Survivor: Island of the Idols, Episode 4, "Plan Z" Analysis

"I feel like I have a big mouth, a big voice."

-Noura Salman

Wow, what a train wreck of an episode and I don't just mean Noura.  We got some truly awful gameplay from the Lairo tribe, but another solidly entertaining episode.  I have a new favorite character in Noura and everything involving her was gold.  Now, let's get into the gameplay.

Who Played Well:

Let's start on the Lairo tribe.  This won't take long as we only have one person to talk about and that's Karishma.  She was very calm after last week's Tribal Council and handled herself well, while knowing she was also in danger.  Somehow she survived this week by being such a non-threat, so good for her...I guess.

Over on Vokai, I have to give props to the entirety of the tribe, minus Noura.  All of them were smart enough to not go to Island of the Idols and avoided putting a target on their back.  They also saw through Noura's terrible lie and stopped her from calling the challenge, which probably gave them the win.  Jamal also managed to find a Hidden Immunity Idol and did it without drawing attention to himself.  Jason won the Immunity Challenge for his tribe.  On average, it was a really good week for Vokai.

Who Sucked:

Voting out Chelsea was an incredibly bad move on everyone's part.  It didn't make sense at all.  Karishma, Dean, and even Missy were all much more acceptable targets and I'm baffled that the tribe went along with this.

Elizabeth lost the Immunity Challenge for her tribe, but bounced back with some solid scheming and plotting and throwing Elaine under the bus, but she really should have gone with the Dean vote as should have Elaine.

Aaron and Missy are playing way too hard and are putting targets on their backs.  Throwing out Chelsea's name was such a terrible move and I can't believe people went along with it.  Both of them and Tom should have just gone after Karishma when they met resistance from Elizabeth and Elaine.

Dean made himself a threat by getting into a "showmance-ish" situation with Chelsea, which is never a smart move.

Over on Vokai, we just have Noura, who made a terrible move in volunteering to go to the Island of the Idols, unnecessarily lied to her tribe about the Immunity Challenge "Advantage", and ended up losing her vote.  If she hadn't said anything and just volunteered when they got to the challenge, she probably would have been able to pull this off.

As for Chelsea, besides being too close to Dean, she did nothing wrong and I'm bummed she went out here.  She had no business being the target and I could see this being the downfall of the entire Lairo tribe.

Verdict:

The Best Player of the Episode is Jamal Shipman for finding the Hidden Immunity Idol, not volunteering to go to the Island of the Idols, and seeing though Noura's lie.

The Worst Player of the Episode is Noura Salman for volunteering to go to the Island of the Idols and for failing miserably in her attempt to get a Vote Blocker.

Another entertaining episode.  Noura is just the best, but man did Lairo play this poorly.  I'm predicting they get picked apart at the Tribe Swap.