Season 50, Episode 10: Nothing to Lose, Chaos Ensues
This episode is crazy fun. We get an auction were everyone gets to eat and Aubry downs some giant grubs and Jonathan manages to swallow all of a sea slug before it comes back again. (I refuse to watch these parts, listening is bad enough). We get Mr. Beast showing up with a Super Beware Advantage which turns out to be a gold coin that could change the prize money to 2 million as well as secure a player's safety AND give them an idol for future use! The risk being that if the player calls wrong (heads or tails), they go home. And we get the biggest mad scramble of names to write down on that parchment that I've maybe ever seen.
We start with some feelings. (My favorite thing! Well, besides blueberry muffins, naps, and playing Scribblio with my Survivor friends.) Ozzy tells us he's "feeling really good" because he knows that people have his back. He says he's done the work and built the social connections. Ozzy has been trying to play a different game this time around, he assures us again. One more measured and thoughtful and strategic. One based more on relationships vs. providing all the fish and fire. It's nice that he's feeling solid and hopeful. Good onya, Ozzy!
Emily, on the other hand, tells us she's devastated as well as isolated after losing Christian. She's "never been on the wrong side of a vote" before. She's trying to patch it up with Ozzy. He's kind to her about it, but we know she's lost his trust.
Devens tells us that he doesn't want to be angry because if he's angry he feels like he'll make a bad decision. But, if he's having fun he'll either "make a good decision or a fun bad decision." Sounds good to me. Don't be angry, Devens. Have fun! Why can't everyone be on board with Devens having some fun? I'm looking at you, Joe.
On the hammock (which I think is like the therapy office of Survivor camp), Devens and Emily agree that they have literally nothing to lose so they should embrace fun and chaos. Cause trouble, Devens and Emily. We want all the trouble.
Aubry is feeling reflective about her game and thinking about where she stands and what's left for her to do. She says there are few moves to make now that there's fewer players. She's looking at that imaginary chess board in the sky. The one that the character from The Queen's Gambit always saw. If I were on Survivor, I would never see a chess board. Or even a checker board. I would see a bulletin board and it would have a picture of Tom Hiddleston on it and he would be winking at me and saying, "You go, sweet Alison."
Devens, interestingly, decides to come clean about his fake idol and turns it into a campfire story. It seems he feels it causes him more pain than it does good. The albatross of the fake idol. Joe does not look impressed. Jonathan says, "what a good move."
Joe wants to get Rick Devens out of the game. He's his "public enemy number one." He sees the work Devens puts into the game and finds it threatening, but we also know there's history there. It's day 19, so like 18 days of history, I guess. He doesn't trust Devens or see Devens as loyal to him.
It does feel like Mr. Rick Devens is on shaky ground with the tribe. And Emily and him are easy pickings. They don't have a lot of folks looking out for them or seeing their value in their game. No wonder Emily feels lost and alone.
Well, lookee here! It's auction time! Fans and players, both, love the auction. Even if it does sometimes lead to the terrible sounds of a giant fish eye being bitten into by Austin. Jeff announces that the theme is "Comfort or Chaos or Both." Everyone is immediately confused, so Jeff breaks it down. Every item is either good or not so good or a combination of both. A good item could just be good. Or, a good item might come with the baggage of a bad item. I experience fear of seeing giant fish eyes again. Stay away, giant fish eyes!
Jeff tells them they get to keep whatever money they don't spend. Is this usual? I think I'd be too hungry to worry about saving a couple hundred bucks from my time on the show. I'd be like, yes, French fries ARE worth 400 dollars. Things get rolling and Emily buys herself a chocolate milkshake. She tells Ozzy and Rizo: This is going to cause me to poop my brains out later. I love her. Aubry wolfs down some ginormous grubs so she and Rizo can eat chocolate chip cookies. Jonathan forces that nasty roasted sea slug down his gullet so that Ozzy can enjoy a nice meal of fried chicken. "Total package!" they all chant to him. Which I guess means he's got this? Jonathan gags but he finally finishes it. Then he goes to vomit in the bushes. Ozzy says, "that was evil, Jeff." It was! Evil! Aubry gets a bowl of mac and cheese and says, tearfully, that "it tastes like home." She feels like her toddler should be throwing it everywhere. Cirie really makes out with a blanket, a tooth brushing kit, and a charcuterie board. She also leaves to go be sick in the background. But comes back shortly with a smile. At some point Ozzy is sitting there with what looks like an entire cheesecake.
