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.
I’m going to do something a little different this season, and for each episode, I’ll highlight each player’s best/most substantive confessional and how it ties into their overall character/arc/story.
MARY
People are just such bad liars out here, but I see right through it. In fact, it makes me feel like I’m probably going home tonight. Like, my social game is pretty friggin’ bomb. But with this group of people, it’s not slapping, it’s not hitting, it’s not working. So, tonight is about self-preservation and eking out one more day on this island so that, hopefully, something will change the next day.
Mary is finally back in the show now that David is gone, and she’s right back at the bottom. It’s telling that she only really gets airtime when she’s in this position. It’s as if the show wants us to view Mary as the scrappy underdog. When she was safe after the swap and voting alongside the majority in the post-merge, her screen time was minimal, almost like highlighting her too much in those episodes would ruin her underdog arc.
I suspect Mary will ride out her underdog arc for however long she’s left. It’s hard to see that transforming into a winner’s edit at this point, even if she manages to make something happen before all is said and done.
EVA
I really like Mary, and I don’t want to have bad blood between us. That’s why I’m being straightforward and telling the truth, but I’ve picked my people I want to work with, and she’s not part of that. I have a strong four that I’m working with now, being myself, Joe, Shauhin and Kyle. We really hold a lot of power because I’ve built up an artillery of weapons to protect me and my allies, I have the hidden immunity idol, I have a safety without power. And with all that, we can get to that final four and everyone else can’t really do much about it.
After the edit went out of its way to justify Eva turning on David last week, there was a chance her story would evolve into that of a more cutthroat player. That’s not what happened, though. Instead, Eva fell back into the comfort of her “honor and integrity” alliance and her advantages, making it clear she wants to go to the end with Joe, Kyle, and Shauhin.
The issue here is that Eva came across as overconfident. She said on more than one occasion that those on the bottom “can’t really do much about it” when it comes to flipping the game on its head. And she later said she doesn’t have to worry about the next few votes. While Eva ended up being right in this episode, it doesn’t mean her words weren’t ominous.
As we saw, there was talk of a counter-attack, which her supposed ally Kyle knew about and was happy to let happen. So, this could suggest Eva is too comfortable in her position and will miss when the strike happens, which ties back to her story about not being able to decipher lies.
SHAUHIN
Mary’s pitch to me was, “keep me around one more day, I will work with you.” And it’s a good pitch. I know she doesn’t have a shot in the dark, so she’s less of a threat tomorrow than Star would be. For me, that’s a really good reason to keep Mary.
This was a solid episode for Shauhin. He cottoned on early in the episode that the outsiders could be plotting a move. And he told us the strategy is to get to those free agents because they make anything happen. We then saw Shauhin and Joe chatting with Mitch and making sure he knew he was part of “the six” and that Star and Mary were the next targets. So, Shauhin was shown to be proactive and not resting on his laurels.
Shauhin has also been shielded from the negativity surrounding the honor and integrity alliance. He hasn’t been shown to be too overconfident like Joe or Eva, and he was distanced from David’s drama. Plus, he gets these fun little moments, like the singing from the challenge bench a few episodes back and now the “chicken and waffles” song. The audience is meant to see Shauhin as likeable and smart.
He also got his way in this episode. He wanted Star out over Mary because he deemed Mary less of a threat moving forward due to her not having the Shot in the Dark. Now, is there a chance this could have been ominous foreshadowing and keeping Mary around will end up backfiring on him? I don’t think that’s out of the realm of possibility. But for this episode, Shauhin got his way without getting his hands dirty.
I’m still unsure if this translates to a win for Shauhin, though I am starting to see his chances better than Joe’s, especially with how Joe was edited in this episode. But I still feel like Shauhin is missing that really prominent episode to put him in true contendership.
JOE
When my buddy Kyle didn’t take me on that food reward, it kind of bothered me. It kind of bothered me. And I immediately told myself to shut up, I’m being paranoid. And I thought, maybe he’s brilliant in keeping me back here to babysit. Because if he had picked the alliance of four, what would probably happen is smart Mary would be all over Mitch and Star, and that could be a problem. But instead, this is an opportunity for me to connect with people, ’cause this game, to me, is about relationships and numbers. And if I can make it to the end, I’m gonna need friends on the jury.
