User blog comment:MightyUke416/Survivor: Kerguelen Islands - Uke & Just/@comment-33868704-20180222232632/@comment-26485526-20180224022546

Melinda's game was definitely a roller-coaster, to say the least.

She started off on the wrong foot by voting with Carly against Emma. However, she then pledged her loyalty to Eugenie and Theodore (mostly Eugenie), who told her that Chadwick was their next target for being the tribe's weak link in challenges. Since Chadwick went to Exile that episode however, Melinda (being good friends with Chadwick) took this opportunity to tell her new alliance she thought he could have an idol, so they should split the votes. Theodore however, wanted to "keep Melinda in line" and "test her loyalty" by having her vote for Chadwick. Wanting to save her friend however, Melinda switched her vote to Kathy anyway, sending her home.

At this point, Theodore was a little peeved at Melinda, making a mental note that she couldn't be trusted. But to him, that was just a small detail in the grand scheme of things because he was now "in total control of the tribe." During the past few days however, Eugenie and Melinda started getting closer and closer, and they happened to notice Theodore getting more and more cocky. Eugenie and Melinda then quietly gathered the rest of the tribe (with the exception of his two closest allies, Marcellus and Emma) in order to blindside Theodore. Unfortunately for Melinda however, since Chadwick kept screwing up in challenges, sending Navius to their third straight Tribal, despite her pushes to vote Emma out of the game, the rest of her alliance deemed Chadwick too much of a liability to take any further. Melinda did vote alongside her friend against Emma, but the rest of the tribe voted Chadwick out.

Melinda then took the next opportunity to not only further cement her alliance with Eugenie, but she then strengthened her bond with Rhys (and Jasper by association), and the four of them agreed to a final four deal. As such, when Navius went back to Tribal, even though Emma tried to push for Melinda to go, her attempts got her nowhere due to Melinda's now solid alliance, forcing Emma and Marcellus to target each other, with the alliance ultimately deciding to send Emma home as she was perceived to be a bigger strategic and social threat.

Since Melinda was put on Chaus at the tribe swap, she was able to safely make it to the merge, at which point, her and Eugenie worked to re-kindle their final four deal with Jasper and Rhys. Unsure if they were able to seal the deal with them, especially since Rhys seemed pretty close with Quinton, Eugenie hammered their point home by saying that Marcellus needed to go as he was talking all kinds of crap about their former tribe, and how they needed to join an alliance that had a majority of original, and loyal Navius people. Eugenie's plan worked, and Jasper & Rhys joined them in blindsiding Marcellus. At the next vote, with Ulrick winning immunity, it was Melinda's idea for the majority alliance to put their votes on Michael, a fringe member of the all-guys alliance, as opposed to Quinton, just in case an idol got played. This move paid off as Ulrick did play his idol on Quinton, meaning that Michael was sent home.

At the next vote, Melinda was totally blindsided when Jenna and Lena flipped to take out her partner in crime, Eugenie. Even though this move made her wary of Jenna, Melinda was well aware of Jenna's desire to eliminate Ulrick, so she didn't think she had to worry about Jenna becoming a permanent member of Ulrick's alliance. Just in case however, Melinda promised to take Lena all the way to the final three as an insurance policy to keep Jenna from flipping back and risking rocks. Little did Melinda know however, it wasn't Jenna she had to worry about, but Jasper. Despite Melinda knowing that Jasper was angry about Jenna's move, Rhys kept re-assuring her that Jasper would remain loyal, so Melinda made the mistake of not thinking too much about Jasper's loyalty after that. As such, since Rhys held his ground and stuck with her, the votes were deadlocked between Jenna and Quinton (since Jenna wanted to make sure Ulrick had to pick a rock if it came to that). After the rock draw, Melinda got lucky when it was opposing alliance member, Mario that drew the purple rock and was sent to the jury. When Jasper and Jenna went right after each other at the next vote, Melinda remained loyal to Jenna and voted for Jasper. However, feeling more loyal to Jasper than Jenna, Rhys chose to flip and vote Jenna out.

From there, Melinda convinced Jasper and Rhys to flip back to her side and vote Ulrick out for being an underdog and a "strategic mastermind."

With Quinton now being the last remaining member of the minority all-guys alliance, he tried to convince Jasper and Rhys that Melinda needed to go for being a huge strategic threat. Initially this worked; however, Melinda saw that Rhys was a huge social threat in his own right, especially since nobody got mad at him when he flipped back and forth at the past couple of Tribal Councils (Jasper was the one people directed their frustration at). As such, Melinda got this point (as well as the fact she'd never win a challenge) across to Jasper, who betrayed his closest ally, keeping Melinda safe.

From there however, since Jasper initially viewed Quinton as Ulrick's follower, he was set on voting Melinda out at final 4. However, not only did Lena feel totally loyal to Melinda due to a bond they developed, especially after Jenna's blindside, but Melinda voiced to Jasper that Quinton was seen as an underdog, as well as the fact that nobody actually disliked Quinton, whereas the two of them both did their share of flipping. In the end, Melinda's argument won out, and Jasper voted with them to eliminate Quinton.

At the Final Tribal Council, while Ulrick in particular was a little critical of Melinda's game, wondering if she even had any game-play before Eugenie was eliminated, for the most part, she was widely praised by the jury by her good strategic game, and even better social game. On the flip side, a number of jury members were angry at Jasper for his numerous betrayals, especially Rhys, who compared him to Satan. Lena was also heavily criticized by the jury as she was seen as a follower, and (as Ulrick put it) a "stupid little girl who couldn't hold a candle to anyone on the jury strategically." Following this, Melinda received 8 of 9 jury votes to win, with Ulrick voting for Jasper mostly to prevent Lena from sharing second place (I say "mostly" because Ulrick wasn't as critical of Jasper as most of the jury was, but still).