As premieres go, Survivor 48's was solid, if a bit unspectacular. As the eighth new era premiere, most of the rough edges of the rejiggered format have now been sanded off, and it chugged along under its own power pretty well. There were some great moments along the way, although Vula doesn't seem like it's overflowing with big personalities, but maybe that was because most of the time we spent there was devoted to Sai's idol hunt. So we really just had bare-bones of sketches of everyone that wasn't Sai (or Kevin, who was the hero of the "Fight for Supplies").

Perhaps because of those structural spotlights on big production Events, Mary, Justin, Cedrek, and even Stephanie all came across as quiet, observant types, or at least were playing that way initially (which is smart). We didn't get more than two-sentence backstories from any of them (such as Cedrek calling himself a "butt doctor"), so they were just kinda there. The central dilemma of Tribal was also whether Sai would play her idol and force the outcome, so everyone else's roles mostly felt incidental to that decision. It all made me question whether this would have felt less dragged-out as a normal 90-minute episode, instead.

The time we spent on the other tribes was much more fun, and emotional, although some HUGE personalities like David mostly had to sit around and wait for something to do. Obviously, the emotional heart of the episode was Eva reaching out to connect with Joe, asking him to have her back if her autism led her into an "episode," to which Joe happily, tearfully assented. This was easily one of best bonding scenes ever on the show. So out of character of the current strategy-strategy-strategy focus of the average modern player, it felt refreshing. So much so, that you feel terrible rooting for anyone who isn't one of those two to win.

Of those others, three particularly stood out in the short glimpses we had. Thanks to his injury in the first challenge and prize-winning performance in the "Fight for Supplies" segment, as the audience, we got a pretty thorough introduction to Kevin. He's in a great spot on Vula, even if he did crown himself "King of Vula" ... well, he's not wrong. Over on Civa, Kamilla was a welcome presence, even if her humor was mostly edited out in favor of a fairly dry, by-the-numbers alliance-building segment (leavened by her "driving the bus back and forth over Charity" analogy) and "OMG, we're both Guyanese and like Holes?!!" bonding with Kyle. Finally on Lagi, Thomas also stood out as an extremely thoughtful, relatable guy who may have the requisite social skills to actually pull off a deep run and/or win on this particular season. His concerns about being an average person on a tribe full of athletic demigods were understandable, although his tribe easily won both challenges, so Thomas could well be coasting directly to the merge. And if he does, the buff people winning all the challenges ought to be the first targets for everyone else, so that's good news for Thomas. (Although if he plays any role in Eva or Joe's exits, that will become bad news.)

This is season 48, though. We're all well aware by now that with 90-minute episodes from here to the finale, we'll have plenty of time to see more of the people on the other tribes as they eventually attend Tribal Council (or post-merge). No rush. Everything seems pretty solid so far.

Heroes vs. Heroes

Heroes vs. Heroes seems to be the unofficial theme of this season. We had Kyle helping out Kevin at the journey, after he was officially eliminated. Joe describing his real-life job (similar to Chrissy's), then taking Eva under his wing. Cedrek supporting Sai. Mitch and Eva just being on the show and competing, despite worries they might not fit in all the time, but being determined to play first and worry about that later, to show everyone it's possible. There are so many people on this season that it will *hurt* to see lose, but as it turns out, Survivor can't end in a six- or seven-way tie. Some of these beloved characters are not going to win.

Some of these narratives also seem pre-ordained to fail: We're all thinking Joe is eventually going to fall on his sword to advance Eva one more vote, just as Rodger ("Kentucky Joe," even) did for another Rhode Islander (Eva is a grad student at Brown) way back in The Australian Outback, right? There's no other possible ending, unless one or both is in the Final Three. Cedrek and Sai feel like they have a similar bond, as well.

But as heartwarming as all these people are to see on your screen, there is a massive, obvious problem with having a cast full of people who are too rootable to vote out: Someone's going to have to be the bad guy who does that. And the audience is going to absolutely *loathe* them for doing so. Oh well, at least there are no social media sites teeming with Nazis and death threats any more, right? Phew!

On the other hand, one bonus of this development is that we may finally be free of the tedious "I have to blindside my #1 ride-or-die before they get me" trend that's been bubbling up in the metagame. It's been counter-productive strategically at best since the beginning (for evidence, look how that worked out for Charlie with the jury in 46), and while it was less prevalent in 47 organically, this may finish it off. Good riddance.

