Hi, everyone! Welcome back to my blog and to my Power Rankings after the third episode of Survivor: Winners at War! This season keeps on getting more intense and this episode in particular just left me not only with my jaw on the floor but craving more Survivor… and that, to me, is a sign of a GREAT start to a season! Here’s hoping it stays that way. There was a whole lot that I loved in this episode and I’ve gotta say it was one of my favorites in a LONG time. There was levity, tense moments, cinematic gorgeousness, and it just made for a phenomenal viewing experience. The best part is… boy, do I have a lot to say about this episode for the Power Rankings! So.. let’s get into it!

For those new and returning, here’s how my Power Rankings work. Each week I’ll rank the Castaways by tribe based on a few (admittedly-somewhat-arbitrary) factors: How likely I think they are to go home in the next episode, how much ‘power’ they have in the game (whether that’s physical, social, strategic, or a combo of all 3), how they performed in the previous episode, and what — if anything — seems to be in store for them in the next episode based on previews and the like. I’m going to try a new format with this, so everyone’s ordered from first to last from top to bottom. There’s not a points system and no big prize at the end for me — this is just for fun! Finally, I’m not spoiled in any way, and I intend to keep it that way. So, PLEASE don’t send me spoilers. That’s not cool.

And now, with out any further delay, let’s get on to the Power Rankings!

SPOILER WARNING: IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN EPISODE 3, “Out For Blood”, DON’T SCROLL DOWN PAST THE TRIBAL IMMUNITY IDOL!!! GO WATCH THE EPISODE, THEN COME BACK AND ENJOY!

Ok, y’all probably thought that I’d have my queen Michele at number 1, right? I’m not that predictable sometimes! Jeremy gets that honor this week mostly because sometimes being the most visible person in power on the show doesn’t guarantee you a number 1 spot! Still holding on to the Safety Without Power advantage will help him down the line, and he seems to have escaped pretty much heat now that Nat’s been out for a bit. He’s a challenge asset (which Sele desperately needs) and a socio-physical shield for other players, while he is setting up his shields in Rob and Parv. I absolutely loved how he was the first one to break the standoff after the challenge, knowing that once he got up, Ben would follow, and then as he said “the knives were gonna start stabbing” as he acted that out on a confessional. Jeremy is just as funny as he is strategic and I love it.

I think it’ll be a while before anyone really seriously comes after him, especially with three big targets on everyone’s minds — mainly Adam at the moment, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Ben and Denise go for Rob or Parv. To be honest, though, the only reason I’ve put Jeremy at one and Michele at two is because of Jeremy’s advantage. He has a little bit more meta-power right now, setting him up better in case things get hairy if Sele loses again. Michele doesn’t have that safety net. Regardless, I absolutely LOVE this duo — and not just because they gave me an awesome video shout out thanks to my friend Patrick (<3) which you can see on my twitter. Their strengths complement each other and I would love for Jeremy to work with Michele for the long haul. He’s totally rebounded from the shaky start in episode 1.

Last week I said I was ready for Michele‘s time to shine, and WAS SHE RADIANT OR WHAT? Even though she’s not number 1, she definitely earns the title of Player of the Week. I mean, first off, she got the episode title when she said that Parv was out for blood (good read if you ask me!) so that’s pretty awesome. Not only that, we saw most of the post-challenge strategic content from her point of view, which made me so happy. She was the mover and shaker on Sele, convincing Boston Rob and Parv that the plan was Adam, convincing Adam that the plan was Parv, and then bringing up to Jeremy that it should be Ethan — and then getting Ben and Denise on board as well. What an episode for my Survivor queen!

