S36: Ghost Island Preview and Speculation

[Wings]

5 hours ago, Rachel RSL said:

Gross eating challenge next week! It's sad how excited I am. I miss the old school challenges so much.

I came here to say the same thing!  Did they pay attention to our cries?  Doesn't matter.  I want more!

Edited April 12, 2018 by Wings

[GalvDuck]

14 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

When was the last time we had gross food? Or stuff on a plate that was moving?

It's been a while.  Most of them don't bother me (same for Fear Factor stuff).  I could do a lot of them.  But the blood drinking in Survivor: Africa was a bit much.  I would struggle on that one.

[peachmangosteen]

Ugh, I am so pumped for the gross eating challenge. I hope they bring back some more old school challenges.

So, based on the edits and how it's looking like the game will probably go strategy wise, my current guess for the winner is Dom. But I do think Wendell, Kellyn, and possibly Laurel are strong contenders, too. Maybe Michael, but the game would have to take a real turn and I don't see that happening. I also think Chelsea, Libby, and Desiree are getting some interesting edits actually, but I don't see how they could possibly win. I don't wanna rule them out yet though. I don't think Donathan, Jenna, Sebastian, or Angela have a shot in hell.

[ProfCrash]

Dom, Wendell and Laurel are the three that I can see winning.

Dom is playing loud and brash but seems to have toned down his behavior. He has found an idol, worked on socializing better with folks and has developed a strong alliance of four. He is putting himself in a good place.

Wendell is playing a quieter game then Dom but I think it is clear that he is playing. He has found an idol and is really good at competitions. He is the Dom wrangler and seems to get along with everyone. I could see him winning.

Laurel is interesting. She is not as strongly portrayed as Dom and Wendell but TPTB have show her developing a good rapport with Donathon and that she has a good social game. Her alliance with Dom and Wendell does not seem to be known, otherwise I doubt Chris would have brought her to the water well. If she helps orchestrate the ouster of one of the bigger threats, she could very well win this game.

The rest I cannot see winning.

Michael would need to win out on immunity challenges. He has survived far too many tribals, is good at challenges and appears to be smooth at tribal. He is going to be seen as a threat for many reasons and is likely to go out pretty soon.

Kellyn is probably seen in a similar light as Bradley. I suspect that she annoyed folks and that she is not a real threat in challenges. I know she just won a challenge but I would be surprised to see her win too many more. I don't think she helped her self with any of the tribe swaps and how she treated the folks in the minority.

Libby has a large target on her back and is in the minority numbers. I don't see her winning many comps. I suspect that she goes out if Michael wins immunity.

Donathon is a better player then I thought he would be. He has a great back story and is likeable. Neither are things that anyone is going to want to see at the final tribal. No one takes him to the final three. I am not sure he is cut throat enough to make it to the finals, I can't see him stabbing his allies in the back and no one is going to want to be in the finals with him because he is likeable.

Chelsea has been far too invisible to be the winner. She would have to come out guns blazing now to end up winning.

Jenna is even more invisible then Chelsea. Her shining moment of the season was suggesting that Sebastian smell her hair. Not a winner

Sebastian has not made any independent moves and has gone underground. He really has not done much of anything.

Angela was an ally of Chris's early on and is not in Dom's alliance. I suspect that she will be used as a number but that is about it. I don't see much room for her to maneuver and she has not shown herself to be a challenge beast.

[303420]

I hereby speculate that Donathan will win at least one individual immunity challenge.

Stephanie and Chris got a fair amount of attention in the first few eps and are now gone; that leaves some room to tell some new stories. I'm expecting one or two of the women we haven't seen much to become a second-half star.

Wild spec out my ass is that Donathan, Laurel, Wendell, Domenick, and one of Libby/Chelsea/Jenna are final 5; and the woman outside of the alliance immunities her way into final 4. Everyone expects Donathan to go, but this is the opportunity that Domenick will take to bounce Wendell.

Why can't I be this creative when I'm doing my own writing?

[HurricaneVal]

Dare I hope that the return of the gross eating challenge also heralds the return of the Survivor Auction?   Usually a gross food item shows up as a mystery item at the Auction so the camera can catch everyone's reaction at the reveal.

