Go down swinging, she did!
This week we say goodbye to Chrissy. In these last couple of episodes it has definitely felt like a bummer that we didn’t get a little more of her. However, the show buried her for most of the season only to pull her out and show her to be a bit too mouthy for her own good right before she became the second member of the jury. I think we are meant to feel like Chrissy went out guns blazing due to her segments at the past two Tribal Councils. Last week she talked about needing to “play Survivor” so she doesn’t get bulldozed by the Strong 5. This came up again this week and she pretty much got in a fight with David in front of everyone over it before she was voted out 8-1. In this respect, Chrissy captured the theme of “attacking the game,” but unfortunately throughout most of the episode she felt like a secondary character to her own vote-out.
Survivor 48 is down to the final nine. At this point I feel like Eva, Joe, Shauhin, and Kyle are the only true contenders left standing. There’s an unlikely glimmer of hope for David and Kamilla. Mitch, Mary, and Star have been eliminated from the running for me. I’ll give everyone in my top four their own moment, but I think this week I’ll talk a little more broadly about my non-contender tiers. Here we go!
Contenders
Eva - Eva rises to the top of my contender rankings for the first time since the premiere, but she’s only been outside of my top five once. I think that this was a quietly good episode for her. Eva is the one that actually rallies the troops for the vote that ends up playing out. She establishes who she’s working with and her intention to keep them together, while placing the target on Chrissy. I liked this for her because she got strategic content related to that round’s vote while staying out of the deliberation that plays out later in the episode that was a lot more heated. During this part of the episode she says that taking out Kamilla could be more surprising, but she’s not being pushy like Mary and David. She continues to be talked about as a threat. Other players say that she, Joe, and Shauhin are calling all of the shots. However, despite having a public idol, other players seem more ready to take out the two men in that trio than her. Not a bad spot to be in. Eva wins immunity and reward, and decides to keep her Advantage secret. She recognizes how much of her game is public, out in the open, and threatening, and it might be good to have something only she knows about. Good episode for Eva.
Joe - Joe had a good episode this week too. If Joe, Shauhin, and Eva are all calling the shots on the beach, it seems like Joe gets the last word. Chrissy seems 100% in the right to call him “the head of the snake.” He gets the ear of all parties in the shuffle this episode and they are sure to show him listening to everyone and weighing the options without stepping on peoples’ toes. This episode we saw Joe really playing the game. Is he “attacking the game?” I’m not sure, but he’s definitely playing. I feel like we tend to see Joe quietly influencing and receiving information. On the flip side, we see David playing aggressive and it’s pissing people off in a way that Joe just isn’t. This makes me wonder if this hurts Joe’s chances of winning in the long run though. He is already seen as the head honcho, as is. If he takes a more aggressive approach he may end up like David. Can Joe win without embodying the core theme of Jeff’s opening monologue? Honestly, I still think he has a better chance than most of the other castaways either way.
Shauhin - Shauhin drops a couple of ranks this week. I thought that last week was maybe a turning point for him because he finally saw his name on a piece of parchment. Emotionally it seems like he has, but after Tribal Council we spend a lot of time with him where he talks about trusting Kyle and Kamilla, completely unaware that they don’t trust him and were trying to see if they could get the numbers to make him the first juror rather than Cedrek. The redeeming aspect of this though comes from his debrief with Joe where he says that they can ride with Kyle and bring in Kamilla as their sixth, and when Joe says David wants to bring in Mary, Shauhin says he feels like he doesn’t trust Mary. By the end of the episode, this moment actually seems to be drawing the battlelines going forward, and the vote that plays out is one that keeps Joe, Eva, Shauhin, Kyle, and Kamilla intact. However, we get more awkward content from him later regarding him choosing Kamilla as his partner for the challenge, which the both handle fairly clumsily. I guess this maybe gives Shauhin a duo finally? Even though the other player is in a secret duo that wants him gone? Mm yeah, no. Scratch that. After this he’s kind of absent from the episode, but other players talk about him as being one of the three players running the show. Not a great episode for Shauhin, but I think he remains a contender.
