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I analyze the edit by looking at the story and the themes that evolve from it. The winner emerges from that story.

1- "Good vs Evil in Earth's Last Eden"

This is the original theme of the season and there isn't a single doubt in my mind that Marcus is Adam. He gave himself that role in the first episode with his confessional about Charlie, that there wasn't "2 Adams in this Eden". Ever since then, Marcus' road to victory has seemed nicely laid out and there hasn't been a single hurdle in his way. It was important, I think, to his story that we heard his reasons for giving Sugar the idol: "My hope is that Sugar is smart enough to keep the immunity idol to herself and that might actually end up giving us one of our biggest surprises which would be losing a big power player from the Fang tribe in Ace, Matty or Crystal." We had heard him say before that he had worked well with Ace so Sugar booting Ace could have been perceived as an obstacle or at least an unexpected reverse of fortune for our "Golden Boy". Instead, that confessional reassured us that Marcus was still on a paradisiacal journey.

Now, Adam's story didn't have an happy ending in the first Eden so Marcus winning wouldn't be following the Biblical theme. You may object that there's just so much that editors can do to "make" a story but I'll reply that they could have made Marcus' journey appear much more difficult so that his victory would be like conquering the new world after the fall from Eden. Afterall, the editors hid much of Danni's strategy so that the Fall of the "Axis of Evil" and their Queen could parallel the historically unexplained Fall of the Mayan Empire.

No, Marcus will fall to someone he trusts and Corinne is in the prime position to be his "Eve". The smartest woman there tells us she is ready to get rid of anyone, to be a bitch and own it to the jury.

Of course, this interpretation of the main theme could also point to a win by Sugar. Afterall, she was portrayed as the snake and you could say that the snake won the first time. Sugar has already used her charming smile to lure Marcus into giving her the immunity necklace but Sugar doesn't have any end game storylines. Her story was to prove she was a good player, that she wasn't in Ace's pocket. His early exit puts her own story in a cul-de-sac.

2- "The Silent Leader Doesn't Get the Blame."

After Jeff had said that someone had to step up, we heard Dan saying it was important to be a silent leader. Editing-wise, Marcus seems to be Kota's leader because he is their narrator but we had indications in the last episode that Corinne is really Kota's silent leader. When Randy said he wanted to trust someone, it was Corinne that we heard saying "Please, trust us." It reminded us that it was Corinne who had gotten Bob into the alliance. It was also Corinne who had gone to Bob while he was breaking down crying. It was interesting that Corinne went first to Randy when she learned that Susie was loco. Of the 3 core onions, Corinne is closer to the outer layers of Bob and Randy and that's 3 vs 2!

The most telling indication that Corinne is the alliance's silent leader came in her talk with Marcus and Charlie. Corinne said: "MY entire plan hinged on the fact that Susie was easy, she trusts us and she's never going to win individual immunity so we could get rid of her whenever we want. I didn't realize she was loco… What do you think is the safer bet because I'm a little concerned?"

Corinne was the one who brought up the possibility that Dan had the idol in her talk to Randy: "I don't want to be going home. Dan doesn't have the idol, does he? What if Dan and Susie are together, Dan has the idol and they both vote Corinne."

Randy replied: "Then you're gone."

Since no one claimed ownership of this version of Plan Voodoo by a confessional, the credit of its outcome was left to Corinne who took responsibility during TC, saying "Damn, yeah! I don't know if I, personally, am making the right decision. I hope that I am."

My take is that she made the right decision.

And being the Silent Leader could explain the need to keep her out of the camera's focus!

3- "The Fire Ants"

I had found it strange that Jeff kept refering only to Kota or the "Yellow Tribe" as a whole in his recaps. Marcus was never singled out even after he had been the main force in the Water-Lacrosse and the Pursuit Challenges. Yesterday, we had our answer: In Survivor Lore, animal imagery is very important and, if Sugar is the snake, Kenny, the little monkey and Randy, the Hippo then we saw that Kota were the Fire Ants. We saw Fire Ant carrying a dead carcass just as Kota was about to bring Dan to his grave, we saw them fighting an invader on their hill just as Kota rallied around Corinne who had been threatened by Susie. Ants are ruled by a queen and we saw what had to be an Ant Queen dropping some "toppings" on Dan's Pizza!! Corinne is the Ant Queen.
(Sugar had problems with Fire ants!)

