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
We’re getting down to the nitty-gritty now with just eight players remaining, and with each passing episode, the contender list gets narrower and narrower. As I said last week, I’m essentially down to two contenders, Dee or Emily, with everyone else practically drawing dead (outside of some Gabler-style surprise).
DEE
This was an interesting episode for Dee, with some good and some bad. She was barely in the first half of the episode, and I thought we were in for another quiet edit that might have killed her chances. But then she burst out in the second half with five confessionals where she got to name her target (Kendra), who ultimately ended up going home.
Once again, we heard lots of talk from different players about how much of a threat Dee is. “Dee is a beast at challenges. She’s super social. Dee is very, very likable,” Kendra said at the top of the episode. “We’re just such good friends out here. I love talking with her. I love hanging out with her. And I’m not ready to see her go,” Austin added later in the episode when Emily brought up blindsiding Dee.
Julie said something similar, “But I do not want Dee out. I want to go to the end with Dee. I would never write her name.” All of this paints Dee as a top-class social player that people are afraid to make a move on, while also telling the viewers that Dee has a strong chance to win if she makes it to the end.
Could this be too much? Are we being constantly told Dee’s a threat because she’s going to win or to set up her downfall? There was a scene in this episode that could make you believe the latter. I’m talking about the scene where Dee and Drew ate all the rice and didn’t save any for Jake. This came across as slightly villainous.
In another world, this moment could have played into Dee as the “big bad” that needs to be taken down before the final. But there is such a lack of contenders elsewhere in the edit that it’s hard for me to see it that way. Instead, I’d be more willing to believe the editors are going for a Parvati in Micronesia-style edit for Dee, with a villain-like tone to her edit. The fact she’s had a lot of positive second-person visibility and personal flashbacks also helps curtail some of this more dastardly behavior.
It’s more likely that the Reba 4, as a whole, are being set up as the antagonists to take down. Someone will have to take a shot sooner rather than later. I expect we’ll see that play out, but I doubt Dee will be the victim of such a shot. Drew (shown to be more consistently cocky) and Julie (less visible than the others) seem much more likely targets of an attack on Reba.
Dee also got the final words of the episode before tribal council, setting out her approach for the remainder of the game. “But in this game, whoever throws out my name, I’m gonna come for them. I’m gonna come for them hard,” she said, which we know to be true, as we’ve seen play out with Kaleb and now Kendra.
EMILY
If there is one person who can beat Dee, then it has to be Emily. The last episode wasn’t anything spectacular for her, but what we did see is that Emily is the one person recognizing the power of the Reba 4 and trying to do something about it. Compare that to, say, Katurah, who quickly snitched on Kendra’s plan to come after Dee.
This episode laid the groundwork for her to flip on Reba, though it was put on hold due to the stupid losing votes twist. But we saw her approach Drew and Austin about potentially targeting Dee, and their reactions had her questioning her alliances. This seems like an obvious set up for Emily to make a strike against the Reba 4 in the coming episodes.
The rest of her content was mainly tied to the maths challenge, so there was lots of basic narration. However, even with that, she got to tie it back to her job and her insecurities, adding a personal touch to the scene. It also gave her a justified excuse for why she couldn’t pull off a big move just yet.
Of those remaining, Emily is the only one I can see challenging Dee for the title. She has a carefully crafted edit that has been a central focus since the very start. Her pre-merge was perhaps too visible for what we’ve come to expect of a female Survivor winner, but that visibility has lessened post-merge while still keeping her complex.
My gut still leans more towards the journey edit, a big, complex, interesting player who makes it far in the game but just falls a little short. But if she can pull off a move against Reba, then maybe she will take home the crown.
THOUGHTS ON THE REST
KATURAH
I had her hanging on last week, but I just can’t see it happening, even if she did at least get to explain why she ratted out Kendra to the Reba 4. But even that was presented as Katurah needlessly handing over power to Reba, which I’m not so sure was a smart game move (nor where we meant to think it was).
The rest of her content was mostly focused on the maths problem and, of course, Bruce, with her airing her frustrations that she has still not been able to vote him out. There surely has to be a payoff to the Katurah versus Bruce storyline soon unless they end up sitting next to each other at the final tribal council.
Right now, Katurah’s edit adds to the story of why the Reba 4 has been able to stay intact. Her feud with Bruce and inability to work with the old Belos has caused them to fracture and allowed Reba to take control of the post-merge game.
