Welcome back to Give Me Five! Each week, Brent Sullivan will look at the top five impactful moments from the latest episode that could influence the rest of the season.
This seemed like an extra-long episode; I guess since there was only one tribal council, and two challenges, plus with only eight people left, it felt like everyone got airtime this week. At the same time, there also wasn’t a ton that I think could potentially affect the game moving forward; in fact, there was only just enough for this week’s Give Me Five!
1. Threats. This word has been thrown around a lot the last few weeks. With the previous two vote-offs being David and Kelley, the remaining players seem to be targeting those seen as threats. It was even mentioned during tribal council that most of the people sitting on the jury are over there because they were considered threats to win the game. Devens got together with Wardog and Ron for this very reason. He thought that the three of them were the biggest threats to win the game, so he advised that they should work together. While that was going on, the rest of the tribe was doing precisely that by aiming their targets at Devens and Wardog. Everyone considered them two of the biggest threats to win, so they would have to get them out now. The biggest problem with this strategy is that the biggest threat is a constantly moving target. It happened to land on the current biggest target this week after Wardog took out who he thought was the biggest threat last week! Makes sense huh! Who will it land on next?
2. Extinction update. Not too much of an update this week except that we saw Reem a little more and that is always fun! She finally got to see Kelley out of the game which is what she wanted from day one. The other thing we saw was Kelley upset and two of the other three returning players giving her comfort and support (where was David by the way?). I’m not sure if this is going to have a big impact on the game, but if Kelley or Reem gets back into the game, then it makes for a really good story!
3. Ron and Aurora. Here is a relationship that I really don’t understand. They have worked with each other for a few votes, but at the same time, Ron has been actively working with the people who want Aurora gone. She gave him her extra vote to hold before tribal council last week as a sign of her loyalty, and I was super surprised that not only did Ron choose not to vote her out, but he actually gave it back to her. I thought maybe that would solidify some sort of a short-term working relationship, but here we were just a few “minutes” later, and they were arguing over rice and Ron was telling us how he needs two million dollars for putting up with her. The other hiccup with their arrangement is that Julie and Ron seem to be close, but Julie is against Aurora and has been wanting to get her out for several weeks now. I cannot guess where they will end up and how many more times they will work together, but it has been fun to watch.
4. Kama strong. Even though it hasn’t been mentioned this way, I can see the final five all being from the original Kama. Devens isn’t going to win immunity all the way to the end, so his time is limited I am afraid. That leaves Lauren as the lone Manu/Lesu member left. I can see Kama strong coming together one more time to get her out before Aurora. If that happens, I will be shocked. So many times, you see a tribe go into the merge with the numbers and end up with fewer people at the end of the game. This game sort of turned that trend around with three of the Manu/Lesu members all getting voted out at the last three tribal councils. I think it would be a good move for Kama if they go that route. If either Lauren or Devens (or someone from the Edge of Extinction from that original tribe) is sitting at the end against two Kama members, they win the game easily. They would have too many jury members who would not want to vote for Kama at that point. Let’s see if Kama strong can reunite and do some damage or if they fall apart again.
5. Challenge beast Devens. Who would have thought that Mr. Dad-bod himself would be such a huge challenge beast? Not only has he won back-to-back immunity challenges, but he had a pretty good showing in the reward challenge and won his way back into the game way back on day 17. Everyone already saw him as a big threat (there is that word again), but now that they’re talking about him winning immunities, the target on his back is enormous now. He has also been continuously on the wrong side of the votes. It seems like everyone he aligns with gets voted out. Can Devens win his way to the end? It would be tough with other challenge competitors like Gavin and Aurora still in the game, but it will be fun to watch him try!
There you go. What moments from this week’s episode do you think made an impact?
Written by