‘Survivor 44’: Breaking down the game as we head into the ‘merge’

It’s “merge” time for the “Survivor” contestants as the “Next Time On” promo confirmed that all the tribes will coalesce on the same beach. Last week’s fifth episode saw the leave of Matthew Grinstead-Mayle from Ratu after sustaining an injury to his shoulder in the premiere when he fell off of a large rock. This is the second player this season to exit the game due to an injury, and though he technically was not involuntarily medically evacuated like Bruce Perrault was in the premiere, the pain was too excruciating for him to continue forward. Due to Matthew’s departure, the Tika tribe did not have to attend Tribal Council after losing the immunity challenge, but how will the rest of the cast look together when they unite on one beach? Read on as we’re breaking down the game.

Starting with Tika, Yamil “Yam Yam” Arocho and Carolyn Wiger had a rough patch after the last vote when the latter blindsided the former by joining Josh Wilder to vote out Sarah Wade. But the two seemed to be set on voting out Josh before being informed by Jeff Probst that there was no tribal. Their up-and-down relationship will be key going forward and expect both to be a force in the game due to their dominant visibility, especially Carolyn, who had a chance to meet Brandon Cottom and Danny Massa from the other tribes during a journey and was immediately and directly underestimated by both of them, something that has been common for her throughout this game. It will be interesting to see what she does with that as she has shown to be very creative and strategic. Combined with her energetic personality, Carolyn is easily becoming a fan favorite and it looks like she will last a while in the game.

That may not be the case for Josh as he has shown to lack some self-awareness beginning with his original tribe Soka, thinking that he was in the prime position at the tribe when in reality he was going to be the next voted out. Things didn’t get any better when he swapped to Tika; even though he narrowly saved himself last tribal with a temporary idol he was given when he swapped, his attempt at a subsequent fake idol was disproved and ridiculed by Carolyn and Yam Yam, and he has not shown himself to be good at lying on multiple occasions. We will see how he navigates when the tribes are together as Brandon and Danny wanted to include him in a “strong guys” alliance.

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Moving over to Ratu, the latest new tribe member Carson Garrett from Tika seems to have integrated himself very well with his new tribe – specifically with Kane Fritzler, where they bonded over “Pokémon” and “Star Wars” – and has proven to have an excellent social game, with Matthew giving him information. He also planted the seed of Yam Yam running the Tika tribe and being paired with Carolyn, so we will see what that might blossom into. Kane seems to continue to be on the outs of his tribe after voting against Brandon in their first tribal council, and while we have not heard much from Lauren Harpe recently, lest we forget she still has an extra vote.

Lastly on the Soka tribe, it looks like there are still the two duos of Danny and Heidi Lagares-Greenblatt and the obvious showmance that is Frannie Marin and Matt Blankinship. It is clear as day that the latter pair are both head over heels lovestruck with each other, harkening back to many “Survivor” couples in the past, which may prove to be to their detriment as they are frequently tested trying to hide their close relationship. However there is one person who has not gotten wind of it yet and that is the newly swapped Jaime Lynn Ruiz from Ratu, who is overestimating her value with Soka and not entirely in tune with some dynamics and information on both tribes. Her closest relationship on Ratu was Matthew, who is now out of the game, so it will be curious to see who she will interact with in the future.

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Of course it would not be the new era of “Survivor” without a handful of idols and advantages, which will no doubt come to fruition when the tribes come together. Along with Lauren’s extra vote, Carolyn and Danny have idols they retrieved from the birdcages, while their tribes don’t know that they have it. The pre-merge idols that Carson and Jaime retrieved when they swapped are now expired, while Jaime and Matt have fake idols they believe to be real (Matt can also not vote at the next tribal council). Brandon has a fake idol that he and the rest of Ratu knows is fake, due to unwisely showing the note to everyone in his tribe in the premiere when he opened the cage and also found the real idol. Matthew found the re-hidden idol that Brandon used in the premiere and left the game with it, but not before telling Carson about Jaime’s idol, leaving out that it was fake. It is possible that his idol will once again be put back into the game, as well as an inheritance advantage that Sarah left with that allows a player to inherit all advantages played at a tribal council. A multitude of trinkets to keep track of.

It will be exciting to see what will converge in the next episode. It should be noted that the first four vote-outs have been women, joining six other seasons including the previous season. This season and “Survivor 14: Fiji” are the only seasons where no men were voted out in the first six eliminations, excluding the medical evacuations. Even though next week is most likely an “earn the merge” scenario because of how early it is and it’s presuming that there will probably be two more exits before the jury stage, it is a glaring observation and there might be some contestants that will take that into account. Time will tell as we will have to tune in next week to see what events will occur in the next stage of the game.

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