, all this wild stuff is just the tip of the iceberg compared to what we are about to experience as we head into the post-challenge discussions. Now, Andy was overheated and dealing with some anxiety, so I would like to give him a pass for what is about to happen. But when you see it for yourself, I don't know if I can do that. I was fighting for my life. I'm on the bottom.

They don't. I cracked open a coconut, and they didn't cheer for me. They cheered for John. I'm a strategist. I was going to try everything. I was thinking I would throw him under the bus to try to stay.

I have no words. One of the most insane things I've ever seen on Survivor. A complete breakdown of somebody just forgetting they were on Survivor or forgetting that the entire cast is listening to this. This isn't just saying something in front of one person.

Or even their tribe. Or even another tribe. This is quite literally everybody you could possibly say something to. And he's just completely tanked his game, his reputation, and all of his thoughts in one fell swoop. But, goddamn, was it— I can't. Yeah, I guess if we have to jump back into reality, Andy's pretty messed up, I'd say.

I don't know; just a guess, though. The entire talk is that Andy is the easy target, because, duh. Despite his apologies, there's no reason to trust someone like that in this game. With everything going on, Andy is still willing to fight, though. When John, the man Andy threw directly under the bus, offers him a lifeline, Andy seizes that opportunity to try and come up with a plan to blindside Annika.

But two votes aren't going to be enough, so John goes to Sam to try and sway him over. This goes very poorly because not only does Sam not like this idea, but he also wants to switch the vote onto John, because John is clearly the more dangerous person than Andy. I mean, come on, it's not like Andy will be the reason for his and all of his allies' downfalls. That's crazy. Yeah, that's definitely foreshadowing for you. Regardless, we go into tribal; it's pretty standard. John is funny, but what else is new? Everything revolves around Andy, and unfortunately, in a lose-lose situation, I'm still crushed as John is voted out 5-1 and becomes our first boot of the season.

Goddamn, I was devastated to see John Lovett as the first boot. Now, I didn't think he was going to win or even make a deep run, but I was really hoping I’d at least get two episodes of this wonderful man. Some people may not like him, but I'm so obsessed with John Lovett. Like, God, all of his confessionals hit me so hard. I could listen to him talk all day.

Conveniently enough, he has a podcast I can listen to at any time to get my Jon Lovett fix. But damn it, I'm greedy as hell, and I want him on Survivor and a lot more of him on Survivor. It was just such a perfect blend, and I think with the first few episodes of the season being kind of slow in comparison, more Jon Lovett would have been beneficial this season. I mean, the producers knew it when they put him in every single ad before the season. This man's a star.

Gone way too soon. He will be missed. We wrap up Episode 1 with a tragedy, but Jon Lovett for Survivor 50, goddammit! We're on to Episode 2, which was, um, not great. We still had some idol-hunting shenanigans, and the vote-out wasn't that fun either. Luckily for us, the episode does start off in a pretty good way with Mr. Rome.

He doesn't want to keep this secret from everyone, so he's going to tell the person he trusts the most: Teenie. And Teenie, like a good ally, goes and immediately shows their clothes to Ally, Kishon, where they are. Unfortunately for them, that dude Rome comes waltzing in and catches them red-handed. In this scene, the second-hand embarrassment I felt was wild. I never want to be put in this situation.

Please. So, Rome, at that moment, is kind of faced with the same dilemma Gabe was and decides to take the idol that's only good for one tribal. Because, yeah, everyone's going to know about this thing, he might as well be sure he's guaranteed safety. That's all we get from Lava today. We can talk through Gada; everything here is going to be surrounding Andy. What are we talking about? He's getting the pity treatment. The entire tribe is living in constant fear of Andy freaking out, so they're cheering him on when he opens a coconut. I don't know; this would just kind of piss me off. I hate people giving pity to me; it's just a gross feeling. But I guess it works for Andy, so whatever. The real excitement comes when Andy is being babysat by Sam, as normal adults on Survivor do. Sam takes his eyes off Andy for like half a second, and all of a sudden, Andy's gone, looking for an advantage, and he finds the beware advantage. This could change everything and give Andy some footing in the game.

So Andy, of course, will leave the Beware Advantage. He says he's going to take it back when he needs to, but like, what? It's only right that this boneheaded decision leads to Sam coming across and finding the Beware Advantage himself with Annika. So Sam, like a sane person would do, opens the Beware Advantage. I just don't understand how Andy is at the bottom and doesn't care to try and gain power in this game.

The only issue on Sam's side is that word is going to spread about this because Annika doesn't trust Sam and wants to decrease Sam's power. So, Sam does something really savvy and goes to all three women in the tribe and individually tells them about the Beware Advantage, using them to help him get the idol. He successfully takes the idol for just one tribal. This keeps their relationships on the tribe secure because all the women now think that they can trust Sam a little bit more. Even though the power of his idol has weakened, this also lowers his threat level in a massive way, which is something Sam needs. Now, everybody on the tribe is aware of Sam's idol, except for Andy. This guy, so innocently, goes back to grab the Beware Advantage, only to find that it's gone. However, in this moment, Andy makes a move that pretty much saves his entire game by telling Sam about this. Now, hear me out. I know on the surface this sounds dumb—Andy telling the guy with the idol that somebody took the idol—but by going to Sam with this information, Andy makes Sam realize that he fully trusts him. Andy would be a great ally to have.

Andy would be a great ally to have in this game for Sam, much better than somebody like Annika or Rachel, who are clearly skeptical of him. So, Andy kind of bumbled around enough that he might have just saved himself in this game. Now we can talk about Tuku, the tribe that was the most boring but, unfortunately, the most important to this episode. To keep things simple before the challenge, TK wants to bring in Tiana as an ally and a core number, and then just use Gabe as a tagalong. However, Gabe is being extremely underestimated because TK and everyone else thinks Gabe is kind of useless socially, when in reality, he's the most well-insulated player there.

And he solidifies that when he shows Caroline his idol, earning her trust and making the Gabe, Sue, and Caroline trio a reality that holds power in this game. We got back-to-back pretty fun challenges. This one doesn't have any iconic moments, but we see Rachel stealing some rice, or at least trying to. TK hated every part of this challenge, and after Tuku loses, TK goes on a massive ramble about how he hates losing and hates seeing people smile when they lose, which is quite the mentality to have.

I very much disagree with this, and Tiana also disagrees, as she was rubbed completely the wrong way by it. In general, the way TK acted most of the time was not a great look, especially towards women. It comes across as very odd. I’m not saying TK said or did anything sexist, but it just doesn’t sound or look good. That pretty much dictates pre-tribal talks.

The vote is either going to be TK because he's annoying, or Sue because she's the older woman on the tribe. Tiana is pretty much the swing vote here; she can either use her head and vote out Sue to stay solidified in the power structure, or go with her heart and vote out TK because she doesn't like him. This would pretty much give away all power to the Gabe, Caroline, and Sue trio. Now, there is a clear answer here, but none of that matters anyway because Gabe will use his idol, traumatized from Survivor 46, and then TK ends up getting voted out in a 4-2 vote. So, yeah, I think Tiana made a pretty dumb move. Now, admittedly, the other option is probably Rox more than likely, but still, she becomes a sitting duck on that tribe with no agency moving forward.

But she isn't the one who got voted out, so I'll talk about TK. TK, you are not good at Survivor. This man did everything in his power to get voted out of this game and succeeded tremendously. There's a reason why the most physically fit guy on the show should have been the second boot. Other than that, he's an unpleasant person who lacks good social skills, and every word that comes out of his mouth seems to be a mistake. So yeah, he’s not a good player; he wasn't super memorable, and I don't really care about him. I'm going to move on to episode three now. Some of you may be saying I'm not going to like episode three because of the outcome and that I'm just salty, and you'd be absolutely correct. While I can admit this episode does a great job of bringing Rome into the spotlight and showing us how crazy of a character he is, it kind of felt like a bad child who just sucks and is misbehaving, getting his way and getting spoiled. I really don't enjoy that in real life. I don't enjoy it when it happens in other shows, and I definitely don't enjoy it happening on Survivor.

But I'll break down everything here, starting with Sue. Miss Sue is going to start her one-sided beef with Kyle because he voted for her. I don't know what to tell you. Who the hell cares? She's acting like this is the only reason that she's going after Kyle.

It’s like she didn’t just vote off his closest ally and plans on coming for him next anyway. I don’t know. Sue’s on some nonsense. Who cares? We’ve got Sam and Annika bickering a lot.

