RHAP: We Know Survivor - Know-It-Alls: Survivor 47 Ep 6
Episode Date: October 24, 2024This week, Rob and Stephen discuss Survivor 47 episode 6....
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The smartest guys around are about to break it down
Like they've won the game a million times
Well, actually, they didn't really win the game at all
Survival, no!
Survival, no!
Survival, no! Survival, no! At all. Survivor Know-It-All. Survivor Know-It-All.
Yes, that's right.
So the Survivor Know-It-Alls are back to talk about the merge here.
Survivor 47, episode six with a jubilant Stephen Fishback.
Well, Rob, I was thinking we look good for 25.
Yes.
Yes.
We two 25-year-olds, we look good for 25.
What?
Are you referencing Sue? Well, there was that scene between Saul and Sue. Yes. Yes. We two 25-year-olds, we look good for 25. What, are you referencing Sue?
Well, there was that scene between Saul and Sue.
Yes, yes.
I'm 45 and Saul's like, I'm 42 and we look good for 42 and 45.
That's kind of what I was referencing.
Yes, okay.
Look, we're holding our own as contemporaries of Saul and Sue.
This has been a big week for me. I just moved one spot higher on the most impactful and
important 45 year old podcasters out there yes okay so enjoy it for the next couple of months
okay and we have a lot of survivor to talk about here from a wild episode here uh mergatory
ish i don't even know like are we was this still mergatory itish. I don't even know, like, are we, was this still Mergatory? It was Earn the Merge,
but it wasn't Mergatory. We took the buffs
away. I would like to see if there was a lot of backlash
to this terminology, because they're all
living on a beach together. Only
one person is immune. It's just like,
what, Kyle wins a buff, like,
and then six people get a, like, it is a merge.
Like, literally, the meaning of the word
merge. It really was, and this was like
that, and universally, people, the Survivor fandom was it really was and this was like that and universally people
the the survivor fandom was like yes this was great but this was an improvement it was just a
little bit of like the the branding was not so good of it was a little bit of like uh the i don't
want to use the the gas lighting word, but there was a little bit
torchlighting, can we say that?
Torchlighting of like
hey, this is still, you're still
earning the merge, this is definitely not the way
that it used to be, the people want us to do it, we're definitely
still doing it this way
and everyone's like, yeah, this is
great what you're doing, but just like
we could just call it the merge.
It's literally the meaning of the word merge. It's like they are all coming together
and playing on the same beat.
The tribes are merged.
And like the wrinkle, the twist,
that Rome won't be on the jury,
like that was the wrinkle and twist
for like the first X seasons of the show.
I mean, like the first merge boot
was never on the jury.
So flowers, flowers, you all are doing great.
It's just, you don't have to keep saying
it's like, it's still the other thing
what about earn the feast earn your buff
earn the feast earn your pretty buffs
earn individual immunity
feast the feast
feast the feast you know if it has to rhyme
it has to rhyme apparently
yes we can do that
tough it out for the buff
yeah yeah it's
fine it's fine. It's fine.
Anyway, so.
I was from Freestyle
on your interview with him.
Maybe he can.
Did you catch that?
What'd you think?
Good.
It was very fun.
I thought he did a great job.
I, you know,
I was really impressed
off the cuff the way he did.
It was very good off the cuff
that he was very quick.
It's a tough spot
to get put into.
Oh, like that.
He was going to have
to freestyle rhyme. You know like i feel like
regardless of you know you kind of start to be playing in your head yeah so all right steven
i spoke with rome this morning that interview is up rob's website.com and up on youtube uh what did
you think about the fall of rome oh boy we got The best part about Rome leaving is that we can stop with the fall of Rome and Rome wasn't built in a day.
No more of that on Twitter.
Listen, I think every day about the fall of Rome here.
Exactly.
It was interesting.
So I want to talk about something vis, you know, vis-a-vis the the apparently Rome reference.
I don't know if it was your interview or in Dalton's interview that Jeff said on the on fire podcast.
Yes. And I listened to that this morning.
Many people being not immune.
Yeah. Create conservative gameplay.
Is that what Jeff said?
So as Saul said in the episode last night, hey, anything you hear
from Rome, you're going to want to fact check that. So that Jeff had said that was the argument
against doing the bigger merge. He said that. And again, I don't have the transcript in front of me,
but from my recollection of listening to the on fire podcast, Jeff had said that it can lead to lopsided votes to have a big 13-person tribal council, as we've witnessed before in the past.
That being said, Jeff said that, but also that the producers have let Jeff know about how interesting all of the different, everybody's different agendas are in a big tribal
council like that so jeff changed his thinking about it to go with a 13 person tribal council
because there's so much interesting stuff going on with a big tribal council and we've been crying
out for that you know and i think like correct me if i'm wrong you're you're deeper in the weeds
here than i am but like it seems like every mergatory boot has kind of been a sort of boring
you know the people who won the merge chat the mergatory challenge like they kind of like throw
out her name and then that person is the person who's who's sent home and i mean the merge i mean
it's very fun to see everyone coming together yeah but. But I mean, it's certainly like, I remember that episode in 42 was very chaotic.
Yeah, 41 and 42, ironically,
the two hourglass mergatory votes
were both like pretty chaotic.
41 had knowledge is power at that vote
where there was the, can I steal this idol?
No, you could steal this fake one.
And then there was like a very interesting vote with Deshaun and Evie and Sidney.
So 41 and 42 had the more and actually in 43 had the whole thing with Ellie and Gabler throwing her name out there.
So that was that was pretty chaotic. So it has not necessarily been a total snooze fest in the new era.
But I do think that there was I i mean this did seem to be a
somewhat conservative choice and i think part of that was just because they were so shocked at the
possibility of having you know like i feel like they have gotten into this rut um you know in
the 40s of just being okay we're going to throw out our name and that's going to be the name and
you know the conservative gameplay like begins like further down you know further down the line
like i'm my experience of
being at a 13 person merge was not conservative gameplay it was absolute madness and i think that
was typically what the experience was for the 30s right it was these big merges everyone's coming
together and it's like totally chaotic and like maybe sometimes the votes themselves were a little
bit lopsided like the ch Chris Noble vote, for example.
But like a very I mean, I think even my merge vote was probably a lot of votes on.
Yeah, on Cass. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I wanted to ask you about that because you've described that.
And that's what I you know, I have lived vicariously through you going back to play Second Chances for quite some time.
And, you know, you've told the story of like being on the beach and there's a million, there's all these different people around, all these different conversations
happening. And even while the end result ends up being lopsided, it does seem like that there's a
ton of different interests going on. It's not just like that the challenge is over, one name gets
said and everybody just piles on. Yeah. I mean, it was so overly strategic back then
that it was almost not strategic anymore.
Like, you know, it was like things were changing so fast,
like minute by minute,
like every single conversation would be
like a total upending of the power structure, you know?
And that was probably too much,
but deciding and toasting at their feast,
like who the victim would be.
And then that kind of being disseminated out
to the broader group.
And that's the deal.
That was kind of sort of bleak. And then I mean,
I love, you know, I do wonder if, you know, I'm sure there was more that we did not see. Of course,
there always is more that we do not see, you know, in the strategy of how Rome's name was decided.
It did seem like a pretty fast consensus decision. And honestly, like, not too dissimilar in thinking
from our thinking in Cambodia of, hey, let's get out this chaotic player who's sowing a lot of like
misinformation yeah and i do feel like that first merge boot is kind of like a sacrificial lamb a
little bit like this is the problem with this tribe you know like let's get this person out
and then we'll be friends yeah i do think that there might have been some like fake morality
that might have been going on where you know r Rome was caught in a position where he was obviously spreading information, which, you know, may or may not have been true or maybe at least exaggerated in terms of what Kyle had felt like.
