‘Survivor: Philippines’ preview: [Spoiler] has arrived

“Survivor” is always a show full of surprises, and this time around, the surprise is rather simple: they are merging at 11 people! What is interesting about this here is that this event typically happens once you make it to either 12 or 10, and we can only think of two possible explanations for this: producers either set it up this way to surprise people, or this was some sort of deliberate move to make sure that we see what happens when you throw two people from Matsing in Malcolm and Denise back together again.

There is also another interesting question here when it comes to the jury. Why? Typically, this phase of the game starts going around 12 if you are having a final three; however, Katie was not declared to be a member of the jury, which seems fair given that she did not even meet everyone on both tribes. So what is happening instead? We’re guessing that either the merge is starting at ten this year so that the odds of a tie are pretty unlikely, or that they are pulling a fast one and going back to a final two this year.

As for the content of this preview, it’s hard to know what is going on save for the typical post-merge madness. The main thing that seems interesting is that Skupin and Jeff seem to be in part setting up some sort of six-person alliance, which we are hoping is not something that is permanent. Large alliances have made the game very boring the past few seasons, and they also tend to make a few people who are obviously on the bottom of the totem pole feel like idiots after the fact.

What do you think is going to happen come the merge?