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.
PROBST SPEECH
Survivor is back, and it’s time to open up The Edit Bay for another season. As with last season, let’s kick things off by looking at Jeff Probst’s opening speech at the marooning. In Survivor 47, Probst highlighted Survivor as a community, which was a persistent theme throughout the season. Most notably, eventual winner Rachel mentioned community in her first confessional of the season, and it was a big part of why I had her in my list of contenders from the first episode.
This time around, Probst focused on “the call of Survivor” and the question of whether a player will “attack” the game or “hesitate” and get “left behind.”
You can read Probst’s full opening statement below:
“We’ve got 18 strangers, different walks of lives, different generations, different education, different occupations, different belief systems, different work ethic. But you all have one thing in common: from the comfort of your couch, you all heard the call of Survivor and you answered it. And you left your ordinary world behind and here you are, on a tiny piece of land in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, in the Mamanuca Islands of beautiful Fiji.
The call can come in a lot of different ways, at a lot of different times and stir a lot of different emotions. But the result is, you’re all now here, literally standing at the threshold of your adventure, and from this point forward, every step you take, every action you make, will define your journey. This is where fear can start to arise, so you’ve gotta make a big decision. Philosophically, am I going to commit and attack this game? Or am I going to hesitate and risk getting left behind? And here’s the rub with all of this: just because you attack the game doesn’t mean you’ll be successful. You can still fail, but failure in the pursuit of something amazing, that’s admirable, that’s worthy, that’s worth getting up off the couch and leaving your ordinary world behind. Failure due to fear? Why even bother?”
I suspect this battle of aggressive or passive gameplay will be a focus throughout, just as we saw in this first episode. Sai and Stephanie represented both sides of the coin. Sai came out swinging while Stephanie chose to play it cool and “sit on her hands.” For now, Sai’s approach paid off. But as Probst said, just because a person attacks the game doesn’t mean guaranteed success.
INTRO
This season, six players got intro confessionals, though everyone got at least a brief clip in the casting call segment. I wouldn’t read too much into the casting calls, as that was surely there to emphasize the “answering the call” theme. Of those, Mitch (the first) and Joe (the last) received the most attention, especially Joe.
As for the six who received confessionals, we had Joe, Sai, Eva first up, then Cedrek, Charity, and David. As I’ve noted in the past, intro confessionals to determine winner contenders can be hit and miss, but they do help pinpoint some of the season’s most prominent characters.
That said, of the seven who received intros last season, only Sam, Kyle, and Sue made the merge. So, Survivor is clearly willing to shake up the formula.
Shauhin received a confessional at the marooning, and Mitch, Chrissy, and Kevin all received mat chats. These mat chats can often be more telling than the intro confessionals. For example, last season, Gabe, Teeny, Andy, and Jon all received Probst questions at the mat, and three made the merge, with Jon being the first boot.
Now, let’s get into each player’s first confessional.
OPENING CONFESSIONALS
JOE: I’m a fire captain. And the adrenaline running into a fire or a burning building… it’s a life-or-death situation. You really have to be on point and use that adrenaline to your advantage. And that is really what drives you to do good. You want to be in that situation, and honestly, when the calls come in, I want to be the person you call.
This was a strong opening confessional, and coupled with the emotional casting call video shown just seconds before, it made for a hell of an introduction for Joe. Not only did he tell us about his occupation and give us a sense of who he is, but he also instantly hit on both of Probst’s themes. He mentioned answering “the call” and the “life-or-death” stuff, proving he is not afraid to attack tough situations.
Later in the episode, he answered Eva’s “call” when they cemented an alliance and she opened up to him about her autism. So, we can already see Joe’s actions back up his words. It’s about as perfect a premiere edit as you can get.
SAI: Oh my gosh. What is a south Philly girl doing in Fiji? But that’s the exciting part. It’s the unknown. Like, what am I gonna do when I get out there? You honestly will never know what’s gonna come out of my mouth. The lack of filter… it gets me in trouble sometimes… A lot of the times, it gets me in trouble.
