Purple Pants Podcast | Split The Vote: The Meating

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[00:00:29] It's the Purple Pants, it's the Purple Pants, it's the Purple Pants Podcast. You better get your headphones in, listen up quick. It's the Purple Pants Podcast, you better listen in public, might make your stomach hurt. Podcast, you trying to unwind, you better get that box wine. It's the Purple Pants Podcast, you trying to get your snack, you better hurry right back though.

[00:00:53] It's the Purple Pants, it's the Purple Pants. Split the Vote! Alright, welcome back again to Split the Vote. This is the Ultimate Superfan Survivor Podcast. I am Tim, one of your hosts, who loves Survivor, has known Survivor ever since I've had Consciousness. I am joined by my co-host, who is not from Boston, but always wears a backwards hat.

[00:01:21] Rob, how are you? I'm great, Tim. I'm super excited for another amazing episode. Needless to say, I guess you can introduce our guest, right? Of course, and this is a very special, special guest. The man himself, Survivor47, another fellow Marylander who is someone that you'll love to hear, and who we are so excited to have on this episode.

[00:01:52] Gabe. Gabe, what's up? I'm doing alright, my man. Have it yourself. So happy to be here. It's gonna be a great time. We're gonna crank out an awesome episode of Split the Vote. And I'm glad to join the family, right? I mean, I've seen some of the guests that you guys have had in the past, and I just, I'm honored to be a part of that lineage. So let's get it going. Let's go. Alright, so again, this is a Purple Pants Podcast Power Production.

[00:02:14] But, more recently, right? So, y'all, quick story. I'm in my apartment the other day, and I am just minding my business in my living room. And next thing you know, I look to my right and I see a wasp, right? I open my window, it's spring, it's warm outside here in Maryland, as we know. And I'm thinking, it's only room for one of us in this apartment. I pay rent here. The wasp does not pay rent. So, ultimately, I had to get rid of the wasp.

[00:02:44] And for me, it feels like this episode is that battle between these two players that we see of Say and Charity, where it's only space for one of them. You know, ultimately, we do see one of them go home, one of them stay, which we'll get into. But, really enjoyed the episode overall. Just like first impressions. Yeah, loved it. What about y'all?

[00:03:09] So, I mean, I think that, you know, this episode has followed the same trajectory that a lot of these emergatory episodes throughout the new era have in that it's very, very cagey. There is not really anybody on the island who is itching to make a big move at this stage. And I think that's how it should be. I think if you're playing the game well, then that's about where you should be.

[00:03:35] You should be thinking, give us a name. If it's not my name and even better, if it's not one of my big alliance members, I'm all in for it and we don't need to talk too much more. And I think that's what we saw in this episode here, where there were a lot of people who have never even been on the same tribe as Charity before. And they were so happy to vote her out.

[00:03:53] And I think part of that is the edit that we didn't really get to see why Charity has rubbed so many people the wrong way just because she's never been to tribal council before, you know, versus somebody who, as you alluded to in your intro on the other side of this equation, say we've gotten a lot of content of why say has rubbed people the wrong way on multiple different tribes so far because say has constantly been going to tribal council.

[00:04:17] So I think a little bit of it is the edit of why we didn't really get to see why Charity was such a big target coming into this stage of the game. But also, I think it's just that phase of survivor, that phase of the season that we're at right now, where everybody knows how close they are to reaching the promised land, right? Getting that merge buff and you're even one step further away from being on the jury and guaranteeing yourself a spot on this season until the very end, which is like, that's the Holy Grail.

[00:04:46] That's house money, right? I can tell you from experience, once you get to the jury, it's like nothing else really matters anymore. I mean, I can say when I was out there, and I'm sure a lot of people, I know a lot of people in my season share the sentiment, I'm sure a lot of people across different seasons would share the same sentiment that once you get to the jury, kind of go into tribal every time it's like, going home wouldn't be the worst thing in the world now.

[00:05:11] Like, sleeping in a bed, having a meal every day, like not dealing with the stress of the game, hanging out at Ponderosa, having some drinks, you know, like eating good, hanging out, have like, that sounds really nice right now. I kind of don't care if I go home, you know? And also, I would say being a jury member is way, way, way better than being third place and maybe even being second place, right?

[00:05:37] I mean, once you hit the jury, and especially once you get like a couple spots in, so it's like, I'm not the first member of the jury, I'm not the second member, like I've kind of made my run here. You know, it's like, I'd rather go have the experience of Ponderosa and have the experience being on the jury versus coming in third and getting no votes or coming in second and getting one or two votes, you know?

[00:05:57] Like, that is part of the experience of playing Survivor, is going to Ponderosa, hanging out there, which is like a very, you know, sacred thing where, you know, I don't think anybody would be upset if I said this, that even production doesn't know what's going on at Ponderosa. Like, the couple of people who get to float between the production camp and Ponderosa, like, producers and camera people and crew members will like come up to them and be like, what's going on at Ponderosa right now?

[00:06:25] Like, anything crazy? Like, that's how protected Ponderosa is. So getting to be there and be a part of that experience is like a huge Survivor bucket list thing. And I'd rather get to cross that off my bucket list and be a part of that than like coming third, you know, or coming fourth to losing fire making. So you get to that jury spot. Like, that's why it's so important, because while the game ramps up and the stakes do get a bit higher, you're closer to the million.

[00:06:51] You can kind of take a breath where it's like, even if I go out now, I've left the mark. I made a run. I have a bit of a legacy. I am truly a complete part of this season. Sorry, sirens going by. And so like this, this part of the season is when you are on the cusp of everything. I'm talking about. And it becomes very easy to vote out anybody that isn't you here.

[00:07:18] And unfortunately for charity, she was that person that was anybody but everybody else. Yeah. And it's really unfortunate, especially when you consider you're missing out on all of that Fijian pizza that you would have, you know, going into the jury phase of the game. And especially with the new era, having this murgatory as it's been coined or commonly referred to where you technically aren't at merge.

[00:07:46] Jury hasn't started yet, as you mentioned. And because it's an 18 person cast and this is 13 people, only five players have went home at this point. You're going to be that sixth person. The only difference at this stage of the game is that you're playing with everybody. And as you mentioned, that makes those big targets more likely to go home because there's so much space for everybody on camp.

[00:08:15] And because there's only. One name or two, three names that could really gain traction with so many people on your tribe or so many people on this beach at this point, as you mentioned. A big part of it, too, you know, is the fact that like very quickly somebody who wants to, you know, throw out a target can become the target.

[00:08:40] So, like, if let's say, you know, everybody was like, we're going to vote charity tonight and the vast majority of people are like, OK, that sounds good. And then, you know, somebody pick anybody. Let's just say like Shaheen or anybody says like, you know what? I want to make a big move tonight. What if we voted out Joe? Everyone's going to be like, dude, why are you shaking things up? Like, you know what? Maybe we should vote you out because you're making our life more difficult because we all agreed on somebody. And now you're trying to make a big splash and you're making everything complicated.

[00:09:09] And now nobody knows who they're voting for because there's another plan out there. And nobody wants to be that person, because then all of a sudden you were in on the plan to get somebody easy out. And now you are the plan. And so it's just this very cagey. Everyone's kind of sitting on their hands. Whoever has the cojones to throw out a name first will probably be the name that everybody goes for. So, you know, it's just it's that part of the game.

