Survivor 41: Shot In The Dark Twist Explained

If you are anything like me, then you may have been confused here and there during the season premier of Survivor 41 Wednesday night.

I don’t know if it was the 16-month absence of Survivor working my brain, or the fact that I worked like 16 hours that day and still had to recap Big Brother 23 after, but I just felt lost several times during the two-hour premiere.

And I wasn’t alone. I tweeted several times I was confused by the new twists and challenges, and others agreed with me. But nothing was more confusing than when some of the players asked Jeff Probst at Tribal Council if they could take their die with them when voting. WHAT DICE? What did I miss? And HOW did I miss this? I asked Twitter what they were talking about, and got no answers. Only a few others saying they had no idea either.

So I decided to look into it. Apparently it was talked about during the episode, but I must have been trying to make sense of something else (or I was busy tweeting about how funny it was when Brad was like here is who needs to go home TO THEIR FACES.

But anyway, here’s the story about those dice. First of all, the twist is called “Shot in the Dark” and it can happen at Tribal Council. Here’s how it works. Each player gets a Shot in the Dark Die, and if a player is feeling vulnerable at Tribal Council, they can choose to play it. If they do play it, they forfeit their vote and get a 1 in 6 shot at earning immunity there on the spot. You just have to reach into a bag, and if you draw a scroll that says “safe,” you’re safe. But if not, then you’re still vulnerable AND don’t get to vote. So that’s a very risky game to play.

“It’s a Hail Mary,” Probst said of the new twist. “You only want to use this if you truly think you’re in trouble because you’re sacrificing your vote.”

I’m not normally a fan of too many advantages or safety, and think there are too many idols in this game, some not even earned, but I find this twist pretty fair. Everyone has an equal shot at it, and there’s a possibly consequence if you do decide to play the die. I think it. I think they should just do this and do away with idols.