Board 8 > CBS Reality Show Topic 3, where we eat 18 eggs and 9 slices of cheese

(+) Yeah! (+)

Assuming Maryanne wins (feels very likely at this point) I wonder where her move tonight ranks on game-winning moves. She just completely flipped her standing in the game and it's too late for anyone to really do anything to stop her at this point, barring fire making.

Maryanne making F4 is pretty awesome.

Omar getting blindsided was the kind of thing nobody saw coming, because he was the only one who had winner vibes. Now... Maryanne made a MASSIVE move in front of the jury and got credit for it from Omar.

Maryanne: Wins game or loses fire
Mike: Either 2nd place or loses fire to Jonathan (he'd beat everybody else)
Romeo: Goat or fire-making loser
Jonathan: Either 5th or 3rd, 2nd if he's lucky
Lindsay: ???

ScepterOfLove posted...

Assuming Maryanne wins (feels very likely at this point) I wonder where her move tonight ranks on game-winning moves

Right now the only one I can think of that 100% beats it is Natalie Anderson playing her idol on Jaclyn. That put on a spectacle for the jury, showed her awareness, and gave her credit just the same as Maryanne's, but it ALSO set up a situation where she could get through the F4 no matter what.

Also toward the top are Devon in HHH voting for Dr. Mike at F5 (yes, that counts) and Underwood going to fire against Devens (his pre-game press accredits him with this move as he said Domenick should've done it), even though Underwood won "Edge of Extinction" and not "Survivor."

I also gotta ask how high up Lindsay's dumb move of sitting on her idol here ranks, because... she had zero reason to do that. She plays it for Omar, that's something that looks good for her against him in F3. Instead she looks like a clueless little lamb.

Lindsay is pretty much screwed unless she can find a way to beat Mike in FTC. If she wins immunity, either Jonathan or Romeo go next, and those are the only two people I can confidently say she beats at the end. And even if they weren't, her tunnel vision on Jonathan probably keeps it from happening anyway. She pretty much has to beat Maryanne at fire (probably by giving up immunity to do it) to have a shot now.

however this season finishes, maryanne is a treasure

linze why didnt you use the idollll

Is this entire Lindsey vs. Jonathan challenge storyline going to culminate in Lindsey vs. Jonathan firemaking at Final 4? That would be amazing if it did.

GTM posted...

linze why didnt you use the idollll

yeahhhhh. oof. i don't think an amulet-powered idol counts as a thing to be rehidden, even in this era of survivor where they want to throw in advantages out the wazoo... it'd only be maryanne's that gets rehidden since it's a real idol.

Mewtwo59 posted...

They wouldn't put the amulet back in with 2 idols still in the game.

She's not aware that there's 2 idols, she probably just thinks there's Mike's so would think its re-entry would be fair game.

But even then, what's even funnier is the logic holds either way. Since it expires at 6, whether it actually gets played or is held onto & expires, it's a -1 Idol situation, fundamentally no difference.

I guess she really thought production would only enter a new idol if it gets played and not, like, any feasible chance they could. Really no downside to play it for Omar there.

"Woops"

Yeah the logic is just really awkward either way. Sad for Lindsay but I guess sleep-deprived starving brain doesn't necessarily think of things the way we can.

Speaking of Lindsey being sleep-deprived, it's pretty funny her season-long arc has been trying to eliminate Jonathan, someone she would easily beat in FTC.

I have to agree, with the two strongest winner edits by far being eliminated in the two episodes leading up to the finale, Maryanne now has the strongest winner edit left, even if it's still incredibly flawed. This is what we get when production is now more concerned with telling a story each episode rather than one for the whole season (something that they have openly admitted).

Drea didn't have a strong winner edit, I don't think. She just found a lot of advantages.

Drea had a similar edit to Xander, except she actually seemed to have the respect of the jury.

So apparently Omar had an unaired Idol Nullifier.

wtf

this immunity idol nullifier that I had [holds up parchment to show], that nobody knew about that I was planning to use on Mike. And that's why I gave him the idol back.
Cause I was like, "Here you go. But you don't know that I'm gonna slam this on you later!" I think I just became too focused on that. And what happened was Jonathan caught me in a lie about how I told Lindsay about it. I told him I didn't, he crosschecked that with Lindsay and found out I did tell her, and that set the whole ball in motion for my demise

man that's crazy that such a pivotal thing didn't make the air. you can sort of get why though from the editor's PoV - they were able to tell a story just fine without it and it still makes perfect sense - but damn! plus i guess if they show all that, it makes the result even more obvious.

https://ew.com/tv/survivor-42-omar-zaheer-interview/

And then Jonathan told Mike that Omar had the nullifier - which is why Mike stops trusting Omar...

I must ask where and when Omar found that thing. I am legit curious since it seems to have been plot relevant. This is why we need 90-minute episodes.

Also Drea did not have a winner's edit. We knew very little about her and didn't have the investment that we did for Omar.

ScepterOfLove posted...

Speaking of Lindsey being sleep-deprived, it's pretty funny her season-long arc has been trying to eliminate Jonathan, someone she would easily beat in FTC.

Lindsay only beats Romeo of who's left now. She wanted to go to the end with Omar, who would've wiped the floor with her, over Jonathan, whom she'd have beaten in an F2, at least before this.

