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.
NEW VULA
SHAUHIN
So, my… Number one ally in this game, Thomas, went home because… Kyle had an idol. I didn’t think he did, and that’s my fault. California girls didn’t even last one tribal, man. It’s such a bummer. It’s such a good alliance.
After being thoroughly undermined in the previous episode, this was a decent rebound episode for Shauhin. He immediately owned up to his mistake of not thinking Kyle had an idol. He was humbled, and he took the Thomas blindside in his stride, even if he was disappointed with how things turned out.
In addition, we got some nice personal content from Shauhin later in the episode, as he discussed his parents’ coming to the US amid the Iranian revolution. This was part of a larger bonding scene with the Vula tribe, culminating in them agreeing to work together as a foursome moving forward. Should this alliance continue to receive focus at the merge, then I think Shauhin can return to contendership.
KYLE
Kamilla and I pretty much just put on a master class in deception. They did not see this coming at all. They even went through my bag, and somehow didn’t find the idol that was tucked away in my shoe. So I’m pretty pumped about it. And it was all because I put on my acting hat with Kamilla and convinced them that we’re not that tight. And it worked.
This was an episode of riding high for Kyle. He and Kamilla got to pat themselves on the back for a move well made. But it never came across as cocky. Kyle acknowledged how the Vula tribe was at a two/two split, so he needed to be careful. And, as mentioned with Shauhin above, Kyle was part of this new Vula foursome, which could become a central part of the narrative come merge.
KAMILLA
The four of us have a clear path together, because we had a scary tribal council. We can just act as if we hate each other and play the middle, and no one would suspect it. And I think we can run this game.
Kamilla and Kyle’s edits have been tied together from the start, but she is starting to pull away from him in terms of edit. Kamilla’s content has more depth, feels more fleshed out. She didn’t just celebrate her move and acknowledge the current danger; she expressed her plans for how to tackle that danger. And it all came back to acting.
She’s not only putting on “her best acting” face to pretend she and Kyle aren’t that close, but she’s now expanding that strategy to the larger Vula alliance. Kamilla shared how, because of the “scary” tribal they just had, the Vula four can continue to pretend to be at odds at the merge and play the middle without others suspecting them.
Kamilla’s edit feels very measured and purposeful, and I fully expect her to continue being a mover and shaker at the merge.
JOE
(no confessional)
Joe didn’t have a confessional in this episode, but I wouldn’t hold it against him. He obviously had a huge presence at the immunity challenge in his scene with Eva. In addition, he shared personal info in the Vula bonding scene and was part of the agreement of the Vula four to stick together come the merge.
We know exactly who Joe is, his personality, and what kind of game he wants to play. The trouble for Joe is that the rest of his cast knows this too, and with his bond with Eva now exposed, the question will be how he navigates this challenge in the latter half of the game.
NEW LAGI
MARY
Walking into the sanctuary, I don’t even think anything’s going on in my head, but a lot is going on in my stomach. Just to see everything laid out, and that there are coffees and teas and milk for David, all of us slip into heaven when we go in there.
Outside of Eva’s big moment, a lot of the Lagi content in this episode was fun, narrational stuff, mostly relating to the reward and the Beware Advantage. Mary is a key example of that, as her one confessional was about the sanctuary reward.
What Mary did have in this episode, though, was continued emphasis on her relationship with Sai. At the end of the reward challenge, Sai expressed her annoyance at Mary and others celebrating their victory. Mary took notice of this. It all added to Mary and Sai’s will-they/won’t-they narrative, which is sure to be a big focus of the post-merge.
CHARITY
I legitimately have been manifesting a buttery croissant since day one. And I didn’t even have to do anything to get it. They won it for me.
Man, Charity’s edit has not been great overall. She got the bare minimum here with her confessional, which, again, was purely narrational. On top of that, she got crapped on by Eva, yet another player who got bad vibes from Charity and expressed their distrust in her. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Charity as the merge boot.
