Survivor season 43 week 7 power rankings: Who could go home next?

Survivor Season 43 is out of mergeatory and into the meat of the individual game. This week, we saw original tribal lines fall to the wayside as power players like Jesse and Karla began to form deadly alliances. Unfortunately, for Dwight fans, he found himself on the wrong side of that alliance and he’s now out of the game.

Let’s take a look at how these newly minted alliances have impacted the power rankings.

Survivor season 43 week 7 power rankings

Out) Dwight Moore (Last: 9) – I don’t think Dwight has done anything wrong since pushing a bit too hard when he lost his vote early. That put him in a bad spot with Jesse and Cody but didn’t seem to affect his game much. Instead, it would appear that his biggest fault is being too close to Noelle who the other players seem to see as a power player. In the end, Dwight was too inconsequential to Jesse and Cody’s plans, making him an easy vote to prove their loyalty to Karla and the rest of Coco.

11) Mike Gabler (Last: 12) – Should Gabler be rated higher after picking up an individual immunity last week? Maybe, but it’s still impossible for me to see a winning path for Gabler at this point. He just seems like someone who’s going to get voted out ASAP because the other players can’t trust him to keep a plan quiet.

10) Ryan Medrano (Last: 11) – Ryan continues to be the quintessential meathead. Even during this week’s immunity challenge, he was chastising Ryan after they lost instead of using that moment to build a stronger relationship. He just doesn’t have it in the social or strategy department, which means he has a near-zero chance of winning based on what we’ve seen this far.

9) Noelle Lambert (last: 7) – While the edit hasn’t really shown it, the players on the beach seem to view Noelle as a major strategic player. Part of that could just be talk, but it’s never a good spot to be in where people are talking about your game and the editors aren’t showing it. That tells me that, even if Noelle is doing things on the beach, it doesn’t really matter for the end game. Noelle needs a move to boost her visibility or I’m just not going to be able to see her as a potential winner.

8) Jeanine Zheng (Last: 10) – Jeanine gets a bump mostly because people below her have underperformed. Her idol is likely the most at risk to James’ Knowledge is Power advantage and she doesn’t appear to have many strong allies. That said, the idol is in her pocket, which means she definitely still has the tools to make a move. She just needs to bring in a few more numbers to make it happen.

7) Owen Knight (Last: 8) – I really want to believe Owen is doing a good job at playing the middle, but he continues to be on the wrong side of the vote. If it happened once, it wouldn’t be a big deal. However, this is two straight weeks. A pattern is starting to emerge and it doesn’t look good for Owen.

6) James Jones (Last: 6) – The castaways keep telling us James is playing a great social game, but the editors aren’t showing it too much. That would give me pause to keep ranking James so high, but it’s hard to drop somebody after they get a Knowledge is Power advantage. If played correctly, he could really turn this game on his head. We just have to hope he’s able to make noise when it matters.

5) Cody Assenmacher (Last: 2) – Cody’s fall from grace is more a reflection of him just not really doing much these last few weeks. On top of that, his idol becomes a bit less powerful now that we know James could steal it. Cody still seems well-placed to go deep into the game, but his winning edit just isn’t there yet.

4) Cassidy Clark (Last: 5) – Am I likely overrating Cassidy because of how the editors handled Erika and Maryanne’s winning game? Potentially, but Cassidy continues to get content even when she’s not super involved in the strategy. That tells me that she has a part to play even if she doesn’t win. I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m wrong, but the editors don’t usually give this much visibility to a character that isn’t going to be important to the season’s story.

3) Sami Layadi (Last: 4) –  I still don’t really believe Sami can win. He hasn’t really owned a strategic move and seems like someone who will be targeted at some point for being good at challenges. That said, everyone seems to like him, and being likable is always a good thing in Survivor. Sami seems the kind of boot that’ll come as something of a shock when it eventually happens.

2) Jesse Lopez (Last: 2) – The Jesse-Karla connection continues to get stronger. Unfortunately, only one of them can win and Karla seems slightly better positioned at this stage. Jesse’s one leg up is that he’s generally better in challenges, which is something he could use to facilitate Karla’s exit.

1) Karla Cruz Godoy (Last: 1) – As mentioned above, these two are running the show right now. They aren’t as strong of a pair as people like Shan and Ricard from Survivor 41, so the coming betrayal won’t be as spicy. However, expect some fireworks when these two ultimately turn on each other.