Kamilla - I dropped Kamilla a little bit last week because I wasn’t sure if she was getting a little too quiet, only for her to experience a relatively meteoric rise this week. The original Civa members showed that when push comes to shove, they’re not going to just skate by on vibes. Especially Kamilla and Kyle. For me, Kamilla was the strategic engine of this pair. She’s the one coming up with the farce that she and Kyle aren’t working together, she’s the one who tried to sow distrust between the California Girls without revealing Mitch’s advantage, she gets to be the one to tell Kyle where their votes and advantages are going, she even gets some emotional content during tribal council. It appears there’s also a possibility that Kyle got the credit for the move after the final votes are read, which may be bad for her but to me it feels like it means she’s not the first target between the two of them. Excellent episode for Kamilla.

David - Now that David is separated from his original Civa alliances we get to see a little bit more of his strategic chops. He shows that he still doesn’t trust Charity and is hoping to take her out, but willing to remain flexible depending on what’s going on with Star. On this new Lagi tribe Eva dubs David as her new trusted buff guy partner in crime, landing himself in a pair. Generally he continues to be perceived positively by his new tribe (besides Charity).

Shauhin - Shauhin drops down this week due to what feels like fumble after fumble after fumble. He says he’s 100% buying what Kamilla and Kyle are selling. He fails to effectively search Kyle’s bag. He assumes this vote will be way too easy for the California Girls. Tough episode for Shauhin, however, he remains relatively high on my list because this is perhaps the impetus for him to take a more aggressive approach to the rest of the game. He’s too complacent in this episode but it results in a close ally going home. Is this Shauhin’s sign that he needs to “attack the game” moving forward?

Joe - Joe gets conveniently hidden this week after the challenge. It falls upon Shauhin’s shoulders to narrate the California Girls’ loss of their numbers advantage on the new Vula. Since the show went out of its way to shield Joe from negativity this episode, there’s definitely still legs for Joe’s winning chances.

Kyle - Kyle breaks into my top five for the first time this season. I’m still not sure if his erratic behavior and social awkwardness in the opening episodes are the nail in his coffin or the jumping off point for a strong game going forward. This episode he perfectly “yes and”’s with Kamilla and together they successfully sell that they are willing to throw each other under the bus making the California Girls confident that they’re getting an easy vote. We’ve heard pretty consistently from Kyle and it appears that he could be at a serious turning point in the right direction.

Eva - Eva continues a slow, downward slide for me. She continues to show rather sloppy gameplay. She’s certainly shown taking an aggressive stance in the new Lagi quickly pulling in David and throwing Star under the bus, however, it feels like it’s coming off more as desperate rather than a flash or strategic prowess. Hope for her is that it seems like there’s going to be two buff guys willing to protect her in this game long enough for her to more skillfully take the game by the horns.

Mary - Mary now takes the top spot of likeliest winner from Vula. All three original Vula members benefit heavily from the tribe swap due to the likelihood that former Civa and Lagi members will want to use them as swing votes to eliminate the others. Mary went back to being quieter this episode but it seems fine because her SITD play last week was portrayed so positively. She also seems to have a personality that will probably be received more readily than Sai’s. I think there’s also hope for Sai and Mary to reunite and work together later. The show has laid the groundwork for that.

Mitch - Mitch drops back down to whence he came, bottom-middle of the pack. He continues to be shown in a positive light, but the strategic content was turned down yet again in favor of showing heart-warming bonding content with Cedrek regarding his stutter. Sure they said that they would work together, but it just felt more emotional than strategic. I really like Mitch, but it just feels like if he’s separated from the original Civa besides Chrissy, and Chrissy is getting the more strategic content instead of him, it’s not an amazing look.

Sai - Sai continues to have a good amount of content. The episode starts by showing us that there seems to have been an olive branch extended and accepted between Mary and Sai and they’re willing to work together, just to be separated by the tribe swap in the next scene. I think the swap should be okay for the original Vula members for a bit but Sai’s main new connection on the new Civa is with the person on the bottom who doesn’t have a vote, Bianca. If the tides are turning against Bianca I don’t know if Sai will stick her neck out for her, but as we’ve seen, Sai is here to play and play hard. I think she could easily rub people the wrong way. However, her content at the beginning of the episode with Mary seems to imply they’ll reunite so she may have some hope.

Charity - This episode for Charity feels a lot more like her premiere. We got a couple of episodes that showed her in a fairly positive light, but her negativity from the first episode reappears. We have pretty clearly been told that we should like David. Charity is shown completely underestimating and misreading David as someone who’s just a dumb jock and needs to be told to do by someone like her. Meanwhile, David is ready to cut Charity. I think it’s unlikely she climbs out of this hole.

Bianca - Bianca had some quiet episodes at the beginning but she hasn’t been completely invisible at all like Chrissy or Star. She seems fun and likeable to me but she’s in a tough position on the new Civa at the bottom without a vote. Additionally, her #1 just got voted out of the new Vula. Her new alliance seems like it may be with Sai, but I don’t know if Sai would hitch her wagon to Bianca if it puts her at risk or she finds out Bianca lost her vote. Sai is also a chaotic player that she may end up wanting to distance herself from leaving her with no one. She has a lot of ground to make up.

Cedrek - He gets some positive content with Mitch this episode and finds himself in the majority on the new Civa. Cedrek comes off as naive though, unsuspecting that Sai might feel negatively about him writing her name down twice at the last Tribal Council. I just feel like there’s no chance for Cedrek. Sai does not forget.

Star - Invisible this episode and Eva throws her directly under the bus immediately. Her only other content is a flashback of the shot from a couple episodes ago on the sit out bench with Kamilla. They seem to only show Star when it’s narratively relevant to push other storylines forward.

Chrissy - More content for Chrissy this episode! She wants to stick Civa strong with Mitch and a majority quickly forms around them. Despite the swap and getting some more content this week, it still doesn’t necessarily feel like Chrissy is a driving presence. Her uptick in strategic content still has a narrational feel. I can see Chrissy making it into the merge and then suddenly be talked about as a jury threat who gets taken out. Better episode for Chrissy this week, but I still don’t see “winner” for her.