Like I said, this next merge episode involved a fake idol. It may not be the first season you think of when you hear this so let me reveal it. This is:
CHINA!
Admittedly, the set-up was somewhat interesting for a merge ranked this low. Probably the most positive aspect of it tbh. See, China had what might be the worst twist in survivor history 2 episodes prior to the merge where each tribe could kidnap 2 players from the other tribe. This resulted in Aaron and James going to Zhan Hu and Frosti and Sherea going to Fei Long. Zhan Hu threw the first immunity as new tribes in order to get rid of Aaron. The goal was to go into the merge 5-5 and send Aaron and James home. But then Zhan Hu felt bad about doing the same to James while Todd almost simultaneously gave James his HII for protection in case they threw another challenge. He also told James where Zhan Hu's HII was so he ended up with both going into the merge.
Unfortunately, that's the high point of this merge scenario. James had 2 HII and had no intentions of staying with the 3 Zhan Hu. What made it worse was that Frosti didn't have interest in flipping back either. So this left the 3 Zhan Hu screwed for this episode. Now Jamie did have a fake idol that was brought to tribal council and I believe she played it, but honestly, it wasn't as funny as Eliza's to really save it from being a terrible episode. It was pretty clear most of the episode that Jamie was going to be the one going unless she won immunity. Jamie was someone that was somewhat significant, I'll give her that as the unofficial leader of the Zhan Hu alliance and really the one connecting Erik and Peih-Gee.
The impact of this episode is also rather weak. It really didn't have a big effect on the rest of the season. To be honest, this tribal was really just a filler before the decent ones actually happened. Todd and Amanda did do some blindsides but Jamie's departure really didn't have a direct effect on that. Peih-Gee and Erik also never really escaped their roles despite sticking around for a few episodes.
Overall, the set-up for the merge had potential but I think it quickly got squashed of any possible interesting merge episode once James got both idols and expressed his distaste for Fei Long. There were a couple of interesting vote-offs after this but none of them really had any connection to Jamie's boot. Losing Jamie was missed for later in the season and she was a decent player but the fake idol thing wasn't funny enough for me to really carry it up over other pointless merge episodes.
Stay tuned for #26! Hint- the person that won the first individual immunity made it to the finale
Borneo
Australian Outback
Africa
Marquesas
Amazon
Pearl Islands
All Stars
Vanuatu
Palau
Exile Island
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 took place with one tribe already in the majority. This episode is:
GUATEMALA!
This is a season I generally find underrated and in my top 10. But I have to say, the merge episode was far from this season's strongpoint. The set-up going into this was rather weak. Nakum came into the merge up 6-4 and with the numbers. This left a minority of Gary, Danni, Bobby John and Brandon. This alone is probably one of the worst set-ups for a merge episode because we already had a clear majority with no intention of flipping. What makes it worse is that there were 3 strong males in the minority to make it look less attractive to flip.
In the actual episode, the only real drama was who Nakum was going to pick off: Bobby John or Brandon? We did see Bobby John plead with Steph that he just wants to make jury this time. Once that was arranged and the immunity challenge was complete, the rest of the episode was basically just Brandon's sendoff. It just doesn't represent what a merge episode should be about.
In terms of the impact on the rest of the season, I don't believe this had much. Brandon wasn't exactly a standout player going into the merge, he was just looked at as a nice southern boy. Plus, what happened after this really had nothing to do with Brandon's vote off. He was really just a number to weaken the minority alliance. Yes Danni overcame this but I consider that separate and not connected to this episode.
Stay tuned for #27! Hint- this merge involved a fake idol
Borneo
Australian Outback
Africa
Marquesas
Amazon
Pearl Islands
All Stars
Vanuatu
Palau
Exile Island
Cook Islands
Fiji
China
Micronesia
Gabon
Tocantins
Samoa
Heroes vs. Villains
Nicaragua
Redemption Island
South Pacific
One World
Philippines
Caramoan
Blood vs. Water
Cagayan
San Juan Del Sur
To get things started, we have to get rid of the really forgettable merges. There are a handful of really bad merge episodes but I believe this is the worst of them all. This season is:
THAILAND!
As we all know, Thailand may be the most forgettable survivor season of all-time. Commonly regarded as a bottom 5 season, the merge episode was no different. The set-up going into this has to start with the fake merge picnic 2 episodes prior. The tribes gathered and were paired up to bond which I thought was an interesting way to introduce the sides to each other. Going into this 5-5, I thought these social interactions were an interesting set-up for a potential flip. But then Jeff reveals that he never said they were merging and that they would still be competing as tribes. Chuay Gahn takes advantage of this extra time and wins the next 2 immunity challenges almost solely because of Brian to gain a 5-3 majority going into the real merge.
This meant the 3 remaining Sook Jai members were screwed going into this. It was basically inevitable one of them was going to be picked off. Jake, Penny and Ken were all fighting to try to get a Chuay to flip and/or get in good favor with them. The only small hole that opened was that Clay openly said he didn't like Ted. Jake tried to take advantage of this but in the end, there wasn't much drama for who was going home and Chuay Gahn got rid of the physical threat in Ken.
