Another potential threat goes home
Welcome back to our weekly update series on Eva Erickson, Georgia Tech graduate playing on Survivor 48. You can check out last week’s episode 6 recap here. We’ll be here until she gets voted out or makes the finale! Now on with episode 7!
SURVIVOR SEASON 48 EPISODE 7 SPOILERS AHEAD
We’re now one vote old into the merged portion of the game, Eva surviving a slight scare but eventually getting no votes at tribal council on the backs of her strong alliance members fending off any momentum to put votes on her.
This week, her highlight was in the immunity challenge. The challenge split the 12-person tribe into two randomly sorted groups of six. The best of each group of six would win immunity, with the longest lasting player earning food for their group of six. Additionally, both groups would go to tribal council separately. The winning group would go to tribal council second, and the person voted out from that group would be on the jury, unlike with the first group.
The challenge required each player to hold up a bucket of water (proportional to a percentage of each player’s pre game bodyweight) attatched to a string that wrapped around a spool that each player had to keep spun against the water weight of the bucket.
For Eva, this challenge suited her well along with every other strong player in the game. Her group was her, Joe, Star, Mitch, Chrissy, and Sai. If you had forearm strength or any significant upper body strength, this challenge is for you. We got to a point where Eva, Joe, David, Kyle, and Shauhin (Eva’s primary alliance members) were the last ones standing, eventually turning into a David vs. Joe showdown (they were on opposite groups) after Eva and the rest of them fell off. After a record near hour long challenge, David got the win, meaning Eva’s group would go to tribal council first and vote someone out who would not be on the jury.
For that group, it ended up being a very simple vote. Sai had no protection and had received the second most votes in the previous tribal council. Chrissy is on nobody’s radar. Mitch may technically be on the outs and now without his main ally in Charity, but at no point had he shown the threat level and brought chaos in the way that Sai had basically every tribal council.
Once together after the challenge (this group went to the old Civa camp before tribal), Sai did what anyone on the bottom does; try to make a case that someone else is more dangerous and offer to be a number against them. Ultimately, because Mitch had a block a vote, he could turn a theoretical tie of votes between him and Sai into a five vote tribal, blocking Sai’s vote against him and sending her home.
That move was enough to shift the tide. Mitch played his block a vote to ensure Sai both couldn’t vote, but also to block her shot in the dark (if a player can’t vote, they then can’t trade in their vote to play a shot in the dark), guaranteeing that Sai would stay vulnerable unless she had an idol (she didn’t). Sai went home on a 5-1 vote. Cedrek would then be voted out in the next tribal council.
For Eva, nothing changes for the most part. Sai, who actively wanted to move against her at one point because of her idol, is gone. Before that, Charity put her name out, and she’s gone. Cedrek and Eva basically never overlapped strategically.
The biggest active threat to Eva at this point is her immunity idol. Everyone knows she has it. Flushing it is critical for everyone else’s gameplay to make sure she eventually is vulnerable. While she’s very well protected with her strong person alliance, that won’t last forever. The longer this alliance sticks together, the longer that idol can stay unused.
Right now, Mitch, Chrissy, and Mary are the least entwined with everyone else. Those three likely won’t be winning any immunity challenges. Obviously, the best way for Eva to stay safe is to start winning immunity. With 11 people left, lots is still to be determined.