Survivor: David vs. Goliath merge power rankings: Valley of Elah

8. Carl Boudreaux

At one point, it looked like Carl had an instrumentally important purpose for Survivor: David vs. Goliath. With him sitting in defeat on the beach after losing Jessica and pouring his heart out, holding onto a wooden staff of biblical proportions, he seemed to look like he was vowing to become the Goliath necessary to ascend to victory.

However, after a few episodes of virtual invisibility, his unnecessary edits seemed to look more and more like necessary advantage confessionals and content leading up to one move before a sudden exit. For example, the ascension so far has quickly risen to “person who found the Idol Nullifier,” being highlighted as the only player headed to Exile Island and the first in history to gain a new advantage.

Since then, Carl hasn’t been using the advantage as a slingshot designed to take out Goliath; he’s been someone to read tree mail and back up Davie’s assertion that Elizabeth should be the next person on Vuku to be voted out. His purpose is reactionary to tribal events or to (un)successfully use the Idol Nullifier against someone.

He should be relatively safe, but his long-term prospects for the game seem to be vastly diminished. He’s been sent far back behind the scenes at this point.