skybolt

This is why I wish they would go back to 2 people at final tribal. If they still want to keep the fire making challenge then do it at final 3. Like I mentioned above, if Tyson and Parvati are going around trying to win votes for Natalie, why shouldn't others do the same for Tony, if they liked his game?

So basically Tyson and likely Parvati going around trying to get votes for Natalie is ok, but if someone like Rob asks a question at final tribal or others not wanting an EoE player winning means that they're anti women or racist?!

I definitely understand your take that Natalie played the best she could, but likely had no shot at winning the game against Sarah or Tony. I get that, and this comes from someone who put Natalie in my top 5 when the season started. Her getting voted out first was just bad luck and she did everything possible at EoE, and then gave it all she had when she returned. I just feel like she had more options to win the game and she ultimately picked the worst ones. Rob never mentioned Chris. His point was to eliminate the biggest threat Tony, since she herself gave him props as the best player in the game. If she had beaten him at the fire making challenge (like Chris did with Rick), while Sarah is sitting there cheering for Tony, it would've been a huge boost to her game. I took out the biggest threat all by myself. Secondly, even though she got 2 idols and an immunity idol, she played a straightforward game. If she was scared of facing Tony and Sarah, then maybe she could've blindsided Sarah at final 5, while playing her idol for Michelle. That would've been a bang bang move in front of the jury. Then concentrate on winning the final 4 challenge and have Ben destroy Tony in the fire making challenge. She would've crushed Ben and Michelle with these moves at final tribal. Listening to the jury interviews, most players are not that enthralled with finding idols and winning a challenge. They actually complemented Tony for not receiving votes even though he was vulnerable at final 6 and 7.

That is a great question. Typically second place gets $100k, third place $75k, and I believe the jury $50k. I could see these numbers being doubled or at least increased by 50% this season. The are also rumors that players like Rob and Parvati received more money to join the cast.

I like Michelle and want her to do well. However, I just feel like she hasn't matured as much as someone like Sophie since they last played. I do think if she comes back again for Survivor 50 without the Wendell drama and trying to prove something, we could see a very strong player.

So at least Ben finally shed some light on his situation with Jeremy. Apparently on Day 1, he went up to Jeremy and pitched a cops, fire fighter, soldier alliance. Jeremy initially agreed, but as soon as Ben walked away, Jeremy made a gesture to the camera like who is this joker. I guess Ben saw that and confronted Jeremy. Since then he said he pretended to work with Jeremy, but didn't like what he did. I get Ben's point, but think he's being overly sensitive as well.

I have a question for everyone. If you were on a 4 hour flight, which of the 20 survivors would you most enjoy sitting next to and talking to. It's funny that some of the people I cheer for in the game (Rob, Tony, etc,) are not ones I'd put on top of my list. If I had to pick 5 I would choose Sophie (super smart and engaging), Adam (seems like a good fun guy), Yul (I love math too), Tyson (he'd crack me up with his sarcasm) and Parvati (she'd be great at pretending that she's enjoying the conversation 😞 ). Ethan just missed my list.

Even if he's purely a stay at home dad now, there's nothing wrong with that.

I get Michelle's frustration. She definitely deserved a couple of votes in my eyes and maybe some people were on the fence between her and Tony. I'm sure she didn't mean to stir up a controversy.

On his parchment Wendell put down "Tony", "Spy Nest", "GOAT". So basically even though Wendell thought that Tony was the greatest survivor of all time, he actually wanted to vote for Michelle who received zero votes. Plus, what does not wanting an EoE player winning an all winners season have to do with gender or color? In his post interview, Adam acknowledged that as a Survivor purist, he was not a fan of a player voted off ultimately winning. Not sure how that makes him anti women or racist.

