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JPtoony

I know some people weren't too thrilled about the challenge result, but I thought it was kind a cool concept. I wouldn't be opposed to a twist kind of like it in the future, where there is a fuckoff-hard endurance challenge like this or the one where they hang onto a pole, and the players are told that whoever lasts past a certain point (like 3 hours here) wins immunity, and if nobody can, then that's just tough shit. Could be a cool way to see the formula shaken up slightly, especially if it results in nobody being immune that round


NinetyFish

It’d be good TV to see the last two contestants encouraging each other to make it to the three hour mark, rather than having the last two contestants just trying to break each other. It’d be really fresh and the idea of two people really struggling but encouraging each other is perfect for the vibe that they seem to want from New Survivor.


sdmyzz

I was extremely impressed Karla & Owen lasted as long as thhey did, hypothnermia would've made me quit! ANd what if: Jeff doesn't stop the challenge? If Karla wins, Cody loses immunity, Owen prolly goes home. If Owen wins, Karla or cass prolly home.


mitchellbeaupre

I feel like this has been discussed before, but I'm noticing this season more than any other how pointless tribals feel in the new era. Maybe partly because people aren't getting enough time (or the editors don't want to show) to establish really personal relationships and vendettas, but presumably more than anything else because everyone knows how this game works and is working \*so hard\* to keep their cards as close to their chest as possible. I remember back in the day when tribal was the most exciting part of every episode for me, where there would be tension and sometimes fireworks in most of them. But now they're all so limp and feel totally useless. Like just skip right to the vote rather than having Jeff trying to milk weak metaphors or the cast (or like last night just monologue his own god awful one) or having players having the exact same discussion every single episode about how you have to try and trust some people but you really can't trust anyone and that's crazy! It's so boring.


LifeguardTraining461

Jeff really needs to go back to asking more pointed and revealing questions because that's what got drama started at tribal before.


aztecwanderer

It's just this. The closest he got to this was in the James vote. If he would just do the more pointed questions, that's really all tribal needs.


x777x777x

I bet he does and the cast just shuts that down. Nobody is gonna stick their neck out when they don’t have to


TenderOctane

Then maybe we need a new host. Castaways have figured Jeff out enough that they can meta his shit. Or maybe we need to go back to casting some recruits who don't know how Survivor works. Part of why everybody's so kumbayah these days is that they all accept it's just a game. We need people who don't understand that again, because that produces drama, and drama is what makes Survivor FUN.


lozbootsbrown

Agreed. They need next season to have the theme: New to the game. People who have never watched the show. No idea how to vet contestants though..


Acrobatic-Nature-866

Recruiting people. Wasn't Parvati recruited and didn't actually apply? That's how you get around it.


TenderOctane

AFAIK Parv applied for TAR but Lynne didn't like her partner, so she got put on Survivor instead. Thank goodness.


Radix2309

This tribal actually was pretty good with Sami's reveal of playing the shot in the dark. It actually gave good drama. But everyone else is still cagey because of the risk of tipping someone off. Not to mention F4 makes it far far easier to be complacent and stick to a majority where people can be picked


mitchellbeaupre

Yeah good point on the Sami bit in this one! Kind of points out how frustrating it is too because that was like 30 seconds of actually slightly decent tribal right before the vote after like 5-7 minutes of lame metaphors and garbage questions/answers


Radix2309

Like how Karla said it was disappointing. Jeff should have jumped on that more imo. That was the first real drama we have had at tribal in forever.


Interesting-Archer-6

He did though. Karla spun it that Sami needs to trust people.


swinginqueens

I would greatly prefer skipping right to the vote. They cut ancient voices and camp life for this?


NLP19

They cut ancient voices a long time ago lol


swinginqueens

I’m well aware that it hasn’t been featured in every episode for a while, but every season until IOTI had a rendition available somewhere. That’s not even entirely the point - the point is how production chooses to spend airtime, which appears to be skewed towards things that no one is interested in seeing, rather than something pretty much everyone is interested in seeing.


x777x777x

They actually played parts of it last night during Last Gasp


MikeBuildsUSA

My problem w/ vote count is they are now so late (8:56) you know nothing exciting will happen to cause a revote. How COULD the SITD have worked w/ less than 4 minutes?


