The following contains spoilers for Episode 7 of Survivor Season 42.The Merge is officially here, and as per Survivor tradition, it's time for the game to really kick into high gear. So many of the players are hyper-focused on their individual games, and the many different styles of play are always really interesting to watch. Players who had a smaller role in the early game tend to finally come into their own after the Merge, when they're given the space to showcase their full gameplay style outside the confines of their original tribe. Episode 7 featured all of the Survivor classics - hidden advantages, individual sacrifices for the good of the team, vaguely fractured alliances, and the greatest of them all: pre-vote paranoia.
The newly merged tribe - that has been dubbed Kula Kula by its members - is trying to figure out its dynamics after the last vote. Maryanne feels like she's in school again, getting left out of the vote because the "cool kids" don't want to work with her. This is an interesting observation because though it's clear that players have game reasons for leaving other players out, it can still feel very personal, especially for people who have been bullied in the past. It's a good reminder that Survivor is never fully divorced from the personal lives of the players.
Speaking of players' personal lives, Season 42 gives the audience another peek at how good Mike is at the social aspect of the game. He's a genuinely caring person, and it seems like his tribemates really trust him because of this, which might prove to be an advantage in the future. He is curious about Omar's religion and even observes him while he's praying, despite the fact that Mike himself is not Muslim. It's a sweet moment, and it really just highlights Mike as a nice guy with an open mind who just wants to get to know people above all else.
At the reward challenge, all the players are excited to compete for the prospect of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. All the players, that is, except for the one who draws a grey rock when teams are being picked and has to sit out for the whole challenge. In this case, that player was Maryanne, but she's quickly saved by Drea volunteering to take her place because, as she claims, she doesn't like PB&J sandwiches and would rather give it to someone who would appreciate it.
It seems like this actually might be the truth, but perhaps not the whole truth. Drea immediately begins searching the sit-out bench for an advantage, and she manages to find the one that Jeff Probst hid prior to the start of the challenge. It's likely that she had a suspicion one would be there and used the disliking PB&J sandwiches story as a cover-up. In any case, Drea leaves the challenge with an advantage and the winning tribe - Jonathan's team, to absolutely no one's surprise - leaves with lunch plans and a chance to replenish their energy.
Back at camp, Drea opens her advantage clue, which informs her that the advantage itself is hidden near the water well, but that she must be careful not to be "caught red-handed" when she finds it. As it turns out, this wasn't just an overused cliche, but a quite literal warning. When Drea finds the hiding spot, she encounters a hole that she must stick her hand into to grab the advantage. The thing is, the hole is filled with red paint, and it immediately coats her arm. It's a clever play on words, and one of the more interesting advantages purely for that reason. It adds an extra level of challenge to the retrieval of the advantage as well.
She rushes to wash the paint off of herself, and learns that she is now the proud owner of the "Knowledge is Power" advantage, which allows her to ask one player whether or not they have an idol, and if they do, she can take it from them. This was a twist that was used last season as well, and fans didn't respond well to it, so it will be interesting to see how it goes over this season. All of this means that Drea is now in possession of four different advantages, and has yet to play any of them. This will either paint a massive target on her if everyone finds out, or it will be what allows her to stay in the game longer. Already, Tori is suspicious of her because she clocks some paint that was still left on Drea's arm, and doesn't believe the cover-up story that Drea gives her, which doesn't fully get resolved this episode, but might cause trouble for Drea in the future.
At the Immunity Challenge, there is a repeat of the rice negotiation from Season 41, because apparently Season 42 exists to be compared to the previous season at all times and basically be another version of the same experiment, just with a different group. Jeff agrees to give the tribe extra portions of rice if four people sit out of the challenge, so Maryanne, Lindsay, Drea, and Omar all volunteer. Tori ends up winning immunity once again, proving that she's just as much of a challenge threat as Jonathan is, and also keeping her safe for yet another week despite the fact that she's on the bottom.
The initial plan back at camp is that the tribe will vote Chanelle out. However, Romeo is suspicious that everyone is so calm and immediately starts getting paranoid, perhaps rightly so, since he is also on the bottom and shouldn't necessarily trust the word of these people. However, in this instance, it almost blows up in his face because his paranoia causes the tribe to start to turn on him, with Hai and Omar being particularly upset with him. Mike, on the other hand, is adamant about voting Chanelle because of how he feels she betrayed him.
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At Tribal Council, a lot of the discussion revolves around how this tribe might present as a unified group, but they're really quite fractured, which has been a theme of all the tribes for the entire season. It's clear that no one fully trusts anyone else, and everyone wants to be in control of their game at all times. In the end, it seems like Mike gets his way, as Chanelle is voted out and becomes the first member of the jury.
Overall, the episode itself was pretty solid, with a few high points like Drea's hunt for the advantage. It still seems like this later portion of the game is falling a little flat compared to the way the season began, but things will likely start to pick up again now that the post-Merge game is in full swing. There are a lot of advantages floating around this group, so things might begin to fall into utter chaos if any of the players decide to finally start using them.