Welcome to Give Me Five! Each week, Brent Sullivan will look at the top five moments from the latest episode that could impact the rest of the season.
This wasn’t quite the episode that last week was, but there is still a good number of things to point out that could have an impact down the line.
1. Ryan can’t keep a secret. Last week, we saw Ryan walk away with an idol right before all of the chaos happened at the tribe flag. The secret in his little pink shorts didn’t stay there for long. He decided to tell his buddy Devon about the idol. He also told Devon that no one else knew about it. I am usually not a fan of people telling other people about their idols, but they are close enough that I could have almost given that one a pass. But, later Ryan tells Ben about his idol as well. No, two people know about it, and sure enough, those two get together and talk about Ryan’s idol. I thought that Ryan was on a fast train to the end of the game, but after this, he may have a battle to regain Devon’s trust, if he can at all. If the seven can stay strong, he may be an easy target at that final seven.
2. Joe keeps digging himself deeper. Man, Joe just doesn’t know when to stop. It seems like every week he pisses off someone new. This week it was Ashley and Chrissy, although Chrissy has never really liked him. He kept running his mouth long after they made it clear that they were done with him. Chrissy ended up walking away and Ashly eventually just told him to shut up. I kept thinking that this was going to make his game end early, but at this rate, he may be a great person to drag along since no one likes him. There are some Healers already on the jury, so he would potentially get some votes, but I still think it is a longshot for him to make it that far. Let’s see how the next few episodes shake out.
3. Mike steps his game up. Wow, Mike was all over this episode. We haven’t heard him talk this much all season. He was “stuck” on the Healers to start out, so we didn’t get to see him much, but always seemed a little quiet. This episode starts out with him throwing the other Healers under the bus, then getting in on the argument between Joe and the girls. But it ends with him and Ben talking about voting off Cole and then Mike not trusting him and putting on quite the show at tribal council. Jeff Probst eluded in the preseason that Mike was one of the reasons to watch and I think that we are just now starting to see why. I think that he is going to be a huge factor coming up for a while.
4. Another idol is gone. Part of what Mike was doing at tribal was leading the others to vote for him… okay, I actually am not sure what he was trying to do and why exactly he played his idol for himself. I still enjoyed his performance, and I hope we continue seeing this side of Mike, but whatever his plan was going into tribal, it didn’t seem to pan out the way he wanted, plus his idol is gone now. There is now only one idol left in the game and it currently belongs to Ryan. Will there be another one hidden? With nine people still left in the game, I can almost see them hiding one more.
5. Ben’s behavior. Okay, now stick with me on this one. This may be a stretch, but after watching it again, I don’t think that it is. Ben seems to be playing this game a level higher than a lot of the other castaways this season. The comment about why they should vote out Cole because it is a smart move rather than a decision made with their hearts is only one example. The way he was behaving when Jeff was reading the votes and the way he acted when Cole got voted out stuck in my head. Is he trying to pander votes from the jury by acting all nice to them on the way out? I don’t recall him doing that to anyone before the jury phase. I may be reading too much into this, but let’s watch him again this week to see how he reacts to the next two voted out.
There you go. What moments from this week’s episode do you think made an impact?
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I agree with the points. But I think in this group it’s easier to get people to vote out Ben than to vote out Ryan. It wasn’t a good look for Ryan this episode but I do think Ben’s worse.
I’m surprised you didn’t include Chrissy and Ashley calling Ben a dictator, that seemed like a key point to explain the events of the next few episodes and the probable downfall of the alliance of 7. Whether it will be Ben being blindsided by Chrissy, or him taking out Ashley as a threat to him, I feel something is gonna go down with the heroes over the next few episodes. And who knows, maybe JP will even get a moment to shine, though that may be hoping for too much.