Survivor: Edge Of Extinction Episode 3 Recap - The Worst Contestant Ever?
*SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 3 OBVIOUSLY*
Last night was a rather weird episode of Survivor. There was a lot going on, but it blended together to make a pretty good episode.
It started off at the Edge Of Extinction, which seems to be where all episodes will start. We get the answer to last week’s “cliffhanger” – Keith is actually not the biggest wimp of all time and chose to stay in the game. It’s now him and Reem on the island, which is a pretty funny dynamic. If you remember on like Day 2, Keith went up to Reem and basically said, “Hey can you be my mom out here?” Odd move, but now they’re stuck together.
Life at Edge Of Extinction is steadily improving. Reem out there alone for three days with no information/food must have been terrible. Now though, she has a companion. They also had bottles with information leading them to a small amount of rice at the top of a mountain. They were complaining about how far away it is, but I can’t imagine it was a six hour walk. You have nothing else to do out there. Can’t hurt to take a little time out of your day to get some food that’ll keep you alive.
At Manu Camp (Blue Tribe)
Manu won reward, the first thing they’ve actually won all season. They had the choice between chickens and comfort. Personally, I would go for comfort. Sleeping on bamboo has to be torture. Adding pillows and blankets changes everything. You’re sleeping better which will keep your mind right and give you more energy. There will be other opportunities for food. In today’s Survivor, basically every reward challenge gives you a chance at food. Consistently having chickens would be nice, but who knows how many eggs they’ll produce? And killing one chicken won’t give you enough meat to last too long. Plus, you have to worry about a lunatic on your tribe who will want to release the chickens to the wild. Enter Wendy.
Wendy aka “Blue Hair” aka “Girl Who Had Tourettes In The First Episode But Maybe Doesn’t Anymore?” decided she felt bad for the chickens. She found it inhumane to keep these chickens captured and then kill them. Now I know what you’re thinking. “Oh she must be a vegan.” Wrong. “Oh just a vegetarian?” Also wrong. SHE EATS CHICKEN.
Wendy has gone her entire life eating dead chickens. Never had a problem. She decided to wait until she was stranded on an island with 6 other people, who are all very hungry, to make the moral stand that it’s wrong to eat chickens. How noble of her!
She tried to conspire with Rick to let them loose. Rick, smartly, wanted zero part of her lunatic plan. The Wardog couldn’t believe what he was hearing. This girl, who is NOT a vegetarian, was trying to stop The Wardog from eating his chicken!
If Wendy had such an ethical problem with it, she should have made that clear during the reward challenge. Tell your tribe, “Hey guys you may wanna choose comfort because if we get chickens, I’m just gonna go crazy and release them.” They probably would’ve been like, “Alright let’s just take the fucking pillows.”
Ultimately, Wendy has not yet released the chickens, but it seems very likely that she will.
At Kama Camp (Yellow Tribe)
Over at Kama, there is a clear 6 vs. 3 divide, with the three in the minority being Aurora and the returnees – Joe and Aubry. Pretty bad move by Aurora to isolate herself from the rest of the newbies. Perhaps I overestimated her game in my pre-season cast assessment.
In an “I wanna puke” moment, Aubry found the hidden immunity idol and cried about it. Said it’s always been a part of her “Survivor checklist” and she’s so glad to finally cross it off. Tears are falling down her cheeks. Give it a rest. My “Survivor Checklist” would have one thing on it. Win the game.
Her finding the idol is important, however. She obviously has a target on her back as a returning player, and is unlikely to ever have protection from individual immunity. If she uses this correctly, she could parlay into a deep run.
Immunity Challenge/Tribal Council
Once again, Kama won immunity. Manu got off to a good start but fell apart at the puzzle, because as they said, “Puzzles are hard.” Headed for their third consecutive tribal, Manu had quite a few options on the table.
