S41.E12: Truth Kamikaze

[Guest]

31 minutes ago, rr2911 said:

17 hours ago, lilysmom said:

So would Heather be the GOAT (sporty meaning) goat (survivor meaning)??

In this context, Heather would the goat (survivor meaning)

Again, it wasn't an either/or question (hence the lack of "or" in the original quote). See below:

16 hours ago, tracyscott76 said:

17 hours ago, ProfCrash said:

17 hours ago, lilysmom said:

So would Heather be the GOAT (sporty meaning) goat (survivor meaning)??

Survivor only uses the goat. Heather is a goat extraordinaire. She has been awful at challenges, barely seen, and no real game played.  

I believe that's what Lilysmom meant: Heather is a goat extraordinaire, aka the greatest goat of all time, aka the GOAT goat. 

 

4 hours ago, lilysmom said:

Thank you, Tracy!! That is exactly what I meant. It was supposed to be like a joke. LOL

 

[himela]

17 minutes ago, blackwing said:

it seems to me that Xander has done more in the game, but if people don't like him and don't want him to win, then he has failed at the social game.   Erika would benefit if he is disliked.

I don't think players will want to vote in a bitter way. They will still want to vote for the better player. Deshawn will tell them that there was a plan before merge to vote out Erika and Naseer by mistake won that challenge. Also the hourglass thing was just pure luck or else Erika would have been the one voted out that tribal. Erika is there only by lucky circumstances. Who would give her the win? They would be crazy to do that. They know they will be called bitter jurors if they do that.

[ProfCrash]

9 minutes ago, himela said:

I don't think players will want to vote in a bitter way. They will still want to vote for the better player. Deshawn will tell them that there was a plan before merge to vote out Erika and Naseer by mistake won that challenge. Also the hourglass thing was just pure luck or else Erika would have been the one voted out that tribal. Erika is there only by lucky circumstances. Who would give her the win? They would be crazy to do that. They know they will be called bitter jurors if they do that.

Since when have Jurors cared about what we think? I don't know of too many people who would say their votes were bitter but that they had their own reason for voting for why the winner won.

Erika has played a solid strategic game and has had an active role in voting out Nasser, Shan, and Liana. She has done more to put people on the jury then anything that Xander has done.

She has been named a threat by Danny, DeShawn, Shan, Ricard, and Liana at various points of time. She has also won immunity. DeShawn targeted Erika with his truth bomb for a reason. Partly because she was one of the few players with a "partner" left in the game in Heather but mainly because he wants people questioning Erika and putting a bigger target on her back.

If anything, the fact that DeShawn had decided to throw a challenge to get ride of Erika bolsters her resume because you only throw challenges to get rid of potential threats.

Say what you will about the stupid hourglass mess, she made the right move in smashing the thing and giving herself safety. She could have assumed that she was safe because the members of her old tribe would not vote her out and would instead target someone from yellow or green. She was socially savvy enough to not buy the rock, paper, scissors idiocy and knew that she was in jeopardy.

She has played a less visible game then Xander but a far more successful game then Xander. She has always had an ally, she survived being at the bottom of blue, and she has planted seeds that have born fruit on many occasions. And for all of Xander's athleticism, he has won the exact same number of individual immunities as Erika, one.

 

[CountryGirl]

48 minutes ago, blackwing said:

Heather's speech would talk about how she is old and never gave up, but beyond that, I am not sure what she would say.  

I don't think even Heather even knows what she would say. 😉

[Nashville]

3 hours ago, himela said:

No way Evvie and Tiffany betray their original tribe member. It's not like Erika played a good game to even consider doing that. She was just a goat who is still in the game by pure luck.

Evvie has been extremely vocal about wanting the next winner to be a female, and Liana would vote for a cup of freeze-dried shit before she’d cast a winning vote for Xander.  I don’t think Tiffany has particularly strong feelings either way for/against Xander - but by the same token, I don’t think Tiff feels strongly enough to dig in her heels should Evvie and Liana pressure her on the vote.  And if neither Ricard nor Deshawn are in the F3, I don’t see Shan feeling strongly enough about anybody to care; she’d probably go along with Liana.

