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5. Spencer

Spencer was desperate enough to quit immunity for the advantage in the game, and physically poor enough to lose to Fishbach. And yet when Fishbach said that the two of them plus Jeremy were on the bottom, he seemed surprised. Huh.

6. Kelley

Kelley is working on “building her resumé”. She is still the member of the Witches Coven alliance that everyone else wants gone.

7. Kimmi

Kimmi got her soundbite for the season with “Witches Coven”, which seems to have caught on among the broader tribe. One catchphrase should be enough from Kimmi this season.

8. Keith

Keith had a spit count last episode of two, and those were just the ones I noticed.

9. Ciera

Ciera calls herself “the queen of just saying things”, so naturally she proceeded to tell everyone that they had no chance of winning if they go to the end with Jeremy. Plenty of people seem to agree that it’s “got or get got,” but I don’t think they like Ciera driving it.

10. Abi-Maria

Abi-Maria was not selected to participate in the reward challenge and therefore no chance to win a great reward. Abi's future, encapsulated..


Before signing off, I have a couple of thoughts about voting blocs. Fishbach is saying that this is an evolution in the game, but I am less convinced. In past seasons, we’ve seen plenty of alliances that were too large, and the bottom of the alliance aligned with the outsiders to vote off the former alliance leaders, and this doesn’t look very different so far. And we’ve also seen crazy seasons where there have been shifting alliances each episode – the sixth series, Survivor: Amazon, being a great example. So voting blocs aren't new.

But Fishbach wants to talk about voting blocs, and the reason is because he wants a free-wheeling, anything goes alliance-wise season of Survivor – one that won’t be dominated by loyalty, that encourages eliminating the biggest threats each week and gives Fishbach an environment in which he can thrive. By talking about it so much, he’s making it happen. Probst is lapping up “voting blocs,” just like he did “old school vs. new school,” and it's now a theme of the season.

And Fishbach's end-game is to reach the final Tribal Council with a jury-winning story to tell. In a season where alliances were fluid and everyone flipped on everyone else, he can argue that he made the right strategic decisions to make it to the end. What Fishbach is doing is setting up the season narrative in a way that plays to his strength and enhances his chances of winning.

However, the implication of the voting bloc theory is that the largest voting bloc will inevitably be teamed up on by the two smaller ones. So once Joe’s voting bloc is pared away to three or two people, they suddenly switch from targets to partners, and the new largest voting bloc becomes the target. So we’re certainly going to see more turns this season.


Next time on Survivor, there’s a double episode with more rain and something involving balls. Black and white ones this time. So tune in to listen to more ball commentary from Probst and then come back here for Jim’s sniggering recap.

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