RHAP: We Know Survivor - Why ___ Lost: Survivor 49 Ep 12

Episode Date: December 13, 2025

Why ___ Lost: Survivor 49 Ep 12 A week ago, everything was coming up Steven on Survivor 49. It looked like it was going to happen again when Sophi’s plan to steal his Advantage fell flat. Little did he know it wouldn’t matter. Those who should’ve been targeting the opposing alliance for weeks again turned on one of their own, him! Many viewers were stunned! Now that special guest Omar Zaheer, David Bloomberg, and Jessica Lewis have had a few days to think about it, what do they conclude? Was it a good move? A bad move? The best option after a series of wrong decisions? At RHAP, we know Survivor, and we know Why Steven Lost. To pre-order Rob’s book, The Tribe and I Have Spoken, visit www.robhasabook.com Check out our new merch at https://www.robhasawebsite.com/merc LISTEN: Subscribe to the Survivor podcast feed WATCH: Watch and subscribe to the podcast on YouTube SUPPORT: Become a RHAP Patron for bonus content, access to Facebook and Discord groups plus more great perks!

At Fandual Casino, you get even more ways to play. Dive into new and exciting games. And all of your favorite casino classics, like slots, table games, and arcade games. Get more on Fandual Casino. Download the app today. Please play responsibly, 19 plus, and physically located in Ontario. If you have questions or concerned about your gambling or the gambling of someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1866-531-2-6-600 to speak to an advisor free of charge.

Canada's Wonderland is bringing the holiday magic this season with Winterfest on select nights now through January 3rd. Step into a winter wonderland filled with millions of dazzling lights, festive shows, rides, and holiday treats. Plus, Coca-Cola is back with Canada's kindest community, celebrating acts of kindness nationwide with a chance at 100,000 donation for the winning community and a 2026 holiday caravan stop. Learn more at Canada's Wonderland.

at capital one we're more than just a credit card company we're people just like you who believe in the power of yes yes to new opportunities yes to second chances yes to a fresh start that's why we've helped over four million Canadians get access to a credit card because at capital one we say yes so you don't have to hear another no what will you do with your yes get the yes you've been waiting for at Capital One.ca slash yes. Terms and conditions apply. One of the hardest parts of getting older is feeling like something's off in your body, but not knowing exactly what. It's not just aging. It's often your hormones, too. When they fall out of balance, everything feels off. But here's the good news. This doesn't have to be the story of your next chapter. Hormone Harmony by Happy

Mammoth is an herbal formula made with science-backed ingredients designed to fine-tune your hormones by balancing estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, and even stress hormones like cortisol. It helps with common issues such as hot flashes, poor sleep, low energy, bloating, and more. With over 40,000 reviews and a bottle sold every 24 seconds, the results speak for themselves. A survey found 86% of women lost weight, 77% saw an improved mood, and 100% felt like themselves again. Start your next chapter feeling balanced and in control. For a limited time, get 15% off your entire first order at Happy HappyMammoth.com with code next chapter at checkout. Visit happy mammoth.com today and get your old self back naturally.

One of the hardest parts of getting older is feeling like something's off in your body, but not knowing exactly what. It's not just aging. It's often your hormones, too. When they fall out of balance, everything feels off. But here's the good news. This doesn't have to be the story of your next chapter. Hormone Harmony by Happy Mammoth is an herbal formula made with science-backed ingredients,

designed to fine-tune your hormones by balancing estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, and even stress hormones like cortisol. It helps with common issues such as hot flashes, poor sleep, low energy, bloating, and more. With over 40,000 reviews and a bottle sold every 24 seconds, the results speak for themselves. A survey found 86% of women lost weight, 77% saw an improved mood, and 100% felt like themselves again. Start your next chapter feeling balanced and in control. For a limited time, get 15% of it.

off your entire first order at happy mammoth.com with code next chapter at checkout. Visit happy mammoth.com today and get your old self back naturally. Oh, baby, this is why Blank Loss. Welcome back to the 10th anniversary season of Why Blank Loss? I'm David Bloomberg, and last week, someone played the block a guest on us. This week, I used an immunity idol, and my co-host Jessica Lewis used her knowledge as power, and there was also a Traders Canada shield in there somewhere. and I'm not really sure how it all worked out,

but it means we overcame the block and Omer's here. Hello, now that you say that, you know, I broke one of those shields and the door handle into breakfast. Yeah, I don't know what I'm going to break on this podcast other than your minds. Ooh.

I like this. This sounds like an incredible way to start the episode. I love this very much. How do you break a shield? Maybe that's why they had, make them of special medals. That's perhaps the case. I tried to put it over my head without undoing the clip

and my big ass head broke it. It seemed like it was just going to fit and it didn't. That's shoddy material in my opinion. Yes, yes. Well, getting back to this game, throughout the whole episode, we were watching Sophie, Rizzo, and Savannah talking about how they were going to pull a fast one on Stephen

and take his idea. while we knew that she couldn't do that and ha ha ha the joke was going to be on them what we did not know was this was an editing double bluff we thought we would laugh at them as did Stephen but they got the last laugh don't are we really going to jump right into just the horribleness how could you not

I dress the elephant in the room yeah we're not going to slow roll into anything And we're just going to, we're going right in, right to the, to the, a whole heart of this, like, shocking twist and turn of events in this tribal council. I was sitting there the entire time with, I think my jaw was just on my chest the whole time because I was like, what is happening? Did you, did you look like this? That's after the votes for sure. What the fuck? Which is also similar to this.

Yes. Yeah. The entire time, I was like, what is going on? Absolutely stunningly insane. Just insane. It was kind of fun because it was very reminiscent. I mean, less good than this moment. But like when you had Tony and LJ and Jeffra and Cass and Sarah Lascena at that tribal council

because it was like a ping pong of what was going to happen and you weren't quite sure. and there were moments where you think Tony's playing his idol. They're going to get it. Oh, wait. He played it on the wrong person. Oh, here comes LJ. Like maybe it's going to, oh, no, okay. Now it's going to be Jeffra going, oh, wait, cast flip randomly.

So I think that that's kind of what this was like to me. Just obviously it wasn't as close to the vote. So it wasn't as fun in that way. But it was bringing something to the season that hasn't been there so far, which is really fun. And that is true. That is true. I will say there haven't been very much. any shocking moments.

There's been a lot of like, oh, okay, well, that just happened. But this was definitely a shocking moment all around. And it was interesting kind of watching the build up to it because there was this whole, like everyone thought they had the upper hand. And it was fascinating to just kind of know as the viewer, like, oh, we're in on something that they're not. But then it was like, shame on you for thinking that you knew what was actually going to happen. here because nope we're going to surprise you too so yes just crazy just yeah and the reason that

i liked it too was because sometimes there'll be a surprise in an episode like where you kind of know what's going to happen you know there's only kind of one way it's going to end up playing out and you just have to wait and watch it and it still can be iconic moments like sugar and the fake idol you know with oh yes that's so funny but it's the whole episode as a build-up to that the thing that was interesting about this situation is that you know say what you will about the decisions people have made up until now but the game yes the game was in my opinion wide open this week anybody could have gotten the upper hand or played it in a way that put them as the top contender and and they all had different advantages and different relationships and alliances to potentially and

different interests and game interests and game equity that anything really could have happened and if people wanted to thwart any advantage they could have in their own way. And so for instance, I feel like, you know, Rizzo and Savannah, they're kind of in the leader's position to kind of win the game. So they just need to kind of like get Stephen out and keep, keep on rolling. Sophie B has been with them the whole time, but she is kind of, you know, at this point from what we've seen, perceived as the number three in that group, not as bombastic or as out there. And so she has the subterfuge of needing to do something.

and she has a secret advantage that nobody knows about and she could take Rizzo's idol. So great. Keeping a secret. Until Trisleches. Apparently you eat, you eat some delicious food with two other people and everything just gets tossed. All of the perfect gameplay that you've been.

Right. Just you've lost your mind. You're like, oh, look, I've eaten food. Now I'm going to tell you that great thing. To be fair, you know,

I've gone to visit my son in Texas and we go to a Mexican bakery there. and they have some amazing trace late chase kick so and then what does it just make you divulge all of your sneakers I ate too much of it that's what I that's the horrible mistake I made I made I hate too much over and over again I mean yeah yeah yeah yeah goodness but yeah I mean there is a lot to unpack about all of this from the actions of Stephen to the actions of like everybody else. And this, of course, is, you know, something that we've had to deal with over the past few weeks is, is, you know, I'll tell Jessica, we got to wait till Appendix A. We got to wait till Appendix A. You know, we're going to have a lot of that again. We can't jump ahead. He doesn't let us jump ahead. That's right. But, you know, we have a way of handling it all. We'll follow our usual path of comparing Stevens game to the set of guiding rules for winning. I originally wrote way back after season, one, and have been updating ever since. We will collect all of the non-spoiler information available to us from what we saw on TV interviews, social media, and secret scenes. And, of course, the newest published version of the rules can be found at Rob has a website.com slash YX lost feed and clicking on the bubble for survivor rules.

And remember, last week, we determined that Stephen watches this podcast. So he knows these rules. We should, we should, you know, we'll have to, I don't know, do. we grade on a curve or what we'll have to see. But even though I said we'll have to wait till Appendix A to mostly discuss these other players, there are some other things before we get to Stephen and the rules. And I do want to start with something that you guys were already talking about a bit. Jessica's winner pick, Sophie.

Oh, she's still there. Yes, yes. with what happened in this tribal council I think her chances of actually pulling off the win sank very very no okay listen I I tend to agree and sadly I tend to agree I was trying to convince myself today

that there is a world in which she could still pull it off well there's a world I'm just not sure what world that well I'm not in your timeline I have not had a winner pick since J.T. Omer. So I'm very bad at it. So this is not a surprise that. What is a surprise is she's still there, honestly.

They go out very early. But I was so, I even said it in our predictions last week that like I was, I was like rooting for her like hard for like I just want her to do the like the right thing. She hasn't told anybody about the knowledge is power, which is what gives it power, which is amazing. And of course, you hear Rizzo say that exact thing. That's the one you don't tell anybody about. And it's like, ding, ding, ding, yes.

Why all of a sudden she had a few bites of delicious food and then was just like, hey, by the way, I had this thing that I found. Let me share everything with you. And then it just was like all downhill from there because it was painful. It was painful to watch. I wanted so badly her to go, yeah, so Rizzo, just give me your idol. and no, because she knew that Rizzo's Idol was still good one more week. So, all of it, just all of it.

Yeah, she did post, I don't know if you, either of you saw this. I did her, on, yeah, her post, yeah. Yeah, she posted some explanations online about how Christina told her about Stephen's voting block, but didn't know the details, which was funny because Stephen later said, I explained all the details. So either they weren't paying attention or they didn't want to tell her. But, and the thing was that she knew they didn't need it anyway because by that point, she knew all the votes were going on him.

