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Big Brother and online Hunger games.

Survivor Merge Episode thoughts + ranking

Apr 12, 2018 by Steel
in my opinion last nights episode was one of the best episodes of the show in a long time.  It was said about three times throughout the episode that lines in the sand would finally be drawn at tribal last night, yet they are perhaps even foggier now after that vote than before Chris got voted out.  i think this season has the makings to be really interesting.

I enjoyed the war between Dom and Chris and it ended exactly how I was hoping it would.  The side plot to get Libby out added a really interesting element to the episode as well even though it didn't come to fruition.  I love the fact that arrogant Chris was the first player to receive an idol or power and COMPLETELY FAIL to reverse the curse, that the entire tribe voted him out and humbled him after he bragged that he was well liked and trusted by the whole tribe.  Furthermore Wendell's voting confessional was probably the greatest voting confessional in the history of the show LOL, I really like him and Domenick and it will be interesting to see how they both handle rising to the power seats in the game after touting the tribe would become a democracy under those two rather than a dictatorship under Chris. 

In general I always like multiple tribe swaps before the merge because it results in increased inter-tribe relationships and fogs tribal lines more which is obviously the main characteristic of an exciting post merge. i think it's also better when the tribe victories are lopsided throughout the premerge and one tribe enters the merge with way less numbers than the other tribe, because it increases the likelihood that the bigger tribe will appeal to the smaller tribe for votes rather than target them since they aren't as threatening with such few numbers.  there are cases where this is false like in Samoa and the foa foa 4 but i think the way to remedy that is by doing multiple tribe swaps before the merge so that people are more comfortable working with people from the other former tribe.

I think people who are complaining about a selective edit should place less blame on production and more on the fact that a lot of the remaining players have very subtle personalities contrasted to the few who have HUGE personalities.  Jenna and Chelsea are very reserved, Angela Sebastian and and Donathan are very one dimensional, Kellyn is just fucking annoying.  Of the quieter personalities Desiree and Laurel are definitely the most interesting and complex characters remaining and I do believe that production will give them more screentime in the coming episodes.  The reason Dom, Wendell, Michael, Libby get the screentime is because they are the ones actively playing the game whereas the others (bottom half of my ranking) are floating along and staying under the radar.  The only two people who need a bump in screen time are Laurel and Desiree.

Ranking:

Favorites
1. Domenick- in the era of construction worker/police officer/big macho man stereotypes being constantly compared to Tony Vlachos, this guy is the first in a while who has what it takes to match up to the legend.  He is personable, perceptive, and keeps his ego in check, which are all the ingredients for someone like him to make it to the end and win. 

2. Libby- despite probst labelling half of the pretty girl contestants every season as smart and dangerous, rarely do we actually get the pretty blonde girl who is intelligent and well spoken and actually an aggressive game player not afraid to make moves and make herself noticed.
 
3. Michael- he makes me want to apply and play survivor for myself

4. Wendell- awesome dude, playing a great game, could be my winner pick depending on how Domenick manages his threat status

Like
5. Laurel- it seems like she has sneakily managed to form relationships with everyone on the beach, everyone seems to trust her and nobody is threatened by her at all.  she's also a former D1 collegiate athlete. watch out

6. Desiree- she is the same age as me so i am critiquing the fuck out of her and comparing how i think i would play to how she is playing. 

7. Chelsea- i feel like she's secretly more complex but the edit hasn't shown it

8. Jenna- she's just kinda there

Neutral
9. Sebastian- see Jenna

10. Donathan- lmao why are u still here

11. Angela- no offense if she has PTSD but she seems like shes constantly expecting a drone strike

Dislike
12. Chris (eliminated)- if chris had taken out domenick this season would have gone to total shit.  thank survivor gods he didnt play his idol and send Libby home, thank god we no longer have to be subjected to his delusional arrogance

13.  Kellyn- kellyn is annoying and i derive zero pleasure from watching her play survivor

#Survivor

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