RHAP: We Know Survivor - Why ___ Lost: Survivor 49 Ep 2

Episode Date: October 4, 2025

Why ___ Lost: Survivor 49 Ep 2 Rob Cesternino returned to join David Bloomberg and Jessica Lewis on the podcast he and David started 10 years ago this week! They got a classic downfall episode of Surv...ivor to discuss. It began with Annie saying she was in absolute control of the tribe and ended with […]

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Starting point is 00:02:12 I see dead people. Or a lot of fear. Mom. Or you can get completely terrified. Who's that? Choose Wisely with Halloween on Disney Plus. If you lost Survivor and you're feeling down, David and Jessica will turn it around. They'll break down the rules and they'll show you how.
Starting point is 00:02:41 You're playing yourself and got voted out. This is why Blank lost. And this is why Blank lost. This is Y Blank Loss. Welcome back to not just the 10th anniversary of Y Blank Loss, but the actual 10th anniversary podcast. I'm David Bloomberg, and I'm sorry to say that the sun won't come out tomorrow for Annie on Survivor 49.
Starting point is 00:03:17 Oh. Life for her. But just thinking about the two people here with me. today means we won't have a day that's gray and lonely. It's my co-host Jessica Lewis and the man who literally made this all possible and the original host of this podcast with me, Rob Sester Nino. Yay, Rob. Yes, thank you for having me back.
Starting point is 00:03:38 It's very exciting. Are you going to break into song now, Rob? It seems a little inspiring. Yes, I am working on an original track with my band, Trashy Robby. we will be releasing that later on. Stay tuned. Love this very much. So Rob,
Starting point is 00:04:02 I have to say the fact that you're joining us is fire. Your vibes are immaculate. And I think this episode is going to be cinema. I hope so. And just isn't David's aura just incredible? It is. It is very incredible. That's usually I've read the comments on the podcast.
Starting point is 00:04:22 And that's typically the number of one. Like, David's aura is incredible. That's exactly what they say. Yes. Oh, my goodness. I could go have my aura portrait done by Ava from Big Brother. Maybe we can do some deep breathing as we get through the podcast. There's so many things.
Starting point is 00:04:46 Bless the life of the creature we're about to eat as it goes on its final journey to our stomachs. I didn't bless anything before I ate it while I was out in the island I don't did you bless anything Rob or did you just eat it? No I I don't remember if we
Starting point is 00:05:08 thanked anything for giving its life to us on Survivor but yeah I think we would have just been so happy to have found anything I think we would thank God for we found this thing but not for the
Starting point is 00:05:22 thing that gave its life. Yes. I think that's probably the more appropriate sentiment. Yes. Amazing. All right. For listeners or viewers, if you didn't see our 10th anniversary special a couple weeks ago,
Starting point is 00:05:35 I encourage you to go back and listen. We talked about the origin of the podcast and how things have changed and had some fun behind the scenes stories. Yes. But today, we get to clear away the cobwebs and the sorrow. by discussing Annie. Rob, we made sure to have you on here for the most strategically intense deep dive ever. So, yes, I know some listeners may be thinking, why do we need a podcast on this?
Starting point is 00:06:10 Isn't it obvious? You know, similar to the question that may have been asked last week, but we discovered last week that there was actually a deeper situation going on than we realized. And some of that applies again this week. Plus, we'll discuss Alex's decision and some other things that happened in this episode. For anyone who may be new to this podcast, welcome. Each week, we look at how the person who was voted out, played the game, compared to a set of guiding rules I originally wrote way back after season one and have been updating ever since.
Starting point is 00:06:43 As a matter of fact, speaking of season one, let's see if we can see it here, I am wearing my original reality news online t-shirt. You know, that thing's, I think, older than at least one of my kids. Probably older than Rizgod. Yes, yes. We didn't see much of Riz God this episode. No. He was a little bit in the background.
Starting point is 00:07:10 He's waiting to give a dad hug to David Bloomberg one day. I'm sure he is. That's right. maybe maybe maybe it'll happen who knows uh so we we use all the non-spoiler information available to us from what we saw on tv interviews social media and secret scenes the newest published version of the rules can be found at rob has a website dot com slash yX loss feed and you can click on the bubble for survivor rules sorry i'm just trying to imagine the eventual meeting of riso and bloomberg and you get distracted sometimes right you're like
Starting point is 00:07:47 Like, I have to listen to what David is saying. However, there are so many images going through my brain right now. Tell me the rules, Bloom God. Yeah. There we go. Oh, Mike. Don't do that, Rob. Yes, you're going to have to do it with a whole new line of merch for Bloom God.
Starting point is 00:08:06 To be God. Wow. Yes, that's going to be. Or would you be Rules God? Rules God. Probably rules God. I feel like rules. Yes.
Starting point is 00:08:16 With a Z. That's going to be a new soundbite, rules God. New soundbite, rules God. That could be it. There we go. All right. Let's get the merch people working on that. You did 10 years with David.
Starting point is 00:08:34 Are you ready for 10 years with Rules God? I'll do my best. I'll try to keep up. He's a little intimidating at times, but I'll try. Boy, Rules God, Aura is really, on another level now. Yes. The vibes are a little off now that since he's gone to Rules God.
Starting point is 00:08:56 We still did hashtags at the end of podcast. We'd have it right there. Rules God. Rules God. Orra. All right. Well, before we actually address how Annie did in terms of the rules, we always have some other things to discuss.
Starting point is 00:09:12 Maybe the most interesting part of the episode was the journey. And it's definitely not every day that I say that. Wow. That's new. Yeah, first of all, Jessica, I saw you comment on Blue Sky about the great new idea they had for the journey. What a twist. They weren't going to take away their votes. It's amazing that suddenly this crazy twist has been introduced into Survivor where people get to keep their votes.
Starting point is 00:09:42 Oh, my gosh. What an amazing world we now live in. Yeah, but somebody could have still lost a vote. Yeah, it wasn't like they like threw the idea out. They just like let somebody decide, do you want to take away the tribe's ability in the challenge or make somebody lose a vote? Yeah, it was a momentary trash.
Starting point is 00:10:04 Yeah, they tried. They're like, we're going to dip our toe into this idea that we aren't going to take people's votes. We're going to make it appears if it's more of a choice thing because that's what we've been hearing a lot of people complain about and say, perhaps it should be a choice as opposed to just an effect of going on a journey. So they tried. They got a little bit closer to actually just allowing the players to just play the game.
Starting point is 00:10:27 So I do appreciate the dipping of the toe. Yeah, and they weren't randomly assigned to go there. And they didn't have to, you know, roll dice to lose their vote or anything like that. Now, Rob, I know you discussed this on Know Italls, but I agree with you that Joanne made the right decision by taking the tribe disadvantage. I think you said one vote will help if you're on a tribe of six, you know, okay, it's five to two, like you said. And it would help more to avoid tribal counsel entire. Yeah, I think that Juan's in a position where I think he just needs to change the narrative
Starting point is 00:11:03 about him, that he is just more of an individual player and is a little bit more interested in doing something for the team. So I felt like that this was a good opportunity for him to sort of maybe correct. how people were thinking about him as far as him going out and looking for idols that he was more of somebody who was a little bit more focused on the team.
Starting point is 00:11:25 Yeah. And you also avoid that whole weirdness when you come back from a journey where you have to try to explain what happened and then nobody believes what you say. So this way he could come back and be like, no, actually this is what happened and here it is and you've got to see it. So it definitely will put him in a better
Starting point is 00:11:41 mindset as far as the group he's with is concerned, but also they'll he just brings back more of an ability to trust him because there isn't that questioning of whether or not what he's telling them is true with what happened on the journey yeah speaking to what you said rob i guess the question we don't really know is if he understands his position on the tribe right now i mean we we saw the four talking about him yeah but so he's paranoid enough to be looking for an idol and looking very hard for an idol we saw also that he was having some doubt in terms of like getting the fire started and feeling really down about that.
