My "Big Three" of the episode that are interchangeable in position:
Natalie: She may not have done too much, but what we saw was a lot like Natalie White from Samoa. She's entirely connected to Rob but is receiving none of the backlash for it. When I heard Rob tell us he's gonna put her on his back to the end - bam, Natalie White right there. We had that same confessional by Russell in Samoa. There was also manipulation in Rob's confessional in this scene, and I believe it spoke volumes about Natalie's chances. She wasn't shown when discussing or implementing the Matt/Andrea blindside, meaning she was left out to avoid looking negative there. Why? I have a feeling she may end up in the final three if that scene was any indication of how far she goes and how she gets there. Can she acquire the respect necessary to win, however? We'll have to wait and see.
Andrea: We got to hear her side on her connection to Matt, and likewise she was portrayed positively in that scene with him. Other than Natalie we saw every potential player in Ometepe look bad except her. Though it helped build up the blindside by keeping her in the dark, we felt that blindside along with her, and I think that because she's yet to receive any negative or ugly showing in her edit, we're not supposed to be against her. She was told by Rob to be a challenging, capable player, and we heard from Grant that she's worth keeping around (over Matt!) challenge-wise (despite that bellyflop?) We felt bad for the girl, and her chances at winning went up a lot compared to everyone else.
Mike: We got to hear from Mike a few times throughout the episode. Whereas Ralph is the direct opposite to Russell, Mike is the listening and level-headed figure who has yet to look bad in any way. He's not over the top or under the radar, and his edit is letting us hear from him in situations where we otherwise could have heard from other players. Sarita told him about Russell but we heard from Mike about all of it instead. I think he still looks pretty good all around and has a lot of potential in his edit as events unfold. His biggest hurdle may be avoiding turning into a Mick or Marcus, which is still likely, but not there yet.
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