That makes more sense. I can’t believe how confident they were that Elaine didn’t have an idol considering that she went to Island of the freaking Idols. But once she revealed her advantage, it makes perfect sense to switch to her, since you know she didn’t get the idol.
Speaking of idols, I’ve lost track. Does anyone have one still? Were all the ones at camp found? Do they usually replace them when someone gets voted out with one, or only when it gets played?
Knew it was gonna happen eventually, but still sucks. Definitely lived a full life, though. I think he’s the first person to be on the show multiple times who’s passed.
I think Kellee’s one from IotI was good for three TCs (that she attends) and she’s only attended two so far, so she’s still got one more shot to play it.
Jamal has the regular camp one from Vokai (purple).
I think they replace them when they get played. I don’t know if they’ll replace the one Chelsea found at Lairo camp or not since she got voted out (and I’m assuming took it with her).
Going into this episode I had my shortlist of potential winners as Jamal, Tommy and Kellee.
I don’t see Jamal winning now after that scene early on with him rubbing people the wrong way. And then Kellee got to star to the point right now I’d be disappointed if she didn’t win. Missy’s impressing me too… she reminded me a lot of Michaela early on, but she seems to be a much better strategic player, thinking about switching alliances and such.
I probably should rewatch the episode to figure it out, but Jamal’s play of his idol was surprising. He made the decision quickly once Dean played his idol, but I am sure he considered all possibilities before TC. Playing it for someone else is a big risky move, so Jamal has that going for him. At least he didn’t go home. Post merge, I expect him to rally.
Not only was Kellee able to orchestrate a blindside, she managed to get Noura to make the rogue vote and flush an idol.
Big moves by both players, but Kellee nailed a trifecta.
Kellee’s play last night was both brilliant and risky. She’s playing hardball, and it seemed to really pay off. I’m firmly in the Kellee camp now. I really respect the game she’s playing.
I dunno, my gut reaction was that Kellee made a move just to make a move. That idol was burning a hole in her pocket and she felt she had to do something with it. I think I would have just played it for myself, said I won it on the island of the idols to take that target off my back, and move to the merge with a majority. Instead she hurt her numbers just to take out a player that I’m not sure was a big threat to her. Maybe she can keep her move a secret (in which point it’s not really a “resume building” move), but I think it’s just as likely Noura figures out that the idol came from Kellee (her comment about “why didn’t he play it last time” was very astute actually).
I’m more in the “risk wasn’t worth the reward” camp, but I’m willing to be persuaded it was brilliant…
On the risk/reward front, nice job by Janet figuring out that reward Rob and Sandra offered wasn’t really much of a reward at all.
Unless I missed it, I don’t think the conversation between Kellee and Noura was shown, but they must have had one to have Noura vote for Jack. So even if Noura figures it out, she may not want to talk about it. As for why Dean didn’t play the idol last time, a plausible cover story is that he didn’t have it then but found it before this TC.
Not having it known as a resume building move is fine for now, it keeps a target off Kellee’s back. The time to fess up and own it is at Final TC.
But what is Dean’s incentive to keep it a secret after the merge, when he is re-united with original Lairo in a 6-7 split (that’s the current numbers I believe)? I guess Kellee is hoping Dean stays loyal to her, but blowing up the old Vokai (where Jamal, Noura, and Dan have all been shown to be grating personalities for different reasons) seems very doable.
I guess to me the last vote before the merge (when all hell always breaks loose) seems to be the right time to keep your head down and be a good team player, not to potentially out yourself as a strategic mastermind and make everybody feel unsafe. Not to mention keeping an extra vote around that may still have tribal loyalties to you. It would have been 8-5 Vokai advantage (again, if you think tribal lines will hold).
And no, they didn’t show the conversation between Kellee and Noura. Which is too bad, because it seems to me that would have been a great time for a better player than Noura to explain why in the hell she would go along with a plan to vote against her alliance just on the random suggestion that the target might have an idol, and might be targeting her. There has to be more to Noura’s decision than just Kellee’s word.
I guess the fact that Dean had been told the vote was Noura explains both why Jamal played the idol for her and why she could have been scared enough to vote Jack. I still don’t quite get what Jamal’s end-game was with his idol play. If it works (Dean voted Noura, everybody else voted Dean) where did he think the re-vote would go? Because if he buys that the women have brought in Karishma then it has to be either him or Jack, right?
