By Guest Correspondent ChoHey, it’s Cho and I’m back with another Survivor 40 Recap! I was pretty sick this past weekend. The only thing I ate was lots of Chinese soup and Gluten-Free Donatos pizza. Perfect thing to fight a cold, right? Have you tried their gluten free pizza?! You know who wishes they could have pizza right about now? The cast of Survivor Winners at War that’s who. Especially because we’re heading into a switcheroo this episode!
The Tribal Switch!
Jeff starts handing out new buffs for the switched tribe. We’re switching from 2 tribes to 3! Michele is upset because she reveals that she used to date Wendell briefly. They barely even acknowledge each other! Adam says that despite him, Rob and Ben having the majority, there’s so much distrust between them that he’s not happy about the switch at all. And Sandra puts her foot in her mouth by admitting that a switch is the perfect opportunity to get rid of someone while you have smaller numbers.
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Yul brings up his best friend, Jonathan Penner from earlier seasons, whose wife has ALS. He was a big villain through and through, but I definitely liked him. Yul talks about how he wants to support his friend through this debilitating disease. I love Yul’s dedication to his friend. Yul is planning to use the 2 million to help Jonathan’s family and the ALS community at large. Not only is Yul intelligent, socially savvy and hot but he’s also generous. Truly the total package!
Kim Finds Herself in the Middle
The new Dakal tribe is made of Jeremy, Denise, Kim, Sandra and Tony. Jeremy is impressed by the shelter that Wendell built for his tribe. While he’s happy about this, he’s not happy about him and Denise being on the bottom. He talks to Kim and realizes that she was on the bottom. Denise also senses that Kim is the weak link, so they create an alliance together that can potentially take out Sandra or Tony. Denise reminds us that she has an idol to protect herself.
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Tony and Sandra realize that Kim is in the middle, so his job is to convince her that she needs to stick with him and Sandra. His rationale is that Kim will be one of the bigger female threats, so she should stick with the other threats. Kim says that she’s making a connection with her new tribe mates and is happy to be in the middle.
A Lover Scorned
The new Sele tribe is made of Nick, Yul, Wendell, Parvati and Michele. Right off the bat, Parvati is making inroads with the others. She’s making the rounds with everyone and using her star power to her advantage. Turns out that Parvati is actually Yul’s wife’s favorite Survivor player of all time. Nick also makes a revelation that he actually had a crush on Parvati when he was in high school. Both of the boys are actually smitten, so maybe Parvati is safe on this tribe?
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Michele, on the other hand, is having the most awkward exchange with ex-boyfriend turned tribemate, Wendell. It’s tense. Wendell is worried about his relationship with Michele spilling over into the game. He and Michele didn’t have a good end to their relationship, and it’s causing them to have some tepid conversations. She’s not feeling like warmth from Wendell and implies that he was extremely cold in their relationship, because “he thought he was hot shit”. She tells Parvati that he’s the reason their relationship ended on bar terms. Michele vows to not get burnt by Wendell in the game the same way she got burnt by him in real life.
Bad Blood
The unfortunate new tribe Yara is made of Sarah, Boston Rob, Sophie, Ben and Adam. They have to build camp from the very bottom up. Right off the bat, Rob wants to know exactly why Amber was voted off. Sarah throws Tyson under the bus for the entire situation which is convenient since he’s out of the game. The boys are eviscerating each other to Sarah and Sophie. It’s hilarious to watch to be honest. They really do have so much bad blood, and the girls are taking advantage of it!
Sophie worries that there’s so much chaos between the boys that they’ll eventually realize that they should stick together! She says the key to success will be finding the idol. Everyone starts searching for idols, but Sophie ends up being the one to find it! It’s one of those weird “half idols”, so she gives half to Sarah which bonds them like never before. By the way, Sarah is fucking HOT! Her abs are everything that I want.
A Surprising Finish
Time for the first challenge with switched tribes! They’re racing through a series of obstacles and then attempting to solve a vertical rubiks cube puzzle. Really simple yet engaging challenge design. This is the first challenge Sandra has had to compete in, isn’t it?! Haha Her Dakal tribe is struggling from the beginning. Sandra, Kim and Denise are sort of the weak links, and Tony isn’t that great either, but Sandra can kill a puzzle.
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The green Yara tribe gets to the puzzle first and has Sophie & Adam working together. Sele gets to the puzzle second and places Wendell & Parvati there to compete. Dakal FINALLY gets to the puzzle, but the others have had so much time. Jeremy & Sandra get hustling on the puzzle, and I honestly think this is anyone’s game! Sele ends up coming in first, but one more tribe will win. Yara had the lead, but now they’re screaming at each other and loses to Dakal!!