Starting point is 00:12:25 So I think that Jawan recognizes that he's in a bad position, but maybe not necessarily in a dire position. He's also like vying to go on the journey. So I think he recognizes that he might be on the bottom. Yeah. my winner pick he's got to pick it up I know listen I will I do secretly kind of enjoy oh is it really okay so I don't want to speak I love Nicole but David I mean
Starting point is 00:12:53 I was I said there and I well I just kind of appreciate a little bit when David's winner pick is not doing well yeah but that's nothing against Joanne no no no nothing at all no nothing at all against Juwan no I mean this we all know I'm terrible at picking winners so
Starting point is 00:13:12 who's your winner pick this season just uh it's it's so sophie without an e okay blue sophie yes blue so there you go blue sophie yes yes and she's currently doing much better i would say than my winner's so far yeah so far so good we'll see how it goes yeah now speaking of the blue tribe i thought joan was going to go ahead and pile on them pick them when they're down but i can how that would come off mean so I understand why he went after yellow and in a way it works to his advantage for the future because they can he can say oh look you won anyway I knew you would no harm no foul we're good right yeah it's a nice little balance I guess you already know that they're doing blues not doing well so yeah you spread the wealth and and try to cause another
Starting point is 00:14:10 tribe to not do well make sense do any of the rules apply to joan's decision is there anything that he should have been looking to in terms of making that decision between the blue team and the yellow team i mean obviously you know of course there's there's rule seven but that there's nothing about that because it hasn't happened before so there's nothing specifically about that other than you know think through your decision but is that like pretending to be nice or anything to give blue a break? It's pretending to be nice to blue, not so nice to yellow.
Starting point is 00:14:46 So, but yeah, then the other item from a Rule 7 standpoint was Alex's Beware Advantage. And, you know, from the pregame interviews that we're seeing, more and more players
Starting point is 00:15:02 are finally seeming to understand that if they find something, they need to keep it a secret. But then Jeff and production come in and say, nope, we're going to make you drag around a literal ball and chain. Try keeping that secret. Yeah. Yeah. But then also tell everybody.
Starting point is 00:15:20 Just because, you know, I do think it's fascinating that two of them were together when they found it. So you are in a situation where you really can't deny it at that point. But then everyone gets brought into the fold. So then you have four people that are now working, which we saw actually. might have created a little bit of an issue because the fourth person brought in was like, wait a second, I'm always the last one in on all of the information. So now he might be questioning where he falls within the four. So it can become very tricky the more people you do share information with,
Starting point is 00:15:53 just because one, you're providing them information about yourself that could better their game and hurt you in the long run if they decide to spread the word. But then also you can cause what exactly we saw happen where I think it was Jeremiah. that was all the sudden thinking, hmm, where do I land here? This is a little bit, this is a little bit sus. He was lucky to know it all.
Starting point is 00:16:16 They weren't going to tell him. He just happened to wander into that part of the jungle. He doesn't, but that's the thing. He doesn't know that he just happened to wander in. But he is, he is aware enough to know that he was the fourth one brought in to the secret. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:16:32 And then we had the shoe bandit. And, you know, I'm sorry. I think Jake doing all of this is just so dumb. I tried to come up with another word for him. Who are you apologizing to? To Jake and his family, if they're listening? I guess Jake and his family,
Starting point is 00:16:50 I'm not apologizing to Stephen Fishback, who at least is still considering giving him the fishy. And I vehemently argued with him about that on chat BCC. But yeah, Jake got pissy at Annie for, reasons we'll discuss later and so he hid one of her shoes so powerful and here's the thing
Starting point is 00:17:17 if you're going to do it at least be funny about it like I feel if Risgod decided to do this he'd be funny about it and instead we've got Jake saying you know what happens when you mess with the shoe bandit stuff gets real I mean like that's the line you came up with
Starting point is 00:17:34 if you're going to do it come up with a pithy motto like don't mess with the shoe banded or I'll steal your soul or I'll trend on you you know I mean stuff gets real was so weak
Starting point is 00:17:49 not fire at all not fire and also why is it Annie thinks that it's not a person who's hiding the shoes that there was some animal that's grabbing only the left shoe by the way just the left shoe from all of the shoes that have been hidden because it sounds like it's happened
Starting point is 00:18:07 more than just twice. We've seen it twice, but based upon her interviews, it sounds like this is like a regular occurring thing. Yeah. So how do we know? When she was sleeping, she felt like that there was some like, something like rubbing against her foot. And I guess she thought it was like some kind of animal that was coming in and the chupacabra was stealing the shukabra. Chupacabra, yeah, was stealing all of the shoes. I guess that they didn't put it together that it was only the left ones. It's very interesting to think that, hmm, that's a strange happening that is
Starting point is 00:18:47 reoccurring and some animal just is taking a shoe. To me, it just screams like, hey, who's stealing everyone's shoes? Like, this is a person. This is not an animal. Yeah. Well, I guess maybe it just speaks to that not being the most amazing prank in the world
Starting point is 00:19:06 of like when your shoe goes missing and is put like 15 feet away from where you left it although this is something that really slows my kids down every single morning that my wife is screaming
Starting point is 00:19:21 put your shoes I'm like I can find them I only know where one is it's the shoe bandit yeah maybe Jake is coming into my house and messing with really messing with Nicole more than my kids it doesn't really affect
Starting point is 00:19:36 them? Yes. I think we need to blame Jake for this. We're going to be late! Is what I hear as I'm trying to, you know, drink some coffee. See,
Starting point is 00:19:48 if your children become aware of the shoe bandit, they are now going to use that as an excuse. Mm-hmm. It was the jukefakabra. See, that would be more entertaining.
Starting point is 00:20:02 I mean, maybe not to you, but to us, it would be more entertaining than what he's actually doing. I just think it's silly. It's just silly. Now, I could give a little bit of credit for stirring the pot, wanting to cause issues.
Starting point is 00:20:16 We've seen other players do this. We've seen someone burn someone's hat if we recollect. You know, that was a big moment where Sandra did that to Russell. But so I do think that there is, if you decide that I would like to kind of create some issues and maybe make people be thrown off of. bit you can do something like that but to have it be a repetitive thing doesn't help you because once everyone finds out you're the shoe bandit then they're just all going to be frustrated with you as opposed to these weird things are happening like things are just going missing and we don't know what's going on well to speak to that the citing of sandra where sandro we saw
Starting point is 00:20:58 her do that in survivor heroes versus villains where i'm going to okay we're going to the final tribal council that that'll really throw Russell off his game to not have his hat. Okay. That makes sense. Even Russell Hans, who somebody, I thrive in chaos, I'm going to burn Jason socks. Okay. That works. Even so with Sandra with the sugar and I'm going to get J.T.
Starting point is 00:21:24 upset and this is going to cause him to spin out and be off his game. make sense why Jake is doing this when he's sort of in a good position of I'm going to try to make the people on the bottom be even more on the bottom and maybe more out of sorts while we can't win it doesn't seem like it's like we understand you're doing it but but why right there's no purpose no purpose hopefully Stephen will see all of this because I know he watches the podcast every week. And he will change his mind and not give the fishy to Jake for this reason. Well, we're still waiting to know who got the fishy because Stephen didn't feel well this week. And we're
Starting point is 00:22:14 trying to get Stephen, like get a message to Stephen and like, could you just make a video and let us know? Like, give, we're waiting outside the Vatican for the white smoke to appear. Who got the fishy this week? We don't know.
Starting point is 00:22:31 We don't know. Now, the last thing that I want to mention before we get to the rules is something Jessica has never had an opinion on ever. So without going over anything too much that we may have talked about in the past, clearly me because Jessica's never had an opinion on it, or things that we're about to discuss in the rules, I do think it's worth noting again how this situation shows a big problem with the new era format of the six-person tribes and taking away. that went. Jessica City, they're wondering, what was it? What is it?
Starting point is 00:23:05 I'm like, which one did I? I've complained about so many things, which thing, exactly. But yes, this format, I'm over it.
