Sleep Is For The Weak: Survivor Ghost Island Episode 2 Review
An ominous feeling in the night, tales of convoluted idol fraud, and Jeff’s new poster child for overcoming adversity… It’s time to recap the second episode of Survivor Ghost Island!
If you’re a super fan of Survivor who is lucky enough to actually get the opportunity to play the game, there are certain things that you should never do… One, don’t overtly advertise the fact that you’re a super fan. Two, don’t let paranoia hijack your senses from the opening seconds and prevent you from forming strong social connections. And three, if you’re going to make up a sneaky story to try and counteract the failure of one and two, don’t use one that has become a norm of modern day Survivor! In Episode 2 of Survivor Ghost Island (the second half of the premiere), Jacob presents a cautionary tale for all prospective Survivor super fan players. In addition, Domenick wakes up with a bad feeling in the night, Donathan becomes an instant new fave of Jeff’s, and Stephanie J proves that she’s more than just an aficionado of stripes. These are the moments that matter…
Paranoid Nights
At Naviti a full moon hauntingly paints the sky whilst Domenick battles the demons of his mind. He’s starting to freak out that he’s not fitting in around camp so decides that there’s no time like the present to make a big move… Cue the idol music DJ – Dom can sleep when he’s dead!
“I told myself when I came into this game I’m going to have a handle on my paranoia – but I’m just starting to get a bad feeling around here…” – Domenick
And rightly so – Dom’s opening hour on the island was a disaster! However, his game is slowly starting to improve, and I love that he’s even adhering to my first rule of Survivor that you should never, ever go to sleep. My other first rules include: don’t volunteer for the opening puzzle, never be the first person to get caught searching for an idol, and most importantly, what ever you do, don’t get on the wrong side of the crab community… If the Survivor Gods were going to take on a physical form it would surely be in the bodies of our exo-skeletoned friends. Anyway, after poking his hands in a few ghastly places, Domenick eventually finds the treasure he’s been searching for – although he’ll have to wait until morning to be able to read the accompanying note.
It’s Survivor history lesson time! Bubbling with Christmas morning excitement, Domenick unwraps his gift and discovers that the idol in his possession is none other than the one Andrea was sent home with in Season 26! It’s been haunted for five years but retains its original power – will Domenick be able to reverse the curse? I’m absolutely loving these little flashbacks to past seasons – the accompanying narration by the new players is also going down a treat. All in all, a great solo segment from Domenick – he’s starting to emerge as a highly entertaining and dynamic character.
Meanwhile back at camp, Morgan gets her own dose of Christmas cheer when she discovers a gift in her bag of Jacob’s haunted legacy advantage. Now all she has to do is seal her lips, and she’ll have the opportunity to make a big move at the final 13 or the final 6…. Although I do wonder if the potential power of the legacy advantage is actually worth the burden of carrying around a cursed item for the entire game that’s use is so situationally dependent. Maybe Morgan would be better off just doing a Boston Rob and gifting it to the closest volcano that she can find… As always we’ll have to wait and see.
Idol Chatter
At Ghost Island, Jacob has a genius revelation to distort the truth a little bit by making a fake idol to show his tribe mates instead of telling them about the legacy advantage.. His hope is that it will bluff them into keeping him around for one more vote. Come on mate, it’s Season 36 – you’re going to have to come up with something a little bit more original than that! He returns to camp, and proceeds to interrupt James’ delicious sea cucumber banquet in order to host a special sharing circle. He claims to the camera that he’s a master of deception, before painting the scene of Ghost Island to the group and going against all his “instincts” to show them his fake idol. Apparently he doesn’t want to be known as “idol guy” so will be playing it at the next tribal no matter what… The whole scene is like a strange mesh up of two moments from Aussie Survivor last year: AK’s infamous chicken idol debacle, and Ziggy’s super idol or ‘secret advantage that becomes void if she tells anyone about it’ scheme. The only difference is I think Ziggy and AK managed to at least sow some very shallow seeds of doubt within their tribes. Brendan is on to Jacob like a plague:
“Jacobs fantastic story about winning this immunity idol just seems a little far fetched to me… Because there’s no chance in the world that this Survivor nerd forgot the note that came with the immunity idol back at Ghost Island…” – Brendan
All is not in vain though, Jacob’s little scheme is rewarded by the editors with crab shot #2! Unfortunately for him this honour is quickly over shadowed by crab #3 who spectacularly appears to set up an attempted truce between Domenick and Chris…
What follows is a convoluted game of false trust exercises – neither Domenick or Chris seem to genuinely want to work with each other but they are keen to have a bit of fun in the meantime… After Chris raises the topic of idols, Dom sets off to make a beautiful fake one, which he then wraps in the paperwork from his real one to show his competitor as a token of trust. He tells Chris that he can use it at anytime he feels that his game is in danger, and that he’d love for them to go to the end together. It’s a better crafted scheme than Jacob’s story I’ll give him that, but Chris’s spider senses are still tingling like crazy:
“Something about it is just off… I will not get voted out of this game going against my instinct. Knowing that he has an idol scares the hell out of me and it’s up to me as a leader to eliminate it.” – Chris
The stage is set for either Dom to get voted out with an idol in his pocket or Chris to get bamboozled in a double double cross…I can’t wait for the day when this duel finally comes to a head!
