Survivor 45: Episode 3 "No Man Left Behind" Gameplay Analysis

 "Trip, trip, trip, trip!"

-Jake O'Kane

Wow, what a Tribal Council.  I feel like that's going to be iconic.  This was such a fun episode.  It's crazy to me how hard these Idols are to get and making them weaker Idols is just brutal.  After Sabiyah was voted out, all I could do was laugh and laugh and laugh.  But now it's time to stop laughing and figure out who played well and who sucked.

Who Played Well:

Starting on Belo, Jake and Kendra finally had a strategic conversation.  Better late than never, I guess.  They seem to get along really well and I could definitely see them working together going forward.

Moving over to Lulu, Emily continued to improve her social game.  It seems like everyone on her tribe likes her now.  They all want to work with her and she wasn't in danger of going home.  If Kaleb had gone home, she still would have been on the bottom of the tribe, so I like her move to save Kaleb, her closest ally, and take out Sabiyah.  She might be number 1 in her tribe now.

Moving over to Reba, I really like how Dee and Julie handled the Idol situation with Drew and Austin.  They caught the boys in a lie and squeezed a lot of information out of them, while managing to strengthen the alliance in the end.  I liked the skepticism they had for what the boys were saying, but that they managed to not burn any bridges.

Austin definitely had more of a mixed episode and his lie to Dee and Julie wasn't great, but it seems like he managed to rebuild that trust and got himself an Idol in the process, so I'll say it was a net positive for him.

Who Sucked:

Let's go back over to Lulu.  I don't like that Kaleb volunteered to on the camp raid.  I think that's almost always a bad position to put yourself in.  Especially in the new era.  With all of these advantages, this camp raid felt like a trap.  He also has been doing a poor job of threat management.  Everyone on Lulu and Reba sees Kaleb as a massive threat and he was nearly taken out because of it.  That said, the relationship he built with Emily turned out to be a very smart call.  It's what ended up saving him.

I think Sabiyah and Sean targeting Kaleb was a terrible move.  I'll talk more about Sabiyah later on, but as for Sean, it may not have been his idea to target Kaleb, he still went along with it.  They should have kept it simple and gone after Emily.

Going back over to Reba, Drew was pretty terrible when Dee and Julie caught him digging for the Idol.  He did manage to rebuild some of that trust, but he didn't get an Idol out of the situation like Austin did.  I also don't like that he told Kaleb about his Safety Without Power Advantage.  Sure, it got him the Restore a Vote Advantage, but now the entire Lulu tribe may know about his Advantage.  If Knowledge is Power is in the game, this could come back to bite him.

We really didn't get enough from Brando, Bruce, Katurah, Kellie, J., or Sifu for me to have an opinion either way.

As for Sabiyah, like I said above, going after Kaleb was way too early to pull that kind of move.  She was thinking too far ahead.  I like that she melted the wax of the Idol at Tribal Council, but with an Idol that public, she should have just played it to be safe.  I think all public Idols and Advantages should be played ASAP just to get the target off your back.  You can always find another.  She overplayed early in the game and failed to protect herself when she could have.

Verdict:

Best Player of the Episode goes to Emily Flippen for her improved social game and saving Kaleb by flipping the game on Sabiyah.

Worst Player of the Episode goes to Sean Edwards for going along with the plan to vote out Kaleb and ending up on the wrong side of the vote.  He'd be next out if it wasn't for the upcoming Tribe Swap.  As a reminder, I don't give out this Award to the person who was eliminated.  I think that's too easy.

Survivor 45 has just gotten better with each episode.  I'm excited for a full tribe swap next week.  It's been far too long since we've had one of those.  Should be fun!