I think I've watched too much Survivor. The vote is rarely a shock to me anymore. Although I thought it would be Taylor going home, just based on his "We have so much power, nobody can stop us!" attitude. Figgy was more concerned, but she was not a good player. I really wonder what she would have been like without the showmance. Coming into the season I thought she had tons of potential, but she collapsed very early. Announcing so openly that she's happy Michelle is still around was a terrible strategic play. A second chance for Figgy would be interesting to see - not that I think she's going to get one - because she made tons of obvious and fixable mistakes. I think she had the right mentality coming into the season, but the whole Taylor and early-power-position made her feel more comfortable than she should have been. Rarely does power early in the game translate to power later in the game.
As for Michaela, her sound bites are gold. I love watching her, and I would love to see her go far just for her phrases alone. However, she's not playing a winner's game. There could be some Millennials who find it endearing and funny, but somehow I don't think the Gen X'ers are going to want to be told off by someone younger than them.
A topic that hasn't been talked about - Jay's idol find. He must be pretty close with Will if he's willing to search for an idol with him. Or maybe it was Will's idea, so Jay just went with it. Either way, Michaela coming up was awful timing. She is not someone who I would want to know I had an idol. I wouldn't trust her at all. She is clearly in it for her own benefit, which I could also see coming back to haunt her. But with this find, I see Jay getting closer and closer to the final TC. I can see his story going as "young, dumb surfer dude" at the start to "savvy Survivor player" at the end. He seems to be level headed in his gameplay. He saves his antics for confessionals, which is very smart.
People I can see winning: Jay, Zeke, Ken, Chris, David
I think Adam has an outside shot, but I see him being outplayed come the merge.
I agree with you, the only boot I wasn't able to predict way before tribal this season was the Mari vote between her and Figgy
So that's kind of disappointing in a way, but on the other hand, it is kind of interesting how we are getting so many big characters and stories being set up. Between Zeke, Michaela, David, Ken, Adam, Jay, Taylor, Jessica, and arguably Chris and Hannah too, there's a lot of big characters this season. So while I think the premerge has been pretty underwhelming, I think we could be getting ready for one really exciting second half of the season.
I believe the only ones I didn't mention above are Bret, Will, Michelle and Sunday. Bret I thought would be a bigger player honestly, he looked good in the pregame and in episode one, but kind of fell into the shadows. Michelle has been a bit under the radar also, though she has shown to have a lot of potential, and a lot more game than I thought preseason. Will was my preseason winner pick and favorite, though he has been getting a bit of an invisible edit which is making me question that pick a lot. Like, how could you not give him any confessional or anything during he whole idol hunt he had with Jay?!
The only one I'm disappointed by is Sunday. She looked she would be a lot more interesting, but seems to have simply fallen into the stereotypical older lady "mom of the tribe" role.
Right now my favorites are David, Ken, Zeke, and Will, and I also enjoy Adam, Michaela and Hannah. Really just about anyone I can see winning, more people than usual at this point in a season, though if I had to pick a few I would say Jay, Ken, and maybe Michelle as a surprise UTR winner.
Looking forward to next week where Taylor gets 100x more interesting as a player, instead of always looking incredibly stoned
