The third week of three episodes of SurvivorAU: Australia v The World (Episode 7-9) marked a seismic shift in the balance of power in the game. At the start, there was a tight duo of American players (Parvati and Cirie), three international players who were from their original World tribe (Kass, Lisa, Tommi), and three straggler Aussies (Shonee, plus the Luke-Janine duo). The previous two votes had ruthlessly carved away at the Aussie numbers, putting them at a 5-3 disadvantage. World had Australia v The Woeld pretty much wrapped up, right?

Well ... after a relaxing (World-only) day at a spa retreat, Parvati decided to give the Aussies the advantage, instead. She turned on her own alliance after getting word that the international trio were voting for her (from their exit interviews, despite the edit, that plan had fallen apart by the time Tribal started). Parvati made a truly impressive tactical bluff with her idol-steal advantage, and tricked Kass into misplaying her own idol. Then in quick succession, with three votes in barely 24 hours, Kass and Tommi were gone, and then Lisa was, too. Putting the Americans in a 2-3 hole.

But all was not lost! Parvati still had an idol, AND an advantage that allowed to her steal someone else's idol, AND Luke foolishly told her he had one. Nothing can go wrong now, right? She just plays her idol for herself, steals Luke's to play for Cirie, and she and Cirie are in the final four, and can pick whichever Aussie target they want! Simple!

Ha ha, no. Parvati was immediately talked (by Luke) into ripping up that advantage, leaving Parvati still protected, but Cirie's fate in the game entirely subject to the whims of the Aussie three ... who it turns out weren't actually a three, and just decided to get rid of Shonee, for reasons. Whew, what a relief that neither side was willing to make a move on the other, and they ended in a glorious stalemate.

After a high-powered opening episode, the second two were a truly bizarre series of events, especially in a season that to this point has featured top-notch gameplay and big moves. Certainly not the fault of the show, the multi-appearance veterans came up with this series of elaborate non-moves. Luke talking Parvati into trashing her own advantage was as big a move as Parvati bluffing with that advantage, and yet neither used it to exert control over the game, and we're just headed to the finale with everyone trusting each other, which is totally normal Survivor behavior.

Episode 7: All this for a reward?

While the player decisions in the last two episodes were a bit head-scratching, there was one major unforced error the show itself made in Episode 7: The back-to-back Tribals. I really don't understand the thinking that went into having a snap double boot, which did not give anyone time to regroup, readjust, and re-strategize. So apart from the necklace passing from Tommi to Luke, the second vote was really just an extension of the first. They might as well have just stayed in their seats and drawn another rock for immunity.

So why do it this way? It all seems so unnecessary. Looking at the calendar, it appears we had two ICs and two Tribals on the second day of the episode because: There was a reward trip. Which is weird. (There have been virtually no reward challenges or rewards this season, so they were due, I guess?) But even so, why not make them both IC/Tribal rounds into one-day cycles, like all the following rounds? There's a simple way to do that: If the schedule just felt too tight because of the spa reward (Parvati mentioned that it happened "yesterday" at Tribal), just hold that Final 8 IC at Tribal ... like what happened with the Final 7 IC, anyway!

Picture it: you have your spa trip, everyone gets back, then they're told they're going to Tribal: "What, no immunity challenge?" Intrigue, confusion, etc. Just swapping the order of the ICs solves the problem, then the F7 boot cycle gets a full day, with a separate IC and Tribal. Final seven is one of the key inflection points in a season! Let it breathe! Fast-forwarding through it like this felt rushed and a little unfair to Tommi.

Was the problem one of being restricted to 10 episodes? Are/were the producers under some pressure to keep the finale short, with just a single IC, Final 4 boot, then Final Tribal/jury vote? They can't have a 90-minute episode with both the F5 and F4 boot cycles? That's the obvious place for two boots, not here, or at least not like this. Even if it meant editing out some strategy, switching the order of the ICs and having two regular pre-Tribal scrambles seems a lot better. If the results were the same, at least Tommi would have had a fighting chance. The way this played out, it didn't feel like he was given one.