 

I prefer the gross eating challenge as a team challenge though, where you regret letting your teammates down, and they hate you because you can't eat eyeballs.  As an individual challenge, you can just nope out without consequences.

 

I want a loved one episode too, just so I can see who crawls out of the depths of the Kentucky hills to be Donathon's loved one.  Sebastian's loved one might be interesting too.

[Rachel RSL]

I loved the auctions so much. I mean, it was better back in the days when they weren't being fed 3 course meals as rewards every other day (I exaggerate but you get my point) but it's still always fun to watch hungry people spend all their money on a mystery plate that turns out to be a bowl of slugs.

[peachmangosteen]

4 hours ago, 303420 said:

Wild spec out my ass is that Donathan, Laurel, Wendell, Domenick, and one of Libby/Chelsea/Jenna are final 5; and the woman outside of the alliance immunities her way into final 4. Everyone expects Donathan to go, but this is the opportunity that Domenick will take to bounce Wendell.

I can definitely see this happening, especially the part about Wendell eventually booting Dom. But I could also see it go the other way. And I can see Wendell and Dom staying true to each other and being in the F3. 

[neh]

On 09/04/2018 at 10:13 AM, marys1000 said:

Well, hot and heavy from day 1 in the game survives into the real world

 

Lots and lots of pics of them everywhere

https://www.instagram.com/tarzanandjen/

Love their smiles!

[peachmangosteen]

11 hours ago, LanceM said:

This is true and the best example I can think of this is Chelsea who has the fewest confessionals this season but I think is actually playing a very good game. When she is shown on screen it is almost always about strategy on who to vote out that night. She was the one shown to come up with the strategy that sent Brendan home. Last week she was very much involved with the decision to vote out Bradley. I would even argue it was more her move than Dom's based on her secret scene last week but that is just speculation on my part. Even this past episode when the 4 Naviti women were talking about voting out Libby the edit gave her the last word on the subject by saying that they had to make sure they "vote smart". It is just an all around odd edit she is getting like they don't want us to really know who she is but keep showing her as being one of the players who decides who gets voted out.  Weird.  

 

I've been thinking about Chelsea and her edit a lot lately. They barely show her but, like you said, when they do she is shown strategizing. And as you mentioned there's a secret scene where she lays out her strategy and she sounds like she's very smart and capable. I think there's a solid chance she's playing a really great game but we just don't see it because the editors don't find her to be an interesting personality and/or she doesn't fit the story they want to tell. She doesn't speak in entertaining sound-bites and she has a real boring, monotone voice.

It wouldn't surprise me actually to see her win. She kinda has the makings of an edit they give to female winners that they don't really care about lol.

Edited April 13, 2018 by peachmangosteen

[SVNBob]

14 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

I've been thinking about Chelsea and her edit a lot lately. They barely show her but, like you said, when they do she is shown strategizing. And as you mentioned there's a secret scene where she lays out her strategy and she sounds like she's very smart and capable. I think there's a solid chance she's playing a really great game but we just don't see it because the editors don't find her to be an interesting personality and/or she doesn't fit the story they want to tell.

She may not have been a major factor in the pre-merge stories, which were The Malolo Curse and Chris vs Dom, even though she was a part of each.  But both of those stories are now over.  So there's room for a change.  Remember back in BvW2 when it seemed like it was going to be Jeremy vs Josh since they were the opposing narrators, then they went out one right after the other?  Then it changed to the Natalie vs Jon story.  Something similar could happen with Chelsea.

[KimberStormer]

Currently I think it's either Kellyn or Wendell, but that could change now that the Dom/Chris storyline is over.  I would love to see a Chelsea dark horse situation, and it's true she's had her contributions aired so it's not impossible.  I would say Libby also could be a possibility, but in Survivor once your name is out there it's very hard to get that genie back in the bottle, as poor Andrea learned more than once...it doesn't really matter if it's something as totally stupid and senseless as Zeke trying to get her out, the possibility has been raised so people will vote you out for absolutely no reason. 

