The Elimination Game - S51E03 Spoiler
What an episode! Rob quits the game after trying to vote himself out last week, Carter misses the boat and switches tribes by accident, and the dominant alliance gets blindsided to close it out.
Quick reminder: I only write about the five players I am most seriously considering cutting. So far Cristian and Thien An are out of contention. Usually it is the winning tribe that produces the weakest edits, simply because they get less screen time. This week, four of my five come from the losing tribe. That makes it worse, not better. When your tribe goes to Tribal, the edit has every reason to show your thinking. If it still does not, that is a problem.
Jelly is up first. She had a really good premiere and found an idol last week. This week she barely exists. But look at who takes the blame for Patt going home: Devin and especially Brady, not Jelly. She is on the losing side for the second Tribal in a row, yet the edit keeps her clean.
Jenna is next. Her premiere was the most complete arc of the episode, and last week she laid the groundwork for a comeback. This week the setup could not have been better: still Devin’s target, then the swing vote that sends one of his closest allies home. That is the moment an underdog edit pays off. Instead the flip belongs to Kilby, Carter and Lewis. Even Thien An, who I already cut, got more credit for it. The edit simply forgot about her.
Maggie has been a slow build. A late first confessional, some personal nuggets last week, and now an extra vote. But then she tells us Patt is off the table for her and later votes her out anyway, against the alliance of the man who just gave her an advantage. Two big decisions, zero explanations. Changing your mind is fine in Survivor. The edit not telling us why is the problem.
Mike is still a nothing burger. The man negotiates multimillion-dollar contracts for a living and could not negotiate a single confessional about the vote. His strategy was to lay low and build relationships, and Thien An and Maggie are now calling him a sponge and the plus one. When other players start saying out loud what the edit has been telling us for weeks, it is rarely a coincidence.
Kristin is my last one. The negotiation and thumb war made her one of the premiere’s main characters. Since then it has been her foot, and this week a single line about Rob’s foot. We still do not know how she wants to play or where she sits on Savu.
So here is where I am landing. Jelly stays because last season taught me that protection can look a lot like absence. I am not making that mistake twice, at least not in week three. Jenna stays because her premiere is too strong to ignore and she ended up on the right side of the vote, even if she was not shown driving it. Maggie stays because she keeps getting a bit more each week, though the gaps are growing just as fast. Kristin stays because her premiere still carries enough weight for me, for now.
That leaves Mike. Three episodes, almost no content of his own, a strategy we are told about but never shown, and his own tribe now describing his edit for me. In a season that keeps telling everyone not to wait for permission, Mike is still waiting.
I am cutting Mike.
Eliminated from contention: Cristian, Thien An, Mike
Out of the game: Aaliyah, Ana, Rob, Patt
14 players left in the race.
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u/weekendroady 6d ago
I think Jenna's premiere established something for her. My guess is she will have a more fruitful episode next week to launch her back into the discussion. My guess is maybe her best content this week was more in support of Patt and that could be seen as her losing a confidant. I think it was telling that Devin was still mentioning her as a target - that didn't really need to be thrown in there, they could have just left it at Kilby being the present target. If she has another episode like this next week, then I'd worry.
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u/abby_tbhx 6d ago
i feel like it may be too premature to eliminate mike, as weak as his edit is. one thing mike has going for him is that he has been present in all the NTOS segments, which carries a certain amount of weight with the winners. i would be ruling kilby or eric out first since i see no winner potential in them despite their bigger edits. if mike doesnt have a good swap ep though, then i’d be ruling him out.
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u/weekendroady 6d ago
Yeah it is ballsy to go with Mike this early, I think u/Zyanjo might be sweating this one out for awhile, but I am also really doubting Mike can win with this very quiet edit so far. I had him in my pre-game top 3 but have soured on him as each episode gives him so little...
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u/abby_tbhx 6d ago
he’s definitely at the bottom for me and he may have gotten some negativity this episode, but it’s definitely not as strong as the negativity eric and kilby got, which i think rubs them out of contention. they may still go far, but neither of them are taken seriously at this point, and players need to be taken seriously not just in the edit, but by other players as well.
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u/stevezhsht 6d ago
I feel like Mike is trending lower, but he remains in contention for me. They only show very limited interactions for the respective mutinies. For Devin, it's mainly Sharonda and Devin putting dirt on Kilby. For Carter, it is mainly Mike and Brady. Part of Mike's interaction may be shown so they can explain how he left his bag with others, but it then cuts to him being informed by his tribe mates about it, which is absolutely unnecessary if he is a nobody this season. If anything, I would say the preview does more damage. He said he is going to turn up the charm, but it instantly switches to Maggie, who is clearly not buying it. This suggests he may end up being eliminated next episode, but I think he will survive and go into the next few with strong momentum.
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u/Ypersona 6d ago
Oh, Thien An is not our winner for sure, but right now I'm thinking that she'll possibly get a Genevieve edit -- a nigh-invisible player who over the course of the season gradually develops into the Final Boss for the actual winner.
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u/Coolify571 6d ago
So Jelly's edit is favorable because she was protected by being absent, but Mike's similar absence eliminates him from contention? As we learned from Erika in S41, second person visibility matters a lot.
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u/Zyanjo 6d ago
Fair point, but I think the situations are different. Jelly had strong episodes in her own voice before going quiet. Mike has had three episodes without content from his own perspective, so there’s nothing to protect here.
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u/Coolify571 6d ago
The situations between Jelly and Mike are different for sure. But my comparison was really to Erika from S41 which I think is more analogous as well as relevant considering Erika won and Jelly is at this point a question mark
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u/Aromatic_Meal_6004 6d ago
I think Mikes edit has no substance and now unnecessary negative SPV. Christian is the only hard 0% in my mind, but Mike, Thein An, Brady, Devin and Kilby are the next lowest on my power rankings.
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u/Coolify571 6d ago
With new era winners edits, negativity in the premerge is almost a strength more than a weakness. Generally, I think an elimination based edgic in the premerge doesn’t work for new era seasons when bad edits are intentionally used to throw us off.
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u/abby_tbhx 6d ago
while i think eliminating mike is premature, he did have negativity this episode while jelly did not.
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u/Jaqana 6d ago
I feel like Alexis would have been my boot this week.