Survivor 45: Episode 11 "This Game Rips Your Heart Out" Gameplay Analysis

 "I think there's a lot of very full bags tonight."

-Emily Flippen

Wow, what an epic episode.  It had everything!  A wild and tragic backstory, a really fun Immunity Challenge, romance, tension, betrayal, and a very exciting Tribal Council.  Now we have to examine all the insanity and figure out who played well and who sucked.

Who Played Well:

Let's start with Jake and Katurah.  The last two Belo players could have been at the mercy of Reba, but when opportunity knocked, they both answered the door.  They both went along with Drew's plan to try to blindside Julie, which was a good move for them.  Fracturing Reba is the best they could have hoped for.  I also really like that Jake got over his fight with Drew from last week and worked with him.

Drew was the catalyst behind the vote against Julie and I think he did everything right.  He's at the bottom of the Reba 4 and needed to shake things up in order to have a chance of winning.  Drew won Immunity and pulled a coalition together.  It didn't work, but it wasn't his fault.

Dee has a great relationship with Austin and that social bond got Austin to spill the beans on the plan to take out Julie to Dee.  Dee used that information and warned her close ally, Julie.  She even convinced Julie to Idol Emily out of the game instead of Austin.  I think Dee could be set up really nicely going forward.

Finally, like Dee's bond with Austin, Julie has a very close bond with Dee.  When Dee found out Julie was the target, she told her and Julie was able to save herself with Austin's Idol.  I do think Julie made the right move in knocking out Emily instead of Austin.  She has a better working relationship with Austin over Emily and Emily was a bigger threat to win.

Who Sucked:

Austin has got to take the love goggles off.  I don't like that he told Dee about the plan to blindside Julie.  For Austin to win, both Julie and Dee have to go and they might as well go back-to-back.  Yeah, it probably won't help him get a date with Dee after the game, but we're here to talk about how to win the game, not how to find love.  Austin easily could have been Idoled out of the game, which would have been hilarious.  We also learned that Austin gave Julie the more powerful Idol instead of the Amulet, which was a colossal error.   

As for Emily, she probably should have gone for the Immunity on her Journey.  More importantly, she drew attention to how she orchestrated the blindside of Bruce.  She should have saved that information and revealed it at Final Tribal Council.  Also, I'm not sure if she knew Julie had an Idol, but it might have been smart to throw a rogue vote on Dee, just in case.

Verdict:

Best Player of the Episode goes to Dee Valladares for her relationship with Austin, warning Julie about the plot against her, and convincing Julie to take out Emily with her Idol.

Worst Player of the Episode goes to Austin Li Coon for telling Dee about the plan to take out Julie.

That was so epic.  I'm actually pretty glad Emily went home because I thought she was winning for sure.  This shakes the game up quite a bit and I have no idea how this going to play out, but I'm pumped to find out!