Hello all, welcome back to the Edit Bay! This weekly feature takes a dive into the edit of the latest Survivor episode, analyzing the key stories, main characters, and top winner contenders.
For those new to The Edit Bay, it is a condensed version of Edgic, highlighting some of the stand-out story beats from the most recent episode. It also includes my weekly Edgic ratings for each castaway at the end of the article.
OVERVIEW
Hey all! We’ve made it to the merge, well, mergeatory, and so this week, I want to focus on all the stories that have been set up as we head into the second half of the season.
Firstly, though, I want to look back at the season intro and see which of those early introduced players are still with us. As a reminder, the seven players who received intros were Sam, Aysha, Kyle (with the longer confessionals), and Tiyana, Jon, Anika, and Sue (with the shorter confessionals). Then Gabe, Teeny, and Andy had marooning mat chats.
Four of the seven intros remain: Sam, Kyle, Tiyana, and Sue, with Sam and Sue standing out as major characters. Gabe, Teeny, and Andy are all still in the game, too, and have each had significant air-time across the pre-merge. I suspect Sam, Sue, Gabe, Teeny, and Andy will continue in central roles in the post-merge.
STORIES
KEEPING TUKU TOGETHER
Tuku has only been to tribal council once in the pre-merge, but the foundations of their tribe are rocky, to say the least. This past episode focused on Caroline trying to keep the Tuku’s together as one as the merge approaches. “I’m trying to be the mother hen and help us all form a cohesive, wonderful family. And they’re all running away,” Caroline said.
So, the Tuku story heading into the merge is whether or not Caroline will be able to keep them together. As we’ve seen, her plan for Tiyana to patch things up with Gabe already failed. Plus, there is the unresolved tension between Sue and Kyle stemming from the TK vote-off. The question will be whether the blue tribe can function despite their dysfunction or whether they’ll completely fall apart at the merge.
WILL ROME BURN
Rome was the biggest character of the pre-merge, but his chaotic playstyle earned him some enemies. This past episode saw even his closest ally, Genevieve, beginning to tire of his antics. The edit told us Rome was firmly on the chopping block had Lavo returned to tribal council. However, he lived to fight another day.
The story for Rome and the Lavo tribe going into the merge will be how long Rome’s chaos is tolerated. Genevieve, in particular, is reaching the point of no return. As she said in the previous episode, “If he’s not telling me everything, his value to me goes down and his danger level goes up. At some point, that will tip the scales, and it won’t make sense for me to keep Rome in this game anymore, and the scales be tippin’.”
Will Rome flame out? Or will he end up burning his former tribemates? This, of course, includes his on-and-off rivalry with Sol, which I expect will continue to be relevant moving forward.
RACHEL’S REVENGE
Rachel found herself on the bottom following last week’s Anika blindside, but her game might not be over quite yet. The early foreshadowing of keeping Andy around hurting her game came true when he voted with Sam and Sierra to take out Rachel’s closest ally. However, it happening just before the merge presents a potentially interesting story for Rachel.
There is now an opportunity for Rachel to develop an underdog comeback revenge story. While her pre-merge edit has been quiet overall, there are some tells that Rachel might have more longevity than it appears on paper. Firstly, the first episode’s focus on her dynamic with Andy felt like a setup for future conflict. Secondly, she seemed intentionally guarded from the Anika blindside and took barely any heat. Even in the scene where Andy duped them into giving him a fake plan, Anika took the majority of focus.
In addition, there was the scene during the Social Hour where Caroline, Rachel, and Teeny discussed working together at the merge. The fact that that conversation made it into the edit suggests it’s important, and so it wouldn’t shock me to see Rachel making new allies at the merge and mounting a comeback against her former Gata members.
THE SOCIAL HOUR TRIO
Continuing from the above, Caroline reached out to Teeny and Rachel at the Social Hour. This could prove to be a crucial trio at the merge, with each of them coming from a separate tribe and understanding the different dynamics of the opposing groups.
“I’m definitely feeling good vibes from both Teeny and Rachel,” Caroline said. “Rachel is someone who I just feel comfortable around. Teeny, on the other hand, I’ve already met and established a great relationship with at the journey.”
Even though Caroline is doing her best to keep the Tuku tribe together, she has set other options for herself at the merge.
THE POWER COUPLE
The alliance between Sam and Sierra received a significant amount of focus in the pre-merge. The big thing here is how the other tribes have already clocked them as a tight pair. We saw how this news affected both Sam and Sierra over the past couple of episodes, with Sierra, in particular, worried about how that perception could harm her game.
Sierra had to make a huge decision in the past episode to side with the Gata girls or stick with Sam and Andy. In the end, she voted out Anika, and now Sierra’s (and Sam’s) story will be whether they can avoid the heat at the merge.
ANDY’S GROWTH ARC
Andy was another major character of the pre-merge, with most of the focus on him as this fish out of water. While recent episodes have still shown Andy to be a goof (including his thrusting sawing technique in last week’s immunity challenge), he has also been shown as improving his stock socially and strategically.
Despite seeming the odd man out, Andy landed on the majority at the last tribal council and helped vote out Anika. The question is whether this will increase Andy’s confidence and allow him to take on a more assertive role post-merge. And, if so, will Sam and Sierra regret keeping Andy around?
CONTENDERS
At this stage, I don’t think there is any obvious front-runner. There are the more central characters, like Sue, Sam, and Teeny, who are all still very much in contention. But there are also stories set up that could take off post-merge, allowing for a more background-style character to make a push for the win, which could prove to be the case for those with less flashy pre-merge edits, like a Caroline, Rachel, or Genevieve.
EDGIC CHART
| Name | EP 1 | EP 2 | EP 3 | EP 4 | EP 5 | EP 6 | EP 7 | EP 8 | EP 9 | EP 10 | EP 11 | EP 12 | EP 13 | EP 14 |
 Andy |
OTTN5 | OTTN4 | CP2 | OTTN3 | CP4 | |||||||||
 Caroline |
UTRP1 | MOR3 | UTR1 | MOR2 | CP3 | |||||||||
 Gabe |
CP5 | CPN4 | CPN2 | UTR1 | MOR3 | |||||||||
 Genevieve |
UTR1 | INV | UTR2 | CP4 | CP3 | |||||||||
 Kyle |
UTR1 | UTR2 | CP4 | UTR1 | UTR1 | |||||||||
 Rachel |
MOR4 | OTT2 | UTR2 | UTR2 | UTR3 | |||||||||
 Rome |
OTTM4 | OTTN3 | OTTN5 | OTTN5 | CPN3 | |||||||||
 Sam |
CP3 | CP5 | OTT3 | CP4 | CP4 | |||||||||
 Sierra |
UTRP2 | MOR2 | MOR2 | CP4 | CP3 | |||||||||
 Sol |
UTR1 | UTR1 | MOR3 | MORP3 | MOR2 | |||||||||
 Sue |
MOR2 | MOR4 | MORN2 | CPM3 | MOR2 | |||||||||
 Teeny |
CP3 | MOR3 | CP4 | CPP4 | CP4 | |||||||||
 Tiyana |
UTR2 | CP4 | UTR1 | UTR2 | MORN3 | |||||||||
 Anika |
MOR2 | MOR3 | MORN4 | UTR1 | MORN3 | |||||||||
 Kishan |
UTR1 | UTR2 | MORP3 | CPN4 | ||||||||||
 Aysha |
MOR4 | UTR1 | MOR3 | |||||||||||
 TK |
MOR4 | OTTN5 | ||||||||||||
 Jon |
CP5 |
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