Option 1: Vote Out Wendy
She’s not great at challenges. She’s hurt (although it didn’t impact her swimming). She’s the last remaining member of the Reem-Keith-Wendy alliance. She’s annoying. She wants to release their main source of food into the wild. She hid the flint from the tribe (which they don’t know for sure but do suspect). A lot of great reasons. Why keep her? Well she’s not really a threat in any manner whatsoever and could be an easy target later.
Option 2: Vote Out Wentworth
David-Chris-Rick-Wendy could’ve banded together to vote out Wentworth. She’s a huge threat. Good in challenges. Strategic. Social. Game experience. Just not someone you want to keep around too long. David likes targeting stronger players. However, I think having Wentworth around is good for his game at this point. She’s a shield for him. He can point to her and say “Hey guys look over there!” while he quietly plays his game in the shadows.
Option 3: Vote Out Chris
The last option: Vote Chris out because …. uh I don’t know why exactly? Chris basically got played by David. David is the mastermind behind the push to get out Wentworth. But he almost incepted it into Chris’ head and made it look like his idea. Chris was the one to reach out to The Wardog with the Wentworth plan. This was unnecessary, and he was advised against it. He wanted to be honest with The Wardog though and not lose his alliance. I get that. Chris needed to be more stealth about it though. Don’t pass it off as your own plan. Go up to The Wardog and say “David, Rick, and Wendy want Wentworth out. What should we do?”
Ultimately, Chris cost himself the game. David and Rick decided to just vote off Chris. Chris and Wendy voted for Wentworth. I don’t totally understand the move from David’s perspective. Even if he thought he could get Wentworth next tribal, there’s too many factors to worry about. What if there’s a swap? What if you win immunity and don’t have the opportunity? What if you don’t have the numbers next time? It could be David-Rick-Wendy vs. Wentworth-Wardog-Lauren. If David wanted Wentworth out that bad, this was the time to do it. David has played a very solid game so far. He’s kept a target off his back and made some key allies. I’m sure he has his reasons for the move. I was just a little confused by it.
Chris, without hesitation, took the torch to get on the boat to the Edge of Extinction. If getting back in the game involves some kind of physical challenge, you have to like his chances. Overall, I was disappointed by Chris’ game. He was one of my favorites to win in the pre-season, but his game left a lot to be desired. He did not seem like a super fan at all and was pretty boring.
Next Week
It looks like a swap is coming – 5 tribes of 3. And Wendy is finally going to release the chickens. I’m excited for the swap. There’s a lot of characters we haven’t really got to see yet on on the Kama tribe since they’ve avoided tribal. That already has some complaining about their edit.
Julia, who we’ve basically seen nothing from, took to Twitter to voice her complaints.
I think this is a pretty ridiculous point from Julia. It’s only been three episodes. You haven’t been to tribal or really been a part of a storyline yet. It’s not the editors jobs to worry about people’s feelings. Her bringing race into it is also really unfair to Jeff and the editors. I can’t imagine they’re happy about that insinuation on her part.
I went on Jonny Fairplay’s Survivor NSFW podcast after the show last night. His co-host Matt had the flu so I hosted with him. Jonny Fairplay is a Survivor legend who told the greatest lie in Survivor history. You can take a listen to our episode recap here.
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I’ll keep a running ranking all season of who I think has the best chance to win. This is not a power ranking of who’s least likely to get voted out next. It’s power ranking who can actually be Sole Survivor. It’s based on what us superfans call “edgic.” It’s a mix of logic and edit, paying attention to how certain people are portrayed and if they have that coveted “winner’s edit.”
I am going to leave voted out players in the rankings since they’re technically still alive, just at the bottom.
Tommy’s Chances To Win Power Rankings
1. Rick
2. Gavin
3. David
4. Victoria
5. Aubry
6. Julie
7. Lauren
8. Eric
9. The Wardog
10. Wentworth
11. Aurora
12. Joe
13. Ron
14. Julia
15. Wendy
16. Chris
17. Keith
18. Reem