And it's basically dictating the future of the tribe, figuring out who's going to come out on top between these two who clearly both need to be in control at all times. Everything that comes from these two tribes is significant because the rest of the episode is lava-focused— or should I say, Rome-focused? It's all Rome, all the time. It's the only thing anyone on the tribe can talk about, including Rome, because he loves talking about himself.

His antics are crazy, but I'm kind of obsessed with his pose in this confessional. Whoever set him up like this is a genius! Anyway, there’s a journey sandwiched between everything where Kyle, Anika, and, you guessed it, Rome go on this journey. Nothing notable in the chats happened except for Rome hating TK because he's super cocky, and I audibly laughed out loud. That's so ironic. And then, apparently, everybody in the game assumes Sam and Sierra are running the tribe.

And probably a couple, which is half true. They are working very closely, but both have partners at home, and Sam is literally engaged. So yeah, that's going to cause some issues in the future, I’d imagine. The journey itself was that stupid twist in Survivor 44, where the show forces everybody to take a bag. They’re either going to lose their vote or get an advantage. If they lose their vote, they can pick another bag and will either get the advantage or lose a second vote. Why do they force people to choose? That ruins the entire point for me. I just don’t get it. Survivor and their obsession with people losing their vote pisses me off.

Kyle and Annika both lose a vote and then stop there, but Mr. Rome gets everything and wins a steal vote. Rome will initially lie to his tribe about this but then goes on to tell his closest allies what actually happened, which is everybody except Asia and Saul. Knowing this information and seeing how much power Rome has, there is kind of nothing anyone else can do except work with Rome because he’s going to be here no matter what and has the power to do whatever he wants. Onto the challenge: Lava loses pretty badly. That’s about it; we're sticking with the Lava tribe now, with some stakes involved. The vote is initially going to be for Asia because Rome doesn’t like her, and Rome has all the power. However, Teenie wants to protect Asia, so they convince Rome to switch the vote to Saul. We’re finally given our true introduction to Saul and how iconic this man is going to be this season, with Rome coming to him and presenting some questionable plan, which Saul immediately calls out for exactly what it is.

Bullshit. It's so good and instantly made me love Saul. I did love him in the preseason too, but this is where the show finally gives us some wonderful Zog content, and it will continue in the future. However, even with all of this, it seems to be pretty simple because Saul is going home. Until Teenie and Keyshawn want to bring in Asia on the vote to make sure she isn't blindsided. However, when Asia hears about this, she does not want to do that one bit.

She is pushing back hard on a solo vote. Unfortunately, all this does is make Teenie and Keyshawn wonder if keeping AsiaAsia is actually good for their games at this point, especially if this is what she’s going to do if she doesn’t get her way. So, going into tribal, it’s a bit tense. Rome places an idol, and Asia is blindsided in a 3-1-1-1 vote, the first of its kind in Survivor history.

And Asia is crushed. Her look back is hard to watch, and losing her this early was not only a shock, but really disheartening. Do you think Asia played well? No, definitely not. I think when you are put in a position with your back against the wall, you simply cannot push back. It comes off as greedy and unreliable.

I understand that Asia didn't fully know how much power Rome was wielding, but at a point, self-preservation needs to be above all. Nothing else matters if you can't get past the tribal staring you in the face. However, I can fully admit that Asia got so screwed over and extremely upset. If Teeny and Keyshawn weren't caught looking in the box by Rome, I don't think he would have taken the one tribal idol, which would have left him more vulnerable.

If he doesn't go on the journey, he's more vulnerable. If he didn't get lucky with that 33% chance of an advantage, I think Teeny and Keyshawn are much more likely to vote with Asia and Sol. Instead, we're left with an Asia boot, and I'm very sad. Especially after an episode that was just kind of annoying overall. Asia's rivalry with Rome was great, though; I'll give her that. Episode 4 is where I feel like the season truly takes off. We find ourselves with a couple of good episodes back to back to back here, and this one might be the best of them all. The storytelling was magical from start to finish, and of course, we have to pick things up with where we left off with Lavo.

Saul feels completely at the bottom of the tribe after being blindsided, while Rome feels on top of the world. Nothing could go wrong for him. However, we finally have some other things to discuss that aren't related to lava, starting with Tucku. The only main plot point involves Sue. She discovers the beware advantage, and her task requires her to destroy a pot filled with paint to obtain an idol. The only problem is that Sue now has red paint everywhere—on her body, on the ground, and on the trees. It's a complete mess.

So, she cleans it up and does a pretty good job until she runs into Tiana and Caroline, and instantly they see red paint on her face. Sue's lie to try to cover things up was really, really bad; it gave me secondhand embarrassment. It's safe to say that people, namely Tiana, are pretty suspicious of Sue having something up her sleeve. Not that it's going to matter at all this season, but it's at least a factor. Gata's dynamics are pretty fun and important.

To start, the women of Gata have always been pretty close, but they officially solidify their alliance by calling themselves the Breadwinners. Iconic name, by the way. I sure hope this lasts more than one episode. Regardless, this ties into the story because Andy is still being Andy—bumbling buffoon—and we all love him for it. At least I love him for it.

But his relationship with Sierra still isn't that strong, despite how close he is with Sam. If he truly wants to integrate himself well into the tribe, he needs to have both Sam and Sierra in his corner in case they go to tribal. So he goes to work, and this bond with Sierra strengthens to the point where Sierra tells Andy about the breadwinners. This allows Andy to go to Sam and tell him to make sure his number one is updated. However, this news doesn't sit well with Sam.

Why wouldn't Sierra tell him about his alliance right away? They're supposed to be number ones, and now Andy is getting more information than Sam is. So there's a little confrontation here, and it's going to be more important next episode than this episode. However, there are some problems developing on Gata, and I'd love to see what happens to this tribe if they go to tribal. But again, like last episode, the main points of intrigue will lie with Lavo. The pre-tribal situation will surround Rome and Saul.

Rome's only goal is to ensure that Saul doesn't have an idol. So, Rome does what any grown adult would do: he follows Saul around everywhere he goes, never leaving his side, and then whines like a baby when Saul calls him out for being a loser. Oh my God, Saul is better than me because I was getting worked up just watching this! So yeah, Rome is a jerk and a baby, but we kind of already knew that. This makes Saul even more likable and rootable and is the true breakout episode for the soul love that has spread all over the internet. Now, the challenge was hilarious. If Episode 3 was that big baby Rome getting everything he wanted, Episode 4 is the big baby getting humbled because Rome doesn't get a single piece of the puzzle in "Not A." And Lava will obviously lose, and it's completely on Rome because he sucks.

If there's a journey that Andy T. and Caroline go on, I'll talk about that in just a second. Back at Lavo, the plan is obviously Saul, because, duh. But just to make sure the Saul vote goes through, Roam plans on threatening Saul, and then he threatens Saul.

Wow, Rome, you sure are smart and socially aware. How do you manage to do it? Obviously, this isn't going to go over well because what on earth are you doing? Nobody wants to hear you say, "Hey man, I won't vote you out if you just give me your shot in the dark." Come on, that's some nonsense. Whatever, luckily for us, we might be getting saved by Keyshawn because Keyshawn doesn't like Rome—nobody does—and he wants to pull a fast one on Rome and take him out tonight.

Pull everybody together and blindside this dude. It shouldn't be that hard considering Rome's self-awareness is about as low as it can be. Pit stop at the journey. It sucked that they basically had to pick one of these three people to lose their vote, and if they do so, they all receive an advantage. If they can't all agree, they all lose their vote.

Teenie, the person going to tribal, somehow is the one chosen to lose their vote. Then they receive the amulet from past seasons, but it's a little different, and I think it works a little better. I mean, it doesn't do anything during the season, but whatever. They still have to come together to play it for it to activate, whether they use three amulets, two amulets, or even just one amulet. This creates more incentive and benefits, and it doesn't automatically mean you should vote out everyone else who has the amulet. Especially because I feel like everyone in the show is going to know about the amulet sooner or later.

So it's kind of still useless, but whatever. Back at camp, the plan for Rome is a full go. Teenie is in the know, Saul is in the know, and it's going to work wonderfully until Genevieve starts thinking. Wait, wait, who? Who the heck is Genevieve? Where did that name come from?

