Edgic is a weekly feature analyzing each player’s edit, mapping characters to their story-arc. Note that our focus is not solely to determine the winner, as is typical of other Edgic sites. For more information on how Edgic works and rating definitions read our Introduction to Edgic article.
You can read previous weeks Edgic posts here.
| 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 |
 Anna |
CP4 | INV | CP2 | UTRP1 | ||||||||||
 Aubry |
OTTM3 | INV | CP3 | UTR1 | ||||||||||
 Cydney |
MORP2 | MOR2 | MOR3 | MORP4 | ||||||||||
 Debbie |
OTTN4 | OTTN3 | CP5 | CPP5 | ||||||||||
 Jason |
CP4 | OTTN5 | MOR4 | CPM5 | ||||||||||
 Joe |
UTR2 | MORN3 | UTR1 | UTRP2 | ||||||||||
 Julia |
MOR1 | UTR2 | UTR1 | UTRP1 | ||||||||||
 Michele |
CP2 | UTR2 | UTR1 | UTRP1 | ||||||||||
 Neal |
CP3 | MOR2 | MOR2 | UTR1 | ||||||||||
 Nick |
UTR2 | INV | MORN2 | UTR1 | ||||||||||
 Peter |
MOR2 | MOR2 | OTTN5 | MORN3 | ||||||||||
 Scot |
MOR4 | MORM4 | MOR3 | OTTN4 | ||||||||||
 Tai |
OTTM5 | CPP5 | CPP5 | CPP4 | ||||||||||
 Alecia |
OTTN4 | CPM5 | MOR4 | OTTP5 | ||||||||||
 Caleb |
OTTP3 | OTTP3 | MORP2 | OTTPP3 | ||||||||||
 Liz |
MOR3 | MORM3 | CPN4 | |||||||||||
 Jennifer |
OTTP2 | CPM5 | ||||||||||||
 Darnell |
OTTM4 |
What Does This Episode Tell Us?
Wow. What an episode to try and Edgic, eh? With half the running time dedicated to a very scary medical situation – that ultimately resulted in Caleb’s evacuation from the game – it was a unique episode concerning editing. There weren’t many confessionals because most of the content and story progression happened in challenges and camp life.
There was one Complex Personality per tribe which was intended to set us up for the swap next episode. Debbie, Jason, and Tai. Also, the three people covered in the recap. The episode was telling us that these are the people to watch, who were dangerous on their original tribes and could be dangerous going forward. That doesn’t mean to watch necessarily in terms of winning. But to watch as in terms of characters necessary to the story. That is why Edgic is much more fun for story-telling rather than just determining the winner.
It is worth noting for those three characters that despite their high visibility and larger than life personalities that it doesn’t always mean OTT ratings. We shouldn’t confuse “I don’t like you” with OTTN, and likewise we shouldn’t confuse “I love this person!” with OTTP. Just because Debbie has been a nutjob at times doesn’t mean she’ll be OTTN forever for example.
Of course, the biggest take away from this episode was the theme of “punishing conditions”. It has been there since the pre-season press and continued into the premiere and every episode since. And this episode showed that the conditions affect everyone. People of all different shapes and sizes fell. It was a reminder that nobody is immune in this game.
The Recap
This week’s recap pretty much told us exactly what the rest of the episode said. It reminded us that Kaoh Rong has “some of the fiercest conditions ever” and highlighted Jason’s sunburn, Aubry’s struggle with the heat and Liz talking about how physically weak she felt. All of those set up the huge medical situation that was about to happen in this very episode.
It then highlighted the episode’s three CP characters: Debbie, Jason, and Tai.
First up was Tai. We were reminded again, for the third week in a row, that the Beauty women had an alliance, this time backed up by an Anna confessional. “The three girls, we’re pretty tight.” But as always, their alliance was followed by a “But Tai…” This time it highlighted Tai finding the idol and his friendship with Caleb. The latter was obviously tied into Caleb’s exit this episode but the idol highlight suggests Tai potentially using it against the Beauty women at a later date… which he even brings up in a confessional later in the episode.
Then we have Jason. Again, much like how Tai and the women are associated. Jason and Alecia are always linked. The recap was about Alecia finding the idol but Jason thwarting her plans and finding it himself.
