Survivor: Edge of Extinction Episode 7 "I'm the Puppet Master" Analysis

"Hey, guys, I heard what happened at the challenge.  Eat me."

-David Wright

I'm shocked.  If you had told me that that no Idols would be played and no rocks would be drawn in this episode, but Eric would be the one to go home, I would not have believed you.  This was a really fun episode, but it was filled with bad gameplay.  Who was the worst of the worst and who rose to the top of the heap?  Let's find out.

Who Played Well:

Let's start with Kelley, who did a great job of patching things up with David, managed to hold onto her Idol (balls of steal!), and got a Kama voted out.  Her ally Lauren did a lot of the same things; like holding onto her Idol and getting Eric voted out, though I will say, when she started to get dizzy, she should have just dropped out of the challenge.  If the block had landed on her head when she fell, she could have been evacuated from the game.

David Wright (my winner pick!) also had a good night.  He helped get Eric out and patched things up with Kelley.  I also loved that he held onto his half of the Idol when Rick's interests unaligned with David's.

Wardog bounced back tonight after receiving the Rotten Coconut award two weeks in a row.  He tried to mend fences with Rick, though he didn't handle Rick's rejection particularly well.  He also managed to get both in Julia and Gavin's heads getting them to flip on Eric.

We also have Aurora, who is the only Kama that flipped who made the correct move.  She had no reason to stay loyal to Kama, so I'm glad to see she flipped.  She also won Immunity.  However, she did rub some people the wrong way when she tried to get Victoria to drop out of the challenge while Lauren was out cold.  It was the right move, but the wrong time.  That said, I loved the moment and Aurora is one of my favorite characters now.

Finally, Aubry did a good job of finding the advantage out on the Edge and made the right call in giving the Extra Vote to Aurora.  

Who Sucked:

Gavin, Julia, and Victoria made their big move way too early.  They should have waited at least one more week and I wouldn't be shocked to see any of them go next.  Gavin and Julia did especially bad by letting Wardog get in their heads.  Kama is fractured and I can't see it ever coming back together.

Julie and Ron were both left out of the vote and are in deep trouble.  A lot of the blame can be placed at Ron's feet.  He pushed the family visit too hard which made it easy for Wardog and company to get Gavin, Victoria, Julia, and Aurora to flip.

Finally, we have Rick, who played way too emotionally in this episode.  He has a right to be mad at Wardog, Lauren, and Kelley and shouldn't trust them, but he should have kept that to himself.  At the very least, pretend to patch things up with Wardog so you have him as an option later on.  I do think the best move for Rick was to go back with Lesu, but even if he doesn't go with them, pretend to!  He let himself get played by Kama to spite Lesu and ended up on the wrong side of the votes because of it.

As for Eric, he made the same mistake as Ron by leaning too hard into the family visit as a big reward.  It was way too obvious.  Plus splitting the vote when you have Aurora and David as your alleged numbers was a terrible call.  Putting trust in them was extremely foolish.

Verdict:

The Platinum Probst, which goes to the best player in the episode, goes to Wardog DaSilva for getting inside of Gavin and Julia's heads and getting them to flip on Eric.  It was the real #GameChangers move.

The Rotten Coconut, which goes to the worst player in the episode (except for the eliminated player), goes to Rick Devens for playing with his emotions, burning his Lesu bridges, being drawn in by Kama, and being on the wrong side of the vote.

This was a really fun episode and played out in very unexpected fashion.  I hope the rest of the season plays out in a similar manner.