The merge is here! While there were some enjoyable moments in this episode, as far as being a merge episode, for me it fell a little short. Perhaps because there really hasn't been enough of an established opposition to the dominant players. Personally, I would liked to hear from all the players, whether production finds them part of the story or not (good story-telling would weave them in somehow!) There's still not enough from Brenda and Erik, even Eddie and Sherri. Although it was nice that Philip took a back seat, and at least half of the players were being shown a bunch this episode. I also would've preferred a blindside as a viewer, rather than only witnessing the player feeling blindsided. Yes it was fun to watch that Corinne didn't see it coming. But as a fan of editing, I knew (as did many others here) that this was coming episodes ago. I think they could've handled the edit differently to add more suspense, or perhaps give us an alternate boot choice that we might actually believe had more of chance to get booted. I don't know, just my opinion.

One quick note about the recap that I thought was rather questionable - we got to hear one of the most blatant examples of revisionist history by Jeff when he stated that Bikal unanimously voted out Julia (in not mentioning the initial splitting of the votes). Was this an attempt to let us think this episode that everyone would continue to "go along with Corinne" despite how they have been cramming a possible flip against her over these past eps. At the very least, it's yet another instance that leans toward production thinking that viewers have no memory.

Onto the episode - yes, like the title says it's "blindside time". As I noted during the tribe switch ep, it was simply drawn out by the editors as they had little to tell over at Bikal with two back-to-back Fan boots. It really wasn't too difficult to point out, as I thought the editors were too revealing with all of Corinne's confessionals and that her assessments would prove ironic. On top of this, if for some reason a viewer might not have seen it coming, it was surely being spelled out for us in this episode. Still, maybe there was one or two people out there that were surprised by the end of TC.

We clearly did see that Corinne overplayed her hand. When we heard her say "after this vote... I want him gone" to Dawn in the jungle, we got justification that it was Corinne that made a fatal mistake in talking too much about her plans. And Dawn's reaction was perfect. She didn't lead on to Corinne what she was really thinking. And then she went ahead and told Cochran. Learning from her previous season's mistake and telling us about it in the process.

The conversation between Cochran & Dawn made it clear that Corinne's boot was indeed their decision. We heard from Dawn: "If I had the numbers to vote her out tonight, I would" and Cochran's response: "I'd love that." This was a very pivotal shift to see, as we've been fed for several episodes the whole build up leading to Corinne's boot had be her feud with Philip (not to mention a few confessional's about Andrea's disdain for her). Big points for Dawn and Cochran with being shown as having the sense to see how important this boot would be at this juncture in the game.

Here's some thoughts on the individual players:

Erik: It's a bit frustrating that we're not hearing more from Erik. Even though he got 2 confessionals this ep, they were so quick. He even stated that "suddenly he's becoming a valuable player" but we are not seeing or hearing anything that substantiates this. His key scene was having Andrea point to the tribal flag to the name of the bootee. Ugh! Not just for Erik's gameplay, but for productions lack of any story telling manipulation to give us something more than this. I don't know if I've ever seen a more lame swing-vote in the history of the show. Is it really that hard at this stage in the game for the editors to factor in all of the players to some storyline? Although we are privy to hearing Andrea say to Cochran that Erik is "wish-washy" and then emphasizing that she needs to count "even Erik, of all people!" - and Cochran referring to "an ice-cream scooper" in a derogatory and stating that he's "incompetent at playing this game" - wow, those are harsh words describing someone who we barely get to hear speak. Goodness, if they hate the guy so much, why did they bring him back in the first place? (And for the record, I actually like Erik, so this is no bearing on him personally)

Brenda: Nothing from Brenda... Again! The only reason why I separate her out from my comments about Erik, is that Brenda is being ignored more than he is. How is that even possible! It was odd to see Corinne listing her "6" for the vote, and then add the possibility of Dawn. How is there not a possibility of Brenda? Brenda was with the nuGota guys and was never really in with the Bikal favorites. The only thing that comes to mind is that she has decided to go along with Andrea (as we've seen them bonding through the Brandon fiasco) But we are not showing any connections Brenda may have, or even hearing of her from others. I really find it hard to believe that she is taking a complete backseat to the game, so why is production ignoring her?

Sherri: She was spared being voted out at this TC, but her story appears to be greatly reduced since her early days in the game. Her one confessional this episode, we heard her say "I'm ready to make a big move" & "I can't stand Philip" It seems like she has no chances to win the game, but will she have the opportunity to make a big move to take Philip out later in the game?

Michael: His comments were fun at the challenge (as was Dawn's lack of understanding of "go," Andrea's ship-worm mustache, and Cochran's victory dance). All we ever get from Michael is narrative though. We do sense that he has a strategic bone or two in his body, but with how the game is playing out, it's looking like he won't be able to use them. He seems like an example of what Dawn stated about how NOT to play, to not let the game happen to you. Unfortunately for Michael, the game is happening all around him.

