skybolt

So the returning EoE player has all the information about the remaining players from the ones voted off, as well as at tribal. However, if Natalie comes back, no one has any clue what she's been up to and what her social connections were on EoE. The remaining 5 may just take her to the end because she was voted out first and is not a big name player. It's another disadvantage for a player who made it to the end without being voted off having to figure out someone coming out of the blue.

I'm really glad that EoE won't be back any time soon. I understand players earning tokens to buy themselves food, advantages and idols, but being able to buy an idol for someone else is way too convenient. Heck, with her 14 tokens Natalie could've bought multiple idols for people (not that we ever saw the new EoE menu to find out what the new prices were). Also, how come advantages are still one token, while presumably the immunity idol and food have gone up in price?

I agree with this statement wholeheartedly. For instance you can argue that Brad Culpepper was as strategic and brash as Tony, but she beat him. The only person that is delusional about being a big threat to win is Ben. I think it's partly because he thinks that he was an outcast in his first season, while Tony and Sarah have convinced him that he's a welcomed addition to their triple alliance. It goes back to what others have mentioned in the past. Most tribal councils last a few hours. If the producers had more material to work with than the whispering they would've used it. For instance, someone mentioned that the the original Sele tribe had a whispering session that was edited out. Back then we had Rob, Adam, Jeremy, Parvati, etc. to keep tribal answers interesting.

But Boston Rob is one person, and is admiring Tony for playing a game conducive to his style of being the puppet master. Russell Hantz would also approve. I could also say Wendell cheering Nick on to keep talking means that everyone else is rooting for Nick.

I've watched that scene multiple times and only Wendell looks at Rob and then looks away. The other players either didn't hear him or don't respond in a negative or positive way (if they did).

I don't understand why posters think Tony is a lock to win if he makes final 3, and that players like Sarah and Denise are stupid for not getting rid of him. I personally love Tony and he was the one I was rooting for since day 1. However, IMO although I think Tony has done a great job pulling the wool over the eyes of the remaining players, I don't believe the jury is as impressed. Let me use Denise vs. Tony as an example. Up until the Sophie vote, I think we can all agree that Denise had a bigger resume than Tony. She could argue that she had to battle from Day 1 to not get voted out by Rob, while Tony was building ladders. She could also argue that her blindsiding Sandra was a much better move than Tony blindsiding Sophie since Tony's play came from a power position, while she was playing from the bottom. You could also make the argument that Tony putting on the theatrics to save Jeremy twice or bringing in Nick was all for naught, since he wound up getting rid of them anyway. Potentially they could've accomplished the same thing if he had just kept Sophie. What I'm basically saying is that someone like Parvati or Tyson may see Tony's moves as padding his resume vs. creating a new alliance to take to the end. He really has to do a good explaining why he made every single move, since at the end he didn't turn on Sarah or Ben. I personally think that Tony has done a lot more than that, but the jury may say you know what, Denise and Michelle were constantly playing from the bottom, but managed to avoid getting voted out, while Tony was always in a power position.

Sorry, I confused myself there. I meant if he didn't win the challenge. 🙂 I'll go back and Youtube the previous challenge from Season 38.

The token thing makes no sense to me, as well as half the players. Sandra gets a full blown idol for 1 token and then Nick has to spend 8 to purchase a disadvantage for one player at an immunity challenge. I assume Sarah is keeping her 4 tokens as a souvenir. Same with Ben with his 2 tokens. Why not just spend it on a tarp or more food if they're useless now? At least Tony was using his to bribe people. At the very minimum they should've at east shown the new menu at EoE. I spent 3 weeks trying to figure out how a jar of peanut butter quadrupled in cost.

I can understand giving him an idol to perhaps get his jury vote if he makes it back, but why give him peanut butter again after he didn't share last time and won the challenge? Also, based on the last EoE challenge, the second and third advantages are fairly minor. Please note that another 5 players have 2 advantages each for the challenge. I bet the extra one will only save her a couple of seconds. I wonder if they'll get a massive puzzle at the end to help even things out.

