S31: Tasha Fox

[Mreid]

Tasha did not play a more aggressive game. She got into an alliance and she stuck with it. Good for her. But that is not aggressive. She was far more aggressive in her first season when playing from the bottom. From what I have read and what I saw, she played a very safe, low key game. She protected her alliance and didn't move when she could have. From what Stephen said, and based on the bits we saw, she was nice to the people who she was aligned with and either ignored or fought with the people she was not aligned with. That is awful game play. Her behavior around camp pretty much guaranteed that she was not going to win.

 

Good game play would have been to find a way to keep Abi on her good side after the merge. Abi saved Andrew and Tasha. Flat out saved the two of them. Abi requires wrangling, which Tasha was willing to do on Angkor. As soon as Tasha left Angkor, she dropped Abi. When the merge happened, Tasha did nothing to try and retain a relationship with Abi.

 

Good game play would have meant finding a way to work with Kass. The two seemed to get along just fine initially. When the merge happened, Tasha was the one who went into whatever mode and stirred up shit with Kass.

 

Good game play means that you find a way to talk and be kind to people not in your alliance. You need them to vote for you at the end. Yet the way things broke down it was clear that Tasha failed miserably to try and build relationships with others. Interestingly enough, Kelley Wentworth said in a couple of places that Spencer went too far in the other direction and hurt people when he stabbed them in the back.

 

So Tasha made the finals by virtue of her alliance, nothing wrong with that. That is why you build alliances. Kudos. Tasha had no shot of winning, and she knew she had no shot of winning, because she pissed off so many people.

 

Sorry, but Abi's comment about Tasha being a goat have been confirmed. Tasha was safe to bring to the end because she had not made any moves, had not won squat on her own, was not a key decision maker, and she failed to try and even form connections with people outside of her alliance. That is not good game play.

 

Let me just say this. There were 20 players going into this season. When Tasha went into Angkor in the 3rd episode on the outs 4 to 2 she went into that tribe and cleaned house!  That was some of the best gameplay I have seen in a while She could have easily gone home in the third episode but she played the cards she was dealt with. She had a role in getting PG, Jeff Varner, Kass, and Abi all voted out.  She didnt play the way Kass wanted her to play in the early merge and thats why Kass blew up, like Tasha said you cant play the game the same way and expect a different result. In Cagayan maybe she was nicer and more likeable but this season she definitely played more aggressive.  To be a runner up out of 20 players is very impressive to me.  People say what Keith did was so great almost giving up his spot in the game for Kimmi but yet Tasha never gave up and did what it took to get to the end and yet she is hated for playing the game........I just dont get it.

Edited December 18, 2015 by Mreid

[ProfCrash]

Abi was determined to leave Ta Keo. Abi offered Tasha and Savage an alliance. Not much work was required. If Tasha or Andrew had worked to keep Abi with them after the merge I would give them some credit but being offered an alliance that saves your butt and then ignoring that person later is poor game play.

[LadyChatts]

I think Tasha got lucky she wound up with the most dysfunctional bunch Ta'Keo had to offer.  I will credit Tasha with that, but that's about the only thing I can say she did.  I don't think she did much later in the game, and I don't believe there was much work required in getting Abi or Kass off.

[LanceM]

I don't think Kass made racial slurs either but I think the story was Tasha claimed it happened in a fight they had on the beach with no cameras or other players around, so it's purely her word against Kass's.  Rumor was that really stilted convo they had about "bye bye Bayon" was a reenactment for the cameras.  It felt phony to me.  

 

Apparently Kelley was there as well. She said she is doing a periscope on Sunday where she will address this among everything else that went down this season.

[yamashinaryu]

Tasha and Spencer were awesome in Cagayan and you can see them play hard. That was after Kass flipping. If Kass stayed with them, I strongly feel that their gameplay will be similar to that of Cambodia. If that was the case, they won't be receiving an invitation to play again.

[Zuleikha]

I'm just disappointed that Tasha never played the devil's game Jeff claimed she would play. If anything, I think Tasha's game was dominated by loyalty. She never backstabbed, and I don't remember her lying. She was fake to Abi, but that's social niceties (and I think Tasha was sincere about extending Bayon protection to Abi had Abi stuck with her and Savage). I guess we may learn more from Kelley, but until we do, I'm still operating on the assumption that Kass said something that Kass did not intend to be and still does not conceive of as racist but that Tasha could reasonably interpret that way.

[KimberStormer]

JudyObscure, on 18 Dec 2015 - 05:20 AM, said:

Why didn't the show show us Tasha?  I just don't feel I know her at all, even after two seasons.

 

I feel the exact same way.  It's a mystery.

 

Mreid, on 18 Dec 2015 - 08:01 AM, said:

She could have went with the womens alliance of Kimmi, Kelly and Abi yes but what happens if those four make it the final 4 and Tasha loses the final immunity. Tasha is voted out in 4th place. Id rather be a runner up than be in 4th place. Kelly Kimmi and Abi would have definitely voted Tasha out. Like Tasha said in her interview it made more sense for her to just go with Spencer and Jeremy she did not win the million dollars but the runner up gets 100k. Call her a goat if you want to but that goat has some nice dollars in her bank account right now. 

 

As others have said, Abi and Kimmi would certainly have voted out Kelley at F4 if she lost immunity.  Abi, of all people, would be loyal to Kelley?  Abi?  No.  She had a stated plan to take Kimmi and Tasha to the end.  That was the best chance for all 3 of them.  Kimmi too would not have stuck with Kelley, someone she'd never been aligned with the whole game until it became necessary to make it to the end.  Tasha was almost guaranteed F3 with either alliance, and only one she could have won in.  The only thing that would have stopped her in the women's alliance is a Kelley win at final immunity--and even then, from what it looks like, maybe Kelley would prefer to go to the end with Tasha.  Sometimes you have to choose between what's going to help you get to the end, and what's going to help you win; but Tasha did not.  I do not respect playing for second place.  She blew it, and for no reason.

 

I do think she played the Angkor situation perfectly, as I've said before, and even got herself set up perfectly by strong-arming Jeremy and Spencer into the Joe vote.  She just lost her nerve at the end, is my guess.

 

(Something annoying to me: had Abi, Tasha, and Kimmi actually been the final 3, just imagine the dismay!  I can hear it now!  "WORST FINAL 3 OF ALL TIME", they would say.  Like the Missy/Jaclyn/Natalie final 3, which I thought was a very good and interesting F3, each person having gotten there under their own steam and each having a very good claim to the win, but everyone in the world apparently thinking it was a trio of goats.)

[Zuleikha]

I like to believe that had we gotten that f3, we would have seen more of Tasha and Kimmi. And even Abi, I think had she pulled off her move and ended up with her f3, we would have seen more of the good, charming moments that we know exist and probably less of the Poopy pants stuff.

 

I'm probably wrong, mind you, but I'm going to choose to believe it.