I don't think it's Dom because he's way too big of a player.  I don't know why people don't say "PLAYING TOO HARD!!!!!" when it's not a woman doing it, but Dom literally taking control of the tribal and telling Jeff what they were going to talk about (after making the merge feast All About Him by making his inane speech) is pretty clearly too much, if you ask me.  I tend to think Chris was the best thing that ever happened to Dom since he is so self-centered and obstreperous that it made people not notice how much Dom is both of those things as well.

As far as pure game goes I would say probably Laurel and Donathan are best-positioned at the moment, but that's also an edit question.  If they start to get more screen time, it could be one of them as well.

[peachmangosteen]

When I really think about it, I really think it's gonna be Kellyn tbh. Which I don't hate simply because she's on my fantasy team lol.

But yea, the Chris vs. Dom story was the only story really and now that it's over they will probably shift to more of the 'how the winner won' (or 'how the loser lost' depending on whether they give a shit about the winner or not) story. 

Quote

I tend to think Chris was the best thing that ever happened to Dom since he is so self-centered and obstreperous that it made people not notice how much Dom is both of those things as well.

Yep. I would love it if voting Chris out ends up fucking Dom over immediately and he's the next out. It'd be hilarious. 

Edited April 14, 2018 by peachmangosteen

[Guest]

It seems like there were plenty of other stories we weren’t shown, or haven’t yet been.  Three showmances, thrown challenges and who knows what else.

 I don’t think the Dom/Chris feud got too much air time, though.  It was worth it for the entertainment value that Chris brought.   

[Oscirus]

I doubt it's Chelsea. In the Bradley boot episode which was apparently Chelsea's idea ( if you ask Bradley), she got little to no screen time. If she won that would've been highlighted.

Could be Dom, boston robbing his way through the game but Im not feeling it in the edit.

Libby and Jenna are almost certainly the next two boots. SO not them

Could be Michael. Editing has done nothing to confirm or eliminate him.

Kellyn? Maybe. She's getting plenty of screen time. However, I think she's being set up for a huge fall. 

Laurel's another interesting one. 

Donathon? doubt it.

Desiree? Definitely not

Angela? She could Sandra her way to the win, but the edit's not showing that at all? So probably not.

Sebastian? LOL

Wendell? My current favorite. Dom's strategic lieutenant who's currently getting a lot of screen time.  More screen time then the lieutenants usually get.

[LadyChatts]

Red herring next week or will we finally see someone say "the end" to Naviti strong?  Glad that we do have people playing the game this season.  I like Des, from what we've seen of her, so I hope strategizing against Naviti doesn't cost her-especially since she doesn't know about Dom/Wendell/Donathan/Laurel.  I did love seeing Kellyn shaken up a little in the preview.

[MerBearHou]

On 4/13/2018 at 8:25 AM, neh said:

Love their smiles!

So is this 3 romances from this season?  Bradley and Kellyn (yuck), Sebastian and Jenna, Libby and Michael?  Wow!

[TVFan1]

I hope the Naviti strong ends or gets fractured. I've learned to never trust the previews because they tend to mostly be misleading.

[Oscirus]

So after this week.

Michael and Jenna are dead people walking so don't merit consideration.

Chelsea's ironic comment at tribal doesn't bode well for her.

Still on the fence about Kellyn.

Desiree seems to at best be a goat.

While Angela did show some gameplay, It didn't raise her profile too much in the endgame.

Sebastian is practically invisible at this point.

Donathon is all over the place but not in a good way.

Dom went from in your face to background noise. Not a good sign.

Laurel just got a huge chunk of footage. I'm definitely putting  her as a frontrunner at this point.

My favorite is still Wendell. Haven't seen anything for him to not be my favorite at this point. He's front and center in all of the strategy talk.

[peachmangosteen]

I still can't shake the feeling that Kellyn wins, but this ep didn't really lend itself to that theory. 

I still think Dom and Wendell are strong winner candidates. And this ep moved Laurel up to about even with them, I think.

I feel like my "Chelsea might be the winner" theory was blown away with this ep lol. And Michael now has no chance. He's probably next out.

