Just simply by how much you like how they were presented. Here’s my ranking. This isn’t about the editing of the overall seasons, just the winners’ storylines.

1. Maryanne- This was an incredibly satisfying arc for her. It was a bit unconventional while still making sense. It was nice to see a growth arc in a winning format.

2. Gabler- I liked the hiding-in-plain-sight approach to this one. It was completely unexpected but makes sense if you reflect on it. I don’t think we’ll get a meta approach like this in the near future, however.

3. Dee- This edit was pretty conventional while not being too obvious (to the average viewer). It was solid.

4. Kenzie- She wasn’t the main focus of the season, but I didn’t want her to be with everything else going on. It was a bit obvious, but that’s ok. I think some loose ends (with Ben for example) weren’t tied up as nicely as I’d want, though.

5. Rachel- Her endgame stretch, while obvious, was exciting to watch as a coronation/test of strength. The rivalry with Genevieve was fun. I just wish I knew her better in the premerge (though the Andy stuff was good).

6. Yam-Yam- This was way too clear and overexposed. It sapped any suspense from the season, and I was getting sick of him (and Tika 3) by the end.

7. Erika- This was completely misguided in the approach. I like unconventional edits (see Gabler), but this is only satisfying if you place a lot of stock in the advantages and artificial drama. I don’t mind her not being the focus of the season since other elements were frankly more interesting. I just wanted something more.

Basically the title. It seems like that entire storyline was phased out immediately every time it came up. Why include the Black Widow Brigade flashback? Just to foreshadow Teeny voting for Rachel? I don’t know. Thoughts?

So, i was repassing the season and i see very few differences between Gen and Rachel Edits. This being Rachel having a strong Premiere and Merge episodes. Despiste That both have very similar Edits. Both are growing threats with not a true allie Who need to make alone her own path. And in the end they need to take each other out, Who make this is winning the season.
Another little diferente is Gen having more emotional content and Rachel more strategic content.

With this in mind and kwoning that the editors is making knew things, in think gen was never a Dragon edit and The Rome thing make Rachel the real contender and Gen the Dragon by default.

What i See a Dual edit, both very similar, boths having a real chance to win in edgic logic and both being setting like satisfactory winners.

I feels this new type of edit more like a decoy winner that a dragon to slay.

Idk how you feels, but i really don't think gen and Rachel edit are diferent that much.

Do you think they would have built Sue or Teeny up as greater threats? I feel like it would’ve been really anti climactic if Sam hadn’t made it based off what we were shown of Sue and Teeny’s edits

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So there we have it, another New Era season in the books, and another Edgic win!

I think with the way the world is going with the prominence of social media and criticisms online, Survivor is going to move away from the Erika/Gabler edits and never look back. Winners deserve to have their wins respected no matter the game they play, and I'm actually fine with never having to explain to my casual partner why the right player won ever again. Since 44, the finale episodes now end with them saying, 'I'm glad Yam Yam/Dee/Kenzie/Rachel won,' and I think every viewer should feel satisfied in the season they have watched.

That being said, because of this I fully expect us to be able to nail down the winner at the merge moving forwards, and I also expect them to get insane amounts of content in the back half of the season.

A few things to note from this year's edit:

• Shielding is still a thing, and despite the editors going for a more realistic narrative of the game, they will still shield the winner from looking too bad. We were shown that Rachel was left on the outs or tricked a few times, but it was never expanded on too much. It is key to note that Rachel also got to control the narrative at these points through confessionals in the post merge, and they found alternative ways of giving her content in the premerge.

• Negativity is still a bad thing. While growth arcs can occur, anyone getting sustained negativity and dodo music past the half way point of the season is realistically not a contender.

• Mat chat theory is completely dead, but the winner has still always been introduced early in the premiere. Rachel received the first confessional after the tribes went to the beach this time around.

• Winner quotes don't mean that someone is a winner, but they usually mean something. This time around Sam got his 'glue guy' and 'wolf in wolf's clothing' quotes, Sue got her 'I'm 59 and I beat all your asses' line, and Genevieve got her 'I'll either forge my own path or burn down this island' subtitled line. These flashy quotes are usually included for important characters to the season's narrative. Could include the winner if there is a quote good enough, but the editors also don't want to make the winner too obvious to begin with.

• The finalists may well be featured prominently in the first episode. I think this might have always been a thing, but it was more obvious this time around with Rachel, Sam, Teeny, and Sue having some of the best content in the premiere. Looking back, I think this applied to Kenzie/Charlie/Ben/Maria (but not Liz), Dee/Austin/Jake/Katurah (but not Julie), Yam Yam/Carolyn/Carson (borderline Jaime and Lauren, but not Heidi), Gabler/Owen/Jesse/Karla (but not Cassidy), and Maryanne/Mike/Romeo/Jonathan (but not Lindsay.

• The clues in the intro still do mean something, but now they are making them much more obscure to make them harder to work out. This time around the female silhouette and the season logo were positioned between Sam and Sierra, implying a female winner from Gata that most of us misread as being Sierra. In reality Rachel is the featured winner here, positioned between the targeted duo at the first juror vote off. The start of the intro features Aysha, Anika, and Caroline looking up at bats flying in the sky. This one was really impossible to work out - they were the three closest female allies of the three female (at the time) finale players on a woman dominated season. Even more impossible to guess - the bats signify Rachel, the winner, who wins her way to the end making a bat shaped puzzle. Best to leave the conspiracy theories of the intro hints off the table for next season I think.

Overall, a great season, and I can't wait to puzzle out the winner of Survivor 48 with you all ...