What makes this worse is that Ken may be the most forgettable merge boot in survivor history. Seriously I had to go look on Wikipedia to see which Sook Jai got voted out in this episode. From someone that has watched every episode, that's when you know it's bad. Not only was he not memorable, his boot didn't really have a huge impact on what went on next. It was just the finishing of the pagonging of Sook Jai with Penny and Jake getting voted out the next 2 tribals. The one thing this episode set up was the battle between Clay and Ted for Brian's partner in the end.
This is not the only merge boot that meant nothing but I just didn't like the fact a pagonging was starting so late and I found Ken to be an extra forgettable merge boot on what is widely regarded as the most forgettable season of survivor overall.
Stay tuned for #28! Hint- this merge episode had a tribe in the minority going in
Borneo
Australian Outback
Africa
Marquesas
Amazon
Pearl Islands
All Stars
Vanuatu
Palau
Guatemala
Exile Island
Cook Islands
Fiji
China
Micronesia
Gabon
Tocantins
Samoa
Heroes vs. Villains
Nicaragua
Redemption Island
South Pacific
One World
Philippines
Caramoan
Blood vs. Water
Cagayan
San Juan Del Sur
I decided to start our offseason by doing another ranking! One idea I thought of that I haven't really seen done is debate the best merge episodes ever. Since merge episodes most of the time determine the dynamics of the rest of the season, I feel they're a good representation of the season overall.
There are a few factors that are going to go into how I rank each season's merge episode. The first will be the set-up going into the merge. Was it a clusterfuck, a flipper, 2 sides with a line in the sand, a typical pagonging immediately or what? The second will be the significance of the person voted out. Was it a big loss for the losing side, for the audience and for the season? Did that person's presence missing change the game? Or was that person insignificant to the overall game bad enough to be a joyous occassion to be voted out when they were? The last factor is the impact on the rest of the season. Did that boot help set up any major blindsides and/or power shifts? If it did, the merge episode will get a bump up. If it just led to a pagonging, it might be marked down a little.
With these factors, keep in mind the 2 merge episodes (Tocantins and SJDS) where there was a med-evac and quit may not autmoatically be the bottom 2 because of the impact those had on the rest of the season and continuing to set-up the merge battle in the next episode.
For those that don't remember or aren't clear about when merges took place on certain seasons, I'm not counting fake merges. The episodes I rank will be when the tribes officially merge. These cases are Thailand final 8, All Stars final 9, Fiji final 9, Gabon final 9, etc.
Who thinks the majority was idiotic not to vote Alec? Seriously they didn't have to rely on Reed and him. They could've let them flush the idol under Reed's plan and vote Alec out. Bam no one has to play an idol. Though I do think Reed made a mistake targeting Jon first. Jaclyn probably would've been better. It was honestly just bad gameplay all around except for Natalie who was the real mvp tonight saving Jon's ass.
These are based on who I think is playing the best game and not on likability. I don't watch the feeds so this is mainly based off the episodes.
12. Victoria- the edit she has explains it all
11. Jocasta- seems to be one of the last expendable players with no connections to the majority
10. Caleb- his only connections are people that are only keeping him around for a number that are thinking about putting him up soon. Expect him to go soon if there's not a dynamic shift.
9. Zach- he may be HoH but I really question his game sometimes. Seriously what benefit does HE have to backdooring Caleb?
8. Donny- his only allies right now are really Team America. He may be a nice guy but he's on the verge of becoming expendable. He is a smart guy though in realizing Cody has people in his ear.
7. Hayden- I also feel like he will become expendable soon and today's HoH proved it. Eventually if the Detonators stay in power, they'll want to split up him and Nicole and if that happens, he's the likely first target. Plus I haven't heard a lot of game talk from him.
6. Cody- this week basically proved he can be influenced and isn't fully playing his own game. It's not a terrible move for him to get rid of Brittany but I feel like his ability to be manipulated like that could cost him later.
5. Amber- I feel like she has the ability to decide how this season is going to go. With the Detonators splitting away from her and Amber starting to become aware of this, she could change the game if she gets back in a position of power and has connections with the other smart girls. Not to mention she has 2 guys willing to protect her.
4. Nicole- really playing the more UTR version of Derrick's game. I feel like she has decent allies and if the Detonators can get overthrown, she could sit very pretty in the aftermath. Not to mention no one wants to vote her out yet like Donny.
3. Frankie- playing a very good overall game so far. He's strategical, has won 3 HoH's and is very social around the house. The only reason he's not higher is because I believe he's the worst of the top 3 in hiding how big of a threat he'll be down the road and will probably be the first person people turn on of these 3.
2. Christine- still love her game. She's UTR and playing it safe for now because she really doesn't have to branch out yet. She's basically in a perfect spot where she'll be fine no matter what happens to the Detonators in the upcoming weeks.
1. Derrick- still love his game and is also a triple threat. The reason he's higher than Christine and Frankie is because I believe he plays much more UTR than Frankie and is in a more powerful position than Christine. Derrick is on top of a couple alliances where I question if Christine is on top of either of hers.
Eviction Words:
Brittany- massively overrated here. Seriously guys she was just not that great of a player. She opened her mouth and that got her in bad situations. If she was a truly talented player like Nicole, she wouldn't need a majority alliance to still be in the house. Brittany quite simply did not have that good of a social game and it came back to bite her.