The new Beware Advantage idols

These were also fine. The puzzle box containing the idol is a really fun idea, and it was satisfying watching the Vulas figure it out. And in the first episode, that's time we could instead be using to meet the new contestants. Sai's trajectory in the episode was very similar to Nash's in the current season of Australian Survivor, AU: Brains v Brawn II. Nash found an idol shortly after arriving in camp. But that was kind of the end of that story, except for him showing anyone within viewing distance. Contrast that to Sai's idol, which took up the bulk of Vula's camp scenes in a 2-hour premiere. Sometimes simpler is better!

But at least (maybe) we won't have to go through all that again. On rewatch, it's clear Civa has a sort of dumbed-down version of the exact same clues (the animal shapes are all one color, but they alert you to the letter wrapped up in rope at the same spot). Vula's system required you to remember what color each animal was painted, AND realize the numbers corresponded to the name, AND guess the correct name (dolphin vs. porpoise, iguana vs. lizard, eagle vs. hawk, etc.) Sai in fact couldn't decide if it was supposed to be a hawk or an eagle. It was apparently "bird". Vula's system was really hard! In contrast, Civa's is just "well, here's a six-letter Jumble, figure it out."

Similarly, you can see a hint of how Lagi's system might work in the sequence where Star is searching - she walks past a tree with a turtle medallion on it. Presumably the relevant letter is written on the back? Lagi's may have a possible stealth/ sabotage angle to it - if someone finds and takes one of the six medallions, the person with the Beware puzzle might be totally screwed, or will just have to hope they guess right on what the missing letter is.

So on the plus side, when Civa (and probably Lagi) eventually finds their Beware puzzle box, solving the combo should be a snap, and we don't need to spend 20 minutes on it. On the minus side, the puzzle will be the same, and we already know the answer. Also, the same combo at each camp implies there will not be a swap this season, which is just sad, especially when one of the tribes looks spectacularly overpowered in challenges (Lagi), and another looks like they stuck all the scrawnier and smaller people on it to watch them fail (Vula). Let's hope one of the Survivor 50 twists we can vote on is "Producers pick the tribes" vs. "Players pick their own tribes" (as in Thailand, Palau, and Gabon).

Voting for Survivor 50 twists

As had been teased since the live event the weekend before the premiere, Wednesday night also marked the grand opening of the website where you will, throughout the season, be able to vote for or against various formats, twists, and other parts of Survivor 50, which should film right after this season's finale. If you're reading this column, you obviously have good taste in Survivor stuff, so please take a minute to click over there and vote, if you haven't already. (Who are we kidding? We probably all did it at 9:30 EST on Wednesday, when it opened.)

The first set of ballot topics runs quite a range of buff colors (meh), rice vs. no rice, the chance to finally snuff forced Final 4 firemaking, and the Aftershow vs. a live reunion in LA. So, as superfan discussion threads go: bland, followed by THREE RAGING HOT TOPICS.

So from my perspective, feel free to pick whatever combo of buffs, I don't really care. I'm not a Buff collector. They all look approximately the same, although the alternating "primary colors in odd-numbered seasons, secondary colors in even-numbered seasons" thing is getting a tad stale. Australian Survivor has yet to produce a bad season when using teal buffs, though. Just saying.

As for the other three questions, you're obviously totally free to vote however you choose. Just know, though, if you select anything other than...

• GIVE THEM RICE
• NO FORCED F4 FIREMAKING, and
• LIVE REUNION in LA

 

... then you are a deeply, irredeemably evil person and I welcome the wrath of whatever gods are applicable on your soul, body, and those of all your descendants, for all eternity, in every universe. And their pets.

Happy voting!

Shorter takes

- The Ep1 journey/Fight for Supplies: Now in its second season, this format change is an improvement on the 41-46 system of RC/ Sweat vs Savvy in camp Day 1/ separate journey on Day 2. It combines the latter two events into one, which is a definite plus, time-wise. And we no longer have three scenes of people pretending to be shocked when a boat shows up at camp on Day 2. Two steps forward, but there's also one step back: The head-to-head format of the "fight" means one tribe will definitely not have their machete/flint/supplies, no matter how hard they try. (Especially glaring here, where Kyle was beaten by a broken jug.) On the plus side, it sounded like Civa would have been given them - minus the flint - after the (Day 3) IC, even if they lost. But it still seems unnecessarily cruel, all for a stunt.