ljenkins782

It was also luck that Sol was the one to find that advantage. Had it been someone else that Rachel did not have a relationship with, the outcome would have been different. So while it's true that luck abounded in this situation, Rachel's relationship with Sol swayed the outcome. The spookiest part about Ruper's freakout was how his giggling little baby voice was replaced with an absolute roar as he tried to choke out Johnny Fairplay. That wild of a swing in personality suggests that something isn't quite right mentally.

Yeah, I bet that "gave it a buck twenty" thing wore a bit thin as well. Someone wrote it on their parchment when they voted him out, so it must have been something they heard a lot. And I liked Kyle too, but I could spot the things that probably would have made me roll my eyes a bit if around him 24/7.

Out of all the players this season, Sol is the one I'd most like to know in real life. The Ponderosa interviews also seem to confirm that he was a great guy to be around and he seemed to enjoy the experience all the way. His lack of bitterness on this situation is admirable, it seems like he's far less bitter about it than the viewers were. There can only be one winner and Rachel is it, so it was clearly the right move for her game. I'm not sure what was to be gained by asking that question, like "why didn't you save me after I saved you, I could be sitting there instead of you if you had..." I mean, I guess if he wanted to be bitter and vindictive, he could have based his vote entirely on whether or not she came up with a certain answer to that, but it wouldn't really be that illuminating for anyone else. I can understand why she felt her age would work against her right off the bat, but honestly, I think she's the one who made a bigger deal of it than necessary by putting a (fake) number on it. She was clearly older than the rest, there was no hiding that, but whether it was by 25 years or 35 years probably wasn't going to be the tipping point she thought it was. I got what she was saying, it's a sucky situation to be the people stuck making fire while Sue got a pass to the finals, Sam's feigned enthusiasm came across as trying to intimidate her with confidence. I didn't get the sense that she was saying her win was free from luck, but she did win 4 immunity challenges along with that luck. When Kyle does it, he's the challenge beast, but when a woman does it, she's just lucky? He was rarely a target and the only reason he received more votes against him than his 2 FTC opponents was because Rachel was immune more often and ineligible to be voted for and nobody (except poor Kyle that one time) was voting for Sue because everyone correctly believed she wouldn't get a lot of votes to win. If Sam had truly been the threat he believed himself to be, he would have gone at the Sierra vote. The group found her more dangerous and in breaking up that duo, they really neutralized him.

They really did look strikingly clean, Sue looked like she'd not only finally cleaned her face but like she'd had her Botox refreshed somehow, that forehead was smooth as could be. Didn't Sam and Rachel start out on the yellow tribe, I think they must have brought or were given those shades of yellow, but again, they'd been so dirty until this past episode that it hadn't stood out. Man, those early Survivor seasons had some wild decision-making at the end. Lex was less obnoxious in Africa than he was in All Stars, but still a better choice to bring to FTC. And imagine giving up a million dollars just to deny FairPlay $100k, crazy. And on that note, for all the credit Sandra gets as a 2-time winner, she could have so easily been a forgotten 3rd placer if Lill hadn't made such an inexplicable choice for FTC. this is why I can't get worked up about Rachel not caring about her Survivor legacy or whatever. I doubt I could name more than a handful of contestants from the last...20 seasons, maybe? Aside from the returning players seasons, most of these seasons blend together and even the winners are lost to my memory. So good for her for playing the game to win the game and not to become a reality tv character or whatever.

The thing about Sue's loyalty with Gabe and Caroline is that it was always a one-way street. They were aligning with her as a part of their master plans for their own games, whereas she seemed to be seeking life rafts and would be loyal to anyone who made her feel safe. Like, she regretted not playing her idol for Caroline, but if the shoe was on the other foot, Caroline would never have played an idol for Sue unless it fit into the plan for herself. Sue was really never playing to win, whether she realized it or not. She did say sidekick energy, it's the modern version of 'always a bridesmaid, never a bride', IMO. This episode revealed a lot about Teeny's insecurities, which I found interesting because for the majority of the show, she had a pretty good edit. Seemed like an affable person who made friends easily and was always in the mix, but I guess everybody wants to the star sometimes. Rachel had one advantage handed to her, the Sol one. Her idol clue was a lucky break, but she did have to work to get the idol unnoticed. Her block a vote advantage was on a journey where she had to complete a task to win it. And her immunity wins were all things she had to work for. Given Sam's not so stellar challenge performances and somewhat casual attitude toward work in general (don't wanna practice fire til the last day, don't wanna fish with the fishing gear, give me food instead of these chickens, etc), I don't know that he could have capitalized on those opportunities like Rachel did. I also didn't see the big scramble game he was playing, if anything, his threat level dropped at the merge and he just wasn't much of a priority to boot after that. They had a choice between him and Sierra and they decided she was the bigger threat. That seems to have been correct because he faded without her.

