Chicago Redshirt

I do wonder: Is Bhanu watching Q's self-implosion and nonsensical tactics and thinking to himself, "So that dude thought that he could give me tips on how to play Survivor and he's making these f---ed up moves?" Or is he like taking notes dutifully for if and when there's Bhanu S2: Electric Bugaloo/Bhanu:999,999 More Hearts To Go?

I'll defend Tiffany a little. Was it very likely that enough people would target her at this juncture to make playing her idol worth it? There was, with the information she had available, not much reason to think that she might get a plurality of votes. We know that Kenzie set in motion a possible blindside of her. But Tiffany did not have not much reason to think that Kenzie would vote her at this point. Q might have reason to vote her, but he also has reason to keep her (such as to make amends and to win her and other potential jury votes over) Other than Big Move Fever, nothing suggests anyone but Maria has any beef with her. By contrast: Q had begged to be voted off last time and was annoying everyone by staying. So it seemed likely he was going to get some votes. Hunter is a challenge beast who at any time could go on an immunity run and at the very least would reduce the chances of others getting immunities. So it would make sense to try to get him out now while the getting was good. Venus had already gotten some votes in the past and might have been drawn some in this one. The probability of her idol being flushed if she played it versus it actually saving her like it's far better odds of it being flushed. Whereas I would put odds in Hunter's case like 50-50. And even if it is flushed, he has a pretty good chance of winning a future immunity. Whereas nothing we've yet seen from Tiff if I'm not mistaken suggests she is likely to even be in the top 2 of an immunity challenge.

AH! Four times Q!!!!!

It is also amazing that even with these longer episodes, it's not necessarily clear what the various Survivors are trying to do and how they expect to win. Charlie and Maria are a pair and seem to be operating as such pretty openly. They seem to be the only ones who have 100 percent trust with each other, who are 100 percent working with each other. But is anybody going to think "Hey, Charlie actually has done pretty well in challenges too, and he's articulate and likeable and strategic...maybe we better get rid of him"? Kenzie and Tiff are a pair, and have been working together. But everyone's favorite Mermaid Dragon started orchestrating a blindside of Tiffany already Seems a clearcut case of Big Move Fever. Say she had succeeded as early as this episode. Where would that leave Kenzie in terms of future votes? She can't rely on Q, not only because he is generally unreliable but also because she would have been instrumental in ousting his No. 1 ally and to the extent he cares about it still, a member of the Six. She might sidle up to Charlie/Maria and Ben to give old Siga a 4-3-1 lead, and then hope she's not blindsided once she's no longer useful, or flit back and side with old Nami to get rid of one of her Siga allies. Venus and Liz are weirdos and had been on the outs. Anyway, does she think it won't get back to Tiff that Kenzie has made a move on her? What's Ben's plan besides his now-mandatory pronouncements of what does and does not rock? What's Liz's, other than desperately wanting to get credit for being a leader so badly that she isn't apparently thinking about a) why she wants that credit NOW NOW NOW instead of just being able to claim it at the end and b) thinking about where she's allegedly leading? How does she not realize that taking credit now for moves would make her a target and be more likely to get her booted? Hasn't she known that flying under the radar is a perfectly valid strategy? Does Q still think he has a shot at winning this, or is he just messing around? I unfortunately see the possibility of what has happened the last two tribals repeating: Q does crazy and annoying shiznit, the other Survivors say "now's a good time to vote off X, because we can always get to Q later" and Q surviving another round, wash/rinse/repeat until he's in the F3. Venus seems to be feverishly trying to work this, but I'm not sure what she's trying to do either.

I just don't understand how so many of these people can claim to be superfans, and in Hunter's case, have been so into Survivor that he constructed all these homemade challenges, and yet don't get the very basics. Has there ever been a situation where a challenge monster lost immunity and wasn't immediately voted off? How wasn't his Spidey-sense tingling? Was his interview about him playing his idol edited in some way? Why oh why did Hunter even tell people he had an idol? He at one point understood the power of keeping it secret. I could understand trying to trust maybe one other person in the hopes that the two of you would keep it a secret, You would potentially be a lightning rod for all the votes and then you and your ally could pick someone to vote off. In theory, that might make sense. But then, who can you trust? You can't or shouldn't trust Q, who literally is in hot water for telling others that his then-number one ally has an idol and who is playing a game bizarre. And yet, Q was apparently the first person he told. It feels so long ago since the last correct idol play. Three of the Six have been ousted pretty much in a row, so I may still live the dream of a potential majority alliance imploding. Maybe it's weird of me considering it's a silly game, but I take some minor comfort in the fact that a fourth consecutive African-American was not sent home as it would have been if Q or Tiff ended up being booted. I wonder if Nami had been told that the last of their tribe standing would be Great Value Parvati and Weirdo-who-can't-eat-anything if anybody would have believed them.

