This next merge episode involves a big downfall from the player voted out. This episode is:
ALL STARS!
This may be the most famous or at least one of the most famous merge set-ups in survivor history. This is also the main reason why All Stars made it this far. Lex is basically running Mogo Mogo with Kathy. He recently talked to Colby and Ethan on the side to tell them he was voting them out. After that comes a fake merge tribe swap where Amber ends up with the Mogo Mogos. This is a bad situation for her as Rob seems likely to lose his survivor wife. At the end of the immunity, Rob whispers to Lex "you take care of her, I take care of you." Lex promises to do his best with this. Then Amber campaigns to Kathy. Kathy and Lex talk and agree that they should keep Amber and get rid of Jerri instead. So Amber survives and this leads us into the real merge.
Rob and the rest of Chapera sees that Amber survived and they're all relieved and thrilled. Rob has his reunion and then goes off with the cameras and basically tells them he has no intention of keeping his deal with Lex. He even laughs arrogantly at his performance saying "you guys didn't think I was serious did you?" Then Rob and Kathy win immunity so after that, Lex and Kathy want to form a final 4 with Rob and Amber. Rob basically shuts this down and says no, we're sticking with the Chapera 6. In an ironic reversal role, Lex doesn't take this well being on the other side. Kathy looks at it as a betrayal of their friendship as does Lex. Those 2 get perhaps 2 of the most emotional about a vote-off in the show's history. In the end, Lex gets voted off easily.
The impact is pretty minor from this episode. Lex gets booted and Mogo Mogo continues to get picked off. Rob and Amber would obviously go on to make the final 2 and get married in real life. So with a dramatic boot off why is it only #21? Well because we saw Lex's boot coming from a mile away. It led to a predictable boot and a boring pagonging. Also, Lex's fight with Rob was a little uncomfortable and somewhat hard to watch. Really not what survivor is supposed to be about considering things from outside the game got taken into this episode. In the end, Lex's downfall was both iconic and ironic but as an individual episode, it can't save it.
Stay tuned for #20! Hint- this episode almost set up how the rest of the season would play out
29. Thailand
28. Guatemala
27. China
26. Exile Island
25. Palau
24. One World
23. Blood vs. Water
22. Nicaragua
21. All Stars
Borneo
Australian Outback
Africa
Marquesas
Amazon
Pearl Islands
Vanuatu
Cook Islands
Fiji
Micronesia
Gabon
Tocantins
Samoa
Heroes vs. Villains
Redemption Island
South Pacific
Philippines
Caramoan
Cagayan
San Juan Del Sur
Happy New Year everyone! If you have time in between festivities, hope you have time to read this next blog. Sorry it's been a few days, I've been having internet issues. With that said the next episode is:
NICARAGUA!
Now I feel like I'm going to get some grief for this ranking. Some may be surprised but you have to understand, most of the episodes left are all good or great. The set-up for Nicaragua was Chase and Brenda running one tribe with Na'Onka and Sash running the other. There was also a rivalry building between Jane and Marty. Marty was in a bad spot but bought himself another day by giving Sash his HII. Him and Alina were at the bottom of their tribe going into the merge.
The episode itself is ranked this high for the entertainment. The merge comes and Alina wants to create a 6-pack alliance with her tribe. Sash and Na'Onka practically laugh at this. Then Sash and Brenda reunite their alliance and bring their allies with them. This results in practically everybody being together except Marty and Alina. The start of this merge was kind of a clusterfuck. Then some more entertainment comes in the immunity challenge when Jane wins immunity for the women and chooses to stay in the competition to show up the guys (mainly Marty). Then after the challenge, Na'Onka steals food, then gets caught and tries to deny it and still gets called out in the end. This is when the others realized just how much of a goat Na'Onka could be. In the end, it was really a vote between Alina and Marty. Marty buys himself another day because Sash wanted to keep his word to him so Alina ends up getting voted out 10-2.
The impact wasn't major. Alina was near the bottom of the totem pole and her vote-off didn't really impact the future of the season. Everything really started to get set up after she left and that really had nothing to do with her. But why is this episode only #22 with good entertainment you may ask? Well because I thought that while the entertainment was good, there wasn't really a dramatic vote-off or set-up like most of the others left on the list. The entertainment was good but not the best I've ever seen in a merge episode. Being #22 may seem harsh but I did like this episode, I just didn't think it was great.
Stay tuned for #21! Hint- a merge that involved an epic downfall
29. Thailand
28. Guatemala
27. China
26. Exile Island
25. Palau
24. One World
23. Blood vs. Water
22. Nicaragua
Borneo
Australian Outback
Africa
Marquesas
Amazon
Pearl Islands
All Stars
Vanuatu
Cook Islands
Fiji
Micronesia
Gabon
Tocantins
Samoa
Heroes vs. Villains
Redemption Island
South Pacific
Philippines
Caramoan
Cagayan
San Juan Del Sur
This next merge episode had a blindside that was poorly edited. I'm surprised nobody guessed this one as I thought I made the clue obvious. Anyway, the episode is:
BLOOD VS. WATER!