[blackwing]

33 minutes ago, himela said:

I don't think players will want to vote in a bitter way. They will still want to vote for the better player. Deshawn will tell them that there was a plan before merge to vote out Erika and Naseer by mistake won that challenge. Also the hourglass thing was just pure luck or else Erika would have been the one voted out that tribal. Erika is there only by lucky circumstances. Who would give her the win? They would be crazy to do that. They know they will be called bitter jurors if they do that.

This show has had plenty of bitter bitter jurors in the past.  Russell Hantz in his first appearance should have won, but the jury was so so bitter.  Jason and Scot were so bitter towards Aubrey, who should have won over the useless Michelle Fitzgerald.  Reed the dancer on San Juan Del Sur gave some particularly nasty "look at me" juror speech.

I think the issue with Xander is that he is already disliked.  I think he'd be treated like Stephen Fishbach, who lost to JT.  Stephen made a lot of moves and got a lot of people out of the game but he was never viewed as being in control, yet the jurors blamed him for their ousters and thus voted against him. 

The only thing that Erika did early on to antagonise anyone is that she tried to get out Sydney, who was the #3 with Danny and Deshawn.  Shan recognised her as a threat but otherwise didn't seem to dislike her personally.  

I do think that Danny at least seems to like Xander, based on the trust they seemed to have in this episode.

I also think the wild card in this season, unfortunately, is race.  I am sure that after all of the pontificating, Jeffy is desperate for a minority winner.  What would it say about Survivor if even after ensuring that 50% of the cast is comprised of minorities, that in the end, it's still the same, tired, 20-something white guy winner.  Not counting Winners at War, the three previous winners were all 20-something white guys.

We have seen how Jeffy is so determined to influence the vote by asking directed and leading questions.  He could easily ask at next tribal council "Xander, one of the criticisms of Survivor is that the same types of people always win.  Nick Wilson, Chris Underwood, Tommy Sheehan... and now possibly you.  Are you cognisant of that perception, and are you concerned that these people that you played the game with who are now on the jury might not want another young white guy to win?  How would you respond to a juror who might think that in a season in which 50% of the cast is BIPOC that a BIPOC person needs to win this season?"

A question like that would certainly get Shan (and by extension, her lackey Liana) thinking.  Deshawn as well if he is on the jury.  And maybe even Danny.

These are the reasons why I think Xander may have a tough time winning.  He'd be fighting not just the jurors who don't like him, but also Jeffy who will be pushing his agenda.  There must be a reason why the show spent tons of time on race at the Liana tribal council and why the show spent the first 7 minutes of this episode talking about the exact same issues.  I think the editors must know who is in the final three and there must be a reason why there is so much discussion aired.

 

[Hera]

1 hour ago, ProfCrash said:

[Erika] has played a less visible game then Xander but a far more successful game then Xander. She has always had an ally, she survived being at the bottom of blue, and she has planted seeds that have born fruit on many occasions. And for all of Xander's athleticism, he has won the exact same number of individual immunities as Erika, one.

Exactly this. We have seen Erika influence how votes go down: Ricard's idea was to vote out Shan, while Erika made sure it was a split vote; then in this episode, Ricard wanted to vote out Deshawn, while Erika managed to change the target to Danny. Erika was also the swing vote people were worried about when Liana was voted out.

We have not seen the same for Xander. Apparently the scheme to give the idol to Tiffany to get Liana to waste her advantage was Evvie's and Tiffany's idea (and I'm sure they're making sure the other jurors know that), so his one big move in the game isn't something he can take sole credit for. He played his extra vote to ensure that Liana was voted out rather than Ricard, but that was muted by the fact that Erika voted with him, and I suspect if she hadn't, then she and Heather would have voted together for Ricard, and Xander's extra vote would still have been wasted. Erika and Heather have always voted the same way, and the narrative we're getting is that it's Erika calling the shots for the two of them.

