Welcome to Give Me Five! Each week, Brent Sullivan will look at the top five moments from the latest episode that could influence the rest of the season.
1. What does JT leave behind? Well when this episode started, I had my first talking point with JT finding the idol. I was going to talk about when he would play it… since that idea ended less than 60 minutes later with him going home without playing it, I’m now left with the thought of just the idol. Where is it? Will it be re-hidden? I guess probably not since it wasn’t played, but they sure showed enough of JT finding the idol at the start of the episode for him to turn around and not play it at the end. With Troyzan having and idol and Tai having a clue, I think that having two in play is enough.
2. Sarah and Troyzan. Finally, we get to see some action on Tavua. They have been winning so much that we don’t get to see them. It seems that Sarah is getting restless and wants to try to work with Troyzan. I sensed a little bit of Tony in that move, but who knows. Either way, Troyzan is obviously on the bottom and is open to anything at this point. My biggest thing here is with another swap happening next episode, where does this leave Sarah? Will Troyzan throw her under the bus by ratting her out or will he try to leverage this to his advantage work with the criminal-cop?
3. Debbie shows off a different side of crazy. Not really sure what to say here. It was fascinating to watch this transpire. Debbie clearly was in the wrong, and I loved how CBS actually went back and showed her saying that she could do the balance beam. Smart editing. I am curious to see if she will be able to rebound from this. The swap may save her for a few more weeks, but I have to assume that her days are now numbered.
4. Tai finds another goodie. Is he the only one looking? Tai seems to be able to find idols and clues without much effort at all! So here he is with another clue. Will he be able to find it before they swap? Will he come back and find it later after the merge? Will they even be on the same beach again? We can be assured that this will come up again very soon. I can’t see Tai waiting that long to go out and look for it.
5. What is Sandra doing? Love her or hate her, Sandra is playing a very different game this season, and so far, it has been fun to watch. Although, after this week’s episode, I am starting to wonder if she is playing too much right now. She has been making some good and hilarious moves like eating the sugar and letting Michaela take the blame for it, but then why would she confess to it so soon after? I know that her, Michaela, and Varner are all working together right now, but they have to be aware of the game she is playing and they could so easily double cross her at any moment. Is she able to play at this level the whole game or will she settle down a little bit now?
There you go. What moments from this week do you think made an impact?
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1) I don’t think Jt’s will be rehidden.
2) Since they took the time to show Sarah/Troyzan I assume they’ll be on the same tribe
3) Debbie is always crazy
4) I think Tai will find the idol in the beginning of the episode before they swap
5) Sandra knows that her old Tactic won’t work this time
I think Sandra will be even more vocal at the merge. My guess is she goes after Culpepper with the help of debbie but her original tribe will be very outnumbered at the merge and aubry will probably cling to whoever she meets at swap so Sandra will not have the numbers. I don’t think they’ll target challenge threats over sandra, honestly. Her head would be a huge trophy. Returning players often want to be flashy, which is why there are so many more big moves. Brad was pre-merge in his original season and I think debbie hating him will work to his advantage by making it seem like he’s not playing as well. So it seems like a way bigger move to take out Sandra, a 2-time winner, when in reality I think she’ll be a sitting duck.
That said, I originally predicted her as a first or early boot. So clearly she’s performing better than I expected. Maybe people expect to be able to beat sandra at the end.