... anyone notice the piano motif playing in the 48 promo after the guy mentioned being the Mozart of the game? ;)

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The edit this season was very interesting, and in my opinion, the second-best edited new-era season (45 is number one). Here are my edgic takeaways from season 47. I will give my thoughts from contest to contest in elimination order; this is not an edit ranking.

🦇Rachel🦇

1. ‘Forced Narration’

In retrospect, Rachel’s entire pre-merge edit from episode two onwards is shielding her. Rachel had one of the bigger premieres and gave most of her strategic pre-merge confessionals in the premiere alone. The premiere was the only episode of the pre-merge where Rachel was in the majority.

Afterwards the pre-merge story of Gata is about Andy, Sam, and Sierra forming an alliance; this alliance takes out Rachel’s number one, Anika. Knowing that all of her strategizing would end up pointless, the edit only shows Rachel giving narrational confessionals. Keeping her presence known, but shielding her from her impending blindside.

I’m calling this type of content ‘forced narration’, and Rachel got it all throughout the pre-merge. She got to narrate Sam’s segment about never eating fruits; she got to talk about how hard it was to sleep and being uncomfortable on the bamboo and then won a hammock. Little narrational moments like this, that seem like filler, can be really strong if the person giving the ‘forced narration’ ends up being on the bottom/outs of their tribes.

—Personal content might not be absolutely needed.

I think this is very case dependent, but Rachel’s complete lack of personal content is truly unique for the New Era.

I think this might be because of a few things.

—Personal content won’t be forced.

Rachel just seemed to not give emotional confessionals. I thought the editors would just clip some stuff together at some point, but they never did. This might also be an overall New Era change. Seasons 41-44 almost had too much personal content and flashback packages, so maybe this is an overly severe fix for that. Rachel played a more advantage- and immunity-challenge-based game, so a lack of personal content doesn’t hurt her win. If she had a more social game dependent game win, like Kenzie, we would need to get to know her on a deeper level.

—The winner might set the tone for personal content.

I just thought of this, so bear with me; this season being extremely light on personal content might be a result of the winner, Rachel, not giving much personal content. Sam, Teeny, and Sue all seemed willing to give emotional confessionals, but Rachel didn’t, so a lot of personal content ended up getting cut so that Rachel beating them all seems more satisfying. If everyone gets to know the finalists better than the winner, the winner isn’t as satisfying.

—We’re never getting an Erika or Gabler type of winners edit again.

Dee, Kenzie, and now Rachel have all had pretty obvious winning edits coming into the finale. In the 90-minute era, there is no excuse for the winner to be under-edited. I think we’re in for a new type of ‘meta’ for the ‘winners edit’; it’ll be very obvious who is winning coming into the finale, and I don’t see this changing for a while.

Erika and Gabler, both winners who didn’t have clear winning edits, have received so much flack and have been very controversial; I think the show wants to avoid that sort of thing and leave people as satisfied as possible when the winner is revealed.

I think this would have happened either way, but this effect has been doubled due to 90-minute episodes. I also think production thinks that the reason a majority of people don’t like seasons 41 and 43 is solely due to how the winners were edited.

🦇Sue🦇

— Zero-vote finalists pre-merge visibility.

I wrote about this in my 47 finale predictions, so I’ll just copy and paste what I wrote in that write-up.

“Edit-wise, Sue’s edit reminds me of other zero-vote finalists of the new era. She had a good premerge and then just completely fell off the face of the earth, like Ben, Romeo, and Xander. (from what I can remember) Sue had a way better pre-merge than all of the people I just mentioned but had the hardest falloff.

I think this is a pattern to watch out for: the zero-vote finalists/third placer will have a solid pre-merge, building them up when it’s least important, solidifying them in the audience's mind before abandoning them at the merge when it’ll become clear that they are no longer important. There are some exceptions to this rule, Jake and mainly Carolyn, but I chock this up to them being big characters and both of the winners being more traditionally dominant.”

I think Sue and Ben had very similar edits and will be on the lookout for this editing archetype in 48.

🦇Teeny🦇

— Production favorites will get unnecessary airtime.

Looking back on the season, Teeny’s entire journey is unsatisfying, and the large edit it received, especially with the lackluster ending it got, only makes sense because production loved Teeny.

Teeny fails at everything the edit sets up for them. They don’t beat Sam in fire and settle their one-sided rivalry; they don’t avenge Sol and vote out Genevieve; they don’t even vote for Genevieve at the tribal she goes home at. Yet Teeny gets the third biggest edit of the season. I think production just liked Teeny and that’s why they got so much focus.

No disrespect to Teeny!!! I really enjoyed them this season! I just think that their edit is very weird considering how their game went.

🦇Genevieve🦇

—0 confessional episodes matter.

In the 90-minute era, there really isn’t a reason to give an important character, like a winner/runner-up, a zero confessional episode. Genevieve getting one so early in the season made absolutely no sense and was always an extremely hard obstacle for her edit to overcome. This is especially weird when you consider that Genevieve was the best confessionalist of the season.

If someone is hit with 0 confessionals, it’s nearly impossible to bounce back from that, but if they’re hit with it in the first 3-4 episodes, that’s enough to write them off completely.

🦇Andy🦇

—constant negativity is bad for your edit.

I’m expecting most of the Andy truthers to backtrack in the off season, but I will always hold them accountable!! Andy’s edit was full of negativity from the premiere to his boot episode. He constantly got dodo music and was undermined. So much of it being unnecessary, like when he couldn’t find any of the money tubes during the auction; instead of making him look sympathetic, they made him look dumb.

