Rob Cesternino is joined by Survivor Ghost Island's Dom Abbate as they dive into the the finale of Survivor 47.[00:00:00] Hey everybody, what's going on? Rob Sestranino back. We got a fun one today because we've got some special coverage in the wake of the Survivor 47 finale. An old friend is back. It's the holidays. We're all getting together and this man made a big claim, said he would come here to talk about it and here he is. Of course, the great runner up from Survivor, Ghost Island, Dom Abbatte is here.
[00:00:30] Dom, how are you? What's up, Rob? Dom, great to see you. Happy holidays, Merry Christmas. Happy holidays, Merry Christmas to a man of his word who posted this tweet back on December 13th and said this on the website known as X.com.
[00:00:52] Dom said, if Rachel wins, I will go on RHAP to defend my claim that her game is the greatest ever played. I realize that many of you will disagree, so I'm asking you to list three players who did it better so that I can debate the comparisons.
[00:01:05] And then that is what we will be here to talk about here today. Look, Dom, first off, I love the hot take. I love that you're here to talk about it. I love that you are here to discuss, not to just slink off, to defend it.
[00:01:23] To defend it. And this is going to be very fun. And let me just say to the audience that I have so much respect for Dom for being here.
[00:01:32] And this is like a spicy take. And I think this is a fun podcast. But if you all can't handle stuff like this, we won't do it anymore.
[00:01:38] Okay. That's it. We won't do it. You're right.
[00:01:43] So this is this is going to be a very fun. I think I mentioned I don't think I'm going to change anyone's mind, but I'm going to bring forward some great examples of where I'm coming from.
[00:01:59] Let me start by saying one thing, Rob. Yes. Rachel has no affiliation with this claim. Right.
[00:02:10] Whatsoever. Right. Right. Right. She called me, was not happy that I made the claim.
[00:02:17] She wants her name cleared from this. She's got nothing to do with it. Yeah.
[00:02:22] So nobody, nobody come at Rachel. This was not her idea. It's not her idea. OK, we'll talk about Rachel.
[00:02:28] But how's everything going with you? Yes. Things are good. Holidays are here.
[00:02:35] Just trying to get all my ducks in a row. You know, it's tough time for everyone, but it's a joyous time.
[00:02:43] It's a joyous time for some. I don't know. I don't know who those people are.
[00:02:50] Well, I'm jealous of those of you that have the next week or two off. Unfortunately, I do not.
[00:02:56] You're working this whole way through? Yeah. Not the whole week, but it's a wacky thing when Christmas is on a Wednesday.
[00:03:01] It's like, how do you really enjoy it when you have work on Thursday? I think I'm taking off Thursday.
[00:03:08] So I think I'll have Wednesday, Thursday. But would you believe I have to work Christmas Eve?
[00:03:13] What are you going to do? OK. All right.
[00:03:15] I think I'd rather have the day after Christmas off, though, than Christmas Eve.
[00:03:19] I'll work a half a day Christmas Eve, off Christmas Day.
[00:03:23] Yeah, it's probably, you know, people are not giving it their all.
[00:03:26] Yeah, it's right.
[00:03:28] OK.
[00:03:28] It's Christmas with an asterisk this year.
[00:03:32] All right. Well, Dom, great to have you here. We had a ton of coverage about the finale over the last couple of days, including my exit interviews with the final four, including a conversation with Rachel herself.
[00:03:45] You could check that out. Plus, I'll have one more podcast coming up with Chappelle.
[00:03:49] We'll have Club Condo talking about Survivor 47's aftermath coming up on Monday.
[00:03:55] Make sure you're subscribed. We know Survivor dot com. Not to mention we have daily traders previews coming up, Dom.
[00:04:02] So we've been cruising along, previewing all of these people that are going to be on the traders in our traders podcast feed.
[00:04:09] But let's get down to the business at hand. OK.
[00:04:11] Now, I was thinking about this and I think this is going to be a little bit of a tough exercise to compare Rachel to other people that have won the show,
[00:04:21] because I think it's a little bit like and I know you're a big sports fan, too.
[00:04:25] But I kind of feel like if we're comparing like, you know, baseball teams of like we're comparing like, you know, the the 27 Yankees or the 86 Mets and the 20, 24 Dodgers,
[00:04:39] where it used to be like once upon a time there was just like you would just like have your the two divisions you'd play like there was like 19 teams in the division.
[00:04:50] You'd win like 119 games and then go to the World Series and then two teams would play face off in the World Series.
[00:04:56] That was that. But this like the new era, you know, there's all these you got to play like four rounds of the playoffs.
[00:05:02] And now if a team goes down like like 0-2 in a five game series and then comes back and like is the team that had to come back from the adversity and win all these playoff games better than a team that just cruised to a victory
[00:05:17] and never looked back in different eras when it was like, you know, the dead ball era and stuff like that.
