Everyone was a loser in the third episode of Survivor 42. Daniel Strunk lost the Beware Advantage that Mike Turner let him borrow. Mike lost his vote once he realized one of the tribes hadn't found the Beware Advantage yet. Maryanne Oketch lost her vote when she stumbled upon the Beware Advantage. Chanelle Howell and Omar Zaheer lost their votes when they made a genuine pact at the top of the mountain only to risk both of their votes once they separated. Jeff Probst lost out on running the entirety of the immunity challenge because the waves were too much for everyone not named Jonathan Young. Everyone on the Vita tribe lost trust in Daniel at Tribal Council and Daniel lost all his allies. Jenny Kim lost her fire.
Despite all the losing, the audience ended up winning because the Tribal Council was great television. It was everything a Live Tribal should be: no one stands up and whispers; no crazy advantages or idols; just six people negotiating their life in the game. The moments leading up to Tribal, however, were confusing. Chanelle and Mike didn't have a vote, and Daniel wanted to engineer a vote split even though he knew Chanelle could be voteless. It ended up blowing up spectacularly in Daniel's face.
Survivor shouldn't be taking away so many votes. The vote is a fundamental part of the game. A tribe votes and the person with the majority of votes goes home. That's a formula that shouldn't be messed with, but it was on Wednesday night. After the revote, Jenny had only received one vote...on a six-person tribe. Many viewers watch the show to escape unfortunate realities of daily life, like legislation being passed by Republican-dominated states to suppress people's right to vote. We don't need more of that on Survivor.
Most ill-timed name drop: Daniel's mom
For someone like Daniel, the game can either go one of two ways. He can recognize that the nervous energy bubbling up inside him does not make other people feel comfortable and harness it to the best of his ability...or he can let his paranoia run wild, leading none of his tribemates to trust him. At Tribal Council, Daniel chose the latter, striking out on one of the easiest Jeff Probst softball questions of the night to make his supposed alliance member suspicious of his intentions. Taking note of Daniel's unease, Jeff asked him, "Who calms you down?" Daniel should have said the names of everyone on his tribe (or none of them!). Instead, he responds with Mike, Chanelle, his mother and Jeff — although he later said he was just kidding about Jeff, who actually makes him less calm.
Daniel giving his mom a shout-out would have been a sweet gesture, except by bringing her into the conversation and omitting the names of Hai Giang and Lydia Meredith, he alienated two people who thought they were voting with him. Hai immediately wore a look of disgust on his face. Sensing what was coming, Hai switched his vote from Mike to Jenny, causing a tie. Instead of going to rocks or handling the situation in a more, dare I say, calm, manner, Daniel angers Chanelle, his real closest ally. Jenny goes home, but it may as well have been Daniel; in one Tribal Council, Daniel tanked his odds of winning the game and ensured his days are numbered by going from the guy everyone believed to the person no one can trust.
Greatest Physical Strength Imbalance: Jonathan vs. Everyone Else
A Survivor cast generally consists of people who are in good-but-not-great shape. Older contestants are typically strong enough to keep up with the younger players in the game. Former professional athletes are no longer in peak physical shape, even if they're still jacked. They don't cast people who are extremely overweight, and, to keep things fair, contestants who are super-athletes with no obvious physical weaknesses are generally not cast. Ozzy Lusth, the most notorious swimmer in Survivor history, would never be mistaken for a bodybuilder. Boston Rob has won the most immunity challenges of anyone, but he wasn't clearly the most athletic player on any of his seasons.
Enter Jonathan, who looks tailor-made for the physical portion of Survivor. What's more, he's playing on a season in which there are few other athletic-looking contestants. This is a testament to Survivor casting; most men look more like Daniel or Romeo than Jonathan, and viewers like to see people who look like them on screen. This is why the show has stopped casting professional models who know nothing about Survivor: it's not relatable to most of the viewing public.
There have been contestants — like Terry Deitz, Mike Holloway and J*e Angl*m — who have dominated the individual challenge portion of their seasons, but Jonathan may be the first who has a real shot at never losing an immunity challenge if he makes the merge. On episode 3, Jonathan became the first person to win a tribal challenge all by himself since Andrew Savage beat out Terry and Jeremy Collins in the Hero Challenge in Cambodia. In this challenge, Jonathan braves turbulent waters while carrying a ladder that was meant for an entire tribe to haul. He then holds it up while Lindsay Dolashewich climbs up it to retrieve keys and then Jonathan finishes off the other two tribes, who are floundering in the ocean, by landing sandbags on targets with ease. In a season of Oops! All Davids, Jonathan is the lone Goliath, a John Hennigan swimming in a sea of Christian Hubickis. Even in an era where physicality is less valued, Jonathan has to be a lock for the merge because a tribe is much more likely to win a challenge with him than without him. Once he passes that checkpoint, he better hope he never relinquishes control of the immunity necklace.
Worst name for a summit: Journey
After the reward/immunity challenge, Chanelle is joined by Omar for what Jeff calls a "journey." At the Vati tribe camp, the contestants wonder whether this "journey" is the same as the hike Jenny went on a few days ago. Even viewers might have been thrown off: was this the trek, the summit, the adventure up the mountain and back down again to turn a wheel? Indeed, it was the same exact thing.
Out of all the times Shipwheel Island has been featured on the last two seasons, this iteration was perhaps the best. Omar and Chanelle seem to form a lasting alliance, but neither of them elect to protect their vote. It's a perfect encapsulation of the complex game mechanics of Survivor: even someone who you just realized could be your strongest ally in the game is a person you're willing to betray a few minutes later. Chanelle returns to Vita and is honest with her allies about where she went. It's hard to keep it a secret when everyone is getting sent there.
Jeff needs to come up with a better name than "journey" for this not-so-mysterious, very straightforward, repetitive trek. The audience knows what's going to happen. The players in the game are aware of where they're headed. Not since this past season of The Bachelor has the word "journey" been so overused. It's past time for a rebrand.
Survivor airs Wednesdays at 8pm EST on CBS.