Didn’t see a thread yet. Interesting and infuriating at the same time. Spoilers below.
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Kass, I know we geeks/nerds/brains are supposed to be stereotypically ignorant of social niceties, but it’s considered customary and polite to buy someone dinner before you screw them dry. I think the worst thing is that she denied me my musclehead blindside. That’s an unforgivable sin. Returning to camp should be fun for her…
I’m not sure if I’m Burnett’s ideal viewer or not, but this season is incredible. I seldom pick sides, but I do pick favorite (and least favorite) players. Which, I guess, ends up picking sides for me. I have not liked Tony in this season, but realize he’s probably getting a villain edit. I have liked Sarah, as well as the idea of the Brains tribe (though they played like total shit most of the season). And as for the rest of them, I think that LJ is a major force to be reckoned with, Woo is a silent warrior who will continue to win challenges, and Trish is an amazing liability to anyone who takes a thing she says seriously.
That said, players like Cass anger me. I honestly have no idea if that was a good move or not. But I tend to think it was a terrible decision. She was unable to build any sort of relationship with Sarah, despite a very deliberate attempt at hand-holding her way through it via Tasha (which was REALLY smart, IMO). Oh, your feelings are hurt that she’s leveraging her position a little bit? Tough shit - let her! Be her best friend! Boo hoo, you feel bullied. I guess you told her - but now it’s 5-5, and no one can trust you.
I think Cass can salvage this by heading back to the Brains+2 alliance, and just say that she didn’t think Sarah was trustworthy, and now that they’ve flushed out all the idols (for now), they’re back in business. But she really missed an opportunity to really put the screws down, and likely hosed herself. But like I said - I really have no idea.
I have no objection to that. And I pretty much agree with your OP totally, except I originally thought SARAH was being delusional and power-mad and totally didn’t see Kass losing it. Kass lost SOOOO much of my respect and fandom tonight.
Yeah, Sarah let it get to her head - at least in confessional. And a bit of that certainly leaked out into the game. I really don’t understand how Kass couldn’t suck it up and acquiesce when dealing with a pretty crucial swing vote. Maybe she didn’t do her Survivor homework, which is probably the case. She did a really terrible job of explaining herself during that mini 1-on-1-on-1 side session.
Edit: well I guess I can understand it, especially when you think about how terribly she dealt with the J’Tia situation.
Some nice gratuitous T&A shots tonight. Morgan is sure top heavy.
Tony reminds me of a non-evil Russell Hantz.
Some Over-the-Top accents this time. Trish and her BAAAston accent, Tony with his JOISey accent and Jeremiah and his Suuuuuuuthern accent.
A few more things before I head out - I don’t want to seem like I’m hogging the conversation.
Spencer: Needs to get with Tasha to reconfirm their alliance. He was “saved” over J’Tia because the Brains at the time weren’t sure if he could be trusted. Well, he can - certainly over Kass. He needs to solidify this. He also needs to give Kass a way back in, if only to get a semi-solid 5 back on his side.
Tasha: Also needs to solidify with Spencer, and touch base with Kass - it’s still salvageable. If not, she could still side with Kass on the other side, and play Spencer’s “Kass - 0% chance of winning” comment against him.
Kass: I don’t think she has a chance at this point, regardless of side she chooses. But what do I know? She could still pull out Top 3 with the remaining Brains if she’s smart. And Tony seems to have some cracks in his armor after throwing Sarah under the bus - is he capable of a long-term alliance? I’m still amazed that Trish was able to pull her over - how does anyone believe her?
Tony: Was, for 99% of the show up to this point, the absolute strongest player in the game. Even after playing the idol, he was absurdly high on the list of possible winners. And then LJ gave him his idol - and he was a near lock, because it displayed the amount of loyalty that tribe had for each other. And then they lost Sarah and gained Kass. It swings a little bit of power to Trish, and I can’t think that helps Tony.
LJ: What the fuck was he thinking? I…I have no idea. Maybe hoping for a 5-5 split? Still don’t know how that helps him in the long run. I’m hoping that there was just a giant pile of tape on the floor, because I want to think that he did a small amount of work to play the game.
Morgan: Please do more push-ups. That was…something.
Yah! Who gives a shit that Sarah let it go to her head!? Let her choose the first one voted off and get rid of her NEXT vote. Sarah made the right choice to go with the less challenge dangerous final 6. Kass just put herself into sixth last with serious immunity challenge competition from there.
And yet, she was the one who actually turned the deciding vote. Tony and company wanted to focus on turning Sarah, which flamed out horribly. Trish’s backup plan saved the day. I don’t like her and think she’s a bit cuckoo, but she certainly backed it up this time.
