Game Changers Episode 1 "The Stakes Have Been Raised" Review
Survivor Game Changers opened with a two hour episode that I am going to breakdown into two parts.
All 20 Castaways are on the same ship similar to the initial Marooning in Season 1 Borneo. After Jeff weakly explains the Game Changers theme, he gives them time to grab supplies and load them on a raft. In addition a life ring signals two ropes with knots that leads to a tool box. First one to untie wins.
Part I
NUKU Tribe
As the rest of his tribe is salvaging supplies from the boat all 20 Contestants are initially on, Ozzy swims out uncontested to retrieve a basket of tools that will be very valuable for the game. Also on the ship Sierra discovers an envelope among the supplies that is a legacy advantage, in that she can take immunity at when the players are down to thirteen or six. If voted out prior to using it, she has to pass the legacy on to another player. This is an indication to me that the merge will happen at 13 as there would be a possibility it wouldn't even be possibile to use the legacy at 13 if the tribes are split. Also remember at the time of filming, other than Zeke and Michaela, no one knows aboutthe legacy advantage used in season 33. Once at camp Cirie and Ozzy seemingly mend fences from the Fans Vs. Favorites season 8 years earlier, but Tai tells Cirie that he thinks Ozzy is insincere, which makes Cirie suspect. Zeke sets about introducing himself as well as was awestruck with his Survivor Idols. Brad decided to have a quiet game early and onlyr eally interacted with Sierra on screen. Tai of couse is chicken master which is a forboding of trouble for him at the point that they want to eat the chickens.
MANA Tribe
Mana chose not to challenge Ozzy on the tool box, until later when Caleb gives it a try. Immediately after hitting the beach, Tony adopts his schoolgirl laugh and says he headed into the woods to get an idol. Surprisingly (to Tony) nobody follows him at first. The rest of the tribe immediately puts him at the top of the list to vote out. Michaela adopts a social game getting to know people. Tony later starts digging a bunker (Spy Shack 2.0), which makes the others think he's digging for an idol, but think it's an odd place to dig. Ciera boasts about playing with winners Tyson, Tina, and Aras and sees Caleb as his right hand man and immediately strategizes in taking one of them out. Malcolm having lost his entire first tribe in his first play, wants to keep the tribe strong and starts to think of making Ciera the target.
Immunity/Reward Challenge 1
The first challenge is a water, keys and puzzle challenge for Immunity and Flint. Also Jeff explains the new tiebreaking procedures and the absence of a 2nd vote.
After Varner has trouble with the keys, Cirie and Zeke of Nuku out puzzle Ciera and Sandra to win Immunity for Nuku.
Tribal Council
The target becomes Ciera, but having to give Ciera a plausible name to vote out they give her Michaela. This of course unleashes Michaela's strong defensive personality, which makes the others suspect because once again they don't know her as the season filmed before the broadcast of season 33. In the end the vote went 9-1 against Ciera who became the first boot.
Part II
MANA Tribe
After the "easy" vote, Tony starts putting a majority alliance, starting with Aubry. Aubry is receptive to it, and also adds Caleb, Malcolm and Sandra. He also goes to work in the middle of the night on his bunker and sees Sandra and Troyzan. He scurries deeper in the woods and hears them talking about him. He approaches them, and they make up a story about the crates being near the fire. He then becomes suspicious of Sandra's allegiances, which of course rankles Sandra, who begins her plot to take him out. Sandra then approaches Hali, Troyzan, Varner and Michaela to create a majority alliance.
NUKU Tribe
Tai begins to get attached to the chickens and starts naming them. Also he gets upset with J.T. when he takes all the corn off the cob, leaving none for the chickens. This raises the hackles on J.T. as well as Debbie who realize their path to actually eating the chickens is by eliminating Tai. Cirie's suspicions of Ozzy get stronger as she sees J.T., Ozzy and Zeke talking. Sarah takes a "criminal" approach as opposed to her "cop" persona. Cirie and Zeke have a heart to heart and tries to woo him over to her side. Cirie also approaches Debbie with advice and she uses her intelligence experience. Cirie confides to Debbie that she wants to take out a guy, and Debbie isn't buying it. (Debbie also keeps calling Cirie, Cherie.) Tony meanwhile sees that he's on the outs with Sandra and approaches Aubry, Malcolm and Caleb to bring in a 5th person.
Immunity/Reward Challenge 2
Reward is a fishing kit with raft and paddles. Cirie sits out the challenge for Nuku.
Challenge involves releasing and pulling a 400 pound snake out over top of a cage and across a platform to the beach and park it on another platform. Inside the snake are 3 pairs of tiles with numbers for a combination Which releases rings which are thrown at paddles that spell "IMMUNITY" Mana right away has issues with the snake, but Nuku works together to get it to the beach before Mana get it out of the cage. Mana also struggles on the platform in the water. Sierra and J.T. throw rings at the paddles and quickly gets 4 done before Mana gets the tiles out of the snake. Malcolm does all the tossing for Mana and somehow catches up to Nuku at 6-6 on paddles before J.T. gets the last two sending Mana to Tribal Council for the second straight time while Nuku gets the Fishing Gear and Immunity.
