Welcome to Season 47’s Next Time On Survivor weekly feature on the Inside Survivor site! If you’re new around here, I’m Steph from sunny, tropical, humid Singapore. This is a tiny space where I give my best attempts at understanding preview trailers and make my predictions for the show’s next episodes.
Episode 10’s NTOS trailer opens with a focus on Andy telling Teeny, “You’re my number one,” followed by another shot of him with Rachel. He describes himself as a “smiling assassin” in a confessional, continuing this new post-merge impression of Andy as a social player manipulating the various relationships he is cultivating.
While it’s entertaining to see his transformation from his clumsy and awkward beginnings, I personally find this mastermind player narrative a little forced. It’s a lot of talk in confessionals so far, and though it’s backed up with scenes of Andy having promising conversations, other players share the credit for building these alliances and are also presented positively. This makes me less hopeful for Andy’s longevity. And though I think he’ll get through a couple more votes, he’s ultimately still being used as someone else’s number and will get cut off before the end of the game.
Next, we get a portion of the trailer showing Sam continuing to declare his revenge after getting blindsided two tribal councils ago. He tried to control the vote in the previous episode by suggesting the target to be Sue at the last minute. Unfortunately, that didn’t pan out—the original blindside that largely excluded him still succeeded and with even more votes piled on amidst the chaos. It seems that Sam didn’t manage to make many inroads and is still at the bottom.
Luckily, he has a solid alliance partner in Rachel, and they’ve agreed to secretly look out for each other. I believe this unexpected relationship will go far. They seem to have a genuine understanding not to sabotage or turn on each other. In any case, I think Sam will continue playing from the bottom, positioning himself as a number to be used to vote out bigger targets, and thus get spared from being voted out.
Finally, the trailer also highlights perhaps the most unreserved cumulation of the Sue versus Kyle dynamic. It now seems even more one-sided than before, through the quick sequences of Sue spliced together. This all started early in Episode 2 when Kyle voted for her, and we were regularly reminded of this throughout the season.
Knowing how purposefully misleading the preview trailers are, though, I think these scenes indicate that Sue isn’t going to get her revenge on Kyle. Instead, I think the vote will be flipped on her or her alliances—likely Caroline or Gabe. In the promo trailer, there is a quick shot of Sue and Caroline fist bumping, perhaps emphasising their tight relationship as a duo.
We’ve seen the players this season break up Sierra and Sam, so we know that they seek to split up close alliances. Unfortunately for the three Tuku players, it’s known that Sue, Caroline, and Gabe have been working together, so I think it’s a matter of time before they will be taken out.
In the upcoming episode, my guess is that Gabe will get the votes, as Caroline and Sue seem to have more alliances with other players. Of course, this may all change if Sue’s hidden immunity idol comes into play.
What do you think will happen in Episode 10? Leave your predictions in the comments!
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Wait, didn’t Sam betray Rachel’s trust in the last episode by telling Sol he was going to be voted out? And then people knew Rachel was the one who told Sam. Maybe they’ll remain strong allies but it seems people at least know they’re close? I would be not happy if I were Rachel. Thoughts?
Andy is not going anytime soon. You really think they put this much thought and care into his edit, and showed that amazing transformation scene, AND are taking note of his relationships now more than ever before…and they’re just gonna get rid of him before the finale? REALLY? Andy leaving would tank the rest of the season; he’s the most interesting one left by a mile.