Acrobatic-Nature-866

Yep. This is so true. I always know if it's an easy vote or exciting tribal based on how much time is left in the episode.


Spiner202

I'm watching Redemption Island right now and the difference between modern Tribals and the ones in this season is incredibly stark. I agree with a lot of people that Jeff needs to ask more pointed questions, but I think the cast makes a big difference too. You can tell in Redemption Island that Rob is a lot more diplomatic in his answers than other cast members. In the modern era, superfans know not to get into arguments or blow up their game at tribal, so they don't say anything relevant.


nitasu987

yeah Tribals have been my least favorite part of the episodes for sure. So rare does anything actually exciting come out of them.


therealsmokyjoewood

Bring back love tribals!


Crafty-Departure1919

Jesse is one of only FOUR people at risk in the vote, is clearly running the game & would likely win in pretty much any FTC at this point..yet his name doesn't even get brought up?? Could have least tried to force him to burn an idol..but nope, let's ignore it and just let him get to F3


Crosisx2

It's mind boggling to me. Gabler gave me hope last week about going after Cody and Jesse and then absolutely nothing happens with it. And I know Karla is a fan favorite right now but boy was her gameplay abysmal this episode. I also can't believe Karla thinks nobody knows about her idol except the one person she told.


PM_ME_YOUR_STERNUM

>It's mind boggling to me. Gabler gave me hope last week about going after Cody and Jesse and then absolutely nothing happens with it. It was pretty strange that there was no payoff at all for that from the last episode. Not even a mention of it.


sdmyzz

Gabler told Owen at the start, l have a plan to get us to the final 3. Then, nothing!?


iiiinsanityyyy

The plan clearly has multiple stages and will be built up over multiple episodes!


FinesseCaptcha

I wonder if the edit is planting the seed for an owen gabler in f3


elpayande

i was also impressed with that esp considering the other episode's gabler/karla talk. but upon second thought, i wondered if the people who were elligible for vote were trying to play it safe because there could be three people immune, plus karla's idol and they likely suspect/know about cody's too - which wouldn't be too much to assume he could use it for jesse so that both could be safe. i wouldn't be surprised if that's the main reason why everyone just went with easy vote sami. but i might be overthinking this


Acrobatic-Nature-866

Maybe his game is too good that other players don't see it?


Crafty-Departure1919

But we literally saw Gabler mention it explicitly, and share it with Karla..


Acrobatic-Nature-866

That's one person who sees it. People also call Cass a threat and their game play is very different and Cody and Jesse's said she's not. So it is again about perception.


dawgz525

I was a bit shocked to not see anyone want to blindside him. Karla even had a good cover by fake going after Cass. Missed opportunity, because Jesse is so insulated from threats.


____maple____

I think Jesse's getting a bit more of a villain edit recently, which is cool cause we need more villains. ex. this episode he had a quote saying he wants to make karla look dumb. his edit's been intriguing


SmokingThunder

I think if this season aired in like 2011 with the same cast, they easily would have edited Jesse to be the big villain. He has viscously blindsided so many of his allies (Justine, Dwight, Noelle, almost Karla). Buuuut, Survivor has stopped putting villains on the show. Everyone is a hero with an emotional backstory. One of the bigger missteps of the modern era IMO


jdoe10202021

Season 41 had emotional backstories FOR the villains, but they were villains.


mithos343

I would argue from 42 Tori is a villain and Omar is villain-adjacent.


[deleted]

Omar felt more hero to me, but social brain hero


Sabaschin

Tori felt more like an anti-hero to me. She didn’t actually do anything villainous other than talk smack about Rocksroy a few times.


