‘Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X’ episode 7 review: Good copdar only goes so far…
We like that “Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X” is starting out almost every episode almost like a visit to therapy, where someone tries to spend a few minutes after Tribal Council trying to justify what happened to whoever got blindsided … even though it rarely ever works. We love Adam, but what made this especially hilarious this time is that according to the show edit, all he really did was remind Taylor of all of the reasons to be made at him. Voting out his showmance partner? Check. Lying to him? Check. Taylor being on the outs now? Check.
The only other bit of strategy we saw before the Reward Challenge tonight was seeing David approach Zeke to tell him about his hidden immunity idol. Our initial response to this in the preview was fear, since he was giving Zeke ammunition to get rid of him and we already saw him bond with Chris. Luckily, Zeke seems down to work with him for now … but probably not permanently. For Zeke, David’s ceiling should be around final six or so since this is a guy who is a Cochran-esque enormous threat at the end of the game.
Reward Challenge – Really fun, mostly because nobody was in the lead for long. Vanua started off collapsing and thanks mostly to Michelle and Zeke, managed to finish far in first. Meanwhile, Michaela managed to get Ikabula ahead of Vanua by the end. (Note: Ken is terrible intense as basketball.) Also notable here: Michaela saying “bye, Felicia” in response to learning the truth about Figgy being voted out of the game.
After this challenge, we paid a visit to Uncle Austin’s trailer the Vanua camp, where a chef made all of the fixin’s for everyone only for Chris, David, and Zeke to burp and fart it all out later. Michelle’s “act like a lady” confessional about this may be a good indicator of the kind of manners you should have in life, but this game is very much about doing what the Romans do. If everyone’s burping on our tribe, guess what we’re doing? Don’t give them a reason to come after you!
Over on Ikabula, Hannah emerged from her medical incident last week / her incredibly awkward conversation with Zeke before that with some good gameplay interrogating Bret and figured out that he is not a funeral director, but rather a cop. (What’s a better fake job for a cop: Funeral director or construction worker?) Even if he wasn’t a cop, putting doubt in people’s minds about truthfulness is always good, especially if you’re comfortable in the majority alliance. Good stuff from Hannah, and in between this and Michaela talking about Steve Jobs, lots of entertainment here.
Immunity Challenge – One thing that we love about “Survivor”: When we say that there is no chance a tribe goes to Tribal Council before an episode airs, that just means that said tribe will probably go. This happened to Ikabula, which is great from the vantage point of parity. We get to see so many different tribe dynamics as a result! As for the challenge, we enjoyed the Reward one better this week.
The Ikabula Scramble – Here is the conflict at Ikabula: When you haven’t went to Tribal Council for over a week game-time, and you have a dominant alliance, no doubt you start to get a little bit restless. This seemed to be happening over at the Ikabula tribe, where the easy move was to get rid of “funeral director” Bret. The Millennials trusted each other enough in order to consider splitting the vote.
Well, enter Jay. He was smart enough to recognize that Michaela is a huge threat across the board, and both he and Will were aware that she had the knowledge of Jay’s immunity idol. These people all get along, so that makes this decision even harder. Getting rid of Michaela is a big move, but you run the risk in doing so of losing more Millennial numbers. Also, sometimes the reckless move isn’t the right move. If we were Jay, we’d probably get rid of Bret here just because you already suspect that he’s lying, and Bret may have allies elsewhere. Michaela will be a target down the road.
Yet, Jay made the move! Michaela’s gone, and while it was painful, the Tribal Council faces were epic and amazing. We’re crushed see her go; she was amazing every second she was on the show, and we hope to whatever producer is out there that she gets a chance to return at some point.
Grade: A. Historic blindside. That overwrites how devastating it is to lose Michaela at this point.
Next week – Head over here to see a preview of what’s comin’ up next! (Photo: CBS.)