[00:09:35] The same exact thing with Rome when we voted Rome out on my season. It was like there was a scene that didn't make the edit, but we were all at all 12 of us. There were 13 people on the beach. 12 of us, except for Rome, were all at the shelter. And I think it was Kyle Ren was just like, so we're all voting Rome tonight. Right. And everybody was like, yup, yup, yup, yup, yup, yup, yup. Like so it was just this moment of like, who's going to throw out the name first?

[00:10:01] We all kind of think we know who we want because the people who have played with Rome up to this point are talking about how much of a nuisance he is. And the people who haven't played with Rome are looking for anybody to vote out. So it's like, who's going to say it? Who's going to say, oh, Rome. Okay. Well then we're going with Rome. And then at this merge feast, we saw on the episode that I think star was the person who threw it out first.

[00:10:24] And so it's like, I imagine it was the same thing where a lot of people were like, I'm hearing weird things about, about charity from the people who have played with her already. And for everybody who has, or everybody who has like, they clearly want her out. Who's going to do it? Oh, stars. Like maybe we should vote out. Oh, cool. Charity. All right, well, we'll do that. We'll do that. So I, I'm not surprised by what happened in, in last week's episode. I think it makes a lot of sense to me.

[00:10:49] And the only thing I wish is that the original SIVA got more screen time. So we could see where this animosity from charity is coming from. And I think it's a bit of a flaw in the three tribe format and particularly how much they punish the losing tribes nowadays, where it's just like, it's just so much saturated content of one tribe. And Vula was a very interesting tribe. I mean, you have Cedric who has been the reluctant agent of chaos this entire season.

[00:11:19] Um, you have Mary who has been like one of the main characters and for what it's worth, in my opinion, the best confessionalist of the entire season. And you have say, who has been like this whirling dervish of chaos as well in a much different way, you know, more socially than strategically as Cedric has. Um, but still it's like, I know so much about Mary. I know so much about Cedric. I know so much about say, I don't know anything about charity. And it seemed like she was heading for a unanimous vote.

[00:11:48] And obviously they split the vote between her and say, but it's like, I wish that we got to see a bit more of the things that charity said and did on the beach that made people so willing to vote her out. Yeah. And I couldn't agree more. I really feel like in thinking about what made charity stand out, you mentioned earlier, Murgatory being this place where people like to sit on their hands. They don't want to jump the gun and say a name out first.

[00:12:11] In this episode, we see charity try to make a big move and say, Hey, star, you know, you gave your idol away to Eva. You should probably ask for it back. We all at this point, at this stage in the game, if you're a player on the island, you might be thinking, okay, we all know that Eva has this idol that star gave her. Or you might be someone who's hearing this information, but it's common knowledge. And because it's common knowledge charity at this point wants to get out of threat.

[00:12:41] We didn't see charity go to tribal council during the pre-merge stage of the game. So she's ready to hit the ground running earlier in the season in the little snippets that we did see a charity. She was identifying threats. She was planting seeds for doubt earlier in the season. She's like, Kyle is somebody to look out for. You know, he could be a threat down the road.

[00:13:04] Unfortunately for her, she was telling that to Camilla and it didn't really help in maybe her perception because these people are aligned and she's not aware. However, when it comes to Murgatory and, you know, when she is saying, hey, Eva at the beginning initially versus say is also thinking Eva, but we only see that in her confessionals. We don't really see her act on that thought that Eva is someone who should be going home.

[00:13:34] She didn't really push for it versus 30 had different moments where she did push for it for sure. But I couldn't agree more than I wish we could have saw more from these winning tribes for sure. For sure. For sure. I think kind of going back to charity where her focus was really just about like, OK, here are some names. These are some people that I'm really considering voting out. But like you guys like touched on, like she's neglecting that perspective that like the rest of the tribe in the group has.

[00:13:58] And I think that's what the real big focus should be of players when they get onto the beach and they get onto the merge tribe where it's like, OK, who am I working with? Yes. Like then there's going to be names that come up eventually. But I got to solidify my group. And I think that's a big thing that charity neglected to do. While other players, you had Vulu and Siva, like the rest of Siva, at least working together, being like, let's figure out where we're going, who we're comfortable with.

[00:14:22] So when those names come up, we can determine what's the name I'm totally cool with going for or who am I just like? Yeah, not this time, maybe in the future time. But that and players neglecting to take those steps in the beginning of the mergatory, it puts them like charity in a hole because you have no one to fall back on for sure. Yeah. And I mean, you know, somebody like charity was clearly super close with Mitch. And I think a lot of players fall into this trap of like, OK, I have my number one now.

[00:14:52] Like I have my bonafide number one. And like, so I'm good, you know, because I have one person out there who I can trust with everything. And I know we'll never write my name down. But, you know, as you just alluded to, Rob, like it takes more than that when you get to this stage. When you're in the pre-merge stage, 100 percent, like that is all you really need. If you can have one person who will never write your name down, whose vote you will always know how it's going to go and will advocate for you in conversations you're not in when your name may come up or when they're trying to decide who to vote out.

[00:15:22] Like when you're in a tribe of six people or less, all you really need is a good duo. And like you'll find your way through that tribe. But once you hit that beach, all of a sudden, like one person is not nearly enough. You need two, three, four other people to be riding with you to make sure that you can get through the next two, three, four or five votes. And it seems like just charity didn't make that extra step, you know, to be like, OK, where can me and Mitch go beyond just me and Mitch?

[00:15:49] And I'm curious to see now where Mitch goes from here, because I think Mitch was in a very similar position where he was like, OK, hey, a charity is my out and out number one. I'll always know how she's voting. She's never going to vote for me. I can tell her whatever I need to tell her. And he got blindsided last night. I mean, we all saw his face. He was shocked that she ended up going home.

[00:16:09] And I'm curious where he's going to find his new home now and if he's going to kind of learn from like not having enough agency when he hit that beach initially and how the other players are also going to utilize him as a free agent. Because as far as we know, as viewers, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think he really has any ties to any player right now. Now the charity is gone. So I see him as like a complete free agent that could be scooped up by anybody that needs a vote right now.

[00:16:36] Or maybe Mitch decides to start his own thing and says, you know what? Like I'm going to build up my own alliance from here on out because I'm at square one right now. So I'm very curious to see how Mitch as a player and character evolves over the course of the next few episodes because he could be a swing vote in a lot of very important tribal councils coming up. Yeah, I couldn't agree. I think that when Mitch mentioned earlier in the episode, hey, I still have my block of vote. He just got blindsided.

[00:17:01] So as a player, he might in these next couple of episodes that we see, you know, me looking from a viewer perspective, might try to utilize that block of vote more aggressively since he has been blindsided. His number one has gone home without his knowledge. And we do see another big group form. You mentioned earlier that when it comes to the merge onward portion of the game, you can't just have a number one. You have to have this group, big group.

[00:17:28] So this big group that we see form is Eva, Joe, Shaheen, David, Kyle. This group that I like to call the meeting, except, you know, instead of meeting, it's like meets as in like meets shield. That is form. And when you see or play the game with this group of people and you're someone like or a player or character like Mitch, who is on the outskirts, but has this advantage, who just was blindsided.

