Elizabeth Beisel on Survivor, Episode 9: A Twisty Double-Tribal

Three-time U.S. Olympian Elizabeth Beisel is part of the cast of the 39th season of CBS’s reality TV show ‘Survivor.’ We’ll be recapping her game weekly… as long as she survives. ‘Survivor‘ is, of course, an edited, pared-down television program that condenses roughly three full days of on-island time into a one-hour program. There’s always more context to what we see, but our commentary is merely to have fun with what we’re shown, not to drag on any specific contestants. 

Episode link here

Previous recaps:

Fallout

There was a ton of ugliness last episode, and everyone is dealing with the fallout. Lifeguard instructor Janet (kind of a swimming-adjacent player and a bit of a surrogate favorite for SwimSwam fans souring on Beisel after last week) considers herself a free agent after burning her immunity idol, and the tribe endures a brutal night of storms. Beisel is struggling hard, but reiterates that she’s not willing to quit due to the elements.

Another tribe member, though, Karishma, is struggling harder, and failing to contribute around camp. That’s rubbing a lot of players the wrong way. And Karishma herself says she’s being viewed as a “goat” – in Survivorthat’s a player who isn’t very well-liked, and is generally fairly easy to beat in the final vote.

Karishma finds a hidden immunity idol, which is going to throw a wrench into some plans.

Challenge & A Split-Tribal Twist

The challenge is straightforward enough – a mix of balance and endurance. But host Jeff Probst drops a big twist: the tribe is being divided into two groups, who will compete for separate immunities and will each vote out a player separately. These kinds of twists really shake up the game when there’s a clear-cut majority, making the margins a lot thinner. They can also lead to some unpredictable votes.

(Conspiracy theory: this twist feels like a good way to get Dan booted, if production is concerned about their own liability as long as he remains on the island.)

Things divide up very well for Beisel. She gets randomly drawn into a group with arguably her two closest allies: Air Force vet Missy and factory worker Elaine. That trio is the clear majority in the five-person mix. They’ve got a working relationship with Tommy, and a very easy boot candidate in Karishma.

Janet is probably the most likely vote in her own group. She and Noura are roughly on the outs, though Noura seems to have better connections with the majority. The four-person Dan/Lauren/Aaron/Dean bloc appears to be the majority here.

Beisel is the second one out in a challenge that doesn’t really play to her skillset. Her ally Elaine wins immunity and a PB&J meal reward for the group. Still, with Karishma likely playing an idol, Beisel now basicaly has a one-in-three shot at going home tonight.

Noura wins immunity on the other side, but gives up on the PB&J reward because she didn’t pay good enough attention to Jeff’s instructions. Swimming comparison: a team that does a set entirely in full butterfly because they were talking when the coach said they could substitute one-arm fly.

Split Camps

The two groups are split between two beaches, so they can’t compare notes before Tribal Council. Janet’s group is kicking around some counterplans – most notably to vote out strong physical threat Aaron. That’s not great for Beisel for two reasons: (1) Aaron is a longtime ally and (2) a shift to voting out physical threats can’t be good for the known Olympian of the bunch.

Missy tries to enact some sort of master plan to vote out Tommy, saving Karishma. But Missy’s complete lack of social tact turns what should have been the easiest conversation with Karishma in the world (“Hey, we want to keep you in the game” would have sufficed) into a confrontation.

Karishma and Elaine hatch a counterplan to boot Missy. And Beisel is left out of the plan. Missy has long been a volatile ally for Beisel – they’re both young and competitive, but their strength has made them overly aggressive and prone to mistakes. They try to swing Karishma later, but it seems like they don’t do a great job making her feel comfortable.

Tribal Council #1

This is the Janet group. They talk a lot about voting out Janet, then turn around and boot Aaron, the powerplayer who hadn’t lost immunity yet since the merge. Good news for Janet, but bad news for Beisel, who loses an ally and moves up the threat list, at least as a challenge competitor.

Tribal Council #2

Beisel is immediately shook to see Aaron on the jury. You can almost see the game unraveling for Beisel and Missy, who have generally stayed in good position strategically most of the way to this point. Missy complains about being labeled a bully, insinuating that it’s fair to vote someone out for game reasons, but making things personal is a step too far. There’s certainly some level of irony there after last week, when it was Missy and Beisel effectively portraying Dan as a creep for what they later characterized as gameplay reasons.

Karishma holds onto her immunity idol, now essentially the swing vote between two plans. She votes out Missy, who seems to take the loss pretty hard. Beisel looks completely lost. Her two best allies were knocked out in total blindsides, and she’s now clearly an outsider from the majority powers. She also gets a mandate from Missy: that Beisel take revenge on Elaine. There’s going to be plenty of targets for revenge… just not many potential co-conspirators with just nine players remaining.

