"I'm not calling George a cockroach, but George does have some tendencies that a cockroach has" - Survivor: Australia vs. The World - Episode 3 Recap
The (physical) giants are gone. Rob and David voted out back-to-back by the World and Aussie tribes, respectively. The previously on highlights the locked box the World tribe won in the first reward challenge.
We open with the Aussies at night coming back from tribal council. Janine tells Kirby that she’s killing it. Luke admits to Janine and Kirby that he had no idea what was going on at tribal. George is salty that Luke gave him the wrong name. And Luke is sure to let everyone know that George was willing to vote out Shonee. In confessional, George celebrates David’s exit (that he had no influence or control over).
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It's the morning of Day 5 on the Aussie beach. George is searching fruitlessly for the idol already in Luke’s possession. Luke and Janine talk about not trusting George as George walks right by them. Luke pretends to Janine that he’s in the dark about the location of the idol. In confessional, Luke tells us he’s disappointed to lose David so early – he lost an ally and a shield, and George is upset with him. Luke tells us he’s aligned with Janine, he doesn’t care what’s going on or who is in power, he just wants to be let into the vote and not be on the bottom
George is trying to reinforce his alliance with Shonee. He’s eating rice while Shonee eats a mango, George tells her he’s not voting for her, he says he owes her one. We hear from Shonee who opens with a brutal line, “look, I’m not calling [George] a cockroach, but George does have some tendencies that a cockroach has. They’re known to be very hard to get rid of.” And we see George scurrying around the jungle, picking a piece of rice off of Kirby’s face and eating it, then, inexplicably, biting into a leaf…
Shonee is concerned that she missed her last best chance of getting George out. She tells us that she wants to move forward with Kirby, especially because Kirby already has a vote in Sarah. Shonee sits down on the beach with Sarah and Kirby, and Shonee tells them that she voted for David last night to prove her loyalty to them.
Sarah meanwhile, is already regretting sticking with Kirby over David. She tells us she changed her vote at tribal council because of trust. Sarah looks tired and stressed in the shelter with Kirby; she tells us she’s concerned Kirby was intentionally manipulating her by telling her to vote David last minute. Kirby asks Sarah if she’s good with Shonee, Sarah says she is. But she seems almost jealous at the possibility that Kirby has another ally in Shonee.
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We flip over to the World tribe for the first time in a while. The whole tribe is together near the fire, and Parvati is telling everyone how excited she is about their ritual of morning coffee. We hear from Tony, he tells us the tribe is kumbaya…on the surface. He says he’s nervous about the gender split. Tony is confused about the french press, and Parvati tells him to get it together. Tony tells us he’s feeling a little nervous about Cirie and Parvati turning on him. The tribe is discussing what could be in the locked box.
Back at camp, Tony implores the tribe to share if one of them finds the key. Parvati goes to agree to this, but Cirie interrupts, “you keep saying us, but I’m not sure it’s going to be an us situation.” What’s complicated about watching Survivor, is that if they wanted to edit that line in a way that showed Cirie was distancing herself from Kass and Lisa instead of Tony, they could have. But the implication is clear – the girls, especially Cirie, have no interest in sharing the key with Tony if they find it first.
The whole of the tribe is digging in the jungle. Poor Tommi gets some doofus music while he talks about it being harder to find a key in the jungle than it is to find a needle in a haystack. Parvati and Kass are sighing in frustration, it seems like they’ve been at this search for a while. Wearing her buff as a bra and her scarf as a sarong, Parvati walks towards the camera groaning. She approaches a tree talking to herself, “wouldn’t they just hang a key off a tree…” and then she spots it, all of 2 inches from her face.
Parvati can’t contain her excitement. She seems happier here than at perhaps any time during her seasons on U.S. Survivor. Cirie and Kass are with her when she pulls the key down. In confessional, Parvati tells us that she needed something to solidify trust with the women (much like when she shared a secret with Rob in an attempt to build trust). Parvati thinks sharing the key with them is perfect opportunity to cement their block of four. In a U.S. Heroes vs. Villains callback, Parvati doesn’t have anywhere on her body to fully hide they key, she hands it to Cirie, who proceeds to hide the key in her cleavage. Cirie gives Parvati a low five, and Parvati side-hugs Kass tightly, then Cirie, like an elementary school teacher, tells Parvati to calm down.
