‘Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X’ episode 2 review: Meet Michelle the new power player

Tonight, “Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X” opened with a segment we like to call David’s Revenge, a reminder that people who are overly cocky and talk down to someone deserve a taste of their own medicine. This was a guy who in the premiere was afraid of everything; not only did he start his tribe’s fire in the opening minutes, but he also found the hidden immunity idol! He was called a puppy dog and a terrible asset to the tribe; ironically, he went from the doghouse to the penthouse!

What also made us excited as a David fan is the origin of his alliance with Ken, which feels almost like Stephen and JT all over again … or maybe we’re projecting, given that they’re one of our favorite alliances in human history. Final two please! Also, they came up with the name “Paul’s Posse” for the rival alliance, which may be the new name of Paul’s rock band back in the Florida Keys at the end the season.

Here’s where things take a sad turn: Paul, right in the middle of seemingly flexing his leadership muscles, had a medical emergency. Hats off to the “Survivor” editors, given that we were so engrossed in the story that we completely forgot about the fact that there was a health issue happening in this episode. You know things are dangerous when the doctors and Jeff Probst all show up, and it was genuinely scary, especially hearing Paul admit that he was scared because this sort of thing never happens to him. As it turns out, he was okay — but after “Kaoh Rong” and what happened to Caleb we were almost prepared for anything.

Love? is in the air – Well, one part of the Triforce is feeling left out! Taylor and Figgy are getting super-close, and are even at the kissing stage despite the fact that neither of them have any toothpaste or anything to make them appealing. This was absurd, though in second place was Jay proclaiming that romance in the game “never works” like he’d never heard of “Survivor: All-Stars.”

Also, Michaela fought with Figgy about … something. Hard to really know. Still, Michaela is amazing.

Challenge Time – What we were reminded of here mostly is that David’s almost ghost-like both in his appearance and his challenge ability. Yet, Ken is apparently a challenge god in addition to being one of our favorite people on the season right now. This was a really fun challenge to watch, and one that saw eventually Gen X emerge as the victors.

Tribal Council – The debate was an interesting one. On the surface, Figgy was the easy target. She was in an obvious duo, and she didn’t really do a great job winning over possible allies. Yet, she did have one major asset on her side in Michelle. She proved herself to be extremely savvy, and tried to use her social skills to convince Michaela and Will to come over and join her. Then, she even whispered to Hannah at Tribal to vote for Mari. It was clear that she was a social and a strategic threat.

Hannah took forever to vote, which made this one of the more interesting decisions we’ve seen in some time since she was really trying to count the numbers. Ironically, it didn’t matter — Mari would’ve gone home regardless since Figgy only had three votes to go.

We cannot understate this enough: GREAT play from Michelle tonight. She really orchestrated this, and even got people to work together who don’t even care for each other. Mari didn’t do too much overtly wrong! We did have Mari going home early pre-game, but at the same time, last week we suddenly thought she was in a great spot. How quickly the tables turn, and how excellent “Survivor” can be as a result of that. Episode Grade: A.

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