S33: Michelle Schubert

[Michel]

Hi.  Let's hope I can do more to deserve a win than the last castaway of a similar name.

She wants to be a female Rob, though, so I imagine she won't last that long if she tries to replicate his game.

[LanceM]

Pre-game interview with Josh Wigler:

http://parade.com/500464/joshwigler/survivor-millennials-vs-gen-x-michelle-schubert/

[LadyChatts]

Thinking early boot.  Either that or the girl who makes it to the final 4 but you had no idea she was even on this season.

[LanceM]

http://my.xfinity.com/blogs/tv/2016/09/16/survivor-millennial-michelle/

So. Michelle is a communist. lol.  This is one very odd woman I must say, though I am admittedly quite intrigued by her.  Of course it is quite possible that this was a just a joke.  No way to know really since there was no followup.  

Edited September 16, 2016 by LanceM

[Guest]

Hopefully she's not a female Coach.  She could go either way.  Very interesting or totally cuckoo.  

[KimberStormer]

Pretty sure she's my favorite, so she'll be voted out next week.  But fuck I would love it if a communist missionary dragon-researching Coach fan would win this game.

Edited September 22, 2016 by KimberStormer

[Michel]

With the tide seeming to be turning against the "pretty people" on Vanua, I hate that she's being lumped in with them since she doesn't seem as tightly bonded with Jay, Taylor, and Figgy as they all do with each other.  I hope she can distance herself from them.

[LanceM]

Hopefully they included that scene of her talking with Hannah for a reason. I also saw in the press pics for this week quite a few pics of her hanging out with Hannah and Michaela. I do think the editors went out of their way shield her from the negativity of those three. Though truth be told they probably didn't have any footage of her being obnoxious like those 3 for the simple reason that she is probably not obnoxious at all like them.

[LanceM]

Secret scene on EW.Com with Hannah and Michelle praying for wisdom.  They seem to be getting along:

http://www.ew.com/survivor

[JudyObscure]

Hannah was so cute in that!  "Oh! I swore on the prayer!"  I like both of them, they would make a great team, Hannah so excitable and Michelle so calm.

[LanceM]

Wow. I did not see this coming.  I am pumped to see that Michelle came to play and even after making this move tonight I can see Figgy and Taylor still being the #1 targets where she can just hide behind them for awhile and build up her counter alliance with Hannah and maybe Michaela.

[LanceM]

Michelle talks about going into tribal council and about how it is all about the numbers. She thinks the others are underestimating her that they see her as this free spirited person who is not very smart and is not playing the game when the reality is she is smart and very calculating and is definitely playing the game.

 

[KimberStormer]

THAT'S MY GIRL

I shouldn't get this excited so soon, but so far she is exactly the kind of player I love.  Did you ever read the Chrestomanci books, by Diana Wynne Jones?  They always mention how Chrestomanci's face gets "vague" and this is, people belatedly realize, when he's concentrating hardest, and most dangerous.  That's what Michelle reminded me of at tribal tonight; her face went vague, and she was dangerous.

[LadyChatts]

My only concern is that she may be playing too fast, too soon.  Trust me, I am more about big moves than a boring social game getting people by, and handing them the win because they didn't get their hands dirty.  And I love it even more when women on this show can actually work together, rather than see who can run to the biggest alpha out there and back stab the fastest.  I just don't want Michelle to blow it.  Especially if it comes back around that somehow she got people to flip.  Down the road, that may bite her.  Hopefully not.  I'm having trouble finding people to root for, and with Mari gone, I need Michelle!

Of course I probably just jinxed her lol

Edited September 29, 2016 by LadyChatts

[JudyObscure]

She's my favorite by far.  I hope her tribe keeps seeing her as just a pretty face for a little longer and her TC whispering doesn't attract too much attention.   Since her job gives away the fact that she's a Christian there will always be people calling her a hypocrite, unless, every week, she volunteers to go home in place of the target.  Ignore them and keep playing the game, Michelle!

[Xazeal]

GIRL!

I thought she was absolutely bonkers in her pre-game stuff, but then I really liked her in the premiere, and the move she pulled off tonight was absolutely brilliant. It didn't seem like anyone realized she was a driving force behind the vote - she played it off so effortlessly. I hope she stays this sharp, because I'm completely in love with everything we've seen of her so far.

However, I really hope we don't see much from her in the next few episodes. If they keep highlighting her gameplay and how well she's doing, she's gone early merge for sure. If she wins, they'll likely let her fade into the background so that it doesn't become too obvious.

