Watch out for each and every Hustler, as Survivor Season 35 episode 4 edgic helps paint them as the complex tribe to pay attention to going forward.
One of the biggest challenges in determining the Survivor edgic for a season so early comes when a tribe continues to go to Tribal Council repeatedly. In the first three episodes of Survivor season 35, Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers, we see the Hustlers lose two of their tribemates in brutal unanimous votes. However, the lengthy time dedicated to Tribal Council right before this swap may be the most crucial moment in the early season.
Unfortunately, the Sun King, Sir Patrick Bolton, was a classic example of when keeping it real goes wrong, as he couldn’t help be his zany self on the way out the door in 16th place. A huge part of why he goes home is because of Lauren fighting for her fight to rally the vote against him. She’s certainly a one-trick pony, though, as there’s little to her story right now beyond foil to Patrick and outsider of her tribe.
Below is the edgic chart for Survivor season 35 episode 3, “My Kisses Are Very Private.” After that, we’ll break down the players by Survivor edgic ranking.
Complex Personality
Ryan Ulrich (CPP5): As always, Ryan offered up his strategic insight to the viewer and narrated life at camp. He first saw Lauren as the vote candidate, but mostly re-iterated how well he got along with everyone. He and Devon were the ones seeing tipping the scales on who went home, and things started to heat up at Tribal Council.
You know that Ryan is getting a big push in editing as Tribal Council goes along, as even though it’s mainly a Lauren vs. Patrick vibe he’s still tapped to insert where the tribe is headed going forward, who’s best to integrate with others and who can keep the Hustlers going should the tribe head into a merge (or swap, as it turns out). As the music swells to a thunderous roar, Ryan is given an edit akin to a football coach giving a final speech before the final big play, hence the positive edit.
Ryan is a player I could see going far, and his speech was left in intentionally for a huge narrative purpose. However, he’s been pushed too hard too early for me to see him as an outright winner of Survivor season 35. Still, he set the Hustlers as the Complex Tribe with that speech, with the remaining key players for the season to come.
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Jessica Johnston (CPP4): Finally, we get to know more about Jessica! While she’s still giving a lot of her confessional time to talk about Cole, we start to get to see it from a personal perspective. Cole giving her idol information is good for her; fishing time is bonding with Cole time for her; romantically, she’s moving a lot faster than what she’s used to.
We got to peek into Jessica’s reserved, religious background (with TMI coming on her virginity shoutout), and Cole continues to refer to her as his dream girl. More importantly, when Cole’s blabbering about the idol to Roark and Desi, Jessica’s upset not just because he lost power with her, but because it was a dumb, bold move that could hurt her or the one she likes.
Jessica has inserted herself as a player to watch out for, but she’s still got to make headway in this game before you can count on a winner candidacy.
Lauren Rimmer (CP5): In slaying the red-headed dragon, Lauren has become the most important character of Survivor season 35 episode 3. She knew she could have gone home, she knew to work the tribe over immediately after the last Tribal Council, and we saw her struggles to connect with her tribe.
In one hell of a Tribal Council, she laid out all the reasons why to vote Patrick out and didn’t overstay her hand. Lauren had the most confessionals of anyone in this episode, as she has talked about her real life in her approach to overcoming obstacles. With Patrick gone now, what’s left for her story? That remains a mystery.
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Ali Elliott (CP4): We saw a lot of inner struggle with Ali, as she spent the episode determining whether or not Patrick was worth keeping. We’ve seen enough personal development from Ali in the first few episodes that her medium-heavy strategy edit early on isn’t a big concern. I’m convinced that she’s now the frontrunner of Survivor season 35, but how she’ll bounce back from losing her partner will be crucial to her story.
Cole Medders (CPM4): What a silly, silly, Golden God character we have on our hands. The “distracted by shiny lights” of a character, Cole, has a good time with Jessica and clearly has intent to take out Joe, but instead of building up a decent strategy over romantic times with Jessica, he brings all the girls in and loses his positive edit with Jessica essentially calling him an idiot. Things just got started for his new relationship, but already they’re on rocky roads.
