Survivor 48, Episode 3 "Committing to the Bit" Gameplay Analysis

 "A skull is a very scary thing to see in this game."

-Kamilla Karthigesu

Wow, that was certainly an episode of Survivor!  Two major notes here.  First off, I hate that the players who were sent on the Journey in this episode were forced to play the game.  I really wish they had been given the opportunity to back out, especially since it was just a game of chance.  Secondly, I think Cedrek's flip at Tribal Council is one of the worst moves we've ever seen in the premerge.  I'd love to hear some other potential contenders for worst premerge move of all time.  Let's get into who played well and who sucked.

Who Played Well:

We'll start over on the Civa tribe.  Kamilla took the hero spot in the Immunity Challenge and won it for her tribe, so good for her.  If you're going to take the hero spot, you'd better deliver, and she did.  She also managed to get an Extra Vote, but that was 100% luck.

I really liked the conversation between Kyle and Mitch out in the boat.  Mitch tried to bring in Kyle and David into his alliance with Charity with the intention of using them as meat shields after the merge.  Kyle was very open to the idea.  He doesn't have to go along with it, but I like that he's considering it.

Moving over to Lagi, Shauhin also led his tribe to victory in the Immunity Challenge.

I also like how Star threw Eva under the bus to Bianca and Thomas.  It was definitely a good way to make some inroads.

Finally, let's head to Vula.  I really liked Mary's hustle in searching for the Idol and trying to avoid Sai.  Later, she switched things up and played it cool as a cucumber after losing the Immunity Challenge.  She got in Sai's head for sure and considering how hard it can be to get an Idol in the modern era, I don't blame Mary for trying this approach even if Sai still ended up voting for her.  And it may have been an obvious move, but it was the right move for her to play her Shot in the Dark and it ended up saving her game.

Sai also had some good hustle in trying to babysit Mary and make sure she didn't get the Idol.  I also really appreciate how she tried to get Cedrek and Justin to stop napping and help her.  She also managed to convince Cedrek to keep her at the very last moment at Tribal.  This was a terrible move for Cedrek, but props to Sai for pulling it off.  I don't love how honest she was with the guys about losing trust in them at the beginning of the episode.  She was right to be concerned that Cedrek told her to play her Idol when she didn't have to, but she could have kept that to herself.  I also think she should have split the vote on Justin from the beginning, just in case, but I'll give her a net positive overall because she survived this episode against all odds.

Who Sucked:

Let's go back over to Lagi.  Unless you're in a bad spot, I don't think you should be going on Journeys anymore.  It's just not worth the potential risk.  Bianca volunteered to go and ended up losing her vote in the process.  She also has too much trust in Thomas.  She's giving him information, but he isn't reciprocating.

Eva's alliance with Joe is very obvious and making him a bracelet for his daughter does not help the optics.  I don't blame anybody for wanting to split them up.  It was also not a great idea for her to suggest voting out Bianca or Thomas to Star.  That just gave Star ammunition to use against her.

Finally, back on Vula, Cedrek had an all-time, bad episode.  First off, he wasn't active in babysitting Mary to make sure she didn't get the Idol.  Then he took the hero role in the Immunity Challenge and lost.  Then his decision-making at Tribal Council is some of the worst I've ever seen.  He tells us in this episode that his number 1 ally is Justin.  Okay, commit to that and vote for Sai.  Or commit to Sai and vote out Justin when you figure out he doesn't have a vote after the initial Mary vote.  It's incredible that he seemed surprised there were only two votes on the revote.  But after all that, he would have been fine if he had just committed.  He votes for Sai twice.  That's hard to come back from and he should have just sent her packing.  Instead he turns on his closest ally and sends Justin out of the game.  Insanity and one of the worst premerge moves of all time.

We really didn't get enough from Charity, Chrissy, David, Joe, or Thomas for me to say either way.

As for Justin, he really got screwed over by production.  He was sent on a Journey to play a game of chance and lost his vote.  Not his fault in the slightest.  And I don't mind that he lied about still having it, especially if he can't rely on Cedrek strategically.  I will fault him for not being active enough in babysitting Mary.  Maybe he could have found the Idol instead and saved himself.  He also didn't seem to fight for himself against Sai very hard at Tribal Council.

Verdict:

Best Player of the Episode goes to Mary Zheng for playing things very cool and playing her Shot in the Dark.

Worst Player of the Episode goes to Cedrek McFadden for not babysitting Mary, losing the Immunity Challenge for his tribe, and being so wishy-washy at Tribal Council.

What an episode.  I actually had my jaw dropped by the end of everything.  I can't wait to see the fallout back at Vula.  I wish we weren't getting a tribe swap in the next episode.  I would love to see how Vula functions going forward after this mess of an episode.