“Survivor 48” recap: The blindsider becomes the blindsided

So, hey there! Welcome to the Survivor 48, episode 2 recap. A little about me if you’re new to these parts. The name is Dalton Ross. I do not have four nipples. As far as I can tell, no warts. Last time I looked, the left foot seemed fine. Nothing special, mind you. I’m not, like, selling images of my toes for thousands of dollars on footfetishfreaks.com or anything, but I’m also not being publicly mocked for shape, size, or any sort of disfiguration. What’s that? My belly button? I mean, I’m an innie. No question there. And sure, I’m not gonna lie — I’ve pulled some sweater lint out of that region from time to time, but have never resorted to having belly button sex with a Q-tip. I guess what I’m trying to say is that there is nothing immediately humiliating in the humble traits category that comes to mind — at least nothing as humiliating as obsessing over a reality competition TV program for 25 years of your life.

But how fun was that look at the Civa tribe all in hysterics over their various alleged physical abnormalities? I feel like that one scene had more personality bursting out of it than every other Civa screen time moment combined. So great. I mean, it’s not every day you get a guy who plays Captain America for a living talking about milking himself. That’s just quality, top-shelf entertainment. Also, the fact that the entire segment started with David informing us that “Nobody’s perfect — even someone like myself” is just A+++.

Of course, there were tons of game moves being made left and right as well, so let’s get into everything non-nipple related that went down this week on Survivor 48. And seriously, Kyle — get that hand checked out, my man!

Related: Jeff Probst had no idea Survivor 48 was a much older cast

Loving Lagi

I dig everyone on Lagi so much. They are a tribe full of gentle giants, kick-ass competitors, hilarious storytellers, and freakazoid robots. I want to have deep discussions with Joe. I want to take Behkan lessons from Shauhin. I want to playfully talk smack with Eva before losing to her in pretty much any sport that exists — including ice hockey, which I grew up playing. I want to make catty comments with Thomas. I want to bond over the Dirty Jerz with Bianca. And I don’t want to smoke pot with Star because I don’t smoke pot, but I do want to watch her smoke pot while we … I don’t know, play video games and listen to Phish or something?

The point is, I don’t want any of them to go. Which is why I start to break out in a mild case of hives (humble trait!) whenever we see anyone on this tribe working against anyone else. This week, we saw that Star was perceptive enough to recognize that she was on the outs, so she went hunting for an idol.

She found the Beware Advantage instead and then proceeded to use a coconut phone to call CBS and inquire as to current advertising rates so she could purchase 30 seconds of airtime to tell the entire country that she had found the advantage. Unfortunately, the network responded that they had already committed their precious last available seconds to promoting Jeff Probst’s Survivor card game, so Star decided to do the next best thing and just tell all of her tribe mates instead. Well, almost all of her tribe mates.

And this is where my emotional roller-coaster began. I was ecstatic for Star for finding a new lifeline in the game, but also sad for Eva, who was the only one left out of the island show-and-tell proceedings. Then Shauhin and Thomas expressed that they would figure out a way to delay or sabotage Star’s idol hunt, which made me happy for Eva but sad for Star, who had no idea people did not want to play ball with her. Then, Thomas told Shauhin he should make the code-breaking sheet of paper disappear, not unlike Russell’s Heroes vs. Villains hat, which made me sad for Thomas because Shauhin did not like that plan at all and now was thinking of turning on the mustached music executive.

All of this chaos and idol talk was music to Bianca’s ears because at least she didn’t have to hear about sports for, like, five minutes. Meanwhile, the guy I was worried about the most during all of this was Joe, who was down on the beach by himself having a total moral crisis while muttering about being a “loyal ass person.” He’s too pure for this game

Look, I don’t know how any of this is going to shake out. I wish I could log into the Lagi Probsty5G server and tell you where it’s all going, but somebody apparently changed the Dig48 password. (I’m looking at you, Shane Powers.) But I do know that if Thomas is truly closer to Bianca than the… ugh, fine, I’ll say it… California Girls alliance, then it would make sense for him to bring Star and her idol in to take control of that tribe (as the preview for next week’s episode teases may happen). But if anything happens to #Joeva this early in the season, I seriously don’t think I can handle it.

