'Survivor: Second Chance,' Aka 'Survivor: Old School Vs. New School'

Lucy Philips-Roberts ’16/ Emertainment Monthly Contributor

Cue dramatic second chance competitors’ highlights reel, coupled with that beautiful Survivor music we all know and love. This season is clearly all about regrets, redemption and apparently getting over about 15 years of Survivor PTSD according to Kelly Wiglesworth. In the classic day one gathering, Jeff Probst greeted the eager gang from a boat. They kicked the season off by talking about the pressures of not failing their families as well as the people who voted for them.
The tribes were not surprised when Jeff announced that they must gather food and supplies from the boat. However, this season is not here to be quiet. This season is bold. So naturally, Jeff throws out the first challenge: The survivors must gather from the one boat, but there’s another boat 100 yards away which has a bag of rice. This means that the tribes must prioritize in order to gather as much as possible and get the rice. The Takeo tribe won!
Back at camp, the line in the sand was drawn when the tribe split up to make a shelter. This division was  between old-school survivor and new. Those who worked on the shelter: Kelly Wiglesworth, Terry Deitz, Spencer Bledsoe and Woo Hwang were dubbed old school. They were more interested in the fundamentals of Survivor which include, the crucial, surviving. Jeff Varner (Survivor Australia) in his interviews became a sort of spokesman for the old school people. At the same time he attempted to catch up with the new, and landed somewhere in the middle. He, of the old school, was certainly the most adept and willing to mold himself to the new ways of quick and immediate strategizing.

The most confusing and fishy moment of the episode was Abi’s search for her lost bracelet. Abi Maria, known for being a dramatic villain, spent most of her air time trying to find this bracelet. She really didn’t convince anyone when she told the entire tribe that she found the bracelet in Peih-Gee’s bag. Here we go again with the “You f**k with me, you’re dead” Abi we missed so much.
Vytas proved himself as racist, sexist and arrogant. Immediately upon meeting Peih-Gee he compared her to a friend of his who is also Chinese and has freckles. He spent most of his air time touching the women on his tribe. When he wasn’t “flirting” he was “demonstrating” his moves to an uncomfortable and annoyed audience.
Poor baby Stephen Fishbach is once again a little fish in a big pond. He of course was able to analyze this as a repeat of his original narrative, where he finds a skilled person to team up with. On the tribe full of brutish men, Stephen felt out of place. What else could he do but go searching for the idol. No luck for Stephen, but on the other tribe dark horse Kelley Wentworth found the clue. This tells her that the idol is hidden at the challenge. This made for an even tenser challenge.

The challenge, a pretty standard water challenge, was won by Bayon. Still, at least one person can celebrate. Plaster a fake frown on that face Kelley, because you just found the hidden immunity idol. While her tribe mates were consumed in the final leg of the challenge, Kelley was scoping out the idol behind her. In an instant she shoved it in her shorts.
Just when things were getting into a groove, Jeff tells the losing Takeo that they are going to tribal council right away. No time to discuss or strategize. In the tribal chat, once again the topic of old school vs. new school was the main theme. Jeff Varner, while being subtle, managed to portray that he knows what he’s doing and will stop at nothing to do it. Though there were many shocked faces when Vytas was voted out, the most confused person was Vytas himself. He guessed in his final confessional that they voted him out for being “a total threat.” That says a whole lot about him.
 
Episode Grade: A