Survivor: Winners at War, Episode 11 "This is Extortion" Gameplay Breakdown

"Say hello to my little friend."

-Tony Vlachos

What a crazy episode of Survivor.  As a massive Tony Vlachos fan, I was ecstatic to see Tony bring back the insanity.  As someone who choose Sophie as their winner pick, I was less than thrilled.  There was lots of gameplay to talk about, so let's take a closer look.

Who Played Well:

Let's just get Tony out of the way.  He managed to find a Hidden Immunity Idol (and throw Nick off the scent), he overcame an Extortion (which I hated, for the record) by convincing Jeremy, Nick, and Ben to give him Fire Tokens, he won Immunity, and he organized a minority vote to knock Sophie out of the game with an Idol in her pocket!  My only concern is that everyone could come for him next, but no matter what, this was an impressive episode for Tony.

Nick, Jeremy, and Michele all got on the right side of the vote with Tony, which is great for both Jeremy and Michele.  As for Nick, if this blows up on him and Tony, at least Tony is much bigger target than he is.  Plus Michele had a really nice lie to Tony about having an advantage for the Edge of Extinction.

Who Sucked:

Ben, Sarah, Denise, and Kim were all on the wrong side of the vote.  Ben also has a rough night in terms of his social game.  He seems to have burned a bridge with Jeremy and I wouldn't be surprised to see him go next.

Denise and Kim flipped on their ally, Jeremy, too early.  Flipping puts them both of the bottom of the majority alliance.  There was a way for them to stick with Jeremy and get in the majority.  The crack was there, they just didn't sniff it out.  They flipped and ended up on the wrong side of things, so pretty much the worst case scenario for them.

As for Sophie, tough break.  She was simply too much of an obvious duo with Sarah.  Apart from that, she played a great game.  For the record, my new winner pick is Michele.

Verdict:

The Best Player of the Episode has to go to Tony Vlachos.  Idols, Immunity Necklaces, Fire Tokens, and a 4-3-2 vote.  What more could you ask for?

The Worst Player of the Episode goes to Ben Driebergen for being on the wrong side of the vote and for his poor social game with Jeremy.

That was truly a wild episode.  Even if we lose Tony soon, this was fantastic.  And maybe, just maybe, we're looking at a possible Tony win.  I doubt it, but that even being a remote possibility is more than we could have ever asked for.