While US Survivor started its landmark 40th season Winners at War this week, Australian Survivor continued with a second week of episodes. While not as good as the week before, this season has been a lot of fun to watch so far.
Overall thoughts
For this week, the focus was put more on Mokuta than Vakama. This is fair, considering Vakama’s tribe dynamics took up most of last week. Still, there was a see-sawing between both tribes- giving the viewers a better idea of how the game is playing out. The thing that I’ve noticed with this season and last season is that after the “Previously on…” segment, we are shown a humorous scene- followed by the intro. Finding laughs in US Survivor is difficult in its later scenes- probably because the show tends to take itself too seriously. With AU, they’ve provided us with some good laughs. So far this week…
-Jacqui got to show off her modeling skills
-John and Lee went streaking from the Mokuta camp and then into the ocean
-The Mokuta tribe advertising the Zach TRX-5000
I also enjoyed the Mama’s Kitchen reward in Episode 6, which Vakama were able to enjoy- enjoying pasta while also looking at pictures of themselves with their mothers. With rewards like this, the players are able to flesh out more as characters.
Stand Out Contestants
For Mokuta, I’m going to pick Nick. Even though the numbers aren’t in his favor right now, I’ve enjoyed watching him. Last week- he, Harry and Shonee formed the Little Rascals alliance. What I’ve enjoyed about Nick this week is that he’s had some good moments this week. When Shonee found an idol in Episode 5 and told Nick about it, Nick was like a kid in a candy store jumping for joy. With this, Nick was able to have his alliance vote out Henry. Seeing Nick’s confessionals bashing Henry’s gameplay was quite fun- saying that Henry was playing way too hard. In short, we’ve seen a whole range of emotions from Nick this week and I’m liking it.
For Vakama, I have to go with Mat. In Episode 4, Vakama won a reward of fish and chips. However, the reward wasn’t quite what the tribe was expecting. When coming back to camp, the tribe found their reward in the form of fishing supplies and potatoes. While looking through the supplies, Mat found an idol. With this idol, Mat and his alliance of four had power come the next Tribal Council. This pissed off Locky, as Mat has chose to wear the idol around his neck- as a way of rubbing it in Locky’s face. While I would usually hate something like this in US Survivor, Mat seems to mean no harm and is just doing this for fun.
Favorite Challenge
My favorite challenge this week was “Domino Effect”- the reward challenge in Episode 6. In this challenge, contestants must line up a series of blocks all along a beam and create a chain reaction- while also trying to avoid a trip obstacle. The first tribe to create a successful line of blocks that reaches the end of the beam wins the challenge. Similar to my pick from last week, this is a challenge that’s usually done as an individual challenge. In this variation of the challenge, it was a tribal challenge- which meant increasing the challenge in size. To make things trickier, contestants had to go out in pairs tethered together while carrying each block. This was fun to watch and in the end, Vakama won the challenge.
Voted Off
In Episode 4, Michelle Dougan became the fourth person voted out of the game- as well as the second person voted out of Mokuta. Michelle originally appeared in Season 2 and finished in fourth place, losing a fire making challenge to eventual winner Jericho Malabonga. Despite trying to plead her case at Tribal Council, Michelle was voted off in an effort to keep the tribe physical stronger.
In Episode 5, Henry Nicholson became the fifth person voted out of the game after Shonee played her idol. With Shonee’s idol, this negated the five votes cast against her- preventing a tie between her and the five votes against Henry. While I picked Henry last week as one of my two stand out contestants, he was playing way too hard. This week, it was shown as to how desperate he was in trying to align with almost everyone. During the tribe dynamic/camp life scenes, Henry was often seen by himself- which isn’t a good sign. With him playing such a fast game, this made him a threat- leading to his boot.
In Episode 6, Shonee Fairfax and Zach Kozyrski were voted out of the Mokuta tribe but not out of the game. Prior to the vote, Jonathan revealed that there was a twist: no one would be going home. Instead, the two people with most number of votes would be sent to Exile Beach. For Shonee, she was the main target given that the majority alliance wanted to keep the tribe strong. For Zach, the Little Rascals alliance along with Sharn voted against him considering he didn’t have any ties with any of the two alliances. With that, the two went off to Exile Beach.
Final Thoughts
While not as good as last week, I enjoyed this second week of episode from AU. For next week, it was revealed in the previews that there will be a tribe swap- which looks like it’ll happen before any challenge on Exile Beach. My guess is that after the tribes swap, Shonee and Zach will compete in a duel- with the winner re-entering the game on the tribe that loses the next immunity challenge. We’ll just have to wait and see.
I’ll see you all next week!
next: Australian Survivor All Stars Recap Week 3
I'm a writer/journalist with a passion for music and pop culture. Having graduated from King's College in Wilkes-Barre, PA in 2014, I've been looking for a platform in which I can share my passions. Since 2009, I've been posting to my own blog- The Walrus' Music Blog- via Blogger. I'm also the author of two self-published books, "The Camp: Stories from the Summer" and "The College: Stories from King's." Together, the two books cover the story of my life from 2004 to 2014. I've been lucky enough to interview several of my favorite musicians over the years and go to concerts from time to time. I'm also very devoted to the CBS reality TV show Survivor, which I started watching in 2002 when its fourth season started. I currently live in New Jersey.