Survivor: Kaoh Rong

[bigpern23]

The women were stupid to vote out Debbie, and suddenly Julia is looking like a potential winner.

The Pollard group has all the power now because they can use the super idol to gain the numbers advantage at next tribal (assuming Tai doesn't flip, like they teased in the preview).

Nobody is voting for Jason and Scot at this point, so Tai or Julia can win if they get to the final.

Tribal was great again this week. But there has truly been some boneheaded gameplay this season.

 

[DanOregon]

Great episode. Really broke the game wide open. There are seven players left and I'm guessing at least that many versions of alliances. You generally don't see moves made like that with an even number of players left. The crazy thing about that is Tai probably goes home if he doesn't make that play.

 

[bigpern23]

Great episode. Really broke the game wide open. There are seven players left and I'm guessing at least that many versions of alliances. You generally don't see moves made like that with an even number of players left. The crazy thing about that is Tai probably goes home if he doesn't make that play.

I'm not so sure about Tai going home if he doesn't make that play. He's still got the extra vote advantage, so if he smelled a blindside coming at 7, 6 or 5, he'd still be in good position to stop it. You take your chances with your alliance and immunity at 4.

I'm not sure I like the play for Tai. Is his plan now to go to the end with Aubry? Because she'll beat him. I think Tai's best play was to try to get to the end with Scot and Jason - he'd be a slam dunk to beat them both.

Julia and Aubry are suddenly playing really good games.

 

[MTM]

I'm not so sure about Tai going home if he doesn't make that play. He's still got the extra vote advantage, so if he smelled a blindside coming at 7, 6 or 5, he'd still be in good position to stop it. You take your chances with your alliance and immunity at 4.

I'm not sure I like the play for Tai. Is his plan now to go to the end with Aubry? Because she'll beat him. I think Tai's best play was to try to get to the end with Scot and Jason - he'd be a slam dunk to beat them both.

Julia and Aubry are suddenly playing really good games.

If Tai played the super idol, he may have gone home last night. It would have been a 2-2 tie between he and Aubry, and the remaining players would have voted again. There's a good chance the ladies would have voted him out. Since he wasn't voting, he couldn't have used his extra vote advantage.

 

[DanOregon]

I didn't realize he voted against Pollard as well, but it would have been interesting if Pollard played his idol and then you have a revote, probably 3-3 between Aubrey and Tai and if he played his idol, Aubrey is out and all the idols played.

 

[Amy]

I read an interview with Probst where he said that Jason and NBA guy are nice guys separately and there was something in how they fed off each other.

Aubrey had to have been biting the crap out of her tongue to keep herself from saying any of the obvious things during his speech about the manly providers being willing to continue taking care of things as long as the women folk remember their places.

Watching Pollard after the vote was read was one of the more satisfying moments of Survivor.

I think Tai has as good a shot at winning as Aubrey if they make it to the end. I haven't thought about who is on the jury though. I sure hope he doesn't have to see his pet chicken get killed.

 

[TwoGloves]

Fantastic blindside. When they went to Tribal I was thinking Tai could really screw them if he didn't turn over his idol after they voted for Pollard. Jason and Pollard got a little too cocky and taking away the tools and putting out the fire was pure obnoxious bull****. People won't forget that nonsense and those idols won't help at the final Tribal. Pollard got what he deserved and now Jason is next.

 

[DanOregon]

It's been an interesting season in that so many players have made "moves" - some more successful than others.

 

[TwoGloves]

I'm not so sure about Tai going home if he doesn't make that play. He's still got the extra vote advantage, so if he smelled a blindside coming at 7, 6 or 5, he'd still be in good position to stop it. You take your chances with your alliance and immunity at 4.

I'm not sure I like the play for Tai. Is his plan now to go to the end with Aubry? Because she'll beat him. I think Tai's best play was to try to get to the end with Scot and Jason - he'd be a slam dunk to beat them both.

Julia and Aubry are suddenly playing really good games.

If they had let Tai go to the end with them. My guess is they wouldn't have because they know he would have beaten them. They would have tried to take somebody thought they could beat.

 

[bigpern23]

If they had let Tai go to the end with them. My guess is they wouldn't have because they know he would have beaten them. They would have tried to take somebody thought they could beat.

My thought is that the final immunity challenge is typically a willpower type challenge where smaller players tend to fare better. Tai might have a chance to win that one and decide who to take with him.

