Survivor: One World – Ranking the Final 11 Survivors (or, Dirt Happens!)

For those of you joining the ride for the first time, briefly, here’s how this series of articles works. Using just the episodes themselves and other authentic web-posted material (including RealityNewsOnline’s own exit interviews with dismissed players), I prognosticate each competitor’s chances for success in this game and rank them accordingly.

Now that the merge has finally come to pass, the focus of these rankings shifts toward making the endgame and winning it all. One thing that does not change: Never to be ignored is the Golden Rule – NO SPOILERS!!

Last week, I ranked our contestants based on the incorrect assumption that the gender-based tribes would return. My bad. Instead, the Football Team and the Cheerleaders still rule the school, while the Chess Club and the Cross-Country Team anxiously attend Tribal Councils to find out which among them will be ingloriously stuffed into a locker.

I enjoyed this episode immensely, because we saw a lot of the scrambling that transpired after the immunity challenge and before Tribal Council. Specifically, we saw:

1. Jay suggested to Chelsea that Jonas, as strongest of the weak, be voted out first;
2. Jay also proffered the alternative of Leif;
3. Sabrina and Kim were found and they also agreed to target Jonas;
4. Kim proposed voting out Jonas to Alicia, who, glad it’s not herself, agreed;
5. Kim revealed she would keep Alicia and Christina around as a backup plan;
6. Kim told us getting out any Manono male was her real aim;
7. Kim told Troyzan that the plan was to vote out Jonas; Troy wasn’t impressed;
8. Riskily, Troyzan told Jonas that the others were gunning for him;
9. Jonas suggested Big Mike as an alternative;
10. Jonas apologized to Tarzan, and they became buddies anew;
11. Tarzan named Kat as target of the original four male Misfits (which included Troy);
12. Laundress Chelsea had her fill of Tarzan, and wanted Jonas to stay and keep cooking;
13. Jay agreed with Chelsea that the four “dead weights” ought to go.

And all that happened before Tribal Council! For me, that was a righteously exciting sequence. Add in that Tarzan blew up again at Tribal Council and it almost seemed like it could be anybody going home, which is the way it should be.

That’s enough chatter – let’s get to them!

Tikiano (Black Buffs)

Okay, how about that name? “God-Year?” Couldn’t anybody fake the name “One World” in some bastardization of Samoan? Or Spanish, or whatever? Like, say, “UnoMundo?” Sheesh!

At any rate, with the choice of Tikiano, the handwriting was certainly on the wall for the current Salani tribe. As the one who coined it, Troy told Probst the name meant “The year of the Gods.” As Colton had already anointed the Salani tribe as “Gods,” this name was an unsubtle warning that this year, the game was not for the common people.

1: Kim (was 1 on Salani)

I am concerned that in clip “All Time Physical Low,” Kim reported feeling dizzy and weak. She added, “Today I'm thinking, take a step back and let some other people have their opinions come out really strong, and vote how the majority wants to vote.” That’s dangerous. You have to keep the pedal to the metal in this game, or it can slip away.

But her position remains strong. As the episode-ending preview indicated, the next move is Kim’s; it’s all in her hands.

2: Troyzan (was 4 on Salani )

Troyzan proved that a little effort can go a long way in this game when he got up early and found the newly hidden idol. I hope the others enjoyed their million-dollar nap!

Troy has a fan in the game, one who had mentioned him favourably before. It’s Sabrina, who said in clip “I Surprised Myself,” “I don’t think there’s anyone on this island that hates or dislikes Troy… we all genuinely love him. It was good he won the first challenge.” Mind you, she was smart enough to add, “We don’t want to keep seeing him win, or else he’s going to have to get off the island pretty soon!”

In clip “Too Close for Me,” Jay observed that Troy was “super-good on puzzles.” I guess it helps if you have Tarzan on the other side and overtly sabotaging his tribe’s efforts, but I agree that Troy has done pretty well at puzzles.

Troy told us in Insider clip “Dream Come True,” “All the Survivor seasons I’ve watched, I’m taking little pieces of it, putting it together.” He’s definitely extracted the right parts so far.

I just hope that Troy hae’s not gotten ahead of himself, as the line “I plan on sitting there at the last Tribal Council; I’m already going over a speech” from that same clip might indicate… or else, he may be composing a question instead. And after winning reward, pounding the completed puzzle and proclaiming, “This is MY ISLAND!” probably didn’t buy Troy any jury votes.

3: Chelsea (was 2 on Salani)

A minor change at this stage – but as Kim’s BFF in the game, Chelsea stays near the top. However, I can’t place her above the idol holders.

Chelsea had a good Insider clip called “Tarzan’s Underwear.” After recapping the situation I like to refer to as “PoopGate,” she said, “You just have to mentally prepare yourself to be annoyed at times.” Very mature. The easiest way to beat the crazies is to retain your sanity.

4: Jay (was 5 on Salani )

Jay has taken on a bigger role in this game. He set the new order clearly when he denied Tarzan coffee. To Chelsea, he was the first to put forward Jonas’s name as the voting target and name the other four misfits as next to go. Jay seemed to be in a comfortable place in the game.

But suddenly, in the end-of-episode previews, the abrupt realization that he’d engineered a male minority seemed to generate a spasm of paranoia about getting voted off. However, he and Troy were both in the scene where Chelsea first discussed taking out “a big threat.” I’m going to assume neither Jay nor Troy was being targeted.