Yeah, if you haven't watched this season or even just seen the season up to this point, you'd also be asking yourself, "Who is Genevieve?" because she simply wasn't on the show until now. I think she mentioned wanting to work with Rome a couple of times, but that's about all we've got. Regardless, Genevieve will become very important moving forward, and spoiler alert, she is one of my favorite people moving forward. So, we're just going to have to accept this new cast member into the game. In this cool little montage moment, Genevieve realizes that Rome going home doesn't benefit her.

It benefits Keyshawn. Keyshawn is the one connected everywhere. Keyshawn is the one who threw her name out as a decoy vote. And Keyshawn might just be the person who’s pulling all the strings in this game. So now she’s kind of flipping the entire script and gunning for a Keyshawn blindside.

However, the only way this can happen is if she can pull Rome and Sol together. That should be easy enough, but they both said no. Well, alright, that might be a harder mission to accomplish than I would have hoped for, but we can cross our fingers as we head to tribal. Tribal is normal stuff, but getting to the vote is where things pop off. You know, Jeff, I trust the people that I trust, like I said, and I'm going to be stealing Keyshawn's vote tonight. I'm absolutely freaking out. I have no idea what's about to happen. Alright, I'll read the votes. Keyshawn. Keyshawn.

Fourth person voted out of Survivor 47: Keyshawn. That's three, that's enough. Please bring me a torch. That's not how I imagined it. God damn, that mad woman Genevieve just said Survivor 47.

Keyshawn, that's three; that's enough. You need to bring your torch. Goddamn, that mad woman Genevieve just did that. She pulled off an incredible move to blindside somebody who was very dangerous in the game, right under everyone's noses. And now she's the power figure on Lavo. This move benefited nobody except for Genevieve.

And it's one of my favorite moments of this season for sure. As for Keyshawn, I'm really bummed he's gone, but, goddamn, if there's a time to go out, this is it. It's absolute cinema. Keyshawn obviously showed us he was very capable, but he kind of put his hands into too many cookie jars and got called out for being what he was: a snake and a threat. But I really did enjoy Keyshawn; I don't expect him ever to come back, but he was a fun casting choice while he was here, and it's a really fun ending to cap off what has been the episode of the season so far.

Episode 5 is the last episode of the pre-merge. Yes, I said pre-merge because "mergatory" is the merge, especially in this season. I'll get into that. Anyways, jumping right into a challenge! This challenge only has two tribes because Survivor loves a twist. This particular twist is harmless, but not bad: everyone gets divided into two tribes who compete for a reward. The winning tribe will all go to a reward together, while the losers will return to their respective tribe camps. So, this isn't a swap, but you're allowed to mingle and make early bonds with other people right before the merge. It's nothing game-changing, but you have to wonder: why not just do a swap then? Is it really that hard, Survivor? Do we really dislike having two tribes that much?

Regardless, Rachel, Sue, Caroline, Tiana, Kyle, Sam, and Teenie are the winning team. The only thing that happens during this reward is Tiana throwing Gabe completely under the bus, which is just dumb as hell. This does not make you look appealing as an ally; it makes you look shady. Plus, you're naive to think that nobody will tell Gabe about this when you get back to camp. It's just kind of delusional.

Lavo's camp talk is pretty basic. Rome is very quickly losing any and all footing he has in the game. He is going through Sol and throwing Genevieve under the bus for some reason, only for Genevieve to hear about it and realize Rome is just not the same ally he was before. If he's going to withhold information from her and throw her under the bus, that's much worse than somebody who was brutally honest. While he was messy as hell before, at least he had her best interests in mind. That is not the case now, so Rome, you're in trouble. Tuku is pretty much Sue telling Gabe all the things Tiana just said.

Gabe vows that he will take out Tiana, and then Tiana gives some half-hearted apology to Gabe, yet still lies to his face about what she said. So, it’s a bad episode for Tiana, and this will prove to be costly soon enough. The challenge was incredibly close—like, two seconds close—but Gata just couldn't pull it off, and they will be heading to tribal, mostly because Andy messed up the challenge, both figuratively and literally. This is a huge early setback. Andy's blunder is obviously going to upset everyone on Gata and make him the clear target, as he has been this entire time. However, it's never that simple, and Andy is a different man than he was on day three. But Anika and Rachel don’t know that, so Andy lays out in confession his entire scheme, where he plans to continue looking helpless and become the lone wolf, waiting until Anika and Rachel give him a fake name and then exploiting that. And it actually works—like, wow, that was pretty clever, Andy. It’s not the last time Andy does a monologue like this for a vote. But in this situation, unfortunately, it doesn’t matter because it’s up to Sam and Sierra to decide what to do.

Vote out Annika or vote out Andy. Sam really wants Annika out because he's close with Andy and doesn't like Annika, while Sierra wants Andy out because she's close with Annika and thinks Andy is a bad ally. This vote is going to come down to which one of them gets their way, and as we saw in the last episode, they're kind of bickering a bit. I think this is a very big and pivotal vote for both of them. Tribal Council, again, doesn't have anything interesting until the actual vote. I've been burying you for the last 10 days.

Here's your headstuff. Oh, fuck, Andy. Who knew you had that in you? And Andy's plan actually worked. Sam gets his way.

Annika is voted out in a complete blindside, and she gives us some Negativetalia-level content that I can only dream of in the modern day. You're kidding me, you guys. Sorry. Sorry. Did you know?

I don't know. Who owns this? There are three of us. No. Yes.

God damn! It was iconic and truly the cherry on top of an episode that was kind of mid overall. But I'll talk about Annika, who I just adore so much. In the preseason, I was instantly rooting for her, but I knew she was bound to fail in the actual game. Unfortunately, she needed to be in control way too much and just kind of assumed she was good. It was somewhat like watching a mini Venus, except she had more social awareness than Venus did. But that does not lead to success in Survivor, unfortunately. I am still very, very bummed to see us robbed of her so soon, and I would love to see an Annika return, even if the odds are extremely slim. I think she's a great character and she can bring it on a return. Pretty decent episode, very much carried by the Gata dynamic and the Annika boot. Episode 6 was very fun!

I don't give a damn about the strategic content, but I had fun. If you know the outcome of this episode, you know why I had so much fun. However, we'll make a stop at the post-tribal council. Andy gives a perfect synopsis: tribal council sucks. Not alright, Andy is like unfunny, and I mean that in the best way possible. I think it's hilarious how awkward his delivery is sometimes. However, Rachel is the main person to focus on here; she feels completely at the bottom of the tribe. There are no more tracks in front of her, so she's going to have to switch things up moving forward in this game. Luckily for her, she's given the perfect opportunity as the game decides to switch things up. It's merge time—a good time in any season. We can only hope things will continue to be dynamic with such a massive group. It starts with some fun as the entire group finds Sue's murder scene that she left behind. Tiana and Caroline both realize that this means Sue most likely has an idol, and both give two very different reactions to this information.

Tiana is suspicious and very wary of Sue, and Caroline could not be more proud of her for doing so. This is another main point of contention within this merge group, as he is being messy, trying very hard to spread gossip about everybody to create tension between people and make them trust him more. However, Rome fails to realize that other people also talk to each other, and they all recognize that Rome is full of nonsense and not very good at Survivor. So, Rome is on the hot seat because of how messy he is being. We head to immunity, and Rome still isn't doing well at Survivor, which puts him in a precarious position.

We head to immunity, and there's no more merge. Instead, the massive twist is—let me check my notes—individual immunity. This is unbelievably unserious that Jeff is hyping this up as more dangerous and another layer to the game when Survivor has had 40 seasons of doing this exact same thing. Just call it the merge and let us be. I'm really annoyed that contestants have to earn the merge. What is this then? If it's not the merge... holy shit, it's annoying. It's literally the big twist of the new era: individual immunity.

I'm over it. Whatever, Kyle wins immunity. Sure. I'm not going to bore you with pre-tribal antics. Rome is the target.

Rome thinks Saul is the target. However, Rome is the target for everybody. All of this happens while Rome is giving us some wonderful confessionals about how overconfident he is, and it's fantastic. I could not care less that there is no suspense about who's going home; this dunking is deserved and very satisfying. Tribal was so much fun! It's the first time that tribal talks are actually enjoyable this season. We got Rome sitting on Jeff's stump to explain why advantages suck, and I think it's fascinating to see Jeff realize in real time that the amulet is not an advantage and that a lot of their twists are poorly thought out. Great content!