He had said Kyle does not really come across as like a big liar.
He comes across as like the nicest person ever.
like a big liar he comes across as like the nicest person ever and so when Rome is like throwing out all this information about how oh Kyle's saying this Kyle's saying this Kyle's doing this and it
really seems like without like an obvious um like you know in such a like a nakedly ambitious way
of throwing things out that get fact-checked uh rather easily especially when these were the types
of things that he was doing back at his original tribe
that we saw last week,
where even Genevieve is like,
the scales be tipping against Rome.
Yeah, so-
Well, but that example though,
was Rome accurately relaying information
from Genevieve to Saul,
and then Genevieve lying about it,
which is actually apparently not too dissimilar
from what happened this time.
Hard to say who is lying where,
but it did seem like Rome was taking
the things Kyle did say
and relaying them, and people just didn't like that.
But I do believe that there's
you know, it's
you know, a piece of wisdom
of, you know, never be the
bearer of bad news, and
I think in a lot of ways, Rome sort of relished
and sort of like, hey, did you hear what this person's saying about you? Hey, did you hear what this person? And it was
very easy for me to say, I never said that. He's a liar. Like, oh, yeah, he said that. Like, yeah,
yeah, he's a liar. See, this is exactly what I'm talking about. OK. And it's just like made it very
easy for people to pile on in a situation where they're looking for an easy consensus. And he
gave people a reason to write his name down. Well, and it didn't seem like he was necessarily doing this tactically.
You know, it seemed like he wanted to sow chaos.
It seemed like he wanted to, you know, maybe target Kyle roughly.
But, you know, it was too soon.
Like it was out of the gate.
You know, who knew who was going to win immunity?
But, you know, it didn't feel like he was kind of like building a coalition against kyle it just felt like he was you know creating a lot of dissension
which was then sort of yeah you know and then you know maybe that was the edit maybe that was just
like maybe he was trying to build a coalition against kyle but it was like with his personality
on top of that um it didn't you know who who gets the credit, Rob, for voting out Rome? Because, I mean, there's a lot to be said for Tiana,
who's the first person to kind of sniff that like, hey,
I'm playing with my heart and what you said, like, does not resonate with me.
Like, I don't buy that.
And then, of course, there's a lot to be said for the great Saul,
who is the one who kind of, you know, everybody's sort of talking about him.
It's like, that's Rome.
Like, maybe I should be the one to fact check this with Kyle.
Like, he then sort of starts to build the narrative build he's the one that sort of like brings in
the corroborating evidence from the past episode where that you where you you did accurately point
out that Genevieve like he was saying the the telling Saul the truth about Genevieve but
Genevieve spun it back to Saul I was like uh Rome that's not what I said to him. And so in Saul's mind, very much,
this is what Rome does. And so when he hears a similar story, then it's Saul's opportunity to
be able to get some payback on Rome and say, see, but this is classic Rome. This is how Rome plays
the game. And so he's able to really corroborate what's going on with some of these situations that
are happening here at the merge vote.
So I feel like that of anybody, I think I would give the credit to Saul.
Got to give it to Saul.
All right.
Fishy for Saul out of the gate.
So happy to have the opportunity to give a fishy to Saul.
Give the fishy to Saul.
I just won this week, right?
Well, listen, I wouldn't I wouldn't dare give it to two people.
That would be transgressive of the sacred, you know, statutes.
Of your award.
Like the fishy druids would be up in arms, you know, enclave.
Yeah, absolutely.
All right.
So just to go back to the Rome of it all.
And so, Stephen, could you just like as a, you know, astute observer of this show could you put Rome into
perspective for us wow what a what a big statement um I mean listen as a character yeah well I really
enjoyed watching Rome I think a lot of people felt that way you know certainly people were
exasperated by him but I think often is the case with a character who is very frustrating
and exasperating as soon as they're out and like that that fear of them exasperating as further is
no longer there are like empathy and and like positive perspective on them you know increases
i mean rome was a very interesting character because he played he was he was loud he was
abrasive but he also like you know he alliances. He he went out and looked for advantages and he played those advantages intelligently.
You know, he was big on building an alliance and keeping loyal to him.
He seemed to know a lot of the ins and outs of the game.
You know, like when he was worried that Jeff asked him the first question at tribal council.
You know, we also had him fishing right where he's the one guy who goes out there fishing, like, and, and, and catching the
fish and, and, and really succeeding at a lot of the aspects of survivor that make it
such an incredible, both experience and a game, you know, and then at the same time,
he's getting indignant because other people aren't helping him fish.
And then he's, you know, not sharing the fish.
So he was such an erratic player.
He really was all over, you know, in the way of like highs and lows.
You know, I think, you know, you had said, you know, what Rome needs is a Trish, someone who is going to, you know, do the cleanup for him.
And maybe like, and I don't think, I think Tony was not as wild as Rome was.
You know, I think Rome really was more all over the place.
I think that,
just in terms of like his,
the way he personally interacted with people,
you know, I mean,
we have, of course,
we remember a few Tony blowups,
but like those were,
you know, much later,
like, I mean, obviously talking Llama,
that was like much later into the season, right?
And that was like,
there's only like a handful of times
Tony actually blew up at people,
but we do have like quite a few,
I don't know if Rome blew up at people, but there's a like quite a few, I don't know if Rome blew up people,
but there's a lot of like interpersonal conflict with Rome where we didn't
really see that with Tony.
And I don't know if there was a Trish who could help Rome,
but such a fun player, you know,
he did a lot right and he also did a lot wrong and,
but he was there for every single part of it, you know, and like,
like Island life, you know, the, the, the, the Alliance building advantages, you know, getting to sit in Jeff's chair. Like he was really like,
had like the whole, you know, panoply of the survivor experience. And it was really fun.
I thought it was really fun to watch. I really enjoyed him. And I think like, we'll, you know,
miss his absence. Very well put Steven. I, he may see this as a compliment or maybe not.
I feel like that the survivor that I would compare Rome most to is that I feel like that he was like a this generation's Johnny Fairplay.
And I feel like that in a lot of ways.
And they didn't have the drama as much as possible.
You know, really seem to, you know, be ambitious in ways of like camera time and stuff like that. And I feel like that
that's a character that I feel like Survivor had shied away from for many years. But I do feel like
that with Rome. I think there's a lot of similarity to that personality type. They're not exactly the
same, but I think that they're like cut from the same cloth. I think it's a really good comparison.
You know, I think that's like and, you know, like to your, you know, this generation's aspect of it,
you know, is certainly certainly good. You, where, when Fairplay was first on, um, you know,
there wasn't obviously as many sort of social media opportunities. There wasn't as many hosting
and, you know, e-sports commentating opportunities. I mean, there was just like not as many, um,
like outlets for that. People weren't as conversant with like different ways to,
you know, bring attention onto oneself. I think that's a really good, a really good comparison.
And people forget about Johnny Fairplay's incredible friendship with Burton.
I'll never forget when he ran and jumped into Burton's arms.
I think that happened.
I've certainly imagined it happened.
Yeah, I think so.
All right.
So Jeff invites Rome to sit in his seat.
And I told this story last night on the post game show, but I'm sure that,
uh,
you,
you must've caught it,
but just for anybody who didn't,
uh,
I'll remind them of Yule told me in winners after winners at war,
that there was a moment where,
that he was explaining something.
