More Whatnot

Welcome to MoreWhatnot.com, my personal blog where I’ll be posting “Survivor” episode recaps all season long. For exit interviews with all of the eliminated players and the RETURN of the “Survivor” Power Rankings with Owen Knight, be sure to check out my YouTube channel!

Last Week: Three tribe members fought for survival! Two were in big trouble as they didn’t have an idol! Who was going to go home?! It was some other dude, he was hurt.

39 26 Days, 18 People, 1 “Survivor” Blog

Let’s take a look at the tribes as they currently stand…

The Ratu Tribe (wearing orange)

• Brandon, 30 – Security Specialist
• Carson, 20 – NASA Engineering Student
• Lauren, 31 – Elementary School Teacher
• Kane, 25 – Law Student

The Soka Tribe (wearing green)

• Danny 32 – Firefighter
• Frannie, 23 – Research Coordinator
• Heidi, 29 – Engineering Manager
• Jaime, 35 – Yogi
• Matt, 27 – Security Software Engineer

The Tika Tribe (wearing purple)

• Carolyn, 35 – Drug Counselor
• Josh, 34 – Surgical Podiatrist
• Yam Yam, 36 – Salon Owner

At Tika Beach

After a heated debate over the proper way to pronounce the word “bag,” Josh lets us know that he is super ready to get away from Yam Yam and Carolyn. 

Bite your tongue, friend. We only get five minutes with them a week if we’re lucky.

Merge-atory Is Upon Us

Tika and Soka are given ten minutes to collect their things because they’re taking a one-way trip to Ratu beach.

Carson takes this opportunity to tell everyone on classic Ratu that the idol that nobody knew about doesn’t have any power anymore. He figures, what’s the point of hiding it if it’s powerless?

You could use it as a pretty convincing fake idol. Or now people know you’re capable of keeping a secret for two cycles. Just two ideas off the top of my head.

All of classic Ratu starts spilling their secrets with Lauren admitting she has an extra vote. The truth about Jaime’s fake idol comes out as well.

The tribes arrive and it’s all hugs around Ratu beach.

Once again, Jaime tells us how valuable she is because she knows everything about Ratu and Soka. Yeah, but you don’t know about your fake idol.

Brandon and Josh have a chance to talk, with Josh continuing his lie about having the Soka idol. C’mon, buddy. Yam Yam already called you on that being a fake.

He tells Jaime the truth about his fake idol, but she doesn’t believe it. She tells Frannie and Heidi that she knows he has an idol. But that she doesn’t actually know. 

Quick Aside: That would drive me insane. Don’t tell me you know something unless you know it for a fact. 

Later Josh makes fun of Yam Yam in front of everyone for betraying him during Tribal Council. This rightfully concerns Yam Yam because he’s just meeting most of these people.

Fortunately, Matt lets Yam Yam know that the rest of Soka wanted to get rid of Josh before he swapped and he’s still on the top of their hit list.

From there, we’re treated to a montage of Carolyn feeling awkward while trying to fit in with new people and I’ve never felt more seen in my entire life.

Later that night, Carson, Yam Yam, and Carolyn reunite as the “Three Stooges” alliance. Carson is clearly the Moe, as he seems to be running things. Carolyn makes wacky noises, so that makes her Curly. Which leaves Yam Yam as Larry, for no reason other than the process of elimination.

Matt actually has some sound strategy as he tells Frannie he wouldn’t take her on reward if given the opportunity. She rejects this hypothesis. Literally. That’s what she said. Nerd foreplay, everyone.

He also reminds us that he doesn’t have a vote at the next Tribal, which I totally forgot about!

Earn-the-Merge Challenge: The tribe will be randomly split into two teams of six. They’ll dig up a boulder, push it through obstacles, and retrieve a key. They’ll then scale a wall and use the key to unlock puzzle pieces. The first tribe to complete the tree puzzle will earn the merge along with a merge meal. They’ll get to vote at Tribal, but they will be safe.

Quick Aside: The boulder part really leans toward a physically strong tribe.

Another Quick Aside: There’s no way Carson hasn’t done this puzzle a million times.

The Teams: Purple is Matt, Frannie, Carson, Carolyn, Jaime, and Brandon. Orange is Heidi, Danny, Lauren, Yam Yam, Josh, and Kane. That division does seem pretty even.

