Survivor Season 40 Winners at War Episode 5 Recap and Thoughts

A lot happened tonight, new tribes, a big name voted out and lots of new plot lines. Three new tribes Sele, Dakal and Yara. A few players really had their games blown up by the switch, while others likely have new life.

The new Sele is Michelle, Yul, Wendell, Parvati and Nick. This tribe is a bit awkward. Michelle and Wendell used to date and seems like there is some bad blood between the pair. Yul, Wendell and Nick seem super tight together, so I have a hard time believe they don't control this entire tribe.

Dakal is now made up of Sandra, Tony, Kim, Denise and Jeremy. Kim is the swing vote here for sure. Denise and Jeremy seem tight and should be the minority but since Kim was on the outs from her old tribe, anything could happen. I get the sense Sandra is ready to throw Tony under the bus before she ever works with him.

Lastly we have the new tribe, Yara. Rob, Ben and Adam all come over from the old Sele and have a ton of bad blood between them. Sarah and Sophie come in as the minority but it seems like they will have a lot of opportunity to recruit a new ally or two.

The immunity challenge was a bit boring, just a obstacle course with a puzzle at the end. Yara comes in last and will be headed to tribal.

Back at Yara, things get real awkward. The three guys, Rob, Ben and Adam, meet up and decide to work together and Rob sets up the buddy system. The buddy system is basically just that the three of them will stay together, no matter what, until tribal. It results in a lot of silence and zero gameplay. Yara heads to tribal, Rob is the sixth person voted to edge of extinction.

Felt like a lot of strange plays tonight from Yara. There was no acknowledgement of what Sarah and Sophie could have brought with them to the tribe. The mad idol dash seemed like it was just forgetten, magically after the idol was found. And unless Sarah and Sophie knew they were set for the votes, why not either use a power or openly talk strategy at camp?

Who knows. I guess we will learn more about what went down next week.