So she just wanted to do it so she could take credit in front of the jury. And she didn't use it on Rizzo's Idol because she felt safe and Savannah had won immunity. But here's the thing to me, those explanations are a bit contradictory. they clash because taking the idol would have been the move she wanted that would show the jury she deserved credit for something. Right. She needed to listen to her, was her grandmother. Her grandmother, yes.

And instead it fell flat. It's only going to hurt her with the jury if she makes final three. It feels like she's been the third wheel for Rizzo and Savannah for much of the season. And by refusing to make a move specifically against one of them, I think that's how the jury is going to see her, especially, like I said, after this flop of a knowledge's power play. And it can be reasonably argued

that she was saved by Sage and Christina, who flipped their votes, even though, like I said, she posted to social media to talk about what she knew and why she didn't take the idol. The jurors don't see that. before they make their decision so in their minds

unless she gets to final three and explains it all in the short time that they have I think it just comes down to she didn't take the idol and she made a wrong move and got nothing I agree me too

I think that she she was in my favorite position I'm freezing again she was in my favorite position of everybody because if you have the one little secret sauce that you can put out at the last minute, that is what really, especially because late game moves are really what impressed the jury the most because they have shorted

your memory like goldfish. So that is the moment. And you're running at, especially because you can keep the idol till five, make it to four, no one can vote you out at four. Very powerful position to be in. And if she went into that vote knowing Stephen was gone. Yes. Then yeah, you take Rizzo's idol because then you can use. it next time. And then you now open the playing field for who do we want to send home now? Because I'm safe. It would have

completely changed the final outcome of this game if she had thought through that. If you really truly know Stephen's going home, because Stephen is a threat for sure to win the game. So, hey, I'm sorry, I jumped ahead a little bit there.

Well, that's where I'm going to shit on new era players for one moment. And I am one, so I can say this. But I think, actually, you know what, this started in the resume era, which is really starting in the 30s, where now people think that you need to do something that is just so just for the move or in front of the journey. But if it's not actually impactful, I feel like it's an insult to their intelligence. If I'm sitting there and you think that stealing Stevens advantage when he's going home five to one, is going to make me give that credit to you. That's like, it's insulting because that's not actually what made the difference.

The same situation with, and I love Wendell, one of the most deserving winners of all time. But even when he stood up and was like, I'm going to make a big move tonight and plays the immunity idol for Laurel, it's like, that's not a big move. Nobody voted for Laurel. So like that's not, it doesn't make any difference to the game.

And even like when Rizzo is playing his fake idol and is like, it's fake. There was no reason to do that. That doesn't actually change the game in any way. So if I am adjourned in that situation, I'm actually like insulted that you think that I'm going to be so impressed by that. I was more impressed by what he did this week, which was undermining Sophie after she played loyalty to him.

And then he was like, I'm not going to play that game. Sorry, girl. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So that I feel like was more impressive in terms of, like jury at least for me. I mean, I can't speak for whatever everybody else would want, but I would look at the previous move and be like, that's

disingenuous and insulting to my intelligence. Whereas it's kind of like, and I love Romeo, but when he stood up and is like, I had an idol. And then he's like, and it was fake and nobody knew, but it's like everybody knew. Like that's, that's like nobody

cares, you know, like that doesn't make any difference to anything whatsoever. Right. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And that's You know, Rizzo is the next person that I wanted to talk about because we talked about him last week. And I wanted to follow up because it was about how people weren't trying to take him out the same way they talked about going after Savannah. So we surmised he might be seen as the Xander of the season. And now since we talked about it, all of a sudden a bunch of other people have talked about it. And I'm like, hey, we were there first.

stop it. But, I mean, you don't have to stop it, but. But Stephen actually talked a bit about that in his interviews and said that, indeed, he did not think Rizzo's behavior was landing with the jury in a way that made them consider him to be, well, that the others would consider him to be a threat. So Stephen, at least, wasn't worried about him. I've already seen some viewers commenting that they don't understand how that's possible because Rizzo has driven so much of the strategic action.

And Stephen did acknowledge that. But he acknowledged that he didn't see that because it happened privately. Remember, the jury hasn't seen that either. So if Rizzo makes it to final three, he's going to need to invest a lot of time and energy to ensure he gets that story across or the jury will just see him as the goofy kid, even though we have seen like him planting these seeds like hey juan alex he's really a problem right hey sage stephen he's really a problem you know he we see him planting these things and then they happen but he needs to take credit for that somehow yeah i do think it's really

interesting too that everyone seems so willing to tell rizzo everything when like every time he's having a conversation with anyone. They're just like, oh, yeah, no, this is, this is who we're going to vote for. Yeah, no, there's like no secret. Like, yeah, we're just going to, well, you're going to play your idol, right? Okay, so what, you can, we can just tell you what's happening. I just think it's stunning to me. Like, why are you being so honest with him all of the time?

No matter who he's talking to, it seems like the other person is like, yes, nobody in this season, I feel like I thought Sophie was going to be the one, but she just destroyed that thought for me that like diarrhea of the mouth like I'm going to tell everybody everything and I'm going to like tell you all of my secrets on all of my things and and like can we just go back to the days

when people didn't say everything to everyone and actually kept a secret and it's just too much to ask but I think I'm somewhere I feel like I'm somewhere in the middle between these two I guess

ideas because I think that in terms of some people like Stephen now, some people are saying that, you know, Rizzo is somebody that is, you know, potentially like a Xander situation. And other people like Alex, I mean, to be fair, I haven't really delved in whole of these exit interviews because it's the first time in forever that I haven't done that. But I had read by somebody posted that Alex was saying that, yes, Rizzo wasn't a big threat. And I think some of the things like Jessica are saying are showing the skills that he has to pull some information out of it.

But on the other hand, there's the other side of it where I don't think he's always aware when people are against him either. And sometimes things just work out the way they are. But I think what he needs to do, the way that I'm the juries out on Rizzo for me right now is how much awareness does he have of his own game. That's what I want to see if he makes it to the final. tribal council what is he trying to pitch because i think that that's a big thing it's like it's kind of like these chef shows um you know top chef or whatever whatever the fuck that you guys watch

but like if you're trying to like you have to prepare a meal for the judges if you're like i'm gonna prepare a filet mignon medium rare but it's well done and under seasoned that's not as impressive as somebody who's like i'm going to make scrambled eggs and knocks it out of the park and that's what they're serving to you. And I feel like, you know, that's on paper from Survivor 42. You know, Mike had a resume where we were like, okay, this could be like a high quality game, but it wasn't presented in the way that we thought it was going to be. And Marianne was like very aware of what she was giving to us.

And it maybe wasn't as Michelin Star, but it was like extremely accurate to what it was. And it tasted delicious. And that is what we needed in that moment. Whereas my concern for Rizzo, is that is he going to like oversell what he did because if he oversells what he did like I am completely responsible

for all of you not voting for me at any point in time it's like going to insult their intelligence because they made some of those decisions on their own and had nothing to do with him or maybe it did have things to do with him but they're not going to want to hear I controlled all of you

when they were making their own decisions you know I think if he goes that route he will probably lose at the end However, if he can say I capitalized on the situation and, you know, when there was a decision to be made, I maximize my success and I had some breaks that went my way and others that didn't. I think that the jury will respect that a lot more and he would have a good case to win. No, that all sounds like a very fair assessment of the concerns I also have for his end game. because if you are so high on yourself, which it appears that he is,

he might not know enough to present himself differently in the final. And I hope he's just having fun with the camera, you know, because if you are, we all have fun with the camera. We're all, we know that. We're monsters. But you can have fun. It's like what you say to the confessionalist

has to be different than what you're presenting to a jury and what your individual conversations are. And if that can happen, then, I mean, that's how some of the, the greatest players ever are like Surrey. Surrey talks to, and Rob says, and you know, they talk to the camera in a very different way than they talk to other people.

And that is part of their success. Yeah. A big part of it. Yeah. I mean, that's, I was impressed that he was able to keep his Riz God persona only to the confessionals, you know? But more and more of it is coming through,

even though he doesn't call himself that. Initially, I thought that was cringe for now. I think it's kind of funny. I know, me too. but it's yeah you're you're exactly right we've seen him do these things where he plants these seeds he talks to people and then the result ends up happening he needs to explain that and explain he was doing it intentionally to you know if he goes in there and he says ha ha I had this idol the whole time and you I fooled everyone with this idol they're going to roll their eyes and he's not

going to get anything. He needs to talk about the strategy that he was doing more but not in a way that takes away agency from other people in terms of like yes, they all still made their own decisions and they were playing their own game and it's not, you know, they're not all puppet. And I'm not saying that's what he's going to do, but that would be my concern for someone that is young and gets over-excited about what they're doing because we've, we've kind of seen that before. And that's like human nature. But it's very easy to get caught up in the moment. of what's going on and not realize, you know, the bigger picture. But if he can do it, especially at the age of 25, very impressive.

And I think that he, he, I feel like could be the front runner to win as long as he can get to the end and pitch it right. Because someone like Savannah, who I think is so funny and such a good character, and we brought villains back, but in a fun way, she could be rubbing people the wrong way in a sense that, like, you know, I think it's so fucking funny to be like, Juan, do you really vote me out tonight?

And like really like rub it in on the way out? I think that's so funny. But we saw Katie didn't like that when Tyson did it. You know, like people don't. And I would say when I got voted, I'm sure it's the same for you, Jessica. But when I got voted out, I didn't like love to hear from Mike that like,

oh, I loved you and I didn't vote for you. But it's like, I know you're on a split vote. So it's like, I, like, that's like, I know, that seems disingenuous. You know what I mean? Like, I want to just hear it be owned and be, but that someone else might want something different, but that's personally what I wanted. But I think that people in that moment, it's a very intense moment. And Joanne could look at that and be like, that's so funny, I'm going to vote for you.

Or he can be like, I'm never voting for you. Yeah. And I think that that's what could trip her up and that could give it Rizzo the advantage. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'll talk more about what I think will happen when we get to our predictions. Don't want to give it all away here, although I think I pretty much given a bunch of it away. When you're flying Emirates business class, dining on a world-class menu at 40,000 feet,

you'll see that your vacation isn't really over until your flight is over. Fly Emirates, fly better. One of the hardest parts of getting older is feeling like something's off in your body, but not knowing exactly what. It's not just aging. It's often your hormones, too. When they fall out of balance, everything feels off. But here's the good news.

This doesn't have to be the story of your next chapter. Hormone Harmony by Happy Mammoth is an herbal formula made with science-backed ingredients, designed to fine-tune your hormones by balancing estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, and even stress hormones like cortisol. It helps with common issues such as hot flashes, poor sleep, low energy, bloating, and more.

