King Aras has been dethroned. Or has Sir Aras been de-knighted? In any case, the newly merged tribe, Kasama, took advantage of Aras’ loss to his brother during the individual immunity challenge and took out one of the major players of the game.

Luckily for Aras, Redemption Island still exists, and he can fight to return to the game and his brother. However, the rest of the Kasama tribe doesn’t see Aras’ potential return as good news, especially with Vytas still in the game.

Of course, this leaves Vytas with a huge target on his back. Not only did he win the immunity challenge, but he also beat his brother, the person who previously had the biggest target on his back. Naturally this means the target that was on Aras’ back now gets transferred to Vytas. He’ll either have to keep winning immunity challenges or try to get back in with an alliance.

Last week I speculated that Vytas might make it far in the game if Aras were to be voted out after the merge. But now that Vytas has won the first individual immunity challenge, he has shown his strength as a competitor. In addition, his obvious alliance with Aras means no one will want Vytas in the game should Aras repeatedly win at Redemption Island and return. If any of the remaining players want to come close to winning, he or she will need to vote Vytas out quickly.

With Aras at Redemption Island, only two couples are left in the game: Tina and her daughter, Katie, and Redemption Island winner Laura M. (whom I will refer to simply as “Laura” now that Laura B. is out of the game) and her daughter, Ciera. Of these two couples, Tina and Katie are still sailing under the radar and not making any waves. Laura and Ciera on the other hand, although not necessarily making waves, are in an awkward position. Unlike the other couples, who were perfectly keen to pair up with their loved ones, Ciera suspects aligning with her mother will actually do more harm than good, and she might be right. No one trusts Laura simply because she’s not established in any alliance, and that fact alone makes her a minor threat because it makes her too unpredictable.

If I were Ciera, I would keep Laura around at least until everyone outside of her alliance has been voted out. From there, her alliance would probably move to vote Laura out anyway, and at that point, Ciera would be able to let her mother be voted off without necessarily writing Laura’s name down.

But a solid power couple can go far in the game, so perhaps Ciera should reconsider playing alongside her mother. If they play it right, they just might make it to the end.

Though when it comes down to who will win this season, my money’s on Tyson. Finding the hidden immunity idol doesn’t necessarily lead to winning the game, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction provided he can keep it a secret and never has to use it.

Until next week on “Survivor!”

— Claire Cinquegrani