Survivor: Game Changers episode 8 sneak peek: A merge feast twist

With the Survivor: Game Changers episode 8 sneak peek, the show seems set to move forward from a tough, emotional week. As a matter of fact, the show does a rather odd thing in the preview in not even addressing it at all.

Typically, anytime that you have two tribes coming in to meet Jeff Probst following a challenge, Jeff announces who was voted out at the last Tribal Council. He doesn’t do that here. Maybe this is Jeff not wanting to trivialize what happened with Zeke and Jeff by turning it into an ordinary vote, or maybe it was left on the cutting-room floor. Hard to say, but this remains Zeke’s story to tell on his own terms.

In moving forward, it appears that there’s a twist coming beyond just the merge into the game. Jeff is standing alongside what looks to be a traditional merge feast … but then there is also a covered item. Looks like another twist is coming into the game! We don’t want to give away what this is, but it’s fair that in some way, it involves the feast — and it’s probably going to torment some of the players. You can’t imagine there being a merge feast and then someone gets something far better than expected! That twist only works when players are expecting something bad and it turns out good, like Debbie over at Exile Island.

In terms of who some of the big players are now that we are this merge, we’re looking specifically at people like a Hali Ford and a Michaela Bradshaw — basically, we’re looking at some of the remaining people from the original Mana tribe. Unless the original Nuku somehow decides to stick together, we’re going to see the Nuku people likely control which faction has the numbers. The most-recent iteration of Nuku all seems to be tight, and we feel like the experience with Zeke likely makes them even tighter. Meanwhile, we’ve gotten a sense that Brad Culpepper has gotten together a group with Cirie, Troyzan, Sierra, and Aubry working with him in some capacity. Unfortunately, that’s only five, and he needs two more in order to have numbers. He may be reliant on finding a way to get Hali and Michaela to join him — it’s either that or hope that someone from the other group lips. Maybe Aubry can work on Tai again, or Sarah will be itching to take out Ozzy?

What do you think is going to happen tonight, and who do you think is in the most interesting spot? Share in the comments!

Meanwhile, head over here if you do want to read our interview featuring Jeff Varner from last week. (Photo: CBS.)