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This season of Survivor is about to shake things up. The “Winners at War” tribes are being shuffled on the Wednesday, March 11 episode, titled “The Buddy System on Steroids,” and it looks like the show is probably going to a three-tribe game for a while.
The reason for that is there are 15 castaways still playing who aren’t at Edge of Extinction. That’s an odd number and they don’t usually do tribe swaps with an odd number. But 15 can be split into three tribes of five, so that is likely what they’re doing.
It should be fun to watch, especially because we now all know that Michele Fitzgerald and Wendell Holland used to be in a relationship together and are now going to be on the same tribe. Fans are already calling them “Wenchele” and hoping they team up, Boston Rob and Amber Mariano-style. Ahead of Wednesday’s episode, Michele apologized to Wendell for the attention that is most likely coming his way on social media after the episode airs.
Follow along here with our live recap, but be warned of spoilers below. All times Eastern.
8:02 — Tyson Apostol sent his fire token to Nick Wilson. In case you’re curious, the current fire token count is as follows: Adam Klein, Ben Driebergen, Jeremy Collins, Yul Kwon, Tony Vlachos, Kim Spradlin-Wolfe, Sophie Clarke, Michele, and Wendell have one fire token each. Denise Stapley, Parvati Shallow, Nick, and Boston Rob each have two fire tokens. Sandra Diaz-Twine and Sarah Lacina do not have any fire tokens.
Out on Edge of Extinction, Natalie Anderson has three fire tokens, Amber Brkich Mariano, Danni Boatwright, and Ethan Zohn each have one, and Tyson has zero.
8:05 — We get an update on former Survivor player Jonathan Penner and his wife, Stacy, who has ALS and can no longer breathe on her own. That’s incredibly sad, I had no idea. CBS put up a video if you want more information.
8:08 — Time to switch up tribes. As we suspected, it’s three tribes of five people each. This is when Michele reveals that Wendell is her ex-boyfriend and they are now on a tribe together. The new tribes are Parvati, Nick, Yul, Michele, and Wendell on Sele; Tony, Sandra, Jeremy, Denise, and Kim on Dakal; and Ben, Sarah, Rob, Sophie, and Adam on the new Yara tribe.
8:13 — At the new Dakal tribe, Denise and Kim immediately start talking about aligning, though Tony wants Kim to join him and Sandra against Denise and Jeremy. If I were Kim, I’d go with Denise and Jeremy. No offense to Sandra and Tony.
8:18 — Meanwhile, over at Sele, Wendell and Michele are wondering if this is going to be awkward for them. Parvati thinks it’s hilarious that these two are now trapped with each other on “the smallest tribe ever.” Yeah, that’s pretty funny. For what it’s worth, Michele and Wendell seem to be fine now, even if they weren’t fine when they filmed the show.
8:22 — Over at the new Yara tribe, Sarah and Sophie want to know how the votes went down at the old Sele tribe and they’re pretty surprised to learn that these three guys are not really on the same page. As Sarah observes, it sort of seems like all three of them are ripe for the picking. She and Sophie just need to figure out who to align with between Adam, Boston Rob and Ben. Sophie seems to like Adam and Sarah seems to like Ben, so Boston Rob might be in some trouble here.
8:35 — Immunity challenge time. The tribes must navigate an obstacle course, then knock down blocks, then solve a column puzzle. Sele and Yara get a decent lead and Dakal trails going into the block portion. They are still trailing as the other two tribes move on to the puzzle portion. Sele pulls out a win first, then Dakal manages to get second place because Sophie and Adam totally blew it on their puzzle for Yara. I think this spells Boston Rob’s downfall.
8:45 — Rob is trying to keep everything in tight control, so he has basically ordered the guys not to separate before Tribal Council. They are going to vote out Sarah and that’s that. That is what Rob has decreed. And so now, everybody is just sitting around staring at each other because the guys are afraid to get up and leave the fire area. Now, Sophie does have a hidden idol. But the question is if she’ll get the right feeling and play it for the right person. It’s also a little up in the air as to whether Ben and Adam are with Sophie and Sarah to vote out Rob or not.
8:53 — At Tribal Council, Sophie says this season is tricky because there are so many intertwined relationships from outside of the show. Yeah, that’s a huge X factor this season. The girls then also say that the boys were so tight together after the challenge that there was no opportunity to make a connection or form a plan or anything like that. So they open it up to offers on the spot — who wants to work with us? We could be good alliance-mates. ANd they’re right. Sophie and Sarah are very solid. Sarah is super fit and tough, Sophie is super smart. They would be good allies.
8:56 — It certainly appears as though Rob has Adam and Ben under his thumb and there is no breaking them apart. So maybe this won’t be Rob’s ouster. But this also might be a classic blindside edit.
8:58 — Sophie chooses not to play her idol, which might mean this is not going to go Boston Rob’s way. The votes go three for Rob and one for Sarah. Whoa. So both guys flipped. Because if they could have shown it be tied, they would have for maximum drama. Interestingly, that didn’t even seem like a blindside. Rob almost seemed like he knew that was coming. That’s some funky editing.
Next week: Double elimination! On his way out, Rob gives his two fire tokens to Parvati, so she now has four, which is more than anyone else in the game.
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