Lastly, we have Debbie. Her story was tied to Peter and Liz, who we were reminded thought they had control of the Brain tribe. The recap told us that “Debbie was tired of taking orders, and spearheaded a revolt against Liz and Peter” and that “Debbie’s plan worked, sending Liz home, leaving Peter all alone on the bottom.” The edit gave Debbie all the credit for Liz’s ouster.
All three of these players were recapped as thwarting the plans of others. The Beauty girls are tight but Tai has an idol and might be their downfall. Alecia had an idol clue but Jason found it before her. Peter and Liz thought they had control but Debbie usurped them. These three are big characters that are going to be pivotal in the story over the coming weeks.
Under the Radar
Given the unique nature of this episode, it meant that many characters had almost the same edit. Therefore it makes more sense to talk about these people together rather than break them up into separate pieces and keep repeating the same thing. The Beauty girls, Anna, Julia and Michele, all had an UTRP1 edit with zero confessionals in Episode 4.
Their only focus in the episode was comforting each other and crying during the medical situation. They each had a visibly shocked and upset reaction to Caleb’s evacuation. It shows us once again that these three girls are tight and have high emotional intelligence. Each of them had at least one line. Whether it was Julia comforting “Caleb water?” Or Anna and Michele upset “He’s been pulled from the game?” and “It’s just overwhelming.” It was all positive toned because it portrayed these women as caring, compassionate and kind.
They also had recap focus for the third week in a row. It reminded the audience once again that they are tight even though we haven’t seen a significant focus on their dynamic at camp. Anna has received the most complexity of the three so far and is placed in the position as the strategic leader. Julia and Michele are in desperate need of content to flesh out their edits.
The problem for the girls is Tai. His edit is directly linked to theirs yet his character edit has far more depth. As we mentioned earlier, Tai is always brought up in the recaps in relation to the women’s alliance. In this episode we heard Tai’s thoughts after the Caleb evacuation about how the women now have the numbers but he has an idol to protect himself. It suggests that Tai is very aware of what is going on, even though Anna said last week that she trusts Tai, and that he could very well be a thorn in their side going forward.
Nick was the only member of the Beauty tribe not to receive an obvious positive tone. There weren’t any close ups of him crying. He didn’t get any lines during the Caleb evacuation.
He was only seen propping up Caleb’s legs while the medical team checked on him. Then later in the immunity challenge he was name-checked by Jeff Probst and was tagged in to help win the challenge. There is little of substance to Nick’s edit. All we know about him is that he doesn’t have emotions, and he’s strong. His edit this episode was basically the helper of the Beauty tribe.
Nick was there for them when they need someone to hold feet up. He was there in the immunity challenge and helped them catch up. He was there when Anna and Julia wanted help on the puzzle. He is a rock. In both emotional depth and value.
Joe had slightly more visibility than the other UTR edits due to the fact he was directly involved with helping Debbie after the challenge and had positive SPV (Second Person Visibility) from Debbie back at camp.
He was shown lagging in the first phase of the reward challenge but afterwards he was shown to be a team player. He was shown kissing Aubry on the cheek, with an audible kissing sound (likely added in post-production like Jason’s knuckle cracks), which is the second time this has been highlighted this season. He was then shown asking Debbie if she wanted him to call the medic and even though she said no, he overruled her and called one over anyway, which was of course the right call. Debbie was suffering from heat exhaustion and Joe was her saviour.
Even though Joe had the grumpy edit in Episode 2, the victim of his grumpiness was Liz and she is now gone. Here Joe was portrayed as caring. Reminiscent of the first episode when he was caring with Aubry. The most telling line of all was when he was holding the umbrella over Debbie for shade and Probst said, “Keep her covered, Joe.” That’s his role in the game. He has Debbie, and Aubry, covered. He’s their support.
The edit has firmly established Aubry as a friend, mainly to Debbie and to a lesser extent Joe. She was the first person to bring up emotional intelligence in the third episode and that theme continued to play a part in this week’s episode.
As we said in Joe’s segment, he was shown kissing Aubry on the cheek after the challenge. We also saw a shot of her crying during the medical situation. Throughout the entire ordeal, she was shown arm in arm with Debbie. Even after the challenge Aubry was again with Debbie in the water. Their relationship was key last week in saving Neal and it continued to be highlighted here. “Beyond this game, we’re friends for life,” Debbie said in regards to her tribe. But in that moment it certainly made it seem like Aubry, and Joe were the ones she was talking about.
It will be interesting to see where Aubry lands after the tribe swap. Will her story continue along with Debbie and/or Joe? Or will she develop new stories with new players?