Far be it for me to try to read into the amazing strategic prowess that Q possesses /s But anyway... Q can't vote for himself, so if he did literally want to be sent home and expected to be sent home, he had to vote for someone else. Q still liked Tiffany and/or knew that there was no sense in voting Tiffany because there were not enough people who would go along with such a move. Also, Q might not want to undercut Tiffany's game any more than he inherently had by being a big ol' weirdo and outing that she has an immunity idol. Also, Q might have suspected that he wasn't going to get voted off and knew throwing Tiff's name out there would likely get traced back to him. Q could have voted for Venus, as there were at least a few people who were anti-Venus, and that would be not going against "The Six." But it seems like Q is honestly shaken up when he's not driving the vote or in the majority. So it could simply be that he just was counting votes and knew that Tevin looked to be a goner and sidled up to the majority.

It is my hope that the members of the plus-one alliance fumble and stumble so that they are eliminated one by one by one. Yes, technically Soda interrupted that streak, but now we have Tim and Tevin getting the boot. Q has for the second time asked to be a target for a boot IIRC (I think back when it was all Yanu and he couldn't bring home a challenge win, he got frustrated and started some quitting talk). I would think that people would agree that they can't play with him and his mob boss strategy doesn't seem like it would work well when people have no reason to fear or trust him. I suppose they could see him as a goat because who's going to give his condescending bipolar ass $1 million after this tribal? Hunter doesn't seem to have much of a social game and he is an obvious challenge beast. I would think people would try to boot him at the earliest opportunity. But he's got an idol, so it's going to take two tries. I like Tiffany and Maria, and they weren't all into the plus one alliance...but I'd be amused if what presumably would be a first a majority alliance self-destructed from the onset for no good reason at all.

OK, it was a bit of an exaggeration. Strictly he probably only claimed he was great at puzzles and a social game, and he was terrible at both.

In just the last season and this one, Survivors that I think are easily at least as delusional as Q, and I would say more so. Q is mainly arrogant and condescending. I am not sure that he has been actively wrong about anything such that you could call him "delusional." By contrast, people have already raised Bhanu and Jelinsky. Yes, Bhanu could be merely acting as delusional, but he's kept the act up. And Survivor 45 had: Brandon - the guy who thought he was great at everything but who was actively and objectively terrible at everything Sean - who claimed that he could have won the game despite being the only member of his old tribe after a switch, but wanted to speed up getting back to his husband Bruce - who thought that he was God's gift to Survivor and who acted like his two days of prior Survivor experience made him a wily veteran, even though he literally had no allies, bossed people around and actively alienated people.

But in part, the situations are different. Bruce had not a single real ally, and had a die-hard enemy in Katurah. Q has Tiff who seemingly is actually in his corner and the remnants of the +1 alliance. I also think he's cool with Kenzie by and large. Time will tell if his condescension causes more people to target him. I don't think Q is that delusional....on a scale that includes even people from this season like Bhanu and Jelinsky, he's like a 2.

So much for the +1 alliance. Or is it? Will it morph by replacing Tim with Charlie, and if so will that version hold? It looks like the remaining division is 4-3-3, so there's no real reason for anyone to stay ________-strong.

Charlie I believe is taller, younger, and way more articulate. He's (AFAIK) the only law student/lawyer representative this season. He's tight with Maria. Ben is the rocker dude who keeps bringing up rock bands and saying things like "this doesn't rock." and seems to be generally liked by most but does not seem to have any one person who considers him their number one, or vice versa.

Has the Angstrom threat been put to rest? It seems like once you have a multiverse, there's an infinite number of Angstroms, at least some of which are going to have the same rage boner for Invincible and thus will come to confront "our" Invincible.

Few other thoughts. Start with fewer players -- say 15. Have it be one tribe all along. For competitions, do randomized teams. Have nobody go home for the first few episodes. You could still have tribal councils if you wanted but they could be to administer some sort of penalty for the loser of the vote, Have a 12 person jury, 3 person Final Tribal Council. Problems I'd hope to solve/improve on: 1. Basically the first few weeks of Survivor don't matter much. The people who get voted off, even though they are focuses of whole episodes, have no impact on who is the winner. Now at least they would be on the jury and have relevance that way. Players would have to factor in and potentially pay for every vote-off. 2. There are people that we do not get to know because for the first few weeks because they are never wacky enough to be featured and they do not go to Tribal. By not having eliminations for a couple weeks, there would be a better chance to get to know people. 3. Too often, the two/three tribe structure limits game play and creativity. If you're lucky to be on a dominant challenge tribe, you can have a huge leg up that snowballs, as they get reward after reward and maintain their numbers. Having to scramble for votes across 15 players and to try to make alliances among that many would be more interesting than factions among three. Watching tribes that are bad at challenges suck is not entertaining.

Nobody seems to like Venus, regardless of how non-sexist they might be. I don't see Tevin as particularly sexist or unwilling to deal with smart women. I'm not saying there's not a touch of misogyny and condescension in Q's makeup. But I do think Q genuinely likes and respects Tiffany, who is smart. I think he likes and respects Kenzie, though he wisely distrusts her beyond a point. It continually surprises me how the show regularly and overtly has Survivors scheming on gender lines, but rarely has them plotting on racial ones or sexual orientation ones. Maybe it is happening but the editors are leaving it on the cutting room floor. The +1 alliance is interestingly most of the people of color in the game, with Soda traded out for Hunter. (A seeming upgrade). I find it tough to believe that the Black Survivors don't explicitly talk about their communal experiences in the game and out (racial or otherwise) as a way to bond, or even give the head-nod.