Hello all, welcome back to the Edit Bay! This weekly feature takes a dive into the edit of the latest Survivor episode, analyzing the key stories, main characters, and top winner contenders.
For those new to The Edit Bay, it is a condensed version of Edgic, highlighting some of the stand-out story beats from the most recent episode. It also includes my weekly Edgic ratings for each castaway at the end of the article.
I’m going to do something a little different this season, and for each episode, I’ll highlight each player’s best/most substantive confessional and how it ties into their overall character/arc/story.
MITCH
The relief to have made it this far in this game is unexplainable. I made it to the jury, but so far, I’ve honestly been playing a really scared game. So now I gotta take control of my own game, and I gotta push the votes where I want them to go.
There’s something about Mitch’s edit I can’t quite put my finger on. In a game sense, he looks to be out of it, but he has these moments where I can’t rule him out of contention just yet. He always gets confessionals, we always hear his thoughts on the dynamics (even if he isn’t directly involved), and he’s always portrayed positively.
This episode was about him no longer playing scared and wanting to make moves. Even though this didn’t work out for him, we at least saw him attempting to take control. He tried to bring the OG Civa tribe back together and worked closely with Kamilla at the Journey to ensure neither lost their vote. Unfortunately, by the end of the episode, Mitch once again fell in line with the majority.
The next episode could be make or break for Mitch. If he gets his moment where he’s able to make a move from the bottom, I’d feel much more confident about his chances overall. But another episode of failed attempts, and it’d be hard to see how that could transform into a winning game.
MARY
I’m so grateful that I am still here because honestly, the first five days, I thought I was going home every single day. It’s a completely different game for me now.
I liked that Mary had a little recap of her game here, noting how she was in danger at the start of the season and how her fortunes have turned around. But I wanted more. There was nothing on her thoughts about Sai and Cedrek being voted out. And we didn’t get a clear idea of where she sees her game going from here.
What’s worse is that the Mary and David partnership came out of nowhere. Sure, they had a couple of moments on the swapped tribe, but nothing to suggest they were this close. Now, they’re suddenly a tight duo, with David going out of his way to bring Mary in as a sixth to the Honor and Integrity alliance. The fact we didn’t hear from Mary about where she sees herself fitting into this group suggests a lack of importance in the late-game narrative. It almost felt like she was being set up to be collateral damage for David.
SHAUHIN
The one person that I’m not super confident on is Mary because I just don’t have a relationship with her, and she has a very close relationship with David. And at this point, I would like Kamilla because I trust Kamilla a lot right now, and we’ve been working together since this tribe swap. But David wants Mary, and so I feel a little worried if I’m being honest, but I think I’m in a good spot.
Similarly to the sudden Mary/David duo, Shauhin’s statements about Kamilla and how much he trusted her were jarring, especially as we’d seen Kamilla trying to organize his boot the week before. This either suggests something missing in the edit, or it’s to show us Shauhin is out of the loop, which wouldn’t be the first time this season.
As I said last week, I do think Shauhin is protected from a lot of the negative elements of the Honor and Integrity alliance, but there are also a lot of inconsistencies in his edit. In the pre-merge, he referred to Joe as his number one, but we haven’t had much emphasis on that in a while. Now we see him wanting to work with Kamilla, even though they had no relationship prior.
So, what to make of this? I found it interesting that we never heard Kamilla’s thoughts on Shauhin in this episode. I can’t tell if that was to protect Kamilla or Shauhin or maybe both. It feels the edit could have really undermined Shauhin by showing Kamilla targeting him, which was surely a possibility given Kyle was still on the “vote out Shauhin” tip in the first half of the episode.
There are loose threads and inconsistencies in Shauhin’s edit that need sorting out in the coming episodes.
KYLE
No surprise that we’ve been taking out easy targets. And now we’re at a point that if we keep on getting rid of people on the bottom, then we lose our shot at making a move. This is a pivotal point in the game. It seems as if people are all starting to make their move. So I feel as if I have a difficult decision to make because I’m smack dab in the middle.
Much like Mitch, Kyle was all about wanting to make a move in this episode. He was ready to take some control, using those on the bottom to make a strike against those on top. Yet, just like Mitch, Kyle’s plans fell apart and he had to shuffle back into the pack.
The difference is that Kyle was a more active participant in the post-challenge scrambling. We also heard a lot more from Kyle about his decision process, who he wanted to target and why, and why he ultimately abandoned his original plans. It all came back to his alliance with Kamilla, which, again, was heavily emphasised in this episode. Once Kyle found out David was targeting Kamilla, he did everything in his power to save her, which meant putting the votes onto Chrissy.
