Survivor 41 Premiere "A New Dawn" Analysis

 "I am the Mafia Pastor."

-Shan Smith

Survivor is back, baby, and boy am I hyped!  The premiere was fairly strong, but I am worried about having twist overload here with all of the new gimmicks and I'm going to miss Jeff saying, "Come on in, guys!"  That said, the cast is solid and I'm excited to see how this season plays out.  So let's figure out who played well and who sucked!

Who Played Well:

Let's start with the Levu tribe in blue.  I only have two people from this tribe and the first may be controversial.  I liked Naseer's move to rat out Danny and Deshawn to the rest of the tribe about them looking for an Idol.  Maybe his execution could have been stronger, but I appreciate the attempt.

I always want to give Erika props for her performance at the Immunity Challenge in coming from behind to win.

Moving on to Ua, things get a little tougher here.  I'm assuming that Genie put her vote on Ricard just in case of a Shot in the Dark or an Idol being played.  I'm guessing she, Brad, JD, and Shan were all working together and it wasn't just a random vote.  If that's the case, I like the move for Genie.

I also really like Shan's gameplay.  She was able to maneuver in this tribe quite well socially and ended up on the right side of the vote.  I'm making her my winner pick!

Finally, on Yase, Evvie, Liana and Tiffany made the right move in taking out Abraham, for sure.  And the guys were smart to not force a tie, so I like the Abraham vote.  I especially like Evvie's social game.

I liked Voce a lot more that I expected.  He was right to not want to do the Sweat challenge, but didn't rock the boat when he was outvoted.

Who Sucked:

Going back over to Luvu, Deshawn was pretty bad throughout the entire episode.  He made the call to do the Sweat challenge without any input from anyone else.  He also got caught looking for an Idol.  His only saving grace was his performance on the puzzle in the Immunity Challenge.

Danny also got caught looking for an Idol and he volunteered to go on the solo adventure, which was a terrible move.  Never get separated from the tribe like that.  I do like that he played it safe and choose to Protect his Vote though.

Finally, I don't like that Sydney immediately ratted Naseer out to Deshawn and Danny.  That's information she should have saved until later.

Moving on to Ua, Brad had the worst move of the episode for saying that either Sara or Shan should go...to their faces.  Enough said.

JD was all over the place tonight.  He seemed to rub Sara and Ricard the wrong way and made things worse when he choose to Risk his Vote and then lie about it.  I really thought he was going to go home.  At least he didn't volunteer to go on the solo adventure and was sent via rock draw.

Finally, we have Ricard.  I think he may have played too hard too fast and made some enemies in causing the live tribal.  If I'm right about what actually happened at that Tribal Council, Ricard might very well go next.

Back to Yase, the only person I have here is Xander.  He should not have volunteered to do the Sweat challenge or the solo adventure or chosen to Risk his Vote.  Granted, this all seemed to work out well for him, but that's results-oriented thinking.  He made bad choices and got lucky.

We didn't see enough from Heather for me to say one way or another on her.

As for our unlucky boots, Abraham was a pretty shocking vote to me, but I like it.  Going so strongly after Tiffany so early on was definitely a mistake.  He spoke too much, trusted the wrong people, and tried to control too much of the game too early on.

Sara on the other hand is more of a mystery.  Was it simply because she screwed up on the puzzle and was less well liked than Shan?  Or was the vote so chaotic that they fell back on her as a safe choice.  Don't put yourself in the puzzle position, I suppose.

Verdict:

Since two people were voted out, I'm going to award two Best and Worst Players of the Episode.  For Best, I have Shan Smith and Evvie Jagoda for how well they maneuvered socially in their respective tribes.

For Worst, I have Brad Reese for saying who should be voted out to their faces.  I also have JD Robinson for rubbing some people the wrong way, his poor lying, and for choosing to Risk his Vote.

That's all I have for now!  If you liked this breakdown, check out my podcast at https://castawayconsultants.buzzsprout.com