Australian Survivor 2017 Episode 9 Review: Tainted Blood

The ripples of Sunday night’s twist extend to Asaga as the interlopers make their mark on the game: Tristan Kelly recaps and reviews a frustrating 9th episode of Australian Survivor.

If you give an interloper an inch they will take a mile. So often in Survivor, the tribes that win a string of early immunity challenges self destruct at the slightest hint of change. Although avoiding Tribal Council is fantastic, prolonged absences can lead to impatience and the desire to only target the ‘big threats’ whenever the opportunity to vote comes around. The end result is usually a weaker tribe with a shift in power to the floaters and wildcards – these are the people that are actually the main threats to a strong player’s game… Episode 9 of Australian Survivor explores the aftermath of a controversial tribe swap, in addition to treating us to the most Aussie challenge of all time, and some great one-liners at Tribal Council. These are the moments that matter…

Post Tribal Wash Up

At Exile Beach, Tara complains about how “tough” her night was with no-one to help her or Anneliese make fire or shelter – she almost seems annoyed by the whole situation. Yep, that’s right… Tara has just been gifted a second chance in the game and she’s still trying to play the sympathy card! There must be hundreds of ex-players out there fuming at her lack of gratitude – I don’t think she has any right to still be alive with a chance of winning this thing. In contrast, Anneliese is taking the right approach by recognising the fortunate turn of events for what they are…

“I think if I play this right, this could be an advantage – I’m really keen to get started.” – Anneliese

She begins to coach Tara on the best way to approach their new tribe mates, and looks set for a rejuvenated run at the title. I feel less strongly about Anneliese remaining in the game as it can be argued that her second chance advantage is a fair exchange for not having the opportunity to strategise after Tara’s elimination. However, if either of them end up making it to the end, there’s going to be a bitter taste left in many people’s mouths. It has Pearl Islands ‘Outcasts’ twist written all over it.

At Asaga, Kent is commended for his weight loss, Jacqui is missing her champagne, and there’s a visible divide forming between the young and the old – or in other words, the power couple crew versus Luke and the layabouts…

“I just think it’s lucky for Michelle and Ben that breathing is automatic.” – Kent

Ben tries to get in with the cool kids by mocking Jacqui and asking her to wait on him – he’s obviously starting to feel at home… Jacqui is not impressed. Ben recognises that he’s probably on the bottom of the tribe at the moment, which “to be honest” worries him – thanks for not fibbing in your confessional mate… The fact that Jacqui is starting to get on a few people’s nerves highlights a flaw in her social game – it looks as though she’s starting to feel too comfortable in the majority alliance. Luke has a better read on the game than most people realise, and is skilfully using the camp life rifts to his advantage by slowly amassing an army to take the power couple down. Trouble is on the horizon…

JLP summons Asaga to a beautiful little meeting spot, where he informs them that they will be required to relinquish two of their members to Samatau in exchange for Tara and Anneliese. Ben quickly nominates himself (a wise move on his part to escape the bottom), and then after a brief moment of contemplation, Henry also volunteers. Jacqui and Kent enter panic mode, but before anyone else has a chance to weigh in on the debate, Luke snaffles the opportunity to take a vulnerable Jacqui back to camp by confirming Henry and Ben’s decision to JLP. Intelligent opportunistic play. Henry might think that he can control both tribes, but for the time being all he has done is just left Jacqui high and dry, and given power to Luke. He is playing a dangerous game.

“If I can get to the end with control on both tribes, I’m a great chance to win this game… I might look like Jesus, but I’m playing like the devil right now…” – Henry

The Newcomers

Samatau are thrilled when they see “Yoga Pants” and “Sideshow Bob” walking into camp, although most of the fanfare is reserved for the former – poor old Ben looks set to be forgotten once again… AK is immediately threatened by Henry’s strategic presence so sets up an interrogation mission to find out “just how conniving he can be”. Crab symbolism then enters a whole new domain as we see two powerful little numbers duelling on the rocks. At the moment AK certainly looks to be the inferior crab, overplaying the situation by spinning a yarn to Henry about being on the bottom… Locky was always going to set the record straight on this piece of misinformation, and sure enough during his first conversation with Henry, he presents a lecture on the complete strategical structure of the tribe. With an idol in his pocket, Henry basically has all the information he needs to work his way up to a position of power. He’s playing it well.

Over at Asaga, the tribal flag is burning, and Jacqui is “pissed off” after not only losing her strongest ally but also the hidden immunity idol. She makes a case to “keep Asaga strong” by getting rid off the interlopers immediately, before they have a chance to infiltrate the tribe. It’s the obvious choice of course, but Luke has other ideas… He individually approaches the newcomers before anyone else can get to them, once again demonstrating a strong understanding of the game:

“I think both of them are mouldable into my game – they just want to survive… So they’re going to cling to whoever they’re most comfortable to – and I’m a comfortable guy.” – Luke

And this is exactly why the twist has become such a massive advantage for Tara and Anneliese… Because they were effectively voted out of the game, everyone at Asaga knows that their allegiances have been severed, in turn making them trustworthy as unencumbered free pawns. In the event of a tribal fracture (as seems to be the case at Asaga) the pawns basically then have the power to dictate the new majority alliance, and in doing so, boost themselves forward about 5 positions in the game. Once players are allowed back in to a game, they can be incredibly hard to stop.