The Survivor Godfather
Rob gives a cocky confessional about how easy the vote will be tonight which means he’s probably going home. Rob says that he doesn’t have great relationships with Ben or Adam but he has to establish trust with some people if he wants to succeed. They decide collectively that Sarah should be the first one voted out. He then pulls a classic Rob move by demanding that the boys sit together at camp the ENTIRE day without having any conversations with the women. WOW! This is why they call Boston Rob Mariano “The Survivor Godfather”!! He’s literally sharpening a machete while staring Ben & Adam down. This is some mafia type behavior. He calls this strategy “The Buddy System” which stops an opposing alliance from forming any counter-move due to its constraint on private conversations. It’s literally how he dominated and won his season.
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While this strategy works in normal seasons with freshman players, Adam & Ben don’t feel good about Rob’s domineering ways. Adam says he’s having a boring time at camp and feels really constricted while Ben admits that he’s simply tired of being bossed around by Rob throughout the game. Sarah picks up on the negative energy in camp and says that this is a good way to target Rob. Sarah is thinking that she can use her steal-a-vote advantage while Sophie is banking on her hidden immunity idol to keep her safe. Will Ben and Adam finally turn their backs on Rob?
Were Mistakes Made?
We get to tribal council, and I’m not sure where this is going to go. Will this be a simple vote based on purely tribal lines? Or are the complicated relationships between Rob, Adam and Ben enough to cause a surprise vote? Jeff starts stirring the shit by asking if cracks are big enough for Sarah and Sophie to take advantage of. Rob says there’s not a lot of room to negotiate when there’s only 5 people. Sophie takes a big shot at Rob by calling out his buddy-system strategy and how it’s a proven strategy that sucks when used against other people.
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It’s time to vote. I’m nervous for Sarah. Jeff reads the votes: Sarah, Rob, Rob, and Rob is unanimously voted out. There was a time when Rob should have been voted out: this wasn’t it from a strategic point of view. One of Ben or Adam are almost guaranteed to be voted off next from their tribe. Stupid short-term move! But what do you think? I know a lot of people were foaming at the mouth for Rob to go. Let me know your thoughts in the comment section! If you like what I do here on the site, be sure to support me in my other ventures elsewhere on the internet!
I am looking forward to Exile with Rob on there. He will try to dominate with Amber but they will run into the beast that is Natalie. She is smart and strong and may take the $2 million.
I definitely missed Natalie on the last episode. She is one of my favorites this season for sure! Rob and Amber interacting on EoE will be interesting.
Cho, can you post your Chinese soup recipe? I am glad you are feeling better. I have a new respect for Yul. I have always loved Sarah’s game. Great recap, Cho.
I happen to have Cho’s Chinese Soup recipe.
1.Pick up phone, call Chinese place.
2. Order soup.
3. Wait for someone to bring it to you.
It’s the easiest recipe ever, Joey!!
You stole that recipe from my Memaw! ?
Thanks for the recap Cho. “That was really dumb, now those two boys are on the bottom”, first thing I said to my son following the vote.
Thank you Suzy! You get it! It didn’t make any sense, and one of those two boys will pay for it very soon if they don’t win the next immunity challenge.
Who cares….Rob is gone!!!!!
Cho- great recap! I hope your feeling better! I didn’t want Rob to get voted out but hopefully he can get back in the game! I’m loving Yul! I want to see him in a tux . I hope his likeability doesn’t get Voted out!
Thank you Kerry! I didn’t want Rob or Sarah to be voted off. Wish it were Ben or Sophie instead, but at least the EoE will be interesting with both Amber and Rob on.
I’m totally crushing on Yul right now. It’s a problem.
Thanks for the recap! Who did Rob leave his tokens to?
Also would like to see the Chinese soup recipe!
He left them to Parvati.
Thanks to you and Lindy. My DVR cut off.
Parvati
It’s so complimentary that you guys think I’m actually cooking at home. LOL Some may not know this but I actually manage a restaurant for a living. I cook every day for work, but I almost NEVER indulge in personal cooking anymore.
I’m thinking I may start meal prepping again, because it can save me more money to invest, but eventually, I’ll go back to eating out all the time.
