In which we merge and get maybe a little nervous?
Welcome back to our series covering Georgia Tech alum Eva Erickson as she competes on Survivor 48. If you missed our recap last week, that episode went down as one of the most impactful in show history, and Eva was right in the middle of it. Even if you don’t watch the show, we highly encourage checking that particular episode out.
SURVIVOR 48 EPISODE 6 SPOILERS AHEAD
We’ve reached a big milestone in season 48, the merge! After pulling out an incredible challenge win last week, Eva is reunited with Joe and the rest of her former Lagi tribemates in a very full 13 person tribe. Critically, we’ve reached the stage of the game where Eva has the chance to be the most shielded she can be. It’s all downhill from here in that department.
Once all together, Eva and Joe reconcile all the new people they’ve allied with while on separate tribes, which results in a David/Joe/Eva/Kyle/Shauhin five way alliance. Joe and Eva are each other’s #1 ally. Kyle has Kamilla as his #1 ally that basically no one knows about. David and Shauhin don’t seem to have true #1’s out there, but have built large networks around them. All in all, there’s enough entanglement going on that this group of five should be operating on the most up to date information on the island at all times for the next couple of votes. Oh, and Eva has an idol.
Outside of them, Eva’s name is getting thrown around because everyone eventually found out about her idol. Charity is leading the initial charge on this, who Eva already has a distaste for. Objectively, it makes sense to throw Eva’s name out there from a gameplay standpoint. Known idols are usually just a burden. We’ve seen people play fully known idols even when they weren’t in trouble, just to get the heat off of them.
In Eva’s case though, with this many people aligning with her from the two variations of Lagi, the numbers don’t appear to make voting for her make any sense. Her name is still getting tossed around by Sai at the merge challenge feast (which Eva does not win), but Kyle was there to steer off that idea.
Instead, enough people latch onto the idea of doing an easy vote that won’t seismically shift the game like voting Eva would, which the personifications of that end up being Charity and Sai. Not coincidentally, those are the two that have stirred the pot the most throughout the game. In the end, we get a huge split of the vote on both Charity and Sai, with Charity, who has been the most vocal thus far about getting Eva out, going home. With her going home, someone from the original versions of each tribe has now been voted out.
Where does this leave Eva? Last week, the big question we were left with was how her very public showing of her autistic episode was going to affect how she was perceived on the island. Would it lessen her threat level? Would people want to give her some grace and stick around a little bit longer?
Ultimately, I think because she found an idol, that moved a lot of the context of her episode out of the picture. Her having an idol severely impacts everyone else’s ability to win the million dollars. She’s shown that even though she’ll have certain struggles that other people out there won’t, she’s going to play at the same intensity as everyone else, and that’s getting reciprocated to her. Plus, she’s done the work to have solid alliances. She’s an important number for Joe, Shahin, Kyle, and David to advance in the game. A group of five almost certainly won’t last super long, but at worst that’s four people that have her back, and that’s without mentioning Star who has seemingly jumped on board the Eva train.
For now, Eva’s best asset is the people around her. The longer she can maintain that, the better. If this vote tells us anything, it’s that sticking out amongst the crowd isn’t going to help. Sai and Charity’s past gameplay put them in that situation. Eva is doing that by having the most valuable item in the game. Winning immunity of course would help, but any immunity win would greatly increase the target on her back. It’s a very precarious balance she’ll have to navigate her way through to stay alive in the game.