Board 8 > Survivor: Winners at War Topic 3: Only One Five-Day Week Left

(+) Yeah! (+)

37 > 35 > 40 > 33 > 39 > 38 > 36 > 34

39 is really hard to place. It had a great cast, but the dark cloud of Dan keeps me from putting it any higher. I don't blame you guys for putting it last, at any rate.

Underleveled posted...

Man I'm still so bitter about the ending to 35. If that doesn't happen, Chrissy or Devon wins, Ben doesn't get the edit he got in the last three episodes, and honestly, it's probably a top 10 season. Never seen a season that good tank so badly in the home stretch before.

I'm glad to finally see someone else with this opinion. Everyone pretends like 35 sucked the whole time just because of how it ended.

---

i agree with 39 having a really solid cast overall, but the problem is that the whole thing with dan affects literally every part of the post-merge game of the season, so you can't just conveniently ignore the parts that he's involved in

like i loved janet and elaine and kelley and jamal, and would love to see them on a magical future season with no dans, but that's not what 39 got to be

---

Mewtwo59 posted...

37 > 35 > 40 > 33 > 39 > 38 > 36 > 34

39 is really hard to place. It had a great cast, but the dark cloud of Dan keeps me from putting it any higher. I don't blame you guys for putting it last, at any rate.

I'm glad to finally see someone else with this opinion. Everyone pretends like 35 sucked the whole time just because of how it ended.

This is my exact feeling. 35 is great until the last two episodes, when the show turns into "look at Ben find and play idols, ignoring all other aspects of the game, and getting rewarded with a never-before-seen twist at the final 4". It doesn't taint the season permanently, but goddamn if it doesn't suck.

---

100% agree with that 35 take, i just like mvgx more than probably everyone here

---

I actively disliked almost half of 39's cast (Tommy, Dean, Dan, Elizabeth, Missy, Aaron, Tom, Molly and Ronnie are all in my orange or red), so I wouldn't say it was a solid cast at all.

Thank God for Noura and Jamal is all I can say.

---

i think there's no sadder "what if?" in survivor history than how 35 plays out in the timeline where there's no fire-making challenge

devon's play at the final 5 was an absolutely incredible read and an awesome moment that immediately got buried by the stupid fire challenge and ben's win

---

dean won me over by the end - he wasn't a great character, but was actually generally fun

and honestly, that's mostly how i felt about missy and aaron sans the obviously horrid dan stuff. once again though, there's no getting away from the stain of dan on 39. and i'd probably still not put it dead-last but it's really hard to justify even putting it ahead of garbage like redemption island and one world.

---

On a season that was already fine, Dean's ironically cocky dumbassery might have been tolerable, maybe even amusing, but on a season that was already an unholy trainwreck, it was unbearable to watch him eliminate the few good characters by playing like this.

---

i can't fault him for his gameplay though - once he started actually playing (basically by his own admission) he probably did everything just about as well as he could to get to the end and win. ultimately it was just too late to actually catch up for his awful start, but he got a handful of jury votes, i can't really blame that!

---

Just because you can't fault someone for playing the way they did doesn't mean it can't detract from your enjoyment of their character/the season.

---

i guess, i just view it as a little too much to account that criticism of my enjoyment of the season into my evaluation of the player/character/whatever

like i'm still totally fine with tony even though he voted out sophie and kim, which dipped my personal investment in wow like 90%

---

Naye745 posted...

i agree with 39 having a really solid cast overall, but the problem is that the whole thing with dan affects literally every part of the post-merge game of the season, so you can't just conveniently ignore the parts that he's involved in

like i loved janet and elaine and kelley and jamal, and would love to see them on a magical future season with no dans, but that's not what 39 got to be

It's also more of an indictment of 34, 36, and 38 that they can't beat it. Like why did Chelsea and Sebastian get worse edits than Dan? EoE had Reem and Rick (although I know that's not a popular opinion around here) and nothing else. GC was plagued by a terrible boot order, even if Tai, Aubry, and Cirie did manage to make the finale. Plus it has its own controversy, even if it wasn't as big a part of the season as Dan.

---

GC has a pretty solid boot order. Much like HHH, it only gets bad in the last two episodes.

---

Mewtwo59 posted...

It's also more of an indictment of 34, 36, and 38 that they can't beat it.

Nah, 39 is rock bottom.