 Angela, Sebastian, Jenna, and Donathan are still out of it imo. I don't see Des winning either.

Still think it's a 4-way race between Kellyn, Dom, Wendell, and Laurel.

[HurricaneVal]

14 hours ago, MerBearHou said:

So is this 3 romances from this season?  Bradley and Kellyn (yuck), Sebastian and Jenna, Libby and Michael?  Wow!

I don't know when this season is filmed relative to other reality shows, but maybe these Survivors saw the whole Cody/Jessica romance from Big Brother getting so much attention that they were immediately cast on The Amazing Race, so these kids decided to try their hand at showmance to prolong their fifteen minutes?  Boston Rahb and Ambuh are still squeezing something of a living out of their stints on Survivor, so maybe these kids think they can grab that brass ring too?

Or maybe I'm just a crotchety old cynic, and these are all twu wuv.

[LadyChatts]

2 hours ago, HurricaneVal said:

I don't know when this season is filmed relative to other reality shows, but maybe these Survivors saw the whole Cody/Jessica romance from Big Brother getting so much attention that they were immediately cast on The Amazing Race, so these kids decided to try their hand at showmance to prolong their fifteen minutes?  Boston Rahb and Ambuh are still squeezing something of a living out of their stints on Survivor, so maybe these kids think they can grab that brass ring too?

Or maybe I'm just a crotchety old cynic, and these are all twu wuv.

I think the most genuine is Seabass and Jenna.  I don't really know if Bradley/Kellyn are a that much of a thing.  Granted I don't follow either of them, but I heard they were kind of playing coy about it (because who doesn't love the 'are they or aren't they').  Maybe they heard BvsW3 is on the horizon so they are aiming for that (or TAR).

[peachmangosteen]

How many idols are there now? Wendell has one and does Dom have one or two? 

[LadyChatts]

9 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

How many idols are there now? Wendell has one and does Dom have one or two? 

I think he only has one, because he used his legacy advantage last week.

[Nashville]

3 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

How many idols are there now? Wendell has one and does Dom have one or two? 

Dom has one real idol and one fake idol - so it depends.  :)

[peachmangosteen]

OK maybe I'm thinking of the fake idol lol.

[Special K]

20 hours ago, LadyChatts said:

I think he only has one, because he used his legacy advantage last week.

Has that Legacy Advantage ever worked the way they intended?  I think Dom was the only one to play it "right" and he didn't even get any votes. 

[SVNBob]

8 hours ago, Special K said:

Has that Legacy Advantage ever worked the way they intended?

If you mean by protecting the holder from elimination, then yes it did.  That specific one from Game Changers too.

At the time, Sarah had it and played it as part of the "Idol-geddon" that resulted in Cirie's default elimination via non-immunity.  But the actual votes were split 3-2-1, with Sarah getting the majority (Tai got the 2 and Aubry the 1).  So if she didn't have the Legacy, Sarah would have been eliminated.

But I doubt they intended the results of Idolgeddon. so by that metric, maybe the Legacy didn't work as they wanted.

[violet and green]

I think Donathan has more chance of winning this than Wendell, Laurel, or even Dom.

[SVNBob]

12 minutes ago, violet and green said:

I think Donathan has more chance of winning this than Wendell, Laurel, or even Dom.

Until those 3 realize that and vote him out.

And I say that as someone who also likes him.   But if I were playing this season alongside him, I think I'd see that Donathan is well liked by everyone and has a decent but not overwhelming "sob story".  So while a good ally, he's a danger to win and must be cut by F5 (because last season's F4 twist is in play again, but this time they were made aware of it at the start of the season).

[peachmangosteen]

IMO, in order for Donathan to win people need to actually recognize that he has some game in him and/or vote on a more emotional level, and I really don't think there's a enough players this season that are gonna do that. And, based on the edit, Donathan is really only close to Dom/Laurel/Wendell and doesn't appear to have any strong bonds with anyone else anyway.

I hope he wins though lol.

[Jeanne222]

I was sorry to see Libby go home.  The mean girls win again!   Those three need to be broken up pronto.

