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 previous Edgic posts 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 Adam MOR3 UTR2 CP4 CPP5 CPP3 CP4 MOR2 CPN5 Bret MOR4 UTR1 UTR2 MOR2 MORN3 UTR1 CPM3 MOR3 Chris MOR4 MOR2 MOR3 MORM4 CP5 UTR1 UTRN2 CP3 David OTTM5 CPM5 CP5 CP5 CPM5 UTR2 CPM3 CP3 Hannah CP3 OTT3 OTTN2 UTR1 INV CPP3 CP4 CP3 Jay MORN3 CP4 MOR2 UTR2 MOR3 CPP3 CP5 MORM4 Jessica CP4 INV CP3 MORN4 MOR2 CP3 CP2 UTRP1 Ken MORP2 CPP4 CPP4 CP5 CPP3 CP4 UTR1 UTR1 Sunday UTR2 UTR2 MOR2 UTR1 UTRN1 UTR1 MORP3 UTR1 Taylor OTTN3 OTTN3 MOR3 OTT1 OTTN3 OTTN4 OTTM3 OTTN5 Will UTR2 UTR2 UTR1 INV INV UTR1 MOR3 MORP3 Zeke OTTP4 CP3 MOR2 UTR2 MOR4 CP3 MORM3 CP4 Michelle MOR2 CP3 UTR1 INV CP4 UTRP2 MORP2 MOR2 Michaela UTR1 CPM5 CP2 OTTP2 CPM3 OTTM3 CPP5 Figgy CPN3 OTTN5 CPN3 UTR1 CPN3 CPM5 CeCe UTR2 UTR1 MORN4 UTR1 MOR4 Lucy UTR1 INV UTR1 OTTN5 Paul UTR3 OTTN3 OTTN5 Mari CP3 MOR3 Rachel OTTN4

What did this episode tell us?

A large theme of this episode was “revenge.” Taylor wanted revenge on Adam for voting out Figgy, and that was his primary drive in trying to get Adam voted out of the game. Hannah also mentioned wanting revenge on Jay for keeping her out of the Michaela vote. But Michelle, who was booted this episode, told us that playing for revenge is “stupid” and that it’s “personal instead of strategic.” Given that the Adam plan blew up in their faces and Michelle ended up getting burned because of it, it tells us that Michelle’s read was correct. Playing for revenge is bad.

The game is about personal bonds and connections, as we’ve seen throughout the season, but there’s a difference between emotional connections and playing out of bitterness and revenge. If you compare say Adam and Taylor with Jessica and Ken, you can see the difference. Taylor was unwilling to forgive Adam and continues to plot his revenge. Jessica forgave Ken for voting against her and Ken forgave Jessica for not trusting in him and the personal bond between the two of them grew stronger.

The merge episode was all about who had the most connections and which of those connections were most solid. The “Cool Kids” alliance ended up on the outside because their connections were tenuous. Jay spoke of people being “in his pocket” rather than having real bonds and trust. Whereas the side that ended up in the majority have shown to have deeper connections – like Zeke and David for example.

Navigating the various connections will be a big part of how the rest of this game plays out.

The Recap

The Previously on segment caught us up on all three tribes before we entered the merge. “On the Takali tribe, Adam betrayed Taylor.” The focus was on Adam voting out Figgy and how Taylor was out for revenge. This set up both of their stories for this episode and the reason why Adam became a target.

“At the Vanua tribe, Zeke and David were growing closer.” This relationship was important this episode as it bridged the gap between the Millennials and the Gen-Xers and allowed Zeke and David to control the tone of the game.

“At the Ikabula tribe, the Millennials planned on sticking together, but Jay wanted to make a big move. At tribal council, Will and Jay voted with the Gen Xers, sending Michaela home and leaving Hannah in the dark.” Again, this was set up for Hannah’s declaration of revenge this episode and her reason for voting against the Cool Kids alliance.