Great post. I will say that none of the players voted out have given their tokens to Tony, which could be a bad sign for him (same as Ben). In contrast, Sarah, Michelle and Denise have gotten tokens from at least 3 people each. You also had Parvati and Natalie sending the extortion disadvantage to Tony, and specifically talking about who's game they can blow up. I think Tony wins easily over Ben and probably Denise. However, Michelle may get votes from Jeremy, Wendell, Nick, Parvati and perhaps Ethan. Sarah may get votes from Kim, Sophie, Tyson (they had a good bond), Yul and probably other women on the jury like Amber and Danni . I think Adam, Rob and maybe Natalie vote for Tony.

I think he knew Sarah and Ben were solid and that Jeremy would not flip after he saved him twice. As I mentioned above, Tony tries to have a million conversations with each person so he can spot any blindsides against him.

She definitely kept them all. I'm assuming the idol costs more tokens now than it did before.

I agree with this. I think most if not all the women jurors would vote Sarah over Tony.

I love Tony, but disagree with everyone who thinks he's an automatic lock to win if he makes final jury. Having watched Survivor since Season 1, jurors typically don't like voting for a puppet master playing from a power position, unless they're going up against massive goats. Having your name thrown out at tribal and being vulnerable at times is not a bad thing in the eyes of the jury. Their true Survivor is someone like Denise in her winning season or even Yul, where they had to overcome the numbers to get into a power position at the end, Heck, even Richard Hatch almost lost the final vote to Kelly because she made a run at the end while not being in the main alliance. I think Rob votes for him, but there's no way Parvati will (I think she wants a woman to win. Same with Kim and likely Sophie). Don't get me wrong, I want Tony to win because I love puppet masters, but my gut tells me that Sarah or Michelle beat him in the end.

That in a nutshell. Please give her $250K for being the EoE queen, At this point I would take Ben over her even though Natalie is in my Top 5% players of all time while Ben is somewhere near the bottom. I don't know why, but my gut tells me that Wendell will win the return challenge. That 25 minutes we wasted on the Michelle / Wendell drama was probably for something. As far as the remaining players are concerned I can't see anyone wanting to work with Tony. He knows that and will gun for them right away (same with them). Ben maybe has Sophie. I can see Yul and Sophie wanting to work with Sarah. 90% of the returnees would want to work with Michelle. I think 50% of the returnees would also target Denise as an ally, but unless it's Kim, I doubt she'd be interested.

I liked this part as well. Survivor can really play with your mind in many different ways. You really have to treat it like a game, but I totally get how these 39 days can become your real world long after you've left the island. Heck, I used to binge watch "Lost" and after 8 straight episodes I'd contemplate digging a hole in my garden to see if I can find an underground chamber.

A couple of thoughts on the episode: I can't understand Jeremy's reasoning of not wanting his game to come down to a 50-50 advantage. It was like it was beneath him. I guarantee that if it is was Tony, he would've gladly played it, even with his other immunity idol in his pocket. If you've been targeted 3 straight times, take whatever advantage you can get. I think Denise is playing the goat card so Tony, Sarah or Ben take her to the end. She even made that clear to the jury to reinforce her argument. As others have stated, she likely believes the Sandra move is the greatest in the history of reality TV. All she has to do is mention it and the jury will bow down to her whims. She will also bring up the fact that she could've easily voted out Tony instead of Sandra if she wanted to. Unlike most of the posters here I actually like Tony and Sarah. With that being said, do cops have an unfair advantage in this game, where being able to read people is key? For instance, in my everyday work life people are telling me the truth 99% of the time. However, cops have to rely on being fed misinformation all the time. For someone like Tony who has 10 conversations with each player on a day to day basis, he has likely gotten really good at figuring out what's going on. Perhaps with the Sophie move he decided to wait until the end so that Sarah couldn't get suspicious with how people were acting. I think certain players like Sandra are hard to read, since they are so good at not being transparent. Kass was also likely tough for Sarah to read with the same grin on her face. I'd pick anyone else to come back from edge over Tyson since he already had his shot. For me it's like someone getting to level 36 playing a video game for 10 straight hours without losing a life, and then losing to someone who died in Level 10, was reinserted into the game during Level 20 (after skipping 11-19), losing again in Level 26 and then being reinserted again in Level 36. I can't believe any real Survivor fan would want that, especially after the Chris debacle.