So, ultimately, that bring up the question of why Ethan and not Rob or Parv? Well… my guess is that Michele and Jeremy want to work with them. The trio of Adam/Ben/Denise (let’s assume Ben and Denise forgive Adam) would have a majority over the Jeremy/Michele duo, so having a 2-2 split in an alliance of necessity would make sense. Plus, Rob is a great shield for Jeremy like Parv is for Michele. Taking out Ethan loosens the connections that Rob and Parv have to everyone else, and calling out Adam for leaking the plan is a perfect mist to obscure the fact that Jeremy and Michele went after Ethan. Everyone is so fixated on Adam right now, and that’s the perfect position for Michele to be in. The preview for Episode 4 shows her and Jeremy deciding to take out Adam, which pretty much points to my above theory. I can’t wait to see her continue to prove why she’s a great player and winner. Michele keeps inspiring me and making me love this show so much… I can’t wait to watch her kick some more butt!

Denise now fully has control of her Hidden Immunity Idol thanks to Adam giving his half back to her. We didn’t see a whole lot of her side of things this week, but Adam throwing her under the bus (alongside everyone else besides Rob and Parv) to Rob must have left a sour taste in her mouth. Can Denise fully trust Adam again? Will Denise be on board to get rid of Adam? It will be really interesting to see how it all shakes out.

Ben seems to be mitigating his target level really well at the moment, but I don’t think he’s quite safe just yet. If Jeremy and Michele truly want to work with Rob and Parv and get rid of Adam… how will Ben telling Michele that he didn’t want to work with Rob fly with her? I thought that Ben actually had a great Episode this week, though, because he became really solid with Jeremy, Michele, and Denise by working together to vote out Ethan. It shows that he’s really playing a better social game this time around and that people are starting to trust him at this point. I loved his Tribal analogy of jumping into people’s bunkers… he’s finally getting into an alliance and hopefully it pays off.

I’m pretty happy that Parvati survived this episode. I didn’t think she would. I really hope that we see a bit more strategic content from her, though, because we so often hear other people talk about her — and the cinematic overhead shots of her swimming and stuff give her this really goddess-like aura (not that she’s not a Survivor goddess). I did love her confessional where she was ready to devour Adam and spit out his bones (There’s the Parv I love!), and I think that it shows just how dangerous she is. Parv might have survived this vote, and she might very well be able to get her revenge on Adam, but once she’s out of shields, I just don’t know how well she’ll be able to recover. She’s also now one Fire Token richer thanks to Ethan bequeathing his to her, so maybe that will help… but ultimately I have to keep sticking with my thought that Parv’s longevity is tenuous at best. Obviously, I’d love for that not to be the case.

I’m sort of surprised that Rob is still in the game, but at the same time, I’m not. I bet a lot of people are yelling at their tvs… WHY NOT TAKE OUT ROB? He’s a great meat shield and has been playing from the minority from day 1. Yet, he controlled the first two Sele votes. However, I think that the Danni and Ethan votes have weakened him in ways people like Michele and Jeremy intended — he only has Parv to rely on fully at this point, and Ben is still shifty and Adam got caught playing both sides and is viewed as untrustworthy, so Rob is kind of a good person to keep around. I was surprised that Rob had brought up Ben to Adam to vote out… Ben would probably have been Rob’s best shield. Why not go for Jeremy or Michele in that case? Of course, the Ben vote didn’t work, but I still found that interesting. The big caveat with Rob is that you can’t let him gain any more power than he already has, and I think that while he is weakened, he still has this godfather aura that gives him more control than he should have. I wish he had jumped at Adam’s offer to vote out Parv, because he said he was open to it… and Adam definitely seemed genuine in wanting to work with Rob and Ethan. It probably was the right call after all to not do that… but still, when you’re Rob, it’s hard to get a foothold. At the very least, people are coming to him with plans. Another thing is that Rob hasn’t been the greatest challenge performer, contributing to a lot of Sele’s challenge failures lately, so that may throw a wrench in the dynamic. It’s going to be fascinating to see what happens on Sele in this next Episode, and I think that Rob will be a central figure in it as usual.

