I still think that they edit a winner differently than a tribal council loser. They will try to make the most interesting episodes as they can, they will show us the stories of the final people, and if they can they will try to make us feel good about the person who won.

I think Denise is a pretty bad example because she just was not interesting to watch. She did not make a move to get rid of Malcolm till he forced her to. I do not see how you could really edit her better.

If Coach or Albert won that season that Sophie won, then she would have got even less airtime.

More confessionals could have done it, focusing on reflections on family, reflections on what the million would mean, reflections on her tribemates and her professional opinions on them...the list goes on. They could have done any of that and chose not to.

The cast said they'd have voted for Denise over malcolm, which means they were pretty damn impressed by her and probably would have said as much if asked in confessional. Again, none of that when it could have made for an easy winner's edit. I think they just focus on interesting people who go long, and wouldn't even be shocked if they weren't made aware of the winner's identity

Andrea is probably #1 on my "hottest survivor girls" rankings. just amazing.
and I just feel like every time Malcolm plays this game he's doing great and then something ****ed up happens.
last time was a single challenged that he happened to suck at, and now ****ing corinne. I think even if he manages to gain advantage in this season he'll still get somewhat unlucky.

I liked how they portrayed dawn in this ep. First they showed her saying she will be an active player and not just go with the flow like last time, and then they show her telling people about corinne. I love what she did, I hate that it had to **** up malcolm's tho.

There are still two idols in play so I think that Malcolm and those guys aren't totally screwed yet. I'm looking forward to next week which has the potential to be a complete explosion. I wonder if Malcolm knew about the blindside he would have given his idol to Corrine?

If Malcolm can convince Reynold to play his idol for someone else to blindside for his alliance he'll be in the running for GOAT if he isn't already. Really hope he doesn't get screwed b/c of a challenge again this season and if he goes, goes out for a good reason.

I can't stand Dawn. She just annoys me.

Andrea, Brenda, Eddie, Sherri all drawing dead I think. Cochran looking strong potentially right now because while he isn't a direct influence, he has the alliance within the alliance that puts him in a good spot.

i agree with the general sentiment above. i thought going into the final that malcolm was going to win. i just didn't see how skupin or lisa or denise had the edit to support the win. i've tried to rely on the edit a little less in figuring out who is going to win as a result because either a) it's not as important as we think it is, b) i'm not very good at it, or c) both it's probably b or c.

in fairness, i think the cast was really impressed with denise but pretty sure at least a few were actually just trolling probst by saying they'd vote denise to win over malcolm. malcolm made the claim on twitter after the finale that at least pete and carter had agreed before the finale to troll probst if he asked. and there's some support to suggest that's true because probst asked if they put malcolm in place of lisa and had a malcolm/denise/skupin F3, who would they vote for and carter raised his hand for denise - which doesn't make sense considering he voted for skupin over denise in the actual F3.

Long gone are the episodes when Shamar was still around and Sherri was getting a pretty good edit (I thought). Same with Michael. Really does seem like a favourite is going to win this (ldo they have numbers).

If Malcolm is out of options whats his play tell everyone Reynold has idol so he can save his for a week?

fwiw i heard on a RHAP interview with I think Penner that they were completely trolling at the reunion when they said they would have voted Denise over Malcolm

I don't see how Malcolm wouldn't have gotten Jeff, Penner, Pete, Abi, and Carter votes.

Regardless of who would have won, Denise just didn't get "the winner's edit" and did win.

I think people are giving far too much credit to the Survivor editors having a certain pattern that they follow to portray a winner. They're probably only clicking buttons and trying to come up with a new storyline every week.

nah, they're definitely telling a broader story, but trying to keep each ep individually entertaining is a part of the plan.

They need to tell a story but the whole edit thing is just the standard thread noise. You are not cool until you have said winner's edit, WOAT, GOAT and HOAT double digit times over the course of the season. Reading those posts is for entertainment purposes only but can be skipped without severe loss of the Survivor watching experience.

Thanks thread expert!

I agree. Everything you've said is very spot on.

Really? I guess you could say she didn't dominate the screen time but we did hear several times in the season, that if she did get to the end she would win. (Russell to me sticks out most in my memory)

Some info here on Phillip shows that he is probably more self aware than most people think he is. The funny part is that even with this insight, it still may not change his change his fate in any way.