There’s a hilarious sequence where Cirie and Parvati are trying to unlock the box, but Tony interrupts them. Parvati tries to cover the hanging lock with her sarong/scarf, but she can’t calm herself down enough not to giggle when Tony asks them if they had any luck. Cirie, much more capable of composing herself than Parvati in this moment, gives Tony a perfect non-answer while avoiding looking him in the eye, “if I had luck you would know it.” Tony accepts this answer, and the three of them sit awkwardly until Parvati and Cirie nudge Tony towards going to check on where the rest of the tribe (all of the internationals) are at. Cirie gives the key back to Parvati who locks the box. Parvati, still giggling out of nerves, gives the key back to Cirie, and Cirie tells her, “I’m too old for this sh*t, you’re going to give me a heart attack.”
Cirie tells us that, somehow, Tony seems to intuitively know the key has been found. Cirie and Kass are talking in the jungle on the way back from the well, they’re trying to work out how to get Tony out of camp so they can unlock the box, and Cirie suggests using Lisa.
We move to Cirie talking to Lisa in the water, again talking out of the side of her mouth; at camp we see Parvati and Tony sit side by side with Parvati on the box, and Kass and Tony sitting in front of them.
Cirie tells Lisa that Parvati found the key, but they need help getting Tony away from the box. Lisa, with her chirpy New Zealand accent, responds simply, “okay, cool.” Cirie tells Lisa that she needs to go fill the water bottles and take Tony with her. Lisa accepts this plan without question telling Cirie, “it’s really exciting!” Lisa deserves some credit for this scene. Yes, we know she’s excited to play with Cirie, but she’s a winner, and she was asked back to compete on this season. She surely has some strategic chops. Lisa’s voice is bright and chirpy, but she’s putting it on a little bit in her conversation with Cirie. The bright voice, the simple almost unrelated responses help make the conversation seem natural instead of overt scheming in sight of Tony and Tommi sitting back at camp. The two of them could be talking about Cirie’s anniversary for all of the context Lisa’s answers give.
We’re with the whole tribe, minus Tommi, back at camp. There is just something about the way Parvati and Cirie work as a duo with the help of other women that feels almost witchy (complimentary) in its effectiveness. It’s not an overly consequential moment, but in the end Lisa doesn’t even need to offer to go get water and ask for Tony’s help. Cirie makes a small suggestion about her bottle being empty, and that’s all it takes. Tony, unthreatening gentleman that he is, offers to go to the well himself. And Lisa, again playing her up her naivete, gently offers to go with him. She makes it seem like a suggestion she’s hesitant to make, not applying any overt pressure to get Tony to agree. Tony invites her along.
With Lisa babysitting Tony, and Tommi off searching the jungle for the key, Parvati, Kass, and Cirie unlock the box. Parvati pulls a scroll hidden among some cloth and reads it aloud – it’s a clue to hidden immunity idol…the idol is hidden at tribal council at the base of Jonathan’s podium. Cirie’s response is perfect, “are you f*cking kidding me?!” Parvati tears up the clue, and the girls spend the rest of the afternoon trying to pretend they’re still looking for the clue.
This farce pays dividends for Kass, who ends up finding the immunity idol hidden for the World tribe. She’s with both Lisa and Cirie, but neither of them sees her find the idol. Unlike with Parvati and the public key find, this idol is all for Kass to do what she wants with. We get this magnificent musical cue for Kass, it’s this soft, breathy and feminine “la, la, la,” that somehow sounds inherently French. Kass, wearing an olive-green sporty bikini, has the idol around her neck in confessional. In her Quebec accent she says, “this looks beautiful on me,” with a bright grin. She shares with the audience that she was a power player on her season of Survivor: Quebec, “I was in control of the game the entire time, I went to the final with my ride or die and he won.” But she tells us she’s learned from her mistake. She thinks it’s great for Parvati’s game that she found the key and the clue, but it’s not necessarily great for Kass’ game. She tells us she’s keeping this idol for herself. A fitting level of scheming and strategic acumen for a newly inducted member to the Black Widow brigade.
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We’re back on the Aussie beach, George, Sarah, and Kirby are in the ocean, and George teasingly encourages his “close ally” Shonee to join them. Kirby, in confessional, calls herself the god slayer and lays out her position in the tribe. She’s got Sarah as her ride or die, and a secret alliance with Shonee – she thinks she’s in the best position on the tribe, and as far as we can tell, she’s right.