#Footybrawl

JLP leads a bit of pre challenge discussion about the tribe swap: Locky raves about having Henry on his team (completely ignoring Ben in his answer), Henry stands by the decision he made, and Jacqui is still looking devastated. We’re then treated to the most Aussie challenge of all time, involving a battle for a ball in the water, and then kicking a drop punt through a makeshift set of goals – JLP even hands out a few free kicks! It’s brilliant to watch. In the Brownlow Medal, one vote goes to Kent for his unorthodox groin tackling strategy, two votes goes to Locky for his extreme enthusiasm, and three votes goes to AK for kicking the winning goal and then providing a magnificent impersonation of an old school goal umpire. The US version is really going to have to step up their game to match the quality of this season’s challenges… Hats off to the crew!

Interlopers Prosper

At the losing camp, Kent and Jacqui continue to push the “Keep Asaga Strong” message, throwing Tara’s name out as the first casualty. It looks to be a foregone conclusion, but then all chaos breaks loose. Michelle has issues with the oldies, so recruits Tara and Anneliese to vote against Jacqui. Sarah recognises a need to pick a side, so after discussion with Jericho, agrees to join #TeamLuke. Meanwhile, Kent and Jacqui are starting to suss out that things have gone awry, which leads to Sarah’s first mistake of the game when she blatantly excludes Kent from a strategic conversation. Kent now knows that Sarah is most likely scheming against their old alliance, so decides to throw her name under the bus. He summons Anneliese and Tara into the woods in an attempt to secure their votes…

The problem Kent and Jacqui face though, is that they’ve already allowed the other side to build a relationship with the interlopers first – it might already be too late. The other issue is that by shifting the target onto Sarah, they extinguish any possibility of swinging the outcome at Tribal, and instead place all of the power into the hands of the interlopers… Anneliese is revelling in her new position of power, using the classic method of sticks in the sand to explain to Tara that no matter what they decide at TC, they’ll end up in the majority alliance (either Kent/Jacqui/Odette or Luke/Jericho/Michelle/Sarah). This is why it is always safest to just get rid of the interlopers first – if you let them in, they will steal the show.

Asaga Self Destructs

JLP wants to talk about the swap, Jericho implies that Jacqui is drowning, and Jacqui argues that because Henry left her they were clearly never a ‘power couple’ anyway. Anneliese and Tara reiterate their worth as ‘free agents’ and loyal servants to Asaga, before Jericho poetically welcomes them into the “Asaga Blood” family…

“Their wounds will heal over time, but wounds also leave a scar, and I think they’ll always remember the people who voted them out.” – Jericho

Sarah and Odette talk about the paranoid scrambling that kicked in that afternoon, and then Tara disses the whole tribe for reminding her of what Samatau was like – she just wanted to get a drink of water, and not be approached by everyone so quickly. PLEASE get rid of this imposter. Shockingly, she then goes on to say that she’s been through “the worst that this game can throw” at someone… You’re still in the game Tara! And horribly with all the power… The look on JLP’s face is priceless.  Jacqui makes a final pitch to the “new girls” before issuing a sensational warning to the entire tribe.

“People that are floaters can win this game – you’ve got to make a decision whether you’re going to be in a relationship with a floater, or you’re going to give the game the respect it deserves.” – Jacqui

Yes, Jacqui! Of course Michelle immediately takes offence and tries to argue that “riding coat tails” and being “a mute” is a legitimate way to win the game – it’s other people’s fault for not making the move to vote you out… She’s actually spot on (despite simultaneously making a case for her own elimination) – the longer you leave drifters in this game the more power they gain. Get them out now before it’s too late! As we head to the vote, it looks like it’s Sarah or Jacqui – which in my view is a travesty either way.

All twists claim a victim, and sadly on this occasion, Jacqui is sent packing in a 6-3 vote over Sarah. I doubted her chances preseason, but Jacqui exceeded all expectations by playing a strong brand of Survivor. In the end, Henry was her main downfall, but Jacqui has certainly proven that you can indeed be “fabulous and fifty”. Lock her in for a return as an ‘all-star’ in the future.

And that’s another week of Australian Survivor in the bank! Despite the controversy of the twist, this season continues to set a cracking standard. Next week Henry continues to play both tribes, and it looks like there’ll be an idol clue hidden at the challenge – should make for great drama!

Make sure you check out the progress of our Power Rankings Battle against Season 1 veteran Conner Bethune (the twist has had a huge impact) and don’t forget to follow Jeremy Gorniak’s live twitter feed during every episode @TTHSau.

If you’ve missed any of my other episode reviews, you can catch up on all the action here. See you later in the week!

Tristan Kelly is a 28 year old ex-doctor turned writer, based in Perth, Western Australia. During his final year of medical school he famously watched and analysed every available episode of Survivor (all 368 of them at the time), probably making him more qualified as a Survivor commentator than he ever was a doctor. In between writing and editing short films, he now spends most of his time organising various schemes, and fantasising about one day winning the game.