A lot happened during the premiere episode of Survivor 47, but an overwhelming majority of the conversation has been about one moment. That’s, of course, Andy’s Immunity Challenge meltdown, which involved overheating, laying on the ground and then word vomiting out stream of consciousness thoughts about his own insecurities, his feelings of being at the bottom of his tribe and most curiously of all, his uncertainty about throwing Jon, his closest ally, under the bus. Everyone on the show, as well as everyone watching and commenting on social media, was thrown for a loop about how much he blurted out, but if one Survivor fan favorite former contestant is to be believed, it seems like the edit didn’t tell us the full story.
If you haven’t heard, beloved Survivor alumni Carson Garrett and Carolyn Wiger are doing a podcast together and posting their thoughts about every episode. There was a lot of talk about Andy’s whoopsie during the Immunity Challenge, and at one point, Carson dropped a theory I’m completely on board with. In the moment, it felt like Andy was bringing his ally Jon's name up for no reason and talking about how he was considering a move against him, but more likely, he was probably approached by his other tribe members prior to the immunity challenge and was mentally wrestling with whether to vote against him, which came out in his speech. Here’s a portion of Carson’s quote…
Correct me if I’m wrong on this theory, but Andy talks about how he had a moment where he thought about throwing Jon under the bus. I watched that thinking that that was a sincere, random thought in the moment, and it was kind of like, ‘What?’ because they had shown Jon and Andy bonding at one point. But then seeing how the episode ended up, where Jon is then voted out with 5 votes against 1 and he votes for Anika, it became more apparent to me that I don’t think that was the full story. I think.. In my opinion, what it looked like was all the young people kinda ousted Jon early on. So, Jon was already a target before that challenge, and it wasn’t just that Andy randomly thought about it and was thinking about throwing Jon under the bus. It was already a planted seed that was growing within the youngsters that they thought about then voting Jon out. It was just that Andy in that moment decided to spill the beans and let everybody know, and I feel like he also did that because he was probably comfortable in knowing what the plan was.
If you reflect on what happened during the entirety of the episode, this makes complete sense. A strong four emerged on the Gata Tribe almost immediately that included Anika, Rachel, Sam and Sierra. Andy and Jon bonded together but were on the periphery and clearly on the outs with the rest of the tribe. Andy is a bit physically stronger and also likely seems like an easier person to dictate to; so, he was probably approached by some of the other castaways who either outright said or implied that if they lost the immunity challenge, they were going to vote out Jon. Given his paranoia, I’m sure he wasn’t sure if the plan was legitimate or not (it was), but he was probably still mentally wrestling with whether or not to vote out Jon, who was the only one he’d made a connection with.
Survivor is incredibly hard. It’s not just the physical challenge of literally surviving. It’s also the mental challenge of trying to bond with complete strangers and make sure they’re not scheming against you. It can bring some very raw emotions out of people, and that’s what we saw with Andy during the first episode. If anyone can empathize, however, it’s former contestants, and that’s exactly what Carolyn did.
The Survivor 44 finalist, who elicited some big reactions, both good and bad, during her season apparently jumped on X after the premiere and shot Andy a DM. Here’s what she said…
I sent him a message because I was like, ‘Don’t read anything online because people are going to be mean.’
Fortunately for Andy, he’s got some more time to bring this back. He joined his fellow tribemates and voted out Jon during last week’s episode. He’s obviously still not in the best position, given he was already on the outs and now has developed a reputation for blurting out everyone’s plans, but plenty of former players have survived poor first impressions and went on to make a very deep run.
You can watch for yourself on CBS on Wednesday evenings throughout the Fall. This season is already shaping up to be a great one, and if someone emerges as a standout, it’s possible we could see them on the much-anticipated Survivor 50, which will be bringing back all returning players.