Jeff invited him to sit in his seat.
And Yule said,
uh,
no,
I don't think so.
I'm not doing that.
Uh,
and I think it also would have been the same tribal council
where Yule got voted out.
He didn't go to many.
And, you know,
I think Yule was able to suss out,
like, this is a trap.
Well, I definitely think this is like,
we want, I like, I love this character
and I want to like,
give them a showcase moment.
You know, I'm sure that was
what was going through Jeff's head.
I always go back to this moment when Coach when coach was voted out of token chains and just like
the way jeff looked at him the like and this was the end of the game you know he'd been there every
episode um but one and you know it was like the sort of like i'm gonna miss you i'm gonna miss
you you know big fella um and i do think like you know when they know they have a great big
character they want to find ways to highlight and showcase that person and i'm sure this was um
part of that it's funny that you all turned it down uh you know he missed missed on his
opportunity to be a historic uh you know historic and interesting did it make you feel did it fill
you with envy and jealousy you know no no i think i I think I would, uh, like, I, I think I would be like, that's, that's your chair, Jeff. Well, Chrissy Hoffbeck said this was like an insult to the
game on Twitter. Like, what's your take on this? I don't think it was an insult to the game. I mean,
Jeff asked him to do it. Yeah. Well, but is it like, is it Jeff who's insulting me? It just
seems kind of like silly to me, you i mean like maybe um i don't know like
i it was a fun moment but i see chrissy's perspective because like part of what makes
survivor great is the seriousness of it like how seriously we take these things
and it just kind of feels goofy yeah i i get that that. But I feel like had that, you know, Jeff invited
Rome to like snuff somebody's torch or something like that. Like, I think that that would be
different. I think that, OK, come sit in my chair in this like episode where you're seeing so much
about, you know, this like Chris Noble askfall here of rome that i thought it was a uh fine
spotlight it was um you know we we can't be that upset about things like this is this one and done
or does jeff go back to the sit in my seat well well i don't think anybody will ever do it again
i think people will see like oh wait oh they're not gonna get voted out like rome oh yeah but if
you know you're gonna get voted out you might as well sit in the seat.
If like that's the kiss of death, like, oh, shoot, if I'm getting voted out this episode,
I'm going to sit in the seat.
I need my I need my airtime.
Mm hmm.
Yeah.
I'd be surprised if we see it again.
But maybe, you know, Jeff, I think is showing a willingness to be able to do some unconventional
things.
He said also in the on fire podcast in his notes that he had an idea of that if Rome was ever out of the challenge early or if he was sitting out that he would let Rome call the challenge.
Oh, really?
Okay.
So, listen, I actually like the sitting in the seat moment.
I just wanted to raise.
I don't necessarily.
I see Christie's point.
I mean, I thought it was a fun moment.
Like, it did not bother me.
I mean, and had I not seen it it i i felt like i i watched it
today i watched the episode today and so i'd seen a lot of like you know twitter sort of like shock
about it but i i ended up not sort of meriting that shock i thought but i i get i get the
perspective i do get the perspective but it was very fun you know rome did the previously on
survivor i wonder like if like did he just do that or was he like prompted to do that you know
like give give you know i can just like see cl was he like prompted to do that? You know, like give give, you know, I can just like see Clark there like do the previous land.
What if you were the one doing the previously this week?
Yeah, like I feel like if anything, I feel like that that was probably more of a something that was beyond the norms of then sitting in Jeff's seat.
Yeah, Mike Bloom. I think it was Mike Bloom said it was like too much like the challenge, which is, you know, they're very goofy about their like previously on the challenge tags.
Yeah, it's fine.
It's fine.
You know, it's 5 for 47.
Yeah.
I saw some people.
Now, you'd compared Rome to Q a bunch.
Rome to Q a bunch. And I saw some people who were saying that one of the reasons Rome might have gotten voted out is that all these contestants, you know, are thinking of Q and just the chaos
he brought to that post-Murray situation. I mean, so much of the gameplay already has been somewhat
reactive to Survivor 46, especially with all the idle stuff. Like, is there a world where that is affecting people here?
So I don't think that Rome and Q are actually similar players, but I think that the similarity is that they both create a lot of chaos around them.
And so there's a lot of maybe unease from the players
who are looking for some sort of like safety or calmness.
And so do I think that uh the impact of q
is that because the players that are from they don't even know if q is the winner of survivor 46
so right that's funny i think they probably guess i don't think that uh it necessarily came back to
uh hurt rome the impact of q i think that maybe it behooved him a little bit early on where i
think that genevieve we talked about how that she uh didn't mind working with somebody who was like creating
um a smoke screen and so i think if anything i think it helped him early on right um what do
you think of um the other big scandalous thing that happened last night was not showing the schoolyard pick.
That really upset Twitter.
How did you feel?
Yeah.
So what I do like is that they gave us the schoolyard pick as a secret scene.
I don't know if you had a chance to look at it.
I watched.
Yeah.
It was a great scene.
It was a great scene.
Not only was it a schoolyard pick, you also have this whole story of Andy getting picked last.
You have like a confessional from Andy
where he talks about like how it's felt
to be picked last.
And then he gives this whole speech.
Like, I think it was the last two people,
Tim and Sue.
And he's like, you know,
this is just what it was like in middle school
and I'm trying to grow out here
and try to be okay with this.
And he's still picked last.
It was, I don't know.
It was well done.
I have to say that Jeff talked about
that they had to cut it for time
because even in the 90 minute episode,
he's talked about a lot about the, you know,
the issues with hitting the specific amount of time
they have for the episodes on the On Fire podcast.
And he talked about how that, you know,
they would have loved to have had it,
but they couldn't fit it in.
It was an interesting part of Andy's story.
He also talked about how there was a benefit also in being picked last that that also helps his image as being somebody.
He's not necessarily a wounded bird.
He sees himself as a wounded snake who's going to strike people later on.
snake who's going to strike people, uh, later on. So I think Andy was like, uh, feeling very good about, uh, his position, I think up until the votes, but let's, let's come back to Andy and
the votes. As far as the schoolyard pick goes, I do think that the schoolyard pick is a better
way to do it than the random draw because we've got some very lopsided random draws.
Yeah, I, I agree. I think it's, and again again, like it's like interesting dynamically. It's interesting strategically. You know, it creates tension. You know, I mean, Jeremy had a very fun. I don't remember if it was in a scene or if he said it at the finale or something like, you know, for Cambodia, this very fun thing where like, you know, I was always picked. said the first person picked is joey amazing and i'm picked second and that means i'm always on the losing team and so joey's always off at rewards but that meant i got back to pam and
so i was going to use my time using like finding idols and i just thought that was like such a cool
like the way that dynamic ended up shaping his game you know where he did end up having all
these idols and they were obviously like definitional as part of his strategy like
it was i just thought that it was um you know a cool thing. And then it becomes when it's like purposeful and not just some sort of, you know, like
you said, like, like, um, lopsided random draw.
Yeah.
It feels very like, like there's more agency being, you know, as part of the game.
Okay.
So we had this shift in the merge where, okay, it's not for immunity for the group, but it
was a big competition for the merge feast.
And then ultimately one person was going to ultimately be immune at the end of it,
much like a traditional merge,
except it was only with the six people who won the challenge.
I will also say, just going back to Rome for a second,
I think that what Rome did,
assuming that everything lined up with where we saw it in the episode,
I think that his tactics of really like trying to throw Kyle's name out there were especially bad
because from his perspective, half the tribe was about to be immune.
