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.
The trailer begins with the aftermath of Episode 8’s tribal council, where Sam got blindsided by most of the tribe, leading to his closest ally, Sierra, getting voted out. Naturally, he wants revenge and has nothing much to lose at this point, declaring, “I have a vendetta. It’s time to cause chaos.”
Even though he sounds confident and incited to make moves, I think his days are numbered. Sam doesn’t seem like he has strong connections with others, at least from our perspective as viewers. Players who have started playing ball with Andy would likely not flip over to Sam that soon, as well. I think his best bet is working with Rachel, who was also left out of the vote last tribal. However, she seems to have other more enticing options and can leverage her hidden immunity idol.
Next, a portion of the NTOS trailer highlights a couple of names being thrown about. Genevieve reveals that “Sol wants Gabe out,” Sue speaks of a “blindside on Sol,” Sol says to Andy and Teeny, “Sue is the best target,” and Teeny replies, “Why not Kyle?”
Here, it seems Sol is the prominent player in these discussions, but I think it’s a red herring in the trailer, as we’ve just had a solid introduction to Sol’s plans in the last episodes, almost promising us some pairs that we can anticipate. Particularly, he talks about how he’s strengthening his connection with Rachel. I think we’ll see this relationship develop more first before Sol actually becomes a serious target.
Rather, I’m more interested in the Sue and Kyle mentions—their match-up is something that has been hinted at in previous episodes, and we’ve not yet seen a conclusion. Perhaps it has been dropped due to the different dynamics in the post-merge, but I do think it’s still a consideration, especially with a divided Tuku. If Kyle doesn’t win another immunity challenge, he’s definitely going to be a possible target to vote out.
Lastly, we are given some previews of the upcoming challenge. The episode description states that the players will “split themselves into pairs at a crucial multi-staged immunity challenge.” This likely means that pairs will gradually get eliminated at various stages until the remaining few players compete individually for immunity.
On top of this, we can expect a twist as Jeff teases “one more thing” while introducing the challenge and is met with lots of shocked expressions from the players. My guess is that there’s a penalty for the losers at tribal council. The episode description mentions embarking on a journey, so I’m guessing they’ll get a chance to negate their penalty or determine some disadvantage.
I’m tossing between Sam and Kyle as the next player to be voted out. Both are seen as strong challenge threats and don’t have advantages. I think Sam is an easy choice since he doesn’t have any obvious allies, but my prediction is that Kyle will be blindsided. The plain reason would be to take Kyle out before he potentially earns his fourth individual immunity. I think some players like Sue, who don’t want to work with him, would use this as a convincing way to gather numbers for the vote.
What do you think will happen in Episode 9? Leave your predictions in the comments!
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I’m thinking that it’s most likely Sam next in the chopping block (hopefully not Kyle, as he’s nice + a good player), though I have a strange feeling that Andy’s days are numbered (but that could just be wishful thinking as I have a huge dislike for him, his character and his style of play).
If Sam finds out that Andy was involved in Sienna’s departure and Andy’s betrayal to the alliance, this could be an issue for Andy though unlikely immediately – as in the next council. I think it may depend upon if you are a Sol mate (pun intended)!
Andy earn a grate 5th place finished. For episode 7 and 8 alone.