[00:17:58] It's adding fuel to the fire of the searing of this meeting alliance or the well done this as I like my stake of this alliance that is about to be formed, I think. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, like.

[00:18:18] This is something where I think that, you know, that meets shield alliance is something that is going to be tested through these first few tribals, because right now, like they have the numbers, but just barely. And it's only going to take one or two people to flip out of that alliance for them to start losing numbers really quickly, you know?

[00:18:39] So and that could be very, very attractive to somebody who, you know, it doesn't seem like anybody is like straight up on the bottom right now between, you know, Shaheen, Joe, David, Eva, Kyle, and secretly with only Kyle really knowing Camilla. I don't really know who I would put on the bottom of that right now. We had a brief scene of Kyle telling Eva, I believe, like, you know, we can work with Shaheen, but keep your eyes open for him. But I still wouldn't even say that he's on the bottom by any means.

[00:19:09] But if somebody does feel like that and we're just not seeing it from the edit, it could be very attractive for whoever that individual is to say, like, you know what? Why am I going to sit on the bottom with all these people that are going to win every challenge? Like, why don't I go flip over and be on the top of an alliance I'm going to form with all of the stragglers that are left on this mergatory beach that aren't part of this majority alliance? Like as a player, that's very attractive, you know, and it will be your move that gets made if you're the one who does that.

[00:19:38] So the next couple of tribals, like if they can stay true to it, it'll be very impressive and I'll be super into it. But it's also going to be the most. Touch and go part of this alliance, I think, like if they can stay strong to like the final eight, then at that point, it's like, well, let's just stay together because we can all get into the final six now, you know, but it's like when there's still 11 people left in the game, 10 people left in the game, nine people left in the game.

[00:20:03] People might start itching to make a big move and break up this alliance and not be just a part of a plan, but be the creator of a plan, you know, but I'm interested to hear what you guys think about that. We're going to be the one who's been doing it.

[00:20:27] We're going to be the one who's been doing it. I think. Yeah. Yeah. No, you go for it. No, go for it.

[00:20:51] I think when I think about like, or when I think about how tight this group is of the meeting, I definitely lean on the idea where it's like, well, they're kind of coming together with like a fear mongling kind of tactic where it's like, well, if you're lying and you're manipulating, then you're the next person that's going to be voted out. And in the game of survivor, there is just so much deception, too many plans being around too many people who want to win the million, be the title of, and when the title is a survivor that there's going to be people to make the move.

[00:21:19] Like what Gabe said, people are going to want to claim moves as their own. So I feel like that's why I have more confidence and say someone like Kyle, who has ties to the outside, who has shown the ability to play the game. And he has that those connections within the relate, like within that alliance. And I think there's just going to be more playing coming down into the future. I think it can get you through the next two rounds, but players are going to start going after each other sooner or later.

[00:21:47] So it's not like a nice, cushy kind of alliance. And I don't really see this going too far into the game. Interesting. Very, very interesting. Yeah. You know, Rob, you know, you're someone who has a psychology degree. I think of it from a us versus them mentality that is used as a tactic to make people play against each other or make people opposed to one another in some way.

[00:22:10] And David's whole framing of this alliance is, hey, in these past seasons, in the new era that we've been seeing, there have been social players or maybe more strategic players who have won it out in the very end. And players like Jonathan haven't really won. Players like Mike from Hoboken hasn't really won. We saw Kyle last season on your season, Gabe, get voted out.

[00:22:36] And I think he's trying to use this trend to say, this is the thing that's going to stick us together as a group. But again, I'm unsure if it'll actually come to fruition. But something I do think will come to fruition potentially is this streak of challenge performances that I think will end up leading to not just a single player to win immunities back to back to back.

[00:23:06] So in thinking about this immunity challenge and thinking about just challenges overall, I do feel like this win for Kyle is great for him.

[00:23:22] I think it's a move or it's a position that gives him a lot of agency and something I think could be beneficial to him in the long run if he can make sure that it's somebody that he's aligned with that is in a position to have safety or if it's even him himself who has safety moving forward.

[00:23:46] Yeah. And, you know, that first individual immunity challenge is so, you know, like weird because these are all things that you can't you can't prepare for. Like the puzzles. Yeah, you can like now people I mean, I can even see in your background. You have like the ball puzzle. And I had that, too, when I was getting ready to go out there. But like, you know, that's about as far as you can go preparing for these challenges like you can never actually because where are you going to find these things in real?

[00:24:15] You know, unless you're like Hunter from 46 and you go through all the effort and time and money of like rebuilding these obstacle courses, which is crazy. Then like so there's things that you kind of have to like convince yourself you can do as you're doing them, you know. And so you look at somebody like Andy, for instance, from my season, he started off the challenge performances as terrible as anybody ever could. Like he had a full physical and mental breakdown doing it.

[00:24:45] And then he never won another challenge after that, like as a team, maybe. But he was never competitive in the challenges. He was just not good at that. And I think a big reason for that is because he started off in such a mental hole of like, oh, God, this one is terrible as it possibly could have. I'm never going to be good at any of these because I'm started like this was my test run was me passing out in front of everybody and like almost blowing up my game in the first challenge.

[00:25:10] Now you take someone like Kyle on the other side. He's the complete opposite side of the spectrum where he's somebody who had a great success in the tribal challenges. Right. They never went to tribal as a original SIVA. And then you look and now he has won the very first immunity necklace. So this is a guy who's going to be going into all these challenges with a lot of confidence because he's like, I've proven to myself that I'm capable of this.

[00:25:35] I've proven to myself that I'm able to go out and win these tribal challenges, run these obstacle courses, win this balance slash endurance challenge with the ball on the pole and wear the necklace before everybody else. So I think this is going to do wonder wonders for Kyle's mental state when he goes into these challenges. But also, obviously, what comes with confidence builders in this game is that it also is going to put a target on your back.

[00:26:00] So it's going to be interesting to see how Kyle navigates, you know, being the early challenge guy of like, man, this dude won a lot of the tribal ones. And now he won the first immunity one. Like, I guarantee you, people are going to be looking out for Kyle as somebody who potentially could go on a big challenge run and screw up a lot of other people's games. So, you know, everything, everything positive in Survivor, with the exception of winning the million dollars, always comes with some kind of negative counterweight.

[00:26:27] And for Kyle right now, it could be the fact that, you know, people are going to look at him as a big threat because of how good he could be doing in these challenges just because he won this first one, you know? And that's the funny thing about Survivor is that he only won one. But because it's the only one to win, like people are going to attach that challenge beast challenge threat label to it. He could go and perform terribly in the next two, three challenges and not win. And people, I promise you, are still going to have that in the back of their head.

[00:26:57] So it's going to be very interesting to see how people adjust their perspective of Kyle moving forward on top of being a very sociable guy, played an idol correctly and had a masterclass of deception with Camilla going into that, going into that tribal where he had to play the idol. So like Kyle's got a lot of good things going for him, but that can be the worst thing going for you in Survivor is having too many good things going for you.