Starting point is 00:23:11 Yes. They, every season, almost, they doom one tribe to a death spiral. But it seems like Jeff is okay with it
Starting point is 00:23:20 because he said at tribal council that those who do survive from such a tribe often go on to do well. And he talked about it on his on-fire podcast also. So I'm not, I don't think he believes it's a problem.
Starting point is 00:23:33 I think he sees it as a positive. It's a feature, not a bug. Yeah. So, you know, everybody's like, why won't Jeff understand this and change it? I think he does understand it and has no interest in changing it. Yeah, I don't like it. I don't like the fact that it is so repetitive. Not only with the format where it's the six tribes.
Starting point is 00:24:00 format but also just the just everything that they're doing is very um price is right at this point as far as I'm concerned we don't want prices right contestants I just don't want players to know what's coming and I understand that he thinks by adding twists to the game that that's going to give that added element to it but no how about we not have the same puzzles being repeated how about we not have the same location being repeated. How about we mix it up so players really are off their game? They can't prepare as much as they think they can. And then with the six-person format, everyone knows now what you have to do.
Starting point is 00:24:39 You got to get four, and then you'll be in the clear, and you can get to the merge. It's just, and I feel like the dynamics when you have 10 and 10 are so much more interesting because you can form such small groups within that 10, and you can have people who are actually swing votes that can change the trajectory. victory of the game. So that's just my personal opinion, but I just think that that's something that perhaps they should attempt to do again. Like, let's just try 10 and 10 again.
Starting point is 00:25:08 I understand 50 is going to have, is it 22 players or 24? 24. 24. So it'll be interesting to see how they split that group up. But yeah, that's just, I mean, that's just my humble opinion. But I just, I want there to be more of the social dynamics that we see. Could be four tribes of six. I know.
Starting point is 00:25:32 Don't say that. Don't say that. That would be awful. Oh, gosh. That would not be okay. I would not be okay with that. Anyway, that's my soapbox, so I'll stop kibetching. Four tribes of six?
Starting point is 00:25:46 Oh, gosh. It's not something I'll look forward to. Maybe they won't do that. All right. That was a little suspicious, Rob. I think they love three tribes. Yeah. I think you're right.
Starting point is 00:26:05 Hit pause on whatever you're listening to and hit play on your next adventure. This fall get double points on every qualified stay. Life's the trip. Make the most of it at Best Western. Visit bestwestern.com for complete terms and conditions. All right. Well, there were some things besides this going on that I'll be talking about. about those in TikTok or YouTube shorts or whatever at David Bloomberg TV.
Starting point is 00:26:35 But before we get to how any. We don't even get all of the rules God takes in this podcast. We can't get all of them. You know, we'd be here forever. We're supposed as it is, as it is, someone will be commenting on YouTube and say, it took 25 minutes for them to even get to the rules. So, you know. He's always very mindful of the viewers.
Starting point is 00:26:57 He wants to keep them interested. That's why they love his aura so much. Yes. Now, we do want to mention the rules we're about to discuss come in a shorter and much more colorful version in poster form. Yes, I do. You could go to rob has website.com slash yxlost feed, scroll down to the poster and click on it.
Starting point is 00:27:18 In addition, you can also. What was rules? You was talking about Rule 7 before, and I'm like, oh, I don't have the list in front of me. What is Rule 7? I know how to deal with. Idols, rules, and advantages, or idols, advantages, and rules, you know, something like that. The poster is slightly different than the rule itself.
Starting point is 00:27:37 Yeah, because I needed to be on there. Yes. So. I mean, rocks is part of the things you need to be mindful. That's right. You need to understand what's happening with rocks. Yeah. So if you, you know, want this design, but you don't want to carry it around with you all the time, you can scroll down and order it as a key.
Starting point is 00:27:57 as a t-shirt, or you can get the checklist version as a t-shirt. So again, that's at rob has a website.com slash y-X-lost feed. Well, this was a classic downfall episode of Survivor. We began with Annie telling us how she was an absolute control of the tribe. And we ended with, as she told Mike Bloom, a huge blindside. I in no way expected to be voted out that back. How could she possibly have believed that she was the one directing everything? And why did she do various things to put herself on the outs while not even realizing it?
Starting point is 00:28:35 At RHAP, we know Survivor, and we know why Annie lost. Now, the first and most important rule is, of course, the scheme implied. Annie thought she was doing an amazing job of this. She was the puppet master. She had a secret alliance with Jake, and they were going to separately get another ally so they'd have a majority of four. But nobody but herself and Alex would know because they would only rarely meet. And the problem of this or with this, of course, was it existed only in her own mind.
Starting point is 00:29:08 And she never realized that because she was so locked in with her own idea and because she didn't spend nearly enough time paying attention to the interactions among her tribe. As she said in both her pregame interview and again on the show itself, she's competed in a variety of races and competitions, but never one that involved a social component. She never even played team sports. And believe me, there are plenty of alliances, even in Little League baseball, both among the kids
Starting point is 00:29:36 and especially the parents. So it seemed to me that Annie thought she could just come in, tell Alex her plan for an alliance, and boom, it would happen, just like on TV. But, of course, that's not the way it actually works. yeah she almost had like an epiphany at the very end when she was like realizing we this is like this is a social game I never really focused so much on that I thought it was more old school idea providing for the tribe making sure people are are dry and shelter and have food but then I do think it's interesting that we saw the spin and put on it by the other tribe mates that she was she says I'm bringing you all the food they're like she's eating all of it like and like and that she She's making them do things that they didn't want to do. And so I don't know if it was a perspective component or if they were just showing us both sides,
Starting point is 00:30:29 but she clearly was missing that the social game that was necessary and the work that needs to be put into the social game. It's not something, as you indicated, David, is just going to happen because you say that's what you want to have happen. You have to work for it. And unfortunately, she was doing everything to work against creating those social bonds. and then it was being used against her. Rob, I didn't know if you had anything more to.
Starting point is 00:30:56 Yeah, I think from Annie's perspective, and I'm sure that there's going to be more of this, it just seems like that she felt like that people were being straight up with her all throughout this experience. And it seems like that there might have been a lot of people just telling her what she wanted to hear.
Starting point is 00:31:16 And I don't believe she is. second guess that too much in terms of like, okay, well, they say that they're with me, so they're obviously working with me and I wonder as somebody who comes in and is the boss of a company,
Starting point is 00:31:32 maybe you just expect a little bit more that when people tell you that they're on something, they're doing it, that you don't have to second guess that as much. I cannot tell a lie. There may have been times I did not tell my boss the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Starting point is 00:31:53 I mean, and as a boss, you have to know that. I mean, I was also, you know, a manager. And so I knew there were some people who did not always tell me the truth. So I mean, maybe because she, you know, was literally the CEO and it's a smaller company, she expects, I don't know. That's, yeah, that's a tough one. Um, I do want to just, I, I, I, I forgot to mention this. On a side note, she talked about having this four, where she and Alex would go off and get their super secret extra alliances. I have no idea who Annie's extra ally was that was in this supposed foursome because she talked about voting out both Jake and Sophie. And she didn't seem terribly close to Jeremiah.
Starting point is 00:32:41 So I think we're out of people there. I don't know who her extra was. six five yeah she also wasn't very close with Nicole also right yeah
Starting point is 00:32:53 but getting to the alliances that actually did exist in the tribe and he said in her interviews that she didn't understand the depth of the relationship between Jake and Sophie and she eventually
Starting point is 00:33:05 realized it when she saw them whispering together in the middle of the night but she said by then it was too late what she didn't know was just how too late it was was because she told Mike Bloom, I still don't know, even watching the episode, whether Alex actually wanted to work with me from day one like we had talked about, or whether Jake had gotten to him first. And he was truly in that alliance over him and me. We can answer that
Starting point is 00:33:31 question. Alex and Jake were essentially in an alliance, along with Sophie and Jeremiah, from before day one. You know, I mean, this was something we discussed last week with Nicole. And then And similarly, Rob, you asked Asia on No-It-alls if there was a way Annie could have gotten out of this. And the answers, unfortunately, no, because Nicole and Annie was screwed from before they hit the beach because of the pregame. Jake wanted to work with Alex. Alex wanted to work with Jake. Sophie wanted to align with Jake as a meet shield. And Jeremiah thought Sophie was his ride or die. There's no room for Annie and Nicole in that room.
