Survivor: David vs. Goliath episode 13: Big takeaways

The last episode before the season finale of Survivor: David vs. Goliath cleared up who still has a chance to win it all, and who’s out of it.

It was exciting to watch so many different plans unfold in yesterday’s episode of Survivor: David vs. Goliath. It’s relieving to finally have a season where every person remaining it trying to play their own game and has a real drive to win. When the majority of the castaways are playing an individual game, the alliances turn to voting blocs and the game is much more fluid.

Usually, we only see this high level of gameplay in returning player seasons like Second Chance and Game Changers. The fact that David vs. Goliath has brought so many power shifts is a testament to the great minds of this outstanding cast. Here are three key takeaways we picked out from the last episode before the finale.

1) Mike knows what he’s doing.  Although it might have seemed that Mike White was shaping up to be a possible goat to take to the end, that’s the farthest thing from the truth. This episode showed us how strong Mike’s social game really is.

In Christian’s post-game interview with RHAP, he mentioned how he felt good with Mike after having a solid one on one conversation with him. But then, Christian watched castaway after castaway go to Mike to have a one on one conversation with him as well. At that point, he realized how Mike was the one person holding all the information because everyone would open up to him.

That culminated in a textbook blindside! Despite everyone wanting to execute their own plan, Mike was able to get five out of seven people to vote the way he wanted to. He was even able to get a majority of the votes on Christian while throwing two on Davie in case of an idol!

Mike has been playing a quiet but strong social and strategic game, so if he can make it to the end with the right people, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s crowned as the Sole Survivor.

2) Davie and Nick are still the frontrunners, but they are in trouble. Although Mike had a strong showing during this past episode, Nick and Davie have had tremendous strategic and social gameplay for the entire season. If any of them make it to the end, they win. It’s as simple as that. The problem is for them to actually get themselves to the end.

Both Nick and Davie’s position in the game got more precarious after the last Tribal Council. Nick’s fake idol plan backfired, as he became a target and that spooked him enough to play his only idol. Even Mike mentioned the importance of voting out Nick before Final Tribal.

With Christian gone, Davie’s threat level makes him more vulnerable than ever. He’s on the outs with the Jabeni three, plus Alison and even Kara still seem satisfied with sticking by Mike’s side. That means both Nick and Davie have to win immunities and be on the lookout for another idol if they want a shot at making the Final Three.

3) It’s not looking good for the remaining women. Coming into David vs. Goliath, there was a lot of talk in pre-season interviews of there being a strong group of women that could take control of the game. Quite the opposite has happened. Out of the 13 people who made the merge, only five were female. At this point, there are an even amount of guys to girls, but let’s face it, they possess very little power in this game.

For example, consider Kara, Alison and Angelina’s closest relationships. They seem to be very one-dimensional, dedicated to either their original tribe or just to one other castaway. Compare that with Mike and Nick. They have formed fairly strong relationships with a majority of the remaining castaways, even across original tribal lines.

As a result, Nick, Mike, and even Davie have been able to take control of certain Tribal Councils because of their social game. We haven’t seen any of the Goliath women successfully control a vote since the merge. To top it all off, the edits for the three remaining women haven’t looked favorable. Alison has received by far the least confessionals and Kara has had very little to say in these past few crucial episodes.

With six people remaining, three Tribal Councils left and the possibility of yet another idol, anything can happen in this unpredictable season of Survivor that could make a case for a winner that we aren’t even expecting.