Permanent Uncertainty
Season 51
Episode 1
Editor’s Rating
5 stars
*****
The Open Era kicks off with the best premiere in recent memory — but the rest of the season still feels shaky.
Photo: Robert Voets/CBS
Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Open Era of Survivor. This week, for the premiere of season 51, Jeff Probst introduced the world to the newest iteration of the show, and it was a little bit stupid. I thoroughly enjoyed the episode (check the star rating), but it should be noted that my bullishness this week is laced with skepticism about how all of this will play out. The premiere begins on a boat, with Jeff marooning the castaways, and, in his opening speech, Jeff tells the players that “you’re in total control” of how the game plays out from here. This is a lie. There will be twists (some of them revealed within this very episode) that are entirely based on chance and on production interference. There always are, these days. Generally, that’s what keeps the show interesting. I’m not gonna be the sad trombone saying that Rick Devens’s coin flip was not a thrilling moment on Survivor 50. But I am a person who thinks that Jeff should have to apologize directly to Genevieve Mushalak’s face and invite her back on the show until she wins. What I’m saying is that the twists and turns of modern Survivor often suck, and it seems like the so-called Open Era is just the show permitting itself to introduce increasingly silly game mechanisms that will cause me to become debilitatingly exasperated.
On the other hand, I can’t argue with the results so far! This is the most energetic and exciting premiere of Survivor in a long time. The twists they use are fun and bring us back into character-based gameplay (which should always be this show’s North Star, rather than random shit happening to random people), and there are multiple choices that I’d been crying out for over the past few seasons. Even Jeff, in his all-knowing glory, only pissed me off one time. Plus: The casting so far is top-notch. When Survivor’s New Era (season 41-50) was at its worst, it felt like every player was just a gamebot optimizing for maximum success. This week, some people make gigantic mistakes that are very entertaining. I say: Great. Bring on the Q Burdettes and the Carolyn Wigers. That’s how this show succeeds.
The episode opens with the aforementioned marooning. Once the castaways are all off the boat, they swim to shore where they discover a startling lack of information. They’re just on a beach, without any information, meeting each other. This is immediately awesome. I love seeing these confused people immediately try to network and game without any real understanding of what could happen. There are relationships set up during this portion that could play out later in the season in fascinating ways. I particularly like everybody (particularly Jelly) getting immediately horny for Ori.
The whole group has to pick someone to go away for a bit, prior to choosing tribes. The Irish sweetie Lewis ends up volunteering, and he finds out he’s plonked on Exile Island, which is getting revived after years away. Jeff tells him he’ll rejoin the game after the first vote, replacing the lost member of the losing tribe. In the meantime, he has a chance to get an idol. All he has to do is cut down a tree with an axe in the time allotted, and he’ll be good to go. This ends up going poorly for him, and Lewis is very sad about it.
Over in the A Plot group, the tribes do get divided, and the big twist is that there are only two tribes, rather than the by-now expected three tribes. This rules. Two tribes gives everybody more space to maneuver, which is fun, but, more importantly, it just feels fresh after so long with three. For once, we won’t get two good tribes and a disaster tribe! We’ll get to see people get to know more of their fellow Islanders from the start! I just like anything that feels new but not unfair. Similarly, I like the “negotiation” sequence, where a member from both tribes gets to decide on what their tribe gets by bartering with the other person. This takes the place of the “earn your supplies” challenge that dominated so many New Era premieres. Kristin, a cool, calm, and collected crisis negotiator from the purple tribe, negotiates with Kilby, a game designer from Canada on the yellow tribe. They end up fighting over the final choice with a thumb war, which Kristin wins handily. Nice, Kristin! Either way, both tribes seem fine with what they get.
Then, we get a series of tribe scenes where the aim is to introduce us to as many characters as possible. The goals of the premieres are typically in the following order: 1. Introduce “big” characters to get people hooked. 2. Introduce “important” characters that will last long in the season. 3. Introduce interesting relationships that are either going to be explosive or last long into the season.
Some of the biggest characters of the season are:
Eric, the counselor from Rhode Island on the Purple tribe who immediately rubs everybody the wrong way. He’s just too loud for some people, and his fellow Rhode Islander, Rob, only wants one Rhode Islander present.
Ori, the hot former athlete who everybody is obsessed with. He’s smart and gives a great locker room speech, but I’m not sure yet that he’s got an innate wiliness to him. He tells his ally Sharonda that he’s relying on her for game sensibility, and that could become a liability for him down the line.
Kristin, the aforementioned crisis negotiator. She’s an amazing narrator, and she immediately connects with Sharonda as well.
Jelly, a sociology professor who initially wants to work with Ori because she has a crush on him. She’s ebullient for sure, but I’m not sure the show is setting her up as someone we should trust in the game.