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Beverly
4 years ago

Hopefully she is next great to see all 3 of them liars gone

Investit
4 years ago

“Missy complains about being labeled a bully, insinuating that it’s fair to vote someone out for game reasons, but making things personal is a step too far. There’s certainly some level of irony there after last week, when it was Missy and Beisel effectively portraying Dan as a creep for what they later characterized as gameplay reasons.”

Agreed!

Also I feel like people have glossed over the fact that Beisel and Missy made “false” accusations, what they say now are false, about Dan for their gameplay. That should not have been tolerated nor should Dan’s actions

Tracey
4 years ago

Elizabeth is a disgrace to the swimming community. Lying about her experiences with Dan to promote her game and lying to other women about those experiences undermines ALL women who have experiences any type of sexual harassment/abuse. That she continues to garner support here is a shame. I hope she gets booted out at the next available moment.

Anonymoose
Reply to  Tracey
4 years ago

Insert *why are you booing me I’m right* meme

Susan
4 years ago

I don’t know if anyone remembers the season where the fire captain won? It was the only time that I witnessed a winner play a clean game..he was so respected, he wasn’t even considered to be voted off..he didn’t lie, or backstab, and he won immunity challenges at the right times..
After him, this show sank to showing the opposite side of human nature..you can’t win unless you lie, backstab, and of course eliminate the strong..
It is a game, and it is real and not real at the same time..we see and hear what the producers want..
I am not sure that our fire captain could win in today’s climate.

200 SIDESTROKE B CUT
Reply to  Susan
4 years ago

Misleading. That season was an abomination in the editing and many of the hardcore original Survivor fans would call that one “the beginning of the end”. Nearly half of the cast was ignored, and editing/production blatantly chose favorites. Interviews with the players after the fact (even the winner himself) would lead you to believe the opposite of what you just wrote. That said, he was a great player and knew how to navigate himself out of problems with his choice of words.

You have to be careful drawing conclusions about any players who have been on this show simply based on an edit.

Aquajosh
4 years ago

She’s going to have to scramble hard to stay in the game and maybe go on an immunity run. I don’t think the rest of the tribe has the same animosity towards her as they did Missy, so maybe she can hang on a little longer. Honestly I can’t believe Karishma found an idol. How many freaking idols did they plant out there?? Did the ones Vince and Kelley had that didn’t get played just get thrown back into the game?

marklewis
4 years ago

She isn’t disliked or a cause of drama or enmity. She is showing the strain of all the machinations with some of her wide-eyed and baffled expressions.

She’ll have to sense where the vote is going and maybe offer her vote to that alliance to stay in the game. If she’s voted out, she’ll go down cheerfully and say she had a memorable experience.

200 SIDESTROKE B CUT
4 years ago

It’s almost like the producers knew this season might suck, so they inserted a fast forward to eject 2 people in one episode just to reduce the suffering for the viewers. Overall meh. It’s a shame because they assembled a somewhat decent lineup of personalities, but these days the emergence of more twists and a bloated cast where the entire state of Rhode Island is picked to play Survivor just ruin any chances of a home run. (Not to mention that seasons with a controversial event that leaves viewers feeling icky never EVER age well…) They could literally plant a “hidden” (LOL) immunity idol anywhere they want and anytime to help out a contestant they like. I’d prefer to be… Read more »

Sccoach
Reply to  200 SIDESTROKE B CUT
4 years ago

This has been survivor for the last 4-5 years unfortunately. I’ve learned to just live with it. It’s definitely an inferior product compared to earlier seasons but I’d rather have this than no survivor at all. It’s just a disappointment when Probst/other producers don’t listen when there is something that fans definitely don’t like.

Jeff
4 years ago

I feel like this episode just seemed to highlight that Elizabeth is just a follower goat and isn’t really with a realistic shot at winning unless she pulls out some big moves. My winner prediction at this stage though has to be Karishma. She has been targeted so often and yet every time she dodges the bullet. Plus she has the immunity idol and the perfect story to tell at FTC.

Sccoach
Reply to  Jeff
4 years ago

Agree with the Elizabeth being a follower assessment. Disagree with Karishma having any sort of shot at winning. The majority of the episode was about how nobody likes/respects her, how is she going to get votes from the jury?

Taa
Reply to  Jeff
4 years ago

I bet they all would like to go to the end with Karishma and Dan and it would be a certain victory

About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …

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