What’s been working against Mike all week - that he’s untrustworthy - will totally flip next week when Dan agrees that he’s on the bottom of the 6. Mike can then lie and say that he overheard Tyler, Will and Mama C saying that they’re the final three and no amount of denying will convince Rodney, Sierra or Dan that it’s untrue. Add to that when he says he has to play the HII (assuming he doesn’t win Immunity) The Stupid 6 will turn on each other and probably fracture into the groups above.
At least that’s my hope…
It’s happened before (sometimes ‘accidentally’, sometimes purposefully). I think the rule is - you can search through people’s stuff for information - but you can’t actually take the item for yourself. I assume that would also apply to, say, taking a HII from someone and just throwing it away or hiding it somewhere they’ll never find it. Though apparently doing that with other non-game related items is okay (see: Russell Hantz).
Mike and Shirin are completely correct when it came to their arguments at TC, though. Dan and Sierra are definitely on the bottom. Rodney has Will and Tyler has Carolyn.
A really interesting move by Mike. The classic play would have been to give Shirin the HII as a surprise, which would negate all votes for Shirin and give Mike & Shirin the power to boot one of the Big 6. But that would just buy them another week, at the cost of the HII.
But Mike revealed the split in the alliance, which he can presumably exploit this week…and he still has the HII. The downside: Shirin gets the boot. But you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs. 
(And I’m surprised Shirin got votes. 4 people assumed he was bluffing, or didn’t care)
Well they kind of do… everyone has to support 100% of their weight. Look at it this way… if hey say to sit on a stool and then stand up I’m sure they all could do it, but the 250 lb guy is lifting 250 lbs. The 100 lb girl is lifting 100 lbs. Would it be fair if they said we all want you to stand up with a total weight of 250 lbs? I doubt the 100 lb girl could stand up with a 150 lb weight strapped to her back.
I hate responding to myself but I missed the edit window.
Another way to look at it is lets say that they decide to give them a “help” in a challenge instead of a “hindrance.”
This week everyone must hang onto this pole without falling with a 100 lb counter weight attached to you. The 250 guy would still have to hold up 150 lbs and would likely last a very long time. The 100 lb girl though could basically “float” through the challenge and couldn’t drop even if she wanted to.
Pretty sure everyone would call foul… so the better way is to say we’ll give you a counter weight equal to 25% of your weight.
Sandra Diaz-Twine, the only two time winner of Survivor, played the most passive game imaginable both times. Of course, she didn’t make a habit of pissing off people headed to the jury either.
Have to say I’m completely on board with Mike’s move. I thought announcing the idol the way he did was absolutely brilliant. At first I thought he should have played the idol…but after working it through further I think he did exactly right by his own game, and didn’t really hurt anyone else’s game.
As Shirin herself admitted, she’s dead woman walking–she knew she had no chance to win the game at this point, best she could do was go along for a ride. She will have no ill-will towards Mike not playing the idol, in fact, I suspect she knew all along this was how it was going to happen.
By announcing the idol the way he did, Mike was hoping to expose a crack in the Power 6 alliance–and it worked out better than he could have hoped. Had Tyler & Will voted for, say, Sierra–she would have been pissed, but I think she would have gotten over it and they could still play nice together. She’s still working with Dan, so obviously she doesn’t take much personally. Dan, on the other had, holds a grudge–as Mike himself knows all too well. Now suddenly, the trustworthiness card that Tyler was pushing so hard during TC will come back & bite him and Mike can reap the rewards.
If he had played the idol it would still be him & Shirin vs a very angry & very tight five, with a presumably even angrier Dan sitting on the jury. But what Mike has done now is set it up so that at least 2 of the 6, including a guy with 2 votes, now have to start thinking about how exactly the end game will go. Mike is safe next week, meaning that shake-up has to start and he’ll still be around to take advantage of it. And if he can win even one of the next two immunities, I think that’s enough to carry him to the end.
I hate his boneheaded mistakes, but I really respect Mike’s overall game. He has flashes of brilliance that I never would have ascribed to him on Day 1.
In Survivor: One World, Bill took another Colton’s immunity idol and threw it into the ocean. The crew retrieved it, gave it back and explained that it was against the rules.
The other players seemed oddly unperturbed by Mike’s actions. I’m wondering if they anticipated that he might give away his idol, and had a backup plan to throw a couple of votes to Dan.
