Actually Erik did vote outside of the plan - he switched to Fillup. So - there’s one possible flip for the three amigos. They just didn’t tally all four votes for Fillup because they only needed the first three, since all the other votes were throw-aways.
On editing - but who would really count on Erik for anything?
I saw that, which meands Malcolm could have held onto his HII, which would have been awesome.
I totally agree! I couldn’t believe that the 3 amigos weren’t even looking around at reactions after Eddie stood up to turn his idol in. The 3 amigos were just too smug with their one play that they were oblivious to the additional advantages they had been given: 1. other division names and splits 2. not playing the idol based on Eric’s reaction (which signaled that Eric wanted into the foursome and wanted an idol still to be on hand; Eric was also the one who called out the idea of bluffing with the idols to begin with so clearly he is thinking strategically and may be gaming harder than anyone gives him credit for) and 3. who could be swayed on the spot by changing from Fillup to Andrea or Dawn.
Malcolm announced the extra idol ahead of time in order to try and keep his idol, so it was a good move as far as I can tell- except for the fact that he should have pursued either Andrea or Eric with the information ahead of time. A simple “something big is going to happen tonight” if you vote along, we guarantee you a final four- they would just think that it is the one known hidden immunity idol. By waiting till tribal you guarantee that you need to play both idols- as you can’t risk a 3-3 tie in the end as a revote kills a non-idol-playing person.
I saw Erik write “Fillup” on the ballot and still my mind was thinking 3 votes = 3 Amigos.
And about Phillip’s excuse for not doing the immunity challenge -
He did the Drowning Under a Grate challenge, which is pretty close to getting trapped under a dock, but was scared to do the Pull Yourself to Safety Along A Rope challenge. I think he realized after the Foot Race challenge, where his strategy was to tire out and allow his team to get caught, and after claiming to have thrown a Reward challenge after sucking in it, that he’d have a hard time convincing people that his strategy in this challenge was to drown/come in dead last.
He no doubt thought he was completely safe and didn’t need to do it, but his excuse seems a little weak.
I do agree that he was 100% class after the vote, I would love to know what he was really thinking about the time Malcolm started walking towards Jeff.
I was quite surprised that the three amigos actually voted for Phillip, even after Malcolm explicitly stated that they would.
IMHO it would have been better for them to say that they were voting for Phillip and then vote out someone else (eg Andrea) amidst the confusion.
Can you imagine the holy hell that would have broken out back at the camp if Phillip had had a few “Stealth-R-Us” votes thrown his way? Fissures galore. The next episode would have been Phillip going berserk and trying to punish the “disloyal” members of his alliance. The three amigos would probably have been safe for another week.
Malcolm really missed an opportunity here to sow lasting seeds of discord amongst the enemy.
I don’t know about having two HIIs out there. There’s just one tribe now. Why would they put out two?
And I don’t know if I’d ever agree to switch to the Tres Amigos if I was on the other alliance. You have two really strong competitors (Reynold and Malcolm), plus any bitter jury members will have a reason to vote for them over their old alliance once they are back-stabbed. The best they can hope for is that Dawn hurls herself into a volcano after getting a chipped tooth, and they can talk Erik and Andrea to come and take her chances with them.
Of course, there’s also the possibility that Sherrie could be targeted just because she sucks so badly.
Well according to ‘next week on…’ there’s a scene where they go after Sherry and Erik. Not Andrea which is probably right. Andrea is probably secure at the top of her alliance and it wouldn’t be smart to drop to the bottom of the new one. Plus she doesn’t think that she can trust them, which means that they can’t trust her.
All I know is, they better not try to recruit Dawn again!
Why did they put out the one they found this episode? They were already one tribe and there was still an idol in play.
I actually thought (until Malcolm pulled that second one out at TC) that what had happened was that Malcolm “found” the idol he already had, so he didn’t have to hash out the “Why did you ask me to give you my idol when you already freaking had one?!” thing with Reynold. I’m still slightly stunned that Malcolm actually found a second idol…someone needs to start hiding those things better. Bottom of a lake, crocodile nest, middle of the collapsing cover of a pungi trap, that kind of thing…
Because they put a second HII out in the wild this week as well.
