Survivor: Winners at War - Episode 10 Recap

The Full Circle

By Jim Van Nest

April 20, 2020

Again.

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Hello good people and thank you; once again, for joining me for the recap of one of the best seasons of Survivor we've seen: Winner at War. Hopefully your quarantine is treating you well and you and yours are all healthy and mostly happy!

As if to rub it all in our faces, tonight's episode promises the family visit where the players in the game get to see their entire families. In person and not on Zoom. The hell, Probst?! To reset from last week, Adam finally ran out of wiggle room and after trying to play Jeff Probst as an immunity idol, he was sent to the Edge of Extinction. A place he didn't want to go and that probably wasn't too excited to have him. And again, this week is all about the family visit and *spoiler alert* - it's a super long segment on the show. And while that'll make this recap nice and easy - it wasn't my favorite use of time on the show. But more on that later, because right off the bat, it's time for a...

...Probst Sighting! That's right; we're getting right to it. No after Tribal. No Edge of Extinction. No spy bunkers. We go right to, "Come on in guys." And like it's planned or something, Jeff wastes no time getting to the heart of the "challenge". It's the loved one's visit, but this time, it's different. And we learn that right off the bat as he calls in Kim's husband and all 3 of her kids. Next up is Ben's wife and both of his kids. Sophie's fiancé comes out. I wonder if he has any idea how his girl is rocking this game. Next up is Sarah's man and her son. Tears are being shed all over the place. Everyone is crying - it's very touching actually. Even breaks through my shriveled-up little hear. It is, however, boring to recap.

With that in mind, out come Denise's husband and daughter. And it really sinks in how tiny Denise is. And such a badass! Nick's fiancé comes out next followed by Tony's wife and 2 kids. Like everyone else, even the unflappable #TeamTV drops to his knees in tears. Michele's sister is up next followed by Tyson's wife, Rachel and his oldest daughter, Bergen. And in a rare display, you get to see the real Tyson. He doesn't show it often, but the real Tyson showed up, for just a minute. And last but not least, Val Collins and all 4 Collins kids. Last time out, Val was pregnant with his first son. They've had 2 sons since then. And seriously, has there ever been someone on this show as likable as Jeremy Collins? There might be others, but they're tied for first. And in an unprecedented move, Jeff lets everyone know that there will be no challenge today. All the loved ones get to go back to camp to enjoy the day. And really, that was the only thing to do. What's he gonna do - send a bunch of 6 year olds away without getting to see Mommy and/or Daddy? Not a chance. And frankly, this is what he should do, so good on Jeff. These people are why we still watch, so give them something for free for a change. Good for you, Jeff.

We come back from break as everyone arrives at camp. For the day, there's a feast, there's playing and there's absolutely no game. Just a bunch of kids running around everywhere and everyone playing in the sand, in the water. It looked like an amazing time. And in contrast, we head to the Edge of Extinction.

But wait, is that a boat headed for Extinction Island? Yes, it is. And while Ethan and Rob discuss how there's no way this can be anything good, Natalie gets a first glimpse of her Twinnie, Nadia and shouts out, "It's our families!!" And, yes it is. Everyone on the Edge gets the family visit as well. We see the Anderson reunion, all of the Mariano girls, Danni's family, Ethan's wife, John Fincher and Parvati's daughter, Yul's wife and kids, Big Wendell and Adam's dad. Again, there is much rejoicing. Lots of love, lots of touching moments. Honestly, looking at Ethan and Parvati - it would not surprise me one bit if they didn't just get on the boat and leave when the loved ones do. They don't, but I would not have faulted them one bit. As the Edger's families leave, we head to commercial.

And we're back for another Probst Sighting! What? We're halfway through the episode and there's been absolutely NO game, NO strategy, NO challenge, nothing. Maybe we'll go straight from this challenge to Tribal and it can be complete chaos! At any rate, to the matter at hand. Today's challenge is one they've done several times in a few different variations. They'll be holding a rope to keep a platform balanced. They will have to walk back and forth carrying tiles that spell "IMMUNITY", being super careful not to let the platform tip. First one to stack all 8 tiles and make it back to the start wins immunity and 2 fire tokens. My first thought on seeing this one is that Ben rocked a similar challenge on his season and actually lost it because he placed a 'U' tile upside down. So, watch for Ben on this one.

Everyone is pretty well in contention for this thing, but as they get to the 4th and 5th letters, Tony and Kim are out in front with Tyson, Jeremy and Nick in the neighborhood. But Jeremy tries to go too quick and loses his whole stack. At her 6th letter, Kim drops the whole stack. We've got Tony, Tyson, Nick and Ben now leading this thing. Tyson and Nick both drop out at the 6th letter. It's now Tony and Ben working on the last letter. Tony has a slight lead on the last letter with Ben right behind. Tony places the letter but still has to get back. Now Ben places his and it's a foot race back to the platform. At the last second, Ben loses his entire stack and, believe it or not, Tony Vlachos wins immunity. If 3 seasons on the show, Tony wins his first individual immunity challenge. AND on a challenge requiring calmness and patience. Are you kidding me right now? As we head to break, Ben feel like the vote tonight will determine who's in control of the tribe.