[azshadowwalker]

The hypocrisy charges bug the hell out of me. I hope her tribemates aren't feeling that way. It's not like she's Will, who flat out said that the game play of Survivor was something he could ask for forgiveness later. To me, that's hypocrisy. While I don't think run-of-the-mill Survivor play is "immoral",  if someone who wears his religion on his sleeve does believe it is against that religion, but will do it anyway,  I consider that to be hypocrisy. I have neither seen nor heard of Michelle taking a similar stance. 

[simplyme]

People always come up with crap like this. If part of the rules of a game is lying and misleading are ok and everyone knows that going in, then as far as I'm concerned no one is a hypocrite if they lie. Not even scout leaders like Lil or self-proclaimed religious folk. 

I mean, if they have to play by different rules, I totally want to be the one playing poker against them.

[peachmangosteen]

I think if Michelle is going around talking about her religion and holding prayer sessions and what not and then starts screwing people over it may hurt her if she makes it to the end. And I think it would be perfectly OK if it did hurt her. But I don't know if she is indeed doing that.

[KimberStormer]

Totally -- I don't mind if other players think she's a hypocrite.  I just think it's wrong for the audience to act like you can't be Christian (or whatever) and play a game which depends to some degree on deception.  "She says she's a Christian, and she manipulated the vote?  No cognitive dissonance there, hahaha!" kind of thing.  No, there really is no cognitive dissonance there.

South Pacific Coach-style "I'm too holy to betray you" might be a pretty good lie to get you to the end, but I think it's unlikely to get you the win, and I'm fine with jurors calling you out for that one.

[peachmangosteen]

+1 on all that @KimberStormer

I just find Michelle intriguing as a person and player. I'm not sure if I actually like her or not, but that is part of her appeal to me really. I'm just really interested to see what she does.

[LanceM]

"I didn’t realize how much of a game player Michelle was. I saw her as a siren from the very beginning because I knew she was beautiful and I kind of assumed she was wickedly dangerous and I guess my intuition was correct. Everyone was watching Figgy because she was loud and out there, but Michelle is the one lurking in the shadows, which is way more dangerous."

This is what Mari had to say in one of her exit interviews. We saw this on full display tonight.  Adam stating for a fact that Michelle was the one who saved Figgy at the prior TC (with a little help from Jay) and yet he is still fixated on voting out Figgy and Taylor.  This despite the fact that he lets the audience know that Figgy sucks at Survivor. I guess it doesn't occur to him that if you want to break up a four person alliance maybe you should vote out the two that actually have shown that they are good at Survivor.

[simplyme]

I think Adam's point was that Figgy is the glue. Taylor follows Figgy. Jay sticks with Taylor. Michelle also seems to be closest to Figgy. Take Figgy out and you might be able to split the other three (presumeably by getting Michelle and the boys on opposite sites). If you take Michelle out, Taylor still follows Figgy and Jay still sticks with his bro Tayls, so you still have a solid threesome of votes.

Michelle is the brains, but Figgy is the heart.

[LanceM]

Michelle has a couple of secret scenes this week.  First she talks about how religious people have played the game of Survivor and how she is playing. Oh and apparently she has Sandra's "as long as it is not me" strategy when people suggest who to vote out.

 

 

In this video she talks about her options in this game including the fact that she would like to work with Adam and that she doesn't know if she wants to continue working with Figgy because she doesn't trust Figgy.

 

Edited October 6, 2016 by LanceM

[loki567]

In the first clip, it's the first time I ever remember hearing a producer say something, "People trust you?" Weird. 

This girl is definitely one to watch. She has to be careful with the religious question because that's always something people can fixate on and use as an excuse to hate you if you beat them. 

I'm curious why she stuck her head out to protect Figgy if she doesn't trust her. 

[LanceM]

Self Preservation.  Mari has been saying in her interviews that if they had voted out Figgy that Michelle likely would have been next because they wouldn't want to vote out Jay or Taylor over her due to their challenge strength.

[loki567]

I was trying to think of who she reminded me of then it popped, Amanda. She's got the same cold eyes and flat voice as Amanda. 

[LadyChatts]

I'm glad to know she'd be willing to drop Jessica, and that she's just a temporary shield.  That said, I hope her strategy doesn't backfire.  Could be a case of playing too hard, too fast.  Michaela's approach of hating Jessica, but going with the numbers is a more subtle approach.  Michelle getting Hannah to change her vote at TC, in front of everyone (even if they didn't know what she was doing at the time)...I don't know.  She may be putting an unnecessary target on her back.  I'm intrigued, though.  Hope she's around awhile, because she's definitely one of the more interesting people out there.