The set-up for this was interesting. Tyson was scared of Aras and also on a tribe with him. In the tribe swap, he took time to set up a plan with Gervase who was his right hand man and the 3 loved ones on that tribe (Ciera, Hayden and Caleb) to blindside Aras the next vote they could. Meanwhile, Vytas was the only male on the other tribe and was almost certain to go home. He survives 2 votes by playing utr and making it to the merge. This allows the B Bros to get reunited for the merge.
We start out this episode with what probably was the most anti-climatic battle to get back into the game. The battle of the Laura's for the 11th spot in the merge ended with an easy Laura Morett win. Then when they officially merge, Laura M teams up with Tyson's 5 pretty early on for a majority 6. This made it pretty clear Aras or Vytas was going. The only real drama we got from this episode was that Tina accidently told Monica she was on the bottom of their final 5 alliance. This basically got Monica upset and caused her to turn with the rest. Since Aras didn't win immunity, he was voted out 7-4.
The impact from this episode brought it up a few spots. Aras was a pretty powerful player in this season. With Tina and Katie loyal to him, he was probably in a good spot to win the game again had Tyson and Gervase not flipped. This changed the game because it basically ruined the game of the B bros, Tina and Katie. This also interestingly enough put a lot of other people in position to win the game since it did set up a battle between Tyson/Gervase and Hayden/Caleb.
Now on paper, this should be a lot higher. You have an impactful blindside that changes the course of the game. So why is this only #23? Well because I thought this was a terribly edited set-up for this blindside. Tyson talked about it 3 episodes prior, mentioned it again at the swap and then basically confirmed it early in the merge episode. Even the most casual of survivor fans could've predicted this was coming. This episode had potential to be in the top half on this list but it just wasn't very well executed.
I think this wraps up the bottom tier of this list of episodes I just plain didn't like. The rest all had some sort of enjoyment to take out of it whether it was a well edited blindside that set the tone of the rest of the game, a highlight of that season or just had a lot of humor that saved what could've been a boring episode.
Stay tuned for #22! Hint- this merge episode involved a food scandal
29. Thailand
28. Guatemala
27. China
26. Exile Island
25. Palau
24. One World
23. Blood vs. Water
Borneo
Australian Outback
Africa
Marquesas
Amazon
Pearl Islands
All Stars
Vanuatu
Cook Islands
Fiji
Micronesia
Gabon
Tocantins
Samoa
Heroes vs. Villains
Nicaragua
Redemption Island
South Pacific
Philippines
Caramoan
Cagayan
San Juan Del Sur
This next merge episode had some conflict from allies on the bottom of the totem pole. This one is:
ONE WORLD!
One World is a season that started with so much potential. But then it all started to come crashing down. In the early stages of the season, it was starting to look like a good post-merge battle between Colton and Kim for power. But then, Colton gets hurt and gets medically evacuated and that leads us into into the merge with 6 guys and 6 girls.
The actual merge on paper looks like it could be interesting with a gender/tribe clash. Thew thing was, Kim just had too strong of an influence on everybody for it to be interesting. She kept the 3 guys on her tribe on her side (Troyzan, Jay and Mike) and also got Alicia and Christina back on her side. With this, there was now a 9-3 majority all wrapped around Kim. The target then clearly became Jonas with Tarzan thrown in as an option #2 for annoyance. The 3 misfits were in danger and nobody would go back to them. The only entertainment from this episode was the bickering between Jonas and Tarzan against each other to try and survive. It was interesting to see what levels people would go down to for survival and how easily former allies would turn on each other. Not that they were that close in the first place but they were still allies. But unfortunately, we came to the boring and predictable conclusion of Jonas' vote-off. I did like Jonas as I found him to be a good utr strategist. He was boring for most but I actually thought he was good for the season.
The impact from this episode is the main reason why this one made it so high. As boring as it was to see play out, this episode did basically clinch majority for Kim to perform her main move next episode to turn on the stronger guys from her tribe. It put the 6 women in position to take over the game for good. Jonas was also by far the biggest threat of the 3 misfits. But in the end, the episode was a little too boring compared to others for the impact to make up for it.
Stay tuned for #23! Hint- this episode had a blindside that was poorly edited
29. Thailand
28. Guatemala
27. China
26. Exile Island
25. Palau
24. One World
Borneo
Australian Outback
Africa
Marquesas
Amazon
Pearl Islands
All Stars
Vanuatu
Cook Islands
Fiji
Micronesia
Gabon
Tocantins
Samoa
Heroes vs. Villains
Nicaragua
Redemption Island
South Pacific
Philippines
Caramoan
Blood vs. Water
Cagayan
San Juan Del Sur
This next merge episode had a near unanimous vote. A lot of these can fit the bill but this is:
PALAU!
