Survivor S44E01: I Can’t Wait to See Jeff

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Survivor starts off season 44 with a truly jam packed opening.
by Jeremy Fogelman

Last season on Survivor I was fairly disappointed about how things went, and I wasn’t the only one (Jeff Probst himself mentioned his disappointment on the ending). But one thing the show has been reasonably good at it of late is an interesting cast of characters, and so far, Season 44 has the potential to really be a delightful mess.

The season opening episode had three medical incidents, one due to stupidity (Matthew the bearded older adventuring type), the others due to overexertion (Bruce and Brandon), and one, Bruce, evacuated from the game. You have to feel bad for someone getting out of the game without even getting a vote cast against them, but you definitely don’t want to see someone harmed.

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Poor Maddy was the one voted out by a single vote because of the crazy set of circumstances and choices that led to the tribal council. The locked birdcages are a new addition, and a great idea so far -- Brandon ended up telling Maddy about finding the key because he noticed she noticed him acting shiftily about it. But then he admits to us he doesn’t trust her and then tells the tribe -- severely putting him at risk when it’s revealed as an immunity idol!

It’s simply poor play from Brandon, and a little bit of an unfair situation at Maddy because it automatically puts the two of them at odds later on. After the new version of the Island of the Lies (which I liked the new take on), we get nerdy but funny Matt losing two votes, Sarah losing a vote but gaining an advantage, and Lauren getting an advantage. All well and good, but Lauren is caught in her lies at the immunity challenge when Claire and Matthew confer about their teammates coming back from the Isle of Falsehood -- it’s a fun thing to see cross-tribe talk, and in this case led Matthew to suspect Lauren. Another complication.

Matthew was paranoid about that plus his dislocated shoulder journey, plus he was worried he’d be the split vote target after the obvious target of Brandon, his ally -- so you can see how he’d think a Shot in the Dark might be his best option. Not that it worked or was needed. But Jaime was simply overly paranoid, we see her losing control about it and making faces (like other new favorite player Carolyn, delightfully nutty). She won her Shot in the Dark but it certainly didn’t matter except that her vote was lost too.

Then you have Lauren using her Bank a Vote advantage and suddenly there are literally only three votes to cast, and obviously Brandon would vote for his new enemy Maddy. But now Brandon’s idol is gone, so he’s at risk again -- hard to know if his strength will help keep him in the game or if his strategic gameplay will improve.

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On the other tribes we get some other fun stuff, like the crazy Carolyn business and a cute scene of Matt and Frannie awkwardly laughing (and flirting?). There’s also some interesting backstory of youngest player Carson, Survivor nerd who gained weight before coming on the island so he would have calories to lose -- that’s a smart tactic!

Overall it was a pretty fun first episode, even if there were some dumb moves (Brandon and Jaime) and unfortunate situations (Bruce getting evacuated). Seems like a fun group of people, so I’m hoping we get some interesting situations still to come.