‘Survivor’ Season 43 Episode 6 Recap: The Fake Merge Rears Its Ugly Head
The “new era” of Survivor includes an “earn the merge” concept, which host Jeff Probst is a big fan of. Unfortunately for producers, the Hourglass twist that was a part of the fake merge in seasons 41 and 42 was not well received by fans. So they nixed it for Survivor Season 43 and came up with something different, which fans saw play out in episode 6. Read on for our recap of the chaotic hour.
[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers from Survivor Season 43 Episode 6, “Mergatory.”]
Vesi and Coco traveled to Baka’s beach in ‘Survivor’ Season 43 Episode 6
After voting out Geo Bustamante in Survivor Season 43 Episode 5, the Coco tribe woke up the next morning in episode 6 with tree mail. It read, “It’s Day 12, and the game is about to change. Drop your buffs! You have 10 minutes to collect your things. A boat is waiting to take you to your new home.” Could this be the merge?
James Jones, Ryan Medrano, and Cassidy Clark immediately celebrated. Meanwhile, Karla Cruz Godoy was more skeptical because of what happened in the past two seasons. And in a confessional, Ryan, still reeling from the previous Tribal Council, wanted to go into the “merge” as a free agent. He had no loyalty to the Coco tribe.
The four traveled to Baka’s beach and arrived simultaneously with the Vesi tribe — Jesse Lopez, Noelle Lambert, Dwight Moore, and Cody Assenmacher. The Baka players — Elie Scott, Jeanine Zheng, Mike Gabler, Owen Knight, and Sami Layadi — greeted them. Sami, who wasn’t doing a great job hiding his age, yelled, “BYOB! Where’s the party at?”
Everything was “Kumbaya” until Cody called everyone out for being fake nice in a confessional. And then nerves started running high since there weren’t new buffs or a merge feast. Plus, everyone lied about not being able to find idols. However, Noelle told Owen that she had a steal-a-vote, and Jesse didn’t have a vote.
Elie discovered Cody got the idol just from Noelle telling her about him collecting beads. And Elie informed Jeanine.
‘Survivor’ Season 43 host Jeff Probst introduced another twist in episode 6
At the Immunity Challenge in Survivor Season 43 Episode 6, Jeff Probst informed the castaways that tribal immunity was over. However, they hadn’t made the merge yet.
In order to earn the merge buff, the players were randomly divided into two teams, and they would compete in the Immunity Challenge. One person would sit out and choose which group they wanted to align with. The winning team would get immunity, the merge buff, and a meal. And one of the losers would be voted out of the game. However, every castaway would attend Tribal Council and vote.
The blue team consisted of Gabler, Jesse, Ryan, Jeanine, Dwight, and Karla. And Cassidy, James, Elie, Sami, Owen, and Cody were on the red team. Noelle was left out and chose to go with the blue team.
In the middle of the challenge, Karla injured her hand, and she started bleeding profusely. She pushed through, and the blue team won immunity.
Back at camp, Elie felt responsible for the red team’s failure since she worked on the puzzle at the end of the challenge. But then they all scrambled and plotted for the Tribal Council. Elie and Owen wanted to work with the former Vesi tribe members to get out someone from Coco, preferably James. Meanwhile, Elie told James and Cassidy that she wanted Cody out.
During their feast, Ryan pitched that the blue group stuck together. However, it was clear that wouldn’t be the case, especially when Gabler threw Elie under the bus about searching his bag, infuriating Jeanine.
When everyone reunited, Elie told Cody that his name had been thrown out, and Jeanine and Dwight revealed Gabler exposed Elie. So Elie confronted Gabler, but their conversation/fight resolved nothing. Elie did learn that Sami told Gabler that she had searched his bag.
After a lot of scrambling, most of the castaways seemed determined to vote Elie out. Vesi thought she was coming for Cody since she was technically the one who threw his name out. And Coco thought she was coming for James. But Jeanine promised to give Elie her immunity idol if she felt she was in danger.
At Tribal Council, Gabler’s antics worked, and Elie was the sixth person voted out of Survivor Season 43. Ryan, Sami, Dwight, Gabler, Cody, James, and Cassidy voted for Elie. Meanwhile, Noelle voted for Cassidy, Karla voted for Owen, and Elie and Owen voted for James. Jeanine and Jesse didn’t have votes.
Elie told the castaways on her way out, “See what trusting Gabler will get you?”
What to expect in the next episode
Following Elie’s exit in Survivor Season 43 Episode 6, CBS aired the promo for episode 7. The video previewed the now-merged castaways scrambling when a new advantage arrives at camp. Plus, Karla and Jesse want to target Noelle, and Gabler’s newfound power gets to his head.
Based on the preview, Dwight might get the advantage. He’s the one who mentions it to other castaways, and Noelle tells Ryan, “He’s got something.” So whoever obtains this mysterious new power is a guy. But what could this advantage be? We bet that it’s an Idol Nullifier. This twist came into play in season 42 when it was hidden at Taku’s camp, and Omar Zaheer found it, but CBS never aired it.
Survivor Season 43 Episode 7 airs Wednesday, Nov. 2, at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.
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