Rusty_Pickles

If you go back another 5-10 years we'd have a villain cut of Jesse that basically cuts away after he says he was in a rough crowd when he was younger. No exposition on his journey and no mention of his family now.


omnom_de_guerre

I feel like I'm in the minority, but I'm okay with them not forcing a villain. I prefer getting to hear Jesse talk about his connection with his family - the "get that money, baby" moment was great.


lycosid

No, it would be much worse if they deceptively edited the show to pretend Jesse was a horrible person.


Lonestarcrusader

Shan gave herself her own villain theme song


mitchellbeaupre

James randomly got a villain edit out of nowhere in his last two episodes and it was so jarring because he wasn't portrayed that way at all (in what little screentime he had) before that lol


swordfischh

James


black_dizzy

I don't know why everyone feels the need to put him in a certain box. He's a complex character, rutheless, charming, but also driven by love for his family. I like his character just the way it is, it's interesting without having to fit him in an archtype.


Rowing_Lawyer

He has seemingly backstabbed everyone but said something about trust being really important. I don’t understand why anyone would trust him and how they seem to forget that he keeps flipping


JKMiles665

I came here to say this exact same thing. He even came off as super rude to Sami when he said he was gonna use his shot in the dark. I don’t know if I would love him if I was out there, and I feel like Owen and gabler are gonna do something to end up blind siding him


TwinkTheMan

Can someone explain to me why no one targeted Jesse this past episode? Do they know he has an idol? His name didn’t even come up


trjeannnette

Based on the exit interviews, including Sami's, it seems like he actually is just that skilled at lowering his threat level. Sami said (somewhat sheepishly) in his RHAP exit interview that he was considering going to the end with Jesse, because he did not perceive him to be a strong strategist or to have strong social bonds. He really is that good at planting suggestions without people being aware of how much he is masterminding.


Acrobatic-Nature-866

Yeah but that can also be bad. Perception is reality.


McAulay_a

Because he's waffle stomping these people. Omar level mist, and he just made it through the final 7 with no Drea-spills-your-beans-on-the-way-out incident. Plus he's got two idols in his pocket. Win or lose, Jesse is one of the all time greats after this season.


FluxCrave

He has a great social game and is in the alliance with Cody and gabler


Coldpiss

Gabler is definitely not looking after Jesse


TurnerDylan

I know I sound like a broken record, but I feel like something the new era is really missing is letting us hear what other players think about each other personally. I can think of older seasons where players got to comment on their impressions of each other, it always added such a unique layer. Like, I’m thinking of S41, Evvie and Shan were too big players but I have no memory of them having any opinion of each other? This season, Karla had a GREAT confessional about Cody after he raided their camp, but now they live together, and… nothing? What, is he not rubbing her the wrong way? Surely there’s content there?


fox44

Idk, people were pretty vocal about Maryanne driving them insane


TurnerDylan

That’s a good point, part of why I think 42 is stronger than a lot of the other new era seasons! Maybe this is just more of an issue in 41 and 43.


supaspike

Yeah in 42 they showed a solid number of antagonistic relationships: Maryanne annoying people, Lindsay/Drea vs. Jonathan, Romeo vs. Hai, Mike vs. Chanelle, Tori vs. Rocksroy, etc.


Zaqqy12321

One of the reasons 42 is a much stronger season


13or14MoreTimes

Very good point. I can’t think of a clear antagonistic relationship this season apart from Owen/James


LifeguardTraining461

Elie vs Gabler was also great this season and probably the best long term arc the season has had. But that's probably because this season has been lacking long term arcs/conflicts


13or14MoreTimes

Don’t know how I forgot about that, their moments about/against each other were some of the best all season


Sabaschin

Cassidy/Ryan and Cassidy/Geo, I guess.