So ultimately it ended up being bad luck on Rome that like the one person he was trying to throw
under the bus was the one person who ended up being immune, but maybe that drove Kyle a little extra hard to win immunity in that spot,
knowing that Rome had been throwing his name out there.
But overall,
like,
I feel like I did not love that.
The,
you know,
group challenge to win a reward,
especially with the mud.
I don't know who,
I didn't know who was who.
Once they're in the mud, you can't tell who anybody is. And yeah, I, I, I also,
I was on Twitter, there was somebody like, literally, who is this person? Like, I had no
idea. I was like waiting for Jeff to tell me everything. I could have just turned the,
turned the TV off. Like I just listened. Yeah. I know I had that, that same problem too.
Like I guess. It's too much mud. I get what they're going for, but it's too much mud.
And like, you know, this is like right at get what they're going for, but it's too much mud. And this is
right at, this is crucial because
it's going to be who's going to be at the feast and it's like,
where are these, this is going to determine
the strategic arrangement of the merge.
So you're trying to think and
I'm writing the names. I'm like,
who is that? I don't know.
I don't know what I'm rooting for. It's like, here's random
people. It's like, I
can't even see who they are. no i felt the same way yeah whatever you know not doing a good job in
that challenge not you know not a big deal but um you know but it's like why it adds nothing and it
takes away from the experience how did you feel about the two-stage challenge or you know the the
big the big obstacle course challenge,
you know, for the first half,
and then they had the sort of more traditional,
you know, ball management challenge for,
you know, the individual.
I mean, I guess I felt fine about it.
I mean, it was probably, you know,
you know, it just ate up a lot of time
to do those two challenges.
Like, I felt like that the impact
of the first part of the challenge,
I know it's like,
Hey,
we've reached the merger story.
We want to have this big set piece challenge.
And I felt like that,
uh,
the stakes were not super high for that challenge.
I kind of feel like they could have just had the individual challenge.
Oh,
see,
I mean,
I was so happy to see like a big multi-stage obstacle course.
Um,
and I,
you know,
I love to see the different ways the teams kind of
like navigate the hurdles you know one just trying to like like brute force it the other one having
to build up you know that's yeah that was that was better television i just feel like that in
terms of like um this we spent like you know what 25 minutes in challenge or something well that's
it like and we're talking about like them not having enough time to do the schoolyard pick
which we're all interested in or, or certainly more strategizing.
So how would you have done it? How could, how would you have given out individual unity?
I think like just like a fast and dirty stage at the end. That's like, you know, it's a puzzle, right? There's a puzzle and there's six people and whoever gets to the first six people to the end get to work on the puzzle.
But like, we don't have like reset. Now you take your places. Now there's a new challenge. We're learning the rules and that challenge is it stages like just like
jam it out. The first person to finish,
you know, and then you don't have that other like
10 minutes of like the ball about.
Okay. How about this? Could
you at the end of the challenge instead of
like one table maze? Okay.
You get up there. There's six
puzzles. The whole
tribe has to work on the puzzle. First
person of the tribe to finish the
puzzle gets the individual immunity but to to come but all six people have to complete the the puzzle
before the other six people complete the puzzle on the other tribe you know what i mean oh that's
interesting that that's to me is a little convoluted like a little bit i like i like
what you're thinking i could win individual immunity and my
tribe lost the challenge i like what you're thinking i like i like what you're saying
about broccoli but um the uh it's interesting yeah there's something there there's something
there okay but i think it's like two it's like you win and there's too much i just make it simple
you know you get up there there's six puzzle spot there's six spots you know or how
about this rob since we are the challenge designers there's six spots period but you could so you
could go to one of those spots and screw over your tribe well you could leave the challenge
no no you're like you guys are down below on the ramp i'm going for the puzzle spot
you know you're like not waiting for everybody else to get to the, you know, there's no table maze.
So am I giving up the right for the merge feast?
Yeah, your group has to win for the merge feast.
I don't know the game probability.
Yeah.
But I like, you know, we'll work on this.
That would be very ballsy to just, like, desert your tribe to go compete for the.
I mean, we saw, didn't GC do that in Gabon?
He just left.
He didn't...
He pulled for it, right.
He wants the individual immunity
and forget how my tribe does.
Oh, I think he meant when they couldn't find him
before they had to go to drop the pencil.
Oh, no, no, no.
And like that first...
Yeah.
First like foot race or whatever,
like he's like, okay, see you guys.
And that was what was so good about the other tribes
that they all worked together.
Okay.
Let's circle back to Andy.
Okay. So there was this great moment
in the episode where Andy,
as the votes were coming in, starts to realize,
wait, wait, I'm the backup plan?
Yeah. And Andy had been like really
feeling it, talking about how great it is
to go to tribal council, how awesome it is to
blindside Annika.
Do you think, could
Andy relapse after this? I know you had some tweets about this. you think could Andy relapse after this?
I know you had some tweets about this.
Like what does relapse mean here?
That does he go, as they used to say on Succession, could Andy go nut nut?
Bore on the floor?
Is that what the, so first of all, I have a lot to say about this because I thought
this was very bad from Sam.
I thought that like, you know, so basically, so Andy's name is like out there, right?
So Sue out of the gate says like, what about Andy, right?
Because presumably because there's this sense of him as being, you know, a wounded animal, right?
Like they all saw him have this freak out.
And some of us thought, hey, he's going to be be protected at emerge because nobody's going to be threatened by him but it is true that in those early merge discussions
you are kind of just trying to like pull out those consensus names of people who you think everybody
will get behind and so sue mentions andy's name and then so andy is like like quote like out there
so even as you know rome is is going for saul Saul and Saul is obviously successfully going for Rome.
Like there's a sense of like Andy is in the mix.
So how does Andy's name still get written down once everyone decides to dogpile on Rome?
Sam turns to Saul and says like, hey, just in case Rome has something, I would rather Andy be the one who's voted out rather than you, Saul. I would rather Andy, who's been my ally for almost two weeks, rather than you,
who I met two hours ago. Why don't you write down Andy's name? I think this is very, very bad.
Well, let me say in fairness to Sam, he's in a tight spot because Rachel is at the feast.
But this is not a feast. This is when in the shelter,
when Sam is talking to Saul shortly before the vote,
that's where he leans over to Saul and says,
you know, I think you should target Andy
and, you know, write Andy's name down.
Is it possible it had already been decided
and that, okay, that was the agreed upon name
and Sam is sort of trying to be
magnanimous to Saul. Like, here's an olive branch of like, hey, I hear the name you should write
down. It's Andy. But Rome is the agreed upon name. Like, Rome is the name. So like, what does Sam
care if Rome has an immunity idol and votes out Saul by accident, you know, rather than risk sacrificing his ally. And so
when Andy is going to wonder as it worked out, Rome wrote down Sam's name. Could Sam have had
some kind of an inkling that Rome was talking about throwing? I mean, I guess it did come out
that Kyle had asked or answered the question, who's the biggest threat to win the game? Is Sam,
was Sam especially concerned that maybe Rome could play something and there could
be, have been rogue votes coming his way?
Yeah, I would.
I mean, I think that's a reasonable concern, but to say vote for Andy, I think is very,
very careless because right.
And he's going to wonder who wrote down my name and he's going to go back and be like,
Hey, who wrote down my name?
And Saul, when he's like, like hey i need to fess up it was me because sam told me to do so andy is going
to be like why was my best ally in this game the one who like was so cavalier about making me the
decoy boot yeah i think that people need to take seriously people like it feels very like he's like
not considering andy's perspective here He could have said anybody's name.
