10 Thoughts On… Survivor Worlds Apart – Episodes 6 Review – “Joaquin Takes A Walk”

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1. I believe that the Blue Tribe made a big mistake by not eliminating Joe when they had the chance. While Rodney was on the outside of this week’s vote, his read on the game still really impresses me. Once again, he was able to discern that Joe is this season’s likely winner and easily the biggest threat. While the Bostonian made mistakes in his execution, his plan to try and eliminate Joe was on point.

2. There was a secret scene after last week’s episode where Carolyn discussed how she thought her tribe could surprise people and shouldn’t be counted out only because they had one guy left. That indicated to me that the Red Tribe would win this week’s challenges and they did. While Mike definitely threw the challenge, we all know about the Survivor curse where the tribe that decides to throw a challenge is then met by a long losing streak. I expect the trend to continue this season.

3. The best part of this week’s episode was trying to figure out who Sierra’s loyalties were with. Last week, I was absolutely sure that she would flip on her former Blue Collar teammates and join Joaquin/Tyler and Joe, but something clearly changed this week that we were not privy to. I am curious as to why Joaquin and Tyler decided to exile Joe and invite Rodney into their bromance instead. Did Joe do something to make them distrust him? Was Joaquin and Rodney’s bromance so serious that it caused Joaquin to trust a Blue Collar ahead of a No Collar who would vote anyway they said (considering her had no other allegiances on his new tribe?) I can’t answer any of these questions. What I do know, however, is that Joe and Sierra must have had a very long strategy session that we didn’t see as I fully credit him for getting her to realign with Dan and Mike to form a new Power 4.

4. While it makes the most sense to get rid of Joe, there is also an argument for keeping him around (at least for the time-being). Joe currently has no allies on the Blue Tribe. That means he is an easy extra vote to pick-up and I was shocked that no one really picked up on this fact. I was especially shocked by Tyler not angling for Joe’s vote as he detailed his strategy of picking up the players who were feeling left out just last week.

5. I believe that the Red Team’s immunity win was absolutely integral for Shirin’s game. If the merge is next week, it means that Shirin has managed to escape a very precarious position and now has the ability to navigate her way into the majority. I am quite confident that she will be able to do this.

6. I really like Dan. I think he is a big character and his confessionals always deliver. That said, as a superfan of the show, I judge him at a higher standard than everyone else. His decision to call out Sierra could have gone down as one of the worst moves of the season. With that said, he was still able to get her to vote alongside him to send Joaquin home. Dan has made several nice recoveries in the game so far.

7. In the early part of the season, many considered Tyler to be the best player. Now, that theory will truly be put to the test as he has lost his main ally. Will he be able to recover? We shouldn’t forget the fact that he is the only one who knows that Carolyn has the hidden immunity idol and there is no doubt in my mind that his knowledge of this fact will determine the next tribal council.

8. While I like Rodney’s awareness, I believe that he slightly overplayed this week. It’s clear that he was trying to align himself with Tyler/Joaquin/Sierra but that he also wanted to keep his Blue Collar options open with Mike and Dan (and keeping both of his options open is what resulted in him convincing Mike to throw the immunity challenge to lose Joe). I believe that had he just kept going on the path that he was on, Sierra would have likely voted with him/Tyler/Joaquin and he wouldn’t be in as much trouble as he is.

9. I miss So.

10. Can we give a collective props to Joaquin for the way he went out? He wasn’t bitter in his final words and seemed to recognize where he went wrong. While he seemed cocky and brash during the season, his exit proved to me that he is a good guy.

Murtz Jaffer is the world's foremost reality television expert and was the host of Reality Obsessed which aired on the TVTropolis and Global Reality Channels in Canada. He has professional writing experience at the Toronto Sun, National Post, TV Guide Canada, TOROMagazine.com and was a former producer at Entertainment Tonight Canada. He was also the editor at Weekendtrips.com.