Survivor: Heroes v. Healers v.
Hustlers Halfway Point Predictions
(This article contains
spoilers!)
Even though I’m a huge fan of Survivor, I haven’t really touched on it
in this blog until now. It’s kind of impossible to review a show where the
producers only have control of how it’s presented instead of the content
itself. But now that I’ve created Chill Chat to open up opportunities to talk
about whatever I want, it’s time to give my thoughts on the latest season!
So we’ve reached the halfway point of Heroes v. Healers v. Hustlers. 9 people
remain, and 9 have been voted out. Overall I’ve found this season to be…good.
Not great like Millennials vs Gen X was,
but not bad like Game Changers was.
While that could change over the next few weeks, I’m satisfied with how this
season’s played out thus far. My one big gripe is that we’ve hit a bit of a
slow point recently. Ben’s super-alliance has left both the Heroes and the
Hustlers comfortable since the Merge, and now 3 of the straggling Healers have
gone home in a row. While I don’t think that big moves are the name of the game
of Survivor, they definitely spice
things up a bit when used here and there, and this season needs one sooner than
later.
I’ll be going into more detail with my thoughts on the entire
season overall after the final episode airs, but for now, here’s my thoughts on
the current cast and where I think they’re going to go next.
Let’s start with Ben, since he’s been at the forefront of attention for two episodes
in a row now. I like Ben a lot as a person. The scene early on with him dealing
with PTSD and reminiscing on his time in the Marines was a top-tier Survivor moment. But his skill as a
player seriously concerns me. As we saw with last night’s episode he was
laser-focused on getting Cole out of the game (a smart move considering Cole
was a massive challenge threat), but to a point where several of his
alliance-mates were calling his leadership dictator-like. When confronted by
Ashley and Chrissy and asked to consider taking Joe down before Cole, Ben put
his foot down and refused to budge for even a second.
If Ben keeps this up, he’s a goner for
sure. Big alliances always break on Survivor.
They kinda have to, considering there can be only two to three people at the
ending. Considering Ben is also good at challenges, I wouldn’t be surprised if
one of the ladies pull off a coup and take the leader down before it’s too
late.
On the other hand, we have Joe. Clearly taking inspiration from
Tony of Survivor: Cagayan and one
episode of Survivor: Game Changers
fame, Joe’s entire strategy seems to cause mayhem and chaos wherever he goes.
This hasn’t earned him much goodwill from his tribemates, but he’s still here,
so that’s gotta count for something.
The big issue with Joe is that even if
he makes it to the end, I’m not sure if he has enough goodwill on the jury to
give him enough votes to get the million. Ben, Chrissy and Ashley have all been
very public about their dislike for Joe, so one has to wonder if he can come
out on top when there are two other options for the jury to choose from.
And then there’s Ryan. We haven’t seen too much of Ryan since the Merge, but there’s
a definite concern that he’s played his entire deck way too soon. Ryan’s given
us a lot of bluster about how good his social game is, which he demonstrated in
the Pre-Merge with getting rid of Roark and Ali. But ever since the Merge
happened, all he’s done is get himself an idol…and then tell Ben about it for
some reason.
Loose lips sink ships, and I think
Ryan’s desperate need to be a valuable player might be his undoing. Devon’s
already starting to show signs of losing trust in Ryan after Ben revealed that
Ryan told him about the idol, so that might take him down in the end.
Speaking of Devon, let’s talk about him. Right now he’s one of the main players
that I can see winning in the end. He has plenty of friends on the tribe,
including players from all 3 starting tribes. This gives him plenty of
opportunities to play the way he wants, taking different alliances and partners
to get himself in the best position to make it to the end. He also knows about
Ryan’s idol, potentially the last one in the season, which is a huge advantage
over everyone else. Whether he’ll capitalize on that or not remains to be seen,
but regardless he’s in a great position right now.
The last core member of Ryan’s
alliance is Chrissy, and while she
had a good opening few episodes, I can’t help but think she’s toast. She seems
way too cocky to go much further, especially since the merge. She was blatantly
trying to talk strategy to Ben while enjoying some Chocolate Thunder from Down
Under™
courtesy of Outback Steakhouse™, loud enough for everyone to
hear. She also blatantly talked about the idol clue right in front of Cole, who
she didn’t know had also seen it. Again, loose lips sink ships.
I do think she’s got a lot going for
her, including plenty of smarts and access to the most realistic fake idol Survivor has ever seen, but if she doesn’t
learn to keep quiet when her enemies are around, she might just accidentally
blow her game to smithereens.
Moving onto Lauren, she’s an interesting case. A surprisingly strong player in
the pre-merge, she’s quickly won fans, including myself, over with her
no-nonsense attitude and sharp wit. I can definitely see her pulling off some
strategic moves later on down the line, and considering she hasn’t made too
many enemies yet she’s another player I can conceivably see winning the game.
There’s also the secret advantage in
play, allowing her to use an extra vote whenever she needs it. If used
correctly, she can change the dynamics of the tribe in a single Tribal Council,
especially in the case of a tie.
JP
and Ashley are also players on
this season.
And last but not least, Dr. Mike. Dr. Mike is another player I
really enjoy as a person, but I’ve seriously got to question his strategy,
especially after last night’s episode. Whereas he could’ve used his idol to
save Cole and keep the Healers strong at 3 while taking out Ben, instead he
tried some insane strategy that involved trying to get everyone to vote for him
instead at Tribal, then playing the idol for himself, and then still voting for Cole. What!? There’s so
many things wrong with that strategy that it isn’t even funny.
So those are all the players. Overall
I think that they’re a decent group. Nowhere near as interesting and fun as the
Millennials vs Gen X crew, but an
entertaining bunch regardless. We have quite a few players with a high chance
of winning as well as several no-hopers, so to close us off I’ve put together a
tier list of my predictions of who’s gonna take home the gold.
WHO’S GONNA WIN?
High Chance: Devon, Lauren
Mid Chance: Ryan, Ben,
Chrissy, Dr. Mike
Low Chance: Joe
No Chance: JP, Ashley
I’ll be back to talk about the season
as a whole after it ends in a few weeks, so I’ll see you then!
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