4- "The Mask"

Watch the imagery used to contrast the 2 Tribal Councils:

Fang was preceded to their meeting with Jeff by a snake. The snake made 2 appearences during the vote, once while Ace was voting and once just before Matty arrived at the podium, the snake's image fading directly into Matty's face. The snake bit them both. Fang's TC was very emotional. It was Crystal and Sugar who made it an emotional vote.

The Kota TC didn't feature any snakes but displayed some beautiful African Masks. It was to show that this TC would have players using their poker face, hiding their true intentions behind a mask. So much so that I will dare say that Susie won't think she was used as fodder for the idol but rather that she's in Kota's majority!!

So, who was the Anti-Crystal? Corinne of course who was the star of that TC! Crystal picked a fight with Matty and Ace even if Jeff never asked her a question. Corinne (despite us knowing how she felt: "This moron decided that she'd like me to go…Really?!! I hate her… I hate her, hate her, hate her. Like I want to stab her in the face...") put on her mask and responded very diplomatically to Susie. Corinne wouldn't even bite when Jeff pushed the issue. It's important to note that the editors butchered Crystal's one shining moment to show the contrast between a good player and a bad one.

Corinne playing with a mask was clearly set up in the first Kota scene where we heard her say: "My parents said not to curse so much so that you don't look too trashy" which made everybody laugh. She had her mask on when she reassured Dan. She had her mask on when Susie told her she was her target.

With the themes pointing to Corinne, I'll say she will be Gabon's Sole Survivor.

BTW, I think Corinne was CPM4

Marcus: CP3:
Remember his scene standing on the edge of the crater. I don't think it was to tell us he was going to be the King of Gabon but rather that he can be careless in a game where being careless can kill you. Another indication that Marcus isn't calling the shot is his use of the word "Unfortunately" in his confessionals. He agreed that Dan had to go but it was unfortunate.

Randy: MOR3:
He was a little too aggressive against Fang but he made the right move. Continuing the progression of his strategic edit, Randy got a sweet spot in the leading alliance. Randy still has an interesting edit but hippos in Gabon are happy just surfing the waves!! So, Randy seems happy just ruffling feathers.

Charlie: UTR1

I dare say that Charlie and Marcus are considered one and the same by the editors. The fall of one will lead to the fall of the other. Charlie only gets less confessionals and the one he had about Dan was about the same as what Marcus had said.

(Call them Pete and RePete, average out their ratings and you can eliminate both!)

Bob: OTTP2

He had the happy Tourist type of confessionals during the reward. Bob already won what he had to win in this game.

Susie: OTTN2

Susie is a "Dumb Player", one that is completely Loco!

Crystal: OTTN4:

In this episode, Crystal was supposedly fighting for her life yet we always saw her lying down in the hut. Then, at TC, even if she knew Sugar was on her side (watch her smiling during the votes) she still picked a fight needlessly. The editors were telling us that Crystal is a terrible player.

Matty: MOR4

Matty is getting discouraged, he is losing his fight and, when he thought he was finally turning it around, Sugar double-crossed him. The "Victim" can't catch a break.

Sugar: CPP4

She wasn't duped by Ace and she won't be duped by Kenny either. Sugar is continuing to learn how to play this game and, even if she was portrayed as a snake, she was a charming one with her smiles clearly in evidence during the challenges. The camera loves Sugar! It was interesting that we got to hear Bob say he was a lumberjack roll champion and then seeing Sugar beat him. If she can beat a champion at his own game, why couldn't she beat everybody else at this game? I'd love to see it but we have only heard her saying that she wants to learn the game, prove her abilities. There's no reflections on the end game which is present in the story of the end game players. Sugar's end game has already passed with AceMs exit.

Ken: CP3

Ken finally had a move to go his way. He didn't like Ace and Matty deciding the game, he saw it meant Crystal's and his own deathy and he acted smartly by lying to Sugar. He set up the perfect trap for Ace and he caught him. The problem is that we heard Kenny saying he trusts Sugar and Ken hasn't had any luck with the cute girls.

Dan: MOR2

To the end, Dan's story was being his own worst enemy. He could never relax, could never be himself.

Ace: MOR4

Ace tried. He saved Sugar from Matty's wrath but he couldn,t save himself. In the end, he seemed resigned. The most interesting visual came during a voice-over confessional by Sugar when she considered her next move: Ace was seen sitting down through the flames of the camp's fire. Our initial villain already burning in hell!

Colleenlover wrote:
my problem with all the Eden/ Adam and Eve plot is that it was decided before filming that it would be labeled as such -Gabon: Earth's Last EDEN

"Todd, Courtney and Amanda all ate from the apple and it turned out pretty well"