Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers episode 4 review: Idol roulette
Alan Ball was tremendous television, and he was also a contributor to the tribe in challenges. Why get rid of him over Ashley? While Joe managed to pull off a great coup reading Ashley and saving himself with the hidden immunity idol (we’ll take his word for it on reading her face), in the process he did make a questionable decision here. Alan already had a reputation among the Heroes for being a little bit erratic, and his social game wasn’t anywhere near on the level as Ashley. Keeping her means you not only lose a former NFL player for challenges (not that they knew that), but also that you still have someone who could easily pair up with JP down the road and get that Power Couple thing going. Hey, Alan isn’t around to police it anymore!
Another question to wonder with Joe is whether or not he needed to create all of this theater in the first place where everyone was coming after him and Desi. The answer here seems to be “probably.” Given how like-minded Devon and Ashley seemed to be in terms of their personalities and lifestyle there was never a chance they were going to vote apart, and Ashley and Alan were together thanks to their tribal history. We don’t know if there was anything Joe could’ve done other than maybe try to flip Alan, but we don’t think that would’ve worked. For all of the effort that this episode gave us in terms of craziness and advantages we would’ve reached the same conclusion anyway. Jessica gifted Devon the “advantage” of being unable to vote, but it didn’t matter since he would’ve voted for Joe anyway.
What happens if Joe goes to Tribal Council next week without an idol? Based on tonight, we definitely think he’d flip on Desi in order to save his own hide.
The other tribes
Joe was on the new Levu a.k.a. the blue tribe, whereas Ben, Jessica, Cole, Lauren, and Urologist Mike are over on the red tribe Yawa. Meanwhile, Roark, Ali, JP, Ryan, and Chrissy were on the yellow tribe Soko. It’s mostly interesting that we’re still at three tribes, which does signal that another swap is coming in probably a vote or two.
We’re somewhat lucky that we got Levu at tribal council this week just because they are clearly the most interesting of this new group. The only thing somewhat interesting about the others here is that Cole decided to spread the word about Jessica’s advantage far more than he should have or far more than he really needed to, all things considered. Why this guy continues to stick his neck out when he doesn’t have a reason to is still beyond our comprehension.
CarterMatt Verdict
The challenges were fun tonight and we appreciate the Jeff Probst – Foo Fighters Easter eggs that were thrown in there. (Did you see them?) More than that, though, the tribal council makes the episode. We feel somewhat for Alan since he got screwed over by an idol, but at the same time there was still one out there he probably could’ve found if he looked. We don’t think Joe will win this season in a million years right now but we’re certainly glad he’s playing hard.
What did you think about Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers episode 4?
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