"Survivor: Second Chance" started off with two tribes, just as the show typically does, but just three episodes in, there was a major switch from two tribes to three. Some contestants remained on their original tribes, Bayon and Ta Keo, while others swapped, and six unfortunate and unlucky contestants became members of the newest one, Tribe Angkor. While it is still early in the game, a tribe expansion messed up a lot of alliances, caused some unnecessary drama and left the hard working castaways of tribe Angkor to start completely from scratch.
By week three, tribes are typically pretty settled in. They have made their shelter, found fire and fresh water, become familiar with the rice-only diet, and have even become comfortable enough to kill a chicken with their bare hands to make some chicken and rice- which honestly, didn't look half bad, considering the circumstances- but what else would you expect from Joe Anglim? He was pretty much put on this earth to be a contestant on "Survivor."
Angkor had only lived out one day on their new island, and the downpour of rain didn't help. They struggled to get settled in, and it got to their heads enough to cost them the challenge and be sent to tribal council. While things didn't look TOO bad just yet, the preview for next week's episode looks pretty rough after they spend their first full nights without fire and food, which is an essential part of surviving on this show.
While it may not be long before Ankor finally figures it out and starts to feel like a real tribe, it turns out they won't have much of a chance to settle down before the show throws another major twist at them. Having a tribe expansion so early on in the season probably led them to believe there wouldn't be any more tribe changes or divisions until the final merge, but of course, they were wrong. I mean, host Jeff Probst did give us a serious warning about shaking things up this season.
"We're going to start with two tribes and then we're going to switch it up a bit," he told Xfinity prior to the premiere. "We're going to try to make it tougher to keep alliances together. It doesn't mean they won't. But we're going to try to keep the game a little uneven."
Turns out, he wasn't just referring to this expansion because there is still one more tribe swap that is going to happen, according to Inside Survivor. Once they're down to their Final 14, they will switch back from three tribes to two. With week three leaving us just 17 castaways left, it looks like this switch will be happening sometime around week six, given there are no other major twists like double eliminations or some serious injuries- which based off of the preview for next week, could be pretty possible. This switch back to two tribes will bring all the drama we love to watch on "Survivor" as alliances are once again broken and the castaways scramble to figure it out close to the merge portion of the show.
"We wanted to present options and twists that would promote gameplay," Probst told Entertainment Weekly following last night's episode. "The 20 to 18, two tribes to three, was based on reversing expectations. We had never done it before and felt very confident that even if the players suspected it or even predicted it, it would still be effective. After 31 seasons it is very difficult to come up with 'new' twists that nobody ever considered, so one of the keys is using twists that are foolproof. I was very happy with the results. We had people who improved their status and those who lost status and in both cases the question becomes, 'Now what?'"
As for next week, we're going to see two of Probst's "favorite challenges of the season." "The reward challenge is a 'hero' challenge where each tribe puts up ONE PLAYER to run the entire challenge," he explained. "The immunity challenge is blindfolded and I think you will laugh, gasp, and cry before it's over. GREAT episode. This season is like the Los Angeles real estate market it just keeps going up, up, up."
Get ready 4 a #dropyourbuffs shake up! Stream 2nite's #Survivor w/ #CBSAllAccess in 15 min. https://t.co/g4TzboTMuH https://t.co/NUOfh9AvLq
— Survivor on CBS! (@Survivor_Tweet) October 7, 2015
