Survivor: David vs. Goliath Episode 9 "Breadth-First Search" Analysis

"Come to the good side!"

-Gabby Pascuzzi

Wow.  Just wow.  Another fantastic episode in a fantastic season.  David vs. Goliath is well on its way to becoming the best season of all time.  Don't @ me.  But is it the best gameplay of all time?  Let's take a look...

Who Played Well:

I'll start off by giving props to the Davids as a whole.  Davie, Nick, Christian, Carl, and Gabby all worked together to form an excellent plan that successfully took down Dan.  It was a team effort and they all did a great job.  Christian is also in the best position movie forward as he has an Idol.  The down-side is all of the Davids know about said Idol, but at least he has one.

Nick picked the right time to play his Vote Steal.  He had no way of knowing if Alec, Kara, and Alison were going to vote with them and I would bet Alec and Kara only switched their votes once Nick played the steal.  Definitely the right call.

Finally, we have Carl who played the most important role in taking down Dan.  I have to admit, I did not expect Carl to play the Idol Nullifier correctly, but he did it.  He had the finishing blow to Dan's game.  It was the perfect use of the Nullifier and looks great in front of the jury.

Who Sucked:

Let me start off by saying they Goliaths weren't wrong in their idea.  Mike, Alec, Alison, Kara, Dan, and Angelina were all right in going after Christian.  They have to get the Davids out of this game if they want to win.  Goliath-strong is the right move, but they screwed up by not making the Davids comfortable.  They know there are advantages and Idols in this game.  If they had lured the Davids into a false sense of security, maybe none of the them would have played anything and Christian would have gone home.  Having a powwow on the beach where everyone could see them was a bad call and drove the Davids to their awesome move.  Right idea, wrong execution on the Goliaths part.

Kara was dead-dog-wrong for wanting to get rid of Dan here.  She should realize that she has no chance of winning against the Davids, but she might stand a chance against someone like Dan.  She was fortunate to have Alec and Alison change their minds, but all of this makes her look bad in front of the Davids and Dan.

Alec may have won Immunity, but I think he had a net bad night, along with Kara and Alison.  They basically gave the Davids false hope before going back to Goliath-strong.  That won't win them any favor with the Davids.  Now, they did switch their votes (besides Alison) to Angelina at Tribal Council, and this could get them back in with the Davids, but it's going to piss of Angelina.  If Angelina can get in with the Davids, I wouldn't be surprised to see any of those three go next.

As for Dan, he was right to want to stay Goliath-strong and was right to play his Idol.  There was no way he could have known about the Nullifier, so I can't throw too much blame at him.  Still, he should have done more to keep the Davids calm and he paid the price for the mistake of the Goliaths.

Verdict:

The "Has Got It Going On Award" for this episode goes to Carl Boudreaux for helping put together the plan to take down Dan and successfully playing his Idol Nullifier to make it happen.

The "Not The Player For Me Award" for this episode goes to Kara Kay for failing to keep the Davids calm, giving them false hope, pissing off Angelina and Dan by switching her vote, and for wanting to get rid of Dan in the first place.

This season is, sincerely, amazing.  I never would have guessed the Idol Nullifier would be used in such epic fashion.  I'm thrilled to see it play out this way and can't wait to see what happens next.