[00:05:24] So but that's what we're here to try to unpack here today.
[00:05:27] Well, those are great analogies because, you know, after I put the tweet out, I really did realize that it's a loaded.
[00:05:39] It's a loaded statement and it's also it brings in a lot of like, what are you basing this on?
[00:05:45] You know, like how could you say she's the greatest to ever play the game?
[00:05:48] Like, first of all, there are so many variables.
[00:05:51] And if you really are comparing like I had so many people come back and say, Kim Spradlin did it better.
[00:05:57] D did it better.
[00:05:58] Tony Vlacos did it better.
[00:06:00] First of all, I just want to start by saying if you're going to bring a winner that won their second time playing, I'm going to just we're going to leave that off the table today.
[00:06:10] This has to be like virgin game win.
[00:06:12] OK.
[00:06:13] OK.
[00:06:13] First time.
[00:06:14] Yeah, I'm just trying to level the playing field a little bit here.
[00:06:17] And again, I don't know that we're going to say, oh, this one's better because of that.
[00:06:21] Because like you said, you have all these different conditions and scenarios.
[00:06:26] Someone that played a 39 day game versus a 26 day game.
[00:06:31] Is that a difference maker?
[00:06:33] Yeah.
[00:06:34] The weather conditions because the locations used to be different.
[00:06:37] All these things can affect how a game is played, which is going to make this really difficult exercise to really say, you know, this is why this one is or isn't.
[00:06:48] So I'm not going to really try to to do that.
[00:06:51] I did rewatch season 47 in two days.
[00:06:55] I mean, I got it in well detailed and I will admit reluctantly that I did the second time around find some holes in my girl.
[00:07:06] OK.
[00:07:08] First time I was definitely biased.
[00:07:09] Rachel and I are friends.
[00:07:11] OK.
[00:07:11] Yeah.
[00:07:11] Can you explain the friendship?
[00:07:13] I'll try to do it without too confusing.
[00:07:17] During COVID, this is the time when Sunday, Burkast from Millennials Gen X, you know, she was sick and we had hosted a like an online poker tournament to raise funds for her and her family.
[00:07:37] So that was like myself, Adam Klein.
[00:07:40] I think Ronnie Barta was involved in that.
[00:07:42] A few of us were involved in it and it ended up being a huge success.
[00:07:46] We had like hundreds of people play in this tournament.
[00:07:49] We raised a good amount of money and that was the end of it.
[00:07:52] And then because COVID stuck around, we realized that we kind of had fun with it and that maybe we can kind of keep up like a weekly get together for Survivor fans who are also poker fans.
[00:08:07] And we developed like this weekly Friday night poker game online for, you know, not crazy money.
[00:08:14] Very fun thing to do every Friday.
[00:08:18] And that group stayed pretty robust for a little bit, but then it dwindled down, dwindled down until we had a group of about 25 of us.
[00:08:28] And the 25 of us decided that we're going to just like exclude ourselves from that other thing and just make our own new group.
[00:08:35] OK.
[00:08:35] And we call ourselves the Out Bluff group.
[00:08:37] You know, it's like the mix of Survivor and poker, Out Bluff.
[00:08:41] And Rachel is part of that 25.
[00:08:44] OK.
[00:08:45] Along with many other amazing people.
[00:08:46] Kellen of Survivor players, it's Rachel now, who wasn't a Survivor player at the time.
[00:08:52] Rachel, myself, Kellen, John Carroll.
[00:08:57] Oh.
[00:08:58] Yeah.
[00:08:59] Dino from Survivor South Africa.
[00:09:04] I mean, I guess you can give, you know, what's the word?
[00:09:10] Honorary membership to Adam Klein.
[00:09:12] Yes.
[00:09:13] And even Ronnie, because I think they did come back a few times to the group.
[00:09:17] But I would say they're not really in the core group anymore.
[00:09:20] Sorry, guys.
[00:09:22] And we get together.
[00:09:23] Like, it's not like we just talk online.
[00:09:25] I hope they're not finding that out now.
[00:09:27] Well, we went to Vegas.
[00:09:28] Yeah, we get together.
[00:09:29] Yeah.
[00:09:30] We've gone to Vegas together.
[00:09:31] I mean, they do a lot more trips together than I do.
[00:09:35] OK.
[00:09:35] So they're a good group of people that, you know, we have a group chat going for years
[00:09:40] now and we're all kind of in the mix.
[00:09:42] So that's that.
[00:09:43] That's how my friendship with Rachel began about four years ago.
[00:09:46] Are you able to separate your friendship with Rachel from the cold, hard facts for this
[00:09:53] conversation?
[00:09:54] OK.
[00:09:54] So first time watching it, I could not.
[00:09:57] I could not.