Kirby and George are eating rice together near camp. George tells Kirby that she’s in an interesting spot. It seems like George is trying to sew some discord, he tells Kirby to keep an eye on Sarah. But this is affirmed when we see Sarah talking to Janine, she’s still struggling with the David vote and the fact that she came into this season wanting to play a loyal game.
Sarah and Kirby are talking. Kirby tells us that after last night’s tribal, it’s important to her that Sarah trusts her. Sarah tells Kirby that she’s worried about getting massive players out too early, she tries to make this more impactful by telling Kirby she’s a massive player (so she should be worried). Sarah then tells Kirby that she’s a bit worried about Shonee, she doesn’t think Shonee trusts her. Kirby isn’t altogether dismissive of this, but she doesn’t give Sarah too much back, she just tells Sarah that if the two of them are tight, they can move through the game together. Sarah tells Kirby that if they lose immunity, she wants “S” out, Kirby agrees with this outwardly. Based on Sarah’s confessional, it does feel like a lot of her desire to get Shonee out is because she’s (somewhat) jealous, and she wants to make sure Kirby is tighter with her than she is with Shonee. Sarah tells us that if she had to get rid of Dave, then Kirby should have to get rid of Shonee. Death to the side pieces I suppose.
It's nighttime, most of the Aussie tribe is asleep, but Sarah is talking with Janine and Luke, she’s pitching Shonee to them.
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Off to the immunity challenge. It’s a pretty simple one, there are 10.5lb (5kg) sandbags attached to a trough by a rope, one for each player. Players are allowed to drop out of the challenge and hand off their sandbag, but if a sandbag is dropped, the trough of water will fall and the whole tribe loses.
Parvati is concerned about Cirie early, “Cirie, that’s getting a little low baby, pass it on, pass it on, you know.” This is an interesting shift from their dynamic in Micronesia, Parvati would have talked to Amanda like this, but probably not Cirie.
JLP points out how many of these players have experience in this challenge or one like it – George, Sarah, and Luke on the Aussie tribe. Parvati and Cirie have competed in something similar, but for individual immunity. It’s left out of the edit that both Kass and Tommi have competed in this exact challenge in Survivor: Quebec and Survivor: Finland, respectively. In response to JLP, Parvati tells the group that she’s held her arm up for over 6 hours in one of these challenges before. Kirby teases her for this, “we’re bragging now?” Kirby gets a smile and a giggle out of Parvati. And a moment later, Kirby is still looking at Parvati when Parvati, with a bright smile, asks, “what you looking at?” “The sandbag, Parv.” It’ll be interesting to see where this dynamic goes if they both make the merge, there’s a natural chemistry there.
Lisa is struggling with her sandbag, and Parvati and Tommi try to help her through it. At the other end, Tony is helping Cirie with her bag. Cirie, Lisa, Sarah, and Shonee are all getting help with their sandbags now. Luke is encouraging his tribe to hold strong. Tony is helping Cirie again, and he implores her not to let go. Cirie promises she won’t. Parvati has Lisa push her bag up against Parvati’s – this lets them rely on the force and resistance of each other instead of simply holding up the bags.
George blows Tony a kiss, and Tony thanks him. George, both bored and trying to distract Tony, asks Tony to give him a kiss back, but Tony has his hands full with his own bag and Cirie’s. George starts sharing some information about the tribe dynamics, he says he nearly got voted out two nights ago. Janine and Luke are alarmed by this. With a cheshire grin, Parvati asks George, “everyone was unanimous?” George tells her the vote was split, “I survived by the skin of my teeth.”
We’re 30 minutes in, and nobody has dropped out. Before the season started airing, there was some concern from fans, including myself, about how much this season would feel like Survivor given the ultra-compressed timeline (especially compared to the normal length of an AU season). But by all accounts, every player there is taking this game very seriously and trying their hardest.
At this point, Parvati is holding both her own bag and Lisa’s; while Tommi has his own and Cirie’s – Lisa and Cirie are just trying to keep a hands on the bag here. If a hand comes off, even for a second, it’s considered a handoff and that player is out of the challenge. The Aussies are convinced that Lisa is going to drop soon, and once she’s out it’s going to be over for the World tribe.