[KimberStormer]

2 hours ago, LanceM said:

Michelle has a couple of secret scenes this week.  First she talks about how religious people have played the game of Survivor and how she is playing. Oh and apparently she has Sandra's "as long as it is not me" strategy when people suggest who to vote out.

Well, she says it, but that was very certainly not how she played last week, where she was in no immediate danger but scrambled anyway.  And thank goodness.

The clip of Jay talking about her you posted in his thread made me feel like maybe I'm not totally making it up when I imagine that when she appears outwardly calm is when she's concentrating hardest.  (Though at this point it's still pretty much KimberStormer fanfiction, I admit it.)

[laurakaye]

9 hours ago, loki567 said:

I was trying to think of who she reminded me of then it popped, Amanda. She's got the same cold eyes and flat voice as Amanda. 

Do you mean Amanda of Ozzie/Amanda?  While I see the physical resemblance, I find myself weirdly mesmerized when Michelle speaks.  She's got an interesting accent and a halting way of speaking in her talking heads that makes me think she's running many scenarios through her mind and trying to talk them out.  Whereas Amanda was a vapid waste of space who looked half-asleep most of the time, IMO.

[NutMeg]

She reminds me of early Kesha

[LanceM]

Michelle was observing the other tribe when she sat out the challenge.  She describes the Gen-X Tribe as being full of angst and very negative which I think is probably true considering what went down at the prior night TC.  She also thinks Michaela is the smartest and sneakiest woman on the tribe and is therefore keeping her eye on her.

 

[KimberStormer]

Trying not to jinx her.  I am not concerned by her relative invisibility this episode (who knew who Kim Spradlin was four episodes in?), but I am slightly worried by the shot of her praying at the reward challenge.  From her pre-game interviews it seems like this girl is all about the Jesus, and I feel like their not making a thing about this in the edit is a good sign.  Either they're going to play it up just before she goes home, to get us thinking "what a wacko with this Bible stuff out of nowhere!  I'm glad she's gone!" kind of like how they did Lucy so dirty this episode, or it will be something they develop over the season if she wins.  They showed her praying, and then the swell seemed to help the Millenials, so that could be good, but then they lost that point, so it could be bad, the kind of "God doesn't care about Survivor so you lose" knife-twisting edit they love so much.

I'm terrible at reading the edit.  But she's my fave and I am way too invested so I'm trying to read the tea leaves.

[LanceM]

Very happy to see her survive tonight. She definitely made up for her poor performance in the challenge last week by a very strong performance in both challenges this week.  Her and Zeke really seem to work well together in every challenge they've done.  Not happy with Figgy at all tonight for stupidly letting both tribes know how much she loves Michelle and how happy she was that she was there (oh and hi there Zeke too).  Both David and Zeke had secret scenes saying how absolutely dumb it was from Figgy to do that.  Hopefully now with Figgy gone the target on Michelle's back is lessened and they won't be too quick to try to vote her out.  I am not sure Michelle could have handled that any better than she did, like if she denied they were close would any really believe that? Of course not.  You might as well own it like she did and move on from there. In terms of her edit, the lack of confessionals tonight was worrisome. But the positive comments she is getting from others on her tribe (including Probst during the challenge) was off the charts tonight. It seems like by including these comments they are setting up an underdog story for her going forward.  Atleast that is what I hope is happening.

Edited October 27, 2016 by LanceM

[loki567]

Yeah, I was definitely impressed by the easy way she laughed off Figgy's obviousness. And the fact that we know she didn't trust Figgy and would have easily voted her out, that's another good sign for her.

I'm not sure about Zeke identifying her as a threat. That could be really bad for her or it might be a Tony/Spencer, Mike/Rodney type of thing where one player makes it his goal to get rid of somebody he deems dangerous and never quite able to do it. 

Edited October 27, 2016 by loki567

[peachmangosteen]

I thought Michelle handled the Figgy situation well until she told her new tribe that she single-handedly saved Figgy. That was a big mistake imo. And one I was surprised she made. I think I get why she did it, but I just think it was ammo for people who already see her as a strategic threat. But, like I said in the ep thread, I think her game's good enough that she can probably overcome it.

[LanceM]

Here is a secret scene with Michelle where she explains why she believes telling the truth can be a good thing.

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/10/26/survivor-jeff-probst-millennials-vs-gen-x-panic-attack

[KimberStormer]

16 hours ago, Dominii said:

Why do people like Michelle so much?  Sure, she's good at puzzles and she's smart, but so are some other players.  To me, she's just "meh."