Starting point is 00:34:08 Right, right. So, I mean, Alex did talk in the pregame about wanting to work with the older woman, who, by the way, she's older, but still only a little more than half the age of his boss in Congress. It's funny, Rob, because you mentioned on No-It-alls. He's off work now. And, no, communications directors, they're still, I'm sure they're still rolling during this. But he's almost off work because she's retiring. His boss is retiring at the end of this term. Yeah, David, do you know a lot about his boss?
Starting point is 00:34:41 I know that is a fair amount. Yeah, she's a congressperson from Illinois. Is that right? Yes, yes. And the race to replace her has gotten a lot of media attention because Cat Abu is, which is not her full name. I just can't pronounce it. And she goes by that is running to replace her. And she is also dating the owner of the onion.
Starting point is 00:35:07 newspaper. Oh, okay. And, and so she was a crossover. Yes, and she moved to that area to, you know, some people thought she was carpetbagging because she moved to that area. She's well known from doing podcasts and other things from, you know, political. So there's this whole big thing. Can this new young person come in there and grab this seat or are some of the people who have been there for a while. And it's not my district. I take no position on it. But yes, it's gotten a lot of media attention for that, that particular district. So. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But getting back to this, you know, yes, Alex was interested in working with her, but he was a lot more interested in Jake. And as for Annie, she came into the game already worrying about Jake saying he seemed nice,
Starting point is 00:36:07 but, quote, he also strikes me as somebody you can't trust as far as you can throw, and nobody's going to throw that guy anywhere. Well, and Jake is also in probably one of the best positions as far as everybody kind of vined for him in a way. So I can't imagine that Jake is going to want to rock the boat. And then if you look at Alex, Alex has got options that Jake doesn't even necessarily have the options. Jake is the option, right, for so many people. So they're certainly not going to be looking at him as someone that they want to get rid of.
Starting point is 00:36:43 I think if anyone, Sophie is the one that is finding herself in that difficult spot because who is Jake ultimately going to be the choice for? And Alex is in a better position, which it appears as if he is, then perhaps Alex and Jake will be that final two-sum if that's what it comes down to. So I do think that there is a genuine concern amongst the four of where everyone is going to fall. But at this point in time, there's no reason to change anything. Alex might have wanted to work with Annie, but Annie's not part of that four. And he's actually going to put himself in a worse situation, whereas right now he's very comfortable. And there's no reason to change that. And so it makes perfect sense that Alex was like, yep, I'm going to placate her.
Starting point is 00:37:32 so she feels like she's safe, so she doesn't do anything outlandish and that she doesn't play a shot in the dark and we're able to kind of maintain her reaction to what's happening for this vote. So Alex did an excellent job doing that, but it makes perfect sense how everyone stayed the course and voted her out because they were all being very strategic and how they handled her. But I do think that, you know, Rob, I think you were absolutely correct that Annie truly believed it because she had no reason to feel. otherwise because she wasn't that ingrained in what was going on because she was kind of surface level like oh okay we're good great I'm going to move on to the next thing and I don't need to really like question what's happening because I've been told that's what's
Starting point is 00:38:15 happening and we're good I'm awesome I thought you were going to say something well no I didn't want to step on you David no you're fine yeah um yeah she really just seemed like that she had like her plans that she felt very confident in and that didn't matter necessarily what else
Starting point is 00:38:38 was going on around her. She was like very willing to like, okay, this is what we're doing and she was pretty locked in. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, I think Jessica, you mentioned it earlier. Her strategy seemed to be straight
Starting point is 00:38:54 out of the first few seasons of Survivor. You know, she thought she proved her worth by working around camp and build the shelter and and she said in some interviews that she's seen so many seasons of survivor where tribes have terrible shelters and they don't sleep and all of that but now she comes to realize she was isolating herself by doing that she needed to realize it at the time and that i think is part of the surface level that you just mentioned because it i mean she just she's He just convinced herself so much to say all those things.
Starting point is 00:39:35 I mean, that's another thing. Never say all those things to the camera because, you know, it's going to be used against you at some point. Which things, if she wanted to go to tribal council? I mean, yeah, I don't care if we go to tribal council. Let's ship another person home. I'm kind of controlling the band. Everybody's got to follow me. I'm the puppet master.
Starting point is 00:39:52 Nobody sees the puppet master. They don't know what they're doing up there. They just see the puppets moving around. And then Alex and I can come together and decide what really. needs to happen to move the chess pieces around. And by the way, aside from how bad those were to say when you're not in control of the tribe,
Starting point is 00:40:08 what a bunch of mixed metaphors. Was she moving puppets or chess pieces or members of the band? I don't know. It's all very confusing. And maybe that's part of the problem there. He does own like five businesses or something. So maybe that's true of the issue. That's true.
Starting point is 00:40:23 I mean, but yeah, it was all based on her complete misreads of other players, like telling Alex that Sophie wanted to take out Jake. And then when he expressed some skepticism, I mean, it's one thing to have a surface read, but then to argue with him and say, you've got to trust on this one. It really felt, and one of you on this will get this, it felt like Keanu levels of bad game reads and delusions. If listeners and Jessica doesn't know what I'm talking about because you didn't watch
Starting point is 00:40:56 Big Brother. Let's just say really, really bad. How dare you? That's America's favorite player that you're talking about, David. America's favorite delusional player. Yes, absolutely. Who was also my winner, my pregame winner pick there. So at least I, you know, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, anyone who saw the Big Brother podcasts already knows that one when it comes to Keanu. But, uh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:41:26 Annie did bond with Alex, but so did Nicole, you know? And I know Annie and Alex had that unbreakable pinky promise, but it just seemed like a bit of a rerun of episode one. And it feels like the others saw what a good job Alex did of convincing Nicole. She was safe. So they agreed, just do it again with Annie. Let's run this back. And, you know, okay, she'd feel comfortable, not play her shot in the dark.
Starting point is 00:41:52 And like last week, the others just outschemed her. though as much as we talked about how Nicole had at least a few suspicions before talking herself out of playing shot in the dark it seemed like Annie had zero and thought she was in charge I agree so all right we can move on to the second rule here which says not to scheme and plot too much
Starting point is 00:42:16 and to keep your scheming secret I've seen some people online say this is why she lost she did too much too soon Sorry, no. Jake also seemed to think Annie violated this rule by spilling all her thoughts to Sophie about wanting to get Jake out, which means, you know, Sophie, of course, passed it along to Jake and he got upset, saying Annie was playing the game too hard. Was she really? I have to say no. Just because she's going for you, Jake, doesn't mean she's going too hard.
Starting point is 00:42:47 She needs to say she's targeting someone. and Jake even said once you screw me it's game over baby and then I steal your left shoe yeah right but what if she hadn't was he going to suddenly drop
Starting point is 00:43:02 his four person alliance and jump over to her no so the outcome was going to be the same no matter what he took it all so personally it just seemed so silly yeah well I do think
Starting point is 00:43:16 though there is something to be said about her being very just kind of open. There was no discussion when it came to Annie when she was talking to someone else about a particular idea that she had.
Starting point is 00:43:32 It was very much like, well, then we're just going to vote Jake out or now we're going to vote out Sophie. And it seemed very like matter of fact. And perhaps that's just what she's accustomed to because of the work that she does, which she does incredible work. I'm certainly not trying to minimize that.