But damn, what a tribal council! LJ starts off by saying he thinks he’s going home. Tony adds he might be in trouble as well. Then reveals he has an idol. Spencer calls his bluff and Tony gives in a shows it off for real. The former Appari members all huddle and agree to vote for “the other one.” They vote. Tony plays his Idol… for LJ! Not to be outdone, LJ plays his Idol for Tony. They laugh. Then the first vote is revealed: Jethra. Suddenly the Solana aren’t so happy. The next vote is for Sarah. Votes start trading between Jethra (who is now on the verge of tears) and Sarah (who is just staring in dumb silence). Final vote? Sarah. She continues staring off into space in disbelief.
My thoughts:
I admit that I wanted Kass to cast the vote for Sarah, purely out of self-interest, though I also thought at first it was the best choice for her (not knowing what would happen with the Idols on the other side. The more I think about it though, it was a dumb move. She’d be on the bottom of the totem pole over there (though there’s always chance for re-aligning) and the right move was to stick with Sarah and vote her off later when they had more of a majority. I agree, Sarah was being annoying, but I would hope a lawyer of all people would be able to make peace with her long enough and bide time. Tasha knew what was up.
LJ, LJ, LJ. So dumb. Tony did a smart thing with his Idol - show it off so they change their vote, and then play it for you (a possible target). LJ, if you want to play your idol, don’t play it for Tony! They just switched off of him! Play it for Jethra or Trish you moron!
I bet Sarah never lives that down back at the precinct. “Guys, trust me, 100% Tony doesn’t have an Idol.” Ha ha ha ha ha
I thought it a bit weird right away that they let Woo wear his glove-shoes when everyone else went barefoot. Maybe they give them the option? I wonder how much of an advantage it gave him, though. I think the hardest part of the challenge would be numb feet impossible to balance on at the last section (and sure enough, almost everyone fell off at that point).
To paraphrase Quint - Kass was either very smart or very dumb. The confessionals and edits certainly make her look dumb - like she let her emotions get in the way of her game plan. The smart short term move would have been to do whatever Sarah wanted to get to the 6-4 point, then refocus on eliminating Sarah. But one of the most common questions asked at the jury to the final 3 is “What big, game changing plays did you make to get here?” She may be working on having the best answer to that question.
Joining the “WTF, Kass” chorus. It didn’t seem like anything but pettiness to vote off Sarah. (she’s annoying? She sure is. Suck it up for five minutes.) Has swapping teams to be the bottom of the other alliance ever worked for anyone? Ever?
My wife’s one comment (other than “This is a dumb show.”) was directed at Morgan during the Immunity Challenge. She took one look at Morgan and said “That’s what you wear to a challenge? A top with no straps? What if this had been a wrestling challenge, or something that actually involved movement? Idiot.”
I wonder if the guys in the editing room ever take home the raw footage, sans blurring. They must get some great shots sometimes.
Favorite part? When Tasha asked Sarah if it mattered whether she and Kass liked each other. It doesn’t! All that matters is what you need to do to win!
Thought Sarah and Kass were both whiny babies, but it did make for fun TV.
This ^. I always saw Tasha as a little boring and meh, really, but tonight she really showed that she’s Bigger-Picture-Lady. Unfortunately, trying to plaster over the petty irritation cracks didn’t work.
Where Kass REALLYREALLYREALLY plummeted in my esteem tonight, Tasha climbed on up there.
Yeah, really – “Tasha is acting like an adult, which makes her my enemy.” WTF?
I think Cass made a great move. For herself. Before the idols were played.
If she knew the idols would get played, it may have affected her decision, but of course she didn’t.
She’s now allied with a stronger group and has 4 TCs (about 12 days) to get into a ‘not bottom’ position. and with Morgan around I think she’ll live past that point.
I think allying with the stronger group is better for the short game (the pagonging), while Sarah was looking past the pagonging and planning on running the ICs after final 6.
I think the game is between Tony and Cass. Both are actually playing hard, and it’s fun to watch!
Personally, I think Kass traded a Final Three guarantee for being #5. She basically voluntarily climbed two places down the totem pole, and it’s not like that would be a terribly mysterious outcome.
I actually thought that was a pretty smart move. I thought the Brains alliance being so *obvious *that they were switching their vote, meant that they were actually trying to fool Tony into playing his idol for someone else but would keep the votes on Tony.
Is Kass a defense attorney? At one point in the anti-Sara diatribe, she said, “I don’t trust the cop” with enough emphasis to indicate something more than irritation at Sara’s childish sense of entitlement. Which would put her switch more in the light of Ingrained professional distrust than petulant personal dislike; that seems more like Kass to me.
If so, can’t wait until Tony shares his “big secret”! And speaking of Sara and Tony, when did “swear on your badge” become more important than “swear on your kids”?