On Wednesday, March 8, Survivor celebrated it’s 500th episode with the two-hour premiere of its new season titled Game Changers, Mamanuca Islands. This season’s cast features 20 returning players who were deemed to have changed the game in some way. It filmed in Fiji almost a year ago and now is finally on-air. Each week, I’ll be doing recaps of the top notable moments from each episode. If you haven’t had a chance to watch the first episode, consider yourself warned: SPOILERS AHEAD!
Top Moments from Survivor: Game Changers, Episode 1
- And the first boot goes to. . . Ciera! It seemed like she was truly blindsided and it sucks to be the first boot, so I did not relish this moment even though I thought she might be the first boot and I always love to be right in my predictions… The Ciera vote shows that it’s not necessarily the best to be the first person throwing out names to be eliminated. If the first episode is any indication, we might be seeing some real “big moves” players getting voted out pre-merge.
- The war between Sandra and Tony: This season sees the return of arguably two of the greatest of all time Survivors. Sandra, the only two-time player and winner, found herself on the same tribe as Tony, one of the other three returning winners of the season. The two initially worked together on the first vote and agreed to align with each other to provide mutual shields for each other. Yes! An excellent plan! And yet, they couldn’t keep it together for more than a day! Tony’s paranoia led him to confront Sandra and Troyzan while they were talking in the dark, which rubbed Sandra the wrong way to say the least. Within what felt like 5 minutes, Sandra managed to rally her troops to vote out Tony. Seeing Sandra work her magic was truly awe-inspiring and makes you understand how she managed to win this game twice. I’m sad to see Tony out of the game this early but have a newfound respect for Sandra. “The queen stays queen!” For now.
- The return of Cirie: Unlucky Cirie finds herself on the Nuku tribe with not one, but two of her rivals from past seasons. Ozzy, who found himself eliminated in Micronesia by a blindside partly orchestrated by Cirie, quickly bonds with JT, who was responsible for a Cirie blindside in Heroes vs. Villains. She immediately senses that she’s on the bottom of the alliance and works fast to try to make connections with anyone willing to work with her. Right now, things are not looking good for Cirie, but the scene on the beach between Cirie and Tai reminded us all of her greatness. Without saying much, she was able to make a valuable connection with Tai, who provided her honest information that Ozzy was targeting her early. While it might not be enough to save Cirie at this point, it’s a start, and as long as Cirie’s still in the game, you can’t count her out.
- Malcolm’s Ring-Toss Skills: At the second immunity challenge, the Mana tribe was horribly behind and looking down the barrel of facing a second tribal council in a row. At the last leg of the challenge, Malcolm took control of the ring-toss, bridging the gap between the two tribes by landing the first five rings in a row and tying the game up. He ultimately came up short but this challenge highlights how much Malcolm thrives under pressure.
- The new rule about tie-votes: Survivor is including some new twists this season, with the first one announced in this episode. In the event of a tie-vote at tribal council, instead of allowing a re-vote, the players will have to come up with a unanimous decision right then and there for who to vote out. If they cannot come to a consensus, the players who were not voted for will draw rocks. The person who draws the unique-colored rock will be out of the game. In a game where splitting the vote is common-place to flush out hidden immunity idols, this could change how much risk players will take in a tie-vote knowing they could be drawing rocks much faster than they would like.
- Tai over-feeding the chickens: If you saw Tai’s first season, you are well-aware that he has an extremely close relationship with the animals on the island, even if those animals are intended to be used as dinner. This time around, it seems like nothing has changed for Tai. He immediately took over the care of the chickens and JT noticed that Tai was feeding them a very generous amount of corn. If Tai’s love for the chickens comes in the way of dinner for the starving game-players, I sense trouble for Tai.
Next week we see a tribal swap! And the tribes will likely be split into three tribes instead of two. Let’s hope this gives Cirie a chance to find her footing!
Photo Credit: CBS