This merge episode had possibly the most unique set-up in the show's history. Now technically, the show didn't call this a merge but for the purposes of this list, I'm going to treat this episode as such. We come off Ulong being down to 2 tribe members losing their last immunity challenge to set up a tiebreaker challenge for survival. Steph won this and went back to tribe camp alone.
I thought the beginning of this episode was very interesting. We never saw any castaway be at camp completely by themselves and we got to feel the emotions Steph was which was that it's a scary experience being in the middle of an island by yourself. Thankfully, Steph's suffering was shortlived as she was told to move to Koror's camp. Now we were also finally going to see Koror have tribal lines. They lived with each other for a few weeks being undefeated and only sacrificing Willard in a double tribal. On paper, this should be a good episode, especially with Steph having a prior connection with Tom in the beginning of the game. Unfortunately, it just wasn't well executed. Koror became set on voting out Steph as soon as she got there. The only reason that didn't happen the first episode was because Coby went awall. He told Steph all the tribe's secrets and just went off on them. This alienated him from the rest of the tribe and pissed off Koror so much that they decided to vote him out before Steph. In the end, he was disposed of quickly with 7 votes.
Another reason why this episode is low is because there wasn't much impact from it. Coby was kind of always on the bottom of the tribe and this only carried Steph a few more episodes. The only person Coby really had an alliance with was Greg and I feel like those 3 would've been picked off anyway. So in the end, this episode just got Steph out of Ulong camp with the rest being a filler to set up the end game battle between Tom and Ian.
Stay tuned for #24! Hint- this merge turned allies on the bottom against each other
29. Thailand
28. Guatemala
27. China
26. Exile Island
25. Palau
Borneo
Australian Outback
Africa
Marquesas
Amazon
Pearl Islands
All Stars
Vanuatu
Cook Islands
Fiji
Micronesia
Gabon
Tocantins
Samoa
Heroes vs. Villains
Nicaragua
Redemption Island
South Pacific
One World
Philippines
Caramoan
Blood vs. Water
Cagayan
San Juan Del Sur
This next merge episode had the immunity winner make it to the finale. This one is:
EXILE ISLAND!
Now on paper, this had an argument for the worst merge episode in survivor history. The set-up really didn't help. We had what was kind of a dud tribe in La Mina losing the final 11 immunity which clinched them being in the minority for the merge. They voted out Astronaut Dan and were down to 4. Their only hope was Terry potentially flipping Bruce who was an outsider on Casaya and started the game on Terry's tribe.
This leads to the actual episode. The tribes merge and despite Casaya being a huge clusterfuck before, they have a solid pack to stick together and not let La Mina get to them. The immunity challenge became a battle of the alpha males on La Mina. Interestingly, Austin drops out in order to not become the biggest threat (which was smart since this landed him a jury spot). Then Terry defeats his young conrad Nick. This seems to spell doom for Nick and on paper it's a clear cut vote-off. There are 2 things that make the post-immunity interesting to me. The first is Terry's attempts to lure Casaya. I love the guy but these were downright hilarious. The selling point was to have 2 Casaya flip to 4 La Mina. Cirie laughs in a confessional to how terrible of a deal that is and Shane gets openly annoyed with his proposals. The second interesting story was whether or not Terry would use his HII on one of his allies. I feel like if he did use it, they would've been picked off anyway but for this tribal it was the question if this would get delayed. In the end, it was Nick that got voted out. I feel like this hurts the episode since his boot really meant nothing to me and 99% of the viewers.
It's harder to determine what impact this episode had to me. I don't really think Nick's boot really had a huge impact on the rest of the season besides the fact Terry didn't use his HII on him which he never used anyway. It was really just the start of a La Mina pagonging which again, hurts the episode. Though I will say this episode was the start of Terry's incredible immunity run which does very slightly help it.
I think in the end, some of the humor moves this episode up from deadlast but unfortunately it still can't escape the fact that there was really limited drama about who would win out this episode.
Stay tuned for #25! Hint- this merge episode had close to a unanimous vote
29. Thailand
28. Guatemala
27. China
26. Exile Island
Borneo
Australian Outback
Africa
Marquesas
Amazon
Pearl Islands
All Stars
Vanuatu
Palau
Cook Islands
Fiji
Micronesia
Gabon
Tocantins
Samoa
Heroes vs. Villains
Nicaragua
Redemption Island
South Pacific
One World
Philippines
Caramoan
Blood vs. Water
Cagayan
San Juan Del Sur
