Edgic is a weekly feature analyzing each player’s edit, mapping characters to their story-arc. Note that our focus is not solely to determine the winner, as is typical of other Edgic sites. For more information on how Edgic works and rating definitions read our Introduction to Edgic article.

You can read all our Edgic posts for last season here.

Color Key

Name EP 1 EP 2 EP 3 EP 4 EP 5 EP 6 EP 7 EP 8 EP 9 EP 10 EP 11 EP 12 EP 13 EP 14 Alec UTR1 UTR2 UTR1 CP5 UTR2 INV CP5 CP3 CP4 Alison MOR2 UTR1 UTR2 INV UTR2 CP3 UTRP2 UTR1 CP4 Angelina MOR3 MOR2 CP4 UTR2 CPM5 CPN5 CPN5 CPN5 UTR1 Carl CP3 MOR2 OTTP2 MOR3 UTR1 MOR2 OTT2 UTR2 OTT2 Christian OTTP4 CP5 MORP2 CPP4 OTTP2 MORP4 MORP3 MORP4 CP4 Davie OTTP2 OTTP3 MOR2 CP5 UTR2 UTR2 INV MOR4 OTT2 Gabby CPP4 MOR3 MORM3 OTT3 MOR2 CPP3 CP3 UTR1 CP3 Kara MORP2 CP3 UTR2 MOR4 CP4 UTR2 MOR3 UTR1 CP5 Mike CPN4 MOR2 CP3 CP3 MOR3 CPP5 CP2 CP4 MOR2 Nick CPM4 CPP4 CP3 CPP3 CPP4 CP5 UTR2 CP5 MOR3 Daniel OTTP5 OTTN3 UTR2 UTR2 MORP4 UTR2 OTTN4 MORN4 MORN3 John OTT3 MOR2 CPP4 MOR2 UTR2 UTR1 MOR2 MORP2 Elizabeth MOR3 CP3 UTR1 CPP5 CP2 OTTM3 CPM5 Lyrsa MOR3 CPM5 INV UTR1 MORM4 MOR5 Natalie MORN3 OTTN5 MORN5 OTTN3 OTTN5 Natalia MOR2 MOR2 MOR3 OTTN5 Bi OTTP2 UTRM2 MOR4 UTRP1 Jeremy UTR2 CP5 OTTM5 Jessica CPP3 MORM3 Pat OTTP5

THE CHARACTERS

Under the Radar

A surprisingly quiet episode for Angelina this week. In fact, she was the only UTR character in this episode. After four CP5 ratings in a row, three of them N-toned, this cooldown is probably a good thing. It puts her on the backburner for now but without completely disappearing.

Despite the UTR rating, Angelina still received one confessional. It was mostly narrational, talking about the reward and veggie burgers. She was crying about the physical and emotional toll of the game. It was veering ever so slightly into OTT territory, but even in this confessional, Angelina got to explain herself. She pointed out how stupid it was to be “crying over veggie burgers” and spoke about how hard the game of Survivor is on your system. There was a quick shot of Gabby’s face during this emotional outburst which kind of seemed dismissive, but I didn’t think it was enough to warrant N-tone.

Angelina is one of only four castaways remaining that has had at least one confessional in every episode (the others are Christian, Mike, and Nick). There is no doubt she is an important character, and she has been from the start. Therefore, I don’t think her disappearing from the action in this episode is necessarily a bad thing. She was again blindsided by the vote and received votes, but this wasn’t presented as Angelina’s plan blowing up in her face. We don’t know where her head was at going into this Tribal Council. Therefore, all we have to go on is her past statements, and the one that stands out to me is when she said she is happy to “ride [the Goliath] wave as long as that wave is stable.” Now that she received votes from her fellow Goliaths, it gives her an out to jump ship.

Overall, I expect this UTR-look is temporary, and that Angelina will be back in action real soon. She has been such a driving force of action that I believe she still has waves of her own to make. Also, side-note, seeing as Dan has now gone and his story with Angelina was non-existent this episode, that means the end of their story-arc was last week, which culminated in Dan using his idol on Angelina. That means Angelina, despite her bullish approach, was ultimately able to persuade the person that wanted her out the most to save her, which ties back to her power of persuasion talk from earlier in the season.