Eddie: Nothing much from him this episode. We see him alongside Malcolm and strategy talking with Reynold & Corinne, but hear none of his thoughts on these matters. He appears to be nestled within the losing side of the numbers. Of note, on second-viewing the ep (and after seeing previews for next ep) it was interesting to see that Eddie sat himself next to Andrea on the crowded loser bench after losing the penultimate round of the challenge. Makes me wonder if this relationship was developing over at nuGota - if so, then why has there been a delay in telling the romance story?

Reynold: Well, it's apparent that Reynold has been chosen as the voice of the Fans, as he's had twice as many confessionals as any other fan in the first 8 episodes. Although it doesn't seem that he's been chosen because he will make it to the endgame. He is simply an alpha male that production can highlight due to his challenge prowess and he found 2 HII's. That's certainly enough to get the spotlight for awhile, but given the amount that we've heard from Reynold, you'd think we'd get more substance about his gameplay and strategy. We even heard him give his own recap this ep about him being duped before. And while he was totally duped this time, he fell on the wrong side of the vote. I think if the tide was turning for Reynold moving forward, we would've gotten a hint of it in the pivotal merge episode. Unfortunately for him, we didn't.

Malcolm: It's not looking too good for Malcolm, either. Him whispering in the jungle, "Nobody wants us around" was certainly noted - Yes, Malcolm, you got that right! And now, due to the TC votes falling the way they did, you'll see that you weren't cued in by the favorites to their plan. This will surely cause his lack of security to quickly escalate. From an editing standpoint the most worrisome thing for Malcolm was for him to receive a confessional right after Cochran talking about his challenge win. With the audience likely agreeing with the Enil Edam tribe members in being happy for Cochran, it wasn't good to hear Malcolm state so shorty afterward that he wanted Cochran gone (and with slightly sinister music to accompany his claims). Seeing Malcolm mustering to assemble a new alliance this episode, and last, and have it never come to fruition, is actually making him look like a weak player. He does have an idol, but we're not getting any hints that he'll be able to play it in a significant way.

Philip: We finally got a break from Philip this episode (not completely, but in comparison to what we've been getting). And what we did see wasn't to positive for him, even though we all know that he'd be extremely happy with outcome at TC. I think it's very telling that the instrumental scenes for sealing Corinne's fate were given to Dawn and Cochran, and basically took any of the credit for her boot away from Philip. Not such a great follow-up to his previous strong comment about "waiting for the proper moment to get rid of her" - he was still waiting until he was prompted by Andrea, who we saw was prompted by Cochran, who was prompted by Dawn. How much control do you think you really have, Philip?

Andrea: Good episode for Andrea. Once again, we're getting some great insights from her and we're constantly aware that her head is in the game. She's been shown to be connected with everyone too, and can arguably have the best social game out there. We've seen her talk with Dawn and Cochran, she was nestled nicely between Cochran and Philip regarding the Corinne boot info exchange. She was the one who told Erik which way to vote. We've seen her bond with Malcolm and Brenda before, and to add on top of all this, we'll soon learn of her connection with Eddie. While there may be something missing from her edit, I don't think she's being set up for a fall just yet. Next episode will be telling for her, now that she'll be faced with the "flirting" factor that we heard ruined her game (well, based on the overview narration in ep 1)

Cochran: Great episode for Cochran! He's already been playing a stronger season than his first and if we were to compare the two merge episodes we would see the most contrast. Sure it helped that he had the Immunity necklace, but Cochran played smooth when catching wind of possibility not being on the majority side of the numbers. From being so observant all season and such a fan of the game, he was able to fluctuate the direction of the numbers in his favor - agreeing with Dawn and confirming with Andrea who to align with. He had the meat within his confessionals to both narrate and share his individual insights. Plus we witnessed others, including Jeff, talk of him fondly. Not to mention he aptly stated, "Somehow everyone seemed happy for me." Who wouldn't want to be in that position!

Dawn: Great episode for Dawn, too! It's interesting that several others got more confessionals that Dawn this episode, yet she was front and center, starring with Cochran once again. Along with getting key scenes, she had too lengthy confessional that contained some splicing along with many quotes that are tying her to the endgame (and a possible victory) Seeming pretty determined in stating: "You have to be the one's who make the decisions, those are the people that win" Dawn let us know, in no uncertain terms, that she is in it to win it. And important to the theme of not making the same mistakes, we are witnessing Dawn take action to counter what she saw as her fatal mistake the last time she played the game. She was shown as making the decision to boot Corinne, and TC went in her favor. Dawn is showing up when it counts. I'm still thinking Cochran will take the season, but for this episode Dawn really stood out to me - gotta give her props