I wondered what would have happened a tribal if Malcolm had announced that they were voting for:
Cochran?
Andrea?
Brenda?
Erik?
Sherri?
Dawn?
Instead of Fillup?
Cochran would have Pooped his pants. Andrea would have scrambled, and if we are lucky Brenda might have talked
I don’t think Erik, Sherri and Dawn would have done much.
Fillup, in his Ponderosa video, actually thinks he had a chance to win the game.
In most any other circumstance of playing his secret idol, Malcolm would have had to do some damage control with the remainder of the amigos. But because he played it for Eddie, keeping them all safe, he’s free and clear. If it’s even brought up at all it’ll be Reynolds and Eddie complimenting him on his ability to keep a secret and the fun drama of TC.
Well, Sheri would have said, “that certainly makes sense - I think I’d vote for me as well”.
I just love how, after three weeks in the game, the only one with any plan other than “vote the way Phillip said to” was Erik, the guy we’ve been calling clueless all along. Nobody has done a single, concrete thing to develop an emergency plan just in case something bizarre happens, like, say, three individual immunities at one tribal council.
Even years later, he doesn’t understand that he wasn’t Rob’s lieutenant. He was Rob’s goat.
Just thinking about the vote last night, Malcolm could have caused a lot more rift in the alliance of 7.
Do everything like you and announce that your are voting for Phillip.
But then split the votes between three other people (Andrea, Brenda, and Cochran). Since Erik voted for Phillip, there have a four way tie.
There is a four way tie and 6 people get to revote, but they have to vote for either A-B-C-P.
Now that forces Erik/Sherri/Dawn to vote for one of their core alliance.
It would have been really interesting to see who how they would have voted.
On the Re-vote, the three amigos need to vote for the same person.
I tend to agree notfrommensa - the move begins to look more “look at us! we rock!” than strategically sound. But perhaps the 3 didn’t realize just how much the other 7 don’t really care if Phillip is gone. They all wanted him out around 7 anyways, just because he’s annoying and not as great a goat this time (since he did “lead” the alliance).
So now you have 6-on-3 with no real leadership. But with those kind of numbers and no idols (yet) you don’t really need leadership. Add in that the 3 have 3 of the best 4 physical threats and why would anybody jump?
So yeah, dividing up their votes would have been better at least on the first vote. Make the ranking in the 7 clear. In fact, I might combine that with what somebody said upthread - divide your votes the first time in hopes that everybody follows Phillip (and none of those votes count). On the re-vote throw all of your votes to a non-Phillip player - because I bet at least a few will vote for Phillip and that can take some heat off for the next TC or two.
This is kind of the worst outcome for them in that the majority loses somebody they didn’t like or need and everybody left save Erik voted with the alliance - no divisions at all. Its not even clear if the majority knows Erik voted for Phillip.
ETA: On edit - I guess a variation is they could have proclaimed that they were voting for each other and their votes wouldn’t count. That way the 7 would HAVE to be the ones deciding who went home, rather than the 3 doing it for them. I wonder what happens if none of the votes from the original vote count… do we have a complete re-vote? But just not for the 3 immune people? Odd…
Wow that is brilliant! Do the pick-your-friends-challenge that normally occurs with 7 players remaining. I was focusing too much on the strategy to keep one of the idols unplayed which they also gummed up.
I agree that announcing Philip was a bad move, but I wonder who the three names you put out there would be. Philip, Sherry, Eric, and Dawn are all too disposable that only one of them in the 3 would make the revote too easy and obvious. So I think I would put Dawn, Andrea, and Cochrane down and on the revote vote Cochrane. It would be great if one of the 7 jumps to Philip as per their best guess. You leave Andrea in charge and Philip more clearly as a figurehead. You have the angle of “we want you” to all of the underlings- especially Eric and Brenda.
That would have been great fun. Are you sure you’re not from Mensa?
I had not thought about Malcolm voting for Eddie, and Eddie voting for Malcolm. An Reynold voting for one of them.
Assuming StealthRUs votes like they were supposed to vote, everyone re-votes which would have even better. But they cannot vote for the three amigos.
Yeah, but you still leave open the chance for Phillip to survive, and I think shipping Phillip was the overwhelming agenda.