Lady Calypso

Unless Kenzie was going to completely credit Q for her entire game, he was never voting for her, clearly. He is so mad that Kenzie is the last Yanu standing.

Q hates Kenzie, he hates that she's there and he's not.

I think Venus goes Kenzie. Tevin, Soda and Hunter are the wild cards.

Honestly, strategically, he should be taking Liz and forcing Charlie/Kenzie to make fire. But Ben is all about vibes so he probably takes Kenzie because he likes her the best and she's helped with his anxiety attacks.

I agree, holding onto Q as long as she did was her downfall, instead of spreading her time elsewhere. I think she could learn and grow from her mistakes here because they were correctable.

I do like Maria, I think she could do well on a Second Chances if she goes here. She's been a kickass player. Her biggest issue has been her indecisiveness/unwillingness to own her game. But I am happy that we've gotten Maria all season. I love that a woman like her, someone who's older, has been a top contender to win.

We've also seen Kenzie call Charlie "Maria's Jester" four episodes ago AND he has still not made a move on his own or led a charge with a vote. I don't think he has as many votes as people believe. He doesn't have anything he can claim. He botched that when Venus got voted out.

Honestly, I have to respect Maria. She's made mistakes and I don't like her indecisiveness, but she's still very good at this game. I don't think it works, I think this is a ploy for the viewers rather than it actually happening, but kudos to Maria for trying.

I mean, since Jeff didn't call it out, it clearly was within the rules, or whatever. I personally don't love it but I can't be mad about it because Jeff didn't say she couldn't grab Kenzie's plank. It was nice to see the immunity challenge be about the women. Two women vs one, while the two remaining men were invisible. That was nice to see.

Well then, I don't think this has happened, someone outright stopping THEIR puzzle to go run and grab someone else's to help them out. I guess it's allowed?

Oh, this is fun. Maria vs Charlie.

I used to say Maria but her indecisiveness and unwillingness to own her game has caused her to slip. I'd love a Kenzie or Charlie win. A Liz win would be hilarious and, to be fair, she DOES have a couple of moves under her belt.

Honestly, favourite episode of the season and quite possibly one of my favourite episodes of the series. I fully get that, with a shortened season, they're on a tighter schedule, so having a more chill episode like this was needed at some point. And I always crave more Bobby-centric stories. His backstory is the one that has never been fleshed out beyond the Minnesota fire and one tidbit about how he was a kid ice dancer. Peter Krause and Malcolm-Jamal Warner were absolutely fantastic. I worried that Amir was either going to try to take revenge on Bobby or worse, immediately forgive him. This episode was more nuanced than usual, in the sense that we got Bobby called out by Amir, and Amir really got to lay out his feelings while not forgiving him. He was thankful for him being there when he needed help, but Bobby showing up didn't fix anything. Amir and Bobby were really lucky the cartel was dumb as shit and didn't catch them running up the mountain to hide behind a rock. Truly, the dumbest cartel members I've ever seen on a show, but I'm fine with it. I didn't need 40 minutes of Bobby and Amir fighting the cartel, and we got some excellent character work. And Bobby's backstory is sad. He is now officially a member of the 118 with Shitty Parents! But I fully get why Bobby turned out the way he did. An abusive alcoholic father, his mother and brother leaving that situation while he chose to stay behind, only to have reality hit him and then his dad dying while he's in the next room? Like, damn. Really great episode. I know it's outside the norm of 9-1-1 episodes but I get why it was needed, and it was just well done in general.

Charlie waited too long to make any moves of his own. Kenzie said it best a couple of episodes prior: Charlie is seen as Maria's Jester. He hasn't made any moves of his own. Charlie lost credibility the moment he let go of the sway vote he had to get out Q and got out Venus instead. I think that killed his game. Because now, others have more credit than he does. Charlie may have the strategic thought process but I think he'll have a tough time explaining to the jury on what he actually did that wasn't all talk. He now can't get out Maria on his own and everyone wants Maria out, anyway. He lost the game when Venus left. So I can see him getting more votes than the speculated clean sweep or 7-1-0, but he can't beat Kenzie now.

I am very disappointed in the Eddie stuff this season thus far. His character has been a total mess. Not just this episode, but the Nun Marisol plot from a couple of episodes ago, it feels very....off for Eddie. Who, I get, he's bottled feelings up constantly but we're on round three of his Shannon trauma and it feels like he's going in circles. There needs to be progress on that end at some point. Him cheating on Marisol with Kim sucks. He's intentionally making a decision that affects more than his life. I really think the only way this can end decently is Eddie being called out and has to face real consequences. Also, these cheating storylines have always ended with the cheater getting away with it, for the most part. I need this one to end differently. Also, Marisol sucks. Out of the two female characters that interacted with Eddie last season, they went with the woman whose brother was so stupid, he soundproofed himself in her attic and the one who can't cry, over the actually interesting actress who Eddie shared a moment with on the beach. Still disappointed by that. It does feel like this doppelganger plot would have been more useful about two seasons ago. Maddie/Athena teaming up was fun. I like when the show mixes up the pairings. I liked Maddie/Chimney's conversation. They got more to do here than their wedding episode. Amir seems like an interesting character. I assume he was part of the fire that Bobby accidentally started that killed 148 people.

