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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.

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