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Survivor: Game Changers Episode Four Recap - The Sugar Queen

By Mickie McLeod

Missed this week's episode of Survivor: Game Changers? I've got you covered! This week contained an amount of emotions, foreshadowing, Idols, and well ... karma.

Reward Challenge

In this week's Reward Challenge, the three tribes all competed for the reward of classic peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  The first tribe to win was rewarded milk and cookies as well.  The last tribe to finish was rewarded complete jealousy and empty stomachs.

In Survivor, the Reward Challenges early on during a season can be hard to watch.  Sometimes we watch them and don't understand the significance behind what we're watching.  However, the editors of Survivor are always giving key information to us viewers.  This week, the reasons for the Reward Challenge were focused on MANA and the attention was on Debbie in particular.

The Reward Challenge consisted of a series of obstacles which required tribe members to take turns at each course.  TAVUA ended up taking 1st place and NUKU took 2nd, which meant MANA was last.  This upset Debbie (MANA tribe) extremely.  Debbie's true emotions about her tribe were revealing as she complained that she did not get a fair shot.  Debbie immediately blamed Culpepper for the result of their loss.

MANA

During this episode, one of the main highlights was on Debbie.  Debbie was furious -- it was almost confusing why she was so angry.

At MANA, Debbie has a nervous breakdown, as she feels she's at the bottom of her tribe.  Shown in the Reward Challenge, Debbie continued to blame Culpepper for their loss and she felt that she was extremely disrespected by him because she wasn't "heard" in the challenge.  There were multiple times in this episode that Debbie explodes ridiculously.  I'll be honest, it was pretty entertaining.

Along with Debbie's tantrums was Tai's game.  Because the last Tribal Council was wild, Tai used his Hidden Immunity Idol to save Sierra.  Since the Idol was played, Tai automatically knew that there would be a new Idol hidden somewhere on their beach.  As a result of Tai's strategic mind, he finds another Idol, this time, keeping the secret to himself.

TAVUA

Meanwhile, at TAVUA, the tribe is sipping on milk and cookies, eating peanut butter and jelly's, and simply living the good life of Survivor.  The TAVUA tribe seems to be simple and quiet early on in this season.  This episode focused on Sarah potentially aligning herself with Troyzan.  Nothing seems to be certain, but it definitely keeps our eyes open to their future alliance together.

NUKU

The pot is boiling at NUKU! Since the last episode, NUKU has been a bit heated.  JT had clearly revealed their plan to Culpepper at last Tribal Council, which resulted to Malcolm being blindsided and voted out.  Because of this, everyone, especially Sandra (the "queen") was pissed about this situation.

At NUKU, JT seems to be on edge.  He's very worked up about last Tribal but seems to stir his focus on Michaela.  JT wasn't happy with Michaela during this episode because she was being lazy, along with eating too much sugar in her coffee (the reward given from the previous challenge).

Sandra, also known as the "sugar queen" this week, decided to stir the boiling pot between JT and Michaela even more.  The tension and heat were up between the two about the amount of sugar they've used in their coffees.  JT was mad at Michaela, and Michaela was equally mad at JT.  The ridiculous feud between them caused Sandra to get creative.  Sandra decides to piss off JT even more by eating the rest of the sugar, hoping that he thinks it was Michaela that did it instead of her.

Because of Sandra's secret sugar binge, Michaela appears to be the one that's eaten all of the sugar.  JT blames Michaela for eating all of the sugar when we all see that it was just Sandra stirring up more drama. Sandra's title of "the queen" continues to grow more and more as she plays.

JT feels uneasy among the Tribe because of the last Tribal Council (which I don't blame him).  He didn't mean for his closest alliance, Malcolm, to be voted out, so he decides to help himself out by looking for the Hidden Immunity Idol.  Luckily, JT eventually finds the one and only Hidden Immunity Idol on their beach and keeps his secret safe to himself.

IMMUNITY CHALLENGE

This week's Survivor: Game Changers contained no Immunity Challenge twist, unlike last week.  This week, the last tribe to finish the course of obstacles would be sent to Tribal Council.

At the Immunity Challenge, the foreshadowing was very strong again among Debbie and the MANA tribe.  During the Immunity Challenge, it was shown that Debbie was carrying on with her emotions.  The challenge showed Debbie being bitter towards her tribe multiple times.  Debbie's negative feelings towards her tribe kept revealing, such as her making it a point that she had climbed over the wall first during an obstacle.

Although the editors foreshadowed a loss for MANA and Debbie, they actually pulled off a win, along with the TAVUA tribe.  This meant NUKU would be sent back to Tribal Council once again.

Even though Debbie and the MANA Tribe were safe this week, I do believe the editing was foreshadowing more drama to come with her in the season!

Tribal Council

With only five castaways left on the NUKU tribe, the votes seemed to be pretty clear.  This week it was between the two sugar rivals, Michaela and JT.

Aubry and JT would be voting off Michaela due to her laziness and possible sugar hogging.  Sandra and Michaela would be voting off JT because of his poor judgment from last Tribal, (revealing to Culpepper their vote). This left Varner with the decision between the split.

Would it be Michaela, or would it be JT?  The real question was, would JT be smart enough to use his newly found Idol to save himself?

As a result, karma hit JT, hard.  JT's dumb decision of sharing too much information with Culpepper during last Tribal Council came back to bite him.  JT was voted out this week and he did NOT use his Idol in time, which results to him sadly leaving the game with an Idol in his pocket.

Karma hit JT, but what goes around, comes around.  What did you notice in this week's episode?  Do you think we'll see more of Debbie's tantrums later on? Tweet me your predictions @mick_cloudy.

You can watch this season of Survivor, Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and don't miss my recaps of Survivor Game Changers every Thursday morning on CBSDetroit.com!

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