As exhausted as I am I am so very excited for the first Survivor 42 recap. It does make me feel old though because I’ve watched every season some multiple times. And I have a very close friend that I met well over 20 years ago at this point at a site that was theoretically about Survivor. He’s old too now. LOL. Before we get started, I have to talk about Maryanne. I love her the most already. The shots of her I pulled (literally all day today) expressed every emotion under the sun. The others were in a confessional or doing press shots but Maryanne has my favorite face ever on any human. And she is the first to get off the boat, AND she has the titular line, “It feels like a roller coaster.” I HOPE SHE WINS IT ALL! LET’S GO!
Jeff points out Maryanne’s big smile right away. She amazing. I need to watch this over and over for my depression. The start with the first challenge right away. There are three tribes. The are shocked that they do not get any rice. The winning tribe gets a pot, a machete and flint. That’s it. They start off with a foot race with one member of each team. Daniel is a sweetheart, he’s a law nerd and a cancer survivor. When asked why he thinks he can win, he basically says he can’t, he’s just happy to be alive and be there. He does his best in round one but he fell and thinks he dislocated his shoulder. NOE!
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In the second leg, Hai, Lindsey and Drea reach a challenge box. If they all agree to secretly work together, they can untie twenty knots each and get an advantage. After some hesitancy from Lindsey they all decide to do it and pinky swear to keep the secret from everyone. The are bowls of mud and fake blood to rub on their bodies to “cover up their lie.” That would make me suspicious. Kai rubs fake blood on his chest. As one of the girls says, “We’re not bleeding!” When Kai gets back to the boat, a girl asks, “OMG ARE YOU BLEEDING?” He says “yeah.” WHY? I would have said not, there was pigs blood or something at the challenge.
Jonathan is a beast. His boat is back first. But, he has to drag it to the right spot. Daniel’s arm does look dislocated. 🙁 But he is still participating. Rocksroy wins the challenge for his team in a nail biter. Medics finally get called out for Daniel’s dislocated shoulder. The female medic pops it right back in and he can stay in the game, but it is a risk for popping out again. YAY! I would have hated for him to go out on the first challenge.
IKA (Blue) Tribe Zach, Drea, Romeo, Rocksroy, Tori, Swati
Tori is not a “caregiver” as she told her tribemates. In her interview she admitted she was a “therapist” and plans to use those skills to find out all about them. Since IKA won the first challenge, they are the only ones with a machete. So they get right to work building a shelter. Tori is already bonding with Zach and Swati. Romeo, Rocks and Drea form a bond as well. So that seems to be the two sides of this tribe. Everyone goes out to start gathering things for shelter, and some of them are sort singing the wordless Survivor theme. Rocks is not thrilled with the younguns. They are already annoying him. He is carrying ONE piece of bamboo WITH Romeo. Seriously, the girls on the orange tribe were carrying two are three at a time together.
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Rocks tries to boss the tribe around and get the shelter built. He kind of knows he is annoying them so he tries to pull back. Meanwhile, Drea is dying to get away and see what her advantage is. And it’s complicated. The advantage an amulet that must be played with all other amulets in the game. The amulet is more advantageous when the others are gone. Three played together is an extra vote, two place together is a steal a vote. One played alone is an idol. My brain hurts. The last time it can be played is when six players are left in the game.
The Skinny Dudes Alliance
Romeo and Zach bond over the fact that they both have eating disorders. I mean they don’t say that but they immediately start talking about their weight. Zach says he weighed in at 118 and that is the most he has ever weighed. Romeo says he is 112. This reminds me of anorexic girls in high school. Instead of eating lunch, they would talk about not eating lunch. It seems they are both used to starving themselves to death and that is scary. Obviously, quickly form an alliance. Meanwhile, Tori, who I already do not like goes searching for an idol before they even have shelter. Everyone knows it. WTF? Zach is a conniving little bitch. He is the one who said the quiet part out loud. Romeo even said, “She’s first.” But he told Tori it was Drea talking about her looking for an idol. WOW. Already? On the winning team?
Vati (Green Tribe) Lydia, Mike, Daniel, Kai, Jenny, Chantelle
This tribe receives another opportunity to win supplies. There are two choices, Savvy, which is the counting triangles within a triangle with only two guesses that involves the whole group. Or one person can do a very difficult task that requires running back and forth and filling a large barrel with water from a very heavy cast iron pot. That challenge too hours last season. Mike would be the guy to do it. But he doesn’t want to. He tells the group they should do the group challenge. I don’t think they have he brain power for that either. They need to shut up and let Jenny do this. And Jenny gets it done! They win the machete. Mike the fireman was the first to make fire! Apparently, they got flint with their machete and pot as well.
