Yeah that is what I was trying to ask, I buy your claim that she was trying to unite them against a common enemy. At the same time she failed at executing such a plan, because she failed to objectively view the game through other individuals perspectives. Not realizing that maybe everyone didn't have a problem with Phillip as she had.

Yes, the idols are the one thing Corinne's alliance had going for them. We don't actually know if Cochran would be averse to drawing rocks. He didn't want to in SP, but he was also on the bottom of his tribe there, and probably recognized the value of getting reinvited if he did flip (Shambo was invited back too). If they used both idols on a bottom of a 6-5 vote, then their chances of becoming a majority alliance are .4 * .5 = 20%- low but possibly greater than the chance of flipping Dawn. Even then Corrinne/Malcolm are on the bottom of a 3-2 FvF split in their own alliance, though I'm willing to concede that the dynamic up to that point makes the FvF distinction less relevant. Their control of the idols is the only really defensible criticism of Corinne's decision and even that seems marginal at best.

I think if you had 20 people playing GTO Survivor, you'd have a lot of people making apparently bad plays because strategies that only a small fraction of the time still give you more equity than the 5% you start with. It's impossible for everyone to be a winner.

So you think the favorites were never on board for voting off Sherri? They were still insisting on Eddie and Reynold? If Corrine just shut off the diarrhea of her mouth they weren't going to agree to vote off Sherri? Because that wasn't the impression I had.

I actually liked Corrine's explanation to Dawn that she just wanted to be heard. I thought that conversation started off pretty well before Corrine showed Dawn her entire hand and blew up the spot.

That's Malcolm's fail. Corrine might not have known they had Reynolds idol in pocket.

If the favorites vote out Sherri then Corrine still has to have this conversation with Dawn 2 days later, unless they just decide to try to go all in on the idol plan (which is what I mentioned in my previous post). I do think if Corinne decides to try to persuade Dawn, then the earlier she does it the better. So once she locks into the Dawn plan, working Dawn as soon as possible is correct. I think turning Brenda, or the idol plan, were both better than trying to get Dawn, but not by much. And Corinne probably knows better her relationship with Brenda and Dawn than I do.

All I'm saying is Corinne was in a position of choosing between multiple losing strategies and chose one better than 90% of the people attacking her, who wouldn't have recognized their situation in the first place. I do think this misconception might stem from editing, because it's easy to take it on face that Corinne had a 6-person alliance if they just magically accept Erik as a number. But unless the cameramen just happened to miss the conversation that Malcolm and Corinne had with Erik where they discuss- oh, everything- he was never even close to wavering. It's probably the same cameraman who forgot to film the part of that Mikayla/Edna vote in SP where Albert said they never had any intention of actually voting out Edna but wanted to Mikayla to feel like she had numbers if she came back from RI. That silly cameraman just misses the most important things!

She said differently on her RHAP exit interview, claiming she got greedy.

If the vote goes down as planned and Sherri is voted off then Erik will almost surely flip to Malcolm's side when they present to him the possibility to voting out Phillip(somebody that Erik has claimed not to trust a few times). Not sure why everyone is assuming Erik would've stuck with Stealths. He more than likely wasn't given the "plan" by Malcolm so all he knew was Sherri vs Corinne. Since he's spent the past few days with Sherri and presumably Corinne has been a cold hearted bitch to him then from his 1st level perspective the choice is easy. Not to mention that Andrea probably told him we have 6 so going the other way will at best force a tie.

Oh well .. so much for a great season. It will get pretty boring from here on until the end. First the fans will be picked off, then Eric, Brenda, Malcolm and Andrea. Maybe there will be some shifts in the boot order because of immunity or idol play, but it will all end with Philip, Cochran and Dawn sitting at the end.

See you all in a few weeks. *yawn*

You must be watching a different show than me.

lol thinking Malcolm is in a better spot than Erik and Brenda after yesterdays episode.

Erik ist the definition of a Survivor calling station. He has chosen a path on day one and he will stick with it until the end. Even if he knows he is never winning. Guys like that can't think past level 1.

He also has been burned so bad last time that his whole goal is to get voted out the usual way (=when you are in the minority and it's your time to go). He is not trusting anyone with anything that has some kind of switch, swing-vote or blindside involved - out of fear of being wrong again.

Two people on the wrong side of the numbers have idols. Historically that's been the formula for the best seasons.

Then tell me .. what shocking twists do you see coming in the next few episodes? Other than a straight forward game for Philip/Dawn/Cochran?

On paper he is not, but he is able to win immunity challenges and has an idol which buys him a couple more weeks in the boot order.

Unbelievable! Ice cream scooper Eric is essentially playing the exact same game as the last time he was on survivor. You get a pretty girl to tell him what to do and he does exactly what she says (Andrea).

