Episodes 7-8: The bounce-back begins

Published: February 8, 2021

 

The fate of the Foa Foa tribe feels its grimmest yet at the end of Episode 7 of Survivor: Samoa, but the foursome somehow find a way to avoid receiving votes at the next episode's merge Tribal Council, despite none of them being immune. It's the start of a reversal of fortunes, and it happens despite all Russell's schemes falling flat, him misplaying an idol, and being out of the loop as the merge boot was set up.

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Episodes 5-6: The storm

Published: February 4, 2021

 

There's a dark cloud hanging over Episodes 5-6 of Survivor: Samoa, one filled with foreboding for Galu. But also, mostly, rain. Almost all of which ends up on the contestants, crippling the first episode's post-IC scrambling, then taking away one contestant's shot at the game in the next episode. A look at what Survivor learned from this, and what could have been.

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Episodes 3-4: Rise above, we're gonna rise above

Published: January 30, 2021

 

There are good and bad aspects to Survivor: Samoa's second pair of episodes: On the one hand, nearly all the time spent with Galu is delightful, which is good, because they're the focus of Episode 4. Unfortunately, while there's a great story in Episode 3, as Jaison demands that Ben be booted, the show chooses to smother that in unnecessary (and inaccurate) deification of Russell Hantz.

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Episodes 1-2: Welcome to Hantzvision

Published: January 23, 2021

 

There's a lot going on in the first two episodes of Survivor: Samoa: picking tribal chiefs, a hero challenge, two immunities, an idol find. Unfortunately for the season, almost all of that action is shown from the perspective of one person: Russell Hantz. We do get occasional efforts to also show  the Galu tribe (a.k.a. Shambo and a bunch of people who aren't Shambo), but it's mostly Hantz. So here's an effort to try to deduce/ reconstruct what we missed.

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