THE CHARACTERS

Under the Radar

Jessica’s role this episode was being lumped in with Ken as a voting pair and as a badass mom going far in the challenge. The challenge featured positive music and cheers from the rest of the tribe as she talked about her kids, giving her P tone. After the challenge, the camera focused on her face multiple times looking like she’d been crying or shivering, or both? It was odd having just seen her beast the challenge to now see her look like she was breaking down, and took away from her image of toughness. Last episode, we saw her trying to strike a deal with Taylor and throwing Adam under the bus, which didn’t come into play this episode. That’s a storyline we can keep an eye out for. Otherwise, this episode cemented our interpretation from the last couple episodes that she’s just a supporting number for Ken.

Though this is Ken’s second UTR in a row, he’s still very much a top winner contender for the season. Even though we barely saw him, we still got glimpses of Ken being observant and strategic. He named all the tightest bonds amongst the Millennials, supported by camera footage. When the majority alliance is discussing whom to target, Ken is specifically asked for his opinion, and he says, “We need to go after Taylor.” They don’t end up voting for Taylor. This means that either Ken doesn’t have enough sway in the game, or more likely, that it was a bad move not to take out Taylor at this time. If it’s the latter, Taylor will likely make a deep run in the game, as will Ken since he’s consistently shown to have a great pulse of the game.

Sunday was mentioned several times this episode by other players, namely Chris, Bret, and Jay as an ally. She also got to introduce herself at the merge feast, “I’m Sunday. I’m older than all of you.” Much like the premiere episode, we received an introduction from her, it didn’t tell us much about her, and she fell into the background for the remaining story. It looks like she’ll continue to float along as a positive, silent presence.

Middle of the Road

This was a very light episode for Michelle considering she’s the one to have been voted out. When looking back at her strong strategic edit all season, this tame boot episode comes off as being protected editorially, preserving her status as a strategic mastermind despite only leading one of the votes she participated in.

The outward story of Michelle’s boot is that she’s voted out for being affiliated with bigger targets. Other than that, she does little wrong and continues to show a great read on the game. She disagrees with voting for Adam, saying it feels personal rather than strategic. Taylor saying that this vote is “100% about revenge” confirms Michelle’s read. She’s also correct to be wary of voting for Adam since it doesn’t pan out for them. At tribal council, she talks about the importance of relationships in voting, “Sometimes I wonder if it’s just the person that you mesh with best. Someone you just feel more friendly with,” which has been a recurring theme all season. Having real relationships matters when it comes time for voting. Though Michelle has real relationships, it’s the tightness and exclusivity of her relationships that cause the majority group to align against them (Bret, Chris, David, Ken, and Zeke all point out how close Michelle, Jay, Will, and Taylor are).

Michelle’s edit put her in top winner contention for the season. When looking back for moments where she went wrong, signs that gave away her demise, there are three that stand out most.

Last episode, she said that she wouldn’t change for the game. This is a game about adaptation, and people who don’t change will fail. When the tribes swapped, she was always late to join the tribe’s conversations, and when she asked people personal questions, it spurred bonds between others, leaving her out. She was not bonding with people outside of her original Millennial alliance. When Zeke talked about never dreaming, and the camera focused on Michelle, the foreshadowing was that Zeke would be the death of the Millennial dreamer. The connections developed on Millennial beach were undermined from the get-go. The Cool Kids Alliance came together literally on superficial terms based on attractiveness. Though their bonds with one another were tighter than we originally suspected they’d be, their foundation still proved weak as their superficiality pushed others away. Their exclusivity was not inviting. They patched together a fractured majority for the Mari vote, barely winning over a Figgy-hating Michaela and an unsure, hour-long-voter Hannah. Michaela lacked real relationships with them, as confirmed by her open celebration of Figgy’s boot and the ease with which Jay turned on her, something he clearly wouldn’t entertain doing to his true ally Will. Michelle talked about using her Christian faith to build trust with Hannah, and though we did see camp footage of them laughing and chatting, we also saw Hannah say she’s “a good Jew.” Furthermore, Michelle only brought Hannah into the Mari boot last minute at Tribal Council, barely including her, not exactly behaving as “someone who really does care for (Hannah),” which Michelle claimed to do.