Sai is absolutely going to be a major character, whether she lasts all the way to the end or is booted pre-merge. She is such a fire-cracker that she will make sure people remember her. Her intro confessional set up her game and personality to a tee; she lacks a filter, which will get her into trouble. And we saw that throughout the premiere, Sai is a player ready to attack the game, and while it worked for her this episode, her actions clearly rubbed some of her tribemates the wrong way.
EVA: I’m used to being in a big male-dominated, area. I’m a physicist and an engineer, and at Georgia Tech, I was the first and only girl to play on the men’s club hockey team. So, this does not scare me at all. I’m gonna battle my ass off and I’m gonna beat them.
This was also a fantastic intro confessional, right up there alongside Joe’s. We learned a little about who Eva is, what she does, and how she intends to play. On top of that, her final line felt very winner-quote-y: “I’m gonna battle my ass off, and I’m gonna beat them.”
Later in the episode, she shared her autism story and formed what so far is the strongest partnership on the island with Joe. She had a ton of positivity (the bamboo scene) and personal scenes and was shown to be a hard worker. She also recognized her potential weaknesses, such as not being able to tell when someone is lying. This sets up an obstacle that she’ll either overcome or ultimately lead to her downfall.
CEDREK: It’s time to play. It’s time to, as my son said, ball out, whatever that means.
It’s cool that Cedrek got an intro, but this was a very generic confessional. Unfortunately, the rest of his content felt similarly generic, where he mostly talked in broad terms about his tribe and alliances. There is a foundation there to grow on, but it’s very unsteady.
CHARITY: Being a flight attendant, I have to deal with thousands of personalities. So, I have played Survivor in a metal tube for nine years, baby.
While Charity obviously looked to be on the outer of her tribe, I thought her edit itself was decent. Getting an intro is a plus, to begin with, but the content of the confessional was also strong. She mentioned her job and how it relates to dealing with personalities on Survivor. We’ve seen this kind of confessional from past winners, including Michele Fitzgerald and Kenzie Petty.
Charity’s premiere edit wasn’t anywhere near as strong as Michele and Kenzie’s, obviously, but I think there is a solid base to work with here. I think her story probably has more legs than it might have seemed on paper.
DAVID: I want to be the hero. I have no problem waving a giant sign, be like, “you need to worry about me.”
David had a decent premiere. He very much felt like “big character” potential. He set up his goal in this intro, saying he wants to be the hero. And he brought this up again in his second confessional, where he went into more depth about his background as a stunt performer.
“I literally play a superhero for a living. And I know they’re gonna see me as that character sometimes. They might see me as the hero. They might see me as the villain. Truth be told, sometimes, I’m both. But out here, which one’s it gonna be? We’re gonna find out.”
There was some contradiction there, as he originally said he wanted to be a hero but then said he could end up being a villain. I get the feeling David will be the kind of player who is unable to hide his strengths, particularly in challenges, which could indeed make him a hero (to his tribe) and a villain (to the opposing tribes). I could also see him being contrasted with Joe, a real-life “hero,” whereas David just plays the hero at theme parks.
SHAUHIN: I have imagined the feeling of playing Survivor for a very long time. Everybody is like a pack of wild dogs being held back by their leashes. You’re all sizing each other up. And you look to another tribe, and it’s like, “I’m going to eat your lunch.”
This was a nicely placed confessional for Shauhin, but it lacked substance. We got a sense that he’s competitive and excited about the game, but we didn’t learn anything deeper. It felt very “narrator,” which continued in his second confessional.
On the plus side, he got alliance content when he was brought into the California Girls crew with Thomas and Joe. So, there is definitely room for Shauhin to blossom from here.
KEVIN: Once I hurt my shoulder, I felt like I wasn’t able to give it my all. So, in my mind, I’m thinking there’s only one opportunity right now for your tribe to think of you as an asset. So, I either I am going to fail again and it’ll be the worst opening of my Survivor journey, or I can change my fate around.
Kevin certainly changed his fate after his less-than-stellar start. He won his tribe supplies and returned the conquering hero. Again, that side theme of heroes came into play. “With my shoulder injury, I was worried that they were gonna think that I’m a liability, but it turns out, my tribe mates… they’re thinking I’m a hero,” he said in a later confessional.
