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Survivor: Gabon - Episode 3 (Ratings Watchdog)

Here are my final ratings for Episode 3 that I will be submitting to the site.

Fang Tribe

Crystal: MORP3

Crystal earns a weak positive from me for her challenge performance and the way the win was partially attributed to her. She also had two confessionals: one about voting out Gillian and calling her a major weak link; the other was about finally winning the Reward Challenge and how it was nice to see Kota experience a defeat and have to walk away with their heads down. Like I said, it's just a slight positive and I could easily change it to neutral before I submit my final ratings.

Dan: UTR2

Dan got one confessional in this episode where he talked about the unity of the tribe. He also got some minor face time at the Reward Challenge as one of the guys being drug around a lot through the mud. Maybe a very, very small positive for his challenge performance and for the confessional that the tribe needs to work together better.

GC: MORN2

Well, unlike last week when G.C. got 13 total confessionals, he didn't get any confessionals this time. However, he got a scene with Randy about leadership again and wasting the rice. The intent was definitely for him to be negative this time, I felt. The way he talked to Randy was immature, and Jeff said that he "gave up" during the Reward Challenge. We also had a few shots of him not doing anything during the challenge as well.

Ken: UTRP1

This is basically Bob's Episode 2 edit, I feel. Yes, you can possibly give Ken INV1 but I think the fact that he got the focus of winning the Immunity Challenge for Fang is enough for him to be remembered (he wasn't *totally* absent from the episode) and earn a slight positive tone.

Matty: UTR1

Basically the same edit as Dan. They both got one fairly generic confessional and some challenge visibility. Nothing more.

Update: I changed Matty from UTR2 to UTR1 because I think Matty was a bit less visible when factoring in the challenge, but other than that, their edits were the same.

Randy: MORM3

For the third time in a row, I'm going to have to give Randy a mixed tone. Yes, his confessionals and general attitude were a bit grumpy, but I felt that the editing was on his side about the rice issue and about G.C., etc. So, in other words, his complaining and name-calling (saying his tribe was "stupid" and "idiots") wasn't meant to give him a full negative tone and the fact that we were supposed to agree with what he's saying balances him out to a Mixed tone.

Susie: INV1

She may have said one or two sentences, but it definitely wasn't enough for her to avoid this INV1.

Kota Tribe

Ace: OTTN4

So I've had a quick glance at the posts of ratings and I'm seeing CPNs for Ace. As of right now, I'm leaning towards OTTN because I thought that, while he may have been strategic, he was very simplified as extremely overconfident, arrogant, and villain-like. It's also a lot of his reactions that give me this impression (watch his faces at Tribal Council during the reading of the votes, and him yawning during the Reward Challenge). I don't see where the complexity was, honestly. Even the scenes about him deciding who to sit out at the challenges were contributing to his arrogant persona. He had two confessionals. One said that it was hard watching Paloma give up at the challenge and that her certificate of death was being written. This was very arrogant and dismissive of Paloma like he didn't care that she was leaving when he definitely put her in a position to fail from the beginning and I think that was clear from the editing. In his second confessional, he said they were prepping for Tribal Council and the dismissal of Paloma. He also had a scene with Sugar where he immediately said "we'll use the idol" when she had never offered to share it with him. He assumed that it would be used for *both* of them in the game and he said he hopes they dominate. Finally, at Tribal Council, he said he and Paloma rub each other the wrong way and his overconfidence was once again shown with not bringing his bag to Tribal Council. So overall, I would say he was very one-note and OTT - much more so than CP.

Bob: MOR3

Bob had some moderate strategy in this episode and one confessional about Ace wanting to take Sugar to the end because she's weak. We saw him talking with both Ace and Corinne about strategy as well, and he was (tentatively) brought into the Onion Alliance as a fifth member. The only other thing to note about him is that he did the puzzle portion in the Immunity Challenge and although he lost it for Kota, there was no mention of this at all in the rest of the episode. Hmm…

Charlie: MOR3

Charlie gets a MOR3 for his two confessionals, both of which were strategic in nature: one explaining his alliance and the tribe dynamics pretty in-depth (he named the Ace/Sugar and Kelly/Paloma bonds with Bob as the swing), and the other one talking about the benefits of getting rid of the weakest link (Paloma) but also why it might be good to get rid of Ace because he's playing Sugar like a pawn and keeping her around. He definitely had awareness of what was going on with all the different groups and alliances, and we got strategic insight from him. Plus his second confessional was the swing vote type of confessional from someone who is considering their options before the vote. This is DEFINITELY more significant than the UTR edits. Look at people like Dan and Matty who got one simple confessional that added no new development to anything; Charlie's confessionals DID add development in terms of his awareness, tribe dynamics, etc.

Update: I changed Charlie from CP3 to MOR3.

Corinne: CP4

Corinne remains at #2 on my Contenders list after this episode. She had the scene about confessional about bringing Bob into the majority Onion alliance, and also explained that they weren't looking to take him to the end but they just need him for numbers. She had a confessional about not trusting Ace where she said he'll be the first to flip because he's on the outside of their alliance. This could be something important to watch out for if it continues to get development. Finally, like Charlie, she got a confessional before Tribal Council that was very swing vote-esque where she talked about Paloma/Ace and said the vote was a toss-up. Typically someone in that situation ends up CP. She got one TCQ where she said that it was important that the tribe has one opinion about who should go so that it causes the least dissention. That's about it from her, but we definitely got some significant strategy and development from her. I initially had her down as a 3 in visibility, but it's clear when looking at the other people I gave 3s to that she should definitely be a 4.

