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
Hey all, a shorter version of The Edit Bay this week. After last week’s split tribe episode, I want to take a quick look at who is rising and who is falling as we head towards the home stretch of the season.
RISING
ANDY
It’s clear Andy is a central character of Survivor 47, and his decisions will heavily impact the post-merge game. The last episode opened with him finding out his supposed ally Sam threw his name out as a decoy boot option. Now, Andy is all aboard the Gata revenge train. Given how this was framed, I believe the audience is meant to root for Andy against Sam and Sierra. However, this story was put on pause after the split tribe twist.
Does any of this improve Andy’s winner chances? Perhaps a little. He did get a new alliance scene with Genevieve, which is a plus. But his early episodes were so negative that I find it hard to see him as a winner, even in a post-Gabler world. Andy, to me, has always felt like a journey player whose decisions will have massive implications on the trajectory of the game.
RACHEL
This was a huge, complex episode for Rachel, who, as I previously predicted, is now fully on the underdog comeback trail. Across the first two merge episodes, Rachel has talked about wanting to make new bonds and forge a new path forward. We saw her making inroads with the women and how others wanted to work with her. This then came undone after she ended up on a tribe with all former Tuku.
As part of this underdog arc, we now have Rachel learning from her past mistakes. She was blindsided in the pre-merge when Anika was voted out. Now, she is more cautious about what people are telling her, as we saw and how she explained when Gabe was feeding her a pile of BS. It will be interesting to see if Rachel continues to learn from the past moving forward.
What also stood out here was the positivity she received from Caroline ahead of tribal council. “I personally think Rachel is the most dangerous player in this game,” Caroline said. “Rachel’s the one who’s connecting everyone. Rachel is the best I’ve seen in a long time.” This screamed foreshadowing, especially given Rachel survived the episode.
She also received similar comments from Gabe, who said in confessional, “Rachel was somebody who has been perceived as a very big threat in this game early on. She’s very personable, she’s very charismatic. She’s also very smart. So to have her in this vulnerable of a position is very advantageous for everybody in season 47 right now.”
Another interesting facet of Rachel’s edit is her connection to Andy. Her premiered episode was very much tied to Andy, and she perhaps had the biggest premonitions of anyone about how detrimental Andy could be to the Gata tribe later in the game. Now that we know Andy is coming after Gata, specifically Sam, it appears Rachel’s read was correct. We now have to see if Rachel will be swept up in Andy’s revenge tour or if her awareness will help her avoid his wrath.
FALLING
SUE
After having one of the strongest edits of the pre-merge, Sue’s post-merge edit so far has left a lot to be desired. She didn’t receive a single confessional in this episode, despite her group going to tribal and her previous target of Tiyana going home.
Now, I could buy into some editorial protection here if the Tuku group was deadset on sending Rachel home. If that was all the group talked about, then maybe Sue was being shielded. But still, it’s hard to believe Sue didn’t have any thoughts on the other options, even if it was something generic. We really need to hear Sue’s thoughts on Tiyana going home in the next episode.
Overall, Sue still has one of the better edits, but I’m starting to get the vibes that she is one of those pre-merge contenders that starts slipping away in the post-merge. We’ve seen this before with players like Ken McNickle on Survivor: David vs. Goliath. A big comeback episode this week would put Sue right back up there, but another quiet episode like this would be very telling.
GABE
While Gabe is clearly a big character, his chances of winning have always seemed poor to me. That didn’t change in this episode, as he continued to be shown as cocky and dismissive of his fellow players. Not only did he refer to the other castaways as “tools for me to use,” but the edit mocked him during his attempt to fool Rachel. On top of that, his plan to keep Tuku together failed.
All signs point to a rude awakening for Gabe. And I could see that either in the form of a massive blindside or a zero-vote getter at the final tribal council.
STAYING STEADY
CAROLINE
So far, Caroline has played second fiddle to Sue in the edit, but here she got to take charge. Caroline was the one putting her thoughts forward in regard to the vote and what move made the most sense for the Tuku group. The issue here was her focus on keeping Tuku together, and then that did not happen. There was also the ominous foreshadowing of Rachel surviving meaning doom for Caroline’s game.
GENEVIEVE
This was a solid episode for Genevieve, who immediately got herself a new ally in Andy after Rome’s vote out the week prior. Of course, the growing worry is that anyone associated with Andy is ultimately cursed. But based on initial impressions, I’d expect the Genevieve and Andy alliance to at least pull off one big move together.
SOL
After being focused on Rome for the entirety of the pre-merge, Sol got a pretty decent episode last week. He had a post-TC scene discussion his vote for Andy, and he appeared to swiftly remove the target from his own back and shift it to Sam. He then got some nice content with the advantage and his options for using it. I do think his pre-merge edit was too lackluster to be a contender, but there is hope of Sol being a solid post-merge character.
TEENY
Teeny is always present, and we always get to check in with their thoughts. In this episode, they were the one to voice putting together a women’s alliance. Yet, it feels like we’re lacking some depth and forward momentum with Teeny’s edit. It’s perfunctory but needs some more meat on the bones.
IN DANGER
SAM & SIERRA
Sam had a strong pre-merge and certainly had the feel of a top contender. But with how things have been set up with Andy and the focus on the Sam & Sierra duo as a threat, it’s beginning to look like he’ll soon be a prime strategic target. As for Sierra, her edit has become very quiet. We have heard no follow-up on the Anika boot, and there are a ton of red flags regarding her concerns about Andy ruining her game.
KYLE
Kyle appears likable in the edit, but there is no strategic throughline there. We see him considering ideas but then not following through. Despite saying this would be a perfect opportunity to take out Gabe, he ultimately joined the majority in voting out Tiyana, his ally. As I’ve said previously, Kyle feels like that challenge-threat-type character who is taken out as soon as he doesn’t have the necklace.
CONTENDERS
Top: Rachel, Genevieve
Middle: Teeny, Sue
Bottom: Caroline
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 | CPM3; | |||||||
 Caroline |
UTRP1 | MOR3 | UTR1 | MOR2 | CP3 | MOR3 | CP3 | |||||||
 Gabe |
CP5 | CPN4 | CPN2 | UTR1 | MOR3 | UTR2 | CPN4 | |||||||
 Genevieve |
UTR1 | INV | UTR2 | CP4 | CP3 | MOR3 | CP2 | |||||||
 Kyle |
UTR1 | UTR2 | CP4 | UTR1 | UTR1 | CP4 | MOR3 | |||||||
 Rachel |
MOR4 | OTT2 | UTR2 | UTR2 | UTR3 | MOR3 | CPP5 | |||||||
 Sam |
CP3 | CP5 | OTT3 | CP4 | CP4 | MOR3 | UTR2 | |||||||
 Sierra |
UTRP2 | MOR2 | MOR2 | CP4 | CP3 | UTR2 | UTR2 | |||||||
 Sol |
UTR1 | UTR1 | MOR3 | MORP3 | MOR2 | MOR3 | MOR4 | |||||||
 Sue |
MOR2 | MOR4 | MORN2 | CPM3 | MOR2 | MOR3 | UTR1 | |||||||
 Teeny |
CP3 | MOR3 | CP4 | CPP4 | CP4 | UTR2 | MOR3 | |||||||
 Tiyana |
UTR2 | CP4 | UTR1 | UTR2 | MORN3 | MOR3 | CPP4 | |||||||
 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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