Survivor had not forgotten about last week’s #MeToo scandal as it tried to move on this week.
In the last two-part episode, Kellee had spoken to Missy about feeling uncomfortable with Dan’s behavior, and then Missy and Elizabeth tried to use the issue to their advantage, alienating their ally Janet and undermining Kellee’s very legitimate complaints.
To make matters worse, it was Kellee who ended up getting voted out, and she was then forced to sit quietly on the jury and listen to Jeff Probst question Dan about the issue at the next tribal council.
Tonight’s episode began with Janet reflecting on what had happened.
“Tribal Council was really hard, and I felt very alone,” she said. “There was a moment where I didn’t know if I wanted to stay in the game, but for me, quitting is not an option because I don’t want my daughters and granddaughters to see that, and my husband, and my beach family. I don’t quit. I don’t quit anything.”
She said she didn’t know what to do game-wise, and then very quickly everyone was distracted by how cold and rainy it was.
At the immunity challenge, Jeff Probst announced that the tribe would be split into two groups. Each group would have a winner, and each group would go to tribal separately, and each group would vote someone out. That threw everybody’s previous plans in the garbage, and changed things quite a bit.
The first group, including Janet, Aaron, Dan, Lauren, Dean, and Noura, voted out Aaron unanimously.
The second group, including Elizabeth, Elaine, Karishma, Missy, and Tommy, got rid of Missy, despite her speeches. The first was her claiming she’s not a bully, which didn’t come across so great after we watched her treat Karishma like an idiot all episode long. The second was much more interesting. After the show’s dubious history with diversity, Jeff Probst should have pointed it out when two African Americans both had immunity necklaces at the same time the other day, because representation matters. Jeff responded that he’s not sure he had even noticed the significance of that, and if he had, he might not have pointed it out because that would be implying it’s something you might be surprised to see.
Then Jeff also pointed out that once again, the game has to go on despite these conversations about things a little bit outside of the gameplay.
After the votes were read, Missy was shocked and angry but also appeared to be impressed, and while she praised Elaine for being part of the vote, she then told Elizabeth to kill her “slowly and methodically.”
Missy and Kellee will now be on the jury together, likely to have some conversations that need to happen, and we get to see the game go on without two of the more outspoken and complicated players as the season goes on.
Survivor airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on CBS.