[00:27:22] Now, I guess one kind of question I have after that is, do you think players really believe that the first player who wins the immunity challenge like is a threat for every single challenge going forward? Or is that just something to get the ball rolling for the next tribal council that next vote? I think that it's just a label people can put on you, you know?

[00:27:43] And so like if he goes out and he crashes out in the next challenge and he does terribly, you know, like I think it would take a lot of crash outs for people to not see him as a challenge threat anymore. And you also have to remember that like in most seasons of Survivor, like a very small group of people are ones that get to wear the necklace, you know, like for my season. And it was, you know, our season was a bit of an extreme example of this because we had two challenge beasts in our season.

[00:28:12] Kyle wore it four times, Rachel wore it four times, and then Genevieve wore it once and I wore it once. So only four people out of the what, 13 people that make the individual portion of the game got to wear it. So, you know, so that's like what, less than a third of people in the game got to wear the necklace. So as somebody who, you know, you might be looking at yourself as not only have I not worn it, but I'm probably never going to wear it, you know?

[00:28:37] And especially like at this season when you have people like Eva, who is like a very athletic, like who's a very in shape athlete. You have people like Joe, who's built like a brick house. You have people like David, who's built like a brick house. You have people like Kyle, who's really in shape and already went out and won one of these things.

[00:28:55] Like I'm sure there are a lot of people on that island right now who are probably thinking at this point in the game, like it's going to take a really me specific challenge for me to go beat the entire field of people that I'm going up against, you know? So I think when, yes, that first one, it's just, it leaves that mark in your head. It puts a label in your head of what this person is or what they could be. So I think that first challenge does matter a lot.

[00:29:20] And obviously the prediction came true for us, but Kyle won the first challenge on our season for 47, Kyle ran. And after that, like everyone was like, oh my God, he's going to go and win all these things. And then it ended up coming true. And he went and he won three more after that, you know? But it's just like, like I said, Survivor is a weird game because all it takes is just an idea to become reality in the game.

[00:29:44] You know, if I were to go up to Tim one day and be like, you know, Rob was being really sneaky today. I'm digging around in the ground. He was being really sneaky. Maybe you were just trying to find a good place to go to the bathroom. But now Tim has that seed in his head of Rob is sneaky. And if I can Rob about it and says, no, dude, I was just trying to go to the bathroom. Tim will still maybe think, is he lying to me or is Gabe lying to me?

[00:30:10] And I have to assume both things are true and not true at the same time. I can't buy fully in to one person's story or the other. So to bring that into, you know, the situation we're talking about here, like people are going to be thinking like, wow, Kyle's pretty good at this. He did something that I wasn't able to do was, you know, make it to the individual portion of the challenge and then go and win it. Like, is this guy a challenge threat? I don't know. And if Kyle were to come out and be like, hey, guys, I just got lucky.

[00:30:37] I'm not a challenge that they're going to be like, well, he's just trying to take the target off of his back, you know? And if he doesn't say anything, then people will probably perceive it as Kyle's really confident. And he's going into this next challenge with a bit of confidence because he's not trying to dampen down the threat level that he has of winning the first immunity challenge. So it's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. And, you know, again, that's the burden that comes with winning immunity. It's very positive. It's the best thing that can happen in a round of survivor is you win immunity.

[00:31:05] But it comes with the caveat of people are going to be more wary of you moving forward. Now, obviously, it's still early in the game and things can change. So I think this outlook really only applies for the next two or three rounds. But every necklace that he wears will add to that image that he has, you know? And then, you know, to your point, the flip side of that is him losing these challenges and him getting that, you know, challenge beast potential off of his back.

[00:31:33] But the consequence of that is you're vulnerable going into these immunities because you're not wearing the necklace. So it's like, what would you rather have? The threat level of winning challenges, but you need to keep winning to stay safe? Or would you rather lose challenges and be vulnerable week in and week out and have the stress that comes with that and maybe even go home because of it? So it's like, you know, it's a very heady thing.

[00:31:54] And it all comes down at the end of the day to something that you can't really give proper analysis to, which is how the people you're playing with are thinking in that moment. And they all have their own agendas. They all have their own ideas. They all have their own personalities. And that's what makes it such a joy to watch is like, OK, Kyle won out and he won the necklace. Now, how's everybody going to react to it next week? And we all just have to tune in to find out.

[00:32:19] But it's it's it's a very interesting spot that Kyle finds himself in that our Kyle found himself in not too long ago. Yeah, and you're someone who knows a thing or two about beating a Kyle and immunity challenge. So it definitely is an uphill battle if he does try to continue to win these immunities. As you mentioned, there's so small of a group of people who actually get to wear the necklace and to be the player on your season who is the only one to do that.

[00:32:49] That does seem like an impossible task. But anything is possible in the game of Survivor, as we've been noticing and seeing really quickly, just to comment on the necklace itself. I thought it was dope. I'm a gamer, right? I play the game. I watch Marvel movies. If you've ever seen any Marvel movie in the past couple of years, you know, like Doctor Strange has this little necklace that he wears around his neck. Yeah, the eye of Agamotto. The eye of Agamotto.

[00:33:18] Shout out to Marvel Rivals for making me fear that phrase. However, I thought it was dope. I thought it was sick. And I just really loved it. I just wanted to add that in there because it's a dope, dope necklace this season. Yeah. So I do like it, but I got to wrap the 47 necklace. The bat skeleton, dude. What the hell? It was dope. It was dope, too. Like, it was just so crazy. I do think their necklace is cool. I think it's awesome. I think it's very, like, Survivor, you know?

[00:33:47] And I feel like when you look at it, you're like, oh, that's dope. Okay, that's cool. And I like your Doctor Strange analogy because it is accurate. When you saw the 47 necklace, you were like, what the hell is that? Like, it's something that sticks in your brain. Like, it looked like, I know a lot of people made this joke, but it looked like it was out of, like, a spirit Halloween store, you know? Like, what even is this weird thing that you couldn't even think up if you tried? So I'm a big rest. I'll do this real quick. I haven't done this on anyone else's show so far.

[00:34:17] So I'll do this for you guys. In terms of aesthetic between 47 and 48, because we're sister seasons, right? We filmed one month apart from each other, not even, like, two weeks. When we finished filming 48, two weeks, or when we finished filming 47, two weeks went by, and they were right back out there doing 48. So, like, a lot of the creative from production was in the same pool for our two seasons. So I find them interesting to compare. Their logo clears ours. Their logo is so much cooler than ours, and I like our logo, right?

[00:34:46] But theirs has a lot more going on. Their tribal immunity idols, the little statues you get. I think 48s is better than 47s. I think our tribal council, our tribal council set, and granted, I get to see the full one for 47, where I only get to see the TV one for 48, so we don't get the full 360 view of it. But ours clears. Come on. We had the Buddha statue above Jeff that had the missing head, and the head was on the ground

[00:35:16] behind Jeff during tribal. It was the coolest thing ever. I think that our canteens are way cooler than theirs. Their canteens are just like Camelback water bottles with, like, a cover on it. We had proper circular, like, tribal canteens. Their bags are way cooler than ours. They have backpacks. Never in the history of Survivor have I seen the bags be backpacks. It has two straps and, like, a flap that opens. It's awesome.

