If you missed all the truth that works well in this game I discussed on the previous episode, you can check it out here.

 

If you’re a regular reader then I must apologise that I didn’t post analysis of episode five last week. It was such a huge week of Australian Survivor that I just didn’t have any more Survivor words in me. Which was a real shame because it was one of my favourite episodes of the season. I’ll try and touch on some of the key points from that episode at the end of this post. For now, let’s imagine episode six is apple pie and cookies and sink our teeth into it.

 

Barbie of Se(vivor)ville

Bye-bye Figaro, I can’t say I will miss you. This unfortunately was one of those situations where matters of the heart led to the undoing of a Survivor. It doesn’t happen often, but if there’s one thing we’ve learned from Blood vs Water seasons, it’s that strong couples, especially romances, are broken up at the first opportunity. I would say she only has herself to blame but the heart wants what the heart wants huh? Survivor is one of those games however where sometimes you have to put some emotions aside in order to play your best game. It was always going to be an uphill battle to stay on top of the game when you have a target on your back because of such a strong alliance. Who knows how the game would have turned out for her had she not ended up in the game with Taylor. I feel as though she gave us a glimpse of what a player she was when she gave away to everyone that she also had connections with Michelle. Again, her emotions got the better of her. Then in tribal she says “we are just two people voting together”, letting it be known that Figgy and Taylor will never vote against each other. Perhaps this was just another factor that influenced Adam’s vote.

 

Coming Out

Adam made the move we all were hoping that he would make (I assume everyone is as sick of FigTails as I am), but was it the best move for him? YES! Der. For so many reasons. He and Zeke were clearly on the bottom of the millennials. Keeping the millennials together would have made life tough for Adam and Zeke. I know it could be argued that switching to a gen-x alliance is an unknown. Adam doesn’t know how strong the gen-x bonds are, perhaps they are all strong against millennials and could pick them off post merge. Unknown. What is known though, thanks to Figgy, is that Michelle, Figgy, and Taylor are tight. And of the rest of the millennials, all other than Zeke are closer to that the tri-force than Adam is. Taking Zeke further into consideration, Adam may have gotten the sense that Zeke is close with the millennials on his tribe, given that a millennial was not voted out of Vanua the previous tribal. One of the players on that tribe with Zeke is David, whose name came up when Ken was trying to convince Adam to flip. Ken told him that Adam would take him into the fold with himself, David and Jess. Now if Zeke can be part of that as well, that is a strong post merge five. I guess we don’t know if we will go back to two tribes before the merge proper (does anyone remember what has happened previous seasons we went from two to three tribes? Let me know in the comments). Regardless, an alliance of four and possibly five is always going to be stronger than just Adam and Zeke. So, Adam voted Figgy and left Taylor saltier than Mari ever was.

 

Tinker Taylor Survivor Wha?

So where does this leave Taylor? The answer to that question is, I dunno? I can’t see what move he has if the current Vanua goes to tribal again next week. I imagine he has to get out there and look for idols. We know however that Adam has the Vanua idol, so good luck. Could FigTails have approached Ken and Jess and pushed to remove Adam from the game and secure their alliance, and make it safer for Ken and Jess. That’s a possibility, we’ve seen it happen plenty of times before when the swing vote goes home. I don’t know that they would have gone for it, as it sounds like exactly the sort of thing that people would tell you to make you feel safe before they vote you out. I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts about this option in the comments.

 

Shut-Up!

There’s not a lot of other strategy to discuss this episode. Lots of great moments though. Michaela’s performance in the immunity challenge is worth talking about. It was great to see her help Vanua through the challenge. We know that she’s a challenge beast and an entertaining player, this showed another, more strategic level to her gameplay. I don’t know how smart this was, we’ve never seen it happen before. Certainly Taylor didn’t like it, perhaps it does put something of a target on Michaela’s back. It was pretty sweet when she rocked up on Jay finding that idol. I can’t wait to see what she does with that information.

 

Number Five is Alive

Episode five was a corker. A lot happening in the episode, I’d like to focus on Vanua after they spectacularly lost the immunity challenge (I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard during a Survivor challenge). After a tribe shuffle we’re left with Millenials Zeke and Michelle, strange bedfellows, paired with David, Chris and CeCe. Zeke and Chris instantly bond over college football of all things, forming an unlikely bromance and giving Chris somewhere to turn to other than David. With this bond in place Chris convinces David to take out CeCe. I liked this move for Chris. From his point of view David and Cece have an alliance and if a Gen-x’er was to go from Vanua, Chris would be on the wrong side fo those numbers. I’m less convinced about David agreeing to this move. He possibly could have argued to take out Michelle first, putting him in a better position should Vanua lose again. With CeCe gone, if they do lose again, it is currently very easy for Michelle to join with Chris and Zeke and vote David. Though I’ve no doubt that if David had any feeling that votes were heading his way he would play his idol. The other thing I’m sure he was thinking is that he needs some trust from Chris. After blind-siding Chris the previous episode by playing his idol, I’m sure that Chris is pretty wary of David, and may haver little trust in him. If David had argued not to vote out CeCe, Chris would understandably feel uncomfortable that he wa not in the numbers and may have actually pushed for David to go that episode, Chris really had nothing to lose. So, after thinking that through, I think this was the right move for David. And alas CeCe goes home.

 

CeCe You Later

No surprises that CeCe didn’t make it very far. Just on this episode’s evidence she was never a contender. Firstly, that challenge performance. This was the second episode in a row where we saw Jeff exclaiming “CeCe is taking FOR-EVER!!!”. She just never really seemed to be interested in pushing herself for her tribe. The other thing is, we did not see her explore any options whatsoever when Michelle approached her about voting together. Admittedly, there were probably some conversations that we didn’t see, and I can understand why it might not have seemed like a solid option for her, but we didn’t even see her consider what it could mean for her game. Given that we now know had she gone for it, it may have saved her life, it seems like a huge oversight to not take that possibility into consideration.

 

Until I see episode seven tomorrow, I got nothing else for you. Head back to camp.