Right.
Like anybody's name.
Other than like Andy or, you know, Andy or Sierra.
You know, he could have literally anybody.
Like, hey, I think you should write down like literally any person.
You know, a lot of baby noise in the background here.
I do hear a little bit of baby noise.
My daughter just woke up.
Yeah.
Okay.
You okay?
You need a minute?
No, no, no. I'm all right. It's not me. Yeah. It's not me screaming. Okay. You okay? You need a minute? No, no, no.
I'm all right.
It's not me.
Yeah.
It's not me screaming.
Okay.
Because look,
I just want to offer that to you.
If you need to hit the pause button,
I could take a call from the chat
or anything like that.
No, no.
I'm all right.
So let me respond to some of that.
Okay.
So I think that what's interesting is,
and I know you're not a big brother person,
but we have this a little bit more
in Big Brother of like,
who could sit on the block? who could be a pawn for somebody.
And maybe in Sam's mind, Andy was a great pawn in the last vote that he was willing to go to tribal council, let Annika and Rachel think that he was the one who was going to be voted out.
But Andy felt like that he was in control of that vote.
in control of that vote. It wasn't just that it was Sam and Sierra doing a thing. And Andy was just sort of an innocent bystander that Andy felt like that that was like when they said,
whose move was this? That Sam says, yeah, I did it. And then Andy's like, no, all three of us did
it. And so that if Andy might have been brought in of like, hey, Andy, just so you know, people
are writing down your name for the backup vote.
And then, you know, they have the amulets that they could have potentially like, OK,
play that. But but you should play the amulets on you. Like, make sure if you guys are playing the amulets tonight, play them on you. Like maybe Andy is OK in that scenario where, OK,
then you sort of like, OK, you have a decoy vote. You have does it solve for potentially the one
OK, you have a decoy vote. You have does it solve for potentially the one stray Sam vote that Sam might be worried about? Not exactly, but at least that you keep Andy on board as somebody who could potentially be moving around here post merge.
Yeah. I mean, you know, it's a huge difference to being the decoy boot on a tribe with five people.
Right. Where there's not a lot of ways for it to go. and on a tribe with 13 people, you know, where, you know, the politics of that five-person
tribe for Gada were, you know, if I say this person's the decoy boot, they're going to be
wise to the plan. Here, Sam could literally tell Saul anybody. He could say Sue. He could say Gabe.
He could say Carolyn. He could say Tiana. You know, like I, you know, you get the idea. Yeah. Why doesn't he say someone on the on the blue tribe? You know, like it's the idea that he would be. I would be furious if like my like supposed best ally in the defense that like, well, your name is was
already out there. Like there were only two votes on on Andy, like put someone else's name out there.
It doesn't like this is not like a seven, six split. This is a eight, you know, whatever it is,
10 to, you know, I mean, like, you know, it's not. Yeah. So I I'm hoping this is not going to sound like a shady question.
Okay.
So I do not know what it's like to have something happen in the game that I did not know about.
Okay.
In Survivor the Amazon, everything that happened in the game, I knew about.
And then in Survivor All-Stars, by the time something happened in the game that i didn't know about i was out of the game yeah how do you
how like how do you come back from a tribal council where something has happened that you
were not looped in on completely and then how do you handle that like how do you start to get the
information from people like oh like uh yeah I didn't know that was happening.
Yeah, that's a good question.
I mean, I have had that happen.
Right.
This is the tribal council before I was voted out where Jeremy saved me with an idol.
Like, I was like, oh, wow.
Like, I had no idea.
I mean, I had sort of started.
I like as we walked in, I kind of like pick the pieces together.
That was highly at risk. But I did not realize it was going to be as unanimous as it was.
That was more that was worse than what Andy went through.
But you know, if you look, I think you sort of start and listen,
I was voted out of my next tribal council.
So maybe, you know, don't take your tips for success for me.
But I think you start to kind of like just build up again.
You say like, I was blindsided.
Now I need to like reaffirm trust with the people I trust
and stop trusting the people who I should not be trusting. Um, but it's hard because you, it's hard to gauge who went along with the plan
because they felt like that was the plan. I got to go along with it versus who went along with
the plan because they were driving it. Like for me, Spencer was always that, like that question
mark, like, is he, you know, I thought, Oh, well, you know, I can't blame Spencer. Like everyone
was voting for me, but in fact, I should have blamed Spencer because he was really behind it.
So, yeah, I mean, it's really tricky.
And it's so like, you feel so rattled in that moment
because, you know, especially where you,
like for Andy, you know, maybe, and me at the time,
you know, you do feel like, okay,
I'm like getting my feet under me.
I'm kind of like starting to like make some moves here.
And then to suddenly be like, wow, there's so much information out there.
So many things are happening that I'm not aware of.
It is very scary.
And it's hard to manage in a 13 person tribe.
But that's why, like, if I had found out that like my best allies were the ones who were throwing me under the bus, I would be like totally upended.
You know, like, what do you even do in that situation? And, you know, like, and if it's only your best allies, you know, nobody else is putting
Andy's name out there. It was Sue and Sam. You know, if it's only like the fact that his number
one guy was putting his name out there, like, I would be furious. Yeah. So how much should a
survivor read into the fact that they are the backup target?
And I feel like in Survivor 44, I think that Jam Jam ends up being the backup target.
Like, it's not a position that you can't come back from.
Like, is that something that maybe players read too much into?
Like, look, somebody's got to be a backup target.
You're still here. Don't let it be the end all be all. maybe players read too much into like look somebody's got to be a backup target you're
still here don't let it be uh the end all be all and i'm sure carolyn was too sometimes right like
wasn't there like some like sort of maybe it was jammed in there was someone like i remember some
like minor conflagration about that sort of towards the end game when like one of them was
the backup target and was i think it was carolyn right who was like furious about it maybe i'm
misremembering um i'm sure chat will let us know the um the yeah it's terrible look i mean it just shows that they're not taking your position in the
game seriously i think they're not looking out at you and they're treating you as disposable
and i mean of course it also means that you could be next like once your name is out there like your
name stays out there and i've talked about that, like just this idea that there is a weirdly small mix of people who are considered viable options, you know, and it
kind of stays the same. And, you know, it's hard to sort of get your name out of that bowl, you
know, of that, like, my metaphors are all over the place. But, you know, I think you want to do
everything you can to make sure that's not
you. And it is reasonable to be upset when it is you because it suggests that it could be you for
real next time. And of course, if something goes wrong, it will be you. And so I would work very
hard to do that. And I think it is also very reasonable to think that the people who are
putting your name out there as the backup target are people you can't really trust them.
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You'll be solving customer challenges faster with agents, winning with purpose, and showing the I want to talk about the advantage.
Rome talked about, he said to Jeff, this was a bad advantage.
It's not going to work. Uh,
we do proceed to see the three players with the amulets, uh, basically publicly flush them.
Steven, were you proud of teeny and Andy and Caroline in that moment?
Just getting rid of it. Very smart move. And I thought rum rum spelled it out very well. You
know, you don't want to,
everyone knows about this thing.
All it's doing is making you a target.
Just get rid of it and remove the target from your name.
Yeah.
Do you think that they, these three,
in fact, maybe killed the amulet?
Any sort of like three-way shared advantage?
A much better version of the amulet.
I thought it was a better version of it.
It turned out that the last season,
it actually ended up being a more,
or not last season, but 45,
it ended up being a more impactful thing
because it did like,
but of course that was the first time it was played.
So no, you know,
people weren't thinking to protect against it.