Michelle’s overall rating is CP since she got a lot of strategic focus whenever the game changed or her tribe went to tribal council. She was depicted as logical and having an excellent read on people and the game.

Though Jay received lots of SPV as a strategic force in this game, his own personal content was purely narrational. He reminds us that he voted out Michaela because she’s a closer, no real new info here. At the merge, he’s excited to be reunited with his Millennial Kappa Kappas, names all the people he thinks he has and reminds us of his idol. His final confessional is a simple replay of a conversation with Taylor. His game conversations at camp are just restatements of the facts: Adam wanted Will out, so they’re going to vote for Adam. It’s Taylor who names Adam as the boot target; Jay merely agrees and relays it.

He’s shown to have a newfound arrogance in this episode. He refers to having people in his pockets, taking for granted that they have minds of their own and that relationships need to be cultivated, which he also did in the swap episode. He calls Adam a weasel, our fifth animal comparison of the season, not seeing him for the human and player he is. He calls himself the “kingpin.” All this arrogance sets him up for a hard fall.

We’ve called him Schrodinger Jay all season, being simultaneously right and wrong all the time, which has made his story more unpredictable than others. This episode, he was definitively in the wrong all the time. He says, “(Voting out Adam)’s gonna come out of left field,” but Zeke is nearby eavesdropping. Michelle labels the move to vote for Adam “stupid,” and indeed it doesn’t pan out for them. At tribal council, Jay repeats Will’s words from last episode, “When you find someone that’s loyal or trustworthy, you latch onto them, so I’m going to stick by that,” yet he voted out Michaela, being wrong about his own strategy. He says of Adam, “let’s take out this weasel and see his stupid-ass face change,” but it’s Taylor who’s depicted as the true weasel and Jay whose “stupid-ass face” changes, shocked, blindsided at tribal council, with a zoom in shot of him saying “What the ____.” It puts a huge dent in Jay’s winner chances despite some good content he’s had in the past.

Jay received Mixed tone this episode. His positives came from Hannah and Zeke: “pretty face,” “intense gameplay,” “locus of power,” “charming,” and “he looks at you with those deep brown eyes and he smiles the surfer smile, and it’s very enchanting.” His negatives also came from Hannah, “Jay thinks I’m this pathetic idiot,” as well as his own arrogance, thinking he’s the kingpin, referring to people as being in his pocket and a weasel, and referring to Adam’s “stupid-ass face.” The Mixed tone represents that he’s a charming, threatening game player who’s become way too big-headed about his position in the game.

Bret did get a fair amount of focus this episode, but it was narrational, making explicit what the audience already knew based on past episodes, without much strategic depth or any personal development. He tells us he’s excited about the merge because he was in trouble before. He reminds us he’s built some trust with Will and Jay but that he’s still tight with Chris, but after the merge feast, he plants himself firmly with Chris and casts doubt upon Will and Jay. He catches Taylor stealing food but doesn’t “want to be the one to say anything.” Later, though, he does say something to the Gen Xers, then again, publicly, at tribal council, continuing his unreliable streak. In summary, Bret is letting us in on where his head is at and he’s observing some good things, but there’s no expressed plan or drive or nuance to what he says and does. He’s just pushing the story along so that we can see how the different factions are shaking out.

Most of Will’s content this episode is straight narration. He says he heard Adam is gunning for him, so he’s freaked out and needs to win immunity. He wins immunity (for which he was lauded by Probst and his tribemates, earning him P tone) and says he needed it. He reminds us he’s the youngest person ever to play this game and that he won the first immunity. Everything is very basic.

