Is Sydney the first person in the history of Survivor to never cast a vote?

Assuming Wanda and Johnathan were never technically in the game in Palau

Na there's been med evac's who haven't either

It's amazing that Liana just rolled over and did whatever Shan wanted strategically. Ditching her old tribe immediately might increase her chance of going to the end but her win equity is massively lower if she goes to the end with the black alliance. Then she doubled down on her flip by wasting her advantage. Bad episode for her.

Agreed. Instinctively feels like Shan and Deshawn would have better jury potential than herself, and possibly Danny too.

Forever baffled by her getting Xander out obsession, I really can't see this cast awarding a archetype like Xander to win this season.

I have an ongoing bet with a friend. each picked 3 players after the first ep.
my team:
genie
erika
evvie

her team:

shan
xander
voce

can't say I'm optimistic... my only chance is evvie and she picked the two best players this season imo.

hoping for a xan/evie top 2 for maximum sweat

Danny apparently went off at tribal on Probst for the twist. Totally fair, the excitement of the episode has made people forget it but the Erika hourglass twist has to be one of the most unfair twists in the history of the game.

I'd be surprised if they wouldn't show that, even edited.

My HUGE pet peeve is tribals where they can negotiate and bargain right before the vote. Drives me crazy.

The Xander fake idol was great, actually. And Liana telling people about her advantage sewered her game badly. Loved that part of the whole thing. And that basically screwed Shan's game as well.

Why? Do you believe tribal is somehow separate from the game?

Oh yeah, that's right. Forgot about that.

Yeah, if you have the bad luck to get the random draw of having Heather and Tiff on your challenge team, you should have to just suffer. No do overs.

Gotta win or is there points based on finish? Xander is not a best player this season, but perhaps you meant Voce.

First hour of the season where no one gains an advantage

Just my pet peeve. They should all have it figured out before they sit down, the whole whispering and group chat right before they vote is just annoying IMO.

I laughed when Erika had her monologue about smashing the hourglass being a big move and really cementing her game. 0% of Survivor players will respect that as a "move" if she actually gets drug along to the final.

To top it off, she and Heather just willfully go along with the Cookout 2 in that vote. Does Erika not see how she was on the bottom, and Sydney clearly got jettisoned by the Luvu men? This was your chance to actually make a decent dent in that alliance.

Never quite see two people drawing as dead as Heather and Erika.

Heather has one of the most invisible edits in history

Liana, why are you using the steal an idol at a tribal you are immune?

Of everything she did horribly that was the worst. The knowledge is power advantage was an open secret so I could see her wanting to use it quickly to take the pressure off her, but you have to assume you use it, and then play the gained advantage in the same tribal, or else the target will just be magnified. She was already immune this week.

I think it's because they wanted to get rid of Evvie, so she was trying to take away Xander's idol so that ge couldn't play it on Evvie.

Feel nostalgic for pure Survivor when the vote out decision was
Who is too weak or strong physically
Who is too weak or strong socially
Who is doing too much or not enough around camp
Who 'deserves' or doesn't 'deserve' to be in contention of the title of sole Survivor and the money.

You know a social strategy game/experiment


Now we have;

'Well we can only vote for 5 out of 12 people for some reason and Naseer has a magic power so we're too scared to touch him. So Evvie doesn't have a magic power but her friend has a magic power they might use on her, however we also have a magic power to nullify that magic power...oh wait we ****ed up our magic power, so I guess we vote Sydney then?....or not as the magic power might be used on her now....um split vote?.. close eyes and throw a random dart?

Except for that one part where they called her brave for being basically a failure at a physical challenge I don't know if she's even said a word during the entire show. Maybe one confessional?

As someone else said, sure they were happy to include her in their numbers to get what they wanted. There's no doubt she's not really in the inner circle of that alliance.

Probably the funniest part of the episode for me was Liana's impassioned confessional of how she's going to take control of her own game and put on her big girl pants and make her own decisions, immediately preceded and followed by clips of Shan telling her exactly what to do.

Seriously though- I forgot Heather was there until she spoke briefly at tribal council.

Yeah, this + the fact that Xander & Evvie were openly talking to Liana about how he would play his idol at tribal. Liana knew that Xander knew about her advantage at that point- if he's being that transparent about his plan alarm bells should be going off in that moment.

Yeah, I skipped over her monologue, but being given a massive advantage with zero risk and then choosing to use said advantage in a situation where every other player would also make the same choice is the definition of a standard play, or even a forced move. Players seem to think any action that has a big impact on any part of the game equates to a big move.

I didn’t even know Heather’s name (assuming that’s older blonde lady).

Naseer seems smart and should realize he’s on the bottom of that core. Erika might realize the same thing unless she’s totally clueless, same with heather. Will be interesting to see what develops.

Massive LOL at Lianna. Dude told you that they knew you had that advantage. Plus you knew Tiffany knew already cause you told her. Like wtf.

Liana could be in big trouble next week.

Yasa three stay together
If they can draw in Heather, Erika, Naseer they have the majority and you have to imagine Liana is the name they will be pitching.

To quote Dan Foley 'flippers don't win'

They also quite often get voted out at the next opportunity.

One of the golden rules of Survivor - if you're going to flip on your whole alliance - do it alongside somebody else (the master of doing this ofc being Tony)

I thought the whole part with Xander not using the idol on Evvie was great television.
“Sorry, Ev” right before the final vote was cold.
I wonder how much of it was because evvie sold him out to deshawn or if he just smartly knows that if evvie goes, he NEEDS that idol

And then sydney gets ko’d by a guy who walked away from the table with the chips all-in and one card to come.
Sydney obviously good television. I think she leaned into the character very hard which i love to see. Would have enjoyed more of her but i dont think she’s a good player unfortunately

Yeah Xander definitely not making any friends even in his own alliance. Evvie has to be suspicious now and obviously Liana hating on him from now on but he's in a slightly better spot especially with the idol and them knowing he still has it.

I think Deshawn is in the best position now for hitting endgame status. Shan has had the superior edit but because of the focus I don't think she makes it past final 6ish.