In Episode 10 of Survivor 47, we almost had a normal post-merge Survivor episode: A reward challenge (albeit in teams of three), an individual immunity challenge, and Tribal Council where - finally! - everyone was able to vote. There was also the seventh semi-annual forced "rice negotiation" - also known as Everyone's Favorite Moment - in which Jeff Probst tries to strong-arm people to sit out of an individual immunity challenge. (Recall that, as Claire Rafson learned in 44, if a player sits out of a challenge on their own volition, it's Very Bad and requires a rules change, but if producers *coerce* them to sit out, it's "good TV.") But this cast, like the one before it, collectively said "Screw that!" and dumped their Shots in the Dark in exchange for a bag of rice and full IC participation. Good for them!

The best part of this collective move (Caroline initially asked if two SITDs would be enough, Probst said no, Kyle suggested all of them) is that it really opens up the game for future casts to outmaneuver production on all the dumb twists that get thrown their way. A starting tribe loses the opening challenge and the first two ICs (like Yanu in 46), so they're still fireless on Day 5? "Hey Jeff, we'd like to trade our Shots in the Dark for a flint." The team that loses the merge-atory challenge: "Hey Jeff, if we fork over our three useless amulet idols, can we all have some of that merge feast?" The best way to dismantle the (now extremely dated) arbitrary format changes of the New Era is with another part of the New Era that's otherwise more or less useless.

The host's befuddlement in the moment revealed just how highly Probst views his beloved trinkets: "I just want to make sure you're thinking clearly. Because, this is a massive sacrifice from where I sit over here." [Ed. note: Probst was standing at the time. Also the SITDs expire after F7 anyway, so they're not *that* useful for long.] Maybe, just maybe, when combined with the 46 cast's collective refusal to sit out, and Rome's host-stump-delivered monologue on why the amulet idols are not an "advantage," the contestants may finally be making cracks in the to-this-point impregnable New Era twist wall. Keep chipping away, players! Freedom is nigh!

Live by the edit, die by the edit

I touched on this last week, but this season has been a great demonstration of how much power editing has over a contestant's perception by the audience. Both the quantity and quality of a player's confessionals shown serve to shape that person's narrative. We need look no further for a prime example than this week's boot, Gabe.

If you watched any of Gabe's exit interviews (like this one with Gordon Holmes on YouTube), real-life Gabe seems like a pretty chill, slightly nerdy, generally fun guy. Deep fan of the show, a logical strategic thinker, full of praise for Caroline - a similarly under-edited, smart superfan with whom he had apparently had a close, mostly unshown alliance. In contrast, in the show itself, Gabe's perceived character fell somewhere between cocky and arrogant.

That's because Gabe entered the game with guns a-blazing. Our introduction to him (in the trailer!) was him saying he wants to be the first head on the New Era Mt. Rushmore. That's because contestants are encouraged to give hyped-up, excitable predictions before they play. He had 11 confessionals in the premiere, but almost exclusively talking through his extremely time-consuming quest for the 1-Tribal idol, then the 3-Tribal idol. We also saw him bonding with Sue. That was pretty much it.

In Episode 2, the only time pre-merge where Tuku went to Tribal, Gabe described picking up the two people on the bottom of the tribe's power structure - Caroline and Sue - as part of his "wounded birds" alliance. That's very basic strategy - and ironically, exactly what we saw Sam doing with the five non-Tukus this episode - but Gabe's using that phrase came across as condescending on-screen. After that episode, we saw very little of Tuku, because they were always safe. Because we rarely heard from Gabe again, the lasting impression throughout the pre-merge of Gabe was of this cocky guy ("Mt. Rushmore") who thought he was superior to Sue and Caroline ("wounded birds").

The rest of the way, we only really saw Gabe when he was narrating meat-and-potatoes events in Tuku, or at Tribal/pre-Tribal scrambles, as he was trying to keep his Tuku Three from fracturing (most visibly during the Tiyana vote). We saw him loudly reminding everyone to stick to the plan at the Tiyana and Sol boots. But we never really heard his long-term plans, rarely got his impression of other contestants. No backstory, no tears, no introspection. Just "This is my alliance, we're doing pretty good so far."

