Warning: DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED EPISODE 1 OF SURVIVOR 44.
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Welcome to Survivor Vibe Check! Each Thursday this season, Blake Schuster and Bryan Kalbrosky will chat about last night’s episode to see who is thriving and who is straight up not having a good time on the islands of Fiji. Season 44 got off to an absolutely chaotic on Wednesday. We saw multiple calls for medics, new advantages introduced and the first tribal council ended with only one vote counted. Let’s dig into it.
Blake: Bryan! What a return to the islands of Fiji. A wild, two-hour premiere for Survivor 44 with tons of new twists and some noteworthy characters. Sum up the premiere for me in one sentence.
Blake: Oh, Maddy. Getting voted out first has to suck. Getting voted out first with ONE VOTE is about as brutal as it gets. The title of the episode was, officially, “I can’t wait to see Jeff” but it probably should’ve been “Don’t get cocky, kids”. I’m just absolutely stunned by the amount of mistakes made in just three days. It’s not something we’re used to seeing.
Bryan: It was honestly like playing Blackjack with someone who has no idea how to play and they’re just asking the dealer for more cards and it totally ruins the table. Multiple people weirdly took away their ability to vote when they didn’t have to, and that somehow cost the game of one of the only people who handled tribal council normally.
Blake: If I can take your analogy a step further: It’s like asking for more and more cards and somehow getting to 21 because for the first time ever the shot in the dark was played successfully! I can’t fathom why you would want to take a 1-in-6 chance but congrats to Jamie for actually pulling it off.
Bryan: Just to perfect this Blackjack analogy, though: Jamie had a 20. She was already safe! She hit and happened to get an ace for a 21. But why?! She wasn’t going home. No one was talking about her. I can sort of see why Matthew might have done it — perhaps he felt the tribe viewed him as a risk in challenges due to his totally self-created injury. I was shook when Jamie did it, though.
I want to back up for one second because I thought there was some really smart gameplay going back to the first immunity challenge.
With Claire and Matthew sitting out, Claire makes arguably the best move so far by subtly asking Matthew if Lauren proved that she lost her vote after being sent on the island hike. That immediately helped Claire build trust across party lines and gave Matthew ammo against a threat in his own tribe. Huge points there. Matthew then gives Lauren an opportunity to come clean during tribal council about whether or not she actually lost her vote. And Lauren, smartly, doesn’t own up to it and instead plays her “bank a vote” advantage. So now Lauren can play off the tribal as not having a vote and no one is wiser to it.
Claire and Lauren were the two winners of the first three days, in my opinion.
Bryan: That’s such an ideal way for one of the two newest advantages to, at least optically, work totally in Lauren’s favor. Very strong rebuttal after a savvy move by Claire.
Blake: I want to touch on Bruce real quick, too. It’s such an absolute shame that he gets hurt 30 seconds into the first reward challenge and is evacuated 12 hours into the game. I hope he gets a second chance to play at some point. But man, I really could’ve done without the intense, ultra HD, slo-mo shot of his head cracking open.
Bryan: Really? You don’t watch Survivor for the moments that most closely resemble an MMA fight? Yeah, that was hard to watch. I was glad he got a chance to stay instead of immediately getting evacuated, but it was so brutal to see the production team give us that. I know if I got hurt on the game, I’d like as few people to see it as possible and if any did see it, I hope they wouldn’t see anything too invasive. But that is one of the myriad of reasons why I’m blogging on it and am not actually on that island, I guess. What did you make of the other medics? Three in one episode is a LOT.
Blake: Bruce’s injury came from trying too hard in a challenge. I can understand that. Matthew just going rock climbing for the hell of it? Dude, what are you doing? It looked like a bad idea even before he fell and busted his arm and foot. He wasn’t even looking for an idol or anything. I just don’t understand. You’ve got to be smarter than that even if your adrenaline is telling you to go for it.
A little too daring?😳 #Survivor pic.twitter.com/MSCIdok9Z6
— SURVIVOR (@survivorcbs) March 2, 2023
As for Brandon, he had a tough two days with the sweat challenge at camp followed by having to move huge puzzle pieces. I wonder how hot it was out there for him to cramp up as much as he did.
Bryan: Plus, with Brandon, you have to be extra careful after what happened to Bruce. The conditions must feel so awful, though, if this dude played through multiple seasons of NFL and college football. Like, that’s not easy stuff either!
Who are your early favorites to win a million dollars? And who are you most excited to watch on TV every Wednesday?
Blake: It’s so early and I feel like I’m just getting over Jesse not winning Survivor 43, so I hesitate to make a pick right now. That said, I think Claire has her head in the right place and I’m very excited to see her strategy play out.
Bryan: I hope that one day, we all have a Mandela effect moment where we all collectively decide Jesse actually won S43. I think smart money is on Claire, too. I had a good feeling about Frannie, too. But it’s such an impossible game to predict. I probably would have picked Gabler as the last guy capable of winning the season after the premiere of S43, and we saw how that turned out.
Blake: Jesse won our hearts. That’s what matters most.