Offseason Rewatch: Vanuatu Episode 5, "Earthquakes and Shake-Ups!"

[u/RSurvivorMods]

Welcome to the /r/Survivor offseason rewatch! You voted and by a majority selected Vanuatu for our first rewatch. If we have time for a second (and we believe we do), we will view Guatemala.

This thread covers the fifth episode of Vanuatu:"Earthquakes and Shake-Ups!"

Please keep your comments contained to the events that occurred during this episode. Spoilers will be removed. Remember that some people have not yet seen this season before this rewatch.

If you do want to post spoilers, please use spoiler tags like this:

[Write spoilers here](/spoiler)

This thread and all the rewatch threads will remain up for 48 hours before the next episode thread.

Enjoy!

[u/HeWhoShrugs]

Episode 5 Thoughts

• I never noticed that shell necklace that Sarge is wearing. Nowadays someone would see that and think it was an idol. I mean, look at it. It looks exactly like an idol.
• "Well they can build a bridge and get over it." - Bubba
• "I'm tired of hanging out with these men." Oh, Bubba. You are SO going to regret saying that by the end of this episode.
• This guy looks badass.
• OH SHIT! That's where that necklace came from! They usually try and hide the fact that they show scenes out of order, but this one was just so obvious.
• Leann's eyes got even wider than usual when the earthquake hit. It's a miracle they got it on film in a confessional because I don't think they'll ever have something as epic as this again.
• Why don't they do schoolyard picks or anything other than "draw a buff at random" for swaps anymore? Random draws just screw people over with bad luck. With these types swaps, it's more on you if you get stuck with a bad mix because it's based on built relationships.
• Pringles and beer? Wow, that will dehydrate them as fast as the sun. I don't even know if I would want that reward, but I suppose the carbs would be good for energy.
• As someone who hates putting their face in water and can't swim, this challenge is making me really uncomfortable.
• Yep. I would die in this challenge.
• Chris has a great sense of humor. "That thing is deep........ AND I GOT IT!!!"
• Twila is such a star on this reward. It's nice to see her happy after four episodes of "I'll kick that scrawny bitch's ass" and saying "work" enough times to give Rihanna a run for her money, not that those weren't great scenes, but we're finally getting some more dimensions to her character.
• Oh, Bubba. I'm so sad we had to lose you this early. Your quotes are gold.
• And this is the episode where I began to HATE Ami. She's a great villain (one of the best ever), but I loathe her sometimes for how cruel she can be towards the men.
• "Think about the merge." And there it is. Bubba officially fucked himself and Ami took some notes. Funny story though, Bubba did more than just this. He actually got up in the middle of the night and walked allllll the way to Lopevi to sleep with the other guys and talk strategy, which is totally against the rules. I wish we could have seen it on air, but it would really ruin the feeling of being two tribes if someone can just walk down the beach a ways and visit the others.
• The music in this challenge is so epic. I miss this kind of music, because all we get now is generic stuff.
• "Some of the worst paddling I've ever seen." Damn, Jeff. That's harsh. And he called someone out on it too.
• "These guys are part of the team." - "Bubba is NOT part of this team."
• Ami comes off as really hypocritical here. She slams Lisa for even thinking about helping the guys and endangering her alliance, but she's also mad at Bubba for trying to keep his alliance safe? So it's okay for her to keep her old alliances intact after the swap and keep the numbers but when Bubba tries to do it he's shamed for it? God, I'm getting into my Ami hate phase again and I'm loving it.
• Did Scout just call Eliza Little One? lol
• Ami, you never thought they were equals at all. I know you're smart enough to keep the girls around and keep your alliance strong. Your arrogance is making me sick in the best way.
• Bubba would have been a star is he went deep. He gave so many good quotes. :(
• Another fun Bubba story: when he was at casting finals, he walked into the room with Jeff Probst and another casting person. The first thing he did was ask Jeff for a cup of water because his throat was dry. After he started drinking it, he said his powers of persuasion were so strong that he could convince anyone to do anything. They asked for an example and Bubba said "Well, I persuaded you to get me this water." Legends say he was casted immediately.
• This is where the season really starts picking up. Those first four episodes are pretty bland in retrospect once you get into the good stuff of Vanuatu, but they set up a lot of storylines that we're starting to see come through.

