Survivor 51 Episode 4, ”That’s the Magic of Survivor”: Live Recap

It’s been said before, but it has to be said again: Survivor 51 has been a welcome relief for the fandom, and the game feels ready for its next 50 seasons. We’re only about to watch its fourth episode, but the season already feels like it’s on a non-stop upward trajectory. Let’s hope this trend continues each week.

So, last week, we saw how Rob Antonson cried wolf and eventually quit the game, even though he’s been clamouring online that he was medevaced (Sure, Jan). We also saw another blindside: Patt Cannaday was voted out over Danny Kilby, 6-5, leaving the Toka tribe reeling and everything up in the air, since we know a Tribe Swap is coming. So get ready to watch how everything unfolds during “That’s the Magic of Survivor.”

Back from Tribal Council, it’s a new game

After Patt’s blindside, Toka returns to camp where Kilby asks who voted for him and the four remaining Toka Five tell him straight out it was them. He laughs in a confessional about who was stupid enough to make a five person majority in an eleven player tribe.

And Brady Booker is livid that Carter Krull and Lewis Kelly flipped on him (though they were never with him). Him and the rest of the Toka Five (now Four) are acting like victims when in reality they’re just now on the bottom of a vote that they were previously acting like the kings of.

Angelica “Jelly” Loblack is sad that Patt is gone, upset she had the power to change the outcome and didn’t. But she looks on the bright side that Patt was the only person who knew about her idol and is holding that card close to her chest to make herself even more dangerous.

Tree mail shakes up the game once more

And the next morning, Savu’s seven person tribe is doing yoga on the beach, completely unbothered. Despite the fact that there are a few people on the outs of this group, they appear to be a unified force. Tree mail arrives and sends everyone on a boat, which throws them for a loop, worried that the merge could be coming.

Conversely, Jenna Doore over at Toka is nervous because she finally was on the right side of the numbers and now things are about to change.

Both boats with all tribe members meet host Jeff Probst on a new island where he teases the tribes with a merge, only to pull a bag out of the sand, announcing a tribe swap with three tribes. He says that this was planned for 18 players, but reiterates that Rob chose to go home and is no longer included in the make up, which means there will be two tribes of six and one tribe of five.

All buffs have been left in the bag, which means the players will randomly chose which tribe gets one less player. Buffs are pulled and there is one purple remaining in the bag.

Savu (Purple): Jenna Doore, Ori Jean-Charles, Devin Way, Alexis Levine, and Angelica “Jelly” Loblack

Toka (Yellow): Mike Pinsky, Carter Krull, Brady Booker, Thien An Nguyen, Kristin Flickinger, and Maggie Nestor

Dina (Red): Danny Kilby, Sharonda Cox, Lewis Kelly, Eric Macksoud, Linnea Capobianco, and Cristian Chavez

Jeff calls out Kristin who-technically-is the only Savu player on a tribe of former Toka (though Carter was previously Savu before accidentally mutinying). Kilby’s thrilled that he’s on a tribe without any of the five people who voted for him last night. And Jelly mentions the divide between three past Toka and two past Savu, but in reality three members of the Helicopter

After both Toka and Savu leave, Jeff shares that the Dina tribe has to start over on the beach they’re on. Nothing but a pot, machete, and flint. And Cristian is not thrilled about it. But Kilby dives right in to emphasize that he’s not aligned to Toka after they came for him last night. And as Kilby overshares, Eric immediately resonates and bonds with Kilby.

But while Dina’s preparing to work on a shelter, Lewis lays down in the boat after having a stomach ache for the last few hours.

New tribes = new plans

At the new Toka tribe, Kristin is the obvious outsider, but as Mike says, the former Toka members have some clear fractures between them. Kristin wants to use all her experience and knowledge to her advantage so others don’t see her as expendable, and it seems to work right out of the gate.

Kristin also tries to mend the bridge between her and Carter, telling him she has nothing personal against him and wants to work together moving forward. For his part, Carter sees right through it and states he won’t let anyone use him as a pig being led to be slaughtered.

At the new Savu camp, Alexis is happy she’s with Ori, but as everyone else is OG Toka, she knows she has her work cut out for her. She tries to open a working pathway with Jenna by telling her that Devin threw her under the bus when Devin had the chance to mutiny.

