Survivor 48, Episode 2 "Humble Traits" Gameplay Analysis

 "Doesn't everybody clean their belly button with Q-tip?"

-Chrissy Sarnowsky

Sigh.  We were so close.  If only Cedrek had kept quiet.  I would have loved to see Sai go home tonight.  It would have been so great.  Alas, it was not to be.  Even though I wish the outcome had been different, I still enjoyed this episode, so let's get into who played well and who sucked.

Who Played Well:

We'll start over on the Civa tribe.  Charity has gone from having zero allies to one, so that's an improvement at least.  And Mitch won the Immunity Challenge for his tribe and got himself a Vote Blocker.  I don't think he should have told his tribe about it, but I'll still give him a net positive for the episode.

Kyle managed to find the Beware Advantage with David near him and Kamilla solved the puzzle to get Kyle the Idol and his vote back.  If they stick together, their alliance can do some damage.

Moving over to Lagi, everyone knows about Star finding the Beware Advantage now and I think Joe, Shauhin, Bianca, and Thomas did a good job of not doing anything too crazy with that information.  Since their tribe won Immunity, they can take their time to decide how to properly handle the Star situation.  Plus Thomas earned a Vote Steal.

Finally, over on Lagi, Sai got her way at Tribal Council.  She wasted her Idol, but I really don't blame her for it.  And she took out somebody that was gunning for her.

Who Sucked:

Going back to Lagi, Eva offended Star by suggesting that she sit out of the challenge.  That isn't the first time this has happened on Survivor.  It's not a good idea to talk about who should sit out of challenges until you see what the challenge is going to be.  If you want to offer up your own strengths and weaknesses, that's one thing, but don't speak for other people.  Eva was able to stay in the loop thanks to her relationship with Joe, but she definitely burned a bridge with Star.

Star was way too trusting in telling people about her Beware Advantage.  I don't know how long she spent trying to solve the puzzle herself, but it wasn't enough.  Now her whole tribe knows and they could completely doom her game if they choose to.

Back on Vula, I think Cedrek and Justin misplayed the vote here.  I don't mine Cedrek telling Sai to play her Idol.  If she is the person he trusts most, then go for it.  I just think he should have stuck to the plan of getting rid of Mary.  He has a working relationship with Kevin, as does Justin.  They should have kept him and cut Mary.  Plus Cedrek blew the Immunity Challenge for his tribe.

Mary lost her vote on the Journey and wasn't really a factor in the vote.  She survived, but it wasn't because of anything she did.

We really didn't get enough from Chrissy for me to say either way.

As for Kevin, I really liked his plan to target Sai and have Mary as the backup vote in case of an Idol.  That's a sound strategic play right there.  He just underestimated how close Sai and Cedrek were and didn't seem to ask Cedrek how he felt about the plan.  He just told him what they should do.  He might have been able to make this plan work has he used some more finesse and talked things through with Cedrek.

Verdict:

Best Player of the Episode goes to Shauhin Davari.  I really liked the way he played the middle in terms of dealing with Star getting the Beware Advantage and asking him for help.  He played it safe and didn't make any final decisions on what to do yet.  His tribe won Immunity, so he was able to stall for time, which is exactly the right move for him at this point.

Worst Player of the Episode goes to Justin Pioppi for getting rid of Kevin instead of Mary.  I think he put himself in a really bad position if his tribe turns out like Matsing.  He had a working relationship with Kevin, why cut him when Mary was an option?

This Vula tribe is a mess and I'm very curious to see if they can turn things around.  I doubt it, but I can't wait to find out!