A lot of people will say that his storyline needed the negativity, but Emily had the same storyline and only had one single negative episode. Don’t be shocked when a lot of people now with the benefit of hindsight say that Andy had a bad edit.

🦇Rome🦇

—the edit will still completely shit on people (lol)

I just thought it was interesting that the show gave someone such a negative edit. Rome was OTTN in all of his episodes. I just didn’t think the show had the guts to portray someone like that anymore.

Edgic

Contenders

What a good season! Not quite my favorite of the New Era, but relatively solid overall. I still think it's a shame how quiet Rachel's premerge was, but given how dominant her postmerge edit was I think it's okay. I'll be the first to admit that I didn't see it for her during the premerge, especially given the high-vis premerges of our previous 3 winners. As the mergeatory hit I caught on, but still wanted to hold out before putting her in my top contenders in case it was circumstantial (like Tiyana or Kyle when they had good premerge episodes). I'm glad I was wrong! I also think it's funny how I almost had the Top 4 as my Top 4 in the premiere -- I heavily debated whether to put Sierra or Rachel in 4th and the other in 6th. Relatively solid edit all around! Some of my overalls are a bit questionable I know, but nothing feels right for the Final 4 to me lol.

If I had to rank the New Era seasons right now, I'd probably say: 45 > 46 >> 47 > 42 >>> 44 >> 41 >>>> 43. Have a good off-season everyone!

Survey

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and we are done! i think this season was very good overall is a strong addition to the 90-minute-episode trio we have now. gameplay wise i think this season really excelled in that i dont think we've seen this much strong strategy since like dvg, or cambodia. this did lead to some inevitably boring episodes (gabe and kyles boot were especially predictable), and whilst the cast didn't reach the same highs as 46 i still really enjoyed watching every single one of them play.

this season really outdid itself from an edit perspective as i feel like everyone in the top 6 had cohesive and complex storylines (except maybe sue.) even most pre-mergers. such as tiyana and kishan, had very satisfying and complete story arcs that felt fully realised and resolved with their exits.

ultimately, these are my takeaways from this season:

1. premieres do still matter and i'm sorry for ever thinking that they didn't. for all intents and purposes, i was truly convinced genevieve had the perfect winners edit; she had a complex, flawed, emotional and purposeful edit without any instances of overwhelming negativity such as andy or moments of irrelevancy such as sam. except for our very obvious first three episodes, which should have very well written her off entirely. part of me almost believes that this was intentional in the sense that they didn't want people to be too fooled by genevieve's pitch perfect edit afterwards as to not make it ultimately unsatisfying or too confusing.
2. sam had a killer ftc, and it almost had me doubting my entire edgic; but the entire edgic doesn't change at ftc, even if the outcome seems to. the obvious exception to this is 43, but some people did clock gabler a few episodes prior; and i think its pretty clear that we shouldn't be looking to 43 for any edgic precedents ever.
3. they're never doing an utr/low vis winner again, at least not for a while. now that we've had 3 back-to-back high visibility dominant female winners i think its time we can ignore utr players for good. in a universe where this season aired in 2021, they would have every single justification in the world to give rachel an erika edit, as they both had similar muted personalities and a savvy social game aided by advantages. but they didn't, because they learnt from that.
4. the strategic undermining of a winner is a lot more intentional than that of a non-winner. take sue for example: despite succumbing to the peer pressure of putting sue high, in my heart i really had her written off ever since episode 3, where she was overwhelmingly portrayed as non-strategic and oblivious. rachel never received this degree of obliviousness even during the anika vote, where i found it abundantly clear that it was being set up as a sierra having made a mistake and rachel having an opportunity to recover, which is exactly what happened. kenzie had her manufactured pre-merge danger and then her position in the tiffany blindside, where she was definitely blindsided***,*** but it was shown to us in a way that didn't explicitly undermine kenzie's character or story, but rather added to it.
5. i still don't reaaaalllyyyy know what to make of teeny's edit. it felt like a very strong winner edit, until it felt like a fallen angel edit, until it just felt like a f3 loser edit, until they get out at fire. it's gonna take me a bit to rack my head around the red flags in teeny's pre-merge, and i'm curious to see what the teeny-doubters were going off of that early on.

Anyways sad its over but onto the next! the drought is gonna hurt, but hopefully ausvivor comes out soon enough to fill it. thanks for reading and commenting, this has been my first season doing a proper edgic and its been really fun and cathartic! lots of love <3

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One thing I wanna say even though it probably means nothing is that my initial rankings immediately after episode 6 was Rachel 2nd. Now I did change my mind quickly, but i wish i stuck with my gut lmao.

I’m probably not gonna be posting during survivor seasons specifically 48 and maybe Australian survivor and then I’ll see, but I feel like I want to come to my own conclusions divorced from other people’s discussions (though I probably will read some posts after because I love seeing other people’s views). Another reason is over the time I’ve been on r/edgic I’ve gotten a couple unwanted dms so I’ve completely turned them off because I don’t need people messaging me on reddit, but for the most part the community as a whole has been good to me and it’s just 1 or 2 times where it hasn’t.

I know it could be coincidental because Rachel does have a good postmerge edit, but its kinda annoying when all of the sudden she becomes everyone’s first place after the Rome thing.

Generally I was planning to do this for 48 to see how different I would be from the subreddit, but I might do this for every season in the future. I will still post my results from the season at the end with a bit of explaining my thought process throughout. I will also (when I eventually finish I just go through seasons pretty slowly) post edgic charts for every US and Australian seasons and maybe South Africa.

