It’s been common in recent years for “Survivor” to bring back former players to compete against new ones. For season 27, which started Wednesday, it’s half and half, as 10 former players are joined by the kind of “loved ones” who typically show up for a competition late in the season.
This time, the “loved ones” are also playing the entire season, and it’s obvious some of the contestants were talked into the season by being told it was being called “the loved ones season.” Hardly.
The actual subtitle is “Blood vs. Water” and how it plays out is that the experienced players are all on one team, playing against their loved ones, who are fighting them as a team to win immunity each week.
How many of these contestants are actually memorable? Outside of Rupert, who has played three previous times, and Colton, a super villain who should never have been given a second chance to be on, you may be straining to remember who is who.
It hardly matters. Because one returning player was identified as an NFL wife, her husband, Brad Culpepper brings star power to the “loved ones” tribe. That’s also meant to happen for Hayden, a former “Big Brother” winner apparently, who is there with his girlfriend Kat, who played on “Survivor: One World” (sorry neither one ring a bell, and I watch both those shows).
There seem to be some interesting players among those we’re just meeting, none so much as Vytas, a reformed former drug addict, who was the bad brother yang to brother Aras’ good brother yin.
There’s a mean streak to “Survivor” that goes beyond bringing Colton back. First they immediately separate the former players and their loved ones into different tribes, and then they announced that each team would immediately have to vote someone out.
The tie dye of Rupert’s wife’s T shirt was seen as a target — she got a huge amount of votes for elimination, which of course steamed Rupert on the other side.
He was given the opportunity to trade places with her, and he was across the sand before host Jeff Probst had finished his sentence.
He wouldn’t be leaving actually, he’d be going to Redemption Island, itself redeemed for the 27th season.
There he’d fight against the player the returning team voted out: Candice from “Survivor: Cook Island” (nope don’t remember her either). Her husband, a fellow doctor, had a chance to trade places with her, but they talked it over and she said she could stay. He made a speech about how strong she is and expected her to win at Redemption Island — but then he spent the rest of his time second-guessing it and crying twice.
No Redemption Island matches were held yet, even if it was a 90 minute season premiere.
Instead, a lot of time was spent getting to know the players. The returnees had quite an advantage in building their camp. Their Tyson was able to spark a fire without flint within 15 minutes.
The newbie tribe seemed to struggle without fire, but its five men quickly (and quite openly) got together to state their allegiance. They seem younger and more vigorous as a whole than the returnees and pulled way ahead in the first part of the initial immunity challenge that emphasized athleticism and teamwork.
The final part of the challenge involved a puzzle and the moms involved beat their daughters on the other team with great ease. Never mind that Gervase on the winning side, the oldest player returning after the biggest length of time — 13 years — could barely keep afloat in the water, he still did a “in your face” victory dance that upset the losers more than it should have.
It upset them so much they decided to inflict pain by voting off his supposed “loved one,” his niece Marissa. It would all seem to be in following the usual unspoken racial rule of “Survivor” that dictates that the black girl always goes home first, but they were actually aiming at Gervase, an odd side product of the season’s format: Choosing an eviction that has an effect on the other tribe.
If anyone was paying attention they’d know that Gervase and Marissa weren’t exactly the closest of relatives and in fact were relishing competing after one another. But it didn’t matter. To the five guys majority — or as Brad called it “four guys and one gay guy” — one female was as good to go as any other. So Marissa was it. But she only gets exiled as far as Redemption Island, so there’s a chance she’ll go back and eke out revenge.
The episode was cut well enough to give viewers a good idea of the contestants. In past seasons, the introductions might stretch out to a few episodes. But we’ll have to wait until next week to reap the other benefit of a Blood vs. Water elimination: the reaction from the other side.