Survivor 43, Episode 4 "Show No Mercy" Gameplay Analysis

"Thank you, Jeffrey."

-Dwight Moore

What an absolute meltdown. This was a pretty average episode of Survivor until it wasn't. I was genuinely surprised by how it shook out. Plus we get some cool new challenges. Anyway, let's figure out who played well and who sucked.

Who Played Well:

I only have members of the Coco tribe to talk about here and even then I have mixed feelings. On paper, Geo seems like the obvious person to vote out. While Lindsay's paranoid was bad, was it really bad enough to vote her out? Was it just first vote jitters? I think I probably would have spared her this time, but if it happened again, I would have voted her out. That seemed to be James' attitude as well, at least at first. He was very chill about all of this. The fact that he ended up flipping on her feels pretty telling to me. I'm going to trust the castaways on this one and give both James and Karla the benefit of the doubt. It was definitely good for Ryan because he was never in an alliance with her.

Who Sucked:

Let's go over to Baka, where Gabler continued to annoy people, especially Elie, who wasn't great herself because she started bickering with him.

Going back to Coco, Geo and Cassidy have both rubbed each other the wrong way. Geo seemed to be especially bad and would have gone home if Lindsay hadn't lost her mind. My question is: was Geo left out of the vote entirely or did he vote for Cassidy in case of the Shot in the Dark?

Over on Vesi, I hate that the tribe helped the Baka tribe at the Immunity Challenge. They just made the entire Coco tribe their enemy. They should have stayed out of it completely. I also don't like that Cody volunteered to go on the raid. I don't think you should ever be the one to do that. It's your face that the other tribe is going to remember as the one who took their stuff. Plus they figured out that Cody hustled them. I would bet that all of the Coco tribe will see Cody as a big threat come the merge.

We really didn't get enough of Jeanine, Owen, or Sami for me to have an opinion in this episode.

As for Lindsay, she had it made, but she got too paranoid. She pulled a Jamie Newton and got herself voted out. I know the first vote is scary, but you have to trust in the social bonds you've built up to this point.

Verdict:

Best Player of the Episode is tough, but I'll give it to James Jones. I really liked his demeanor throughout the scrambling. I'm not sure if the move was the right one, but I like how he plays the game.

Worst Player of the Episode goes to Cody Assenmacher for volunteering to go on the raid and for helping the Baka tribe win Immunity.

I'm very curious to see see the fallout for the Coco tribe and hopefully the conflict between Gabler and Elie erupts soon!

I'm excited to see what happens next! If you liked this breakdown, check out my other write-ups at www.stacysbloggoingon.blogspot.com/.