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Previously on Survivor, Rodney was still complaining about his birthday and Mike won immunity again, so it was quickly decided that Carolyn would be the one to go. However, Dan selflessly played his advantage for the benefit of his alliance and for some reason Carolyn played her idol, meaning that our hero, the strategic genius of the season and up until now the probable winner who never said anything condescending to anyone, Dan was voted out. Oh wait, I must be thinking about the version of the show that Dan was watching, because it really wasn’t like that at all. Short story, Dan and his stupid hat were sent home and everyone was happy.

The really funny thing was that Dan was actually right all along – he wasn’t at the bottom of his alliance. Rodney seems to have decided he liked his options better with Sierra and Dan in his final four (because who wouldn’t?), and flipped to them over Carolyn and Tyler.

Here are the power rankings for this week:

1. Sierra

How does someone that we haven’t seen make a single move end up at the top of the power rankings? It’s because of the decision in front of her. The last Tribal Council saw Dan, Rodney, Will and Sierra all vote for Carolyn, who then played her immunity and sent Dan to Ponderosa. If voting continues on the same pattern, we will see Rodney, Will and Sierra vote against Carolyn or Mike, and out of those three the only one who will give a thought to flipping is Sierra.

There are reasons for Sierra to flip – it’s making a move, and Sierra would have a better case to take to the jury than “I just let the attention hogs vote each other out.” And it means she has more control over who is in the final three.

However, Sierra probably likes the final three she has already committed to. I think she feels she has a better chance at winning votes against “just sayin’, bro” Rodney and “lump of dough” Will than she does against Mike, with his story of being outcast and then triumphant, and Carolyn, who has shown she is a savvy, patient player.

So, Sierra is going to make it to the end without having made a move after all.

2. Rodney

I never thought I’d be writing this, but the most deserving winner of the season is Rodney. Meat-headed, birthday dummy-spitting, "I say it like it is because I'm real, yo" Rodney. But Rodney is the one who has done all the cat-herding in his alliance – bringing together Will, Carolyn and Tyler in the effort to get rid of Mike, then getting rid of Tyler, who everyone thought was going to win, then Carolyn. At least, he would have if Dan hadn't ruined everything.

And he has done this without ever really being seen as the guy to beat himself. It’s not all down to Rodney’s gameplay – I think he has been very fortunate to have Mike stay in the game to win immunity and remain an existential threat to everyone else playing. So even though he’s 0 for 6 on reward challenges and hasn’t won individual immunity either, the game is still mostly working out the way he wants it to.

Also, if Rodney’s smart, he’ll be practicing a couple more impressions to bust out at the final Tribal Council to remind everyone of the thing they like about him.

3. Carolyn

So Dan’s bone-headedness gave Carolyn the hint that it was her on the bottom of her alliance and that she had better play her idol. That keeps her in the game for at least one more vote, probably two if Mike loses the next immunity and all the way to the end if she wins that one.

It also puts Carolyn in better shape with the jury, as while she didn’t get on with Shirin or the No Collars, they are all fans of the show who can get behind good gameplay if there are no other options. As someone who hasn’t really warmed to Carolyn in the way I have to other quiet tribe-mother figures (I’m thinking Denise of Caramoan), I sympathize.

4. Mike

Mike’s only path to victory is “win all the remaining immunity challenges,” which doesn’t demonstrate much control over the game.

5. Will

The stump sitting under Will when he makes his jury speech has a better chance of winning.

There are the final power rankings for a decidedly sub-par season. It’s very interesting, because from one perspective this is what fans of the show (including myself) have been demanding – a cast full of fans of the game who all want to play Survivor and play it really hard. Players who have been watching the show since they were 11 (Jenn) or who have applied to be on the show every season since it started (Dan – I wonder why he was passed over the previous 29 times?). None of them – with the possible exception of Will – are wannabe actors who happen to hang out at the right bars near CBS Studios.

But somehow Survivor: Worlds Apart never delivered on the hope of anything-goes gameplay, alliances changing every episode and no one taking anything personally. Instead we saw a bunch of people telling each other how much they sucked. Maybe the lesson is that Survivor fans are just horrible people?

That’s all from your horrible Power Rankings columnist for this season of Survivor. Tune in on Wednesday to see which horrible person will earn the title of Sole Survivor and the million dollar check that goes with it, and all those other horrible people at the reunion show, then come back later in the week for horrible Jim’s recap.