Hello, everyone! We hope you are staying safe and inside during these difficult times, as you might have heard in a commercial during this week’s episode of Survivor: Winners at War. To get it out of the way up front, Mary is still absolutely dominating the Survivor Fantasy League, and Todd is in no way upset about it. Nope. Not at all. Here’s the real question for this week: did you cry? Because this episode really wanted you to cry. Jeff didn’t even make the contestants compete to meet with their loved ones (including kids!), and the Edge-ians also got to meet their loved ones. There may or may not have been some tears shed when Mary and Todd were watching. Don’t ask who shed them; it doesn’t matter. Anyway, is there dust in this room? Let’s get on to the recap!

MARY’S MOMENT OF THE WEEK

Mary: One of my favorite episodes each season is always the family visit episode, the time when family members are flown in for hugs, kisses, and, as Jeff says, love. This year, to celebrate the all-winners season, not one loved one, but entire families were flown in, and it felt magical. Seeing the contestants reunited with kids and spouses felt remarkably sweet, and you could tell that island life had been getting to them. It’s always shocking to see the starved, thin, scraggly contestants hugging on their clean, healthy family members. I want to note here that seeing Tyson hug his family did not make me change my feelings about him at all. I still think he’s a sociopath, maybe.

What was even more touching is that those on Extinction Island got to see their families, too. Of course, I’m sure it had something to do with Boston Rob and Amber being on Extinction Island. Jeff can’t resist all the Mariano kids coming to visit their parents who literally met on the show, as cameras were rolling. Ethan also had a touching reunion with his fiance? Wife? I’m not sure who she was, but man I felt a little tear welling up in my eye at how happy they were to see each other. This reunion for those already voted out of the game was sweet, and at the end of the episode, after tribal, all the Edge survivors went up and hugged Jeff. It was truly special.

Todd: I loved that little moment, when all the Edge players hugged Jeff. It was a human moment in what can often be a dehumanizing game, and no one had to pretend to be thankful for Fiji Airlines.

Mary: Oh my goodness, I LOVE when they have to pretend to love a sponsor. Look no further than last season, when everyone suddenly praised Applebee’s as the best restaurant ever. We know the truth. Y’all hate Applebee’s. And Fiji Airlines, I bet. 

TODD’S MOMENT OF THE WEEK

Todd: That tribal sure was...live, wouldn’t you say? It certainly seems that way, at least, based on the editing. The big takeaways from this week’s tribal, besides the chaos, are the Advantage-Standoff (Advant-doff? There’s a joke there I just can’t find) and Sophie just directing the alliance of her, Sarah, Nick, Ben, and Tony to move a little ways down from the set and make a decision. The Stand-vantage-off was a first of its kind, to my memory, but feels a little more like classic Survivor. Was Jeremy right to use his (still dumbly named) “Safety without Power” Advantage during the tribal? Seemingly yes. Did Sarah have to use her “Steal a Vote”? Probably not, but she had already tipped her hand, and it is always better to be safe than sorry and not unnecessarily paint a target on your back.

As for the majority of 5 just up and walking away from Jeff at tribal? Now, that is a decidedly new wrinkle in “live” tribals, which have been around more or less since J.T. stood up to talk to Culpepper during Survivor: Those Who Have Changed The Game. Sophie basically gives away the game, and shows the jury who is in control (at least for now) in the game. I think it is a canny move by Sophie, and it serves to show that she is the one running things in that alliance. Hopefully it won’t come back to bite her in the butt later on.

Here’s the bigger issue, though, with this tribal council: what happened? Somehow there were only 2 votes on Denise (who Sarah threw some heat on by stealing her vote), two votes on Sophie, and 5 votes on Tyson. Did the majority “5” know that Michele would vote with them? If so, why exclude her from the huddle? Was this all a ruse? With so much time devoted to the Loved Ones visit this week (and rightfully so, it is a powerful and important moment in any Survivor season) it made it all the harder to decipher what went down with this vote, and it really reignited by desire to see Survivor pull out longer episodes, especially now when it seems like we all have nothing but time on our hands.

PLAYER ON THE RISE

Todd: It certainly seems like Nick is in a better position this week than he was in last week. After siding with the 5 person alliance that won this little showdown, he is in a prime position to make it to the Final 5 (and probably be brought as a goat?). Jeff asked him at the beginning of tonight’s wild tribal if he thought people were playing harder now, and he slapped his thighs and said, “This feels like Survivor.” So I guess the previous 24 days didn’t feel like Survivor? Either way, Nick seems less likely to get voted out now than he has for the last couple weeks, and for that reason he is on the rise.

Mary: Nick is definitely in a better position, but I wonder how long it’ll last! Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but I think Denise might be on the rise! She’s been in the hotseat and then out of it, but I think that she’s showing some finesse in how she’s playing this season, and people are definitely looking at her as a competitor now--but not too much of a competitor, which is good for her. It’s great to stay under the radar.

PLAYER ON THE EDGE

Todd: It’s Jeremy, right? After using his Safety Without Power advantage and leaving the rest of his alliance high and dry, Jeremy was able to keep himself in the game for one more week, but who knows how long that will last. It seems just as likely that he will be gone next week, despite the “Next Week on…” trying to convince us that Tony’s time is up. I don’t buy Sarah flipping on her Cops ‘R’ Us ally so soon after he “saved” her this week, and I don’t think Jeremy won himself any favors this week, especially after everyone was reminded of how powerful it can be when a family man makes it to Final Tribal.

Mary: The previews for next week seems to indicate that Tony might be on the outs, but I think it’s just as likely that Jeremy is going to come under fire for using the Safety Without Power advantage (which is a stupid name for an advantage). Honestly, I’d love to see Tony scramble relentlessly and pull himself out of danger via spy shacks and paranoid spying. I think the tension of the next episode will be who will go home between Jeremy and Tony, but the question of who’s in more danger is one I’m not prepared to answer. 

That’s all for this week. Tune in next time for more…

SURVIVOR:

WINNERS

AT

WARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

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