Starting point is 00:43:47 But that can certainly affect how you present yourself to other. And sometimes in a situation such a survivor, you have to kind of play things out a little bit. And you have to try to like plant the seeds and figure out what other people are doing without being so blunt and saying, well, this is what we have to do. And this is why because that can rub people the wrong way and they can think you're playing too hard because you aren't understanding the nuance that comes with that strategy that is involved with getting other people to want to work with you because they all feel like it's group think as opposed to I'm being told. what to do because Annie is telling me what to do. And that can definitely run people the wrong way. And I think that was part of the issue that she really had with this rule was just being too
Starting point is 00:44:29 forceful in the presentation, even though it might have made sense for her to do that because that's the angle she needed to take. It was just, it was too much for the person that she was talking to. Yeah. I think that that's a good point about her directing the group. I also feel like that something that was also a red flag for Annie that I feel like she missed was
Starting point is 00:44:55 she changed who the target was a couple of times and there did not seem to be a lot of pushback on that. And I think that that is something that a survivor player can use in terms of if you want to know if people are just yes anding you or just annying you or if they actually are very much like working with you to figure this out if you change the target and the group the people you're talking to are just like okay fine okay let's do
Starting point is 00:45:27 let's do Jessica now okay if they're just going along with what you're saying and there's not like whoa whoa hold on slow wait why are we why are we changing it right right then it probably means that they're not really going to do
Starting point is 00:45:43 the thing that you're suggesting yep yeah Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, she was in control. She was in charge. So, of course, they would listen to her. Now, I do have to say, even though, you know, when she started off with Jake, and this is, I think this goes to what you were saying, Rob. I think the reason she gave for wanting to get rid of Jake were kind of silly too, because she said if they go to the merge with him, he'd win over, he'd win over them every time. And first of all, wrong. The big muscle guy does not win every challenge of the merch. You know, this again, to me, goes back to the thinking of many years ago. And second of all, you've had one vote so far. It is way too soon to be thinking about that. Like really, in vote two, you're thinking, oh, we got to get rid of him. Well, you're not going to have a tribe left. Not
Starting point is 00:46:41 They needed a puzzle person, you know, more than anything. But I, but again, even with all this, it didn't matter. Nothing she proposed was going to work anyway. See, she might as well have proposed voting out Jeff Brooks. You know, nothing was going to work. And like you said, Rob, everyone was going to say yes. So we could go to the third rule, which tells players to be flexible. And in her pregame interviews, she said, this cast,
Starting point is 00:47:11 There's a lot of millennials and young people. I don't even know what they're saying half the time. I'm old. I'm 49. So there's just a lot of things I have to adapt to and learn and pivot to fit into a group like this. Now, first, 49 is not old. Second, Rob, how do you think she did in terms of following her own advice to adapt to the young people? Well, that was not her story on the show.
Starting point is 00:47:38 So I don't really get the sense that. We had this tribe where this wasn't like the Red Tribe where they are all doing, you know, Gen Z speak. We didn't see Annie feeling like I don't even know what these people are talking about. So it didn't seem like that it was necessarily like a language gap. But in terms of a sensibility, it seemed like that she didn't adapt to being on the same level as them, not necessarily that she was somebody who could not follow the conversation. Because we had that with John Lovett a couple of seasons ago. And Nate, certainly this season,
Starting point is 00:48:21 talking about feeling out of place with the younger people. We didn't get that from Annie in terms of like the age. But in terms of like the where she, her position was that that seemed like that she did not fit in there. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. I think that she's a younger spirit, Annie. You know, she's the rock and roller hanging out at all of these clubs. I think that she is a, you know, feels younger in her personality. It just seemed like that from a station in life that she wasn't fitting in. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I agree, Rob. The problem is we didn't really see her socializing. So we don't know if she adapt. in that way.
Starting point is 00:49:12 Was she getting the hang of the language? Did she already know? Did she understand vibes and fire in cinema? She knows vibes, for sure. You know, she said in at least one interview that we didn't see all the times that they had fun together. So she probably adapted, at least in that way. But I think that Annie believed she was being strategically flexible through her four-person alliance with Alex and it was just built on a foundation of misinformation so
Starting point is 00:49:47 it wasn't going to work anyway. Mm-hmm. So, all right, then we could go to the fourth rule, which tells players not to let their emotions control them. And Jessica, given what we saw of her, how do you think she did here? Well, I don't think it was so much her emotions that were controlling things. I think it was more just her personality and who she was. And so I don't think that it was a problem.
Starting point is 00:50:10 with her emotions but I do think I'm a little sick right now if you can't tell but I do think that she was able to keep her emotions in check because she thought she was making the best decision for the group she was very much like I want to do the best thing for the tribe but she was presenting it in a way
Starting point is 00:50:33 that wasn't necessarily being reciprocated so I don't think her emotions were an issue but I don't think she was recognizing how other people were going to react to her. And so that's like kind of the other side of this rule where you need to be mindful of how other people are going to react to what you were doing because they might not appreciate how things are being presented to them. They might not appreciate someone who they think is telling them what to do as opposed to having a discussion with them.
Starting point is 00:51:04 So I think she just didn't really keep that portion of this rule. rule in mind when she was thinking about the other people's emotional response to what she was doing and how that would affect their ability or want to work through the game with her. Yeah, I mean, I agree that any game plan that she had, flawed as it was, at least was theoretically based on strategy. She wasn't targeting Jake and then Sophie because she disliked them. it was that she didn't trust them and as I mentioned oddly worried about Jake doing too well in in challenges and on the flip side worried about Sophie not doing well enough in challenges so I don't know Rob if you have any thoughts on this before we move on I don't think we saw anything from Annie that was based on her making emotional decisions it was not we didn't hear her say that she disliked anyone I don't think in the two episodes that she was on yeah yeah So we can go to the fifth rule, which reminds players they need to pretend to be nice and play the social game.
Starting point is 00:52:10 And, you know, Jessica, as you mentioned there, she clearly was not doing so well here. I live posted on Blue Sky while she was directing Sophie and Jeremiah on how to get coconuts. I said, even though Annie is delusional about her position in the game, at least she's also rude and controlling. Now, I admit I was a bit harsh. was she that rude you know that's how she came off to them and that's how it looked at the show
Starting point is 00:52:41 it was some truth to it as Annie herself later acknowledged in her interviews by talking about she's a CEO she owns a company she fronts a band etc so yes sometimes she could come off as bossy but she said it comes from a place of love
Starting point is 00:52:58 like the coconut stuff you know she didn't know that she specializes in biomechanics So she was just trying to help them out. But of course, they didn't know that because she didn't tell them that. So she really only has herself to blame there. Yeah, I didn't know she was a doctor, too. I feel like she's a PhD, not a medical doctor.
Starting point is 00:53:20 It's still a doctor. But when someone says, I'm a doctor, they usually mean medical. I couldn't be wrong about that. I thought she was the PhD type of doctor. You sound like Alyssa Slater. So, yeah, I mean, can you be mad at someone for not listening to your advice about these things? When you don't tell them you're an expert in this area? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:53:48 I mean, and I think that it's one of those narratives that ends up being created where if they start focusing on Annie as being bossy or Annie is telling people what to do, any little thing that she then does after is going to fit. into that narrative. And so you end up almost creating this world that, oh, did you see what Annie did? She did this other thing. Even if it's, even if it's the smallest little thing, it just feeds into this idea. And it's survivor. So everyone's looking for any reason to point the finger at someone, make someone else the focal point and someone else the potential vote.
Starting point is 00:54:28 So anything that Annie was doing at that point was like, it was just like piling on. It was like, oh, there she goes again. she's doing that thing that she's been doing even if it was like the smallest little thing so yeah we can thrust the coconuts into that and you know the shelter all of this these things that it was just one
Starting point is 00:54:45 more way for them to justify this is why we're targeting manny do you think that she would have been better off to come clean and tell everybody about her whole background because I wonder if that she probably told them like the rocker stuff right and it's like listen what is this
Starting point is 00:55:02 a rock and roll lady know about nutrition. She doesn't know anything about building a shelter. Listen, if we need to know like a question about music, we'll ask her. But if she came out and said what she actually did, I don't know. Maybe people would have given her like, okay, hold on. Maybe she has a little bit more weight. That's the very apparent point. It certainly couldn't have ended up worse in hindsight.
