It’s week ten of Survivor NZ and things just got weirdly Jurassic.
Last week on Survivor NZ we saw Matt make undoubtedly the biggest move of the season, blindsiding Brad who left the game with a hidden immunity idol still in his pocket. Brad’s exit has completely shaken up the game, leaving a huge power vacuum in the Phsan tribe. Who will emerge as a front-runner, and who will be the next to join Arun and Brad at the Jury Villa?
Survivor Movie Night
Another week on Survivor NZ brings with it another brand integration. This week’s reward challenge prize came courtesy of Vodafone Rewards, and the winning castaways were whisked off to a new island to watch the movie Jurassic World.
Adam revealed he is a huge fan of the Jurassic Park franchise, and he’s been treating his fellow castaways to renditions of the Jurassic Park theme (although none as good as this one, I’m sure). Adam is absolutely beside himself when Matt announces the reward, even getting a little emotional.
I can’t help but think this reward of watching a three year-old movie with a bag of plain popcorn seems a little stink compared to the pizza feast from week six, and even the canned tuna feeding frenzy. However, I do have to admire the fact that they managed to squeeze in marketing tie-ins for Vodafone, the new Jurassic World movie, and the popcorn industry all in one go.
Although Adam, Tara, Eve and Renee appeared to be off to a good start, it was Matt, Lisa, Tess and Dave who came through for the win. As you can imagine, Adam wasn’t too happy about losing the challenge, and missing out on a screening from his favourite movie franchise.
Adam placed the blame for his team’s loss squarely on Tara. Instead of working on the blocks, Tara was literally dusting off the platform with her hands, as though they would be judged for tidiness at the end of the challenge.
Lisa Gets Some Perspective
At the challenge, the winners were surprised with a pre-show of video messages from loved ones back home. It was an emotional time for everyone, but especially for Lisa, whose touching message from her son and partner had her spilling popcorn all over the place.
Lisa’s message from home really put things into perspective, and in a confessional she explained how the isolation in Survivor made it difficult to remember why she was there in the first place. The love from home led Lisa to an emotional epiphany: she has to get rid of Matt, asap. Lisa didn’t come here to play around, she came to WIN, dammit!
The Hidden Lioness Wakes
While Matt was the driving force behind Brad’s blindside last week, he did have some help pulling it off, and Tara’s vote definitely helped make it happen. It seems that’s given Tara a bit of an ego boost, which forced the rest of the tribe to start thinking about whether they needed to worry about her. The consensus? Yeah, nah, not really. Although Matt entertains the idea that she could be a low key lioness ready to make her move, he doesn’t seem all that concerned.
I’ll admit that sometimes I forget Tara is there, especially since she gets barely any air time. This week I counted only two confessionals from Tara through the whole episode. Even before the immunity challenge when Chissy asked Tara about how she was feeling being away from her family, Lisa ended up answering for her! There are a lot of very memorable players left in the game who have made big moves, but I wonder if Tara will make it to the final tribal council for doing precisely the opposite.
Strat Chat
It seems like Tara doesn’t really want to work with anyone, and the feeling is definitely mutual. Everyone seemed ok to just let Tara keep dusting things for a while longer, since she’s pretty much harmless, with no real alliances to make any big moves.
Tess has been pretty comfortable in her Khang Khaw alliance through the whole game, but the cracks are starting to show, and we saw Tess begin to panic a bit this week. She hasn’t been in immediate danger yet, but this could be the beginning of the end for Team Pink.
Dave is still very much on the outs, and for a minute it looked like Matt was ready to betray his old high school friend. Matt is in a tricky situation – this is a real life relationship that he doesn’t want to damage, but on the flipside, helping get Dave to the end could easily cost Matt the $250,000 prize.
Most importantly, Adam won the individual immunity challenge, so my meme queen is safe for another week. Also a special shoutout for being the first person to pull off that ridiculous immunity necklace. Werk.
Tribal Council
In this week’s tribal, we saw Renee and Dave lay it all out in the open. Renee reveals that her votes against Arun and Dave were based on misplaced revenge – she thought Dave had voted for her, when it was actually Josh. Renee thinks that she shouldn’t be on the chopping block, since she hasn’t done anything to break anyone’s trust, but Matt says she never built any trust in the first place.
We also see Brad joining Arun in the jury this week. Brad points out to Arun that a few people wouldn’t look him in the eye when he entered. There is nothing I love more in Survivor than watching the guys get worked up over a betrayed handshake or not looking someone in the eye. There’s no time for toxic masculinity on Survivor, there are blindsides to orchestrate, mate.
Blindside Rating: 5/10
Renee knew she was in danger this week, but the real blindside here was Tess and Adam – these two were totally out of the loop with their old Khang Khaw allies.
Chisholm-ism of the week
“We can all be anything we wanna be when we grow up” – inspirational words from Matt this week.
Survivor NZ Quick Stats
2 – confessionals Tara had during this entire episode
1 – egg laid by the Phsan chickens so far
158 – weeks ago that Jurassic World was released