It’s the merge! From the looks of it, the line between the Davids and Goliaths has become even murkier, despite having heard multiple mentions of going “Goliath-strong.” Between the Brochachos, the Rock Stars, and Alec crossing original tribal alliances like no one’s business, we’ve got to anticipate a chaotic episode of back and forth shifting decisions along tribal lines.
But first, let’s get this out of the way. Going into the merge, I think Elizabeth seems to be the most vulnerable. The 31-year-old David just lost her strongest ally, Lyrsa, who was sent packing in the final pre-merge tribal council. Her outburst last episode probably also tensed her relationship with her Vuku tribemates. I think that her best bet at this point is continuing her bond with Kara, but with the merge reuniting the latter with the rest of the Goliaths, I sadly don’t think Elizabeth will be that much of a priority.
While I think that she’d be able to avoid tribal this episode, I feel that Elizabeth needs to do some significant damage control. We’ve seen her work her social game to change the vote from Lyrsa to Jessica, and also contributed to swaying Alec on Vuku, so hopefully, she’ll enter the merge swinging. If that doesn’t work out, I can, unfortunately, see her being used as a number until it becomes necessary to vote her out. A pity, for sure, but I’m still rooting for her!
Moving on to another player I feel is at risk of elimination – Angelina. Angelina is playing really hard, and the edit isn’t concealing her artful manipulation at all. Sometimes I feel like I can hear the calculations going on in her head during her confessionals. As I mentioned in my post last week, she’s prominently featuring herself as a strategic player making very conscious and deliberate moves, and that’ll make her a target to vote out, especially at this individual portion of the game.
In this week’s preview trailer, she threw Christian’s name out to the Goliaths – not a good idea with two of his fellow Brochachos around. I can’t definitively say if John and Dan prefer Christian over Angelina, but I’m quite sure that the notable eminence of their alliance over the past few episodes suggests that they’d want to keep Christian around longer.
I place Angelina as one of the potential targets of the merge boot, and I won’t be surprised if she goes home. I think it’s important to consider that she was kept over Lyrsa likely because Mike didn’t want to give the Davids a numbers advantage as they merge, but not necessarily saved because she was demanded as an ally moving forward.
And then we have Alec. Ever since the Natalia blindside, I’ve been trying to understand his game plan. In this week’s preview, he initiates an alliance with Christian, a “counter-Goliath insurgency,” as the robotics scientist puts it. Is Alec trying to burn all his former tribemates? Wasn’t he in the majority alliance on Goliath pre-swap? Does he want to be the last Goliath standing? BiG mOvEs? In any case, I plainly see his move as an appreciated service to the Davids, who are in the minority come the merge. My theory is that Alec throws Angelina under the bus or offers Dan up to flush out his hidden immunity idol.
That leads me to the provocative statement, “that’s a huge piece of information” uttered by Christian at the end of the preview. To me, I think this would either be in response to something offered by Alec – perhaps information about Dan’s idol (which would explain Dan’s infuriation), or how Alec himself flipped on the Goliaths – or something shared by Mike, whom I endearingly often forget isn’t a David.
If Mike continues the narrative of Angelina as a cutthroat strategic threat which he has been positing since his time on Jabeni, along with Nick reinforcing that construction, I can very much see most of the Davids, and even some Goliaths voting her out. At the same time, another guess I have is that both indistinct and mutable groups decide to blindside Alec because he seems to come across as quite an erratic flipper.
Final Thoughts
All in all, even though the Goliaths are in the majority, I feel like one from their tribe will be going home. Strikingly, I find that their coalition is much more fractured than the post-swap bonds that they’ve individually made with members of David. No matter what happens, the merge episode is always an important one as it sets the tone for the individual portion of the season, and I’m really excited to watch what happens!
Feel free to share your predictions for Episode 7 in the comments!
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I think for this episode we will see a david go before the Goliaths start cannibalizing eachother. I think it might be a “easy vote” Like crybaby sorry I mean gabby or Elizabeth