Starting point is 00:55:29 Right. I mean, maybe. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, maybe they say you're the, you're the PhD, you go on the puzzle. And then, you know, she blows the puzzle like they did. I don't know. You know, she seemed to, she believed she knew what was going on with the puzzle as she was shouting from the sidelines. Of course, she was telling them to move the piece they couldn't move. But. But Sophie's an entrepreneur. Maybe it's like, oh, okay, this is a business woman. I need to talk to her a little bit more. Yeah, it's possible. I do think a lot of. You know, a lot of it does go back to Jessica, what you were saying. I think I told this story on the podcast before many years ago that I used to have a coworker who he got a reputation for not being the hardest worker necessarily. But then, yes, every little thing that he would do would feed into that even if he was okay.
Starting point is 00:56:22 So at break time, he would take out his newspaper and be sitting at his desk reading the newspaper. And I heard, you know, I would hear the boss come by and say, and complain to someone, their Dan is reading the paper again without looking at his watch and realizing, oh, no, it's allowed now. It's, it's break time. So, you know, to avoid that perception, someone else told him, get up, go to the break room and read the newspaper rather than sitting in your cubicle to read the newspaper. And so, yeah, it's, you know, even though everything, well, That thing he was doing was perfectly fine because he had this, you know, because people already had the perception of him.
Starting point is 00:57:05 Like you said, Jessica, they're going to keep, they're going to keep lumping it in there. Now, Annie did tell Dalton Ross that if she could go back and change one thing, it would be to spend more time with her tribe. She said, I realized in hindsight that this is an almost entirely social game. People kind of don't care about the physical contributions, even really in challenges. And, you know, this goes back to what I said. said in the first rule. She was playing a game
Starting point is 00:57:29 from the single digit seasons. Yeah. Yeah, she definitely was. Although even if we go back to the single digit seasons, you do see that group of four is always a big component of it. But yes, I guess,
Starting point is 00:57:45 I think there was too much emphasis on that particular idea of the game as opposed to the social idea of the game. Yeah. Rob, do you have thoughts about the single digit seasons? You don't know anything about those.
Starting point is 00:57:57 I mean, you didn't go out and look for idols, but even in the single digit seasons, you know, you weren't saying like, wow, like Butch is going and he's, you know, out in the woods by himself. He is dominating this game. What a great. You know, you still needed to talk to the other people and be working with them. I mean, I think that you would have said that those were mistakes in the single digit seasons. Not necessarily like, oh, if you're being a provider. I mean, I think that by the end of the first season, And we saw that, okay, just being a provider for the tribe doesn't necessarily guarantee you a spot. Right, right. Yeah, I think it was a perception from the older seasons. And, you know, as we talked about, I think after you left Rob on the 10th anniversary podcast, you know, I had a rule originally providing food wins allies, you know, and, you know, working hard around campus.
Starting point is 00:58:54 And I dropped that pretty early on. because, yeah, it was clear, though it really didn't do anything for you. Sometimes makes people want to get rid of you. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll see if certain players in 50 have learned that lesson after playing multiple times and not learning it. So how about name any names yet? We'll save that for, you know, if it happens again.
Starting point is 00:59:22 All right. Stay tuned. See what rules God has to say. Season 50. We'll clip that for the preview of next season there. Like you're giving him so many sound bites right now. Fly Air Transit, seven-time winners,
Starting point is 00:59:48 champions out again. By the seven-time world's best leisure airline champions, Air Transat. So the sixth rule warns it gets to be too much of a threat. For this one, Annie seems to have been in a very similar spot to Nicole. The only type of threat she posed was, in theory, making them lose more challenges.
Starting point is 01:00:07 So I have full confidence that this tribe can continue to lose challenges even without her. See, I'll push back on that because I feel like that this tribe is seemingly like they are a puzzle person short. Going back to what Mike Bloom had to say about them, that seemed like that they almost won the first challenge. They had
Starting point is 01:00:29 a big lead in this challenge. I don't think that this is a situation like we had last season with I believe the Vula tribe where it got down to a point where it was with all due respect Cedric and Say and Mary going into the
Starting point is 01:00:46 challenge that you just felt like I don't see it. There's no way they're going to win. It's bad. It's getting worse. They lost Nicole and Annie. So they kind of have been voting out the weak lengths challenge wise. And I think they have a pretty strong four in terms of the physicality. As long as it doesn't end on a puzzle. And not all these immunity challenges end on a puzzle. A lot of times it's like, all right, then land a sandbag at
Starting point is 01:01:17 the end of the challenge or do a slingshot. So I have faith that this four, especially when other groups are sitting people out now. Like, I think that this four matches up pretty well with any of the other most physical fours from the other groups. So I don't think it's a foregone conclusion they're going to, like, they can't win a challenge. Yeah, I think it does come down to the puzzle aspect of things. You know, I mean, I don't know.
Starting point is 01:01:49 I have confidence in them to be able to mess it up in other ways, too. But it just, I mean, they couldn't even start. string sentences together in tribal council. It's not necessarily a knock against them under normal circumstances. But they're not eating. Yeah. So, yeah,
Starting point is 01:02:08 will the third in a row end in a puzzle? I know Jessica loves when they end every single one on a puzzle. Well, the first one was a table maze and then the second one was a puzzle. So I don't know if I have not admittedly followed it that closely in terms of like what does every one. end with and do they mix it up that much? But I know that there are other ways that the challenge can end.
Starting point is 01:02:33 Yeah. Sure. Yeah. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Yes. So the seventh rule covers idols advantages in game mechanics. And we had a fair amount to discuss here for Nicole last week, but not nearly as much for Annie.
Starting point is 01:02:49 The others thought she was looking for an idol last week, but she told Mike Bloom she gave up after an hour because she did. determined she was never going to find one. And, quote, there's so many better ways for me to spend my time right now, which would have been great, except she didn't actually spend her time in better ways. Well, she spent her time in ways that she thought was better. Yes. You know, when she was leaving them, it was because she was going to collect things to build
Starting point is 01:03:17 a shelter. She was going to look for coconuts. So in her mind, she thought that all of that time away made sense. but she also tried to legitimize her time away as part of the ruse, right, that we want, we want Nicole to think that I'm the backup plan and so I'm going to separate myself from everyone and feel like I'm on the outs. And as far as the second vote, she was thinking, I don't know if she thought that there was some world she was the backup again, but she kind of added that into her existence as
Starting point is 01:03:49 I'm the backup and I'm the ruse and so therefore I'm separating myself to support. that belief and make Nicole feel comfortable which ended up backfiring and not working to her advantage and I'm curious if that was actually a discussion that was had with her or if she just said oh that's what I'll do but she also had this great cover story
Starting point is 01:04:10 where she could have been out and looking for the idol and nobody would have like thought any nobody seemed to think she had the beware advantage or anything like that at least going back to what we've seen saw from the first episode. So she had sort of a free pass to be able to go out and look for the idol. Now, she would have never been able to get the idol that we saw by herself. And so it would have been eventually maybe where the group is sabotaging her trying to get it. But we didn't hear
Starting point is 01:04:44 from her that she was really out searching for idols or advantages. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think that She would have told Alex, and he probably would have helped her get it. And then she would have felt just as safe as she always did and gone home with an idol in her pocket. You know, so and yeah, I mean, it's a similar story for the shot in the dark. We don't even have anything to talk about there because she was totally blindsided. She didn't even have the 50-50 or 30-70 that Nicole thought she had. no, she was 100% that she was still going to be there.
Starting point is 01:05:22 So why would she ever even think about using? Right. So we can go to Appendix Day, which discusses keeping, the players keeping their end goals in mind, and this is Rob's favorite. Because you could tell, he's already smiling and laughing.
