Smarter Than He Looks (Maybe): Survivor 43 Episode 3 Recap

Survivor 43 rolled along last night with its third episode of the season. It was a pretty forgettable episode with not too much happening. It's been a pretty meh season, but it's only pre-merge so way too early to tell. I do think it's a promising group of players that could lead to some more entertainment later in the season. 

But for now, we'll just have to recap what we have. For a full breakdown of the episode, please watch Snuffing Torches on YouTube. 

We had special guest John Rich on to talk about his terrible take that Jeff Probst is too mean. What a pussy John Rich is. Watch, like, subscribe, comment and all that jazz. You can also subscribe on Apple and Spotify. 

Alright now onto the recap...

Blue Tribe (Coco)

-We'll start at Coco camp where they were celebrating James' birthday. When asked how he wants to celebrate, he said by looking for the idol. Bold move. But it led to a pretty open discussion among camp about how nobody has really been searching for advantages and got people to start looking. 

-Karla found the Beware Advantage and at first she decided to play it safe and leave it there. I'm torn on what I would do. I think it depends on how you feel about your position within the tribe. If you're in trouble, take the risk. If you feel safe and well-connected with everyone on the tribe (like Karla appears to be) then I understand not wanting to risk losing your vote. There's no reason to rock the boat. And that was her thinking at first. But after talking to James about what he would do, she decided the way to win Survivor is take risks and make big moves. Music to Jeff Probst's ears. She got the Beware Advantage and it was the same one Cody had where she had to collect a bead from all of her tribe members to get an immunity bracelet otherwise she wouldn't have a vote. 

-I think this is actually a pretty achievable feat. People don't have a reason to be protective over a little bead on their bag. Sure, people might want it as a souvenir, but if someone says they're making a necklace for their wife and offers you to trade stuff in exchange for it, you'd be kind of a dick to say no. And it would also just be bad gameplay to annoy your tribe member like that. Karla showed some serious acting chops and was able to get a bead from everyone relatively easy with some bartering. 

-Karla continues to impress me. She is the most well-connected player on her tribe as she has an alliance with everyone. And now she's armed with an idol. I think she will be making a deep, deep run and could very well be the winner. 

Yellow Tribe (Baka)

-It was once again The Gabler Show at Baka camp. He was sleeping by himself on the beach because he was getting annoyed by everyone in the shelter. Classic Gabler. 

-Elie and Jeanine hatched a plan to trick Gabler out of his idol. They went into his bag and saw that his idol is good for one more tribal council. But they thought they could pull a fast one on him and convince him that it's already expired. A little bold but also probably fair based on how dumb Gabler has proven to be. 

-Elie immediately volunteered to be the one to talk to him, talking about how good their relationship is. This raised some eyebrows from Sami who thought Elie was playing too hard and was too overconfident in her relationships with people. So he flipped it back on Elie. He told Gabler the girls' plan so that Gabler could play along and pretend like he didn't know the rules, saying he couldn't wait to bring it back as a souvenir to his daughter. The city boys were up big on this tribe as it seems like Sami, Owen, and Gabler have the numbers now. Although I could potentially see Owen flipping. 

-Stock up for Sami for concocting the plan against the girls. It's funny how he thinks being 22 is such a huge difference instead of being 19 though. And stock down for Elie. I had her high up in my winner rankings, and while I don't think she's completely done, she did show some flaws in her game. 

Red Tribe (Vesi)

-Jesse, Nneka, and Cody seemed like a tight three after their plan to vote out Justine worked. Dwight was feeling a bit betrayed by his island husband Jesse and became weary of him. Him and Noelle started to team up a bit. 

-I'm interested by Jesse's edit. He's not a straight up villain, but he does seem like a very strategic player who is a bit mischievous. I'm dying for a good Survivor villain. We haven't had one in forever. 

Immunity Challenge

-The challenge was some swimming, some climbing, and a puzzle. Fruit, tools, and immunity as rewards for the first two tribes to finish. 

-The story of this challenge was Noelle. She popped her prosthetic leg off and zoomed through the course. Swimming. Jumping. Climbing. You name it. It was one of the most impressive things I've ever seen. If I lost a leg, you'd never see me leave my couch. 

-The other story was red blowing a lead, mainly due to another bad puzzle performance from Nneka. This put her firmly back on the chopping block. 

Advantage Island

-Yellow came in first so they got to choose one person from each tribe to take a journey to Advantage Island. It's crazy to me Survivor still doesn't have a name for this place, so I'll just name it myself. 

-James, Noelle, and Owen were chosen to go from their respective tribes. After a walk that is way too long for seemingly no reason at all, they reached the point where they had to make their decision. Risk or no risk. In the past two seasons, people made their decisions independently. But this season they're able to talk it out. And since Noelle told them how on the bottom she is on her tribe, Owen and James decided to not risk their vote and just let Noelle get the advantage. They agreed to work together at the merge should they all make it. I get Owen and James wanting to play it safe but I'm a bit surprised they gave it to her so easy. I guess she did a really good job convincing them she needs it. Credit to her social game. 

Pre-Tribal Council

-Noelle opened her advantage back at camp and it was revealed to be a Steal-A-Vote. Absolutely huge from her as she was on the chopping block along with Noelle. She lied and told everyone that she protected her vote, but she told Dwight the truth since they had now become a duo. 

-Nneka seemed like the safe vote since she was such a bad challenge competitor who kept landing her team back at tribal council. But I'm surprised both sides took the easy way out. Jesse, Cody, and Nneka could've taken out Noelle who is clearly a more threatening player than Nneka. And while they didn't know she had the steal-a-vote, they should've at least considered it a responsibility instead of just taking it as face value. 

-And Noelle and Dwight could've used the steal-a-vote to take out Cody or Jesse. They were weary of Jesse who is clearly playing a good game and this was a great chance to take him out. This was an opportunity to shake things up and avoid the chance that the other three teamed up to take Noelle out. 

Tribal Council

-After some discussion about confidence scales, the group decided to vote out Nneka in a 4-1 vote, with her vote going to Noelle. 

-It'll be interesting to see what happens going forward at this tribe because Noelle and Dwight can now take control with the steal-a-vote and have a 3-1 advantage. Even Noelle without Dwight can force a 2-2 tie. But Cody also had the idol so he could protect himself. A lot at play. 

Winner Rankings

This is a ranking of the players I think are most likely to WIN. This is not necessarily who I think is safest in the game. Don’t look at the person ranked last as the person most 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.

Tier 1

1. Karla

2. Owen

3. Jesse

4. Elie

5. Geo

6. James

Tier 2

7. Sami

8. Ryan

9. Dwight

Tier 3

10. Cassidy

11. Jeanine

12. Lindsay

13. Noelle 

0.0% Chance Tier

14. Cody

15. Gabler

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