Listening to the post show interviews, I can't help but be impressed with the way Sophie speaks. I truly believe she has it in her to make it far in a future season and maybe win. Her thought process is really impressive. It's also interesting that both Kim and Sophie didn't harbor any ill will about getting voted out by Tony. They saw it as a good strategic move. I also had no problem with Rob asking Natalie tough questions that a lot of us were thinking at home. I also had no problem with Parvati coming to Natalie's defense. I actually wanted to see more critical questions being asked, but I just feel like in an all winner's season, people didn't want to create enemies or tarnish their reputations.

People keep saying that Natalie didn't have to prove anything by taking on Tony in the fire making challenge. The whole point is not to show off your fire making skills in front of the jury, but to rid yourself of the one person whom everyone on the jury is impressed with. In yesterday's interview, Sarah stated how bad Tony was at making fire and that they sat for hours trying to practice and encouraging each other. You can't tell me that a beast like Natalie couldn't have practiced and destroyed Tony in making fire. This was not Ben or Boston Rob who can make fire in their sleep. Even if she didn't want to risk losing the challenge, she should've known that the jury did not respect Michelle's game, so don't give a strong player like Sarah a chance to showcase herself to the jury if she wins the challenge. It was a bad move altogether. Maybe she would've known that no one is voting for Michelle if she didn't shut everyone off at EoE the last week. She also basically played for herself and didn't take a chance by giving her immunity idol to Michelle at final 5, even when she showed it to Sarah. If Ben didn't make a dumb move, Michelle would've been gone. Her whole talk about breaking up the alliance was overstated. Denise was a number to those 3, just like Jeremy and Nick. Ben fell on his sword for whatever reason, and Natalie strengthened Sarah and Tony in front of the jury by pitting them up against each other. I just feel like in an all winners season they're looking for more than just finding an idol and winning a challenge. When Sarah and Ben hugged each other after she supposedly blindsided him, the jury likely knew that this was pre-planned. It would've been way more impressive if the trio stuck together and Natalie played her idol for Michelle.

Tony would've been pissed if that happened again after Cagayan with Woo. 🙂

Not that it would've made a difference in the final vote, but Natalie actively cheering for Sarah to beat Tony at the fire making challenge likely made her job a lot harder at final tribal to beat Tony. Not only did Tony get the emotional plea from Sarah to win, but he came off as the underdog with Natalie and to some extent, Michelle cheering against him. It just made it seem like Natalie was scared to face Tony at final tribal. I completely agree with her thought process, but the jury didn't need to see that.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around why Sarah and Ben were so sure Natalie didn't have an idol. Didn't they just witness her winning the return challenge with all the advantages she acquired via fire tokens? It's not hard to put 2 and 2 together to figure out she was behind the extortion advantage and some of the other ones. Sarah was thinking more like Ben this episode than Tony.

She lost via a 12-4 vote. It was a risk worth taking. Tony, Sarah and Michelle were practicing all day to get decent. She could've done the same thing.

If Sarah orchestrated this move to avoid going up against Ben in the fire making challenge, she badly miscalculated. If Michelle was voted out at 5, I can't see a scenario where those two go head to head in a fire making challenge. If Tony won immunity he would tell Ben to take out Natalie. Natalie would surely pit Ben against Tony. Sarah would not participate and Ben would either give up the immunity and go up against Tony or Natalie, or have Tony take on Natalie. Sarah was guaranteed final 3 if she didn't pull this or go along with it. Ben pretty much sealed both their fates.

Luckily for all us, Tony has been confined to doing office work since he played on Cagayan. They took him off the streets. 🙂

Sarah taking advice from Ben on game play was a dumb move. Her blindsiding him at that point made zero sense, even if he put her up to it. It's like if Tony took out Ben instead of the true ring leader, which was Sophie at that time. Not only that, but the whole point of a blindside is that you want to show the jury that you were the mastermind behind that move. A.) Natalie and Michelle were the ring leaders in taking out Ben, and B.) Sarah and Ben hugging right after she blindsided him made it clear that he was in on it. It was such a stupid move orchestrated by none other than Ben.

