Survivor: Winners at War, Episode 9 "War Is Not Pretty" Analysis

"I hope you feel miserable."

-Sarah Lacina

Wow, what an episode.  You knew when the Immunity Challenge started only 24 minutes into the hour, this was going to be a doozy, but I didn't expect how much.  We got lots of good gameplay, but some bad as well.  Let's take a closer look at how everyone did.

Who Played Well:

Right off the bat, Adam was the correct person to vote out.  Everyone was on the right side of the vote, even though Denise and Sarah voted Nick, I'm pretty certain that was just a back up in case Adam had an Idol, so good on everyone.  Extra props to Kim for winning Immunity.

Ben played very interestingly in this episode and seemed to be channeling the spirit of Boston Rob. He was very fortunate things played out the way they did, otherwise this could have been a disaster. His confrontation of Adam in the woods caught him in a lie, but I think Ben could have handled it more gracefully.  This burned an already damaged bridge with Adam.  Luckily for Ben, his biggest enemy, Adam, leaves the game here.  I like Ben's prospects moving forward, but there is no way Adam will vote for him to win or work with him if he returns from the Edge.  Ben is playing with fire, but it's working so far.

Finally, Michele played it fairly cool after being blindsided and prevented Nick, her closest ally, from blowing up his game.  She also made the right move in getting the 50/50 Coin and seems to be working her way into the majority.

Who Sucked:

Nick got way too angry after being blindsided and needs to keep his emotions in check.  He may have survived the vote, but losing Adam is a blow to his game.  Plus he was the backup vote, so he's still on the bottom of the totem pole.

Sarah should not have given up her Reward to Nick.  Everyone thought she was being fake, Nick was still willing to turn on her, it put a target on her back, and she misses out on some calories.

As for Adam, yeah, he got caught in a lie with Ben, but besides that, he played about as well as he could have here.  He was playing from the bottom and needed to shake things up, but it just didn't go his way.  He was a lot of fun this season and I loved him trying to use part of Jeff's podium as an Idol. Iconic.

Verdict:

The Best Player of the Episode was Michele Fitzgerald for keeping Nick from blowing up his game, getting the 50/50 Coin, and for being on the right side of the vote.

The Worst Player of the Episode goes to Nick Wilson for being way too emotional after being blindsided and for being the backup vote.

What a fun episode and an excellent end to Adam's game.  Hopefully Winners at War can keep having episodes as strong as this one.