I also don't think immunity wins are that important to a jury—and I don't see this particular jury caring that much. Of all of them, I think Danny would be the one to respect challenge prowess the most, but I also think Deshawn has Danny's vote locked up if he's makes it to the end, regardless of whether or not he ever wins an individual immunity. I'm sure jurors like it when their favorite player left in the game is safe from a vote, but I don't think that a player at Final Tribal Council with no immunity wins is at a significant disadvantage to one with multiple wins, all other things being equal.

[peachmangosteen]

Yea, I just don't see how an argument can even be made that Xander has done more than Erika in the game. Xander is certainly more visible to us (and I'm sure we can all guess why) but when you actually look at what has happened, he has done very little and was clearly not seen as any type of threat to anyone out there for most of the game.

[LanceM]

4 hours ago, himela said:

I don't think players will want to vote in a bitter way. They will still want to vote for the better player. Deshawn will tell them that there was a plan before merge to vote out Erika and Naseer by mistake won that challenge. Also the hourglass thing was just pure luck or else Erika would have been the one voted out that tribal. Erika is there only by lucky circumstances. Who would give her the win? They would be crazy to do that. They know they will be called bitter jurors if they do that.

No one on the jury will  give a crap about what happened in the pre-merge and as far as the hour glass twist the only reason she was in that position to begin with was because she was the unlucky one to draw that rock. So luck goes both ways and every player knows this. But beyond that unlike Xander she has been shown to be a key person strategizing to vote people out starting with the Shan vote to the Danny boot which was totally her play as Ricard wanted DeShawn gone. Xander meanwhile has been just a vote and not shown to be too active at all in making these decisions. The  idea that if he is the final 3 and the jury doesn't vote for him out of bitterness is just not backed up by the edit.

[violet and green]

Xander was seen as less of a threat because he specifically made sure that targets (eg Ricard) who were seen as more of a threat than him were not voted out, even though they were the popular choice to go. He has stated this, and we have witnessed this. He has not merely floated along merrily unforgotten, he has ingratiated himself into the trust of other tribe members from original Luvu, like Danny and Deshawn, and worked with them to keep in bigger targets and get out even their own alliance members, twice. And speaking of Survivor, like Ricard, he is the lone survivor of his original tribe.

[ProfCrash]

18 minutes ago, violet and green said:

Xander was seen as less of a threat because he specifically made sure that targets (eg Ricard) who were seen as more of a threat than him were not voted out, even though they were the popular choice to go. He has stated this, and we have witnessed this. He has not merely floated along merrily unforgotten, he has ingratiated himself into the trust of other tribe members from original Luvu, like Danny and Deshawn, and worked with them to keep in bigger targets and get out even their own alliance members, twice. And speaking of Survivor, like Ricard, he is the lone survivor of his original tribe.

That is not how I see it. He said he wanted to keep Ricard for one more vote as a shield but Danny didn’t say “Yeah, that makes sense” or indicate that Xander was right. Just like Xander’s excited reaction to having an alliance seemed to be humoring him while Xander thought he was part of a core alliance. 

People were all about getting Naseer and Shan out with their idols but no one has said anything about Xander’s idol since the Evvie vote out. 

I don’t think Xander needed Ricard as a shield, I don’t think he is anyones target. I think pretty much everyone left would be fine going with Xander. Maybe not Heather but I am not certain that she knows she is not in a winning position. 

And I don’t think anyone saw Xander as anything other then a vote when they needed a vote.  

[violet and green]

We sure are watching the same show through different lenses!

[Lamima]

5 hours ago, himela said:

I don't think players will want to vote in a bitter way. They will still want to vote for the better player. Deshawn will tell them that there was a plan before merge to vote out Erika and Naseer by mistake won that challenge. Also the hourglass thing was just pure luck or else Erika would have been the one voted out that tribal. Erika is there only by lucky circumstances. Who would give her the win? They would be crazy to do that. They know they will be called bitter jurors if they do that.

