The following contains spoilers for Episode 8 of Survivor Season 43.
Post-Merge Survivor always becomes about the individual game, but more than that, it marks the time when players start considering making big moves to pad out their Survivor resume. They want to have tangible events to link their names to that prove that they've been playing the game harder than anyone else and deserve that million-dollar prize. At least, this is the point when players should be choosing to make these moves, but it seems like this season, this crop of players has been sticking with the safe bets.
The episode starts with the usual post-Tribal debrief, this time featuring an understandably distraught Jeanine, who has once again been left on the wrong side of the vote and has also lost her idol, as she gave it to Dwight for safe-keeping before he was unceremoniously voted out. This news specifically starts to spread around the camp, and the players rejoice that an idol has been flushed. Jesse, however, drops the bomb that he actually technically has Jeanine's idol, because Dwight gave it to him to hold on to during the big advantage switcheroo of Episode 7, and now Jesse is technically in possession of two idols (the other being Cody's) that aren't even his.
This is a perfect example of the great under-the-radar game that Jesse is playing; he has relationships with a lot of people and keeps making moves under the table and gaining everyone's trust, and he's slowly building power as he does so. In fact, a lot of the players that are being billed as major ones to watch by the edit of the show (like Jesse or Karla) aren't playing big, loud games at this point. They are very much managing to fly under the radar and control certain aspects without anyone noticing.
This episode also sets up the thread of "The 7", aka the group of 7 players that have formed an alliance and worked together to vote out Dwight last episode. They seem to want to keep going strong and make it to Final 7 together (though this kind of promise has historically never been kept on this show), despite the few moments later on where players mention wanting to break off, only to end up going with the majority rule again. Sami is one of these people, as he's starting to question his position in the group and wonders if he is on the bottom of the alliance. This is enough to get him to want to make a big move and side with the players on the chopping block...almost.
This 7 wants to band together to vote Owen out, as he's one of the players on the outs. Jesse seems a little skeptical that this could all work out, including the group's continued alliance, and he may be right to feel this way, as their plans get a little derailed later on in the episode. When the players get to the Immunity Challenge, Jeff offers them a trade: five players sit out of the challenge and the tribe receives enough rice for everyone for at least four days. The players who end up volunteering to sit out are all from the alliance of 7, which is notable because it shows that most of them feel comfortable enough in their position that they don't think it's a potentially game-risking decision for them to sit this one out.
Owen is not one of the ones who volunteers, which works out well for him because he wins Immunity and is therefore safe from the boot everyone had planned on giving him at Tribal. It's always fun to see this happen on Survivor, because it's always immediately followed by a big scramble back at camp. Ryan talks strategy with his alliance for about fifteen minutes, decides on wanting to vote Jeanine, and then promptly goes to the ocean for three hours to fish. This is a gripe that a few of the tribe members have with him; because his main plan seems to be to fulfill the "provider" role in hopes that that will be enough to keep people on his side. However, it just makes him look like he's not playing as serious a game as everyone else is, which almost gets him into trouble.
Sami is itching to make a big move and wants to convince people to vote for Ryan, because he's a challenge threat. It actually seems like a lot of people might be on board with this, until it cuts to James and Cody, who are still kind of adamant about Jeanine. Cassidy does her best to convince James to vote for Ryan by pointing out that women keep being voted out, which is a fact that a lot of Survivor fans at home have also pointed out with some annoyance. The vibe going into Tribal Council is that Ryan will be the one going home, which makes the actual outcome of the night feel like a bit of a blindside to the audience as well.
At Tribal, Jeff makes the observation that every season of Survivor has different social rules and a slightly different social order depending on the makeup of the tribe, which is one of the things that makes the show fascinating to watch in the first place. The social experiment part of the game really comes to the forefront when it becomes clear that there really is a little society being built in a microcosm on these beaches. This time, that society has apparently decided to value their provisions, as Ryan is kept safe (the only votes against him coming from Cassidy and Jeanine), while Jeanine is voted out by the tribe, in what seems like too easy of a move considering how on the bottom she was.
That being said, sometimes the easy votes are the ones that work out for the players in the long run, so it remains to be seen how the events of this episode will play out for the remaining Survivor cast. Jesse, for example, seems to be doing things right, as he got Jeanine's idol from Dwight, voted Dwight out, and then proceeded to vote Jeanine out immediately after, meaning that idol is fully his now. Hopefully the tribe's decision of who to make the first member of the jury won't be something that will follow them until Final Tribal.