[00:35:45] Ours were just, like, sacks. It was just, like, a sack that you would open up with, like, a hole and, like, one strap. So their bags clear ours for sure. I feel like there's one. Oh, and then the immunity necklace. I got to give it to the bath skeleton. Maybe I'm biased on that one. All the other ones I'm not biased on, I promise. The immunity necklace, maybe I'm biased because I got to wear it and it was ours. But, yeah, I think it's fun to compare the aesthetics of Sister Seasons, you know?

[00:36:10] Because clearly, like, production had these ideas in their head of, like, this could be cool and this could be cool. Okay, we're going to assign this cool idea to this season and we're going to assign this cool idea to this season. And so I think it's cool to see how they decided to go in each way for each of those little things that, like, you don't think about when you're watching the show. But when you look back to a season in your memory or when you go back and you rewatch it again, all those little things build up the flavor of the season, you know?

[00:36:39] Like, I look at, you know, those bags or that tribal logo or that tribal council set or that necklace. And I'm like, oh, that's game changers. Oh, that's token jeans, you know? So for 47 and 48, I think it's pretty cool how they decided to go each way with all those little things. Yeah, we're going to have you on again one day to rank all the... Yeah, that would be sick. Maybe during the offseason, it'll be a great fun debate. Yeah, that would be super fun.

[00:37:07] So, I mean, you know, looking at this episode here, I'm very curious of what you guys think about the way the vote... And I don't want to get ahead of myself here if you guys aren't ready to get into this. No, no, yeah, let's definitely go into it. The way that the vote shook out. Now, it seems like there was a decision to split the vote between Say and Charity that wasn't really talked about a whole lot. And then obviously we had the rogue vote thrown on Cedric by Say.

[00:37:37] But I'm curious what your guys' take is on that because it's an interesting split vote because, yeah, it was split. But all the charity votes were people who were expecting charity to go home, you know? I think that some of the Say votes, and I don't have the list right in front of me, but Shaheen voted for Say, I'm pretty sure. I think Eva might have voted for Say. The point is that there were people... People who were in for charity to go home that voted for Say.

[00:38:07] That's just splitting the vote, right? People who voted for Say that expected Say to go home, like Charity, and more importantly, like Mitch. So I just found this vote to be fascinating because it was people voting on one side with the expectation that Charity went home, and people voting on the other side with half of them expecting charity to go home, and the other half being bought in to Say going home.

[00:38:32] And I think it's just a testament to, like, how in charge this Meat Shield Alliance is right now. Like, they're really calling the shots right now. But I'm curious what you guys took away from not just Tribal Council, but specifically the vote. Yeah. Well, Rob, any takes? Any thoughts? I guess one thing I always think about with, like, voting habits is when there's a split the vote, or splitting a vote,

[00:38:58] I would think that a player would want to vote with the players that they are most comfortable voting with, that they have voted with in the past for that vote. So if I'm Eva, I want to be voting with Joe for the same exact player, because I think I'd get fearful of being on opposite sides. And I also forget which side of the breakdown, like which players are on which side for those two players.

[00:39:22] But I think that's one thing that I'm always drawn to, where it's like, are these players comfortable enough to be voting on opposite sides? And I think that really can be a testament to how strong is this alliance? Do they fully trust each other to be voting on opposite sides, like with players that they've never voted before with, like from their original tribes or like the opposite tribes? I think, and I want to pull up the breakdown right now just to really kind of see, to be like, well, this is my then analysis about it.

[00:39:48] Yeah, I think the biggest takeaway that I have from it, I feel like Siva fumbled. If you have a player who you maybe don't like, maybe it's not your best friend in this game, but they're from your original tribe. And we are at the individual portion of the game, but Survivor, most likely, more often than not, has been a numbers game. You have six people.

[00:40:13] Even though David is in this meat shield alliance, there were other members from Siva, to my knowledge, like Kyle, like Camilla, who voted for charity as well, to my knowledge, because I'm sure all of Vula voted for charity as well. Essentially, what I'm trying to say is from this, not having all of Siva stick together, even though the player that you wanted to vote out is from your original tribe,

[00:40:40] as a player, perhaps, if I'm in this situation, I might be thinking, they don't necessarily threaten me. They aren't saying my name. We haven't gone to tribal council together as a tribe altogether. Say it's someone who seems like the bigger target, bigger threat, who is someone who, as a Siva member, I might be thinking,

[00:41:09] is someone who is already on a minority tribe, who, if I'm Mitch or Chrissy in this situation, we haven't worked together, because nobody from Siva, to my knowledge, previously in the past couple rounds, voted with Say, or was on the same page as Say. So, it seems to me like a lost opportunity for everybody that's not David to vote out Say. Because for David, well, actually, no.

[00:41:38] I do feel like even for David, it's a lost opportunity, because he would have got to keep his Meat Shield Alliance and keep his entire Siva tribe. Yeah. So, charity, based on the edit, or from what we haven't seen, must have had a perception as a character that prevented that from happening for whatever reason. Or, as mentioned earlier, could have been the throwing out Eva's name and the star pushing forward charity's name as well.

[00:42:09] Do you guys think that there's any thought of like, you know, we're going into this merge phase of the game with six Siva, and people are going to be gunning for us anyway, so maybe we need to offer somebody up to get that target off of our back as a tribe. Like, is there any thought to that? I mean, that is a good point. Definitely. I think that's always incorporated in every single merge, but where it's like, well, if I had to be comfortable with one person from my original tribe going home, who would it be? And that's the easiest name to pitch, right?

[00:42:38] When you're having those first preliminary conversations with players from other tribes, when you're on that beach, like, you got to have someone from your original tribe that you want to offer up as a potential vote to be, right? Like, it's not me. So, I think everyone was just on that same page where it's like, yeah, we just don't really fuck with charity. Like that. So, I think that's why it was pretty easy for that to come up, like, come to fruition at least. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I'm thinking from David's perspective as a player, charity is the sacrificial lamb chop for my meat shield alliance at this point.

[00:43:07] It definitely makes Siva as an idea conceptually as a tribe, maybe not the biggest target all around, but when there's one tribe that's only one original tribe that's only three players and two other tribes that have more players, or actually who has four to three to six at this point. You just, at this point, I'm thinking, yes, you could sacrifice someone,

[00:43:38] but you still have more players than all the people on their individual tribes, at least at this point. So, you have to sacrifice someone else, but we're not in a tribe format anymore. It's an individual game. So, I just couldn't help but think that maybe in sacrificing charity from Siva, if you're David thinking this, you're going to take it what I'm feeling. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:44:08] And so, it's like, it's kind of those two schools of thought where like, you know, if we're looking specifically from David's perspective, then it's kind of this idea of like, how many options do I want to leave open for myself right now? You know? And that's the best thing that you can have in a game of survivor is as many options as possible. And it's like, well, if things go bad with, you know, Joe and Kyle and Shaheen, then I can bail out.