Starting point is 01:05:37 See, you can tell. He loves this rule. He loves it. We talk about voting out the week that the strong, the week that the strong. And so as I recall, Rob, going back to, eight years ago. The reason you loved this so much was because sometimes someone was weak in
Starting point is 01:05:56 one area, not in the other, and you'd be questioning me, like, were they weak or were they strong? What's going on here? And so, you know, for someone who is weak in the alliance, but strong in the challenge or vice versa, yeah, there's somewhat of a debate. But in this case, it's really not that complicated. We again have a situation similar to last episode where, Annie was completely outside the main alliance and weaker in challenges. I mean, again, as I mentioned, even in the puzzle that Alex and Sophie were completely blowing, Annie was distracting them, standing out there, yelling off to the side about them, about moving a piece that they couldn't even move.
Starting point is 01:06:39 Yeah. So I don't think there's much here to talk about with Annie. I guess going back to my issue with the rule. rule is I think in the pre-merge, I think that, look, vote out the week and then the strong. My issue is then when we get back to then after the merge, then we're talking about and then go back to voting out the week and then vote out the strong is I don't think that that's really happening anymore. I don't know that that that's like a rule that like if you're telling survivor players advice, like, hey, One thing, remember, when you go there, vote out the week, then vote out the strong, then go back to voting out the week and then vote back out the strong. I don't know if that second week strong needs to be there, with all due respect to the rules, God.
Starting point is 01:07:35 Do not question the rules, God. We're seeing it more at the merge. They're not voting out the strongest. competitors right away necessarily anymore. They are voting out. The winning formula though? Well, for somebody it is. But yeah, it's, it's, I got to say, Rob, you know, this, this in particular was even quoted
Starting point is 01:08:05 in Australian Survivor pregame by Eden. He came out when, after he was voted out a couple seasons ago. And he won. Well, no. But. Oh. no i i would say if i was going to like put a finer point on it yes i feel like it's like um the vote out the weak and then the strong and then it should be um instead of like it's weak
Starting point is 01:08:31 in a different way i feel like it's the um the um the ally poor um the people that are sort of like the um popular uh like it's like the the weak and the strong and then the unpopular and then the popular. You can't hit these targets that are these popular people at the merge. So they're weak in terms of their standing in the game, but they may not necessarily be physically weak. They are people who are just without a lot of allies. Yes.
Starting point is 01:09:09 And that is what the extended long version talks about. As a matter of fact, the weak in allies is always the overarching principle here because I mean so far this season we haven't had a chance to talk about that because they've been weak in both but yes someone who is weak in challenges but has a strong alliance they're going to especially in the new era we have seen those people being kept around and the you know so it the the the the alliance portion of it is always overarching. And so even here, she said, she told Dalton Ross, look at what happened at the one where
Starting point is 01:09:58 I got voted out. I was not in any stretch, the weak link in that challenge. And Sophie and Alex's name didn't even come up. So people don't care as much anymore about the physical side. Yeah, because they are in a strong alliance. And she was not in any sense of the way, except again, in her own head. And so, you know, but she was thinking back to the early days of Survivor,
Starting point is 01:10:22 the, where being strong at a challenge would automatically keep you around. And it just, it just doesn't anymore. So, so yeah, and it was also funny to me that while she didn't really understand it, she was using some of this reasoning in her own decision making because, she thought they could vote out Sophie because she was so bad at the puzzle, but she didn't want to vote out Alex, who was also bad at the puzzle, because he was her supposed ally. So again, even in her own mind, in her own imaginary alliance, she wanted to keep one of the bad puzzle people, but get rid of the other bad puzzles.
Starting point is 01:11:09 So. All right. Well, with that, it is about time to wrap. wrap things up. Rob, what are your final thoughts, at least in this podcast, on Annie?
Starting point is 01:11:23 I really think Annie got a unlucky hand in terms of the group that she was with. Maybe there was a different configuration of players in Survivor 49 that she would have fit in better with. But this group in particular, she seemed to have a bond with Alex,
Starting point is 01:11:43 but that really was about it. you would mention that she also was unlucky in terms of that the other people also gelled so well that there were so many instant connections she was just on the outside looking in and i just don't believe that she was as experienced of a survivor player in terms of like her knowledge of the game to be able to overcome or figure out a way to untangle all of that so that's my thoughts on why Annie has lost this game. I tend to agree that she really did find herself
Starting point is 01:12:23 in a group of people that just didn't work well for the type of game that she hoped to play. Annie came in to this game having a very strong sense of herself. She recognized certain things in herself and she even admitted to wanting to be vulnerable but because she's vulnerable,
Starting point is 01:12:41 she says things that she's feeling on the inside and sometimes you can't always do that on Survivor because it doesn't necessarily land well. And I think Annie really wanted to play this game the same way she has taken on life, which is in every way, shape, or form, like she's leading the charge. She's made it very clear that she's a CEO,
Starting point is 01:13:00 she fronts a band, she's started businesses, she's got her PhD. She's done a lot of incredible work. And while that can really make you excel in the real world, sometimes when you want to put yourself front and center and take over and survive it doesn't always work out that well if you don't have that social component that you really need. You need to have buy-in if you want to start telling people what to do. And if you don't have that initial buy-in, they're not going to listen. So I do think it was unfortunate that Annie found herself with this group where you had four people right off the rip, just really connecting and wanting to play together, put her on the immediate outs. And then she just piled on by being. the way that she truly is in her real life, but it's not reflective of how you have to play the game of Survivor. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:13:48 In Annie's pregame interview, she said something very similar to what she'd later say in this tribal council about Survivor being a game of deceit, not trust. But she also said she trusts too easily. I noted in our preseason podcast that this was something she'd have to overcome. Clearly, she didn't. She trusted Alex and managed to convince herself that the two of them or running the game, but those were definitely not the dynamics in play.
Starting point is 01:14:15 And she also trusted, as we discussed, when anyone would say, yes, I'm with you. Oh, that means you're with you. I suspect one major reason Annie didn't see the overall dynamics was because of the way she was so focused on building the shelter and working around camp. As we discussed, she realizes now just how much of a social element there is in Survivor. I just don't really understand how she watched since the beginning, even sporadically. and didn't realize that was happening before going out there. Like I said, it really seemed like she was playing Survivor with incorrect perceptions from a long, bygone time.
Starting point is 01:14:57 But the sad fact is that none of it really mattered. Yes, she would have had a much different TV edit if she'd seen what was going on. She could have even made some different better pitches to try to flip people over to her side. I simply don't think any of it would have worked. As we discussed last week, as both of you mentioned, the foursome of Jake, Alex, Sophie, and Jeremiah essentially formed in the pregame. Annie was never a part of it.
Starting point is 01:15:23 Can I say for absolute certain that there was no way she could have found or created a crack if she had focused more on the actual game? No, it just seems very unlikely. And if she did have a chance at all, she eliminated it through her complete misread of tribe dynamics and which players were tight with each other. And that is why Annie lost.
Starting point is 01:15:48 There we are. So, yes, before we get to our predictions for next episode, I want to mention that next week our guests will be one of our regular guests who has joined us for every season for a little while now, Survivor 43's Lindsay Carma. Wow. Yes. And we want to remind everyone, of course, that the rules we just discussed are available, as I mentioned, in poster form,
Starting point is 01:16:15 poster on a T-shirt form, and checklist on a T-shirt form. So, again, go to Rob has a website.com slash YX lost feed. Can I give a note on the T-shirt if you do a redesign when you get to another anniversary? Could I get Appendix A over my appendix? Well, we'll talk to the art department about that. That could really be like in an appendix shape where it's like appendix. I think that this is where it is. And that would be great.
Starting point is 01:16:53 Well, we'll talk to Annie. She knows biomechanics. So she would know exactly where that is. Fair. Fair. So, so Rob, I know that you're. you're you're you're you're you're kind of a newbie to you know this sort of thing but where can people find you if they if they want to look for you as you can find me in new york city on tuesday night
Starting point is 01:17:19 i'll be with all of the patrons having a big event and then wednesday night i will be hosting a live viewing party of survivor and sam more it really means the most to him that we have a person in every single seat. If you want to be there, I believe that there is about like 13 assorted seats throughout the building that are not filled
Starting point is 01:17:47 Rob has a website.com slash events. Excellent. Well, and also... Podcasting away. I was going to say, then there's that whole podcasting that you do do as well. You know, Rob has a podcast.