We also saw him form a potential pair with Mary and a four-person alliance with Sai, Cedrek, and Justin. He and Justin were presented as the swing votes, though Kevin shared a much more in-depth analysis of his position and the moves he wanted to make.
The concern here would be how Kevin sort of lived an entire season of Survivor in a day. He started off down and out due to his injury, then redeemed himself by winning the supplies, turned his fate around at camp, and landed in the majority. It’s like, where else do you go from there?
THOMAS: I think first impressions go so far in this game. So, like, I’m looking at everybody and I’m just trying to figure out who they are so then I could filter my story and what I was saying to fit the tribe appropriately. I felt like there was a lot of pressure, especially because when I look at my tribe, you have Joe, who’s, like, this enormous firefighter. You have Shauhin. He’s in shape. He’s very confident. Then we have a female hockey player who plays hockey on the boys’ team. And then you have Star, who is a literal basketball player. And then, it’s, like, me and Bianca. So, it’s like, you’re instantly looking at everybody. You’re going, “Oh no. Am I the weakest link?” I am not very strong, but I can bond with pretty much anyone.
This was such a fantastic opening confessional, and easily the best of the non-intro-getters and, honestly, maybe even the best overall. Thomas gave his insights on his entire tribe and where he fits in in relation to them. It reminded me of Michele Fitzgerald’s confessional in Kaoh Rong, where she similarly detailed each tribe member. What we got here was Thomas being very self-aware, recognizing where his weaknesses are (his strength) but also his advantages (his social game).
Thomas told us he could bond with anyone, and he backed that up, as we saw him quickly connecting with Bianca, as well as Joe and Shauhin, who formed the California Girls alliance. He also realized that the other two guys were bonding more with Eva, so he knew not to come on too strong by pushing for Bianca to join them as a fourth.
I thought this was an excellent premiere for Thomas, someone who appears to be set up as a strategic and social force moving forward.
BIANCA: I came here knowing I was gonna play a social game. Like, that’s who I am. That’s my strategy out the gate. And I got a great one-on-one vibe with Thomas. It clicked. Like, I knew I really wanted to work with him. I knew I had to find a day one, because a day one can get you to the end.
On it own, this confessional was perfectly fine. Bianca told us she intended to play a social game, and she solidified her bond with Thomas. There was even talk of making it to the end. But it was her one and only confessional, and while she did get positive comments from Thomas, there was very little else of her in this episode.
It’s hard to say where Bianca’s edit will go from here, but on first impressions, it does suggest more of a background character rather than someone leading the pack.
KAMILLA: This is insane. I’ve wanted to do this since I was, like, nine. And now, finally, I get to run around, I get to cause chaos, and I get to have fun while doing it.
This was a decent first confessional that gave us a good sense of the type of player Kamilla will be. She’s a big Survivor fan who wants to cause chaos with a smile on her face. And we got a sense of that already, with how she gathered the numbers on her tribe and threw Charity under the bus.
We also saw her form a potential duo with Kyle, and we know how important duos can be on Survivor. What’s interesting is that Kyle was looking to Kamilla as the logical and strategic one who will help rein in him in. But with Kamilla’s desire to cause chaos, I wonder if that decision will ultimately prove to be a hindrance.
MITCH: Coming off that first challenge, obviously, I’m incredibly disappointed. But our group seems the strongest as a unit, and I think we’re gonna be okay.
As a first confessional, this was weak, purely narrational, tribe overview stuff. What’s funny is Mitch started off talking about how he thinks his tribe will be okay, and then later in the episode, believes they’re going to be screwed because they’re too focused on clue hunting than camp life.
The saving grace for Mitch is that he got a lengthy mat chat with Jeff, where he opened up about his speech impediment, his journey with Survivor, and what led to him “answering the call.” This makes up for what was otherwise a lackluster first episode.
CHRISSY: I’m a lieutenant on the Chicago fire department, and my job is totally gonna help me out here. Not that I’m gonna boss ’em around or anything, but I know how to deal with different personalities. I think this is gonna be fun.
I really liked this first episode and first confessional for Chrissy. Overall, the men’s edits stood out more in terms of winner contenders, but Chrissy had the most promising edit of the women. Her first confessional told us what she does for a living and how her job will help her in the game, particularly dealing with different personalities.
