Survivor: David vs. Goliath Episode 3 "I Am Goliath Strong" Analysis

"I don't have all the answers.  I have many of them."

-Natalie Cole

Man, this season is absolutely crushing it.  This was the best episode of the season so far, with some fun gameplay and some great character moments.  I love it!  Now, let's take a look at how our castaways did in this episode.

Who Played Well:

Starting over on the David tribe, we have Christian and Nick.  The Mason-Dixon alliance holds strong as the two of them did a great job of saving face with the tribe by throwing Gabby under the bus.  I love that Christian is willing to do this even though he is very close with Gabby.  This opens up their opportunities to make moves with Carl, Davie, and Bi in the future.  I don't know if voting Gabby out is the right idea for them next, but I like that they are entertaining the thought.

Next we have Davie, who really did a good job of trying to bond with Nick to try and get back in the majority.  I like that he didn't sulk about being left out and immediately went to work.  Same goes for Bi, who did some good work on Nick.  She did hurt her knee in the challenge, so I wouldn't be surprised if this makes her a target, but apart from that she had a good night.

Over on the Goliath Tribe, we'll start with Angelina and John.  They both showed how perceptive they are by seeing straight through what Jeremy was up to.  John wanted to keep Natalie and Angelina wanted Jeremy gone.  Both got what they wanted and I was very impressed with both of them.  I have to give more of the credit to Angelina for organizing every single person on the tribe into going after Jeremy.  Good work!

Mike also showed off his perceptiveness in this episode.  It was clear he really liked Jeremy, but when he saw that the majority was gunning for him, Mike turned on his friend.  Sticking his neck out for Jeremy would have been a bad move and I'm glad he didn't do it.

Both Alec and Natalia wanted Natalie out of the game, but when they saw Angelina rallying the numbers against Jeremy, they backed down.  They made themselves heard, but were wise enough to not put up too much of a fight.

We also have Alison, who did pretty bad at the puzzle, but managed to pin all the blame on Natalie in a nice maneuver.

Finally, Natalie actually did fairly well this week.  Sure, she sucked at the puzzle, but she did attempt to scramble to save herself.  I'm not sure how much of her survival we can credit to her, but her scrambling did cause Jeremy to paint an even bigger target on himself.  She came off looking much better than he did in their arguments and she seemed to take the criticism she received at tribal council pretty well.

Who Sucked:

We really only have one person to talk about in this section and that's Gabby.  Yes, she did a good job at the puzzle, but she didn't seem to do any damage control after voting out Jessica.  She's public enemy number 1 now as far as Davie, Carl, Bi, and Nick are concerned and she isn't doing anything about it.  Gabby was my original winner pick for this season, but I'm not liking the direction she is heading.

Carl, Dan, and Kara really didn't do anything noteworthy and we didn't see Elizabeth or Lyrsa at all.

Finally, we have Jeremy.  He tried to play too hard and too fast.  Trying to shut down all strategizing in a tribe meeting is not an effective strategy.  It was painfully obvious what he was doing.  When Natalie wanted him to leave a conversation, he should have quietly left and gone off to scheme with others.  Blowing up her spot only made him look worse.  Finally, some of his comments during Tribal Council were over the line.  Jeremy was a fun character, but he got a bad look on his way out the door.

Verdict:

The Stacy's Blog Has Got It Going On Award for this week goes to Angelina Keely for seeing through Jeremy's schemes and for organizing the entire tribe together to vote out Jeremy.

The Not The Player For Me Award goes to Gabby Pascuzzi for her lack of damage control with the players she burned in the Jessica blindside.

I am really loving this season and thought this was a great episode.  I'm really pumped that Natalie survived another episode and can't wait to see if she can do it again.