Even though I may not always agree with what they do, I love the fact that Survivor still does things in its 43rd season that surprise me. It was great seeing “Last Gasp” back as a Survivor immunity challenge again this week, but I couldn’t believe they let two people walk away with immunity this late in the game. With only seven people left, they had two that were definitely immune, plus they knew that Cody picked Owen to win, plus they know there are still three idols in the game that haven’t been played. So going into tribal council, there was a chance that six of the seven players could have been immune. Who knows, maybe that’s what they wanted. I’m not saying I wanted them to stay in the water for another twelve hours and twelve minutes, but I feel like they could have done something different. Maybe call in the challenge team to lower the grates or something. Overall, it was an exciting challenge though, and I enjoyed watching it.

Ok, enough of this challenge talk, let’s get to this week’s “Top Five Baby!”

1. Final three plans

So here is Gabler once again. Somehow, he (along with Jesse) is one of the only two people to not receive a vote against them all season. He made a splash early on and then has been under the radar since then and it’s been super effective for him. He got on board the Jesse and Cody bus along the way, so he’s been voting correctly and being part of the conversations.

So now after the Noelle vote, he goes to Owen and tells him not to worry and that he has a plan for them to make the final three. But then we don’t see any more of what that plan may be. Perhaps this is setting something up for the next episode or two, but over the last two weeks, we have seen Gabler having some strategic talks with no outcome for either one so far.

2. The Charlie Brown effect

Poor Owen, every time someone sets up the football for him, they remove it right as he is starting to kick it. Other than the first vote way back on Baka, he hasn’t been on the right side of the votes for the entire season. That seems to be getting to him finally as he is noticeably upset when they get back from tribal council. After his aforementioned conversation with Gabler, he throws his bag onto the ground and has a seat.

At this point, the big question for Owen is would people rather take him to the end as an easy goat for never being in a position of power, or is he the ultimate underdog story? If he can make it to the end without ever knowing what’s going on and winning a few immunities, is that a good thing for him? There are people on the jury already that like him, and he could just pull a handful of votes his way.

3. Cassidy is upset

Honestly, Cassidy has had a confusing edit in my opinion. She was really quiet in the early stages of the game, and we didn’t see much of her. Then her biggest stories were either her battle with Ryan when they were trying to vote each other out or her and Karla being a pair. She seems to do well in challenges and has even won one individual immunity challenge.

But now that we are down to just a few players left, she seems to be getting her own edit now, not attached to anyone, and the scene where she is noticeably upset about losing the challenge is actually a good scene for her. It shows that she is serious about winning the game. I just wonder if she knows how close she was to being the one voted off.

4. Jesse wants to weaken Karla

I must admit, this started as a great move. Karla finally decided to take out her closest ally Cassidy. When Jesse hears about this, he thinks it over and decides that if she is on board with voting her off, then maybe they should keep her around to have her help vote off Karla next time.

The plan was to vote out Sami since Karla and Sami still seemed to be close, but not tell her so she still votes for Cassidy. At that point, it would seemingly leave Karla all alone, Sami would be gone, and Cassidy wouldn’t want to work with her anymore. But now for some reason, Karla knew what happening and she got on board with voting for Sami.

I hope we find out who told her or why she decided to go in that direction. That decision sort of stunted an otherwise amazing move by Jesse.

5. Final advantage update

All right, as we go into this final stretch here and there are only two episodes left, let’s take one final look at who has what and what it could mean moving forward. So, Karla, Jesse, and let’s assume Cody (Jesse will eventually give it back, right?) all have hidden immunity idols. With the final six episode coming up, one would have to assume these will start getting played.

Here’s what I think will happen. When one of them plays their idol, the other two will also play their idol. This means all three of them, plus whoever won the immunity challenge will all be immune at tribal council. That leaves Owen, Cassidy, and Gabler as the three that could potentially go home if that happens. That also means that winning the challenge is going to be huge for them. Most of the tribal councils have been pretty tame this season, let’s hope we can have one with some fireworks to end the season.

So, there you have it for the eleventh episode and this week’s “Top Five Baby”. Only one more normal week before I go back and do a retrospect on the whole season. What do you think Gabler’s final three plan is? Do you think Jesse and Cody made the correct choice in keeping Cassidy over Sami? Will Owen be able to win another immunity? 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,