I wasn’t planning to watch, but got sucked in.
So why did Alicia and Whatsherface vote for Tarzan?
I think the women always split their votes in case someone has found the immunity idol again.
Troyzan and Leif voted for Kim.
Alicia, Christina, and Kim voted Tarzan
Sabrina, Kat, Chelsea, Tarzan voted Leif
If Tarzan had voted for Kim, it would have been 3-3-3, which would have been interesting.
I can understand why Christina and Kim did not jump ship, sort of. 5th and 6th place in one alliance is just as good as 5th place in another alliance. Maybe Christina has a plan. I doubt it.
But Tarzan, WTF?
I get that this game is stressful and it is easier to choose to go with the flow rather than make a move, but a night like tonight I’ll never understand. Christina and Alicia are clearly five and six of the women’s alliance, both in the social group but also in physical prowess. They had a chance to flip to an alliance with numbers consisting of a 50 year old (but powerful) guy, a sixty something guy who can’t win a challenge, and a little person who also has no chance of winning anything. If there was ever a no-brainer, tonight was it.
We’ll see Kim and Chelsea waltz into the finals with the designated loser (either Leif or Tarzan.) Watching the eliminations as they happen will rename this season as: Survivor-Headslap.
It will be interesting to see Leif in the finals, since he got voted out tonight.
Whoops. I had Leif in mind because of the vote, but I was thinking Christina. That’s quite a slip.
Tarzan’s vote makes no sense at all.
Tarzan has been behaving as if he had a secret alliance within the core female group for a few episodes now. Perhaps he does since he is so unlikable he is unlikely to win many jury votes. Or perhaps he is being strung along. But his lack of cooperation with Troy has been noticeable so perhaps Kristina and Alicia picked up on it or are privy to the secret of his alliance. That would explain their unwillingness to switch their votes.
Troy didn’t do himself any favors by flying off the handle. Players have to expect someone who is stabbed in the back to be upset but he should have been smarter (a recurring theme with the guy) and reign it back some. Seeking allies is a better long term strategy than seeking hidden immunity idols. Meanwhile Kim still quietly sits on her idol.
Despite his freak-outs, Troy played his hand about as well as he could, though I’m not surprised it didn’t work. Christina and Alicia surely know they’re 5 and 6 in their alliance, but they feel safe and comfortable there regardless. They probably saw Troy’s plan as trading 5/6 for 4/5 and figured that wasn’t a big enough payoff. But they most likely had a better chance of going farther in the new 5-person alliance without such a well-defined power base.
By this point in the game, though, people are often not thinking rationally; I think it’s easy for us at home to underestimate the psychological aspects of being in this game 24/7 for weeks on end.
I think Leif and Tarzan have both been operating on an “anybody but me” voting strategy. Didn’t work out so well for Leif, and Tarzan may be realizing that too late. I really doubt he has any secret alliances they’re not showing us.
What really surprised me is that Kim didn’t play her idol, especially after Troy put all his cards on the table at TC. Turns out she didn’t need to, but she couldn’t have known that for sure. If she’d needed it and used it, she’d be back in control, and if she’d played it but didn’t need it, that would have been OK since she’s unlikely to need it from here on out anyway. So why not?
Oh, and… Kat trying to figure out what “increments of 20” means? Priceless.
Yeah, Troy’s argument to Alicia and Christina made a lot of sense to me, esp. when you look at the relative strength and savvy of the members of the two (potential) alliances. I think they made a big mistake to not flip.
Seemed like Leif’s goodbye words were the most we’ve heard him say the whole game.
After Troy won immunity, he should’ve just remained quiet, letting his game winning actions speak for themselves. Not only would this have struck fear into the female alliance, it also might’ve allowed him to further his “jump ship” argument.
I think what sealed the vote last night was the fact that both Troyzan and Tarzan (!) made it to the finals, cementing for the girls that they can’t beat the boys and so the boys have to go regardless.
If I were Christina or Alicia, I would look at it as 4th or 5th in a five person alliance where I have no shot in hell of winning any challenges, or 5th or 6th in a six person alliance where I have at least a reasonable shot at winning any challenge. The latter sounds better.
EDIT: Also, from a longterm strategy point of view you simply cannot bring a guy to the final TC. No way a girl beats a guy in the final vote with this jury even if there weren’t historical precedent that guys always beat girls in the final.
Everyone here seems to be thinking about winning ICs, but the more important question is how to win the game. Christina and Alicia have no way of beating Kim or Chelsea. They’ve taken backseat roles to them and everyone knows it. (and we know that coattails don’t shed million dollar bills - unless you’re gonna marry the coattails)
Everyone wants Tarzan in the finals cause no one’ll vote for him, and he probably thinks his best chance to win is if he’s considered a ‘loyal player’. (“I got here without ever having to betray anyone…”, etc.)
If Christina and Alicia would come together (and I can’t get Colton out of my mind sitting there with Alicia, berating Christina), they could have probably controlled the voting of the new power group.
I had to explain this to my 10 year old kids last night…because they didn’t understand how the game is being played, like much of the remaining survivors.