Jeff’s New Poster Child
It’s challenge time! There’s a few mild ‘oohs’ when Naviti see the new Malolo tribe sans Gonzalez, Angela makes her first appearance for the season by sitting out of the challenge, and then the water games are on… Naviti takes an early lead, and then Malolo capitulates – partly due to James not being able to dive under water, and partly due to Donathan freaking out on the sidelines. After milking the positive coercion for as long as possible, Donathan eventually enters the water and amazes himself by releasing the buoys in one foul swoop. Of course it’s way too late to win the challenge for his tribe, but he certainly earns the respect of Jeff: “Out of nowhere a hero has emerged for Malolo.” Poor old James gets a bit of a rough trot – at least he was in the water actually trying for the whole challenge, but nobody seems to remember that. Jeff’s new poster boy, Donathan, is predictably sent to Ghost Island by Naviti – much to the dismay of fake idol wielding Jacob. Maybe if you had kept you mouth shut at the last challenge things would have been different cobber. The number one Survivor nerd is in big trouble…
At Ghost Island, Donathan gets his first taste of being in the wild on his own, but unfortunately scares the spirits off before they can entertain him with a game: “I definitely don’t want any ghosts around me!” We’re instead given a brief insight into Donathan’s childhood experiences, as he continues to sculpt a narrative of personal growth. Donathan is certainly one of the most engaging storytellers so far this season – you can’t help but want to root for him. Sensational work from the casting crew!
Preparing For Battle
At Malolo, poor old James profusely apologises for letting his tribe down in the challenge, describing his effort as inexcusably “pathetic”. Keep your head up mate, you’ll be fine – even Coach Brendan is saying “it’s cool.” Unfortunately due to Jacob’s fake idol though, he will be getting a couple of votes coming his way tonight, but not nearly enough to land a fatal blow. Meanwhile, in an effort to prevent Jacob from even playing his fake idol, Stripy Steph approaches him to talk super fan game – and she does it beautifully… After entertaining an idea to team up together as ‘Beauty and the Beast’ in order to take out Michael, Steph manages to swiftly coax out of Jacob every ounce of information he owns in the game to date… She now knows for sure (well almost) that his idol is fake, and also that Morgan is the proud owner of the legacy advantage. It’s that easy.
Tantalised by the prospect of having a trusting pawn under her control for more than just one day, Steph does actually consider enacting the Michael blindside, so approaches her closest allies to gauge their views. She first pitches the scheme to Jenna, cleverly framing it as entirely Jacob’s idea so she that can’t be accused of actively disrupting the kumbaya vibe too soon. Jenna’s not entirely sold, but will consider tagging along with the scheme if Laurel and James are also committed. It seems that lines in the sand are starting to be drawn… The pretty kids gang of Brendan, Michael and Libby are far from stupid and discuss the possibility that Steph could be pulling the double-double cross – in which case there’s not really much they can do at this point. They just have to hope that the vote stays on Jacob and then be wary of ‘Stripes’ moving forward. In my opinion, blindsiding Michael would be pulling the trigger one vote too early at this stage – the consequences of fracturing trust right before an impending tribe swap are just too severe to risk… Plus if things stay the same, Steph and co could have a clear majority with Donathan next time anyway. A straightforward Jacob vote appears to be the likeliest outcome.
An Information Imbalance
Jacob has a moment of pleasure when he’s asked to get fire for the first time, but the feeling will soon be dissipating… James says that he “hates” himself for doing the worst thing possible that an athlete can do (letting his team down), before earning the highest praise from Jeff for coining a new Survivor term: ‘information imbalance’. Things are looking up! Jacob is supposedly feeling more comfortable within the tribe, but Michael isn’t amused when he once again rambles on about Malolo being Survivor’s greatest tribe. Time to give it a break old boy…. Deep down he knows he’s gone.
“I’m a neurotic paranoid indoor kid… Maybe when I come out with that kind of bravado it’s so I can feel that I’m not going to die on the spot… I have a dream about getting to the end of this game, and to do that I have to fight all the fears that come with it.” – Jacob
There’s a bit of chat about burgeoning alliances and whether or not the physical blokes should feel safe, which is enough to prompt a minor Brendan freak out into Michael’s ear: “I think we’re getting set up.” And then it is time to vote. At this point it looks James is never going to be able to forgive himself for breaking the athletes code, Jacob is looking uncomfortably hopeful, and Stripes is emitting a strong ‘I know things that none of you know’ aura. Alas, there will be no blindside tonight. Michael scores a vote from Jacob, James scores a couple of token idol blockers, and then Jacob discovers that his dream is over. The pretty kids stay safe for now and all the viewers at home are given a lesson in exactly how not to play as a super fan. The tribe has indeed spoken.
Previously/Next Time on TTHS:
In our Preseason Boot List I had Jacob ranked in 16th position as a player who would need to focus on forming strong social bonds in order to survive the first few tribals… I’d say that’s a pretty accurate assessment worthy of a solid ‘A’.
Next up, we’ll be presenting our Week 1 edition of The Boot List, where we update the resumes of every player and rank their changing positions in the game. Be sure to check back soon for more juicy Survivor goss!
In the meantime, you can join the discussion below or chat with us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
Survivor Ghost Island continues in Australia on 9Go @ 8:30pm Thursday March 8 (available for streaming on 9now from 3pm)
Tristan Kelly is a 29 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, he now spends most of his time organising various schemes and fantasising about one day winning the game.