Ben Driebergen (CP3): After Chrissy came to Ben while dividing up the tribe in terms of alliances and targets, Ben gets to return the favor here with an introspective look into the tribe’s dynamics. With the other tribes stirring a lot more drama, Ben remains a middle-tier visible character with a great head on his shoulders and navigating his fellow castaway’s goals and allegiances well. He’s not getting too overblown an edit, which is perfect for the early game.
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Middle of the Road
Devon Pinto (MOR3): I struggled over whether or not to put Devon into CP status, as we’re continuing to see more and more of how he thinks and how he can convince producer pet Ryan into changing his mind for a vote. Still, he can’t shake the left-hand man edit, and I still know so little about him. Edgic requires a balanced view and a balanced character, yet we’ve seen him more as Ryan’s friend than Devon, the player.
Ashley Nolan (MOR2): She’s finally woken up to the possibilities of being with JP, yet she knows she can’t do anything under the watchful eye of Alan. We don’t get much in terms of character development, instead re-iterating how much she wants Alan gone. Her bulk of screentime is dedicated to keeping JP around in talks with Ben.
Over the Top
Alan Ball (OTT3): It’s clear that Alan is an interesting character within Survivor season 35, as he gets a “coconut struggle” edit despite little impact beyond personal character struggles. It’s not related to the game, nobody else is really commenting on it; we just get to see more of Alan having a hard time. He could have been swept under the rug, so expect these kinds of personality-driven episodes from him going forward.
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Under the Radar
Chrissy Hofbeck (UTR2): This is a stellar cooldown edit for Chrissy in this episode. She’s still one of the first people speaking on the Heroes tribe, letting Ben know they’re still cool and still need to decide where to go moving forward. Plus, Ben uses his confessionals to re-assure both players are steering the ship. You don’t want to be too visible in the early season edit if you want to win, especially for a designated “mom” archetype the show has provided countless times.
JP Hilsabeck (UTR2): He’s still providing the camp with food “and things like that,” and even received a fawning over by Ashley in her confessional. However, he’s also viewed as a dim-witted player completely asleep to the game around him, while also viewed as part of a power couple he wants no part of. I knew the premiere edit was a contextual push for JP, as he offers little in entertainment or insight at this stage.
Desi Williams (UTR2): Perhaps there’s a storyline in her yet. We haven’t seen much of Desi yet, but here she finds Joe irritating and rude with his selfish food habits. When Cole brings up reasons why to blindside Joe, she notes he complains a lot. Whether or not she finds a bigger role in that storyline remains to be seen ahead of the swap, but now she’s somewhat involved in something to do with the season’s story!
More from Heroes Vs Healers Vs Hustlers
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- Survivor Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers DVD set now on Amazon
- Big Brother 21’s cast pre-show ties harken back to Survivor season 35
- Survivor season 35’s Simone Nguyen is now married
- Survivor’s Ashley Nolan is now teaching kids to surf
Roark Luskin (UTR2): Roark had a very brief confessional about how strong a blindside candidate Joe is due to his fascination with pinning things on Mike. We see she has a strategic acumen, but with the lovebirds dominating the Healers’ ho-hum, always-winning tribe, there hasn’t been an opportunity for her to excel or break out yet. I could see Roark going far, but she needs some sort of relevance in Survivor season 35 fast in order to cling to any hopes of winning.
Mike Zahalsky (UTR1): He still gets a mention from several players in this episode, and he’s still the main target Joe brings up in pinning on having an idol, but that saved Mike from an invisible edit this episode. His intro episode gave one of the strongest cases of a winner’s edit, but with Joe, Cole and Jessica putting themselves in a situation to go out before him, I believe he’s been hidden by the edit due to the fact he goes far in the game.
Storylines to watch
- The Swap: The players are switching tribes, so it’s anyone’s game. Look for the duos (Ashley + JP, Chrissy + Ben, Ryan + Devon, Cole + Jessica), where they go and how Ali looks to find a new confidant.
- Shocking Tribal Council: It’s likely someone of prominence goes home, according to the commercial, or an idol/rock situation occurs. Either way, a tribe swap means some conflicts may be mitigated.
Next: Survivor: Ranking The Best Seasons
Survivor season 35 episode 4, “I Don’t Like Having Snakes Around,” airs on October 18 at 8 p.m. ET.