Is the general feeling that Phillip actually understood that he was literally saying "vote me out - guilt free", when he told people to stick to the plan? I am not convinced he processed that at the time. I read his taking one for the team as just one of Phillips post-situation rationalizations to save face... Similar to his claim of throwing a challenge.

Hint: Brenda is drawing absolutely dead to 3rd place in a Brenda/Erik/Eddie f3.

After watching this episode these are my thoughts:
1. Reynold is such a likable guy
2. I don't think Andrea is being smart by thinking about taking about Branda because Brenda is kinda a non factor.
- Amdrea calling out Brenda is really bad and put's a target on her back which she didn't need to put there, but i guess a target is already on her back so idk.
4. Maybe Andrea could have recruited Eddie, Sherri, and Eric making a final 3 deal with Sherri and Eddie.
7. Cochran is playing a sick game minus his answer at Tribal Council although it looks like he could be in trouble next week.
8. Andrea voted out like an idiot with the idol in her pocket. Not very self aware to realize that she isn't being targeted by trying to target brenda and take numbers for herself.

Was just my guess. I'd never vote Eddie but that's just me.

Also just because someone looks like non factor on tv doesn't necessary mean it feels that way when your out there.

This^^^^ it seems to me that Brenda is a factor in the game yet we just have seen none of it until this episode. Also, in the scenes for next week she mentions to dawn voting out Cochran. She clearly is playing the game and has been a factor but her edit has not shown much of it. Probably because she gets blindsided next week..

andrea took that like a bawss

There is nothing surprising at all about this. The awareness to notice people agreeing without much fuss would be cause for suspicion would be the same awareness to not suggest something to them that isn't in their best interests.

Grading on a curve of all Survivor contestants, Andrea gets a B, but at the end of the day she showed some major flaws in an ability to understand other people. I wouldn't call it narcissism, but perhaps a proclivity to overemphasize what is happening to herself and an inability to be aware of other people's povs. We see this in a few examples just since the merge:

1. Her sudden scrambling and need to change the vote because the bros were going to vote for her, as opposed to someone else in SRU, even though it didn't change the situation at all.

2. Her belief that Brenda is a threat directly to her = Brenda is a threat to everyone and needs to go. No one but her would view Brenda as a challenge threat greater than or equal to Eddie or Eric. If I ever played with Andrea, I could be the biggest threat in every possible way and will go under her radar as long as I'm not threatening in the same ways she is. Which shouldn't be a problem, because I'm a fat guy with terrible balance.

3. Her thinking that being so close to Eddie was viewed by her alliance as a benefit to them and not a threat to herself because it questions her loyalty. If I were her, I would have offered up Eddie as the first bro to go, even if I didn't truly feel that way (and it would've been shot down anyway since Reynold and Malcolm were seen as bigger threats) for two reasons. First, I'd feel confident in Eddie's vote at FTC so i don't want to go to the end with him anyway. But second and much more importantly, it's a sign of loyalty to my alliance and makes no question about where I stand. See: Malcolm last seaspn when he voted out cookie monster.

4. The way she nonchalantly threw out both Brenda and Dawn to Cochran as possible vote outs. I actually believe that if she hadn't said Dawn, Cochran's #1 ally, there'd be a chance that Cochran wouldn't have been rustled up enough to get rid of her.

So yeah, it seemed like all season that Andrea had the greatest potential to go home due to FPS, and it's no surprise that this happened. As it was already mentioned, knowing when to stand pat and NOT make a big move is just as vital as knowing when to strike. It's actually pretty interesting that this was pretty much the downfall of Corrine, Malcolm AND Andrea, all players whose desire to make a big move blinded them from recognizing that not only was it probably not the best move at the time for their own respective games, but that the circumstances were not even right for having it succeed.

Also, I think someone should make a montage of Erik's weekly confessionals to the camera of his revelation that for the first time in the game, he is a swing vote and wields a lot of power.

Only to then continue voting with the majority, of course.