Could he really sell a line that he knew he was perceived as the harmless flake who thought he was in charge, and it was all part of his master plan to not be taken seriously until it was time to REALLY take control of his own fate? That his place as the hapless leader made him pretty much safer than anyone, but only up to a point. And, he determined when that point was.

Did you not watch his last season? That thread was filled with people arguing that Phillip was going to spring his master ruse on everyone at FTC and reveal it was all planned.

What happened?

He was the same coma inducing boring nutcase.

Know why?

Because he is a coma inducing boring nutcase all the time, every day, at all time.

Phillip is a moron. It's not a ruse.

If phillip loses this season iuts because he dudnt want to win. All part of the long term SRU goals.

Yes, I am aware of Phillip from last year and he is clearly a nut case. I guess I should have worded this differently. My point was that Phillip's approach is actually a good one, if he actually knew how the others were perceiving him, and how he could act on that.

But he doesn't, so it is a moot point.

My favorite part of the last ~150 posts has been several people saying Malcolm played a perfect game and got screwed again. This is proof of why Malcolm is so good: even when he makes mistakes, people will overlook them simply because he's handsome and charismatic.

I like Malcolm a lot, but the idea that he played a flawless game and got screwed by Erik/Brenda is absurd. Do you really think the game's truly elite players (Cesternino, Kim, Parv, etc.) wouldn't have done a better job controlling the floaters? Do you really think Russell/Boston Rob would have ever let someone like Erik out of their sight 10 minutes before TC?

Malcolm misread the situation and/or Erik/Brenda, and it's not the first time he's made this same mistake in a crucial spot. I hate to say it, but he's quickly trending into "overrated" territory for me. Don't get me wrong; he's still a damn good player, but he's likely in the JT tier for me. He's a super charismatic dude who is prone to mistakes that true GOAT-level players simply do not make.

I'm not sure this could possibly be any more correct. Well said. Dawn can't make FTC, lose, and get a "loser's edit." She's going to get the same exact edit whether she finishes 1st, 2nd, 3rd (likely impossible), or 4th.

I actually think Malcolm (and Corinne's) biggest mistake was at the very first tribal. They both voted Francesca, with Erik AND Brenda voting Andrea. I think they both would have had dominant control of an alliance consisting of Francesca/Brandon/Erik/Brenda, and it would have likely avoided Brandon's blow up until at least the merge. I mean obviously this is 20/20 hindsight, but there were a lot of advantages to taking this line. For one thing it excludes a lot of challenge underachievers from the alliance while still making for smooth sailing post-merge/FTC, and most importantly it doesn't align you with Cochran. I don't know why ANYONE would intentionally align themselves with Cochran day one, it is a disastrous idea on so many levels. He's strategic, likeable, sucks in most challenges and is demonstrably unloyal if he doesn't get his way, when what you want are people you can control, beat in the end, stupid and aren't going to put a fight when you axe them/won't have the foresight to recognize it until it's too late. Cochran is none of that.

To me it is beyond obvious that Malcolm has a significantly better theoretical understanding of Survivor strategy than JT does. A lot of what you say his mistakes were this week can be attributed to lack of charisma/ability to build personal relationships more than it can be attributed to a lack of strategical/tactical acumen. Like, he didn't build close enough relationships to Brenda and Erik (because he didn't think he needed to) to have them in his pocket, whereas someone like JT might be so naturally friendly that he'd have better relationships with those players. We've definitely seen an arrogant, negative, perhaps "nerdy" or "aloof" side to Malcolm during this season.

(I say all that without knowing what Corrine has said about Malcolm's involvement in her blunders.)

I think you can argue that Malcolm only has as much win equity as JT (though I wouldn't), but that it's harder to argue that they're very similar players.

I do feel his mishandling of Denise is a worse and worse mistake the more I think about it.

Huh? I think some people hoped he'd try this, but I don't think anyone actually believed he'd find success in doing it.

Hate blinds

I don't quite get the malcome love from a GOAT perspective...not sure he's anything more than an average player if we're ignoring what he brings to the game. Obviously, he has a lot of gifts and those play well for him, but I don't think he's close to the all-timer some people make him out to be (and yeah, the Denise thing was awful)