They are bitter with Xander. All the gals at Ponderosa. They do not like him for some reason. They won't vote for him to win and they will do their darndest to sway everyone else to not vote for him either. 100%. Erika has this won as long as Ricard is not in final tribal.

[violet and green]

Erika, who her own tribe tried to throw a challenge to get out? You think the jury, full of old Luvu and those aligned with old Luvu like Shan and Liana, is going to want to vote for Erica, who would have been out without the hourglass twist?

[LanceM]

Yeah but as I said a few posts above the only reason she was in position to smash that hourglass in the first place was because she was unlucky and grabbed the wrong rock. and because of that she was essentially removed the game for over a day where she couldn't strategize or make social relationships with any of the people she just met from the other tribe. Luck goes both ways in this game

[himela]

If purple Erika wins it will be the perfect ending to a shitty season where Shan got more air time than all people in the final five combined.

[JudyObscure]

4 hours ago, himela said:

where Shan got more air time than all people in the final five combined.

Yes, because the producers/editors seemed to have fallen under her charismatic spell and I'm afraid she's going to talk the entire jury into voting for whomever she likes best. 

That may well be Ricard, one of my favorites, but so often we see the whole jury vote together even when we've felt sure that person X would never vote for person Y because of some certain reason.

I don't like that. I don't like to see the fed and rested jury swayed by the person with the most persuasive personality.  Take me back to the people voting while still on the island and all their exhausted hurt and anger still showing.  Sue Hawk is my kind of juror.

[peachmangosteen]

12 hours ago, Lamima said:

They do not like [Xander] for some reason. 

And maybe that reason has to do with him.

[bankerchick]

And you're probably right, peachmangosteen,  but why aren't we seeing any of it?  We have seen no snippets of arguments, or Xander making disparaging comments about people, or lying about people or double-crossing them or any other egregious behaviour.  The show has often shown negative traits of people who ultimately win, so I don't think they're hiding it because he wins.

[LanceM]

Or maybe if he does end up losing its because other than his flashy move with the fake idol he has done absolutely nothing since. then.  He has led the vote as many times as Heather.  I can see the argument that he was a big threat at the merge and managed to lower it so much that he was able to keep himself safe. Great. But how does this not also apply to Erika whose own tribe saw her as such a threat that they tried to throw a challenge to get rid of her and then was still targeted by Shan post merge as someone they need to get out?  

This is probably going to be pointless argument anyway as Ricard will get to the end and sweep all the votes

Edited December 11, 2021 by LanceM

[himela]

I think people forget the kind of challenge beast Xander has been. Do you remember the challenge where they have to climb a wall and they all basically climb through his shoulders? There are people in the jury who will appreciate that like Naseer, Deshawn and Danny.

[LanceM]

Jurors rarely vote for someone who is a challenge "beast", especially one up until now has only won one individual immunity.

[peachmangosteen]

5 hours ago, bankerchick said:

And you're probably right, peachmangosteen,  but why aren't we seeing any of it?  We have seen no snippets of arguments, or Xander making disparaging comments about people, or lying about people or double-crossing them or any other egregious behaviour.  The show has often shown negative traits of people who ultimately win, so I don't think they're hiding it because he wins.

Yea, I don't know why they're not showing it. Maybe it's just something that's not particularly showable. But, I mean, from what we've seen I can personally see why people might not particularly like Xander becasue I don't lol so I guess it makes it easier for me to understand the other players.

4 hours ago, LanceM said:

Or maybe if he does end up losing its because other than his flashy move with the fake idol he has done absolutely nothing since. then.  He has led the vote as many times as Heather.  I can see the argument that he was a big threat at the merge and managed to lower it so much that he was able to keep himself safe. Great. But how does this not also apply to Erika whose own tribe saw her as such a threat that they tried to throw a challenge to get rid of her and then was still targeted by Shan post merge as someone they need to get out?  