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So far it seems that Lydia and Kai are a duo, Mike and Jenny are a duo, so as Chantelle says that leaves her and Mike to be a duo. She approaches him and he is happy. Everyone is nice to Daniel. They asked about his scar and he said it was childhood leukemia when he was 15 and he was bedridden for three years. He is so excited. Oh I love Daniel. He’s playing for all the kids with leukemia watching in the hospital. /sobs.
Taku (Orange) Tribe Jonathan, Omar, Maryanne, Marya, Jackson, Lindsay
Kai or someone one the Vati tribe said if they can’t get it there is no way Orange gets it. They are sort of a meathead tribe, but Omar is their only shot. He’s really smart. Maryanne is helping with the triangle challenge. They finally make their guess and they win the machete. Later around the campfire, Jackson tells his tribemates that he applied for Survivor ten years ago as a girl. His family rejected him. But, once his mother fell ill, he went to be her caregiver. And Jackson was married to a female nurse. I love Jackson.
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Jackson has been dizzy for ten hours so Lindsay is pumping him full of water to hydrate him. Then Jeff shows up on their beach. That is never good. There was a random commercial in the middle of this important scene that clearly was not supposed to be there. It was brief but could not have come at a worse time. Jeff is talking to Jackson about the casting process. He says that the day before filming began he updated his medical situation as they are required to do if there are any changes. Jeff says they let him stay because apparently, the thought process is what can happen in 48 hours? Seriously? There is no medical care where they are if there were a serious incident. Apparently, he was weaning himself off of Lithium for the show.
YIKES. He’s going home. He is so graceful about it. I am taking this much harder than he is. 🙁 Maryanne is taking it even harder. She’s sobbing and I am just gently weeping and trying to make Banjo comfortable. Omar also comes to hug him. Jonathan, Marya and Lindsey just sit there at first while Jackson comforts Maryanne. But they all hug him goodbye. This is just so sad. Now Lindsay is crying. Jackson says it was the best 48 hours of his life. He has the best attitude in the world.
The Long, Long Walk To The Top Of The Island
Back on Taku, my girl Maryanne is the first to hear a boat approaching. Maryanne takes one for the team and gets in the boat. Vati draws straws and Jenny loses, so she has to take a boat ride too. Ika does rock paper scissors and Drea loses. Wow these are three of my favorites. I really need them in a cross tribe alliance. But, Drea is already in one! The three girls have to go on a very long hike. They get to know each other. Maryanne didn’t even put on shoes before getting on the boat.
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Oh her backstory is so sad. She was picked on a lot and is doing this for all the weird kids. She doesn’t know it on the show but she is probably the most popular player ever on the show! So FUCK YOU BULLIES! So they have to individually decide whether to risk their vote or save their vote. Maryanne and Drea both risk their vote hoping to get an extra vote for tribal council. But what did Jenny do? Damn! She even knew that they both probably would risk it. But, she chose to protect her vote. No one is voting Jenny out first! Dammit Jenny!
So No Tribal Council, On To The Immunity Challenge
You can already see that Maryanne is still devastated. She’s such a good human. I’m not over it either. The challenge is swimming, then rowing the damn boat again and then dragging puzzle pieces to complete a puzzle. Maryanne is one of the smarter people on her team, but she a mess unless she focuses on winning this for Jackson. Kai is also smart. Jonathan can do the dragging. Lydia and Romeo sit out to even up the teams. Why the hell did they sit out Lydia instead of Daniel, he has a bad shoulder and cannot row! Is she worse than a one armed man? Idiots. Rocks drop his heavy crate in the water, so now they need lots of strength they don’t have to get it into their boat.
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Taku is in the lead getting the boat to shore. Can they win this for Jackson? Everyone is absolutely exhausted. This is a brutal challenge. Vati overtakes Taku when it comes to getting all the chests up. Then Taku comes back when it comes to the puzzle. Maryanne and Omar win it for Taku in a very close race to the end. YES! IKA who one the first challenge lost. The lost their flint. YES! I hope they send Tori home! Zach blames himself for the loss. Rocksroy says the win and lose as a team. Tori knows everyone knows she went looking for an idol so she tells her team, she doesn’t have an idol. She pulls Drea aside after accusing her of being the one who was talking about her.
The First Tribal Council
Meanwhile Romeo asks the remaining tribe members who blabbed to Tori. Well, dear, that would be your Skinny Dude alliance member. Drea talks about the actual challenge and tells her know said she had an idol just that she was looking for one. She also says Rocks and Zach did not help her pull the boat. Drea wants to get out Rocks. Tori doesn’t care as long as it is not her. They agree to vote him out. Swati and Rocks want to vote out Zach. It seems it will come down to Romeo, who, if he finds out Zach is the one who spilled the beans, he will vote him out and I am here for it! Romeo wants to send Tori home. Rocks is their strongest man. Romeo, Swati and Rocks have an alliance. It will come down to Zach and Tori. Romeo’s primary alliance wants Zach to go.
