Survivor 41: Episode 8 "Betraydar" Analysis

 "Survivor happened to me."

-Liana Wallace

Would you look at that...another episode with hardly any advantage talk.  I like it!  This was a solid episode of Survivor, even if the live Tribal made a large chunk of the episode feel irrelevant.  I have an idea for a new Advantage.  We call it the "Fasten Your Seatbelts" Advantage.  You play it during Tribal Council and all of the seat have seatbelts built in.  If it's played, everyone has to buckle up and stay in their seats for the rest of Tribal Council.  Thoughts?  Anyway, let's figure out who played well and who sucked.

Who Played Well:

As a group, I want to give Liana and the remaining members of Ua and Luvu (except for Heather) some props for getting through this Tribal unscathed.  They all could have done better, but they all could have done much worse.  In the end, a member of Yase did go home, not a member of the majority alliance.  Yes, Xander's Idol is still in the game, but so are they.

Finally, I really liked how Evvie and Xander were willing to turn on each other to save themselves.  As long as they are willing to work together in the future if the opportunity should arise, I have no problem with this. Evvie also managed to save herself by winning Immunity.  I liked Xander pulling himself out of the Reward Challenge so he could emotionally manipulate the losing group, especially because I guess he doesn't eat cheese.  He also had the right read at Tribal and didn't play his Idol.  I don't love that he sat out of the Immunity Challenge, but he had a good episode overall.

Who Sucked: 

Deshawn and Shan were both at each other's throats a couple of times tonight.  At first, we saw them talk it out, so I thought they might be alright, but I think this alliance may come to end very soon.  Shan was too controlling and Deshawn shut down from communicating too quickly.  Neither is good.  Plus Shan told both Naseer and Heather that their names were going to be the backup names.  Never be the person to tell someone that.

Ricard and Shan also got into it over the papaya.  Ricard, don't touch the food if you won Reward.  Shan, don't call someone out for doing that.  Do that in private or behind their backs.  Ricard was also way too obvious in trying to get Xander to play his Idol at Tribal Council.

Finally, we have Heather, who tried to make a big move way too late in the episode.  About as late as possible.  There was no reason to blow everything up at that moment.  That should have been done much earlier in the episode or not at all.  I would not be shocked to see her go next now that everyone knows what a wildcard she is.

As for Tiffany, there wasn't really much more she could have done here.  She was in a really tough spot.  I don't think she would have gone home if Heather hadn't blown everything up.  It's a shame.  Tiffany was a lot of fun.

Verdict:

Best Player of the Episode goes to Xander Hastings for giving up his Reward Challenge position for nefarious purposes, doing his best to infiltrate the majority alliance, being willing to turn on Evvie and Tiffany, and holding onto his Idol.

Worst Player of the Episode goes to Shan Smith for getting into arguments with Ricard, Deshawn, and Heather.  She's trying to force way too much of her will on the game and I think so many people can see it now that there's no going back.

I'm really excited to see the fallout from this Tribal Council.  Here's hoping that the game really shakes up.