‘Survivor’ 44 Recap: Leader’s Plan Fails as ‘Era of Alliances’ Ends
Spoiler Alert
The Tribe Has Spoken
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[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Survivor Season 44 Episode 10, “Full Tilt Boogie.”]
For the first time in a long time, there are more women left in Survivor than men. Moms got a special break in Survivor Season 44 Episode 10 thanks to Frannie’s continued challenge success. But while she and the moms Heidi, Carolyn, and Lauren bonded over a sanctuary reward, Jamie — the only woman left out of the feast — struggled to establish trust when coming clean about her “idol” being flushed when Kane was voted out in Episode 9.
While an all-female alliance formed, Carson simultaneously emerged as a power player. The youngest cast member won his first individual immunity challenge in this episode, putting him in the only real position of power at tribal council. Heading into the vote, Carson said he was primed to betray one group alliance. It was only a matter of which one.
“Full Tilt Boogie” was an all-around destabilizing episode, from its dizzying reward challenge and absurd immunity challenge to the players not believing the truth when they heard it. Here’s what went down in the episode, which resulted in one of the season’s strongest players being voted out.
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At the top of the episode, Frannie knew she was in danger. Being left out of the Kane vote told her as much. She worked to repair this unexpected exclusion, but winning the reward challenge (her third win out the last five individual contests) put a target square on her back, and she knew it. What’s more: she was tasked with choosing three people to join her for the biggest reward of the season. She and her chosen three would spend the night in the sanctuary where they’d be treated to a huge meal, drinks, and letters from home. Her strategy was to pick all of the moms, leaving Danny — who has an infant daughter at home, but the players may not know that — the only parent left out.
As Yam Yam rightly said, everyone was aching to hear from their loved ones. But Frannie did choose well. Carolyn and Heidi each have major alliances with the cast’s leading players. Carolyn is tight with Yam Yam and Carson, her former Tika tribe (which now dominates in numbers). Heidi is tight with Danny, a leading strategist who has been evading elimination. Lauren benefitted most from being in this group, as it separated her from Jamie, the only other player left from Ratu. Ratu once ran this game. With her extra vote gone after last week’s tribal, she needed to make new friends, and this reward allowed her to do just that.
The reward challenge required the final eight to spin themselves around on an oval swing. While recovering from their dizziness, they had to run across a suspended net and collect two balls. Those two balls then had to be landed on a trough atop a tall tower. The immunity challenge added to the instability by tying the players’ feet together and their arms by their sides and requiring them to crawl through a sandy trench with a ring in their mouths. Danny scooted along the fastest, and Frannie wasn’t far behind. She ended in second place behind Carson with the final puzzle, who studied endless Survivor puzzles before filming started.
Danny’s strategy in Episode 8 was to come clean about his idol. He only told select people about it and his plan to play it on Frannie and blindside Brandon. There were some wrenches thrown into the plan, but it ultimately was successful. Jamie also went with full honesty in Episode 10, but for whatever reason, no one believed her true story.
CBS
Between the reward and immunity challenges, as the four women enjoyed their feast, Jamie told Yam Yam, Carson, and Danny that she had an idol and it was flushed out with Kane. While her idol was very much a fake (Matthew, who left early due to a shoulder injury, tricked her into thinking it was legit), everything she told the players was true. She gave Kane her “idol” for safe keeping in case a Knowledge is Power was played. (There was no indication that anyone had this advantage, so protecting themselves against this was unnecessary.) Lauren then gave Jamie her extra vote, but it didn’t make a difference. The fake idol left with Kane.
Jamie repeated this story to the women when they returned from the sanctuary, but absolutely no one believed her. Lauren could have vouched for her, but she was the only person not around when Jamie spilled her tea. Given that Jamie recognized the unbelievable nature of this tale, she really should have had Lauren corroborate it. Repeating herself in tribal only made people doubt her more, especially when both Lauren and Kane stifled any reaction they could have had. (When telling the truth in Survivor, be sure not to lay it on too thick.)
Telling the truth put a target on Jamie’s back. Carson played both sides in an attempt to split the votes between Frannie and Jamie. Danny, Yam Yam, Jamie, and Carson were all primed to vote for the former, while Carolyn, Lauren, Frannie, and Heidi were ready to vote the latter. The four women from the sanctuary had originally been gunning for Danny, with Carolyn leading the charge on that front. The players didn’t believe the truth again when Heidi shared a weird comment said to her by Danny. This prompted a last-minute switch pitched by Lauren, who said they should gun for Heidi instead.
At tribal, Frannie believed Heidi was her alliance’s game plan. But as Jamie said in talks with host Jeff Probst, “the era of alliances is over.” Plans can change in a split second in this shortened format of the long-running game. Strong alliances once produced fierce loyalty on Survivor, now the strongest alliances reside with whoever has the majority in any given episode. And it’s always scramble to be on the right side of the vote.
In the end, Frannie’s new alliances failed. Yam Yam, Danny, Jamie, Lauren, and Carson all voted for her, making her the fourth member of the Survivor 44 jury. Next time viewers see her, she and Matt — the other half of the Survivor 44 showmance — will be reunited. Heidi provided the sole vote for Danny, and Carolyn and Frannie are the only two of the all-female alliance to stick with the plan to vote for Heidi.
In the Survivor Season 44 Episode 11 trailer, Yam Yam deals with the aftermath of leaving Carolyn out of the vote.
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