It's challenging to capture in words just how exciting Episode 5 of Survivor 51's second Tribal Council was. It was a lot of things, approximately equal parts surprising (the editors had mostly shown Kilby thinking about backing out), exciting (back-to-back tied votes! The threat of rocks!), entertaining (so many misspellings), heart-warming (Kilby standing firm to back Lewis, who had saved him at their previous Tribal), and heart-breaking (Linnea eventually being hung out to dry by her "Savu strong" original tribemates, who didn't want to risk leaving on a rock draw). Simply put, it was everything you want Survivor to be: dramatic, strategic, emotional. Everything! And the outnumbered underdogs came out on top.

Not only that, but it was everything that's been lacking from Survivor since the pre-Winners at War timeframe. Eight votes at a pre-merge Tribal? Unheard of! It was also a cockamamie scheme that was constructed from a highly improbable string of contestant decisions (as Mike Bloom pointed out), and most importantly one that came to fruition because production threw an advantage into the game (hoping to encourage this sort of thing), then let the players run with it, and decide what to do. In the new era, it was all about tiny tribes and lost votes, with production constantly throwing up roadblocks and obstacles to strategy. Encouraging players to take big swings rather than thwarting their attempts to do so? Who knew that could work?

To be fair, it's also incredibly lucky that it happened the same episode as the otherwise grim Alexis boot, which very much felt like the new era: A tribe of just four people, with an obvious 3-1 split (no matter how much the editors tried to convince us it was really 2-2), in which the doomed, swap-screwed player tried valiantly to save herself, but to no avail. Not everything goes perfectly, but it's nice to have Dina's perfect confluence of events to go out on, rather than that dismal downnote. (But I guess there was at least some irony in the shot above. Sigh.)

Still, Kilby and Lewis pulled off an improbable victory from a 4-2 minority position. With no idols. Sure, they're still outnumbered 3-2, and there could be another vote the next episode. But they will both be there in that next episode, ready to try to make something else work. Pretty great.

Standing on business in the back, party in the front

I think part of why the Savu four seemed so mystified at Kilby's 100% commitment to going to rocks was that they just hadn't taken him seriously up until that point. It's easy to discount the nerdy guy with the long hair, who can't swim very well, and who talks incessantly about (as Lewis complained in recent immigrant bewilderment) movies, video games, TV shows, bands, and many other pop-culture references.

This stands out in particular because Kilby and Kristin probably have equivalent levels of Survivor superfandom. Kristin's knowledge base has set off alarm bells with people like Maggie and Brady. In sharp contrast, nobody on Dina seemed all that worried about Kilby, except in the sense that Eric might be getting too close to him. It's a lot like Lisa Stanger (Holmes)'s approach in SurvivorNZ 2: Thailand, where she consciously presented herself as just a harmless mum who's really into Survivor, someone who would just be thrilled to hold the tribal idol after a challenge, and had a mental checklist ("tick!") of similar milestones and activities she hoped to experience. It's defusing your fandom by appearing harmless, and Kilby did this really well.

Kilby also seemed to understand that there's a lot of power in adamantly supporting going to rocks, because nobody *really* wants to take that risk of leaving on a game of chance. It helped a lot that Kilby was very unlikely to draw the cursed rock: There was just one of him, versus three Savus who would have had to draw. Advantage: Kilby.

The strength of this approach was also demonstrated just over a year ago in SurvivorAU 10: Brains v. Brawn II (Episode 19, Final 8). Myles Kuah and AJ Antonios were a tight pair, and had a larger "postgraduates" alliance with two more fellow original Brains, one of whom had immunity, and the other of whom was the vote target. They were ostensibly stuck in a 4-4 tie with their opponents, but Myles and AJ went on offense (mostly?) as a rocks-dodging tactic. They gleefully announced at Tribal that they were 100% in on going to rocks, it was something they'd always wanted to do as fans, and this was their chance! (Their two allies would both be immune in a rock draw, so as here, they would have been slight 60-40 favorites to not draw a rock, which helped.) AJ yelled from the voting booth on the revote, "I really hope we go to rocks, because that would be so much fun!" In theory that might have caused an opponent to flip on the revote. It didn't, but it was worth a try.

