Review: Survivor, “You Broke My Heart Like I Was a Girl at the Prom” | Season 51, Episode 7

Shortly before officially announcing the merge this week, Jeff Probst reviews the season so far with the final 13. “Do you feel like you are birthing the first season of the Open Era?” he asks them. Everyone nods their heads vigorously, but I’m not so sure. Those first three episodes of season 51 felt like a tweaked version of Survivor, doing away with many of the most annoying qualities of the New Era (including the overused three-tribe format, the Beware advantages, and the journeys) and pairing a fairly standard modern cast with a back-to-basics approach—but then the tribe swap happened, and the last three episodes have been noticeably worse, much more in line with the format we’re used to.

So what is Probst getting at with this deeply meta question, and why does the episode include it in the edit? In a sense, the discussion isn’t actually surprising at all; present-day Survivor is obsessed with referencing itself, with pointing out the ways the game has changed in order to disguise the rigidity of the formula. By naming the various turns of season 51—the marooning, the tribe swap, Exile—Probst sounds like he’s building an argument for the season, sticking to the Open Era framing because that’s what production already decided on. But it’s just not totally convincing, because almost everything still feels the same, especially in the episodes since the swap.

Take the immunity challenge in this episode. The merge is exciting for a lot of reasons, but one of them should be the pivot to individual-based challenges. I’m a sucker for a good endurance test, and that’s technically what we get here. That said, in this particular case, watching everyone stand on a beam and balance a whale statue in place is just … dull. There’s a progression to the challenge, with the players gradually moving farther back on the beam, but that doesn’t actually offer a new dimension or anything visually interesting. In fact, I really couldn’t name a single notable moment of the whole segment (and Eric pretending that he’s watching the remaining contestants on TV does not count). Mike’s win is notable because he’s on the chopping block otherwise, but I didn’t find myself feeling strongly either way about it.