Ryan’s Analysis: Survivor 44, Episode 12

Survivor 44: Episode 12 "I'm the Bandit" Gameplay Analysis

 "Can you burp in my mouth?"

-Carolyn Wiger

This was another really fun episode of Survivor.  We got good gameplay, bad gameplay, and some absolute insanity from Carolyn.  This episode also set up the potential conflict of the finale nicely and I'm very hyped to see how it plays out.  In the meantime, let's take a look at who played well and who sucked.

Who Played Well:

I think the Tika 3 would have been fine turning on each other this episode, but I also don't mind them voting out Jaime either.  It's a good enough move for them.  I especially loved Yam Yam's performance at Tribal Council.  I'm guessing he was hamming it up to make Jaime feel comfortable in case of an Idol.

Who Sucked:

While I don't mind that Carolyn voted out Jaime, I don't love that she revealed all of her tricks about the Idol and fake Idol.  Save that stuff for the Final Tribal Council.  She revealed too much and it nearly got her voted out.

Lauren did manage to win Immunity and save herself.  That's great, however she ended up being on the wrong side of the vote.  Taking out Carolyn would have been a great move for her, but she couldn't pull it off.  The most damning part of this is that we never saw her or Jaime working on trying to get Heidi on board.  That makes no sense to me.  Maybe there was an attempt off-screen, but we didn't see it and that's a huge oversight.

Finally, we have Heidi.  I don't know what the hell she is thinking.  She wants to go to the end with Yam Yam and Carolyn, which is a terrible idea.  She should be teaming up with Lauren and Jaime and trying to get Yam Yam to join them in taking out Carolyn or Carson.  Teaming up with Tika just guarantees her loss.  I think she has a zero percent chance of winning this game and to make matters worse, she wasted her Idol.

As for Jaime, she had the same problems as Lauren, but didn't win Immunity.  Not aligning with Heidi was probably her biggest mistake.

Verdict:

Best Player of the Episode goes to Yam Yam Arocho for taking out Jaime and for his impressive Tribal Council performance.

Worst Player of the Episode goes to Heidi Lagares-Greenblatt for teaming up with Tika and taking out Jaime instead of trying to get aligned with her and Lauren and for wasting her Hidden Immunity Idol.

I'm very curious to see how the Tika 3 storyline is going to play out.  I predict that Yam Yam goes out at 5, Carson loses at fire-making, and Carolyn wins the game.  And what an endgame that would be.  I can't wait to see if I'm right.

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