Survivor: One World Roundtable Predictions Update, Episode 9 – The Curse Continues, Sort of

Every season, the RNO scribes do their best Jimmy The Greek impression and predict how the season will go. Our mission, should we decide to accept it: Predict the pre-jury boots, finalists, and ultimately, the winner.

Previously, we noted that ever since RNO editor David Bloomberg placed a curse on the rest of us, at least one writer has seen his or her winner get the boot every week.

While that streak came to an end this week, that doesn’t mean the curse took a week off or that it’s over. To the contrary, Stinger lost his second finalist with Jay’s departure. That was the bad news. The good news is, Stinger remains the only writer with his winner still alive. With that, let’s look at the latest revised standings, with comments to follow.

As always, we’ll start from the bottom and work our way up. Chris and David both correctly predicted Jay to make the jury, but remain at the bottom by virtue of being the only two writers to lose all their finalists. Sarah, meanwhile, was one of just two writers to have Jay as a pre-merge boot, so she takes another hit to fall to 3-6. How do you feel about your fate, Sarah?

Not a huge surprise since I only have three of my jurors left in the game. In fact, if we have a final three of Troyzan, Chelsea, and Sabrina, I might be wrong from here until the end! At least that scenario seems unlikely... I hope.

In fourth place is William, who joins Sarah in thinking Jay would be gone by now, hence he takes a hit. But he still has two finalists in the running. Tied for second are Jenn and Jeffrey, who both raised their records to 5-4 by forecasting jury duty for Jay. Jeffrey, how do you feel about this?

Another week, another point. Still, I have a feeling this season's winner is going to come from the runner up list. What a crazy season.

But I digress. As mentioned before, Stinger lost his second finalist with Jay’s departure. Sting also sees his winning streak stop at four, but as long as his winner is still in the running he’ll remain in first, no matter his record. Incidentally, judging from next week’s previews, Troyzan will be a huge target. He also happens to be Stinger’s winner, so if Troyzan gets handed his walking papers, the curse will have taken out every writer’s winner.

Since Kim seems to be running the game at this point, I’d like to compare and contrast her style of play to that of Colton. Kim has taken control of the game much the way Colton did, but she has done so without alienating anybody, and without personally attacking anybody. Plus, she seems to be playing more strategically than emotionally. Gunning for Mike and then Jay was about strategy more than any personal feelings. By contrast, Colton seemed to play by his emotions, such as bypassing immunity in an effort to get Bill out.

For these reasons, it’s my feeling that if Colton and Kim were around at the end, Kim would stand a much better chance of winning as Colton wouldn’t realize how many people he had alienated. Even if he were telling the truth about wanting to oust Alicia instead of Christina, that’s at least one vote he probably wouldn’t have at the end, due to her earlier treatment of Christina.

Now, let’s ask this question: Is this season turning dreadfully boring or what? It was so bad I fell asleep while watching the show on tape and missed the entire immunity challenge. Colleague William Hammon has already referred to this as a waste of a season, and more and more, I’m starting to agree with him. The ousters of Mike and Jay were obvious once the women gained the upper hand, and now it’s so obvious the producers aren’t even trying to fool us about Troyzan being a target in the previews.

Troy was smart to play his idol this week, just in case, because he honestly didn’t know which way the wind would blow. But barring another idol or an immunity win, Troyzan will indeed be a target next week.

Before wrapping up, let’s ask this question regarding Chelsea: Exactly why did she feel the need to “prove herself” during the immunity challenge? I realize she was trying to atone for her poor performance in the reward challenge, but at this stage of the game, proving yourself, especially during an individual challenge, can be fatal. It was obviously a pride thing with Chelsea, but doesn’t she know pride goeth before an ouster? Besides, in the reward challenge only three people did any good, and only one of them was on Chelsea’s team – Christina. (Wonder what Colton thought when he saw that.) Chelsea’s immunity win may end up coming back to haunt her in the long run. Speaking of haunting, the curse still haunts us all, and may well claim Troyzan on Wednesday.

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Ken is looking for insurance to guard against curses. He can be reached at YourNextOfKen@aol.com.

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