Cochran GOAT.

that is all

think im gonna rewatch this episode, from the point where dawn decides she has to tell cochran and philipp, and cochran's face goes "oh my ****ing god, we are about to lose the game"

You're discounting the potential importance of the idols.

Is it safe to listen to? She doesn't spoil things does she? I'm afraid the way she runs her mouth, she'll spew too much information.

She says something that could be inferred as a winner spoiler. Basically she says (without the possible winner spoiler):

1) Erik was never on board, and they had absolutely no conversations with him. Malcolm mentioned him once and Corinne was immediately skeptical. Erik didn't want to know who to vote for until 10 minutes before tribal. After Corinne told him to vote for Sherri, Andrea came up 5 minutes later and told him to vote Corinne and he didn't bother to question it.
2) Corinne didn't approach Brenda because Brenda never said anything.
3) The conversation between Dawn and Corinne happened before the favorites decided on Sherri and not after.
4) Corinne objected to the split vote so much because she didn't want Reynold's paranoia to prompt him into using his idol unnecessarily (which she claims worked).
5) Corinne finds Sugar more annoying than Phillip. Corinne says Phillip's obnoxiousness clouds your judgment.
6) Corinne doesn't understand why everyone wants to bring Phillip to the end when there's people who are less annoying who also have no chance of winning (She uses herself as an example).

Edit: 7) Oh, the most important one really, Corinne says Dawn was the person closest to her aside from Malcolm. She didn't know Dawn sold her out until after the game ended and was hurt by it. She also reasoned that she didn't expect Dawn to stay loyal to Cochran after Cochran screwed her over in SP.

There are pros and cons to this move, but it's something Dawn should at least consider doing: approach Sherri and make a swear on your children F3 alliance with her. Sherri is at the bottom of the seven and in no one's F3 alliance. She said in her secret scene that she wants someone to work with and talk strategy to. The downsides are that Sherri could report Dawn's deal to SRUS or that Sherri could accept the deal then turn on Dawn at F4 anyway. The upside is that if Sherri sticks to the deal no matter what and you get her to F4, then you have a 2-2 tie at F4, worst case scenario.

I'm rooting for Dawn. Her intense focus is awesome.

Corinne is just dumb

Here was the situation:

Malcolm + idol, Corrine, Michael, Reynold + idol, Eddie

Phillip, Andrea, Cochran, Dawn

Erik, Brenda, Sherri

Just looking at the lists above make me LOL knowing that the middle group secured victory this round. I fully believe that if Corrine doesn't f around so much, they could have voted off Sherri. She made a very good argument about it being the easy vote. She made a very good argument about just wanting to be heard. If she just kept her mouth shut about the rest of her plans, I believe Sherri goes home. Watch the scene with Dawn telling Cochran about what Corrine said. It certainly looks like they had decided to vote out Sherri as a group. (Malcolm and Corrine certainly thought they were voting out Sherri.) OK, there it is, Andrea's own words: "Everyone was on board with voting Sherri out." After deciding to try for Corrine, later Andrea bemoans having to count on Erik because he doesn't talk strategy with anyone so relying on him makes her nervous. ...I just realized that Malcolm may not have pressed the hard sell on Erik because he was still playing it like they were one big happy favorites family. A happy favorites family that was going to vote Sherri out. He didn't think he needed to reveal the whole plan to Erik yet. Probably true if Corrine hadn't f-ed everything up.

tl;dr soliloquy on Erik's position in the game follows. It's a little irrelevant because I suspect Erik is just clicking buttons. And I realized after I already wrote it that Malcolm may not have made his play for Erik yet because he didn't think he needed to.

I think Erik isn't in a great spot no matter which side he goes to, but I actually think his spot is WORSE with the girls + misfit alliance because athletic males are the natural enemy of girls + misfits. If you have girls who are trying to win the game, they are going to sift gullible ice scream scoopers like wheat. Even if Erik is on the bottom of the brolliance, it's a better spot for him. And there is some chance that Malcolm decides he needs to be 'teammates' with Erik because Corrine is 'teammates' with Michael, and Reynold and Eddie are 'teammates'. There is also plenty of plausible arguments to be made about others being bigger threats than himself if he's in that group of people. Nobody in girls + misfits is going to think, hey, I need to be best buds with Erik. Not to mention they already have buds. Like Andrea is going to suddenly decide that Erik would be a better bud for her than Phillip. LOL But anyway, Erik was up for grabs and he ended up going the wrong direction. Probably. Obviously, Andrea AND Malcolm are both just trying to use Erik for their own purposes, but I just think Erik had a better chance of not being used and cut at the first available opportunity with Malcolm.

TY for the cliffs. I want to listen to it so badly, but I don't want to hear that potential spoiler.

really good episode!! brenda gif hopefuy in thi thread

looks to me like a dawn, cochran, philkip fina three, with a dawn win