As always, michel, you've done a great job with the editing re-cap. Despite the identified themes of the show, which, BTW, are excellent, I still have to consider that the main theme is your second chance. Will it boil down to actually doing something that changes your game, or will you play the exact same way and let history repeat itself? You've broken it down nicely in the end between no changes/forced to change/finding a way to change.

The players themselves have divided the group into old schoolers and new schoolers. I do believe that our winner will be able to take from both schools to employ the winning strategy.

Previously on Survivor: You will get a 2nd shot, after being picked 20 get a second chance...welcome, See Tasha: I'm here to win a million $ and when it's all done, I'll pray for forgiveness. At Takeo, Abi battling herself...but the real battle was between old school and new school. New school is all about strategy, see Shirin, old school is about relationships and surviving, and it was the veteran, Varner, who found himself stuck in the middle. At Bayon, the strong men bonded but Stephen didn't fit in and they became suspicious that he was looking for an idol. At the challenge Kelley got the HII, but Joe won the challenge, at TC, in the end Abi got 4 votes, but it was Vytas that was sent home leaving Terry, Wiggle and Woo on the bottom...19 left who's next?

The intro gave us a Tasha highlight. One of the reasons I was impressed with Tasha, that I forgot to mention after the last episode, was that she used religion in her answer. How she played as how she perceived her church members would want her to, but now, with their encouragement, she can do what she has to do to win. Knowing how important Christian faith is to EPMB, this confessional did stick out to me, and now that it's chosen as the quote from all of their quotes, I think it's something to keep in mind regarding Tasha.

The old school theme vs the new schoolers is going to be important again. With Varner in the middle, as the intro points out. At Bayon, Stephen is on the hot plate, and Joe is the star. Abi got 4 votes, and Terry, Wigle, and Woo are on the bottom.

Kelly Wigle has the first confessional and it's as a narrator. Varner flipped, didn't expect it, Shirin and Spencer are the ringleaders...our alliance needs to move it or lose it. Sets the tone for episode and asks the leading question. They either will or the won't get their acts together.

Kelley wants to see her idol, and does...another great conf about how differently she's going to play this time around: I want to be aggressive and I want to do everything that I didn't do the first time, I want to be a player, go big or go home, YES! And, the actions support the declaration!

See Varner with Spencer, Shirin, Kelley, and he wants to know who's next. Spencer has a conf: the old schoolers missed the boat. Then Varner says that he's not so sure they should be so comfortable, and we see him talking to Terry...wanted to light a fire under my alliance, wants either Spencer or Shirin out and he wants to go to the end with their group.

Terry has a confessional afterwards: "my second chance includes Terry Dietz having to play a social game or I will have to leave the game"....This is a great point of enlightenment for Terry, now can he deliver?

Then Terry turns to Varner who says to him,I"M LOOKING FOR A SPY SHACK!!! I loved this that the old schoolers were trying to play the way the penultimate new schooler played! Nod to Tony!

Over at Bayon, Joe tells us that this year he wants to provide a service for his tribe so everyone will like him. Stephen talks about Joe, which is good, but says he's good till merge, then you chop him, and we see Stephen chopping him. A nice conflict between Joe and Stephen, polar opposites perhaps. Joe certainly appears to have the stronger edit! I think this is ALL WRONG for Stephen. He should be embracing Joe, the survivalist and team up with him, as he did with JT. I felt that his strategy the first time around was stellar, and now he's changing when he shouldn't. Stephen was also mentioned in a bad way in the intro. Does this spell impending doom for our knowingest know it all?

Then back to TaKeo. We see the baby monkey and then Spencer. So, the baby monkey is Spencer and precedes him. That's got to be a good sign that they have an animal that's symbolic of one of the players, no?

Abi says that she's changing, would have exploded with 4 votes last time, Then Spencer has his conf: Abi's a drama queen, she's cancer to the tribe and an even greater cancer to my alliance.

Contrasting to Spencers thoughts, Varner has a conf about how much he's enjoying Abi. Our own little soap opera that we can manipulate for entertainment, who needs food, delicious!

Then we flip back to Bayon and Andrew talks about how he met his wife. A nice recollection, everyone gets choked up, bonding with him. But, I have to say, this is striking to me. If he's crying about missing his wife on day 4, he's in trouble. AS Jeremy had a hard time focusing on the game because of his wife, I am thinking that Andrew is going down the same path. Andrew seems unfocused, at least from the last time he played, and this is not a good thing. I see Andrew as playing very similarly to his last game. He's collected his alliance and identified the ones he doesn't want, last time it was Skinny Ryan, this time it's Stephen. He seems to be on top of his tribe, but we know that next week is a big twist, and who suffered from the big twist in Andrew's season? Andrew, as he was most affected by the outcast twist. Time will tell.

We see Jeremy leave as well and have a cry, and tell us Val is pregnant and he cannot tell anyone. Yes, I do think, as you pointed out last week, that Jeremy also seems to be walking down the same old path, still focusing on his wife when she's not even there....uh oh.

Then Andrew has the confessional about Stephen asking if Jeremy had left to go look for the idol. Andrew goes and finds Jeremy and tells him. Now Jeremy is definitely on board with boot Stephen. Well, it does show that Stephen just didn't get the moment. But by Kass' confessional, she certainly does, which is far different than how she played the last time. I love that Kass is getting a different edit! I think about that she played with Spencer and Woo last time, and they are at the other camp, and Spencer, while declaring he's going to play differently, seems to be playing clinically as he did last time. Woo, also appears to be playing a similar game. Good for Kass!