The standard rule of Survivor is to keep the strong until the merge then vote them out as soon as you can. They have only voted out one strong player since the merge (Joe.) It is not inconceivable that Mike can pull in Dan in an unhloy alliance and get the two others at the bottom (Will and Sierra) to vote out the strong, and if Mike doesn’t win final immunity, we would be left with three hunks of driftwood in the final.
I knew someone would raise Sandra. I don’t think she played passively. She wasn’t able to form a majority alliance, but she kept aggressively going to the other alliances and breaking them and making clear her vote was available. It’s a far cry from Dan, who thinks he is safely in the majority alliance and basically sitting back and kicking up his heels.
Well, it appears that my earlier spoiler about next season was mostly correct. For the record, I have no interest in spoilers about who wins or gets voted out next. I avoid those like the plague. This one I stumbled across and it was just about the format for next season. I’ll spoiler box it for those who don’t want to know or live in Alaska or Hawaii. Jeff Probst announced it at the end of the show tonight and it is up on reputable journalistic websites.
[spoiler]From a larger list of potential candidates, the producers picked 32 former Survivors and you can vote online for who you would like to see next season (10 men and 10 women.) Interestingly, two from this season are included who have yet to be eliminated are on the list. Maybe the two strongest players left. On the list are 10, possibly 12 who I have no recollection of. It isn’t like the All-Star seasons, these people are interesting (or long forgotten), but certainly not stars. Some of the names are:
Steven Fishbach - runner up, Tocatins
Brad Culpepper, NFL QB, 15th place, Blood vs. Water
Vytas Baskauskas, Brother of winner Aras, 10th place, Blood vs. Water
Abie-Maria, Crazy Brazilian, 5th place. Phillipines
Troyzan, 8th place, One World
Mikayla Wingle, Super crazy Hantz’s oblect of [del]affection[/del] obsession, 14th place, South Pacific
Joe, 10th place, current season
Cass, nerdy lawyer, Cagayan
Spencer, nerdy young kid, 4th place, Cagayan
Woo, runner up, Cagayan
Kellw W., runner up to Richard Hatch, season 1.
[/spoiler]
Ugh. Retreads, retreads, roly-poly retreads…I’m starting to think Survivor doesn’t have many good seasons left in it.
Salon’s article on the “the least likable cast in Survivor history”
I don’t agree with that article. There are six left - Mike seems like a good guy who made one bad mistake, and is playing a strong game from the worst possible position. Carolyn is very strong and hasn’t done anything objectionable. Tyler was a nice guy but too strong to keep around. Sierra is a non-entity but not a jerk. That leaves Dan (world class jerk), Will (stupid), and Rodney (stupid and arrogant and annoying, but not a jerk.) The jury is mostly good people. I don’t see them as being hateable, except for Dan.
Another season of Survivor where the right way to play is the worst one to watch. In this case it’s about bringing the least likable people with you to Final Tribal…even if you are one of the least likable people. Give the Jury a least of 2 or 3 evils kind of choice.
I think everyone wants to site next to Dan, Rodney or Will and if they’re not careful that’s going to be the Final 2 or 3. blech.
Sadly, I think you’re right. The old guy isn’t aging very gracefully.
Mama-C better win this one. I don’t care for her too much, but she is playing a good game, and she’s the least objectionable one remaining.
Rodney is a jerk. His shrill birthday based whining was worse than anything my kids have ever managed.
I still think Mike wins, just based on how much the final cut has seemingly revolved around him. Even when other people get the chance to speak, it’s about Mike. “I haven’t been with Mike on a reward trip before so this was a chance to get to know him…” Maybe that’s just setting up an eventual Mike/Carolyn alliance, but still.
And I’m thinking there’s a very good chance Rodney gets taken to the end solely so he can garner zero votes. Is it a final 2 or 3?
Also, Lamar:
[spoiler]Brad Culpepper wasn’t an NFL QB… he was a defensive lineman. You’re confusing him with Daunte Culpepper, Vikings QB.
At first glance though, I admit I recognize almost none of the women besides Cass and Kelly Bigglesworth. Maybe because they look different with makeup and such?[/spoiler]
It was beyond pathetic. If you’re old enough to drink alcohol, there’s pretty much never a reason to even acknowledge your birthday, much less pout and tantrum about how “It’s my birthday!!!”