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This last episode set up Ken as either the obvious winner or the next decoy winner. As someone who backed Ken's chances even before Marcus left (though unfortunately not in front of Marcus), I still lean toward the former, but the obvious editing attention this last episode makes me nervous. Thus, I'm looking back at other possibilities.

There's always Matty, but I'm having trouble getting behind him. His early edit was very flat, and I had no idea about who he was until the switch episode. As others have noted, his edit has included appreciation of the experience, which has rarely proved to be a winner's edit. Last episode did not improve his chances, in my opinion, as he was basically ignored once the merge occurred. I can't rule him out, but I can't back him either.

As I've mentioned before, Marcus' downfall basically sealed the fates of most of the original Kota for me. If one of them won, they would've gotten the attention that went early to Marcus. I predicted Charlie's boot this last episode on that basis, primarily because Marcus was his only story, and that viewpoint was confirmed. I figured Corinne would last longer because she is being portrayed as the biggest negative force in the story, and thus her boot will be consequential (perhaps the last of the Onions?). She certainly is not being portrayed in a way where she might win, and I respectfully disagree that she could make the finals. As CL says, no one is sizing her up - they are just commenting on her nastiness. She's a feel-good boot waiting to happen, and that means it will be before the final. As for Bob, his overall OTTP edit has almost always signified sympathetic mid jury boot who is primarily just a victim of the numbers.

Then there's Randy. He alone of the Onions had a story that could survive Marcus' downfall. His ties to Matty could enable him to survive long enough to create a late game shift, and it was clear he could get the votes from a strongly pro-Onion jury. The chances of that occurring went way down this last episode. Randy wasn't shown reassessing his position and looking ahead. Instead, he was shown as abrasive and moody. He's not the pure negative force that Corinne is, but this episode pushed him further in that direction. I fully admit I don't know how his story ends, but it could end this next episode, or he could fall in the finale before the finals. I don't see him winning, and I don't see him in the finals anymore because I think he would win if he were there.

The player that gives me the most headaches though is Sugar. By rights, she can't win per Edgic. Her tone has been too positive overall to allow it. Yet she clearly has a great story, and in game logic, she's really well positioned. Could she face the jury? I think she could. But with as positive as she's been portrayed, how could she lose? Well, the jury will be primarily made up of Onions, who may not be particularly enamored of her. Could Sugar be the second coming of Neleh? Quite possibly. More likely, in my opinion, she falls just short, as the late season star normally does.

Obviously, there's no case for Susie to win, but she absolutely could make F3. If her vote out of Marcus gets her to the end, but she fails to win a single vote, her edit makes perfect sense. Given that I can't see anyone but Corinne targeting her, she's probably the safest bet for F3 of anyone, but the winner would obviously come down to the other players there with her.

That leaves Crystal, who I think has been the least well analyzed player within Edgic. Too many people have automatically discounted her because they dislike her or because they assume they know her story per the edit. She has gotten large numbers of OTT when I don't believe she should have qualified for that rating even once. She has been possibly the most crafted edit on the show. So consider this the devil's advocate case.

In the first episode, Crystal gets a significant introduction without really being much involved in the storyline. Some people found her failure at the first challenge to be strongly negative, but if anything, the editors gave her a chance to discuss the failure. In retrospect, challenge failure has been a big part of her edit, but it was also a big part of the reality. Someone (FLF, I think) surmised that her whole story would be about making excuses for her failures. I don't think that has been the case - she admitted to Marcus that she was batting zero. I once suggested that the discussion of challenge failure could come up at the final TC, and Crystal would have to admit a change to her gameplan. Didn't that occur to some degree with Marcus' boot? "You can't outwit Crystal Cox!" Others think Crystal has been too relentlessly negative to win the game. Crystal has been negative in two contexts. First, she's been associated with Fang's failures. As we've discussed ad nauseum, the entire negative Fang edit reflected on results moreso than the individuals, setting them up as huge underdogs. That applies to Crystal as well - she's batting zero. This doesn't rule her out anymore than it did Fang. Second, she's been involved in a large number of dramatic exchanges at TC. I will agree much of these came off somewhat negatively, but they happened in reality, and if Crystal does face the jury, they are very likely to come up again. Yes, they could certainly be the reason she doesn't win. It would not surprise me to see her in an F3 with Ken and Sugar/Matty where she fails to get a single vote. But what if she does win? Those outbursts will still likely come up. Perhaps Ken does get voted out or burns too many bridges. Perhaps Crystal faces Sugar and Susie, and the Onions can't bear to vote for one of the other women. My main concern with Crystal has been that she's been too visible, but that stretch really only began with GC's boot and ended with Marcus' boot. As others have noted, she dipped a bit under the radar this last episode, but unlike some others, that was actually good for her Edgic profile. Prior to GC's boot, she had great Edgic numbers (or should have). After that, she became the focus of events on Fang. I saw her as hiding Ken, but it could be argued that she was a target of two of those three votes (and distancing herself from the quitting GC could hardly be said to be bad for her edit in and of itself). With Ken's rise this last episode and Crystal's relative disappearance, it raises the question if he is now going to hide her. I still think Ken wins, but I think too many people are dismissing Crystal out of hand. If Ken falls, she could well take his place.