Tribal Council 2
After the Mana tribe laments the loss, Sandra starts putting her plan to take out Tony, but worries he has the idol.
Hali, Troyzan, and Sandra talk to Caleb about Tony, when Tony walks up and Sandra talks up Aubry. They also try to pull in Malcolm as well. Tony knows he is in a losing position at the moment, and although he wants to take out Sandra, and try to pull in Michaela, Caleb works on Michaela and Varner about keeping the tribe strong. At tribal, Sandra's arrogance flairs up as Tony is voted off 8-2, and she rubs Tony's face in it as he leaves with unnecessary comments about being the queen of Survivor.
The Boots
Ciera wasn't on my radar to go early and I really expected her to go to the merge, but she didn't create allies prior to strategizing openly in a group, or if she did it wasn't shown. For a veteran player this was a rookie mistake. Likely she came in playing like Second Chance in that she wanted to "play the game," but didn't recognize that the pace was different, and generally more laid back. But I don't feel so bad as Jeff Probst picked her to win the whole thing, and she wasn't even in my top 7, as I didn't think her game play was smart enough to go that far. Overall, I had her 14*
Tony was on my top four boots from Mana, and for a while, I thought the guys for sure were willing to go along with his hijinks to keep the tribe strong. But he got on the wrong side of Sandra and she worked he magic to get the weaker players to go with her and eventually got the whole tribe on board, as Sandra and Tony were the only votes for Aubry and that was done only in case Tony had the idol. Tony is also the first of the three winners to go home. Had Tony not been so in your face crazy early, his antics may have worked better to keep him in the game.
Next Time on Survivor:
There's a tribe switch at 18 and it's pretty clear it will be a three tribe setup as there is a green table at the challenge and six players on the new Nuku tribe. The previews also spend a lot of time with the new blue tribe and it's clear that the new Nuku is: J.T., Malcolm, Sandra, Aubry, Varner and Cirie. None of the other two tribes were shown, but Nuku has a 4-2 advantage for the original Mana, which only leaves 4 Mana for the other two tribes, which means it's likely the old Nuku will have an advantage on both of those. It also looks like the Green Tribe's Hidden Immunity Idol will be taken next week, and J.T. hunts for one in the Nuku Tribe. What does Tai do without his chickens?
*Pre-Season Predictions will be posted shortly.
All 20 Castaways are on the same ship similar to the initial Marooning in Season 1 Borneo. After Jeff weakly explains the Game Changers theme, he gives them time to grab supplies and load them on a raft. In addition a life ring signals two ropes with knots that leads to a tool box. First one to untie wins.
Part I
NUKU Tribe
As the rest of his tribe is salvaging supplies from the boat all 20 Contestants are initially on, Ozzy swims out uncontested to retrieve a basket of tools that will be very valuable for the game. Also on the ship Sierra discovers an envelope among the supplies that is a legacy advantage, in that she can take immunity at when the players are down to thirteen or six. If voted out prior to using it, she has to pass the legacy on to another player. This is an indication to me that the merge will happen at 13 as there would be a possibility it wouldn't even be possibile to use the legacy at 13 if the tribes are split. Also remember at the time of filming, other than Zeke and Michaela, no one knows aboutthe legacy advantage used in season 33. Once at camp Cirie and Ozzy seemingly mend fences from the Fans Vs. Favorites season 8 years earlier, but Tai tells Cirie that he thinks Ozzy is insincere, which makes Cirie suspect. Zeke sets about introducing himself as well as was awestruck with his Survivor Idols. Brad decided to have a quiet game early and onlyr eally interacted with Sierra on screen. Tai of couse is chicken master which is a forboding of trouble for him at the point that they want to eat the chickens.
MANA Tribe
Mana chose not to challenge Ozzy on the tool box, until later when Caleb gives it a try. Immediately after hitting the beach, Tony adopts his schoolgirl laugh and says he headed into the woods to get an idol. Surprisingly (to Tony) nobody follows him at first. The rest of the tribe immediately puts him at the top of the list to vote out. Michaela adopts a social game getting to know people. Tony later starts digging a bunker (Spy Shack 2.0), which makes the others think he's digging for an idol, but think it's an odd place to dig. Ciera boasts about playing with winners Tyson, Tina, and Aras and sees Caleb as his right hand man and immediately strategizes in taking one of them out. Malcolm having lost his entire first tribe in his first play, wants to keep the tribe strong and starts to think of making Ciera the target.
Immunity/Reward Challenge 1
The first challenge is a water, keys and puzzle challenge for Immunity and Flint. Also Jeff explains the new tiebreaking procedures and the absence of a 2nd vote.
After Varner has trouble with the keys, Cirie and Zeke of Nuku out puzzle Ciera and Sandra to win Immunity for Nuku.
