Survivor: Cambodia Power Rankings
Week 12
By Ben Willoughby
December 1, 2015
BoxOfficeProphets.com

Did Keith just spit or is he -about- to spit? It's so hard to say!
Previously on Survivor, there was actually a double episode where both parts were exciting. In the first episode, Jeremy surprised everyone by playing his idol to protect Fishbach and send trouble-making “Hey! We're a group of five! We can vote out someone!” Ciera home. Then in the second, Fishbach had “severe gastrointestinal distress,” an emotional breakdown and worst of all, gross feet. All of this must have thrown Fishbach off his game, because he actually tried to win a reward challenge where the “reward” is “pick some people you want to suck up to and leave the rest of camp to fester and agree that you need to go.” Fishbach thought he had everything covered with his advantage, but the doofus split the votes, Spencer flipped and Fishbach was sent off to marinate at Ponderosa.

A group of five – Joe, Kelley, Keith, Abi and Spencer – are now in control of the game. Who will be sent home next? Here are the power rankings for this week.

1. Joe

After a brief aberration, Prayer Hands Joe is back at #1. After winning immunity for the fourth time, he even got a fist-bump from Probst. Despite being a huge immunity threat, not even being eligible to get voted out until Day 29 and one of only two people willing to compete for immunity whatever it takes, he managed to convince enough people that Fishbach – or rather, Fishbach’s alliance with Jeremy, Kimmi and Tasha – was an even bigger threat. Unfortunately for the rest of his alliance, they can’t count on another “listen to Probst” Survivor folklore challenge for Joe to be pathetic at.

2. Kelley

Things are suddenly looking up for Kelley. After lucking into an idol clue that required her to be alone at camp - the “I have to poo” excuse would not have been decorous in this instance – she was able to crawl under the shelter like blonde Gollum and extract the precious before being noticed. Then she was the architect behind the vote for Fishbach, flat out ordering Keith who he will be voting for. If she busts out another Tribal Council surprise, Kelley deserves to win this game.

3. Abi

At this point, Abi – who apparently thinks thunder comes before the lightning – is probably going to make it to the end of the game. She’s in the majority alliance, and that’s when she kicks up a fuss by demanding that the vote go in the direction she wants, suggesting that if she doesn’t get her way she’ll still vote the way she wants any and then ask “why are you freaking out?” to whichever gobsmacked person is staring at her (this week, it was Spencer). It’s not that Abi really has a lot of power – she just leverages what little she has.

I don’t think Abi has any real alliances but as we get closer to the end, everyone else has to be tempted to promise Abi a trip to the final Tribal Council. First of all, if you’ve spent five weeks putting up with her, another couple of days won’t make a difference. Second, she’s a vote for sale who can get your sub-alliance past the crucial vote when there are five people left. And third, you know she’s not going to win any votes, so why not take her anyway? At this point, the loyal Survivor audience has little choice but to savour her inevitable and complete humiliation.

4. Spencer

Spencer caught a lucky break by not quite being fast enough to win the reward challenge, and then got upset that Fishbach decided to take people not named Spencer with him? I mean, duh. Fishbach is closer with Jeremy (who had just saved him) than with Spencer, who actively campaigned to get rid of Fishbach.

But I agree with Spencer’s move to flip. Fishbach is closer with Tasha and Jeremy (not to mention Kimmi), and it would be hard for Spencer to get ahead with that group, no matter how much Jeremy protests that he would have also played his idol for Spencer (right after ruining Spencer’s plan to get rid of the other "strategic" player in the game).

Also, Probst commentary highlight from the immunity challenge: “Can Spencer get it in the hole?”

5. Jeremy

Jeremy clearly lost some of his charm when he failed to get the group to target Ciera over Fishbach. Having already flipped on Tasha, Kimmi, Joe and Keith (by aligning with the Witches Coven to vote for Wiglesworth), he then flipped again on Joe, Keith, Spencer and Tasha by playing his immunity idol to protect Fishbach.

I think this was an emotional and impulsive decision by Jeremy, who has forged strong relationships on Survivor, and he doesn’t want to let down his friends. But at the same time, he is sending a clear message to other people in the game, including his existing and potential allies, that he is not to be trusted. Sorry Jeremy, but you’re not enough of a sociopath to make a good Survivor player.

Anyway, Jeremy is now down in the numbers and only has Tasha and Kimmi to work with, making him the next likely target. It’s a good thing he has a second immunity idol that no one knows about.

6. Keith

Keith has a long list of fun things and playing Survivor isn’t one of them. It’s interesting that Keith is held up as some kind of hero for wanting to participate in an immunity challenge (for which, full credit to Keith), but when it comes to the voting game he just takes his orders and does what he’s told. Keith should be thinking about which competition is more important, immunity or a million dollars.

7. Tasha

After the vote for Wiglesworth, Tasha wanted some reassurance from Jeremy that he would clue her in on voting plans from now on. After Jeremy played his immunity idol to protect Fishbach, she did not get that reassurance. Still, Tasha has a distinct lack of options in the game.

8. Kimmi

The big revelation of last episode was that Kimmi and Fishbach were really close. Like Tasha, she doesn’t have many options left beyond “don’t vote for me next.”

Next time on Survivor it’s a single episode, but with two of the things we all tune in for – a loved ones episode, and a visit from the Survivor medical team! Uh oh. So tune in tonight to see who gets medevac'd, and then come back later in the week for Jim's recap.