Survivor 47: Episode 5 "The Scales Be Tippin" Gameplay Analysis

 "That tribe's a mess."

-Kyle Ostwald

For most of this episode, this was a pretty average episode of Survivor.  Fortunately, even average Survivor is fun.  What elevated the episode was the ending.  Anika's reaction to being blindsided is an all-timer.  On a human level, I felt bad for her, but I was laughing my ass off at her reaction.  More of these, please!  Now, let's get into who played well and who sucked.

Who Played Well:

Starting over on Gata, I have to give a lot of props to Sam.  I really think Andy should have been the one to go home here, but saving Andy was good for Sam's game.  He managed to convince Sierra to go along with his plan without even having to play his Idol.  He keeps both his allies and gets rid of his number one enemy, Anika.

We finally got to see the payoff for Andy's course correction.  He made himself indispensable to Sam and, in return, Sam saved him.  He may be the reason his tribe lost the challenge, but I'll give him enough credit for surviving the episode that he winds up net positive.

Moving over to Lavo, that tribe is a mess, but I like how Teeny, Genevieve, and Sol compared notes and all agreed that Rome is completely untrustworthy.  Maybe the three of them can come back together and do something at the merge.

Over on Tuku, I liked how Gabe played nice with Tiyana after he found out that she threw him under the bus at the Survivor Social.  He doesn't and shouldn't trust her, but he didn't let her know that.

Who Sucked:

Back on Gata, Rachel ended up being left out of the vote and lost her closest ally, but I level more criticism at Sierra.  Voting out Anika was terrible for her.  She should have put her foot down and taken out Andy instead.  She needs to distance herself from Andy anyway.  Even if it had ended up 2 votes Andy, 2 Anika, they still could have knocked out Andy on a 2-1 revote.  Now, Sam could have played his Idol on Andy and saved him, but at least Sierra's relationship with Rachel would be intact.  I think this decision will come around to destroy her game.  

Over on Lavo, Rome had a bit of a meltdown after losing the Reward Challenge.  He told different things to different people and they ended up comparing notes.  Now, not even Genevieve trusts him.

On Tuku, both Caroline and Tiyana gave away too much information at the Survivor Social.  Tiyana threw Gabe under the bus in front of his closest ally, Sue.  And Caroline probably said too much about how close the women of Tuku are.  It's a minor thing, but I could see other players being very scared of the Tuku women because of Caroline's comments.

We really didn't get enough from Kyle or Sue to say either way.

As for Anika, she didn't do a good job of making Sam feel comfortable with her.  I think her bossy personality and taking the leadership role were probably the biggest factors here.  If she had been a little more go-with-the-flow, she may have not been the target.

Verdict:

Best Player of the Episode goes to Sam Phalen for convincing Sierra to go with his plan, taking out Anika, and saving Andy.

Worst Player of the Episode goes to Sierra Wright for not putting her foot down and taking out Andy.  Now she's stuck with Sam and Andy and everyone is already afraid of her relationship with Sam.  Plus Anika is gone and her relationship with Rachel is badly burned.  The Breadwinners Alliance may be toast.

Anika's reaction to getting blindsided was incredible.  I can only hope we get more of those moments as we go into the merge!