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At Tribal, Zach and Tori know they are both in danger so already the drama is starting. I wish we could send both of them home, but my vote, which obviously doesn’t count goes to Tori. She’s just not a very likeable person and doesn’t fit well in the tribe. Mostly, that’s because she thinks she going to use her “therapist skills” to convince everyone to do her bidding. Tori is really digging her own hole right now. She thinks very highly of herself. Zach plays his shot in the dark in the voting room. So he didn’t get a vote. WAIT WHAT? Drea got the extra vote? How did that happen? I thought Jenny voted to protect her vote? Apparently she changed her mind. I don’t think Drea needs to use her extra vote tonight though. She doesn’t. Zach’s shot in the dark didn’t save him and he goes home. I guess they need Tori to be the villain for awhile. Zach goes home. It looks like it was unanimous.
Next Week: Drea, and Mike are both in trouble. This seems like a great season!
Okay I haven’t watched yet but super excited to see the 2hour show! After reading the bios, I realized that the Tori kid is the daughter of a friend from high school who married a quack doctor who is now being sued in multiple states because he is a “vitamin salesman “ and inserts his professional testimony to promote anti vaxxer and anti mask mandates. I’m loling because I reconnected with her (Tori’s mom) at our HS reunion before pandemic and I remember thinking that she married a tool but her kids were cute as we shared photos. Now I’m super interested to watch how this plays out. If you’re on Twitter, Tori’s dad is evidently all over the place with the misinformation and shelling vitamins for Jesus. Jimmy Meehan, MD Tulsa, OK
What are the odds I have two acquaintances on tv in the same week? Geez. 😂
I’m curious who the other acquaintance was? Must have missed it in prior comments.
Juicy tea! Love insider info on some of these characters and/or their family members. Tori is my new villain. She has that “karen” vibe to her.
The protect/ risk, shot-in-the-dark, and amulet twists are a little confusing! Basically if you protect your vote, nothing happens to you. If *everyone* risked their vote, though, they would’ve lost it! So Jenny protecting her vote allowed her to return empty-handed and also gave Maryanne and Drea double-votes since they chose to risk them. If Jenny had risked hers, all three would’ve lost their votes instead.
Zach chose to play the Shot in the Dark so he lost his vote. That wasn’t connected to Drea getting her extra vote from the Summit twist. Too much going on! Great premiere otherwise, though. I also love Maryanne, she is PERFECT!!!
I’m pretty sure the directions said ALL THRE HAD TO AGREE one way or another which is why I suspect Jenny changed her vote before headed back and they didn’t show us to make Maryanne getting a second vote at tribal more exciting.
I thought that too (that they all had to agree) /bangs head
Doesnt seem to be a way for me to post a screenshot of the actual rule but here it is, its the same as last season
If all players choose protect, nothing changes. If all players choose risk, all players lose their vote at the next council. If the vote is split, nothing changes for the players who chose protect. Nothing lost; nothing gained. Players who chose risk get an extra vote.
THANK YOU SO MUCH! 🙂
Thanks. I could have sworn it said all three players have to agree.
Now I’m even more confused! It’s way too much for my brain these days. Doesn’t take my love for the show away though. I do wonder if this is the new normal- survivor on steroids fast paced? Like will they go back to the original longer version that’s easier for those of us in the back of the room to follow? All of the things you mentioned are what make me feel dumb. I appreciate your explanation, but then TT’s reply confused me more, lol. IDGI
I need a survivor workbook to follow along with this iteration of the game. Ha!
I’m soooooo bummed about Jackson. I was so thrilled that he was getting a second shot to play. Maryann is pure sunshine I love her and hope she goes far.
I hope Drea? can see that Tori was just yes ma’am in her to death. She seem super insincere as long as it wasn’t her… I mean I guess that’s the name of the game to survive. But she seemed very unauthentic.
In Big Brother and Survivor, it’s a very cutthroat game. But there are just certain people the Todricks and the Toris that are just unlikeable people.
Tori was also on Season 3 of Sequester. It was on you tube. It is the game Audrey from Big Brother started. Tori was the same there. She made it far enough to be on the jury.
I don’t know that I have ever had this kind of response to a survivor contestant, like Maryanne. Her freaking beautiful smile when they landed on the beach made me smile too! When she cried, I cried! She is so genuine, or at least appears to be, and I will be rooting for her.
