skybolt

Russel Hantz had previously mentioned that they drive up to the challenge in a van (same with tribal council). I imagine most of these players bring their personal belongings with them and production has a crew member retrieve something for them if they need it.

Not to mull too much on the Yul vote out, but his game planning really backfired on him at the end. His strategy was basically to target old school players with past connections and align himself with new school players who supposedly didn't share any connections. At the end of the day he would've been better off working with Tyson and Amber and then using old school players as a meat shield once they got to the merge. His miscalculation was that recent winners like Nick, Wendell, Michelle, etc. were just as isolated from each other as he was after their wins, which is not the case. I truly believe that if Yul (or Sandra) and Dani just stuck to the script of aligning with old school players, I could see this playing out a lot differently. Let's not forget that before Dani went AWOL, Ben was likely the next vote out after Natalie. Same thing if Sandra listened to Tyson and Tony and targeted the other 4. If I were Kim, Jeremy, Tony and Sarah I would seriously consider working with each other and perhaps with the returning player to avoid being targeted by the lesser known players, no matter how current alliances (Sophie/Sarah, Denise/Jeremy, etc.) appear to be strong at this point. I can maybe see pulling in Denise into that group after her big move, but have a feeling that the other 6 (Ben, Adam, Michelle, Nick, Wendell & Sophie) will likely continue targeting the high profile players to keep advancing.

Based purely on the edits (not the actual challenge itself), which EoE players have the least chance of coming back into the game at this point? I think Dani and Parvati have no shot. IMO, even Amber has a very small chance, since Rob's edit could spill over into her game (if he decides to give her his 3 tokens as a parting gift). Speaking of that, not sure when the idol can be purchased for the returning players (only Natalie and Rob actually qualify at this point) if they join the other 11 after the challenge. Do they have to make this transaction while still on the EoE island (before the challenge takes place) or do they have a grace period after getting back to camp to purchase the idol? If it's back at camp, then why can't Michelle have that option too with her 3 tokens? Is it possible that once we have the challenge and the merge, all of a sudden the fire token menu will spill over into the real game? At that point we could start seeing players pooling their fire tokens together for an idol.

You definitely make some great points, and I agree with your rationale. I guess this line of thinking comes with the territory for an all winners season. Same reason why Ben and Adam were so eager to get rid of Rob. That being said, I will enjoy seeing the new school players turn on each other soon enough, with most of the potential big threats already having been voted out, to show that that their you know what does actually stink. To your last point, this is a big reason why Ben will likely make it far into this game. His adoration of these previous winners (whether it's faked or not), and his proverbial ass-kissing of anyone in a power position, will likely result in him making the top 5.

I'm still a little confused about Yul's fire token plan. I'm assuming the plan between he, Nick and Wendell was to vote out Michelle, but for Michelle to tell Wendell that she's voting for Yul. I get that, but the edits made it seem like Yul and Wendell were on the outs prior to tribal council, which would've led to a 2-2 tie at best. Why was Wendell so sure Yul is coming after him during his conversation with Michelle on the beach, while Yul was confident that the 3 guys would stay strong (at least as far as Wendell is concerned)? Were the scene edits somehow reversed and Michelle actually told Wendell what Yul's fire token plan was first, which led him to become more suspicious?

Production may decide to wait another week before having the EoE challenge in order to let the new schoolers draw out their battle lines first. This would give the returning player (or perhaps 2 players) a chance to join one of the newly created alliances. I highly doubt anyone is coming back this week since it wasn't in the promos. On one hand I hate the Edge of Extinction idea, but unlike Season 38, the current players are aware of it. Their voting strategy should've taken into consideration who could come back later to potentially hurt their game. If you vote out 8 straight old schoolers in a row, then you have to take into consideration them banding together to keep certain players from winning the game. What I mean is that if you made no effort to work with an old school player and decided to get rid of them first, that's potentially 7 people (excluding Sandra) that may not vote for you. That's why I think that players like Sarah, Tony, Jeremy and Kim should watch their backs because the recent players may target them next to remove any links to who the old school players can relate to. If you have a final 7 of Sophie, Wendel, Nick, Ben, Adam, Denise and Michelle you are forcing the old schoolers to base their vote on who played the best game vs. who at least tried to work with us. In this scenario, I could see Michelle as a standout, because she at least made some effort to work with players already voted out. Sophie does have Yul, but that's about it.