As it turns out, that's important. Audiences feel more connected to people who are given the chance to open up in confessional. Gabe was always in power in the game, never really vulnerable until this episode. And even then, he was just "worried." Contrast that to Andy, who went through the wringer in the premiere, spent almost the entire pre-merge on the bottom of Gata - making baby (Andy) steps up from there on the Anika vote - but always talking about his position in the game, trying to improve it, thinking about moves, and so on. We know Andy. Not every viewer necessarily *loves* him, but we understand how he views the game. Both of the other remaining Gatas - Sam and Rachel - have also struggled, and openly felt vulnerable in confessional. We've seen a lot of them, we know their concerns, we've seen them makes steps up from the bottom. Like Andy, we feel like we know them. They're relatable.

Now look at the confessional counts to this point in the game:

Genevieve had the most confessionals in the episode for the first time this season! #Survivor #Survivor47

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— Survivor Fact Checker (@robsfactchecker.bsky.social) November 21, 2024 at 12:48 PM

In addition to having a first-hand view of their sometimes uphill battles with the game, we also feel connected to the Gatas because ... we've spent the most time with them! Sam, Andy, and Rachel are numbers 1, 2, and 3 in confessional count. Teeny and Genevieve are next at 3 (tied with Rachel) and 5, respectively. Bringing up the rear: Sue, Kyle, Caroline. Sue and Kyle both have zero-confessional episodes. Caroline's never had more than 4. The remaining three Tukus each have four or five episodes with just 1-2 confessionals. Sam has had fewer than 3 confessionals exactly once. And a lot of the Gata-heavy edit has come recently, since the merge! Last week, Sam had 11 confessionals, Andy 9, and Rachel 7. This week they had to make do with just 5-6 each, but those were all about trying to swing the game towards their long-term interests. Sue mostly talked about hating Kyle.

So the Gatas have both quantity AND quality of confessionals, especially recently. They are the people whose games we are most invested in seeing play out, as decided by the editors. Teeny and Genevieve are close behind. The three Tukus left? They're just the leftovers, with Gabe gone. (Which tracks with the spoken views of multiple non-Tuku players this episode.) If they go out in quick succession now, that's probably why we didn't see as much of them.

It's the same effect you get in a multi-POV novel, like the A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) books: You feel more connected to the core first-person narrators (Arya, Jon, Tyrion, Bran) - whose sorrows, hopes, and plotting you constantly see and hear - than you do to the people whose heads you never get inside of. Robb Stark is one who (in the books) seems pretty boring, mainly because he's just some guy in armor marching around doing things that are occasionally obviously flawed.

The moral of all this is: The next time you think "Eh, that player's kinda boring. What have they done?", take the next step and think about the quantity and quality of their edit. Huge characters (like Rome, or Q, or Carolyn) are going to be shown, regardless of placement. It's the quieter players who may be doing more than you realize, it just isn't being shown, for ... reasons.

Related side note: The images the edit picks for B-roll can also be used to subtly turn audience sentiment against a player - look no further than this week's "Sue's dirty face" clowning. They didn't *need* to show Sue (twice!) with rice all over face, but they did it anyway. And of course, you couldn't watch the "I want to kill Kyle! He wrote my name down!" montage without noticing that Sue's face is frequently caked in dirt. Is she using dirt as foundation? Is it an homage to Trump's fake tan? Does Sue refuse to bathe, like Russell Hantz? It's a mystery, but also one that I'm totally fine with never solving.

Kyle's run at history

As we've heard multiple times in the past couple of episodes, Kyle is rapidly approaching a big counting stat record: He has four individual immunity wins (necklaces, at least). One more, and he joins the now-six-way tie for most IC wins in a season, with five. Not only that, but if he does so next week, he'll exactly tie Ozzy's incredible Cook Islands performance, with five wins in six challenges. (The IC in question was featured in the preview, "A Bit Tipsy," which Tyson won in Blood vs. Water and historically favors athletic people, generally younger men. Anything can happen, but Kyle definitely has a shot with that.)

That's not the only record Kyle is going for, though. For my money, the more impressive number is Mean % Finish in individual challenges, which tracks average placement. Someone who finishes second every time but never wins (in say, 10 challenges total) is clearly better in challenges than someone who scores one fluke win but is dead last every other time - but if you're just counting necklaces, the second person would look "better."