Neal’s edit has been on a downward trend since his relatively strong premiere episode. His lack of air time last week when he was a boot target, and his lack of recap focus this week, are both bad signs for Neal as season stand out character.
He continued to be matter of fact Neal in this episode. During the medical situation Debbie asked “Did they lose two people?” and Neal responded, “Cydney’s down as well.” Which was subtitled. Neal was shown to be very stoic and matter of fact. That has been his character edit so far. He states the facts in a logical, straight-forward way.
At the immunity challenge, he was shown shouting “Come on, keep moving!” It came off as impatient and reminiscent of the challenge in the second episode when he yelled at Liz. That is now two overt moments during challenges where Neal turned into a bit of a drill sergeant. Why show us this? Is it meant to show that he’s too matter of fact in this and not connecting enough with people? Or is it meant to show leadership during challengers? It’s not quite positive, and it’s not quite negative either, but it is worth keeping an eye on going forward.
With this episode being such an anomaly, the lack of air time for certain characters can be excused. But Neal is one of those characters, like Julia, like Michele, that seriously needs a strong episode of content… and soon.
Middle of the Road
Peter was absolutely buried by the edit in the third episode and needed to show some humility here in Episode 4 to help claw back some of that goodwill he earned in Episode 2.
Things started off okay in his conversation with Debbie. “All it just tells me is to dial back and chill out.” It showed that he recognized what he did wrong and how to correct it. “I need a beer” – again, he needed to chill. However, in his confessional, he said something different and was off base. He clearly wasn’t planning on dialing back as he called his tribe the “Pea Brains” and declared that he will take them out one by one. Couple this with Debbie once again referring to him as a “narcissist” and it gave Peter his second N tone in a row.
While his edit was quieter this week, it continued along the same lines as Episode 3. His arrogance was blinding him to what was happening and the edit took joy in contradicting him. “We don’t have a strong tribe anymore, physically or strategically,” he said in confessional. Then the Brains went on to get first place in both challenges and by a wide margin. Peter even helped them win which showed their decision to keep him over Liz was smart. “One of the biggest blowouts,” Probst said. The edit continued to undermine him which doesn’t bode well for his future chances. So when he threatened to take out the other Brains one by one… can we take that seriously? Or will this just be another plan that backfires.
During the reward challenge we heard Peter say “I’m dying here”, which was subtitled, and then confirmed to him by Debbie who replied “dying”. While this was likely just meant as a setup for the impending medical situation that was about to occur, it was also interesting that it was Peter saying it and he is the one currently on the bottom, dying in this game.
“This really comes down to your ability to work together and try a lot of options while still seeing the bigger picture,” Probst said at the immunity challenge. That line speaks to Peter’s game play – he’s not willing to try a lot of options in terms of who he works with. He refuses to work together with the remaining Brains and refuses to try other options than his original plans, despite those plans failing. Will he get his revenge? He’ll probably make an attempt but right now the edit points to failure.
Cydney’s string of MOR edits continued in Episode 4 but they are getting progressively better. She was one of the players that needed medical assistance, and she also attended tribal council, so had her highest visibility so far this season.
There was lots of positive tone to Cydney’s edit. At the reward challenge Probst said “Cydney through quickly. That’s the fastest anyone has ever gotten under a log.” She told her tribe to “Keep digging” during Probst’s commentary when he told them it was tough and that they were fighting for second place. She was shown to be tough and never giving up. When she first collapsed she started sobbing while medical tended to her but she toughed it out and started getting better. “I’m okay,” she said even though she was still on the ground recovering.
Back at camp she was shown smiling and ignoring all the bickering on her tribe and instead focused on her recovery. She was also the only member of her tribe shown to be encouraging to Alecia and not being openly mean to her. When Alecia said “Good luck Cydney” on her way out, Cydney kindly responded “Thank you, babe” even in front of the two guys who had been mean to Alecia. It tells us that Cydney has the best social skills on the Brawn tribe.
There was some very slight negativity but not enough to effect the overall tone. At the immunity challenge when Alecia asked to swap out on the puzzle, Cydney told her “Alecia, just focus.” It was reminiscent of Episode 1 when the Brawns lost because Alecia told them she wasn’t good at puzzles but no one, particularly Cydney, would listen. We’ve now twice seen Cydney not listen and just try to brute force her way through this game, and both times it was a failing strategy. If she’s not taking in signals and reacting, she won’t adapt and survive.