This is probably going to be pointless argument anyway as Ricard will get to the end and sweep all the votes

Exactly, Xander has nothing more on Erika. I think Erika has actually done more but perhaps you could say they're equal. Also lol to your last sentence. Yea, Ricard absolutely has the game in the bag. The rest of them know that though so he's gonna have to go on an immunity run to get to F3, which he's certainly capable of doing.

[DEL901]

I can’t fault the show for not showing much of Erika while she was on the team that kept winning and never went to tribal.   The only time I can remember her being featured was when she threw out Sydney’s name which freaked DeShawn out enough that he wanted to throw the challenge to get rid of this strategic mastermind or something.  Clearly his freak out had to do with more than a single conversation.  

[watch2much]

I'd vote for Xander for coming up with Truth Kamikaze and Monty Hall Problem.....

seriously, hated to see Danny leave.  What a true competitor.  Put it all out there but graciously accepted the loss.  

[SVNBob]

Xander did not come up with "Monty Hall Problem".  That's what it was called when Marilyn vos Savant popularized it in her column in 1990, and since it was first published in The American Statistician back in 1975... both long before Xander was born.

[ProfCrash]

5 hours ago, SVNBob said:

Xander did not come up with "Monty Hall Problem".  That's what it was called when Marilyn vos Savant popularized it in her column in 1990, and since it was first published in The American Statistician back in 1975... both long before Xander was born.

I think the poster meant that Xander recognized the game and could call it the Monty Hall Problem which means that Xander had studied it. I am not sure why identifying a specific type of game adds to your Survivor winners resume but it was cool that he was in awe of the game and knew exactly what was going on. 

[AncientNewbie]

My only takeaway this week was that I hope the people mad at "woke Survivor" realize the problem lies with Peachy as the showrunner and not the miserable, hungry, stressed people trying to play a game that's been cited previously as messing with one's mind and values, sometimes long term. 

Well, that and I'll miss Danny's voice and chill demeanor. 

[CountryGirl]

1 hour ago, AncientNewbie said:

My only takeaway this week was that I hope the people mad at "woke Survivor" realize the problem lies with Peachy as the showrunner and not the miserable, hungry, stressed people trying to play a game that's been cited previously as messing with one's mind and values, sometimes long term. 

Well, that and I'll miss Danny's voice and chill demeanor. 

That and his gorgeous face.

[phlebas]

On 12/11/2021 at 4:14 PM, LanceM said:

Jurors rarely vote for someone who is a challenge "beast", especially one up until now has only won one individual immunity.

nvm misread

Edited December 13, 2021 by phlebas

[phlebas]

On 12/11/2021 at 2:16 PM, himela said:

I think people forget the kind of challenge beast Xander has been. Do you remember the challenge where they have to climb a wall and they all basically climb through his shoulders? There are people in the jury who will appreciate that like Naseer, Deshawn and Danny.

Honestly, he hasn't been enough of a beast to get a big push from it.  One IC -- Ricard has won like 3.

Xander's definitely an athletic guy, but he's not going to be remembered as some challenge monster.

[watch2much]

15 hours ago, SVNBob said:

Xander did not come up with "Monty Hall Problem".  That's what it was called when Marilyn vos Savant popularized it in her column in 1990, and since it was first published in The American Statistician back in 1975... both long before Xander was born.

it was meant in jest....I was giving Xander credit for being able to come up with witty remarks....

although, I'd be happy with him winning, or Ricard, or Erica....I think arguments could be made for any of them 

[SVNBob]

8 hours ago, watch2much said:

it was meant in jest....I was giving Xander credit for being able to come up with witty remarks....

I agree he deserves credit for that.  I mean, he created a new entry for the Lexicon with Mergatory.

I was pointing out that that particular turn of phrase was not one of his own invention.