Yeah, this might've killed the Amulet,
which is too bad.
I'd give it one more shot.
I think this,
I think Amulet deserves one more try. So I think that maybe for the amulet which is too bad i'll give it one more shot i think this i think amulet deserves one more try so i think that maybe for the amulet to work like in in the
first version of the amulet um that we had it where in survivor 42 it was in the opening moments of
the where it was hi and lindsey and drea and they sort of like okay cover yourself in blood cover yourself in in mud and
then you don't don't tell anybody that what you were doing back here and nobody knew that they
had a thing it wasn't like that they went on a journey they didn't have to come up with a cover
story it feels like that maybe there was an opportunity that those three could have done
something with it but it was a the one where it was like a very unpowered idol, not, not a lot
of juice in that idol, uh, ultimately until somebody was the other two people were out of
the game. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think you're right. And, you know, Rome said it at tribal council,
you know, everybody tells what you would happen on the journey and like, you sort of have to,
because otherwise you're going to get fact check at a later point in time. So, you know, I think
that having the pressure of being straightforward combined with the amulet, not being that powerful
on its own, right. You know, there's no, if you had some like super powerful thing, you might have
an incentive to lie about it, but not having that, like, there's no real reason to lie about it when
you go back to the, to the group, um, you know, and also being able to like prove that you don't
have some super powerful thing because you've got the hardware so it can't be a public thing it needs to be more of a private
thing where the players are sort of incentivized to spend it especially after you know we've seen
so many players get voted out with idols and for having idols so i think that they need to be it
has to be super secret and then also you know know, stay, uh, powerful to be able to be, uh,
used together. So I, I think that there's still a possibility for an amulet, but I still, it's,
it needs, uh, at least another evolution. Hey, Rob, what do you think of this? I really thought
a lot. And at the time I thought it was corny, but now I, it's one of the scenes I remember
most vividly from survivor Vincent's nighttime trip to go to the other tribe and steal whatever it was.
He had like a task that he had to do.
Yes.
To steal fire or something.
Go steal their fire.
Right.
And then Jeremy, too, had like a nighttime trip to get the –
Go into the woods.
Yeah, go into the woods and follow the lights and get an immunity idol.
I wonder like what if we had three nighttime
trips and these three players sort of have to like make their way at night down like somehow
they're like clued in maybe it's like a beware advantage you know and they have to sneak out
together like that could be kind of cool yeah i feel like in survivor 41 we had a thing where
uh tiffany and sydney and um uh i like what you said about brad um that they went off but i'm
not sure if it was like a pick somebody from your tribe or if it was like it was known i'm not sure
if they sneaked out or not the chat would would know but yeah i that's fun to sort of like
nighttime traders type rendezvous yeah yeah meeting the turret and you'll get an
advantage the challenge is boats at night right they don't want to do boats at night although i
guess vincent must have right they must have come all the way down the beach and sneak out yeah
okay maybe they build a bridge maybe they can successfully build a bridge from one beach to
another they can uh you know pretty good that'd be pretty good okay so uh the amulet ultimately
ends up being nothing here uh what do we think is going to happen next steven oh boy oh boy
oh my least favorite question um you know this is like so much easier to talk about what happened
already the past is easier to talk about than the future it's true okay so what do we know
so if andy has been sort of unsettled where does andy go where what i think there's a world andy
have well i mean i don't know i feel like there's a world where you know andy and teeny maybe connect
you know is that delusional and caroline the amulet people could, you know, they did stand up together and play the amulet together. And so that there is Andy said, hey,
come look for me at the merge. I'm in a low information position. I think that that's had
been fact checked by him being the decoy vote. He got picked last in the in the school year pick.
Yeah. I think there's a world where he connects with you know sol and
teeny um and maybe even genevieve that was sort of your your version of although the the i mean
we never trust the previous land but didn't they say like like we got to get god out or something
in the in the next time on survivor it does feel as though the juiciest target on the board is the
sam and sierra pair yeah i think there's a good chance that they,
one of them is,
is,
you know,
up for elimination very soon.
I mean,
we still have that sort of unresolved question of Tiana and Sue,
you know,
and Gabe.
So I think she's a viable target.
Honestly,
those to me are the likeliest.
I think they're like the Sam Sierra pair.
And I really think this,
what happened with, with this, that that vote could come back to, you know, to, are the likeliest. I think they're like the Sam Sierra pair. And I really think this, what happened with that vote could come back to,
you know, to haunt Sam with the Andy throwaway
and the Tiana thing.
But like, to me, it looked like Sam Sierra are,
and especially Sam is a,
what do you, how do you feel about that?
Yeah, I agree.
It does feel like that Andy did seem a little spooked
by what had happened there.
And it seems like that Andy did seem a little spooked by what had happened there. And it seems like
that there's also the women are seeming to, if not a full-fledged like women's alliance, I do think
that there is like some momentum for the women to be working together. And so I think that that is
looking worse for Sam than it would be for Ci Sierra moving forward, especially if Rachel is somebody who also
does not really have allegiance to Sam and Sierra anymore after the Annika blindside. And maybe Andy
was rubbing salt in the wound about how it was fun as hell to blindside Annika. So Rachel is
somebody I think who also, ironically, and you talked about this on Twitter, the relationship between Andy and Rachel.
I mean, they've had such this interesting relationship with going back from day one to ultimately after the Annika blindside.
And even though they would seemingly not be on the same page, they both could be sort of incentivized to be forming some sort of new thing against Sam and Sierra.
Yeah, yeah, it really is true.
And I really think that that, that would be an interesting, you know,
twist where first, you know, and like Andy,
like turns to Rachel in desperation, you know,
looking for someone to console him, Rachel rejects him because she doesn't want
to be, you know, pulled into his, you know, spiraling doom.
And then in last, this episode at the start of the episode, we have,
you know, Rachel basically turning to Andy and being like, Hey, like, let's, you know, I need help now. Um, so maybe there's a world where this whole, you know, the Andy Rachel duo, uh,
dominant, can Andy win the game? I'm, I'm, I'm more bullish today than I was, you know, three
weeks ago. Yeah. I do think that there's certainly a path where Andy could be sort of this down and out.
They love this story of the person
who he had this emotional moment
where he looks down and out.
He looks surely like he's going to be the first boot.
And then to come back from that
and ultimately like win the game,
I think that that is very plausible.
I see an Andy Sue.
I mean, Sue for sure is in the finals.
I think I don't, I wouldn't be surprised at all
if Andy was as well.
I think that if we were doing a draft,
I think that they would be two of the top five or six picks.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, let's take some questions here.
Okay?
All right.
How about Brian wants to know,
much was made about Andy being the backup plan, but it seemed to me like Saul convinced Sue to put a vote down with him in case Rome somehow sniffed out the vote.
Saul and Sue is such an interesting combo for me.
What do you guys think of this?
Is this a potential power duo in the making?
We did see a scene of both of them meeting early into the merge.
Saul and Sue.
Wouldn't that be fun?
The Saul SueSue duo.
Yeah, I mean, you do wonder,
we don't really know why,
I mean, Sue was the one who threw out Andy's name
to begin with.
It's possible that,
because initially I thought, you know,
if it's just going to be one vote on Andy,
Saul's vote on Andy,
that would actually effectively be saving Andy, right?