Over the Top
Scot’s edit up until this point has been fairly steady with a slight negative tinge due mainly to his contradictory content. However, Episode 4 tipped him into OTT territory with an undeniable negative tone.
The amount of negative content is almost too much to list. At the reward challenge, Alecia cheered “Teamwork, teamwork! Come on Scot, we got this.” While the camera showed Scot and Jason sitting there doing nothing. Obviously Scot and Jason were clearly exhausted, but the edit set up the shot to show Alecia continuing to dig while the guys sat on the sidelines. Scot fired back negatively towards Alecia and put her down. “Keep cheerleading, it’s what you’re best at.” But again, the camera showed him sitting there doing nothing while Alecia continued to dig. She continued her positivity and tried to encourage him, “Come on Scot, it’s about being a team” and then like a petulant child he shot back “I got two bags. How many you got?”
The negativity continued back at camp. He received negative SPV from Alecia “You think it’s okay to break me down in a challenge when I’m part of your team.” His reply just gave more negative tone to himself: “I’m not trying to break you down. I’m trying to tell you to shut up and dig.” But we the audience know that he wasn’t encouraging her to dig (unlike Jason, who was, albeit in a rather cruel way), he was undermining her by telling her that she should stick to cheerleading because that’s all she’s good at. He’s not self-aware, and even in his own retelling he was still unaware that he was being cruel rather than encouraging.
“You’ve never been on a team in your entire life and you’re trying to tell an NBA champion how to be a teammate.” He continued to put Alecia down while propping himself up. But we saw for ourselves that he was not acting like a teammate becoming of an NBA champion. No NBA champion would treat his teammates this way. “What team have you been on?” he snapped. Scot showed he clearly doesn’t know what does and doesn’t matter to do well in this game. Everyone watching knows, you don’t have to be an NBA champion to know what it means to be a team player. Alecia bottom-lined it: “The moral of the story is to act like a team. Have teamwork. Work together. Not to put each other down.” Scot failed on all those fronts.
What does this mean for Scot in terms of the game? Well, his one-dimensional negative edit spells doom, doom, doom. Bold statements like “You’re lucky you’re even here still” and “We already know what we’re doing” are signals of doom. Even if Scot got this way this episode, you can never be that sure of yourself in Survivor because things are constantly changing. Much like with Peter, Scot is unwilling to try other options in terms of who he works with. Probst said to him, “You haven’t earned [Alecia’s] respect” and he responded, “If I haven’t, no one can.” He thinks he’s the pinnacle of someone deserving of respect even though the edit has shown him napping in the shelter while Alecia made fire and failing on the slingshot costing his tribe immunity in Episode 2.
At tribal council he said that Alecia drove Jason to losing his temper even though the edit showed Scot losing his temper with her. It was further proof that Scot is out of touch – not self-aware. “I really hope you watch this over and over and understand that we really were trying to help you,” he said when casting his vote, but was immediately undercut by his actual vote that rudely said “Ale see ya”. It was a message to himself: Scot should watch this over and over to realise that he was the one being a d**k. After the votes were read, there was a shot of him making a nasty face, as the exclamation point to his OTTN episode.
Caleb received the rare PP tone this week after his medical evacuation from the game. The PP tone is reserved for those players who are edited overtly positive. Usually have scenes accompanied by soaring, heroic music. Other characters will react in over the top positive ways towards them. That was Caleb in this episode.
Even before he collapsed Caleb was shown as leading the Beauty tribe in the reward challenge. “You got it Caleb.” “Caleb now feeling the pressure.” He was shown as never giving up and bringing home the win for the tribe.
After he went down, his positive SPV shot up from both Probst and his tribe. “There’s only two ways you leave this game. One is you’re voted out and the other is quitting, which you are clearly not doing. You don’t want to be pulled. It’s the doctor’s call.” Probst made it clear that Caleb wasn’t giving in and that he didn’t want to quit even though Caleb was too far gone to say any of this himself, Probst spoke the sentiment. “You pushed brother, you pushed very hard… you’re a warrior. I’m glad you were out here.”
The Beauty girls and Tai were shown crying; distraught that Caleb had to leave. “I thought Caleb was invincible.” “Caleb gave 100%. He sacrificed himself so we can do this challenge.” The scene of him being stretchered to the helicopter featured massively heroic music as the girls cried and said their goodbyes. And then as the final stamp we saw an on screen message that said: “Caleb has fully recovered, is 100% healthy….*pause*….and hopes to play again.” It confirmed that Caleb was a heroic character this season and will be back again one day. He will be remembered as the hero cowboy that was accepting of others and gave it his all in challenges, hence his overall OTTP season rating.
