By RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com, originally filed Friday, April 29, 2016
I've been gone for two weeks and have had to play catch up with "Survivor."
Fortunately, Douglasville bodybuilder Cydney Gillon is still alive and has made it to the final six, outlasting 12 others.
She is now tight with brain Aubry Bracco, who has played a very smart game to this point on all levels and may be in the best position to win given that it seems most everyone on the island respect her game. Cydney and Aubry teamed together in the last episode to take out young'un Julia Sokolowski, who tried to maintain ties with both sides and became vulnerable as a result.
Cydney is well aware that Tai Trang is a great danger for everyone. The chicken-loving, tree-climbing Vietnamese refugee is likable and could very well win against virtually anybody else in a final. As she said, in all grammatical beauty: "We can't go to no final 3 with no damn Tai. That wouldn't be the best bet for us." But Tai has an extra vote advantage he won at an earlier challenge that is good through the top five, plus his immunity Idol. He's in good shape but also a big target once his advantages are no longer usable.
Clearly, Kyle Jason and his evil brawn buddy Scot Pollard (blindsided last week and out of the game) are not fans of Cydney. They tried to get her out episode nine, but she smartly targeted Debbie and saved herself.
Cydney has not been able to win an individual immunity challenge to date though last week, she did pocket a reward challenge. But she has been a solid player who has made enough right moves to get to day 31.
As Jason noted during last Wednesday's episode, Cydney has shown a tendency to flip. And she has kept her mind open for all options. "It's a me game, not a we game," she noted.
Parvati Shallow, the only former Atlantan who has won "Survivor" and one of the best players in the show's history, said as an outsider, she thinks Cydney would need to be paired with Michele Fitzgerald and/or Jason in the finals to ensure a victory. (Michelle has been a steady player and has talked a good talk but has not made any real big moves though she did win immunity this past Wednesday.) If Cydney was in the final two or three with Aubrey and/or Tai, Parvati thinks she'd be hard-pressed to get enough votes from the jury to pocket the $1 million.
And nobody seriously thinks Joe Del Campo, the invisible player, will make it to the finals. He is not an adept social or strategic player and has been useless in challenges. He will be cut at some point. But given his age, you have to give him credit for surviving this long.
ON TV
"Survivor," 8 p.m. Wednesdays, CBS
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