Joe has been a top contender throughout the season, and it would be foolish to take him off the table completely. However, this episode really hurt his chances. It was the culmination of what I’ve been talking about in previous episodes, with how this honor and integrity alliance has negativity attached to it and how the show is unlikely to champion a “stick to my word” type of player in the modern era.
Similar to Eva, Joe was completely oblivious to what was going on around him in this episode. But he looked even worse, given he was the proposed target of the minority alliance. On top of that, he pushed his rightful paranoia aside and assumed Kyle had left him back at camp to babysit the underdogs. In actuality, Kyle was willing to cut Joe loose and was setting up the circumstances to make that happen.
What’s worse, though, is how Joe said, “This game, to me, is about relationships and numbers. And if I can make it to the end, I’m gonna need friends on the jury.” That statement on its own is fine, but paired with what came next, it made Joe look so bad. His chat with Mary had the complete opposite effect of his intentions; Mary saw right through Joe’s scheme, and it seemed to turn her off potentially voting for him at the end.
So, is this the start of how Joe loses? Is he going to make it to the end only for the jury to throw his honor and integrity mantra back in his face? We’ve heard a lot of talk about jury management this season, with David and Joe being the focus of those comments. While there is still time for Joe to turn things around, I’m now seeing a world where he could make it to the end and still lose, which seemed impossible just a few weeks ago.
MITCH
Yes, Star and Mary wrote my name down and I don’t trust them at all, but you have to play a fluid game. These people have four votes, we have four. And it’s, like, I don’t want to play a scared game here.
I’ve been keeping Mitch hanging onto my contenders’ list because of how often he has these seemingly random social scenes. That continued at the start of this episode, with him making his tribemates laugh with his funny mailman story. But, for Mitch to be a true contender, he needed to eventually make a move, and I fear he might have just missed his shot.
He spent the first half of the episode talking about how he needed to make a move. “I don’t want to play a scared game,” he said, noting how the opportunity needs to be taken even if he distrusts Star and Mary. And then… he didn’t take it. He backed down and even admitted knowing the viewers at home would be frustrated.
Now, he explained that he had backed out of the move because he couldn’t trust Star and Mary. But I’m not sure that was enough justification, especially as he’d already talked about that earlier in the episode and realized he needed to make the move regardless. Plus, the edit fully blamed Mitch for the move blowing up, as Mary and Star were shown to be pushing for it, and Kamilla was shown to drop out only when she realized Mitch wasn’t playing ball.
Maybe Mitch has a moment of enlightenment in this next episode and finally makes a move and turns the game around. But right now, I’m seeing his edit as the player who was too scared to take a risk, and it ended up costing him.
KAMILLA
I think the alliance running this game is Joe, Eva, Shauhin and Kyle. I do 100% trust Kyle, but I’m definitely not part of the core alliance. I’m being used as just a number. That’s not cool with me. It just feels like they just want to take competitors to the end, and I’m like, “I’m not physical at all. So either I can sit here and get picked off or I can flip and go join the people at the bottom.”
Kamilla is also slipping down the contender list. I still think her edit is solid overall, and we’re clearly meant to be rooting for her as an underdog. As I said above, she was protected from the plan blowing up as the blame was put squarely on Mitch’s shoulders. But there just isn’t enough to Kamilla’s individual edit beyond her relationship with Kyle.
The Kamilla and Kyle partnership started off pretty evenly, with Kamilla even seeming like the lead in the pre-merge. But since the merge, Kamilla has essentially propped up Kyle’s game. Kyle receives the majority of the strategic and emotional content, plus he has other relationships with the likes of Joe and Shauhin. Kamilla, meanwhile, is tied up entirely with Kyle, and her individual story has faded away.
KYLE
I am genuinely happy for us that we’re on this reward. But every single decision today was a strategy decision, especially the people that I did not choose for the reward. I need Mitch, Star and Mary as pissed off as they can possibly be. And that way, they might go with Kamilla so she has a chance to get rid of Joe. I’ve kind of operated and played this game with little pushes. Everybody expects these big moves. But I think Survivor is a game that’s won in the margins. And so, this is something I did for Kamilla to at least show that I’m at least trying to help her.
