Survivor 51, episode 6, ”I Love Crying”: who went home?

Survivor 51 has been a rollercoaster: it has had its ups (two tribes, an old-school feel, an exciting cast) and its noticeable lows (three tribes, only women voted out, questionable gameplay at times). We’re only on episode five so far, so anything can still happen, but so far it’s been as divisive as it is entertaining.

As we saw during episode five, Survivor‘s host Jeff Probst told the players that only one tribe would win the next reward/immunity challenge, while the other two would go to Tribal Council. The Toka tribe was the winner, and with that, the Savu and Dina tribes had the task of voting out a member each.

At Savu, the target was clearly Alexis Levine, the only person not part of the Helicopter Alliance. While Jelly Loblack considered voting out Devin Way, since he might be a liability down the line and she didn’t want to vote out another woman, she ultimately sided with Devin and Ori Jean-Charles in blindsiding Alexis.

At Dina, Lewis Kelly was clearly the odd man out. All the OG Savu members on Dina (Cristian Chavez, Eric Macksoud, Sharonda Cox, and Linnea Capobianco) wanted to vote out Lewis, and they trusted that Danny Kilby was on their side too. However, due to a last-minute twist, Maggie Nestor from Toka got to visit another tribe camp before their Tribal Council.

Maggie chose to go to Dina and gave Lewis and Kilby two Extra Vote advantages to save them, while also telling them to target Linnea for her. Although Kilby’s allegiance wasn’t clear, he ultimately sided with Lewis when he played his advantage and, alongside Lewis’s two votes, created a deadlock between Lewis and Linnea. Because Kilby was adamant he wouldn’t switch his vote, and knowing this would lead to drawing rocks, the OG Savus turned against Linnea, and she became the sixth player voted out of Survivor 51 and the sixth woman voted out back-to-back overall.

With this recap in mind, let’s start with what goes down on episode 6, ”I Love Crying.”

Worlds collide

The episode begins on night 10 with Dina returning from Tribal Council. Lewis can’t believe that he survived by the skin of his teeth and says the OG Savus have no backbone for going against Linnea. As expected, Eric is extremely upset with Kilby for his betrayal, and while Kilby explains why he chose Lewis over Eric, Eric takes it as Kilby cheating on him and wants nothing to do with him anymore. Eric also starts crying from how upset he is, and Kilby tries to console him by saying he still trusts Eric over Lewis, though no new inroads are made.

On Day 11 on Savu, the remaining three players feel defeated but still optimistic about staying in the game. Jelly and Ori reiterate that they must win immunity to protect themselves and their Helicopter Alliance. Devin also decides to teach Ori how to model-walk to pass the time, and not to secretly, I don’t hate it.

At Toka, Mike and Kristin talk about being at the bottom of the totem pole. They both start looking for an idol or an advantage, much to Brady’s annoyance, who sees Mike as a selfish, self-centred player. Mike is also done with Brady, as he wants the play-by-play of every move and conversation that Mike has, but they both pretend they’re still working together.

Mike announces he’s ready to flip with Kristin to Savu if they make the merge. He then promises to Kristin that he’s with her all the way if she helps him survive the upcoming Tribal Council. Kristin is hesitant to align with Mike, as he was right about stating he is at the bottom, so Kristin wouldn’t technically benefit from them working together. However, Kristin knows every bond might matter later, so she says she’s open to anything. Mike also says in a confessional that he senses the merge is near, and his fate in Survivor could go either way: either he could go next, or he could end up winning the game. To me, this just sounds ominous, but we’ll see.

Back on Dina, Lewis and Kilby call Kilby’s bluff iconic, but they also know that if another miracle doesn’t happen, they will be in real trouble again.

Meanwhile, Eric loves crying, much to Sharonda’s annoyance, but she also contains him to keep him closer to her and Cristian, rather than letting him flip back to Kilby. Eric is still upset with Kilby and even calls him a rat.

While Eric wants him, Cristian, and Sharonda to be the next Tika Three, Cristian knows he needs Kilby and Lewis to survive a merge, since the OG Tokas have the upper hand in numbers, unlike the OG Savus.

Tree Mail then arrives by announcing that a Summit has been called. All three tribes must send a representative and, with a little help from Cristian, the Dina tribe draws to see who will be chosen using their Shots in the Dark, with Sharonda being the lucky chosen one. Ori is also drawn for Savu, and while Mike wants to go for Toka, Thien An and Maggie push for Kristin to be chosen. Also, it’s funny how most of the players don’t know what a summit is, so people, add that to the Survivor lexicon as feckless once was.

The Summit

Kristin, Ori, and Sharonda reunite at the Summit, where Sharonda tells them about Linnea’s blindside and blames Eric for being too afraid to go to rocks to protect his ally. They are then greeted by a sign that says two of them will take food back to their camps (ribs and corn on the cob), while the third will have to spend the night alone on Exile Island.

However, the sacrificed player earns a reward: a Tethered Idol. This type of idol will work until the Final Five players but comes with the caveat of only being able to be played by the person who earns it and can only be played for one of the other two players present at this time.