Kyle - Interesting episode for Kyle. In reality, he got absolutely clocked by David and Mary. However, we are meant to be on Kyle’s side while David and Mary come across as pushy and inflexible. At the same time, it feels like Kyle is acting erratically. He feels like he’s back in the Earn Supplies Challenge in the premiere going around to everyone and frantically trying to get the vote off of Kamilla so he can keep his secret #1 in the game. Kyle and David even have a tense exchange prior to Tribal Council and it just feels like he’s blowing up both his and Kamilla’s spots at the same time. The vote goes in his favor this round but at what cost? I think we’ve still yet to see. Kyle is playing hard right now, but I think if Kamilla goes at any point and Kyle is left in the game, he’s going to crash out. During the animal fighting scene Mary jokes that maybe a hyena would bite off Kyle’s wart. Maybe this was just meant to be funny, but maybe it’s some ominous foreshadowing.
Unlikely (David, Kamilla)
David and Kamilla are my two players that I’m guessing are unlikely to win Survivor 48 at this point, but I don’t feel like I can fully eliminate them yet. Let’s start with Kamilla. We are reminded that she is a smart player. She understands that the window to make a move against the Strong Five is narrowing, narrates the strategy between herself and Mitch to achieve their best possible outcome on the Journey, and gives an amazing confessional roasting David. However, Kamilla just feels like she’s slipping into more of a supporting character in this war that’s about to break out between the main characters of the season. Her presence is muted compared to Kyle even though they’re “the most undercover duo” ever that are “running the game.” David on the other hand seems to be fully making the villain turn. David actually has the right idea when it comes to his game this episode. He’s closer with Mary, so it’s better to eliminate Kamilla so that the other people in his alliance have fewer options outside of the alliance besides the person he handpicked to join them. Kyle’s level of fight for Kamilla does reveal something fishy between the two. However, he’s portrayed as stubborn, arrogant, self-righteous, and bossy. His fight with Chrissy at Tribal Council makes them both look bad. In the middle of their spat Kamilla chimes in to tell him he’s doing a terrible job at jury management. Chrissy joins the jury that night. From that comment we know Kamilla would not vote for David at a Final Tribal Council. Does David go on an immunity run taking down “social players” and members of his Strong Five alliance that he feels slighted by along the way? Does he applaud himself for how great and strong he is for making it to the end only to become a losing finalist? I think that’s definitely a possibility.
Got Nothing For Ya (Mitch, Mary, Star)
This section is just about vibes at this point. Mitch, Mary, and Star will not be winning this game. Mitch starts this episode off by saying he needs to start playing more aggressively. He suggests getting original Civa back together for at least one round, but that doesn’t happen and he’s with Star prior to Tribal Council joking about watching the other players play Survivor. Similar can be applied to Mary. She talks about how she’s the last original Vula member standing and it’s a whole new game for her now, but we don’t hear a lot from her personally for the rest of the episode. She’s in a tight pair with David now apparently. Yes she is pushing the Kamilla vote and saying she would feel safer with her gone, but a lot more of the strategic content, and content in general, for our new duo is David. Unfortunately Mary seems like she’ll be going down as collateral damage in this fight. Star, oh Star. After her declarative statement about wanting to make Final Tribal Council last week the editors bury her again. They give her a couple of great quips but that’s it. We need the Star Extended Cut after this season is over.
Based on the preview things might really start getting interesting next week after three weeks of pretty uninteresting votes. The Strong Five look to be on the precipice of splintering. This next round really might be one of the last opportunities to take a swing at one of the big dogs. Will Eva (or Kamilla) rise above the rest to win this season? Or is Survivor 48 really just a man’s game? Hopefully there is a true shakeup next week. Looking forward to finding out. As for my Elimination Pool pick… I’m feeling like I may have jumped the gun a little too early on Joe. Of the people I have left I’m considering Shauhin or Kyle.