Alecia’s theme has obviously been and continued to be “never give up” through to the end of her game. While we saw leading up to this point how confused she was all the time and how the others on her tribe didn’t like her, this last episode was a farewell to a plucky underdog who, in spite of being picked on and never listened to and was shown nothing but active disrespect on her tribe, stayed positive, kept digging, never lost her own self-respect, and enjoyed the adventure of the game. While Scot and Jason continued to bad mouth her, this episode showed Jeff Probst validating her side of things and rooting for her, thereby undermining their mean-spiritedness to her. This is why, for once, she’s P tone and not Mixed.
“What if we all kick it? It’s easier,” she said at the reward challenge before accidentally kicking sand in Cydney’s face… “sorry.” Jason reacted “I’m digging right here.” Nobody was listening to Alecia at all and they take her presence like sand to the face. But Alecia was always shown staying positive and cheering them on while continuing to dig. She was also shown to be a fighter with backbone and called Scot out on his negativity. “I may not be as big as you and as strong as you, but you should know from the NBA, when we’re all not giving up and I’m trying to encourage you, to look me straight in the face and say ‘why don’t you just keep being a cheerleader, that’s all you’re good at’ that’s not working as a team. What would one of your players say if you said that on the basketball court in a game?” Scot’s response is petulant and he only talks about how he and his teammates are on a pedestal above Alecia.
Even in the face of condescension, Alecia remained positive and constructive. “I was trying my best. I never gave up.” She continued, “I just don’t have as big of hands as you” and Scot responded, “I noticed.” This was presented to us as the “in a nutshell” reason why Alecia never fit in on the Brawn tribe and why she was ultimately voted out. Scot had always noticed Alecia’s size first and foremost, and never valued anything else about her or anything substantive. So she was outcast from day 1 for it and despite proving herself again and again, trouncing her diminutive size and proving her value, she was sent home because of his narrow-mindedness.
Alecia’s story-arc of “never give up” suggested her surviving the Brawn tribe. But while that didn’t happen she was portrayed as fighting until the very end – refusing to lay down and die (like accepting an on the spot tribal council). “I’m not intimidated.” Alecia was shown standing up to physical giants, and now we finally know why/how she’s the “Mental giant.” She was never the smartest person, the edit made that clear. But she was mentally the toughest person out there, and that made her a mental giant.
At tribal council Probst asked her “Alecia, do you feel like you get picked on a lot in this tribe?” Probst acknowledged that Alecia was getting picked on. He continued, “You’re not on the Brawn tribe because you’re huge physically. You’re on the Brawn tribe because you don’t take any lip from anybody at any time for any reason.” Per the earlier comment, this confirmed the mental giant theme. Her story is capped off by some over the top positive SPV from Probst: “And yet I still root for you.” The host of the show openly saying he roots for you in front of the entire tribe is almost veering into PP territory which overrules any negativity.
She even had the heroic finale boot style music when her torch was snuffed – seriously, for anyone that still doubts that music cues are important, go back and listen to the music when Darnell, Jennifer, and Liz had their torches snuffed, it is the exact same music each time. Then listen to Alecia’s. It is a heroic crescendo usually reserved for the first person voted out in the finale (for reference it was the same music Kimmi had after her torch was snuffed last season and same for Spencer in Cagayan). It was an OTT exit and that is how Alecia will be remembered as a character, OTTM, flawed but ultimately enough positives to root for.
Complex Personalities
Jason continues to be a big character with an interesting edit. While he clearly has negative content that sets him up as a villain, the edit also provides him with personal content that helps smooth over the rough edges.
During the reward challenge he had negative tone when dealing with Alecia. After Scot insulted her, she said “I think we’ve dug over a foot” which seemed a rather innocuous comment and Jason shot back with “Just shut the f**k up and dig. I’m not trying to be a d**k, I’m just trying to find these.” Combined with Scot’s comments it made the both of them come across negatively.
But after the challenge Jason was the main carer of Cydney. “Come on sweetie,” he said, which was subtitled, and he was shown very tenderly carrying her and taking care of her. He held her up from behind while she wretched and doubled over. He was the one holding ice to her face. We got a very intense close up shot of Jason’s face where he looked very concerned like he would be for a family member. “Jason’s taking really good care of you,” Probst told Cydney. This was all positive tone.