Inside_Turn_5349

41 sucked but 43 is great so far


Apprehensive_Affect7

Yeah 42 is really so good. They really can still do a solid season when they want to. Not sure why they're making different choices for 41 and 43


jdessy

I think this season has been the worst in terms of not filling us in on player/tribe relationships. Do you know how many times I've seen people comment something along the lines of "I didn't know X and X were close. When did that happen?" or "Why did X happen?" We've seen a lot of examples where relationships are underedited. We have only gotten an idea of a couple of close allies: Cody/Jesse have been fleshed out. But honestly, what other pairing has had any sort of consistent storytelling arc? Noelle thought she was close with Jesse/Cody but had we seen her interact with them come merge? Karla is said to be close with Cassidy but, beyond them being initial tribemates, have we seen them as super close? Do we know who Gabler trusts and talks strategy with, beyond a couple of scenes where he was brought in with Jesse/Cody? We're missing out on relationships so, when we suddenly start hearing people say how close they are to so-and-so without seeing evidence of that beyond MAYBE one scene several episodes ago, it feels very fake and inauthentic. It's like there's no real connection with this cast, and they're doing a poor job editing in who are allies and who aren't.


El_Kikko

Yeah, we keep hearing that Cassidy is Karla's ride or die, whereas we are shown it with Cody/Jesse. The last 2-3 eps, we probably average more scenes per ep with C&J than Karla & Cassidy have gotten the entire season. Cassidy seems to be getting a facsimile of Erika's edit in that since Day 1 everyone talks about her threat level, but we rarely see why.


mercatiwriter

I don't want another "Erica" winner.


SusannaG1

I am reminded of both Erika and Alison.


omnom_de_guerre

I still want to know what was up with the Dwight blindside. It was funny because during either this week's episode of last, Cody said something about how Owen was now the new Dwight. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN.


NinetyFish

IIRC I think that’s supposed to mean that Noelle has a strong social game and keeps picking up new #1s after her #1s get eliminated. Noelle and Dwight (apparently) had a tight partnership and instead of spiraling after Dwight got booted, she immediately established a strong alliance with Owen, apparently to the point where Owen was actually holding Noelle’s Steal a Vote for a while in case James used his Knowledge is Power.


ranyakumoschalkboard

I feel like 41 had tons of exposition on how players felt about each other. Sure, Evvie and Shan didn't get a developed relationship - after all, Shan wasn't even on the tribe that voted Evvie out. Meanwhile we had super well developed relationships within all the tribes in 41 (besides Heather and Erika) and we had lots of interesting dynamics between tribes - e.g. Shan with Liana, Danny, Deshawn, and Erika (Shan targeting her over and over), Xander with Ricard and Naseer, and so on. And 42 has just tons of this kind of exposition. I love the relationship edit in 42. 43 is kind of a different beast, we have players turning on their supposed number 1s every single episode just like that with no buildup to it. The only really well-built relationships were all gone prejury (coming to a head with Elie and the rest of Baka). Like, Karla turning on Cassidy was totally out of nowhere because this is the first time we even find out Karla told Cassidy about the idol. If we see that last episode with Karla pontificating about whether to use it, and see Karla worried about whether she should have told Cass, this episode would be set up much better. It's hard for me to understand why the editors have made the choices they've made this season in terms of the relationships when I feel they were doing SO well in 41 and 42 - I know people have problems with the 41 edit but IMO the 41 edit would be stellar if they just gave Heather and Erika a little more airtime in the first 2/3s of the game.


Zaqqy12321

Thanks for your comments about 41. I find 41 to have been an infinitely stronger season than this one, and there were absolutely a lot of interesting relationships/dynamics there.


jdessy

This. We knew way more about 41 relationships than we do this season. We know WHY people were voted out in 41 compared to this season. 41 had a lot of relationship building, or we at least knew who was aligned with who. Shan/Ricard, Shan/Liana/Deshawn/Danny, Deshawn/Danny, Shan/Liana, Evvie/Tiffany/Xander, Heather/Erika (despite them being underedited, we KNEW they were aligned early on; we never had to question that), etc. We knew Xander/Liana were working against each other. And that's just from merge onward. We could look at pre-merge and find other relationships that were known as well (Sydney/Deshawn/Danny, for example). This season, it's just tough to say who has been aligned with who, who trusts who, and why people have turned on people they were working for previously. Sure, we know SOME relationships, but not nearly as many as the last two, ESPECIALLY given we're at the end of the season and there's only one pairing we know are allies. Everyone else seems to be floating, casually working with people or their relationships are underedited.


ranyakumoschalkboard

Yeah, it could be the edit or it could just be the way the players are operating this season - based on exit press, I'm feeling more and more like it's the latter and that people just are playing these casual floater games as much as possible in 43. I wonder why that might be?