His problem now is that his closeness with Kamilla has been exposed. For so long, his edit has been about keeping his relationship with Kamilla undercover. He stuck his neck out, and now people like David are catching on. So, even though he got his way in this episode, it seems the story has set up a number of obstacles for Kyle to overcome in the coming episodes. How he tackles those obstacles will decide his fate.
JOE
A million dollars is on the line. And I just thought, it’s time to speak up and say, this is your chance to play because the game started. And I also did that so I could see where people’s heads at. I’m trying to force that dial so I can start picking apart alliances. Right away, what happened? Shauhin, first one. Kamilla, right away. He’s playing. What’s David do? Mary. Exactly what I wanted to hear.
This was a very good episode for Joe. He was protected from the more negative elements of the Honor and Integrity alliance, especially in the way the edit distanced him from David’s approach. And he was also shown to be thinking about the game in a more strategic sense, as evidenced by the confessional above during the partner picking.
In an episode where players were trying and failing to make moves or arguing and losing their cool like David and Kyle, Joe remained level-headed. Even when he found out Chrissy had put his name on the block, he kept calm. He acknowledged how if he was acting on emotion, he’d immediately want Chrissy out. Instead, he showed a willingness to listen to his alliance and was fine with voting out Kamilla if that’s what the majority decided.
What’s telling is that Kyle said he needed to make the Chrissy vote happen through Joe. This shows the influence, power, and respect Joe has on the tribe. And in the end, Joe got his initial target out but without strongarming or forcing the issue.
KAMILLA
I need to start thinking about who I can win against. And right now, the three former Lagi, Joe, Shauhin, and Eva are the ones calling the shots. So I really do wanna get some of those people out now so I could just be free to play my game.
This was a pretty decent episode for Kamilla, especially given she was a target. Like Joe, she never lost her cool or acted erratically once she found out her name was out there. She trashed David in confessional (which I believe the audience was meant to agree with) but kept quiet at camp, fading into the background and letting Kyle take all the heat while trying to protect her. And ultimately, she survived the vote.
Some things need clearing up, though. The dynamic with Shauhin needs further clarification. Are they actually working together? Or does she still see him as a threat? Also, we know she’s tight with Kyle, but how will she react now that their alliance is more obvious to her tribemates? Kamilla’s narrative could take some interesting directions in the coming episode.
EVA
We have created a very strong loyal group of five people that I trust that are all big threats. Plus, Mary, that’s six. Chrissy is the kind of person who will come in and try to bust off what we built, and I don’t wanna play with someone like that.
A lot of this episode was circumstantial for Eva, given that she won the immunity challenge and found a clue to an advantage. Still, even those things tied into her theme of strength and perseverance. The most interesting part of her edit was her thoughts on keeping the new advantage a secret from her allies, including her number one, Joe.
I’m currently undecided on how to take this. Are we supposed to see this as Eva breaking out as an individual player and coming into her own as the season heads to the end game? Or is this another example of the Honor and Integrity alliance’s hypocrisy? She started the episode by talking about loyalty within the alliance, then ended by willingly keeping a secret from them to benefit her own game.
DAVID
Kyle is hesitant to vote out Kamilla. It’s got me thinking why? Why are you so hesitant? Why is this not easy for you? Because it should be. This is a clear path on the way to the final five. It doesn’t add up. Something’s not right. Maybe if Kamilla and Kyle are working together, maybe there’s some inner workings in this alliance that’s not so strong as I thought it was.
I’ve never had David as a contender, but if there was any sliver of a chance he could win, this episode put an end to that. While David’s strength-based alliance does make sense for his game, the edit has shown him to be hypocritical and dismissive. He received a ton of negativity from his fellow tribemates, with many pointing out how he was being “unreasonable” and “losing his mind.”
The scene at tribal council was even worse, where he came across as rude and patronizing and was outright called out by Kamilla for having bad jury management. This made me wonder if David could be a losing finalist. What’s worse is that after all of David’s pushing for Kamilla to go home, he ended up voting for Chrissy. I suspect things are only going to get worse for David from this point forward.
STAR
Once again, it depends really on Kamilla. So there’s two gray balls and one red ball. So in this moment right now, Kamilla can really save me because right now, I’m pretty much a sitting duck.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Star deserves way more screen time than she’s getting. She’s such a positive presence and a great confessionalist when we do see her; sadly, those moments are few and far between. If it wasn’t for her losing her vote at the Journey, I bet we wouldn’t have heard from her at all in this episode.
CONTENDERS
Top Tier: Joe
Second Tier: Kamilla, Kyle
Third Tier: Mitch
EDGIC CHART
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