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‘Survivor: Cambodia’, Episode 1 recap: The need for speed

Don’t miss anything from Survivor season 31 and make sure to follow along with my live recap!Tonight we will meet all 20 castaways and get them broken up into tribes and then they will be jumping right into the first challenge of the season. Whichever tribe cut their raft free and got to the rice first would get to keep their loot, effectively winning the first reward challenge. Wentworth said she needed to up her social game and develop solid alliances this time around.

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Meanwhile, Abi-Maria began rubbing people the wrong way nearly immediately, obsessing over her missing bag and bracelet. Shirin recognized Vytas’ gamesmanship and quickly set up an alliance with Jeff, Kelley, Spencer, and Peih-Gee.

On the Bayon tribe, it felt clear to us entering the challenge that they may be in good shape. The opposing tribe consisted of Andrew Savage, Jeremy Collins, Joe Anglim, Keith Nale, Stephen Fishbach, Ciera Eastin, “Chaos” Kass, Kimmi Kappenberg, Monica Padilla and Tasha Fox. We heard that there would be some twists with the hidden Immunity Idols this season, but we didn’t expect this to come into play in Episode 1…but Kelley goes a-searching for an Idol and unbelievably spots one in a tree trunk.

In the “All-Stars” version, the contestants had to dive down and retrieve the raft from the ocean floor, then light torches on their way to the massive pyre at the finish line. Joe was able to outdo Kelly and get his tribe’s keys to win the challenge for Bayon. Kelley Wentworth actually managed to grab it without anyone else noticing because they were so involved in watching the their team lose. The castaways were shocked to find out they would have no time to strategize before voting someone out.

Tweakin’. Though some fans are still not over the fact that players like Shane Powers or Jim Rice made the fan-vote cut for this season, it took a total of five-seconds for me to welcome Keith back to the show with open arms. The contestants were forced to scramble in their decision-making a bit after Probst announced they would be headed straight to Tribal Council from the challenge, leaving no time for open strategy sessions on the beach. It was found inside Peih-Gee’s bag and Abi-Maria is giving her the benefit of the doubt, or so she says. Jeff Varner declared that there was indeed a divide in the tribe between old school players and new school.

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What did you think of this episode?

Kelly Wiglesworth in Survivor Cambodia