Carson on Survivor: Week 5 Recap

The Jackets are back from spring break, Opening Day is upon here in Braves country, and I am back to write about Survivor again! For those that haven’t been following, current Georgia Tech student Carson Garrett competed in the currently airing season of Survivor. After four episodes, he remains alive in the game and in a good situation as a major shift in the game approaches. Let’s dig in.

SURVIVOR SEASON 44 EPISODE 5 SPOILERS AHEAD

What happened

Last week, Matthew gave the majority of the Ratu story after Carson swapped tribes from Tika in order to add him as an ally. This week, we see Matthew and Carson share another vulnerable conversation where Matthew describes to him just how much pain his shoulder is in after dislocating it nine days prior, a signal of their strengthening relationship.

While the scene was shown to give the audience a sense of how much pain Matthew was in, in the Survivor context, telling an ally about physical pain at this stage in the game is a serious decision to make. Tribe strength still matters, but it also reveals a weakness that Carson theoretically could exploit later on, or use as a reason to vote him off.

After, Carson and Kane get a chance to connect over fantasy and all the classic nerd topics (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, etc.), building a level of trust there. We don’t see anything beyond a walk they take together.

After the immunity challenge, which Carson again was on the finishing puzzle (this week’s was a ball maze) and came out victorious, Jeff and the medical team evaluated Matthew’s shoulder. While they didn’t pull him from the game since his injury wasn’t potentially life threatening, they made it clear that leaving was going to be optimal for his long-term health, and he bowed out.

Tika as challenge losers were supposed to go to tribal council, but with Matthew leaving the game, his departure served as the elmination for the week, and Tika was spared voting out a tribemember.

With that shake up at Ratu, Carson loses a potential ally, but picks up Kane in the process. Carson hasn’t faced tribal council since joining Ratu, and with the merge looking to be coming next week, his temporary immunity idol will lose power.

Brandon, who was sent on the post-challenge journey, learned about the temporary idol from Danny, but that likely will be of little consequence with the merge upcoming.

Where does Carson stand?

I wish this question was straightforward, but with Carson getting minimal screen time the last couple weeks and Ratu avoiding tribal council, his game has been able to coast with little to evaluate. What we do know is that people have approached him to work with strategically, and he’s been active when necessary, the Helen vote serving as the primary example.

If the merge does indeed happen next week, he’ll have two former Tika tribemates in Yam Yam and Carolyn, plus Kane from Ratu as potential allies. Yam Yam and Carolyn likely would be at the bottom of the pecking order just purely because they haven’t been able to form relationships with other players. Carolyn specifically has not shown to be super trustworthy, but does have an idol only she knows about.

This will give Carson a choice at the merge; either stick with a Ratu voting block, or try and navigate the game with Yam Yam and Carolyn. But, this is Survivor, so none of that could happen and that’s probably what will happen. ‘

One big advantage is that no one has described Carson as a threat yet, and he even said in this episode that when he sees that someone begins to pick up the scent of how he’s playing the game, he will target them. His strategy of being a workable number for a group while savvily scheming in the background has worked so far. We’ll see how far it can go.

Jack Purdy is a non-revenue sports writer and co-host of Scions of the Southland for From The Rumble Seat. He previously served as The Technique’s assistant sports editor before graduating Georgia Tech in 2022. Follow Jack on Twitter @JackNicolaus