Middle of the Road

Mike‘s edit has taken a real tumble in recent weeks. He went from being one of the main forces behind the cross-tribal alliance to now being the poster boy for “Goliath-strong.” His Rock Stars connection with Nick has disappeared with no real follow-up or explanation. And the edit is no longer afraid to undermine him.

We didn’t get a great deal of Mike in this episode, but what we did get continued where he left off last week. Early in the episode, he was blamed for the breakdown of the Strike Force alliance. Alec said that Mike held him and Alison back when they were contemplating flipping to the Davids. However, later in the episode, Alec and Alison backtracked, and agreed that Mike was right, that they should stay Goliath-strong because they have the numbers and it will be a “cakewalk.” Whichever way you slice it, the theme around Mike right now is all about sticking with the Goliaths.

In Mike’s one and only confessional, he talked about how the reward was a good time to talk strategy and how his aim was to rally the Goliath troops, even though keeping them together was “like herding cats.” We saw Mike telling Alec, Dan and Kara that if any of them flip to the Davids they’re basically forfeiting any chance of winning. He said they need to “stick together like true f***ing Goliaths” even though they “hate each other,” and that they can’t be “little bitches.” None of this was a good look. It shows Mike to be a rigid player, choosing to place numbers over genuine relationships.

Mike’s edit can be summed up pretty nicely in one sentence he said after returning from the Bula Burger Bar: “It felt good, and then it quickly felt bad.” That is his theme. He does something which feels like a positive and then just as quickly it falls apart. It felt good to finally be on Survivor… and then he immediately got called out for idol hunting. It felt good to be in the majority… but then it felt bad that he had to vote out someone he liked and could potentially work with (Jeremy, Lyrsa). It felt good to form the Strike Force… and then the paranoia kicked in and he ruined it, with both Tribal Councils since blowing up in his face.

Nick was kind of out of sight this episode until after the Immunity Challenge. He didn’t pop up until Kara and Alison talked to him and Gabby about targetting Dan. And his first confessional wasn’t until the Goliaths had their pow-wow on the beach in plain sight, which rubbed Nick and the Davids the wrong way. But he still had a big impact at Tribal Council with his Vote Steal advantage, so the limited airtime beforehand is not too damaging.

The young public defender was the one that talked about how segregated the Goliaths had made themselves. He called them “idiots” for having open strategy discussions on the beach in front of the Davids. He told us that he wished he could do a “cross-tribal alliance” but that he was “nervous” because the Goliaths were lying to his face again. Based on what we heard from Alec and Alison, who both decided to stick Goliath-strong, we know that Nick had the correct call.

Nick and the Davids had no choice but to gather themselves on the beach and have their own strategy talk. Nick told the group about his Vote Steal, which led to Christian and Carl opening up about their advantages. Remember last week at Tribal, Nick talked about how Survivor is a game of “give and take”? Well, this was a perfect example of that. The Davids shared their knowledge and formulated the best course of action heading into Tribal Council. Interestingly, it was Christian that got the confessionals here, and not Nick.

At Tribal, Nick made his big play with the Vote Steal, using it as a slingshot against the Goliaths just like he said he would last week. He also explained the current state of the game. How a cross-tribal alliance was formed, and the Davids sent home Elizabeth as part of that deal, but when it came time to vote out a Goliath, it all changed. He again stated the game is about playing with “who you trust” and not just sticking to the numbers based on “the buff you put on on Day 1.” This is pretty good content for Nick. He is positioned as an underdog that is self-aware and successful in making his moves happen.

The worry for Nick has been the same worry I’ve mentioned before. His relationships lack depth and consistency. For example, what happened to the Rock Stars? That relationship has completely broken down and now Nick and Mike are voting on opposite sides. And yet we haven’t heard either of them talk about it. He’s been working with Gabby, someone he was trying to take out pre-merge, but we haven’t heard his thoughts on this. Alec said he had a “good relationship” with Nick last week, and again, we have seen no evidence of this. Carl wanted Nick out in Episode 1 and now they’re sharing info and voting together. In a game-sense, this looks good for Nick that so many people trust him, but Edgically, it’s missing something.