From what we saw, Chrissy backed up her words as she bonded with her tribemates and even was included in the majority alliance. On top of that, she had a marooning mat chat with Jeff, where she talked about answering his call to come and play the game. Absolutely one to watch.
JUSTIN: Sai is definitely out here to play. She seems willing to work with me, which is great. Early on, it’s-it’s good to have those bonds because no one wants to be the first one out. No one does.
It’s never a great thing for a player’s first confessional to be about someone else (unless it’s like Thomas, where it’s a full rundown of the tribe), and the first words out of Justin’s mouth were about Sai. Now, he also got to talk a little about his game and having those early bonds. And he emphasized this later when he talked about being in the middle and having to make the right decision. But again, his second confessional, too, was tied to Sai, so it doesn’t give me much hope for Justin in the long run.
KYLE: Losing the challenge… I mean, that was horrible. One of the worst feelings ever. Even if it wasn’t technically my fault, I still feel accountable for that. I always viewed myself as a teammate who would get the job done. I haven’t done it so far, so now I have to get these supplies for my tribe.
Kyle had a disastrous start to the game, at least in terms of challenges. But his edit was positive. He was shown to be someone willing to work hard, and when things didn’t go his way, he didn’t mope about it; instead, he helped Kevin complete his part of the challenge. He was referred to as a “stand-up” guy and “sincere.” All in all, this painted Kyle as a likable person, a team player, and someone who will pull his weight.
Later in the episode, he also had some alliance content when he bonded with Kamilla. He called himself an “impulsive” person and noted how Kamilla would hopefully be the strategic person to rein him in when necessary. Definitely one to keep an eye on.
MARY: So, I got the fire started, and that was pretty cool. I don’t know. Maybe I got beginner’s luck, but it was kind of easy. I’m glad that everyone saw me make the fire. However, I feel like in the new era, people also don’t give a f*** about that. Just because I make the first fire doesn’t mean that they’re not gonna vote me out. So, I want to make sure that I’m building trust with people.
The impression I got from Mary’s edit is that she’s going to be a character/personality. This first confessional was full of personality, as she talked up her fire skills in one breath and then acknowledged how people don’t really give a damn in the next. She also showed some strategic awareness, noting how building trust with people is the most important facet of the game.
Unfortunately, not only did this first confessional come late in the episode, but Mary ended up at the bottom of her tribe. That said, she bonded with Kevin, meaning there is duo potential there, and with that, a chance for Mary to turn her game around.
STAR: I think the Lagi tribe is fire. Everybody just kind of fell into roles of what they would do. The guys went straight to figure out what the foundation would be. Eva just went straight for the bamboos, holding ten bamboos in her hand. So, she’s, like, literally… A beast.
Unfortunately for Star, she had the worst edit out of everybody in the premiere. Her first confessional came super late in the episode, and it didn’t exactly light the world on fire. It was basic tribe narration. Later in the episode, she was called out for idol searching while the rest of the tribe was bonding and forming alliances. It felt like typical set up for an early boot.
EARLY CONTENDERS
Top Tier: Joe, Thomas
Second Tier: Chrissy, Eva, Shauhin
Third Tier: Kyle, Kevin
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 |
 Bianca |
UTR1 | |||||||||||||
 Cedrek |
UTR2 | |||||||||||||
 Charity |
UTRN2 | |||||||||||||
 Chrissy |
UTR2 | |||||||||||||
 David |
OTT3 | |||||||||||||
 Eva |
CPP4 | |||||||||||||
 Joe |
OTTP3 | |||||||||||||
 Justin |
MOR2 | |||||||||||||
 Kamilla |
CP3 | |||||||||||||
 Kevin |
CPP5 | |||||||||||||
 Kyle |
MORP3 | |||||||||||||
 Mary |
MOR3 | |||||||||||||
 Mitch |
UTRP2 | |||||||||||||
 Sai |
OTTM5 | |||||||||||||
 Shauhin |
MOR2 | |||||||||||||
 Star |
UTRN1 | |||||||||||||
 Thomas |
CP3 | |||||||||||||
 Stephanie |
MOR4 |
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