Real contenders: #3. Rizo: Maybe he'll play his idol successfully? Honestly I would've put him in the dark horse tier but I ran out of space lmao. #2. Savannah: It seems like people are starting to clock her as a mean girl. If she doesn't get a self-reflection episode then she cannot win period. I'm confident that she makes finale regardless though.

4

First let's talk about the episode. I had Nate in my top 3-4 the whole pre-merge only for him to be the merge boot. But tbh it all started to click for me during the episode. I did have slightly more faith in Nate to actually win at the end than Rizo, but I was the least confident in his longevity out of that core Uli group. If any of them were going to go early it would be Nate. This will be a frustrating ranking bc even though the game has flipped, my rankings haven't bc of the edit and 50.

1

Don't be fooled, they still have no chance: #10. Sophie: I always expected her edit to pick up eventually. That doesn't mean she can win. Even now her content is still somewhat circumstantial and lacks a real storyline or theme. #9. Kristina: This was the opposite of the merge episode she needed. Felt like an afterthought and even got undercut a bit. I'm just about as out on her as I am with Sophie.

1

Unlikely winners: #8. MC: Not sure what to make of the idol stuff this episode tbh, but the vibe I've got from the beginning is that she's somewhat of a big player but not someone that we're really meant to be emotionally invested in. #7. Jawan: This episode was a much better look for him. It feels like he woke up in the game. I still don't like how he was portrayed as clueless earlier though. I would guess Savannah still wins the battle.

1

Dark horses: #6. Sage: Her last few episodes have been great and she definitely has the potential to jump up. Still not convinced her arc is a 13 episode one though. #5. Steven: This was a great episode for him, and now that Hina has the majority I kinda have to put one of them this high. I still think the game will get flipped back into Uli's favor though. #4. Alex: We see how he's playing the middle which is good for him. I guess there's a chance this is a weirdly toneless winner edit.

1

Winner pick: #1. Soph: We basically got a full recap of her relationships and where her head is at in the game, and we even saw her correctly predict that MC would play the idol for herself. My current prediction is that she wins and CBS saw her storyline as concluded, while Rizo and Savannah are big characters who come close to winning and want redemption.

1

Ok so no one's gonna see this but the more I think about it Steven should probably be like #3 and Alex could probably drop to like #6. Alex actually got subtly undercut this episode (he said Soph had no idea he's playing both sides but Soph's confessionals imply she does know) which makes it fairly clear that Soph will outlast him.

1