Nick’s story from Episode 2 on has been all about “win or die trying,” and he is certainly trying. He is a mover and a shaker. He seemingly has no problem making and breaking alliances at a moment’s notice. Whatever is best for his game is usually his MO. Though, the past couple of weeks, he has stuck his neck out for the Davids, so he might not be as selfish as he was first presented. I wouldn’t be shocked if Nick won, but there is just something about his edit that suggests that is not the outcome of his story. I lean more towards “die trying.”

You could combine these past two episodes when it comes to Dan and his edit. Together they told the story of an overconfident player who got too cocky, made a crucial mistake and was unable to recover. It was the downfall we all expected. Let’s face it, Dan’s narrative was one of the easiest to work out this season. As soon as the Idol Nullifier was revealed, we knew he was the likely victim, especially with his loose lips and all the focus on people knowing about his idol.

I struggled a bit with Dan’s rating for this episode. I initially had him down as OTTN, but after a couple of rewatches, I didn’t feel like he was that big of a presence. His opening scene on the beach, where he was upset with Kara for having side conversations without him, had an OTT vibe, but even there, he had a confessional to explain himself. And then he kind of disappeared for most of the episode until his post-Immunity Challenge confessional, where he talked about targetting Christian because he’s “the head of the snake.” That felt more like a MOR-lite confessional, rather than OTT.

Dan was mainly kept present via second-person visibility, mostly via Kara, and a lot of that was N-toned. Kara referred to him as a “liability” and an “anchor” weighing down her game. She also said he was too emotional. Alec even mocked him for telling Kara about his idol. Dan’s story had revolved around Kara from the start of the season. He even referred to her as his “kryptonite” in the first episode and said that she would likely get him in trouble. But, in his own words, he couldn’t help himself. He told Kara about his second idol, and in this episode, she spilled the beans. Even though Kara didn’t directly send Dan home, she might as well have done, for the way the episode was presented.

It’s interesting that not a lot was made out of Dan and Christian voting against each other these past couple of weeks. I thought that Brochacho stuff was potentially leading to Dan getting blindsided by his fellow bro. And, even though that kind of happened, it wasn’t presented in that way. Instead, as far as the Dan/Christian relationship was concerned, it reverted back to David vs. Goliath. Dan and Kara was the real story. The Brochacho stuff was just extra padding – and probably included for the sake of the Christian/Gabby storyline (the social charm/social awkwardness thing) more than it was for Dan.

Overall, despite not seeing enough OTTN for this episode, I have rated Dan as OTTN for the season. When people look back, I think they will mostly remember Dan for his one-way relationship with Kara, his cockiness, the brochacho stuff and his blunders with the idols. All of that paints a negative-toned OTT picture.

Over the Top

BING! Carl finally played his Idol Nullifier, and it was a success. But let me ask you something. What else do you remember about Carl from this episode? Maybe his “beer dance” before the Reward Challenge and then subsequently drawing the short straw and having to sit out? Other than that, his content was all Nullifier related. That’s the reason for the OTT rating. Carl was all beer and bings!

In the episode where he played the Nullifier, Carl didn’t receive a single confessional. That kind of tells you everything. Every other David got a confessional. If Carl was a main character, and certainly if he was the winner, we’d have definitely heard his individual thoughts on playing his advantage. Now, part of his absence might have been the edit creating suspense over whether or not the Nullifier would be played. But even so, if Carl was important, they could have given him the “will I or won’t I” type confessional that Christian had this episode or Davie had last week (I’m sure Carl spoke about his options in confessional too).

It’s now the second week in a row that Carl has had zero confessionals. And now his Nullifier has gone, the one thing that was keeping him tied to the narrative. Other than his beef with Nick in the premiere and trying to target Gabby in Episode 2, Carl doesn’t really have any story threads. He has a small connection to Davie which was formed in the premiere, but that isn’t a relationship which has received much focus, despite the two of them being on the same tribes all season. I just don’t see a lot of upside in Carl’s edit.

