I wonder Tom’s reaction to Ian approaching Katie on the side. Tom’s not a genius, but he’ll have to wonder what swayed Katie’s vote. So does that leave a bit of question in Tom’s mind about Ian’s loyalty/trust? Tom’s not cutthroat like Ian. Ian would no way bring Tom to the final two (a la Colby Donaldson), but Tom might consider bringing Ian.
But I don’t think he would now. Just that seed of distrust.
That was a risky move by Ian, going to Katie. I guess it saved them from the purple rock (which I don’t totally understand), but by doing it behind Tom’s back, it could have backfired. She could have gone to Gregg, it could have stirred up the hornet’s nest in a big way. But it worked out.
I’m more and more becoming a fan of Tom. Whereas I was pretty ambivalent about the guy, he appears to have some feelings about others (e.g. hoping to extend Stephanie’s stay) whereas Ian is doesn’t have a speck of compassion: just sort of a souless schemer smart enough to put on the face of comedian to win friends and influence people. Tom has the character that Ian lacks. That said, from the mental aspect, Ian’s a much better player than I expected. He obviously planned in advance the whole, “I’ll watch her back…” diatribe to Katie’s brother in-law to sway her later. But he would kick you to the curb the second he got what he wanted from you in any environment. I wonder if Enron’s hiring right now…
Sorry for the harsh words, Iantologists. That’s just the way I see it.
Re: preview for next week: I think both are doing acting jobs, but meltdowns in the past have too often meant a boatride home (or in this case, to the jury).
Refresh my memory on the purple rock. Listening to TomIan, it sounded like this: If there is an unbreakable tie, the two people in the tie become immune. Thus, in the case of a Caryn/Gregg tie, Tom, Jenn and Katie would have to draw lots; which would result in the one-in-three chance of going home that TomIan were talking about.
Was that the way it happened before? It’s been so long, I don’t remember. IIRC, everyone had to draw from the bag; or else everyone except the immunity winner had to draw from the bag.
First rule of SURVIVOR: Do not couple-up on SURVIVOR.
Good ridance Gregg. You could hav been a great stealth player, but had to draw attention to yourself by forming an obvious, publicly viewd alliance. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Rob only pulled it off with Amber because the other players were STOOOOPID!! Tom and Ian are not stupid.
Gotta love the look on Jenn’s face when Gregg got the boot. The thing for her is that she’s got a better chance of staying around w/o Gregg.
It doesn’t. The purple rock is history but they don’t know that because they’re dumb.
The first time there was a tie, the people voted for became immune and everybody else had to pull a rock out of the bag, even the one who had won individual immunity. Whoever got the purple rock got voted off. This was probably intended to promote tribal unity and avoid ties. They have since changed to a model which says “Okay, you obviously want one of these two people gone; their votes will cancel each other out from here on in and the rest of you are going to keep voting until one of these two gets a majority vote.”
Not quite. The first time there was a tie, (Australia IIRC) the deciding factor was how many votes the two people had against them in previous tribal councils.
In season four or five I think…I can’t remember, but the involved parties were Neleh and some old guy…they used the purple rock thing, and they only used it AFTER they had revoted. We haven’t had a tie since then, but Tom stated outright that this was how ties would be handled this season and we don’t know more than him about it, I imagine.
That’ll work when there’s an odd number of people. If it’s an even number, and no one blinks (thus dooming them, since they would then be in a minority AND be seen as untrustworthy), what then?
Purple rock time. At least, that’s what we’re led to believe. I don’t think Burnett actually lays out the ground rules to aynone like that, he just lets you make inferences based on previous events.
For all we know, if they had gone to an unbreakable tie, Probst could have announced a baloot and wasbai eating contest, and whoever horfs first goes home.
I ask again: have you watched this season so far? I just reviewed the dual-jury episode recap at TWOP and that’s where Ulong had one of their tie votes, and Koror got to watch it get resolved. They must have been distracted by the beef stew and root beer. They KNOW how ties are handled this season, they KNOW there’s no purple rock, and they are MORONS.
There were even numbers both times Ulong tied. Somebody switched.
It’s not like it’s live TV; the discussion at the TC where Janu booted herself went on for a couple hours. I could really see Jeff having them vote over and over and over and over and over again until somebody finally switches sides.
In the RC, Gregg apollogised to Tom and Ian for not taking them on the yacht. He said, ‘I’ll pay you back later.’ (or something like that). Tom retorted, ‘No, we’ll make you pay!’
(Quotes are out of order so I only have to complete one thought at a time – sorry.) I rather think it was understood that someone was going to have to say something to Katie in order to force her hand. Caryn ratted Katie out last week WRT the girls’ alliance taking out Tom – so Tom and Ian were already aware that Katie was thinking of turning. IIRC, they even said as much when Katie went with Gregg and Jenn on the Reward Cruise. Probably Ian was the one who approached Katie because they are so close. I am willing to bet, too, that if Katie gave Ian any real trouble, the rest of the T/I/C triad would change their vote to get rid of KATIE. Having someone go to Katie was a smart move. She’s wicked, but not dumb: she voted the way she had to in order to keep HERSELF out of danger. If she didn’t change her vote, she could have picked a Rock (so the assumption went).
