Can this edit that Brenda is getting mean something more irt how her season plays out? Or is it just that she's boring? Or on the bottom of an alliance and doesn't affect the game/tribe much ans soon to go?
I've seen so little of her It almost seems the Editing team is intentionally doing this (if so, I haven't seen enough Survivor to know why that maybe or if I'm just dead wrong).
Seems odd to me that an attractive, former NFL cheerleader, thinking on some level for sure, is a favorite - so she has some sort of fan following that producers/editors alike are aware of and finally, she's playing hard enough to win a physically demanding challenge.
Here we are, 9 episodes in and I honestly struggle to to remember she's around.
I haven't seen Nicaragua (plan to go back, so no spoilers if poss plz) but am I missing something here or is this just a case of too many ppl and not enough cam time?

With a 4-3-3 split coming up, I'm worried that the rest of the season won't have that much drama. We need Malcolm to just play his idol and then go on either an idol-finding spree a la Russel, or an immunity run.

I think Malcolm's mistakes this week were excusable due to him having to chase the game, which is never easy. Where Malcolm really f'd up was last week when Corrine got blindsided.
Malcolm had a great plan to team up with the bros and Corrine + Michael and blindside SrUs, it seemed pretty straight forward. When it actually came to executing this plan it seemed like Malcolm took a back seat and let Corrine run the play for him, considering this was probably the biggest move of Malcolm's Survivor career, for him not to have his fingerprints all over it seems unforgivable. A few things that irk me thinking back on this are:

- How is it possible for Andrea to convince Eric to vote against his alliance within 10 seconds of asking him? Surely Malcolm has to do a better job of securing that vote.

- Why were they targeting Sherri in the first place? Why not take out a higher priority target, rather than a floater like Sherri.

- Why wasn't Malcolm's plan to push for the favourites to split the votes in the first place and if it was why wasn't this communicated to Corrine?

They haven't even mentioned her obvious knee injury.

What evidence is there that Eric was in an alliance with Malcolm?

She's wont be a factor. Almost zero chance of making the final tribal.

Wouldn't surprise me to see her evac'd but the more likely scenario is she is an early SRUS casuality after the bros are gone.

Not only is GOAT the most overused term of the thread, it appears to be the most mis-used as well.

Malcolm is a very good player and great for tv and the series, but he makes too many mistakes to get as much praise as he does:

GOATs:
- do not claim or assume they have someone's vote when they do not (Erik)

- do not watch someone in their alliance make a mistake and then go and repeat that mistake because they don't understand the pecking order (especially when it was an alliance he was formerly in)

- give free meaningful information to the enemy (showing an idol) and getting nothing in return (except a false promise)

- do not confess to the camera that they have no idea what is going on

- do get someone to give them their idol, however that idol would then typically be played correctly, and it was not.

People blame Eddie for Malcolm's plan not working, but without Eddie's and Andrea's late conversation, why would Malcolm even think that the target would be on him?

People think Phillip is crazy, but I think his comments were very calculating and purposely effective. Consider the following:
- Phillip knew they were voting for Michael
- Phillip said that if you have an idol, we are coming after you
- Phillip said if you are making a move against the alliance, we are coming after you

Those are very obvious idol flushing moves, and it worked to make both of them nervous and get one out. I give Malcolm credit because it really should have flushed both of them out.

Core SRUs won this episode handily with Malcolm taking second by getting another free immunity, but not being able to save Michael and get Andrea gone makes it more of an uphill climb for him. He can still earn a GOAT status but I wouldn't say his track record supports it especially so far this season.

Wondering how Cochran is going to play into all of this. Right now he is basically bulletproof within his alliance and will definitely make F5 if he continues to just let the game be played around him and not make any enemies. I'm having a hard time finding an FTC combination in his current alliance where he doesn't ship it - especially if Dawn goes crazy.

He just has to make sure phil,andrea, and sherri/dawn don't vote him out.

your assuming eddie told malcolm

Yeah as of now it seems to be shaping up something like:

Phillip/Andrea/Sherri
Cochran/Dawn (not 100% sure they are as close as it may seem though)
Brenda/Erik

So it's a little surprising how little is being shown of Brenda/Erik when in theory they should be a huge swing as floaters and be huge factors in the end game. I think Phillip/Andrea/Sherri need to target Cochran/Dawn immediately if that's indeed who the final 7 are.

In the past when people have been basically non-existent in edit even though they go very far, has it been for any other reason other than the producers think they are incredibly boring? I think of Rick from a few seasons past.

It's hard to think that Erik ever considered himself to be in Malcolm's alliance but who knows with that guy. I'm with you on the securing the vote part though.

I think they were targeting Sherri for a couple of reasons. Primary one being they didn't really have the votes (unless they got Phillip to split) to go after a more lucrative target so they were trying to trick the other favorites into voting off someone that gave them a more favorable numbers situation before going after a higher priority target. They were using the fact that Sherri was a fan who didn't figure to have possession of an idol, and was therefore a safe vote for the favorites...Malcolm and Corrine still pretending to be with the favorites. I think it was a good plan and pretty safe for the 5 unless someone in that five goes and tells someone who is in a good position on the other side that she's about to completely wreck her game.