Probst then asked him afterward if he could still vote Cydney out of the game despite taking care of her. “I come from the military. Someone gets hurt, it’s not about the mission anymore. It’s about that person. That’s your teammate. And here we live with each other. Yeah, we don’t all like each other, but at the end of the day, we’re family. This is what we got, this is what we were dealt. You deal with it. I’ma stay with her till the bitter end.” We then cut to a shot of Cydney smiling. Again, it was positive. But was it also foreshadowing? Will Jason and Cydney stick it out together until the bitter end? Will it be a “bitter” end? It could have just been included because it was a good speech but maybe it was also left in knowing what is to come.
Back at camp the negative Jason returned. “The moral of the story is to act like a team. Have teamwork. Work together. Not to put each other down,” Alecia said. It was very straightforward positive teamwork mentality. But Jason responded, “Why don’t you get on board with this team?” As if she needed to do the opposite of all those things she said to fit in with this team. “You can’t even sit there for one second and go, ‘Maybe these three are right’? It’s just always an excuse, always something.” But the viewers know that he and Scot are wrong, and he was the one making excuses, it was “always something” about Alecia that he complained about. Jason was the one in Episode 2 that said they were on the way to becoming the worst tribe in history; that they were a sinking ship. He was the one that was shown laying in the shelter while Alecia made fire. He was the one that Jennifer told us “All he talks about is Alecia.”
He did get a confessional to explain that he “went a little overboard” and compared the situation to his family life and daughters. It’s moments like these that make Jason a more fleshed out character, unlike say Scot who was portrayed as just a one-dimensional d**k. It suggests that Jason will be more significant to the overall story and likely around a lot longer, so the edit doesn’t want us to completely hate him.
Where does he go from here? As one of the three CP edits this week, Jason is set up as a key character heading into the swap. There is a story about the three remaining Brawns and whether they can stick it out until the bitter end. But there is also the theme of Jason as the bulldozer, charging his way through the game. There was a shot of him at tribal council trying to swat away a bug while Cydney instead tried to dodge it. It perfectly summed up both their games. Cydney will likely go into the swap cautious and attempting to dodge the bullets. Whereas Jason will stomp in and try and take control.
On paper, Tai seems like he should be an OTTP character because he is so likable and always has such high visibility. But he still continues to have one of the most complex, if not THE most complex edit, of the season so far.
He had lots of positive tone during the medical situation. He was shown tenderly rubbing a wet buff all around Caleb’s face and chest. There were shots of him crying throughout the whole ordeal and then later sobbing when he learned that Caleb was being evacuated. He was also the only Beauty tribe member that got to properly comment on Caleb’s evacuation: “We come from completely different, uh, but, the first night, I cuddled with him.” He talked about the relationship he had with someone from a completely different walk of life. It made sense of Tai and Caleb’s edit throughout the first three episodes. Tai made everyone laugh and lightened the mood somewhat in the midst of a terrible situation.
After the challenge, we didn’t get a scene at the Beauty camp, but we did get a confessional from Tai. Once again he commiserated about Caleb. This is hugely telling. The three Beauty girls didn’t get any focus here. It was all Tai. He then switched into game talk. He talked about how before Caleb was gone it was 3 guys versus 3 girls. But now with Caleb gone, the girls have the upper hand and can choose who they want to take out between himself and Nick. Tai showed great game awareness by talking about this and also made it clear he will use the idol to protect himself from them. Does this suggest Tai using his idol against one of the Beauty girls? Between this and the recaps it is heavily implied.
When Probst asked everyone how they were holding up before the start of the immunity challenge, Tai said “It’s all about taking care of self. We still have a long way to go.” That is a good sign for Tai’s chances and having a long way to go in the game. It seems crazy to see Tai as a potential winner just because the natural conclusion of his edit is fan-fave distraction. But you can’t deny his complexity and given that everyone else’s edits are majorly flawed, Tai is right up there in contention.
Debbie is another character like Tai that seems to be a big character distraction edit but is now getting complex content. However, unlike Tai, she started the season with back to back OTTN edits and that should realistically rule out any winner chances. Therefore it is more likely Debbie is a distraction. Maybe a big journey edit.