Sharonda prefers to not expose herself by earning this kind of idol and wants Kristin to step up, as she knows Kristin thrives on being a provider. Kristin eventually does, earning a Tethered Idol in the process. Once Ori and Sharonda leave with their food, Kristin is greeted by another message which states that if Sharonda and Ori are voted out at some point, her idol becomes a full-fledged one, opening more gameplay possibilities for Kristin.

Kristin then gets to work as G.I. Jane and builds her solo shelter at Exile, drawing on her training and expertise from years of Survivor. A montage ensues of how Survivor is truly a lifelong dream for her, which is an amazing scene to watch as we know now who she is, as opposed to when these scenes randomly showed out of the blue during the New Era when we didn’t even know who the players were. To me, it was a nice change.

Back from the Summit

Devin wants to enjoy his own company, and Jelly’s, for being the only two at camp. They enjoy their time as humans and friends more than as players. Then Devin asks Jelly how she feels about Ori, and Jelly shuts down the showmance by telling him Ori isn’t her type. Devin is scared of being seen as a tight duo with Jelly and is thinking about cutting the rope between them. Ori then returns with the food and gossip about the Summit. They are also happy the Helicopter Alliance is still strong because Sharonda is still in the game, but Ori doesn’t tell Jelly and Devin about Kristin’s idol.

Sharonda is also shown telling the Dina tribe about the Summit, but she also omits the part about Kristin’s idol, as she knows Lewis and Kilby would use that information against her. Lewis, as any fan of the game knows, is aware that there’s more to the Summit than what Sharonda is sharing, and says she’s a threat to be considered.

At Toka, Carter builds a swing, which the others use, except Maggie, who sees it as a nuisance and a waste of time. Maggie then tries to use the hammock to try to catch some fish. When the plan fails, Maggie leads the tribe to collect food, much to Brady’s annoyance, who is about to either throw himself or Maggie down a cliff. Brady then says that if Maggie keeps digging herself into a hole because of her lack of self-awareness (at least, according to him), she will be the one to go instead of Mike.

At the immunity challenge

At the immunity challenge, no one is more ecstatic to see Linnea go home than Maggie. Kilby then says the season is about not counting out the underdogs because you never know what will happen next. To everyone’s delight, Jeff then announced that the baby whale tribal immunity idol is back, meaning only one tribe will be the ultimate loser of the night.

Savu takes an early lead as the other two tribes struggle with rope management; however, Cristian then helps Dina take the lead. While Toka struggles to keep up, Ori once again shows off his muscles and makes Savu the first tribe to start building their puzzle.

Everyone starts catching strays as Jeff Probst says that anyone who doesn’t know how to build puzzles is basically worthless… in the challenge. Savu then goes back into disaster mode by, precisely, not knowing how to build a puzzle. Toka and Dina then earn first and second place, respectively, which sends Savu back to Tribal Council. Jelly can’t hold back tears as Savu leaves, not wanting to lose anyone else from her tribe next.

Back on Savu

Calling things dire and depressing on Savu is a soul-crushing understatement, but the game must go on. Devin proposes that they all should play their Shots in the Dark and let fate decide who is safe. Jelly interjects that she has an idol and, as much as she cares about them, she needs to think about her game first. Ori asks who she’s voting for, and while she hesitates, Jelly says she will stay true to Devin, since they’ve been each other’s ride-or-dies from the beginning.

Ori starts hustling as he then starts trying to divide and conquer Jelly and Devin by proposing to Jelly to vote for Devin, but Jelly is deadlocked on staying true to Devin. Ori then pivots to Devin to get Jelly out instead, despite her idol.

As Devin says he’s willing to go down for Jelly, Ori asks when he’ll start playing for himself. A flip then is switched for Devin, and with an Extra Vote, he realises he is now in the power position to either stick with Jelly or make a big move and side with Ori.

At Tribal Council

At Tribal, Jelly insists that she respects Ori and Devin, but proclaims that she won’t be the seventh woman to leave the game in a row. Devin then announces that if he survives the night, he’ll pivot to become Devin 2.0, whatever that means. For his part, Ori knows how close Jelly and Devin are, but still hopes something can happen to switch things up.

Jeff then asks Jelly and Devin what their story is with Ori if he leaves next. Both repeatedly say they have nothing but love and respect for him, and that they would’ve loved to carry on the Helicopter Alliance with him. Jeff also asks Ori what his Survivor experience would be like if his Shot in the Dark doesn’t work. Ori explains he is playing for himself and his mom, and he needs his SITD to ‘hit’ because he still has a lot of game left.

Before the votes are cast, Jeff reads Ori’s SITD, which says he’s… not safe. This culminates in Ori being eliminated after Jelly and Devin do end up sticking together. I, for one, will be one of the first to say Ori needs a second chance, asap!

So, that’s it for this week’s episode. It was entertaining at times, but it feels that season has lost quite a bit of the momentum it had at the beginning. But let’s not despair as the preview showed that we will get the merge next week! Honestly, it couldn’t have come at a better time. Everyone left must keep their wits about them if they hope to outlast the upcoming rounds, and I am extremely excited to see where this season takes us next.

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This article was originally published on www.survivingtribal.com as Survivor 51, episode 6, ”I Love Crying”: who went home?.