At the time Erik gave the immunity idol to Andrea I thought he was being a giant idiot, but in retrospect, the more I think about it, it was the right move.
Right now, he’s been playing the game really well, flying under the radar, being liked by all sides and not making himself a target. Had he taken the idol in front of the entire tribe, he paints a giant target on his back and makes himself into a huge threat.
Andrea on the other hand, who I do like and who played a great game, made a really horrible decision in not playing the idol.
And no, I don’t mean just in the hindsight is 20/20 way, but she should have realized there was a good chance her head was on the chopping block and she might be blindsided.
Others may disagree, but I think one of the unwritten rules of survivor is that if you think there’s a chance your head is on the chopping block, play the idol. Yeah, if you play the idol and no one votes for you you’ll feel like a jackass, but better that than holding onto the idol and getting voted off.
You have the actual vote wrong. It was:
Brenda 2 (Andrea, Eddie)
Eddie 2 (Cochran,Dawn )
Andrea 3 (Sherri, Brenda, Erik)
I think the point that was made is that Cochran could have switched his vote with Erik and told Erik to vote for Eddie. Then if he switched to Brenda there still would have been 3 Andrea votes to force a tie if she didn’t play the idol. As it happened, if Erik switched to Brenda, she would have gone home. It put Cochran’s plan at the mercy of Erik.
In the end I think he figured out Erik wouldn’t do that, and Erik probably made him feel pretty good about it.
Let’s say Erik does switch to Brenda and it she goes home. Now you have a pretty clear 3-3 split going forward: Erik, Andrea (with an idol), Eddie vs. Dawn, Cochran, Sherri. I don’t see how that is better for Erik than a solid final-5 with Dawn, Cochran, Brenda, and Sherri. He’s much more likely to make the finals, and to win, in that arrangement, IMO - if he can get to a jury against Dawn and Sherri he has a really good shot. Of course the same can be said of Cochran, and I think that’s Cochran’s plan exactly.
I actually think Andrea was lost when Phillip went home - that was her sub-alliance and her goat. But she didn’t help herself this week - in particular commenting that it would be OK with her if Eddie made the finals was a very bad thing to tell Cochran. It just confirmed to him that he was not in her plans at all.
And re: the idol, the rule of thumb for me would be - if you have an idol and you think it would be a good time for a blindside, play it even if you feel safe. Because it’s almost certain that others are thinking the same thing.
I think you’re giving Erik too much credit. I don’t think he did that for any sort of strategic reasons at all - he just thought “I’m helping Andrea dig for the idol, so I guess I should hand it to her now that I’ve found it.” Like if you help someone search for their missing contact lens.
There’s also the psychological influence of the fact that Andrea won the clue they were digging from…you’re already in the mindset that “we’re helping Andrea dig because it’s her clue”, and if you’re on as automatic a pilot as Erik’s been this whole season, that’s all you need.
Seriously, his confessional that he felt like he was in control of the game? I had to pick myself up off the floor. Before this week I don’t think he even realized that there WAS a game!
But remember he has an “in” with her since he gave her the idol just like during his season when he gave up the immunity necklace. :rolleyes:
Andrea was an idiot this season. After Fillup her only big competition is Cock-Train. She can get the 3 amigos on her side because they needed any help they could and because they have her painted as #4. So she has 4 votes and if as usual “The Six” split their vote then Cochrane is out 4-3-2 (With Dawn being the second choice if he wins immunity). After that she needs to convince one to flip (Erik?) for one vote and she’s in the final 4.
What this means is that Andrea HAS to win the final immunity challenge against the 3 guys but if I remember correctly the final immunity challenge is fairly gender-neutral to even being slightly favoring women. If Andrea goes to Final TC against 2 amigos then I betcha she wins.
My interest took a major hit over the past seven days, as my two favorites were Malcolm and Andrea. I have no rooting interest in any of the remaining six. Always hate that.
See? Erik knows what he’s doing. I think the flaky-ness is just an act. Winning immunity last night was huge for him and he’s a major threat the rest of the way.
I still think he’s going to win. No one on the jury would vote against him.
Erik’s flakiness is not an act, IMO. And I absolutely think the jury would vote for someone else to win against him. Survivor jurors often vote for someone who played a good and *active *strategic game. Erik is seen as just going with the flow so far.
None of the remaining six have played an active strategic game. Eric has been every bit as actively strategic as any of them, which is to say not at all.
The only thing any of the six of them has done all season was the second half of this episode, when Cochrane decided to vote out Andrea. That’s the sum total of decision making by this crew the entire season.
Eddie just coasted along on Reynold’s shoulders since episode 1.
Dawn and Brenda have done nothing.
Cochrane coasted along on Phillip’s back until Phillip was ousted, at which point he coasted along on Andrea’s back until the second half of last night’s episode.
Erik has at least successfully given the other alliance the impression that he can be worked with, but continues to just follow along with his alliance. (Special points for voting Fillup that one tribal, but that voted ended up being irrelevant.)
Sherri had an active, strategic role on the Fans tribe before the merge, so I’d say she’s the most deserving except that she’s been a complete non-entity since the merge.
Up to last night, the only decision makers all game were Phillip, Malcolm, Andrea, the chick who sided with the three amigos (I forget who that was; Colleen?) and (so very long ago) Sherri on the fans’ tribe. Everyone else has just gone along to get along, and that’s all we have left.
Still my favorite vote.
1 vote Andrea: Not too concerned.
2 votes Andrea: “What?!”
More non-Andrea votes: Little smirk of I knew I was safe.
Andrea voted out: Total disbelief and leaves with a HII around her neck.
As soon as the second vote came, she knew. She said as much in the Ponderosa video. One thing about ponderosa this season? No one is carrying any hard feelings about the game. Malcolm surmised that it was because of the returning players being in a better position to ‘leave the game behind’. Even Philip seems to be a much more normal person there.
As for who’s left in the game; There’s 6 left with Eddie on the outs. He should go home next, but everyone wants to use him, especially since no one thinks he can win (me included, though it would be fun to hear the argument: You’ve been playing a game for 39 days, I’ve been running for my life every one of 'em. Give me a million!")
So the group only needs to pick the two they want to out next, and there’re a couple pairs that come to mind. Dawn and Brenda or Cochrane and Erik. I’m excited to see this end-game play out.