The following contains spoilers for Episode 3 of Survivor Season 42.Only three episodes into Season 42 of Survivor, and it's already proving itself to be a messy one. The good news is, it's the best kind of mess, with everything from questionable player choices to even Mother Nature herself opposing the castaways in this episode. The beginning of this season has been so compelling to watch so far, which is a good sign for how the rest of the game is going to go. When you have players making the kinds of chaotic choices that were made in this episode, there are bound to be some incredibly entertaining moments.
The episode starts with Maryanne finding her tribe's idol, one of three that needs to be activated across all tribes before it can be used, though it also takes away her vote until that happens. In following the trends of every episode of this season, apparently, she immediately lets the whole tribe know and doesn't try to keep it a secret. Over at the Vati tribe, there is a funny scene where Daniel's tribemates reflect on his penchant for losing everything. This seems like simply a fun character detail, but it pays off in the next scene where Daniel takes Mike's idol to read the fine print on it and make sure he knows exactly how the idol works, but ends up momentarily losing it in the jungle in the process.
Not only does this start to set up how much of a mess Daniel is early in on the episode (which comes back again at Tribal Council), it also gives some valuable information about these three-way immunity idols. Daniel discovers that if the idol remains inactive by the time the Merge rolls around, it regains its power as a full idol without needing to use the activation phrase. This now means that instead of wanting to vote Mike out to nullify the idol, he now wants to keep him in the game to keep that idol around the tribe.
Then comes the challenge, which is one of the rougher ones in Survivor memory. The players have to lug ladders around the ocean and use them to retrieve keys on poles (which they'll then use to unlock the next part of the challenge on land). The challenge itself isn't super difficult, but on this particular day the waves were relentless, and the players struggled to even stay above the water for more than a few seconds, much less try and hold a ladder upright. The only person seemingly unaffected by all of this is Jonathan, who basically single-handedly carries his team to victory and makes the waves look like a minor inconvenience. He's an absolute challenge beast, and if he makes it to the Merge, it will be interesting to see how long he lasts, as he's going to be a huge threat for individual Immunity wins.
Eventually, the water part of the challenge has to be called off - a first in Survivor history - and the tribes continue the challenge from the land. In the end, Taku wins (before the other tribes are even out of the water, thanks to Jonathan) and Ika clinches second place, leaving Vati to go to Tribal Council. The winning tribe also has to send one of their own, as well as a member of the losing tribe, to an island for a "journey". Omar and Chanelle are selected to go, and so they head for the summit journey that has become a staple of these most recent episodes of Survivor.
When they are faced with the choice of whether to protect or risk their vote, they both struggle to figure out what the other player is going to decide. For some reason, they're both convinced that the other will play it safe and so they both risk their votes, meaning that they also both lose their votes at the next Tribal. This also means that when Chanelle gets back to the Vati camp to discuss things with her tribe, it becomes obvious to the audience that this vote is going to be messy, since both Mike and Chanelle have lost their votes. Hai immediately clocks that something is up with Chanelle and he doesn't trust her, which is the first of many signs that Hai is perhaps a perceptive strategic threat.
At Tribal Council, the discussion takes a turn when Daniel admits that he's a paranoid person and that Mike and Chanelle calm him down, which is something that Hai immediately clocks, because Daniel has been telling him how much he trusts Hai and Lydia. Hai also notices that Daniel and Chanelle very obviously mouth "Lydia" to each other to reassure the other of their alliance's vote. This is the first of many mistakes Daniel makes at this Tribal, but it alerts Hai that he should be on edge and not trust the things Daniel told him.
They go to a vote, and it ends up being two on Jenny and two on Lydia, which means there must be a revote between them, and neither Jenny nor Lydia can vote. This means that, hilariously, Hai and Daniel are the only people able to actually cast a vote. Hai's reactions through this whole Tribal were so fun to watch (such as when Jeff reads the votes for the revote and Hai asks "Where are the votes?" in disbelief after Jeff only reads two) and have turned him into a player the audience should keep their eye on. At this point, Mike and Chanelle are forced to come clean about their lost votes, and Jeff informs the tribe that Daniel and Hai have to have a discussion and come to a unanimous decision of who to vote off, and if they cannot, they'll go to rocks to decide who goes home.
Daniel begins this discussion by immediately stating that he doesn't want to go to rocks, which is a huge mistake because it gives up all of his leverage and gives the power in the exchange to Hai, who stands his ground and refuses to change his vote from Jenny. Daniel then starts throwing Chanelle, one of his allies, under the bus and trying to make it seem like she was the one behind the whole plan and the one dictating his moves. At this point, everything he says is upsetting someone in his alliance, and it's definitely going to come back to bite him later. Because Hai won't sway and Daniel already admitted he didn't want to leave the vote up to chance by drawing rocks, he ends up going along with Hai and voting Jenny out of the game.
The fallout from this Tribal will be interesting to watch because Daniel is going to have to do a lot of work to get out of this hole he's dug for himself. None of his tribe, except for maybe Lydia who might be grateful for him saving her, is going to trust him after this, and it will be fascinating to see if he's able to survive the game despite all of this. In all, the episode itself was very entertaining, mostly focused on the drama of the game itself rather than the vignettes of camp life and player backstories that the show has been revolving around so far. The players this season seem to be getting more intense and using strategies that haven't been seen yet, so it will be interesting to see how much more dramatic and complicated the show will get before the end.