It was a merge episode to remember on “Survivor 41,” for better or for worse. The sixth episode of the season featured the three tribes merging as they would on a normal season, but not before host Jeff Probst revealed a big twist that was “needlessly complicated,” as Kevin Jacobsen explains in a new “Survivor” slugfest with colleagues Marcus James Dixon and Matt Noble. The twist resulted in a rare episode where no one went home by the end of the night. Watch our thoughts on how it all played out in the video chat above.
SEE Everything to know about ‘Survivor 41’
The 12 remaining players drew rocks, which randomly split them up into teams for a challenge, though two players drew gray rocks and had to sit out. The two teams competed in a challenge where the winners would be safe at the first merge vote of the season. The winners then had to choose one of the two sit-outs to send to Exile Island, with the winning team ultimately picking Erika Casupanan. On Exile Island, Erika was given the choice to keep everything the same or to reverse the outcome of the challenge, resulting in her being safe and the winning team being vulnerable. The episode ended before revealing her decision.
“I do like the winning your way into the merge,” admits Dixon. “What I didn’t like was that two people just didn’t compete at all. I thought that was kind of silly.” Noble adds that while he likes “the idea of reversing time and bringing that element into the game,” the way it was introduced felt “random.” However, as Jacobsen notes, the fact that Erika is the one who has the power to reverse the results makes the twist more dramatically compelling. Erika has been the main target of her tribe for multiple episodes now, and with the winning team comprised of four of her five former Luvu tribemates, she could get some sweet revenge on them.
SEE ‘Survivor’ deaths: Full list of castaways we’ve lost
The other main talking point of Episode 6 was the emergence of an alliance of the four remaining Black players: Danny McCray, Deshawn Radden, Liana Wallace and Shan Smith. Jacobsen points out that a similar alliance of all Black players formed on “Big Brother” this summer, which was able to go all the way to the end together.
“The best alliance is the one that you keep secret,” observes Dixon. “So I really hope they do keep it secret.” The panelists consider three of those four, Deshawn, Liana and Shan, to be major winner contenders.
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