[phlebas]

These days it's the Wayne Brady Problem anyway.

[Chicago Redshirt]

On 12/10/2021 at 4:27 PM, peachmangosteen said:

Yea, I just don't see how an argument can even be made that Xander has done more than Erika in the game. Xander is certainly more visible to us (and I'm sure we can all guess why) but when you actually look at what has happened, he has done very little and was clearly not seen as any type of threat to anyone out there for most of the game.

Just as there might be more on the cutting room floor to explain why some contestants viscerally dislike Xander, there also may be more on the cutting room floor showing his politicking and his social game.

In terms of doing "more," I guess it depends on how you define that.

I would say that both are about equally responsible for getting people booted. Maybe one gives Erika a slight edge for coming up with the "split the vote so that it's either Shan or Liana" strategy, but a) that's not all that clever b) had the AAA been smarter/tighter/more loyal it would have failed because all four would have put their votes on Person X, Shan would have played her idol, and it probably would have been 1 vote Shan, 3 votes Liana, 4 for Person X. 

In terms of competing in challenges, Xander has generally performed better. Erika's Individual Immunity win comes with an asterisk because there were two offered. 

In terms of the social game, on the one hand Xander seemingly has done poorly. But then, Erika seemed to earn animosity from Danny and Deshawn from early on, and from what we have been shown does not seem to have endeared herself to anyone in particular beyond Heather. 

In terms of advantages, Xander found/earned two and used (or not had to use) them reasonably well. The one advantage Erika had was literally handed to her by the producers and the consensus was that there was no real choice involved between flipping things so that she is safe and leaving things as they were so that she was at risk.

The notion that Erika apparently seriously wants a F3 of her, Deshawn and Heather suggests to me that she does not think she can beat Xander, but she does think that she can beat Deshawn. Which either is a sign of how dangerous Xander is, or makes her instincts questionable, IMO. (Possibly both). 

If Deshawn gets to the jury and Ricard doesn't, I would imagine that Deshawn is a lock for Ricard's vote and those of the other AAA members. 

 

[peachmangosteen]

40 minutes ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

there also may be more on the cutting room floor showing [Xander] politicking and his social game.

I doubt it since the people who played with him don’t seem to think he had much of a social game.

40 minutes ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

If Deshawn gets to the jury and Ricard doesn't, I would imagine that Deshawn is a lock for Ricard's vote and those of the other AAA members. 

I don’t think any of those people are locks for DeShawn. Ricard point blank said he thought DeShawn was playing badly. I think Shan and Lianna feel pretty betrayed by DeShawn, which might not keep them from voting for him but it certainly justifiably could.

[Chicago Redshirt]

On 12/14/2021 at 10:33 AM, peachmangosteen said:

I doubt it since the people who played with him don’t seem to think he had much of a social game.

I don’t think any of those people are locks for DeShawn. Ricard point blank said he thought DeShawn was playing badly. I think Shan and Lianna feel pretty betrayed by DeShawn, which might not keep them from voting for him but it certainly justifiably could.

How do you know what the people who played with him feel about his social game? If it's from what's been shown on the actual show, it is something where almost by definition we can't necessarily tell from that what the full truth is. If one accepts the premise that what is shown is not always representative of what happened, then the people saying or hinting that Xander does not have much of a social game might also be unrepresentative of their true sentiments. I don't remember anyone talking about Xander's social game (or really, much about Xander, period) in the actual show itself. 

Deshawn did objectively make big mistakes -- it was in part on him that the AAA crumbled the way it did. 

That said, if he were to be able to make a comeback and not get voted off 5th or 4th (as I would expect he would be) while Ricard was, who is Ricard going to cast his vote for? In the F3 of Deshawn, Erika and Heather, I see him more likely voting for Deshawn than Erika.  I would put it at 70-30. As to Shan and Liana, I would probably also put it at a pretty high number. Shan is clearly still salty about having been voted out based on Ponderosa stuff and her body language from the jury, but I think she can get over it for "the culture." I don't see Liana as voting for Erika unless her only other option is Xander/Heather. 

