SPOILER ALERTS: Recapping Episode 1 of Surviving Barstool and Looking Ahead to Episode 2

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR SURVIVING BARSTOOL SEASON 5 EPISODE 1 BELOW. DON'T READ THE RECAP IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED EPISODE 1 SPOILED.

BELOW IS BASICALLY A PLAY-BY-PLAY OF THE EPISODE AND WHAT LIES AHEAD FOR THE NEXT EPISODE!

If you want to watch a recap show for Episode 1, check out the Breakdown Boys!

Well, Surviving Barstool is officially back!

And apparently Season 5 decided there was absolutely no reason to ease us into this thing because we had two people eliminated BEFORE LUNCH on Day 1.

Before we get there, let's start from the beginning.

The episode opens with the introduction of the cast, and we find out that Mut is going to be the referee this season.

What exactly does that mean? I'm not really sure and I don't think he really knows either. He pretty much did his usual thing in Episode 1, which was stand around, stay quiet and somehow still be involved in the show.

The 18 contestants would be split into three tribes.

Roach Tribe (Green): Feits, Tommy Smokes, Ella, Pat, Brandon Walker and Dante.

Rat Tribe (Black): Nicky Smokes, Tate, Dani Jackel, Hannah, Nick Turani and Dana Beers.

Snake Tribe (White): Annika, Rone, Meek Phill, Glenny Balls, Katic and Marty Mush.

There were already some interesting dynamics before anybody had even done anything.

Annika made it pretty clear early in the episode that she doesn't like Rone.

Naturally, they ended up on the same tribe.

We also got a reminder of the Dana Beers/Meek Phill golf cart confrontation from After Dark, which I assumed would play some sort of role in this game considering how recently Surviving was filmed after that whole mess.

But there wasn't much time for everybody to settle in because Jeff D. Lowe immediately dropped the first big twist of the season.

Two people were going home. Not tonight. Not at the end of Day 1. Before fucking lunch.

Mind Your Step

The first challenge of Season 5 was called "Mind Your Step."

One person from each tribe had to run to a table, use a decoder to figure out a location somewhere inside the Barstool Chicago office and then find boards with their names on them.

Those boards would eventually be used to build a staircase. Once the staircase was completed, the tribe could climb up, grab a puzzle, bring it back down and put it together. First place got immunity AND first choice of which room they wanted to sleep in.

Second and third place? Both were sending somebody home. So yeah, pretty important first challenge!

Potentially something to remember later on is when Tate helped Marty find the Yug Station after Marty apparently promised to help him out later in the game.

We'll see if Marty remembers that one.

The Rat Tribe actually got off to a pretty good start, but Nicky Smokes could not find his piece in the office he works in and started pissing away the lead they had built. You would think the Chicago people would have a gigantic advantage here considering they were basically running around their own office with a blueprint.

Roach finished the decoder portion first and started putting together its steps, while Rat got through that part second. Snake was WAY behind after Katic couldn't find their final piece, which ended up being hidden inside a stall in the men's bathroom. He eventually found it, but by that point Snake had a lot of ground to make up.

Roach finished building its staircase first and brought the puzzle down, with Rat finishing its staircase shortly after. It basically turned into a two-team race because Snake hadn't even started the puzzle yet.

Luckily for Rat, they had the Puzzle King himself.

Nick Turani helped put together the final puzzle, which ended up forming a Barstool stool, and Rat barely beat Roach to win the challenge. That meant Rat was safe, while both Roach and Snake would be voting somebody out.

And then we got the biggest controversy of the episode.

STAIRGATE

Snake couldn't get one of its stairs to fit correctly, and for a few minutes it looked like production had completely fucked up the first challenge of the season. The stair was supposed to fit, it wasn't fitting, and Snake was already so far behind that it looked like they had a pretty legitimate complaint.

Except production didn't screw anything up.

It turns out Meek Phill just needed to push the damn stair a little harder into place.

So after thinking we were about to have some gigantic Day 1 production controversy, the actual explanation was that Meek was being a gigantic pussy and didn't get the stair to fit in.

Incredible.

With Snake going to Tribal Council, Marty and Glenny started talking about who should go home. Meek seemed like the most obvious target, but they decided Katic was the better option and then told Katic that they were both voting for Meek.