Davie had some fun content in this episode. He didn’t have a lot of visibility, but he was coming off the back of a big episode last week, so I think that’s fine. He was mainly used to add spice and color in the way only Davie Rickenbacker can do.

In the opening post-Tribal Council scene, Davie was the first voice we heard, as he told his fellow tribemates that the game has evolved to a stage where they can all respect each other’s gameplay without taking things personally. It didn’t seem like Davie received any backlash. In confessional, Davie celebrated his successful idol play, cutting a pro-wrestling style promo about defeating the Mayor of Slamtown. He even put on John’s jacket (continuing this season’s jacket theme), before taking it off and slamming it to the ground. This was funny stuff and pure OTT. It’s what most people would remember of Davie from this episode.

Davie’s other scene revolved around the idol search. He was basically the narrator, describing the Davids’ plan of waking up early to go and search for another advantage. I almost considered rating Davie MOR for this because he did explain what was going on. But it didn’t feel like he went deep enough to warrant a MOR, which would then mean he was UTR, and there is just no way the general perception of Davie this episode was UTR. As I said, that opening confessional alone is enough for OTT, and so that is what made the most sense to me.

There were a couple of red flags in that idol search scene. Firstly, Davie said that “finding idols is what Davie Rickenbacker does for a living,” and yet, he didn’t find the idol, Christian did. Secondly, in Christian’s confessional, where he continued to narrate the idol search, he said that the other Davids “called it quits” and went back to camp. The camera focused on Davie, Carl, and Nick back at camp, in the shelter or sipping coffee. It’s never a good look to be presented as if you’re giving up on something.

It’s those little things that make me hesitate when it comes to Davie’s edit. He has a lot of good content, but there are also these gaps, a lack of deep connections and small undermining moments. It’s why I see him more as a personality-based character, rather than a winner or main narrative protagonist.

Complex Personalities

Alison had a big CP boost this week, but this was not a good episode for her. I’ve seen a few people saying that it was nice Alison got an increase in airtime/complexity and not just because she was that episode’s boot. As if the editors were just being generous to Alison for the sake it. But to me, it seems clear that the main reason for Alison’s sudden visibility was because she got her vote stolen at Tribal Council.

Everything we saw from Alison in this episode was leading up to that moment at Tribal where Nick stole her vote. It was a dose of Edgic karma for all her flip-flopping throughout the episode. Let’s start at the beginning. After Tribal Council, Alison, Alec, and Kara huddled on the beach and discussed their options moving forward. Initially, it seemed like Alison was aware of what could happen. “If there is a secret advantage and we miss the boat, [the Davids] make the big move, and all of us are then picked off slowly but surely,” she said. What happened at Tribal? The Davids had two secret advantages and one of them directly affected Alison.

Alison talked about how she’d been promising the Davids that she’d flip and that she hasn’t followed through. “I’ve been talking with these Davids about making a move, and I took the conservative approach last tribal, and it didn’t work out for me,” she said. She continued, saying that she wanted to build her “Survivor resume” and make big moves. “If you don’t do it (flip to the Davids) on the third vote, we’re gonna miss the boat,” Alison and Kara said. So early in the episode, it looked set for Alison to flip and make her move, and that continued post-Reward Challenge.

While the challenge winners were at the Bula Burger Bar, Alison had a chat with Gabby, who tried to persuade her to jump over to the Davids and take out Dan. In confessional, Alison told us that she had considered taking out Dan before (which we know from Episode 6) and that it’s not a bad idea. But she also said she was “torn” between sticking Goliath-strong or making a big move for her resume. And yet she acknowledged that she has a “great relationship” with Gabby and that if she flipped she’d have “security in the Davids” and “be in this beautiful position to play this game.”

Despite all the talk of wanting to make a big move, it became clear that Alison was being seriously wishy-washy. When Kara pitched voting out Dan, Alison seemed to be on board, but in confessional said that she was in a “good position” and there is a “security blanket” in having numbers. After the Immunity Challenge, Alison backed away from the plan because she thought the Davids were “trying to pull a fast one” on the Goliaths. “I’ve been so busy trying to do something. I didn’t realize that the right move is actually to take a step back and go with the flow, stand there strong with the Goliaths,” she reasoned.

