Five episodes into Survivor 50, there’s been a lot of talk about the edit. Between the Zac Brown segments, the lack of confessionals for several women and how much we’ve gotten from Christian, fans have had a lot to say about what we’re seeing and what we might be missing. Those are all fair talking points, but to me, there’s another far more subtle storyline the edit seems to be setting up that could have major implications on the rest of the game.
With the exception of Christian, Rick, Emily and Cirie who I’ll get to later, we have really only spent time mapping out two specific alliances involving people still here. There’s Cirie, Rizo, Dee and Kamilla, who worked together to get out Charlie last episode, and there’s Coach, Colby, Joe and assumedly, Chrissy, who have been repeatedly shown bonding as warriors, tidewalkers and challenge beasts. Explained in another way, we have one group of schemers and more new school strategy wizards and another group of more old school castaways, at least in attitude, who like to play a straightforward game.
I have no idea what’s ahead on the next episode. The show is teasing a 17 person merge. I’m sure we’re going to get some shenanigans that chop a few players first, but whenever we do merge, I think there’s a distinct chance people are going to start lining up on one of those two sides. We know Jonathan is close to Coach, and we know Stephenie is close to Colby. They’re obvious fits for the Honor and Integrity alliance.
I think Christian, Rick (even though he was left out of the last vote) and Emily are more new school in temperament and have the preexisting relationship with Cirie. They’re good candidates to join the other alliance. We know Genevieve and Aubry are going to go in different directions based on their shared dislike of the other. In theory, it would be a pretty even split with a few people stuck in the middle.
Ordinarily, the lines after a merge are mostly drawn from the starting tribes, but given we’ve already had one tribe swap and are likely going to get some kind of at least brief reconfiguring next week, I think we’re going to wind up with lines drawn more based on personality and styles of gameplay. If so, that would explain from an editing perspective why we got Jonathan calling Coach his number one, even though they never went to Tribal. It would explain why we got Rick and Christian solidifying their bond with Cirie right before the last tribe swap. It would explain why we got Aubry telling Coach she wants to work with him. It would explain why we got Kamilla saying she doesn't want to play an honor and integrity game again.
Christian, Emily and Ozzy have been the biggest personalities on Survivor 50, but that’s largely been circumstantial, since they’ve gone to every Tribal Council. What’s more interesting to me are the conversations and confessionals that haven’t been related to someone getting voted out that episode. They’ve been Aubry and Jonathan talking about wanting to work with Coach. They’ve been Rick and Christian forming a bond with Cirie. I have to think a lot of this is going to be important after the merge, and based on what we’ve seen, all this could lead us toward two epic alliances, one with Cirie at the center and one with Coach calling the shots.
Am I fantasy casting what I want to happen? Absolutely. Is there evidence there based on what we’ve seen in the edit? Also absolutely. It would be a dream result for those of us who have been with Survivor since the beginning and would explain all the preseason hype. I can’t wait to watch it play out.