Cirie is trying to transition between hands while Tony helps support her bag, but she takes one hand off then puts the other up – she’s out. The World tribe will have an extra bag to deal with for the rest of the challenge.
George tells his tribe that there’s going to be a cascading effect from this, it’s just going to get harder and harder for the World tribe. What George doesn’t account for is the fact that the World tribe have two of the best endurance athletes to compete on any iteration of Survivor in Parvati and Kass. After Cirie dropped, Kass was the one that took her bag. She calmly tells Tony when she needs a break, and they just hand it off. It looks like Kass, Tony, and Tommi are trying to split the responsibility of the extra bag while Parvati keeps a close eye on Lisa – sometimes taking the full weight of Lisa’s bag, sometimes just keeping up a running stream of encouragement.
Throughout the challenge, there’s a lot of talk from the Aussies about just needing to grind it out and keep going. We don’t get any of this from the World tribe, they all seem to be on the same page about simply staying focused, there’s no talk about how hard it is.
Everyone left makes it to the hour mark, this is where we see a lot of Parvati talking to Lisa. George tells Parvati how strong she is, and Parvati responds, “save it, George.” George isn’t put off by this, he keeps talking, “you know, I had to do a quick rundown of you to my tribemates, Parv?” Parvati, playing along, asks brightly, “you did?! What’d you tell em, George?” He says he told the tribe she’s arguably the best ever, but Tony might disagree. Parvati, throwing a look over at George says, “we thought that was you.”
Luke and Sarah are struggling for the Aussies, while Tony gamely takes the extra bag from Tommi, and Parvati lets Lisa lean on her again. There are a lot of shots of Tony and Tommi specifically leaning around their tribemates to get a look at how the Aussies are doing.
The challenge has been going on for an hour and 40 minutes now. Despite the weight of the bags, it seems like the challenge favors endurance over pure strength given how easy it seems for Parvati and Kass to keep their arms up straight over their head compared to the men.
Tommi and Tony start chirping at Luke and George, “Luke just let it go man, let it go!” Luke groans in response, truggling to support two bags – he wears his discomfort all over his face. Parvati is now keeping a running stream of encouragement going for Lisa, she whispers “good job, Lisa. Really good. So strong, you’re so strong, oh my god.” Sarah is wobbly now – she’s helped hold other people’s bags at different point, but she can barely keep up her own now. Parvati and Kass are still chilling (whether they’re holding one bag or two), but Tony is staying in by pure force of will at this point, his face is creased in discomfort. Parvati tells Lisa, “[h]old. Hold, Lisa. Hold.” And Lisa does.
Sarah drops. The water drops. The Aussies lose. The World tribe drops their bags a moment later, and they get soaked too, but nonetheless they immediately embrace in a group hug. They separate and Tommi and Cirie are hyping up Lisa, while Kass and Parvati hug tightly. Kass takes the immunity idol, Parvati takes the flag, and the World tribe leaves the Aussies to their date with Jonathan.
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Before the Aussie tribe even gets back to their beach, we get a confessional from Shonee about wanting to target George. “I’m not surprised that George is already communicating with the World tribe…he probably has their astrology charts memorized. George is putting a huge target on his back, and I can use that to my advantage.”
The Aussies are back at camp they all agree that everyone gave a big effort in the challenge. Nobody seems fussed that Sarah is the one that dropped.
George tells us he’s feeling good. We see him speaking with Kirby, Sarah, and Shonee. He’s trying to emphasize how much he trusts them given that none of them flipped their votes to him over David. George wants to split the vote between Janine and Luke, and convince the two of them that they have no choice but to vote for one another. “Janine can get juiced, Luke can get liquidated, I don’t care.” We see George talking to Luke and Janine individually, and it’s a very domineering approach that he takes. He’s condescending to both of them – trying to force Janine’s hand, talking down to Luke. It’s an aggressive and unfriendly strategy for someone that shouldn’t necessarily feel comfortable with his spot in the majority.
In confessional, George tells us about how powerful he and Shonee are together. We see them make a pinky promise to one another – George wants to keep their peace treaty alive. We get Shonee’s perspective, she says plainly that she’s working against George, “I’ve played with him, I’ve earned his trust, and now I can betray him.”