[Oscirus]

I think Donathon is that goat who gets a good edit that we get from time to time.

 

Next week we'll probably get 1-2 idols popping up. I imagine the person not picked for the reward challenge will get a shot at one and the person on ghost island will get a shot as well.

[Guest]

I feel like Donathan's double agent role will bite him in the ass.  I like the guy but we see a lot of him sharing info across groups, and the jurors probably will figure out soon enough who the rat is and resent it.  

[LadyChatts]

1 hour ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

I feel like Donathan's double agent role will bite him in the ass.  I like the guy but we see a lot of him sharing info across groups, and the jurors probably will figure out soon enough who the rat is and resent it.  

Totally agree.  It doesn't seem like he's getting much respect in exit interviews from his cast mates, but being aligned with Dom and Wendell will definitely be an uphill battle in terms of winning.  I don't know if there's many people he could beat that are left.

[Wings]

3 minutes ago, LadyChatts said:

Totally agree.  It doesn't seem like he's getting much respect in exit interviews from his cast mates, but being aligned with Dom and Wendell will definitely be an uphill battle in terms of winning.  I don't know if there's many people he could beat that are left.

I haven't read any exit interviews.  What is being said about him?

[LadyChatts]

1 hour ago, Wings said:

I haven't read any exit interviews.  What is being said about him?

Basically Libby said he double crossed her, and Chris and Bradley (who doesn't really count since he's not on the jury) down played his gaming ability and edit as not being as good as it's being shown.  Where Chris and Brad are concerned, they seemed to downplay everyone as not playing the game but them.

[peachmangosteen]

Damn, even Libby is whining about Donathan? I think @KimberStormer might be right on with her addendum to Hannah's theory about people being pissed when people they feel they are better than get one over on them.

[violet and green]

7 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

IMO, in order for Donathan to win people need to actually recognize that he has some game in him and/or vote on a more emotional level, and I really don't think there's a enough players this season that are gonna do that. And, based on the edit, Donathan is really only close to Dom/Laurel/Wendell and doesn't appear to have any strong bonds with anyone else anyway.

I hope he wins though lol.

In order for anyone to win they have to get at least near the final three, and Donathan has shown far better qualities of perception and when it is appropriate to speak or not, and who to, than Dom and Wendell combined.

When he orchestrates their take-out, he will have a nifty move to mention which bless their hearts they won't see coming; and he has also shown his canniness in managing to get himself onto a strong alliance on Purple after the first tribe swap, while keeping a low enough profile to not be getting his name put up now. He also has demonstrated the ability to win an individual immunity. And he is likable and will I think present well at final tribal. Go Donathan!

[Oscirus]

4 hours ago, violet and green said:

In order for anyone to win they have to get at least near the final three, and Donathan has shown far better qualities of perception and when it is appropriate to speak or not, and who to, than Dom and Wendell combined.

No he doesn't he's worse then both those guys. He literally blabbed the split plan to Libby. If she had  any game whatsoever, she could've flipped the target on him easily. All he is at the moment is a vote to the other three. Unless the editors are hiding his cesterino like abilities to escape such a predicament, all he is ,is somebody to use until their vote is no longer important or a goat to drag to the three.

Edited April 22, 2018 by Oscirus

[peachmangosteen]

I think he, like most players, is somewhere between a goat to drag to F3 and the leader of the game.

I would love for him to really bust out some moves and be the driving force between taking out Dom/Wendell, but the edit doesn't suggest that's gonna happen.

[violet and green]

20 hours ago, Oscirus said:

He literally blabbed the split plan to Libby.

He's working both sides. Anyway, we'll see how this all works out, won't we.

[LadyChatts]

10 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

I think he, like most players, is somewhere between a goat to drag to F3 and the leader of the game.

I would love for him to really bust out some moves and be the driving force between taking out Dom/Wendell, but the edit doesn't suggest that's gonna happen.