 

8 hours ago, LanceM said:

Everyone has different tastes in players? But you did name two thing about that I like which is that she seems smart and is great in puzzles. I would also add that she seems to be very likeable and most important to me I love the way she approaches the game.  She is proactive. She is not afraid to make moves. When she thinks she in danger she does something  about it (like getting people to vote out Mari). As she said she doesn't want others to decide her fate in the game.  I like that. Is it a risky strategy? Absolutely.  But I would much rather watch a player like that than someone who essentially does nothing to try to further themselves in the game until they inevitably get voted out.

Yes, this goes for me too.  I like players who are a) proactive and b) forward-thinking.  I don't like people who go blandly to the slaughter, the ultimate example for me being Denise from China; I also don't like people who just think about this current tribal and not down the road.  I like Parvati saying "I can't beat Ozzy, I can't beat James, let me get these two Fans on my side because come merge time I'm gonna need these numbers."  I like Michelle not wanting to have her game in other people's hands.  She said she wanted to play like Boston Rob, and I see it.  She wants control.  She would have been safe for the moment, possibly safe for a long time, if Figgy went home; but she would not be in control.  Mari and Zeke would be, and she'd be forced to play defense, or hope she wasn't the one targeted next (which she might well be; Hope and Allie were the ones who went, not Eddie and Raymond, who were supposedly challenge assets.)  Keep Figgy, keep the numbers on her side, and she can dictate the game on the Millenial side. 

The next time she's at tribal, she's actually on the chopping block, every reason to expect she might go home.  Chris and Dave show up and throw her a lifeline, "Hey, good news, we're going to magnanimously spare you!"  But that's not good enough for Michelle.  "Not me" is not good enough.  The control is in someone else's hands, next tribal she will again have nothing to do but hope that their whim will for some reason not target her.  She wants to be in charge of her own fate.  So she goes to CeCe, in order to put together her own alliance, where she can call the shots and have that control.  I admit I was terrified she'd talk herself out of the game and I'd come online to a long @kikaha screed about how another foolish female has played too damn hard.  But I loved it.  It's not the only good way to play Survivor, but it's my favorite way, to want to be in power, not just in the majority.  It's cool to be Kelley, I love Kelley, she was absolutely amazing -- but I'd rather be Jeremy, if I were out there.  I'd rather be Kim Spradlin than Mike Whatsisface from Worlds Apart or Fabio.  Heck, I'd rather be an Ox, a zero-votes loser like Sugar, who ran that game, than Bob just blundering into the million, no matter what the Anthropic Principle school of "the winner deserves the win by virtue of winning" philosophy says.  It's just how I like to see people play.  I haven't seen anyone else like that out there this season, though Adam is making moves in that direction, and David wishes he was, and lots of people could possibly do something similar too like Zeke or Jay or Ken or Chris or Jessica.  (Good cast!)

I mean the other reason I like her is obviously my very well-documented bias towards young women, and I like her sleepy-eyed, interested-but-detached affect.  But anyway, that's kind of why I like Michelle.

Edited October 28, 2016 by KimberStormer

[waving feather]

I like Michelle because she's low key and sneaky, my favourite combination in a survivor contestant. Reminds me a bit of Kim Spradlin, one of the best survivor players ever. Their brains are always working nonstop and they have a very sharp look in their eyes. Let's see if Michelle has as good social game as Kim. 

I thought she masterfully deflected the unintended arrow Figgy shot at her during the reward challenge. She tried to be dismissive of her relationship with Figgy later on to her tribe (smart girl) but may have told them too much info. Hope it won't come back to bite her. I also hope Zeke doesn't automatically fall into an alliance with the other 2 boys and vote her off.

[kikaha]

Michelle -- one of my favorite players this season -- has made some great moves, a lousy move, and also suffered probably the worst luck of anyone out there so far.

Great moves:  the way she saved Figgy in the 2nd episode was mind-bending.  I don't recall ever seeing that before.  Along with her earlier connections, this put Michelle in great position to dominate the pre-merge game on the millennials.  Except then she suffered her...

... horrendous luck.  The shuffle threw her under the bus, changing her overnight from a position of great strength to one of extreme danger.  I'm glad she's survived .  I fear, though, that a) Figgy's big mouth painted a still larger target on her, and b) her great challenge play, though essential to keep her in the game, shows everyone how good she is at Survivor.  

Poor move: she easily could have talked herself out of the game that first episode after the shuffle.  Yes, she was vulnerable.  But she did not read the tea leaves correctly.  I think the edit misled us a bit, but she definitely stumbled there.

It's critical that her tribe not go to TC again.  If they do, I think she's gone.  Dave is a real weak link in the challenge chain.  They have to find ways to work around his weaknesses. 

