I don't see this as an early merge. In a 20 player season with a F3, they will have a 9-person jury, which means the first juror is the next boot.

Although in the Cooks they held back the merge, and 1 of the 9 jurors (Rebekkah) was never on a tribe with any of the F3, they haven't done that since. In Gabon they did do a fake merge and had one pre-merge boot (Marcus) as juror, but there were two swaps.

In Samoa merge was at Episode 8, and would have been at Ep 7 if not for the Russ Swann evac. First juror was the merge boot.

In HvV, they held back the merge and had a juror who wasn't merged, but it didn't matter because they all knew each other.

I think that a merge next episode when the first juror goes is perfectly normal. I don't see it as being done to save anybody. Actually I think the players who are underdogs have a better chance not being merged, as at least they have a shot to win immunity and not go to TC.

I thought that Jud got a good moment at TC when Jeff asked him about Freud. Good thing that Jeff didn't ask Purple Kelly.

I found Jane's entire scene most unattractive. It didn't bother me that she ate her own fish, not at all, but her remarks were far from endearing. She was right on the mark with a stereotypical appearance as the cackling crone (only needed a cauldron as her prop).

Sash and Brenda came off as very arrogant, but Sash looked better at handling his smugness, until he hit that bump at TC.

Alina and Benry are both quite sympathetic. Benry's lack of confessional at the feast was noticeable. The women really got the confessional action on that one.

Alina reminds me a bit of Gina in the Marquesas. She was given a very positive edit, but she just had nowhere to go. I do see Alina as an underdog, but her position seems hopeless to me. When Holly didn't fight for her, that was bad. Granted, Espada is down to few boot choices, so Holly is in no position to argue.

Alina's not only the named target of her own tribe, but the other tribe has had her in its sights since the Shannon boot. She's really alone, and she's not UTR. It's a toss-up who is in a worse position, her or Marty. There are no idols lying around that would allow her to pull an Amanda (Micronesia).

An underdog edit is great, but one has to put it in perspective of the game dynamics to sort it out the one who will fly to the end from the one that needs an unlikely miracle. Alina's only real ally was booted. I think her story is that she had a couple of bad draws.
1) She found the idol clue with Kelly B, which bonded her to someone who was on the outs with the young tribe.

2) She was caught listening and blabbing about Brenda in Ep 2, and ended up on the wrong side of that power struggle. Anyone who aligned with her after that put a target on his or her back, so now she's coming into the merge with no one at her back. So is Marty.

Benry too got tainted by the Shannon boot, and as a challenge stud he is in a lot of danger. However, he hasn't had that much of a spike in face time.

The TC in this episode was anti-climactic expect for Jeff finding out about the idol. The "emotional" center of the episode was the RC, and the theme was that being out there together makes them a family. However, only half the tribe expressed that sentiment -- Holly, Alina, Dan. The other three are playing the game.