She was given credit in the recap for Liz’s elimination and backed up as the “mastermind”. She was the only person shown going and talking to Peter after tribal council and making him feel better. It showed us that Debbie does have a social game and is very game aware.
At the challenge she collapsed due to heat exhaustion. She tried to refuse medical attention even though she clearly needed it. She remained positive throughout. “Jeff, I’m still smiling. I’m cool, babe.” Debbie has this never give up attitude that is becoming a big theme of the season. She was given a confessional where she explained the heat exhaustion and what it felt like. She talked about why she rejected medical at first – owning up to being embarrassed by it and not wanting to appear weak, both to her tribe and her daughters back home. She continued to talk about her daughters, crying while she did so, and accompanied by heroic music.
Despite the overall CPP rating, the editors continue to include little things that undermine Debbie. Once again her job titles kept changing, lending more to the OTT side of her character. She was also highlighted cheering in an OTT way at the immunity challenge: “Hippocampus, amygdala, frontal lobe, go! Your neurons are firing on all cylinders!” It wasn’t enough to effect her CPP rating but it was enough to give us pause for thought. It tells us that unlike Tai, Debbie remains a distraction regardless of her increased complexity.
Main Stories In Play
Mother Nature – the extreme elements continue to be a dominating aspect of this season and is, of course, the main story this week. Expect this to continue throughout.
Emotional Intelligence – again mainly demonstrated by the Beauty tribe (except for Nick). They were all shown sobbing over Caleb. Aubry and Joe also had positive emotional intelligence. Jason also was shown caring for Cydney and having an emotional side. Lacking emotional intelligence are Peter, Nick, and Scot.
The Women’s Alliance & Tai – the trio of Anna, Michele, and Julia continues to be present. But Tai is always following their story. Strong suggestions that Tai, and perhaps his idol, will mess up their plans.
The Brawn Bulldozer – Jason is an aggressive player but is now firmly positioned as leader of the Brawn tribe. Can he get himself and his allies to the end?
Debbie the Mastermind – Debbie is the mastermind of the Brains tribe and is set up as an important power player heading into the swap.
Never Give Up – Alecia was the main proponent of this theme and despite being eliminated she continued to fight until the end. The entire medical situation and challenge was built around the idea of never giving up. Debbie didn’t want to give up and call medical. Cydney recovered and said she was okay. Probst told us that Caleb wasn’t giving up but that medical were pulling him.
Walk the Walk – those that can put their money where their mouth is will succeed. Those who make big claims but don’t back it up will fail.
Winner Contenders
Top: Tai, Anna.
Middle: Michele, Cydney, Julia, Aubry.
Hanging On: Jason.
That is it for Survivor: Kaôh Rōng Edgic for Episode 4. Let us know your thoughts and/or anything interesting that we missed in the comments below.
Written by
Martin,
Why did you eliminate Michelle from winner contenders but not Julia? I’m just confused by that. Michelle had a better episode 1, and other than that episode, their edits have been very similar.
Oops. I didn’t mean to. That was an error. Added her back in. 🙂
I’m guessing at some point Debbie injures her foot. I go back to episode 2 when she was juggling. We were showed a final shot of shoes with Debbie juggling again on beach with Anna and Liz. I think they were Debbies. Peter was cleaning his. Anna and Liz wearing theirs. She also said to Joe how young ones were leaving stuff laying all around camp they could trip on.
Nice Edgic 😉 ! I was just wondering : why did you named Julia as a middle winner contender and not Michele ? Right now they pretty much had the same edit…
Refresh the page. It was an error. Michele is added now. 🙂
Why exactly Anna and Julia are the winner contenders but not Michele?
Refresh the page. It was an error. Michele is added now. 🙂
I’m glad you made Jason complex, he’s not an OTTN like Scot was in this episode.
It would be interesting to see your thoughts about the players’ chances on returning for another season when they get eliminated. For instance Caleb would most likely be a 10 out of 10 and someone like Jennifer would probably be a 3 or 4 out of 10.
That idea sounds interesting
Do you just arbitrarely assign visibility numbers or do you use a vis chart?
It is well discussed for decided. 🙂
I’m interested that you’ve eliminated Debbie completely, and I wonder if it because her episode one Edgic is actually not quite right. Coming out of episode 1, my feeling on Debbie was that she was getting OTTM, in that the scene of her comforting Aubry when Aubry was struggling really looked good. I can understand why you would be hesitant to put Debbie as a top contender based on the first two episodes, but I have difficulty seeing how someone like Jason, with much more regular and damning negative content, is ‘just clinging on’ with Debbie not on there at all. I mean, Jason’s content is seriously negative whereas you could look back and see a lot of Debbie’s negative content, in my eyes, as SPV from Peter and Liz who are being shown to be wrong about most things.