With over 40,000 reviews and a bottle sold every 24 seconds, the results speak for themselves. A survey found 86% of women lost weight, 77% saw an improved mood, and 100% felt like themselves again. Start your next chapter feeling balanced and in control. For a limited time, get 15% off your entire first order at happy mammoth.com with code next chapter at checkout. Visit happy mammoth.com today and get your old self back naturally. I do want to move on to something we haven't really used. I'm not sure if we've done it all season, which was our semi-regular segment,

which is called Jeff Probst is wrong about blank. Because surprisingly, there hasn't been much that stood out in that area or else he's at a higher level of wrongness so that it needs to rise to the occasion to be mentioned here. But Jeff said just a few words at the beginning of tribal council this week that made me bring this back. He said there's been a lot of talk that since the merge, it's been a very fluid game. And I'm like, wait, what?

Yeah, no. Sorry, that is false. It has not been a very fluid game, at least on one side. Rizzo, Savannah, Sophie, they have stayed locked tight. The only fluidity has been people slashing around outside that core group like waves hitting up against an other way.

It's token sheens-esque. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the island isn't moving. The game has not been fluid. It's been the same people moving forward while other people get dragged out by the riptide. That's a fair point.

It's aggressive. But it's part of this, you know, what I call the props de ganda, where he makes it sound like there's a lot more happening than there really is. It's kind of like how a loved one's visit is so much less interesting than the letters. Oh, yeah.

Right, yes, which he said on, for those who didn't hear, on the on fire podcast, it's like, cheaper, it's certainly cheaper for you. It's definitely cheaper for sure. You know, he was talking about, he was talking about they get to see their handwritten letters. Yeah, or they could see them. Right, right. Yeah. And can we just talk for a moment about the handwritten letters?

Because there's been a lot of discussion about Blue Sophie becoming SOF. and how that was frustrating to both her because she wasn't Sophie anymore. And there's been a lot of discussion online about her name being SOF and her basically losing her identity through no choice of her own. And then the letter she's reading, it's written to SOF. Well, I think I think Jeff got it and used his liquid paper. That's what I was stunned. I was like, wait, what? Actually, I think I'm being too intense about that.

I think I think probably what happened was I mean she just reclaimed her name again this episode which was funny yes yes and they changed the you know they changed the intro titles yeah but um I think probably what happened was whenever they had those letters written which was probably you know what a week ago or something by that point she was known as SOF and so production was like you have to address this to SOF so it's not confusing no I don't think so Because they write those letters. Spoiler alert, like basically right away. It wouldn't have happened yet. And I don't know. I feel, okay, so I would say this. Then I'm back to the liquid paper theory. Yeah, the liquid paper.

Yes. I will say this as somebody who lied about how my name is pronounced for years because it was easier. So I don't mean to like erase identity or anything like that. But I feel like if Sophie doesn't care, then I don't think that everybody else should be jumping down everyone's throat. However, Miami's. Sophie was the way to go.

Yes. Speaking of your name, so you at one point told me it is pronounced Omer. Is that correct? Homer, yeah. Okay. You didn't correct the host of the Traders Canada. No, but Kara did. And they apologized on the way out.

But, you know, it is, you know what, though, I will say, you know, as somebody of a different ethnicity in grade school, when they're like reading out the attendance list. And then they spend like five minutes on your name and it's really awkward. You'd rather just let it be, you know? And that gets conditioned over time to the point where I went through all of that school doing that. And then when I was like, started my internship with some of my classmates, I was like, I'm going to start fresh now. And then on the first day of that job, I was like, my name is Omer. And they're like, what?

You've been lying to us for four years? And I was like, yeah, get over it. And that's soap and Miami Sof now. Miami Sophie is the way to go, in my opinion. Miami, Sophie and Sogretti. That's what it should have been. Well, three. They should have done last name.

Last names would have been great. Oh, who was the one who didn't want the three syllables? I don't know. I need to text someone and find out. Yeah, I don't know. Listen. Yes. You can fill a buster while I text message, my contact.

Well, while he does that, do either of you have anything or anyone else you want to discuss before we move to the rules for Stephen. Yes, yes. Okay. I found out the answer. We're supposed to be filibustering.

Yeah, you're right. No, but there's one thing I cannot let go of. Okay. Is I think the underreported story here is what Sage and Christina should have done. Oh,

well, we'll get to that in the appendix. Okay, great. Yeah. You can't jump ahead, remember? Yes. Right. Too confusing.

So it's like giving some, on the wrong pronunciation of your name. For four years. For four years. I mean, really 20. All right. Well, there were, of course, other things going on, and some of it is already on my TikTok and YouTube and will be at David Bloomberg TV.

And, of course, before we get to how Stephen did, we want to mention that the rules we are about to discuss, come in a shorter and much more colorful version in poster form. Go to rob his website.com slash yx loss. feed scroll down to the poster click on it and order it because it is on a 20% off holiday sale and you know it's already December 12th monica starts in two nights so luckily it's eight nights so if you order right now you might be able to uh you know jessica might be able to get it for you in in time for that and order right now for if you want it for any other holiday as well so so i just mailed four out this morning all right yes

So keep purchasing through the holiday sale time. And again, that's Rob has a website.com slash yX lost feed. And, you know, in addition, I don't know. We don't control the shipping of these, but you can get the poster on a t-shirt or the checklist on a t-shirt, which I'm also wearing. And, you know, those, as I mentioned, I believe are still on, I think, unless it's over, an RHAP Black Friday holiday sale if you're a patron. So if you have codes for that, definitely use those. And you know what? If you want to get it for yourself, it's okay.

You can still use the holiday sale and give it as a gift to yourself. We're not going to complain. It's fine. We're all adults here. Buy what you want. It's fine. Exactly. All right.

Well, last week, everything was coming up, Stephen. And it looked like it was going to happen again when Sophie's planned to steal his block of a vote fell flat. little did he or we know that it didn't matter to use his words the die had been cast those who should have been targeting the opposing alliance for weeks once again turned on one of their own him so many of us were stunned while we watched now that we've had a few days to think about it what can we conclude at our hap we know survivor and we know why stephen lost now the first and most important rule is of course to scheme and plot, and Stephen certainly knew that. He was making alliances from the jump. We saw him connect with Matt, then separately with Jason, plus MC, plus Matt and Christina, then bringing in MC to that, and so on, to the point that he said in interviews, that he

was aligned with everyone on Hina. He said at one point in the game, and then again in interviews that MC was his closest ally, and she voiced a similar thought. What we didn't really know until he told Dalton Ross was that he had a third member of their tight alliance, Jason, which they formed on day two. Of course, that didn't make it through the swaps. And he was also tossed around enough that he needed to build new alliances each time. But he did it and even survived a situation of being on a tribe with three original Uli members. And he helped convince everyone else that Shannon had lost her mind, which didn't

need much convincing, as the reason for him still being there. Then, according to his interviews, he pretended to not be working too closely with Sage and Joanne to keep suspicion off of them all. I'm in a womb right now. You're in what? A womb. A womb?

Yes, I'm going to remember this. It's quite so blurry and moist. Yeah. First I was trying to figure out how that connected to Stephen. It took me half a second. I've mostly put her on. out of my mind.

Yeah. Goodness. There's so many things you can remember from the womb for sure. Yeah. Oh, goodness. Yes. I do think that Stephen had a very fascinating way about the strategy that he had going into this game because he was very aware of himself.

And I think that that benefited him so much with how he ended up playing the game because he knew he was, he's a rocket scientist for God's sakes. Like, that's like incredible. And he didn't want to lose that part of himself. So he wasn't going to not divulge that. But he wanted to represent himself in a way that wasn't in any way threatening because he was a rocket scientist. So he managed to find this way to still have a strategy that was aware so much of who he was and how he was presenting himself. It was allowing him to move about so many people and have these relationships.

and form these bonds and these alliances with multiple people across every faction of the various groups and groupings that we saw throughout the entire season. So I really was impressed with how he fit in wherever he went and seemed to really make the best of the situation wherever he ended up. I really think that Stephen was my winner pick. I think that Stephen has a lot of, he's like the prototype survivor player that you would bet on more than often than not because he is not the most of anything. You know, he is, well, actually,

he could be maybe a bit too friendly because he seems to be everybody's best friend. You want to be in the middle of everything, basically. And that's the best way to kind of advance forward because whatever the reason people are voting out threats, they'll clip all the people at the top. And if you can be in the middle of everything and not the worst, then you're in a good spot.

However, and actually relate a lot to the way Stephen played the game. I think that he and I actually played very similarly in the early part of the game, which was basically aligning with everybody, which is what I said I would do before. But the issue, I think, and again, I have not listened to all the exit press, to be fair. So I could be talking completely out of my ass. I'm going based off of the 90-minute broadcast that I see every week. I think that there were two things that didn't go Stephen's way. Some of it was bad luck

like MC getting voted out when he wasn't present. However, I do think that sometimes he went a little bit too much with the flow of where the game was going rather than directing the flow himself and that led to people suboptimally going home or going

into votes that were not necessarily in his best interest. And I think that the key point in my opinion where he lost the game was final seven. We can't jump from the key you can't jump we've got like an hour and a half of podcast left you can't make your conclusion now you know okay well turn it off yeah you know i think he made the wrong decision at seven and that is but i think overall i would give his game an a well it's it is interesting you bring

up those things because yeah at split tribal council he lost his number one in mc and i i have talked before about what a terrible decision that was for everyone involved unless your name was Rizzo. But of course, Stephen wasn't involved. Like you said, he had no control over that. But after that, there were a number of situations where we have criticized voting decisions, which have led us to the point we got to this week. And I know what you're saying about going with the flow. I'm trying to consider how much his own previous choices played a role. But he was often in a situation where he was almost held hostage to the bad ideas of others. and there's so many bad ideas

yeah I mean at least once or twice he wanted to make that move against Savannah but the others refused to do it and you can't do it yourself like last week so he explained and this is you know from his exit press he was talking to Mike Bloom and he said that with the way

other people were voting if he really wanted to take a stand and try to vote out Savannah last week he would have had to play his voting block just to make it a three three time. And then he might not survive the tie. People could be like, no, that's not the way we're voting.

Goodbye. So in his mind, why would he go up against everyone, including one of his tightest allies, just to get an undesirable result when he could go along, move forward, and hold on to his advantage. So I just, it's hard for me. I have tried. I looked at the different things. And maybe there's some options I, you know, have missed.

along the way because it's been so many different decisions. But it doesn't feel like he had the numbers to change those decisions because the people he said were his allies would make these bad decisions and say, you have to go along with them because there was nothing else he could do. It's not like he was going to suddenly just jump over with Rizzo and Savannah. That option was closed. I do think it's interesting that the one of the biggest, I think, feel complaints that people have relative to survivor is this, like the pangonging where people

are like, oh, it's so boring because you just have like this, like this order is kind of already, it's predictable, right? Because people are kind of being taken out in order. And here we see that is not what's happening because it is so like unpredictable. And it's like, well, I'm mad at this person. So now that person's going to get voted out. And we're watching it going, what are they doing? Like, could we just go back to a pagonging?

