Survivor 41: Episode 9 "Who's Who in the Zoo" Analysis

 "Yeah, no way."

-Naseer Muttalif

Boy, was it nice to have an episode with no live Tribal Council.  It's so refreshing.  The boots of this episode were absolutely brutal with two of my favorites being voted out, but I'm not that upset about it.  They were the right moves.  This was a really fun episode of Survivor and I'm excited to figure out who played well and who sucked.

Who Played Well:

Let's start with Deshawn.  He was in a really unfortunate position, where no matter what, one of his allies was going home.  Either way, he loses someone he can work with.  I think he ultimately made the right move by taking out Evvie, as she was a bigger threat than Liana.  Obviously, this was the right move for Danny and Liana as well, so good for both of them for managing to keep Deshawn on their side.  I didn't like how Deshawn was so pissy with Shan after the previous Tribal Council, but they made up...for now.

Xander's an interesting one.  He definitely could have shaken up the game with his Extra Vote here.  He could have forced a tie that would have made either Danny and Deshawn flip or made them draw rocks.  That would have been a way to cause some chaos for sure.  On the flip side, he still has the Extra Vote and Idol in the game.  He also won Immunity and did a decent job of trying to get Deshawn to turn on Liana.  I think he missed an opportunity, but I don't think he ended up playing badly overall.

Finally, Erika, Heather, and Ricard all made the right move in getting Naseer out of the game.  The guy was a massive threat and had an Idol.  Ricard came up with a good plan, even if I don't like the way he talked with Shan about it.  He's playing with fire whenever he does that.  Erika won Immunity and possibly saved herself.  There was a decent chance she was going home if she didn't.  I also really liked how Heather made it seem like she was going home and that Naseer was safe.  The tears at Tribal Council, real or not, were a nice touch and lured Naseer into a false sense of security.

Who Sucked:

The only person I have here is Shan.  She and Deshawn were not great in the aftermath of the previous Tribal Council.  While they made up the next day, Shan continued to be forceful with her plans, which continued to alienate Deshawn.  Shan's not wrong for wanting to control the game, but she doesn't seem to understand how to work with Deshawn.  She also pulled Deshawn, Danny, and Liana away from Erika and Xander to have a strategy meeting, which just comes off as arrogant and alienates people.  She also was actively rooting for Naseer at the challenge and wanted to get rid of Heather for some baffling reason.  She ultimately made the right move, but only because Ricard made her.

As for Naseer and Evvie, it's a bummer to see them go.  I was really rooting for both of them.  Naseer kinda did this to himself, however.  He never should have told Heather she was going and instead lied to her about working together.  If I allowed myself to give Worst Player of the Episode to someone who was eliminated, I would give it to Naseer.  

Evvie was in a tough spot.  The only thing she could have realistically done was convinced Xander to play the Extra Vote.  In all honesty, Evvie was living on borrowed time, like she said in her final words.

Verdict:

Since two people were voted out, I'm allowing myself to give out two Best and Worst Players of the Episode.

For Best Players, I'm giving them to Erika Casupana and Heather Aldret.  They both got rid of Naseer, who was not open to working with them, and flushed an Idol.  Erika also won Immunity and I really liked Heather's waterworks at Tribal Council.

For Worst Player, I'm only going to give out one because out of all the remaining players, only one was net negative, and that's Shan Smith for being too obvious with her scheming, openly cheering for Naseer at the Immunity Challenge, fighting with Deshawn, and trying to take out Heather.

This was a really fun episode.  Hopefully things start to really shake up in the next episode.