Come on in guys for my Survivor Kaoh Rong Episode 5 review where I use classic Survivor quotes to assess the latest episode.

Ahh I love the smell of a tribe swap. It switches things up nicely and makes the post merge game more unpredictable. Plus it gave us a great episode strategy wise. Don’t mind me as I nerd out about all the great strategy moves from this week.

 

Alright drop your buffs and click below to read my analysis of the episode. Spoilers below.

I can get loud too! WHAT THE F***? (AKA the quote(s) of the week)

“I was really ripped two weeks ago.” -Debbie to Cydney THE BODY BUILDER

If Debbie doesn’t come back to play two more times then life isn’t fair.

Oh my god these guys are so dumb! (AKA this episode’s worst decision)

 

There was a lot of good strategy going on in this episode. Nothing particularly dumb stood out to me. I’ve seen arguments that Anna, Tai and Scot all misplayed their hand but I don’t see it that way. In my opinion this episode perfectly encapsulated how difficult this game is because everyone has their own end game in mind. Let me try to break this down for you.

First off, last week I wrote that whatever original tribes had the numbers advantage at the swap had to stick to the plan and eliminate the others. No matter how much they don’t like each other. Well Gondol (yellow) ended up with 3 brains, 2 beauty and 1 brawn. Despite the 3 brains not loving each other they actually made the smart move and stuck together. Great job guys.

Next we have Tai. Tai had a former beauty tribemate he was close to, an idol and a numbers disadvantage. So what did he do? He used his social skills and his hard work to win over the new members of his tribe. He didn’t go around blasting Anna and talking bad about her. He realized his natural personality was his best attribute to get farther in this game. Which is something I recommended to him after episode 1. He also attempted to use his idol to take control of the game. It didn’t work out that way but now he has a trusted ally with Scot and he still has an idol in his pocket plus he has another former tribemate in Julia joining him plus his tribe seems to genuinely like him. He did the best he could with the hand he was presented.

Speaking of doing the best with a shitty hand, we have Anna. Poor Anna fell to my blog’s curse. Three weeks ago I praised Liz and the next episode she went home. Then the following week I praised Alecia and the next episode she went home. So naturally, last week I praised Anna and yeah, I’m sorry Anna.

But! If you recall I said Anna would do well in the game if she got a little luck in the swap. And that’s the exact opposite of what happened. She went from the leader of a strong female alliance on the strongest tribe to being at a numbers disadvantage without any of her alliance on the weaker tribe. But I want to emphasize that I think she played her hand as good as she could have. She knew it was coming down to her or Tai. So she went around and talked about Tai’s sneaky gameplay. She did not speak poorly of Tai’s character or actions, just his gameplay. Some people say she overplayed her hand but I thought she was subtle and strategic. She knew Tai was popular and had she spoken ill towards him every one would’ve turned on her quicker. I really believe that Anna is a good player and she couldn’t have down anything, short of finding an idol, better.

Which brings us to Scot. Good ol’ Scot who I thought  wasn’t a strategic player. My bad Scot, I sincerely apologize because I believe you made a great move. When Tai showed Scot his idol, Scot quickly realized how powerful knowledge in this game is. I believe it was Boston Rob who famously said that the true power of the hidden immunity idol is knowing who has it. And now Scot knows where 2 of the 3 idols are. In addition to that, this season the idols can be put together to become even more powerful. And now Scot is the only one who knows all of this information. If he plays this right he can be a dominate force in this game.

So really, the Gondol tribe had a lot of factors and personal motivation going into this vote. And the only person who lost was Anna, who only lost because someone had to lose.

I’ve been bamboozled! (AKA what surprised me this episode)

I was most surprised that there was someone named Julia in this season. Seriously I had completely forgotten about her until she drew the red buff.

Who is this jackass? (AKA who has no shot to win and why?)

Last week I declared Dr. Joe the winner of this season. The medic, not the old guy. I stand by that. No one was medevaced this episode but it seems that there is writing on the wall that we are going to get another one this season. In the opening recap of last week’s episode Jeff Probst clearly said, “Caleb was the first person medevaced this season…” So it’s happening again, I promise that. And I believe the next victim is Joe, the old brainy guy. In the first episode Liz declared Joe as the most likely to be medevaced. That same episode Debbie was saying that Joe knew in order to win the game he has to survive it. And now this week we see Joe’s freaky finger injury. I think this all adds up to Dr. Joe taking old Joe out of the game soon which means he has no shot to win this game.

Stick to the plan (AKA who is in a good position if they just stick to the plan?)

Plain and simple. Chan Loh’s (blue) plan is to keep winning challenges because they are seriously stacked. And Gondol’s (yellow) plan should be to keep their new alliance strong and to vote out Julia when she comes back into the game. It’s really that simple. I promise.

This is my island! (AKA who is running the show)

 

Okay I have a lot of power here. Every time I declare someone is in power they get voted off. I wanted to pick Debbie here because she played her ass off last episode but I don’t want to curse Debbie because she’s perfect.

Instead I’m going to curse Jason. He really does seem to be in the middle with Cydney on Chan Loh. I don’t foresee them going to tribal council before a merge but I do foresee him going into the merge in a very similar position. Under the radar and in the middle.

FORGET YOU. GO HOME. GOODBYE (AKA my last words for the fallen Survivor)

Oh Anna, I loved seeing a strong and smart girl playing a powerful position in this game. It doesn’t happen enough for some reason. Jeff Probst said there is a shot you could come back to play the game. I hope so because you played as best as you could this time around. I hope next time is better.