Also, people had a problem with Rome sitting on Jephsi, and like, who the hell cares? It was funny. However, the highlight of this tribal for me was the voting confessionals given by everybody, even Rome. I like you, but your game was really bad. Auf Wiedersehen, my dear friend. Come on, Al.

Don't ever put my name out like that. They say Rome wasn't built in a day, but your game sure was destroyed in one. I think everybody has finally caught on to the way that I feel about you. I just don't want Saul in the jury, because I'd know he'd never vote for me. That dude can't stand me.

Rome not even getting votes for Saul cracks me up every time. This man truly had no idea that everybody on the island hated him. The amulet gets played on Teenie, and then Rome is completely buried and voted out, marking the end of one of the most over-the-top and controversial characters in a long time. Rome really was out of this world. And yeah, I talked a lot of trash about him because I think he's incredibly annoying.

I'm very thankful I never have to be on the island with him because all of it is. It'd be so bad. At the same time, he was a great character and did improve some episodes by just being Rome. Despite this, and how much production loved him at the time, I don't want him back. I don't think it would go well or be fun. Especially when we have someone like Q, who is right there and has a similar archetype as Rome, but is just so much better.

So, no thank you to Rome on Survivor 50, and also to the whole controversy surrounding him. Like, yeah, kind of maybe, sort of... but definitely spoiling the season. I hope this is the nail in the coffin for him. It wouldn't shock me if he's back; I just don't want it to be. But on this season, he was here for the perfect amount of time, where I only wanted to rip my ears off a couple of times. Not too bad.

On a serious note, Rome is a great character. I don't think he's a terrible person; I just believe he's socially unaware. And that's that. It's fun stuff. That will close episode six and the arc of Rome.

I totally could have said "all of them," and I missed it. Whatever, I'm embarrassed enough; let's move on. This is how you know the merge is really stupid because this episode is considered the merge, and the tribe literally splits up this episode. It makes even less sense than in other seasons. Anyway, the episode kicks off with Andy and Saul talking together because Andy received two votes last tribal. I didn't mention it before because it's not relevant, but Saul was one of those two votes. So Saul is doing all the damage control he can, and in doing so, he says that Sam was the person who pushed for Andy to be the backup name. That is terrible for Andy. Sam is the person Andy had relied on in this game and is kind of the only reason he's still here.

So now this guy is turning his back, and Andy needs to pivot, which will officially kick off Andy's revenge arc to prove himself in this game. People have clowned on him and Andy in general, but I think it's a great arc for someone who, in episode 1, was completely underestimated. The idea that he can turn the tables on those who doubted him is a fun concept, and I really want to see it play out. Spoiler alert: I still think it’s fun. We can instantly jump to the challenge where Survivor has to split the participants into two groups of six. Whoever lasts the longest overall will keep their entire team safe, but the person who lasts the longest on the team that loses wins immunity. This means the six losers, and only the six losers, will vote someone off. Oh yeah, and you don’t make the jury if you get voted out here, so a lot is at stake. It all feels super complicated for no reason. It really doesn’t help that the tribe that lost consists of the entirety of Tuku, with Rachel and Kyle being the one who won immunity despite getting third in the challenge. It doesn’t make sense. Moving forward, why should I care about the dynamics? They feel extremely obvious here.

Rachel is the target, with very little pushback. A lot of people are just telling her what she wants to hear. I mean, Tiana is the only person even contemplating another outcome by taking out Gabe. Honestly, that's the right move in my mind. If the Tukku Five votes together and survive this round, yes, they make jury. But they also become the biggest targets and will almost certainly be the target at the next tribal council.

So Tiana has the right mindset, and it's extremely frustrating to see Caroline deflect from that plan. Not because it's a bad move for Caroline, but because it made it extremely obvious that nobody was going to flip, and it was going to be 5-1 with Rachel going out. That is, until we switched over to the winning group of six. They all got to enjoy their reward, and it was a good time. Andy was fumbling around looking for an advantage, which is just funny; bless his heart.

But Saul was actually sneaky and ended up finding an advantage. Saul's advantage allows him to give someone from the losing group a vote block or safety without power, which adds a lot more layers to the upcoming tribal council. He can give Rachel the safety without power, and all of a sudden, Tuku is up Schitt's Creek without a paddle. When we cut to tribal, that's exactly what happens. Rachel pulls out the safety without power and shocks everyone by eliminating herself from tribal.

And of course, the best part of this entire thing was Saul's Oscar-winning performance. It was so good and continues to build upon Saul and the legacy he is creating for himself here. It's wonderful stuff. Now, is it a good move? I'm not sure.

It's fun as hell, but I don't think this is optimal for Saul unless he plans on taking Rachel to the end of the game. This cannot be a move made for temporary gain. It needs to have game-altering effects that go in his favor, and I just don't think he accomplished that. I understand he wanted to make the biggest waves he could in the moment, but I just don't think Rachel has the sway at this moment to be a valuable enough ally for him moving forward. It’s still great, though.

I'm being a game bot here, so sorry, but I'm just saying I don't think this was the best move Sol could make at that moment. Regardless, Tribal moving forward is live with all of Tuku's scrambling, and it just comes down to Gabe or Tiana, which kind of annoys me because this is like watching another pre-merge Tuku Tribal, and that's exactly what it was. Everyone just defaulted back to what they would have done if Tuku lost another challenge together. So Tiana gets voted out unanimously, and it's really tragic to see her so heartbroken by this.

And I totally get it. Jess missed out on Juri and was just blindsided, especially after she was the one who wanted to make this move and not send Rachel out. However, this isn't some exciting move; it's the obvious move. Tiana was obviously going home if this tribe went to another tribal, and they just proved it here.

I don't know. I really just don't have a lot of thoughts on Tiana. She was a very capable player who made just one mistake and could never recover from it. It sucks, but that's just the nature of the new era of Survivor. There's potential, but she didn't really bring me a lot.

The episode was, once again, whatever. On to Episode 8, and there was some fun to be had this time. It starts with Saul telling Rachel that he was the one who gave her the advantage because, of course, he needs to build a concrete and solid bond. Good stuff there. It's a shame this is going to go pretty much nowhere for the rest of the season, so forget all that. The Survivor auction is back, baby! I don’t know; I think the new era auction kind of sucks, but it’s still the auction, so I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for it.

I just wish there were no game implications to it because, honestly, I don't care about losing a vote and all of that. They tried switching up the auction a little bit with minor changes, but overall, I still think they should just make the auction have no advantages and let it be. I will say, though, I do enjoy the scavenger hunt for money. That is something that should stay. We had Bruce in Survivor 45 with his money issues, and now we have Andy in 47 one-upping Bruce by finding zero tubes of money. The auction itself was definitely worse than Survivor 45’s. I mean, what's notable here is that Kyle ate buffalo wings despite being a vegetarian, and the show made a big deal about this. I don’t know; I thought it was weird. It gave me an uncomfortable feeling that they kind of pressured him into this, but whatever.

Rachel discovered a clue in her fries, while Sam lost his vote. They had a mini eating challenge, which was fun and created some memories, but there's nothing particularly notable to take away from that. It’s still the auctions, so I guess it's fine. Back at camp, Rachel finds an idol from the clue she received, so that's a significant moment. Now, it’s immunity time! This time, a man and a woman will win immunity, and the winners are Kyle and Sue. Moving on to post-challenge shenanigans, let’s focus on Andy. We see a cool montage of Andy evolving in his game and becoming a true player. He sets his sights on Sam and Sierra, determined to make a mark and stand out from the crowd.

I don't know; I had fun with this moment. Sue me. It's stupid as hell, but I like it. The vote is now just a power struggle over which member to take out between Sam, Sierra, and Rachel. Tribal comes—standard stuff.

Rachel plays her shot in the dark, which at first seems weird considering she has an idol. However, she will be explaining this in the next episode, but I'll go ahead and discuss it now. She did this on purpose. She wanted to gauge the room and observe people's reactions to her playing her shot in the dark, then see what they thought about whether it succeeded or failed. Based on those reactions, she can decide whether to play her idol or not. That was so, so, so smart.

And I love this play from Rachel. It's utilizing the "Shot in the Dark" in a different way to enhance your power in the game, something you wouldn't be able to achieve with the "Shot in the Dark." She then doesn't play her idol because the reactions weren't significant, and she didn't need to. It was a 4-4-1 tie between Sam and Sierra. Sierra has taken her on the revote for being the bigger threat from behind the shadows, and Sierra was fine. I don’t know; I feel like she could be someone with potential, but it never actually emerged.