Not sure what happened between Amber and Natalie. They seemed like besties on EoE. Would like to hear more about why Natalie avoided her that last week. It was likely because she didn't want Rob to have any idea of her advantages. Still, not a great social play. I thought Natalie consistently harking on breaking up the 4 person alliance was not a very good move. First of all, Denise knew she was a number in that group, so why bundle her with them and lose her vote? Also, if she truly believed she converted Sarah, which she didn't, why alienate her as well. Her approach was like screw you 4, I don't need your vote. I had previously noted that Natalie gave Tyson the idol so he would convince the jury that she should win. However, it does appear that all this move did was get Tyson's vote. Like I mentioned above, if I was sitting on EoE for 30+ days, I would practice making fire every single day. This should be a no brainer for someone already voted out with nothing to do. You're main goal is to get the big threat out anyway you can. If that means beating them at the fire making challenge, then you need to do it.

In his interview Tony gave a lot of props to Sophie. He said she was playing the best game out of anyone (including himself) and he had to pull that move because she would've won. He also explained his lion designation. He based it on how viewers perceive play from previous seasons. He said next time Sophie plays she will be regarded as a lion by everyone.

Random thoughts The advantages for the return challenge were too much. Since the remaining players had accumulated so many tokens at the end, the only thing an EoE player needed to do was find that last clue and get a gazillion tokens for it. That being said, I give credit to Natalie for grinding while everyone else on EoE basically stopped playing the game. Parvati could've also had 3 advantages if she hadn't bought peanut butter for the group. She could've also asked Natalie for a couple of tokens for helping her. Tyson had 2 tokens at the end of the coconut challenge, but had zero 3 days later. That one extra advantage could've made a big difference. I understand Natalie not being confident at beating Tony or Sarah at the fire making challenge, but I wish she would've practiced all day like Michelle to see if she had it in her. That fire making challenge took a long time, even Michelle had a good shot to win. The reason why Chris won Season 38 is because he took out the clear winner at that point (Devens) in the fire making challenge. The point Rob was trying to make is that if you come back to the island with all this information and gunning for the clear favorite, friggin practice making fire and take him out yourself. Not sure how I feel about Ben. He's a good guy, but he had final 3 locked with his fire making ability. If he made that decision at final 4 where Sarah was guaranteed final tribal, I would get it. However, there was still one more person to eliminate. I'm super happy that Tony won. He played the best game and was never obnoxious to anyone. He definitely exaggerated his idol hunting and tree spying to the jury, but they just believed him because he's Tony. Denise needs a hairstylist in the worst way. Kudos to Michelle for having a positive spirit since day 1. She respected the game and played her best.

Next season of Survivor.....bong bong!

I haven't purchased the DVD's since Season 2. I wonder if recent DVD's provide additional behind the scenes edits other than the ones posted on Youtube.

So now that we're at the end, I wanted everyone's thoughts on which 2 people you want sitting next to you at final tribal for each contestant: Ben - He has no chance, but I honestly believe he has a bigger chance against Tony and a mediocre returning player than even Michelle and Denise. His hope is that the jury won't vote for a Wendell and that everyone is bitter at Tony. If Natalie returns, he may as well go with Sarah and Tony and hope they split the votes. Denise - I think her best shot would be against Ben and Michelle (assuming Natalie returns). She beats Ben easily and will be even against Michelle. Michelle - This is a tough one. I think Ben and the returning player would be ideal, but I'd avoid going up against Sarah, especially if Tony is not there to split the vote. Sarah will take some of the female vote from her, as well as some of the male. Her best shot is to not have Tony or Sarah make final tribal, or she goes up against both of them and hope they split the vote. Sarah - Avoid Tony at all cost, and perhaps Natalie (if she returns). I think she beats Ben and Denise easily. Her vs. Michelle dynamic is the biggest unknown to me. Tony - Ben and Denise would be the best option. Even Sarah is beatable. I would avoid a returning player or even Michelle because of her social game. EoE Returnee - Ben and Denise would be the best option. They can use Denise's laid back / quitting strategy against her.