I think he could try, I just don't think he'll be successful.  Unfortuantely, Donathan and Laurel might be in a lose/lose situation potentially.  Right now there's there alliance of 4 against Jenna/Sebass/Chelsea/Kellyn/Des/Michael/Angela.  Michael clearly doesn't seem to be in a certain group, but I'm putting him on the side anyway.  If they tried to flip and get either Wendell or Dom out, they could fail and risk the wrath.  Regardless, they'd have to face one of them back at camp.  And they'd still be on the bottom of numbers.  They really have to wait until just the right time if they want to flip.

At this point, I haven't seen much of Donathan to think he's playing a strong, strategic game.  I think he's got game in him, I just don't know how good it is.  He's loyal to his alliance for now, as he's the one who told Dom last week about Chris targeting him.  Maybe he'll surprise me.  Again, given what's been said about him in exit interviews, I don't have high hopes that this jury would vote for him.  Even if he did play the game of his life, I think there'd be the "we can't lose to a gay hillbilly from Kentucky" mentality. 

[peachmangosteen]

14 hours ago, LadyChatts said:

[Donathan and Laurel] really have to wait until just the right time if they want to flip.

Yea they do and the right time is gonna end up being too late. It doesn't really make sense for them to flip, but they won't win if they go to the end with Dom/Wendell. Basically, I think they're screwed.

[LadyChatts]

2 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

Yea they do and the right time is gonna end up being too late. It doesn't really make sense for them to flip, but they won't win if they go to the end with Dom/Wendell. Basically, I think they're screwed.

That's why I say, it'll have to be exactly the right time.  And that's assuming the alliance of 4 stays together and under the radar.  With the talk of getting Wendell out, whose to say that's not foreshadowing to something?  Especially since we see Des scheming this week.  Maybe she finds something out that makes her realize what's going on, or that Wendell/Dom each have an idol, and they decide to make a move.  If Laurel/Donathan lose their alliance with Dom/Wendell because one of those two is blindsided out, they are screwed, because no one will want to work with them.  They almost have to wait and see if their alliance starts to pick off the other side and that side is desperate.  However, that can still backfire, because someone like Kellyn might go to Dom/Wendell and tell them what those two are trying to do.  Kellyn would be an idiot for doing that, but since she's so Naviti strong minded, I can see her doing it.

[ProfCrash]

I have a hard time seeing Dom and Wendell being blindsides right now. Donathon and Laurel are likely to be included in any discussion right now because no one knows they are aligned with Dom or Wendell. Chris said in his interview that he found out that Donathon told Dom about the well conversation when Chris watched the show, which means that the players did not know what Donathon was up to throughout the game. It also means they were not discussing it at Ponderosa. So anyone wanting to vote out Dom and Wendell would talk to Donathon and Laurel, which means that it is highly likely that the info would get back to Dom and Wendell.

The preview also show Des backtracking, that makes me think that her plan is discovered and she is under some type of pressure.

[Oscirus]

The editing tells me that the the winner comes out of the Wendell dom Laurel trio and that Donathon is way over his head. The way Donathon flipped and flipped back over the course of three days without anybody but Laurel noticing tells me that he's not all that important to this alliance. 

I still think that if not next week, whenever Michael gets  booted, everybody's coming for Wendell. If these people have any game whatsoever everybody not in his alliance will be targeting him, he's a physical threat and his social game is great. There should be a few opportunities to target him along the way but before these two (mainly Laurel) does it, they have to make sure that they have a tight endgame alliance to get them to the end.  I'd say around 7 there should be options by then.

[LadyChatts]

I guess the bigger question is, how close are Laurel/Donathan.  From editing, it seems Laurel is closer to Wendell, and Donathan to Dom, but I think Wendell/Dom are tighter than they are letting the other two know.  So really, for a flip plan to work, they would need to do it together to ensure that they at least have some sort of numbers going forward.  But really, it would almost have to be very late in the game for them to flip, and make sure the people on the opposing side can't just get an numbers advantage up by scooping up whoever is left of Dom/Wendell.  So final 5/6.  

Dom/Wendell could get blindsided if no one blabs to Donathan/Laurel.  However, twice Wendell has looked to be on the hot seat (from an editing point) and neither time did he play his idol.  So even if it came back to him that he was going to be blindsided by the other group, which they will clearly deny if confronted, I'm curious if he would take the risk again.  