He’s shown to be a bad player strategically. He insists on targeting Adam, which Michelle tells us is “stupid” and not strategic. He says to Taylor, “What’s the worst case scenario? He plays an idol?” even though the worst case scenario is actually that Adam has the numbers. Then he says, “I know he doesn’t have an idol. He’s scrambling too much,” which we know to be wrong. Most of his visibility this episode is incidental to being Adam’s boot target and then winning immunity. In our episode 1 edgic post, we wrote, “It seems that his role this season may just be the kid who’s along for the ride, a rollercoaster at a theme park, screaming and laughing.” Based on his content this episode and the fact that Zeke said, “[Jay] controls Will outright,” we #Naled it.

Over the Top

Taylor continues his story arc as the bro who’s all emotion and can’t control himself. If we look at his edgic chart to date, he has by far the most “villainous” edit of the season, and this episode tells us that will continue. Previously, whenever Figgy talked about a goat being around, we assumed it was a reference to her. It’s clearer now that it was always in reference to Taylor. Because Taylor is the only real antagonist of the season left, and because usually-right Ken says “we need to go after Taylor,” we think the story is pointing to a deep run by Taylor with final tribal council “goat” potential.

Every single thing he does is over the top and a parody of bro-hood. He steals food because he has an epiphany, “I’m pretty good with mason jars, and, you know, canning stuff.” The clanging of the jars as he roots around for food to steal is turned up in volume to make sure the audience sees him as loudly conspicuous, unable to hide his actions. When he’s called out for this at tribal council, he excuses himself with, “my stomach was super messed up” and that it was a “medical emergency.” Even Probst slaps his thighs and shakes his head at this, reacting for the audience. He refuses to mend fences with Adam because he’s still upset that Adam voted out Figgy. He refers to Figgy as his “woman.” His openly admits and embraces that he wants to vote based entirely on revenge, which as Michelle tells us is “stupid” because it’s “more of a personal move than a strategic one.” Furthermore, he paints it in terms of his boys “coming to beat you up,” using an analogy of violence for a game, harkening back to Chris threatening to strangle David.

Taylor tells Jay, “Don’t tell Will” about Adam targeting him, then he immediately tells Will himself, unable to control himself. Taylor tells Adam that he “shouldn’t have done that dude…information leaks,” trying to be slick about the obvious fact he leaked the info himself. At tribal council, he looks straight at Adam as he says, “There’s nothing you can do at this point,” not at all trying to hide the fact that he’s voting for Adam. Hannah even calls him a “chill bro,” which Taylor embraces by laughing and saying, “Rock on!” while throwing up the matching hand signs. All of this behavior is what makes Taylor a perpetual OTT.

He has moments of strategy as well unlike previous episodes. He says, “Adam thinks we’re buddy-buddy, and I want to keep it that way,” and footage supports him being friendly to an unsuspecting Adam leading to Adam confiding in him about his advantage. Taylor then follows up about how easy it was to get “all this intel” from Adam. He also dictates the Millennial vote, getting Jay and Will to turn against Adam. More often than not, his forays into gameplay show him being completely wrong about everything. “He doesn’t have an idol,” he says of Adam, and “There’s nothing you can do at this point,” he says to Adam, but Adam doesn’t need to do anything, and if he did, he could play his idol. He thinks that targeting Adam “is gonna surprise the _____ out of him,” but his cover is already blown by Zeke listening in. Taylor is undermined at every turn.

He has loads of Negative SPV this episode, mostly around stealing the food, e.g., “everybody’s pissed at Taylor” and Chris calls him “selfish,” giving him his recurring N tone.

Complex Personalities

This was one of those times where someone looks great and strategic on the surface, but examining the underlying details seems to undermine Hannah’s position in the game. The Previously on Survivor segment reminded us that she was “left in the dark” of the last vote. She’s then shown explaining the situation in confessional while chatting people up at camp to improve her position. All this is thoughtful gameplay that lends to her CP rating. However, upon closer inspection, it doesn’t look good.