TT, I usually disagree with your picks in these shows, but 100% co-sign on Tori as well. She’s portraying a vile side of psychology that as a therapist, she should never do. I don’t think she’s that intelligent or intelligent enough to utilize psychological warfare in the game. I hope she isn’t. That’s some harmful energy she exudes.
I’m into most of this cast but those two are my high and low, or to use a RH’s phrase, my rose and my thorn. {gag}
Just watching now and I knew who you were talking about as soon as I saw Maryanne. NOTHING BAD CAN EVER HAPPEN TO HER EVER. I’m 40 minutes in and she has my whole heart.
Oh no! She cried!! And my heart broke into a million pieces. And I’m so sad to see Jackson go. I don’t know if I can handle this season.
I was sobbing.
Great recap TT and so freaking excited for this show!
My brain hurt from those challenge instructions too! I kept laughing at the girl asking “is that blood on you??” “YES!” ha!
Oh Maryanne – I never have a fave usually after the first show but i LOVE her! Also, Daniel! not sure his shoulder will make it but as a mom of a leukemia survivor – my heart will favor him as well. Poor Jackson! That was really sad. Usually first episodes are not this good! Going to be a great season!
I say it every season but omg I love this show sooo much! My brain has deteriorated so much I’m still confused about the instructions and even how the prisoners dilemma works. First impressions: like everyone else, Maryann stole my heart. Her light transcends through the tv. She is like an angel! And I have never cried watching this show but I did when Jackson left and Maryann started sobbing. I’m still emotional. I like most everyone else left, but I’m sorry I mentioned my old friend’s kid, lol. And if the camera adds ten pounds, I pray someone gives Zach a sandwich immediately if not sooner (how did he even get medically cleared? He looks unhealthy). Also if the season’s challenges are puzzle heavy, I think Jenny is going to be the one to beat.
Thanks for the bios and recap, TT. I’m definitely going to need them to refer to weekly.
I forgot to mention Probst. How does he get more handsome each season? Must be the dimples.
And damn Ricard. I’m still not over the demise of C’mon in guys!
The man with the shoulder injury is still favoring it. I’m not sure how far he can go in the game. 😞
Thanks for the recap TT! I’m so glad Survivor is back. The fact that we saw season 41 but they didn’t will make it so interesting to watch their choices. Maryanne is adorable and such a gem. When she started sobbing about Jackson, it broke my heart. She will go far until someone decides they can’t win against her in the final. I like Jenny too. Ugh to Tori! And the big muscles guy seems kind of sweet. As a cancer survivor, I’ll also be rooting for Daniel. Let’s go!!
I actually watched twice because I was confused over the new twists 😞. I’m so glad that this show is back! I have to confess that I cried when Jackson had to leave and Maryanne started to sob. She is a ray of sunshine and to see her so upset was hard. My heart broke for Jackson. I do like most of the people this season, but not all. It’s safe to say Tori won’t be winning any awards for likability! I hope Daniel’s shoulder gets better soon. And I sure do agree with IJC that Jeff is cuter than ever!
Once again thanks so much for having the recaps of the best reality show on TV ((TT))! We are the Fam that doesn’t read spoilers or bios and pick when they are all standing on the beach, lol. This time I took dislocated shoulder/childhood leukemia guy, hub picked macho challenge beast guy, oldest had skinny voted out 1st guy (waaa) so now she is evil therapist Tori and my gouges phoned in from HI that she picked Romeo – the baby WAS Jackson but tearfully changed to Rockroy.
We’re all set for the fun!
I picked Zach and Tori as the first ones in danger solely on both their attitudes that they will be so good at the mental manipulations. Please! Neither one of them have lived enough life to figure out the subtle nuances of human behavior. Tori making the claim that as a therapist she will be able to figure out everyone’s mind game. Laughable. Most therapists I have encountered with a God like attitude about having human psyche all figured out, usually end up being clueless about humans that don’t fit the textbook lessons, and ineffective therapists. I think Tori is the one who will end up being schooled big time regarding the mind game.
Tori is my new villain. Her over confident sense of her skills at analyzing people is laughable. Girl, get some life experience under your belt before thinking you’ve got humankind all figured out.
Is there a reason Jackson couldn’t have stayed on his lithium and not discontinue it before the game began? Don’t other players continue on whatever med their taking?
I don’t know for sure, but my GUESS is they can probably take meds they are on off camera. I SUSPECT that Jackson may not have wanted to tell them he was on Lithium because of the stigma or whatever and decided to white knuckle it. Then he began to suffer from severe withdrawal.
I wonder if they’ll give him another chance if he can resolve the issue to their satisfaction?
Maybe but he was clearly going through withdrawals. You can’t just quite some meds just because you are going on Survivor.