Episode #12

"Not Going to Roll Over and Die" - Dylan

After KC's elimination, Dylan angrily confronted Josh about his betrayal, and they got into an argument. When the castaways arrived at the reward challenge, they were reunited with their loved ones: Christian's father Faith, Curtis' father Durtis, JJ's wife Buffy, Vic's sister Bobby, Dylan's husband Nicole, Rose's mother Grandma, and Josh's wife Zach.

All except Josh and Dylan failed to match on the first round. In the second round, Josh failed to match while Dylan was able to. After winning reward, Dylan chose Curtis, JJ, and Christian, as well as their loved ones, to join her and her husband. Dylan later revealed she chose Christian because she felt that Christian would be the easiest to turn against the majority. Josh made a fake idol in hopes that Dylan would find it, while Vic found half of a real idol, showing it to Josh and Rose, with the other half hidden at the immunity challenge.

Rose conceded immunity to Christian for a massage, stating that they were a tight alliance. Vic picked up the second half of the idol at the challenge, but was seen by Josh . Christian continued to talk to Rose and Vic about blindsiding Josh , but he overheard the conversation. After they agreed on voting out Dylan, a paranoid Josh realized how much power Vic had in the game, between her idol and the extra vote. He got JJ and Curtison board with voting out Vic and tried to convince Dylan, but she was still angry with him. She told JJ she wanted Josh out, and JJ told Christian and Rose that Josh told Dylan about Vic's power. Rose warned Vic that she was in danger, and Vic gave the other half of the idol to JJ to show him she trusted him.

At Tribal Council, Rose said he stepped down at the immunity challenge to show his trust in his alliance, not including Josh . Josh subsequently confronted his tribemates about potentially voting him out, and he said flat-out that he would vote for Vic . Vic revealed she left her extra vote at camp, while Josh revealed his fake idol. JJ then tossed the half of Vic 's idol that he had into the fire. While the tribe openly quarreled amongst each other, Curtis whispered to JJ that Vic had to go, but JJ convinced him to vote for Josh . Rose then walked over to JJ and instructed him to vote out Josh , which made Dylan walk over to Curtis to say she was on board with voting out Vic . She refused when JJ and Curtis asked her to vote out Josh . In the end, everyone voted for Josh . However, unbeknownst to the others, Josh also had his real idol; he played it on himself, and for the first time in Survivor history, a unanimous vote was successfully negated. Josh's sole vote sent Vic out of the game, much to the shock of the other jury members, except KC.

Episode #13

"The Survivor Devil" - Rose

After the hectic tribal council, the tribe dynamic was Josh vs. everyone else. Josh woke up early the next morning to search for a new hidden immunity idol, and nobody followed him, as they believed he wouldn't find it.

Rose and Dylan won the challenge; Zersch instructed them to take one more person, and Dylan suggested to Rose that they select Curtis. They did so, much to Christian's shock and chagrin. JJ was also frustrated, as he saw himself as a swing vote. Josh tried to talk strategy with JJ and Christian at camp, but neither of them wanted any part of it. On reward, Dylan proposed a final 3 deal with Curti sand Rose. She also considered voting out Christian before Josh, out of fear that she has built better relationships in the game.

Dylan won immunity. Josh continued his search for an idol, while Christian suggested splitting the vote between Josh and JJ . Dylan began campaigning for Christian's elimination, but JJ desperately wanted Josh out, while Rose was reluctant to turn against Christian. Josh eventually found a clue saying the idol was hidden under the shelter.

At Tribal Council, final 3 discussions and potential plans were brought up. Rose continued campaigning against Josh, who subsequently revealed he did find the idol. He convinced Christian to vote for JJ , and when Rose said he wouldn't believe Josh would play the idol, Josh presented the idol to Zersch to play on himself before the votes were to be cast. Christian did vote for JJ, but everyone else, including Rose, blindsided Christian , sending her to the jury.

FINALE PREVIEW



Dylan

Dylan’s journey through the season began with getting sick after the very first challenge and almost being sent home because of it, but with a little help from Curtis who gave her a secret advantage and some cunning strategy once she joined him on a newly swapped tribe, she’s managed to become one of the fiercest competitors of the season. With two individual immunity wins already under her belt, Dylan has proven that if forced to play the game on her own without allies (and she’s come pretty close to that at this point) she can do it. Of all the finalists, Dylan perhaps has the strongest case to make about why she deserves to win. She’s showed an incredible mix of challenge strength, personal growth and strategic aptitude that would be deserving of a win in any other season.

