It gets more interesting when the numbers dwindle down towards the end of the season. After two eliminations last week, eight players are left — Erika, Heather, Danny, Deshawn, Liana, Xander, Shan, and Ricard. In this week’s Next Time On Survivor trailer, two players were distinctly targeted over the other six.
The first player named in the trailer is Ricard, whose name is thrown out by Danny to Liana and Deshawn. Deshawn then follows up in a confessional reasoning that Ricard is a key part to Shan’s power in the game. These conversations sound about right, seeing how Ricard and Shan have been working together since their time on Ua, though not without their own squabbles and tiffs, and how Deshawn was depicted to be really done with Shan’s need to control in the last episode.
Liana is then shown in tears, reporting to Shan that Deshawn and Danny are targeting Ricard. From this scene, it really cements the two sets of pairings—Deshawn & Danny and Liana & Shan—nested within their majority alliance. I’m guessing Liana would like to take out Xander first before her alliance starts cannibalising themselves.
For Shan, taking out Ricard would mean abandoning her Ua partner for her relatively new post-merge alliance. In an ideal situation, she’ll be able to keep both to cushion herself from multiple fronts. However, I think Liana breaking the situation to her will force her to consider a zero-sum choice.
The second name thrown around is Deshawn. We see what looks like a confrontation between Deshawn and Ricard, and in a confessional, Ricard states, “Deshawn continues to lie. It bothers me; it annoys me.” Next, Shan reveals, “seeing Deshawn talking with Erika… he’s really sneaky,” before telling Ricard her plan to vote for Deshawn. Clearly, Ricard catches wind of Danny and Deshawn plotting to take him out and is attempting to flip the script on them.
But what I found interesting from this final sequence is how Shan, once again, directly tells Ricard what to do, almost like an instruction, rather than a discussion between alliance partners, as he had previously reminded. My prediction for Episode 10 is that this sets Ricard off to flip on Shan and eliminate her instead.
I think it’s time for a Shan blindside—there have been so many scenes of players getting annoyed by her, signaling her downfall since the “mergetory” episode. I feel like it can’t be prolonged any longer. Ricard may get Deshawn and Danny on board, as well as Erika, who has been a target of Shan’s. With the added incentive of flushing out her hidden immunity idol before it’s too late, I think Shan is going home this week.
Which player do you think is getting eliminated next week? Leave a comment with your predictions below!
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I honestly don’t think the episode will be as interesting as the preview states. I think all of this will go down, however, like in previous episodes Shan and DeShawn will talk it out and decide to target Heather. I think DeShawn and Danny will target Ricard because he’s Shan’s backup option. Shan & Liana will want to target DeShawn, but will not want to break up their alliance just yet. Keep in mind the original alliance is four people, not five. So as a compromise, the four will come back together and target Heather, or Erika. Xander will try to break up the five (four) but will misread it and either win immunity or play his idol.
I completely disagree. I think Ricard is gone.
Shan needs to go