---

everyone says Rick's only popular because of all the screentime he got post-merge, but I really liked him being David's bro early on

---

i think rick is generally super-charming and compelling, regardless of the circumstances of his edit

the casts of 36 and 38 aren't particularly great though, no doubt there

---

Mewtwo59 posted...

Plus it has its own controversy, even if it wasn't as big a part of the season as Dan.

yep, this is a not-insignificant percentage of the reason i rate 34 as low as i do

and regardless of what inviso said, the boot list for 34 was mostly garbage

---

Inviso posted...

GC has a pretty solid boot order. Much like HHH, it only gets bad in the last two episodes.

I agree, bad last two eps. Brad Culpepper winning would've made that a truly great season.

Love you Brad Culpepper!!

What happened here?

---

bwburke94 posted...

What happened here?

??

---

andel posted...

uhh no, but i guess you are back after being suspended/banned for posting alt right propoganda on 261 eh?

Neither happened but if not openly supporting sex criminals makes me alt-right, then sure

---

My chips going into the finale:

79% on Tony
14% on Natalie
4% on Tyson
1% each on Denise, Sarah and Michele

---

Tony
Michele
Natalie
Parvati

Nobody else has a shot

---

I will be incredibly shocked if they gave Tony this edit and he doesn't win, especially given how weak the other edits have been. Michele had a very strong pre-merge but her premiere was still pretty bad and she's been constantly shuffled from episodes in which she was an important voice and vote, which hurt the narrative a lot this merge. Natalie was in EoE and there's no way this cast gives the returnee the winning title no matter how amazing they are. Sarah has been on-and-off, but it's the first episode that I think completely eliminates her. Anyone else should not be considered whatsoever.

Also, I hate to say it, but Michele having no children will also affect those jury votes for sure if she makes the end.

---

Surskit posted...

I will be incredibly shocked if they gave Tony this edit and he doesn't win, especially given how weak the other edits have been. Michele had a very strong pre-merge but her premiere was still pretty bad and she's been constantly shuffled from episodes in which she was an important voice and vote, which hurt the narrative a lot this merge. Natalie was in EoE and there's no way this cast gives the returnee the winning title no matter how amazing they are. Sarah has been on-and-off, but it's the first episode that I think completely eliminates her. Anyone else should not be considered whatsoever.

Okay, I have seen this argument far too much this past week (and even earlier). If the cast was going to write off the returnee right off the bat because this is a winners' season, then why did any of them bother to stay on EoE in the first place? They ALL stayed on EoE in the hopes that THEY would be the one to come back with a shot at two million dollars. Actively denying the EoE returnee (in the case that s/he makes the finals) specifically for being an EoE returnee would essentially invalidate their months' worth of effort trying to win their way back in. You can make the argument that perhaps they're less impressed by someone who didn't do a whole lot other than win challenges, but if the EoE returnee earns their respect, I see no reason to think they would be anymore likely to disregard them than the jury was in the original Edge of Extinction.

---

Money?

And even if my chances to win were minimal, I'm not going to quit a game for 2 million dollars.

EDIT. I guess I should specify that maybe they could give the returnee the win, but Natalie was literally first boot. It's just not gonna happen.

---

my take is michele gets taken out by the final firemaking in a "oh man she might have actually won otherwise"-style edit a la wentworth

could be easily wrong there though :)

---

It would be quite funny if it's Ben who goes out there.

---

bwburke94 posted...

It would be quite funny if it's Ben who goes out there.

It sure would be ironic! The twist that was invented to get him to win one season is his undoing in another!

But as I said before, I'm pretty sure Ben is the F3 goat.

---

yeah i feel more confident in ben being a no-votes finalist than i am even in tony winning

---

https://twitter.com/JeffProbst/status/1260315525676056577

do we know if it's going to be pre-taped or live?

---

Surskit posted...

I will be incredibly shocked if they gave Tony this edit and he doesn't win, especially given how weak the other edits have been. Michele had a very strong pre-merge but her premiere was still pretty bad and she's been constantly shuffled from episodes in which she was an important voice and vote, which hurt the narrative a lot this merge. Natalie was in EoE and there's no way this cast gives the returnee the winning title no matter how amazing they are. Sarah has been on-and-off, but it's the first episode that I think completely eliminates her. Anyone else should not be considered whatsoever.