I thought this was a really strong episode for Kyle, especially the above confessional. Even with all the duos and the honor and integrity stuff, Kyle’s story remains the driving force in the post-merge. His balancing of the Strong Four alliance and his partnership with Kamilla is at the center of the season’s drama. His edit has a clear question: how can he juggle both alliances and make it to the end?
In this episode, he did a great job of managing both alliances. His confessional about his reward picks perfectly explained his thought process. He made choices based on helping Kamilla take out Joe, yet he did so without getting blood on his hands. And the thing is, he didn’t even need Kamilla’s plan to work to be right. As he said, he just needed to “show that I’m at least trying to help her.”
Obviously, Joe winning immunity scuppered any chance of Kamilla’s plan working. Now, Kyle heads into the next episode in the same position, with the Strong 4 intact and his secret ally Kamilla still at the bottom. I fully expect how Kyle navigates this dilemma to be the key story in the season’s home stretch, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he is able to pull it off.
CONTENDERS
Top Tier: Kyle
Second Tier: Kamilla
Third Tier: Shauhin
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 |
 Eva |
CPP4 | MORM2 | CPM3 | CP3 | OTTPP5 | MOR4 | MOR2 | CP3 | CP5 | MOR2 | ||||
 Joe |
OTTP3 | CPP3 | OTTP2 | MOR3 | OTTP3 | MOR3 | MORP3 | CP3 | MOR4 | MORN3 | ||||
 Kamilla |
CP3 | MOR2 | MOR3 | CPP4 | MORP3 | UTR2 | UTR2 | CP3 | UTR2 | MOR3 | ||||
 Kyle |
MORP3 | MOR3 | MOR2 | CPP4 | MOR3 | CP3 | CP3 | CP5 | CPP4 | CP3 | ||||
 Mary |
MOR3 | MOR4 | CPP5 | MORP3 | UTR2 | UTR2 | UTR1 | UTR2 | UTR1 | CP4 | ||||
 Mitch |
UTRP2 | OTTP3 | MOR2 | OTTP2 | MOR3 | UTR2 | CPP5 | MOR2 | MOR2 | CPM3 | ||||
 Shauhin |
MOR2 | CP3 | UTR2 | MORN4 | MORP3 | MOR3 | CP4 | MOR3 | CP3 | MOR3 | ||||
 Star |
UTRN1 | CPN3 | MOR2 | UTR1 | MORP3 | MORP4 | MOR2 | UTR2 | UTRP2 | CPM4 | ||||
 David |
OTT3 | MOR3 | OTTP3 | MORP3 | OTT2 | CP4 | MOR3 | CPN4 | OTTN4 | |||||
 Chrissy |
UTR2 | UTR2 | UTR1 | MOR2 | MOR3 | UTR1 | MOR3 | OTTM3 | ||||||
 Cedrek |
UTR2 | MORP3 | MOR4 | MORM3 | CPN3 | MORP3/td> | MOR3 | |||||||
 Sai |
OTTM5 | OTTN5 | CPM5 | CPP4 | OTTN4 | OTTN4 | CPM5 | |||||||
 Charity |
UTRN2 | OTT2 | MOR2 | MORN2 | UTRN2 | CPN4 | ||||||||
 Bianca |
UTR1 | UTR1 | MOR4 | CP3 | CP5 | |||||||||
 Thomas |
CP3 | CPN3 | CPN3 | CPN4 | ||||||||||
 Justin |
MOR2 | MOR3 | MOR4 | |||||||||||
 Kevin |
CPP5 | CP4 | ||||||||||||
 Stephanie |
MOR4 |
Written by
It’s really depressing that your three contenders are the only three left that I hate. Ugh. Yep, another bad season with a disappointing ending and winner. I am so over the New Era of Survivor.
It’s really frustrating that every time I come here and try to leave comments, your moderators don’t approve them so they get removed. I come here every week to read these yet I’m never allowed to reply.