I agree with Leilani in that the move was good, but premature. There was no outstanding reason why Paul potentially leaving the girls for the guys (which, when I was watching, seemed like a slip of the tongue more than anything. Did anybody else feel that way? The context made me think he meant to say he'd stick with the women, but screwed it up accidentally) was a bigger problem than dividing the tribe. They already know that David, Ken, and CeCe know that they're on the bottom, because it's been stated outright several times. Even with Paul out of the way, there's still going to be that divide, and now you've got Bret and Chris feeling angry and ostracized. None of that bodes well for Gen X in general, especially if there's a tribe swap any time soon. Booting CeCe would've set them up to win more challenges, and to have a better tribe dynamic going into the rounds ahead. Based on underdog editing alone I feel like Ken and David are going to wind up going deep into the game, while the rest of Gen X falls by the wayside.
Meanwhile, the Millennials tribe continues to confound and annoy me. Hannah definitely proved that she was a proud graduate of the Max Dawson institute of social skills by insisting on talking to Zeke when he was patiently asking her to just leave him alone and let him cool off. Even with Adam there explaining that Hannah could shut up and have the conversation later, she still insisted on repeating herself like six times and refusing to take the hint. Then she follows that up with a confessional about how she'd still like to work with them. *facepalm*
The upshot to all of this is that Adam and Zeke are both fairly knowledgeable players, and they seem to have enough social grace that they might be able to actually pull something off. I find their underdog situation a lot more rootable than David's, so I hope they're able to pull through somehow.
The other annoying aspect of the episode was Michaela. For someone who sits around making bitchfaces at anybody who displays the slightest particle of stupidity, she's rapidly becoming one of the most infuriatingly thick players in the season. And that is saying something, because this season also contains Taylor "Chuckle Bro" Stocker. Michaela has openly complained about the power couple in the power alliance to their faces. Michaela openly called them out at tribal council. So when Adam clearly and concisely outlines the power alliance's dynamics, pointing out the obvious fact that Michaela is on the bottom of the alliance of people she's been verbally bitchslapping all season, what's her reaction? Well, she's smart enough to know that Adam is probably right, but she's going to deliberately do nothing, because thinking is hard and she figures that the tried and true strategy of sitting around will ultimately prevail.
Both the Paul boot and the Mari boot are symptomatic of a trend that I really don't enjoy in Survivor these days. Back in Cagayan, everybody publicly mocked David Samson for kneecapping Garrett right out of the gate, making a Day 39 play on Day 1. Nowadays, that sort of thing is taking place a lot more often, and I think it'll be bad for the series as a whole if it keeps happening.
