Apparently he didn’t make a big deal about being left out of the Christian vote. (Stephanie only said that for why he would want to blindside Cirie which is actually what she wanted to do, but needed him to agree to.)
During the chaos before tribal council he was among the few players who DIDN’T unnecessarily sell anyone out or spill any secrets unless he was accused of it. (Alot were guilty of this including Ozzy and Joe.)
He kept his cool and accepted every deal he was approached with. He calmly tried to get the target off Cirie by pitching Rizo instead and from what we saw he succeeded in getting the target off Cirie… but that never seemed to take off.
He has stayed loyal to his main alliance of Christian and Emily. He has also stayed loyal to Cirie even though she voted out Christian and kept him out of votes because she’s a power player. He’s showing he’s trustworthy to anyone paying attention in the game.
Rick is the king of entertainment but his regular gameplay is underrated imo. His regular gameplay from the bottom didn’t have mistakes this episode.
Every decision made sense.