Survivor 49, Episode 6 "The Devil's Shoes" Gameplay Analysis

 "Jawan wants me to stop talking."

-Jeff Probst

Well this episode was quite the roller coaster of emotions for me.  On one hand, Knowledge is Power is back, which is an advantage I loathe with every fiber of my being.  I wish Jeff would take a hint and stop trying to make KiP happen.  On the other hand, Shannon went home and I straight up cheered.  Each episode, I've liked Shannon less and less and I hit my breaking point in this episode when she claimed she can remember being in the womb.  I wanted her off my screen at this moment and away she went!  I've never been so happy that we don't have a reunion show!  Anyway, let's get into who played well and who sucked.

Who Played Well:

Starting over on the new Hina, I have to give props to the entire tribe.  Each and every one of them did a fantastic job in the Immunity Challenge.  They honestly made it look easy.  Really impressive stuff.

I also really love that MC told Rizo that Sage told everyone about his Beware Advantage-turned-Idol.  That was a great move for her to create a potential future crack in the original Uli tribe.

As I much as I hate Knowledge is Power, good for Sophi B on finding it.  She kept the secret to herself as well, which is exactly how to play the stupid thing.  If she keeps it up, she might be the first person to ever play it correctly.  Personally, I'd be fine if it was never played correctly...

Over on Kele, Steven did a great job of bonding with Jawan and he managed to survive the vote.  He made good enough connections with Sage and Shannon on their previous tribe that he didn't even get a vote at Tribal Council.

Sage and Jawan both made the right call in taking out Shannon.  She had thrown out both of their names and couldn't be trusted in the slightest.  On paper, original Uli should have stuck together to take out Steven, but Shannon screwed up so hard that the right move for the others was to get rid of her.

Over on Uli, Sophi S and Alex made a side alliance, which I think could benefit both of them in the future. Sophie S was also part of the duo that saved the tribe at the Immunity Challenge.

Who Sucked:

Staying on Uli, Nate may have been part of the duo that saved Uli at the Immunity Challenge, but the lie he told when meeting his new tribe wasn't believed by anyone.  I like that he explained why Matt was such an easy vote for him, but his lie that he was close with Jason didn't make any sense to the others.  If his tribe had lost here, I wouldn't have been shocked at all to see him go home.

Kristina was terrible at the Immunity Challenge, but that wasn't even a factor for me because their tribe still won.  No, what puts her in the "Who Sucked" category was throwing out Sophie S's name as a decoy vote to lull Nate into a false sense of security.  People don't like having their name thrown out as a decoy.  We've seen that blow up plans countless times on Survivor.  That was an extremely amateur move on Kristina's part.

As for Shannon, she tried to scheme and plot with everyone in the game.  I like that she made bonds, or at least tried to, with everyone, but she pushed the strategic side too hard in all of those conversations.  If you do that, all that needs to happen to blow up your game is two people comparing notes.  That happened and now everyone knows Shannon has thrown out everyone's name at some point.  She played too hard, especially in the premerge.  I think if she had kept the target on Steven, she might have survived this.  Boy, am I glad she screwed this one up.

Verdict:

Best Player of the Episode goes to Sophi Balerdi for her challenge performance and finding Knowledge is Power.

Worst Player of the Episode goes to Kristina Mills for throwing out Sophie S as a decoy vote, to her face!

I'm ready for the merge, baby!  I think with this group of characters, things could get nuts.  Here's hoping!