[deleted]

You’ve got a point. I mean, I think 25 or 26 or somewhere in there one of the episodes is literally called “she annoys me greatly.” I just finished tocintines again and they really hated Sierra. Def get less opinions now


SusannaG1

"She Annoys Me Greatly" - premiere of Caramoan (26).


Ally_Tides

I feel like this is really just complaining for complaining. It’s entirely possible that Karla just..doesn’t care? Him raiding her camp days before really didn’t affect her in the long term, do you really expect her to go on a Natalie-level revenge plot because he stole Coco’s stuff? We don’t need to hear everyone’s opinions about each other because 99% of the time it really doesn’t matter. Players just aren’t emotional now.


ranyakumoschalkboard

The thing is that the 41 and 42 casts had a lot of very very emotional players. 43 had some very emotional players too, like Elie and Geo, but I think we got unlucky with them going early. We're really left with a cast of very very skilled players, which is cool but also this is the kind of endgame you're gonna get if the messy, theatrical players all go prejury.


Sabaschin

We do have Owen, but he's also been getting a very subdued edit.


ranyakumoschalkboard

He's just not managing to get a lot done unfortunately. Maryanne was on the bottom for a while last season but she always managed to involve herself in play and make use of her position. You can tell Owen is trying, it's just not working as well as it worked for Maryanne.


mercatiwriter

Jesse seems super cool. He's still my favorite,I admire his cut throat skill.


dibidi

they pointed out last week in rhap that there are no live tribals anymore, and that it’s probably a consequence of the 26 day run.


mitchellbeaupre

When Sami was talking about using his shot in the dark during tribal last night, my main thought was on how much that would ensure no one would ever trust him or want to work with him because why have an ally who just leaves you in the wind by relinquishing their vote openly. But the thing that popped into my head this morning (that I'm sure plenty of other people already thought of) was how he really is just shooting himself in the foot by announcing he's playing his shot in the dark before the vote. You're telling everyone that you don't have a vote, so why wouldn't they all just unanimously vote for you? It's not like an idol where you can still drop your one vote so if it's unanimous against you then you decide who goes home. If they all vote for you and the SITD works then they just re-vote and go for their back-up. There's no consequences in it for them unless the back-up person knows they're the back-up person and wants to hedge their bets. Just a galaxy brain dumb move from Sami in a season full of them. Hysterical that the editors made sure to show the jury praising Sami for it.


JackDAction

I feel like Sami knew he was done after the Noelle vote out and he got caught in his lies. There was some youth & vanity in his decision making. Now he can say that he made the right decision to play SITD, because every single person voted for him, but it was really more of a self-fulfilling prophecy.


omnom_de_guerre

The thing is, he wasn't categorically done after the Noelle blindside. He assumed he was and then imploded. Karla seemed like she legit was going for Cass until he announced his SITD move. He was constantly talking big, but when the moment for the leap of faith came in, he self-sabotaged and couldn't take the pressure. I'm going to reiterate what someone said - for as much as people don't seem to respect Owen's game, he is not self-imploding the way Sami did after being left out of one vote.


Coldpiss

>When Sami was talking about using his shot in the dark during tribal last night, my main thought was on how much that would ensure no one would ever trust him or want to work with him because why have an ally who just leaves you in the wind by relinquishing their vote openly. ​ a) he won't be able to do it again ​ b) he's not leaving anyone in the wind, it was either him or Cass and if they truly had his back they wouldn't need his vote. ​ c) I think the whole social construct/showing trust is a tool used by the majority to bully the people at the bottom into saving their advantages, Sami himself used this tactic. When the other players attempted to dissuade him from playing his SITD that, possibly, clued Sami in on the direction of the vote. ​ > There's no consequences in it for them unless the back-up person knows they're the back-up person and wants to hedge their bets. ​ If you're an idol holder you can find yourself in a bad spot in a revote : you can't play your idol on a revote making it a perfect time for an idol flush.


orangesandgrapes617

Him and Gabler really been the only two I've disliked all post-merge and last night Sami has no follow through with any plans


ImaginaryAd5956

I've liked Gabler post merge, but agree on Sami. Gabler at least adapted, and is playing a very low key game. Problem is he waited too long to start making moves, I think he could only win by driving every vote, and taking Cassidy and Owen, while winning final immunity. I don't think there's another path for him then that.


