My thoughts on Survivor episode 8, “You Call, We’ll Haul”

Here it is guys! My thoughts on the best episode this season! This episode was intense and fast paced. During the pre-reward section, we saw Savage telling Jeremy to watch out for Ciera who wanted to make a big move. Then we see Ciera telling Stephen about a big move against Joe. The big narrative this episode was Stephen versus Joe. Which one would make the big move?

Reward Challenge

The castaways participated in the reward challenge called, “Boats, Brains and Brawn.” It consisted on two teams paddling on the boat to retrieve colored crates. Then the teams would assemble the crates, at the beach, without repeating colors. The green team consisted on Joe, Keith, Wentworth, Wigglesworth, Kimmi and Ciera. The purple team was Stephen, Jeremy, Tasha, Savage, Spencer and Abi.  Joe lead  the green team to victory. He pushed the other team’s boat and then he carried two crates by himself. Joe is like a professional athlete. He motivated his team and performed incredible well in the challenge. The green team, on the other hand, fell apart.

Survivor Cafe

The Survivor Cafe looked amazing, it had ice coffee and bagels.  Here Ciera recounted the events of Blood versus Water. She was at the bottom of the Tyson, Gervase, and Monica alliance. She told everyone that they needed to make a big move, otherwise, the Alpha Alliance would control the game.  We saw Joe talking about getting rid of Stephen. Afterwards, we got a fun scene with Keith. He drove everyone around the beach on an auto rickshaw, called in Cambodia, “Tuck Tuck.” This scene recalled earlier survivor seasons, were Survivor was more about the experience than the game.

Immunity Challenge

The castaways played, “Take the reins.” This challenge consisted on a contestant balancing a ball on a disk. The contestant holded two ropes to balance the disk. This challenge looked pretty tough one had to maneuver the ropes with two hands and had enough endurance to hold on to them for an extended period of time. Most of the castaways lost fast; It came down to the Keith and Joe.  Keith put up a fight but awesome Joe ended up pulling the win. Its insane to see how good Joe is at every survivor challenge. At this point I would say he’s better than Malcolm and on par with Ozzy. Remember, Ozzy in his first season won almost every single immunity challenge. I would say, however, that Joe has better leadership and social skills than Ozzy who was more of a loner.

Before Tribal

Stephen had thrown Joe’s name around given that Joe is like JT; The golden boy of  the season, the player Stephen can’t beat. However, since Joe won immunity he rallied people against Stephen.  Despite the episode setting up the Joe versus Stephen, the Alpha alliance does not go forward with it. Jeremy has become tight with Stephen and plans on pulling a JT. While Joe keeps on winning immunity. Therefore, everyone targets Wentworth who they see as the easy vote.

At Tribal and Next Week

I am proud of Ciera, especially how she called out Stephen. Of course there’s a hierarchy! Jeremy, Tasha, Savage and Stephen are on the top. Ciera is one of the best women to ever play the game. She’s strategic and voices her opinion. It seemed very obvious that Wentworth was going home. However, something amazing happened, she pulled out her hidden immunity idol. Abi, Ciera and Wentworth rejoiced in joy, while everyone else was left speechless. Eventually, Savage was the guy who went home.  Next week is looking to be another excellent episode. Now that Savage is gone, I see Jeremy and Stephen becoming a pair. While I also see a stronger alliance forming between Abi, Ciera and Wentworth, hopefully they can pull more women or Spencer, we’ll see!