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And we come back from break to play, hell, I don't know anymore. It could be anyone but Tony at this point. And he, by the way, is super excited to have won immunity. And everything is rolling through Tony tonight. Jeremy wants to break up Sarah and Sophie, but you know he doesn't want to knock out Sarah. Sarah wants to take out Kim, but you know he doesn't want to take Kim out. Tony would rather do Tyson, but when the argument with Sarah is over, he agrees to do Kim. So, first chance he gets, Tony gets Ben and Nick on board to blindside Jeremy.

Meanwhile Kim, Tyson and Jeremy are forming a little group. The issue, though, is that they really don't have the numbers, unless they can get Denise and Michele. Also, Kim has an idol and she tells the guys this. They're targeting Sophie. We see Kim lock in Denise. Next up we see Ben and Nick telling Sarah that if she and Sophie join them, they can take out Jeremy. So Sarah goes straight back to Tony. He covers it nicely telling her that Jeremy threw her name out, so he has to go. Jeremy is shown telling Tyson about his leave tribal advantage. Tyson tells him that without him, they don't have enough votes to do anything, so he has to stay. As they prepare for Tribal, Sophie strongly urges Sarah to use the steal-a-vote advantage tonight. They appear headed for a 5-5 show down and stealing a vote makes it as 6-4 vote that can only be undone by an idol. So, let's see, that's the steal-a-vote, safety without power and an idol on the block to be played tonight. Not quite Advantage-geddon, but yet another example of why they need to pull back on the advantages a bit, in this writer's opinion.

We get to Tribal and Jeff starts with Nick and asks him if he's feeling any different about the game since last Tribal. That's all the time it took for the whispering to start. Even the jury seems irritated by it. At some point, they HAVE to shut this shit down. It's frustrating as hell to the viewers as we can't follow anything at Tribal. And then the entire narrative of the episode goes out the window because everything changes at Tribal. Jeff does get to ask some questions, finally, but it all seems to focus around how crazy everything is. As he calls time to vote, both Sarah and Jeremy call his name. And then, neither of them wants to go first. So, since neither one wants to speak up, Jeff goes right back to calling the vote. So, once again he says, "It is time to vote." And once again, both Sarah and Jeremy speak up. And once again, neither of them wants to go first. Sarah turns around ready to vote and Jeremy finally makes the first move. He hands over his safety without power advantage and Jeff tells him to grab his torch and off he goes. And just like that, the votes just went to 5-4. Not good for the Kim-Tyson group - although, she does have an idol in play.

As everyone starts whispering again, Sophie finally stand up and says, "Hey guys, why don't the 5 of us just go make a decision?" What a gangsta move to pull in front of the jury. I don't care what happens next; Sophie just claimed this one for herself. The jury is pretty shocked to see it happen. And Wendell point to the smaller group and says, "He just left his squad." Jeremy - not making friends in his alliance or with the jury with that move. But honestly, he was dead man walking. Not only was he getting all the votes but Kim wasn't using her idol on him. He did the right thing. He can do damage control tomorrow. Each group makes their plan and before they vote, Sarah decides to play the steal-a-vote and she takes Denise's vote. So, now it's a 6-3 voting advantage. Perfect to force a 3-3-3 tie vote to help guard against an idol. What a fantastic play and I haven't even seen the votes yet. Speaking of which, it's time for Kim to play her idol. She takes it to Jeff and thinks about for a bit and finally decides to play it on...Denise. Any votes cast against Denise will not count.

Time to read the votes. Denise, Denise, Sophie, Sophie. Tyson, Tyson. But wait, something got screwed up somewhere. All the rest are for Tyson and he gets sent back to Extinction after a weird 5-2-2 vote split. So not only did the bigger group not split their votes right, but Michele flipped on Tyson and voted with the larger group. And this is what I'm talking about with all this "live Tribal" nonsense. Where the hell did ANY of this come from? Why did they not vote 3 Tyson, 3 Denise to guarantee the tie? And why was Michele with them? Was THAT why they put 5 on Tyson? Because they knew they had Michele? I mean, between more than half the episode being devoted to the family visit and the whisper-whisper at Tribal - we, the viewers, have no frickin' idea WHAT happened. Either way, Tyson heads back to Extinction and has no fire tokens to bequeath. And they just sent one of the most fierce challenge competitors out of the game in a real pissy mood. It would not surprise me one bit to see him get back in again.

Next time on Survivor: it looks like everything is revolving around Tony. Jeremy is scared of him and Kim thinks he's trying to play double agent. He's running around the island half crazed again and he has some sort of plan up his sleeve. I can't wait for another Tony-centric episode. This should be a blast. To finish the episode, instead of seeing Tyson arrive back at Extinction, we get a rare behind the scenes glimpse at Tribal. As Jeff sends the jury back to the Edge, they all come over and pile on for a huge group hug as a thank you for the unexpected family visit they got. Aw, how sweet. Can we get back to Survivor now, mmmkay? Til next week kids, take care.


     


 
 

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