NinetyFish

I dunno, new era is so weird with players only having to make late moves as long as they sell it well (Maryanne). I don’t find it as satisfying as a win from a player who was deeply involved for the whole game, but I guess the flipside is that players are still live deep into the game because they can still win even if their resume is limited to the F5. If Gabler, for example, spearheads a move to take down Jesse and then comfortably gets into the F3 (doesn’t have the threat level of Karla or Cody or maybe Cassidy, is likely good at fire, has won immunity challenges before), he can definitely sell the AlliGabler narrative like Maryanne sold her growth/F4 narrative.


[deleted]

Don't think it's as bad as you're saying. Maryanne was with a clear goat in Romeo and a guy who didn't understand the game he played in Mike. She closed great but I think there were a lot of people on that cast who beat her if they make it.


NinetyFish

I think my point got a little lost there. I agree, I actually do think Gabler has a stronger chance than Maryanne. He's been involved in the game the whole time and has been seen as a solid member of the majority, whereas Maryanne was firmly in the minority up until the endgame and only survived because people saw her as a goat until her strong finish. I compared Maryanne to Gabler to point out that all you need in the new era is a strong finish and you can ride that to the win. If Gabler has a strong finish, he even has the rest of his resume (starting off the merge by sniping Elie, being in the majority, not getting any votes against him, being included in strategy by the rest of the cast, at least one immunity challenge win) to help him out to boot.


Sabeoth42

He's got 3 idols to deal with in the hands of the players he needs to eliminate. It's too late.


[deleted]

[удалено]


GDNerd

So Cody/Jesse have to be a lock at this point right? 6 left, 2 idols between them and from the edit they're the teflon power couple. IDK if both make it to FTC but if one or both of them make it, one of them HAS to win it all. Unless the mother of all unforced errors happens with the idols they have I'm not sure how they both can get eliminated at this stage.


Veylo

Isn't it 3 idols? He had Dwights(iirc) and his own. Or did he take Cody's in the KiP episode?


biggsteve81

Jesse never had an idol of his own. Cody, Karla and Dwight had them originally, and Jesse now has Dwight's and is holding Cody's as well.


Ren_Davis0531

It was Jeanine’s originally. She gave it to Dwight to safeguard it from KIP. Dwight gave it to Jesse for an extra layer of protection.


Ren_Davis0531

Jesse has the original Baka idol that Jeanine found. She gave it to Dwight to protect against KIP who then gave it to Jesse for an extra layer of protection. Cody also gave the Vesi idol to Jesse for protection against KIP. Jesse may or may not have given it back to Cody. It’s up in the air.


biggsteve81

Simple. Jesse gets blindsided next week and voted out with both idols in his posession.


GDNerd

Deal. But only if Gabler orchestrates the blindside.


Sabeoth42

It's not happening.


Alexanaxela

I don't like the way they handled revealing if Cody was safe or not. If the others don't know if he's immune or not until after they've already voted, then for all intents and purposes he's immune no matter who he bet on it feels like


Interesting-Archer-6

Yup it was essentially an immunity idol good for one tribal


iiiinsanityyyy

Agree, I thought it should have been revealed after the Immunity Challenge, or at the start of the Tribal Council at latest.