That is fair. To be honest, Jason probably should be ruled out at this point due to his negative tone but I kept him in barely for this week. This next episode will tell a lot.
I think Jason is actually getting the winner’s edit. Nothing is locked in stone, but well over half the cast being mostly irrelevant and the majority of the rest most likely being “distractions” with their character-driven edits. The only two people who can’t really fit either grouping are Jason and Cydney. Cydney’s MOR edit could be compared to Kelley’s Cambodia edit, which was MOR to keep her relevant for the endgame. This leaves us with Jason, the “lesser evil” between himself and Scot. Probst did make a comment about the bullying in the game, and while it isn’t as straightforward as say, the Will/Shirin conflict, Probst could have made the warning because a bully like Jason will win the game. The edit seems to justify this, portraying his “wrongdoings” against Alecia as being a flaw that he recognizes while Scot is merely a lumbering giant out for blood. While it obviously could be just as true that someone like Debbie or Tai could win the game, their chances overall seem small with their personality-centric edits. Personally, I would put Jason on top and Debbie, Tai, and Cydney in the middle, while Anna and Neal desperately hang on.
Glad to see Anna as a top contender. I think Jason is getting a Tony Edit. I mean the guy got a lot of negative but he still won.
I also very much disagree with the takes on Alicia and Tai.
I saw Tai as all OOT. With his over the top crying. Where as the girls seemed normal. Maybe it’s because I dislike him. Kinda like how I feel you dislike Scot. I don’t see him as negative as you seem to.
I like Alicia but I think she her edit this episode was negative. When she made her comment about kicking it there was the sound often used for a mistake. And you could see it wasn’t doing anything. It showed her stubbornness even though her tribe tells her to just shut up and dig. She kept talking.
Tony’s negativity was always game related though.
I’d put Debbie in the “middle” with the others for winner contenders. While she isn’t like your typical winner, she has just as good of a shot edit-wise of winning as Julia. That’s for certain.
If I had to rank winner contenders, I’d put them in the following order:
Winner Contenders:
1. Anna
2. Michele
3. Cydney
4. Debbie
5. Tai
6. Julia
7. Aubry
8. Jason
Jeff would have pumped up this season WAY more if Tai were the winner.
It’s “affect” and not “effect”.
Great commentary in general, but this is a major, major misread of Alecia. You are seemingly too influenced by social media reaction to the episode (40 minutes of footage every three days on the island) rather than reliable sources such as Cydney (and obviously Scot and Jason). During the reward challenge it was insulting to the other tribe members, one of whom almost passed out from digging, that Alecia could only bother kicking dirt- she wasn’t tired- but just getting the “I’m a lazy brat but don’t you dare criticize me” edit. Earlier she got the dodo edit by allowing the others to find the idol before her. And then again when trying to beg out of finishing the puzzle. In every tribal she had no idea what was going on, and skated through by being the least threat. The arguments shorn between Alecia and Scot before she was voted out that night needed to be shown to explain why she was voted out instead of the stronger player Cydney (which had been Jason’s strategy prior). Jason was hoping she’d be a loyal goat and float to the end with him, and she even messed THAT up. Among the worst contestants ever and if the music told you otherwise when she was booted, think of the overall emotional impact of the episode as a whole and not the mercy given to such a clueless player who had no business being out there. Scot Pollard is nothing close to how you describe him, even on the show. Yes he is blunt about the tactics of a horrible survivor player. But so was Richard Hatch, and Boston Rob, and Sandra. When it’s justified, calling out a whining, confused player is at worst neutral and at best is serving as narrator to describe what collectively everyone including Cydney is thinking. Cydney is smartly keeping quiet but if Scot was way off base you’d think a friend such as Cydney would defend her, about anything. Nobody but Jeff Prosbt, who wasn’t at camp, did, ever. You have very selective memory on Alecia, but many of your takes I believe are spot on. A very thorough study.
Just interpreting the edit. That’s what makes Edgic fun. We all have our own reads. The Probst quote and the heroic finale boot exit music say it all really. And if that was the social media reaction after the episode then that means that was the main read of the edit for others too.