Let’s see if this is the week where the boots get past the “people who were deemed expendable before the contestants ever spoke to each other” phase.

Staff Predictions

Andy

I feel like everyone on the Heroes tribe is vulnerable other than Ben. (And, sigh, Chrissy is probably okay). I choose Ashley since Chrissy seemed to be a little threatened by her and Ben doesn’t seem the type to make an early move against “someone we need for challenges”. What I can’t predict is if you all will continue to celebrate Chrissy if she continues to target any woman she comes in contact with.

I’m worried that Cole will target Joe and Joe’s paranoia will lead him to play the idol. I do not want to see Joe succeed. So I will predict that he doesn’t. Note: this is where I always fall down with my predictions: predicting what I want to happen instead of what I think will happen.

For the Hustlers, Lauren will protest too much with her annoyance with Patrick, which will force everyone to realize that she isn’t just the quiet worker who will quietly do what they say. So they’ll get rid of her, lest anyone get any ideas who the decision-makers are on the tribe.

John

Healers- It would be far too easy to suggest that Joe goes home here, so instead I’ll roll the dice and predict that he plays his idol and sends Jessica home because she is too close to Cole. And Survivor logic states that when a woman and a man are getting a little too close, you vote out the woman.

Heroes- Now that Chrissy (the person that we all agreed did the right thing by not using that idol at the first tribal council) has established an alliance with Ben, voting out Alan would make less sense because it would leave the tribe as Chrissy and Ben vs. Captain Blandly Handsome and his sidekick Whatsherface. So instead, Ben and Chrissy follow that time-honored Survivor logic and vote out Ashley.

Hustlers- Last episode established that Lauren disliked redheads. That’s enough of a story arc to spawn dozens of “Survivor should bring back Lauren” threads on r/Survivor in the coming months. And the fact that she’s a third boot will make them feel like they’ve come up with a super deep pull as a potential returnee.

Emma

Healers won’t go to tribal council, but if they do, Cole will fail at blindsiding Joe and Mike will go home instead.

As a swap approaches, the Heroes aren’t as worried about challenge strength and decide to appease Alan by voting out JP. We will forget he existed by Saturday morning.

As much as Lauren may be an outsider, Patrick will wake everyone up in the middle of the night one too many times. Ali will suddenly remember he was pretty annoying in college too, and not wanting to be the only woman left on the Hustlers tribe, she convinces Ryan it’s time to cut Patrick loose.

Matt

I think Patrick will go if the Hustlers go to tribal. I think this vote will come down to Lauren v Patrick because he will keep getting on her nerves, and she will push for him to be ousted. Ali will argue against this because Patrick is in her pocket, but this will actually sway Ryan and Devon into ousting him because they are gonna get worried that perhaps Ali and Patrick are too close.

If its the Healers put me down for Joe. Joe will now get paranoid about Cole because Cole knows that Joe has the idol. So Joe will try and target Cole, and being arrogant, will assume he has the votes. However, it will be abundantly clear to Cole that he is being targeted so he will covertly work to blindside Joe and everybody will be on board because its Joe. The suspense will come down whether Mike can keep the secret when interrogated by Joe, but Mike will come through, keep his mouth shut, and Joe will go home with an idol in his pocket.

As for the Heroes… man I don’t know. I’m tempted to default to Ashley. I think Ashley and JP will target Alan, and Alan will target either Ashley or JP. I can’t tell whether Alan is more threatened by them being a couple or by JP being another buff dude. However, I’ll go along with what the text of the show is telling me and say its because they are a couple so he will want Ashley out. Despite her talk, Chrissy does not actually have power unless she and Ben ally with someone and it would be stupid to put herself in a 2-2 tie with JP and Ashley, so they will oust Ashley figuring that JP will get over it quick (he will).

Mark

Heroes: Sticking with Ashley until proven she’s not a liability otherwise. Alan is the swing vote between power couples and I don’t see him working with the guy who he forced to strip.

Healers: Joe’s idol complicates things now. I still think Mike comes out on top here, but maybe someone else is the casualty. Like the ever-quiet Desi.

Hustlers: Please God, let it be Patrick. The dude is a ginger puppy dog. Unfortunately, Ali seems keen to use him as a number, and so Lauren could still be on the outs.

	Andy	John	Emma	Matt	Mark	Readers
First Out	Katrina	Chrissy	Katrina	Katrina	Katrina	Katrina
Second Out	Simone	Patrick	Lauren	Ali	Lauren	Lauren
Heroes Third Out	Ashley	Ashley	JP	Ashley	Ashley
Healers Third Out	Joe	Jessica	Mike	Joe	Desi
Hustlers Third Out	Lauren	Lauren	Patrick	Patrick	Lauren
Score

 

Your Turn

Time for you all to consensus pick who will be the next boot, depending on which tribe goes to tribal council.