Also Episode 7: Parvati's amazing advantage bluff

As superfans go, I'm probably one of the least Parvati-stanning ones you're likely to find. But even I was blown away by Parvati's ingenious bluff move she pulled off with the (otherwise useless) instructions for the idol-steal advantage at the Kass boot. I saw a lot of people simply confused, because they thought the rules were that she had to play it before voting began. That's the point! Nobody else knew that, only Parvati. And she leveraged that knowledge gap to maximize the power of the "advantage".

She was able to bluff that she was about to snatch Kass's idol. Kass panicked, so Parvati then negotiated it down to Kass playing it to protect Lisa (knowing she, Cirie, and the Aussies had already voted for Kass), ending with "Okay, I guess I'll keep this [advantage], then." Jonathan LaPaglia kept his mouth shut, let it all play out organically, and it was just a masterclass in deception.

What's a little shocking is that nobody questioned Parvati on the authenticity of her advantage. Nobody demanded to see the scroll. Nobody got suspicious when she didn't stand up and hand it to JLP. Parvati was able to sell it because Kass (and Tommi) *had* been planning to blindside Parvati, had decided against it, and Kass was frantically trying to play nice and repair the alliance after Luke blew the plan up publicly.

What's also remarkable is that despite back-to-back votes, not a single vote was cast for Parvati at either one, and she didn't feel the need to play her idol. Talk about changing the pattern of the game through sheer force of will.

Episode 8: The advantage gives, the advantage takes

As great as Parvati's advantage bluff was at the Kass boot Tribal, she seemed to misplay it just as badly in the very next episode, as Luke browbeat her into throwing it away, in the name of a "final three deal." In the short term, it probably doesn't harm Parvati *personally* very much. She had just two votes left until the final three, if she sticks with this deal (she can't back out now), Luke has promised her a spot in it. She and Luke are also the only people likely to win the last two ICs. So between her idol, a 50% chance of winning immunity, and a promise not to be voted out at F4 ... life is looking great for Parvati.

The problem? The key person not included in those negotiations was Cirie. Cirie is highly *unlikely* to win immunity, and has no idol. If Parvati didn't win F5 immunity, there was nothing stopping the Aussie three from pretending they're voting Parvati, so Parvati plays her idol, and Cirie actually gets all the Aussie votes. (Or vice-versa.) Whereas if Parvati had followed through on her instinct to steal Luke's idol, she's at minimum 90% (or so) sure she makes the F3, and probably can ensure Cirie makes it, too. (And if they'd just voted out Janine at F6, as Shonee and Lisa both seemed to want, she also had a chance at a no-Aussie F3. But nope.)

Really, Episode 8's edit felt like a concerted effort to peel back all the résumé-polishing Parvati has done this season. Through Episode 7, she had played an extremely Boston Rob Redemption Island game, basically just aggressively confronting people and bending them to her will - refusing to follow Rob Bentele's lead in Ep1, trying to bully Luke into not sending her away from the auction, getting mad at the international three at the F8 Tribal and causing Kass to misplay her idol (and Kass and Tommi to more or less apologize for even thinking of crossing her). Very "my way or the highway" style of gameplay, but it had been highly effective.

That aggressive stance continued this episode, as Lisa explained (again) that she wasn't actually going with Tommi and Kass on the Parvati blindside, which Parvati just didn't buy, causing her to still be mad at Lisa, and pick the worst move available (booting Lisa, who was on the bottom but allied with Cirie). Weirdly, though, while the internationals merely thought about targeting her, Luke actually did (at the auction, which to be fair worked out quite well for Parvati, but that was not Luke's intention), and he gets preferential, even deferential treatment. That despite Lisa repeatedly pointing out that it seems unlikely Parvati's pair with Cirie will get to the final three with two Aussies - especially if there are still three Aussies in the game at Final Five. Booting Janine, or at least Shonee, made a lot more sense than booting Lisa, and created a lot more paths to the end for Parvati and Cirie together - but especially for Cirie. But nope, Parvati *had* to get revenge for almost being crossed the day before (despite nobody actually writing her name). To be fair, Cirie seems to really like and trust Janine, so maybe it was Cirie who was unwilling to target Janine, not Parvati (we weren't really shown it, either way).