Devin, the actor who I know from being on the Queer as Folk revival (his co-star Johnny Sibilly will be on the celeb Traitors season this year). This guy is fun. By the end of the episode, he’s proved himself to be a loose cannon by announcing who he’s voting for publicly at Tribal. It doesn’t bode well for him that his tribe sides against him in the end. Still, he’s fun.
Lewis, the sweet Irish boy who loses the challenge.
Brady, the meathead who is initially aligned with Devin. He’s intense and gets too shouty at the challenge. He’s also easily manipulable, we learn.
Some of the important characters, whether it be to the season or the episode, are:
Sharonda, an OBGYN resident, who I’ve already mentioned twice. She’s not particularly audacious, but she’s clearly got a good, game-smart head on her shoulders. She seems to accumulate allies without much work, scoring Kristin, who is smart, and Ori, who is willing to listen to her. Based on just one episode, she’d be my winner pick.
Jenna, a wedding photographer (yes, for real), who makes it out of this week by the skin of her teeth. Still, it’s important to note that it wasn’t luck: She made it out because she went to meathead Brady and told him that Aaliyah was trying to get him out. Aaliyah was not really trying to get him out from what we saw; she was just complaining that he was too intense in the challenge. Still, Jenna uses what little information she has to get what she wants. She’s clever! Rooting for her.
Rob, the Rhode Islander who doesn’t like Eric. He’s shown to be proactive in the strategic game, making allies and planning who to vote out. But he’s also proactive in ways other people aren’t. He finds an idol without any “beware advantage” and seems well set up to go far.
Thien An, a medical student, who gets a solo confessional describing how she is small and underestimated. Throwing her in here because, despite not getting much storyline, she does get a full opportunity to introduce herself in a positive light.
Mike, an executive who doesn’t want to negotiate in the initial challenge because he wants to fly under the radar. He’s shown making allies as well. Seems like a smart cookie.
Aaliyah, the first voted out. She’s shown to be relatively smart and a nice person, but she gets solidly outplayed by Jenna.
Elsewhere on the season, we’ve got Pantsless Patt, who literally loses her pants in the marooning; an older woman named Maggie who is anxious about her age; a man in a bowtie named Christian who doesn’t do a lot; a cool girl named Alexis; the kind of annoying voice actress Ana; farmer Carter; nerdy Kilby; and Linnea, who owns an “intimate” boutique and is pretty bland so far. Judging by the edit, I’d be pretty shocked if any of these people wins the game, because the show clearly doesn’t care enough about them to give them real shine.
When it comes time to do the challenge, Jeff gives the castaways the opportunity to vote against the final four fire-making challenge, and only five of them vote to get rid of it. Jeff is like, “Do you know how much crap I take online for this, and only five of you wanted to get rid of it?” THE PROBLEM IS FOR THE VIEWERS, JEFFREY! IT’S A SHITTY CHALLENGE THAT MAKES THE GAME WORSE! OBVIOUSLY THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE SPENT TWO MONTHS PRACTICING FIREMAKING WANT TO KEEP IT. Also, he tells them the coin flip will be back.
The challenge itself is the one place that Survivor steadfastly refuses to innovate. Guess what? It’s an obstacle course into a puzzle. Never seen that before! Brady, as I mentioned above, gets a little too into it, and the yellow tribe loses.
Back at camp, Aaliyah complains about Brady, and Patt tells Jenna she’s on the block. Jenna then reveals to the camera that she’s recently gotten divorced and it’s made it harder for her to open up. She also confirms that she is a wedding photographer. Clearly, the show wants us to root for underdog Jenna, so it’s exciting when she goes to Brady and, without much work, manipulates him into steadfastly wanting to vote against Aaliyah. This guy is pretty stupid! This sets in motion a war between purported allies Brady and Devin, who want to get out Aaliyah and Jenna, respectively.
At tribal, Devin blows everything up by telling Jeff directly that he’s voting out Jenna. Patt then accidentally reveals Aaliyah as the other possible target (loose lips on that girl). After a lot of live tribal whispering, the contestants vote. Despite both girls using their shot-in-the-dark, neither hits and, ultimately, Aaliyah gets voted out. Sorry, Aaliyah! But Jenna did outplay you. Hopefully there aren’t too many more twists this season.
• Hello, I’m Jason P. Frank, and I’ll be taking on the first two weeks of Survivor recaps this season while your usual host, Brian Moylan, works on other projects. My favorite season is Micronesia, obviously.
• The vote for fire-making almost made me knock this episode down a spot, but then I thought about how much restraint Jeffrey showed by not making Rob’s Idol have some stupid rules around it, and I decided it was okay.
• Jeffrey’s other little thing this season is telling everybody they should expect “Permanent uncertainty.” Okay, whatever. Not judging this before it plays out.
• If a random-ass twist gets Sharonda out of the game, I will riot.
• I love when Lewis goes “tick” when he means “thick.” I am also surprised that he didn’t appear to lose his vote for not chopping down the tree. Nice!
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