Well, it is a pangonging. It is, it's a pegoning from a minority. position. Right, but that's, but the problem is, it's not, it's not being controlled the way that you would think of Pagonging is supposed to be being controlled. And so this is what makes it so frustrating where the rhyme or reason that it's happening doesn't make sense, but it's working for the minority faction because it's making sense for them, their game. So it is definitely very, very frustrating to see. And I do think that Stephen found himself in a very odd place, because he's not in that minority position.

He is with the individuals who are resulting in pegging themselves, ultimately, which is insane. Like, take control of the game if you want to have control of the game instead of just continuously giving it to the minority group, which is what we're seeing happen. Yeah, I agree. I think, you know, and I will say to Stephen's credit, I very much, as of recently, understand what it's like to have idiots that you're working with.

You cannot just get them to be like, what the fuck are you doing? So I do get that. I mean, me, I'm like this. Yeah. The, and now I will say trader is a little bit different because there is such a time. There's a different goals, different, whatever, different, also very much a huge, time constriction compared to Survivor where and even within the new era

I never played 39 days like some people here but so much better I'm sure it is everybody wants to do it but it's not our choice but there's still you know the default on Survivor is you're playing the game and then the off camera

times are very short relatively speak I mean they felt like a long time but they are relatively shorts you know in the grand scheme of things whereas on traders very time constricted on the times where you can actually talk strategy and like talk to like 17,000 people and get them on the same page and people, you know, run away with idiotic ideologies, whereas on forever, at least everybody has the same goal to get the end and win. But, you know, so I will say

there are sometimes certain things that your allies will do that you cannot help. And I get that now more than ever. However, you know, we didn't really see a lot of trying to vote out Savannah there. And I think the, where does the mistake go back to, you know, is if we're really tight with Sage and she refuses to budge on it, you know, I think there's always a way to try to get them to see what's better for them or, and we didn't really see that, but it could be that just to make the final edit. And the other thing is, I feel like yellow Sophie Segretti, her relationship with her Hina tribe was not good and really fell apart. And where was the, and is that on Stephen? Is that on Christina? Is that on MC? That's fair too. did that relationship fall apart because she was a key vote that was necessary. And from Steven's position, if he's going to have a group of three like Rizzo, Savannah and Sophie B,

which is like a three-headed dragon in the final seven with a known idol, and then you're going to go down to three, like six with three-three. I get that with your steal-a-vote situation. However, then you're also in there as clearly the biggest threat whose idol or her advantage played the right way, whereas people were already threatened by Sophie, Segretti. So if you can have her there as a buffer, that offers a lot more flexibility, I would say. But if he fully tried to do it and it just couldn't work because of who he's around, then, you know, we give him a pass on it.

I mean, obviously, you know, we can't know fully. And I suspect what you said there is correct that they tried and or he tried, others tried, and it just didn't work. I mean, it was clear. and we talked about this that Sage in particular was making a very emotional decision there.

And you know from the traitors and everything else you know, once emotion starts playing into it, good luck talking some of it. Yeah. And we saw that she was rationalizing and coming up with reasons

that it made sense strategically. But that was after she had already made up her mind emotional. Right. And so I have a hard time blaming him too much.

Like, how do you force someone to change their mind? You could talk to them about logic all day and all night. But there are some people who are not susceptible to it. Look at social media. I mean, you can talk,

you know, there are people there who you look at our government. You know, I mean, so. Jessica has a registered republic. Okay, and what are you saying? I'm kidding. These do not spread rumors.

So, um, it's, you know, it's, it wasn't speaking of any one particular part. And, uh, far as you know. And, uh, so, so, uh, yeah, I'm just saying that, you know, even in these game situations, you cannot always convince people that the right idea is the right idea. And again,

even on your experience with the traders, we're still seeing it after you're gone. You know, I mean, they're voting out people who there's no reason to vote them out. And yet, even when they're right, they're right for the wrong reasons.

It's so embarrassing. Yes. And so, so, yeah. And yeah, that's a whole different other podcast. But,

um so that you know getting back to this podcast i guess um you know we get to this week and stephen thought he was good and as he said in his interviews taking out sophy seemed to be the best and most logical path for himself sage and christina but he does acknowledge here he had a blind spot and presuming his allies wanted to sit next to him in final three same way he wanted to sit next to them. And that is a key that even Jeff Probst brought up on his On Fire podcast that to get to the end with a three person alliance, everyone in it has to believe they at least have a good chance of beating the other two while also recognizing that the other two also believe they have a good chance of beating you. Right. Right. You have to think you're the commander here. You're the one

who knows and they're being fooled while knowing that they think the same about. you and he did not realize that sage didn't think she could beat him which of course logically meant according at least to her that she had to take action against him now i hate to do the whole appendix a thing but we'll evaluate you know our our thoughts on what she was thinking when we get to that point but the key here is that she made a move he didn't anticipate because of the way she was looking at the game compared to how he was looking at the game yeah yeah I think Stephen is a very humble, nice guy. And I think that it is sometimes hard.

I think that people like that can underestimate themselves a bit too in the eyes of others. Well, he even talking about having, you know, a bit of imposter syndrome being out there. Yeah. Relatable king. I mean, that is why. Like, I literally did never thought that Marianne could ever think that I was a bigger threat than Jonathan or Mike. Like, sometimes you are just blinded. even if you can see everybody else very clearly, sometimes you really need to be able to see yourself

for better or for worse. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. All right, well, we can move on to the second rule, which says not to scheme and plot too much and to keep your scheming secret. We just talked about, you know, in the first rule, how Stephen said in some interviews

that he purposely voted the quote unquote wrong way I don't know if I mentioned it there. Somewhere earlier I talked about him trying to avoid his Yeah, the Alex vote, right? Yeah, tried to avoid showing that he was working as closely with Sage and Christina. But so, yeah, he was, he was, you know, trying to hide that. So he voted the wrong way.

Jessica, did you see other things he did or didn't do that helped or hurt him in this rule? well i i think that the quietness of how he was trying to play was part of the issue that led him down the path he found himself in and it's something that omar i think you were really kind of touching upon is that he was kind of a little too nice and didn't want to push because he didn't want to offend the people that he thought he was playing the game with and if they wanted to make a decision even though he didn't think it was the best for his game sometimes you have to pull a Rizzo

and I hate to say that I'm going to be referencing Rizzo in that way but I am because Rizzo was planting seeds as to why this person needs to go and he was making it about the person he was talking to and giving them the reason why they needed to want to vote this person out it wasn't about Rizzo it was about

the person he was talking to and their game and if you can convince that person that the individual you want to go home is actually negatively affecting them and their ability to move forward. And I think that's what Stephen was really lacking here. He wasn't utilizing that part of himself to convince those that he was with.

Like, oh, no, maybe there's a better option here. Maybe we need to look at this differently. And so I think that that's really where he fell off as far as his scheming and plotting is concerned in protecting himself and his game to put himself in a better position than the end. that is a a downfall of playing

in a way where you are very amicable to everyone as well because there is you know there's there's a time where you like it's like whose name can I even say because I'm kind of good with everybody you know and that that's why sometimes it is helpful to have

like a very clear opposition that you can go up against but then on the other hand there's risk to that too because if you have enemies they might get you out so I think it's a it's a very it's a tightrope when you have a relationship with everybody yeah I'm sure I do I do wonder and this just occurred to me you know I I'm an engineer I worked with I hired I managed a bunch of engineers and a lot of engineers think like an engineer and then you would have the lawyers who would

think like lawyers I spent a lot of my career translating between the lawyers and the engineer this is what they actually mean. And Stephen is a rocket scientist. I'm going to put him in the engineer category. He may disagree. I don't know. But I'm going to put him in that category. And so the way he thinks about convincing people may simply be much like one of my key

employees would think this way. He would be like, he would be talking about our boss, who was a lawyer, and would say, well, all you need to do is lay it out for her, show her that this is the reason we have do it this way. I'm like, that does not work with her because she's not only a lawyer, she's high up in a government agency, which means she has to consider all these other things. And once she's made up her mind, she's really hard to budge. So you can lay out all the facts that doesn't mean that someone's going to change their mind. Rizzo, on the other hand, has this sales sort of background. And at least I believe, if I'm remembering correctly. And so he knows,

knows, just laying out the logic is not necessarily the way to get someone to buy something. Because a lot of people don't need to buy whatever it is you're selling. So the key is to convince them that they do need to come around to your way of thinking. And I wonder if those two things played a role in just the different. And this is, I mean, literally spitballing off the top of my head, it just occurred to me as you two were talking. So I do wonder if that played a role just in the different. ways that people are used to dealing with this. Oh, I think it definitely did because you go into that game, bringing yourself into it.

And if you can recognize the strengths that you have relative to the abilities that you have and utilizing them appropriately or correctly in the game, it can be great. But it can also work against you. And I think that's why we've discussed whether or not you tell people what your profession is. And is that a good idea or a bad idea. and because people's professions might come with beliefs by others relative to your profession, that might not be true, but that's what they think of you. And so it is very, you have to kind of fine tune yourself and have a really good understanding

of how do you interact with other people, how do you come across? What parts of you do you need to keep in a box, which is something that someone told me before I went out to play that game? You know, where like you just, you have to be constantly thinking about all of these other things. And while it might be killing you inside and you want to say that thing to the person that you're talking to, you smile and nod and, okay, yeah, you know, that's great. And that's just what you end up having to do at times. And so I do think that there is a lot to be said about your profession and who you are as a person when you come in to play this game, because it will

determine, I think, how you're going to be interacting and how you're going to be seen by those around you. It is. I do want to go off on a slight tangent here. I guess it sort of applies here. Just want to point out to everyone who says, oh, you should hide your profession. Stephen was a rocket scientist and did not hide it. He was in no way voted out for being a rocket scientist.

Which is fascinating. So this just goes back to the things. I know. I know. This goes back to the things we have been talking about. which is, in most cases, you don't need to hide it. You know, Savannah wanted to get rid of Matt. So she determined that people who stopped being a financial manager are sociopaths.

Yeah. But she didn't care about the rocket scientist, apparently. So it just, people are going to make up reasons, whether or not you say it, whether or not you have a scary type of thing. Sam talked about this when he was on with us and said, you know, everybody in the game is potentially a threat because otherwise you wouldn't have been put into the game. I don't care. If you're a waitress,

it could mean you're very good with dealing with people. Yeah. You know? And so I don't care what your job is. Someone can find a way to weave it in there and say, you're dangerous. Or they can just ignore it if they don't care. Yeah.

I agree. I don't care. And I never cared. And I think that no one did hide their profession, but whatever. We've had the discussion many times this season already. Yes, we have. Yes, we have. But, yeah, as far as, you know, finishing up rule two here, I didn't really see any other issues.

You know, by the end of the game, it was fairly obvious. The group was split into two who would sometimes unify a, you know, as one, sort of, and sometimes he would talk to Rizzo, like you said, about the things he planned to do. I don't know. It didn't seem like Rule 2 really contributed here. So we could move on to the third rule, which tells players to be flexible. And Omer, we talked earlier about how Stephen was aligned with everyone on original Hina and had to make moves as things went along. And you even compared it to the way you played.

So overall, how do you think he did in terms of being flexible? Yeah, I mean, I think he was very flexible because he had a lot of different relationships and how to get those across almost too flexible again in a way because it's like if you are, well, I guess he was pretty loyal to his clients. They just weren't really loyal back, which was part of the issue when maybe they should have been. But I think he did good with that. I think there's something like I think you can either be, I think anybody but me is a good

strategy, but not if it's too literal. Like I never actually thought Sandra was anybody but me because when I was her ally on the blockchain tried to save them and gain agents. So I think there's a fine balance of strength with that. Almost anybody but me doesn't quite have the same ring to it. Yeah. Right, right. That's how it should be though.

So, yeah, I mean, I think it's pretty clear, Stephen was playing with flexibility. But like I mentioned earlier, there was only, in my opinion, there was only so much he could do because the so-called fluidity Jeff claimed was there didn't really exist you know Stephen was never going to break into the Rizzo Savannah Sophie Alliance I mean

look what happened with yellow Sophie when she tried she was like I'll switch over here and join them yeah that lasted for one vote so his opportunities were limited to what the others around him allowed and they kept making a circular firing squad that reduced

his options even further very unfortunate for Stephen yeah poor thing so we can go to the fourth rule which tells players not to let their emotions control them I really don't think Stephen had a problem here at all I think aside from Savannah he may have been the least emotional player there

yes he showed that he was happy to get rid of yellow Sophie at the start of the episode and get his revenge but from what we saw I don't think he made the decision for for that reason in the same way that I've already mentioned that Sage did. And indeed, you know, in Rule 1, we talked about how he was kind of stuck, or at least I said, he was kind of stuck and couldn't make any other decision. He seemed to stay focused on the strategy of the situations he was in.

Yeah, I really would agree with that as well, that he just, he found that a good balance in that regard and was really very game-oriented while being nice at the same time. So I don't think he was looking at anything from a particular place that made it emotional. And I think working with someone like Sage was probably very frustrating because she was so emotional. And you have to try to balance how you're going to interact with that person. And so that was probably very difficult, I think, for him because they're clearly playing much different games. And she is making very emotional decisions.

And if you're trying to point that out to someone, it might not go well, which is probably part of the reason why it did. don't know what you're talking about. Every time in recorded human history that a man has told a woman, you're being emotional, you need to change your mind. It has gone perfectly well. I don't know what you're saying, Jessica. I totally think it would have went great for him. I'll push back though on Sage being emotional all the time. I feel like she made one emotional decision. I agree with you on that. I was actually going to say the same. I think that sometimes she comes off as more emotional than she actually is. I think a lot of the time, or, especially before the Sophie decision. I think a lot of the time she was making solid decisions. But that Sophie won really overwhelmed. That was such a big one. And so that's why I said like in that moment, you know,

that was really like a game move that had negative implications across the board. And that was really the time where he needed to step up and say, hold up. This is not, you don't play Survivor this way. This isn't how you make decisions. But that's a very difficult conversation to have.

And so I don't think he is someone who can necessarily relate to making a decision like that emotionally because it's not the type of person he is. So that was probably a very difficult place for him to find himself in when you're, this is someone in your alliance, someone you want to vote with. You need this person moving forward and they're making a terrible decision in that moment. Yeah. Yeah. And I would say, now, by saying that she's not making usually emotional decisions, I'm not saying she's making correct decisions. I'm saying she's making incorrect decisions based on incorrect logic.

But she's still trying to use logic. It's just, it's kind of like when you watch Star Trek and you've got the Vulcans. And they always base everything on logic. And yet somehow one Vulcan makes this decision, another Vulcan makes that decision. because the logic can change depending on how you look at things. Yeah, I mean, I think she's, I think her actually, I think that Sage was playing

a very strong strategic game and making very good decisions and had good instincts and sometimes like Stephen, I feel like went against those instincts sometimes. Like when MC went out, you know, she wanted to vote for Rizzo and she went with

her allies rather than her own instincts, but she had the right kind of idea. I think that, so that's why it was a bit surprising because I feel like she's been so off base the last two weeks. But before that, I feel like she was playing one of the strongest strategic games out there. But especially if her move had hit at 8

where she flushes two idols and gets out Savannah, like that would have been really good for her game. Yeah, I did think she was trying to get too much done. I said it at the time. You know, it's like, let's focus on one task at this tribal council. trying to do three things at once it might not all work out that way so yeah

but I feel like it should have because I also feel like Sophie made a mistake at that tribal council too yeah like I think the plan should have worked but it didn't much like the plan should have worked this week for Stephen and it didn't right right and last week for Sophie

and it didn't you know so all right well the fifth rule reminds players they need to pretend to be nice and play the social game Omer I don't think we have heard anyone say a bad word about Stephen personally. I don't think he's pretending to be nice. He just is. Right, right. I mean, you know, we did see the jurors rolling their eyes at his metaphors. And I think Rob talked about it. I don't remember if it was on No-It-alls or on the recap with Shaheen.

That was saying, you know, the metaphor seemed very prepared about the shins and the coffee tables. Yeah. But other than that, how do you think he did? do. I think he did like, yeah, I mean, he did really well. Very amiable, very likable. I don't think he was forcing. I think that's just who he is. He's like a golden retriever. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. The golden retriever rock. The only tolerable dog. Yeah. I said it. Oh, you're in trouble. I am so insulted. I was, I have three dogs like in the view. One just was all cuddled up.

we knew that Omar isn't a big fan of dogs we knew that so until my kids got got their own dogs I wasn't a big fan of dogs either so you know but it'll happen someday it was a very big shock

to them you know that the way I switched so my kids too I was like I'm never going to have dogs in my house yeah in five years you'll have a bird and it'll be great better than this no fur on the couch there you go

it can it can perch on your shoulders during podcasts yeah poop perfect yeah that'll be awesome that'll be great it's probably a fetish out there not for me yeah all right well the six

rewards against being too much of a threat and here we have an issue in episode 10 alone Blue Sophie told us in confessional that Stephen was good at the game very likable and good at challenges. Yellow Sophie told Savannah that Stephen was a huge social threat and separately told us

he was extremely well liked by everybody on the jury great at making relationships and brilliant. Rizzo and Savannah both talked about how much they liked Stephen but knew they needed to get him out as a threat. Again, That was in one episode a couple weeks ago. Yeah. Then on social media, as part of Sophie's posts this week, she said,

Stephen was friends with every juror and already had two immunity wins. The only perception that mattered was the juries. So, yes, people definitely worried about him. And Stephen said in interviews that he was aware of the situation. As he told Mike Bloom, from the start of the merge, quote, I kind of knew I was being perceived as a threat from that perspective. And the fact that I had survived the vote with Shannon, I mean,

I was the one yellow member in a sea of red. And all the other swaps where someone from Hina was on the bottom, they were sent home. So people were like, Steven's doing something. They should have thrown the challenge. Well. And the question, of course, is how he handled it from there.

I mean, I think that he did well, but he was stuck in a position. And that's the thing is, I do get why they had to get a, out here to some extent because all he has to do is win an immunity or two or even one immunity and then he can win fire and then he is facing

a jury with all of his friends I do understand that and I think that that is why it was such a mistake to get Sophie out at 7 that's why I think that so much of the game hinged on making sure that that did not happen and that was a time

where you had an advantage and an immunity necklace and you do whatever you possibly can but the thing is maybe he did that. That's not what was shown on the episode. But that's where I think threat level management was an issue, was keeping around someone like her a little bit longer. Yeah, I mean, you know, again, him talking to Mike Bloom,

he mentioned that he was trying to lie low to minimize his threat level as much as possible and deflect people away from himself. And he said it kind of helped that people were very willing to flip on their allies. And I think I in hindsight probably should have suspected that maybe that would happen to me but I was like no not me they love me they're telling me the truth we're all yeah so they just do that to everybody else not yeah yeah he should have just been like fuck you christina or something crazy I can to like really make people um he's not likable anymore um yeah i trip savanna on the way to the water well depending on who it was that might have

earned him points uh but um i i i don't really know what more he could have done because, and we'll talk about this a bit more when we get to appendix A in a few minutes, but he was the third biggest threat in the game when there were six people. That is, you talked about it earlier, Omer. That is as middle of the road as you can get. Was he third though? I feel like he was maybe the biggest because he gets the end with Rizzo and Savannah. All his friends are on the jury. I mean, I think even in Sage's mind, he was third because the way she has described it I disagree that though I mean maybe second to Savannah but like if Rizzo was a bigger threat then she could have gone for him but they were sure Rizzo was going to play

the idol so I mean yeah and that's the problem even if you're third the top two were definitely immune and believed to be immune so So even being almost smack dab in the middle, there was still a large jump. It was like one, two, three, four. You know, for those of you on audio, I dropped my hand quite a bit. You know, there is a large jump between him and the next three.

And because he has won challenges, he is smart, he is well-liked, all those things I mentioned at the start of this rule. And you can't make yourself other than, And like you said, Homer, it's hard to make yourself less well-liked, less smart, less of a threat. Once you're there, you're there. But I think he felt comfortable that the other two were still above him. Yeah, and I think he just put a lot of faith into the relationships that he had created with those people.

Like, he wanted to go to the final three with Sage and Christina, thinking that they wanted to do the same thing. But they're playing a different game than he's playing. And if they're viewing him as being better at the game than he is and that he will beat them in the end, well, they're going to rework those, the configuration and how they're going to get there. But in his mind, he's like, oh, they're my allies. And we all want to go to the end together. And unfortunately, you have three people on the other side that are doing the same thing who want to all go to the end together. And it appears that they actually all want to go to the end together after eating Mexican food together.

So that was kind of, you know, solidified for them. So it's an interesting spot for him to be in because I think he just put so much faith in to those people that he was working with and thinking that we all have a common goal in mind. And that's all three of us get to the end together, which unfortunately they wanted to win. Which is why I actually think the best move for Blue Miami, Sophie, is take the idol and vote us Stephen anyways. But that's right. That was my prediction, actually. I forgot to say at the beginning of the podcast, I sort of got my prediction right and that I predicted Stephen would go.

I didn't predict the way it would happen, but I did predict that she would take the idol and vote out Stephen. That's exactly what I thought would happen. Yeah. Yeah, that would have been because it does, again, it makes sense to vote Stephen out because he is a threat and he is likely to. I even said last week, I see a Stephen win. Like I could see that happening.

But he's got to get there, obviously. And I do think that Sophie could have accomplished all of these goals, gotten rid of Stephen, gotten an idol for herself, made a splash in front of the jury, actually utilized the knowledge of power appropriately. That would have been fantastic. Great final tribal council speech for her to make, right? And Rizzo and Savannah, one of them will not be immune at five. and she is immune so they're there Christina and Sage

you're not going to turn on her then you know you can vote with them against either so yeah missed opportunities very big missed opportunity for sure all right well

the seventh rule covers idols and advantages and game mechanics and of course Stephen had his advantage and interactions with people who have or had other trinkets

Jessica what did you think of how he did overall in this rule well first I just want to complain about how this advantage works let's just start there i'm not going to complain about stephen i'd like to complain about the fact that you use the advantage in a confessional and then that's it that i've i have now made my announcement of who i'm going to be uh blocking a vote on

and now that advantages is no longer i think that's a little bit a little bit strange i don't I don't love that. You had to plant something in their bag, you know? Like it's like a cursed thing or something. A cursed shield? Like if you had to give them a cursed shield or murder them in plain sight or something like that. It's, to me, it's just, it's, it's just a strange way to have an advantage. It's a little manufactured drama.

Yes. Well, and that's exactly what they wanted was manufactured drama. That's what, didn't Jeff talk about that? Like, he wanted it be a dramatic thing. and all of a sudden, it was like, oh, you know, look what happened when no one was looking because they weren't a confessional and no one's allowed there except that person. I personally don't mind it because there's, it has an upside and the downside. The upside is knowledge is power can't take it.

Although she could have taken it last time because he still had it. And that is true. The downside is he has to make a decision before tribal council. So he doesn't know what the thing is happening. Right. There's no precedent for this though as well because the original hidden immunity idol had to be passed before tribal council. And so when everybody's like, what is Terry going to do with his immunity idol? Is he going to give it to Austin?

Is he going to give it to Sally? No, because he had to do it before tribal council. And that's why he also would never play it on Danielle when it's her versus Surrey. because if he gives it to her, that they could just turn around the snake him. So there's precedent to that to some extent. I do like that advantage can vary, but what I didn't really particularly,

because then you have to be on your toes, but what I didn't like about this and what I don't really like about the way knowledge has been, power has been done before, is that I feel like it got put into the game in 41 and 42 and here as well, where there is extremely publichood into immunity idols.

You know, like that is just, if it's knowledge as power, then there has to be some skill in finding out who has an idol. And the way that they have men, it's like they are waiting for that moment because they have made it almost impossible to not have an idol be public.

And in the same vein as this, they know they're injecting that into the game. And then you are going to trip them up because of the way that this one is played. Like it just seems like an intentional thing to do that. And I think that that makes it less interesting. But in general, I like the variety. Yeah. And I, and I do appreciate the variety of it, but I also just, I feel like it takes away the player's ability to utilize that particular advantage in the way

that it's supposed to be used because of the rule that's in place that the player doesn't know about, right like Sophie doesn't know that she's not going to be able to to take stephen's advantage because of the manner in which it's played and that I think is what makes it loses luster for me is that the players don't even understand how these advantages work together well you might say that if she had knowledge she would have had power which is why I don't think it's like I don't think we can hate on her for that oh no we can't I don't. I think it's more that she shouldn't have taken his any. Right. Right. Right. Exactly. Made the wrong choice to begin with. Stephen, as far as Stephen with the advantage and everything that he did with it, I think he did a great job. I loved that he kind of leaned into the idea that Rizzo thought it was something close, but a little bit different. I thought that was really smart as well. And I do appreciate the way that he was during the tribal council when this was all happening. So I,

I think overall he did a great job here with the advantage he had and the way that it was to be played because he's also following the rules that were created in relationship to how it was played. So overall, fine for him, but I don't love the way that that particular advantage was put into the game the way that it was. Now, one problem in this rule is. is not related to his advantage, but rather the bigger issue was he believed Rizzo's lie

about the immunity idol expiring at final six. And he told Mike Bloom, I had no reason to believe that it didn't expire at six. When I read that, as Obi-Wan Kenobi once said, I felt a great disturbance in the force as if millions of voices suddenly cried out and those voices were all the fans and analysts saying

of course there was reason to believe it didn't expire at six because they've been expiring at final five for so many years now this is a complaint we and others have repeatedly made Jessica I remember us complaining on heroes, healers and hustlers about idols going all the way to final five

and then final four firemaking so that there was, you never had to make yourself susceptible to an actual vote. Yeah. I, I truly cannot believe that they all fell for this and nobody raised this as an issue. Yeah. And the fact that Sophie also knew that that was not true because she was part of the creation of that, you know, the lie, if you will, of convincing people or saying that makes it even worse that she didn't take the idol because she knew that it was still good till five. So yes, I also gave him a move, you know, like, yes. Oh, gosh, it's so bad.

Oh, it's so bad. But we're talking about Stephen. I'll go back to Stephen. Sorry, Sophie, you're my winner pick. I really was. She was great TV. It's just, unfortunately, a little fumble. That's all right.

Yeah. Yeah. But, but yes, the fact that he bought into that, I was, I was stunned as well because they've just, they've been going to five forever. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, now, one area where Stephen, was right about the idol was, as he told Mike Bloom, if he's going to play it, he's going to play

it for him, either himself or Savannah. I didn't see, I didn't see a world where he would play it for Sophie. And I think Stephen was on the money there. Was, you know, Sophie tight with Rizzo and Savannah? Yes. Was she as tight as Savannah? No, I do not think that Rizzo was ever playing that idol on Sophie. Yeah. Well, and I think that that's going to probably come back and bite him. You think so? Why? Yeah. Well, because Sophie is now seeing that she's not as important to Rizzo as she thought that he has an idol. Well, he does have an idol. Right. But I, but I still think that there is a world in which it could end up negatively affecting him just with Sophie. Except she believed she was perfectly safe anyway. So why would she be upset at him?

Well, she told him to play it for her. Yeah. I know she told him, but that may have been to try and get him to play it without needing to. I think she genuinely thought she might be going home there. I mean, that's possible. I mean, there are certain things that happened in this episode that clash with what she posted on social media. I know that never, ever happens where someone like, you know, there were, there was, you're right, there was her asking him to play it.

There was Rizzo saying in, you know, in the voting booth, something that said, we'll see what happens or something else like that. I can't remember exactly what it was. So, yes, there is some difference there between what we saw and the confidence she showed on social media about it. Yeah. She's also been probably getting bombarded with crazy messages and shit. Oh, she was. Did you see her TikTok?

No, I did not. She did a TikTok just reading off the things that people have said to them. Like horrible, horrible, horrible things. like related to yeah just horrible things oh my god everyone needs to calm down we'll need to just get off social media then this is crazy yeah like just relax my gosh so all right we can move

to the long awaited appendix a which discusses players here comes the monologue yes uh not quite yet but yes we're getting uh we're discusses players keeping their end goals in mind when voting and we talk about voting out the week than the strong than the weak than the strong. And as I've said for the past few weeks, at this portion of the game, you typically want to get out someone

who is strong on the opposing side. Now, last week, we talked about the emphasis of the opposing side part. And it seems like we're at that issue again. But I think there's actually a tug of war here between getting out someone strong and getting out someone on the opposing side.

Because the top two strong threats, the June type. Bless you. in opposition to Sage and Christina were immune and perceived to be immune. So I don't want to say Sophie was weak by any means. But she wasn't at the top of the totem pole when it came to the final three. Meanwhile, there was Stephen perceived to be a big threat who was in the alliance with Sage and Christina. So a choice had to be made.

and Sage and Christina made the one that set us off with so much disbelief. Yeah. Well, and they did actually talk about this when they were, you know, on the beach together where Sage said, I want to go to the end with you and Sophie. So this was a conversation that was being had because I think they were realizing the position they were going to be in if they were sitting with Stephen. So it does make sense that they were. wanted to vote him out 100% make sense. But yes, the

way that we got there is what I think was really the surprising part of all of this because it certainly isn't Sophie's best interest as well to get rid of Stephen. But she should have played things a little bit differently as well. So it's like everyone is sharing

that same goal, those three at least because they're realizing we can't beat Stephen. But I think the problem really becomes the shift in the power of the game. And that's really why this whole thing is bad for Christina and Sage, because now there's the two of them and they're hoping they have Sophie, but Sophie might still stay with the other three. So Christina even pointed this down on the beach as well. She's like,

well, but if we do that, then we might just be giving the game over to the other three. And this even came up in tribal council where they were like, well, however this vote goes is going to probably decide who runs the rest of the game. So all of these things are issues that needed to be, like, fleshed out. And so, yes, you got rid of a big threat, but at the same time, you probably have given up all the power that you have in the game moving forward. This is why I think this vote was very interesting, potentially, because any of those three at the bottom of the winner equity totem pole

could have actually used this vote. to unilaterally change their position to be maybe the best one. Sophie, we already know. Steel Rizzo's idol, vote out Rizzo or Stephen. I don't give a fuck. Just take the idol. Big move. Sage and Christina know that Stephen is blocking a vote.

They know that Rizzo, Savannah, and Sophie B will have two votes. They don't know about knowledge is power, but that ended up in useless anyways. All they have to do is they know two of those people are voting for Stephen. they know Stephen is voting for Sophie the two of them vote for Rizzo and then if you want Rizzo out

and he doesn't play his idol you've eliminated him and his idol because it's a two to one tie and they on the revote have two out of the three votes because Rizzo will not be able to vote and Stephen will not be able to vote and Savannah's vote is blocked so Christina Sophie B

and Sage would be voting they can choose to then send Rizzo home with his idol or if they want the idol out and Stephen to go home all they have to do is say Rizzo we row your name down you need to play your idol and if you don't you will go home

that is the way to do it and I get that they think that maybe Rizzo's this is his final play for the idol or whatever even then it's still working out in their favor and even then he also has been so obvious about I'm playing the set now I get I mean I'm I guess I'm in the final five is that not the perfect smokescreen for a little sneaky boy to be like I'm gonna play it for you now Sophie because I voted for me like there is subterfuge to allow a move like that and that's all that they had to do yes yeah yeah I think that they just you know got locked in and so this is this is where as you as you said just my monologue comes in here because those are the things they could have done

I want to look at what they did because since since that happened on Wednesday night there's been some time to think about it and digest it and maybe understand why this happened I'm not saying agree with it but understand at least somewhat where Sage and Christina were coming from

and I try to give survivor players some grace here when their decisions appear to be ridiculous because, of course, we know we don't see everything or they're seeing things differently. We talked about that in Survivor 44 with Jamie and Lauren, who were made out on screen to be completely clueless, but no, they were just fooled into a different plan. We talked about it last season with several of the other players. And this applies to several people this week.

But with that set, it really seems that some players have been making bad decision after bad decision, and this was the culmination. After the episode, I was talking to several people through various means and trying to work through why Sage and Christina would have thought this was a good idea. At the same time, though I didn't know it until I listened later, Stephen Fishback was discussing it on know-it-alls, and our previous guest, Sam Phelan, was posting on chat BCC, with all of us and many others, of course, coming to essentially the same conclusion that Sage is and has been assessing people based on whether she can beat them.

This is like her, other than her one emotional time, which she even rationalized it then, this is what she is basing everything on. She has to end up in a final three with Christina and Sophie in order to have a shot at winning. And that means in this vote and the next two, she had to take out Savannah, Rizzo, and Stephen. Now, obviously things have to fall exactly right for her to accomplish that. And it would still only give her a very small chance for all of those things to happen. But to keep that barely above zero percent, they had to eliminate Stephen this time because Savannah had immunity

and she thought Rizzo also would. And this is why Stephen Fishback gave Sage the Fisci Award this week. Because she made the right move for herself. But it is absolutely insane to me that he did that because she put herself into this position where she had to make this move. She and others spent the last few weeks voting out the wrong people, taking out her own allies who could have helped her, eliminating those who were not the big threats that they were made out to be. This backed her into a corner where this was the only move she could make. We don't give awards to people who lose all their money on foolish investments and then decide the only way they can pay off their debts is to bet it all on the roulette wheel.

You know, like I said, I do my best to give players grace. And I really like Sage, but I cannot sit here and not say what I'm thinking. Part of which is that Stephen Fishback was nuts to make that choice. And she made a series of poor decisions leading up to that. He's got poop on his glasses. Is that what you're saying? Yes, absolutely. He's certainly not seeing clearly.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. No, I do think that it's, this is why Survivor is hard, right? Because you have to think about all of the permutations and you have to think about how am I going to get to the end and how am I going to structure this in a way that's going to work for me and I'm going to be able to have others work. this with me right because you can't do it by yourself so it is it is a very difficult thing to do but i do think in sage's world it it kind it kind of crumbled for her when she did make the

emotional decision that we're already talking about like she made the wrong choice at that point in time and that did not benefit her game and she even talked about karma that this was karma coming back see i but that was in regards to not getting the the reward Right, but the thing is, it goes back further than that. I mean, we've talked a lot about this week after week. The group going against Rizzo Savannah and Blue Sophie, allegedly, have made bad choices all the way back at the split tribal council when they voted out MC. Then they felt for Rizzo's wish wanted to vote out. Right.

She did. Okay, but she didn't, you know, after. But also, I mean, Stephen wanted to vote out. You're right. You're right. But I'm not just talking about her. I'm talking about the combination of the group that kept turning on each other. But yes, she's the surviving member of that at this point.

But then they fell for Rizzo's whispering about Alex being a threat. Then they voted out Yellow Sophie for revenge like you just said. And it's just, I mean, back in episode 10, Sage said, the plan has always for me been Savannah. But then Savannah would win immunity. A little later, Sage said that one week when she didn't. Right. A little later, Sage said we are getting down to really critical numbers. If we don't break up this trio, we are screwed.

And so on. She keeps saying these things. But this series of occurrences, this series of unfortunate events has led them to the point where they're here. And even making this decision, Sage and Christina are still losing the game 99% of the time. Christina, sorry, probably 100%. But Sage is grasping for that 1%, which is all she can do because every week she cut her own percentages by removing other possibilities that she shouldn't have. She has been taking out every threat except the ones she needs to. She started a snowball rolling down the hill weeks ago and just now realized it's become this giant snow boulder that's going to destroy everything unless she somehow diverts it.

So did Sage and Christina make the right move for this particular tribal council? Yes. But only because of so many wrong ones leading up to this point. Right. I think it is a collaborative thing. Like everybody has a part to play with a next group especially because I think of Sage's win equity, in my opinion, was the highest that eight people left because she was making the move on Savannah.

She had fully fooled Rizzo and Savannah into thinking that she was with them when she really was not. like they had a blind spot because of her deception and they had to be told by Sigretti that they were actually coming after her for them to even switch and so Sophie yellow Sophie voted against her own best interests in that moment in my opinion and that I'll stand 10 toes down on that because look what happened oh yeah at that vote so in in that world I can see why when you have somebody that's like so obviously voting against their best interest in stabbing you in the back I can see why you would never trust them again

however it is also a situation where you really don't have a choice especially now that you know the trio the dragon the three-headed dragon wait isn't that something you said to the three-headed dragon is

coming after Segretti so you know you can trust where her vote's going yeah yeah I mean like I said I go back even further. She took the people that she has taken out that she has believed are threats because Rizzo has convinced them that they're threats and not just her others too.

Alex was no threat. Leave him in the game. He is zero threat to anyone. Okay. Even yellow Sophie. They were like, oh, she's such a big threat. No, she wasn't. She wanted some challenges.

We talked about it on the podcast at the time. She was not a threat socially. She was not a threat strategically, only challenge-wise. But they rationalized because they were upset that she was a threat and used that as a reason. She's left the real threats in until suddenly, oh my gosh, all the real threats are still here. I have to do something. And I still have a very low chance of winning. yeah all right well

which is why I also think this is an interesting season in the back half maybe not at first definitely not at first but now because there were so many ways you know sometimes you look at an end game and you're like that person could never win ever and this season most of these people had a path to the end that they could have been a strong contender.

And it is truly the decisions that were made on a strategic level along the way that cost them the game. And you can really clearly point to those moments, which is not always the case. And I like that. That makes the storytelling easy to follow. Right. That is true. All right. Well, we can move to Appendix B here to discuss the jury phase.

Lastly, don't choose the rock. kidding yeah actually most of the time choose the don't do that honestly I'm down for it I think but just pick the right one pick the right one that's all that's the problem I made the right decision I just picked the wrong rock yes yes three people have gone out on a rock in this show's history and the first person that did it ended up being very

problematic and weirdo in real life so what are the other two hiding I'd like to talk. I'm not hiding anything. I mean, there's a number of people who have been real weirdos and very problematic without going on. Are we going to just start grouping people who play Survivor? Because I think we can find some other groupings here, okay? Just say. One of them had a womb with a view as a matter.

Moist. Yes, yes. So in the jury phase, last week, we mentioned that one reason, targeting Sophie made little sense or a little bit of sense, sorry, was she was a threat if she made it to the end, but as I just talked about, she wasn't nearly as big a threat as she was made out to be. And that's where things are different for Stephen, because I do think he was a big threat to win, as the others believe, for the reasons that we've already talked about. He said in interviews that in his opinion, he felt he could have beaten anyone.

Now, while, of course, we'll never know for sure, in my opinion, it seems like Savannah had a leg up on him in that regard, but it would have depended on how both of them would have gotten to the end, among other things. And, of course, Savannah has been seen as a threat for a while now, as we've been talking about is one reason she should have been targeted. But the point is that anyone would be worried about going to the end with him. So it made sense to ensure he didn't get that far. But was it more important to get him out versus Savannah and Rizzo or even Sophie? Now, again, we just covered a lot of that. But based on what I've seen, personally, I would have rather faced him than Savannah at the end. And I know you couldn't choose, they couldn't choose Savannah this week, but I'm talking about previously when she was available.

It is just not realistic to believe you can. get him Savannah and Rizzo all out by final tribal council like I said it is a very low low percentage chance now low percentage chances they do happen sometimes we've seen them happen like when they'll do a random draw for tribes and you look at those tribes and then Christian Hubecki'll go in there and say wow there was only a 0.3% chance of that type of thing happening so it does happen but like I said earlier if it's your only shot, I guess you go for the 0.3% chance instead of 0%. It's just frustrating that they got to this point. Yeah, fair enough. No, I agree. No, I definitely agree. And this is something we've

actually talked about that it's the, oh, we can get to them later. We can get to them later. Like this idea that like people have when they play this game for some reason, they believe, oh, we'll be to vote that person out later like it's fine let's let's shift gears and like what are you waiting for because what do we see time and time again when that happens when there's that we can get them out later later never comes because they win immunity or like something else happens and they have anyone to take into the end and then it's like and then all the sudden you're like oh I guess we should have done that back then and we shouldn't have tried to wait and so there is this this concept with when you play survivor if you have an

opportunity, you have to take it because you might not get that opportunity again, which is exactly what we're seeing happen here. Yeah. Yeah. Now, as far as Stephen's own actions in relation to the jury, it's clear he was paying attention to how they were reacting because he talked in interviews about them not appearing to be impressed with Rizzo's tribal council performances. And, you know, he had good relationships with several, if not all of the jurors that could

have helped you. So he did well here. He just didn't get a chance to use it. so all right well it is about time to wrap things up so homer what are your final thoughts on stephen um i really uh he did my winner pick proud he made it really far he probably would have won if he made to the end and he had a great run he should be proud of himself wow short and to the point look at that i love that well one of the things that stephen actually said pregame was that he wanted to find stars that are burning brighter than me and hide behind them.

And I think that's right. Isn't that just fascinating that this is where he found himself that he suddenly became the star that he was not anticipating he was going to be, I think. And so this is why I do believe his game was successful in the way that it was at the beginning because he didn't expect himself to necessarily do as well as he did. He wanted to be under the radar. He wanted to play the middle if he could, but he did a good job of almost hiding it because he was so likable and he was so friendly and he got along with everybody. But I also think that that was part of what caused his demise because he didn't take enough control of his game and the decisions that were happening around him. When you want other stars in front of you, they have to stay

there, but you also have to be mindful of the stars that are not shining as bright that are walking out the door because you might need those stars. Yes, you might need those stars in order to make things happen for you in your game. And so I do think that Stephen just found himself in a tough position really asserting himself in the way that he needed to in order to finalize his being at the end with the people that he wanted to be at the end because he put too much reliance into those he was playing with. He thought his alliance felt the same way he did. But if you believe that you can be anyone that you're sitting next to in the final three, you better believe that the other people think the same thing about you.

If they don't, then guess what? You are the brightest star and you are going to find yourself going home. So unfortunately, Stephen really was shining. He was doing a great job. I do think that there was a really great chance he could have won if he got to the final three. But unfortunately, we won't see that. And I guess I'm done because now I have a dog in front of me. Well, he should know the old saying.

is first the worst, six places the best. Yeah. So me, him, she Ann. I mean, it's perfect, right? That's where you want to be. Amber.

One all-stars. Yeah. That is true. Clearly. Well, in some ways, we've spent more time in this podcast talking not about Stephen,

but about other players. And that's appropriate because it was often decisions made by others that, spiraled out of control into them eventually voting him out. But of course, it's a very rare occasion that someone loses completely due to things or people that were completely outside of their own control. Stephen tried to walk a tightrope of maintaining the right threat level.

He knew that some people saw him that way, but also knew there were others in the game who may have been seen as bigger threats. He was trying to minimize any issues that this might cause. And like I said earlier, he was the third biggest threat in the game when there were six people. You can't get more in the middle than that. But while he was trying to minimize his threat level, other people kept maximizing the threat levels of their opposition,

Stephen's allies. Rizzo has pushed the idea that MC was a threat, that Alex was a threat, that Jawan was a threat, that Yellow Sophie was a threat. And then it came to Stephen. One after another, Rizzo has been able to convince people not to look behind the curtain

and that the real threats were on their, side the whole time. It's the tin man. The tin man's the real threat. Don't look at me. And those people have also been convincing themselves of the same thing by buying into it.

