RECAP: “Survivor 47” Episode 13
Did we need a two-night, four-hour season finale? I’m not sure that we did. And frankly, I do think there was some fat that could have been cut from this first half of the premiere. I’m all for the 90-minute episodes, but two hours for only six contestants, especially when one of the two boots was all but inevitable? That was a stretch.
That said, the first hour of this episode was outstanding. Everything up to the first tribal council, and it’s deeply satisfying blindside, was top-tier “Survivor.” And even the second immunity challenge was gripping to watch. The players may have been fumbling constantly, and it was — like so much of this season — a two-horse race. But there were times I didn’t want to breathe watching Rachel and Genevieve approach their stacks with those final balls/holders. This was gripping television.
Read on for my spoiler-filled thoughts on Episode 13 of “Survivor 47”!
Since we’re down to just 4 players, I’m going to go over my thoughts on each player — how I feel they’re doing in the game, how they did this episode, and how likely I think they could win it.
Andy: Our first boot of the night, and an incredibly delicious one. My opinion on Andy evolved significantly over the past few episodes, especially after last week’s Operation: Italy. And to his credit, this episode Genevieve explicitly said that the plan was Andy’s, and he deserved to get the flowers for it. That was an audacious move, and while I do think that Andy was a chaos goblin who hacked a path for himself in this game through lying and betrayal — which I do not think would have been rewarded by this jury — you cannot deny that he was playing HARD. Respect. But Andy was undone by the most basic of reasons: hubris. Him mansplaining to Rachel why he was going to vote her out, and then using her as his vanguard for the jury by laying out his entire game was jawdropping in its arrogance. It aligns with my core read on Andy this whole season — socially maladjusted manboy — but it made for incredible narrative irony watching him smug his way through those scenes, while the viewers all knew that Rachel was going nowhere. At least Andy took his blindside in stride. I will not be at all surprised if he is brought back to play again. He has been a defining player this season, and makes for unpredictable and compelling television. But I absolutely cheered when he was snuffed.
Genevieve: On the other hand, I was bummed when it was Genevieve’s turn. Going into the episode I fully expected her to get voted out tonight. She had been living on a prayer since the Sol vote out weeks ago, and at a certain point there just weren’t going to be any more rabbits left in the hat for her to pull. She put up a hell of a fight in the immunity challenge, and I really think that outcome will be THE defining moment of “Survivor 47.” If Genevieve had won it, she would have won this game, and Rachel would have gone home at Final 5. But it was not to be. I thought it was interesting that even when Teeny asked her about her fake idol, Genevieve told the truth and was completely sincere — but she had been playing such a strong game that Teeny, Rachel, and Sue all assumed that she must have SOMETHING up her sleeve. Again, that’s a testament to Gen’s game. I remain steadfast in my opinion that her fatal mistake was getting Sol out too soon. If she had waited one or two more votes — bump Kyle and Gabe — she would have been able to work from the shadows a little big longer, and have more rope for the end of her game. In the end, she just ran out of time. Genevieve is very high on my personal list of future returnees. I’m also fascinated to see how she operates on the jury.
Rachel: I think Rachel won the million dollars tonight. It was probably a boon to her game that she did not win that first immunity, as it gave her an opportunity to appear vulnerable. All she had to do was sit back and wait for people to tell her information that they wouldn’t have been sharing unless they were convinced she was about to be on the jury. That said, she was also playing actively here. Sneaking down to the beach in the pitch dark to eavesdrop on the Teeny/Sam/Gen/Andy convo gave her critical intel about how Teeny was swinging after the Caroline vote; telling Sue about her idol was a smart (but risky) move to immediately bond suddenly friendless Sue; and then leaning into the “Guess I’m the next one to go” bit at tribal, and then playing that idol, gave her a dramatic Moment that surely delighted the jury. (They were also thrilled that she iced Andy; like I said, I do not think he wins many votes even if he makes it to the end.) Rachel has also emerged as a major challenge beast, with THREE individual immunity wins. I’ve seen discourse that people are hyperbolizing how good of a game Rachel is playing, and I totally disagree. I think she is giving us one of the most earned wins since Season 40; she has played a masterful game and has very few weaknesses. Of course, that’s assuming she wins. But multiple people have said that they do not want to go up against her at firemaking, so even if she doesn’t win immunity at F4, I think she has a strong chance of making final tribal. And of the other three players left, she has easily the best shot to win. Her only weakness right now is the idea that she, too, thinks too highly of herself, which will turn off certain jurors (certainly whoever ends up in fourth place). But she’s also not wrong…
Sam: Sam is hanging on by the skin of his teeth, and I think the only real threat to a Rachel win. He could very well win the Final 4 immunity, and if so he would put Rachel in firemaking (I think they all would). He has played a good game, wielding a lot of power pre-merge, and then fighting his way back up from the bottom after a rough post-merge. If it’s Sam, Teeny, and Sue at final tribal, Sam is going to win. But if Rachel is in that mix, I don’t think he has a shot. I don’t know what story he tells that supersedes what Rachel has done. But still, Sam should be proud of the game he has played.