You make some very valid points. I don't want to take anything away from the recent winners, since it makes perfect sense to vote out people who have played the game multiple times and have a big reputation. If you can dwindle the number of survivors vying for a $2M prize from 20 to 10 by taking out old schoolers and players seen as potential threats from previous seasons, now you have a 1 in 10 chance instead 1 in 20 in winning the game, which makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately, I wish that was not the case and that the new schoolers, whom had a 12-8 edge over old schoolers, would be willing to play with them. The point I was trying to originally make was that if you're an old schooler, or even someone with a big pre Survivor 40 reputation, you are an easy target for a vote out. Sandra gave Denise an idol, but Denise had no intention of working with her and went for the big move to vote out the queen. If this was a new school player making that move, then Denise would've likely aligned with them. Rob has a statue and was a target from the start. Parvati played chill and wasn't trying to make any big moves, but was still the number 1 target by the new schoolers. Same thing with Tyson on the Dakal tribe. Amber was voted out because of Rob. Poor Yul played a great behind the scenes game by even targeting the old schoolers, but still got voted out as soon as he started thinking out loud. Yes, Natalie was voted out first, but let's not forget how nervous some of the new schoolers were during the first couple of days. Once they got their footing, they went right after the old schoolers. Kim was initially lumped in with Tyson and Rob, but Yul has also stated that she was targeted as an ally. For instance, there's no way Sophie would give back the second half of the idol if it were Parvati instead of Kim. It just feels like the old schoolers were pretty much walking on egg shells throughout the first part of the season, because if they just stuck their head out for a second it would be cut off. On the other hand, we have Adam making blunder after blunder, and not getting voted out. Same thing with Wendel openly telling his tribe he'll back-stab them, but of course Nick feels threatened as soon as Yul starts talking about fire tokens, even though Wendel did it first. With all that being said, I'm still super frustrated with Sandra, Yul and Dani going after the old schoolers when they're down in the numbers. They just put the target on their back by dwindling down their ranks. With Rob, Sandra, Tyson and Parvati out of the game, someone like Nick probably thinks he doesn't need a wizard like Yul to take out huge threats after the merger.

Another question I have. Can tokens be given to other people on EoE just like in the active game? What I mean is that can Amber give her lone token to Rob for him to potentially buy 1 advantage for the return challenge and if successful, use his own 3 tokens for an immunity idol?

I wonder how next week will play out with the various alliances. Obviously with Sele's move to vote out Yul, it'll put a fracture into the old Dakal tribe. It now appears that we have 3 sets of 3-person alliances: Wendel/Michelle/Nick Jeremy/Kim/Denise Sophie/Sarah/Ben Tony will likely hook up with Sarah and Adam will likely grovel back to Denise. Usually the smaller group aligns themselves with a bigger group to take out another bigger group, but I see the Sophie team working more closely with the Jeremy team than Nick's team at this point. However, with the way things have played out so far, I can totally see everyone putting their game on pause.......again............to take out the easy targets like Tony, Adam and perhaps the returning EoE player, until they're down to 9 players. I really think Nick screwed himself voting out Yul. If he had voted Michelle or even Wendel, he could've walked into the majority at the merge, considering that Sarah would bring in Tony, even if Michelle turned on them. It was an unnecessary bold move considering that he, Michelle and Wendel don't have any advantages walking into the merge.

I agree with your points. I just want more game play from the new school players instead of "hey, let's all gang up on someone who's actually trying to play the game because they're now deemed a threat." I'm not a Denise or Adam fan, but I at least give them credit for trying to make moves. Ben just runs around kisses everyone's behind, while Kim looks frozen in time, fearing she'll be targeted as soon as she breathes. Now with all the old school players on EoE, I really hope these guys start playing instead of targeting someone like Tony for no other reason than he is a big threat because of his wining season. The following week it'll be Jeremy, until Ben, Michelle and Wendell are sitting in the final 3 for no other reason than following this line of thinking. Although I like Parvati, Rob and Tyson, part of me wants Natalie to come back so that everyone doesn't put a halt to their game play for another week to target an old schooler. I feel like 1/2 of the new schoolers are playing the old Sandra strategy of anyone but me. My hope for this season was that the winner would put their stamp on the all winners season and become the definitive Survivor player. Instead, the thought process seems to be that I'll take my chances backing into the final tribal council and hope the other 2 individuals also haven't made any significant moves.