Jacquie: INV1

Sorry, but even though she was shown in the "Previously On" segment, I do not include this in Episode 3 because it was not part of any content pertaining to Days 7-9. Therefore, Jacquie was INV1.

Kelly: UTRN2

Kelly was pointed out as being close with Paloma early on in the episode, but we never heard anything from her until Tribal Council, where she had two questions that really didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I couldn't understand what she was saying. After voting against Ace, I'd definitely say she's next on the chopping block at Kota, although based on editing/the preview, I expect them to win again next week.

Update: I changed Kelly from UTR2 to UTRN2 because I feel that her "WTF" answer was deliberately included to make her look stupid, and her association with Paloma was also a minor negative for her as well.

Marcus: MOR3

Marcus had a confessional right before the Immunity Challenge talking about this being the most important challenge yet so Kota can regain their winning streak after Fang gained so hope and reduce Fang back to despair again. He also got two short Tribal Council questions, one about the way the hidden Immunity Idol should be used and one about "a lot of people on the tribe standing out" (a diplomatic answer), before he pointed out Ace and also said that he works well with Ace. After watching the episode again, I definitely think it's enough to warrant a MOR2 - plus, he was involved in more conversation at camp than I recalled too. He talked about Paloma being in the Reward Challenge and said that Kelly should have been in there instead. He said they were "stuck with Paloma." Going back to Dan and Matty, that should be a good point of comparison in this episode of why Marcus is MOR (more significant) over them.

Update: I increased Marcus' visibility to 3 and I encourage everyone to once again read why I believe he should be MOR. I haven't seen one good reason of why he should be UTR, especially when you look at who else was UTR in this episode. Marcus' Episode 3 edit clearly stands above all of those ones.

Paloma: MORN4

Well, based on the recap and her edit in this episode, I'm glad I gave her the N in Episode 1. I almost went with OTTN for her in this episode because it seemed like her entire edit was based around being in opposition to Ace, and this was all that was emphasized, but I think the fact that she tried to strategize maybe balanced it a little bit. I'm not going to go through all her confessionals since she's voted out and I don't think they're that important, but basically everything talked about Ace in a negative way. She also spoke a lot at Tribal Council, calling Ace the "head honcho," saying he's not her hero, etc. I get the feeling a lot of this conflict was highly manipulated, btw, but nevertheless we must deal with what is shown. The edit also made her out to be one of Kota's weakest members. Overall, she was shown a lot but nothing was particularly complex or overly simplified, so I guess she just gets a MORN. For visibility, I could see her getting a 4, especially since Sugar's visibility was so high, but it seemed like Paloma might be right up there too. Anyway, her edit was almost exactly the same as Brianna in Guatemala: both of her first two episodes were extremely low visibility and then she gets a MORN higher-visibility boot in Episode 3.

Update: I reduced Paloma to MORN4 instead of 5.

Sugar: CPP5

I don't think there's much need for an explanation of this one. She got development in terms of her relationship with Ace, finding the hidden Immunity Idol, the death of her father, her motivation for going on Survivor and how she wants to become a stronger person. We definitely got a lot of personal insight from her that developed her as a positive character to root for. (On a side note, I almost thought there was going to be a Mikey/Mary situation where the tribe voted out Sugar [keeping the stronger Ace] to break up the two-person alliance).

MOST POSSIBLE WINNERS:

Marcus, Corinne, Charlie

After this episode, my top three Edgic contenders remain unchanged. I think Corinne's and Charlie's chances theoretically increased, although not enough to top Marcus, who got a low visibility episode with some good content. Corinne got some more strategic development and was shown as more of a player. I mean, it's obvious at this point that she's one of the most important players on Kota. Charlie also got some good confessionals that talked about strategy and tribe dynamics, so I'm definitely still keeping my eyes on him. I'd be pretty surprised if the winner wasn't one of these three. I struggle to come up with a fourth person that remains in contention to win and if I had to pick one, it would probably be Crystal, then Dan, although I don't think either of them really has strong enough story or content to get to the end.

STILL POSSIBLE (BUT MORE UNLIKELY):

Crystal, Dan, Matty

I would consider these three still possible, but very unlikely Edgic winners. Basically, they're just the best out of a bunch of other edits that are very poor and can surely be discounted.

ELIMINATED BY EDGIC:

Ace, Bob, G.C., Jacquie, Kelly, Ken, Paloma, Randy, Sugar, Susie

Most of these people either have an INV1 or an episode that was very close to it (Bob, Ken). I also eliminate G.C. for his huge visibility in Episode 2, the fact that his story has revolved around leadership and him being a leader who quit and is in over his head, he's been shown as giving up in challenges, he's going negative now, etc. For Randy, three Mixed tones (according to my ratings) is concerning to me and the way he's giving grumpy confessionals seems to not be very winner-like to me.

FINAL CHART: