The following contains spoilers for Episode 12 of Survivor Season 43.It may have taken 12 episodes for Season 43 ofSurvivorto get there, but this season was finally able to showcase the players making some big moves. An episode like this really puts into perspective how safe the players have been keeping things up until this point, as just one pretty genius play was enough to knock the season off its axis a little bit. The episode was exciting, and showcased some really complicated (and incredibly entertaining) strategy choices from the players, ending with an epic showdown between some of the biggest faces of the season.
If there’s somethingthis season has been lacking in, it’s wacky characters and bold moves. This episode finally brought some of that back to the forefront, starting right from the beginning. Owen wants to drive a wedge between Karla and Cassidy in order to get Karla out, so he tells Cassidy that Karla wanted to vote her out at the last Tribal. When Cassidy confronts Karla about this, Karla first employs the denial strategy, and when she feels that it isn’t working, she brings out the big guns: fake tears. Her plan is to seem very emotional over the fact that Cassidy doesn’t trust her after what they’ve gone through together, in order to convince her that she’s innocent.
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She almost gets away with it, until Jesse decides (in what becomes a pattern for him this episode) to blow up her strategy by telling Cassidy that everything she’s heard about Karla’s betrayal is true. Jesse is afascinating player to watchbecause he seems to know exactly what to say to certain people, or how to play them, to get them on his side. After winning the Reward Challenge, Karla, Cody, and Owen get to go to the Sanctuary to enjoy some much-needed sugar and caffeine. This also marks the return of Karla’s fake crying strategy, as she gives Cody and Owen a sob story about how the rumors about her having an idol have been ruining her game from the start by putting an undeserved target on her back.
She’s playing a risky game with these kinds of lies, but this one almost works, once again. Cody and Owen believe her until they’re explicitly told she has an idol, which just shows how good she is at getting people to believe her no matter what she says, which is part of the reason why she’s made it this far to begin with. She is really one of twobig contenders for the winthis season, so it will be interesting to see who comes out on top after next week’s finale.
The Immunity Challenge comes down to a sort of poetic showdown between Karla, Cassidy, and Cody, all of whom need the Immunity necklace tonight for various reasons. Cassidy comes out on top, partially due to Karla’s body just starting to give out on her after all this time out in the Fijian jungle. Then the pre-Tribal discussions at camp start, which is where the fun really starts to pick up in this episode.
The main thing everyone knows is that both Cody and Karla have idols, and everyone is afraid to vote for them because of the very real possibility that they’ll play them. Cody proposes a plan to Karla: they work together instead of against each other, and insist that they’ll play their idols to get the heat off of them. They’ll thenvote for someone else, but refrain from playing their idols in order to keep them for the next Tribal (aka the last time they can use them). Karla agrees, thinking that this is the perfect way to be able to stick around until Final 4, as long as Cody is true to his word.
Of course,because this isSurvivorand Cody is Cody, he is absolutely not planning on being true to his word. His actual plan is to make Karla comfortable with this plan so that she won’t play her idol and the tribe can vote her out. This seems like a brilliant maneuver, as a plan within a fake plan, and this alone would have made for an exciting Tribal. Jesse, however, manages to up the ante a little bit when he decides this strategy doesn’t work for him. If they go through with it, Cody gets this huge move added to hisSurvivorresume, which is going to make him hard to beat in the end. Even if Cody is his closest ally, Jesse knows what he needs to do if he wants to win this game.
Jesse’s plan is to confide in Owen thathe still has Cody’s idol, as he’s been holding onto it as a sign of trust (in a move that still doesn’t really make sense on Cody’s part, as it’s unclear why he hasn’t just taken it back yet). He wants to play it, which will freak Karla out and make her play her idol, thereby flushing it from the game, and then they’ll be able to vote Cody out. It seems like nothing can go wrong - until Cody asks for his idol back to show to Karla. They cut to Tribal with the audience not fully knowing which plan is going to be enacted, or whether or not Jesse got the idol back from Cody.
As it turns out, he did get it back, because he plays it for Owen right before Jeff reads the votes. As predicted, Karla plays hers just to be safe, and Cody is voted out of the game, right after stating he was “95% confident” that things would go his way tonight. The whole sequence is delicious - Jesse’s plan going exactly right plus the stunned, awkward silence between Cody and Jesse as the votes are read made for great television. It was so fun to watcha Tribal that was genuinely excitinglike that, and a nice refresh after a season that has felt relatively tame.
That being said,Season 43 has been criticizedfor being too “lovey dovey” between players, or largely villain-less in comparison to other seasons. However, Jesse has really had a kind of low-key villain arc (albeit a very kind villain). He voted out Nneka, who he described as a “mother figure”, he voted out Noelle right after she took him on a Reward that involved letters from home, and then he voted out his best friend and ally in the game by (presumably) using his own idol against him. Jesse has been playing a crazy good game so far, and would be absolutely deserving of the win if he makes it to the end. At this point, him not making it to the finals would feel incredibly unsatisfying after his arc so far. Next week, the Sole Survivor will finally be decided, and Jesse’s decision to make a big move this week might have just won him the million dollars.