If Katie had gone to Gregg, it wouldn’t have changed anything for Tom, Ian, or Caryn anyway. If anything, it would have gotten Katie voted out sooner. Tom and Caryn were safe because Ian had immunity – whoever they voted for, they were going to all vote together. Blabbing would have just shown Gregg and Jenn how untrustworthy Katie really was. (Better the devil you know than the one you don’t, right?) Everyone would have voted Katie out because she would have just made herself a “free boot.” That would give the rest of them 3 more days to tweak their strategy for sticking around.
Not for nothing, but Colby was a dolt. He underestimated his competition, and look where that got him. Tom knows exactly how “dangerous” Ian is, and vice versa. But they respect each other, so they are sticking together as long as they can. Neither has any intention of being in the F2 against the other. However, they are going to try to do what they can to make sure someone “deserving” – i.e., one of them – wins the million dollars. They are both playing the odds, figuring that if they are F2 against each other, they each have a 50% chance of winning. If either one of them is F2 against anybody else, then Tom/Ian’s chance of winning against, say Jenn, significantly improves (it’s virtually a lock, actually).
I think you have it all wrong about Ian. I am unapologetically pro-Ian, but I have also watched every episode of the show, ever, and my 3rd favorite player is Brian Heidik, who most definitely DOES NOT have a soul. These people are playing a game that is, almost by definition, dog-eat-dog. The difference between Ian and Tom and most other people who play, is that they recognize that this is a game. It is not necessarily an honest representation of who they are IRL. They are trying to be themselves as much as they can, but they also want to win a million dollars. Sometimes these things are mutually exclusive goals. IMO, only one genuinely nice person has ever won the game of “Survivor” (Ethan Zohn), and he only did it because the game was too new for most of the players to know better.
And it’s not like Tom is entirely Prince Charming, either: he as much as said in the TC when Janu quit that he was only keeping certain people (read: Steph) around insofar as it was expedient for him to do so for his own game. When Steph was no longer useful to him, he was ready to cut her loose. And in fact he voted for her, so this talk of “character” doesn’t always hold much weight with him. Tom votes the way he has to. Ian at least pretends to have a conscience about it, I think.
If they’re MORONS, then so am I - because I don’t see anything that tells me the Purple Rock of Doom won’t make an appearance in the case of an unbreakable tie. From CBS’s S4 site:
The final four were given an opportunity to break the tie themselves before the Rock came and took Paschal away. When the tie happened this season, the team was given the opportunity to break it again, and they did.
If they hadn’t, who knows what would have happened. Were I in their shoes, I wouldn’t be so quick to assume the rock wasn’t coming out.
I am now picturing a giant HR Puf N Stuf style “rock” – perhaps something that looks like Grimace, from the old McDonald’s commercials? – picking up Paschal, throwing him over its shoulder, and happily sauntering off into the jungle darkness, humming all the while. Is there something wrong with me?
Okay, Ethilrist, I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you are not trying to come off as condescending as it seems when I read your posts. Slacker touches on this in his post, but the reason the PRoD was genius is that it discourages “unbreakable” ties just because the threat of it is still out there. One could argue that it worked so well the first time that MB has never had to use it again. At the time, we all complained about how unfair it was, but the unfairness is what makes the players afraid of it, which makes it harder for them to stick to their guns on a split vote. And I don’t think you can compare the one-on-one tiebreaker from this season as there was no voting involved. So, if you have special knowledge that the PRoD would not be used again, please share, because I haven’t seen anything this season to make me think MB would not use it (or something similarly unfair) again.
I don’t have any more information than what’s been on the TV screen so far this season. Have they changed critical rules mid-season before? I didn’t really start watching the series until mid-Australia, and I skipped Marquesas and Africa (no big loss, from what I hear…).
If they pull out the PRoD as their tie-breaker of choice for Koror, that would be a deal-breaking, buffalo-sized rule change, seeing as how, as I said, they went into that TC having seen a tie vote get settled before in this season using the second vote-off, and no sign of the PRoD.
It just seems more reasonable to me to assume that the players are being dumb than that the producers are going to change the rules in mid-season.
But if GreenBean is around, I need her to fill in next week on the Rich Ratings. I am headed to London and won’t be back until Sunday; just in time to see the finale! (I could just go Mullinator on you guys and “predict the future” calling for Jenn’s ouster…but part of me thinks Katie walks herself off the plank next week instead! We need coverage for that!)
I’m going to assume that the players are aware of what the rules are, even if the producers don’t bother explaining everything on the air. If there’s a tie vote, the other players have a chance to cast a new vote. This is what happened with Ulong (and Stephenie changed her vote to break the tie) and this was what Ian and Tom were expecting (they explicitly said they were hoping Katie would change her vote when she saw that Ian and Tom were voting against Gregg). However if nobody changes their vote, the two people who were voted on are now immune and the other players draw a rock to see who goes.
The final Ulong council was really a different situation. With only two people left, there was no room for anyone to vote or change their vote. So using the purple rock threat to motivate people to change their vote would have been meaningless and the fire challenge was used instead to pick a winner.
That’s just it though - that isn’t a rule change. They had a second vote back in season 4 too, and remained deadlocked. That’s when the PRoD emerged. We didn’t get to that point this season - someone switched their vote the second time around. Had they stuck to their original votes, then we would have known for sure what would happen. Since they didn’t, all we can do is assume the same thing would have happened the last deadlock would happen again, and that’s the PRoD.