So as you can see, Alison started the episode saying that she needed to make a move, that if they didn’t flip now, they would miss the boat. But she ended by saying that the right move is to actually do nothing and just sit in the majority. And her punishment for that? She had her vote stolen. Her move was to do nothing and she literally couldn’t do anything at Tribal. Yes, all her thoughts were well explained, hence the CP, and in a game-sense, perhaps sticking with the Goliaths was logical, but that wasn’t the way the edit presented it. The edit made it look like Alison missed the boat and was dealt swift karma by having her vote pinched.

One other brief moment for Alison this episode. At the start, in her chat with Alec and Kara, she said: “I wish we had an idol in our pocket.” I just thought that was a cool callback to the premiere when Alison and Angelina were looking for an idol and talking about how few women find them.

I went back and forth on Alec‘s rating this week. I couldn’t decide between MOR or CP. He was visible and part of a lot of strategy talks, but Alison and Kara felt a lot more complex than he did. However, because I gave him CP last week, it didn’t feel right to drop him to MOR. We still heard his thoughts and got an idea of where his head was at, even if it wasn’t as in-depth as Alison and Kara. A CP-lite felt about right.

Alec’s content covered similar grounds to Alison’s. He was another wishy-washy Goliath going back on his word. At the start of the episode, Alec talked about how he and Alison had been contemplating flipping and that it was Mike who held them back. “I think for us we’ve been Goliath-strong for too long,” he stated. Later, when Kara pitched voting out Dan, Alec seemed to be on board, confirming the plan to blindside the SWAT Officer. But in his confessional, we learned that Alec didn’t see Dan as a threat. “Dan right now is a threat in many people’s eyes, but he’s also the least strategic out of the Goliaths,” Alec said, before mocking him for telling Kara about his idol.

After the Immunity Challenge, Alec (and Alison) folded on the Dan plan and went back to their Goliath roots. Alec said his first instinct was to take out Christian, and that [he and Alison] have a good grasp on where people lie within the Goliath alliance. And despite what he said about Mike earlier, he now believed the School of Rock writer was right: “It will be a cakewalk.” In confessional, Alec said it came down to “Who can I trust?” and he questioned whether he could trust the Davids. “Right now we need to stay Goliath-strong and try to take out Christian, who is a potential threat,” he explained. Remember, earlier in the episode he said he’d been Goliath-strong for too long, not to mention last week he didn’t want to see Christian go.

Much like Alison, Alec went back on his own statements, and at Tribal Council he was caught off guard. Yes, he ended up voting for Angelina (a Goliath), but the edit did not present that as the plan all along, it made it look like Alec and Kara panicked after Nick played the vote steal. This wasn’t a good look for the young bartender. He had all this talk about wanting to play with those he trusts and vibes with, but as Nick pointed out, the Goliaths make all these bold claims, but then they stick with the majority… they stick with people they “hate” in Mike’s words.

Another red flag for Alec, what happened to his relationship with Nick? Last week he told us that he has a good relationship with Nick, that was the reason he went out of his way to spill the Christian blindside plan. But there was no follow-up on that this week. Come to think of it, Alec didn’t mention being the one to have foiled that plan at all. The fact that there was no story around how that plan leaked makes me think Alec is even less important to the overall narrative than I did already. This has been a running theme with Alec. His story has no consistency, when he makes a move there is no follow-up, and his relationships just drift in and out with no real introduction or conclusion.

After a couple of underwhelming episodes, this was exactly the kind of edit Kara needed. This was basically her episode, which tells us a lot, given the way things played out. Kara gave us her thoughts throughout the episode on her game and what she needed to do to move forward and potentially win. And even though things didn’t work out exactly as she planned, the edit still painted this as a success for Kara.

Interestingly, other than Davie’s Slamtown confessional, the action after Tribal Council did not follow-up with the Davids, it went to the Goliaths. It started with the Kara/Alec/Alison conversation and then moved into the scene between Kara and Dan. Dan was having himself a pity party and Kara told him he was being too emotional and that she and the others were trying to figure out what to do next. This kickstarted Kara’s story for the episode. It was time to cut Dan loose.

