Thanks Dabo for your weekly confessional analysis!

I'm playing catchup here on the season but having watched the first 3 episodes in a compressed timeframe, I'm somewhat perplexed by Scrupin's edit. He started out the 1st episode having what I considered to be the best edit of the 3 returnees and definitely showing long term potential...but then the last 2 episodes he's totally fallen off, which is backed up by your confessional count. I suppose we can chalk some of it up to there are 3 tribes and he's not on the losing tribe...but still, don't the returnees typically get more air time? Not hearing any game strategy, no follow-up on his potential connection with Lisa, etc.

Then this last episode we even had Artis coming out of invisibility to get his first confessional and take a swipe at Mike for taking diving in with the mask. At first I thought all his accidents were kinda funny/endearing, but now I wonder. Jeff talked about this in EW too as being a character flaw. Not sure it bodes well for Mike?

Funny how you can pretty much tell already by who's at the bottom of your list who won't have legs....i.e., Carter, Katie, etc. I wouldn't even know their names or faces....seems like they have no story line at all.

The big story lines, at least so far, seem to align with your confessional tracker: RC, Abi, Peter, Lisa and maybe Mike on that tribe...with a huge foreshadowing of an Abi/RC showdown....then on Penner's tribe it seems to be only about Jeff and Penner, with a foreshadowing of a showdown between them....and then Denise and Malcolm (my faves so far - very cool/smart duo). Re Russell: I felt from the 1st episode that he had the worst edit of the returnees and didn't learn from his mistakes and was going to be out early.

All the names below Pete on your list above seem to be "nobodies." And actually Pete was also on my nobody list until this last episode when he finally started talking and making moves. But I don't think we're supposed to like him.

This season seems to have a lot of potential. Some unique characters and a fair share of smart game players. Really loving Denise and Malcolm!