Related: Survivor 48 star Stephanie Berger is not rooting for Vula after that Tribal Council

Fact or fiction?

Journeys are not really my thing. Journey, on the other hand? Tremendous band — especially when they are literally playing air keyboard on a boardwalk like in the epic video for “Separate Ways.” But journeys themselves don’t float my proverbial boat as much. However, when we do see a journey, I at least want to see different results and different paths taken, which is what we got this week. Mitch, Thomas, and Mary all made their way to… I don’t know, what do they even call that place? Journey Island? That sounds weird, right?  Like there should be giant Boston Rob and Sandra-esque statues of Steve Perry and Neal Schon. Whatever. You know where they went.

The players had to race to arrange numbered blocks from 1 to 15 to win an advantage. Lose, and they forfeited their vote at their next Tribal Council. Mitch and Thomas were able to solve it, getting a Steal-a-Vote and Block-a-Vote, respectively, while hard luck Mary failed at the task. What was more interesting is what happened when the three returned back to camp.

Mary informed her tribe she lost her vote, leading to Sai’s brilliant reaction of “You don’t seem so bummed, so that’s good.” Over on Lagi, Thomas must have been sitting too close to the flame because his pants almost immediately caught on fire as he lied and said he chose not to play, so did not win anything or lose a vote. (Knowing how aggressive Thomas is, I would not have bought that for a second.) As for Mitch, he told everyone the truth that he won, leading to lots of cheering from his tribe mates.

Of course, nothing is ever that simple on Survivor. Perhaps sensing a slight power shift in the direction of on-the-outs Mitch and Charity, the Civa fearsome foursome alliance sprung into action on an idol hunt. “I need to show the world how good I am,” David explained in the most David way possible. In this case, the world did not see it, as Kyle found the Beware Advantage instead. Not needing the world to see how good he was, Kyle turned his cryptogram over to Kamilla, who solved it. Would it have been better if Kamilla had unlocked the box, stuck the idol in her pocket, and been like “Thanks, dude”? Yes. A million times better. But she instead did the prudent thing and handed it back to her No. 1 alliance partner. And that’s why Kamilla was my episode 1 winner pick.

Related: Survivor 48 star Bianca Roses is sick of sports talk in exclusive deleted scene

Do or dive time

Oh, these lucky bastards! These are my favorite type of challenges, where folks get to dive off a huge platform into water, and then submerge themselves underwater while pulling themselves along a rope and releasing buoys. You all know I’m an absolute sucker for water challenges. You know who else is? Mary! She told me before the game how much she could not wait to prove herself in the ocean — and prove herself she did, keeping pace with David and Shauhin in the first leg of the immunity contest.

Unfortunately for Mary, she had Cedrek on her tribe. Mitch and Chrissy were so bad at trying to get their buoy across the balance beam they were lapped by Bianca and Thomas… even  after Bianca almost blinded her partner while whacking him in the face with her pole! But Cedrek took one look at that  Mitch and Chrissy performance and was like, “Hold by super overpriced boujee craft beer.”

I cannot overstate how absolutely terrible Cedrek was in this challenge. I don’t even know what his problem was. Maybe he was arching his back too much? Or not enough? Is his balance just generally terrible? I would think a surgeon would have to be super steady in his line of work, but then again, I know nothing about surgery outside of the one episode of Quincy M.E. I watched where Jan from The Office was seduced by the power of punk rock. Even Probst referred to it as “an absolute abysmal failure” — talking about Cedrek, not Quincy M.E, I assume.

I would say this contest came all the way down to the baskets, but Vula didn’t even make it that far so the only suspense on what was a really nicely designed challenge came down to which tribe would get which fishing kit. But I will once again post the same advice to any and all future Survivor players that I have posted many times before since it appears the only person that paid attention was Mitch: When you have a basket shooting competition like this, you need to shoot underhand. I know because I did it back in the Ghost Island season. It’s much easier to aim, and you have the perfect landing arc as well.