As with this Tribal, it also ended up in a 4-4 tie, which then went to 3-3 on the revote. Myles kicked off the tiebreaker discussion with "AJ and I are the biggest psychopaths on this cast. We *will* go to rocks!" And in the discussion after that, the exact same thing happened: Their opponents crumbled (there the other side's target eventually just volunteered to be voted out). Myles and AJ appeared much more excited about drawing rocks than everyone else, and in doing so, avoided the rock draw. (I'm still not sure if this was theater, commitment to probability, or a combination of the two.)

The lesson from Kilby (and Myles and AJ) is clear: If the numbers are in your favor, always be the most enthusiastic to go to rocks. You just might convince your opponents to give up. Being a "psychopath" and standing firm is a winning tactic. Kilby's fearlessness was both fun to watch, and effective. You can't ask for much more than that as a viewer.

Minor timeline manipulation

A small point here, one that doesn't detract from the episode in any way, but rather may add color to some of the strategy. From comparing the various changes of clothes, it looks like the Day 10 footage on Dina was shown a bit out of order: As far as I can tell, it appears Lewis's "blood idol" gambit came *after* Maggie's visit, not before. What first tipped me off was: He completely changes clothes between asking Sharonda to have a one-on-one, and offering her the ring.

We know Maggie came to Dina camp after the IC, and before Tribal. That's straightforward. And when Maggie shows up, the Dina people are all still in their (soggy) IC clothes (see the photo at the top of this section), so she must have gotten there pretty quickly. They're still in the same clothes when she sits down with them all, then suggests one-on-one talks with everyone. Interestingly, just about everyone changes clothes for those solo talks. (Makes sense, they have time, and they have dry clothes they'd rather be wearing.) Most of them change clothes again before Tribal, so that's not much of a guide, but we know it was a one-day episode, so there aren't a whole lot of variables here.

What's weird is the sequence of Lewis bestowing his "blood idol" on Sharonda was clearly after (or perhaps even during) Maggie's visit, not before, as was shown. He's dressed exactly the same (right down to buff position) when he asks Sharonda if she's interested and hands over the ring, as he is when Maggie gives him her extra vote (below). That's fine, in the show we saw Lewis desperately trying a last-ditch effort to swing someone, and the narrative is that Maggie swoops in and saves him.

So this mis-sequencing doesn't really change anything. Cristian still shot the gambit down in real time (with Cristian, Linnea, and Eric all wearing the clothes they did when talking to Maggie) because of his expertise in jewelry (and Lewis's own foolishly loose lips). But it does suggest that Lewis and Kilby actively spent the time *after* Maggie left looking for any way they could to avoid actually forcing a tie, and rather kept trying to flip a single Savu to their side for at least this vote (which would have meant they could save one of the votes). That's good thinking, and shows they were trying to maximize what they had. Since Lewis and Kilby had already promised Maggie they would vote Linnea, that also explains why Lewis offered Sharonda the "idol" over Linnea, with whom he appeared to maybe have a glimmer of an opening (lucky, since Linnea later said in confessional that no, they were staying Savu strong).

If anything, it also reinforces how inflexible the Savu four were being. They were so locked in on staying Savu strong that they refused to even consider anything else. (To be fair, Lewis trying something that Cristian immediately poked a hole in probably didn't win him any converts.) Still, their sales pitch to Kilby was essentially "we really sincerely want you to be #5 in our five-person alliance, and we will vote you out next if we lose again." It's hard to feel too much empathy for that kind of strong-arming ending up in failure.

On the all-women boot order (so far)

There's been a lot of fan outcry (not unreasonably) about the fact that this season has had six consecutive women voted out, and still no men. I agree, it's not the best possible look for the season, but from this week's exit press, the women being voted out were aware of the trend and fought against it (we saw this particularly with Alexis, to Jelly), and had voted against women themselves. In her interviews, Linnea chalked it up to the obvious: The women are much bigger strategic/social threats than the men this season, so of course they're bigger targets. You can pick off a Brady or an Ori at any point after the merge. Why bother with it now?

