Survivor 42, Episode 5 "I'm Survivor Rich" Gameplay Analysis

 "I'm arrogant and I know that I'm the best."

-Maryanne Oketch

Well, I had a feeling it was coming, but it's never fun to see your winner pick go out, especially in the premerge.  Apart from that, this was a pretty solid episode.  I love that each tribe has lost two people and it's even going into the merge/not-really-the-merge.  It's very exciting, but before we can get to that, we have to look at this episode and figure out who played well and who sucked.

Who Played Well:

Starting on the Ika tribe, I was shocked by how good of an episode Rocksroy had.  He handled coming back from Tribal Council extremely well and is handling being left out of the vote like a wake-up call.  He didn't give away anything to Lydia on their trek and Protected His Vote.  That was the right move with the information he had.

I also like that Tori played nice after Tribal and pretended that Rocksroy voting for her was no big deal even though she plans on taking him out.

Romeo and Drea went on an Idol hunt and found the Beware Advantage.  Drea powered it up to an Idol and Romeo has all of the information on where the Idols are.

Moving over to Vati, Mike, Hai, and Lydia all made a good move in taking out Daniel and splitting the vote to make sure none of them were kncoked out by the Shot in the Dark.  Mike also made a wise move in powering up his Idol.

I loved how Lydia handled her trek with Rocksroy.  She implied that she was in trouble, which scared off Rocksroy from getting an Extra Vote.  She also decided to Protect Her Vote, which was 100% the right move.

Finally, we have Chanelle, who survived this vote, so she must have done something right socially.  She also voted for Mike, just in case Daniel did play the Shot in the Dark.  It wouldn't have done anything since the majority split their vote, but it was still a smart play.  She can blame the vote on Daniel and he isn't around to defend himself.  I'm really excited to see what she does when they get back to camp.

Who Sucked:

We'll be sticking on the Taku tribe, which started off with Lindsay and Maryanne having a loud conversation in the shelter and Jonathan getting annoyed.  Later, Jonathan and Maryanne got into a very stupid argument about nothing.  Both of them overreacted and should have apologized to one another.  Maryanne did power up her Idol though and Jonathan single-handedly prevented his tribe from going to Tribal Council, where I think he would have been voted out, so good for them, but I think overall tonight was a net negative for them.

Omar was terrible in the Immunity Challenge, but I don't think it matters much since they won the challenge anyway.

As for Daniel, he blew up his game a few episodes a go and only made things worse for himself in this episode.  I'm sad to see him go, but not surprised in the slightest.

Verdict:

Best Player of the Episode goes to Lydia Meredith for lying to Rocksroy, Protecting Her Vote, and eliminating Daniel.

Worst Player of the Episode goes to Maryanne Oketch for her irritating behavior and argument with Jonathan.  I have her slightly worse that Jonathan due to his challenge performance.  Also, quick reminder that I don't give these awards out to players that were eliminated in the episode, otherwise I would give it to Daniel.

I'm ready for this not-merge!  Let's just hope there is no time travel involved this time.