Reminiscent of her confessional from episode three to “use me! Use me!” she demands of Jay to trust her. “You have to trust me. You gotta tell me…I just wanna know what the vote is.” The editing all season has shown us that votes and trust are based on deep relationships, and this scene highlights that she’s not building those. Furthermore, she openly says, “I don’t care about my hands getting bloody.” Not only does she want people to use her as a tool, but she also is advertising the fact that she’ll cut ties with anybody; not exactly trust-inspiring. And what’s the motivation? What’s the mistake she’s trying to correct? She says it’s “Because I felt like a damn fool tonight” rather than focusing on developing better relationships. She caps this whole sequence off by saying, “I’m just plotting how to get back at them for not including me in their gameplay. I hope I can get my freakin’ revenge. I’m ready to play,” confirming that her game motivations are personal, not strategic, which is exactly what the “cool kids” millennials base their failed vote on this episode, and which Michelle tells us is “stupid.”

Her revenge is focused on Jay, and while she does alert Zeke and others to the threat Jay possesses, he is not targeted at this vote. In fact, it’s Michelle who is voted out, the only “cool kid” Millennial with whom Hannah had any semblance of a relationship. She enters the merge depicted as only having relationships with Zeke and Adam. Both Zeke and Adam had been shown to have made new relationships at the swap, but Hannah has come to them empty-handed, with only information to share. It’s important to note this because, usually winners and winner contenders are shown building deep bonds with others. The closest bonds we’ve seen Hannah have are:

Michelle, who only included Hannah in a vote at the very last minute, and whom now Hannah has voted out.

Michaela, who yelled and condescended to Hannah in challenges, and is now out of the game.

Zeke and Adam, who had wanted space from Hannah, and Hannah was shown to annoy them greatly.

Despite her only close ties being Zeke and Adam, a whole sequence ensues of Hannah drumming up suspicion around Adam, selling out one of her few, tenuous allies. She points out to David, “It’s so odd, like when Adam walks off with Taylor…” prompting David to ask if Adam would flip on them, to which she responds with a look of “maybe,” raising her eyebrows. This leads into a David confessional where he considers voting out Adam because a “seed of doubt” has been planted. Hannah planted that seed of doubt. Then Hannah is shown sowing that same seed with Zeke. “I know Adam is on our team, but he’s the worst teammate ever,” leading to Zeke agreeing and having a confessional considering voting out Adam. In fact, Adam is never shown speaking ill of his allies or considering voting any of them out…the way Hannah is doing to him right now.

Finally, she is shown speaking to Adam telling him to chill out and stop talking to so many people. On the one hand, she’s right; all these people are now nervous about Adam, and he needs to stop talking to people. On the other, we’ve just been shown that they are nervous about him because of Hannah, and Hannah pulled way more people aside than Adam did. It’s a fun editorial moment because, on the surface, Hannah the girl who always freaks out is telling Adam to stop freaking out. It’s humorous. Upon closer inspection, it’s Hannah who needs to follow her own advice: “if you keep pulling people aside, that’s what’s gonna get you in trouble.”

Hannah has drummed up smear campaigns against 1) the cool kids clique, 2) Bret the lying cop, and this episode, 3) Jay the intense gameplayer, 4) Adam for wanting to “sit at the cool kids table”. All four times, she successfully shaped perceptions of people. But she’s never had the relationships to sway the vote. Most of these people are still in the game. Will these people whom she’s smeared come to realize it and turn on her?

This episode was, in a way, the opposite for Adam as it was for Hannah. On the surface, Adam looked bad. But many of the subtle details speak positively about Adam and therefore his chances.

During the merge feast, Adam sneaks off, saying he doesn’t need to eat and is playing the game hard instead. This leads him to find the advantage. There is some positive music here, plus a hashtag commemorating the moment as a #SurvivorFirst, but the majority of the scene has sneaky music, so it isn’t enough to register any positive tone for his edit. That said, this scene bodes well for him strategically. Zeke has a quote during tribal council, “In a game for a million dollars, you have to practice a little delayed gratification because it might cost you a million dollars down the line.” This is exactly what Adam does, and he’s rewarded for it with an advantage.

