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.
TOP CONTENDERS
Tonight is the Survivor 45 finale, and after last week’s episode, one clear contender stands out above the rest. Outside of some funky, new-era Gabler-esque surprise, the finale should conclude with Dee’s crowning as the latest Sole Survivor.
DEE
This past episode was essentially a coronation edit for Dee. From the moment the episode began, Dee was given credit as the mastermind behind the Emily boot, with Julie reminding us that Dee told her the votes were coming her way. This led into Dee’s acting performance, where she continued to fool her tribemates that she wasn’t in on the Julie idol scheme.
“In my day-to-day life, there’s no point for me to lie to anybody. But out here, it’s a game. It’s almost just as important as finding an idol and keeping it to yourself, at this point, the acting,” Dee said in confessional, and that was the theme of her episode.
It was all about Dee keeping her cards close to her chest and putting on an act to fool others, particularly Drew and Austin. She reemphasized the importance of keeping up the act throughout the episode, saying, “It’s even harder to act back at camp. When you orchestrate such a big blindside, you cannot tell anybody because the moment that that comes out of my mouth, even if it’s to Austin, who’s my other number one, I am risking a million dollars.”
The episode played up the weight of this decision and how Dee was taking the emotions into consideration, especially in regards to telling Austin. This was hammered home by focusing on Dee and Austin’s blossoming romance at the reward and how close they’ve become over the course of the season.
“It is hard because, like, my morals are coming in the way, you know?” she said in confessional. “But then, I also told myself, coming in here like, ‘Dee, you cannot let your emotions get in the way.'”
This was brilliantly contrasted with last week’s episode, where Austin told Dee about Drew’s plan to blindside Julie. The pair were even sat in the same position on the beach as last week. While Dee recognized her emotions as her “weakness,” ultimately, she chose not to tell Austin and once again got her way at tribal council. The edit told us that Dee is focused on the game and a smarter, more calculated player than Austin.
Outside of her big Austin decision, Dee was shown to be perceptive of Katurah’s idol search, waking up and sending Austin out after her. She also received a potential winner quote when she said, “Out here, I’m gonna swear on everybody. I’m gonna swear on my dogs. I’m gonna swear on my mom, on my dad, and they’re gonna still be alive when I leave here, and they’re gonna be happy when I win and that I swore for them.”
As I’ve said before, Dee’s edit has a slight villainous undertone, which the above quote certainly falls into. But it isn’t an “evil” edit; it never feels like we’re supposed to hate Dee. Her confessionals are always said with a laugh and a smile, which brings to mind Boston Rob in Redemption Island or Parvati in Micronesia.
Despite her low visibility earlier in the merge, Dee has the most clear winner’s edit, in my opinion. From early on, we’ve come to know Dee as a feisty player who is playing hard for her family and will do what is necessary to win. We’ve seen her emotions, but she has been able to channel those emotions in a way that benefits her game. She knows when to turn them on and off.
One of the biggest tells when looking back is Dee’s confessional after Sean’s quit. Dee acted as the voice of Survivor, hyping up the show and what it means to her and her family and how she’d never dream of quitting. This confessional even came with a personal flashback scene. I think this was the show blasting Sean and championing Dee, knowing that she would go on to win the season.
OUTSIDE SHOT?
I don’t really see it for anyone else, especially not the remaining guys, Austin and Jake. This season has had a fairly sizable emphasis on the women and how a woman will win the season. That has been a decoy in the past, but with the way the men have been buried this season, it’s hard to see how a woman loses Survivor 45.
Austin has had some decent air-time, but he’s been hammered the past couple of weeks, made to look out of the loop, and blamed for plans going up in the smoke. Even if his decisions made sense in the moment, the edit has told us that he’s put his fondness for Dee over his own game.
As for Jake, he very much feels like the Owen of the season. His edit has an underdog vibe, but he’s been unable to get things going, no matter how hard he tries. Even in this past episode, where he found an idol, his big plan to blindside Drew and keep Dee out of the loop didn’t pan out as intended. For one, Katurah immediately spilled the plan to Dee, and secondly, Dee and Julie were already planning to target Drew.
