Great post. I never really thought of any of this, but I think you're right, there's got to be some rule we're not aware of. If the bold part ever happened that would be awesome.

Tom Westman was willing to pull rocks in Palau and he got cast.

I think it's a good thing to be willing to pull rocks. You'll never lose the game of chicken if it comes down to it. You need a lot of breaks to go your way to win Survivor, maybe pulling a good rock winds up being one of those breaks you need.

Not much info, but while looking for Probst's blog I just found this:
ew

KK got in a fight with Russell?

I guess someone can't handle a little taunting.

After watching the secret scene of Russel's where he talks of playing blackjack, he really lives in his own little world. Where to find a single deck BJ game where they don't reshuffle every hand and with favorable rules would be the find of the century. Of course that's because they don't really exist anymore.

One thing that seems like a pretty big blunder on Parv's behalf is her not telling Russell about the other idol before TC.

I cant see any reason to keep it a secret from him if she plans on playing them both. All it does is harm her alliance with the other great player.

I cant see an upside at all.

I think it's ego, pure and simple. She wanted to show Russell who's boss.

Then he probably asks her to give back the idol he gave to her and gets mad when she says no. How's that saying go, it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission?

Actually, last year, there was a tribal in which 6 out of 7 players were willing to put their game life on rocks. The problem is that it won't go to rocks unless all players are will to let it go that far.

"He's Russell Hantz, he should know what these people think"

"I needed to protect my alliance, keep it strong"

"I just planted a Parvati seed in my 3rd immunity idol"

Thought about it some more. I agree with those who thought she should tell Russell. She had him completely pussy whipped, and now she just pulled the blinders off.

I'm concerned the heroes + Sandra don't see the opportunity to direct russell's rage from the betrayal towards booting Parvati. If they instead boot Russell, they've setup a cake walk for Parv.

Russells face palm was epic when Parv pulled out second one, anybody got that Gif?

told y'all she was ugly

I really don't get the thought that Russell has nowhere to go but stick with parv. It's 5-4 villians lead, but 1 of those villians is on the outs (Sandra), and another's house of cards just came crashing down. Parv is an obv threat. I don't see why heroes can't pull off a reversal.

If she told Russ about her idol, she never would have gotten the 2nd idol.

I think her only blunder so far was not snap-convincing Amanda to make a secret alliance when Amanda was basically begging for it. Amanda seems a bit naive, and Parvatti is an extremely good manipulator. Parv could have shown Amanda both idols and convinced her to allign imo, gotten the info for tribal council, then saved 1 idol.

She didn't tell Russell about the idol because Russell gave his first idol to her, and was her strongest alliance.

If Russell gets in trouble after merge, he's going to ask her for the idol. If she refuses and Russell can dodge the bullets (which he's obv great at getting out of trouble how many times was he dead in this game?) she's lost her strongest alliance.

I was chatting about this with a buddy and I am not so sure that keeping it a secret was as one sided a decision as I originally thought.

1) He is going to be pissed that she didn't tell him about the other II anyway

2) However, I think Russell is obviously strong enough strategically to agree to the obvious play that Parv is suggesting and use the idols.

3) So either way they use the idols at TC

4) So she has to decide if its better to piss him off before TC or after

that's a closer decision than I was thinking.

I still think its better to piss him off in private before given that blindsiding him in public at TC is not a good idea since he is so ego driven. He is likely to get SUPER pissed about that.


Also, my buddy pointed out that Russell seems to have missed the fact that Parv stepped down from the challenge indicating she had an idol. If true this would be a huge error on his part. I wonder if maybe he hadnt handed her the idol before challenge and they just edited it in to look like it was after?

Considering that almost all of the competitors weren't able to last nearly as long as Parv, it's tough to chalk her giving up after almost 2 hours to "stepping down".

It worked out pretty perfect for her that she and Danielle were the last 2 remaining. I'm starting to think that the poster that said Candace might be a mole could be on to something.

Candace would be a challenge beast if she could allign with Parv, Danielle, and Amanda then bounce all of the dudes.

Amanda actually wanted JT voted out--she and Candice had wanted him out for weeks. She was kind of in the position that whatever happened she was okay with. Either the heroes would win and she'd stick with them or Parv would win and she'd reallign with her. Amanda is not much of a move maker. She just tries to position herself in the wake to get drug along with the people who are calling the shots. All the while remaining doe eyed and 'innocent'. She's like the anti-Russell. I think they can both reliably go deep (though Russell may have a tougher time in repeat seasons where people have seen him play), but they both also will have jury problems. Amanda because she is too fake nice and doesn't make any moves. And Russell because he is so full of himself and makes moves and rubs people's faces in them.

One area where Amanda actually has an edge on Russell is her saying the bit about how the bananas and such are important to Rupert. She gives some thought to what is important to others and tries to behave accordingly. Russell thinks what is important to him is the only thing that matters and acts accordingly. So people ITT love him, and people having to starve with him...not so much.

It irritates me that Amanda doesn't seem to put some effort into what is actually best for herself and try to influence things in her favor when she is probably in a position to make things go her way if she wants to. But it's silly of us to act like she should default have JT's best interests in mind. Only if that suits her own game. Instead, she appears to just let the game happen to her.

Rupert is a straight up fool for attempting to win that challenge against those girls. I'm thinking your energy isn't something to be wasting as it gets late in the game. Colby stayed on the pole for 42 seconds too long. They just have no chance. Why waste yourself?

This is all I have been saying, but feel like I am banging my head against the wall.

She has much to lose by not telling him, and nothing to gain.

Amanda is bad at Survivor because she's so uncomfortable with being dishonest. She's explained this in interviews, she's from Montana and in this game she is basically the hick that just rode into town on the turnip truck who walks into a bar full of big city hustlers.

Her loyalty and personality gets her far in the game, but she would be suicide in a final tribal for almost anyone.

I like her a lot but in this game she's basically a vote with a great ass for any alliance, and a vote that you can't let into the endgame.

You do know that Amanda has been to, and lost, Final TC twice before, right?

I think she beats any of the contenders by a pretty wide margin this season at FTC.

I'm still assuming past winners lose a lot of votes against almost anyone that hasn't won yet.