At this point it is an individual game, but Kim has convinced them that they need to be united against a ‘foe’. Everyone seems to be going along with it because it means that it won’t be their name being written down.
I think the trick is to be aware that it is now an individual game and the person that convinces people to work as a team will progress to the end. Troyzan was on the verge of being that person, but couldn’t convince the remaining chuckleheads to save themselves at tribal council 2 votes from now.
I’m not sure why people seem to get the beginning and ending backwards. When they first get to the island and attend Tribal, they tend to vote out the strongest player because they don’t want to face that person at the end…15 votes away! Then when they get to the endgame they just bend to the will of the person who has a strategy.
It’s funny that I still consider ‘flying under the radar’ as a good way to play, as it keeps the target off your back and it lets the egos devour each other, but boneheads like Alicia (hateful, spiteful waste of time) and Christina (apparently oblivious that she’s a tool for Kim) can’t seem to figure out the opportunity to get a strategist out of their way to get to the end.
*Yes, despite Colbys hate of ‘flying under the radar’ I still think it is valid as long as you are aware of your strategy and know when the right moment is to remove those in power. Just going on Survivor to see how long you last is just wasting an opportunity for someone else to play the game, Tarzan, Leif, Jonas.
What precedent? In the 2 finalist era, there were 8 M/F finals - a male won 5, a woman won 3. In the 3 finalist era, there were 8 M/M/F or M/F/F finals - a male won 5, and a woman won 3 (though to be fair, Russell or Coach was one of the males on all 3 of those). So a male victory is more likely, but hardly conclusive.
You have to admire how well Kim is playing the game. She’s kept her girls together, and doesn’t ever miss protecting against someone playing an immunity idol. She’s also cheerful and strong at challenges, and works around the camp. Troy had nothing bad to say about her personally as he tried to get her voted off - it was just “She’s going to kick all your asses.”
She’s had votes against her at the last two tribal councils. It’ll be interesting if someone is successful at raising a challenge against her, whether she’ll sniff it out and use her idol.
If she is able to make the final three, she’ll win it for sure, and if that happens she’ll go down as one of the greatest players ever, maybe the best.
The best ever? I dunno.
I agree she’s playing a fine game, and probably the favorite to win at this point. But let’s face it – she doesn’t have a whole lot of serious competition here. There seems to be an epidemic of cluelessness and passivity on this island. Troyzan tried to get something going and found no traction, and everybody else is just counting days. Even among Kim’s own alliance, which consists of three smart women and Kat, she seems to be the only one who’s actually playing the game. It’s kind of weird, really.
Ye gods, the majority of players this season are idiots. Outside of Kim, Troy, Sabrina and Chelsea, I don’t think the other two could rub two brain cells together. (Kat’s in the winning foursome, but she’s pretty dim too).
That may well have been their reasoning, though I think it’s completely flawed. Right now they’re 5th and 6th in the women’s alliance. But the thing is, they’re guaranteed 5th and 6th. Unless there’s some big emotional shakeup coming, I don’t see the 4 women splitting. And neither Christina nor Alicia has shown much in challenges, whereas Kim and Chelsea have both shown they can win them.
But as the 4th and 5th members of a Troy/Leif/Tarzan/Alicia/Christina alliance, I think they’re sitting pretty. None of the men really have any alliance with each other, so it opens up a better chance of making a new 3-person alliance to get to the finals, whereas you don’t have that with the women. Challenges? Yeah, Tarzan made it to the end of this current challenge but he’s been horrible on others. Troy is fairly strong, I admit. But I don’t think he’s so much stronger than Kim/Chelsea that taking him to 5 is worse than taking the women to 5.
Alicia’s reasoning doesn’t even make sense. “If you turn into a challenge monster then maybe it would make sense to ally with you.” Huh?! It’s like she decided she has to ally herself with someone, whether that be the girls, or Colton, or Troy. It’s an individual game now!
Kim’s doing a good job of this, and I agree the others are idiots. I really don’t know what Tarzan’s game is. He’s voted with the women alliance ever since the merge. Did he make a secret deal with someone? Is he hoping they take him to the end and he’s playing for 3rd? Does he think he can win if all the men get voted out and he ends up with two women next to him in the finals? Is he a plant by the producers to ensure the women’s alliance wins? All he has to do is vote for Kim and there’s a three-way tie at 3/3/3. THAT would’ve been interesting…
I think Troy dug himself too big of a hole with his freakouts. Even if he gets to the end, I’m not sure he can get enough votes to win, unless he really dials it down, everyone forgets, and someone else does something horribly villainous. Maybe he could win on the guy votes alone (Jonas, Jay, Mike, Leif, Tarzan?), but I dunno.
Obviously a lot can happen but I think Kim’s sitting pretty. And I won’t be surprised if someone like Chelsea or Sabrina is the surprise final 4 cut.
My bad, I got Survivor and Big Brother mixed up. Girls can’t beat boys in the BB final.
I think that’s a mortal lock if Troy makes it to final TC against a girl.