‘Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X’ episode 10 (part 2) review: One of the best Tribal Councils ever
The first part of Wednesday’s “Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X” episode (read our full review of it here) provided us with a blindside given that Chris never saw his own demise coming. However, at the same exact time we thought entertainment-wise it suffered slightly from an edit that telegraphed what was going to be coming.
Before we dive any further, fair warning: We’re going to be talking a lot about Bret from here on out. Bret was all over this episode, and it started when he did an amazing job not being bitter after Tribal Council, being open enough for David to tell him that a few votes down the road, he wanted to target Zeke. From here, Bret proceeded to clue Zeke in on much of what David said, though it seemed omitted as to when David wanted to target him — or it wasn’t. Either way, it wasn’t important since Zeke knew that David was targeting him. This was huge, and it played out even further after the team of Bret, Sunday, David, and Zeke won the Reward. When David was away (what was he doing?), the plan to go after him was cemented further — as was the bond between the two other guys.
Let’s talk about this moment between Bret and Zeke: This was fantastic. It may be one of our favorite scenes of the entire season, as he finally felt free enough to tell someone in the game about his sexuality. It was just such a fascinating character study. For Bret, he’s a man who spent almost his entire life having to hide his sexuality and dealing with judgment that could come as a result of that. Zeke, meanwhile, was able to come out at an early age and be comfortable with it publicly. There have been many examples throughout this season of the theme being beaten into the ground, but this is actually the one that feels the most real, genuine, and organic.
We love Bret. We didn’t get a lot of him early in the game, but he’s now one of our favorite people on the season. We didn’t love what he did later in the episode at Tribal Council, but we’ll get to that later.
David gets a life preserver – Without Hannah, he would’ve been screwed. She told David what Zeke was plotting, and this game him an opportunity to figure out what he wanted to do. The reality here is that he has an idol, so almost no matter what, he should be safe unless he really screws something up.
Immunity Challenge – Jeff Probst called this in the moment a “Survivor blowout,” and that is probably accurate — this was one of the most domineering wins that we’ve ever seen in an immunity challenge. There was probably a tiny bit of luck involved, but Jay CRUSHED everyone. This effectively ensures that he and his idol get to stay put one more week!
Now, scramble time – David acknowledged immediately that he made a mistake in telling Bret and Sunday the truth in regards to wanting Zeke out. As a result of that, he started scrambling to try to ensure that he makes the right move now. For Zeke’s crew, it was at first as easy as targeting David.
Here is where things get even more interesting. Zeke approached Hannah looking for some assurances that they were together, but she did a pretty bad job of selling to her that the two of them were together. This led to Zeke going to everyone else and making it clear that Hannah was an enormous target. Hannah was able to correct this, though, by going to David later and having a gut feeling that she could be voted out next. In the end, Hannah did the right thing, but so did Zeke. What makes this great is that we’ve got two people both playing the game very well.
Tribal Council was a total hot mess, but a really entertaining one. There was scrambling, whispering, and Bret getting clearly agitated at the idea of all of the different words for “alliance” getting thrown out there. Him and Zeke mocking David’s anxiety wasn’t a good look for either one of them (this could lose them a jury vote, and Hannah called Zeke “condescending” earlier in the episode), though we do understand the frustration that must have come from him. We do get a certain sense that there is an excess of paranoia at various points, almost as though players are viewing “Survivor” a little too meta versus living in the moment.
This entire situation was CRAZY, and it only got crazier during the vote. Adam incorrectly told David that Ken was the target of Zeke’s side, and that caused David to burn his immunity idol. The vote was a tie between Zeke and Hannah; as it turns out, Bret was actually right about all the talk being theater! These were the votes we expected going in.
Nobody could come to a consensus, and this gave us a moment we’ve NEVER seen at a final ten before: A rock draw. Ken had an idol, Jay was safe, and Hannah and Zeke were immune. This meant that everyone else put their game on their line for people they’ve only known for a handful of weeks
The person who drew the black rock was … Jessica. Devastating for her, and pretty damaging for David’s alliance given that they also lost his idol, too. She left the Legacy Advantage to Ken, and we have to say without question that this is one of the greatest Tribal Councils we’ve ever seen. We’ll get a chance to talk to Jessica on Monday, and we REALLY feel for her right now. This had to be devastating. Grade: A+.
Next time – Head over to the link here to get a wide array of additional news, including a preview for what’s going to be coming up on the show next time! (Photo: CBS.)