Really, Deshawn's path to the final four is pretty narrow. He has to either:

1. Find and play the re-seeded Hidden Immunity Idol

2. Either win Individual Immunity or at least have Ricard get denied it (and fail to find the hidden immunity idol) so he can lobby people to vote Ricard off instead.

3. Hope for some producer-imposed twist that makes him safe

4. Take and win his Shot in the Dark

ETA: 5. Have Ricard win Individual Immunity and convince the other three that he is most likely to increase the odds of beating Ricard in the F4 II challenge and thus worth keeping around over Erika. 

I believe this is the last time Xander can use his idol, so he's going to be safe. No one is going to vote Heather at this point because she's a goat. 

Edited December 15, 2021 by Chicago Redshirt

[ProfCrash]

the Shot and the Dark is no more, I think Liana's vote was the last time it could be used. Xander is safe at the first tribal because it is the last night he can use the individual immunity.

[peachmangosteen]

1 hour ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

How do you know what the people who played with him feel about his social game?

Exit interviews/Pondersosa.

[peachmangosteen]

48 minutes ago, ProfCrash said:

the Shot and the Dark is no more, I think Liana's vote was the last time it could be used. Xander is safe at the first tribal because it is the last night he can use the individual immunity.

I literally forgot about shot in the dark lol. I also thought F6 was the last time you could play hiis. I swear, when Jeff talks I do not pay one ounce of attention lol.

[suebee18]

I feel like much of the Xander hate comes from a bunch of bitter betty’s who are mad that a guy might win again (oh, the horror 😜). A little introspection might result in acknowledgment that weak attempts to say he’s so awful stems more from that than any legit reason. Then again, I might be biased because I’m a big fan, whether he’s shirtless or not 😊

Edited December 15, 2021 by suebee18

[blackwing]

On 12/13/2021 at 10:52 AM, AncientNewbie said:

My only takeaway this week was that I hope the people mad at "woke Survivor" realize the problem lies with Peachy as the showrunner and not the miserable, hungry, stressed people trying to play a game that's been cited previously as messing with one's mind and values, sometimes long term. 

Yep, he is far and away the #1 thing that is wrong with the show right now.  He's no longer just a host, for years now he has deliberately inserted himself into the game with his comments and manipulative questions.  And this year he has gotten even worse with his fourth wall breaking, it's obvious that he wants even more attention and spotlight.  As long as Survivor is making changes, I'd say it's time for a new host. 

[CountryGirl]

I also think it's a testament to Xander's game that he couldn't even vote for how many weeks because of trying to activate his idol as well as say that dumb butterflies phrase that wasn't obvious at all (sarcasm) and he managed to survive all of that. 

That he has been able to turn his game from being Target #1 to now being UTR is another testament, IMO. 

With respect to exit interviews etc., I've said before that I don't put much stock in those because so many times, we've seen ousted contestants appear to be in favor of one contestant (and/or hating on another). FTC rolls around and sometimes, based on what goes down, they change their minds and vote accordingly. A more recent example is S37. Nick was not a lock, if you went by what you saw in exit interviews/Ponderosa footage, to win at all, and it seemed Mike had it in the bag.

Until FTC, when it really counts, and Nick's performance there got him the win. For example, Gabby was sold on Mike until then, as were, at minimum, Christian and Allison, but Gabby shared on RHAP that it was during FTC, based on how Mike presented himself (with his "I feel weird about winning" WTFery), that he lost her vote, and due to Nick's owning his game and clearly wanting the win, he gained her vote. It swayed some others as well.

Point being, you can have your mind made up going into FTC and yet, what happens can change that. Some won't move from their fixed positions, no matter what, but many have. That is why FTC can be so important as we've watched folks (Mike, IMO, for one) throw away their games or come in as the underdog and sell the hell out of why they should win.