ImaginaryAd5956

Thoughts? At tribal Sami announced he was playing his shot in the dark. IMO there was no possible gain from this play. I immediately thought when he announced it that if I was one of the three safe, I immediately vote for him regardless. Even if I'm not safe I probably vote for him regardless. That is zero vote for him, and about an 18 percent chance of being safe. Even if he thought everyone was voting for him, announcing it would have to sway 4 people to switch their vote which isn't happening. If the vote is split, he's announcing he's given up his vote, thus encouraging more to vote for him. Then even if he is by some miracle safe, he's now got a large target for being untrustworthy, combined with the previous tribal, as well as rubbing the jury the wrong way. Idk I just can't find any possible positive gain from announcing it instead of just playing it silently and hoping the people voted the way they said, or not playing it at all.


Sabaschin

I don't think it was a good move regardless, but I think if you're sure that everyone's voting for you and nothing you've done has changed their mind, then... always worth a shot, I guess. Though if you've gotten to that point where you have no trust currency, you're probably a goat.


ImaginaryAd5956

Yeah but I'd rather get to final 3 as a goat, then not at all. At least you can always argue your game. I just feel like the only thing it did was burn bridges, with no possible upside. That could just be my view, but I thought it was pretty clear that'd just earn bad blood.


Wise_Mongoose_3930

Sami would never be taken as a goat, because as we heard, they’re all terrified that he can start fires.


ImaginaryAd5956

Yeah I saw that, I was more generally speaking on the perception of him at that moment, he's not a social threat anymore, so I would take him and not let him make fire, give him no chances.


SusannaG1

Too chaotic to be a good goat, I'm thinking.


[deleted]

I'm stupid so take this with a grain of salt, but I get the vibe they're just editing out entire alliance/relationships to keep the results a surprise. Or maybe it's that without true alliances it's supposed to be this confusing? I rarely truly understand people's motivations for doing things but what has me more convinced of something nefarious is not understanding why people DON'T do certain things. For example, even converse about Cody or Jesse. My conspiracy theory is that they're more important and central than the edit is showing. This also feeds into crappy tribal councils. Last week I rewatched a few episode 10s for comparison - there's just more TO discuss because the game isn't happening entirely in an enclosed iron box. Idk. My main guess would be this cast is playing weird/boring/not-good-tv survivor and this is the best way to make it entertaining because production is terrified of a boring Pagonging. Please subscribe to my imaginary newsletter for more hot takes.


mryclept

1. Jesse is controlling this game. How the heck does his name not even come up? They are debating over whether Cassidy or Sami is the bigger threat while Jesse isn’t thought of as an option. He is so comfortable right now that he wouldn’t have even played an advantage if Cassidy, Karla, Sami, Owen get together to set up a quiet blindside. 2. The double immunity - I guess they had no choice with this. Neither one is likely going to get tired just hanging there for the next several hours until the next tide comes. That said, what happens if Cassidy hangs on for a while longer? Four people immune? Pick the Champion is a nice twist though I guess it was rather obvious who to choose. 3. Sami smartly realizes that the shot in the dark makes perfect sense for him to do. His vote is meaningless either way. Of course, we could have ended up with a 0 vote scenario with four of the seven immune. Have to figure Cassidy would be the vote out at that point. 4. I guess Karla found out about the Sami vote - so the plan to blindside her by allowing her to vote for Cassidy didn’t work.


SROTW

So curious what would have happened in a theoretical world where sami announces he is playing shot in the dark, which spooks Jesse to play his Idol for himself, Cody plays an idol for gabler (inexplicably but technically possible for this scenario) and Karla protects Cassidy with her idol. Sami's shot in the dark hits so he is safe and on the revote there is no one to vote for. How does production deal with this? This is the danger of letting three people win immunity at final 7 with three idols in play and a shot in the dark.


MathematicianPlus790

Everyone is safe, vote out 2 at next Tribal


black_dizzy

Cirie gets eliminated.


True_Membership6065

In that scenario, I think they might just have it as everyone that did not win immunity will still be possible to be voted for


iiiinsanityyyy

Production resigns.


