Brilliant and Boneheaded 'Survivor' Plays of the Week: Middle Child Problems
Warning: Spoilers ahead for this week’s episode of Survivor.
On this “Second Chance” season of Survivor, it’s been interesting to see which players have tweaked their games and which players haven’t learned a thing.
Spencer, for instance, is trying to be more sociable — even though Monica can see the gears turning behind the nice facade. Kass, of all people, is also being more friendly, making KelleyWent a “good luck charm” instead of a fake idol. And Jeremy is taking much more initiative in finding that hidden immunity idol, then pretending like he’s still searching for it with Stephen.
Related: Get Caught Up With Our ‘Survivor’ Recaps
But one player who hasn’t changed her stripes at all? Abi. And what’s so surprising is how much power she wields — even though everyone knows how big of a drama queen she is, how unpredictable she can be, and what an emotional player she is.
She’s in the position of deciding who goes home when Angkor loses the immunity challenge again — either Woo or Jeff. That she’s even voting for one of them is more proof that her gameplay turns on a dime. Terry was nice to her, so she jumped alliances. Then Tasha and Andrew were nice to her, so she buddied up with them.
In the end, she writes down the name of her staunchest ally, Jeff. All he can do is shrug; this is Abi, after all.
Boneheaded Play of the Week: Jeff
Varner can turn a pretty phrase. The guy is good at talking. He does his best to sweet-talk Abi, and she almost… almost… gives in. But his big mistake is not using that sweet-talk on Tasha and Savage.
Jeff allows himself to be pitted against Woo — instead of scheming against Abi. Why not work on Tasha and Savage about how unpredictable and mercurial she is? Do they really want to contend with that element of doubt in the future? What will she do once the tribes merge, if she gets that far? Tasha and Savage are smart players, and might’ve seen his argument as valid.
Instead, Jeff is compared to Woo, whose physical prowess is needed for upcoming challenges. And all he has is loyalty to his credit.
Well, that loyalty didn’t pay off at all.
Brilliant Play of the Week: Tasha
Once again, we have to give it to her. Maybe there’s more to her discussions with Savage that we aren’t seeing, but it seems like Tasha is the puppet master of Angkor.
When Abi starts ranting about Woo’s disloyalty (and writing down her name twice), Tasha subtly and skillfully introduces the idea of voting out Jeff instead. She definitely wants him gone after catching him communicating with KellyWig last week.
Abi goes from fierce Jeff advocate… to writing his name down. Now that’s some Jedi mind trick right there.
Power rankings:
Bayon: Jeremy
Ta Keo: Kelley Wentworth
Angkor: Tasha
Survivor airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on CBS.