[00:44:35] And I have a bunch of Sivas in my back pocket that I can go aligned with anyway, if I need to flip on them or vice versa. And it seems like he kind of chose this option that I'm about to say, which is I can stick with the Joe, the Eva, the Camilla, the Kyle, the Shaheen Alliance. And let's just start picking off Sivas because there's so many, many of them. And it's, it's kind of one of those things where it's like, you don't really know what's going to be the right option until everything plays out, you know? So maybe he gets a few more rounds into the game and he finds out he's on

[00:45:03] the bottom of this meat shield Alliance and he's got to go, you know? And he's probably thinking in that moment, damn, I wish I kept charity. And when C was strong, but also maybe David makes a big run and he's in the final three or something with these guys. And he's like, I made the right call sticking with them as opposed to charity who I didn't really get along with her, his confessionals and her confessionals wanted him out the game. So, you know, again, it's kind of, as you got to wait and see, but going into next tribal, you know,

[00:45:31] perhaps them keeping say around now gives them an easy target going in to next week's episode. And as we know for next week's episode, it's going to be a split tribal with two different tribes of six that are going to go individually. So I'm very curious to see how those tribes shake out. I think Mike Bloom may have posted what the tribes are going to be. So off the top of my head, I think one of them, is it okay if I say it? I mean, it's out there. Like everybody knows, you know? Yeah.

[00:46:01] So one of the tribes is going to be Eva, Joe, star, Mitch, Chrissy, and say, and the other tribe is going to be Kyle, Camilla, David, Shaheen, Mary, and Cedric. So I'll say that again real quick, slower for people watching. Eva, Joe, star, Mitch, Chrissy, say is one side of it. The other side, Kyle, Camilla, David, Shaheen, Mary set. So those are your splits right there.

[00:46:28] So like looking at that first group, right? Eva, Joe, star, Mitch, Chrissy, say, who do you feel good about? And who do you think is in danger out of those six? Oh, I feel like he was in danger. You have the idol. Sure. But, or Eva or Joe, because, okay, Mitch, blindsided, say, already received votes.

[00:46:55] Mitch has his block of vote that was referenced in this episode, looking at it from an edit perspective. It could be used again, you know, to cause some trouble, shake things up there. And, yeah, at least that's the immediate person on this split tribe that I think is going to be in danger. Mitch or not Mitch, sorry, Eva or Joe. So, um, and there's still space and time to get into it. I don't want to make sure we,

[00:47:22] or don't want to make sure we forget to hand out an award for, for this past episode. Yeah. So as well, as we get ready to look for, uh, for next episode. So if, if we're cool to do the award here, yeah, cause I, I have some names in mind. So I think let's go. The one that jumps out to me versus Kyle, obviously winning the necklace is going to be a big reason for that. Um, but also. Yeah.

[00:47:53] alliance that he had a huge part in spearheading was the one that dictated the vote. So it's like his Alliance won a tribal. He won the challenge. And on top of that, I think the best part and sneakiest part of Kyle's performance in this last episode was that he managed to put this alliance together, or at least participated in putting this alliance together. And nobody knows about Camilla quite yet. And that's like a really, really important part of Kyle's game moving forward,

[00:48:22] that he has this hidden security blanket that if this Alliance goes sour on him, he has somebody who he can trust more than any of them anyway. And they don't know about it. So if they come at him, they don't realize they're coming at him and Camilla and Camilla can still operate as this agent to pick up information that he might not be privy to. So, I mean, it's, it's hard for me not to give it to Kyle. Yeah. Yeah. Kyle is an amazing pick. He had a great episode. As you mentioned, one immunity,

[00:48:51] found himself in a big Alliance and has Camilla in his back pocket to use as a weapon moving forward in the game. I feel like my nomination or who I might award this time around is Star. Star is someone who I also thought had a great episode. It's a good show. Star recovered very well from being on the bottom of Loggi, although she didn't necessarily know she was on the bottom. She recovered her relationship with Eva.

[00:49:19] She came second place in the challenge. So she almost had that opportunity to have that immunity necklace, but was one of the people who got the mergatory dinner or meal to celebrate. And then lastly was one of the big pieces in pushing forward charity as a name and got out someone who without a doubt was not on her original tribe and who she outright did not trust and had clear evidence.

[00:49:48] At least shown in the edit for a reason not to trust her. So I would say Star is my pick. And those are the two people that I was deciding between for my nominee for the the torture award. It was both Kyle and Star for two very different reasons. Of course, right? You have the ascent of Star where she was very much pushed to the bottom and she's ascending up now into where she is a better relationship with everyone from her original tribe. And I don't know. She just seems to be connecting now, which is just fantastic.

[00:50:17] Just especially when you see say pitch Eva's name and she goes right to Eva when they finally get back on that beach and she's like, Hey, like say he's going for you. That's what you want to see. You want to see that gameplay from Star trusting those relationships. And that's what's going to really push her into the game. And going with Kyle, you see him already doing that within the meeting alliance. And I think that's why I did give the split edge to Kyle is my pick for the torture award. Interesting. Yeah. And if it went to star, I think that'd be totally justified.

[00:50:47] I think that her stock in this game rose more than anybody else in last week's episode for sure. And I think that like that is worthy of being the player of the week where Kyle, I think had a great position in the game and maintain that great position through another episode, like coming out of the tribal where Thomas went home. Um, I think he was in a really, really, really good spot after that.

[00:51:13] And then you hit this big juncture in the game where everybody comes to the same beach and he maintained that position. Plus he wins immunity. So it's like, you know, it's just a value call of whoever is giving the award of like, what do you think is more valuable? Like going from, you know, bottom position to like upper mid position or coming in a top position and staying at top position. I think there's a super fair argument for either of those things. I'm not even trying to just be, you know, a politician. Like I actually think that either of those two could get it. If we could give a co-torture award, then I would.

[00:51:43] Um, but yeah, I think my final vote would be for Kyle. Kyle. I think Kyle is definitely a big pick and it does seem like Kyle wins the torture award overall for this episode, which I think is great. And again, is a very strong pick with a very strong game that we've seen so far in, uh, maintaining, uh, the top. So as we prepare to move forward, Gabe, I heard you like art.

[00:52:12] So on this episode and every episode of split the vote, we do a little game, have a little challenge, and we have a very special challenge prepared for you. All right. I'll roll the segment and we'll get into it right after. Let's see it. All right. So Gabe, me and Rob have drawn two players each. Okay.

[00:52:42] Across any season of survivor. And you are tasked with guessing who these players are. We got to see over on club condo. You prepare some great art. Yeah. Great is a very strong term. I didn't even give them eyebrows. I forgot to give them all eyebrows. Well, art isn't my design either, as you'll see, but if you could,

[00:53:11] as we go through these, describe what you're seeing just for the folks who are just listening to the audio version, we'll go ahead and roll the first image. Ooh. Okay. What I see here is a woman, um, who is wearing a pair of glasses, rather square glasses. She does have eyebrows. Um, Ooh. Okay. So the glasses is the biggest tell I'm thinking. I hope this isn't Owen Knight. I really hope it's not. And I'm,

[00:53:39] and I'm thinking that it's a woman that would be very unfortunate. Um, but is it Owen? It is not Owen. Okay. Two more. Okay. You want to get in as well. Yeah. Um, okay. I, I don't want to get too hung up on the glasses. There are a lot of players out there that, you know, have glasses, but don't necessarily wear them all the time. Um,

[00:54:13] is this Aubrey? It is not Aubrey. Oh, okay. This player, played in the new era is a hint. New era player. Okay. New era player wears glasses. Um, Hmm. New era player wears glasses. Female. Um,

[00:54:43] is it Jess Chong? Jess Chong. Final answer. Final answer. Jess Chong is incorrect. Oh, no. Ready for it. Let's say Rachel Lamont. Oh, no, no, no, no. Don't let Rachel see that picture. That's all I'm going to say. Oh, no, Rachel. I'll rent. Wow. That was fast. Oh, easy.