Sue: We saw some glimmers of Sue using strategy this episode. That’s rare. It’s possible that those interactions have all been cut out of the edit — Sue was invisible for a good chunk of the post-merge — but my gut tells me she just wasn’t doing all that much hustling. She had her alliances, she was fiercely loyal to them, and I think she thought that coupled with the idol that “nobody knew about” would get her to the finale. And here’s the thing: she’s right, because I think Sue is almost certainly going to be in the F3. But that’s not a great thing for her, because I don’t think anyone views her as a threat. Yes, she got her moment this episode, showing off that she had held on to an idol as a secret since before the merge. But the fact is, people DID know that the red-paint idol was out there. I suspect they believed it may have gone home in someone’s pocket. The fact that they didn’t realize Sue had it is not to her credit in my mind; I don’t think they viewed her as a threat even WITH an idol. Sue was never a serious target. When her name was brought up, it was strictly to separate the twosome with her and Caroline. Had she played her idol for an ally, THAT might have raised her threat level. But as it stands, I don’t think this jury is going to be overly impressed by her game. It’s a very old-school “Survivor” game. Loyalty + keeping a secret + human-interest story (“I’m not 45, I’m actually an elderly woman who survived with all you young people!”) is just not going to move the needle with a group of people who were playing 4D chess for the past four weeks while you were fixated on a few errant votes with your name on them. Assuming Sue makes it to final tribal, I can see Caroline and possibly Gabe voting for her out of respect, but that’s it.
Teeny: I think Teeny has a decent shot of making it to final tribal, but if they do, I suspect Teeny will be a zero-vote finalist. If Sue manages to win F4 immunity, I think she chooses Teeny to sit next to her at final tribal. If Rachel or Sam win, it’ll Teeny in firemaking against either Rachel or Sam. And by Teeny’s own admission, they’re not great at firemaking. Which begs the question, What IS Teeny good at in this game? It’s not firemaking. It’s not challenges. It’s not knowing the right way to vote — I don’t have Teeny’s statistics here, but I bet they’ve been on the wrong side of the vote more often than not. I think the argument would be “strong social game,” but I’m not even sure that’s true. I do think Teeny is naturally likable and gets along with people easily, but we have seen Teeny be openly hostile to more than a few of their tribe mates because things weren’t going Teeny’s way. That is not consistent with “good social game” to me. I thought Sam’s dig that if he wanted information circulating at camp, he would immediately tell Teeny, was pretty brutal. Teeny owned it, but that was not a compliment. I thought Teeny openly admitting in front of the journey that they were clueless about what was going on in this game, and what was going to happen, was basically final tribal suicide. I like Teeny as a person very much; I suspect they’re amazing in real life and I would love to have a drink with them. But as a player this season? Probably the worst track record of anyone in this Final 4, and potentially of anyone post-merge.
Next: it’s the actual finale. Will Rachel continue her dominance and acquire the win she has certainly earned? Can Sam pull off a huge upset? Will goats Teeny or Sue somehow pull out the win? We’ll find out next week!
What do you think of Season 47? Who do you want to win? Drop your thoughts in the comments.