When Taylor is rambunctiously digging around for food to steal, Bret wakes up and decides to go back to sleep, ‘sleeping on’ any game opportunities here. This is juxtaposed with Adam waking up and seeing the moment as an opportunity to build trust with Taylor. There’s some good and some bad here. The bad is more obvious, which is that his attempt to win over Taylor fails, which he doesn’t realize despite it looking obvious to the viewer. While Adam is talking, the camera is on Taylor looking away from Adam, at the food, up into the sky…not engaging at all. Yet Adam plows ahead into strategy territory anyway and as a result gives up too much information, namely that he wants to target Taylor’s ally Will and that he has the reward-stealing advantage. It is reminiscent of episode 2 when Zeke told Jay that they should all vote out Jay’s close ally Figgy. It was too gamebot-like to work for Zeke, and the same applies to Adam.

Here are the good aspects of this scene for Adam:

Once again, Adam is shown delaying gratification (sleep) to try and improve his lot in the game.

He gets to explain in confessional why he’s doing this and acknowledges their “personal barriers” because Adam voted out Figgy (lending to his CP rating).

Adam tells Taylor, “If I tell anyone about this, just vote my ass out,” subtitled. Adam never tells anyone about it. He is specifically never shown going back on his word or ratting out his allies.

He says, subtitled, “I’m not even hungry, so you go to town.” He’s specifically shown not eating the stolen food despite having the opportunity, showing the audience what a good guy he is. For all the negative SPV Taylor got for doing this, Adam showed restraint, again calling back to Zeke’s tribal council quote.

Adam has a strong enough relationship with Zeke that Zeke lets him know about the conversation he overheard between Jay and Taylor. He then gets another very CP confessional explaining that he’s been playing too hard and needs to scramble, followed by footage of him scrambling. However, he’s also made to look desperate when speaking to Chris (“Sorry I’m coming to you right before tribal council. Whatever name you want, I’ll put down”) and going back to Taylor (“I will write anyone’s name down at this point”), the people with whom Adam does not have solid bonds. This tells us he’s capable of building deeper bonds, but he doesn’t always succeed at it.

We see Hannah starting an anti-Adam swell amongst their various alliance members, and they talk about him as a suspicious and bad ally. However, the camera always pans to Adam being calm, sitting alone or quietly amongst only his real allies. The camp footage doesn’t support him being all the negative things they say that he is. Even in the prior episode when Jessica and Taylor were speaking ill of Adam, his b-roll was of collecting firewood, working hard for the tribe.

Adam had ten confessionals this episode, all of which showed him thoughtfully explaining his strategy, his successes and failures, and the recourse. This gave him his CP rating for the episode. He picks up his N tone from loads of NSPV about him: Taylor saying “are you dumb,” Will calling him a “rat,” Hannah calling him the “worst teammate ever,” Zeke saying he’s the “most frustrating person to work with,” and Jay calling him a “weasel” with a “stupid-ass face.” It’s a whole lot of N tone. Negative tone is usually quite bad for someone’s winners chances, and this certainly hurts his. But it’s important to remember that most of these things aren’t who Adam really is, and the camp footage never undermined him despite the superfluous opportunities to. Also, his narrator status remained intact. These bode well for Adam’s longevity.

As Zeke says himself this episode, “The clouds have cleared” for his game and his edit. This episode was his most positive to date and showed him successfully overcoming the mistakes of his past.

