Survivor 48 has been anything but stagnant with each new episode giving some of the top moments in the show's history a run for their money.
And it doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
In a sneak peek (below) of episode 7, titled "Survivor Smack Talk," we get a very telling confessional from Shauhin Davari as he talks us through his plan to the end. Step one? Control a big move utilizing the current bottom three players.
Cedrek McFadden, Sai Hughley, and Mitch Guerra are on the outs
With no secure alliance connections, these three appear to be sitting ducks on the merged tribe. However, no vote this season has been that simple, and I highly doubt this is the moment our castaways start taking the easy path ahead.
Shauhin has been on the wrong end of a blindside once already when his California Girls ally Thomas Krottinger was sent home, so he's stepping up this time, building the outsider connections to ensure he's in the know of what's to come.
Already a member of the "honesty and integrity" alliance with David Kinne, Joe Hunter, Eva Erickson, and Kyle Fraser, he's looped into the majority plans, which means he'll also have the blueprints to blow them to bits. All he needs now are the numbers to back him up.
But will Shauhin pull off a blindside in episode 7 or be the victim of one?
There are quite a few famous last words in Survivor history, and as soon as Shauhin declared "I will win this game" in the clip, all the alarms started going off in my head.
Shauhin has set himself up very nicely this season. He has strong allies, a good social game, is a challenge threat. Except for the Thomas vote, he's secured himself a nice path to the finish line. But in Survivor, one player's win is another player's loss, and the only way to change your fate is to seal the fate of someone else.
But with his biggest allies being so determined to play a "clean" game, if word gets out—and let's be honest there are a couple people on the bottom that are known to share plans—that he's going behind their backs, the script could flip and his name could be the one written down.
Now that we're in the individual phase, our castaways need to play minute-to-minute to guarantee their place in the game. Thinking long-term has burned more than a few great resumes in the past, sending some of the best players in history to the jury.
So while this clip could be setting up Shauhin as the new Survivor 48 mastermind (as I predicted he could become), it also could be alluding to his torch getting snuffed this week.
And there's only one way to know for sure!
Tune in Wednesday at 8 pm ET on CBS and Paramount+ to catch the latest episode of Survivor 48.