Starting point is 01:18:04 And I am actually at Jessica Lewis 89 on both Blue Sky and Twitter and also 6-7-8-9. So at Jessica Lewis, 6709 on Instagram. 6-7-8-6-8- Yes. That's right, 6-7. But I am not as, you know, social media heavy as I used to be, but the gentleman that is seated next to me, Mr. David Bloomberg, has created such a world for himself on social media platforms all over the place, so much so that he does have a link.
Starting point is 01:18:36 tree that he allows you to find all of the locations that you can find this guru who is the rules god as he has now changed that i'll have to change that i'll have to change that he has been designated by i didn't know you were guru i had to put something there you know if i'm not going to call myself that who is yeah well now you have a new name so it is rules god yes rules god Yes, you can find all of my accounts there at Linktree slash David Bloomberg. You can find me directly on Blue Sky as at David Bloomberg or on all of the video sites, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram is at David Bloomberg TV where I've been posting at least three sometimes more reality TV short videos per day.
Starting point is 01:19:25 Right now, obviously they're mostly focused on Survivor 49, though I've still got some Big Brother, 27 videos trickling in at the end. I'll have some amazing race when those are interesting enough to talk about, you know, clips. The show itself is, but not, you know, the clips I'm talking about. And, you know, some other, whatever other shows pop up. Celebrity Traders. Celebrity Traders, UK, will probably make an appearance, even though, I mean, it's the UK. So I know like two of those celebrities.
Starting point is 01:20:00 But if maybe there's a traitors show coming in the U.S. If I get a negative TikTok from Rules God about the traders, I'm just going to walk away. You have been warned, Bulls God. I mean, I know you can't talk about it. So I can't ask you if you did anything. Rules God is just like, destroying me on
Starting point is 01:20:29 TikTok. Can you imagine Jess? I think that's going to be a lot for him to do. I agree. I don't think that that would be appropriate. This podcast is over. Happy That's it. You're gone.
Starting point is 01:20:48 What is Rob thinking? Does he know? Didn't I tell? Didn't I? Don't I always say? Did you banish the weak than the strong? Did you murder the weak than the strong? You know, that's what it comes down to, Rob.
Starting point is 01:21:12 So I guess, yeah, we'll find that out. Job security. You're going to be dependent upon your TikToks. Yes. David Bloomberg will be giving me my flowers all through. traders yes I expect three three positive TikToks a day a day you're going to have to you better be the focus of the show if you're going to eat three per day there's a lot of people on that show so we're we're going to talk to you about you know when you align
Starting point is 01:21:51 with certain people and you know Travis Kelsey's mom you know and stuff like that All right. Well, besides predicting the traitors, let's predict what happens in the next episode. And I thought that the prediction I'm about to give, I thought that I had put it together real well. And then I found out, you know, reading on blue sky, I'm like, oh, I guess lots of people have that prediction. So it's, you know, like I said earlier, considering this tribe couldn't even form sentences. is, or remember what Jeff asked them in tribal council, I just find it hard to believe they're going to manage to really compete in a challenge, even if it doesn't have puzzles. So I have to predict they're going to lose.
Starting point is 01:22:40 Alex and Jake have the bromance. Sophie wants Jake to herself, and I think Alex feels the same way. Jake feels like he has two number ones. Jeremiah is tight with Sophie. And of course, Alex has the idol, which everyone knows about. So, will there be an Alex versus Sophie showdown? Personally, I hope not because I want both of them to stay. I think it would be hilarious if Jake were to be outed as the shoe bandit and people
Starting point is 01:23:10 get annoyed enough with him to vote him out, but I just don't see it happening. And you know, earlier last, not earlier, last week, I had said that when Jake voted against Nicole, Dalton gave us what each person said in their voting confessionals, even though we didn't see it on the show. And Jake talked about protecting his three. Well, who's not in that three? That would be Jeremiah, the same person we talked about earlier, who was the last to know. And so I think that that kind of indicates to us who's going next. I think they're going to end up as a tribe of three and Jeremiah is going out. I do think that that makes the most sense.
Starting point is 01:23:58 And it really does boil down to this idea of withholding Flint and having tribes be starving and not being able to actually function normally. It's hard enough as is. And then we can't actually make a fire and have actual food. And the fact that we did, they focused on Jeremiah too. in the tribal council where like he he literally could not speak that does seem to make the most sense unfortunately um i'm going to agree with you on that okay all right and not to say devil's advocate uh but i'll give you something different um how about a world
Starting point is 01:24:38 where we see uli red tribe could they go to a tribal council this week and You know, we've built up Joanne over the first two episodes. I don't think that Joanne ends up being the person who goes home. I wonder if the tribe ends up going in a different direction and they have to save David Bloomberg's winner pick. And Sage is somebody who we've just seen in sort of like that all of her confessionals and story have been around. Just like, you know, bodily fluids, comic relief. I just feel like maybe are we just like, high. highlighting her to highlight her
Starting point is 01:25:19 and then if the tribe ends up going with her instead of Joanne. So I'll say maybe Sage next week. Okay. That makes sense. I do think Sage is funny, so I would hope she wouldn't go, but I hope even more that Joanne wouldn't.
Starting point is 01:25:36 When you got to go, you got to go. Nobody knows better than Sage. Exactly. Yeah. And she wants you to tell her all about it. Yes. Yes. All right. Well, as we wrap up, I encourage people to check out the RHAP patron program at Rob has a website.com slash patron.
Starting point is 01:25:52 You get access to all of the special podcasts put out just for the patrons, now including club condo. But now we're not talking about the Cubs, David. No, no. I was going to say that to the end, but go Cubs. Sorry they knock your meths out of the end. Club Condo.
Starting point is 01:26:07 Yeah, we're not talking about that. Club Condo and also we're going to do a special bonus slop. How about that? All right. Good, because I haven't been able to keep up with everything that's been going. much. Yeah, there's a lot going on there with our post Big Brother content. And then, of course, patrons also get Facebook groups and discords and early access to tickets for like a New York
Starting point is 01:26:30 live show that Rob mentioned and the upcoming San Francisco one. So support shows on the network by becoming a patron that Rob has a website.com slash patron. Also make sure you're subscribed to all the RHAP Survivor Podcasts by going as it says on the screen to we know Survivor dot com. And then you'll get all the Survivor podcasts there from the stuff that Rob does to this podcast to the B&B, Survivor Global and whatever else comes out on that on that fee. And normally when I get to do thank yous, I think Scott and Jess with RHAP with all of the editing that they do. But today I actually get to thank Rob directly for all of the work that he puts into Rob has a podcast, everything you've created for all of the listeners and for
Starting point is 01:27:18 individuals such as ourselves and the content that you allow us to create. So thank you so much not only for doing that, but for being here with us today. This has been absolutely lovely having you join us. And it's a little, you know, starstruck, just a smidge. Just with that as well. So just, yeah, so it's so lovely having here. Listen, David is always appreciative of that, Jess.
Starting point is 01:27:43 The rules God is going to get even bigger ahead if you are. just, you know, awestruck by him. No, I'm awestruck by you. No, I hear you. You know, I appreciate that. And I really just appreciate your dedication to, you know, come in here and break down the rules week after week with all the different players. So thank you both so much for all that you do every week during the Survivor season.
Starting point is 01:28:11 Yes, I want to add my thanks, of course, Rob, not just for joining us again for this 10th anniversary podcast, but for everything. You know, I know this was not exactly strategically the deepest survivor episode to dive into, but we had fun and that's all that matters. And so, you know, thank you, of course, Jessica, for for this episode and for eight years. So, you know, I appreciate both of you. And, you know, so thanks again for that. Next week, as I mentioned, we will have Lynn.
Starting point is 01:28:47 Yan, so we will see you then. Bye. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

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