Shonee and Luke are talking in the ocean. Shonee tells him she only spoke to George first for appearances, she’s voting for George tonight. Luke is more than happy with this plan. They both agree that separate from anything else, George is most likely to flip to the World tribe after merge. They’re discussing whether it needs to be a split vote, and Shonee tells Luke that she personally will be writing George’s name down regardless.
Luke, Kirby, Janine, and Sarah are talking together near camp. Sarah speaks first, “I’m hoping we’re all on the same page.” I’m so sorry Sarah, you are not. Luke is pitching George to the rest of them he acknowledges that there have been discussions about blindsiding Shonee. Luke argues that they can trust Shonee, and Kirby backs him up. Sarah in particular is visibly disappointed listening to this. Luke argues that if they can get George out in a unanimous vote, then they can go into the merge as a united Tribe (it’s similar to Rob’s thinking on the World tribe, but it’s a more effective pitch here).
Sarah gives her 2 cents, she argues that Shonee doesn’t have a close ally in the game, if she makes it to merge what’s to stop her from flipping over to the World tribe. This isn’t the most persuasive argument from Sarah given that the same is clearly true of George. And Kirby says this exactly in response.
In confessional, Sarah has her face in her hands, she’s frustrated. She wants to have some influence and be in control in the tribe, but she’s aware that’s not the case.
We see George talking briefly with the rest of the tribe. Shonee tells us, “George has played with a lot of amateurs before, this time he’s playing with the best of the best, and he has not adapted or changed gameplay style for that.” Luke, Janine, and Shonee are bonding over talking sh*t about George. Shonee’s only concern is that George might be able to read her and flip the vote onto her. But Shonee tells us that George is pretty relaxed, she thinks she’s doing a good job keeping him complacent.
George is talking to Janine and Luke at camp he’s still trying to impress on them that their only options are to vote for one another. Janine tells him point blank that she’s not voting Luke, and she gets up and walks away from the conversation. But she is concerned about the possibility George has an idol, she tells this to Luke, who chooses to keep his idol a secret rather than fully reassuring Janine. Luke trusts that Janine won’t flip the vote onto him just to make sure she’s not idoled out.
Janine talking to Kirby and Sarah, proposes that she should vote for Shonee as a contingency plan. Sarah is excited to hear this, she thinks this gives her some room to get out Shonee. The only thing she needs to do is convince Kirby…
Sarah and Kirby are sitting together in the sand – Sarah tells her that she feels the same way about Shonee that Kirby felt about David. In confessional, Kirby wants to make sure that she’s tight with Sarah, but we don’t get a sense of how she’s leaning regarding the vote.
Shonee tells us that it would be a healing experience for her to blindside George. And we got a shot of Shonee grinning straight into the lens of the camera. Before the break, we get a confessional from George, he tells us that Janine and Luke will “bend their knee to their king.”
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The Aussies have made it to tribal. JLP opens with asking Kirby about the last vote. Kirby jokingly blames the chaos of the vote on David, and Shonee backs her up. JLP asks Kirby about her level of comfort playing on an all-star season, and Kirby says that she thinks the most important thing in such a fast-paced game with high level players is to be adaptable.
Janine interjects to call out George, she tells JLP that George has told her, under no uncertain terms, that he’s voting for her. George, arrogant as ever, tells Janine that she should trust his judgment. He tells her, “work out what to do, Janine.” Janine leans over to whisper to Luke; she promises to be loyal. She’s concerned that George has an idol – otherwise why would he be feeling so confident? She asks Luke to vote for Shonee in case there’s an idol, and Luke agrees.
George, still overplaying a bad hand to begin with, discourages the tribe from getting “big moveitis.” Janine is visibly over being patronized like this. Kirby tries to diffuse the situation, she says there is tension, but everyone there is the best of the best, so you need to be able to have conversations and back it up with your actions.
George tries to argue that he will be invaluable come merge. “You want to move forward with people who have the experience in building a merge majority, and that’s me on this tribe.” He claims he’s the expert in building a majority post-merge. Luke challenges him on this, and Janine points out how much he was talking to the internationals during the challenge. At this point, Janine is exhausted by the sound of George’s voice alone.
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It's time to vote.
Luke, Shonee, George, Shonee (George is shocked), George, George.
Goodbye, George.
To his credit, he’s not bitter. He gives everyone a hug or a handshake, and he confirms that Shonee played a role in this vote. He’s happy for her, “at least it was you.”
JLP snuffs his torch, and George wishes everyone luck.