Her connection to Sam proved to be her downfall, and she just didn't really see it coming. I felt she was a little too passive in the game. She didn't realize her game was crumbling around her, so she had no opportunity to try and pick up the pieces or pivot altogether because she just assumed she was safe. Overall, she was not a super memorable person, but she was not a negative presence on this season. The episode was standard, but I think the vision of what this merge game is going to deliver is starting to unfold based on this episode. In Episode 9, the game has started, and people are now realizing their position on the game board.

Sam and Rachel feel completely on the outs, as they should, considering they just got blindsided, while Andy feels on top of the world. He just pulled off a massive move to take down and dismantle the power structure created by the same people who thought they had him wrapped around their finger. But he's not done yet because he still feels super underestimated by the tribe. So he wants to connect with Rachel, of all people, and rebuild that bond. Even after being burned twice, Rachel is willing to connect and build something strong with Andy.

So Rachel isn't completely dead in the water despite her precarious position. The immunity challenge is up next because there really isn't much else to talk about. It's one of those immunity challenges where pairs compete until the end and then everyone competes individually. Except the fun part is that the two pairs who lose in the first round all lose their votes and then have to go on a journey to earn them back. Survivor, stop.

There is nothing good that comes from people losing their votes. It halts any momentum that is building if more than one person loses their vote. And even if it's just one person that loses their vote, what’s the point? It never makes a difference and renders that person useless because Survivor said so. I need something to get my mind off that nonsense. Oh, thank you, Andy! Thank you so much! Yeah, anyway, Gabe wins immunity—finally, someone who isn’t Kyle wins immunity. Then Gabe does this Ray Lewis dance thing, and it was a bit cringe, but don't freak out; don’t attack this man. Let him have his moment—who cares? Back at camp, out of seemingly nowhere, Genevieve wants to take out Saul, and she’s been wanting to take out Saul for a while.

I'm confused. I don't think I need to spell it out for you, but this is an awful move for Genevieve. Why the hell would you take out somebody who would willingly take you to the final three? Someone who will consistently have your back. Did we learn nothing from Survivor 46? Don't eliminate your closest ally just for the sake of eliminating your closest ally.

It never goes well. It's a totally overrated move that will lead to you exposing yourself as a game player with fewer numbers around you. I'll go deeper into this as the season progresses and as Genevieve's position crumbles in the future, but it's not a good call, girl. The journey is a game of Jenga. Whoever knocks over the tower among the four loses their vote. Honestly, I know I was criticizing this earlier, but this is the best possible challenge you could do to earn your vote back with only one person losing their vote, and it's completely random.

Caroline ends up losing her vote, and that's that. At camp, the vote is Saul, with nobody else really being considered an option. Until Rachel gives Sam a little cookie by letting him in on the vote. And Sam, someone on the bottom, takes that cookie and destroys it because he's tired of being on the bottom. He doesn't want to keep this going. What could he possibly have to lose by trying to shake things up?

So he immediately tells Saul that his name is out there and they need to act fast. Sam then starts pushing for a vote for Sue, but that's irrelevant because the vote, I guess, switches to Kyle since Kyle is finally vulnerable for the first time in the merge. Now, everything is just confusing as hell, and Tribal sounds like it's going to be a mess because I don't think the players have any idea what the vote is right now. And yeah, Tribal cements that because it was certainly a mess.

Nobody really knew where the vote was going and didn't really care about what Jeff was blabbering about. So when Saul finally stood up, we had a little mini live tribal with Saul wanting to vote back on Kyle, and then Genevieve seizing the opportunity to slam him. This vote turned back onto Saul. Amid all the madness and chaos, Saul's time came to an end as Genevieve sealed his fate, and he was taken out unanimously. I'm gutted to see Saul go. I don't think he was ever winning or anything.

The edit was never there, but the survivor community fell in love with this man, and that includes me. His unintentional comedy is so incredibly good, and he kept it real for everybody involved. There truly is no way to explain how he managed to capture all of our hearts; that’s just who Saul is as a person, and I would die to see him come back.

I don't think it's likely because I don't think Jeff liked him too much from things he said on his podcast. However, the way the community rallied behind Saul could force production's hand, and there's at least a chance Saul's on the islands of Fiji for Survivor 50. He's an icon who was taken out way too soon. Episode 10 was decent? Actually, no, I think I'm wrong. This was kind of stale.

However, it's only right that we start with Teeny, who apparently lost their closest ally in Saul. I need to go on a tangent because I feel like we were never told that Teeny and Saul were close; in fact, we were led to believe the opposite. But all of a sudden, Teeny and Saul are number ones. All right, cool, whatever. Anyway, moving on—Teeny only knows one person to blame for this move: Genevieve. This is the second time Genevieve has completely blindsided Teeny and taken out their closest ally right under their nose. I’d be super frustrated too. That's not your ally, Teeny. This leads to an incredible Teeny confessional where they talk about how this game is so demanding and how that relates back to their gender identity. They share their struggles to fit in on the spectrum of a binary man-and-woman world.

And that was so touching to me. I think it’s someone speaking up for a group of people who have been constantly shut down. This is a voice on a national stage that is reaching so many people who feel the exact same way. I’m a strategy nerd like no other, but moments like these are so raw, real, and relevant to modern day that I have to tip my cap. Teenie gained a fan for life, no matter how the rest of the season goes. The immunity challenge included those rice negotiations, which are unfortunately a staple of the show now.

This is not iconic; whatever, I don't care. The negotiations apparently turned into everyone being willing to give up their shot in the dark for rice. Rachel doesn't have to because she doesn't have a shot in the dark to give. And it's funny because this was the cast's way of giving a massive middle finger to the new era and its twists. I respect this cast for that. First, it was the amulet, and now it's the shot in the dark.

The shot in the dark had its one good moment, and you will never be capable from 45. That moment in Survivor 45 is what the shot in the dark was meant to do. But it's so rare that we’re rarely ever going to get that, and most of the time it's going to be a dud. It really doesn't matter because Kyle won his fourth immunity, and then we go back to camp, which is kind of boring. Gabe is the big threat to vote out to weaken Tuku, while Genevieve is the current big threat to take out, as she just orchestrated the last vote. It's just a matter of which one of the two is going home. Caroline really wants to turn on Gabe, while Rachel really wants Genevieve out. Tribal is also boring; it’s the same stuff. Whoa, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Look at Saul's jury fit! Do not daddy like that! Goddamn. Oh yeah, Gabe gets voted out near unanimously. He definitely gives a line: "I’m back, time to go," and he’s definitely not coming back. But I’m going to come to the defense of Gabe; I thought he was a fun and super over-the-top character. He was a constant presence and always gave it 100%.

Even if he meant he would look stupid looking back, I respect the hell out of that. Now, I don't think or necessarily want Gabe to come back because I do agree that he is hamming it up. He's trying to play a character, but I still enjoyed that character. However, I just won't enjoy that character in a second season. I'm cool with it. And, come on, the game’s downfall was satisfying as hell.

We all knew it was coming, and it still was good. I think that makes for a great character when the downfall is super satisfying. It's good stuff, and another big player is taken out of the game. Now, I sure hope the next episode won't be disappointing. Episode 11 truly falls flat. It’s genuinely boring, and from everything that is shown, you can tell there’s nothing going on here.

So I will be giving you the necessities and saving you from the things that we, quite frankly, don't care about. Sue's upset that she was the only one not in on the vote for gay, but instead of getting mad at her closest ally, she gets mad at Kyle. Because she hates Kyle. Cool. Whatever.

Thanks for spoiling who goes home this episode in the first two minutes. That is awesome. And the Underdog Alliance forums of Rachel, Andy, Sue, Caroline, and Teenie—I don't know, maybe I'm dumb or I can't count, but you can't hold the majority at final eight and then call yourselves the underdogs. That's just not how that works. Whatever, this just means Sam, Genevieve, and Kyle are in trouble.

Especially Genevieve, who feels pretty lost in the game. Her actions in this game have genuinely hurt people, and she hates that feeling. So she decides her best course of action is to simply avoid making connections, which is pretty unique and, I guess, works. But that also means Genevieve is just kind of chilling for the rest of the game because the second she tries to play again, everyone's going to turn on her. However, if she continues to do nothing, she's probably not going to win the game.