I snorted at Sierra's open-mouthed shock at that, as if she's all that much older than Teeny.

There was an interview with all the jury members before the show and one of the questions was "which of the pre-jury contestants do you wish was at Ponderosa" and Jon Lovett was the answer from most of them, including Sierra. I was like....uh, that coulda been arranged if not for that decision to keep Andy along as a pet goat.

That replay of Andy tells me that he needs to keep his island weight up, he looks way better now. He also appears to have gained confidence along the way. As for Kyle voting for Sam, I don't know why I get this feeling but I kind of knew he wasn't going to vote for a woman. I wonder what he would have done if Sam had been the final juror and he had to choose between 3 women. This mini format for the after show probably means they won't delve into the Sue grudge against Kyle, that's too bad.

It was kind of Gabe to throw Sue a bone by including her in the question that Sierra left her out of. I also don't think she has any chance, but it was nice of him to include her.

Sam's theater kid is showing with those crocodile tears and inspirational speech to himself.

I enjoyed this too, but man, it's just so sad. Very difficult to watch such a physical person lose so much in a moment. And then the perfectly healthy Dana getting such a devastating diagnosis so soon after Chris passed. I wonder if she'd spent so much time as a caretaker that she didn't necessarily keep up with her own dr appointments and such or if it was just one of those things that presented no symptoms until it was too late. I loved the bits with Robin Williams, he really seems like he was such a good person to have around in such dark circumstances.

I agree that Yul used the idol well, but the fact that he even had one to wield is yet another piece of luck. Without that idol, does that little minority alliance of 4 manage to topple the much larger group against them? Probably not. As for Tina have multiple alliances, I don't remember that season well enough, but I do think she had several pieces of luck in her favor, namely Rodger and Elisabeth being the duo that couldn't be broken up, but that could be used as a voting bloc based on their personal values. The other, much larger, piece of luck was Colby being the person he was. The 'wants to be seen as the good guy' guy who is also arrogant enough to assume he has it in the bag anyway, so he makes a terrible final 2 choice. Circling back to the original point of Rachel being a good winner, but not necessarily a good strategist, given the above examples, I'd say she's done her share of strategic play throughout the season. Finding her idol without getting caught and never telling anyone about it, pllaying the SITD as a test to see if she needed to play her idol, shapeshifting into various alliances, playing Andy and Sam like fiddles before her idol play, and not making the emotional decision to repay Sol's kindness at a potential cost to her own game, all of that is pretty sound strategy to me.

Oh dear, she really believes that people bought that 45 thing? I mean, there is the age blindness of the young where anything over 30 is just "old" but come on. Her hands alone are a dead giveaway. More than anything, Sue's personality and speaking style are going to be her biggest roadblocks. A compelling speaker or someone with a lot of personal charm could sell those items to a jury, but she's got a somewhat defensive tone naturally and doesn't seem like she can weave a tale that will draw people in.

Yeah, I rewatched the episode to see the beginning that I'd missed (and enjoyed the commercial-freeness of it, those ad breaks really distract me) and Rachel's performance on the beach was masterful. Actual tears and even though I knew she had an idol, I still felt bad for her in the moment. She sold the hell out of that. This baffles me too, for a number of reasons. The biggest one being that I wouldn't want to lose control of my brain/mouth around a bunch of people I was competing with for a million dollars. But besides that, drinking on a stomach that's been empty for weeks, the lack of bathroom facilities, the unavailability of day-after hangover food, it's just unappealing all around. Just a general curiosity about this statement, who does qualify as a great strategist and why? If I were look back through the seasons, there are precious few players who I could identify as significantly strategic. So much of this game is luck (good or bad), especially with all of the advantages in play that I feel like a long-range strategy is nearly impossible.

Ugh, why do all the true crime shows do the same stories at once. Especially when there isn't really any new information to share on a very famous case.