Apart from Noelle, there are seven other players still left in the game, so let’s get to this week’s “Top Five Baby!”

1. Karla's idol

I have thought for most of this season that Karla had a really good chance of winning this season. She has been consistently shown as the person that everyone wants to work with and the one out finding idol clues and the one collecting beads from the other players to activate her idol. Even when they were temporarily divided into two small groups and her ally was going to get taken out, Sami still wanted her in on the plan.

However, it does seem like in the last few episodes, she has been slowly losing ground on her hold. The James vote wasn’t her idea and even though she was in on the plan, the idea to vote out Noelle came from other people that she is working with. This week, we also heard Jesse mention what we all suspected this whole time ... he knows about Karla’s idol. I myself have wondered this whole season how at least one other person didn’t figure it out. But apparently, they did figure it out, we just didn’t know for sure until Jesse mentioned it.

What that means for Karla is that Jesse and Cody may try to turn on her next to blindside her with the idol. With only seven people left there is not much time left to use the idols, and with hers being public knowledge now, something will have to happen soon.

2. Jesse's checklist

That was a fun sequence to watch when Jesse was explaining how to orchestrate the perfect blindside. The cover story was easy enough to pull off, but the other two were more constructed. Pinning Sami as the fall guy was genius because no one trusts him anyway (see point #4 below), and using Gabler as the backup plan was also good because that’s someone that they have been trying to work with more.

So, he pulled it all together, but I couldn’t help but think the whole time if they were showing us this because it was his downfall. I know it would have been a lot of screen time for one person just to have them voted out, but I also didn’t think they would show us all of that if that was going to end up being exactly what happened. I guess that’s the fun thing about Survivor after all these years, they still keep us guessing.

All of this just to say I think Jesse is also playing an amazing game this season. I feel like he would be an easy win if he makes it to the end, especially if he is with Cody. However, like with Karla, he still has his idol (plus Cody’s for some reason) and not much time left to play them. The other players must see how well he’s playing, right?

3. Gabler plants a seed

Speaking of which, at least one other player does know how good of a game Jesse is playing. In fact, Gabler can see how well Jesse and Cody are working together. After the long segment about Jesse trying to blindside Noelle, this was almost an oversight. Such little time was given to it, I didn’t think it was an option going into tribal council. However, the seed has now been planted. Not just with Karla, but with us the viewers as well.

Gabler really liked Noelle and didn’t want to vote for her originally, but the conversation with Jesse changed his mind. However, it also made him realize that Jesse and Cody are running the show. He approached Karla about it and she seemingly agreed with him that something needs to be done to get them out of power. Maybe that was foreshadowing for next week, maybe not, but if Gabler can pull that off, that raises his bar as a potential winner even higher.

Obviously, the people he’s playing with may think otherwise, but I’m curious to see if he can pull it off.

4. Sami the untrusted

I swear it seems like I am talking about Sami here every week. Throughout Survivor history, we have always been told tales of players who flip between sides and how they never win. For a while, I thought Sami may break that mold with the way he was playing, but it seems like his trust level has deteriorated over the last few weeks. At this point, no one trusts him anymore.

The problem with the way he was playing was he wasn’t thinking things through clearly. There were several times when he came up with a move or was on board with a move that would put him in the majority, but he would always run to the other side to get them on board with it too. He could have just made the moves and flipped sides a couple of times and he would have been just fine.

If he can make it to the end, he may have a case if he can prove why he made the moves he did, but at this point, he may just be a zero-vote finalist.

5. Owen on the outside

Poor Owen, every time he thinks he has a way in, something gets pulled out from underneath him. He makes alliances and bonds with people and they either flip sides or get voted out.

Way back in the start of the game, he was in a prime spot of being the potential swing vote if Baka ever went to tribal. That didn’t happen, however, and he was always tagging along on someone else’s vote, being told the wrong plan, or being used as a decoy.

There is something to be said for always being on the bottom and still making your way this far, especially since he has won an immunity challenge, but he has definitely had a tough go of things this season. I think his only hope now is to get a Baka boys alliance back together and try to make it to the end with Sami and Gabler.

So, there you have it for the tenth episode and this week’s “Top Five Baby”. We will all miss Noelle; she was such a badass and great fun to watch every week. But what do you think Jesse’s long-term plan is? Will the Gabler seed take root? Also, who’s your pick for the final three with whom we have left? I want to hear from you, let me know if I missed any moments or if you think I was correct in my thinking, the interaction is part of what makes this so fun!

Please catch more of me here next week where I will try to bring you more fun top five!

Thanks,