[00:55:13] Backwards hat. Come on now. Come on. Go back to the Rachel picture. I want to see the Rachel picture again. Oh, yeah. You did my girl dirty. You did my girl dirty as hell on this. She has eyebrows. She has eyebrows. She does have eyebrows at least. She does. She got some freckles too. She had freckles. Maybe I would have gotten it. She did have freckles. Yeah. It was a great, great point. Yeah. Wow. Kyle Wren, you're guessing. Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad that I got that one at least. If that's not Kyle,

[00:55:43] I don't know who it is. If like, if you drew somebody else, you drew them as Kyle. It's actually not Kyle. It's Kyle Wren specifically. So no, you got to run as Kyle. All right. So this is one, one game, one out of two. Let's go to this third one. Okay. That's going to be me. That's Gabe Ortiz. Right. Let's go. Gabe Ortiz himself. Got the curly hair, got the mustache. It captures you. I didn't really know.

[00:56:13] Yeah. No, I mean, I got it right away. Come on. It's funny because, you know, whoever drew the Rachel one is clearly like a better artist, or if it was all Rob, like you clearly said, clearly Tim is a better artist on the Rachel one. And, but the Kyle one, like while it was a no offense, Rob, worse drawing, it was just like, come on. That's Kyle. Like, you know, like that's Kyle. Like, come on. So I think it's funny that the, the worst drawings were the ones I found easier to guess. Yeah.

[00:56:42] There's a one more up this week. Okay. One more. Ooh. Okay. Mystery bonus for the folks who are listening. I see a bald man who has a full beard and also has earrings. He does have eyebrows. Um, Hmm. Bald man, full beard. Um, Hmm. My,

[00:57:12] my gut right now saying Russell hands, but the beard looks a bit too long to be a Russell, like Russell's beard never got that. It was kind of just, it was full, but this guy's beard is like hanging off of his, of, of his, of his chin, you know? So. And also, I don't know if you would draw Russell smiling, like, you know, that's, that's not very handsome him to be smiling like that. Um, yeah, this guy has a big grin on his face, big toothy smile. Um, Hmm.

[00:57:44] Hmm. I'm trying to think of all the bearded players throughout the history of survivor. And, and also the earrings to the earrings have to be like a thing, you know? Um, I don't know. Could it be? Ooh, this is tough. Give me a hint. All right.

[00:58:06] This player played in the old era and this player one old era and one, one. Interesting. They are a winner. Is this Earl from Fiji? It's not Earl. Oh my God. Okay. Warmer. You're getting warmer. You're getting warmer. Um,

[00:58:36] old era one bald with a beard. Okay. Maybe Rob couldn't guess this one either. So really? Okay. I need to practice more. Um, is this Jeremy Collins? Ding. Bang. Bang. Come on. On his points. All right. So that was a lot of fun. Uh, we get ready to move forward to this really quick final segment. Um,

[00:59:06] there's one question that we want to highlight. We highlight every episode called our Melo vote segment. Um, and I will go ahead, roll the clip and show the question for this episode that we'll briefly get into. All right. So this question comes from Kimberly. We'll answer very briefly. 32nd debate. One of us arguing why old school is better.

[00:59:34] And the other arguing why new school is better. Gabe as a new era player, if you could do a 32nd to a minute argument as to why new era is better than old era as a new era player, what would you say? So I think that when you look at the new era, right? Um, it is a symptom of what the game of survivor has become and the longevity of the game of survivor for any of my, uh, gamers out there, right.

[01:00:04] You play video games, particularly competitive video games, a big issue that a lot of those games run into is that they become so optimized by the players that new players never want to come in and play because the people who have been part of that optimization just wipe the floor with them. And you can never get good enough to get to that level because you're just losing over and over and over again to these people who have played a ton and have studied the game a ton and have optimized the hell out of the game.

[01:00:32] And the people who are part of that group that are really, really good and have optimized how to play this game and have figured out every trick in the book, they get bored of playing really quickly because they're playing against the same pool of like a hundred other people who have all done the same thing they have done. So, and then those games die. That's what happens to those games. They die. And like I said, if you're big into video games, you could probably rattle off like a dozen games that you know that that has happened to, or that you've had a similar experience on either end of the spectrum with. Um,

[01:01:01] and I think survivors are different where you had this show on the air for, you know, what 20 years or so. And it was getting really optimized. And I think that players were starting to get to the point where there weren't a whole lot of new tricks to figure out. And the players that had played three, four or five times before, and even the mega super fans like yourselves who have studied the game a whole lot. And I've, you know, gotten into the network of former players and I've talked to them and have, you know,

[01:01:31] had relationships and gotten tips from them. They come into the game and there's no place for newbies to really find their way anymore. There's no place for new legends to be, to be developed in the game anymore because it's become so optimized over two decades that everybody school survivor. And the people who have played and get brought back to play will wipe the floor with everybody because they know all the tricks in the book now.

[01:01:55] So I think the show desperately needed a revamp and needed some big swings to make it accessible for new people to come into the game and develop a new meta and develop new strategies. I think the biggest change they made in the show was going from 39 days to 26 days, probably the single most unpopular change that the show made. But I actually think that that was a good change. Now, I don't think that 26 days is the right number, but 39 days is far too much. And I'll tell you why.

[01:02:25] Back in the day before new era, the schedule of the show was you would have reward challenge and the winning team would go on the reward. You would have an off day and then you would have immunity challenge in tribal council. That was the schedule every single set of three days for 39 straight days. You would get to like day 33 and it would be an off day. There'd be no challenges, no rewards, no tribal councils, and people would just be laying around camp going crazy all day long.

[01:02:54] And that's not good for the game. You know, that is when you're that close to the end and you're at the climax of the game, you shouldn't have people laying around doing nothing or just like yelling at each other, you know, but that's what was happening. You know, one out of every three days as you would get close to the end, because people are so tired, so homesick, so hungry, so stressed out, so over it. That they would just be like, oh, it's day 36. Like, well,

[01:03:24] we don't have a challenge today. We're not going to tribal. Cool. I'm going to lay here and take a nap for 12 hours and call me when it's time to go to an immunity challenge. That's not good for the game. There should be a constant sense of urgency, particularly as you get closer and closer to the end. So I think going down on the amount of days was actually a really good move by production. I think the happy medium is probably a clean 30 days. Just make it a month. But I do think 26 is better than 39, particularly in the current state the game's in.

