CBS “The Strategist or The Loyalist” — Ricard Foye, Genie Chen, and Shantel Smith on 'Survivor'
The latest “Survivor” episode is titled “The Strategist or the Loyalist” and its description reads, “Ua, the tribe of only three castaways, competes to win the immunity challenge to save them from becoming a tribe of two. Also, friendships are put to the test when castaways from different tribes take a journey together.”
Can Ua manage not to get Ulong’d with one person left standing like Stephenie LaGrossa was during “Survivor: Palau”? We’ll have to see!
Follow along below with our live blog as the sixth castaway is eliminated from “Survivor 41” but be warned of spoilers.
DON’T KEEP READING IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED.
All times Eastern.
8:05 — The Ua three feel very solid with each other, which they should at this point, but they are going to be struggling not to lose another member at the immunity challenge. They find the next Beware Challenge and Shan hesitates about having them open it because there could be some kind of twist — but in reality, Shan and Ricard are worried about Genie having power (because Genie found it). So Shan and Ricard decide to open it in secret and plant a bracelet inside so that if Genie goes to open it herself, she’ll think she has an idol. Oooh, sneaky. But then Ricard gets real gross comparing Genie to spare tire that he and Shan are going to leave by the side of the road when they don’t need her anymore. That is not great.
8:10 — Meanwhile, over at Luvu, Deshawn and Danny are nervous about how many men have been voted off the show and how they’ll be outnumbered at the merge. Naseer is not on board with throwing challenges and yeah, that’s so dumb. Even if you are outnumbered in terms of men-women, you could go into a merge with a six-person Luvu alliance. You have to stick with that.
Over at Yase, Tiffany is paranoid that Evvie and Xander are too close, so she convinces Liana that they need to go through Xander’s bag while he and Evvie are at the well. They find his three-way idol and his extra vote. But while they’re gone, Evvie and Xander decide they should tell Tiffany about the idol anyway, so then they tell her and she has to pretend she doesn’t know — except Xander lies about when he found the idol. He makes it sound like he just found it, which Tiffany immediately trips him up about because she heard the phrases at the challenges. Duh, Xander.
8:20 — Immunity Challenge time. Shan says the broccoli phrase and Xander says the butterfly phrase again, then Naseer says the third phrase. He found the beware advantage at Luvu. So now, Xander has an idol, Shan has an idol and Naseer has an idol, plus Xander has an extra vote.
8:25 — The challenge involves getting up and over a giant net structure, which Luvu makes quick work of. Then you have to untangle a series of knots, which Naseer also makes quick work of for Luvu. They are then shooting sandbags at two targets, but Luvu only has the smallest lead when the other two tribes start shooting. The first tribe to get both targets is Yase, followed by Luvu. So Ua is headed to tribal and Genie is probably toast. But before they leave, Yase has to pick someone from Ua to go on a journey. They pick Shan. Then they decide to send Liana from Yase with Shan.
8:30 — Shan and Liana bond and agree to have each other’s backs as the game goes on. Shan tells Liana that if she (Shan) is not around after tonight, Ricard cannot be trusted because he is her No. 1, so he cut her if she leaves. At the end, Shan chooses not to risk her vote so that Liana can get an extra vote. The merge is going to be wild, you guys. BUT THEN — Liana doesn’t get an extra vote. She gets an advantage where she can one time ask someone “do you have an advantage or do you have an idol?” and if the answer is yes, she gets the advantage or idol and they cannot lie.
8:40 — Back at Ua, Ricard starts working on Genie to think they’re voting out Shan, but he is actually going to work with Shan and vote out Genie. To her credit, Genie seems suspicious of Ricard, but she acts like she’s going along with it, when she actually thinks she and Shan are voting out Ricard. Ha! When they all start pow-wowing in duos, Shan is nervous she can’t trust Ricard and asks him for the extra vote they got from JD to show trust that he’s going to keep her (because then those advantages go away), but he points out that if he gives up the extra vote, there’s no insurance he’s staying either. Ricard says if she feels so nervous about being voted out, she should play her idol tonight. He’s not wrong. And it will all come down to Shan’s vote, unless Ricard is double-crossing her. There’s a chance that she votes Genie out, Genie votes Ricard out and Ricard votes Shan out.
8:55 — At Tribal, the editing does a good job of making it seem like nobody seems to know for sure who is going home (and nobody actually knows for sure). During the voting, we don’t get to see any votes cast. Then the votes go Genie, Ricard, and… Genie. Not a huge surprise. Shan and Ricard seemed pretty tight, despite the editing.
Next time on “Survivor” — TRIBE SWAP!
“Survivor” airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific times on CBS. The 42nd season will air in the spring of 2022. Seasons 43 and 44 are casting now, so if you’ve always wanted to apply, now is your chance!
READ NEXT: Russell Hantz Slams ‘Survivor’ & Jeff Probst – ‘A Slap In the Face’