5: Sabrina (was 11th)

Yeah, I was afraid I had Sabrina ranked too low…

Not only did Sabrina’s current tribe take control of the game, but she was shown to be a more integral piece than I had thought. In his Insider clip “Too Close for Me,” Jay said, “we had me, Chelsea, Troy, and Sabrina together – we love working together, and we’ve been solid (together).”

Sabrina was rather lucky to end up on reward, as her performance was almost as bad as that of Leif. But Sabrina’s position in the game, as a member of the two primary alliances, is great.

6: Kat (was 6th)

In her clip “Tarzan Is Out Of Control,” Kat compared Tarzan to Philip Sheppard from Season 22. Very sharp reference, that!

Kat is definitely not an insider in any alliance, she’s just being dragged along for her vote. But she is not a huge immunity threat, nor is she a serious threat to win the title, so she has a good chance of sliding through the next several weeks.

7: Michael (was 12th)

Wow, how does a big physical threat like Michael get this far up the ladder with 23 seasons of history indicating what folly that could be?

But for now, falling as he did into the right tribe, Big Mike survived a threat to his game life and seems well positioned.

Now, the end-of-episode teaser about targeting someone “big” just might mean, “Big Mike.” I’m going to guess that the teaser is a false lead, but I can’t rank his as ‘perfectly safe,’ either.

8: Christina (was 8th)

With the women coming out ahead and Kim wanting to keep women in the game as a back-up plan, Christina’s position is slightly better this week.

It was unfortunate that Christina was able to make some inroads with Jonas, only to see him sent home. Maybe she can develop similar ties with someone more on the inside.

With little power, little influence, and a spotty challenge history, Christina was not a threat to the others at this point. I don’t think she is in danger just yet. She might be a good one to sit next to at the end, because I there don’t seem to be many who like her.

9: “Tarzan” (was 9th)

As if there weren’t enough instances of Jay, Jonas, or Chelsea (or others) bemoaning life with Tarzan in the episode, here’s a collection of thoughts about Tarzan from this week’s Insider:

• “He messes up, he gets in the way of everything you’re trying to do.” (Michael)
• “Tarzan is stubborn.” (Leif)
• “Tarzan loves to bark orders, but he doesn’t like to do a whole lot. He just loves to point out what’s wrong when people do things.” (Jonas)
• “There’s days where he’s a totally different person. You can’t stand him.” (Chelsea)
• “He’s his own species.” (Kat)
• “He’s so random.” (Chelsea)

On Insider clip “Lost My Periscope,” Tarzan explained his frustration with the others. He revealed, “They don’t like to be corrected, or refined, or improved, by anybody but themselves.” He’s right, and predictably, his unsolicited opinions have fallen on deaf ears, and repeated applications have produced resentment. By this point, many of the other players wanted no part of him.

Tarzan seemed to “get it” that the men were no longer a unit after Jay denied him coffee… but then it got lost it again, with him telling Mike that Alicia was the flip vote and the men were solid. He was really out of the loop, and per that same clip, was ready to stop pushing and let others make the decisions. Dude, you never want to put your fate in the hands of people whose aims are in conflict with your own. On the surface, Tarzan was a fish out of water, ready to be gaffed soon. But wait…

At Tribal Council, in her episode-titular “Beauty of a Merge” speech, Kim pointed out that at this stage of the game, “People like Tarzan become an asset.” Kat had a good point of view too – she said, “You kind of want to keep those people around to drive other people crazy because it keeps attention off you.”

But Michael had the best plan for Tarzan… Mike said, “If you take Tarzan to the end, nobody’s going to vote for him, so that’s a safe person to have.” That’s Tarzan’s best hope – like Phillip, get dragged to the end and accept that you’re not going to win.

10: Alicia (was 10th)

Alicia told us her plan was to reunite with the other women. I’m not fully clear if they wanted her back, or not. At this early post-merge stage, Kim has told us that she wants to keep women around for now, in case gender battles resume.

In his “Secret Scene,” Jonas confided, “Alicia seems sneaky to me. She’s always off with some new person, making deals.” If she’s seen as dishonest, others will be reluctant to ally with her.

It’s my feeling that obnoxious Alicia will be the next female voted out.

11: Leif (was 7th)

In the immunity challenge, when Leif dug too small a hole, both “digging himself a deep hole,” and, “getting trapped by his efforts” aspects were symbolic of Leif’s game.

When Leif went out of the immunity challenge, he was quite upset. He knew his time in the game was getting short, and it might even have ended right there.

I have Leif rated last because I believe he’s at greatest risk, but any one of the last five might be the next to get to The Ponderosa.

Eliminated Players:

Juror 1: Jonas (was 5th)

Well, I did not see that coming – even as the episode played out, I thought it would be Tarzan. Instead, they clearly showed us the boot, only to dump a whole truckload of red herrings on us!

Jonas was simply a victim of numbers and situations – of the group being targeted first, he was the closest to what resembled a threat. In my article of two weeks back, I wrote, “Jonas ought to be worried. As arguably the most normal person left on the tribe, he sticks out like a sore thumb!” He was a victim of being the least useless in a group of useless misfits.

In Conclusion:

What do you think, folks? Do you agree with my most recent cut at these rankings? Let me know at the address below, and I’ll answer you back. There’s one rule, though: THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE SERIES! Please do not send me spoilers!!