I was actually impressed Eva made as many shots as she did shooting overhand after Joe couldn’t hit any, but Mitch eventually caught and passed her with the correct Rick Barry “grandma” method, ending Lagi’s undefeated streak and giving Civa their first first-place win. Look at Mitch getting the hero edit with two big victories this week!

Related: Survivor 48 premiere recap: Everything you didn't see on TV

The tables turn… and then turn again

We haven’t talked a lot about Vula outside of Cedrek falling repeatedly into the water, which is rather remarkable when you consider that we were treated to a scene of Sai sniffing her own underarm while waving to Mary. But there was certainly a lot brewing over there. The scene on night three after the first Tribal was delicious, with Sai telling Mary there were no hard feelings and Mary correctly shooting back, “I don’t know about that.” You also had Sai complaining, “You lied to my face,” with Mary noting, “You also lied to my face.” And props to Sai for admitting to us, “I want her to think I don’t hold grudges, but I hold grudges.” We wouldn’t want you on Survivor if you didn’t, Sai. By all means, grudge on!

But those grudges took a backseat after some strategy shenanigans went on once Vula lost the immunity challenge. The chaos started when Kevin told the other men he wanted Sai out because she had an Idol and had the most power in the tribe. This also would enable him to keep Mary as a loyal ally. But Cedrek wasn’t feeling that plan, and told Sai to play her idol so Mary would go home. Predictably, this led the emotion-concealing Sai to want Kevin out instead, so she went and planted seeds with Justin to make sure Kevin would go once Mary was dealt with first. But then Justin was all, “I love a good pizza topping, but nothing would top getting Kevin out right now!” (I’m actually very confident he was not like that at all.)

Boy, did I overestimate what I believed to be a rock-solid Kevin and Justin alliance from what we saw last week. I thought they were locked and loaded together in a burgeoning bromance that would take the entire season by storm! Instead, Justin dumped Kevin on the side of the road like a day-old pineapple pizza… which is only marginally worse than an already terrible-tasting, completely fresh pineapple pizza.

Unlike last week, when Sai made it painfully obvious whom she was voting for, this time she kept her emotions in check as Cedrek asked, and the tribe was able to pull off Kevin's blindside… who looked absolutely gutted. The poor guy thought he was making this huge move to announce himself as a major force in the game only to find himself completely out of it a few seconds later. Devastating. You could see the confusion on Kevin’s face as he looked over at the one person who did not even have a vote for answers.

He was classy in defeat, mumbling a half-hearted “good job, you guys” as he shuffled his way up for the ceremonial torch snuffing, but you could see he was reeling. The guy whose mouth and mind were moving a mile a minute in the game was a completely different person while delivering his final words to camera, noting that “It was fun, but I just want some peace and quiet now.”

Related: Survivor 48 host Jeff Probst reveals unaired premiere medical intervention

Look, there’s no shame in Kevin’s game. He tried to make a move. It was an aggressive move, but by no means a crazy or stupid one. I don’t even think it was the move itself per se that got Kevin voted out. Just speculating here, but when I spoke to Kevin a few days before the game, he struck me as a guy whose mind was constantly racing and whose game would follow suit. It was just an energy about him. It made him very likable. I really enjoyed speaking with him and dug the guy. But as a player, I would be weary of that energy. I’m guessing (and just guessing) that energy is what made Justin and Cedrek (who appear to be much more methodical and steady in their thinking) nervous about working long-term with him. Just a different vibe, and a vibe they perhaps could not connect as strongly with. Sometimes, that’s what it all comes down to on Survivor — a vibe.

And my vibe is telling me to wrap this up sooner rather than later, but a few big things to note. First off, the comments are open, and I’m happy to answer any questions you may have, so hit those to weigh in on the episode or ask away. Did you notice that the Survivor 48 cast is the oldest we’ve had in a while? Well, neither did Probst, who explained to EW why he had no idea. We also have the Hostmaster General weighing in on the episode, as well as an exclusive deleted scene starring aqua-queen Mary. And make sure to also come back for our exit interview with Kevin to see how he feels now about his blindside. Oh, and just a reminder you can follow me on Instagram, Bluesky, or even on X if you still hover over there.

Okay, weigh in below and I’ll be back next week with another scoop of the crispy!

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly