RHAP: We Know Survivor - Survivor 47 Ep 12 Houston Live Show

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

Welcome to the RHAP LIVE Show! Coming to you LIVE from the Cullen Theater, Rob Cesternino (@RobCesternino) is joined by a rolling panel of Survivor alumni to break down the episode.

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Cozy up with the familiar flavors of pistachio. Or shake up your mood with an iced brown sugar oat shaken espresso. Whatever you choose, your espresso will be handcrafted with care at Starbucks. From the Colin Bue Houston, Texas, it's Rob as a podcast. And now, here's the guy who's the most qualified podcaster. Let's talk about Operation Italy. Rob Sestrovino! Hello, everybody. Welcome.

How's everybody doing tonight? Make some noise, Houston. Yes. Okay. We are going to have a great time. Wow. Did we have an all-time episode of Survivor to watch tonight? Survivor to watch tonight. Some people are saying this was the best of the new era. What do you say? Okay. I think for Gabe out there, I'm going to say this was on the Mount Rushmore of the new era episodes. We've got a great panel here tonight.

We're going to take your questions. You can still send them in. Robbisonwebsite.com slash questions Houston. Although if you're watching the recording of this, don't send in any more questions, okay? We got them. All right. So I've got a bunch of people to get to here tonight.

So let's bring in a veteran of these panels, somebody who filled in for me on the know-it-alls just a couple of weeks ago. One year ago, we were in his city for one of these. Please welcome our great friend, Owen Knight. How you doing? Hello. Owen, how are you? I am great, Rob. Good to be back at

an RHAP live event. And Houston, thank you for the warm welcome. Yeah. Alright. Owen, what a fun episode this was. It was great. It really was. I mean, really great strategy. The scramble was amazing. And it's always fun to see a big move get pulled off.

We've had all these kind of landslide votes lately. So it was exciting. Yeah. And unexpected because it looked like, I mean, I was saying earlier tonight, thank God we didn't have the live show last week. That would have been a tough one. But we got such a great episode and this

Operation Italy plan, which came together, and we get to talk about so many different parts of this to talk through. First off, just the sheer spectacle of it. What a great episode. Kudos to the production and the editors,

the spycraft. Ocean and the editors, the spy craft. Ocean's Eleven edit, the sweep through. They really went for it, and it was amazing. Yeah, I had so much fun watching it. Now that I've been on and seeing, okay, how are they going to edit this story? How are they going to explain what went on on the beach? I thought they had a lot of fun with it. It's easy to clown on Survivor these days with the background music being a little too much and a little loud at times, but I loved the

soundtrack that they did with the editing of the explanation of the plan. I thought it felt like a heist movie. It was great. Yeah. And it was this big plan. There were so many things Genevieve laid it out, all the different things that could have gone wrong or right with it. And the applause from you all here in the audience, that was like the biggest ovation I've heard at any of these live shows. I feel like we've done so many of these and you seem like you were really entertained. They loved it.

They loved it. They loved it. Okay, so let's start with great episode. Was this a great move for Andy? That's hard to say. I mean, you immediately want to be like, oh my God, he did it. He pulled it off. But thinking moving forward, I'm not sold that it's the best move for him.

Because now you're going into next week three to three. And those other three are pissed off at him. He just flipped on them and they have all the stuff. They've got the block of vote. They've got the idol and he has Sam and Genevieve who have nothing. So for me, it's a great move, obviously, for Sam and Genevieve. And I'm sure they were giddy to play along and do their acting and be part of something finally. and do their acting and be part of something finally.

But for Andy, it harkens back a little bit, not to make it about my season, but it was a little reminiscent of the move on Cody by Jesse. And I fear that now Andy might be a big target. And we'll see if it gets to the end. Because I've been curious, and I love your opinion, what they've been doing with Andy with his edit. Is he getting a winner's edit?

Is he getting a zero vote finalist edit, is he getting a winner's edit? Is he getting a zero vote finalist edit? Is he getting a fallen angel edit? It's been kind of hard to pin down. So I'm not sure now if he's the final boss that needs to be defeated. Yeah, I don't know what's going to happen for Andy. I don't know if he is going to just be sort of like the person who does. I had kind of thought he was going to be maybe going to be a losing finalist, but now I'm starting to feel like that maybe he comes up just short,

but I also think that maybe he could win. Is that... Tepid response. Yeah. Well, so many things from what you brought up, and I want to talk more about that Cody vote too, but just in terms of Andy and his positioning, it did feel like, based off of the episode, that it seems like he was

going to be fifth. It seems like that the four women talked about how, hey, this four feels good. It felt like that Andy was going to be fifth. Is that reasonable to assume that he was headed towards fifth place? I think it is. I think it is. We saw the conversation happening when the four women were left alone at the, when they were on the reward. And it's not out of the realm of possibility. That's how it would have shaken out. And I can't besmirch Andy for wanting to do something. You know, you want to put yourself in the driver's seat. You want to have that confidence in yourself that you can win a challenge when you need to and, you know,

fight your way to the end in that winning position. So I respect it. But yeah, it looked like he might have been cooked if he had just sat down and maybe gotten a place further. But is that what you want to do? You know, you want to play to win the game. So it was a brilliant move and the way they put it together, Operation Italy was so inspired. They put so much work into it. Andy, Genevieve and Sam, it was incredible. When Rachel won immunity, should Andy have opted out? Should he have hit the eject button on Operation Italy once? Because if they get Rachel out, she has the block of vote. They can basically, and I don't know if Andy wants to go to the final three with Genevieve

and Sam, but the main target, the person that it would have been so great that they could have gotten was Rachel. Does it make as much sense when the target is Caroline? I think it obviously doesn't make as much sense, but I think Caroline is a very reasonable target. I mean, we saw at the top of the episode Caroline mentioning something we all know, that her and Sue are the most visible connected duo left in the game. So that in and of itself is threatening.

That's potentially two seats at the final tribal. But yeah, I think a big part of it went into how much time they had invested in the plan. I think if it hadn't been this slumber party concoction that they had cooked up, it might have been easier to abandon. But they had really put a lot of effort into the planning. And it's so rare in the game that you get such intimate extended time with anyone to strategize like that. I could see their hesitance to abort the mission, but I think Caroline was a worthy target. I mean, I was sitting back there, and people were like, you know, she could win, or she's going home tonight based on that. I thought Caroline was the winner. If you asked me this morning who's winning Survivor, I would have said I'm 90% sure it's Caroline.

So I was totally thrown off. I really felt like we were headed towards Caroline winning the season. And then she's out now. And I didn't think this coming into this morning, it's starting to feel like we're headed towards a Rachel win. I've been on the Rachel train for a while. You like that? I think a lot of people agree. Yeah, Rachel

has a lot of the tools in the game right now. She has the connections. A lot of hardware. A lot of hardware. And yes, she's been identified as a threat, but she's got this clutch challenge ability as well, which I know gets undervalued sometimes and it's like, oh, it's just challenges, whatever. But when you are a threat and you're able to clutch that out when

you need to, and now she can save her advantages towards the end now, she's got a lot going for her. I think it's hers to lose. All right. Back to Rachel. So Andy knows she has this block of vote. What is the next move knowing that Rachel has the block a vote? Yeah, I don't know if you got that far in the plan. Like, I get it. For Genevieve and for Sam, like, this makes all the sense in the world. What else were they going to do? Head towards getting voted out? So, they didn't have another way to go. But I just feel like that Andy had come so far, it was too late for him to be able to pivot to something else.

He was so invested in Operation Italy. But I just don't see a way around how he's on the right side of the numbers when Rachel has the block of vote next time. I agree. And I think it would have been easier if Rachel had been the target, obviously, because then he can paint Stu and Caroline as the next big target and maybe try to pull Teenie in. So I'm not sure where Andy goes from here. It's reminding me of the South Park meme where it's like step one, Operation Italy. Step two, question mark, question mark. Step three, profit. And I'm not sure if he's figured out what the question marks are going to be in this next phase. And I

have all the confidence in the world that he can. He really has this kind of mad scientist energy going. And he's cooking up some creative stuff. And I forget, I think Sammy, my now wife, said that to me earlier today. Thank you. That Andy seems like he's having the most fun out there. For sure. Yeah. I just wonder, so you put so much time into Operation Italy.

And everybody's loving it. I'm sure the producers are like, yes, this is great. Andy's like, I love this. And Genevieve and Sam, everybody's thrilled. What if Andy, Rachel said, maybe I should play the block of vote tonight. What if he ultimately just got Rachel to play the blocker vote? Genevieve or Sam goes home on this vote. Could that potentially be a better outcome for Andy?

I think it could have been. I think that could have ingratiated him to Rachel and bought him maybe a spot further. But I think he probably thought that would be a little boring or safe. And I think, you know, I think people are hesitant to use their hardware when they don't need to. And especially once Rachel had one immunity, she's like, I get to save this till next round. And then I have my idol for the final five. Why would I waste this? So I think that would have been a tough sell, personally.

Can you speak at all to the position that a player could be in where it's like hey I feel like I'm headed towards the end I need to you know put points up on the board do you feel like that's for Andy this was like looking at it like not just am I making this move but ultimately for the jury this is going to be my key resume point yeah I can definitely relate to that as someone who was like dying to pull something off and like wished I had, you know, kicked the football, scored a basket, whatever. But I don't think Andy's perception of his game necessarily fit my perception of mine. You know, in my confessionals, I was like, oh my God, like this is going so horribly. Whereas Andy has had this, this rightful, yeah, he's been very confident and he's, he's

almost given off this energy. Like he's pulling off this big caper. And at the end, he's going to reveal that he's had these machinations the whole time. And that's like, you thought I was this crying fool on day three. But now, look at me, and I've risen from the ashes. And I think he had some merits to that. And I think this was kind of the cherry on top in that narrative for him. But now he's got to get through three more tribals.

And it's a little daunting. All right. So I want to compare this. You brought up the Cody vote. And to me, I feel like that that's sort of like the gold standard for these big new era blindsides and how cinematic that all was. Can you just talk a little bit about like what that's like being part of like this big caper? I can give it from like Sam and Genevieve's perspective where it's exciting as hell. You know, you're just like, oh my God, like I'm cooked. Like this is going to like, I'm just

trudging, as Genevieve said, to my death. Like you're just watching the snuffer slowly come down. And then all of a sudden Andy's hand, Jesse's hand comes in. It's like, wait a second. What if we did something crazy? And it's so thrilling. Like I remember saying when we were pulling off the Cody move and setting the table for it, it was like Jesse was directing this Oscar winning film and I got to be like the tertiary actor in it. And I was just so grateful to have a role in the movie at all. I didn't care that I wasn't directing and I didn't think to maybe try to utilize it to my advantage. So for Andy, I think he really did see it as his like masterpiece. Right. And like you said, I think like they

probably hyped it up in the whole operation Italy of it all. It's all very exciting to have this named thing, but when you're on the beach, it is like, it's like intoxicating knowing that you're lying directly to someone's face. You feel like you have this perfect plan and it's just all falling into place. And it worked out. I was not expecting it to, I thought Andy was laying it on a little thick at certain points when he was trying to push them to split the votes. I was like, dude, like pump the brakes a little bit. Like I was getting a little nervous that they would sniff it out. So in that instance, and then also, I guess, on the vote where James went home, where Noelle was going to pretend she was telling James that she was going to steal my vote to send you home. In both of those cases, you had to act like you were the person who was going to go home and you knew you weren't.

What is that like to have to do that? It's a little, it's fun, but it's also a little humiliating in a way because you're like admitting to your position in the game. It's like, this is how I felt. This is how I think you perceive me. And I am just rolling over and letting that perception just overtake me. And yes, I have this shred of hope and this confidence that it will pan out, but there is still this like fear in you that it's like, what if it doesn't? And I just look

like I've just rolled over and died. And so there is a little bit of this like turmoil to where you're like, Oh, should I be fighting harder? Should I try to do something different? But I think you need to like have a clear head and not let the anxiety overtake you and really just settle in and say, okay, this is my best shot. I'll see what I can do tomorrow as long as I'm still here. How do you know where the line is of am I doing too much? Am I not fighting hard enough? That's a hard one to say, and I think that's what separates elite players from regular ones or average ones to where you're able to roll the dice and play

with fire to the point where you can get that sense from other people and pick up on the social cues and understand if you're pushing the envelope too far, which again is what made me so nervous about Andy because I really thought people were sniffing out that he was up to something. When Genevieve called it shenanigans, like, you know, if there's any shenanigans, or when Rachel said if there's any shenanigans, I was like, Andy has shenanigans written on his face right now. Like he does not have a poker face. And I was nervous that it would blow up, but they did it. They pulled it off. Andy came back and he was really trying to get the word out of like, yeah, the thing I'm worried about is the idol. I'm really worried

about the idol. And then everybody else was like, okay, well maybe we should talk about splitting the boats. Teenie's like, eh, I don't think that there's anything. How do you, um, suss out that Andy is full of it? Well, I, again, I was nervous at another point when he kept using the same verbiage exactly to talk to every single person. When he said, you know, they just whined and dined me, and the biggest thing I'm worried about is the idol. And he needed a thesaurus. There you go, tongue twister. And I just was worried that if anyone compared notes, they'd be like, wait, he gave the exact same sales pitch to me in the same order, in the same intonation.

I was a little worried. exact same sales pitch to me in the same order in the same intonation. I was a little worried, but you're kind of asking the wrong person because no one was ever trying to pull one over on me. And I never had that like positioning in the game, but I think, I don't know. It really seemed like even in that group conversation where he was the one that kept bringing it up and kept pushing. And at first it seemed pretty chill and just like, oh, here, what if we thought about it from this perspective? Let's build this world and see it this way. But then he kept hammering it.

I always think about in this scenario that why don't people say like, okay, Andy, how about you vote for Genevieve and then Teenie votes for Sam and just see what his reaction is to that. Right, and just test it a little bit. Like how much pushback is there on that? But then I also feel like then you get into

sort of like the Robin Tyson heroes versus villains, who is supposed to vote for who. So you could also like confuse it and make it more of a problem. But I just would love, like I would like always questioning like, well, what if I did this and you did that? And just to see if people are like,

oh, no way, not doing that. That's a terrible idea. Why? Yeah, ask about their motivation, set a little trap for them, and just see how they react. But I think it speaks to kind of the new era just like moral set. I don't even know how to put it, but just how the tall poppy syndrome, like the biggest threat always going home,

like people are sometimes afraid to shit rock the boat at all. And so I feel like no one wants to be the pushy one who's like interrogating Andy, like, why do you want to split the vote so bad? Because they don't want to be the annoying one. And if something goes wrong, but yeah, you would think, I think that's really smart. I completely agree with you that people should, you know, push back a little bit more. Yeah, just to see what they say, you know, especially when it's Andy and he's been so all over the place during the course of the season. Right, right. For all they knew, he could have had another meltdown and just like imploded right then and there if the plan had been pushed. But that was a little mean. I'm sorry. But it's, yeah, I agree with you. I think they should have gone for it a little more. So it's a new year.

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Houston's own. Karishma! Karishma! Houston's own! How are you? I'm so good! Good to see you. You look great! Do you want to take the seat? Okay. Karishma, how are you?

I'm good. How are you? Doing phenomenal. What a great episode we got to talk about. Fantastic episode. I actually think it goes down in history as one of the best episodes of all time, in my opinion. Oh, yeah. For sure. It was certainly the best of the season.

But tell us about you. How are you doing? How's everybody at home? Well, as you mentioned, I do have a lot to celebrate. I, two and a half weeks ago, just had a daughter. Thank you. Baby Kavina is doing great. My husband, Drew, is here with me.

And this is my first time really out of the house Wow And I proudly just had my first glass of wine in ten So Rob I can confidently say you were whining and dining me tonight Yes, I got a bag of snacks, you know. Do you like that or you hate that like Andy? That's a too strong arm of an approach. I will openly accept it. Whether it's whining and dining, I will happily take it. Okay.

Krishma, what was your reaction to everything that happened tonight? So, first of all, fantastic episode all around. I think the editing was fantastic. I think the gameplay was so much fun to watch. But as you guys mentioned, and Owen was sitting next to me during the episode. So I'm one of those annoying people you do not want to sit next to during a movie because I lean over and I'm the one who's like whispering and giving my opinions. But Owen was such a champ.

He was talking right back with me. You were a champ because you clocked the whole thing. You saw it coming. Your reads were amazing. The second Caroline gave that confessional at the beginning of the episode, I leaned over to Owen. I think it might have been the first thing I said to you. What did I say?

Death wish. Yep. It's like, she's going home. Yeah. That's a death wish. But going back to what I was originally saying is, I really think some of the decisions that a lot of the players made may not have been the best for their long game.

Predominantly Andy, our poor baby Andy. I don't think he saw the big picture of what could happen by being a flip-flopper. And I feel like at the end of the episode, when they showed the jury saying he flipped again, I think it was a little bit letting us know that the jury's perception of a flip-flopper is not so great. Okay, that's interesting.

Because my read was that it was like, oh, Andy, he finally, he did something. But I respect that view that maybe the jury is souring on him. It could go either way. It really could. Because there's two sides of the coin here. There's somebody taking hold of their game

the way Andy saw what he was doing, taking control, making your own decisions. But, you know, the way the jury said it, he flipped again, that didn't sit right with me. I think that they're just not going to respect it. Right. Because you have somebody like Sierra who's already on the jury, who she was the victim of one of Andy's flips. And so if there's a narrative already out there about him being a flipper, and then if he does it again, maybe that's not necessarily a move that the jury loves to see from Andy. Absolutely. And I think for long game, Owen touched on it. You have to take a look.

I mean, who am I to talk? But you have to think about not just this vote, but how my actions are going to affect the next vote and the vote after that. And all of the goodies are in the other side's bags. And those goodies could chop your head off. And I don't know if Andy, I mean, you know, he may have considered it, he may have a plan, but those goodies could chop his head off. You never know. The problem is also that he doesn't know about Sue's idol. He doesn't know about Rachel's idol. Both of them have done a good job of keeping those things secret.

The only thing he does know about is the block of O, which is still going to be a problem for him. What's his plan for the block of O when it's three against three next week? I wonder. Right? Is anybody else wondering that? Because when it's three against three, that's all you need is a block of vote and you're done. Plan might be win immunity.

I don't know if Operation Italy got that far. I don't think it did. I don't think it did. Just to backtrack a tiny bit, I think something we don't talk about a lot in the new era as much is the concept of jury management, just because I feel like a lot of the super fans that are playing, I feel like we view them as being very objective about who played the best, who had the most control over the season. So that was something that you mentioned that hadn't crossed my mind at all. Can you speak to that a little bit more

about how you think those jurors are building the Andy narrative or maybe how they might perceive a player like a Rachel? Because we've been saying, I've been thinking it's Rachel's game to lose. And I think we said that up in the seats. How do you think the jury is perceiving them at this point? Well, my opinion on jury management is that that has evolved so much over time. And it is such a crucial aspect of being a successful survivor player

in that you need to be able to understand what motivates people at the core in order to be a successful survivor player, one, but in order to be successful at jury management. And what I mean by that is you need to know what these particular jurors value. Do they value challenge wins? Do they value great social game play?

Do they value flip-flopping? I mean, maybe that's what Andy's thinking is that these people value flip-flopping. Let me show them a little bit more of that. So that's the definition of jury management that evolution has turned it into now. And so you need to be able to think ahead, hey, I'm about to put this person on the jury. This person really values this. This is what I'm going to highlight to that person. Yeah. And that sounds so incredibly difficult to do because for one person

flip-flopping to another person, it's like genius strategy. Right. And just from my experience on my season, Jesse was such a front runner, but his narrative was that he backstabbed many people throughout the season. And so this episode reminding me of Cody's boot and now seeing Andy kind of like blossoming into this Jesse position. But to Karishma's point, like he's not getting that same adoration from the jury bench. Cause I read it the same way. It's, it read a little negative when they said he flipped again. You know, you also have to think about who is going to be the leader over at Ponderosa because being a seven day Ponderosa veteran over here, I know that the second you step foot there, you're sitting at the table or the person with the most convincing

sort of topics or convincing points, they're going to change a lot of minds at Ponderosa. So you got to think about who is going to be a champion for you or against you. You got to think about that too. I want to talk a little bit about Sam's picks for the reward and Teenie's reaction to those picks. Now, okay, Karishma, your season I think had like the last like real family visit. They had one in Winners at War, but it was just like, bring out everybody's family and their friends.

They're all here. Your season, if I recall, it was people were upset. It was a lot. It was a lot. Right? And I remember Nora was, like, freaking out. It didn't get picked. And it was, like, everybody was mad.

Right? picked and it was like uh every everybody was mad right so can you talk a little bit about what it's like back on the beach to not be selected for the family stuff watching that scene was almost like being transported back to that beach for me in that moment where we came back and it was me, Nora, Dean, and Elaine, and we were sitting there fuming and we were doing the same thing they showed with Teenie, Nora a little bit more than the rest of us, and they showed you some of that, but we were all part of it.

You're hangry, you're pissed off, you don't understand why certain decisions are being made. There's so many disagreements. And the thing is, over the course of this journey, you're disagreeing so much. But when you're there and the four of you are sitting on that beach, especially for me, this was one of the few rare times where I felt like I was on the same page with some of the other players, with all the other players. And so we kind of bonded a little bit over that hatred and over that sort of feeling of being pissed off. And so I can completely, completely relate to Teenie.

I can completely, completely relate to Teenie. And I thought it was just so fun to watch. Yeah. Teenie was pissed. Big mad. Really? I didn't see it. Yeah.

But I didn't really get where Teenie was coming from. Like, it seemed to me it was... Hunger. I hate to say it. I felt I was a little entitled about wanting to be the person to get picked. That Teenie was going on and on. I'm like, oh, my God, Sam just made the dumbest move ever to not take me to pitch me. If I was in Teenie's Alliance, I'd be like, why? Were you going to flip?

No, no, I wasn't going to flip. Well, then why was it a dumb move for him to not take you? Well, I was like an obvious person that they, he should have taken. Yeah. It was funny. I'm surprised we didn't see more eye rolls from, from the rest of the ladies, but it still was, was fun to watch. And the sentiment is so true, right? The sentiment is real is when you're out there and you just, you're hungry, you're missing home, you find out they get food, you find out they get letters, you find out that they, did they stay the night? I blanked out. Oh my God, could this be like a better reward? I don't

understand. So they get everything. And so of course you're going to be angry and you're going to use any reason to be angry. And I don't know. Teenie was just fuming at Sam. She was probably just saying everything in her mind, letting it off her chest. But what did Sam ever do to Teenie? Not get voted out, I guess. But I can give Teenie a little grace on that. Because I feel like Teenie has had a rough ride.

You know, their number one ally in Saul got taken out. has had a rough ride. You know, their number one ally in Sol got taken out. They had to kind of deal with Rome and lose Asia early when they didn't want to, even though they were kind of in on it. But it just feels like this was just another instance for them of things not going their way. And it's hard when you're out there,

because, like, yes, obviously there's a whole game going on. Oh, and Teenie went on every single reward this season. This is the first time Teenie isn't going on a reward. That's fair. But reward, like, who cares? No one cares. Like, you do care about rewards. But it's, like, I just feel like, strategically, Teany is having such a frustrating time, and they've never gotten their way,

they've never gotten their target out. Like, it's just boiling over at this point. So I can give them a little, like... I get it. I get it a little bit. And what I was gonna say is, like, even though it. I get it a little bit. And what I was going to say is like, even though you're in this game where there's 17 other people for you, it is your game. You are the main character of your life. Sure. So I can see why they're like, why didn't you pick me of all people? And what a great, better example of that when Genevieve and

Teenie are talking at the beginning of the episode. And there's a point where Genevieve is talking about Rachel's the big threat, and Teenie is asking, well, are you saying that if I was in the end with Rachel, you wouldn't vote for me? And Genevieve says, well, it wouldn't be a slam dunk to vote for her. Like, oh, you're threatening me. Whoa, what are you saying?

That my game's not as good as Rachel? Yeah. Yeah, it was an ultimatum, not a threat. Yeah, so everybody really is the hero of their own narrative. They are, but I'm with you. That was a little tough to watch. That felt like jumping five steps ahead in that conversation and felt a little overreacted.

Like, Rachel's playing a really good game, Teenie. Yeah. How dare you? So you're saying I'm playing a terrible game? How could you say that? Yeah, yeah. I didn't love that. That was not the best look,

but I can empathize with Teenie's position in the game. Sure, sure. Okay. For sure. Karishma, is there anything else that you're seeing about Survivor 47 you want to tell us about? Well, I'm loving the season. I did want to mention Genevieve's confessionals this season.

Yes. And particularly this episode. I think she's, first of all, she's very eloquent. And she's a great storyteller. But this episode in particular, look, I'm a little bit hormonal, so I did tear up. But when she was talking about not having any connections in the game, and I was telling Owen about this a little bit, but it's been five years since I've played Survivor. I've

obviously moved on. I've had two children, career, family. I don't think about Survivor very much, but when I'm remember thinking when I came home, people would always ask me, what was the hardest part of Survivor? And my answer was always, always, it wasn't the elements. It wasn't the lack of food. It wasn't the cold, the rain. It was the lack of connection. And if nothing else, you know, all you people, future survivor players out there potentially, you know, know that Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the most important need is that connection. I feel like this episode, Genevieve, it kind of feel like this episode, Genevieve, it kind of dawned on her that this is what's missing.

And the difference between Genevieve's situation and mine is hers was by choice and mine was not. And I'm so glad that the light bulb came up for her. And I hope that she came home feeling like she was able to develop and come home with that connection because it really is heartbreaking not having it. Yeah. You've always done such a good job articulating how hard that part of the game is from like when you went out and just talking about how that, okay, this was not something that was fun or that I would want to do again. And yeah, that's such a big part of it. Yeah, that was that. I remember when I got voted out and I got off that boat and I saw everyone standing at the edge of the deck and I was walking towards everyone at Ponderosa, the first thought

in my mind was not what am I going to eat or shower? It was, is anyone going to hug me? And not to get awes from y'all, but to understand just like how much in our human core we need hugs. We need connection. We need to feel friendship. We need to feel loved. We need to feel like we're capable of giving love. It's such, it was a huge lesson I learned when I played Survivor. And watching the episode, seeing Genevieve's face, it kind of just took me back. seeing Genevieve's face, it kind of just took me back. Like, she's feeling it. And it was, I mean, it was, I hate to say it was great to watch,

but I kind of felt connected to Genevieve in that moment. So, yeah. All right, well, let's give you a hug. Thank you for coming out. The dedication after having the baby. I do need you to lose in fantasy football this weekend. I'm playing Dominic

this week, so he better go down. But you, rise. I mean, this guy was in last place. I'm like Andy. Everybody counted me out. Here I come. We play in fantasy together, but he's in first place now. Give it up for Karishma. Great job.

All right. Let's bring up another guest, of course, from season 44, Lauren Harb. Come on, Houston. Hello. How are you? Also, this crowd is being amazing right now. Hey, watch it. Lauren, how are you?

I'm doing very, very well. Excited to be here. I'm glad y'all came. I mean, have y'all ever been to Houston before? First time. First time. Yeah. I'm doing well. I'm out close by in Mount Bellevue. So it was not that far away, but just excited that y'all are here and that we have events, you know? Like, there's not many things happening for Survivor in Houston. So it's cool to see when people come out here

and we can come out and support, so. What'd you think of this episode tonight? Man, it was crazy. I, you know, I was talking to Asia back there, and it's so funny just to hear her perspective. But I am truly, after this, I'm Team Andy. I'm Team Andy. Just because he's, like, narrating his own mastermind story, and it's so perfect.

You know, and, like, you can't understand him and I feel like, to me, it kind of gives Carolyn vibes a little bit from season four. I think that's a great comparison because I think that Carolyn was somebody who when people watched the show and she got to the end and she only got the one vote, I think a lot of the viewers were like, I don't understand.

How come Carolyn didn't get more votes? We saw her all the time in the confessionals. And I think if Andy gets to the final three, I could see him having a similar, people would be like, well, why didn't Andy win? He, like, we watched all of his plans. Right, and like you guys mentioned before, like, when he was up there on the screen, he was

like, okay, well now is my time. Right? Like he even talked about him being at the beginning and him being lower on the totem pole and then him like rising up. And I think that if he can articulate that very well at the end in some type of way, I mean, I think he can pull it out, but I'm totally team Andy. I love Rachel, love Rachel. I heard a lot of cheers for Rachel. pull it out, but I'm totally team Andy. I love Rachel. Love Rachel. I heard a lot of cheers for Rachel, but I'm definitely team Andy. So you went to the sanctuary, right? And you got your letters, right? I did.

I did. And you know, I'm going to tell y'all, the sanctuary is hot as hell, okay? It's hot. And there's like mosquitoes so many bugs there yes I got bit up all at the sanctuary and that's the only place that I got bug bites I thought that's where good things happen well I mean we had tacos and stuff but we got to talk but um I'm gonna kind of piggyback off of what y'all were talking about before I got my letters and it was a positive for me to be able to

get the letters, but then it was also a negative. Because after that moment, I kept going back to my letters and looking at them and looking at them over and over. And I know at the very end of the game, what they didn't show on my season was right before you know that idol was above my head that I didn't see. I was looking at my letters and I didn't see, I was like looking at my letters and I was crying and the producers were like surrounding me with cameras and it was just so emotional, you know? And like, I think at that moment, like it just broke me down and I realized

like, I don't have that true connection, you know? Like I have these people here who I'm kind of, I mean, I'm building relationships with, but it's not real relationships like at that, at that point, you know, but it wasn't a relationship like what I had with these people who sent me these letters, you know? So I like really broke down emotionally and like lost focus. And so for me being emotional in the game, I connected with Genevieve was like not a positive. Yeah. That's so interesting because you hear players, the players tonight said like, oh, I got the letters and that fueled me and it reminded me I was playing for the people back home.

And it's generally a positive, but that's so interesting that it could also be something that takes you out of the game. Right, right. And now like, I would have totally wished my kids would have came out there, my mom, you know, that would be so cool to see them. But it just like, that's not the way that I was able to play the game fully, you know, to my best ability. That's interesting that you said that because Sammy on my season also kept his letter and kept going back to it. And it's

very different from the loved one's visit where you see them for a little bit and then they leave and then that's it. And it's like a hard cutoff.'s visit where you see them for a little bit and then they leave and then that's it. And it's like a hard cutoff. I think the long goodbye and like having that temptation in your bag to look back at it when you need comfort. But also like it can be a crutch for sure. So I'd never heard anyone else talk about that. That's a really good point. Yeah, I was so emotional.

I've also heard Rick Devins has said that the letter is better than the loved one's visit in that you get to keep the letter. You have the letter with you the whole time. The family member comes and leaves, but the letter is something that you hold on to. Right. And actually, the letter was very, it was something really important for me because I didn't have, my dad was very strict and not very emotional, didn't show his feelings. So that was a moment for him to be able to show me his love and in words that I had never really seen before, you know.

So for me to continue to see that over and over and I never got that, you know, the verbal affirmation, you know, it was tough for me. I was going through all kinds of stuff mentally, you know, in that moment that I wasn't prepared for. So, we see that Caroline and Sue have this really close relationship and you and Jamie

had that, you know, tight bond throughout the game. What do you think about Caroline, or sorry, Sue wanting to play her, offering to play her idol for Caroline? Caroline saying no, don't do it. I felt so bad

in that moment because it was at six, I guess, I won immunity. It wasn't the family visit though, but I won immunity at six. And I was just so on cloud nine. I'm like, yeah, I won immunity. It wasn't the family visit, though. But I won immunity at six. And I was just so on cloud nine. I'm like, yeah, I won again.

I'm not going home. And nowhere in my mind did I think that they were going to vote for Jamie. You know? So I'm not even trying to devise a plan or anything, you know, for it. Because I'm like, they're not going to vote for me. We're going to vote for, like, Carson or Carolyn or something, you know, and that's going to work. But I felt so bad because she did have something that she could have done, but it didn't, in my mind, me watching it, I didn't think it was going to go Carolyn's way or Caroline.

Yeah. So. Oh, and what, how does Sue know to play the idol or not there? That's a tough one. And I'm worried now, just thinking ahead, like, is that gonna mess with Sue? Like, the survivor's guilt, like, worrying and lamenting, like, I could have saved her, I could have saved her, like, that's, like, the double whammy of it is that not only does she lose Caroline,

but now, is that gonna take her head out of the game and like make her feel bad? Or is it going to be fuel for her revenge arc? And knowing Sue, like. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, remember when Kyle wrote Sue's name down? Like what is she going to do to Andy when like you took out Caroline? Yeah.

Her daughter in the game. And also, though, I'm just still thinking about Sue. I'm like, man, that could have been a move for her. You know? Like it could have been something she could have spoke to. Yeah. But I don't really know too many moves or too many things that she can speak to at this point.

When the whole place is buzzing about Genevieve and her idol, Genevieve's got the idol. Genevieve doesn't play the idol. Is that a tip off? I feel like it could have been like that something fishy was going on and something strange was happening. And yeah, I think it brings up the question of like, does Sue want to use her idol defensively or offensively, right? Like, is she going to use it as a tool to extend her game and make it further? Or is she going to use it as a weapon to potentially take someone else out? And

like Lauren said, I think it was a missed opportunity and that one that she needs, because if we're talking about what has she done in this game, it's not looking great. And then, yeah, you wonder. I mean, she looks great with the contour, but I mean... Are you buying that? Everybody was talking about, oh, it's contouring, it's contouring.

But then we saw her underneath going, underneath going into, like, all these, like, crevices. I don't know. Like, before you go to tribal, y'all know, like, you have time. She can, like, go wash her face or, you know, like. Is she contouring her nose? I don't forehead. Did she say anything about it? Like, did she mention that she was contouring or?

She said on Instagram that it was contour, but I don't know if I buy that necessarily. I don't know. I don't know what's going on. Something else that was interesting in the episode was that for Genevieve and for Sam, were they trying to throw the immunity challenge? Because does Operation Italy work if

one of them ends up being immune? That didn't even cross my mind. I didn't catch it. And I have to go back and watch. Is anybody in the audience, do you think that Genevieve and Sam were trying to throw immunity? Yeah.

Yeah. That doesn't work. That's a good question to ask them one of these days. Mark that down for the future exit interview. Yeah. Were they trying to throw immunity? Genevieve and Sam? Yeah.

Why, though? Because if one of them ends up being immune, then they don't have to split the votes. And it only works, Andy's plan only works if they split the votes. Yeah, yeah. That's why you're the know-it-all. So were there any other things from Survivor 47 that you saw that reminded you of your season? Just like what y'all were kind of talking about earlier about jury management.

Just like what y'all were kind of talking about earlier about jury management, it just made me think about Jam Jam and how, or Yam Yam. Jam Jam, Yam Yam? Yeah, Jam Jam. Sorry, Jam Jam. It just made me think about him and how he managed us very well. Like he took a back seat, but then he still kept that relationship with each and every one of us very personal. Even I can remember when I left, he voted me out, and I did not see that coming from him. But he came up and gave me a hug and was like, I'm so sorry, whatever. I was like, I know Jim Jam would not do that to me.

And then even back, you know, at Ponderosa, I was like, you know, Jam Jam. And I was thinking about too, like, I wish we still had like Ponderosa edits or some type of edit so y'all can see it. Don't we all? Because when you talk about like, we're sitting out at that table or wherever you are until late at night like strategizing or thinking about how things are working and who we need to vote out like you can devise your own plan at ponderosa and not even be in the game like and you can navigate it and make whoever you want to make look great great like there's so much that happens there that, that is not seen. Yeah. So the jury

after tribal is like trying to figure out what happened. Is that like what? Right. Right. And even like, like when I left, like they were like, Oh, so what, what's really going on with Carolyn? You know? And I'm like, she didn't know anything that was going on, you know? Like, and I'm like she didn't know anything that was going on you know like and I'm just saying like all this stuff and you can make the story go however you want you know like and and especially with me leaving at the very end and me being like fifth and then Carson coming right after like we could play that however we want no matter how long like there's some people who were there a long time yes but the last people coming in you can kind of tell whatever story you want and kind of have that last say. So you've got the most new information, right? So I know you said your team, Andy,

what do you think the jury's perception of Andy is to charisma's point earlier of them, like noting that he flipped again? Like, do you think they're not picking up what he's putting down? they're not picking up what he's putting down? Yeah. I think that, I don't think Ciara's down with it, just knowing just her. But I just think it's all going to depend on, like at the very end, he was talking to Rachel and he was like, I'll tell you about it later.

I just think it's about how he's going to go back and sell that. And then again, going back to how is he going to sell it at Final Tribal if he makes it there, you know. But it was a good point that she made that you got to know what those people are motivated by. And you got to know like what they see as a great player, you know, and that's going to be really important. that's going to be really important. Is there anybody that you're seeing that is doing those things that you saw Jam Jam do in terms of managing you as a juror?

I mean, Andy. Okay. I mean, just like he's going back, even after everything, he's like, I'll talk to you about it. And even before when something happened, I don remember like what other vote he was in on like he would go back and like clean everything up he would always go clean everything up so not not I mean he's not doing what Jam Jam was doing but he's trying and I think um I don't think Rachel is in a place to be able to do that

you know she I don't think she's been, like, leading the punt, the charge on anything. I think that's actually a decent point because, like, you think Andy has this, like, sincere earnestness about him

and I think we saw it when he reconnected with Rachel a couple weeks ago and then again with Genevieve in tonight's episode. I think there is something there, like,

there's, I don't know how people view him necessarily but it's almost like this, like, lovable younger sibling kind of energy that I wonder if he's giving that off. He does a lot of like, oh, yeah, like, Owen, yeah,

I'm really excited to work with you. I really want to do this with you. It's a shame it hasn't lined up so far. Yeah, Lauren, I've been really hoping to get the chance to talk to you. Like, oh, okay, great, let's do something. But he's doing it to a lot of people. Right, right. But even like when I saw Genevieve come to him this episode

and she was like apologizing, I'm sorry, it didn't seem genuine to me. Yeah. And I mean, anybody else, like even Sam, he was like, oh, Andy, I brought you out here because I kept my word. Like, he didn't seem genuine either. You know, they tried to, but Andy is just something about him.

He is just like, you just don't know. We'll see. We'll see. All right, Lauren, thank you so much for coming on with us. Good job. Give it up for Lauren. Thank you. See you later.

Okay? All right. See you later. Okay. All right. Next up, we've got from Owen's own season, Survivor 43, Dwight Morris here. Yeah. How you going?

What's up, buddy? How's it going? Dwight, how are you? Doing great. Doing great. I love that episode so much. I thought that was an amazing strategic gambit that they had to take, and I'm so glad it worked out for them.

It worked out. Dwight taking a little break from playing Blood on the Clocktower with everybody. Yeah, you know, this is a fun little break. You know, it's still strategic. Love that game. But this is so much fun to watch people, you know, take a big risk, take a big swing when they have no other option in this game right now. Yeah. Okay, give us your reaction to the big move tonight.

I think you touched on it a bit earlier. It was, you know, for Sam and Genevieve, they had no option whatsoever. Like, you have to take this gambit. But for Andy, you know, now he's kind of has the ire of the people he just betrayed, right? This Underdogs Alliance is going to look at him as he just made himself stand out

when they're all kind of looking for that way to stand out from each other if they all want to go to the end together so Andy could very well be a target of this group now that has all these advantages but at the same time I'm glad he did that and is swinging for the fences playing for the win instead of just going for the I'll say with the underdog alliance and then get picked off at five or four because he's not as connected with that group as the others are connected with each other so yeah even though he might you know go home very soon because of that, I think that is his best play

to try and go for the win, and that's what you need to do in this game. Can I give a new name for the Andy Sam Genevieve Alliance? They're called the Underdogs! Take it back. Reclaim it. Reclaim it from the group of five with all the advantages.

Yes, okay. Dwight, we have been taking questions from these wonderful people all night. And since you're here with us, we thought maybe you could help us answer some of our audience questions. Sounds good. Okay. All right. First question. Cooper wants to know, the block of O, how do they get around it next round?

I don't think they can. Rachel it expires at six, Rachel's going to have to play it here at six. And now there's a three three split and one side has a block of O, which if they utilize correctly, if I remember, the sun and the Dark Spider 6 or 7. I forgot. They gave them all away. They don't even have them. You're so right. You're so right.

They traded it for rice. Okay. Well, with that, they're going to probably, I'll touch on this later with the whole idle situation. But there's really no way to stop those three from controlling the game in this round with Rachel's block of vote they're going to play. Unless Sue and Jesus Christ. Teeny? Teeny. Teeny. Thank you. about they're going to play unless um sue and jesus christ teeny teeny thank you unless they also flip on uh rachel but i don't see a world in which they do that so it's kind of tough for the you know um people without the advantages to uh try and make a way out of this one or do sam and genevieve throw andy under the bus now i think that's also very, very... Their best play, unfortunately, for Andy. Be very sad for Andy.

Sorry about that. Okay. Sean wanted to know whose post reward freak out was better? Teenie or Liz? Sorry, Teenie. Liz was better, right? Liz was iconic. Yeah, next question. Liz was better, right?

Liz was iconic. Yeah, next question. That's all that I've said. Liz will never forget. Liz's freakout was like the highlight of the season. So good. Over Applebee's, of all things. Yeah.

Shout out Applebee's, right, Karishma? Okay. All right. Ashley wants to know, do you think if Genevieve played with emotions and emotional connections, she would be in a similar position as Rachel? I think there would be a point to where some of the jurors might be more hurt,

but at the same time, some jurors still connected with her. I think if she be a point to where some of the jurors might be more hurt, but at the same time, some jurors still connected with her. I think if she played with more emotions, she might have hesitated on the soul vote, which some people would say would actually be more beneficial for her game, because some people pointed to soul vote as being when she kind of made herself such a big target, kind of started her downfall. So if she played with emotions, she might have made different moves, which might have been better for positioning, because her strategic acumen is off the charts, right?

But maybe that social connection could have stopped her from making that move, I think, a bit early. But at the same time, I'm not sure how her game would change too differently besides that soul vote she played with emotions. Yeah, Rachel, I think, has been much better at managing her threat level than Genevieve has. I don't think it necessarily

has to do with that Rachel has been more emotionally vulnerable and put herself out there and had better bonds with people. I think that she's just had... She's been better at being under the radar and making subtle moves than Genevieve has. I do think it was interesting the shift that the reward ended up having where Genevieve said that like, oh, I feel like I had a wall up and it was keeping the bad stuff in and I've taken the wall down.

And Teenie said the reward choice really caused Teenie to get locked in and put the wall up. The reward challenge Freaky Friday'd them! They switched! The reward challenge, Freaky Friday'd them! They switched! It's the spirit swap, yeah. Well, and not to backtrack a bit,

but it's hard watching and understanding the social connections, too, because we get told so much about what these social connections are versus just seeing them develop organically. Because for all we know, Genevieve has a little bit, it seems like her and Sam have actually built quite a rapport from both being on the bottom.

And it's like part of that is situational, but also the shared experience and maybe her opening up with him in this vulnerable state. So it's like, that's one of the tough editing parts, even with these 90 minutes, it's just like strategy all the time and moves, moves, moves. We don't necessarily get to see the organic growth of some of those like bonds that we're trying to analyze. It's tough. Okay. Question from Keith. Is there anything Caroline could have done to escape the vote out tonight? Get Sue to play the idol. Yeah, that's kind of it. Yeah, but-

If you have an ally willing to just play that idol on you, like just why say no? Be like, yeah, sure. save us both. We'll get a bit further. I mean, I guess Caroline, her and Sue are so tight, she wants to not waste Sue's idol per se, but also it's Final Seven. You can be a bit selfish and say, you want to play it on me, play it on me.

I'm not going to stop you. Yeah, what are they saving it for? Exactly. Also, furthermore, another thing with the whole idol shenanigans, I'm not sure. I was thinking about it some more about Genevieve's idol plan, and they said that Genevieve found a merge idol. For Rachel specifically, Rachel knows that she has the merge idol that's in play. And to my knowledge, someone correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think there's been a new era season where there's been a second merge idol introduced while the first one's still in play.

There's always only one idol from a source at a given time. So for Rachel, that could have been a tip-off of like, they're saying they found the merge idol. I have it, so this can't be real. See, I don't know how much you could really let that be a factor because Rachel doesn't know about Sue's idol. But Sue's idol came from her tribe. I'm saying the source of the idol. Genevieve's saying the source was post-merge, right?

It's the merge idol. Rachel is holding it. There's never been a second instance of the same source and idol at the same time. Hmm. But I feel like that there's been two idols in the post-merge game. Because they start on the tribes, and then they bring them into the merge, and then they introduce the new one. I think that if I'm Rachel, maybe I'm sort of like saying it's a little bit suspicious,

but I don't know if I necessarily would say that that's a guarantee. And because I don't know if they know or if I can't even remember, like the original Lavo Idol, that was Rome that had it. Oh, but he played it. And no one ever found it again. It's a good question.

For Caroline, I just don't know if she could have seen this coming in any way, shape, or form. I think it just comes down to, could you trust Andy? And they all did. The plan was masterful in every single facet of what they did, so I think it was very hard to detect, and they pulled it off amazingly. We had another question. Who's the sneaky threat to win? I thought it was Caroline for a while. I really thought it was. I thought this season was going to be

that Rachel was the big threat, Caroline was going to get her out, Caroline was going to be the winner. I mean, earlier you were saying, like, could Andy screw around and win the whole thing? Like, is that now? And it wouldn't be sneaky at this point since he's just pulled off this huge caper, but like... I don't think there really is a sneaky

threat at this point because you have Rachel, they want to get out, but obviously that didn't happen because of immunity. Sam and Genevieve are paying these big threats, and Andy just made this massive move. So that's four people out of six. And I love Sue and Teenie, but I don't think there's a way they can sneakily win at this point. Unless

Sue's something major with the idol, but I think it's very tough for them to be. Artini and Sue both in the final three? No. No? Okay. I think they are. I think they very well could be. I think they would be the top two, like, people would want them there.

But then there was this whole concept of goat hunting that was brought up a couple episodes ago where that is something on their mind. It's like these seats could be taken up by these people. Why would we want to lose our seat potentially to someone like Sue? But if you're there and you think you can get to the end with those two people you feel very confident you can beat, yeah, why not?

Yeah. Okay. Dwight, what else have you been seeing here in this season? you feel very confident you can beat, yeah, why not? Yeah. Okay. Dwight, what else have you been seeing here in this season? You touched on almost everything I want to talk about. This whole season's been amazing so far. I think this endgame's going to be interesting, especially with this whole block about what they do with that, how the idols end up being played,

if Sue does anything with it besides just saving herself at five, she wants to make an offensive move with said idol, because that's a way to kind of get her out of this, you know, quote unquote, goat status at the moment. But outside of that, I think this end game is really centered around Rachel at this point. And I want to see what she's able to do with the leg up that she has in all the other players right now. Okay.

Give it up for Dwight Moore, everybody. players right now. Okay. Give it up for Dwight Moore, everybody. Alright, see you later, Dwight. We've got another great guest here with us. Houston's own. Give it up for the Godfather, Carl!

Let's go. How you doing, Carl? What's up, man? Good to see you. Here you go. How you doing, Carl? What's up, man? Good to see you. Here we go. Bing! Carl, how are you? I'm good, man. Good. Just living life, you know? Yeah. What'd you make of all this tonight?

It's cool. I mean, I watch, you watch you know every season but i really don't after after i played like i really don't get deep into studying every single thing you know what i mean yeah like yeah it's just it's too much and and of course when i played it was old school survivor so now it's like all these different twists and turns to where I'm like, oh my God, I can't keep up with all this stuff they're doing. Well, Carl, you were at one of the most like iconic tribal councils of all time though, when y'all took out John, like did this episode bring you back a little bit? It absolutely did because it took a lot of planning to do, to make a move such as that.

You know what I mean? Like that's not something you just can spend five minutes and say, let's do this, let's do that. Like, everything has to fall in place in order for that to work. So, who from this season has been fun for you to watch? I actually like Andy. I really do. Because this, I mean, from episode one, you know, and I can relate to I mean from episode one you know and I can

relate to him because in episode one like I thought I was about to die after that first challenge like literally so to see him go through that and and do exactly what he's doing now to position himself where he is now it's like the dude is putting in work. He's had a remarkable turnaround from where he was in the beginning of the game, and now here he is. Do you think that he can win? Absolutely.

But, of course, it's going to take a lot more work now because he has to get that block of vote out of the game in order for him to survive. What do you think of this duo of Genevieve and Sam who sort of got this painted on them? You're the threats, you two have to go,

and they really only have each other to work with in the game. Well, when you're not in the majority, you're always looked at as the threat. So it's like there's no way around that. I mean, in reality, everybody is a threat in the game. I mean, we've all played, you know. So it's just according to how every different person thinks. But I don't see both of them being the biggest threats.

I mean, but obviously the Cavs do. In my opinion, I see Genevieve being the best player on this season so far, in my opinion, because she's just, I mean, she's just on it. Like, yeah. Other than winning out in the challenges, do you see a path for Genevieve? Well, it's going to be tough, but she would have to, Well, it's going to be tough, but she would have to win immunity at some point. I mean, probably within the next two episodes for certain. No better time than right now. Right now.

And the problem is that Rachel, who's been playing this great game too, now Rachel's heating up. Rachel's winning two immunities in a row. Yeah, and Nick went on a run at the end of your season, right? That was the only way Nick could win because, I mean, not to go back to mines, but when I got voted off, when Gabby and Christian flipped, well, Gabby and Christian came out right behind me as well as Davey. So the Davids were gone after that.

You know what I mean? So Nick had to win every single challenge from that point on to make it to the end. So in the new era, they go to the sanctuary where good things happen, Carl. They had this Italian spread of, Jeff really was hyping this up. Jeff wrote everything. Caesar salad. Yeah. I wrote this

down. He said, you're going for Italian food. We're going to have pizza. And he made the pizza. He's like, pepperoni. Margarita. He's like, really? Annunciated.garita he's like really enunciated and then he's like

we've got pasta we've got bolognese mushroom mushroom pasta what the hell is that second favorite sauce and then he says

and then we've got crisp fresh Caesar salad. Yum. Okay. All right. That's always the highlight of any Survivor Award, the salad. The Italian table, yeah.

Right? Every Survivor is like, boy, is there salad today? Can we get a salad? Can I get a salad with that? And then also, and for dessert, he says, Tierra Masu. Tierra Masu. Unreal.

And then Sam goes, fixins? And Jeff's like, sure. Why not? Why not? Sure. What are the fixins? Oh, yeah, Jeff sells the food. I mean, and when you're out there, you're just like,

you light up because it's like you're starving, you know what I mean? And then you get the food and it's like, oh, okay, yeah. Way to go, Jeff. Maybe the Applebee's was good, but the pizzas and all of that, yeah. The beer was nice and cold, though. Oh, the beer was cold. As you were an expert on. Yeah.

Oh, and for the players that get to do, did they have a sleepover reward in 43? We did, yeah. Our final eight, yeah. Yeah. And then it's gone for so long. Yeah, it's a weird amount of time. And like Lauren was saying, the accommodations are not great. Like, I slept horribly. It's really disorienting in a weird way because you're on the hard floor now and there's, you smell all the leftover food sitting there and it's like teasing

you to stay awake, but you know you should go to sleep and you just feel like you're out of the game, but you're still, it's very discombobulating in a way. So like they sell it as this huge advantage, reward, you're going to be so well rested. But the two times I went, I came back and it led to some of the worst just like fog and weirdness afterward. Because the second time I went, we had coffee. And so that really was not helpful to trying to play Survivor. I'll tell you that. Yeah. Carl, can I ask you about a rumor that I hear that you are about to have your big break coming up soon on television? Well, yeah. I mean, if you want to call it a big break.

But, yes, I'm going to be doing a cameo on season three of The White Lotus. Let's go. Can you give us any tease? Are you locking key right now? No, I'm not going to be blocking, giving any information. You just must watch. Please watch The White Lotus. Mike Wyatt is a great producer.

No doubt. Can I ask you, what was it like to have to act in a show? You know, the funny thing is the acting was real cool, man. Like the people that I was with, I was nervous as all get out, right? Yeah. But like I'm sitting in the green room and I'm starstruck because of some of the people I'm there with, you know? And they're like, what are you so nervous for? And I'm like, man, I don't know how to act.

And one of the guys go, hell, neither do I. But I just, he goes, I can't do your job. You can do my job. And I'm like, well, if you say so. I mean, but, yeah, no, I mean, it was fun. You know, we saw some of the players have to act tonight. In a similar way. Being on Survivor and going through some of these votes

where you have to deceive people, is that like a similar exercise to acting for a show that's not reality? No, I wouldn't say. I wouldn't say. I wouldn't say. I wouldn't say. Survivor was... I was hoping that this would be my... I'd get into acting then.

Survivor was much harder. Like, literally, much harder. And, of course, you're starving and you're hot and the sanctuary is not all what it's picked up to be, you know? Acting is fun. Like, yeah, it was real cool. Do you have any other thoughts about the new era? No, Rob, I'm kind of, like, stuck in my own ways, man.

Like, I just, I just, I don't know. I wanted to go back to the old school. Like, I mean, I appreciate the new era. Yeah. But, like, I mean, all these twisted, let's just go on journeys. I mean, they don't burn enough gas in these boats going on all these journeys? Like, it's all journeys.

I mean, come on, man. Hide the idol, look for the idol, and everybody battle it out. The one they did last week was pretty good, though. Oh, yeah. That was fun. They came up with a good one there. But it was a lot of journeys. Carl had a good journey in the coconuts on the beach.

You had to wait for him. Oh, yeah. You want to know a funny story about that? Please. I was getting beat down looking for this coconut. I mean, for 20 minutes,'m in this water, like, there's coconuts everywhere. Finally, I guess

production was like, take a break. Like, what? You're about to kill yourself out of the air. Whatever. So I just literally lay down and then finally started back and, yeah, sure.

Lo and behold, I found them. Looking out. That water looked rough. Oh, yeah, man. It's crazy, man. That water was crazy. That was the hardest thing for me on that season was spending that one night alone. Yeah.

Oh, my God. You were just on, like they dropped you off on some beach by yourself? On a totally different beach all by myself. Yeah. Like, yeah. That was horrible. Did you have to make a fire and everything? I had to make my own fire and everything, yeah.

Wow. Yeah. Should they do more journeys like that? Should they send people off? Well, that wasn't a journey like they do journeys now. Yeah. It was harder. Yeah.

All right. Carl, anything else that you're seeing on Survivor 47? No, man. I like the show. I mean, you know, a great cast. Ten seasons since season 37. Ten seasons since I was last on. So, yeah.

I mean, keep it up. Keep going, you know? All right. Carl, thanks for coming out. Thanks for coming out, man. Good to see you. Good. Good to see you. Take care, man for coming out. Thanks for coming out, man. Good to see you. Good to see you.

All right. And then we've got one more surprise for you here. Okay. We've got a loved one of a survivor. And his wonderful girlfriend. It's America and Corey! Here, you two sit over here. What's up, man?

How are you? Hey, America. How are you guys doing? Good, yeah. How fun, America and Corey? Okay, do it, do it, do it. Okay, now, Survivor fans, you all know who this is, right? What brings you two to Houston?

You. Oh! What do you mean? That's your employer, America. Like, there's no... No, we almost didn't make it, and I was like, Cory, I'm gonna get fired. We have No, we almost didn't make it. And I was like, Corey, I'm going to get fired. We have to. Because I procrastinated buying tickets.

Yes. And they were expensive. And I was like, you know what? Maybe we should save a little money. But we figured it out. We found a way. Somehow. We're here.

