[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the Survivor Season 47 Episode 3.]
Rome isn’t afraid to let it be known who he does and doesn’t like in Survivor 47. That much became clear when he ate two of the four fish he caught at camp himself and then only shared small bits and pieces with select players in Episode 3. No one was a fan of the latest bold move from the player with the biggest personality on the Lava (red) tribe, but Rome called out Aysha in particular in a solo interview for her visible disdain for the move.
“Excuse you? You did absolutely nothing to deserve this. Absolutely nothing. You aren’t even in my alliance, Aysha, why should I give you a big chunk of meat?” he asked the cameras while lounging on big rocks. “So guess what I did? The last two fish, I ate them right next to Aysha, right next to her. And I made sure I was smacking a little bit so she could hear it, so she could know, listen, if you want some of this fish, you better put in some work, too.”
In the new episode of Survivor‘s On Fire podcast tied to this episode (embedded below), host Jeff Probst, Season 46 alum Charlie Davis, and podcast cohost and executive producer Jay Wolff reacted to this fishing moment. They unpacked whether or not it was a mistake on Rome’s part to be so open about who he sees as allies, especially given the fact that Lava headed to its first tribal council at the end of the episode.
“Is this the right way to ‘form a community?’” Wolff asked his cohosts. Davis said he “loves” Rome, saying he’s endlessly entertaining for viewers. And Wolff thinks Rome may be the player whom Probst said is definitely getting an invitation to return for Survivor 50. Davis then gave his perspective as a former contestant on why Rome’s divisive move and this episode at large actually “gave a lot of good approaches on how — for better or worse — you can handle a player who’s sticking out on your tribe.”
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“What we see in this sequence and surrounding it is that this tribe’s butting heads over Rome a lot, particularly Sol, Aysha as well, people outside of his alliance,” Davis explained. “And then you get stage two where that annoyance all of a sudden becomes, well, maybe Rome’s got to go. But then where I really want to focus in is in terms of community building on Survivor is where it gets tricky. Stage three is really where all this chaos happens and where you have to be really careful as a player because some players will stop at just say, we need to get Rome out because he is annoying me. But other players will then say, well, maybe that could be something I want in my alliance for now because he’s a shield or he’s a smokescreen. It becomes really tricky and can drive a lot of division in your tribe, and it’s also going to make a huge blindside opportunity.”
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Probst thinks that Rome’s big personality and unabashed willingness to broadcast his motives may not be well perceived by other players, but it could work for him. Essentially, because Rome has this big personality, he may know exactly how to use it. Other players who embrace a more toned-down approach naturally would think he was making mistakes. Probst compared Rome to TK, who was eliminated in Episode 2 after his “emotional outburst” after a lost challenge, but also noted that wondering if Rome is bad at building community in this game is the wrong question to ask.
“Going back to TK and how he handled losing the immunity challenge, that’s who TK is. And there have been players like TK who demanded perfection from their tribe and they got it because other people agreed there was some weak links,” Probst says on On Fire. “In TK’s case, he’s the one who stood out. So I really feel like it’s easy to sit at home and say, oh my gosh, Rome’s overplaying. Not if you’re Rome! This might work for Rome and it might work this season.”
“Everybody also labeled Q [Burdette] as being crazy” in Season 46, Probst notes. “Q outlasted a lot of people because he was two or three steps ahead. So in terms of is it a good way to form a community, I think the fallacy is in the way the question is asked. How do you become a member of an ever-shifting community in which you’re playing this million-dollar game? Because that’s what you have to do. We don’t know what Rome’s future is. We don’t know that Rome’s not in the final three saying, look what I did and look how effective I was when I told Aysha, ‘You’re not getting any fish.’ I find all this fascinating, but the one mistake I would not make is ever sit back and judge another player as making a terrible mistake. I would be saying, how is this player’s actions impacting my community and what do I need to do to keep this community where I want it?”
Rome scored an immunity idol through a journey later in the episode and played it in his defense at tribal council (this cast is not repeating the idol mistakes of Season 46). He also got a Steal-a-Vote advantage as part of the reward. Only one person, Sol, voted for Rome, despite Aysha’s dislike of him. She voted for Genevieve, but clearly she should’ve been angling for Rome’s elimination, as Rome, Genevieve, and Kishan’s votes are what sent her packing.
Rome ultimately didn’t need protection from his idol because his fishing move wasn’t enough to make everyone want him gone. He may be proving himself to be hard to catch.
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