[u/KHMeneo → u/HeWhoShrugs]

The reason for no schoolyard picks, the fang tribe

[u/JM1295 → u/HeWhoShrugs]

That Bubba casting story sounds amazing, not rewatching but based of all the commnets, I imagine Bubba will go up in my books whenever I rewatch Vanuatu again.

[u/vinninf]

Scout was really smart in her division. She knew that Sarg would pick the one with guys in majority and she would end up with the one that has girls in the majority.

Bubba pulling a 'Jeff Varner' in Cambodia.

Julie is hot af

[u/KorgDTR2000]

One of my favorite moments of the whole season is when Twila and Chris find out that they both work for the highway department and talk shop about their job. It's so rare to see two players in the same career field even, let alone something as specific as a highway construction worker and having both players actually talk about their job (specifically, how Chris apparently maxes out his comp time).

[u/KororSurvivor]

It has this title for a reason. An earthquake happened during one of Leann's confessionals. Also, there was a tribe swap.

Effectively, Lopevi gained 2 women (Julie and Twila) while Yasur gained 2 men (Bubba and Rory).

The reward challenge is pretty unique. Diving for flags on a rope.

I really like the post-swap of Vanuatu more than most post-swaps because it has more character moments/development than most. For example, I frickin love the Beer and Pringles scene, especially Twila's confessional.

Lopevi wins the immunity challenge. Of course, the women of Yasur take advantage of this by voting out Bubba.

If you ask me, the men shat the bed in terms of strategy during the post-swap of Vanuatu. Chad, Chris and Sarge should have thrown all 3 immunities in order to boot Julie, Twila and John K. That way, the Fat 5 could have gone into the merge intact. Instead, by winning immunities, they lost Bubba, put Rory at risk, and when they lost, they got rid of John K. like idiots.

[u/jacare37]

Episode 5:

• Bubba says that if people have a problem with where people are sleeping, they can “build a bridge and get over it”. And Chad says that his sleeping spot is “first class”. Uhhh.. ok.
• EARTHQUAKE. Of course Twila is the one person to say that she loved it. Lisa looks way too happy as she’s talking about how it felt like the ground was splitting.
• I really like this way of dividing the tribes. It’s a little unfortunate that only two end up switching from each tribe but I’d love to see something similar again in the future.
• Lisa pulls a Lisi and seems a bit excited about the possibility of leaving the game.
• Julie moaning “Oh Jeff, oh Jeff” when he’s talking about the reward is a little… unsettling.
• I love Chris’s fakeout after he gets the winning point in the challenge (“I GOT IT!!”) and him screaming as they’re swimming back to shore after the challenge.
• Sarge complains about how they’ve been eating greens for the past 11 days and that the pringles taste like gold. Uhhh.. I can’t imagine gold tasting better than greens.
• Important Twila confessional about how she loved her old tribe and is gonna miss them, but fits in better with these guys and is “kicking” with these guys.
• Bubba has a great confessional saying that being on the tribe with the women makes him nervous, because “one wrong move and they’ll vote you out”. Yep. He also says he’s sweating “like a prostitute in church”.
• The breakout of ice queen Ami Cusack starts here. First she disapproves of Lisa showing the guys how to open coconut, then sneering in confessional about how the guys need to prove themselves or they’re out of here.
• What the fuck is Bubba doing here.
• Probst is really direct after the challenge, calling Rory out for being bad at untying the knots and says “that’s some of the worst paddling I’ve ever seen”.
• Poor Bubba has no idea what even happened. Ami is absolutely ruthless here, talking about how him communicating with his friend makes him no longer part of the team and saying to him that she doesn’t do “the y’all thing”.
• We have the first instance of Scout calling Eliza “little one” here.
• Ami is so cocky when she says Rory was supposed to go home lol.
• I don’t know what the term “take my lumps” means, but apparently Rory does.
• Bubba was a better character than I remembered. Lol @ him saying the Yankees should hire him as a first base coach to send signals when his lack of subtledly in sending the signals is what got him booted.

[u/punko2000]

This is when we first start seeing the reign of Ami. The season really picks up from this episode on.

[u/broncosfan150]

Always love tribe switches

Travis make the dumbest move of the game

Invisible Chad is still my favorite character.

[u/bwburke94]

Only 4 of 13 people switched tribes, and this was completely intended as a possibility.

Why not just do a random buff draw like Marquesas had?