Brilliant and Boneheaded 'Survivor' Plays of the Week: Chaos Reigns
Warning: Spoilers ahead for this week’s episode of Survivor.
“We all have plans, and somebody’s plan is not going to work out.” — Ciera
Oh, that is the #truth on Survivor. But it might be especially true on this season of second chances. Everyone’s back to redeem themselves, but only one will actually prevail in that quest.
You know what they say about the best-laid plans? Well, they get royally messed up by Chaos Kass. Yes, the witch is back this week, after a very quiet beginning of the game. Yeah, there was a hot second when we thought she was trying to manufacture a hidden immunity idol, but it turned out to be a good luck charm for Kelley Wentworth.
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But now, Chaos Kass has reared her diabolical head, and she’s taking names, writing them down, and turning them all around. When the tribe swap took place, we thought for sure that Kass would get rid of Spencer on the new Ta Keo at the first opportunity.
Instead, she employed her wits and crafts and arts and allurements to bind Ciera and Abi tightly to her. With their help, Kass got rid of their tribe’s biggest physical threat, Woo, and perhaps won Spencer’s undying loyalty in the process.
Not a bad day at the office for Chaos Kass.
Boneheaded Play of the Week: Joe
Last week, it seemed like Joe was wising up by securing an alliance to the end, instead of relying only on his good looks and charm. Unfortunately, the tribe swap exposed all his weaknesses.
Joe is the biggest physical threat in the game, period, full stop. And he must know it. On the mid-Ta Keo tribe, he was mostly protected since they would’ve won every challenge forever and ever. But now, the tribes are more evenly split, and Stephen wastes not even a minute in blackening his name to his closest allies.
Worse is that Joe has unknowingly thrown in his lot with KelleyWent. He thinks he’s won her loyalty by offering to protect her. What he doesn’t know is that she has a hidden immunity idol. Do you think she would ever use it to save him? Ha! Joe is as good as gone when the new Bayon has to go to tribal.
Brilliant Play of the Week: Kass
We almost chose Ciera, since it was her initial suggestion to target Woo instead of Spencer. But here’s why Kass deserves the title this week.
Yes, Ciera panicked that her name was getting (fake) tossed around, and she introduced the idea of maybe not voting for Spencer. But Kass, being Ciera’s closest ally, could’ve talked her down off the ledge. Kass could’ve let her long-held grudge against Spencer prevail. Instead, Kass was smart. She recognized that Woo was a bigger threat. Not only that, she saw that Spencer had a man-crush on Savage — which she destroyed with just one comment.
Kass put herself in the power position and ruled with an iron fist. She got rid of Woo (Savage’s closest ally). She opened a rift between Savage and Spencer. And she made Spencer dependent on her largesse. Oh, and she’s still got Ciera and Abi on her side.
That’s called #winning.
Power rankings:
Bayon: Jeremy
Ta Keo: Kass
Survivor airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on CBS.
