As we head into the finale of this most excellent season of Survivor, I thought it would be fun to look back at the premiere to see if there were any clues hidden within the episode that could be found as to the potential winner. This is by no means an original concept, as fans have been scouring the premiere episode of each season of Survivor ever since Richard Hatch boldly declared “I’ve got the million-dollar check written already” in the very first episode of the series.  Through the years, fans have been using a system called “Edgic” (which is a combination of logic and asking yourself “What would U2’s The Edge do?”) to determine the winner. I will be doing something similar here, watching the first episode and only taking into account the shots and confessionals of our final 6:  Alison, Angelina, Davie, Kara, Mike, and Nick.  But I will be doing it based on how those all sync up to Pink Floyd’s seminal 1973 album Dark Side of the Moon. I call this system “Mudgic.”  No, wait.  “Mugic.”  “Myoogic?”  Whatever,  just pronounce it like “music” but with a “g” sound in place of the “s.” (Editor’s note: I will do no such thing).

Wanting to set the mood properly, I dimmed all the lights, but that made it hard to see what I was writing, so I had to immediately ditch that idea.  As the first shot of Fiji appeared, I pressed Play and let the music of the Floyd and the visuals of Survivor wash over me, ready to see where this journey would take me.  Here now, my discoveries:

• First and foremost:  Dark Side is kind of a boring album if you aren’t well and truly stoned. Three instrumentals? Three?!? Plus “Speak To Me,” which is barely a track.  This is nearly half the album.  I was a bit surprised, as I hadn’t really listened to this album since college (as one does), so my reaction was not unlike Homer Simpson trying to watch a baseball game while sober.
  
• The heartbeat in “Speak To Me” fades in on a close-up of Nick.
• The second verse of “Breathe” starts over a confessional by Angelina.  Notable lines during this confessional:
      Run, rabbit run
      Dig that hole, forget the sun
      And when at last the work is done
      Don’t sit down, it’s time to dig another one
  Clearly the correct interpretation of this is that Angelina keeps digging holes of her own making, and stepping directly into them. Angelina is not winning.
• Nick’s whole first confessional happens during the instrumental “On The Run”. This indicates that Nick is in trouble after his botched idol/fake idol plays in the previous episode.
• The alarm clock at the beginning of “Time” rings over a shot of Alison. Could this possibly allude to time being up for Alison? Yes, yes it could.
• The lyrics “Another breath, and one day closer to death” also occur over a shot of Alison. 
• “Home, home again” from “Breathe (reprise)” coincides with, you guessed it, a shot of Alison.  Alison is not winning this thing.
• Jumping back a minute or two because although I only wanted to talk about the final 6, I have to say it was pretty awesome when the line “Hanging on in quiet desperation” played while Christian and Lyrsa were leaning WAY out over the water on the rope ladder thingy.  Obviously, I’m onto something with this whole Dark Side/Survivor sync-up thing.  (Editor’s note:  )
• Mike gets his first confessional of the episode during “The Great Gig In The Sky”. Could Mike White possibly die??!
• The beginning of “Money” occurs just as Dan transitions from talking about himself to talking about Kara. Very interesting! Kara then gets her first real scene and confessional while the first verse is playing.  Notable lines:
        Money, it’s a gas
        Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash
        New car, caviar, four-star daydream
        Think I’ll buy me a football team
  Kara was an NFL cheerleader.  It’s a bit too early in the album and episode to conclude Kara’s the winner, but…no it’s not.  Kara’s winning. The Floyd says so.
• Another aside, but “Don’t give me that do-goody good bullshit” happens over a shot of the Davids being all rah-rah about team-building exercises. 
• The following lyrics from “Us and Them” over a shot of Mike White: “Haven’t you heard, it’s a battle of words?” Could Mike White, a writer, use words as a weapon to win (if he’s not dead by episode’s end)?
• Also from “Us and Them,” the words “Out of the way” are sung over a shot of Alison. I hate to kick her while she’s down (and it’s not really me who is kicking her, but rather Pink Floyd), but she is clearly not winning this thing.
• “The old man dies” is sung over a shot of Mike White.  Guys, are we sure Mike White didn’t die out there??! Like, has he been posting on social media or anything? Is that why Probst didn’t hype this season significantly, because Mike White died? Come to think of it, when “Another breath, and one day closer to death” was sung earlier, Mike White was in that shot too. I think Mike White is going to die in the finale. This whole experiment has gotten very dark.
• On the lighter side of things, Nick’s next confessional occurs during the instrumental “Any Colour You Like.”  Nick has only really shown up during instrumentals. This could mean one of two things:  either he’s insignificant, or he’s instrumental in a victory, either for himself or another. Probably for another, because Kara’s winning this thing, as previously referenced.
• “The lunatic is on the grass,” from the song “Brain Damage,” happens to be sung while Carl is discussing how Nick is lazy.  Yeah, Nick isn’t winning this thing.
• Oh, wait a second now. The lyrics to “Eclipse” begin as Davie stalks and catches an octopus, and has his first confessional.  The music swells to a crescendo while we get a lot of Davie telling us about himself and how he wants to win the game. This is all suitably epic, and speaks highly in favor of Davie, except for the concluding lines:
       And everything under the sun is in tune
       But the sun is eclipsed by the moon
  Davie, the bright shining sun of the season, will come very close to a win but will be eclipsed by Kara, who is a moon in this analogy for, I don’t know, reasons. Look, this isn’t an exact science. 

Although the premiere continues on, that’s where the album ended, and I think I had enough evidence to go on to give the following conclusions for those who like to skip to the end: