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
Last week was the first merge (well, mergatory) episode, but it was really the Downfall of Rome episode. From the moment the episode opened with Rome narrating the “Previously On” segment and ended with him taking a seat in Probst’s chair, this was a 90-minute send-off to the pre-merge’s biggest character.
With that in mind, many other stories were put on the back burner for this episode, so we can give leeway to the other edits this week. That said, even with the ultra-focus on Rome, we did get to check in with a couple of other players and establish some potential stories moving forward.
There was continued focus on the Caroline and Sue duo, with Caroline finding out about Sue’s idol and promising to keep it a secret. We saw Andy set up as a decoy vote, and given his surprise at tribal council, I’m sure this will become a driving story. And we had Rachel’s reaction to last week’s blindside and how she’s hoping to start afresh on a new beach.
Other than that, the rest of the episode primarily revolved around the immunity challenge and Rome’s blindside.
Now, let’s take a look at a few of the more stand-out characters from the past episode.
ANDY
We talked last week about how Andy has gone from this paranoid, fish-out-of-water character to someone who is slowly gaining confidence. But we saw in this past episode how that confidence is transforming into cockiness. He started the episode relishing in the Anika blindside, and continued to boast about it at the tribal council.
However, as we saw, Andy was the decoy boot, and everyone was happy to jump on board with that, including his so-called allies, Sam and Sierra. Now that Andy realizes he was the decoy, I’m sure he will devolve into paranoia once again. This could be what sets him on the path of destruction against his old Gata tribe members, fulfilling the early foreshadowing of Andy being a detriment to Gata if brought too far.
CAROLINE & SUE
A big part of Caroline’s edit in the previous episode was about her desire to keep the Tuku tribe together at the merge. While the Tuku group did vote together, we didn’t see any specific evidence of Caroline keeping the tribe as one.
What we did see was the further development of her alliance with Sue. The Caroline and Sue partnership has received the most focus of all the pairs so far this season, or at least on the level with Sam and Sierra. The difference, though, is that the Caroline/Sue duo is shown to be much more trusting and in sync than Sam and Sierra.
Even in this episode, where Caroline figured out Sue had the idol, it only served to solidify their alliance further. “Sue found the idol! Sue is playing this game. I am proud of Sue, and I’m gonna keep her secret no matter what,” Caroline said in confessional.
I found Caroline’s confessional interesting; given last week at the reward, she seemed to suggest Sue and the others weren’t playing the game as they messed around playing Cornhole instead of strategizing. However, here Caroline learned that Sue was playing harder than she suspected.
As for Sue, her previous idol hunting came back to haunt her when Rome and the others stumbled upon the red paint. This could have been a prime spot for the edit to bury Sue, yet that’s not what happened. The only people who realized something was up were Caroline and Tiyana. As already mentioned, Caroline chose to keep Sue’s secret safe, while Sue clocked Tiyana as a potential threat to take out.
With the consistent focus on this duo, I fully expect Caroline and Sue to continue being a pivotal pairing. It wouldn’t even shock me to see both in the final together.
RACHEL
I mentioned last week that Rachel could embark on a potential revenge story at the merge after the Anika blindside. We haven’t quite seen that just yet, but she did have a solid start to the last episode. We checked in with her post-tribal, where she reflected on the vote, her new position at the bottom, and what she needed to do moving forward.
In addition, we saw her discussing the vote with Andy, someone who she has been connected to since the first episode. After what happened this past episode with Sam and Sierra agreeing to the Andy decoy plan, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that Andy and Rachel could wind up working together if Andy goes all scorched earth.
“I’ve hit my rock-bottom game at this point. I need other pathways. And so, I want more than anything for merge to come, like, immediately. I’m hoping for, like, a lifeline,” Rachel said in this episode, setting up her post-merge story.
That is exactly what she got when the merge arrived the next morning. “The angels were singing to me this morning after the disaster that was last night. Now, I get an entire beach of new people waiting to help me further myself in this game. Like, it is the lifeline that I desperately need. And now I hope that I can take the lessons of being blindsided and use that as rocket fuel to get myself into this merge,” she stated.
