Survivor: David vs. Goliath episode 7 review: The cowboy hat becomes the black hat
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Also, there was beer. And watermelon. And protein. Basically, it’s paradise. Oh, but what about immunity idols clues? We wondered if someone was going to start eagerly looking around for that and Gabby seemed to be the first person eagerly watching the environment like a hawk. Meanwhile, Carl decided to tell everyone that Alec flipped on Natalia because he’s “playing the game” or whatever. Still trying to figure out what the point of that was.
Tribe Name Time – Kalokalo. This apparently means “stars” in the native language. Hey, we’ve all heard worse — remember Nobag in Survivor: Gabon? Nothing.
Soon after that, the alliance reunions happened. Christian and Nick have got the Mason Dixon alliance going strong; meanwhile, Dan told Kara that he had another immunity idol, mostly because … well, reasons. Reasons including that he likes her face. Alec wants to stick with the Goliath alliance, or at least he told them that before he ran off and formed a secret pact with Christian.
Most of the first part of this episode was really all about alliance-shifting since everyone wanted to work with almost EVERYONE else. Elizabeth is worried about Dan / Kara, Alec is working everyone, but in the end, a possible contingent formed: Mike, Nick, Gabby, Alison, Christian, and Alec. They want to be under the radar at first, and allow some easy targets (see Elizabeth) go home. After that, though, they can still pick off some Goliaths whenever they want. It really feels like a genuine alliance and not just a ploy — these are all fun players, too. Of course, that means that we’re probably not going to get what we want here and something terrible will ruin all the fun.
The first immunity challenge after the merge
This was weird. The entire idea here was to swing a pendulum around in a very specific pattern — if you screw up the pendulum or lose your balance, you’re out. It feels like Jeff Probst made an intentional comment that you can’t practice this in your backyard. Clearly, he wants to wipe away any potential advance.
Also, did anyone else feel like this was a challenge where producers didn’t wanna be out there all day to film? Sure, it was hot, so we kind of get why they would want to … but this felt like it was going to go fairly quickly. After about fifteen minutes all of the players had to make a transition from one hand to the next moving the pendulum.
It actually seemed like Elizabeth, who claims to be good at everything, was actually going to be good at this too. That didn’t happen, but she came awfully close. Alison won immunity, which means nothing since she wasn’t in any danger at all.
Now, the post-merge scramble
Apparently, Angelina may in her head have the theme from M*A*S*H playing in her head when talking strategy. She thinks that she’s running the stragetic show and to be fair, she’s got a good idea. Targeting Christian, someone who is an enormous threat on that tribe, is super-smart. The problem is that she’s not actually aware of how other people think about her. She doesn’t have the social capital to pull off her tactics. Alec wasn’t having the target-Christian plan by any means necessary. Heck, most of the Goliaths didn’t want it and, all of a sudden, there was an insurgency in her midst. Angelina was eventually told her that her plan was no bueno and she doesn’t feel safe … mostly because she didn’t get what she wanted the first time?
This brings us back to Angelina’s problem: She fights a little too hard to be in control. She also didn’t want to be the bad person so she told Elizabeth that she was going to be going home. This leads to our favorite part of the episode, where Elizabeth then plots Angelina’s demise with Gabby. THE COWBOY HAT IS NOW THE BLACK HAT. This is glorious, and this is gold.
Tribal Council
Entertainment-wise, the best move is to get rid of Angelina since she wouldn’t expect it. If Dan was smart, he would play one of his idols just for safe-keeping. Elizabeth was playing with house money.
Somehow, everything became even more crazy at Tribal Council when the tribe openly fought over what was going to happen … and Angelina got mad when she realized that Black Hat Elizabeth was alive and an actual player in the game.
Angelina basically had a meltdown when she learned that there was more danger for her than she realized. Yet, we also think that Elizabeth played way too hard in this situation, as well. She totally bungled this whole play if there was a way for her to just be quiet and let some of the chips fall where they may.
The vote
Honestly, we had no idea who was going to leave because everyone was talking over everyone and there were whispers all across the board. It felt like it was Angelina vs. Elizabeth but that’s all we were really confident in.
Yet, Elizabeth got herself in perhaps too much trouble by playing as hard as she did. Would it have really changed anything if she was a little quieter in the end? Maybe, but we may not know that until tomorrow.
CarterMatt Verdict
This episode was nuts, and basically the best way to get a predictable vote at the end possible.
Best Survivor moment of the week – Christian accidentally knocking off a piece of wood in confessional. We don’t know why we loved that so much.
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What did you think about Survivor: David vs. Goliath episode 7 as a whole? Did the right person go home? Share in the comments below. (Photo: CBS.)