Sitting on that amulet idol was a deeply stupid move that made it so she'd be 3rd even with Jonathan there. She can't pass it off as "Omar going is good for me, because I couldn't beat him anyway." That was not her line of thinking. She wanted to go to the end with him KNOWING how good Drea made him look for the Mike idol move. Lindsay could try to take credit for it but she wouldn't get any sitting next to Omar. She'd be the Becky to the Yul (Becky was a great sounding board but did nothing proactive on her own). She needed to get Omar out at F5.

Thinking it over... as of now, Maryanne beats Mike beats Jonathan beats Lindsay beats Romeo, probably. Since Maryanne and Mike are already immune, Lindsay or Jonathan will win the F5 immunity and the other will be voted out (they may target Maryanne and she'll shock them all). If Maryanne doesn't win, whoever beats her at fire does. I don't see that as likely. I say Maryanne is the winner with 90% certainty.

Romeo isn't winning the Final IC nor will anyone force him to make fire, so I see him as a lock for 3rd place. He will get zero votes because of how terribly he played the entire merge phase.

He said that he found it with Jonathan after Taku won the reward. He also said that Lynze didn't want to play the idol because she'd have to do it in front of everyone and didn't want everyone to know how close she was to Omar, which is funny because they all seemed to know that already.

Underleveled posted...

I have to agree, with the two strongest winner edits by far being eliminated in the two episodes leading up to the finale, Maryanne now has the strongest winner edit left, even if it's still incredibly flawed. This is what we get when production is now more concerned with telling a story each episode rather than one for the whole season (something that they have openly admitted).

I am in general okay with this. I don't really want any viewers to be able to tell who wins on episode 1, which seems to happen when they "tell a story", and to keep viewers guessing. I still want the edit to be balanced though, we needed more erika last season.

also canadian betraying canadian ;(

GTM posted...

also canadian betraying canadian ;(

Second episode in a row of that happening.

GTM posted...

also canadian betraying canadian ;(

Unfortunately the Canadians are just TOO GOOD at Survivor, with so many still alive towards the end, it's bound to happen!

(literally what are the chances the 3 Canadians were left untouched through the first 11 eliminations)

I think Darkx doesn't care for him, but he was one of my favorites from an otherwise dire season:

RIP Clay Jordan.

Oh jeez, RIP.

Inviso posted...

I think Darkx doesn't care for him

I mean no, I wasn't a fan of him when I watched Thailand (perhaps that will have changed by now; many of my opinions of those early seasons changed drastically on my rewatches) but I mean, like, not to the point where I'm not a bit sad about this.

If I hosted a chat on Twitch immediately after the finale/reunion, would you guys participate?

Oh, I didn't say it here, but RIP Clay.

Underleveled posted...

If I hosted a chat on Twitch immediately after the finale/reunion, would you guys participate?

Sure, though I probably won't be here until 15-30 minutes after it's over. That okay?

I plan on going for about an hour (maybe an hour and a half-ish if people are still chatty) after the reunion ends.

Anyway, my order of likelihood for winners is Maryanne > Mike > Lindsay > Jonathan > Romeo. This stands true for both edit strength and viability of path to victory.

I agree, though I might go for Mike > Maryanne for path to win because most of my faith in Maryanne winning fire comes from the fact that I'm pretty sure she's the winner.

In hindsight, that should've been obvious when Mike said "what if I'm safe"

I feel like Lindsay is an easy boot here, even though I wish theyd target Jonathan.

> Romeo talking about people he could beat

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/7/7/AAC56kAADRLJ.jpg

Hopefully Maryanne doesn't get bigmoveitis, because she's in trouble if Mike plays his idol on Jonathan.

I imagine Mike's going to make a big show of playing it, likely before Probst does the "if anyone wants to play" moment, so it gives Maryanne some lead time on making her own decision... but I guess we'll see

So why the hell didn't Maryanne and Romeo take the shot at Jonathan?

Lindsay getting this music means Maryanne is in the finals though, IMO.

Why would you take out the goat over the jury threat?

Because Jonathan has no shot at winning so it was the tactically right play? (edit: ok I'm still holding hope for Mike-Jonathan-Romeo where Mike burned enough of the jury for Jonathan to squeak by, but I'm not holding out hope on that)

Now I wonder if we're getting the ball contraption for final immunity challenge... don't remember what it was last season

Old Faithful

That is the most hilarious outcome imaginable.

The guy I thought was going to be the goat that the winner picks... is the winner.

Well, that's one way to have suspense on who the immunity winner picks.

Pretty horrible editing of Romeo because he's been just a dead person for the last 5 episodes.

Maryanne's closest with him, no?

On one hand I'd like him to pick Jonathan and then Mike vs. Maryanne for fire-making (and likely winner)

But having both Mike and Maryanne in the final 3 might make things interesting... Mike could argue that he had more moves/control of the game outpacing Maryanne's big move vs. Omar.

So are we going to get a winner out of the goat spot in 3 of the last 4 seasons?

I hope its Maryanne, but Mike vs. Maryanne would be pretty competitive.

And very likely the FIC winner gets 3rd place in three of four seasons

Romeo still has a shot at a tie for second, at least.

This is making me think wistfully on WAW and the Tony/Sarah firemaking and the aftermath of it

And now I'm thinking about that episode post-merge where Tony was completely dominating all of the airtime

....may need to watch both later

Mewtwo59 posted...

Romeo still has a shot at a tie for second, at least.

Well, so much for that

Oh good, Mike broke firemaking, so maybe now it'll be gone.