Based on the show edits thus far, which of the remaining survivors (I'll leave EoE players off the list at this point) have the best chance of winning the game. This is purely based on edits and not so much on actual game play. Here's my opinion: Very small chance to win: Tony (has mostly had comedic relief footage), Wendell (the antagonist edit), Ben (shown more for his sidekick antics than his actual game play). Small chance to win: Kim (edits are slightly better now, but still very under the radar), Adam (On one hand he's getting a lot of air time, but on the other hand, the edits make him look out of touch and a goofball). Decent chance to win: Nick (still under the radar, but his confessionals have been better lately), Michelle (her edit shows that she'll likely make it far, but too much drama being shown for the ultimate winner). Good chance to win: Denise (obvious reasons), Jeremy (confessionals have been consistent and good), Sophie & Sarah (both have been solid from beginning) What does everyone else think?

That would be great, you can even add Aubry, Mike White, definitely Domenick, Chrissy, Brad, Chase, Danielle and Stephen Fishback. If more women are needed, then maybe Jaclyn.

Heck, even if I knew I had zero chance of winning the game after coming back from EoE, getting $100K (or maybe even n $200k this season) for second place would be worth it.

I don't think she should be too upset, especially considering she got voted out first, but was still able to acquire tokens while there was hardly anyone else on EoE.

Although I don't want anyone already voted out to win the game, I am hoping that the returning player will come back playing extremely hard (similar to Rick Devens) and cause havoc with existing alliances and under the radar game play. Unfortunately, I just don't see that happening with Amber, Danni, Ethan or even Yul and Parvati. On the other hand, I do see Tyson, Natalie or Rob coming back and playing a more aggressive game, especially if they have an immunity idol in hand. I just want to the remaining players to start making moves (a la Denise) and not hide behind others until there's 5 or 6 players left.

I agree with others that Michelle never had any intentions of voting out Wendell. The only reason she did that last week was because she knew Parvati was being voted out and wanted her tokens. She then promptly gifted one to Wendell. Nick wants to avoid drama at all cost and was willing to rationalize voting out Yul in his mind to avoid the 2-2 vote. Yul's best strategy was to stay loyal to Wendell, since I do think he would've voted Michelle out. Moving forward, I have a hard time seeing Michelle voting out Wendell, unless he sits down and tells her that he hates her guts and doesn't want to have anything to do with her. If he just tells her to keep things professional for now and we'll re-evaluate our relationship after the game (basically lying to her), she will stick with him no matter what.

I also think that the show is struggling to find real game play or drama to show with the remaining group. They're basically stuck with showing more of EoE, Adam's scrambling, Tony's shticks and the Wendell / Michelle drama. Last week's game play by Denise was a breath of fresh air, but not the norm. Kim, Sophie and Nick are good players, but don't necessarily always make for interesting TV. Ben kissing up to whomever is in charge gets old as well. I do think that some of the new school players are not currently playing a far reaching game. The narrative thus far has been to eliminate the old schoolers, which are considered bigger threats. However, by doing that we already see Adam struggling to find his footing. Nick will likely be next since Wendell and Michelle will likely stick together, while Sophie and Sarah turn on him for voting out Yul.

Although I really like Natalie, I think her beast mode status was vastly exaggerated competing against herself and weaker players like Amber and Danni. I give her full credit for earning the one fire token with the number lock. However, all she did to earn the first fire token was climb up a hill by herself. The second one was earned by luck, since she couldn't figure out the water well clue (I'm sure Tyson would've been all over that). The 4th token was hard earned, but I'm sure all the Survivors (except maybe Sandra) would've accomplished that task. Since Tyson and Rob arrived on EoE she's been invisible.

I'm not sure what to make of Sophie's disappearing / appearing shorts. I can't imagine Jeff asking all 3 tribes to redo portions of the immunity challenge to get more camera angles after one team was already eliminated. My guess is that they stopped the challenge midway through the first time around due to equipment failure. They then used footage from both takes for whatever reason. Wendell needs to take one for the team and make out with Michelle. He'll likely wake up the next morning with 3 additional fire tokens gift wrapped for him. Although I'm super disappointed that all the old schoolers got voted off, I do think that Yul and Sandra did it to themselves. Both individuals seemed keen on wanting to work with the new schoolers and got burned doing so. Yul voted off Amber, Tyson and Parvati. Right now I'm basically rooting for either Tony, Kim or Sarah to win it all. I'm not opposed to Sophie, Nick, Adam, Denise or Jeremy winning either. However, I can't stand Michelle, Wendell and Ben.