Adam did not have a great episode. Ohhh no. Now, I’m gonna start off by saying that I don’t think what he was trying to do was a bad thing. If you can get away with playing both sides, go for it. But, Adam couldn’t get away with it because that doesn’t fly with players like Boston Rob. Telling Ethan and Rob that he was going after Parv maybe would have worked if they were newbies and Rob especially didn’t have the target on his back that he did, but in theory, if it had worked, a big threat would be gone, and Ethan and Rob would both had good relations with Adam come a swap. However, of course, that went off the rails because Rob and Ethan told Parv, Rob told everyone else that he knew, and then the plan went up in smoke. The silver lining for Adam is that he wasn’t voted out — yes, he was blindsided and betrayed by Michele, Jeremy, Ben, and even Denise, but I think there’s still wiggle room. He’s been saying for so long how important it is to get rid of the big dogs like Rob and Parv, and he definitely seems to know that he’s goofed. It reminds me a lot of the situations in his winning season where he was on the wrong sides of votes and trusted the wrong people. He bounced back. Do I think Adam can bounce back? Yeah, if he gets a good swap (if there even is one!!!). If Sele loses again, it could be Adam heading to the Edge of Extinction. It sucks because I love Adam and am so inspired by him… but I really think that if he can pull through, it’ll be awesome.

Once again, we didn’t see a whole lot on Dakal, so Sophie stays top dog this week. She’s likely not going to take a lot of heat from Tyson telling her and Yul that he wanted Sandra out, and I don’t think that anyone really has her on their radar as a target as of yet considering she’s been a beast on puzzles in challenges. There’s unfortunately not a whole lot to go on, but I think Sophie is in a fantastic spot.

Yul stays at number 2 even though I’m beginning to worry just a tad. I like that Yul had considered Tyson’s proposal to vote out Sandra… but I wonder if he told Sandra too early. Maybe waiting until a potential challenge loss to stir the pot could have been a bit more prudent as to not let things fester and get bounced back to him, as it looks like it could be the case given the preview for Episode 4. Despite that, I think Yul should be pretty solid if he sticks with Sophie, Wendell, and Nick. If at this point they can get Kim on their side, and if Sandra, Tony, and Sarah are not pulled in by Tyson, he should be ok. I mean, he’ll have a 5-4 majority assuming nobody flips and assuming Sandra forgives Tyson. No matter what, Yul should be in a good spot thanks to his really great social and strategic games thus far.

Sarah had a really fun episode with her nighttime excursion to the Sele camp to find the Vote Steal advantage that was hidden there thanks to Natalie ‘selling’ it to Sarah for a Fire Token. Natalie has been accruing more and more Tokens, and that also means that people like Sarah are able to get some advantages thanks to that. The segment where Sarah recruited Tony to be her backup (COPS R US CONTENT!) was so funny. I don’t know if Tony’s charcoal ash camouflage helped or not, but with a Vote Steal in hand, Sarah is armed and dangerous. She also had a great hero moment in the Immunity Challenge alongside Sophie, narrowly beating out Michele and Rob on the puzzle. With hopefully Sandra and Tony in her corner, she can take control if she sees the opportunity. I’m so excited to see what she does next. I also enjoyed her secret scene where she went on a hike with Wendell and Sophie and one where she, Sophie, and Kim french braided Tyson’s hair — maybe more potential allies? All of these things point to Sarah positioning herself well.

Wendell is still a pretty quiet presence on Dakal right now. That’s good because when things likely come to a head soon, the leaders of the alliances will in theory target each other and not the more invisible members. Wendell is a likable morale booster at camp, as evidenced by this secret scene in which he makes a game for the tribe to play, and an asset in challenges even in parts where he’s not directly involved (see him helping Sophie and Sarah in the Immunity Challenge puzzle)

Who knew that Sandra was a provider extraordinaire? I mean.. catching a shark? That shark steak they had definitely keeps morale high and bellies full, so it makes Sandra a very valuable commodity on the tribe. Not only is she a great shield and strategist, but she’s a reliable provider who is loyal to the people she likes. It makes sense that Yul came to her about Tyson wanting to vote her off, but I’m curious to see where the cards will actually fall if Dakal loses. She’s got her Idol that should be a great help if Tyson indeed decided to go after her and is able to rally troops, so I think that Sandra should be in a prime position to beat her Game Changers placement in a few Episodes.