It's a very tricky situation and a fine line to cross, which is a big reason why I said the Saul move was not good. Genevieve had to play perfectly from then on, and that's nearly impossible to do when you are the number one target. However, I do think Genevieve is very capable, and I'm at least intrigued to see what happens and how long she lasts. I don't care about Rachel going on the journey where she played a TikTok challenge and then won a block of vote. Wow, I just explained like 20 minutes of the show. Cool.

Anyways, the immunity challenge comes down to Kyle and Rachel, but Kyle's run ends as Rachel secures her first immunity win in a very close challenge. The vote is boring because it's between Kyle and Genevieve, but it’s obviously Kyle who goes home. What are we talking about? I mean, I guess we had Andy going on his tangent about how this is his time to make a big move and how he needs Genevieve out, only to be the only person who voted for Genevieve. That’s the only real takeaway I have. Yeah, there’s not much to say about Kyle. He was a nice guy, kind of funny, but he was just irrelevant to the story. He needed to go home so we could actually get things going because the game was stalling; people were just waiting for Kato's immunity. The only thing I’m left with is confusion because why does the show constantly highlight Andy, having him tell us how great he’s doing, only for it to be painfully obvious that, in reality, nobody has any respect for him and he’s not in the great position he claims to be in? At least, he’s not in a position to win the game. I really don’t know, but I don’t like it because it feels like Andy is being shoved in our face for no real reason. The show is kind of lying to us and fabricating content to create this narrative, which they’ve done plenty of times before, but this one feels too obvious and too unnecessary, unless Andy goes on to win or something crazy happens. Unless Andy turns this around and shows some hard proof that he’s doing something, I’m just going to be annoyed.

Regardless, we're nearing the end of the season, so let's get moving. This episode sucked. I take back everything I just said. Oh my god, was episode 12 exactly what this season needed? While I feel that this season has been solid thus far, aside from episode 4, we didn't have another big moment or something this season can be remembered by, and I was very nervous we weren't going to get that. Even if the season was more consistent than Survivor 46, the highs in Survivor 46 overshadowed this season.

But episode 12, "Operation Italy," was beautiful in every aspect, and I'm really excited to discuss this move and episode. To start, this is something I've not talked about all season. It’s been bothering me just as much as it's bothered everyone online: Why is Sue's face so dirty? It's unbelievable. Now, I know there were talks about her using dirt to contour her face, but it didn’t look good. I just don’t have much faith that was actually a thing, at least not up to this point in the season. Then we have Sue saying nobody told her that her face was filthy, like on Twitter and stuff. However, Caroline's exit interviews say they tried so hard to help, but she had singed skin on her face from the fire, and I guess it just embedded into her skin. I don’t know. Either way, it’s so jarring to see her face get dirtier and dirtier with no explanation, especially when nobody else in Survivor history has had this happen. Anyways, there’s an actual episode to discuss. To start, Genevieve is just calling it how it is to Teeny, saying how Rachel is the biggest threat in this game and will likely win against anyone. Even if Teeny is in the final three, Genevieve is probably voting for Rachel. But instead of this being a very good idea…

Of this season so far, I understand that you have great social connections, but that’s just not what "Survivor" is in its entirety. There has to be some substance there. It’s super naive to just write off Rachel as a threat just because Genevieve is telling you to, and you don’t trust Genevieve. Congratulations on losing to Rachel, Teenie, because that's the outcome you're going to get at the end of this. The Teenie drama doesn’t stop there; a reward challenge involving Italian food, a night in the sanctuary, and letters from home is won by Sam. Sam ends up taking Andy because he promised him, and Genevieve, for reasons I guess I don’t know. Those are pretty harmless picks for someone who’s on the bottom of this game. But for Teenie, Sam might as well have killed their dog. Teenie loses their mind back at camp and goes on a pure hate rant, talking about how Sam is done.

This is the stupidest move he's ever made, and clowning on him for being a straight white man is pretty much what we just witnessed here. While I hate straight white men as much as the next person, I think this is a little weird. Sure, they can be mad we love ourselves a Liz Wilcox moment, but Liz kind of kept it real with us the entire time about how she just wanted some damn food. Teenie is on their high horse here, speaking as if they are mad because Sam made the worst mistake of his life, game-wise.

No, Teenie, you're upset because you didn't receive special treatment and weren't given the reward, and you're hiding behind the pretense that it's a bad game move. This isn't surprising, as Teenie has admitted to being an emotional player, but it's frustrating to see Sam being labeled as something we all know he isn't. The guy is a jacked theater kid. He's being profiled. And yes, it sounds strange to say that Sam, of all people, is being profiled, but I just don't have a better word for it.

This isn't a big deal either, so please don't take my words too seriously; I'm just expressing how I feel in the moment. But it doesn't really matter. Sam and Teenie are friends after the show; who cares? It's great television, and that's all I truly care about. Regardless, this rant about man-hate turns into them not being on the reward, forming a final four, and claiming they are going to be the final four women. I can personally guarantee you these four will not be the final four women, but we do love a proper downfall being set up.

Jeez, I've talked a lot about this episode already, and we haven't even scratched the surface of what makes this episode so iconic: Operation Italy. Now, Genevieve and Sam are pretty desperate, so they need Andy to flip and cause some havoc to save their games. For Andy, he's been thinking along these lines. He knows he's number five in the pecking order for that underdog group. With everyone agreeing that they need to work together, they are looking for a way for their three, with zero advantages, to come through against this four, who have all the advantages—and more advantages they don't even know about.

So they put their heads together to create Operation Italy. Here’s how it works: to start, 3 is less than 4; that's just how math works. However, 3 is greater than 2 and 2. This can be achieved if Andy can convince the majority to split their votes, leaving the table with a 3-2-2 vote.

However, you cannot just come back to camp and tell everybody to split the votes for no reason, so that is where a fake idol comes into play. This is something Genevieve will create to convince at least one person that she has an idol. However, they also need to put on an Oscar-winning performance. If even one of their three stories going back to camp is off or a little weird, things can flip just like that. So, they all need to play their role.

Andy is spilling to the Underdog Bug Alliance that he's loyal while trying to get a split vote down without being too obvious. Genevieve is trying to play like she has an idol, and Sam continues to act like he just wants to survive, doing anything to make that a reality. There are so many layers to this plan, and every single layer must work perfectly for it to succeed in this one scenario. The goal is clear: to eliminate Rachel from the game. Cut to Rachel instantly winning immunity, and Operation Italy already has a hole in its ship. Luckily, they can right this ship and aim for the second biggest threat, Caroline. Now it's time to put everything into action and see Operation Italy through.

Unfortunately, there is just so much that could go wrong. I mean, Genevieve told Teenie about her idol and flashed it to them, and if Teenie knows that's a fake, the entire plan is falling through. Not just that, but you have the risk of them simply not splitting the vote. Teenie is dead set on wanting Sam out of this game and doesn't even care about splitting because Sam going just feels so right. There's also, I don't know, Rachel's block of vote.

If Rachel wants to ensure things go correctly, all she needs to do is block Genevieve or Sam's vote, and the plan is dead. Then, we also have to consider Andy himself and see if he gets cold feet or chickens out from the plan; if that happens, everything is at risk. On top of all that, what if Caroline pulls something unexpected? We also know that Caroline has an ally named Sue who possesses an idol. So if things get weird at tribal or a single slip-up occurs, that idol will be played on Caroline, and the plan is doomed because they will know the votes are going toward her.

So much can go wrong with just one single outcome that has Operation Italy going through, and that's what makes this move fun for me. Before we get into the vote, I need to add that this episode, in particular, is where I kind of fully understood Genevieve as a television character and where I fell in love with her. I think she's incredibly dynamic and has been, for most of the season, incredibly smart and strategic on all levels while being an authentic human being at the end of the day who hates hurting people. Seeing her journey over the last few episodes, from top dog to completely hopeless, to finding that passion again is so fluid and feels so real, making her very rootable. Now, I know I'm super late to this train, but in my defense, I think I was blinded by the Twitter forces who were shoving in my face that Genevieve was winning when she never was. But that's a whole edgy conversation that had me foaming at the mouth, waiting to see Genevieve go home and seeing these people being proven wrong. That mindset had me ignoring how great and dynamic of a character she is. However, this isn't her boot episode, so I'm going to swiftly move to Tribal and finish those thoughts when it makes sense to.

