Review: Survivor, "Under the Wing of a Dragon" | Season 44, Episode 9
If you only comment on the episodes with dumb twists, the rice terrorist wins, just FYI
The Birdcage twist was meaningful in how it further democratized Survivor’s initial hunt for immunity idols—whereas normally the “hide it somewhere in the woods” strategy privileges an aggressive player who is willing to risk being exposed as a “player,” the Birdcage put it right out in the open, removing some of the stigma about searching for it. That’s why Ratu ended up finding theirs as a group, and why Carolyn (someone who probably wouldn’t hunt for an idol in a cocky way) and Danny (who embodies that cockiness) were equally likely to end up with them.
But as the idols are returned to the game after the merge, the shortened timeline of the competition has increasingly pushed Survivor away from clues to idols or elaborate setups, replacing it with just dropping idols into trees for people to find. And at this stage of the game, there is no stigma around searching for idols, and hiding them in this way means that the producers really have no control over who might find them…