Result: Jaime had some real trouble with the wall, but Carson is able to tear through the puzzle (called it) and win it for purple.

Loser’s Lounge

Immediately, Yam Yam throws out Josh’s name and vice versa. However, Danny is very noncommittal to Yam Yam, saying that he’ll go with whoever the winners want to eliminated. Nevermind, that Yam Yam should already know that Danny wants to work with Josh.

Merge Feast Fun

Jaime is pretty proud of herself for manifesting the merge victory and feast. Yeah, that’s way more important than Carson studying a puzzle.

Josh’s name is tossed around, but nobody is sure if he has an idol or not. Kane is brought up as a possible plan B.

Carolyn assures them that Josh doesn’t have an idol, but everyone still wants to act as if he does. Uh-oh…we know how Carolyn reacts when she thinks people aren’t listening to her.

Pre-Tribal Politicking

Once the teams are back together, Frannie tells Josh that they’re going to be targeting Kane. This leads to Josh (smartly) deciding to smooth things over with Yam Yam since he’s going to be around for a bit longer.

Yam Yam goes along with this, even hilariously trying to get Josh to hand over his idol. Hey, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Michael Scott told me that.

Brandon is cool with Josh going home, but he’d really like to see Kane get the boot. He’s confident that things will go smoothly as long as nobody tips Kane off.

CUT TO: Carson telling Kane that he’s a target.

CUT TO: Kane telling Brandon that Carson told him he was a target.

So, Kane starts pitching Yam Yam’s name around camp. But, this all might be a moo point because Josh doesn’t have an idol.

“Moo point, it’s like a cow’s opinion. It just doesn’t matter.” – Joey Tribbiani.

Quick Aside: Look at me with my NBC Thursday Night comedy block references.

Tribal Time

Everything is mega vague with the highlight being Yam Yam trying to bribe Probst to let them just go back to camp.

It didn’t work.

Voting Time: No votes are shown. But, it seems like Yam Yam considered playing his Shot in the Dark.

JPro tallies and returns. He asks if anyone wants to play an idol or an advantage and…nobody does. We’ve got one vote for Yam Yam, one vote for Josh, one vote for Kane, one vote for Yam Yam, one vote for Josh, one vote for Yam Yam, three votes for Josh, and the seventh person eliminated from “Survivor 44” is…Josh.

Hey, they voted out a dude!

Verdict: I actually don’t hate the merge-atory. Probst should play it up bigger. The biggest team challenge of the season! The winners are guaranteed to be jurors or finalists!

Power Rankings Result: We both survived the merge episode relatively unscathed. Owen had Josh in spot eleven and I had him in spot ten. So, the current score is Team Holmes 40, Team Knight 51. Check out my YouTube channel for the full episodes!

	Danny – For a big, strong guy to be vulnerable after a faux-merge and not have his name brought up once? Well done, sir.
	Matt – I tend to give Frannie all the credit, but he navigated not having a vote really well. Now sleep next to someone else at night. “Boston” Rob said that’s the best indicator of who’s working together. Brandon – He handled Carson telling Kane about the vote perfectly. It could have been a mess. Carolyn – You did a very good job of not letting people know how annoyed you were. That’s a step in the right direction. Also, very interesting that you had no intention of saving Yam Yam with your idol.
	Heidi and Frannie – I love how they handled things. Hang back, let the game happen for a bit. No reason to toss out names when you’re safe at the merge. Kane – You were in trouble and you managed to get yourself off of the block. But, you’ve still got a ton of work to do. Lauren – I like her reminding everyone about her extra vote. And I’m aware that it flies in the face of how I feel about telling people about your advantages. But, it makes her just a little bit more valuable without it being an advantage you need to flush.
	Carson – You deserve a high grade for navigating your time on the other tribe and for your puzzle prowess. But, I’m gonna ding you for not telling Kane to keep your name out of his mouth.
	Yam Yam – You were in a hole and you didn’t do much to dig yourself out. Luckily, those were treemail beads.
	Jaime – You know so much, but you don’t know that your idol is worthless.

Any Questions? Drop me a line on Twitter: @gordonholmes

This entry was posted on April 5, 2023 at 9:00 pm and is filed under survivor, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.