Over on Roach, Brandon Walker, Tommy, Feits and Pat were talking about getting either Ella or Dante out. That seemed like a pretty simple plan until Tommy decided to go tell Ella and Dante that they had a huge target on their backs.

Why make things easy?

Ella and Dante obviously thought they needed to do something, and the two agreed that Tommy Smokes needed to go. Unfortunately for them, Feits found out what was happening and let Tommy know they were coming after him, which made it pretty difficult to pull anything off.

What's the saying? You come at the King, you best not miss... Yeah, it was going to end bad for one of those two.

Meanwhile, Nick Turani had apparently decided winning immunity wasn't enough entertainment for one morning. He planted a fake immunity idol in the showers, and of course the person who ended up finding it was Meek Phill.

Meek picked it up thinking it was real.

I'm sure that won't come back to haunt him at all!

Rone's Idol Mission

While Meek was celebrating his fake idol, Rone actually found a real one. Well, kind of.

There's a new twist with immunity idols this season where finding one doesn't automatically mean it's yours (at least I don't think). Rone had to go into Dave's office to meet with Dani Jackel, where he discovered the gold tube and learned he would have to complete a mission called "The Clean Sweep" before officially receiving the idol.

His mission was to get everyone on Snake to vote for the exact same person he votes for at Tribal Council. (Note, the mission also says if a player doesn't want to accept the mission, they can pass it to another player, so that's something to keep in mind. If they choose to take on the mission, it can no longer be passed on)

That's actually a pretty awesome twist because now finding an idol can potentially force you to change the way you're playing the game. Rone couldn't just sit back and let the vote happen. He needed everybody on the same page, and that included Annika, who had already made it pretty clear earlier in the episode that she wasn't exactly the president of the Rone Fan Club.

The target became Katic, and Rone now had to make sure everybody other than Katic wrote the exact same name down. If he pulled it off, the idol was his.

Tribal Council

Just like that, it was time to send two people home.

Roach Tribe was up first, and Ella and Dante's attempt to turn things around on Tommy never really got enough traction.

Feits had already warned Tommy about what was happening, and when the votes were read, Ella became the first person eliminated from Surviving Barstool Season 5.

She reacted like most people would after losing out on a chance of $250,000. Tears were shed, and she took it pretty personal.

Then it was Snake's turn.

Katic had been told that the votes were going toward Meek, but that wasn't actually the plan. Katic was voted out unanimously, becoming the second person eliminated from Season 5.

That also meant Rone had pulled off his mission.

Everyone voted for Katic, which officially earned Rone the immunity idol. So after one episode, Rone has already survived Tribal Council, convinced an entire tribe to vote together despite Annika saying she doesn't like him and now has a real immunity idol in his pocket.

Meanwhile, Meek has an idol too! Just don't tell him.

What Are We Watching For In Episode 2?

There are plenty of things to think about heading into episode 2. The biggest question for me going into Episode 2 is what happens with Dana. Two people he was connected with in Ella and Katic are already out of the game, and that's probably not what he expected to happen before they even made it to lunch on Day 1.

We know from the trailer for future episodes that Dana and Tate eventually have some sort of conversation about an alliance, so maybe Tate or Dana see an opportunity and try to pull the other one in. On the other hand, losing Ella and Katic might actually help Dana more than he realizes. Having fewer obvious connections could make him look like less of a threat, especially this early in the game.

And my other question...

How the hell is Glenny convincing people what to do when he doesn't even work at the company anymore? SMH.

Either way, Episode 1 was a pretty damn good start to Season 5. We got two eliminations, a fake idol, a real idol, a secret mission, Stairgate, Nicky Smokes and Katic getting lost inside their own office and two people sent packing before lunch.

WINNER OF EPISODE 1

At the end of each episode, I'll pick a winner and a loser.

Winner: Rone — This one feels obvious. He completed a mission and received an immunity idol in the first episode. The man is a master manipulator. He convinced a person (Annika) who openly admitted she wasn't a Rone fan to go on his side and vote for a person she interacts with daily. Kudos also to Nicky Clicky for his puzzle masterpiece. I thought he had a good first episode and built himself some good grace with his tribe.