Q made an enemy out of Tiff when he told people about her idol. I don't think Tiff would vote Q if there were other options. Ben also doesn't seem to like Q either, and he seems like he'll vote personally. So Q already has a tough time to win.

Also, someone elsewhere pointed out a hilarious parallel this season that has to be pointed out here: the only person to play an idol is Jess, and she played a fake idol. Yet, she's proven to have had the right idea. Even if you don't think it's real, PLAY THE DAMN IDOL. Jess plays a fake idol and gets voted out, four other players don't play their real idols and get voted out.

If Maria gets blindsided by Charlie next week AND she finds out that he also wants her gone, especially if she does go at F5 (which is likely, at this point) or even if she loses to Charlie at F4, she could feel betrayed enough by him to vote Kenzie. But yeah, I think Kenzie would have to make the move (the way I could see how is Kenzie finding the idol and perhaps nullifying votes against someone else to vote out Maria at F5) to earn Maria's vote. As it stands right now, I agree, it's tough to see Maria voting anyone but Charlie. So maybe the 0 vote finalist is wrong about him, maybe he gets one vote. Hell, I would be surprised to see Ben vote someone else, too.

It definitely depends on if these players will vote strategically (seeing Maria get to the end while being a huge target, especially if she has Charlie with her, might earn some jurors' respect) or emotionally (which is extremely possible; this cast is emotionally driven). I could see it going either way.

Damn, four people who had idols and didn't play said idol. This season's lesson? As Dee put it last season, "PLAY YOUR DAMN IDOL." I'm glad Venus did get some great material finally. I know why she was on the ous, fully see that she did it to herself, but she has been extremely entertaining. She also wasn't forced down out throats week after week, which helps. I know Venus wasn't everyone's cup of tea but what I liked about her was her obliviousness to her position and she was hilarious whenever she believed she was in control when she wasn't. It wasn't overplayed onscreen, she just kind of showed up when needed, had her segment, and then disappeared into the background. I've said it multiple times this season: Venus' strategic game was on point and she had good enough perception, but her social game was crap and had her unable to read a room at any point during the season. Look at how fast she hinted to Charlie about her idol when she said she'd keep quiet. She couldn't even last a full day. Had she actually kept her mouth shut, maybe she would have stayed. I like Q as a villain and he's a fantastic Survivor character but this is the episode where I got to the point of wanting him gone. He's been shoved down our throats, overused and I think his smugness got to me. And what worries me is, if he gets to the end with people like Liz and even Ben, he might actually now have a shot to win, because he can say he made moves and nobody took him out. He may be a player who annoys people and up until this episode, I thought he had zero shot. But I really worry he may now HAVE a shot if he takes the exact right people. I don't think he can win by a landslide, but I think he can get a few votes and if the votes become split for whatever reason, there's a chance Q can pull something out. But I think that's fear talking. It does suck that everyone just defaulted to voting Venus out. Whatever happened there, it was a bad decision. Venus was harmless, she had really no shot to win and it was clear nobody trusted her. So Charlie probably made a million dollar mistake. He's now left Q and Maria in the game to take out Venus, someone who wasn't a threat to his game. Even Kenzie has said it, Charlie has not made a single move on his own and it's been all Maria. Charlie needed this move to be taken seriously and he chose wrong. Liz just keeps saying that she's looking to speak up for the first time. Liz, you've done this three times now. There's very few options for a good winner now. Most of everyone is kind of floating and making personal decisions, rather than strategic ones. The only few who have been thinking strategically are Charlie (who made a huge mistake in voting out Venus over Q), Maria (who really made a bad play not just working with Q, but making it obvious she was working with Q) and maybe Kenzie (who has been blindsided and has no sole creditation to her resume). I guess Q falls under this, but I also don't want him to win. Though, if he did, it would be hilarious. It's really hard to say who's going to win because it's either going to be an emotional vote because there's nobody strategic left in the game to vote for or there's going to be a split vote because these people won't have a clue on who to vote for. Yet, still a fun season to watch, I'm having a blast still with these people (except for Q, who has finally gotten on my nerves).

Oh, well, Venus just implied she has an idol. Goddamnit, she couldn't even keep her mouth shut for a minute.

Only Charlie said that. I don't believe Kenzie said a word. Maria's reason she uses at the reward is that "Kenzie just ate." I just think Maria chickened out with actively making a decision. She shouldn't have voiced her reasons and then going back on said reasons because Q is definitely not the one starving on the island.

Maria just said Liz was sharing the rice with Venus. But she only got the rice BECAUSE she was eating far less than everyone. And also she tried to justify not choosing Kenzie with "well, Kenzie just ate!" But so did Q.

This is true, but saying that she was gonna choose based off of who was starving and then not choosing the person starving immediately created a bigger target than she would have prior.

Also, Maria just handed the four a reason to vote out Q tonight. She's left three outsiders with Charlie, and now that gives Charlie incentive to vote Q out tonight.