‘Survivor: San Juan del Sur’ rankings: Natalie’s big moves raise her chances

We’re going into a two-hour episode of “Survivor: San Juan del Sur” Wednesday night, and if we’re being honest, it feels like these two hours are mostly going to be all about trimming down some of the obvious boots. It is clearly five people versus three, and of those five, four of them are not turning on each other. The fifth in Natalie has no reason to go over and force a tie, unless she does recruit Baylor to get out Jon.

Below, you can see where we’ve ranked the eight remaining castaways going into the week, at least based on our perception on their strategy, edit, and their odds of winning if they were to make it to the end.

8. Reed Kelly – Win immunity after immunity, or go home. Reed had a great play on the last episode to get Jon out of the game, but even if he had pulled that off, where would that have left him now?

7. Alec Christy – He’s the perfect sort of seventh or sixth-place boot. He’s not the next target, but he’ll most-likely go at a time when the dominant alliance wants to obliterate that side. His only threat is in an immunity challenge.

6. Missy Payne – We go back and forth on Missy’s placement a whole lot, but the problem she runs into here is that we think that she’ll be seen as a strategic threat, or someone will want to get rid of her to separate her and Baylor. Even if she makes it to the end, she may have a hard time getting votes.

5. Keith Nale – Keith, strangely, has an outside shot of winning the game. Maybe he makes it all the way to the end, and then, he just needs the vote of Josh, Reed, Wes, and Alec, and that is half the jury. If someone from the other remaining alliance comes off a traitor, or Jeremy is really bitter, this guy could somehow win the game. He’s such a clueless player that he probably has another week or two, as well.

4. Jon Misch – We’re somewhat at odds here when it comes to Jon. If he makes it to the end of the game, we feel like he has a great chance of winning. However, he is going to have a harder time getting there than almost anyone else in the top six. He better be prepared to win a ton of competitions.

3. Jaclyn Schultz – Jaclyn and Jon have benefited heavily in this game from having other players around them who never want to unify against them, and their best skill may be being in the right place at the right time. Obviously, they have an emotional story if they make it to the end, but this story may also keep them from getting there.

2. Baylor Wilson – Still, we feel like Baylor is in a great spot to at least win $100,000. While we think she’s gotten a very good edit, we don’t know if she will necessarily win over a jury. What’s really working for her right now is that we don’t envision a situation where she goes before final four, almost regardless of what happens.

1. Natalie Anderson – With a few subtle moves, Natalie has put herself in an amazing position. Finding the idol was huge for her, but doing it with Baylor made certain that she had someone who felt very closer to her in the process.

Want to see some more news related to “Survivor”? Click here to see a really entertaining Ponderosa video, and we’ll be back soon with our interview of Wes. You can also sign up to gather some further TV updates via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: CBS.)