When Mari was voted out, Zeke’s main issue was that he didn’t value relationships enough, and we said in our edgic analysis that he would need to start building deep relationships to have a shot at winning the game. The merge is where this all comes together for Zeke. He gets credit for pulling together the Millennial nerd alliance of him, Hannah, and Adam. He still has close ties with Chris and David from the swap tribe, which bring him all the Gen X numbers. Even though it’s David who is credited for targeting Michelle, it’s Zeke who’s credited for being in charge of the vote. For example, when Hannah has her chat with Adam when she tells him to chill out or else “the vote will get screwed up,” the camera pans to Zeke letting us know that he is the one with the power to screw things up — not Hannah, David, Jay, or Taylor.

He’s shown being (mostly) right all episode long which is new and quite positive for his edit! He successfully eavesdrops on Jay and Taylor and accurately relays what they talked about. He says, “I think we can pull together enough votes to get out Taylor.” Even though it wasn’t Taylor who was voted out, Zeke did pull together enough votes to save Adam. When David says, “Zeke, I’m a little worried [Taylor] has an idol,” Zeke responds with, “I think Jay has the idol,” which we know is correct. Even though he names Taylor as the boot target multiple times this episode and didn’t get his way, which ordinarily would seem bad, Ken who’s portrayed positively and correct all season says, “We need to go after Taylor,” backing up Zeke’s choice as the smart one.

Zeke was shown to be strategic, calm, thoughtful, and carrying sway with the most people at the merge. He’s back in winner contention and looking solid in the game.

Chris is depicted as the leader of the Gen Xers this episode. He gets to speak thoughtfully about how the merge impacts him, referencing the past as well as which people he can count on. He names the people he also wants to win back over, then is shown in camp footage winning them back over. He correctly observes that the Millennials look tighter than he’d originally thought, and is shown to adapt to this new info and make a plan to target one of them. In camp scenes with the other Gen Xers, he’s the one shown to speak on their behalf. When Adam needs to plead his case with them, it’s Chris he pitches. All this gets Chris a CP rating for the episode. He’s shown to have several tight relationships of his own, which can only bode well for him.

David had a straightforward CP episode. He’s all set with relationships. The recap reminds us that he’s grown close with Zeke. At the merge, he hugs Ken saying, “we’re back together, man.” He has a quick chat with Hannah about all the scrambling, potentially setting up a budding relationship there. His confessionals are all thoughtful and include considerations for timing and relationships. He talks about how everyone is on board with targeting Taylor but that it’s too early to name a target. He anticipates that people are trying to carve out paths to final tribal council already. He talks about breaking up the tightest bonds amongst the Millennials. He says he wanted to “save Adam” but talks about why he might not be able to trust him. He notably, incorrectly, told Zeke, “I’m a little worried [Taylor] has an idol.” But he also, notably, called the shot for the episode, “Michelle is the safest person to go after because she does not have an idol, and they won’t see it coming.” All of which was true, confirmed by Jay who told Taylor, “Gen-Xers, they’re gonna target me and you.” So he had a mixed bag in terms of being in tune with the game. Being wrong pushes him further out of winner contention, but all signs point to him being important to the remainder of the game.

Stories in Play

-Millennials vs. Gen X – the theme of the season, expected to continue throughout. Once again the players stated that the game had moved beyond Millennials vs. Gen X despite Probst constantly ramming the theme down their throats.

-Disproving Millennial Misconceptions – Will the Millennial players prove or disprove the negative stereotypes? Adam introduced this concept in episode one. This episode tried to say that Taylor stealing the food and not caring was due to his generation but given that the rest of the tribe, both Gen Xers and Millennials, disagreed with it, I’m not sure it has any effect.

-Cool Kids vs. Misfits – This theme was back in a big way this episode. Zeke talked about his “nerd voting bloc.” Hannah talked about Adam wanting to sit at “the cool kid’s table.” Unlike in episode two, it was the Misfits that got the upper hand here.

-David Out of Water – David’s edit remained on its CP setting this week.

-Humility/Connections – A theme that has been best represented by Ken. Real connections versus tenuous connections played a big role this week. Players that have been shown to have deeper connections, like Zeke and David, were able to control the vote while the Cool Kids, who falsely believed to have people in their pocket, were blindsided.

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

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