An early emerging story in Survivor: Winners At War, to the surprise of few, centers around Boston Rob. Not much has changed since season 4, Marquesas, where he was so focused on directly controlling the players around him that he earned plenty of comparisons to a godfather. Here, he's still at the front of the pack, still giving out orders, and the question is just how long will this last, and who will be the person to take him down? At the moment, the main contender is, strangely enough, Adam Klein.
Adam, while a very lovable winner due to his emotional story in his original season, was also one who had his flaws out in the open on as a major contender, but now after being caught on the back foot once again in the premiere, he's recovered well and is seemingly in a key position and has a lot of potential to make changes within the tribe.
He did up the opportunity to eliminate Rob's ally Parvati in the last episode, and opted to instead go along with everyone else to vote out Danni, who was at least d with Rob's "old school" alliance early on. So now what fans are wondering is if Adam, and many of the other more recent winners, are properly biding their time to strike at the likes of Rob and Parvati; or are they going to be consistently hoodwinked into keeping them around for one reason or another? Survey says it's the former.
Adam is not a perfect player. Far from it. But when it comes down to it he is a very sound and logical strategic player. His notable mistakes in his past season centered around actually not ing for other people's emotional motivations, rather than him simply making a clear strategic error on his own. He's able to see the game board well, and that's been reinforced by how he recovered from being targeted, and his insistence to Denise that she gives part of an idol to him instead of Parvati. He properly understands where he stands within the tribe and who he should be keeping power from.
Adam's position, while not outwardly controlling, is quietly powerful. It's that way both because of how he and his allies have played, but also because of Rob's own mistakes. Adam and Denise are in an inoffensive middle position after deflecting the target in the first episode, while Ben has recently butted heads with Rob and is a target of his, and both Jeremy and Michele were left out of the first vote and surely blame the old school alliance more than anyone else. Add onto that the fact that Ben has gotten closer to Adam and Denise, and there are no isolated players that Rob can easily turn people against. There also hasn't been a clear us vs. them dynamic, which he also usually works well with.
Survivor: Winners At War is building up against Boston Rob faster than any of his other losses have. Walls are closing in on his alliance. The fact that players will catch onto Amber being able to help him from Edge of Extinction won't exactly make his target smaller too. Adam is the main player in a position to take him down as soon as possible, despite often being underestimated by many. However, even if Boston Rob manages to slip through Adam's fingers, he'll have his downfall sooner rather than later.