Survivor: Winners at War, Episode 5 "The Buddy System on Steroids" Analysis

"New season, who dis?"

-Michele Fitzgerald

Winners at War continues to deliver with an emotional tribe swap episode.  We got way more emotions than I was expecting when Yul brought up Penner and his wife.  I was not prepared for that.  Then we got some really interesting swap permutations with Wendell and Michele, who used to date, stuck on a tribe together, as well as the combustible trio of Adam, Ben, and Boston Rob.  Crazy stuff!  Let's take a closer look.

Who Played Well:

Starting over on Dakal, Kim did a good of keeping her options open.  This was how she won in One World and it's good to see the old Kim back.  Plus she got her other half of the Idol back from Sophie and is in a really good spot moving forward.

Jeremy and Sandra managed to pull off an awesome comeback on the puzzle.  Sandra finally doesn't sit out of a challenge and is a key component of winning it!

Moving on to Sele, the only person I have to talk about is Parvati.  It was great seeing her be her charming self with Nick and Yul and she rocked that puzzle giving her tribe a come-from-behind victory.

On the new tribe of Yara, Sophie and Sarah killed it.  Sophie found an Idol, gave half to Sarah, who promptly gave it back, and they got Adam and Ben to turn on Rob without much effort.  Sarah held onto her Vote Steal and Sophie held onto her Idol.  Sophie was pretty bad on the puzzle, but that's minor really.  The rest of the episode they were nothing short of stellar.

Who Sucked:

On Sele, I only have Wendell to talk about.  I think he handled being on the same tribe as Michele poorly.  Yeah, it sucks that you're stuck with your ex, but you gotta put some effort in.  At least he was really good on the puzzle.

On Yara, Adam and Ben made a bad move in voting out Rob.  They should have knocked out Sarah.  If they lose again, it's very likely that either Adam or Ben will go.  If they had kept Rob, they were well set up to make the merge (advantages notwithstanding).  Plus Adam sucked on the puzzle.

Denise, Tony, Michele, Nick, and Yul didn't really do anything positive or negative in terms of gameplay.

As for Rob, I think he was screwed the second he ended up on this tribe.  The Buddy System was his best play, but he really had no chance.  The rocky relationships with Adam and Ben that he helped create earlier in the game came back to haunt him.

Verdict:

The Best Player of the Episode is Sarah Lacina for bonding with Sophie over the Idol, getting Ben and Adam to turn on Rob, and holding on to her Vote Steal.

The Worst Player of the Episode (besides the person who was voted out) goes to Adam Klein for voting out Rob and his terrible performance on the puzzle.

It's not surprising that we finally lose a legend here, I just hope we don't lose anymore before the merge.  Either way, this season has really been a treat so far.