DAVID
Every day, I, like, have to have milk. It’s just my go-to. It’s my comfort. So when I see that jug of milk, I’m like, “no way.” I don’t think I’ve ever felt such a high. I really don’t. That was probably the best glass of milk I’ve ever had. I could tell it was whole milk, which is my favorite thing. It’s no two-percent crap. So thank you, Jeff. I’m like pop eye now. Like, I’m ready to go. Like, bring on the immunity challenge.
I’ve spoken before about new era winners having these quirky pre-merge moments, like Dee’s toes and Rachel’s rice theft. Had David’s milk obsession come up once, even twice, maybe, we could certainly point to that as a potential winner tell. But this milk content is in every episode and paints David as a rather cartoonish, Johnny Bravo-style character.
I think that’s what David is: a character edit. The flawed hero with quirky habits and an emotional backstory, someone who could well be a fan favorite when all is said and done. But a winner contender? I’m not currently seeing it.
EVA
I knew that there would come a point in this game where I would have an episode. And now that I’ve gotten over the biggest reveal that I have, I don’t feel embarrassed, because everyone around me was so understanding. They’re nodding, they’re looking at me not with pity, but seeing that I’m strong. And I felt so accepted.
This was a truly emotional episode for Eva, who shared her autism story with the entire cast. Her above confessional, which was much longer, not only showed her personal growth but also shared a message of hope to others going through a similar situation back home. It was one of those moments that transcended the show.
In terms of Edgic foreshadowing, though, we had a further focus on the bond between Eva and Joe. We’d already seen Shauhin (and Thomas) recognizing the danger of this duo a few episodes ago. Now, the entire cast knows about it, meaning Eva and Joe have an obstacle to overcome at the merge.
Elsewhere, Eva patched things up with Star, with the latter even letting Eva keep the idol. Could this be another dynamic duo at the merge? Or will past bad blood come back to haunt them?
STAR
This game just makes you feel all types of so much emotions. For me, it all just started making sense, because I can relate, 100%. I have family members on the spectrum. So, with that being said, I understand her completely. I go off of trust and loyalty and what I think is friendship. And today I just had to take a step back and say, “let me be open.”
Star hasn’t had the greatest edit so far, but this was one of her better episodes. She put her game into a new context, opened up a little, and buried the hatched with Eva. The question is whether she made the right decision with the idol.
She said, “I go off of trust and loyalty and what I think is friendship.” And it’s that “what I think is friendship” that could prove the most important line. Is Star’s trust in Eva going to be reciprocated?
NEW CIVA
MITCH
We learned a lot at the challenge. The fact that Thomas went home – it changes everything. The original plan was to take out Bianca because we wanted to weaken the old Lagi tribe, but now with Thomas gone, we have a little bit more flexibility. At this point, Sai is causing so much chaos that there is really no way that I want to work with Sai moving forward. And I genuinely enjoy Bianca as a person. She’s just good people.
The Civa tribe went to their first tribal council in this episode and they were infected by Cedrek and Sai’s OG Vula chaos. Mitch, Chrissy, and Bianca were sucked into the madness, with Mitch and Chrissy, especially, finding themselves at odds with Sai.
Mitch got to lay out the dynamics of the tribe, explaining his thoughts and why he wanted to happen. We saw that he wasn’t clicking with Sai at all and was ready to let her go. He outright told us there is “no way” he wants to work with Sai moving forward. The problem for Mitch is, he didn’t get his way, and Sai is still in the game.
On the plus side, we know that Mitch had a partnership with Charity, and he and Kyle discussed working together. So, there are other avenues his edit could explore at the merge.
SAI
Cedrek, a lot of the times, feels like that dog that almost doesn’t know how to walk on a leash, that you’re, like, dragging down the street and you’re still trying to train him to walk, but for some reason, he’s just not game to do it. But on this beach, for the sake of getting to the merge, I am locked in with Cedrek and Bianca. But I’m not a dummy. Cedrek voted for me twice. If he can do it once, he can do it again.
While Sai made enemies out of Mitch and Chrissy in this episode, her edit mostly reemphasized her relationships with her OG Vulas, Cedrek and Mary. As I mentioned earlier, the post-reward scene focused on the lingering tension between Sai and Mary, the season’s most important frenemy relationship.