ETA: I just remembered after submitting the whole “Kellee knows Dean’s ex-girlfriend” angle. So maybe they are tighter than I’m giving her credit for and her plan is to add him to whatever core she thinks she has post-merge. Was she shown to be connected with the Lauren/Tommy axis?
Yeah, I agree. Now if it had been a real idol, then it’s a “Move”. But otherwise, it’s just dumping a idol that will be worthless in exchange for Survivor resume building- which may backfire.
I have a couple of questions.
First, why bring Noura into the plan at all? If the Dean vote is unanimous, it takes only one vote to send Jack home. If there’s a plan to split votes, two wouldn’t be enough anyway.
So it could have been “We all voted for Dean, but oh shit, he has an idol” and Kellee just pulled off a master move with only Dean knowing about it, and he owes her now so he might keep quiet about it.
But Noura is probably the one player most likely to spill the beans, plus now everyone is wondering who the second Jack vote was. Kellee voted Dean for the sake of plausible deniability, but nobody knows that. Noura may be crazy, but I don’t think she’s stupid. She has a card to play against Kellee now.
Second, why Jack and not Jamal? He’s clearly calling the shots in his alliance. This is the most perplexing thing in all the years I’ve watched Survivor. So many times, there’s a chance to cut off the head of the snake, but they go for the tail instead. I don’t get it.
Kellee said in the episode that she didn’t want Dean to have the only vote because he could then just vote Kellee out, knowing she no longer had an idol. Essentially, she didn’t want to pull an Eric.
Jamal isn’t really the head, though, as he seems to frequently end up on the outside at TC. Also he’s much less likable, and thus easier to vote out later.
Nice pretend outrage about the girls alliance thing by Kellee. If she was serious, though, give me a friggin’ break.
What would have happened if Jamal guessed right and gave his idol to Jack? Everyone except Jack and Dean re-votes for anyone except Jack and Dean? Normally during a re-vote you can only vote for the people who already got votes, but in that case both would have been immune.
Because Kellee was rightfully concerned that Dean could betray here and write her name down, and this she would go home. Noura was an insurance against a possible betrayal by Kellee. That’s one of the reasons I’m impressed with Kellee’s play. She’s considering a lot of the different angles.
With respect to voting. I think the players know (to some degree) who voted for whom. For many seasons, players have have voted with a signature marking on their votes. For example, Kellee voted “DEaN” (I’m going to go out on a limb and assumed Kellee knows the letter “A”). Some players put a star on their vote. Etc.
Yeah. As she was saying that I was thinking: wait a minute … isn’t there a proposed or actual girls alliance in every damn season? And what’s wrong about a traditionally under-powered segment of a society banding together?
I think part of the issue is that whenever two or three women talk to each other, people start talking about a women’s alliance. But if two or three men talk, you never hear people say “I’m worried about a men’s alliance.”
That’s a fair point. But I think for every time some guy has said “I’m worried about a girls’ alliance” there has been some woman saying “we ought to form a girls’ alliance.”
You know, I hope the producers look at this season, which has had interesting discussions on religion, race, and gender, and realize they don’t need to split people up into gimmicky tribes.
One question I always ponder during the tribal meeting.
Does Prost know what is going on within the tribe(s).
Does he have any knowledge of what is said when players are talking to the camera, does he knows about any alliances and who has an idol in their pocket.
Oh, he’s talked about this topic. He is briefed about a few things so he can ask good questions, but he is mostly in the dark. He does not know who, if anyone, has an immunity idol.
Exactly. If she’d said something like, “Hey, give us a little more credit than just voting with our vaginas,” I’d see her point. But she went a bit over the top with the indignation.
Everyone would revote (including Jack & Dean), Jack & Dean would be immune, everyone else is vulnerable. This has happened before, in the first vote of the finale of Cambodia. They were down to 6, Spencer had won immunity. At Tribal, Kelley and Jeremy play their HIIs, the vote count is 3 Kelley, 3 Jeremy. Jeff announces they’ll revote, but now Spencer, Kelley & Jeremy are immune (but still vote).
It got weirder after that - Tasha & Kimmi got 3 votes each. So now that a revote has resulted in a tie, the other 4 must reach a unanimous decision as to whether Tasha or Kimmi would go home. If they can’t, then the 4 of them would have to draw rocks. But immunity applies to rocks also, so the only person at risk was Keith. Keith oddly at first volunteered to be eliminated, but after some discussion the 4 of them settled on Kimmi.