Whereas Ricard is someone she can trust but is also the biggest threat to win in the end. She told us that Liana is “sneaky” and doesn’t have any allegiance to her. She explained the pros and cons of both options and why either decision could make sense. Photo: CBSĪnother positive for Erika is that she got to lay out her thoughts and weigh up her decision in a CP-lite manner. This seems like a concerted effort by the edit to show Erika as someone who is thinking about and playing the game. But given the way she was presented at the Shan vote, I don’t see it that way. So, in that sense, you could say Erika’s content here was circumstantial. After all, if we’d known Xander was playing his Extra Vote, then it would have taken a lot of suspense out of the moment. Now, it could be argued that Erika was shown as the swing vote in this episode to add some tension to the vote. But the edit wanted us to see Erika as a vital part of the plan on both occasions, portraying her as the clincher in both votes. And her being the swing didn’t really matter, seeing as Xander played his Extra Vote. I’m sure she wasn’t the only person thinking about splitting the votes. This is very telling because Erika’s decisions are hardly groundbreaking in the grand scheme of things. In this episode, she was presented as the swing vote, the person who would decide whether it was Liana or Ricard going home. In Episode 10, she received credit for coming up with the split vote and swaying Danny to vote for Shan. ERIKAįor the second week in a row, Erika swooped in at the end of the episode as the key decision-maker of the vote. Let’s break down the edits of the Final 6. This episode cemented a lot of that while also allowing for a wider cultural conversation, which will perhaps come up again in the remaining episodes.
There have been some ups and downs and narrative inconsistencies throughout the season, but at this point, every character appears to have their role/story established. In terms of the edit, this episode pretty much carried on from where we left off in Episode 10. Taking off my Edgic cap for a moment, it was great to see a conversation like this highlighted on prime time television. The words spoken at Tribal, particularly by Deshawn and Liana, were very powerful.
Putting the ridiculous Do or Die twist to the side for a second, I thought this was a strong episode, anchored by an important conversation at Tribal Council regarding race and diversity. While intended as a condensed version of Edgic, for this season, I will be including my ratings for each castaway at the end of the article. Hello all, welcome to the Edit Bay! This weekly feature takes a dive into the edit of the latest Survivor episode, analyzing the key stories, main characters, and top winner contenders.