We didn’t get to see Rachel make any official new bonds or alliances, but I’m willing to forgive that a little, given the extra focus on Rome. But if Rachel’s edit is to take off post-merge, we need to see her start finding those new relationships and pathways this week.
KYLE
Kyle had his biggest episode of the season so far, as he became the target of Rome’s ire. After a conversation with Rome, Kyle was thrown into the spotlight as Rome tried to paint a target on his back. Fortunately for Kyle, he managed to wriggle his way out of it and throw the target back onto Rome instead.
With no vote, Kyle focused on using his social skills to clear his name and put the target on Rome. We saw him put this into practice, and, by all accounts, it worked. To add to that, he won the first individual immunity of the season and got his main target out of the game.
Kyle’s edit confuses me overall, though. He had such a quiet, under-the-radar introduction and pre-merge for someone of his archetype. If he was the winner, I’d expect a much different approach. Right now, my feeling is he could go on somewhat of a challenge run before being taken out as a likable threat.
THE OTHERS
Sam & Sierra — A big part of Sam and Sierra’s story has revolved around Andy and whether or not they should work with him. Sam and Sierra have even clashed over this decision. Given Andy’s surprise at being a decoy and how Sam & Sierra were fine with going along with it, I’d expect their decision to work with Andy to come back to haunt them.
Gabe — There wasn’t a lot from Gabe in this episode, just more of him wanting to build his legacy and have his head on the Survivor Mount Rushmore. To me, it suggests Gabe will make or at least attempt to make some big moves in the post-merge.
Tiyana — As mentioned in the Caroline & Sue section, Tiyana’s main part in this episode (other than her fact-checking Rome) was her suspicion of Sue and the red paint. This seems like set up for Tiyana versus Sue in the coming episodes.
Sol — Sol is in an interesting place now because his pre-merge edit has been all about Rome. Will he disappear into the background now that Rome is gone? Or will he find himself a new story?
Teeny & Genevieve — I expected a little bit more from these two former Lavo members given their relationship to Rome. But rather than take the reins, both Teeny and Genevieve simply fell into line with everyone else on bamboozling Rome on his way out of the game. Kind of like Sol, I’ll be looking to see what new stories emerge for Teeny and Gen from here on.
CONTENDERS
Top: Sue
Middle: Teeny, Sam
Bottom: Caroline, Rachel, 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 | MOR3 | ||||||||
 Caroline |
UTRP1 | MOR3 | UTR1 | MOR2 | CP3 | MOR3 | ||||||||
 Gabe |
CP5 | CPN4 | CPN2 | UTR1 | MOR3 | UTR2 | ||||||||
 Genevieve |
UTR1 | INV | UTR2 | CP4 | CP3 | MOR3 | ||||||||
 Kyle |
UTR1 | UTR2 | CP4 | UTR1 | UTR1 | CP4 | ||||||||
 Rachel |
MOR4 | OTT2 | UTR2 | UTR2 | UTR3 | MOR3 | ||||||||
 Sam |
CP3 | CP5 | OTT3 | CP4 | CP4 | MOR3 | ||||||||
 Sierra |
UTRP2 | MOR2 | MOR2 | CP4 | CP3 | UTR2 | ||||||||
 Sol |
UTR1 | UTR1 | MOR3 | MORP3 | MOR2 | MOR3 | ||||||||
 Sue |
MOR2 | MOR4 | MORN2 | CPM3 | MOR2 | MOR3 | ||||||||
 Teeny |
CP3 | MOR3 | CP4 | CPP4 | CP4 | UTR2 | ||||||||
 Tiyana |
UTR2 | CP4 | UTR1 | UTR2 | MORN3 | MOR3 | ||||||||
 Rome |
OTTM4 | OTTN3 | OTTN5 | OTTN5 | CPN3 | OTTN5 | ||||||||
 Anika |
MOR2 | MOR3 | MORN4 | UTR1 | MORN3 | |||||||||
 Kishan |
UTR1 | UTR2 | MORP3 | CPN4 | ||||||||||
 Aysha |
MOR4 | UTR1 | MOR3 | |||||||||||
 TK |
MOR4 | OTTN5 | ||||||||||||
 Jon |
CP5 |
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