Where Dylan may run into some problems with the jury is her social game. She’s been fairly verbally aggressive, specifically at tribal councils where she was either cocky because she knew she had the votes or defensive and argumentative because she found herself suddenly on the bottom. In that sense, Dylan's ability to build a case for herself through arguing works both in her favor and against it. Depending on how the jury will read her attitude and what they will each value in a winner, Dylan could be a leading contender to win or a true dark horse needing to muster up every vote she can.

FINALE PREVIEW



Rose

In the early part of the game Rose did exactly what every great “Survivor” player does — he laid low and let other players put targets on their own backs. During his brief time with the Hustlers tribe he made a day one alliance with Curtis and then sat back while Vic settled personality disputes with other players that were ultimately voted out. When he was switched to the Levu tribe as the only Hustler, he had the convenient position of being between two pairs that needed his vote and once the tribe was down to four was able to avoid a looming tie vote by winning immunity challenges. In many ways, Rose's early game is defined by the convenience of his circumstances, but his late game has been anything but that.

Over the last few weeks Rose has emerged as one of the power players of the late game, successfully organizing a blindside against Curtis and Dylan in order to take control of the numbers within the Heroes-Hustlers alliance of seven. He did that with Vic and Christian, his closest allies, but they’ve since been voted out, joining what could be Devon’s jury. But Christian's elimination came at the hands of everyone, including Rose, which could sour her and other members of the jury to the badge of loyalty to Christian that Rose once wore proudly.

FINALE PREVIEW



Curtis

During the pre-merge part of the game, Curtis attended tribal council four times in the first six and survived. That’s a huge accomplishment, especially considering two of those trips were after he lost his day one ally Rose to a tribal swap and had to recalibrate his strategy. At the time, his best move was pulling Dylan in from the Heroes, a connection that I believe helped form what would become the strong Heroes-Hustlers alliance in the post-merge game. We know now that that super alliance didn’t last, largely in part because of how much power Curtis and Dylan as a pair were exerting over the others. Since the dissolution of that alliance, Curtis has struggled to get control back and failed.

At this point, Curtis' game mostly consists of floating, making sure that those making the decision of who goes home are choosing someone other than him to target. While that’s a strategy that has gotten him to the final five, it’s not necessarily one that will be thought of fondly by the jury. In fact, it’s the typical “goat” position, the player dragged to the final three under the assumption that they didn’t earn their spot but were brought along because they wouldn’t receive any votes to win.

FINALE PREVIEW



JJ

One of the biggest topics in the last few tribal councils has been “big moves,” specifically which players have made the type of moves in the game that the jury is going to respect enough to reward. For JJ, this could very well be the biggest question his potential jury has for him. Aside from wrongly playing his own hidden immunity idol and later throwing Vic's into the fire at tribal, JJ hasn’t had a lot of moments where he stood out from the pack, despite having a number of opportunities to make big moves.

The reason JJ is the last Healer remaining in the game is because he was the least threatening among them, but also had the strong connections with both Vic and Josh who I think had at one point hoped to use him to their advantage late in the game. His connections with players from other original tribes gave JJ the opportunities to turn on the Healers and build trust with the Heroes-Hustlers alliance, but he never pulled that trigger. Instead he remained true to the Healers and in doing so watched the tribe sink into their spots on the jury. For that reason, JJ could very well be one of the least likely to win the game, even if he does (and he very well could) make it to the final tribal council.

FINALE PREVIEW



Josh

Of all the finalists, Josh perhaps the strongest edit throughout the season. From the very beginning we got glimpses into his life outside of the game (as a veteran, a father, a husband, etc.) that helped shape him as a player for the audience to root for. As a member of the Heroes tribe, Josh's story made sense and he quickly became one of our early frontrunner predictions to win. Now, he’s also one of the players’ own predictions to win and that’s why they’re all set on getting him out sooner rather than later. In fact, two weeks ago they all voted him out, but his hidden idol saved him and then he found another one to deter receiving votes a second time. It would be shocking to see the players not unify against him if he fails to win one of the two upcoming immunity challenges before the final three.

Right now, Josh is leading our predictions to be ousted in 5th place, topping that chart with 11/8 odds. That being said, there is still a fair amount of odds-makers predicting him to win, coming in with the third best odds in that chart at 14/5. Ahead of him in the odds for both the first and second place charts are Dylan and Rose, making them his stiffest competition. Dylan is also Josh's biggest competition in terms of winning the immunity challenges. Of the seven individual immunity challenges so far this season, women have won six of them and Dylan was two of those. So, needless to say, while Josh has had the strongest portrayal this season he also has the toughest shot of actually living up to the hype.