If there was just one throwaway vote or one backup vote for Andy, and then the fear is that Rome plays an idol or a shot in the dark, and then his vote for either Saul or Sam, then those two people Andy who's immune so by making your one vote on Andy you
would actually be saving Andy but um in fact it was two votes I wonder like maybe someone was just
yeah hard to say right I'm assuming Sue knew the plan and but like was just told I wonder if maybe
there this could have been some sort of like shot in the dark prevention also where, okay, uh, is, is Rome more likely to play the shot in the dark? Rome claimed
in his exit, uh, interviews that he, uh, thought that there was, uh, probably a 25% chance that he
was going to go home. He said that he thought about playing the shot in the dark, but he said,
well, if I am going home, that it's not even worth it to play the shot in the dark, because even if
I save myself, I'll just go home the next vote like Caleb did.
I thought that was so funny.
The one time the shot in the dark
has actually affected the game
and everyone sees it as like actually making
the shot in the dark even less useful.
Like Caleb was saved, but it's like, well, he was saved,
but then he was immediately voted out.
So did it do anything?
Like truly like the one moment
of shot in the dark being useful
is somehow proof that the shot in the dark is not useful yeah i think that caleb uh got potentially a little unlucky also with it being the
vote uh the tribes uh split the next vote and he got a like an unlucky draw there maybe that there
was an opportunity that he could have had something else going on had that not happened do you think
we're getting the tribes uh split into six and six next week oh i never know i don't think that the preview explicitly said that yeah you're you're
much more on top of that than i am i never can well i just feel like that they're playing with
a lot of the format stuff so i do think that like we're for the first time in the new era we're on
our toes a little bit yeah i hope i hope so that would be nice okay Okay. All right. How about, um, Hmm.
Oh,
Dolores has a great question.
Was Rome playing for season 50?
That's a great question.
Maybe.
I mean,
I would say that it's possible because that Rome,
that when we talked to Rome this morning,
Rome was saying, talking about how that he hid the vote was going to be on Saul because he knew
that Saul was somebody who was never going to vote for him on the jury and if he's the type of person
that's you know uh configuring the jury on day 12 of like okay I gotta get this person out today
because when I get to the final three on day 26, this isn't going to be a vote for me.
I do think that he is somebody who could be playing four seasons ahead.
Yeah. I mean, he's definitely like consciously or not like playing for to be brought back to be a big character, to be, you know, to sort of have that be part of his experience.
Do you think it was effective?
of his his experience do you think it was effective yeah i mean i think he's got to be i mean you know it's too bad he didn't make the merge because if he had made the merge he'd be
much more viable yeah i'm making a joke because he did really make the merge i think i think so
i think he's viable you know i think he would he's got to be in the mix um i saw someone on twitter
you know being like would you you know if you're gonna cast like one sort of like chaotic player who's gonna like you know mess with everybody's games like are you
gonna cast q or rome i'm like why not both that's such a like uh like why would you have to only
pick one or the other and also why wouldn't it be you know q 100 times out of 100 well i think
i think if it was between two people and and you you know, at one person in queue, it's always going to be cute.
But,
um,
I do think that like,
imagine them on the same beach.
I know it would be so great.
Like just like the,
the pure,
but you know,
maybe it would be short lived.
Um,
but,
but,
um,
yeah,
both.
I would truly want both.
I would love to see Rome back.
I think Rome deserves a second chance.
He played hard.
He did so much.
He like,
he like,
he really like did it all you know
yeah that's a good question we haven't really uh talked about that yet in season 47 of who might be
trying to play for survivor 50 we thought when they first announced survivor 50 that there was
a lot of talk like oh these players they're gonna be like watch they're gonna be doing but uh he's
probably the only person that we could really point to and say all right uh that he that might have been a factor for him yeah yeah i mean like
who else even out there would you say like this is a viable survivor i mean like we don't we just
don't know yet you know like we don't know it's really it's we're only six episodes in yeah i
mean you know genevieve is popping by the way she is a really a lot especially she's popping when
she's the only person in color and everybody else is just desaturated from being in the mud yeah that was that pick and all the
many interpretations of that were um were very funny yes okay how about um all right nicholas
says given that a member of mergitory's boot tribe had made final tribal council in every new era
season often two members.
Which of Teeny, Sol, and Genevieve do you think is the most likely to make the final three?
I don't even know if I understand this question.
So the tribe that was vulnerable is the tribe that has multiple people in the final three, I guess.
Yeah, but I feel like this is not that big of a statistical anomaly.
I don't know.
There's six seasons.
But if you divide the group in half,
isn't it likely that at least one or two
of those people make the final three?
Yeah, yeah.
That's a good point, Rob.
But Teenie, Saul, and Genevieve,
I think I'd say Genevieve today.
I still think Teenie has got real endgame.
I mean, just the hard thing with Genevieve
is she just was so absent from those first episodes.
I would be really, I mean, I hope I'm surprised.
I love being surprised.
Gabler, people were so upset about Gabler,
I was like, oh my gosh, this was so satisfying.
I had zero idea this was coming.
We love to be surprised.
I'm with you. Yeah. Genevieveieve to me is uh the player who seems like uh that she has so much ability
but i'm having a hard time seeing her path uh she seems like that you know super capable but
i don't know necessarily like uh who she has now you know she she, she had Rome and then she cut bait on Rome.
And I think that was
ultimately a good move.
But other than Teenie and Saul,
like Genevieve needs
to get something going.
It does feel like
that the real base of power
somehow is Tuku,
who seems kind of dysfunctional,
but ultimately, like,
I don't see them
turning on each other.
Yeah, yeah.
That's a great point.
I mean, at least for now,
let's hope that they don't. Or I don't know, you know, other. Yeah. Yeah. That's a great point. I mean, at least for now, let's hope that they don't.
Or I don't know, you know, just because we want the best for everybody.
That moment with Genevieve and the boy I thought was so good because that is what makes a good survivor player.
It's that sense of like that nagging doubt that you pay attention to.
There's something that wasn't right.
Yeah.
A gut feeling.
A gut feeling.
And you're like, I need to follow that because when you got that gut feeling,
you know, you're usually right.
Like that was 100% my experience.
You know, there's like the paranoia
and that's always in the background
and you have to kind of filter that out.
But that sense of like something is wrong here.
Like I need to figure out what that is.
That is, if you pay attention to it,
that's when you kind of unpack the, you know,
unpack the threads, unravel the threads.
Yeah.
Pull on the thread.
And you get voted out.
Okay.
This is from Rames28.
I feel like Caroline is in a great position
and is kind of running things.
She has a great social and strategic relationships.
What do you think about Caroline?
Yeah.
Caroline's in a great spot.
She has a good relationship with Sue.
She obviously has that little bond thing
with Andy and Teenie. I don't know. I mean, is she in such a great spot? She's in a good relationship with Sue. She obviously has that little bond thing with Andy and Teenie.
I don't know.
I mean, is she in such a great spot?
She's in a good spot.
I feel like that she's kind of like in some ways like the nucleus of Tuku in that, you know, Gabe, I think, is much more like front and center.
And I think that Gabe is somebody who I think that I had a little bit wrong in the first episode.
I'm like, oh, Gabe's a maniac.
He's running all over the place.
Like,
uh,
he says,
Russell is his hero.
He's trying to be like Russell.
I think that he is very poised and has like a pretty solid,
uh,
social game and has done like a really good job.
It's not really,
uh,
rustling or ruffling any feathers,
uh,
with anybody,
but it does feel as though,
um,
that Caroline is sort of like a little
bit of the person who's she's in good. She's in good with Sue. She's sort of like, uh, like talking
Gabe down off of the ledge of like, okay, let's not get rid of Tiana who's coming for her. She
has the relationship with Andy and teeny. So I think the Caroline is a real, uh, under the radar
player. Yeah. Yeah. I, yeah, definitely. And I mean, she is a real under-the-radar player.
