5. Denise Stapley
Being openly willing to get rid of Adam and work with the majority marked an important benchmark for Denise’s game. It showed that even though she was one of his closest allies in the early days of Sele, she was willing to shift from the “we” game to the “me” game and not put up a fight. Sure, she already blindsided him back on Sele, but here we saw Denise move away from a live grenade.
Her level of game awareness on a positional sense continues to be her strong suit, as she has made her million learning to read the room close to a dozen and a half times at every single Tribal Council and coming out the other end with either a small or major victory. Sure, she had close help from having the likes of a Malcolm to come along with her, but if there’s anyone to go at it on her own, it would be Denise.
The fact that she did dethrone Queen Sandra continues to be the storyline looming over herself in Survivor: Winners at War, as many have noted wanting to make sure she doesn’t grow too large a resume. The fact that she earned individual immunity already and she didn’t come close to being targeted the first opportunity after not being immune anymore shows she has already worked to mitigate her growing threat level.