I'll never watch that movie. Pardon? I'll never watch that movie, The Wizard of Oz. Yeah. In this particular situation, he was the biggest remaining threat left who was apparently

not immune. But it took a lot. of wrong turns to get to this point and Stephen often wasn't able to access the steering wheel as people were making these moves and leaving him without the ability to change their direction. Though of course as you pointed out Homer we don't know

the full story there was there a way. He told Rob he saw them making these moves that didn't make sense but that doesn't mean he could do anything about it plus it kept seeming like next time they'd be able to pull it out next time

But Rizzo and Savannah just kept out playing them, whether it was winning immunity at key times for Savannah or faking them out with multiple idol plays or convincing players to vote against their own interests, things just kept getting worse. Stephen missed a couple possible opportunities to help himself, such as when he accepted Rizzo's lie about when his idol expired. If he had realized the truth or even pushed hard to his allies, he might have been able to convince them. wasn't the only threat available to be voted out this week. And I also don't think Sage in particular would have been happy to realize she's been lied to this whole time. She might have sought revenge for such a thing if she had found out. Kill him.

There were probably a few other things he could have tried if he realized his supposed allies didn't want to go to the end with him. But even then, his options were limited. It's not like he would be able to jump over to Rizzo and. Savannah's alliance. He had to count on those he'd worked with through the game, not those he'd worked against. And when even his own allies saw him as an obstacle to their very small chances of pulling out a win because he was just too well liked by the jury, he had to be the next domino to fall. And that is why Stephen lost. Your winner pick, Omar. Yeah, rest

in peace. Yes. Yes. All right. Well, before we make our finessex finale predictions. Oh, gosh. We do want to remind everyone that the rules we just discussed are available and on sale in a shorter and much more colorful version as a poster. So again, go to rob his website.com slash yX lost feed. Click on it, order it 20% off. You can also get the poster on a t-shirt and the checklist on a t-shirt.

Hurry up if you want it for the holidays or if you just want to get the poster while it's still on sale. time is now it's right time is now the time is now Homer where can people

find you if they would like to chat with you online well not on Traders Canada 3 anymore because they're dumb bitches

but on Twitter blue sky Instagram wherever emergency veterinary clinic if you've got a sick animal

that's not a dogger cat well what is your what is what is what is your account on those not at the emergency veterinary clinic what do you mean well what's like your blue sky name oh um i don't even know uh i think is like omers zahir dvm maybe on blue sky on instagram ozahue 24 twitter slash ex omersa tvm okay all right well people can find you there yes and i'm at jessica lewis 89 on blue sky and Twitter or X, whatever, which one it's called, and at Jessica Lewis, 6,7, 8,9 on Instagram. But I spend very little time on social media.

I spend very little time on social media nowadays. Nothing like David Bloomberg over here, who has a link tree that allows all of his followers to find all of his content very easily by going to his link tree. so David Bloomberg why don't you explain to them what you have here so that you can find at Linktree slash Dave Bloomberg or you can find me directly on Blue Sky is at David Bloomberg

and of course I have been posting two or three reality TV short videos every day on TikTok YouTube and Instagram where I'm at David Bloomberg TV Most of them are of course about Survivor 49 plus the Traders Canada season three Now I've also been co-hosting the Trader podcast for the Traders Canada each week So we unfortunately had to discuss the elimination of Omer a little while ago and some of the other not the brightest moves that those players have made. But that is T-R-A-I-D-A-R. And, you know, we'll, we have one more double episode apparently coming up.

So watch for the finale of that. And that podcast will probably be out late next Wednesday or early Thursday morning. And then, of course, once the Traders U.K. and the Traders U.S. both start up, I will be on the Trader for all of those, including where I get to cover Rob Sester Nino. So that will be, and he's already given me a warning in an early podcast with us. He was like, you better not be saying things about me. So, you know, well, well, that's what we do here. We say things about people, right? That's right.

Robert. All right. Rob on this show. Yeah. Again. Now, previews or predictions, rather. The preview is pretty much

useless. They never tell us much for the finale. I talked earlier and I said I basically don't think Sophie can win. And I promise I'm not just saying that because she's your winner pick Jessica. I just don't see how it's possible.

we've talked a little bit about how Rizzo may be in trouble though I'm not sure if he realizes it and that we talked quite extensively about that but I can't completely count him out because I do think he could find a way to explain what happens especially if he's not up against Savannah

and can claim credit for all the moves but I think that the odds are pretty good he will be against Savannah and as I said last week I think she can out talk him in the jury she can point out that there was a reason so many people wanted to target her and yet she's still here

and we of course also have Sage and Christina I like Christina but I think I said a few weeks ago she's not a threat to win and I stand by that even though I mentioned that to my son yesterday we were talking and he said well you've said that about players before and he's right i said that about erika i said that about

gabler but i'm sorry i'm saying it about christina recently pardon track record's not so good recently you know um i i i hey youtube at the end of the year my award was the most likely to predict the outcome of a reality tv season that that's the award they gave me so wow look at you youtube says it must be right. But I am saying about, no, no, they did not give me a plaque. I do not fear being proven wrong here with Christina. Sorry. Now, we just spent a lot of this podcast talking about Sage's options.

And I think it's pretty clear. The only way she wins is if she somehow gets the end with Sophie and Christina. Again, I don't see that happening. It is the long shot of long shots. Maybe if she weren't going up against the challenge beast of the season, you know, but she is. So I think the final three will be the three from the Trace Laceace Alliance. And from there, I'm predicting a Savannah win. And I think everything you've just said makes all of the sense in the world because it really does.

I mean, I'm just going to clip that and use that over and over. That's kind of where I see things. headed but I really I I want to try to believe or or look for like silver lining like the decision that was made here and and how Sage and Christina were thinking to themselves well we need to get to the end with Sophie in order to have a chance at all but in order for that to happen so many more stars need to align that I do think it's impossible I don't think anyone is going to be able to beat Savannah in whatever you know challenge is going to be presented she is just incredibly amazing.

She's very strong and you can just see the focus when she's in these challenges. She's also eaten more just recently. I mean, I do think there's a lot to be said about that winning that reward challenge and having that opportunity to re-nourish your body in that way makes a huge impact moving forward, even if because the game is moving very quickly. I mean, they're doing, these are like days stacked on days. And so she's probably in a better space there. But I am very curious about firemaking.

And when we get to as much as I hate to even talk about firemaking because it shouldn't exist. When we get down to the firemaking component of things, right? If we end up in a situation like who's, if she wins fire making or if she wins the challenge, excuse me. And she chooses to bring Sophie with her. then who is she going to be putting in? So that means she's got to put Rizzo in fire with someone. And that's the only potential opportunity I see where that final three number could shift or that the mashup could change, right?

Like who's going to be that in that third spot? Because there is a world in which maybe Rizzo loses in fire. And then we don't see a Rizzo in the final three. And we just see Savannah win. as we would expect her to do based upon everything we've seen thus far. So I am very curious about the about the firemaking component or does she put Sophie in firemaking because she feels so like she owes her life to Rizzo. It'll be very interesting to see if that's where we end up what her choice will look like

in that moment. So but I do agree. I think it's going to be a Sophie win. I think we've been watching or excuse me. See, I wanted to be a Sophie win because this is what. That was my choice. Oh, Sophie. But yes, I do think that that's where we are headed.

That's where the whole season has really kind of led us to. But I am very curious about the firemaking component for sure. All right, Omer. I mean, I don't think Sophie is drawing 100% dead. I think if she's in the final three with Sage and Christina, I mean, I think that either Sage or Sophie could win. But I think the likelihood of that is very low because Rizzo has an idol and Savannah is like by far in a way

the best challenge competitor at the moment. So I also think it'll be the Trace Litches Alliance that gets to the final three. And I am going to make a fun prediction that it's a tie. Okay. And then Sophie votes for Savannah to win. Okay. So it still ends up being Savannah.

I'll make that little added nugget there, though. That's nice. One interesting thing to me about all of this is that if there's one thing we've learned from new era editing, they love pulling the rug out from under us for the winner. So they've been showing us, Savannah, Savannah, Savannah, Savannah, Savannah, Savannah, Savannah. Kyle. I mean, I'm not saying every time, you know, I mean, it's, but, but just, They love, they love doing it.

And so I could see it being Savannah, Savannah, Savannah, Savannah, Savannah. And then. Sylvie wins. Yeah. No. Christina. I'm thinking Rizzo is a possibility still. Yeah.

That, you know, that he does have this amazing performance. He explains everything and poof. So we'll see. We'll see. Yeah, I want to see a tie. Let's do it. I do think that the ties are a fat I mean we'll have ever seen one once but that was that was fascinating and it must have been so gut wrenching so gut wrenching for dom and wendell to be sitting there and being like and also laurel was like I don't think it was gut wrenching for for wendell he knew well no he knew but like the fact that laurel is like I am deciding me myself right now who is winning a million dollars.

Don't feel that bad. Should have made a move. Well, I don't disagree with that. I don't disagree with that. A lot of pressure though, right? A lot of pressure. Yeah. All right.

Well, as we wrap up, I want to encourage people to check out the RHAP patron program at rob has a website.com slash patron. You can get access to all the special podcasts that are put out just for patrons, plus Facebook groups and discord and discounts on live shows and discounts on

the RHAP shop and of course you support shows like ours and everything on the network by going to Rob has a website.com slash patron. Also make sure you're subscribed to all the RHAP Survivor Podcasts. I would hope by now you are. It's the end of the season. We're coming to the finale here.

But if you're not, for some reason, you've just discovered it. Go to we know survivor.com. Set it up and you are good. Do it already. Oh yeah, you'll find a ton of great content. from us, the know-it-all's, except when Steven's being a bitch.

I was going to say dumb, but either way. You know, the B&B, Survivor Global, and much more. And we would love to thank everyone at RHP for all of the incredible content that you do create. So not just the YBlinkloss podcast, but for everything that you put out there and make available for all of your viewers and listeners, thank you to Scott and Jess and the team that does all of the editing. And again, not just for the YBlank Gloss podcast, but all of that delicious content. And also thank you to Will from America for the theme song that you created for the YBlank Gloss podcast that you hear on the audio version, which is lovely and an enjoyable tune.

And I would love to thank Homer for joining us here today, even though you don't like any of my dogs. I won't take it personally. But I still think you're fabulous and you're so much fun to have. But it has been so great having you as old. ways your position, your thoughts, the processes that you put together in contemplating people's gameplay is always impressive and great. So we appreciate you being here. So thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. Yes, let me add to that. Thank you, Omer, for, you know, I know that last week, you know, we couldn't make it work, but this week we did. So we got you in there.

And, you know, arguably, maybe a more interesting episode for you here. Although last week, you could have discussed Rizzo trying to figure out, you know, killing two birds with one stone, which I know was probably painful for you to hear. So, so yes, thank you very much for joining us here once again. Why is it always killing two birds with one stone?

What happened to old yeller? Cover your ears, echo. Don't listen to this. It's so terrible. I think they put you on the cabinet if you're an old yeller type person. so um anyway uh you know thank you of course jessica and uh you know next week we will be here for the finale so you know watch for why blank one coming soon and you can find us on social media

until then thanks everyone bye bye