I don't want Michael to go next, but I like Des, so I hope her scheming doesn't backfire.  I'd think that if you were a true super fan, you might be observant and say, we are blindsiding Dom/Wendell to maybe one or two people, and see if it gets back to them and they confront you.  It looks like whatever Des has cooked up gets around and back to her.  I did like how Kellyn looked over dramatically panic stricken in the preview.   

[ProfCrash]

1 hour ago, LadyChatts said:

I guess the bigger question is, how close are Laurel/Donathan.  From editing, it seems Laurel is closer to Wendell, and Donathan to Dom, but I think Wendell/Dom are tighter than they are letting the other two know.  So really, for a flip plan to work, they would need to do it together to ensure that they at least have some sort of numbers going forward.  But really, it would almost have to be very late in the game for them to flip, and make sure the people on the opposing side can't just get an numbers advantage up by scooping up whoever is left of Dom/Wendell.  So final 5/6.  

Dom/Wendell could get blindsided if no one blabs to Donathan/Laurel.  However, twice Wendell has looked to be on the hot seat (from an editing point) and neither time did he play his idol.  So even if it came back to him that he was going to be blindsided by the other group, which they will clearly deny if confronted, I'm curious if he would take the risk again.  

I don't want Michael to go next, but I like Des, so I hope her scheming doesn't backfire.  I'd think that if you were a true super fan, you might be observant and say, we are blindsiding Dom/Wendell to maybe one or two people, and see if it gets back to them and they confront you.  It looks like whatever Des has cooked up gets around and back to her.  I did like how Kellyn looked over dramatically panic stricken in the preview.   

But why would people not include Laurel and Donathon? There has not been a single suggestion that people think that Donathon and Laurel are tight with Dom and Wendell.

Example:

Dom and Wendell vote Michael

Kellyn, Des, Sea Bass, Jenna, Chelsea vote Dom

If they don't include Donathon and Laurel, assume that Donathon and Laurel vote for Michael because he was the last target. We end up at a 4-5. If Dom doesn't play his idol and then Dom goes home. If Dom plays his idol, Michael goes home and the conspiracy to get him out is known by Wendell and Dom. Ooops

To avoid the worst case scenario they have to include Donathon and Laurel in order to split the vote.

Dom and Wendell vote Michael

Kellyn, Des, Sea Bass, Jenna vote Dom

Chelsea, Jenna, Donathon, Laurel vote Wendell

Tie vote they chose to send home Wendell. Dom plays an idol, Wendell goes home. Remember, they know Dom has an idol, he showed Chris the note that comes with an idol.

Which means that the other six have to include Donathon and Laurel to be able to blindside Wendell and remove someone big from the game.

Then Laurel and Donathon have to decide who they have a better chance of advancing with. Dom and Wendell, who they have a final four agreement with, or some collection of the others where there is no sign that they are included in any alliance. God knows their original tribe is not voting together so there is no reason to trust that working with Michael and Jenna will lead anywhere. And they would be in a known minority alliance so still vulnerable. Dom works with his original tribe to take out the others and hopes to survive as long as he can.

[violet and green]

5 hours ago, ProfCrash said:

But why would people not include Laurel and Donathon? There has not been a single suggestion that people think that Donathon and Laurel are tight with Dom and Wendell.

Exactly.

6 hours ago, LadyChatts said:

I guess the bigger question is, how close are Laurel/Donathan.  From editing, it seems Laurel is closer to Wendell, and Donathan to Dom, but I think Wendell/Dom are tighter than they are letting the other two know. 

But Wendell has made it abundantly clear to Laurel, who will surely pass it on to Donathon, that Dom and he are super tight by revealing Dom does have a real HI and he also has a HI. I don't think there could be any doubt in either Laurel or Donathon's mind after this that they are the bottom two in this four person alliance.

Wendell and Dom bonded in original Naviti; and Laurel and Donathon came into the picture in a staggered fashion later, c/- various tribe swaps; since-forged friendships aside, you'd have to be unduly thick to think that the two guys from an original tribe who know about each other's idols aren't tighter than you and either one of them.