The premiere of Survivor 44 came out of the gate guns blazing, literally. The episode included three medical evaluations, two people growing rather close, one shocking blindside, and a partridge and pear tree! But, enough for the premiere. Let’s jump into the next two episodes!

The second episode begins as Ratu, the tribe that just attended a chaotic first Tribal Council, returns to camp. The episode gave a little more insight as to why Matthew played his Shot in the Dark. We learn that he essentially played it to avoid taking a side either with Brandon or Maddy. We also learn that Kane is not in the greatest of positions as he was the other vote for Brandon to go home as he voted with Maddy.

We then travel over to Tika in the morning where all the players are suspicious of the new bird cage planted in their camp. We see all the players looking and hunting for the key that unlocks it. All of a sudden, we learn that Carolyn, who has already won all the fans over with her iconic personality and facial expressions, has found the key and has obtained the bag. However, unlike Brandon in the premiere, Carolyn kept this to herself. Within all of the chaos, comes even more chaos. She discovers it is an idol with a fake idol but right as she returns to camp, she realizes that she still has the bag and that it is only a matter of time before her tribe members, who are all searching together, have discovered that it is missing. In her mind, of course they would point the fingers at her. She races back and returns it rather quickly. So quickly that once everyone arrives at the bird cage, they notice the bag is wide open and has clearly been touched.

Now, for the best part of the scene. One would think they would all point the fingers at Carolyn because she was gone the longest and alone. But alas, they start targeting anyone and everyone but Carolyn. It was mind blowing watching this as it was airing. Unfortunately, Helen became the main person being targeted. Mainly by Carson.

We then move on to the Immunity Challenge. It was mostly just an obstacle course with an element at the end where one tribe member had to maneuver a ball through a snake maze. The obstacle course was decently close between all three tribes. Once it was time for the snake maze, Matthew from the Ratu tribe beasted it and won first place for his tribe. Josh from Soka struggled a bit but not as much as Sarah from Tika and Soka secured a second place victory. The Tika tribe lost and would be sent to Tribal Council. It is also worth noting that Claire sat out of another immunity challenge which will be worth noting once we dive into the third episode.

We return to the iconic Tika tribe and they are a mess in so many amazing ways. We learned from the premiere that Carolyn and Yam Yam are more so on the outs of the tribe than Carson, Helen, and Sarah. However, we know from the birdcage scene that Carson does not completely trust Helen for false reasons. We see Carolyn and Yam Yam go off to the side and discuss wanting to take out Helen. They also know that they need Carson. It seems fitting that Carson also wants Helen out.

Flashing back to the premiere, we learned that Sarah ultimately lost her vote when she attended the journey trek. However, her and Helen are still discussing not fully trusting Carolyn and both begin to pick up a vibe that it can just be an “easy vote”.

We then flash over to Carson who appears to be the middleman. Knowing Sarah can’t vote and Carolyn does in fact have a real idol, fans can interpret that he does not have as much power as he thinks.

Fast forwarding to Tribal Council, there’s discussion about the birdcage idol though it was mostly just filler content to prep viewers for the vote. Once they have all voted in the voting booth, fans can hear the dramatic music playing as Carolyn contemplates playing her idol, knowing Helen has been targeting her. Ultimately, she does not play it as Carson also sided with her and Yam Yam as the three of them voted Helen out. Sarah watched as her ally, Helen, had her torch snuffed as she was left in the dark.

Moving on to episode four, we return to the Tika camp after their Tribal Council where we see Sarah upset at Carson for leaving her out of the vote and Carolyn proud that she survived without playing her idol.

We quickly move over to the Ratu camp the next morning and discover that Jaime found what she believed to be a Hidden Immunity Idol. After hearing a confessional from Matthew, it was declared that her idol was fake and was purposely hidden by Matthew to throw her off after he discovered the real idol.

We then move over to the Soka camp and find Danny running through the forest with his immunity idol that he recently discovered. He, like Carolyn, also decided to hide it from everyone. This time however, he decided to eat the idol paper which was a very unique way of disposing of it. He then replanted the fake immunity idol that came with it which was discovered by Matt. Unfortunately for Matt, not only was the idol fake, but Danny proceeded to tell everyone that Matt had an idol. Things only got worse for Matt as the tribe continued to grow suspicious of his close relationship with Frannie.

It is now time for the most nail biting part of the episode: the immunity challenge. Each tribe must retrieve a large cube in the water and roll it to three stations where they must obtain keys. They would then use those keys to unlock a series of puzzle cubes which they must then solve so there are no repeating colors on any side. Ratu slayed the challenge once again and Tika came from behind, sending Soka to their first Tribal Council.

It is once again worth noting that Claire has sat out of all three immunity challenges, something the tribe makes very clear when they return to camp. Back at camp, both Danny and Heidi made it clear that they wanted to vote off Claire due to her lack of performances in challenges. However, Frannie had other thoughts. She viewed Claire as a potential ally and her fellow tribe member Josh as a bigger threat. However, when she attempted to pull Heidi in on the blindside, she was very hesitant.

At their first Tribal Council, Claire was sensing she was a potential target and played her one Shot in the Dark. However, her one in six chance at safety failed as the tribe voted her out unanimously.

These two episodes sparked slight controversy among the fan base as they believed that women were being unfairly targeted due to the newer era of Survivor focusing more on advantages and challenges than actual social relationships. There was also slight controversy surrounding the birdcage twist as many fans believed it was too convoluted for the once simple game of Survivor.

Next week, we learn that there is a new twist on the journey and sparks may be flaring at the Tika camp revolving around Carolyn and Yam Yam!