Survivor 48 Episode 7 OOO: Double Trouble

Sai it ain’t so.

I started out hating Saionia Hughley. I thought she was playing too hard, she was rude, she was annoying, and I wanted her off my screen. Little by little I realized my eyes were lying to me. Sai wasn’t someone that needed to go — she was the best television I could ask for. She’s this season’s Q, its Carolyn Wiger, its financial analyst Emily Filippen, its Special Agent Phillip Shepard — completely chaotic but oh so important to my entertainment. Her not even making the jury is a crime. 

On the other hand, it was Cedrek’s time to go. The mayor of Ponderosa will be giving every player voted out a colonoscopy on their way in the door. It’s not weird, he’s a colorectal surgeon. Well, I suppose it would still be weird.

Let’s get into it. Who gets this week’s Outwit, Outplay, and Outlast?

Outwit

Did anyone really do anything to win the Outwit award this week? Cedrek was dead in the water and Shauhin didn’t really do anything to position himself out. Kamilla and Kyle’s plan to sow doubt in Shauhin didn’t exactly work. Sai tried, and failed, to flip the vote on Mitch. Which actually leaves me with Mitch as my pick.

Mitch possibly saved himself by disclosing he had the block-a-vote and was playing it on Sai. He showed trust, built trust, and prevented any crazy shot in the dark from getting himself bounced. Win-win-win. So Mitch takes it for me.

Outplay

David Kinne, Superman himself, is taking it this time. He easily set the Survivor record in the bucket challenge, and he could’ve gone over an hour for sure. He did it with ease, looked sexy doing it, and absolutely crushed the trash talk. I’ve already ordered a keg of chocolate milk to my house. In a purely physical challenge, there is simply no beating him. I would love to see a face-off between him and Jonathan Young on Survivor 50. 

Honorable mention does go to Joe, who now holds the second-longest record for this challenge in Survivor history. He was also amazing, but more of a demigod than derived of the pure Olympian blood coursing through David’s physique.

Outlast

Outlast isn’t just about surviving a vote. If it was, this would go to Shauhin or Mitch. But that’s not what this is about. This is about positioning yourself to outlast your opponents. Sometimes, this means surviving a vote. Sometimes, though, it means not doing much of anything.

I thought this was a great Outlast episode for Eva. She literally outlasted all the other women on the challenge, and despite the idol and clear close relationship with Joe, she didn’t have anyone putting her name on the block. She’s managed to get through a spot that would be really tough with a person with autism in the merge — so many new people, a lot of information, a lot of scrambling and lying. So Eva is who takes this Outlast.

Predictions

OK, last week I thought it was going to be Sai and Chrissy in a double tribal. I was two-halves right. I got the double tribal right, and I nailed Sai. I want to stick with Chrissy, but at this point I think she makes it one more vote. There felt like good build up this episode to set up a Mitch boot, so I’m going to say Mitch goes next. There’s a whole bunch of confusion, it seems like the main alliance may implode or gun for Kamilla, but in the end they go with Mitch as the safe boot choice.