Then at night, we get the Abi trash talk from Pei-Gee and Shirin, and Abi is right there. HELLO! Then the fight erupts and Shirin shrinks away saying she's talking about those votes for the millionth time, and it ends with Abi going to sit on the beach while Pei-Gee goes to the shelter, and recounts the fight telling everyone she feels good and they all laugh, which Abi can hear. We see Terry sit up and talk about at this time, her own alliance is laughing at her, and she's a human being and deserves more compassion. He goes to sit with her, and they bond, and then align. Good for you, Terry! You have crossed over to the few that are putting their words into actions!

Then we see Varner, good eye to see him laying down on the beach, Michel!, talking to Abi in the AM, and they are all on board, Varner and Abi shake on it!

We had the challenge, and when Jeff said, losers go to TC where someone will be voted out, we saw Shirin then Kelley. During the challenge Jiffy made it sound as though TaKeo was way behind, but when you saw it, they seemed neck to neck. Bayon shined at the crate pull however, and Shirin and Spencer lost the puzzle, but it was a good try. So hard because they all thought they had won it, then were totally deflated when they didn't. Varner had a supreme confessional when he said that he noticed that Shirin and Spencer held their own fate in their hands with the puzzle, how poetic!

Arriving back at camp, Spencer gets the first conf about how they are getting their a$$es kicked, but My old S experience of being on the bottom and suffering and not having anyone I can play with and trust is gone...

Then it all plays out and we see Varner work his magic. He identifies the threats and asks people to vote for one of them, asking all their opinions. He gets confirmation from Pei-Gee, and then from Kelley, then we see Shirin take Abi, Abi confirms she is no longer with her. Then Shirin gets more telling confessionals, she takes Spencer and they try to woo Woo, loved that Woo just says, NO!

Spencer has the last confessional before TC: My situation is getting bleaker and bleaker, this was going to be my second chance and I wanted to have a very difft experience, but I am being brought hard back to my first experience, it’s where it starts going very well and then everything collapses on me. Every single person except Shirin and I, are against us. She is my only solid person, now there is no move I can make except for screwing over the only person I wanted to play with, CRIES!

Wow! TC comes, Jiffy points out the similarities to Shirin's prior position, and Spencer's as well. Spencer pleads to everyone that if they spare him he WILL work hard to get to know them all, it won't be about making alliances...blah...They vote, Shirin goes. Spencer thanks them for this chance. Jiffy's last words that sum up the essence of the entire season: This season offers you every chance to change your ways but if you don't history is destined to repeat itself.

So, VARNER IS THE MAIN MAN! He's putting his money where his mouth is and he's PLAYING THIS GAME, and playing everyone along the way. I love him! He is stealing the show and is TV gold. He reneged on his old schoolers and voted out Vytas, then got them right back in the palm of his hand, and totally flipped ALL the numbers and got the new schoolers to turn against their own. I am all in, #TEAMVARNER! And, he's so charming! Seriously, Varner schooled them ALL! And did so with a smile on his face! I can't help but to think after this episode that Varner could just turn out to be the nuTony 2.0. GO VARNER!

I think that Terry had a stellar moment as well, when he got up and played the game on a human level and went to the defense and aid of someone who was hurting, and apparently he had an epiphany. He switched it up and addressed his identified weakness, his social game. He's definitely on the up swing! Yay Terry!

Finally, another star of this show was SPENCER! Spencer got so many confessionals and it was all to set him up as the same cocky and clinical kid he was in his first season. The baby monkey that we are constantly shown on screen IS Spencer! Makes me think he's a player. The thing that bodes the best for me is that Spencer is the one that is getting a SECOND CHANCE in a season of second chances! I expect him to really show emotion and social growth now, after he has beared all in confessional and cried, he's just hit ROCK bottom. Now, he just has to do what he has to do, no where to go but UP. I also loved that Spencer recognized that he isn't the best socially, and I always love someone that can recognize his weaknesses, try to overcome them, and make them his strengths. Let's see if he can do it!

Here is how I see them falling so far: Those that seem to be showing actively that they are setting out to do what they said they needed to do: Varner, Terry, Kelley, Kass. Those that seem to be letting history repeat itself: Joe, Andrew, Jeremy, Abi-Maria, Woo, *Spencer*. One that appears to be changing in the wrong direction: Stephen: He noted that he joined up with someone that was comfortable in the elements and that he couldn't beat him, so he wouldn't do that again. I think this is a mistake because last time it got him into the finals. He needs to play the same game and change up his end game argument! We see him poking fun at Joe, when he should be latching on to Joe! And, finally, those that I just haven't seen enough of their game to decide where to put them: Kelly Wigle, Keith: something tells me he will play the exact same game...spit!, Kimmie, Cierra, Tasha, Monica, and Pei-Gee.

*Spencer*: Regarding Spencer, he talked a good talk of change in his first episode, then in ep 2 reverted back to his same old ways, BUT, he's got the second chance in a season of second chances. I think this is very promising!

Also wanted to point out those that did not get an intro confessional: Woo, Vytas, Terry, Monica, Stephen, Peih Gee, Shirin and Keith. We have to consider that these could possibly be our pre-jury boots. So far the first 2 boots are indeed on this list! Time will tell!