I love Rob but I was surprised he lasted this long. Now we just need Sandra’s tribe to wise up and send her packing. Back to Rob, dumping him now was a dumb move. If they wanted to take out one of the three guys, I’d have targeted Adam, especially after his poor performance with the blocks.
Why would you get out an idiot like Adam? Cho seems to agree with you that Rob was a dumb idea. I strongly disagree. Can you explain why you think Adam should have gone? Oh and welcome!
Thanks so much for the comment! I definitely think it was a bad idea for Adam/Ben to vote Rob out. Based on their history and how low the numbers were, the best thing they could have done was take out one of Sophie or Sarah. THEN, they could have turned on each other during the next vote.
However, Adam wouldn’t be a great target for anyone. He’s not very threatening, and despite being a wishy washy double dealing snake, he doesn’t have much influence anymore.
I actually think Rob, Sophie and Sarah made the PERFECT moves for their game. Adam, and probably Ben to a greater extent, fucked up. If they go to tribal again, I think Ben is likely to go home.
Nope if they go to tribal again, Adam will go home. Ben is the one who told the girls he was voting Rob. Adam just followed along like the rest of them, or he was blindsided again. I think it was a unanimous vote though. Ben is a better ally for the girls.
Rob left his tokens to PAVARTI! I thought that was very interesting. I guess because those two were kind of a pair on their last team especially after Ethan was voted out.
I totally disagree about voting out Rob being the wrong move. ANYTIME you can get Rob is out is good time. Ben is set up as a trio with the girls and they will vote out Adam if they go back to tribal. Ben does not trust or like Adam. Adam is sort of that obnoxious little brother you can’t get rid of though.
As for the challenge, Rob was desperately trying to give them the answers by looking at Pavarti’s solved puzzle. He knew he was in trouble. He actually performed for most of the challenge this time. And Sandra was a liability on her team. Perhaps that is why she wasn’t bothering to get in the challenges before. She is getting older.
Pavarti is mentally very smart, Much smarter than the others, She knew how to solve the puzzle without much trial and error, I believe the way to do it, assuming all pieces are basically the same on one of the sides is to put one down, and turn each one a quarter turn thereafter. She also has at least three tokens that I can think of now, Is she richer than my girl Natalie?
If you had told me during the Twinnie season that out of all the former winners I’d be rooting for Natalie during the season of winners, I’d have called your a lot of bad things that insulted your intelligence.
Yet, here we are, I am loving this season.
Rob is definitely a large long-term threat. But in the short term, it was a bad move for Adam or Ben, because one of them is 100% going home next if they lose again. I’m not sure who’s closer to the girls, but it doesn’t really matter: it’s not their choice. All the power now lies within the hands of Sarah and Sophie, and I wouldn’t want to be in that position. Better the Devil you know than the Devil you don’t.
Parvati is amazing! I was so impressed by her social maneuvering. Girl still has the magic! And like, Natalie, I think she she might be one rich bitch with fire tokens!!
I’m also in love with this season. It’s truly delivering!
This was an excellent episode! I have been wrongly guessing each vote off except for this one! I knew as soon as Rob implemented the buddy system, he was out. I figured this would not sit well with Ben. Adam was trying to get Rob out early. I was glad neither woman played their advantage idols. What a great season this is. It just keeps dishing out great episodes.
Well this episode just completely blew up my conspiracy theory. As I eat crow, I now am in agreement with TT’s remarks above. Love Yul more if that’s possible. The second the tribes were switched, I knew the green one was fucked. As much as I hate to admit it, Rob’s gameplay has not evolved and it was time for him to go. That forced buddy system was ridiculous and he should have known better than to try to enforce it with these players. That whole tribe needs to go except maybe Sarah. Sandra is losing my favor as well.
Parvati and Natalie killing it. Wendell completely lost me. Seems like a douche. “New season, who dis?” Cracked me up! I’m hoping Michelle and Parv go far now. Ready to see some major gameplay and footage of EoE. Loving this season but wish every episode was 2hours long because it’s obvious that so much is edited out.
Glad Rob is gone. When he did the buddy system the first time; I thought the players were dumb not to talk to anyone because ROB said so. They should have voted him out for wanting to control who actually spoke to whom or not speak at all to others…..really??? Well, they fell for it though. He always thinks he smarter than the average bear. Buh bye, Rob. Won’t miss him.
I LOVE watching Rob play, I’m so sad he’s off to EOE. His play would have worked had Probst not asked leading questions. He’s been doing that more and more blatantly in recent years and I hate it! Can’t wait to see what Rob does on EOE, we didn’t see any of that this episode.