Survivor season 43 week 12 power rankings: Who could go home next?

Survivor Season 43 is nearly over. With just one episode left, fans are in for a wild finish, especially if Jesse’s savage blindside of Cody was any indication of what’s left. In many ways, this feels like Jesse’s season to lose, but all five players still in the game still have a path.

That makes watching incredibly exciting and any prediction very tough to make. I’ll do my best with the power rankings below.

Survivor season 43 week 12 power rankings

Out) Cody Assenmacher (Last: 2) – Last week, I predicted that Cody had one of the easier paths to the end of everyone left. In no universe could I have predicted that his biggest ally would use his own idol against him. It took one of the most devastating moves in Survivor history to get Cody out of the game. He should definitely hold his head high when he looks back on his game, even if he made a major blunder letting Jesse hold onto his idol.

5) Karla Cruz Godoy (Last: 5) – As mentioned above, everyone left in the game certainly has a chance to win. In fact, if all five of the people went to final tribal council, Karla might have the second-best chance of winning. That said, she’s really on an island at this point and is likely seen by Jesse as his biggest competition given how closely they’ve been working together. Since he still has an idol in his pocket, I’m going to assume he’ll use that to blindside Karla and set himself up very well with the jury. That said, he could target someone like Owen or Gabler due to their challenge and fire-making abilities, giving Karla a winning opportunity.

4) Mike Gabler (Last: 3) – Can Gabler drop in and somehow win this game? Probably not, but he has a story of being constantly overlooking and overcoming the odds. I doubt that happens, but he has a chance and probably isn’t being voted out by anyone (unless Jesse really thinks Gabler is a fire-making genius).

3) Cassidy Clark (Last: 1) – I’m still relatively high on Cassidy’s chances, she just needs to make a move that she can call her own. Over the last few weeks, I assumed that was coming, but it hasn’t materialized for her yet. If she’s able to pull something off in the finale, I think she has a great shot to win (especially if she gets out Jesse). That said, it’s hard to have her much higher at this point because she just hasn’t had the goods yet.

2) Owen Knight (Last: 6) – Owen hasn’t had a move to truly call his own all season and has been out of the vote more often than not. However, he has a ton of friends on that jury. If he’s able to pick up an immunity win or two and be behind a vote to get Jesse out of the game, he might have the best story of anyone left. If nothing else, being likable could end up being his real superpower.

1) Jesse Lopez (Last: 4) – If I haven’t made it clear, Jesse is the odds-on favorite to win. Not only has he made several big moves in a row, but he’s done so in a way that didn’t show his threat level too early. He still probably needs to win either the final immunity idol or best someone in fire-making. Obviously, if you’re still in the game, you’d like to not be forced into something like that, but strategy-dominant players usually end up in this situation.

Those players have been voted out at the end of the first two seasons in the new era, but if you look back at a season like Winners at War, Tony Vlachos needed a fire-making win to secure a seat at final tribal. Jesse might not yet be on Tony’s level in terms of entertainment, but his iron grip on the game is similar enough that the comparison works. If Jesse sits at the end, he wins. Now he just has to get there.