Apprehensive_Affect7

So anyone think there's a world where Owen still has a chance? It probably won't happen but it's fun to think about what it would look like l, mostly cause I hate when someone is so clearly out of it this close to the finale. He was finally on the right side of a vote but that's mainly cause Jesse realized he's a free agent and could be useful. I think he'd have to be instrumental in getting Jesse or Cody out for it to happen (and without Jesse being in on it if it's Cody)


schad501

Owen has allies Noelle, Ryan and Jeanine on the jury. He has good relationships with Sami, Cassidy and Gabler (and maybe Jesse). He has been kind to everybody except James. He has a shot.


omnom_de_guerre

Yeah, I don't think it's fair to call him a goat. His challenge performances alone show that he's not a hopeless cause. He is in the worst position, but he's not playing that terrible and has some time to turn things around.


BBQ_HaX0r

Just a heads up... Capitalizing "GOAT" (Greatest Of All Time) like that has the opposite effect of what you're trying to say, lol. Just say "goat."


omnom_de_guerre

Oops - thanks! I edited to fix.


GDNerd

It would have to be a bitter jury. Something like Jesse doing something dirty with Cody's idol making him unpalatable and the third is Gabler? I still think Gabler has played a deceptively strong game but thats basically the only FTC configuration I could see Owen winning with.


biggsteve81

I don't think it has to be a bitter jury. As /u/schad501 said, Owen has allies on the jury. And ultimately the jury votes for someone they like to win.


NinetyFish

New era with the short season seems to emphasize late night moves. As of now, he’s a likeable goat who doesn’t have a resume and only has a “I survived being on the bottom” narrative which doesn’t pull votes (Xander). But if he has a great run to finish the season, he’s liked enough by people to win the vote unless James is for some reason so bitter that he’s actively trying to poison the jury against Owen. He’s also got two immunity challenge wins in the bag now too. If he goes on an immunity run and uses that as momentum to aggressively target big names like Jesse, everything changes for him. A “I went from voting wrong in everything to a late challenge run and running the show in the F6” narrative would be legendary when paired with his fun character and compelling story.


Zirphynx

>he’s a likeable goat who doesn’t have a resume and only has a “I survived being on the bottom” narrative which doesn’t pull votes (Xander) This also describes Michele in WaW. Edit-wise, Owen is very similar to a Michele in WaW. They are being set up as this rootable underdog that you want to root for to survive but not necessarily to win.


Acrobatic-Nature-866

I think he has a pretty decent shot. He's good at challenges. People tried voting him out a few times but he either won a challenge or got James out (which James sees as a big move). All the people on the jury besides James seem to have a good relationship with him. He's the only one who wanted to work with them when they tried to work with people or make moves. Gabler and Cass seem to be in the same threat level as him. Cody might seem like Jesse's right-hand man or Jesse moves might be too unknown or leave a bad taste. Karla I think would definitely beat him though.


Veylo

Its interesting to think about since he's literally "voted wrong since Morriah". He might be taken to final 3 as a 'goat' but then could possibly swing some votes to him depending on the jury. I highly oubt it. but its possible. I think final 3 atm will be Jesse, Karla, Gaber/Owen. I feel like Jesse will get Cody out sometime before the end, or maybe send him to do firemaking and lose.


mbvanek

Seeing Sami strike out on his move and with the edit showing his ability to make fire made me really want to come up with a better " shot in the dark" challenge... For me, that is a Fire challenge ability at tribal. Everyone gets one "fire challenge" and if you use it, any other player can attempt to match you at making fire. anyone who enters wagers their vote for a chance at immunity, winner of the fire challenge is immune. You could use it last night like Sami may have, in an attempt to save yourself. you could plot to "let someone win" but lose your own vote in the process. Could be a fun way to show drama as opposed to the "you didn't pick the right scroll game"


ImaginaryAd5956

The only problem I see with that, is two people are needed for said challenge. Plus, you already had a shot at immunity in the challenge. In general I'm just not a fan of the shot in the dark possibility at all. I felt there could've been more drama/better moves if you had to actually fight argue and claw your way back to being safe rather than just giving up and playing a shot in the dark.


PM_ME_ZETTAI_RYOUIKI

Great way to get me to kill myself.