Survivor: David vs. Goliath Episode 7 "There's Gonna Be Tears Shed" Analysis

"I ain't done anything astronomical."

-Dan Rengering

Considering the final outcome was 12-1, this easily could have been a boring, predictable episode, but this merge episode was anything but that.  It was really exciting and I truly didn't know how it was all going to shake out.  A great episode, but was the gameplay great?  Let's take a look!

Who Played Well:

We'll start with Alec, who came out swinging for the fences.  He pulled together a cross-tribe alliance, which I really hope comes to fruition.  He manipulated John, Dan, and Alison into changing the vote back to Elizabeth and was never the bad guy.  He saved Christian while keeping everyone else happy.  And the only person who is seemingly not high on Alec right now is Angelina, who is now the least popular person in the game.  Alec played a stellar game in this episode and it will be interesting to see if he can keep it up.

The cross-tribe alliance, in general, had a good episode, and will probably be in a good position going forward.  Christian, Nick, Gabby, Alison, and Mike all had good enough social games to get in.  Good on them.  Alison also managed to win Immunity, plus she and John handled Angelina's anger very well.  They let her vent and allowed Dan to be the bad guy.  I don't know if Alison's comments at Tribal Council were wise, but it definitely made Angelina look worse.

I really liked how Gabby used Elizabeth as a weapon.  Elizabeth did some massive damage to the Goliaths on the way out the door and Gabby was the one who stoked the fires both before and during tribal council.  She used her emotions to manipulate everyone and I really dug the move.

Who Sucked:

We have to start with Angelina, who had a very rough night.  She came off as way too bossy when getting the Goliaths to target Christian.  None of the other Goliaths wanted him gone and Angelina failed to read the room on that front.  Later, when the plan was changed, she got very angry and emotional and made herself look bad to the rest of her alliance.  She then made a horrendously bad move by telling Elizabeth she was going home.  This is never a good idea and we can see why here.  I don't think Angelina was ever in danger of going home, but she has pretty much lost all of her social capital and is in the worst position of anyone left in the game.

Both Dan and Kara have got to do a better job of hiding their two-some.  That's going to make for a tempting target sooner rather than later.  Dan also came off as the bad-guy to Angelina and he told Kara about his second idol.  Horrible gameplay on his part.

Carl's night was a bit mixed, but I thought was net negative.  I liked how he threw Alec under the bus at the feast to try and create some dissension amongst the Goliaths, but then he got drunk and started talking smack about Elizabeth and painted her as a target, which was not the best move for Carl's game.  

We really didn't see enough of Davie for me to say anything positive or negative.

As for Elizabeth, I loved her as character, but she was not a great player.  She was definitely trying to cook something up, but once she realized she was the target, she waited too long to make her move.  She should have tried to get something together before tribal, not during.  It was a memorable exit, but could have potentially been avoided.

Verdict:

I'm giving the "Stacy's Blog Has Got It Going On Award" for this episode to Alec Merlino.  He's in the best spot in the game with tons of directions to move.  He formed the alliance of six, he convinced the Goliaths to save Christian, threw Dan under the bus to make him the bad-guy, and everyone seems to like him.

The "Not The Player For Me Award" goes to Angelina Keely.  She was way too bossy, too emotional when she didn't get her way, and made the terrible decision to tell Elizabeth she was going.  This may have been a game-ending move for Angelina.

I'm still loving this season.  This cast is great and the merge was super exciting.  I can't wait to see what happens next and I have no idea what to expect.