The day has finally come. Her enemies were plotting and they got the best of her in the end.
Star’s star shone bright while it lasted. I feel sad that we, the audience, seemed to be robbed of Star throughout the season. I really looked forward to having her on the season after listening to her pre-season press. I thought she was funny, exciting, and unique. However, in the pre-merge we get the most watered down version of her. After she gives her idol to Eva, we finally see glimpses of her personality because now they’re “allies.” All of the sudden, Eva wants Star out again and we just get dunk, after dunk, after dunk on Star and then she’s booted. No one wanted to play ball with her no matter how hard she tried. I really enjoyed Star on Survivor 48 and my OTTN4 rating is not a reflection of how I feel about her. Truly a bummer.
I have to say… I really didn’t like this episode. It was so boring that even the players seemed like they were falling asleep. The chicken and waffles chant was painful. No one really stood out to me as having a particularly good episode either. My hope for things to get more exciting with David’s exit was thoroughly squashed with this one. The episode’s saving grace was the debut of the new hit track “My Enemies Are Plottin’” by Star Toomey.
So where do we go from here? Honestly, I’m not sure. The game has felt a bit stagnant for most of the post-merge. I think all three players in my contender rankings have a path to winning the title of Sole Survivor. Some are obviously more likely than others. Any of the three could win but all three could also meet their downfall next episode. Slight exaggeration perhaps but I feel like the race is between Joe, Kyle, and Shauhin and it’s not close. I have felt since the premiere that this season has masculine energy and that a man would likely win. For a while I held on that maybe Eva could win in a male-dominated season, but I think that ship may be on its way to sailing. So what do I think of our big three?
Contenders
Kyle - Kyle holds the number one spot right now. Will he hold on to it? I’m not sure, but I can feel hopeful. I thought if this episode was good for anyone, it was good for Kyle. He gives us a lot of nuanced strategic content. Kyle’s been playing the game hard and he isn’t afraid to do what is best for his game even if that is different from his #1 Kamilla. However, Kyle remains loyal to her by not getting in her way and trying to subtly help her. He seems to be the player who truly has all of the information due to his position. I think that Kyle is probably objectively playing one of the best games on the beach right now. Part of me wonders if they would try to make Kyle look a little better, but all of the other realistic contenders for Sole Survivor this season have all had flaws in their edits. I think there is still room for Kyle’s more erratic side to reemerge resulting in him playing too hard and flaming out, but the entire post-merge has been pretty status quo. If this alliance sticks together there’s not much reason for him to go crazy. If anyone gets picked off from the dominant alliance, it seems like people are more so gunning for Joe. Kyle is in a good spot… For now.
Joe - Joe jumps back up, but mostly by virtue of just no one else really having much of a chance. There are still a couple of episodes left but is it possible that all of the foreshadowing of Joe throwing his game for Eva just does not go anywhere? Is the story of this season just about Joe’s vice grip on the game while being a good role model for his kids? At this point I cannot rule it out. However, we do see Joe continuously advocating for “the safe move.” Despite this, with each passing round no one seems willing to go out on a limb to challenge the dominant alliance. We get some messy moments from Joe this episode though. He comes off as overconfident in his position, bitter when he’s not chosen for reward, and disingenuous when attempting jury management with Mary. He becomes the target of the stragglers since he’s the “strength” of the alliance, but he wins immunity and gets a good moment afterward. I think there is still a chance for him to either sacrifice himself or get too complacent and get voted out, but it doesn’t feel like there’s any realistic threats on the horizon. It’s hard to believe that anyone has much of a chance if Joe is sitting at Final Tribal Council due to his absolute control of this season… Depending on how bitter the jury is going to be.
Shauhin - Shauhin holds his position this week. He had a kind of low key episode but we continue to get strategic narration and check-ins from him. I found it kind of interesting that he categorized Kamilla as a “free agent” when supposedly he has a relationship with Kamilla that was so threatening last round that it caused David to go crazy. He still also does not know about Kamilla and Kyle’s close relationship, which certainly adds a little some nuance to Kamilla’s “free agency” that he continues to miss. His SPV as a threat and someone worth eliminating returns. It seems like he might get his way in suggesting that Mary should be the one to stay over Star since she doesn’t have a SITD. This wasn’t a bad episode for Shauhin by any means, but I don’t know if it was enough to move the needle past my previous hesitations about him.
Some Hope (Eva)
Eva drops from her perch this episode. We see some of her more blatant social and strategic clumsiness again this episode when she’s talking to Mary after Tribal Council. While the Previously On Survivor definitely tries to sell the David vote as Eva’s move, she doesn’t really address it in the episode just saying that she feels good about the people she kept and wants to keep chugging forward. Pick off the others one by one, it barely matters what order. She is sitting pretty. Unconcerned. Based on the way this round played out, she didn’t need to be concerned but her hubris didn’t come off great. This was a bit of a cool down after her huge episode last week, but I feel like her story is a bit stalled at the moment (perhaps because it is completed?) and I’m not entirely sure of her odds of taking the win if this alliance just marches to the final four. Though her position is good, I still think there needs to be some kind of shake up from the status quo for her to win (aka Joe gets voted out) and so far it’s just not happening.
Got Nothing For Ya (Mitch, Mary, Kamilla)
I really can’t believe that these three and Star didn’t try to pull a move on the main alliance this episode. It’s honestly baffling. Mitch talks about needing to stop playing scared, but at the end of the day that is exactly what he does. Granted he says that he also can’t play the game with people he doesn’t trust but still. What is his game plan moving forward with even fewer numbers than there already were this round? The window of opportunity to pull something off is nearly closed. I think similar to his Mail Man Mitch story at the beginning of the episode, Mitch will end up causing his own downfall in the end and looking a bit foolish. I’m not really sure why any of these stragglers believe that someone in the main power alliance would flip at final seven versus final eight. Kamilla says that the remnants of the Strong Five are “playing so scared” but in the end, it’s their faction that can’t pull the trigger. Something I did enjoy seeing was Kamilla and Kyle’s dynamic. In the past couple of episodes we saw very little of them together. Their relationship is very nuanced and despite their game being built on deception, they are extremely loyal to each other and share a genuine trust. However, despite Kamilla wanting to seize the opportunity to attack the game this round, Mitch chickened out and the status quo held once again. Mary pretty much tells us that she’s the villain now and she understands her position in the game and just needs to figure out a way to get through each round. I look forward to Kamilla and Mary hopefully stoke some fear on the beach in the next couple rounds, at least they will likely go down swinging.
This is not my best work, but this episode wasn’t exactly inspiring. It was kind of hard to remember what happened and I don’t tend to rewatch episodes. I’m hoping that some of these stragglers at least try to sow some chaos on their way out. Pleading with the Survivor Gods for a better episode next week.