Tribal once again. An act that has Teenie making it loud and clear. Tribal is once again an act for the trio that has Teenie making it clear what they're doing. Genevieve is acting strangely confident, and then, oh my God, the acting from Sam and Genevieve about fake not playing her idol that isn't even real was the cherry on top of everything. Because bam, bam, bam, a 3-2-2 vote later, Caroline's blindsided along with most of the tribe and the jury. Operation Italy succeeded, goddammit.

We got Sam and Genevieve trying not to smile, and he knows he's a badass. I'm so unblogged. I'm unbelievably obsessed with this move. Now, is this a game-winning move for any of the three? No, but it gives the potential for it to be, and that is all that matters to me. Andy may not win the game in any timeline, but this move creates the potential for Andy to win the game moving forward. If he doesn't make this move, he automatically loses his game.

This kind of brings me back to "Survivor: Game Changers" in a weird way. While I do not like that season one bit, I can appreciate what they were trying to accomplish with the theme. It's not about whether the move was good, successful, or led to winning the game; it's about having the guts or the gumption to make a move that improves your position, which is what defines a game changer. That’s exactly what I see here. Although almost the entire cast of "Game Changers" were not game changers themselves, that's not what I'm focusing on. What I'm discussing is that we had three people who wanted to change the fate of this game. They took matters into their own hands and executed a beautiful round of gameplay in an effort to turn the tides in their favor.

I still think this season is going to be predictable, and this episode was also predictable because I could tell Caroline was going home even before Operation Italy happened. However, that doesn't mean I have to be a grumpy dude in the corner. I can appreciate when I see pure and wonderful Survivor. This episode also sparked discussions about comparing this move and episode to everything we've seen in the new era. As a pure move, I see it as pure and wonderful Survivor—the best. Now, the Cody blindside and the Omer blindside are definitely up there, but I believe this was three people using pure strategy to get their way. There were no idols in play, and there were so many ways for this to go wrong, especially with the people in the position to make the move having much more at stake than in these other moves.

That is what I value much more than an advantage-focused move, even if they were spectacular and led to winning games. As for the best episode, I think it's up there, but I don't call it the best. I think, again, the Cody boot as an episode is better. I really enjoyed the Kelly boot in Season 45, and it's probably comparable to the Caleb "Shot in the Dark" episode in Survivor 45 as well. And hell, I think there's a debate for Episode 4 of this very season being better than "Operation A.O.E."

It's close, but I think it's comparable. However, it's still wonderful and absolutely deserves its recognition. But don't think I forgot about the breakout of the episode and Caroline, so I’ll stop there. I really liked Kale. Caroline, at times, can seem boring, but I truly believe she has a great mind for the game and would have won if she hadn't gone home this episode; I fully believe that. Regardless, Caroline was fun and a good presence on this season, just not someone I'd need back on a future season.

But what an episode to go out on. Too bad this episode will be referred to as "Operation Italy" instead of "The Caroline Boot," but it's still great stuff. Jeez, I talked about this episode for a long time, but it's worth it. It's a great episode and probably the best content we're going to have for the rest of the season, so we'll move on. Now we're onto the finale, part one, and this is so stupid. Why the hell is this a two-part finale? I get that the network was the one who made the call, and the show just had to follow, but why would you call it a two-part finale? You've had finales with four people left—just call the next episode the finale and then label this one as the penultimate episode. It's not that hard! You can't call it a finale if you call this a penultimate episode. It’s really not that complicated.

You can't call it a finale if the season doesn't end in the episode. That's just not how finales work. Whatever, I'm nitpicking. So, we have two rounds to discuss this episode, starting with the aftermath of Operation Italy. There's a lot of confusion about what just happened, especially with Teenie, who is all over the place but wants to be on the right side of the vote at least once this season. They instantly jump ship over to the trio, ratting out Rachel and sharing all the dirt Teenie could possibly tell them. However, Rachel is a bit smarter than that; she literally spies and listens in on this conversation, giving her the upper hand moving forward, knowing she's the number one target.

So Rachel starts rallying the troops, and by rallying the troops, that means she tells Sue that she has an idol. Now, Sue is going to be loyal to her forever and ever. Rachel's idol will guarantee her a spot in the final five, no matter what. At immunity, Rachel would obviously love to win so she can be guaranteed a spot in the final four with immunity in sixth place and the idol in fifth, but Genevieve pulls out immunity, and I can't wait. I kind of love that because Genevieve is an icon. Too bad this was spoiled in the preview earlier in the week, which is insane. I don't understand how Survivor consistently fails at keeping their own show a secret. Regardless, things are pretty standard, but I still had a lot of fun with these camp scenes. The Gata 3 have a very real moment at camp, just taking in their entire journey together and realizing that this is most certainly ending here.

With Andy and Sam convinced Rachel is about to go home, Rachel knows she’s actually staying, and one of those two will be taken out. But again, Rachel is kind of greedy. She wants to guarantee herself a spot in the final four, so what is the harm in trying to get somebody to flip? She can use her vote blocker and then have a ticket to fire making. And the best candidate to flip is, of course, going to be Andy.

So she gives a pretty compelling speech to Andy, who is a very logical player. In the end, though, Andy just can't pass up the opportunity to strike against the biggest threat in the game. He ends up confessing way too much to Rachel, basically explaining his higher game to her because he knows she's about to be on the jury, and she needs to see his game for what it truly is. This pitch opens Rachel's eyes to see Andy's game for what it really is. Andy is a massive threat that has just been under everybody's noses. So, headed into tribal, Rachel uses her block of votes and her idol, and Andy catches the stray votes, ultimately being taken out due to an idol. This wraps up the arc for possibly the most impactful character of the season.

Andy was memorable and definitely one of the faces of Survivor 47. From his disastrous episode 1 to turning his entire game around and becoming a power player who was voted out because of how respected he was, I think that’s an amazing arc and a beautiful journey to watch. It would have only been better if he had found a way to win this game. At the same time, I’m confused as to why so many people hated him. Yes, he was very game-centric and talked about math a lot, but he was also a really fun character in that way, too.

I don't know; I really enjoyed Andy here. He's a flawed player. I feel like him consistently diminishing himself and his ability in this game worked for a while, but at a certain point, he needed to show he was a threat in the game. It’s very, very hard to sway a jury at the last minute to completely flip their perception of you that has been built since day three. However, I think, purely game-wise, Andy made the optimal move at every single point in the game, and I will stand by that forever. Your hatred for Andy will not convince me that he was not a good player.

If anything, I think he probably played the best game of the season. And also, just to give another point to the haters, Andy's a lock for Survivor 50. Are you kidding me? The producers loved him, Jeff loves him; he's exactly what the show wants for Survivor 50. So be very prepared for an Andy return. Personally, I enjoy Andy.

So I will be very excited for that to happen. It was a great run, and I'm very sad to see Andy go. The final five round was unfortunately not very interesting or fun, so I'm going to skip most of it. The show tells us it's going to be Rachel versus Genevieve, and that's exactly what it was, until Rachel wins immunity. Now it's boring, and we all know that Genevieve is going home, so it's not even Rachel versus Genevieve anymore. What is the point of this next hour of content? The show is going to portray it as a vote between Sam and Genevieve, but Genevieve still has the idol, so she can hold onto it until Sam obviously rats out that knowledge and tells everybody that Genevieve's idol is fake. Then Teeny has a whole confrontation with Genevieve about the idol, and Genevieve finally tells Teeny the truth. It all culminates in Genevieve getting voted out, falling just short. And, God damn it, I need to say this one more time: f**k Roman! His stupid ass spoiled the season. He just can't do anything right. It's really frustrating. I feel like I've already talked about it a little bit, but I just don't get how one man can be the worst at all opportunities.

Well, the episode itself was pretty quick, so I will get to talk a lot about Genevieve. And Genevieve is an icon. I get the comparisons to poverty, and dare I say Genevieve is on par, if not better, as a confessionalist? She's that damn good. I've talked about my newfound love for Genevieve pretty recently in this review, and now thinking back to the entire season, it truly was a good one. Blessing, I think Genevieve and Andy are the stars of the season in my mind.

As a game player, I have a decent amount of issues with her game. Obviously, I think the Saul move was very poor and left her at the bottom for the rest of her time in the game, aside from Operation Italy. But I mean, even outside of that moment, she is just one Rachel final 5 immunity loss away from being at the final 4 and having a chance to make fire to win the entire game. I have been begging to see Genevieve back on Survivor 50. Now, I don't think it's as likely as someone like Andy or many of the contestants from Survivor 45 and 46, but there's a chance, and I really think the season will be better if Genevieve is on it. She was a star; she's one of my new era favorites, and I'm very sad to see her lose.