Okay. What did you guys think of the episode tonight? It was awesome. I'm still trying to figure it out. Because I'm like, how did it work? I was like whispering to Corey the entire time, like Andy's like acting is so fake. You wouldn't think that someone would be on to him. Like he's coming back being like, come on, guys. What were his tells? What were you seeing?

He just like very nervous, very adamant about this being the plan and having to stick to it. And I don't know if I've seen him, like, take that much initiative ever before. So you think that they would be like, wait a minute. He left and came back like a new guy. This is kind of suspicious. Yeah, I'm going to choose to give Andy a lot of credit because they were clearly trying to, like, run with the narrative of there's so many different things that can go wrong and so many ways for this plan to fail.

So, like, they're going to show us every one of Andy's worst moments to make us think that it's not going to play out the way it did. So like, Andy pulled it off. I think you had a good idea, Rob, of like testing Andy, like, hey, Andy, what if you actually voted for Sam? Why didn't they just force Andy to vote for Sam? Like that was the play that no matter what, you're golden a hundred but I guess that signals to Andy that they're suspicious? I don't know. Yeah, it's a good question for the exit interviews to ask Caroline, which we have

up on the podcast, so we'll get into that. Who do you think is going to win? Okay, so Rachel is the answer. I think the vote block gets her through six, the idol gets her through five, figure out a way through four. I like, I don't know if I believe it, I like the Teenie winner idea. For me, Teenie was not destined for Survivor, they were destined to be in a majority alliance on Big Brother. The, oh my God, Sam and Genevieve on the bottom talking to each other.

How dare they? I whispered to Corey, I'm like, that's Izzy. I'm like, that's literally Izzy. Teeny didn't like it that they even had each other to commiserate with. No, not at all. And it's like classic Big Brother, like us five and the seven, the minority, the underdogs. It was, and what I appreciate so much about Teenie, like you could never make me hate Teenie, is it takes so much guts to go in confessional and give the producers the opportunity

to make a fool of you. Like, it's so easy to go in there and like hedge and be like, oh, I mean, like obviously they could be pulling the wool over my eyes. It takes a different kind of animal to go in and be like, I'm 100% right. I know I'm comfortable. I'm going to win the game and Sam's going to go home. Like we can't get good TV without people like Teenie. So biggest fan. America, what do you think of the sanctuary? Well, now that I hear that there's bugs there,

it looks so serene and peaceful on TV. I'm like, oh, my God, that's the spot. But I don't like it anymore. I don't know. Maybe if they have Applebee's or Rafferty's, that's our place. So on our season... Rafferty's? I don't know if it's just a Tennessee thing,

but we go to Rafferty's? I don't know if it's just a Tennessee thing, but we go to Rafferty's all the time in Nashville. Yeah. I think we had one sanctuary-esque moment on our season, and it was so boring, it was fully edited out of the TV product. There was this four-person dinner. It was Seri, America,

Felicia, Mimi, and the sanctuary is a place where boring things happen, I guess. Like, there was no content whatsoever. We did the final three, like, brunch. Mm-hmm. What? Week three?

Week four? It was, like, day 20. Essentially, that's what it was. Not good. Okay. So, I know from your neck of the woods, Sam is your local survivor. Where do you think Sam is after all this? I mean, Stephen Fishback had a good tweet about it today.

Like, why are we discounting Sam? Has the big edit, I think most confessionals at this point of the season, obviously most confessionals without really having the most influence, especially in the back half of the game, I think the problem is is other than his physique, why is he not a GOAT at the final three? Like, at this point, is Genevieve a bigger threat?

I would think so. Andy seems to be crossing that line. It's just bizarre to think because Sam is such a confident person, such a seemingly really strong player, but I do think he's getting to that zero vote finalist point, and it's just weird because weird because like think of the wolf in wolf's clothing. It's doesn't add up.

That's a good point. Like Owen, like we, nobody's talking about this, but we saw Sam sort of like beast out in a challenge and win reward here and he said like he could win rewards, he can't win immunities, but would that be crazy if he won the last three immunity challenges? It wouldn't be crazy for it to happen. I think it would be crazy for that to happen and then for him to still win based off that. I agree with Corey. But why wouldn't he?

Isn't he the big threat and then he wins three challenges? Well, I've been confused. Does Sam say he's a big threat because they just view him as a big threat in the challenges because he is like the tallest human left there? Or do they perceive him as a threat because of what he's done? Because like he hasn't really done like he lost his number one ally in Sierra early merge and then he's just been kind of powerless since. So, yeah, I don't know. But it's an interesting thought exercise just because like I'm always kind of on the hunt for the zero vote finalist. I'm like, who's getting this storyline? Who do you think it is?

Well, I was debating between Teenie and Andy for the longest time, because Andy's edit really has confused me, just because there's so many layers to it and flavors to it as like, could he win? Is this a winner's kind of moment? So I think Teenie's a leader in the clubhouse now, but I think Sam could have a case

on more of the Xander type of editing versus me or Jake. So I think Teenie's a leader in the clubhouse now, but I think Sam could have a case on more of like the Xander type of editing versus like me or Jake. So I'm curious to see, but yeah, he could go on a run because he has won a couple of challenges, just not the necklace ones. Yeah. And Steven also was posting about his theory about the anti-hot person bias on Survivor is real. You heard Teenie really going off about Sam. Doesn't even like the look of him. Well, I've seen him in person. I love the look of him. He's, oh my God, taller in person than on the show.

The one thing that Owen brought up I think is interesting is like Andy's edit. And I think the more that I watch Andy, the more I worry for Andy's jury chances because his name doesn't come up. And that is either the sign of a masterful player or why are we going to ever vote out Andy? When you dig yourself in such a massive hole, what was the chat day three,

you literally have to play like balls to the wall the rest of the season in order to get yourself to a position to maybe get a jury vote. And the fact that his name is not coming up when he's so clearly, like, in confessional at least, saying he's so involved and saying he's running the show, I think it does not bode well for how the other players perceive him. America, who's your favorite? Oh, my God. This is hard because we've actually,'ve actually met most of them, right?

But Sue, I really like Teenie. I like them. Yeah. They're so bold. Big Brother coded, 100%. Yeah, exactly. That's a really good point. I really like that.

Owen, is there anything that we didn't cover tonight? Well, didn't you have some breaking news from social media to ask them about? Oh, yeah. Okay. I was shown earlier tonight in Instagram of a new Big Brother 26 showmance. Yeah. Old news. Yeah.

Your old news? Coming up next. Is it official? Matt and Mackenzie are happening? Yeah, they hard-lodged. Oh my god. I'm so excited for them. We're gonna see them in Orlando in a few days. They're not like Bazinga

pranking us, like a James Hewling type thing? Here's what I'll say. We're gonna go to Orlando, we're gonna see them, and we won't report back. Please do. But, you know, my thought is, we saw him flirt a lot week one, then he left. So making up for lost time, maybe? Okay.

Yeah. I like it. It was meant to be. I love love. We love love. It's destiny. Okay. Houston, you were amazing.

This was such a great crowd. Just incredible. You were all engaged. I didn't hear any talking during the show. So just for that, we're all going out after this. Okay. All right. Let's welcome back our panelists tonight. Give it up one more time for Karishma and Carl and Lauren and Dwight. We're going to take a picture in a minute, okay? But thank you all so much.

Thanks to Chappelle for holding it down during the commercials. Shout out to Asia one more time. If you didn't yet, listen to Evie and Shannon Guss with their recap of the episode, plus my Survivor

Know-It-Alls, my exit interview with Caroline and everything else in our We Know Survivor feed. You can find it at WeKnowSurvivor.com. Thank you so much, Houston, for coming out. Looking forward to seeing everybody out there who's listening

at another live show in the future. We have such a great time getting this whole community together. Thank you so much, Owen. Thank you for having me up here. Appreciate it. Did Owen do a great job or what? And thanks so much, Sam, who does an amazing job putting it all together. Hero.

Derek behind the scenes. Thank you all so much for coming out. Good night, everybody. See you soon. See you soon. Thank you. Only one man can really know So we say Go, go, Rob Sestanino You are the best that we know

Just grab your bike and we go wild We live by a simple creed If Rob has a podcast, we have a hero Rob Sestanino Time to play This is your time.