Review: Survivor, "Inconceivable" | Season 50, Episode 12

After Joe wins the night’s first immunity challenge, he argues that there’s a common threat he can now comfortably target with the necklace in his possession: Rick Devens.

It’s not wrong, but it feels wrong. The idea that Rick is a threat doesn’t track for me. He has no power in this game: he may be useful as a number to someone trying to make a move, but there’s still no power in that. He isn’t an immunity threat, nor does he have an immunity idol. And while they want to talk about his theatrics winning over the jury, that requires him to get very deep in the game beyond this point, and that would require an insane amount of luck.

The better explanation is that making Rick into a threat is the most useful rhetorical strategy for every other player who doesn’t want to be seen as a threat. I’m not talking about Joe here, who primarily wants to remove Rick because he truly loathes him and everything he stands for. I’m talking about Aubry, who is happy to accept Rick as a target because it means no one is looking at her. It’s also Cirie, who knows how quickly this tribe is going to turn on her once shit gets real and they realize sitting with her at the end is giving her two million dollars. I don’t think that either Aubry or Cirie feel threatened by Rick Devens, but they’re threatened if no one is.