After missing last week (I was still mourning Benji being voted out of the game… gone too soon), I am back to give my thoughts on the final 6 of this season of Australian Survivor, after another enjoyable week. I’ll admit, this is by far the most difficult time I’ve had ranking everybody. No one in my opinion had a particularly outstanding week, and while there seems to be a clear majority, I really have no idea how this game is going to end… which is great for the season, not so great for me. That said, this game is shaping up to have a really intriguing end, so let’s see who I believe are in the box seat, and those who need to find a way to shake up this game, or risk being the next voted out.

1. Shonee Fairfax & 2. Fenella McGowan

Now, is it cheating that I have once again ranked Shonee and Fenella together? Probably (I do promise this will be the last time the two are ranked together). Now, while I think it’s very possible that one of them do win this game (leaning more towards Shonee at this point), with the chance to tell a compelling underdog story at the final Tribal Council… I just don’t think there’s a chance they will actually both get there – although personally, I’d love to see it.

However, at the point in the game, with only 6 people left, Shonee and Fenella may be in the best position heading into the next two episodes. While they’ve been targeted for being a ‘power couple’, or called out for ‘floating’ through the game, it has gotten to the point where Brian and Monika may have just burnt all bridges with Sharn and Shane, and Shonella may become the crucial swing vote between the two pairs of Champions, which is a very desirable position to be in. Now, I could be very wrong, and they could very easily be the next two to go if the Champions manage to be reunite. I just don’t like the chances of that happening (and that’s just because I don’t see a scenario where Brian and Shane managed to work with each other again).

Shonee and Fenella are in the majority, which is very impressive considering the position they merged in, and they seem to be close with Brian, who is calling all the shots. All good signs heading into the final weeks of this season.

3. Brian Lake

Well look at that. If you’ve been following these rankings since I started them at the merge, you’d know that I haven’t had Brian out of the bottom 3, and that I had not been all that impressed by his game. But to his credit, he’s has surprisingly managed to get himself into a very decent position in the game. The last male standing, after flipping on the Mat’s Champion alliance, Brian now sits in the majority, seems to be controlling the votes, and has an idol in his pocket. If he manages to actually play the idol, and not do what Russell… and Mat… and Benji did, and go home with it, it sets Brian up very well heading towards the final.

Now, I was just about ready to put him at the top of these rankings, until he took Steve out in the Tuesday episode… which I thought was a terrible move. Steve was the ‘dead man walking’ so he couldn’t vote for the next two Tribals. Why on earth did he not use that to his advantage, take out Sharn or Shane at Tuesday’s Tribal… then take out Steve at the following one, where he still couldn’t vote. Yes, there was the chance Steve could go on an immunity run… but he’s not really ever been close to winning any challenge. It was a completely baffling decision, and could come back to bite Brian.

Now, while he still has Shonella and Monika by his side, he also now has Shane and Sharn out to get him, so the next episode is crucial for Brian’s game. I do believe that if he can survive this week, he has a good chance of winning the whole thing. It’s a big ‘if’ though.

4. Monika Radulovic

I don’t know what’s worse for Monika. The invisible edit she had before the last 3 episode, or whatever you would call the edit she’s getting now, which I think is so unfair. However, taking edit out of it, Monika is in a pretty good spot in this game, and her voting record speaks for itself. Since the first vote, every person she has voted out, has gone home, and she is the only person who can say that. Add the fact that she has yet to have a vote against her, you can’t argue that Monika isn’t playing this game. She’s actually doing quite a job good of it all things considered, even if we haven’t really seen her.

Siding with Brian and Shonella was right for her game, because it really seemed like she was just a number in that big Champion alliance. Now, she has more room to move, and if she can make a big move in the next few episodes, she would have a case to make if she made it to the Final Tribal Council. I don’t think it’s incredibly likely, but we’ve seen stranger things happen. Here’s hoping Monika continues to rise in this game, to make up for the lack of airtime she had for more than half of this game.

5. Sharn Coombes

Since before the merge, I’ve had Sharn as the winner of this season. I still believe she can win, but her path to the end is getting tougher each episode. Ever since the Tribal where Benji convinced her to not use her idol on Mat, she’s basically been on the outs, and she’s not been able to get the numbers back in her favour. Not only that though, I feel Sharn is one of those players who only play well when she is in the majority, and has the power, which unfortunately, she hasn’t had for a while. Also, the whole thing with saying that Brian “doesn’t deserve to be here” because he does nothing at camp absolutely irritates me, and has soured me a bit on Sharn. Survivor isn’t about who does the most around camp. Brian is playing the game, and at this point, he’s outplaying her.

That said, she’s not out yet, and you know she won’t stop playing. For Sharn to move forward in this game, she really needs to either reunite the Champions, which seems unlikely at this point, especially wen you consider that Brian straight up told her on the reward in Tuesday night’s episode that she would be next to go if Steve won immunity. The only other option is to convince Shonella to join her and Shane, to take out Brian. The last two episodes weren’t great for Sharn, which is why I had to rank her so low.

6. Shane Gould

Shane is by far in the worse spot out of the remaining 6 people. The best part of Shane’s game was the fact that she was able to fly under the radar, with people like Mat and Steve being seen as the far bigger targets. But with her being in the minority, there’s no more room for her to hide.

Shane is quickly running out of options. I don’t see her willingly working with Brian again, and having called out both Fenella and Shonee for floating through the game, potentially pissing them off as well, I don’t see how Shane can get off the bottom of the tribe. While Sharn has the potential to change things up, unless Shane was to go on a immunity streak… I think her time in this game is quickly coming to an end. They’d be insane to let her get to the Final Tribal Council, and I think Brian knows that. I’ll be shocked if she survives both episodes this week.