I can’t remember a more satisfying and fulfilling winner’s edit for a female winner. Rachel set the female Survivor confessional record, per a post on r/Survivor.

It’s great that they really let it rip with her. 7-1 dominant winner, and even though her personality could be muted at times, they nailed it tonally and let her steer the show.

More of this, please.

what a great season and great final battle! this is the first time in a LONG time that i genuinely don't know which of rachel or sam i would have voted for. i want to say if i knew it would be close i'd vote rachel, if i knew she had enough i'd vote sam to guarantee him the second. but they both played great games and i hope they are both remembered as such.

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Well, well, well. What a season. Admittedly, this finale was actually pretty fun, and I won't deny that they had me for a second there. Of course, Rachel was the obvious winner, but they didn't let me rule out Sam until the third Rachel vote.

This season was a lot of fun, and I'm excited for 48.

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AAAAAA IF I SWITCHED SAM/RACHEL EPISODE ONE I WOULD'VE GOTTEN TOP 4 EXACTLY

but... CONGRATS TO RACHEL!

this was such a fun season, all around great cast, editing, and follow through. Sam played a great game (as did Sue), but yeah this felt like Rachel's to lose. I really enjoyed how the season went and while my contenders with Rachel wasn't perfect I feel like this was a fun one for me to rank.

Leave your thoughts, but that's it for me (...maybe... we'll see if I do a family review again like in S46), but y'all are a great community, thanks for another great season :) -maple

Now that I got your attention, I want to stress that I am not ruling Rachel out. However, I don’t think her win is a foregone conclusion by any means. Going into the finalFINALfinale2.xls, Rachel’s edit still reminds me of Charlie’s: very strategic and overall positive, but lacking in personal/emotional/relationship complexity.

I don’t think Rachel’s edit is bad or that she is not deserving of the win. She’s played a phenomenal game, and the edit clearly wants us to see that. However, the same issues that kept Rachel as my #2 behind Andy, still has me questioning Rachel’s win as a foregone conclusion against Sam.

This season has been PHENOMENAL. It helps to have interesting players and incredible gameplay, but the edit has truly been next level. One of the best things about 90 minute episodes is the room to tell more stories, and to believably build up multiple potential contenders going into the finale.

I wouldn’t be surprised by a Rachel win, of course, but on a rewatch today I think I am leaning more solidly towards Sam. And I am kicking myself for sleeping on him most of the game.

While Rachel has had relationships highlighted, Sam’s relationships have had a lot more depth and complexity. Even Sam’s onscreen relationship with Anika was more complex than Rachel’s. We see Sam fight like hell to keep certain allies (Sol in particular), while Rachel isn’t willing to stick her neck out for anyone and is content to “be the ocean”.

Even though Sam is a pretty level headed guy, he frequently tells us how he is feeling, in addition to explaining where he is at strategically, at length, every episode. Sierra gets voted out, and Sam has feelings about that. He continues to talk about losing Sierra and how that has impacted his position in the game for a few more episodes. Sam has an emotional reaction to being on the bottom, and talks about how it feels when no one is really telling him anything.

Anika gets voted out, and Rachel never mentions her or their relationship again. Rachel gets to explain her strategic decisions in detail, but we don’t get as much of how that is impacting her emotionally. And it’s not like she’s not emotional. We see her teary eyed at times, but we almost never delve into what she is feeling about a situation personally and emotionally.

Over and over Sam prioritizes the relationships in the game he has built and works his ass off to keep those people in the game. With a strong emphasis on the themes of making genuine personal connections in a game where you have to vote people out, Rachel having a game bot edit should be a huge red flag.

A lot has been made of Rachel’s relationship with Andy and people assume he is a vote for her. However, I believe he is 100% a Sam vote given the themes of the season.

Sam is the main driver of keeping Andy over Jon. Rachel pretty much drops Andy as an ally early in the pre-merge, while hanging on to Andy is Sam’s biggest pre-merge priority. Even though Sierra was always going to go with the guys, the edit made it look like Sam was threatening to use the idol on Andy. Even though Sam wasn’t the glue of Gata, he does eventually become the Glue Guy of the late merge and end game.

Before Andy leaves, Sam sincerely apologizes to him for not taking him seriously and takes him on reward. They rekindle their bromance and embark on the Italian Job heist caper together alongside Genevieve, where Andy finally gets to live out his Survivor dreams.

The Italy alliance was the first time Andy truly felt valued and included as an equal on Survivor, and that was all because Sam brought Andy on that reward and showed him the genuine respect and belonging he wanted all along.

More often than I think fans realize, jury votes come down to the way that person made them feel about themselves and their own game. Even though Sam fumbled the ball with Andy at the merge, he was able to salvage that relationship and was a huge factor in sending Andy out of the game feeling like a hero.

In contrast, Rachel preys on Andy’s insecurities to get him to flip so she doesn’t have to play her idol. Telling Andy the jury doesn’t respect him backfires, but it does wound his pride and gets him monologuing like a super villain. This has its intended purpose: Rachel now genuinely respects Andy’s game. Unfortunately for Andy, Rachel now genuinely respects his game and decides to idol him out instead of Sam.

In the pre-merge, Rachel wasn’t really there for Andy. She voted for him at the last Gata tribal. He got one over on her a few times. She made him feel bad about himself, then voted him out of the game. Even though Rachel outplayed Andy in that moment, Sam babied Baby Andy the way he needed to be babied.

Sol is another vote people assume will be a lock for Rachel. However, Sol saved Rachel with an advantage, only to have her flip on him without so much as a heads up. Rachel tells Sam about the vote being Sol and not to blow up her spot. Out of loyalty to Sol, Sam immediately goes to Sol and blows up Rachel’s spot in hopes of saving him.

