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.
Ah, the loved ones visit. It’s always so touching to see people reunited with the ones they love after 30 days – and we all know how Jeff feels about it. As I’ve said in the past, I don’t have any particular issue with the family visit as a fan, but as someone who needs material to write about, these are typically the hardest episodes because with so much time is dedicated to the loved ones. However, Devens was super fun to watch this week, so let’s see my full thoughts.
1. Love from home. The loved one’s visit can go either way each season. Sometimes it is entirely uneventful, and other times it has a huge lasting impression on the rest of the game. This season it may fall somewhere in the middle. It wasn’t a completely straight line, but even though Ron went to Extinction, I’m not sure it was just because he won the family visit and took Julie and Gavin with him. After all, if Devens hadn’t played an idol, he would have been the one to go. However, Ron’s loved one choice did seem to draw Victoria and Lauren closer together. With both of them getting to see their dads, and both of them not getting picked by Ron, they were able to bond over that and devised a “plan b” to get Ron out. With so few people left in the game, and Devens still out there as a huge target, Lauren & Victoria may be able to make it to the final three together. The last thing to point out here, Gavin was super grateful that Ron took him on the reward, but voted for him anyway. So, if Ron would have chosen Victoria or Lauren to go on the reward with him, would we have had a different outcome?
2. Hidden idol. Not only was another idol finally found this season, but it was actually played at tribal council. We’ve seen so many people go home with idols in their pockets that it was almost odd to see one get played correctly. Does that mean another one will be hidden next episode? If that is the case, Devens would likely have an advantage at finding it again. Other than Lauren, no one else in the game has found one, and since Lauren still has hers, she may not be out looking for one. That just leaves Devens with the most idol finding experience. Not only that, but he is also the most desperate to find one. In past seasons, we have seen that the person who needs it the most will be the one who is out looking the most. It doesn’t matter how much other people think about them finding one; they usually find a way. So, will a new one get hidden? Will someone on the Edge send a new one to someone in the game? There is still plenty of time for something else big to happen!
3. Immunity threats. There have only been four people this season who have won an individual immunity challenge: Julie, Aurora, Gavin, and Devens. Somehow all four of these people are still in the game with only six people left, and this should make for some tense challenges heading down the home stretch. Lauren and Victoria are the only two that haven’t won, but they both have shown strong challenge abilities. With someone coming back into the game and fire making challenge at the final four, that means we will still have three more immunity challenges to see how everyone does and how that can propel them to the end of the game.
4. Victoria’s game. Victoria is playing a very interesting game. She’s not quite under the radar, but at the same time, she’s not out front making big flashy moves. She has been on the right side of the numbers every time that she has voted, except this last time, but that was part of a split vote plan, and she did vote with the majority. She played great after the swap when Aubry got voted out and has been up and down on her screen time ever since. Personally, I think Victoria has a great shot to win if she makes it to FTC (except against Devens of course). She has somehow stayed alive amidst the Kama struggles and has been able to strike up new friendships and voting blocs along the way. Now with only a few more tribal councils remaining, Victoria sits there with Julie and Gavin as the only players with no votes against them. I am curious to see how she finishes this season out.
5. The Devens act. Putting on a show at tribal council the way that Devens did this episode is very entertaining, but I think that it’s a fine line. He is obviously on the bottom, so I suppose that he has very little to lose by putting on such a performance. He also managed to make both Ron and Julie look really bad in the process. Ron is obviously out of the game (for now), but Julie is still there, and I’m not sure how she’s going to handle the way Devens treated her when he played his idol. The other thing that Rick needs to be careful about is leaving people with a bad taste in their mouth about him on their way out. He may be the biggest threat to win the game and an obvious target, but you can easily sway the jury away from you if you handle them poorly. Thankfully, Devens is also giving them plenty to laugh about, so he may be okay…. but will he make it much farther? That is the real question.
There you go. What moments from this week’s episode do you think made an impact?
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Love your blog. Always an interesting read