I think it was better to hope Phillip brought up a split vote and just insta-back him on what a great idea that was (then they could choose to target whoever they wanted). Malcolm coming in and pushing for a split vote would surely have looked suspicious given that everyone was reacclimating with each other after the merge. Corrine seemed to think the split vote idea was going to make Reynold so nervous that he played his idol, but burning that idol was still >>>>> trying to secure votes that you didn't need and exposing yourself to danger.

Again, I like Malcolm's easy way...but I think it's too easy at times.

Brenda's secret scenes have been boring...except that she looks good obviously. Erik...him picking that bug out of Andrea's hair complete with dodo music pretty much sums him up. So I think you are onto something there, but their votes and why they are voting the way they are voting are still important. But maybe the fact that they aren't going to move is too obvious if they show us a little bit, so they are keeping us in the dark instead.

There is no "they". It was Corrine's plan to target Sheri via the favorites (at least via the edit she had to do all the heavy lifting).

Stealth R US is unbreakable! Malcolm should have waited until the fans were all gone before he made his move

maybe he feared he was on bottom.

If malcolm just pocketed reynolds idol it would have been the most baller move in survivor history

I'm not sure I agree even after fixing your post.

The thing I don't understand about Malcolm's play is that even if things had gone exactly as planned (SRUS splits votes, dawn or Sherri flips) his vote on Reynold and not Andrea means that they still wouldn't have enough votes without Reynold playing his idol

I assume he was counting on both Sherri and Dawn flipping, which would have given Reynold 4 votes, Eddie 2 votes, and Andrea 5 votes. Maybe he was hoping to hide his involvement if the plan went awry, but you'd have to figure that Dawn or Sherri would spill the beans in that case.

What's the best move for Malcolm looking ahead?

The only bright spot for Malcolm is that certainly no one suspects he has an idol after playing Reynold's. He's got one more decent shot to flip the game, but I think even if he is able to flip it, he'll end up having to go on an immunity run - which means he needs Eddie and Reynold gone which is counter to him being able to seize control from SRUS.

Yeah - he's pretty much toast but he gets an A-for effort I guess. He knew he would be a natural post-merge target and aggressively tried to change that. Just missed.

i cant see malcolm flipping any operatives... maybe brenda.

Just listened to The Dom and Colin podcast and had a few thoughts on the guest Max Dawson. Overall another great show and very interesting listen.

1) the idea that Cochrane should knowingly reduce his EV, by voting out Phillip, simply to make a better show is so silly it barely deserves comment and brings into suspicion all his other points. I hate Phillip probably more than any other viewer but in a discussion of best strategy anyone who suggests anything other than doing EVERYTHING possible to get to the end with Phillip simply does not understand the game at all. Right now, the single most important thing any player left could do is figure out a way to sit next to Phillip at the FTC.


2) While the discussion of sexism in Survivor was interesting Dawson's solution was also tinged with its own very strong brand of sexism. Why are strength and aggression "Male attributes"? That suggest the alternative, passivity and subservience, are somehow "female attributes". Survivor is a game, that in general, awards strength and aggressive play so perhaps the women who employ that strategy are not being typecast using "male traits" but being smart players? While I agree with Dawson that women do not get an equal edit to men the solution is certainly not focusing more on truly stereotypical female traits rooted in the 1950's. These stereotypes serve only to maintain the established patriarchy. Men and be strong and weak, passive and aggressive, smart and dumb. Women are no different.

The reason strength and aggressive play tend to get favored in the edits is not sexism, its game design. Does Dawson complain that Poker tends to focus on the aggressive players? Of course not. The game is designed to favor those traits therefore those traits will be highlighted in the edit.

That is not to say that there is only one way to be good at Survivor but certainly there is no such thing as a male and female way to play. That is simply sexism clothed in the guise of feminism. Players can utilize sex appeal like Parvarti or, in this very season, Eddie and Reynold (albeit poorly by the later two). Players can be challenge beasts like Stephanie or Colby. They can be strategic geniuses like RobC or Kim. Finally, they can be brilliant social players like Cirie or Hatch. The greatest are some combination of all of the above (e.g., RobM or Kim).

None of them are great because they play a "male" or "female" game simply because no such thing exists.


3) Dawson's obvious love of Dawn as a person is clearly clouding his analysis. Who cares who would "best use the money" whatever that even means. Who is to say her paying the bills of her family is any more virtuous than any of the others paying the bills of theirs?

I haven't listened yet, but regarding #3, it can certainly matter in swaying the jury.

My guess is that Eddie told Malcolm/Reynold about his convo with Andrea where Andrea told Eddie that nobody was voting for him. Malcolm was trying to protect himself if SRus split between him and Reynold. But that only matters when neither of them plays an idol and it can backfire if only one of Dawn or Sherri flips