Unless it's Jeremy vs. Ben. That would be something. Jeremy would be glancing at Ben in a taunting fashion as his fire is building, while Ben will start grunting and asking Jeff why he's making this fire on his own since no one is sitting next to him.

I get that feeling as well. I think it's a combination of Tony, Sarah, Michelle and a returning player in the final 3. My gut tells me it's Sarah, Michelle and the EoE returnee beating Tony in the fire making challenge.

Very well said. It seems like TPTB are not particularly interested in giving the winner the proper edit they deserve. For instance, if Tony does not win, then the actual winner is likely getting shortchanged. That being said, I do believe we've seen plenty of Michelle this season (good or bad), where if she winds up winning, her edit will be fair. Same with maybe Sarah, a few of the EoE players (Parvati, Rob, Natalie, Tyson, Wendell, Adam, Sophie) and Jeremy. If Denise, Nick or Ben wind up winning then I definitely think they should've been given more air time, even if it was scratching their behind.

Sorry, I had a typo. It was supposed to say NOT in my Top 10. 🙂

Definitely not in my top 10 seasons of all time. That's why I would prefer a season of runner ups who haven't won yet and are still hungry.

Based on the previews I think the tree will come into play this week. As far as Kim and Denise are concerned I do think that we saw the extent of their plan. "Hey, Tony is a big threat, let's vote him out. Let's not talk about it anymore." It's sort of what Ethan described recently where all Jeremy did was ask who he was voting for and as soon as a name was thrown out, he went and told the others. Even with the Sophie vote out. we basically saw Sarah telling Kim and Denise the plan, them telling Jeremy he was safe, and then everyone feeling comfortable. Not sure what else editing can show if this was the extent of the plan. I'm not saying it's necessarily bad game play, since we've seen plenty of low key people win the game, but it is what it is. The one thing I will say is that if these players believe that production will negatively impact their game if they reveal too much at confessionals, then it's a huge problem for the show. In previous seasons Jeff just asked the questions and never jeopardized anyone's game. However, I had heard rumors that he wanted more control over what was happening and was willing to quit until that happened. Since then he has caused more drama at tribal by tipping players to blindsides.

At the end of the day it's all about ratings. TPTB will showcase crazy confessionals and dynamic play over behind the scenes cagey game play every time. The message they want to send out to future contestants is that whether you win or lose, if you want more air time then you need to be entertaining and transparent, especially at confessionals. That is why Adam had more than twice as many confessionals as Tony at one point because he was entertaining, while Tony was laying back. Devoted fans like you and I will still watch the show for its intricacies, but the casual fans (which is the majority) want riveting television. It's the same with game shows where contestants are asked to go nuts over prizes.

Yup. Great point. I hate to say this, but it does seem like most of the remaining players echo what Denise said at tribal. They just want to huddle and come up with a plan to vote out someone in 5 minutes and then go back to relaxing the rest of the day. If for instance, Tony was voted out after Tyson, the episodes would've mostly consisted of players being cagey at tribal, and producers being forced to show the reward challenges and Rob talking to Tyson about fishing on EoE. I hate the whispering at tribal as much as everyone else, but all the ex survivor players note that tribal councils usually last a couple of hours and can be very tedious. If most of the responses to Jeff's questions are cookie cutter, canned answers, the TPTB have to resort to showcasing the whispering, which is a bit more unpredictable. For instance, every time Jeff asks Ben a question, he just adds an adjective in front and repeats what Jeff said, "hey Ben, was it quiet at camp today?". Yeah Jeff, it was real quiet today". "Michelle, how difficult is to strategize in a season with all winners?". "I don't know Jeff, I've been hoodwinked at each tribal, so I have no clue what's going on". I understand players wanting to keep information to themselves, but I also understand the TPTB editing out their canned answers. I also believe that what we see during the episode is what we get from these players. It's basically either Kim, Nick or whoever throwing out a name of someone they want to vote out and then going back to their scheduled programming after 5 minutes. There's no Plan B or C if someone like Tony throws a curve ball at tribal. I'm not sure if these winners became complacent after their respective wins or if voting out the consensus big threat became so easy after all the old schoolers were picked off one by one.