It's important to note the massive risk Parvati (and Cirie) took here: They intentionally went to the final five in a 2-3 minority vs another group from the original tribe (Aussie) that opposed their original tribe (World), on a season explicitly called "Australia v The World." Maybe they just had a really good read on Luke and Janine not really wanting to work with Shonee. Maybe Parvati's secretly a SurvivorAU superfan, and knew that, despite Luke and Shonee appearing on four consecutive (and five total) seasons between them, they had somehow never played together, and for some reason (Luke living in Perth, Shonee in London?) don't seem to have crossed paths much outside the game? I dunno. Especially when Luke strong-armed her into ripping up her own advantage! (Literally, not just figuratively!)

Despite that completely unforced risk, Parvati got away with it. Shonee is out in the next episode, Luke's idol (and Parvati's idol) ends up having zero impact on the game, and everyone just gets along (except Shonee, I guess).

Episode 9: We built this shitty (alliance on vibes and hope)

Episode 9 felt a lot like a continuation of Episode 8: Parvati inexplicably votes out someone who's unlikely to win, but vaguely regrets keeping newfound challenge beast Luke in the game. We also continue the new tradition of people on their way out of the game making very solid cases for breaking up the Luke/Janine pair, Cirie agreeing, and Cirie and Parvati promptly doing the opposite. Like Lisa in the previous round, Shonee's only real hope this episode was to win immunity. Shonee came close, but Luke came closer, and won it, eventually. So for all the "Black Widow Brigade 2.0" talk at the merge, in reality one of the new members (Kirby) was gone the very next vote, and the other (Shonee) only worked with Parvati and Cirie again as part of a larger alliance, and was out as soon as the numbers favored it.

If the edit is any guide, it probably won't matter, though. Parvati is clearly the main character of this season. Cirie is at most a sidekick, based on the disparity in their confessional numbers. All the big moves have aided Parvati's position in the game, and especially this week, have undermined Cirie's. So, looking ahead to the finale, if Luke or Janine wins the final immunity, it's probably Parvati joining the two Aussies in the final three, and Parvati winning. What's Cirie going to do to get there, win at fire-making for the first time? But the much more likely result, considering the final immunity challenge is always endurance, and Parvati has finished first or second (to the now-departed Kass) in both of them, is Parvati simply wins the final IC, at which point no matter what combination of people she brings with her, she also wins the jury vote. Basically, all roads lead to Parvati Shallow winning Australia v The World.

As an outcome, it's fine. She'll become the third two-time Survivor winner, which is cool. And yet, it's also one that could be deeply unsatisfying, because most of these scenarios end with Cirie just missing the finals yet again. But if you're a Parvati stan, it's the most glorious of all possible outcomes, I guess. So yay? (Or it could be a completely different outcome, like Luke winning, as the shot of him chopping coconuts with the women in the background, above, seemed to be foreshadowing.)

If Cirie does just miss the finals again, that's really disappointing because up until the Kass vote, it was arguably Cirie, not Parvati, who was running the game. Cirie was the primary point of contact with the international three. Cirie (and Janine) pushed for the Kirby boot, and Parvati only very reluctantly agreed.

Would it be worse for Cirie to finally reach the finals, only to lose to Parvati? Or is it possible Cirie might actually win a jury vote against Parvati, and we're seeing another "bitter jury" scenario, as Parvati (mostly inaccurately) characterizes S20: Heroes vs Villains? Kirby did go all-in on Parvati, only to be burned. Lisa is obviously a Cirie vote. Luke made his deal with Parvati, not Cirie, and if Parvati wins the final IC and votes out Luke, he could potentially also be a Cirie vote. Tommi seems closer to Cirie than to Parvati. She just needs four votes!

However it ends up, despite the Episode 8-9 strategic morass, this has been a really fun season, and I would welcome another installment in the future. It doesn't need to be every year, but every other year might work.