Ultimately, I think Jason and Scot might have taken him anyway because they never let him make any decisions and would have argued that all the moves made were theirs, not his. I think they still would have lost because of how they alienated everyone. They definitely weren't going to take Cydney or Aubry. Probably not Joe after he went with the ladies. So that would have left them to choose between Tai and Julia. I think they'd have taken Tai in that situation. It's all moot, anyway, but that was my thinking.

 

[bigpern23]

If Tai played the super idol, he may have gone home last night. It would have been a 2-2 tie between he and Aubry, and the remaining players would have voted again. There's a good chance the ladies would have voted him out. Since he wasn't voting, he couldn't have used his extra vote advantage.

Tai voted for Scot, right? And then didn't play the idol for him. So my thinking is that Tai would have voted for Aubry, it would have been 3 Aubry, 3 Scot and 2 for Tai, and thus he could have played the super idol. Then Julia would switch her vote to Aubry and accomplish her goal of getting Aubry out and flushing the idols.

Obviously, once Tai voted for Scot, he wasn't going to save him.

 

[DanOregon]

My rankings for which player(s) I'd most want to sit next to in the final TC.
1. Joe 2. Michelle 3. Jason 4. Julia 5. Cydney 6. Tai 7. Aubrey.

 

[Buck]

Jason and Pollard set themselves for that.
Obviously, their personalities alienated Sydney and then Tai, but tactically there was no need to attempt to use the super idol. Play the idols as normal and Tai doesn't have the chance to flip.
If you play two idols normally or together after the votes are read, you've still used up two idols.
By getting caught up in the idea of the super idol, Scot left himself vulnerable. When there were only two votes for Aubrey, he's got to know Tai flipped.

What Julia and Aubrey didn't understand was how the double idol worked. Now they're down to seven with Tai possessing an idol and an extra vote, which they don't know. Tai should be automatic to final four.

Right now Tai's in the lead with Aubrey and Julia as the only other viable winners.

 

[Huggy]

Jason and Scot are just the latest guys to be claiming "We're running this game...." only to see things go for a ****. You can set your watch by it.

 

[bigpern23]

Jason and Pollard set themselves for that.
Obviously, their personalities alienated Sydney and then Tai, but tactically there was no need to attempt to use the super idol. Play the idols as normal and Tai doesn't have the chance to flip.
If you play two idols normally or together after the votes are read, you've still used up two idols.
By getting caught up in the idea of the super idol, Scot left himself vulnerable. When there were only two votes for Aubrey, he's got to know Tai flipped.

What Julia and Aubrey didn't understand was how the double idol worked. Now they're down to seven with Tai possessing an idol and an extra vote, which they don't know. Tai should be automatic to final four.

Right now Tai's in the lead with Aubrey and Julia as the only other viable winners.

Very good point on the super idol. The super idol is really only useful to avoid a blindside. If you already know people are going to vote for you, just use your idol and don't leave it up to chance.

Agreed that Tai is in the lead. He may need to win the final immunity because I don't think anybody likes their chances against him at final tribal, but he's in good shape to get that chance. I'd argue Cydney is also viable winner - it was her flip to set up the ladies alliance that set this whole stretch in motion. That was her biggest move among several.

 

[DanOregon]

I almost wonder if Cydney is "throwing" challenges to avoid being a target. When she bails out of some of the endurance stuff, she doesn't seem to be spent. Wouldn't be surprised if she just starts blowing through stuff.

 

[Buck]

Maybe she's tanking, but she also seems to have lost a lot of weight.
Her weight loss could be affecting her stamina and strength. I'm just speculating. I know nothing about this kind of thing, but would people with a more average to high body fat percentage have an advantage over her in this situation when calories are so drastically limited?
Others are burning fat; she's losing more lean muscle as a total percentage of her weight loss.

 

[Iron_chet]

She was also on the Brawn team as a body builder wasn't she?

Body builders can be terrible athletes. Muscle for show and nothing else.

 

[bigpern23]

I almost wonder if Cydney is "throwing" challenges to avoid being a target. When she bails out of some of the endurance stuff, she doesn't seem to be spent. Wouldn't be surprised if she just starts blowing through stuff.

I do wonder if she gets spent more easily than we expect because she's in such tremendous physical shape, that she's not getting enough food to fuel her body.

 

[DanOregon]

We usually see the big muscle-bound guys just flop early. But she seems like she's handling it well.