Survivor: Cambodia - Second Chance Power Rankings
Week 3
By Ben Willoughby
October 14, 2015
BoxOfficeProphets.com

I'm allegedly playing in my second season of Survivor.

Last week on Survivor, there was a tribe switch where the number of tribes increased from two to three, so now there are two tribes where we don’t know what’s going on. Peih-Gee proved to be a terrible Survivor player by deciding to vote for her “ally” Abi and then telling the two people who are now the swing vote that she was going ahead alone on this.

New Bayon

On New Bayon, Monica, Fishbach, Kimmy and Jeremy are original Bayon and Spencer and Wiglesworth are original Ta Keo. Monica even gets an interview, where she says that “It’s great to have Spencer and Wiglesworth, because they’re the minority.” Don’t they have any other qualities that would make them welcome at camp? Well, Spencer is full of awkward conversations about e-mo-shuns and Wiglesworth is the most boring person ever, so perhaps not.

Jeremy

As far as we know, Jeremy is the only member of the core Bayon alliance still at Bayon. But he was seen as a tribe leader – and an all-around nice guy to boot – so the old Bayon players who were on the outs are gravitating around him anyway. He also got a hidden immunity idol – I wonder if he thinks of it as a symbol that could bind his alliance together, like Fishbach seems to think?

Monica

I already used up my Monica observation in the tribe intro. I’m not thinking up two things about Monica.

Kimmy

Thankfully the chicken killing happened on another tribe.

Fishbach

Fishbach is thrilled that macho people (Savage and Joe – and really, I think he just means Savage) are off the tribe. All of a sudden, he thinks he is in an alliance, and he convinces the rest of the tribe to go look for the idol.

Wiglesworth

No Wiglesworth is about as the same as some Wiglesworth.

Spencer

Spencer is very enthusiastic to be off the bottom of his old tribe, and just as thrilled to be on the bottom of a new tribe. I suppose that on this tribe he’s not playing with people who have gotten to know him. Spencer claims to have played logically in his past season, and failed because “people have emotions.” Didn’t he know people have emotions going into the game? Logic fail, Spock.

So this season, Spencer is trying out this Earth thing we call feelings. Maybe if Spencer learns enough about that, he can try an Earth thing called “kissing.” Or maybe not, because he tries to think up an emotional story so he can bond with Jeremy and all he can think of is how he couldn’t tell his current girlfriend that he loves her. Jeremy reassures him that when Spencer gets back, he’ll know how he feels. “That’ll be a lucky thing for me, if I get that clarity,” says Spencer. True love beats strong.

Anyway, blind-squirrelling his social game with Jeremy is only going to get him so far. He's still on bottom.

New Ta Keo.

With Dietz, Joe, Kelley and Kass, New Takeo is the new muscle tribe, and I guess Keith and Ciera are members too. It’s Okay-o to be New Takeo.

Joe

Everyone still loves Joe, and to celebrate he killed a chicken. Ah, Survivor Jenn memories.

Kass

Kass seems to be in with Ciera.

Ciera

Ciera seems to be in with Kass. I approve of this combination.

Keith

We didn’t see any homespun wisdom or spitting from Keith last episode, but we can safely assume it happened.

Dietz

It was Dietz who brought about the tribe switch by loftily declaring that he has gone from the bottom of his tribe to the absolute top and if this trend continues, he’ll be running this game! OK Dietz, you tried out your social game and it worked at a 101 level, but now we need to talk about Survivor jinxing and how you shouldn’t do it because I am liking you this season. But even though he’s only one of two old Bayon on his new tribe, he thinks everything’s coming up Milhouse because they’ll never lose a challenge! What did I say about jinxing, Dietz?

Kelley

Probst referred to Kelley as Wentworth, which is solidly “Oh, come on!” territory. This is the biggest last-name devaluation since Cochran’s first episode. I realize there are two Kellys this season - Kelly W’s, even - but it seems there are two Kellys on nearly every season of Survivor and we always managed before by calling them Purple Kelly or something. Anyway, KELLEY is occupying herself by throwing Dietz under the bus.

Angkor

Angkor got saddled with being the loser tribe from the get-go, because they were left with no possessions, no shelter, just an empty beach. That’s pretty sucky, and I feel they should have got something like a shelter beach or a Survivor care package to even things out. You can tell they are the loser tribe, because apparently the best-qualified puzzle-solver on the tribe is Woo.

Tasha

Tasha got a hero edit for the episode, with interviews about how she is a fighter. We see that she is the one to pick up on the tension between Abi and Peih-Gee, and the one to make the pitch to Abi about why she and Savage should stay and someone like Varner should go. She also busted Varner talking with Wiglesworth, which seems like an over-reaction but over-reactions are everywhere on this tribe.

This all seems great for Tasha, but now she’s the designated Abi-wrangler. The Black Spot has been passed!

Savage

Savage can’t believe how lucky that everything is falling into place for him. I can’t believe it either, but I hope it’s because karma is saving up for a humiliating defeat.

Abi

Abi continued her up-front style of play by telling the other original Ta Keos that she was going to vote with Tasha and Savage - until next week when she gets upset with them and votes with another alliance. In Tribal Council she claims to be a “committed person,” and I think I speak for everyone that her committal cannot come soon enough. When voting out Peih-Gee, Abi said that “Peih-Gee talks way too much” and “should take a chill pill.” At least she didn’t bring a mirror as her personal item.

Woo

Woo is sensible enough to suggest that the four original Ta Keos just chill and stick to four. But he's also naive enough to believe that's how things will go down. And then he gets upset that he “gets the last word at the very last second,” because Varner has a fake deal with Savage and no fake deal with Woo! Poor Woo, left out of the fake alliances! I feel that dependable Woo is up higher than erratic Varner, but as Abi pointed out, he has voted for her twice.

Varner

Varner decides within five seconds that Savage is going to get on his nerves, which even I think is a little fast out of the gate. After Tasha called him out at the challenge, he had what everyone - including Probst and himself – referred to as a “meltdown”, which was really just saying that Savage is a phony, making alliances with Varner and Peih-Gee. Did anything more - that we didn't see - happen after the challenge? Varner claims not to remember anything about it, and hammered home that Savage and Tasha are now in control of the vote.

Varner did the right thing to shut up and shift blame at Tribal Council. Tasha made a big thing of how Varner should have “kept business in the family”, but what is waving your arms about while yelling “we got a rat!” if it’s not airing family business in public? And you can argue that Tasha and Savage weren’t really in control of the vote, because it was really his vote that sent Peih-Gee home. But shutting up about all that was the right move.

Those are the power rankings for Week 3. Tune in to see everyone get hurt in a blindfold challenge, and then come back here for Jim’s recap where he can talk about all the players who got medevac’d.