While Sol was impressed by Rachel’s moves on the jury, he also showed derision when he thought Andy had “flipped again”. I think loyalty to Sol is important to Sol. Rachel flipped on Sol, but Sam worked his ass off up until it was time to vote trying to keep Sol in the game.

People assume Gabe will vote for the person he thinks played the best game, and I think that is true. However, Gabe is also a legend in his own mind and Sam is the one who got credit in the edit for taking Gabe out.

While Genevieve certainly respects Rachel as a player, they barely interacted onscreen. Sam and Genevieve link up at the merge, and eventually end up having both a close game and personal relationship.

In fact, on rewatch today it was clear that Sam had closer, more complex relationships with the very same people Edgic had been arguing had been “highlighted” in her edit to explain her win.

Sam has an unconventional edit for his archetype, but Sam has also played an unconventional game for his archetype. I almost never find myself rooting for the Sam type, but he has grown on me like a fungus over the course of the season. A huge part of that was his humility in the face of his reversal of fortune, and his genuine, sincere apology/regret for the way he treated Andy, THE Main Character in a season full of Main Characters.

Bonus: credits symbolism

I think the bats symbolize blindsides (blind as a bat). The people looking at bats were all blindsided, then we see Rachel looking at bats in the sneak peek. I think her loss to Sam could be THE blindside of the season.

Additionally, Sam has the “Sole Survivor” holding a torch shown after his chyron sequence.

In the opening

Since we are getting a first look promo of Season 48 tonight, I was wondering if edgic plays any role in looking at this because the season is already filmed and the cast already knows the winner. Are there any details to look for or anything like that? I’m relatively new to edgic and don’t know about this

Context: I was a Genebeliever from ep 2, so after her boot, I came to the realization that it has to be Sue. I had already eliminated Rachel and Sam from early on, and I eliminated Teeny around merge (love them sm tho).

I went back and rewatched every tuku segment premerge and Sue’s entire storyline is so cohesive and it made me realize the themes I was seeing throughout the season (underestimation being the main one), aligned perfectly with Sue’s edit.

There are 2 things her edit has that Rachel’s does not A) plenty of personal content B) storylines that are structured and complete with overarching themes.

From day 1, Sue has talked about how everyone is underestimating her. The edit defends this with plenty of SPV from others underestimating her (the scene with her and Gen at camp when the others are on reward is a great example of this). Gabe calling her a wounded bird and Kyle’s tweedle-Dee comments are other examples of this which also ties in well with specifically men underestimating her.

We got plenty of content about her idol which was a major storyline at the merge ep, where the edit goes out of its way to show that no one was suspicious of her. And when she played it she wasn’t undermined when she easily could have been.

The edit highlighted early on that she is a woman in a male dominated field. As mentioned before, this storyline of men underestimating her continues throughout the season with Kyle and Gabe. At FTC I expect her to talk about how she is underestimated by men in her real life and how that bled into the game.

Most importantly, we KNOW Sue. Her edit is complex with both personal and strategic themes throughout.

Rachel: Her edit has no winning STORY. She is the main character protagonist of the season who has narrated all of her strategic game moves, but we still know basically nothing about her. Her edit is fragmented- there are no strong themes that tie Rachel’s winning story together. What has the edit set up for her to talk about at FTC besides the moves she’s made in the game? Her edit is the 90min version of Jesse’s. She has been a refreshing player and really reminds me of a new era Wentworth- the fan favorite scrappy underdog who ultimately falls just short.

I really wanna finally do an official Edgic chart for next season! If someone could be so kind to post or DM me a template that would be amazing! I assume it’s through Excel but would still appreciate a template to work off of if possible. Thanks in advance!

I’ve seen a lot of people confused about Rachel’s lack of personal content this season, and I’ve also seen a bunch of people respond saying something like, “maybe she just didn’t provide any personal content.” 

While I don’t necessarily think the lack of personal content means Rachel doesn’t win, I think the second group of people mentioned above (“the editors probably just didn’t have personal content to include” people) are wrong.  I agree that maybe Rachel didn’t bring up her personal life on her own, but there’s no way the producers didn’t ask her leading questions in confessionals to hear about her personal life.  Just look at one example of what she had to say about her background in pre-game interviews: 

“I was born in Thailand and lived there until I was seven, but I never spoke Thai. Then I moved to the U.S. and didn't understand American culture. I was the youngest in my family by nine years. I've always been forced to understand social dynamics to assimilate from a young age, and I think I'm pretty good at it as a result.”

I’m sorry, but the producers must have asked her questions about this in confessionals, given how well she can tie her compelling background story into her gameplay.  They obviously know her background from casting, and I think they’d want to make sure to get footage of her discussing her personal story (like they do with most New Era contestants).  Furthermore, think back to every winner so far in the New Era: we learned about Erika’s immigrant parents and family, Maryanne’s difficulty fitting in growing up, Gabler’s home/family/military support/occupation, Yam Yam being gay/his husband/not fitting in, Dee’s family from Cuba, and Kenzie’s background and hair salon and personable nature.  

In my opinion, the editors definitely have footage talking about Rachel’s personal life, and for whatever reason, they haven’t included it.  This doesn’t mean that she doesn’t win, as they could be trying out new editing tricks.  But I do think it should give us some pause… is there really any reason that she would be the first winner to not have any segment about her personal life before the finale??