Tribal Council
The target becomes Ciera, but having to give Ciera a plausible name to vote out they give her Michaela. This of course unleashes Michaela's strong defensive personality, which makes the others suspect because once again they don't know her as the season filmed before the broadcast of season 33. In the end the vote went 9-1 against Ciera who became the first boot.
Part II
MANA Tribe
After the "easy" vote, Tony starts putting a majority alliance, starting with Aubry. Aubry is receptive to it, and also adds Caleb, Malcolm and Sandra. He also goes to work in the middle of the night on his bunker and sees Sandra and Troyzan. He scurries deeper in the woods and hears them talking about him. He approaches them, and they make up a story about the crates being near the fire. He then becomes suspicious of Sandra's allegiances, which of course rankles Sandra, who begins her plot to take him out. Sandra then approaches Hali, Troyzan, Varner and Michaela to create a majority alliance.
NUKU Tribe
Tai begins to get attached to the chickens and starts naming them. Also he gets upset with J.T. when he takes all the corn off the cob, leaving none for the chickens. This raises the hackles on J.T. as well as Debbie who realize their path to actually eating the chickens is by eliminating Tai. Cirie's suspicions of Ozzy get stronger as she sees J.T., Ozzy and Zeke talking. Sarah takes a "criminal" approach as opposed to her "cop" persona. Cirie and Zeke have a heart to heart and tries to woo him over to her side. Cirie also approaches Debbie with advice and she uses her intelligence experience. Cirie confides to Debbie that she wants to take out a guy, and Debbie isn't buying it. (Debbie also keeps calling Cirie, Cherie.) Tony meanwhile sees that he's on the outs with Sandra and approaches Aubry, Malcolm and Caleb to bring in a 5th person.
Immunity/Reward Challenge 2
Reward is a fishing kit with raft and paddles. Cirie sits out the challenge for Nuku.
Challenge involves releasing and pulling a 400 pound snake out over top of a cage and across a platform to the beach and park it on another platform. Inside the snake are 3 pairs of tiles with numbers for a combination Which releases rings which are thrown at paddles that spell "IMMUNITY" Mana right away has issues with the snake, but Nuku works together to get it to the beach before Mana get it out of the cage. Mana also struggles on the platform in the water. Sierra and J.T. throw rings at the paddles and quickly gets 4 done before Mana gets the tiles out of the snake. Malcolm does all the tossing for Mana and somehow catches up to Nuku at 6-6 on paddles before J.T. gets the last two sending Mana to Tribal Council for the second straight time while Nuku gets the Fishing Gear and Immunity.
Tribal Council 2
After the Mana tribe laments the loss, Sandra starts putting her plan to take out Tony, but worries he has the idol.
Hali, Troyzan, and Sandra talk to Caleb about Tony, when Tony walks up and Sandra talks up Aubry. They also try to pull in Malcolm as well. Tony knows he is in a losing position at the moment, and although he wants to take out Sandra, and try to pull in Michaela, Caleb works on Michaela and Varner about keeping the tribe strong. At tribal, Sandra's arrogance flairs up as Tony is voted off 8-2, and she rubs Tony's face in it as he leaves with unnecessary comments about being the queen of Survivor.
The Boots
Ciera wasn't on my radar to go early and I really expected her to go to the merge, but she didn't create allies prior to strategizing openly in a group, or if she did it wasn't shown. For a veteran player this was a rookie mistake. Likely she came in playing like Second Chance in that she wanted to "play the game," but didn't recognize that the pace was different, and generally more laid back. But I don't feel so bad as Jeff Probst picked her to win the whole thing, and she wasn't even in my top 7, as I didn't think her game play was smart enough to go that far. Overall, I had her 14*
Tony was on my top four boots from Mana, and for a while, I thought the guys for sure were willing to go along with his hijinks to keep the tribe strong. But he got on the wrong side of Sandra and she worked he magic to get the weaker players to go with her and eventually got the whole tribe on board, as Sandra and Tony were the only votes for Aubry and that was done only in case Tony had the idol. Tony is also the first of the three winners to go home. Had Tony not been so in your face crazy early, his antics may have worked better to keep him in the game.
Next Time on Survivor:
There's a tribe switch at 18 and it's pretty clear it will be a three tribe setup as there is a green table at the challenge and six players on the new Nuku tribe. The previews also spend a lot of time with the new blue tribe and it's clear that the new Nuku is: J.T., Malcolm, Sandra, Aubry, Varner and Cirie. None of the other two tribes were shown, but Nuku has a 4-2 advantage for the original Mana, which only leaves 4 Mana for the other two tribes, which means it's likely the old Nuku will have an advantage on both of those. It also looks like the Green Tribe's Hidden Immunity Idol will be taken next week, and J.T. hunts for one in the Nuku Tribe. What does Tai do without his chickens?
*Pre-Season Predictions will be posted shortly.
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