Also, I hate to say it, but Michele having no children will also affect those jury votes for sure if she makes the end.

Michele's edit is tough to read because of bad timing. The two votes where she was completely out of the loop just so happened to be the premiere and the merge. Being invisible in just one of those episodes, let alone both, is usually a death knell to someone's winner chances. But you can actually argue that it's a good thing for her because she was shielded from looking bad, and got the opportunity to reflect on the vote in the ensuing episode both times.

I actually kind of like her chances better than Tony based solely on the edit. But logically I can't see many scenarios where she beats Tony or even Sarah in a vote. She would have to make the end with some combo of Ben/Denise/EoE returnee I think.

---

My predictions going into the finale:

EoE Returnee: It's either Natalie or Tyson. If it's not one of them, then the editors severely threw the winner under the bus by including that "Natalie gives Tyson an idol" scene last episode. The scene tells me that either Tyson comes back, and they needed to explain how he got an idol, or Natalie comes back and the editors want her to be a super-positive favorite for people to root for (or a tough obstacle for the winner to overcome.)

6th Place: Denise. Here edit just lacks substance, while having just enough content to justify her elimination before the finals. I'm imagining that the EoE returnee loses immunity and plays their idol (they'll have an idol, because again, Natalie/Tyson are the only possibilities I'm entertaining), and perhaps Tony and Ben play their idols as well. It really depends on immunity. Regardless, I think the back-up vote comes down to Michele and Denise, and Denise is just a LITTLE shadier (what with her overheard plan to take out Tony at 4) than Michele and a LITTLE more threatening, so she gets cut early.

5th Place: EoE. I mean, this is obvious. If the players want to win, they need to take out the EoE player. With the idol gone at six, if they don't win immunity at five, they're done here. There's no reason for Tony/Sarah/Ben to turn against each other at this point, particularly to protect a bigger threat than even Tony.

4th Place: Michele. She just can't win the fire-making challenge. She's built up as an underdog and a threat to justify her late elimination in the "final threat" spot, but she's gonna lose.

3rd Place: Ben. No jury respect for him whatsoever.

2nd Place: Sarah. She's gonna think her social game is up to par with Tony's, but she's in for a rude awakening, because I feel like she's gonna take a much bigger hit than Tony will for their combined gameplay.

1st Place: Tony. C'mon. It's not likely to be anyone else, is it? Not after the edit he's gotten since the Sophie boot. Not after getting to the final 5/6 without being voted for at any point.

The only thing that messes this up is if the EoE returnee wins immunity at either the F6 or F5. Then s/he is guaranteed a spot in the fire-making challenge, and anything is possible.

---

I think Inviso is spot on here.

---

So far I've thought this season has been pretty average. Even though I think Tony is great, he still has way too much airtime in my opinion. I just recently watched Survivor China recently and seeing how much airtime and emphasis was placed on relationships and characters made me wish they'd go back to focusing more on that.

I think I was one of those people who had tony 18/20-ish lol me

---

Inviso posted...

EoE Returnee: It's either Natalie or Tyson. If it's not one of them, then the editors severely threw the winner under the bus by including that "Natalie gives Tyson an idol" scene last episode.

It's a thing that happened. Even if the returnee is someone else, they'd still show it.

---

my prediction is 100% same as inviso's

---

Underleveled posted...

I think Inviso is spot on here.

Well given that he already posted that he has been spoiled on who the returnee is...



---

Oh snap. I forgot that.

Well shit. It's still my exact prediction anyway.

Anyway, unless something crazy happens, tonight we'll see Boston Rob cast a jury vote for the first time ever.

---

hey peridiam, im glad you didnt forget us

---

tswift

---

the last episode of survivor for a while, probably

---

https://twitter.com/hannnahlid/status/1260710889038270471/photo/1

take a shot

---

no reunion he claims

---

Jesus those are some outrageous advantages natalie got. Pretty dumb

---

Well this friggin makes me want Rites of Passage to come back.

I hope no reunion doesn't become the new standard...

---

GTM posted...

hey peridiam, im glad you didnt forget us

duh!

---

Am I the only one that thinks Jeffs sound quality is sub-par?

oh it's atrocious. There's no way they wouldn't have tested that and seen how bad it was beforehand.

But I guess they didn't care, like he said - we won't see/hear him again until the end when the votes are read.