Survivor Winners at War merge episode 8 power rankings: Black and yellow

8. Tony Vlachos

There are two guiding principles that define how certain castaways view the landscape of Survivor: Winners at War. The first is the idea of past connections, and how knowing one another through tenuous circumstances can define why you are targeted. The other is the idea of threat levels, and how prominent a player’s legacy is being the defining factor.

Tony has both of those in spades, as his Dakal group is still going strong heading into the merge. He’ll also have the opportunity to reunite Cops-R-Us with Sarah Lacina, which all but elevates the threat level that others like Jeremy have vocalized in confessionals. He might be the highest-profile target at the merge, which will either serve him well (or not).

7. Nick Wilson

Nick has quietly had to play a more deceitful game than his first time around, but the editing has done well to protect him from negative perceptions. He’s voted out his Survivor crush in Parvati Shallow and had to vote out his spiritual older brother in Yul, even going so far to give him the “Hyung” honorific in his deciding vote.

How Nick will bounce back from having to vote out his alliance leader remains to be seen, although he seems to have an in with Michele and Wendell should sides flip. How much that leads to him having control of the game remains to be seen, as Nick seems to be a tertiary (but safe) character right now.