Survivor Episode Two: Survivor Jackpot

On this week’s episode of Survivor Game Changers, we start with what was teased in the previews – a tribe swap!  As usual, this leads to quite the shake-up for a few players who thought they were on very safe ground at the end of last week’s premiere.  But luckily, we also got a few priceless moments!  As usual:  SPOILERS AHEAD!

Top Moments from Survivor Game Changers, Episode 2

1. The goats, and JT, are safe . . . for now – On the Nuku tribe, JT is the odd man out after finding himself with five former Mana tribe mates, Malcolm, Aubry, Jeff, Sandra, and Michaela.  In an effort to try to get in with Sandra, JT offered to catch a goat since a herd of them had been hanging around very close to camp and starving Sandra wanted nothing more than a goat dinner.  JT easily snatched up a baby goat, which was super cute and also very helpless.  Malcolm, meanwhile, caught an adult sized goat, which he quickly realized was the mother goat and didn’t run away because she wanted to protect her baby.  Malcolm noted that this was the equivalent of a goat version of Bambi.  Everyone on the tribe was feeling very bad about the whole thing and did not want to eat the mother or baby goat – except Sandra, who insisted that the goats were only there for humans to eat.  After what seemed like hours, the tribe put it to a vote and agreed to free the goats and eat a chicken for dinner instead (which they could do guilt-free because Tai was no longer on this tribe to protect the chickens).  A good call because no one, including PETA, wants to see a couple of goats being murdered on national tv.  Nuku won the immunity challenge so JT escaped facing a tribal council and also lived on in the game to see another day on the island.
2. JT stranding his entire tribe in the ocean – As the previews for this episode showed, JT offered to take his whole new tribe out onto the reef to go fishing and snorkeling.  After rowing them out about a half mile from the beach, he swims back to shore to “grab pliers” to fix a spear that Malcolm broke.  After this tribe spent a few minutes gloating that they were there together with JT as the odd-man out, it dawned on them that he had been gone a pretty long time.  In fact, JT wasn’t going back to the raft but using the time back on the island to tear the camp apart looking for the hidden immunity idol.  He even snooped through all his tribe mates bags, likely giving Malcolm flashbacks to that time Lisa Welchel found his hidden immunity idol in his bag when she was doing laundry.  Unfortunately for JT, he wasn’t able to find the idol.  I don’t, however, think all is lost for JT.  If his tribe mates suspect he has an idol, which they should since he had a good two hours to look, they could try to split the vote in a way that effectively works to save JT.   If he can guess where the split votes are going, throw his vote on that second person, and force a tie/ rock drawing situation, he could potentially save himself.  Also, if the next episode didn’t show us a double elimination, I would feel fairly confident JT could avoid at least one more tribal council pretty easily since this tribe is very strong at the challenges.
3. The reunion of Tai and Caleb – We got to see a lot of the Tai/Caleb bromance in this season as they were reunited on the same tribe after the swap.  Jeff Probst immediately asked Tai how it felt to be back with his buddy, and Tai beamed as he planted a smooch on Caleb’s cheek.  Their friendship would make anyone smile!  Unless that friendship is highlighted on the game of Survivor, where everyone is weary of everyone else’s past relationships and potential allies.  Also, sweet at Tai may be, strategically he is not the sharpest tool in the shed.  In his effort to “save” Caleb, he merely highlighted how close they were and how much he cared to save him, making everyone even more weary.  Rationally, Hali should have been the easy first boot since she was the weakest at challenges, but unfortunately for Caleb, it was the threat of his friendship with Tai that ultimately put him first on the chopping block.  Try as he might, Tai was easily manipulated by Brad into ultimately voting out his bestie and we said an early goodbye to Beastmode Cowboy Caleb on his unlucky day nine on the island.
4. The rise of Brad Culpepper – Brad was not high on my likeability list coming into this season based on what I saw of him on his previous season, but he is proving to have evolved a lot from his previous game.  This episode, we saw a whole new side of Brad.  First of all, can we take a moment to appreciate his eye for interior design and love for antiquing!  Brad took the time to actually decorate the camps, and as Malcolm put it, made camp feel like a dinner parlour in Mexico.  Not only that, but but we also saw a Brad who easily manipulated Tai into thinking it was his own idea to vote out arguably his number one ally in the game, Caleb.  Great for Brad’s game, but possibly pretty dumb for Tai’s game at this point.  If anyone wants tips in how to manipulate someone, just watch how easily Brad handled the conversation with Tai on the beach.  While agreeing with everything Tai said, he managed to pitch to Tai that it would be better for Tai’s game to go into the merge without Caleb.  I’m a bit surprised Tai didn’t remember that Aubry used a very similar and effective pitch on Tai in their last season to get him to flip on his alliance and join Aubry.  Perhaps Brad picked up that tip from watching her and re-used it on Tai very effectively.  Regardless, Brad is proving to be a shrewd and subtle leader of the new Mana tribe.
5. The return of the hidden immunity idol at the immunity challenge – This season, Survivor is back to hiding immunity idols at the challenges, which is fun for the audience to see and extremely stressful for the player who has a clue to the idol since they have to focus on both winning the challenge and also grabbing the idol without everyone noticing.  This time, it was Troyzan, who couldn’t have found a clue at a better time. Troyzan found himself as the only former Mana tribe member on his new tribe.  Troyzan has been dying to return to Survivor since his first season five years ago and, feeling the desperation of his situation, set off to look for a hidden immunity idol while the rest of his tribe just sat around and talked about how someone should be keeping an eye on him, but didn’t actually keep an eye on him!  Troyzan could not hide his emotion when he found the clue to the hidden immunity idol telling him the idol would be hidden AT THE IMMUNITY CHALLENGE!  The last time Survivor did this was two years ago in Survivor Cambodia.  Lucky for Troyzan, his tribe not only won the challenge, but he was able to snap up the idol right under his tribe’s nose.

Next week, we look forward to a surprise double elimination episode, and a potential uprising against the Queen Sandra.

Photo Credit: Fansided