Survivor season 42 episode 8 power rankings

Last week’s episode of Survivor Season 42 saw strategy be affected by the player’s real-world experience. That’s not a bad thing. This game is and always has been a social experiment and seeing so many different experiences play out within the game is what makes it exciting and often drives the game in ways both seen and unseen.

We were also treated to a double boot that saw both Rocksroy Bailey and Tori Meehan get the chop. That might not be a surprising outcome for anyone who’s been paying attention, but it was still an interesting journey to get there. Now that we’re in the top eight, let’s take a look at where everyone sits.

Out) Rocksroy Bailey (Last: 9) – We’ve had Rocksroy at the bottom of our power rankings for weeks because there didn’t seem to be any path for him to win this game. That said, we don’t think getting rid of him here was the right move. The majority alliance had him in their back pocket and knew that Romeo Escobar was actively working against him. For us, it makes more sense to keep Rocksroy around because he’s never going to rock the boat. Oh well.

Out) Tori Meehan (Last: 10) – Tori has been a dead woman walking for weeks. We picked her to win the season during the pre-season, but that was more due to her sharing a birth state with us. She just hasn’t played a very good game, seemingly unable to turn off her paranoia when that was exactly what was needed after a few moves didn’t pay off.

8) Romeo Escobar (Last: 6) – A few weeks ago, Romeo was sitting pretty. He had a solid alliance and seemed to be getting on well with people like Hai Giant. Unfortunately, everything has since changed and he’s very much out of the numbers. The one positive is that there’s a path for him to work with players like Omar Zaheer and Maryanne Oketch to try and turn the tables on a few of the physically stronger players. It’s going to take quite a bit of work on his part though.

7) Maryanne Oketch (Last: 7) – Maryanne essentially felt forced to use her idol last week after seeing what had happened at the other tribal council. We don’t really blame her, but it does mean she has almost no protection at this point. Her biggest saving grace is that Taku still has four players in the game, giving that potential alliance half of the players left. That could keep her safe if they decide to move forward together.

6) Jonathan Young (Last: 6) – Jonathan’s edit took something of a nosedive this week in terms of strategy. He just doesn’t seem to have the chops to keep up with some of his tribemates. That said, we’re at the point where he could really go on an immunity run. Obviously, he’d need a Herculean effort at this point, but it’s definitely not impossible for someone who has already dominated nearly every challenge.

5) Drea Wheeler (Last: 4) – We’re dropping Drea every so slightly because she lost her idol and was a clear target last week. Now that she’s a bit more vulnerable, we could players trying to go after her. Fortunately, she does still have a few extra tricks up her sleeve and could easily still Mike Turner’s idol to keep herself safe if she needs to.

4) Lindsay Dolashewich (Last: 5) – Lindsay continues to give us Erika Casupanan vibes. Both players were under-edited early in the season, which hid a lot of the telltale Survivor fans look for when trying to decide a winner. Just like Erika, Lindsay is starting to come alive strategically and is well-placed in the game. It’s almost impossible to see her being voted out anytime soon and a winning path is starting to appear.

3) Mike Turner (Last: 3) – Mike is the only person in the game that has an idol as we head into Week 8. That’s huge at this point in the game, and Mike has enough firm allies to keep him safe. He still needs a few things to go his way to get to the end, but he’s incredibly likable, which could give him a major boost with the jury if he makes it that far.

2) Hai Giang (Last: 1) – Hai drops from our top spot for the first time in three weeks. That’s not because he’s doing anything wrong, he’s just been a bit less visible in the previous episode. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but if the editors are dropping off of his story, that could mean he’s not the winner. We still think he’s safe in most scenarios, but the next person has passed him by a few centimeters.

1) Omar Zaheer (Last: 2) – Omar becomes just the six player this season to hold our top spot. And really, you can’t count Tori being on top as we hadn’t seen anything out of the players when we ranked her so highly. Omar is seemingly tight with everyone and is in a great position to dictate where the game goes from here. If he’s right about being in good with the players on the bottom, he also won’t have to worry as much about someone coming in to usurp his position. He might struggle at the very end to actually make it final tribal council, but Omar is in a very good spot heading into the ninth week of Survivor Season 42.