Who Will Win Survivor China?

Well, the time had come for me to try to make a prediction about who will win Survivor China...To tell you the truth, I thought it would be easier by now, a few weeks into the merge, but things just seem to have a way of changing with each episode and of course with every challenge...

The remaining 7 players are a strange lot;

At first I thought Courtney would definitely be a loser, but now she seems to be a bit smarter than I gave her credit for ...this week it looked as if Frosty had a good shot, he was lining up a good alliance with Courtney, massaging her and she patting his on the head, a little affection seemed to be in the works, but she stabbed him in the back tonight when she voted him off...her true colors, do you think? Personally I don't care for her a bit and have considered her a twit since day one...

It looked like curtains for Phie Gie tonight but and lo and behold she won the immunity challenge....poor judgment on the part of the players who chose to eat those burgers and fries rather than play which left her with a good chance at winning and so it came to pass. Though she had the arrow on her back tonight to be voted off that was disposed of when she won and wore that immunity necklace to the tribal counsel ...Will her determination help her win the whole kit and caboodle? Once again, I don't think so, when push comes to shove she won't be able to win the hard challenges as they come up in future episodes.

And then there's Todd. He seems to be slick and playing the game the way it should be played, but from what I saw in the previews I think there is some trouble ahead between him and James...how that will play out should be tricky and though I think he is a weasel and not as smart as he thinks he is, he is playing a good game in trying to outwit, outsmart and outplay the rest of the tribe so you never know... but, he has to be careful about being too devious or he can outsmart himself.

As for Eric, he's my personal favorite and was saved by the seat of his pants tonight. If that continues he just might have a long shot at winning since so far he has no enemies and if he should get to the top three, well, stranger things have happened.

I don't think Denise has a chance...got to give her credit though..

Amanda, well, I just can't figure her out right now...she did stick by Eric tonight and might just fly under the radar for the next few weeks and she does have strong alliances but I don't think she will win but as always, you just never know.

So now we are left with James....with two immunity idols hidden away his chances certainly are better then the other players who have no protection whatsoever unless they win the next weekly challenges, besides, with his brute strength he could win the those challenges if they are geared to physical power...but as we saw tonight that power was a detriment to him this week when he needed to lighten up a bit in the game and he just couldn't manage to hit the little ball into the drums lightly enough...he also has to learn that he can't trust what is said to him and can't be to over confident with his idols or how to play them. Especially when it comes to Todd.

I do think James and Todd will make it to the final three, and, from here on in, the important thing is to try to imagine the rest of the jury and how well he or she has treated each member of that most important jury... Todd might have a few people angry with him and Jean Robert is not happy about James either so, what I would like to see happen, is for Eric stay in the game and beat his two opponents just due to the fact that he has no enemies....for sheer strength and winning attributes James could be the winner, and, if she survives, Courtney could be the wild card, though Frosty probably wouldn't vote for her and Jean Robert definitely wouldn't.

Next week there will be a surprise or so the previews showed and big changes could take place...then there is always the fact that the whole vote might hinge on the original tribes and in that case, Todd might just take the thing but, if he plays smart, then I think James really might take the prize. It will be fun to watch it all play out...