[Yes, we have that one conversation between Rachel and Sol where she talks about her parent’s business, but I don’t think that really counts as in-depth personal content]

Survey Results

Edgic Chart

Episode Rating: 8.18

https://preview.redd.it/g1lrepgilm7e1.png?width=226&format=png&auto=webp&s=f8b5371be51d09c41e270189e1d713d0e460c495

https://preview.redd.it/iie2fqehlm7e1.png?width=228&format=png&auto=webp&s=d13a3a99524bfb932e34a1abce6f55d285e822a2

Full disclosure, I decided to do a semi-rewatch of the season up to this point because I was in the camp feeling that Rachel's "winning edit" was a bit obvious. I call it a semi-rewatch because it was a biased viewing looking for things that would support a Sam victory. The 2-part finale editing also intrigued me, and although Jeff did say this is how they had decided they were going to split the season/episodes because of CBS' request for 14 episodes, the movie fan in me thinks about Part 1 of Avengers Infinity War/Endgame where maybe Rachel is Thanos before the hero comes out on top in the end.

TLDR

-Glue guy confessional is not a negative. You need the glue guy in team sports and tribal immunity, but Survivor is still an individual game. Sam says the glue guy “find their way somewhere in the middle,” which he was as the lynchpin in Gata’s two pre-merge tribals. He also says “if you keep the glue guy too long in this game, you end up getting burned by them.” Not voting Sam out when you have the opportunity is detriment to everyone else’s chances.

-Sam’s opening confessional still is him ending with “I’m a wolf in wolves’ clothing*.”* Contrast that with S45 zero-vote finalist Jake saying “I’m a wolf in goat’s clothing” when he found his immunity idol. Wolves will stay in packs, until they are able to go off on their own. This happens after Sierra gets voted out when he says *“*Gata is no more. Gata got ‘got,’ and now it’s every man for themselves.**” Turning on allies to further himself does not matter because at the loved ones reward he says “my loyalty is to the people writing these letters.”

-After Sierra is voted out, Sam constantly reminds the audience that he still has a pulse. EP9: “right now their only mistake was keeping me in the game.” In EP12 he says “as long as I’m on this island, I’m going to fight.” In EP13 when referencing Genevieve and Rachel’s win equity: “we’ll see about that, If I have anything to say about it, that’s not going to happen.”

-Keeping Andy in the pre-merge was essential to Sam’s survival in multiple ways: Andy reveals to Sam about the breadwinners’ alliance, in EP9 Andy tells Sam that he spent social capital making sure the boot was Sierra and not him, a key part of Operation Italy and shifting Rachel’s target off of Sam and booting Andy at F6.

-Rachel has acknowledged multiple times the danger that Sam presents to her game. Rachel questions giving Sam information in the Sol boot, but still does. In EP10 she says “every opportunity that I give Sam to not lie to me or screw me over in some way, he still does.” In EP11 Rachel says “my best options in this game are a playing field that doesn’t include Genevieve, Sam or Kyle,” but Sam might sit next to her in the finale. In EP13 Rachel tells Andy: “I think Sam has better relationships and I think that I would lose votes to him, even if I sat next to him.”

-Sam’s game is reliant on relationships, which has allowed him to keep a perfect voting record (albeit with two no-vote tribals). Opening confessional he says “I’m versatile enough to fit into different groups of people.” In EP2 when talking about Andy he says “relationships and lines of communication are key.” In the Kyle boot he realizes he doesn’t have the numbers and says “I might have to just go with the group once again, and that sucks, but that’s the game.”

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Episode 1 wastes no time putting Sam front and center in front of our TV screens

"I think I am dangerous in Survivor. I have what it takes physically, but I’m versatile enough to fit into different groups of people. You don’t find a guy who looks like me be super unsuspecting. It’s often the people that say ‘Oh I’m a wolf in sheep’s clothing… I’m a wolf in wolves' clothing."

Two important things at the jump. We see images of Sam playing baseball and theater while he says he is versatile. This sets up Sam's game of building relationships as well as allowing him the ability to have a perfect voting record.

He also says he is a wolf in wolf in wolves' clothing. Contrast this with zero-vote finalist Jake saying in S45 that he is a wolf in goat's clothing after finding his immunity idol. At the end of the day, there is only one winner. Wolves will stay in packs and help each other out, but at some point, they will break off and do their own thing.

The next important confessional that Sam has is the "glue guy" one.

“I love Anika taking the leadership role, mainly because I don’t want it. I want to be the glue guy, every sports guy knows what a glue guy is, they're not the best on the team, they're not the worst on the team, they find their way somewhere in the middle but somehow the team doesn’t function the same without them…It’s the guy in a friend group that it’s like once he’s there you feel like 'hey the whole group is here', but I think if you keep the glue guy too long in this game, you end up getting burned by them.”

Glue guys are important in team sports and during the tribal phase when you need to win immunity. Sam does this successfully at Gata and positions himself in the middle during the Jon and Anika boots. But Survivor is not a team sport. It's an individual game and Sam lets us know that if you keep him in the game, your chances of winning will dwindle. Even when Sierra gets voted out later in the game, Sam constantly makes reminders that he still has a pulse and a fighting chance.

Episode 2 sees Sam get a record amount of confessionals as it sets up the Andy relationship as well as further illustrates that he is the glue guy at Gata. I'll talk about the latter first. Anika helps Sam with his idol hunt before Rachel also gets involved with helping to dig up a key before Sam saves the final part for a moment to be shared with Sierra. Andy also laters comes up to him to say that the Beware Advantage is gone. The one-tribal idol hunt showed the handle he has on the dynamics at Gata.

Now to the Andy relationship. Which is Sam's most important relationship throughout the game, not Sierra and not Genevieve.

