‘Survivor 42’ spoilers find that the long-awaited merge finally occurred during last week’s double episode but with it, it brought back the dreaded Hour-Glass Twist. Unsurprisingly, the twist proved just as unpopular with viewers during its part deux as it did the first time round (no matter the corporate sponsor attached to it).
Though we’ve not heard of any castaways having actual words with host Jeff Probst about the fact that he “lied” about their immunity, ala season 41’s Danny McCray, it seems the players were not fans either- even though Drea Wheeler did guess it was a possibility.
‘Survivor 42’ Spoilers: Winner, Winner, Applebee’s Dinner – Strong Play in an Awesome Double Episode
While it is possible Drea thought of this twist on her own, she was part of the tribe than needed “someone” to plant the idol on the middle of a very conspicuous branch in order for it to be found and the three-way advantage to be activated, so pardon us if we call shenanigans on “zero producer interaction”.
Hour glass aside, other than see Lydia Meredith get sent home (and boy, will we get to Hai Giang’s vote later), the episode was confusing…in the fact that it gave a winner’s edit to several players.
Goliath, aka, Johnathon Young was on the tip of everyone’s tongues when he suddenly found himself on the vulnerable side of the tribal council vote, yet attempts to blindside him were half-hearted at best with only two votes going against him. With the big guy bonding with Mike and Omar jumping in to sway votes away, it seems Johnathan does have the goods to make it far- not just brute strength and food acquisition skills.
Even student of the game and Survivor: Tocantins’ runner-up Stephen Fishbach is seeing a winning edit from Johnathon.
Let’s talk about fellow “meathead”, Mike Turner. The 58 year old retired fireman from Jersey received allll the love from Jeff Probst as he adopted his “no man left behind” mantra and got his pre-merge team up the immunity challenge obstacles pretty much single handedly.
Later on the (almost) merged tribe beach, Mike and Johnathon received allllll the love from the producers as their “it’s tough to be a beast” bonding sesh pulled at heart strings. Fans began to wonder if Mike won’t pull a win out of his strong but sensitive pocket.
As for Nick Iadanza, two time Survivor Australia competitor and superfan, he believes Mike has this in the bag.
We may have agreed with Nick, until Rocksroy Bailey, exiled away for two days where he managed to build a shelter in only hours that some tribes could only dream of…while being visually impaired, started showing UP.
Tons of fans took to Twitter with reasons they believe Rocks will rock the title of Sole Survivor for season 42. Some had reasons a little more…simplistic (I own the same shirt as Rocksroy. Man has excellent taste. He is officially my winner pick.- @ChrisFarleysSon) than others’ (Rocksroy had a half island overview span while standing at the top of a pretty mountain. I think he wins the season (and I’m not complaining). They’ve only ever done that for winners before – @MikeyMoozer)
However, no sooner did Rocksroy work his way into everyone (except Tori Meehan’s heart), that attention turned to Drea.
James Wallington who knows how to win a reality show, being one half of Will and James, the winners of Amazing Race season 32 has Drea as his top pick to take home the $1 million first prize. And he’s not alone.
While Drea is a very even and strategic player, the camera likes her, maybe wants to be besties and have a sleep over, but it doesn’t love her like it loves Hai. From the second he poured fake blood over himself in an attempt to fake out his Vati tribe, Hai has had a real relationship with the cameras, the cameras wine and dine Hi and take him on romantic vacations. And last week’s double banger was no exception.
Yet, fans are now beginning to wonder if Hai is not so much getting the winner’s edit and more the “Shan Smith” edit- the fake out edit.
We would have perhaps brushed that theory aside if we hadn’t have seen the beauty that is Omar Zaheer during the last 10 minutes of the hour and a half episode.
Without so much as a vote to his name, Omar performed a masterclass in “How to win Survivor”, re-rallying his splintered tribe, keeping Challenge Beast, Johnathan’s name out of people’s mouths so much so that Will Smith has no choice but to Stan and then, for the piece de resistance- was so persuasive that he managed to convince Hai to flip on his do or die, his “I’ll go to rocks before I write her name down” alliance member, Lydia.
As we know, the Bellyflop King became the Survivor King, Omar’s impressive rallying worked and Lydia became the 7th survivor voted/ousted off the island… missing the merge by THAT much (which is just BRUTAL considering the Turn Back Time twist had her on the chopping block after she solved the puzzle like a champ- ugh, that twist SUX!)
Only time will tell if Omar is Here. To. Play for the long haul or this was a one off. Either way, his last episode game play was impressive AF and I, for one, can’t wait to see what Hai has to say for himself about voting Lydia off.
As for Lydia, speaking with Parade, she admitted to being as confused by her former ally’s vote as the rest of us mere mortals, asking, “Why did he let me go when I could have been an easy number? And I’m not even on the jury and could have been a great jury number for him or anybody on Vati. But it was more confusing to me. Why go to bat for me, and then two tribal [councils] later, you are just done? I truly think maybe he wanted to play with the cooler kids.”
In the end, the double episode was doubley awesome, proving two things: Survivor 41 didn’t really count and almost any of the surviving Survivors could take the whole thing. Except Tori (I hope). Fans (and Rocks) would rather the Applebees servers take home the prize money than Tori.
Who do you think has been getting the best winner’s edit so far and do you trust it after we were sucked in by the Shan and Xander Hastings edits of last season, anyway?
Let us know your thoughts on the season, now 7 episodes down in the comments below and keep watching Survivor, Wednesdays on CBS.
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