Then, the Civa content highlighted Sai and Cedrek’s odd relationship. Cedrek told us he trusted Sai, and we saw him going out of his way to keep her around. Meanwhile, Sai was more wary of Cedrek, realizing she had to rely on him for now but recognizing how he’d voted for her twice before, and nothing was stopping him from doing it again.
I fully expected Sai’s relationships with Mary and Cedrek to be a central focus of the post-merge game. And a big part of that will be whether they can get it together and do some damage as a trio or if their dysfunctional history will end up burning all three of them.
CEDREK
As much as I would like to get rid of Sai, it’s not quite time to shake that tree yet, because at this point, Sai is probably the next person that I trust the most other than myself.
Cedrek is quite the enigma, both in terms of his edit and his gameplay. While he’s escaped backlash until now, it feels like it’s only a matter of time before his last-minute tribal decisions will come back to bite him. And the biggest of those is surely keeping Sai around, despite having voted for her twice.
For two weeks now, we’ve seen Sai air her distrust of Cedrek; all the while, Cedrek remains oblivious. The fact he said he trusts Sai the most after himself sounds all sorts of ominous.
CHRISSY
Seems like we got Cedrek on board. I absolutely trust him. He’s not the type of person that will look you in the eye and lie. If he sticks with Sai, he’s out of his mind. You got to let it go to play the game, you know?
Much like Mitch, this episode for Chrissy was all about putting her at odds with Sai. We saw her annoyance grow post-reward challenge, then back at camp with the fruit-eating situation. And yet, in the end, she joined Cedrek in voting out Bianca, therefore saving Sai.
If Chrissy is going to be an important character moving forward, we need to hear an explanation of why she flipped her vote from Sai to Bianca. We can just about figure out Cedrek’s motivations, seeing as we saw Bianca tell him about her lost vote. But Chrissy’s decision seemingly came out of nowhere. So, she needs to fill us in early next episode.
CONTENDERS
Top Tier: Kamilla, Joe
Second Tier: Kyle, Mary
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 |
 Cedrek |
UTR2 | MORP3 | MOR4 | MORM3 | CPN3 | |||||||||
 Charity |
UTRN2 | OTT2 | MOR2 | MORN2 | UTRN2 | |||||||||
 Chrissy |
UTR2 | UTR2 | UTR1 | MOR2 | MOR3 | |||||||||
 David |
OTT3 | MOR3 | OTTP3 | MORP3 | OTT2 | |||||||||
 Eva |
CPP4 | MORM2 | CPM3 | CP3 | OTTPP5 | |||||||||
 Joe |
OTTP3 | CPP3 | OTTP2 | MOR3 | OTTP3 | |||||||||
 Kamilla |
CP3 | MOR2 | MOR3 | CPP4 | MORP3 | |||||||||
 Kyle |
MORP3 | MOR3 | MOR2 | CPP4 | MOR3 | |||||||||
 Mary |
MOR3 | MOR4 | CPP5 | MORP3 | UTR2 | |||||||||
 Mitch |
UTRP2 | OTTP3 | MOR2 | OTTP2 | MOR3 | |||||||||
 Sai |
OTTM5 | OTTN5 | CPM5 | CPP4 | OTTN4 | |||||||||
 Shauhin |
MOR2 | CP3 | UTR2 | MORN4 | MORP3 | |||||||||
 Star |
UTRN1 | CPN3 | MOR2 | UTR1 | MORP3 | |||||||||
 Bianca |
UTR1 | UTR1 | MOR4 | CP3 | CP5 | |||||||||
 Thomas |
CP3 | CPN3 | CPN3 | CPN4 | ||||||||||
 Justin |
MOR2 | MOR3 | MOR4 | |||||||||||
 Kevin |
CPP5 | CP4 | ||||||||||||
 Stephanie |
MOR4 |
Written by
Do you think there is any thing to the fact that 3 people that were considered contenders went home? In Kevin, Thomas and Bianca? Is the edit going to keep eliminating contenders? Or was there some flag that was overlooked in their edits?