In her exit interview with Dalton Ross, Alexis acknowledged both of these points, tipping her cap to casting for putting together a set of contestants in which "there are so many fierce, bad-ass women" who stood out immediately as threats to win, citing Patt as an obvious example. For a counter-example that reinforces this point: a big factor in Maggie's success so far is that she *doesn't* come across as a threat. Brady had a (quite condescending!) confessional calling her "so flippy-floppy, wishy-washy," shortly before she used "their" extra vote (that she had talked him into giving her) to create chaos in Dina's Tribal Council.

The "we must target the women" mindset has at least a little assistance from some production choices, though. It's not entirely contestant-driven. The Ep2 IC and both the Ep3 RC and IC in particular placed a premium on brute strength and/or height, so big guys like Ori and Brady have a lot of perceived short-term value. Even though both of the challenges since the swap have been virtually strength-free. For what it's worth, I think this is a trap a lot of casts fall into - challenges are rarely strength-based past Ep3 or so. It's just that in the New Era, strength/size often popped up again in the merge-atory challenge, so maybe this cast is worried about that. (Forward-thinking players should absolutely start targeting muscle around Ep4 or so, though.)

The swap to three tribes amplifies the worries about strength, because the biggest guys are unevenly distributed - none at all on Dina, one each on dwindling Savu and thriving Toka (Carter, Devin, and Mike are also strength guys, just not as visibly huge as Ori and Brady). Note that Ori has attended Tribal both times since the swap, and not a single vote has come his way. Meanwhile Kilby, Eric, and the recently ill Lewis have each picked up at least four this season.

There are now only five women left, while there are still nine men, so hopefully the trend breaks soon. Unfortunately, we appear to still be at least an episode away from the merge, the usual point where "challenge threats" (usually men) become bigger targets. Even though post-merge challenges are hardly ever strength-based, and are almost exclusively endurance and/or balance, with a smattering of agility and puzzles. (So big muscular guys are actually at a disadvantage, usually, but let's keep quiet about that if it means we may be rid of the word "brody" soon. Just kidding, Brady is sufficiently annoying that, just like his buddy Jonathan Young, he stands a good chance of still be there at the end. Sigh.)

Just to make you worry more: We also saw Maggie planting seeds about wanting Kristin out of Toka this episode. So it may still get worse before it gets better. (But we also received an update on Thien An's continuing one-sided feud with Mike, so all hope is not lost.)

The tempestuous teapot of tepid takes

- Is anybody out there (looking)? - Dina had been in their new camp for close to three full days by the end of this episode. They hadn't bothered to build a shelter in that time. Also, assuming there is one there to find, nobody has been shown looking for an idol there. What are they doing all day? Non-stop improv? Listing their favorite superheroes? Comparing Star Trek: Deep Space Nine tattoos? Eric knows Rob found an idol at original Savu, so you would think he'd at least be checking a tree now and then? (I guess it's possible he thought Rob was lying, since he never saw it.) Maybe we'll see an earnest search next episode, since Kilby and Lewis will still be down 3-2, and the battle lines have now been etched in with a little more vigor.

- Speaking of "digies" - As flagged by TrentC in damnbueno's comment section this week, as you can see from the shot of his foot next to Devin's head, Ori appears to have at least one extra toe. So not only is he bigger than everyone, there's more of him to love. I'm reminded of Antonio Alfonseca, former elite MLB relief pitcher, who had six fingers on each hand. Think of how well that could be leveraged into unique grips for spin and vertical/horizontal break today! But I digress. For Ori, if he wants to "stand on business" himself, he'll have a 20% more stable foundation.

- In praise of intentional misspelling - Normally this kind of thing bugs me (as a former spelling nerd), but I was highly entertained by Kilby's progressively more ridiculous intentional misspellings of poor Linnea's name: Lanayuh, Luneighah (both in the first round), then Lanehah and Lanayyaah. Lewis was at least switching off between printing and cursive, to make it look like someone other than himself and Kilby was voting, which is quite clever. Kilby was just riffing, which is fun in its own way. It's these little things that keep me entertained.