Survivor: Island Of The Idols Episode 5 Recap - Drop Your Buffs

*SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY AHEAD*

After a one week hiatus, my Survivor recaps have returned. Apologies for the absence last week. I was caught up with Yankee playoff stuff and didn’t get around to finishing the episode and recap on time. I won’t do a full recap for Episode 4, but here were a few quick takeaways.

-Jamal had a nice emotional moment when finding the idol. Maybe he sticks around longer than I thought.

-Noura came up with the most unnecessarily elaborate lie in Survivor history when returning from the Island of the Idols. It was pure comedy to watch, and even better when they made her sit out of the challenge.

-Dean and Chelsea were very dumb to give any inklings of a showmance and put huge targets on their backs. Nobody ever again will be Rob and Amber.

-Missy, who was one of my favorites to win after Episode 3, is playing way too hard, too early. Targeting Chelsea doesn’t benefit Missy’s game much, and just puts a target on her back as a good player who will flip on anyone. The brightest stars burn out the fastest. Missy is peaking way too early.

-I was surprised they actually went through with the Chelsea vote. Second straight person going home with an idol. I don’t totally blame her for not playing it. This was a true blindside. She had absolutely zero idea it was coming. And this idol was good for the whole game, unlike Vince’s.

-If we ever do a Second Chance season again, I expect to see Chelsea back. She was a promising player who just got caught cuddling. She could be a Wentworth type player in a future season.

Alright, on to the Episode 5 recap….

Lairo Camp (Orange)

First of all, I’ve decided I don’t like the brief preview montage at the start of each episode. Very unnecessary and confusing. I’d much rather have a “Previously On…”

After tribal, Dean was very upset with the Chelsea blindside as he was completely left in the dark. Will he go on a Tyson-like run where he wins the game for his lover? Probably not, but he’s showing more promise each week. He began to interrogate people to find out who led the charge. It was ultimately Missy’s move, and it seems like Dean realized that. As I said, Missy is overplaying early. In her confessional regarding Dean, she said “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.” She’s getting very cocky and that will come back to bite her.

Tribe Swap/Reward/Applebee’s Commercial

As we saw on the preview from last week, buffs were dropped. Two new tribes of 8 were formed.

New Vokai (Purple)

Tommy, Elaine, Aaron, Lauren, Missy, Elizabeth, Dan, Jason

New Lairo (Orange)

Noura, Jamal, Kellee, Tom, Karishma, Jack, Dean, Janet

Vokai has an even split of 4 vs. 4 from the previous tribes. New Lairo has 5 old Vokai and just 3 old Lairo. Vokai also seems to have the clear physical advantage, and that was evident as they won the first reward challenge and got an Applebee’s lunch.

What followed was the best Applebee’s commercial of all time. Just non-stop over-the-top praise for the chain restaurant. The way people were screaming was quite comical because it seemed clear they were told “Go nuts for Applebee’s.” Survivor is never known for subtle, native advertisements to begin with.

New Vokai

This is going to be a very interesting dynamic as it’s a seemingly strong four against another seemingly strong four. Elaine did what she does best – got people to like her. She was play fighting with Missy and just bringing all-around good energy. While this does make her likable, it also makes her such an obvious threat. Aaron pointed this out, and realized he needed to form some bonds of his own. Him and Tommy hit it off immediately by talking about kids and strategizing to use each other as “meat shields.” The duo makes sense.

Aaron tweeted at me yesterday so I have to like him more now.

But regardless of any favoritism, I thought he delivered one of the strongest lines of the season when he said “You can only win this game by getting people to truly, genuinely like you.” And that’s really the ultimate truth about Survivor. You can be the biggest challenge beast or some strategic mastermind, but Survivor is mainly a social experiment at the end of the day. You need people to like you enough to keep you around, and to like you enough to write you a million dollar check.

New Lairo

Things at Lairo were way more clear. The five old Vokai (Noura, Jamal, Kellee, Janet, Jack) were going to stay solid. The three old Lairo (Dean, Tom, Karishma) would have to claw against each other and convince people “Not me. Not me. Not me.”

Dean and Kellee hit it off immediately. Dean’s longtime ex-girlfriend went to business school with Kellee. This gave them an immediate bond and was quite an odd coincidence. Kellee really took to Dean, but realized how that also made him a threat. I was really impressed with Dean this episode. He was very quiet early on, but he’s now showing that he’s likable, charismatic, and maybe a real threat in this game.

Karishma immediately said how she wants to flip on her old tribe because she was at the bottom. Even though she was in on the Chelsea vote and Dean wasn’t.

And Tom was classic Tom where he basically did nothing but talk about keeping the tribe strong and needing to get Karishma out. Credit to Janet here. She got a great read on Tom early on. She said he’s an older guy who just says how he feels, but that he also will likely have a “tribal mindset” at the merge and want to play with his old tribe mates. Very accurate, especially with him being a former pro athlete.

Immunity Challenge/Pre-Tribal

Vokai won yet another immunity, and Karishma had yet another terrible challenge performance. New tribe but same result for Lairo: Tribal Council.

The five of Noura, Jamal, Kellee, Janet, and Jack were going to stay strong to old Vokai. It was up to Dean, Tom, and Karishma to convince people that one of the other two should go besides them. Each had an interesting case.

-Dean could stay because he had no loyalties to his old tribe and would help in challenges. He’s also very likable, but that’s his problem too – being too much of a threat.

-Tom would be more helpful around camp and in challenges than Karishma, but he certainly wasn’t a challenge beast. The case against him was loyalty to his old tribe.

-Karishma could be kept because she’s absolutely no threat to win and would leave her own tribe in the dust. The case against her is she’s just an absolute zero in challenges.

The five old Vokai had a tough decision to make, and Noura couldn’t vote because of her ridiculous lie, but that didn’t really matter.

At tribal, things started to get a little more contentious as the vote got closer with all three in desperation mode. We also saw Rob and Sandra for the first time all episode, as there was no time for Island of the Idols with the tribe swap. This was a good decision.

Ultimately, Tom went home with a 5-2 vote. Dean and Tom voted for Karishma. Everyone else voted for Tom. Karishma survived again. I don’t think it’s the worst move. Tom had the strongest connections to the other side of the three. And even if this tribe loses the next two challenges, it’s not the end of the world for the Vokai 5. Dean and Karishma would be easy votes. Then you’re down to 13, where a merge might happen. Or maybe the merge happens at 12, but you got lucky and won a challenge. I have to imagine this was their thinking.

But the longer Karishma lasts, the more likely she is to clog up a spot at FTC in the goat role, which takes someone else’s seat.

Winner Rankings

This is a running list I’ll keep all season long. This is NOT who will last the longest. Don’t look at the person ranked last as the person likely to go home next. Look at them as the person with the least chance to win. That person could very easily get dragged to FTC as a goat, but won’t win. This is ranking people based on their chance to actually win the game.

I think the game is wide-open. Noura and Karishma are the only people I feel absolutely won’t win. Anyone else can make a case, although some have much stronger than others.

The Favorites 

1. Jason

2. Kellee

Contenders

3. Tommy

4. Lauren

5. Jack

6. Aaron

7. Missy

8. Dean

9. Jamal

Longshots 

10 Elaine

11. Elizabeth

12. Janet

13. Dan

 0.001% Chance

14. Noura

15. Karishma