From the start of the season, we’ve known that “Dan was in a showmance” and “Kara was in a strategy.” Kara has always distanced herself from Dan’s flaws, and as she said in this episode, she “had a feeling this day would come that [she] was going to have to cut ties with him at some point.” She said that Dan was “emotional” and “coming loose at the seams” and that he was letting the game get to him. “At this point, Dan feels like the anchor that’s bringing me down and holding me at a certain stage of the game,” she explained. The message was clear: “I have to separate myself from him if I’m going to win this game.”

At the Reward, after Mike talked about sticking Goliath-strong, Kara told us that despite what Mike said, “Dan is a liability for my game… so for me, I need to get him out, and it’s no longer David vs. Goliath.” It’s always good when a character talks about their individual game, and even better for Kara, she recognized that the game was moving beyond David vs. Goliath. Back at camp, she explained that to gain Alec and Alison’s trust, she was going to share the info about Dan’s idol. She was clearly emotional as she said this, and that was something that stood out through all this. Kara wasn’t painted as an evil femme-fatale, coldly taking out her showmance. She even said in her first confessional, “In the normal world, this wouldn’t happen, but in this game, I know… that… it sucks… but it has to be done.”

Kara made her pitch to Alec and Alison. She told them that Dan being in the game was ruining her game. And at this point, Alec and Alison seemed on board with the plan. After the Immunity Challenge, Kara continued to put her plan in motion, while still showing remorse. “I do care about Dan as a person… and I’m praying that it doesn’t break Dan’s heart, but I need to move myself forward in the game,” she said. Then, aware of Dan’s idol, she explained the necessity of bringing the Davids on board to split the votes. But this is when it all fell apart. Not because of Kara, however, but because of Alec and Alison.

Alec and Alison got cold feet and decided it was smarter to stick with the Goliaths and go after Christian. When they broke the news to Kara, she looked shocked. But her next confessional was perhaps the most important of the episode. “I want to write down Dan’s name, but it’s going to be really hard for me to try to continue to sway votes to Dan without putting my entire game in jeopardy,” she said. She wanted to write down Dan’s name. No other Goliath said this. In fact, no other David said this. Kara wanted Dan out, and that’s what happened, even though she had nothing to do with it.

And that’s the key takeaway here. The episode was all about Kara severing ties with Dan and taking him out… even though she didn’t. It was the Davids that took out Dan, but this story wasn’t told from their perspective. Yes, the whole overarching David vs. Goliath theme was present, but this wasn’t a story about the Davids specifically targeting Dan. It was all about Kara and how she needed Dan gone for her own game, and so even though it didn’t happen the way she intended, it was still presented as a success. Alec and Alison deprived Kara of her Dan blindside, but the editors decided to give it to her anyway.

All of that is great for Kara. She is now free of Dan and ready to move forward with her own story. However, there were still a couple of red flags. Again, she didn’t have a single Tribal Council question. She’s now attended five Tribals and hasn’t been addressed by Probst once. That’s a little odd. Also, when she told Alec and Alison that they need to be “the first three to make an alliance with the Davids,” that could be perceived as being a step behind, seeing as Alec & Alison (+Mike) had already done that two episodes ago. The saving grace here is that that cross tribal alliance failed, so you could argue that a proper Goliath/David alliance has yet to happen.

Overall, this was a great episode for Kara and it came at just the right time. The fact there was so much time dedicated to her relationship with Dan, despite it not having any real impact on the game, seems important. There was also another reference to the “social charm” theme when Alec called her a “charming girl.” As I’ve said before, someone of Kara’s archetype does not usually get this kind of edit and airtime unless they have a big role to play… or they win the season.

Christian had a decent episode; lots of detailed narration when it came to his idol search and the decisions heading into Tribal Council. The idol search actually had elements of OTT, with the “sector” graphics and what have you, but I think there was enough explanation for a CP-lite. However, there are still pieces missing from Christian’s narrative that have me concerned.

