Survivor: Blood vs Water - Power Rankings
Week 9
By Ben Willoughby
November 12, 2013
BoxOfficeProphets.com

Fakesmiles, party of two.
Survivor: Blood vs. Water shifted direction last week, with the merge and the vote out of King Aras. To add an extra element of intrigue, this week we have double elimination night. This is partly to repopulate Redemption Island, but it’s also designed to fast-forward through the first couple of post-merge votes, which are often – but not always – predictable. This accelerated pace should give an advantage to the controlling Tyson-led alliance, as those on the outside will have less time to regroup and change minds. But we’ll see.

Here are the power rankings for this week.

1. Tyson

Tyson is an obvious #1 this week. He put together an alliance that successfully voted out the “person most likely to win if everyone let them,” and found a hidden immunity idol while he was at it. Time for some over-confidence! The moment you see him talk about “running the game” is the moment you know he is done.

Tyson’s main job at this stage is to keep his alliance together, happy and focused on the people outside of it. Unfortunately for Tyson, his alliance now has seven people in it, which is way too many with ten people left in the game, and some of them have to be thinking about how to get rid of Tyson.

2. Tina

Tina’s path to the final three took a big hit last week, but I am not prepared to count her out yet. The smartest move for Tyson’s alliance would be to vote Tina out tonight without any second-guessing. She’s a smart social player who understands everyone’s pressure points and could easily put together a new alliance.

Tina has already mucked up several challenges and has basically no chance to survive Redemption Island, but that’s a positive at this stage, as Survivor players are always more fearful of immunity threats than social players. Tyson’s alliance may decide to target players like Vytas and Monica. If Tina is still in the game after this week’s frivolities, there’s your clue that no one from the current majority is going to win.

3. Gervase

Last week, Gervase said his vote was his “power move” in the game. The bad news for Gervase is that I don’t see him getting any of the credit for the Aras vote-out. The good news for Gervase is that I don’t see him getting any of the credit for the Aras vote-out.

4. Ciera

Ciera has a bit more scope to mix things up than other players. All the talk about “breaking up the pairs” at last week’s Tribal Council has to have her thinking about flipping with Laura? over to Tina, Katie, Vytas and Monica. However, I think she’ll be smarter than that. She should sit tight, keep people focused on voting out people who are not her mother and wait for the right time.

5. Hayden

Even though we haven’t seen him have much impact on the game, we keep checking in on Hayden to see what he is thinking in a way we haven’t with, say, Caleb. Is this because he’s eventually one day going to have an impact on the game? Or is it just that he’s a celebrity?

6. Vytas

Vytas has to come up with a new game plan, and fast. I expect he’ll try to work with old allies like Caleb, Hayden and Ciera to see if they want to get rid of the returnees in that alliance. Maybe there are possibilities there, maybe not. His other job is going to be staying off the radar and not giving anyone a reason to vote him out, and as we’ve seen, he is pretty good at that.

7. Caleb

We’ve barely seen Caleb since his big move to get rid of Brad. He is this season’s Brenda.

8. Monica

I do wonder if Monica could have made more of that final five opportunity with Tina last week. Assuming Tina and Aras had gone through with the plan to vote out Tyson and Gervase, Monica would have been left as the swing vote, and that would have left her in a pretty good position. Did Monica not believe that Tina and Aras would eventually turn on one another? Or did she just not think it through?

But if she had stuck with them, she would have been on the losing side, and her scrambling to get back into the game would have driven everyone crazy and gotten her voted out. So it’s lucky for Monica that she did flip over and accept Tyson’s final three promise. However, it also makes her a late arrival onto an alliance that saw her old tribe as the enemy.

9. Laura?

I think Ciera has Laura? convinced that she has no chance to win the game herself, and that the best play for them as a team is for Laura? to do whatever Ciera tells her. Playing along doesn’t seem like Laura?’s A-game, but it’s her only real option for now. I wonder how she will feel about being voted out to sweeten the jury?

10. Katie

Katie’s one advantage is that out of her alliance, she’ll probably be the one that is voted out last.

On Redemption Island

1. Aras

Getting through the Redemption Island duels is all about keeping calm and not losing your cool. Guess who is good at that? At this point, Aras seems to be more or less done. His best hope is that his alliance is voted out and then eliminated by him at Redemption Island so they can vote ‘Aras’ if he re-enters the game and makes the final three.

So tune in tonight for blood in the water as we eliminate two people from this list, and then check back here tomorrow for the recap.