Tony… omg, once again. Singing Baby Shark, running around WITH THE SHARK… I can’t get enough of this guy. I’m so glad Dakal winning has allowed him to flourish into the goofy comic relief I never knew I needed him to be. Not only was he instrumental in getting that shark steak, he was a good backup cop for Officer Sarah’s execution of the search warrant for the Sele camp to find the Vote Steal. It wasn’t lost on me (and Reddit) that the episode aired on Ash Wednesday and Tony and Sarah used charcoal ash on the latter’s forehead as camouflage. HILARIOUS.

We didn’t get a lot of Kim content this week, but I think that she’s no longer truly on the bottom. Tyson made the mistake of coming after Sandra and telling Yul who told Sandra, so as long as Kim lays low, she should be golden until a swap. At that point she might be back to square one as an easy target, but she’ll have to deal with that later.

Nick was again practically invisible. We got a wordless (unless aaaaaaahhhh! counts) confessional that lasted maybe two seconds of him imitating Tony holding the shark… but that was pretty much it. I think that if indeed Sandra, Tony, and Tyson start to rally troops against Yul’s alliance, Nick is a likely target considering Yul went to Sandra with the information and if I remember correctly, Sandra had brought up Nick as someone who was shady before. Not lookin’ great for Nick, unfortunately…

Thankfully for Tyson, Dakal won yet again, sparing the tribe from doing some real strategy stuff. However, Tyson’s not out of the woods yet. He hasn’t been able to find his footing quite yet and he’s been playing from the bottom, but he might have a way to turn things around. The preview for the next episode shows him coming to Sandra and Tony (and I assume Sarah) worried that ‘they’ (likely Yul/Sophie/Wendell/Nick) are coming for people with connections and that they were going to knock them out one by one. I think it’s definitely a great move to come to them with that info, especially after Yul leaked to Sandra that Tyson wanted to vote her out. It’ll be interesting to see if Sandra trusts Tyson with this or not… his game might be in her hands.

And now, to give my thoughts on the fourth winner voted out and sent to the Edge of Extinction:

I’m absolutely heartbroken. Poor Ethan! I do think it was a mistake to rebuff Adam and not vote out Parv — I wish he would have realized that he would be on a sinking ship. We didn’t really see a whole lot more of Ethan besides that, making his elimination sting more. Alas, we find Ethan on the Edge of Extinction. He’s been through hell before and I’m sure that he’ll be able to weather the Edge. I do hope that he makes his way back into the game at this point!

Like I said earlier, this episode was awesome. I especially enjoyed the Edge of Extinction content, despite the amount of time it takes up. Seeing Amber and Danni successfully fish and Natalie figuring out the code to the advantage box and racking up riches in the form of Fire Tokens was awesome. I’m glad that we’re getting some good content that we didn’t get in the first EoE season. Also, I just want to shout out Natalie for playing so well thus far — I’m rooting for her to get back in!

And that does it for my Power Rankings for Episode 3! Let me know in the comments or on Twitter what you think! Do you agree with my rankings? Do you think I’m crazy wrong? Do you just want to talk Survivor? I want to hear from you!

Catch Episode 4 of Survivor: Winners at War, entitled “I Like Revenge” on Wednesday, March 4th at 7 PM Central, 8 PM Eastern! This episode seems like it could be pretty crazy. Who will seek vengeance against whom? Will Adam go home if Sele loses? Will Dakal finally lose again and allow for battle lines to really be drawn? What’s going to happen at the Edge of Extinction, where it looks like all of the inhabitants are in medical trouble? I can’t wait to find out!

Thanks so much for reading, and if you want to stay updated on the goings-on of the blog, ask me questions, or find out more about me personally, follow me on Twitter!

-Austin