‘Survivor Caramoan: Fans vs. Favorites’ rankings: Has Cochran done his homework?
While Phillip Sheppard spent most of his time on “Survivor Caramoan: Fans vs. Favorites” talking about the “BR Rules,” we actually think that another castaway here may have done a better job studying the game tape of the winner from their season: John Cochran. Want to know why? Read on to find out how he has set himself up in a pretty brilliant position to go far, and possibly even win if he makes it to the last tribal council.
Our criteria, as always, is simple: screentime + strategy + challenge ability + threat level = where you fall on our list.
The 9 remaining castaways
9. Malcolm Freberg (last week: 6) – In reflecting for the past few days on Malcolm’s move, we have determined that it was great theater, and also likely a giant finger to Stealth R Us in getting rid of its leader. Kudos to Malcolm for finding the idols, but the problem is what happens now. He has no idols after giving one to Eddie, and nobody is going to want to work with three people who are already close. Unless he finds an idol again soon, he has to be toast.
8. Reynold Toepfer (10) – It’s really an either/or scenario when it comes to Reynold and Malcolm. If one of them has immunity, the other one goes. The one argument for keeping Reynold is that he’s not as good of a schemer, while the argument for ditching him is that he is an absolute challenge beast.
7. Eddie Fox (9) – We usually like to give at least one person in an alliance the benefit of the doubt, but with the Three Amigos it’s almost like all of them are almost equal targets. The only thing Eddie has going for him is that Malcolm and Reynold are even bigger threats.
6. Andrea Boehlke (8) – For a few quick moments, it actually looked last week like Andrea could have been taken out by her own alliance. She doesn’t have one of her top allies in Phillip anymore, which to us means that if the Three Amigos do pull off a miracle, she will be the one biting the dust next.
5. Erik Reinchenbach (5) – Isn’t someone going to get tired of Erik’s constant flip-flopping at some point? We have to assume so, since you really don’t want a wild card in the game when there is such potential for chaos as is.
4. Sherri Biethman (4) – The case to ditch Sherri here is very simple: Let’s say that somehow, the show plants two more idols, Eddie and Malcolm find them, and Reynold wins immunity. The correct move for the other favorites is to ditch the fan. It’s not a complete win, but she is someone that has already proven to be a traitor once.
3. Brenda Lowe (3) – Unless Brenda starts playing a Sophie Clarke-like brilliant game from here on out, we can’t see her making the final three. She just doesn’t have the skills. We just like to think traditionally that the finalists are a little better-edited, and have a genuine story to tell.
2. Dawn Meehan (2) – Make no mistake that crying Dawn will almost surely make it to the end,there’s just no way that she’s going to win. After so many people have helped her and nurtured her, who’s going to vote for her? If we want to continue the “South Pacific” analogies, she is the Coach of this season.
1. John Cochran (1) – We’ll close with a metaphor, and say that while Cochran is receiving much more airtime than Sophie received her season, he’s playing a similar game save for a few of his Coach-like antics and victory celebrations. He has a larger alliance, an alliance within an alliance, and many of his decisions are coming about in a way that does not make him the obvious instigator. He’s happy to let someone else take the credit for those moves. He’s also won an immunity challenge, and while not everyone may like him, this season he is really following the perfect path of what many other past winners have done to take home the check in the end.
Who do you think is the most likely to win “Survivor Caramoan” right now? If you want to also watch a preview for Wednesday’s episode, you can do so over here.
Photo: CBS