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
And I mean, she's really, you know, it's fun seeing her play.
You know, she makes good choices.
And, you know, I thought the way she approached Sue about the idol was really well done.
I do think Tiana really is at risk
because thinking about it,
they had that whole segment about Sue not trusting Tiana
like once again. Yep. Sue's not feeling so great about tiana i feel like that if there's one tuku
who does end up getting burned off i do think it will be tiana yeah i can see that happening like
not too long from now yeah uh what do you think about kyle he had sort of a big episode in terms
of like he has that conversation with rome rome to blow up his game. It ends up boomeranging back on Rome. Uh, he ends up then winning immunity.
He, uh, has the, the great moment where he talks about how he's doing this all for his family.
Yeah. Great episode. Very fun. A very likable character. I love Kyle. Like he's a very fun
character. Um, and you know, just seems sort of like straightforward and, you know, earnest.
And, yeah, I mean, it's kind of what you see is what you get with him, which is nice.
Yeah.
Okay.
Steven, next week, when we from today, it's going to be Halloween for our Survivor Know-It-Alls.
Yeah.
Will we do anything spooky scary?
Oh, we could dress up
as each other
take glasses off
take glasses off
spooky scary
right
yeah
okay
so
that
little tease for next week
we'll see
what would you do
how would you dress up like me
I would take my glasses off
and put on a plaid shirt
interesting
how would you dress up as me
hmm
I would
you know put glasses on.
Sweater?
Sweater, yeah.
So, yeah.
Yeah.
I could do it.
I don't know if like-
Would you be able to get any books in your background?
Do you have any books in the house?
I could do green screen.
Okay.
All right.
Also coming up this week, we've got a big momentous night.
Of course, a lot of folks were really excited about something that Stephen and I worked on a couple of weeks ago,
the blood on the clock tower.
And I think there's more to come about that.
But another original production from RHAP that we've been working on.
Stephen also was involved in this as we interviewed Steven Fishback for I Stand Cagayan.
Oh yeah, very fun.
Dr. Amanda, was this her grandchild?
Because like she was a great interviewer.
She was a great, that,
so I had started talking about in the beginning of the year,
I really wanted to do some kind of like oral history
of Survivor Cagayan.
And so I ended up uh working with uh some very
talented producers uh dr amanda rabinowitz matt scott lindsey wilson uh they uh interviewed a ton
of survivors a ton of podcasters for the story of a season that changed everything for a franchise and for a fan base. I stand Kageyan.
The world premiere is going to be on YouTube on October 29th,
Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
I will be in Philadelphia the night before for a special in-person screening.
If you want to be there with us, it's going to be a very fun night.
Go to robbyswebs.com slash Kageyan screening for that.
I got a problem, though uh i want to talk
about the image for the i stand kagian uh image um you know it's a great it's a great drawing i
feel like it captures everybody so well you have like bryce doing his like dot dot hmm you know
spencer looking um you know you've got you know was alexis maxwell sick at some point? She's there. You got Jatia throwing out the rice.
Every little detail.
So great.
Except LJ.
Like real short shrift to LJ.
So much to do with LJ.
The star of the season.
You could have had him solving a puzzle.
But he kind of looks just like Ophish.
And his neck is hugely wide.
And LJ.
Like what?
Don't you agree?
You're saying he was not made hot enough
just like all of lj's many virtues are not here you know i mean it's just like where is lj that
we we all remember as this like lightning rod of a character you know he went out in the storm to
find the idol okay here's what i want to know lj and saul were both drowning and you can only save
one they would never be drowning.
They'd probably save each other.
They're too,
they're too powerful to be drowning.
Saul would just like quad his ways,
his quad,
like walk out of the sea and LJ would solve the intricate puzzle of,
of why he was drowning.
Okay.
All right.
So yeah,
that's a big event coming up this Tuesday.
So I hope people check that out. Plus we have everything else going our next upcoming RHAP
live. That's up on Patreon at robinswebsite.com slash patron. Stephen, what's coming up for you?
You know, just, oh, my daughter's birthday. My four-year-old daughter is turning four this
weekend. Oh, very nice. Very exciting. My family's going to be in town. We're having a four-year-old
birthday. It just like feels like four. She's family's going to be in town. We're having a four-year-old birthday. It just feels
like four. She's so
excited to have a birthday party. You know, three,
she was obviously very excited. What's the theme?
The theme is a bunch of toddlers running around in an event
space. Got it.
So
I did have one more thing I wanted to ask you about this episode.
How did you feel about the Bat Immunity Idol?
I mean, I thought it was cool.
I feel like that um
you could make a more aesthetically pleasing immunity idol but would we be talking about it
would we remember it i kind of feel like that the goal for anything survivor does is like two weeks
from now will we remember it yeah uh and we'll definitely remember the bat but there's a lot
like now it's like you know any kind of dead shriveled animal.
You could have like a squirrel on an immunity necklace, like a shrunken human head.
It was something different, something that's iconic for this season.
And so I applaud the survivor immunity idol.
Yeah.
What's the next?
I'm serious.
What's the next iteration?
Once you've done the like leathery bat, where are you going from there?
I'm just trying to think of, you know, in Surviv islands they had like the immunity sword like are there any other things
that we could end up doing that would be sort of like a little bit more of like a sash or something
that would be like a little bit well nicaragua yeah yeah if you had like a little like a little
like shrunken uh like uh sash from Nicaragua.
A little like an effigy of sash.
That actually would be pretty cool.
Yeah.
That would be very unusual.
We'd be talking about it.
We'd be talking about it.
Okay.
What about like an immunity necklace?
That's like,
just like bling.
Like,
wouldn't that be like pretty cool?
That would be cool.
Actually,
that would be very cool.
Like,
yeah,
that would be like,
like a real,
like a really like thick,
like a gold chain. Yeah. Or like the tiara that tyson used to talk about a community crown like uh
yeah that would be fun and then once you've like gotten it off the neck you can do anything you
know you could do like immunity glasses and you have to be wearing the spangly glasses
yeah like a sombrero. Hmm. Hmm.
Yeah.
Lots of things you could do with it.
Okay.
All right,
Steven.
Uh, so you got the birthday party coming up.
Anything else?
That's the big one.
That's the big one.
Yeah.
All right.
Well,
this was a delightful chat today.
Yeah.
I hope the listeners had as much fun as I did.
And then we'll be back together in one week's time on Halloween.
Ooh,
spooky.
You got to go trick or treating then after this.
So what's it,
what's going to be your schedule?
So you got to do trick.
What are you guys?
Um,
I said that I had been watching the Menendez documentary.
Uh,
I needed somebody to,
uh,
be the other Menendez brother.
If you were up for it.
No,
I'm not up for it.
Yeah.
That's so dark.
Are you doing? Hey, Steven, they got a real deal. if you were up for it. No, I'm not up for it. Yeah. That's so darn...
What are you doing?
Hey, Stephen,
they got a real deal.
Yeah.
We're going as the Sestraninos.
Oh.
Yeah.
Yes.
The baby's going to be you
and I'm going to be Dominic.
My four-year-old
is going to be Nicole
and my wife is going to be Anthony.
Okay.
All right.
Well, good luck with that.
Can't wait to see the pictures. Thank you so much for joining us. Take care, everybody. Have a good one be Anthony. Okay. All right. Well, good luck with that. Can't wait to see the pictures.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Take care.
Everybody have a good one.
Bye.
Bye.
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