Actually, I think Michelle's tribe has four of the best players this season.  If they all manage to make it to merge, along with, say, Adam, Jay, Ken, Jess and Michaela, this could turn into a bombs-out season. 

[peachmangosteen]

8 hours ago, KimberStormer said:

The next time she's at tribal, she's actually on the chopping block, every reason to expect she might go home.  Chris and Dave show up and throw her a lifeline, "Hey, good news, we're going to magnanimously spare you!"  But that's not good enough for Michelle.  "Not me" is not good enough.  The control is in someone else's hands, next tribal she will again have nothing to do but hope that their whim will for some reason not target her.  She wants to be in charge of her own fate.  So she goes to CeCe, in order to put together her own alliance, where she can call the shots and have that control.

Another component of this that I thought showed that Michelle is potentially a top tier player is that she a) recognized quickly that her grab for control wasn't going to work and b) accepted that and adapted instead of doubling down and getting herself voted out. That is such a great skill to have, that kind of flexibility and control of yourself, especially from someone who obviously wants to be the driving force of the game.

I find Michelle so interesting. I get a sneaky/manipulative vibe from her but also in that video above she's talking about telling the truth and I actually believe she's being sincere about it! And she doesn't come off self-righteous at all, which most players who claim they're playing with honesty/integrity/morals do. I still don't know if I actually like her, but that actually just adds to her intrigue to me. I'm really looking forward to seeing what she does going forward. 

[enlightenedbum]

I think she understands it's a game and treats it like a game more than most people who are on this show.  Notably, her twitter profile mentions she's a big Catan fan, backing up this theory.

[KimberStormer]

On ‎10‎/‎28‎/‎2016 at 8:12 AM, peachmangosteen said:

I find Michelle so interesting. I get a sneaky/manipulative vibe from her but also in that video above she's talking about telling the truth and I actually believe she's being sincere about it! And she doesn't come off self-righteous at all, which most players who claim they're playing with honesty/integrity/morals do.

I think that's because, from my reading, she's not talking about honesty/integrity/morals, just that the truth is a useful tool in the game?

[kikaha]

Zeke has Michelle in his sights.  I hope he doesn't throw the next IC to try and boot her. 

[LadyChatts]

5 hours ago, kikaha said:

Zeke has Michelle in his sights.  I hope he doesn't throw the next IC to try and boot her. 

It'll be interesting when they see that Figgy is gone, since Figgy made a point of openly showing Michelle was her ally.  Of course, she wasn't Michelle's only ally, and Zeke knows that.  She'll have her work cut out for her, since Zeke/Chris/David are tight.  However, if Jay sees she's in trouble and wants her to stick around, he could throw the challenge for his tribe.  The Millennials have the numbers, and I don't know if any of them will flip to Bret and Sunday.  

Edited October 30, 2016 by LadyChatts

[LanceM]

Big, big sigh of relief tonight when Vanua won that challenge.  And thank you Chris for nailing those targets after Michelle struggled with her portion of the challenge.  Now we are hitting the merge and I think MIchelle is going to go from a  very bad position to a good position. I don't think she will be immediately targeted right away especially after the events of tonight's episode.  Still though anything can happen especially tis season so I am cautiously optimistic going into next week.  I had to laugh at the reward feast scene where the 3 guys were doing their best impression of the bean eating scene from Blazing Saddles while Michelle calmly sat there eating her food like a "human". Interesting that we got no reaction from her about Figgy getting voted off. I would have thought we would have got something from her about that.  Interesting in her secret scene mentions want to play with Adam though she thinks he made a mistake last week turning on the millennials. I wonder how she is going to feel when she finds out Jay did the same thing?

Edited November 3, 2016 by LanceM

[Guest]

I too was really pulling for Chris to hit those targets.  I figured Michelle botching the combo lock was a bad sign that she might be going home.  I was openly saying, "I really want Michelle to be safe and Taylor to go home.  Or Michaela, but I think that's too much to hope for before the merge."  HA.  

I think they showed her sitting there saying nothing through the fart and burp fest to show how she's playing a good social game.  Which gives me hope.

[LanceM]

Clearly with Michelle's good table manners she needs to align with Ken who appreciates those things. 

[laurakaye]

8 hours ago, LanceM said:

Clearly with Michelle's good table manners she needs to align with Ken who appreciates those things. 

Yet another Final Two I would absolutely love to see.

[waving feather]

Michelle mentioned in the secret scene that she was very upset about Figgy being voted out but she tired her hardest not to show it. Good girl.