For example, Christian was a target at last week’s vote, and he survived. The reason he survived was because Davie played an idol on him and the Davids split the vote, sending John home. And yet, we didn’t hear any follow-up on that this episode. The only reason we know the votes were split is because of the vote tally itself. Nobody in the episode explained the plan behind the John vote. And that’s a red flag for Christian, especially as he voted for John, so he was clearly in on the plan. He needed something here. Even if it was just a brief confessional talking about how relieved he was to still be here. Anything would have been better than nothing.

Instead, we didn’t hear from Christian until the idol search scene, and that didn’t happen until around 17-minutes into the 42-minute episode. Now, on paper, the idol find was good for Christian. He carried on searching when all the other Davids called it quits. He had a lengthy confessional explaining his strategy for finding the advantage – and it worked! He found the damn thing! And he also told us that he would eventually tell the Davids about the idol because he will need their help. He followed through on that later in the episode. Again, coming back to this theme of “give and take.”

Now, one could argue that a lot of the idol scene was circumstantial and that it would always make the cut due to 1) being an idol find and 2) the entertaining way in which it happened. However, what helps Christian’s case is that he was also the main voice of the Davids post-Immunity Challenge. It was Christian who talked about the stakes of the vote, whether or not they could trust the Goliaths, and if not, then which advantages should they play. It felt like this content could have gone to any of the Davids, especially Nick and Carl, who actually played the advantages. The fact it was Christian tells us he is still an important character.

The issue I have with Christian’s edit, in terms of him being a winner contender, is the lack of personal insight into his individual game. The idol confessional was pretty good, but everything else is very “we” and not much “me”. I thought that might be okay if his game was about forming connections and having those personal bonds save him. But if that was the case, he really needed to talk about that this episode. The fact that the John vote went by with no follow-up from the Robotics Scientist is worrying to the say the least. If Christian is to leapfrog Kara and Gabby, I need to hear more about his individual game, and his relationships, from his perspective.

Much like Kara, Gabby was coming into this episode on the back of a precarious UTR1 rating, and while this wasn’t quite the turnaround that Kara got, there was some good stuff in here for the Tech Writer. She talked strategy, told us her plans and we saw her putting her ideas into motion. It wasn’t overly complex, but similar to Alec and Christian, there was enough for a CP-lite.

While the rest of the Davids were putting their focus towards advantages, Gabby was shown to be working the relationship angle. After losing the Reward Challenge, Gabby said she’d been “vibing with Alison” and “wanting to work with her” and she was going to use the “prime opportunity” to see if Alison would be willing to flip to the Davids. Back at camp, we didn’t immediately follow the Reward winners, we stayed with the challenge losers, and specifically, we saw more of Gabby and Alison. Gabby made her pitch of voting out Dan and how that would be a big move. Alison confirmed in confessional that she has a “great relationship” with Gabby and had been considering voting out Dan.

Now, Gabby didn’t succeed in getting Alison to flip on Dan, and similarly, neither did Kara. However, I don’t think this reflects badly on either Gabby or Kara, the edit put the fault with Alison. And Gabby obviously recognized that Alison and the Goliaths weren’t budging. She had to spell it for Nick after the Goliaths all went off for their beach pow-wow. It also looked good that Gabby was part of the Davids group strategy discussion this episode. At times, it almost felt like she was leading the conversation, she was the one talking about the best way to use the Idol Nullifier and asking whose vote they should steal.

The only flaw I saw with Gabby’s edit this episode was the lack of follow-up regarding last week’s vote. We didn’t hear her perspective last episode and she didn’t fill in the gaps here. So we still have no idea what part Gabby played in that vote or if she was even aware of the split-vote plan to take out John. As I said last time, if she was in on the plan and was left out of the edit, that is a major knock against her. If she wasn’t aware, then it seems obvious she was intentionally hidden to protect her and to present the Davids as a unified force. Unfortunately, there is no way to tell which is the right answer at this moment in time.

If the intention these past two weeks has been to show the Davids as a unified force, which seems likely, then that is another plus point for Gabby. Remember her first confessional of the season: “I think everyone on the David tribe is going to be way more cohesive than the Goliath tribe because our advantage is we are scrappy, and we know that to succeed we have to work together and use each other to succeed in this game.”

That’s it for this week’s Edgic! Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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