That leaves Julie and Katurah. I feel like if Julie were the winner, her edit would have been pretty different. She’s had more emphasis the past couple of weeks, but she took a backseat to Dee for too long. And even in these recent episodes, Dee was credited for saving Julie and putting together the moves. If Julie had won, I feel like her idol play and the subsequent episode would have been edited very differently.
Then there’s Katurah. If there is going to be a Gabler-style surprise, I would say it’s probably Katurah. Her edit has been an interesting one, starting with an excellent premiere and then falling into a repetitive Bruce-focused narrative for the majority of the season. Yet, through all that, she was always present, and the edit did back her up most of the time.
In recent episodes, we’ve seen more of a personal side to Katurah, learning about her backstory. It’s painted a picture of someone the audience is meant to root for. Perhaps she can translate that personal arc into a winning argument should she make the final tribal council. But her strategic edit leaves a lot to be desired, especially after being caught idol-searching again this past episode.
Survivor has surprised us before, so I really wouldn’t be shocked by anything at this point. But bearing everything in mind, I’d put Dee as the top contender heading into the season finale.
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 |
 Austin |
MOR3 | MOR2 | MOR4 | MOR2 | CP4 | OTT3 | UTR2 | UTR2 | CP4 | UTR2 | CPM4 | MORP3 | ||
 Dee |
UTR1 | OTT2 | CP4 | MOR4 | CPP3 | MOR2 | MORP | UTR2 | MORM3 | UTR1 | CPP3 | CPP4 | ||
 Jake |
MOR3 | UTR2 | MORP3 | CP2 | OTTP2 | MOR3 | CP4 | CPN4 | CP3 | OTTM4 | MOR2 | CP3 | ||
 Julie |
MOR1 | CP2 | UTR2 | MOR3 | UTR2 | UTR2 | UTR1 | MOR2 | MOR3 | MORP3 | CP3 | CP3 | ||
 Katurah |
CP3 | MOR2 | UTR2 | OTT3 | MORN3 | MOR2 | CP4 | MOR4 | MOR2 | OTTP3 | OTTP3 | MOR2 | ||
 Drew |
CP2 | CP4 | CP4 | MOR2 | MORM4 | MOR3 | MOR2 | CP4 | CP4 | MORN3 | CP3 | OTTN3 | ||
 Emily |
CPN5 | CPM5 | CPM5 | CPP4 | CP4 | CP4 | CP2 | CP3 | CP3 | CPP4 | CPP3 | |||
 Bruce |
MORM3 | CPM3 | UTRN1 | OTTM3 | OTTN2 | CPN5 | OTTN4 | OTTM3 | OTTP3 | CPN4 | ||||
 Kendra |
OTT3 | UTR1 | MOR3 | INV | OTT3 | MOR2 | MOR3 | OTTP3 | MOR3 | |||||
 Kellie |
MOR3 | MOR2 | MOR2 | MOR2 | MOR3 | MOR3 | CP4 | MOR3 | ||||||
 Kaleb |
MOR3 | CPP3 | CPM5 | CPP5 | CP2 | CPM5 | CP4 | |||||||
 Sifu |
OTTN3 | UTR1 | UTR1 | MOR3 | MORN3 | OTT2 | UTRP2 | |||||||
 J. Maya |
UTR1 | UTR1 | UTR1 | CP3 | MOR3 | MOR3 | ||||||||
 Brando |
UTR2 | MORP2 | UTR1 | UTR1 | CPN4 | |||||||||
 Sean |
UTR2 | UTR2 | UTR2 | CPM5 | ||||||||||
 Sabiyah |
MORP4 | CP5 | CP5 | |||||||||||
 Brandon |
OTTM5 | OTTM5 | ||||||||||||
 Hannah |
OTTM5 |
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I hate gabler but Im rooting for a gabler-esque winner this season. But I agree. I’ve felt all season that it was leading to a Dee win