Survivor Ghost Island: Episode 7

Many thanks to Moon for keeping this pool running while I was off gallivanting in the Pacific! I'm back now, and caught up on the greatest reality show in TV history, so here I go, banging on my keyboard to spew out highly biased but somewhat legitimate opinions about the show, the pool, and the castaways themselves.

Note: I've done some updating on points due to forgotten rules (e.g. the dreg rule where you lose points if your player gets voted out before a dreg) -- more of that may come soon.

Episode 7 was a fun one to watch as I did so with our house guest, one Adam Friedman. Adam, a wily, smart & opinionated professional poker player, is confident that he would do well on the show of Survivor. With that being said, he also can't understand how Evil Russell never won this show, so I pointed out that he might have to work on his social game.

The merge! The merge! And it's Dom-Chris Death Match 2. Dom prevails, but at what price? He used up a lot of his resources to nix his nemesis. Does he have what it takes to power through, maybe find another idol to make up for spending his legacy idol?

Chris finds an idol but loses his vote that week while extending his ability to use it one more week. Worth it? Not so much? Adam & I discussed this ad nauseum, including his decision not to play the idol in one of his only chances to do so. And gnight Chris.

The Teams:

Bagginses: 63 points

• [Stephanie (-5 pts)]
• Wendell (23 pts)
• Libby (14 pts)
• Laurel (17 pts)
• Donathan (14 pts)

SuperDreg: 56 points

• Chelsea (2 pts)
• [Chris (26 pts)]
• Chelsea (2 pts)
• [Chris (26 pts)]

Michal & Ben: 55 points

• Wendell (23 pts)
• Jenna (6 pts)
• Laurel (17 pts)
• Sebastian (8 pts)
• Desiree (1 pts)

Eric: 39 points

• Michael (7 pts)
• Michael (7 pts)
• Angela (12 pts)
• Angela (12 pts)
• Desiree (1 pts)

Doug & Bri: 30 points

• [Stephanie (-5 pts)]
• Sebastian (8 pts)
• Donathan (14 pts)
• Kellyn (7 pts)
• [James (6 pts)]

MoonBee: 27 points

• [Brendan (-6 pts)]
• Libby (14 pts)
• Kellyn (7 pts)
• Jenna (6 pts)
• [James (6 pts)]

Phil: 24 points

• [Brendan (-6 pts)]
• Dom (14 pts)
• Dom (14 pts)
• [Bradley (1 pts)]
• [Bradley (1 pts)]

Power Rankings:

1. Michal and Ben - All 5 players made the merge which is a powerful position to be in. Would be interesting to see the win rate of teams that bring all their players into the merge - I expect it's pretty high. Wendell is doing a solid job - great non-play of the idol this last week. However, my top ranked player right now is Laurel. She's doing the quiet crush right now but I think she's holding back & is going to blow people away pretty soon. Good decision not to his the NOS button too early though.
2. Bagginses - Donathan > Sebastian + Desiree. But I don't think that will be enough for this team to overtake us with the overlay, unless Libby starts taking off. We'll see how she reacts to having her name written down last week.
3. Eric - Michael made the merge and he could be a powerful competitor, ally, and swing vote now. Angela I find a very intriguing player as well, though she's unlikely to rack up big points in a post-merge universe. This double stack mctwisty team could make a huge run; so even though they're 20 points back now, we can't count them out, especially with 2 players that could easily have a deep run.
4. Doug and Bri - Unlike Moon, I really don't like Kellyn. She's smart, I'll give her that, but she's too emotional to win this game. Also appears to be really bad at math based on the insanely exuberant celebration of getting an advantage in a challenge she was 67% likely to win. Sebastian as a 2nd round pick may have been the worst draft decision of the night, despite the criticism of a Wendell #1 overall pick.
5. MoonBee - Moon's fondness for Kellyn may be based on a desperate hope that she will salvage this team. Libby & Jenna can't win it for them - they're also owned by higher-scoring teams. So it's Kellyn or bust!
6. SuperDregs - Chris really shouldn't have been a double dreg in the first place. But that happened, and now SuperDregs could beat a legit real team.
7. Phil - Dom didn't go home last week which would have been hilarious. But despite looking like a potential power couple with Wendell, Dom misplayed his legacy idol, wore that dumb fake idol around his neck at Tribal, made a huge fuss about hating Chris, and basically is setting himself up to be voted out soon. 

Douche of the Week:

Chris. So long and thanks for all the reasons to give you this vote.