Heading into the seventh episode of Survivor 51, the Helicopter Alliance had just lost another member after Devin Way and Jelly Loblack chose to stick together in a decision to oust their close friend Ori Jean-Charles. Down to a tribe of only two, Devin and Jelly are left to hope that Jeff Probst‘s “open era” doesn’t have another tribal Immunity Challenge in store for them because they’re not sure they can win on their own.
Tonight, their wish comes true when the three tribes are folded into one tribe of 13 players for the merge. What ensues is chaos as the entanglement of cross-tribe alliances begin to stack up and secret plans spill out almost as quickly as they’re told.
Read on for our recap of all the important moments from Episode 7 of Survivor 51, titled “The Girl at the Prom,” which aired Nov. 4 at 8 p.m. PT on CBS. And then see what Jeff has to say about the decision to bring back grubs for the merge feast and why the “instinct to survive” kicks in at Tribal Council.
The 13 players still in the game at the start of the episode are: Angelica “Jelly” Loblack, Brady Booker, Carter Krull, Cristian Chavez, Danny Kilby, Devin Way, Eric Macksoud, Kristin Flickinger, Lewis Kelly, Maggie Nestor, Mike Pinsky, Sharonda Cox, and Thien An Nguyen.
The Merge
It’s day 13 of the game when Jeff hands out new buffs to the players with the promise of a traditional merge. But instead of letting all 13 players enjoy their first meal in two weeks, he offers a spot at the feast to the first 10 who can swallow two full grubs. With the threat of three players missing out on the celebratory feast, most of the players go to town on the slugs as quickly as they can, but Kristin and Cristian decide to bail instead. By the end of the mini challenge, Sharonda is the last struggling to get them down and so she misses the chance for a real lunch as well. Not to leave any trace of food behind, Brady asks if Jeff has any leftover and then willingly takes down a few more grubs.
While everyone else chows down on some more traditional food at their feast, Kristin, Cristian and Sharonda make the most of their afternoon by laying the groundwork for some solid strategy that involves them working together as original Savu. Kristin makes the calculated decision to be open and honest with Sharonda about the dynamics of the Tethered Idol by letting her know that if Sharonda is eliminated then it becomes an idol that Kristin can play for herself. Wanting to solidify a partnership based on loyalty with Sharonda, Kristin gives the idol to Sharonda so that it’s in her control and to prove that Kristin won’t be coming for her.
Immunity Challenge
For the first individual Immunity Challenge, the players must use a pole to balance a statue on an uneven resting place while balancing themselves on a narrow beam. Nine players are able to make it to the third and toughest stage of the challenge, but the last three standing are Mike, Kristin and Lewis. Kristin falls next and then Mike outlasts Lewis in order to claim the first individual Immunity Idol of the open era.
Tribal Council
Already in the hot seat with his own former Toka tribe, Mike’s win puts him in a position of safety that it turns out he really needed. Hoping to leverage connections he made with Kristin and original Savu, Mike suggests that Kilby and Brady are the leaders of Toka that they should target. Sharonda and Eric are initially interested in a Kilby vote because of how he burned them during the Linnea vote, but when Eric takes his name to Brady, Brady starts to see Eric as the “red flag” player to get out.
Instead of falling in line with Brady’s anti-Eric plan, Maggie throws Kristin’s name into the mix, believing her to be in possession of a power from Exile Island that they should flush out and seeing her as a big social threat overall. At this point, Brady thinks that he still has Mike under his wing, but Mike’s connection to Jelly folds him in to a middle position with her and Devin where they can decide whether to vote with the Savu or Toka block.
The mud really hits the fan when Mike goes to Kristin to warn her that the Toka vote for Eric is a cover and that she should be worried. But Kristin receives his poor delivery as a dictator making a threat and she goes to Brady to throw Mike under the bus. Brady’s distrust of Mike is reignited and he is forced to push the Toka block back to voting for Eric instead of Kristin.
Despite the exhausting amount of secret-spilling around camp and what becomes a very live Tribal Council, no player chooses to leverage an advantage during the vote. In a 9-4 majority that includes his own ally Maggie (she was given a heads up by Devin), Brady is voted out and becomes the first member of the jury.
Jeff’s Field Notes
Given the extensive pre-season planning that the production team goes through, Jeff reveals in his Field Notes this week that there were two things they knew early on they wanted: a traditional merge feast and the grub twist from Season 1. Production was rewarded with their decision when both Brady and Eric displayed excitement to eat the grubs “just for the experience of it.” Jeff states that “Eric connected that experience to a family connection of watching Survivor together. It’s another small moment in a long season,” he says, “but it’s a great example of two players seizing the adventure on their terms. I love it.”
Jeff goes on to describe that, as with any food reward provided for the players, even the grubs are kept healthy and delivered fresh. “I’ll just say that we have a very good supplier and from the moment we receive the grubs, they are looked after by our team to ensure they stay healthy.” He adds that for rewards like the merge feast, the reason for ensuring the players receive “fresh and, when appropriate, hot” food is because “outside of trust, food is the most important thing in the game and when you earn it you deserve it to be satisfying.”
As a witness to “every Tribal that has ever happened,” Jeff believes that a live Tribal is “what happens when your instinct to survive takes over.” He imagines that for the players, “if you’re sitting on your stump and your gut is telling you something’s off, you better listen… this is your last chance to do something, because if you ignore that feeling and get voted out, there’s no recovering. And when you add in the additional layer of this being the first vote as a merged tribe, it’s very intense.”