Jenna, in hopes of staying Toka strong, immediately throws Alexis under the bus to Devin. Devin weighs his options and realises he and Jelly are now in the middle, deciding whether to stick with the OG Toka and vote out Alexis, or eliminate Jenna once and for all, since Devin still feels contentious toward her.

Multiple connections and strategies for finding potential targets happen at the three tribe camps. At Toka, Mike causes waves by telling Kristin and Thien An the same thing: he wants each of them to be his new number one after losing Patt.

Thien An and Maggie are in agreement that Mike is acting erratically, as he knows he’s in the bottom, and instead of playing Survivor, he’s merely surviving. Thien An and Carter also connect and agree to work together moving forward, but they have different perspectives on who to get out: Thien An wants Mike, while Carter is set on Kristin.

At Savu, Ori and Jelly reconnect, not only as members of the Helicopter Alliance, but also as a prospective showmance. Both, plus Devin, agree they want to unite with Sharonda in the future and solidify their agreement from the game’s early days.

Meanwhile, at Dina, Eric and Kilby bond over their theatre background and nerdiness, and Kilby wants to use Eric as the crack to wedge his way into a majority at this new tribe. Both Sharonda and Linnea see this connection and worry that Eric will switch or break the Savu majority, and separately agree that Kilby is a dangerous player.

At the reward/immunity challenge

Jeff greets the players and tells them they’re about to compete for their first reward and immunity challenge as three new tribes. He also shows that the second immunity idol for the season is a baby whale, and I almost wanted to dive into my TV for that adorable Survivor prop. Jeff also announces that the first tribe to complete the challenge will earn a full Survivor coffee kit, while the second will earn a delicious pitcher of iced coffee.

While the tribes strategise, Thien An sits out for Toka, while Eric does for Dina. The challenge begins, and Toka takes the lead, followed by Dina, then Savu. As several players struggle to pass water through a human chain, and with buckets on both Toka and Savu, Dina is the first tribe to move to the maze phase.

As Dina starts working, Toka finishes and starts the race for first place. Savu joins the party, but it’s too late as Dina finishes first, and while the Toka tribe drops the ball at the end (literally), they still finish second, which immediately sends Savu sans coffee to Tribal Council.

There was also a funny scene during the challenge where Eric started talking to Maggie while she was doing the puzzle, but Brady immediately interjected and shut him up faster than he bonded with Kilby over their love for theatre. To make it even funnier, Eric dejectedly says that he understands and doesn’t peep another word.

Back at Toka

Just as the chicken is about to be cooked and eaten, someone from this tribe will be, too. Jenna’s pitch to Devin and Jelly is, once again, to keep OG Toka strong, and she throws Alexis under the bus again by reiterating that Alexis constantly brings up both Devin’s and Jelly’s names.

Alexis is also paranoid that Jenna will side with the other Tokas and is completely straightforward with her about Devin and Jelly not liking her. Alexis even goes so far as to ask Jenna for her shoes as collateral, as a token of trust, in case she leaves. Thankfully, Jenna doesn’t fall for it, but in hindsight, it wouldn’t even have mattered regardless.

As for the others, Ori wants to go against Jenna as he’s not working with her or his Helicopter Alliance members. Jelly worries that if Devin and she don’t vote out Jenna instead of Alexis, it could alienate Ori from their pact of working together.

Tribal Council

At Tribal Council, Jeff brings up division and cracks within the new Toka tribe. The five players go back and forth between past and current game dynamics, while Jelly adds that her decision ultimately came down to whether to keep the devil you know or the one you don’t.

In the end, it comes down to another blindside and the season’s first unanimous vote, as Jenna becomes the fourth person voted out of Survivor 51. Jenna is floored, as it’s clear she genuinely thought she had paved her way to stay in the game.

Another Survivor 51 episode is down for the books, and while it was probably the “calmest” episode of the season so far, it was still enjoyable and exciting. However, I am appalled that only women have been voted out so far from the game, and the only guy who has left was because he quit. The preview shows a double Tribal Council next week, so we’ll see if things get evened out or if we get a One World situation where all the women are voted out back-to-back. Let’s all hope it’s the former.

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This article was originally published on www.survivingtribal.com as Survivor 51 Episode 4, ”That’s the Magic of Survivor”: Live Recap.