[01:03:54] You know, I think it's tough to make an argument for the state of advantages in the game. I don't hate the shot in the dark. I think it makes things interesting. And let's be honest, because the two times the shot in the dark has hit and worked, everybody watching when Caleb hit his shot in the dark, you got up out of your seat. Nobody crossed their arms and said, that sucked. Like everybody was like, whoa, that, oh my God, he hit it. And it was every vote against him and it worked. And oh my God, like, this is crazy. That is what made Caleb the new era,

[01:04:24] you know, legend that he is now was hitting that shot in the dark. And not just that he was also a very entertaining guy to watch on TV, but that's what really solidified it. When Mary hit her shot in the dark in this past season, nobody was sitting there going, that really sucked. Everybody. Oh my God, Mary escaped in the shot in the dark hit. And it was cool. So like, I don't know. I think the shot in the dark was a cool addition to the game. And that's coming from somebody who's season killed it, right? We all gave up our shot in the dark for a bag of rice. So like,

[01:04:53] you can tell how much we really valued it, but I still think that it is something that adds an interesting dynamic to the game. And, and not even so much because you have to blindside everybody now, which is the case, but because people who are on the bottom are not just resigned to going home anymore. And they have this shot in the dark that can mix up the entire dynamic of a game and the entire hierarchy of the game. Like, I think that's a cool thing.

[01:05:21] I think that that adds another layer of interest to the game and makes players that are playing from the bottom more interesting. And they're not just these lame ducks where you're sitting there watching all episode. All right. We all know they're going to get voted out. When are they going to get voted out? When are they going to get, Oh, they lost the challenge right now. They're definitely going to get voted out. Now it's like this person's on the bottom. Are they going to play their shot in the dark? Are they going to play it? Are they not? And if they do play it, is it going to hit? And most of the time it doesn't. So it doesn't really affect the game too often, but when it does,

[01:05:50] it's this big hype, you get out of your seat and you cheer moment. And I think that's a cool thing. So I actually think the vast majority of the changes they made for the new era are positive ones, but there are things that do need reworking that I'm sure, you know, whichever one of you guys make the case for the old era, we'll talk about. I think I went for closer to like a minute there, but whatever. No, you killed it. It's wow. That's great. It's tough to argue with the guy who has the experience and the knowledge, but I couldn't agree more.

[01:06:19] We are shot in the dark stands ourselves. Rob, I have a little argument prepared unless you want to take it. And go for old era. I can, uh, I can play devil's advocate and defend us here. I think go for it. And I'll add in anything that, uh, comes to mind. Love it. Yeah. I want to hear what both of you guys have to say. Oh yeah. Let's go then. All right. So if I'm going to argue the opposite side, right, I'm thinking use the video game analogy earlier. You said that survivor in this new era is like a game that keeps changes,

[01:06:49] changing and evolving. Survivor to me is the Minecraft of video games or the survivor. Survivor is the Minecraft in this scenario. Minecraft being a game that will never get old in its entire run has had so few changes that makes the game still amazing, still popular. And survivor old era is that game. When you look at the amount of time that is spent on the island,

[01:07:16] 39 days that allows for players to perhaps play a more social game. One thing I do give credit to the new era for is the 90 minute episodes. I feel like the 90 minute episodes allows us as viewers to see so much more of the game. But what if we had that for the old era with the new era still be better? Who knows? Maybe we would have got to see more of Michelle Fitzgerald's social game.

[01:07:43] And there's so many iconic survivor legends from the old era that just make the game and our love for survivor hit harder. Sari, Jeremy, Tony, Sandra, so many iconic players and moments that were crafted within this old format that we know and love. And sometimes when things aren't broke, you don't fix them. The swap being one of them.

[01:08:13] I'm glad we've seen a return here and there in the new era. But it's something that I think is fundamental to the game of survivor that I feel like is what made the old era in the seasons that we did have it. Amazing. And for me, old survivor is like a recipe that's passed down from generation to generation. Sometimes you want to keep that recipe because, you know, it's still,

[01:08:42] it's satisfactory to the family. And that's my argument for old era survivor. A very quick argument. I love it. All right. I guess for my argument that I first want to acknowledge the new school. And I think it really starts with survivor always evolving. And I think we've really seen that in the gameplay where we started with old school, how players approach the game. And it's been a totally different experience where new school survivor is all about the gameplay.

[01:09:11] How do I vote people out? How do I manipulate people? How do I get people to vote with me and make it to the end? And here's my case. The huge part of the emphasis of new school is gameplay, gameplay, gameplay. And additionally, like the inspirational stories about like, who is this player? How did I get here? Here's my life's journey. And two crucial elements. I think those are two of the best elements of survivor. But I think what's been lost with the new era,

[01:09:36] new era that like was very much apparent in new school was this sense of adventure and experience. You had survivor going to so many different places in the world. You had them going to China, Guatemala, literally living in the safari of Africa. And those experiences that players had, that was a big draw for survivor. Their marketing scheme was it's the adventure of a lifetime that will never be replicated. And now we've just transitioned into a, well, how do you vote people out?

[01:10:05] They're your friends and then get their vote back at the end. And I think that was a big draw for old school survivor. And also not just where people are going to be playing, but also like, who are you going to be playing with the tribes and how they were set up in old school? Like you had like the seasons where it was like the men versus women, or when they had like survivor race wars.

[01:10:26] And I think those were very interesting dynamics of their seasons that are probably never going to be tested in that same light again in the new era. And I think you really have to pay homage to where new school started. And that's with old school survivor. I love it. Well, well, whoops. Did not mean to take off Rob there. He's like, do you don't bring up that one season?

[01:10:55] They tested it. They tried. I mean, I don't know if it was the right. Yeah. Good idea. Well, Gabe, it's been super amazing to have you on here for this episode of split the vote. As we prepare to wrap is so much to look forward to going into this next episode. And it's so much to look forward to, for the future of survivor. But speaking of forward,

[01:11:21] where can we forward our listeners to follow you moving forward into the future? You can just check me out on my socials at Gabe Ortiz or TIS on Twitter, on Instagram, on anything that you want to follow me on for anybody who's in the Maryland area or in the Baltimore area. You can check me out on WIPR. It's the NPR station here in Baltimore. 88 one on the dial, or you can head over to WIPR.org and stream you live. I'm on air one to 7 PM,

[01:11:51] Monday through Friday. So come check me out over there. You can call in, you can let me know how much you love me or how much you hate me. Either one is happily accepted. And yeah, that's pretty much what my day job has been now is just talking on the air on NPR. And I love it so much. So please come interact with me over there, interact with me on my socials, at me on Twitter, shoot me a DM, tell me what takes you like, tell me what takes you hate. Maybe I'll argue with you if I have the time. So, you know,

[01:12:16] please reach out to me at Gabe Ortiz on everything and over at WIPR on 88 one or on WIPR.org. All right. Thanks so much, Gabe. And I'm in Maryland, so I'll definitely be checking you out more. Whenever I'm driving to campus, I always try to, you know, flip through the stations and catch something. So I know I'll be catching some great content moving forward. Awesome. This has been a purple pants podcast powered production. Split the vote.

[01:12:43] You can always find us at split the vote over on Instagram. You can hit that link in the bio. It'll take you to everywhere that we are, but it's been Tim. It's been Rob. And it's been our special guest. Oh, there you go. Hey, he's here. And it's been split the vote. Peace. It's the purple pants podcast. You better listen in public, might make your stomach hurt. It's the purple pants podcast. You're trying to unwind. You better get that box wine. It's the purple pants podcast.

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