“Andy is an odd ball and it would be very easy for me to kick Andy to the curb, but in sports reporting, relationships and lines of communication are key.”

“I want to be Andy’s buoy in an ocean where he feels like he’s drowning. If I can have Andy feeling like he can come to me with information, that allows me options because you never know when the athlete who’s at the bottom of the totem pole is at the top of the totem pole because they’re the hero in the game."

Sam does not progress further in the game without Andy surviving the pre-merge as evident in Andy's role in Operation Italy and shifting the target away from Sam and onto himself at the Final 6. In Episode 9 after Sierra is voted out, Andy also tells Sam: "Today the target was square on your back, and I spent some social capital I just gained to make sure it was Sierra and not you…I blindsided you, but I wanted you here this entire time.”

In Episode 4 when Andy's shot-in-the-dark falls out of his bag, Sam has this long confessional.

“Sure enough Andy the one guy who might need his shot in the dark, somehow allowed it to fumble out of his bag…right now I’m a little bit of a mentor to Andy’s game, I’m just showing him how to play subtle Survivor, he just needs a little guidance is all, I think we’re still working on it, big work in progress but he’s a bit of a clumsy player at times…Andy is kind of like Survivor George Constanza he can’t get out of his own way… everything Andy does he should do the exact opposite of whatever he thinks is the right thing to do. Im just trying to make sure that I’m always one step ahead of him and that he’s always coming back with to me with the information. As long as he’s doing that Andy can stay around in my book.”

If Andy is George Costanza, does that make Sam Jerry Seinfeld?

Sierra also calls Andy a sloppy player, while being sloppy herself and divulging the breadwinner's alliance name, which Andy tells Sam about which leads to some alliance drama and this confessional by Sam.

“Sierra thinks Andy needs to go at the next tribal council, and uh that ain’t going to work for me. Keeping Andy is absolutely essential to my game.”

Sam and Andy do have a falling out after Andy was the backup vote in the Rome boot, but they do make up and work together for Operation Italy.

“There are probably four people at camp that are not thrilled with me right now, but I knew I was going to choose Andy before the challenge even started because I feel like I do owe Andy, a little bit…and Genevieve and I have felt like we are on the bottom so giving her the emotional support of letters from home, easy no brainer.”

When Andy shares information about Rachel's block-a-vote, we get a callback to Episode 2 by Sam.

“Andy is my hero, this is what Genevieve and I have been waiting for, it’s time to get the band back together to take out Rachel.”

Although Rachel was able to save herself, Andy flipping to join Operation Italy was set up by Sam's efforts from earlier in the season.

Now back to the wolf and glue guy comments. Once Sierra is voted out, tribal lines are done. Sam is playing for himself because there is only one winner.

I really liked this quote from the family letters' episode.

“It gives me a lot of confidence in who I am as person, it’s what I needed to remind myself, my loyalty is to the people writing these letters.”

Going back to the episode after Sierra is voted out, this is what Sam had to say in confessional.

“Tribal council tonight was horrible. Rachel and I get blindsided, Sierra gets sent home and we happen to lose Andy in the process so Gata is no more, Gata got got, and now, it’s every man for themselves…

Tonight both Andy and Lavo flipped on Gata, it was a brilliant acting job, like across the board. These people had me fooled. Right now their only mistake was keeping me in the game.”

I do want to point out that in the previous episode, Caroline does say in a confessional that her and Genevieve sees the Gata as threats and that "Sam is an obvious choice." Yet, the obvious choice says it was a mistake keeping him in the game.

What's interesting that even though Sam tells us in confessional that he is coming for revenge, Teeny still trusts Sam enough to want to work with him and we also get this confessional from Sol.

“I was a part of that blindside against Sam, but I like Sam’s mentality, he’s not getting emotional, he’s not getting pissed…and so the fact that Sam’s telling me hey I get it, it’s all good, Its like ok, maybe I can work with this guy.”

I question if the chaos part before the episode hurts Sam's edit, but we do have Sol saying he wants to work with Sam, so maybe Sam trying to save Sol is supposed to be perceived as a good thing, especially with Rachel showing hesitancy to work with Sam in a later confessional. More on Rachel's thoughts on Sam later.

Sam does not get his intended target of Sue during the chaos he caused, but we did get eight confessionals across seven different individuals after Sam's last confessional, some of which appear to be shot the following day because of the natural lighting. Interesting to include that many for what ultimately was a straightforward vote.

During Episode 10, Sam gets some momentum during the Gabe vote and builds trust with Andy and Teeny, even though he tells us they shouldn't.

“I think I have established a little bit of trust maybe with Andy and Teeny to potentially work together. I might burn them tomorrow in fact I probably will so they can’t trust me but I want them to.”

It does have a villainous vibe, but ultimately is a strong social move because this was Teeny's immediate confessional afterwards.

“I never thought I’d say it but I’m interested in working with Sam. I think Sam kind of finds himself in a similar position as me, he’s lost somebody he’s was super close to, he’s been blindsided, right now I’m trying to latch onto anything that’s available.”

Sam later is able to reflect about giving up his shot-in-the-dark for rice before calling his shot against Gabe which would come out to be successful.

“I did not want to give up my shot in the dark for rice, I kind of know where I stand in the tribe, I know that my name is frequently tossed around as somebody who can go…But I feel cautiously optimistic about my place in the game because I’ve started to get the ball rolling on this alliance that can really take control of the game...

Gabe is such a threat in this game because he is the leader of Tuku, and once you get Gabe, you kind of blow up this Tuku alliance.”

