Survivor 49, Episode 3 "Lovable Losers" Gameplay Analysis

 "Insert action music."

-Jawan Pitts

Wow.  What a wild episode.  I don't think I've ever felt as bad for a single tribe in all of Survivor as I do for the Kele tribe.  This was a brutal episode for them and for Canada, as we lose both of our Canadian castaways in this episode.  It was cool to get such a behind-the-scenes look at the show, but it's a bummer we lose Jake this way.  At least he made it home for the birth of his kid.   Medical evacuation aside, let's get into who played well and who sucked.

Who Played Well:

Starting over on Hina, I only have one person to talk about here and that's Steven.  He formed a close enough bond with MC that she told him that she found the Beware Advantage.  Best case scenario with the Beware Advantage is that you don't have it, but you know who does.  That gives Steven a lot of room to work going forward.

Over on poor Kele, Sophi B did the best on the tribe.  She got Alex and Jeremiah to target each other and may have been a factor in getting Alex to play his Idol.  She survived the vote, forged a bond with Alex, and got the Idol out of his hands.  She loses her closest ally in Jeremiah, but desperate times call for desperate measures.  Plus I loved that she spied on Alex and Jeremiah's conversation.

Technically, Alex misplayed his Idol, but I really don't blame him.  More importantly, he survived the vote and formed a bond with Sophi B.  They might be okay moving forward.

Over on Uli, everyone learned about Rizo's Beware Advantage.  This was bad for Rizo, which I'll get more into later, but good on everyone else for making Rizo feel comfortable enough to share that valuable piece of information.

Shannon also managed to keep a target off of her by giving Savannah an enemy in Sage.  She has close bonds with both women and may be able to play them against each other in the future while keeping herself safe.

Who Sucked:

I can cover both MC and Rizo in one fell swoop here.  I don't think either of them should have taken the Beware Advantage.  Both of them are in good spots on their tribes and I don't think anyone should go for the Beware Advantage unless they are in a bad position.  It's usually a trap.  To make matters worse, both of them told at least one other person.  That's valuable information that can easily be used against them.

I can appreciate Sage's attempt to throw some shade onto Savannah and Rizo to Shannon.  She's in a bad spot, but does have a genuine bond with Shannon.  Unfortunately, she doesn't have a good read on where the lines are drawn.  Good effort, but this made her position in the game worse.

We really didn't get enough from Jason, Kristina, Matt, and Sophie S. for me to say either way.

As for Jeremiah, even though Alex is a Libra, he probably should have pushed him harder for Sophi B.  If you can blindside Alex, that's great, but he needed to be more willing to sacrifice Sophi B.  I'm not saying he necessarily should have voted for her.  In the end, his vote didn't matter either way, but his read wasn't correct and he needed to do something different.  Live by the Zodiac, die by the Zodiac, I suppose.

Verdict:

Since two people went home in this episode, I'm going to give out two Best and Worst Players of the Episode, just for fun.

Best Player of the Episode number 1 is Sophi Balerdi for surviving the vote, getting Alex to play his Idol, spying on their conversation, and being willing to sacrifice her closest ally.

Second is Shannon Fairweather for learning about Rizo's Beware Advantage, getting information from Sage, and using that information to pit Savannah against Sage.

My Worst Players of the Episode are Rizo Velovic and MC Chukwujekwu for taking the Beware Advantages and telling people about them.

I'm glad the tribes are getting mixed up next week.  I'm ready for some variety with who goes to Tribal Council and it's nice that Alex and Sophi B are getting relieved of their misery at least for a moment.