Welcome to Season 48’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 NTOS trailer reminds us about the alliance dominating the game since the merge episode—Kyle, Joe, Shuahin, and Eva—are a very solid four-person team who have been winning challenges and earning advantages. Naturally, there are comments from the players not in this alliance about needing to take control. Mitch says, “We need to get them to flip,” and Mary says exasperatedly to Shauhin, “There’s a move to be made,” likely appealing to him to flip on his alliance and work with her.
We have a better idea of these plans from one of the episode’s sneak previews featuring a night scene with Kamilla, Mary, and Mitch discussing potential moves after last week’s tribal council. Mitch essentially reiterates that “Joe’s been dominating this game” and emphasises that those not working with him have to do something before it’s too late. We’ve heard this countless times before, and it’s getting very repetitive. With every episode, it just gets even more pressing for these three players, especially now with only seven people left.
Mitch pitches that they need to get “Kyle or Shauhin to flip,” which seems to be the most logical and obvious move to be made from our perspective as well, as we haven’t really seen Eva and Joe have that much of a relationship with the players not in their alliance. With four or five votes, this majority can take out either of the two.
However, I don’t see this happening with Mitch spearheading the plan. I think he’s been playing scared since a few episodes prior. Furthermore, there doesn’t seem to be much trust among Mitch, Kamilla, and Mary—they just seem like three people stuck together at the bottom due to separate individual circumstances.
That being said, though I don’t have much faith in Mitch changing up the game, I predict Mary will try her best in this episode to make the move. She has nothing to lose anymore. In the NTOS trailer, she tells Shauhin, “I’m going to write your name” at their camp shelter, with Joe and Kyle also present. I’m guessing that this happens after her failed attempt to get Shauhin to flip and work with her, so she ends up changing course and targeting him instead. This will cause him to panic a little—no one wants to hear their name will be written down—and perhaps shake things up in Mary’s favour in her own chaotic way.
Finally, a small but interesting part of the trailer that stood out to me was the short scene of Kamilla and Kyle. The former says, “I want one of us in the final three,” hinting that this episode will be a turning point for their secret alliance. Kyle also reveals in a confessional that “every single path harms someone. I don’t want to hurt people,” implying that he has to make a choice soon.
I think the decision he needs to make is clear—it’s between continuing to vote with Eva, Joe, and Shauhin or flipping on them to vote with Kamilla and Mary. My prediction is that he’s unlikely to flip, as having a solid four is the best way to get to the end in the new era. Four will get your alliance to the fire-making challenge. And I think Kyle thinks he has a good shot of winning against the other three as he has his secret alliance with Kamilla to differentiate him from the others.
To sum up, I predict yet another episode of the dominant four players controlling the game. We’ll probably see Mary and Kamilla struggle to make inroads with them and Mitch deliberating in confessionals and private conversations to no avail. I think it’s Mary’s time to go, as she’s believed to be the more unpredictable player among the three at the bottom.
What do you think will happen in Episode 11? Leave a comment below!
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I agree with what you said but do you think that Eva having to use her Safety without power this week will come into play? Maybe Rocks or Kyle flipping?
If you look at the preview and watch Mary’s eyes, I think she is actually saying “I’m going to write your name” to Joe who is laying beside Shauhin.