However, we're now down to four, and we get to watch the finale, part two, and the crown of winter. We have made it to the finale part two, and this could have been an email. I was very bored throughout all of this. I genuinely don't think there was a single moment where I felt any passion or any heart. It was just monotone the entire time.

So let's talk through it. To start, Rachel wins final immunity, and the season's over. Congratulations, Rachel! You have won Survivor 47. Woo!

All right, episode over. See that? You have won Survivor 47! Woo!

All right, episode over. See, that's my issue. Five minutes into the episode, that was it. "Community" sealed the deal and ended the entire season because we all know Rachel is going to win. But now I have another hour and 45 minutes of an episode that I have to talk about. I guess we get the dumb fire-making challenge with Rachel being honest about how she's putting in Sam and Teenie because Sue is a goat, and Sue is never winning Survivor. Ever. Duh. So it's Sam and Teenie in fire, and the fire-making challenge seems to be fun.

It seems to be fun and it looks close, as Teenie has a massive lead on Sam and is literally burning her rope. Then, all of a sudden, Mother Nature intervenes and says, "No, Teenie, you will be getting fourth place," and blows down their fire. Out of nowhere, Sam comes in and wins. While this is fun, cool, and exciting, and it should mean something to me, it doesn’t because Rachel is sitting at the final three. No matter who wins, that outcome isn't changing.

The vote isn't going to be close. This isn't some intense thing; it's a personal matter. Congratulations to Sam, but I just don't really care. However, we do lose Teenie here, and Teenie was an incredible character. I will say up front that I think this is a one-season arc type of situation because I don't know what else Teenie would bring in a second run.

Teenie is going to play the same way. That's just who Teenie is, and I think it's a really compelling story that I had a lot of fun watching the entire time. However, it's not something I need to watch again because it's going to become a replacement. There's only room for this to sink. While I feel like Teenie was not a great player, I do believe Teenie doesn't get as much respect as they deserve. Yes, they got screwed over a lot. Even if many of their decisions weren't the best, I still think Teenie had a ton of potential and could have definitely won this game if one little thing had gone a different way.

One vote that they were blindsided on went a different way. Regardless, thank you, Teeny, for blessing our television screens for 14 episodes. I had a ton of fun. Now we reach the final three, final tribal, and winner reveal. Unfortunately, none of this was that interesting at all because final tribal was pretty bland. I mean, I think all three made good pitches and were very compelling.

Even Sue, who is someone we all know wasn’t winning, gave the best pitch. I feel like she could have in that moment. Then Rachel was pushed back against by Andy, who just proves that he has great analysis in great hindsight for the game by comparing Rachel’s game to Ben Drebergen and Mike Holloway—two games that are not very respected in Survivor. But that’s kind of exactly what Rachel did: she relied on immunity wins and idols to get to the end of the game, despite being the big overwhelming target. While I do think there’s a key difference there, I kind of think that’s just how it is; if not, Rachel might be a worse version of those two, because at least both of them, at a certain point in the merge game, had a ton of power and natural connections. People talk about Rachel having a great social game, but how different is her social game from someone like Mike or Ben, who both got to the end and won pretty handily in a vote? I think their games are super comparable. So, as much as it feels like a diss to say Rachel is like Mike or Ben, it’s just the way it is. Sam tries coming at Rachel, but it doesn’t really work, and we all know where this is going. We’ve known where this was going for a long time: Rachel wins Survivor 7 to 1 to 0, with Kyle being the only one that voted for Sam. And that’s Survivor 47. Wow, crazy! I’ll talk through the final three, wrap this up, and end this video here, starting with Sue, who... yeah, I don’t have much to say about Sue. Sue existed.

I don't think she really brought much of anything to the season. I mean, she was prominent in the pre-merge, but it wasn't the kind of prominent where I thought, "Oh, Sue's a great character." In the post-merge, she was invisible and just blindly followed whoever would give her any information. In reality, Sue was a dud, and I don't particularly respect her as a person based on her beliefs. And yeah, that's it.

Sam was a much bigger character this season. All over the place in the pre-merge, he was the confessional guy who was involved in everything and controlled the game dynamics for a long time. But, kind of like Sue—albeit in a game sense—he lost all control instantly when Sierra went home. From that point on, he was just the underdog who didn't have much agency in anything. Yes, he voted correctly every time, but he wasn't the leader of any of these votes.

He wasn't the one dictating any of these votes. He made it to the end, yes, but I don't think that had anything to do with him outwitting, outplaying, and outlasting people. It was fun. I don't need to see him back. I don't think he's coming back. I don't think the show really views him as this massive character.

I just think he was important enough to the story and a good enough narrator to have all these confessionals. And Rachel—Rachel won, which I have to respect. But I don't think Rachel is that compelling or interesting to me at all. And that's probably not going to go over well because a lot of people online have talked very highly about Rachel and her game, which I just genuinely don't understand.

Because it's incredibly hypocritical when she played, as I've said before, and as Andy also mentioned, the exact same games that Mike Holloway and Ben Drebergen played—two people who were despised by the community. But because it's Rachel in these shoes, all of a sudden, everything is great. I don't know; it's a little weird for me. Just call it how it is. I didn't enjoy someone being painted as the obvious threat, and then that obvious threat winning the game.

I just didn't care. It wasn't very compelling. The end of the season, aside from Operation Italy, didn't really do anything for me because we all knew in the end Rachel was going to win this season; the show was telling us, "Hey, Rachel is going to win." However, the obviousness of Rachel's edit is not my biggest gripe, because I understand that female winner edits do not get propped up much at all. If they don't get propped up, people are going to downplay them; they're going to talk negatively about them, saying they're not great winners. So it's kind of refreshing to see a female winner get praised all the time and be painted as an obvious winner, especially since we've seen this happen with men a lot in Survivor history.

But for me personally, I don't like it when any winner editor is obvious. That's just me. I don't care who you are; I've never liked it before, even Tony.

I'm a big Tony fan. In Winners at War, I was frustrated when his edit became too obvious at the end; everyone knew he was winning, and that wasn't fun for me, despite being someone who wanted Tony to win. The same thing happened here. Also, Rachel didn't provide good TV either. Can you name some great Rachel moments?

I don't have any. It just was blah to me. Her entire game was fine, but it doesn't make me want to root for her. It wasn't compelling television, which is something I want out of a winner and something I want out of anybody. Out of everybody this season, she was one of the most boring, and I don't think that's a hot take to say.

Rachel's fine. She won; congratulations! That doesn't mean I think it's some amazing game or that I think she's some amazing player. In fact, I believe her game is worse than what she is as a player.

But I have to look at the game for what it is. The game itself was not great. However, congratulations! Survivor 47 is over. That's my review.

That's the season. Overall, I think it was good—nothing incredible, like I've heard a lot of people say. This is nowhere near my favorite Survivor season of the year and nowhere near my favorite new era season ever. However, I think it's good, and I just have to accept that this is where Survivor is going to go and this is about the quality that we're going to get in Survivor seasons, give or take—maybe a little better, maybe a little worse. Will I look back in five years and think, "I remember Survivor 47. That was a great time"? No, not really.

Not really at all, if I'm being honest. Yeah, there’s not some insanely amazing character. There are some people that I personally love, but I think a lot of characters kind of just fall flat for me. The gameplay was high-quality and great, but that can't be everything for me. There has to be more.

And unfortunately, I just feel like this season didn't deliver, aside from a couple of really great episodes. That's going to do it for me, though. Thank you guys for being patient. I know the uploads have been slow. School and real-life things have to take priority.

I'm so sorry. You are getting one more video before the end of the year where I will be ranking every single reality TV show that I watched in the year 2024. This is a year-long video that takes me a long time to watch all of these shows, and I want to be able to discuss all of the shows I watch and kind of expand and broaden my range of reality TV knowledge. It's a really fun video, so I highly recommend that when it drops, you guys check it out, see what my rankings are, and find out what you agree with or disagree with. If there are any shows that you see there that you want to watch, I hope to inspire you to check them out. But aside from that, I'll talk about my stuff in 2025 in that video, so that's another reason why you should go watch it.

As for this video, I'm done. If you made it to the end, I love you, platonically, of course, and I will undoubtedly see you when I see you. Bye!