Everyone gets to eat something that isn't disgusting and that's nice for them since they are starving. And then their emotional needs get to be fed with letters from home, which we all know they can use. It's rough out there and the words from loved ones provide them with comfort and support, often helping them feel more able to continue on. Survivor is exhausting and depleting physically as well as emotionally. I imagine that when Emily tells us she's never felt so alone, she really means it. And who can forget Cirie on a beach of two thousand coconuts tearfully telling us she's not giving up despite how hard it is?
This would be me every day on that beach. Unless I was entertaining the cast with my impressions of Timothée Chalamet's performance as Bob Dylan.
But the big and important thing about this auction is that Mr. Beast shows up. He's not there to sing them country songs and spear some giant fish. Instead, he brings a briefcase. I don't really care about Mr. Beast*. I've never seen anything he's made. So I'm not really excited to see him (everyone on the island is--some because they know who he is and are fans and some just because it's a visitor bringing some new), but I am curious as to what the Beware Advantage could be. Jonathan, though, seems befuddled and Probst picks up on it, asks him what's going on with him. "I don't know, Mr. Jeff. I'm worried."
I think Jonathan is working so very hard to see that chess board. And he's probably doing a better job than I would. I'm guessing he's not seeing a winking Tom Hiddleston.
Despite being full of cheesecake, charcuterie, and sea slugs as well as eager to read their letters from home, Probst whisks them away to compete in the immunity challenge, which Tiff wins (Yay!). Tiff didn't seem like she was currently in danger, but it's nice to see her be rewarded with a hard fought immunity idol.
And now we get to the chaos. Sea slugs and grubs and mysterious brief cases were just a taste. The planning to vote the next player out becomes a little bit like a ridiculous game of whack-a-mole. (Did it ever feel to you like you wacked any moles? I think it was rigged). That may not be the right simile, but I think I'm getting at the right feeling. Or perhaps energy. I mean, it's a wild afternoon at the Manulevu camp as sundown approaches and tribal council looms. Certainly names are being bandied about hither and thither and it's hard to discern who wants who and what the bigger agenda is. Devens. Ozzy. Emily. Cirie. Stephenie. Rizo. Devens again. Groups and individuals are having meetings and pitching names and trying to make plans. Everyone seems to be on board with what is being said until we see that they aren't as they spill the secrets to someone else on the beach, at the shelter, on the hammock. Maybe there's a pitch session at the water well.
Jonathan originally wanted to get the votes on Devens. And he REALLY wanted Devens out last tribal. Now, though, he sees Devens as a "smoke screen" and someone he doesn't have to worry about. I guess he means that Devens probably won't make it to the end or if he does, isn't a threat to win? I'm not clear. But it's true that Devens would likely be easy to rally votes for a little further down the line. So now he has his sights set on Ozzy. Perhaps he's looking at his fellow player and discerning who is most likely to be a bigger threat to him at immunity challenges. And who should not sit next to him at final tribal council. Interestingly, he doesn't seem concerned about Joe, so he must figure that Joe's a secure number for him or that Joe won't take votes from him. One has to assume that at this point, everyone is looking more closely at each other and thinking who helps me get there and who do I not want to have a chance to be in the final three. It's not clear exactly who Emily and Devens want to go for, but they seem to play along with any plan that doesn't involve them. Cirie, obviously, wants to protect herself as well as Ozzy and Rizo. She's bugged by Stephenie's obvious lies to play off any plans against any of the members of Cirie's Rizard of Oz so she sets her sights on her once (sorta) ally.
And we have to believe that it's Cirie who really does drive the vote here, because after Rick Devens flips the Mr. Beast coin and wins them all a chance at 2 million dollars as well as safety for himself that night and an idol for future use, it's Stephenie that ends up going home. And with a vote from everyone else. She tried her best to stay. She used her extra vote on Aubry, but it wasn't nearly enough. Maybe it just became the easier choice when so much else was unknown. They had no idea what Mr. Beast was going to throw at them, but they there were enough people on board agreeing to vote Stephenie that a push for anyone else just felt too risky, I have to assume, live tribal and all.
Probst had some pretty insightful observations this tribal. "Cognitive distortion," he said to the players. "Your brain is just all over the place." Whack-a-mole?
*Does Mr. Beast have veneers? His teeth are too perfect! Stop with the veneers, everyone! Let's bring back imperfections.