Survivor 48, Episode 8 "A Rift Between All of Us" Gameplay Analysis

 "Maybe it'll bite off your wart."

-Mary Zheng

Well, David went from someone I thought had a solid chance of winning to this game to no chance really quickly.  I'm pretty shocked at how quickly he fell apart.  That wasn't great, but what was great was the Journey Challenge.  I got so excited when I realized that it's just the Honeycomb Havoc minigame from Mario Party 2, just without the bees.  Did anyone else get excited about that or just me?  Anyway, let's get into who played well and who sucked.

Who Played Well:

Getting rid of Chrissy was a questionable move for a lot of people, but not for Eva, Joe, and Shauhin.  Chrissy was rallying hard against them and getting rid of her allows them to hold onto their power.  Plus Eva won Immunity and got a clue to an Advantage.

I loved the way Kamilla and Mitch managed to silently work together on the Journey.  They made sure to have Mitch set Kamilla up to make Star lose her vote.  It was awesome to watch play out.  Plus Kamilla managed to survive this vote thanks to her bond with Kyle.  That saved her tonight.  Chrissy going over Kamilla was obviously good for Kamilla, but I will say it wasn't so good for Mitch.  I liked how Mitch tried to get original Civa back together, but when that failed, he could have tried to push the votes a different way.  There were other people that may have been better targets for Mitch and others instead of Chrissy or Kamilla.  That said, I'll still give him a net positive.

Kyle managed to get his way and saved Kamilla, but he really stuck out his neck to do so.  I think his relationship with Kamilla is going to draw a lot more attention now.  Maybe instead of arguing with David and Mary, he could have put together another plan to take out one of them.  Again, I don't know why Chrissy and Kamilla were the only names that were being talked about.  David, Mary, and Shauhin were all reasonable targets to go after instead.  That said, he got his way, so I'll give him a net positive.

Who Sucked:

Oh, David.  He wasn't wrong for suggesting Kamilla as the target or being suspicious of Kyle's motives.  The problem is the way he handled it.  He kept cutting Kyle off when he was trying to explain his thoughts.  Let people finish speaking!  Plus he got needlessly aggressive with Kyle and then again at Tribal Council with Chrissy and Kamilla.  Especially since Chrissy was the one going home, it really felt like David was punching down.  Kamilla was right on the money, David has forgotten about Jury management.

I like that Mary was seemingly dead set on not letting Chrissy go out of the game.  That's smart for her as Chrissy is one of the only people I think Mary can beat.  However, she ended up caving and voting out Chrissy, which hurts her chances.  Again, there were other targets.  It didn't have to be Kamilla going home.  Maybe try and target someone like Shauhin and pick up people like Chrissy and Mitch to do it.

Finally, Star was the one who ended up losing her vote on the Journey.  It may have been unavoidable with Mitch and Kamilla playing against her, but it's still enough to put her in the negative.

As for Chrissy, she was way too open about her thought process in wanting to target people like Joe and David.  She isn't wrong, but those aren't things you say at Tribal Council.  That's what you say in one-on-one conversations as you scheme and plot against Joe and David.  You have to be careful with not only what you say, but how and when you say it.

Verdict:

Best Player of the Episode goes to Kamilla Karthigesu for teaming up with Mitch to make Star lose her vote and for her social bond with Kyle.  That relationship saved her in this episode.  Plus she didn't freak out when Kyle told her she was the target.  She played it cool and smart.

Worst Player of the Episode goes to David Kinne for being so aggressive and lashing out at Kyle, Chrissy, and Kamilla.  His poor Jury management in this episode puts him as my least likely to win the game at this point.

I'm hoping we get a good civil war from the Strong 6 in this next episode.  A David vs. Joe and Kyle showdown would be a lot of fun!