With Ori out of the game, Devon and Jelly needed a merge, and they got one on this week’s episode. However, this is the Open Era, so the type of merge the castaways predicted wouldn’t come to reality. 

Before the New Era, castaways would take in a merge feast together. During the New Era, castaways had to earn their way into the merge. The Open Era? A combination of both.

There would be a merge feast, but there were only going to be 10 players at said feast. With 13 people in the game, three would be left out. To determine the odd people out, castaways had to fully swallow two bugs. While Brady downed more than two, Kristin, Cristian, and Sharonda weren’t so lucky.

There wasn’t a ton of strategy going on at the merge feast, which is the opposite of what was happening at the merge beach, also known as the old Savu beach. Sharondra, Cristian, and Kirsten agree that voting with the original Savu members while bringing in the likes of Mike, Devon, and Jelly from original Toka could give them the advantage. Also, when Cristian takes a walk, Kristen tells Sharonda the full terms of her tethered idol she received at the summit and gives the idol to her to show trust.

Once everybody got back to camp, Mike made it clear to Eric that he is a free agent. Jelly comes to Mike and proposes they should work together with old Savu the way Sharondra, Cristian, and Kirsten want it to go down. Meanwhile, Brady seems to reconcile his relationship with Kilby, and old Toka notices Mike is running around the island, making him the initial target. 

The problem with that plan is Mike outlasts Lewis and Kristen to win immunity in a challenge where the players had to balance a statue while on a narrow beam.

With the immunity necklace on, Mike feels like he’s in power. He goes to his new friend Eric with a plan to blindside Brady. Jelly and Devon are on board, so Mike feels he has the numbers. Meanwhile, Brady ropes in Maggie, Kliby, Carter, Thien An, Devon, Jelly, and Mike and wants to do Eric. There’s also a plan in place to potentially blindside Kristen to flush the idol they think she has. Mike tells Kristin this information right to her face, causing a huge uproar. Kristin tells Brady about Mike’s plan to blindside him, so Brady confronts Mike right in the shelter. 

If you’re confused by this writing, imagine the players!

The confusion continues at Tribal. Mike is blamed for not keeping his mouth shut, whispers start happening, chaos ensues, Devon is chilling because he’s voting for Brady and doesn’t care about the chaos. It is indeed a live Tribal that in the end, results in Brady going home 9-4, with himself, Lewis, Carter, and Thien A voting for Eric, turning heel on the pro wrestler and sending the bug-eating Brodie to the jury.

After last week’s slog of a Tribal Council, this is exactly what we needed for a merge episode! I love the old-school callback to eating bugs to earn the merge feast. I also attribute the start of the game being two Tribes as opposed to three as the reason why this first merge vote was chaotic. I’m not sure Mike would have been the vote even if he wasn’t immune. Those old Toka’s wanted to use the baseball executive as a number to take out either a Brady or Kilby. 

I thought the edit this episode really gave a great balance of dynamics. Between Devon, Eric, Brady, Kilby, Jelly, Kristin, Mike, and Sharondra, there was a lot of voices in this episode. I think this is only the beginning for what should be a fun ride to the end of Survivor 51.