WTF was erik doing giving andrea the idol??

it worked out but it seems agreeing to throw it in the ocean once eddie is gone is a better play than giving it to someone else in SRU and maybe even better than keeping it yourself.

such an awful play by andrea, obv the edit has a big effect but how does she not see that coming at all. if you are trying to pull a big move and you have a HII you better ****ing be playing it.

what sucks is if youre getting blindsided by a big majority youre almost drawing dead the next time youre not immune

I wish we would've gotten to see more of Brenda's play this season. She seemed like a very strong player in Nicaragua. This season she found herself on the bottom of the Favs after the first vote, and according to Malcolm, spent the rest of her game kissing everyone's butts, trying to re-ingratiate herself. In the past few episodes we have gotten some nice glimpses of Erik strategizing. It seems like Brenda has played a better game than him, and at some point even passed Andrea in the alliance pecking order, and yet all we have gotten from her is a ton of goofy/emotional crap, and if you look closely, various instances of her being friendly to everyone with smiles and body language.

It feels to me like Dawn and Cochran have agreed to go to the end with Sherri.

And that maybe Cochran will pull an audible at F4 and bring Erik instead of Dawn.

LOL at people thinking Cochran is in trouble next week. If he really was, they wouldn't have made it a big part of the preview.

A friend at work bet me that Andrea was going home this week. I got 1:1 on the rest of the field, lock it up, right? I'm 99.999% he was not spoilered in any way.

I completely forgot it was a double elimination, and he paid up after she won immunity. Reynold got voted out and the episode kept going! Then she win's the II and I'm like, lock it up, she's too smart to hold on to it, she has to know...

Andrea gave me the biggest boners, I'll miss her.

I think Erik might have made the wrong decision tonight. He had a chance to make a potentially game winning move. If we imagine a world where Erik is a semi capable, forward thinking Survivor player, Erik could have carried out the following plan:

- Erik tells Andrea what's going on and promises to flip his vote on the condition that they change the boot to Dawn.

- Dawn leaves that night leaving a 3 v 3 split with his side having an idol and what are probably the 3 best challenge competitors verses what seems like an unlikely grouping of Brenda, Cochran(Has a history of avoiding rocks) and Sherri(A mercenary from the former fans tribe).

- From this position Erik has a ton of room to play and could feasibly manufacture a final 3 with Sherri and Eddie, which would present each of the trio their best chance of winning the million. In this final grouping Erik would have a number of unique arguments versus the two fans he's sitting next to.

As it is, Erik's game is in the hands of people who are unlikely to want to bring him to the end and who would probably beat him if they did. His only hope is to go on an Epic challenge run, which is basically equivalent to having no plan at all.

Did anyone find Andrea way hotter this season than RI or is it just me? It must be that purple Bikini, my God!

Same here. I'd like some side by side pics of the 2 seasons to see if something is different about her.

Great summary of what Erik should have done. Even locking in a final 3 deal with Andrea and Eddie would be fine because he could point back to this moment and confidently say that Andrea and Eddie would not be in the FTC without him. Although I think everyone may be underestimating Eddie's FTC equity considering the 8 person jury includes Reynold, Maclolm, Michael Snow and in your scenario Andrea.

Best move this episode imo was Eddie jumping off for doughnuts. He has close to zero equity in the challenge, it reinforces that he is an easily manipulated non-threatening dumbass and if Reynold somehow wins immunity he still isn't going home because they would have the idol. Obviously none of that was part of his thought process except for having zero equity.

Worst move was Andrea name dropping Dawn in the conversation with Cochran. And not using the idol in the final 7. And greedily accepting the idol from Erik with no intention to immediately play it. Should have let Erik have it or throw it into the ocean. Also Reynold and Eddie not voting for each other was pretty lolbad.

Lol Eddie and the donuts.

Lol Erik snap giving Andrea the idol.

Despite her flaws, I'm a big Andrea fan. Handled the blindside classy as ****.

So impressed with Cochran. Winnnnn

It seemed less Erik giving the idol to Andrea and more her physically taking the idol from him and pronouncing it hers.

This pretty much sums up Erik's game. So the really bad play he made was finding the HII and not sticking it immediately down his pants for the first time he didn't win II. Even though I think having the HII puts a huge target on your back, Erik already has a huge target on his back for his ability to WIN immunity. So just keep the thing with the intention of playing it the first time you lose.

I really thought Andrea was going to play her idol. Its a shame she didn't as my rooting interests come down to just Cochran.

Eddie jumping off for donuts is fine. If you know you can't win you might as well get food. Ill never understand how Reynolds/Eddie didn't vote for each other.

Sherri is playing the GOAT third place game. She isn't getting a single FTC vote IMO.

Andrea was always on the outside of her alliance and never seemed to grasp fully her position. Her fancy play just gave the favorites a reason to do what they were going to do anyway a week or two earlier. She was destined to finish 4th and still not know why.