JAKE
As I said last week, I’m starting to get major final tribal loser vibes from Jake’s edit. He is an underdog but doesn’t have the social capital, as we’ve seen plenty of times now how he’s rubbed his tribemates the wrong way. He did get to lay out his strategy of building new bonds and offering himself up as an extra vote for the majority, and that is basically the position he played in the last episode.
You could also look at the rice-stealing scene in Jake’s favor and how it added to his underdog arc. But there wasn’t enough positivity in Jake’s edit for that scene to really hit like that. Instead, it came across more like making a fool of him. And what was that moment at tribal after the votes were read where he turned and stared at Kendra? Moments like that come off a little odd and just add to the losing edit vibes.
BRUCE
This was probably Bruce’s best edit of the season, one where he got to acknowledge how his behavior had been coming across and take the criticisms on board as a life lesson. He also got a great personal scene where he talked about growing up in the foster care system. This helped add some context to Bruce’s character arc across the season and softened the way viewers saw him.
Part of me wondered if this was Bruce’s swan song, that the edit was giving him a positive send-off. Instead, he found a second wind after the chicken reward and powered forward to win his second immunity challenge in a row. But then he sort of disappeared in the pre-tribal scramble as the focus switched to Kendra, Emily, Jake, and the Rebas.
I just think this turnaround was a little too late for Bruce. He’s been made to look goofy throughout the season, with plenty of negativity to his edit. Even Gabler, who is perhaps the most comparable edit to Bruce, had his turnaround long before this point, plus a lot more strategic insights. I’d be shocked if Bruce won.
AUSTIN / DREW / JULIE
Could any of the other Reba members win? I don’t see it. Drew’s edit is majorly lacking in personal content and has this consistent undertone of arrogance, which picked up even moreso with the rice stealing scene. If the Reba 4 do take a hit, Drew would be my top choice for the one copping the votes.
Meanwhile, Julie and Austin are too much second-fiddle players, and it didn’t look great for either that they showed an unwillingness to make a move against Dee, someone they know is a huge threat to win. We did see Julie’s frustrations with Dee pushing for Kendra over Jake, which maybe was a foreshadowing of Julie splitting away. But even if that did happen, the edit doesn’t have me believing that Julie would be successful.
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 | |||||
 Bruce |
MORM3 | CPM3 | UTRN1 | OTTM3 | OTTN2 | CPN5 | OTTN4 | OTTM3 | OTTP3 | |||||
 Dee |
UTR1 | OTT2 | CP4 | MOR4 | CPP3 | MOR2 | MORP | UTR2 | MORM3 | |||||
 Drew |
CP2 | CP4 | CP4 | MOR2 | MORM4 | MOR3 | MOR2 | CP4 | CP4 | |||||
 Emily |
CPN5 | CPM5 | CPM5 | CPP4 | CP4 | CP4 | CP2 | CP3 | CP3 | |||||
 Jake |
MOR3 | UTR2 | MORP3 | CP2 | OTTP2 | MOR3 | CP4 | CPN4 | CP3 | |||||
 Julie |
MOR1 | CP2 | UTR2 | MOR3 | UTR2 | UTR2 | UTR1 | MOR2 | MOR3 | |||||
 Katurah |
CP3 | MOR2 | UTR2 | OTT3 | MORN3 | MOR2 | CP4 | MOR4 | MOR2 | |||||
 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 |
Written by
If there was a shock winner who do you think that would be?
Probably Bruce or Katurah.
My problem with Dee’s edit is the lack of complexity. She only becomes relevant when she’s targeting someone then goes back to be built up as a threat to be taken down or an ally that needs to be protected. We barely get a look into her deeper strategy. All of the care and attention to detail that you would expect from a winner is coming from Emily currently, which I know is weird because journey edit, but I have to go with the current evidence. As far as someone whose thoughts we understand every step of the way while also getting their relationships fleshed out it’s Emily. And Dee getting built up as a guaranteed F3 winner gives me pause. Are the editors really going to forego suspense to tell us the winner? Especially in a more two-dimensional edit for Dee? I just can’t see a Dee win if I’m solely looking at the edit.
There just isn’t enough dimension or even much of a story to her win. Even Erika and Gabler had more to their story right now than Dee does. Dee’s biggest story is taking down the people who write her name down. Seems kind of…..simple. We barely know her thoughts on her own alliance. I have to stick with Emily now until further notice because I’m just not feeling a winning edit from Dee right now.