As you might guess, the single-season record for MPF is held by one Joe Anglim, for his Worlds Apart debut season (link in the preceding paragraph). Anglim finished with a 92.5% MPF that season, in (just) four challenges total. Kyle is currently at 95.0%, through five challenges. This is going to be tough for Kyle to break, because if/when he does lose, he's probably out, but he can't lose by much. He'll still topple Anglim's record if he finishes second (out of eight) next episode, but not if he finishes third. And even if he wins this time, it's the same deal the next week. It's a really, really hard mark to beat, like batting 0.400 in baseball.

Anyway, suffice it to say: Kyle is really good in challenges. So why did I bring up the always-second-place example? Because there's another contestant who would be on the MPF leaderboard if their season ended today: Kyle's nemesis, Sue! Through four challenges (thanks, New Era), Sue is sporting a lofty 81.2% MPF, which is top 20 all-time. Not bad for a 59 45-year-old.

Teeny vs. Genevieve

This week's "Previously On..." segment rolled out a bunch of previously unaired footage: Andy telling Teeny at the Ep9 Tribal that Genevieve engineered the Sol blindside; Teeny's voting confessional vowing vengeance for Sol (strongly reminiscent of Natalie Anderson's revenge-for-Jeremy arc in SJdS). This reframed the previous episode's narrative entirely from Teeny's perspective, then we launched into the B-story/subplot of the episode being a Teeny vs. Genevieve (mostly one-sided) feud. For her part, Genevieve genuinely felt regret for the effect the Sol move had on Teeny: "When you hurt someone, and see them emotionally distressed ... [pauses to regain her composure] ... it doesn't feel like a fun game any more."

(Side note: Paired with Jesse tearfully contemplating turning on Cody in 43, this is just a fantastic peeling away of the whole "blindsides are fun!" sales job the show was pushing ~20 seasons ago. It's refreshing to see a more honest portrayal of how difficult the game actually is.)

Teeny, meanwhile, was out for blood. Teeny set about floating Genevieve's name as a scary threat/target (Andy had also been busy blazing that trail), and seemed to be getting a fair amount of buy-in, especially from the Tukus, who were delighted at the prospect of being given a free pass to a 4-4 near-majority. In the end, Teeny vocally recognized that it was more important to remove a Tuku at this point than to get back at Genevieve. Still, with Genevieve being the secondary target at Tribal, this all neatly set up the "Oh no, it could be Genevieve!" red-herring story, which must have pleased the editors.

On the whole, though, when coupled with Teeny's mid-episode confessional about struggling with their identity, especially when on the bottom in this particular game, and their bag being burned "lighting a fire," the whole episode felt like it could finally be the start of Teeny's march to victory. (Ironic considering the episode title, "Loyal to the Soil," unless we're supposed to misread that as "Sol".) It's all an interesting switch-up this late in the season, but Teeny has been a key character since the premiere, and for a New Era season, this is about the point where a winner's in-game profile should start being raised. Stay tuned.

Shorter takes

Probst math: When Beka arrives for the RC, Probst greets them with "Final nine! 47 seasons!" ... then whips out his imaginary calculator and starts punching air buttons, "Let me do some quick math. Carry the one ... that's a lot! That's a lot of seasons of Survivor." I'm really glad Probst went all out on this calculation, because I had been wondering myself if 47 was "a lot." (Seriously, WTF?)

Streak broken: Heading into the RC, the yellow team had won every non-tribal team challenge (four in a row), going back to the pre-Social Hour Ep5 RC. But this time, the blue team won, mainly because it had both Sam and Kyle. What's wild is that on all those winning yellow teams, Sam and Kyle were both yellow - except for the split-Tribal "Audio Slave" Ep7 RC/IC where Kyle was the last standing for the blue team, but beaten by Teeny and Genevieve overall (for the yellow team). So Sam has been on every winning team - except that he was outlasted by Kyle the one time they were separated.

Just vibes, man: Sam - who again, has been on every reward-winning team, AND won 4-of-6 challenges with Gata - after winning the RC: "I feel like I've been on a losing streak, and so to get a win is just a nice confidence booster for me." Okay, then!