Well the inevitable merge or consolidation of the tribes took place. What suprises me is how surprised some people are that this took place this early.
The consolidation sure changed the fates of few castaways. The person who benefited the most from the tribe switch was definitely Nathan.
Nathan goes from potentially being out episode 2, if Aitu hadn’t thrown the challenge he likely could have been booted, to being a superstar octupus killer in the new Raro tribe. He has two former tribemates with him, and the fact Rebecca and Stephanie aren’t as tight as Rebecca and Sundra likely means both will try to latch onto Nate.
Oh, and did I mention Parvati has a thing for Nate?
So now Nate goes from being inches away from death to easily making it to merge and potentially top 5 if the Raro tribe is as strong in challenges as it looks to be.
On the other hand there is Ozzy. One of the early favourites has run straight into a wall called Yul. His power play in the episode was a good call but it backfired and now he is in trouble. His only hope is to make it to the merge and latch onto old buddy J.P., who looks to be the leader of Raro.
MVP of the episode will assigned to one member of each tribe.
For Raro it’s got to be Rebecca. Rebecca could easily have been thrown losing her partner Sundra to another tribe. Instead she steps up and easily becomes the top female athletically. The props from Probst will give Rebecca a good shot at surviving any upcoming Raro tribal councils.
For Aitu it’s an even more obvious choice: Jonathan. Sure he has been outed as the sketchy scheemer in the likes of Richard Hatch and Rob Cesternino, but his scheeming worked wonderfully and now he has a solid 4 alliance with 2 hanger ons. And not just that but he has Yul, who has the idol, and seems to be the most loyal of anyone around.
Next week will be when things really get going. Can Raro start a run of immunity wins that can rival Koror from Survivor: Palau? Either way, whoever goes to tribal councile the vote next will be interesting. How will Raro vote and allign itself? Will Johnathan be able to keep Cao Boi and Jessica voting with him?
