Edit Bay this season is going to be a much shorter analysis due to spoilers. However, I will still assign ratings to each player, so readers can track the chart throughout the season. And I will highlight a few potential story arcs and important alliances. But there will be no discussion of potential winner edits.
OVERVIEW
This was arguably the best episode of the season, at least in terms of the edit. It managed to strike a perfect balance between camp life, personal content, and strategy. And there was even some idol hunting thrown in there for people who enjoy that kind of thing.
The overall narrative arc of the season remains fairly straightforward; it’s the Tika 3 in the middle playing everyone else off against each other. And the question is whether they can continue to succeed with that strategy and make it to the end, or will they be found out?
But what this episode did was flesh out some of the dynamics within the other alliances while also giving more insight into the personalities and backstories.
In particular, Carolyn received a great scene where she opened up to the tribe about her battles with addiction. What made this so compelling is how it came about naturally within conversation; it wasn’t shoehorned in as a flashback/montage scene ahead of an impending boot. This gave the audience a better understanding of Carolyn and showed us how she is slowly overcoming that “odd one out” theme.
Elsewhere, the edit focused on Danny and Frannie, laying some groundwork for potential tension to come. While Danny saved Frannie last week, the two weren’t quite on the same page in this episode. Frannie was the only one that realised how dangerous the Tika 3 had become as swing votes and wanted to target them. Danny, however, scoffed at the idea. It will be interesting to see if these two continue to be at odds in the coming episode.
Similarly, the Tika 3 isn’t exactly singing from the same hymn sheet. But that has kind of been their story since the start. They are all very different personalities and yet somehow come together when it counts. In this episode, Yam Yam wanted to target Kane, touting him as a big threat (but really due to revenge for writing his name down). Carolyn, meanwhile, thought this was “stupid” and wanted to take out Danny.
Then you have Carson sort of playing peace-maker in the middle of this, making sure the Tika 3 stay together and continue to dictate the pace of the game. It makes for a fun dynamic and adds a wrinkle to the Tika 3 narrative as the game heads into the home stretch.
As for the others, things are still lacking. Heidi has emerged somewhat in the past couple of weeks, and she was the first to voice Kane as a target. And that, combined with her idol find paints as someone who is playing hard and looking out for her best interests. But her overall edit could be better compared to the Tika 3.
Jaime was very one note in this episode, with her first confessional basically poking fun at her for thinking she still had a real idol. And then, her paranoia started to emerge again towards the end of the episode. All this just for Kane to end up being voted out with her (fake) idol in his pocket.
Lauren had a little more screen time than usual, but her confessionals were basically there to set up the blindside. She was shown to have the wrong perception of the dynamics, believing that the Tika 3 was still on Ratu’s side. She does have this small story running in the background, her beef with Danny, but it isn’t particularly fleshed out. And given her overall edit, I can’t see things ending well for Lauren in the long run.
Overall, though, this episode slowed things down somewhat and allowed us to enjoy these characters while cementing the season’s main narrative. If the season can maintain this sort of pace over the final few episodes, then Survivor 44 could finish on a high note.
EDGIC CHART
Definitions: https://insidesurvivor.com/survivor-edgic-an-introduction-3094
| 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 |
 Carolyn |
OTT3 | OTT5 | UTR2 | CP5 | CPM5 | CP4 | UTRP2 | UTR2 | CPP4 | |||||
 Carson |
MORP3 | CP5 | MOR2 | CP3 | CPP2 | CP4 | MOR2 | MORP3 | MOR3 | |||||
 Danny |
UTR1 | MOR3 | CP5 | MOR2 | OTTM3 | UTR1 | MOR3 | CP4 | CP3 | |||||
 Frannie |
MOR3 | MORM3 | CP3 | MOR2 | MOR2 | UTR2 | MORP3 | MORP3 | MOR3 | |||||
 Heidi |
MORP2 | UTR1 | CP4 | UTR2 | INV | UTR2 | MOR4 | CP4 | MOR3 | |||||
 Jaime |
OTT3 | UTR1 | OTT3 | OTT4 | MOR2 | MOR3 | UTR2 | UTR1 | OTT3 | |||||
 Lauren |
CPN4 | UTR2 | UTR2 | UTR1 | INV | UTR1 | MOR3 | UTRP2 | MOR3 | |||||
 Yam Yam |
MORP4 | CP4 | OTT2 | OTTM5 | CPM5 | CP5 | CPP4 | CP4 | CP3 | |||||
 Kane |
MOR3 | MOR3 | OTT2 | INV | MOR2 | CP3 | UTR2 | MOR3 | MOR3 | |||||
 Brandon |
CPM5 | MOR2 | OTTP2 | UTR2 | OTTN2 | MOR3 | MOR3 | MOR3 | ||||||
 Matt |
CP4 | MORM3 | MORN4 | UTR1 | OTT2 | CP4 | CPP5 | |||||||
 Josh |
UTR1 | INV | MOR2 | CPN5 | CP5 | CPN4 | ||||||||
 Matthew |
CPP5 | CPP2 | CP3 | CP2 | OTTP3 | |||||||||
 Sarah |
MOR3 | MOR2 | MOR3 | MOR4 | ||||||||||
 Claire |
UTR2 | UTRN3 | MORN5 | |||||||||||
 Helen |
MOR3 | MOR4 | ||||||||||||
 Maddy |
MORN3 | |||||||||||||
 Bruce |
UTRP2 |
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