David - Despite nobody trusting him to stick around come the merge, we saw that David was all about Zapatera this episode and probably will be going forward. Because he makes moves that serve to profit the tribe, he will probably not make any moves that profit himself, and that may be his biggest crutch.
Ashley - No tie-ins or a story or anything. Not that we hold our breath for her chances anyway.
Grant - We hear about his enjoyment of the reward, but overall there's no substance outside of him being a challenge beast. You just know that SEG would have edited this man to be much more if he came up with win given his dominant stature. What kills Grant the most is that we never hear about how he's dominant in challenges, or that he's a great guy all around, or anything about him whatsoever. You'd think we'd hear more about him, but there's no outside - and rarely inside - commentary, and that's bad.
Phillip - A forsaken warrior? We got more touching sides to Phillip, followed by lots of time undermining his efforts. He is a fool character with a loaded gun - but who will he shoot?
Andrea - A lack of separation from the other women this episode didn't speak well for her, but with Matt returning, we can still hold our breath to see where she goes.
Matt - There was a strong indication that Matt would head to RI in the opening episode with his reaction, and it's been getting clearer that he was gonna return as the weeks went by, so now the spotlight may be on him this upcoming episode. Where will his edit go now that he's returned? I foresee him forgiving Rob and still maintaining a follower status, though whether he gets blindsided again or not is still up for debate. We have seen that the strategy of praying can be a winning one - at least on RI - so will it continue to reward him? Phillip has called him a true samurai warrior - will he be noble to the end, forgiving of whatever comes his way, forgiving of his leader Rob - as a true samurai would?
Rob - Rob has had his path carved since episode 1, and it seems we're slowly following it everywhere he goes. I was a bit concerned in seeing him underestimate Phillip, telling us he views Phillip as unaware only to have Phillip tell us how aware he was moments before. Rob isn't being shown as over-confident or overly cocky or headed for a fall because we hear about his worries and his strategy to overcome them, but I do still wonder why we haven't seen any moments of HII discussion from anyone within his tribe - is it to show his control, or to setup for a possible revolt?
Either way, he's a strong contender for the win, and this merge episode will strongly indicate to us of the remaining contestants that stand a chance - Rob, Matt, Andrea - who will probably win, and who will fall, and why.
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~*~*The Greater Good of Survivor*~*~
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