Two more Tukus, Kyle and Caroline would get voted out in back-to-back tribals after Gabe was ousted.

In Episode 11, I really like this confessional from Sam because he shows an understanding of his changing position in different parts of the game.

“The beginning of this game I was deceptive, I was a liar, I was in control and that’s how I kind of kept my power. After Sierra got voted out I had all of my power in this game stripped from me. Since then I’ve had to pivot my approach and really come to people with full open honesty, and that’s when they first start to trust you. Who would have thought that just telling the truth would work pretty well on Survivor sometimes.”

Later in the same episode, Sam says why he wants to keep Kyle, but acknowledges that it might not happen, which helps him keep his perfect voting record streak.

“It is not good for my game to get Kyle out of here. As soon as Kyle is gone, everybody that’s looking at Kyle is looking at Sam, and it’s way too early to have everybody looking at Sam…the problem tonight is getting one of the other five players in the tribe on board to save Kyle I don’t know if the numbers are there… so I might have to just go with the group once again, and that sucks, but that’s the game.”

Sam also gets to comment about Kyle getting voted out in the next episode while still reminding the audience that he is still alive in the game.

“Having Kyle was a really really useful shield, but there was really nothing I could have done. I was kind of powerless tonight because there is a posse of five players Andy, Teeny, Rachel, Sue and Caroline picking off the big threats one at a time…Genevieve and I are in a really tight spot but this game is not over for us yet, and as long as I’m on this island I’m going to fight.”

That same train of thought also came up again at Final 5 when Genevieve and Rachel think that they are the top two players.

“Genevieve and Rachel have been talking about how they’re the two best players one of them is surely going to win the season. Ok, we’ll see about that. If I have anything to say about it, that’s not going to happen.”

Now back to idea that Sam is a foil to Rachel's chances. She questions in confessional on whether or not she should tell Sam about the plan to vote out Sol, before later confirming it to him and it backfire into chaos before tribal.

“I am now an underdog in this game, so as much as I owe Sol for sending me the advantage, I am genuinely torn, but even more importantly I don’t know if I should let Sam in on the vote, this tribal is my opportunity to show these new allies that I am with them and they can count on me.”

Rachel and Sam are able to go on a reward with Kyle at the Final 9 and she acknowledges that Sam is a danger to her game.

“Sam and I were really able to hash it out during this reward, but I feel like every opportunity that I give Sam to not lie to me or screw me over in some way, he still does.”

Sam is actually pretty chill towards Rachel at the Final 9. We see her earlier in the episode trusting Andy, but we are told that's not supposed to be a good idea because Andy calls himself a "slithering snake" and describes himself like a pendulum as he tries to get in good with Kyle and calls Teeny his No. 1 before trying to get Rachel to target Genevieve.

With the formation of the underdog alliance at the Final 8, Rachel has this confessional.

“I am trying to build a group to go to the end with. I think my best options in this game are a playing field that doesn’t include Genevieve, Sam or Kyle, I think the remaining five players we all have a fighting chance against each other if it comes down to the five of us at the end.”

Kyle goes out at 8 and Genevieve at 5, but will she have to sit next to Sam at the end?

At the Final 6 she also tells Andy the following statement.

“I think Sam has better relationships and I think that I would lose votes to him, even if I sat next to him.”

Of course, Andy decides to talk up his game and shift the target onto him, which leaves Sam, a viable jury threat in Rachel's eyes, still in the game.

Rachel is also assumes that Genevieve's idol is real at the Final 5, but keeps the vote on Genevieve after Sam reveals to Teeny that the idol is fake.

So can Sam beat Rachel in a final tribal council scenario? That's a tough call.

Out of the seven current jury members, the only possible votes I could think of for Sam would be Sierra, Sol, Andy and Genevieve, but even those names could still swing Rachel's way.

We shall find out soon enough.

I know this is an unlikely outcome, and there aren't direct edit hints that this is the case, but it seems like this outcome could help explain a few editing questions we have.

Let's say both Rachel and Sam make it to Final Tribal. While many people seem to think Rachel would have a blowout victory, it is also easy to see that Sam would potentially have several votes on the jury: Sierra, Kyle, Genevieve. Rachel likely has other votes locked down: Caroline, Sue/Teeny (whichever one is eliminated in fire in this scenario), and maybe Sol. While I think Gabe might lean Rachel, we can't know for sure, and same with Andy. I think there's definitely a world where Sam ends up with 4 votes and Rachel ends up with 4 votes.

Someone else pointed this out earlier, but it seems that in the New Era, the trend has been that the winners who win by smaller margins get more obvious edits (Dee, Kenzie). This might not actually be a trend in editing style but just a new era trend over time, but I think it would make sense for Rachel's huge edit to be featured in this season if the outcome is really close. Let's be honest, Rachel has NOT played a flashy game or over-the-top manipulative game, so the editors really don't NEED to be giving her as big of an edit as they are. I like to also think that the editors would want to leave some suspense in the finale. HOWEVER, if the final outcome is a tie, it makes complete sense that they have built up Rachel so much. Survivor producers have seen how the fandom discounts under-edited female winners, especially when there is a viable challenger, so they need us to see Rachel coming to make sure we're satisfied.

Of course, in the tie scenario, Rachel would win, as either Teeny or Sue (whichever one makes it to final tribal) will give her the tie-breaking vote. Rachel wins, the viewers understand why she wins, and her big edit makes sense.

I know this is nowhere from certain, but it's an idea. I know some people think the outcome will be a Rachel steamroll, but I'm hesitant to assume that, because there is really not going to be any suspense in the finale if it is.