[00:09:59] Definitely was like, that's our girl.
[00:10:01] She's killing it.
[00:10:02] Everything she does is perfect.
[00:10:04] Everything she does is right.
[00:10:05] But I want to not I don't want to have a biased take.
[00:10:09] I want to be realistic about it.
[00:10:11] And like I said, I think the second time around, as I really like finally watched,
[00:10:17] like watched it with like significant concentration this time around, I said, OK.
[00:10:24] There's a few things that probably don't look too good on her resume there.
[00:10:29] And so how I want to go about this is really just say, look, I believe that every winner that's
[00:10:39] ever played the game has their down moments in the game.
[00:10:45] I don't know.
[00:10:46] I'm not knowledgeable enough to say that there's a player out there that had absolutely no adversity
[00:10:53] in the game where like, yeah, they were left out of a vote or, you know, just something
[00:10:59] they were not in the loop on.
[00:11:02] And obviously we can say Rachel was left out of a lot of things here.
[00:11:07] So let's not even worry about that.
[00:11:09] Let's let's let's do part one here is tell me what you saw that led you to make the case
[00:11:15] that she did play the greatest game of first time player has ever played.
[00:11:22] OK, if I was to get started on it, I would say it started pre-merge where she was responsible
[00:11:31] for the victory of her tribe, which ended in like puzzles.
[00:11:37] Yeah, I think three or four times where I think her and Anika like just got it done before
[00:11:46] anybody.
[00:11:47] That's a good point.
[00:11:47] I feel like that people have not talked about that very much about how that she really did
[00:11:53] help her tribe in the pre-merge.
[00:11:56] I mean, significantly, if you pay attention to how successful she was in in in finishing
[00:12:03] it, you know what I mean?
[00:12:04] Like it's a lot of commotion.
[00:12:05] You're jumping through hoops, this and that.
[00:12:07] But at the end of it, there's always that puzzle and they're always there and she's
[00:12:10] always in the puzzle situation and she's the one finishing it.
[00:12:14] Yeah, they say on Survivor, there's an old say adage that the puzzle is the great equalizer.
[00:12:21] Do you think that the person that can do the puzzle and sometimes it's like, oh, that
[00:12:25] person looks like they can do the puzzle.
[00:12:26] But a person who can do those puzzles, is that more valuable than somebody who is like the
[00:12:32] like brute strength that gets you through the carry the boat up the beach and all of the
[00:12:40] parts that gets you to the puzzle.
[00:12:42] It's tricky because I would say it's like that the challenges are like designed for anyone
[00:12:51] to get through them.
[00:12:52] But sometimes you really do have to drag something that is like ridiculously heavy and you're not
[00:13:01] getting to the puzzle if you don't have someone there to help you carry it.
[00:13:05] But at the end of the day, if you if the majority of the challenges are doable for anyone of any
[00:13:11] strength caliber and then they all kind of at some point get to that end component where
[00:13:17] the puzzle is waiting for them, that is where the brainpower matters.
[00:13:22] That's where you want that person that could see it, that has has like that visual gift that
[00:13:28] can just see how it starts, see how to put it together.
[00:13:32] That to me is worth more.
[00:13:34] But again, there's moments where you won't even get to that point if you don't have some
[00:13:38] muscle helping you get there.
[00:13:41] Her tribe did go to two pre-merged tribal councils.
[00:13:43] I have to go back and take a look at the the two that they missed on.
[00:13:48] I think that the first one that they were just so far behind from like tipping the boat over
[00:13:52] and, you know, that might not have been a situation where they were able to catch back up.
[00:13:58] I'm not sure on when Anika went home what the challenge was that they ended up losing.
[00:14:02] Yeah, I have some notes here, but I'm not going to waste too much time breaking into it.
[00:14:07] But yeah, but yeah, you're right.
[00:14:10] They weren't they didn't have a perfect pre-merged record.
[00:14:12] They did end up, you know, going to tribal a few times.
[00:14:18] But I feel like she kind of she kind of had a handle on her situation in the beginning.
[00:14:28] Yeah, she seemed to be very easygoing to get into the tribe.
[00:14:33] She was likable.
[00:14:36] She was a good worker.
[00:14:37] Like the basic thing, she had no issues.
[00:14:39] No one had a problem with her out of the gate.
[00:14:41] She didn't have a very significant threat level in the beginning of the game.
[00:14:45] I think people realize she was just like good to have around.
[00:14:48] So that to me is like I just thought she she navigated her way through the beginning of the game pretty well up until like right before the merge where she kind of got blindsided there.
[00:14:59] On the Anika vote.
[00:15:01] Yeah, on the Anika vote and then comes into the merge like lost.
[00:15:05] Yeah.
[00:15:06] Okay.
[00:15:06] Lost.
[00:15:07] So for me, though, so if that's pre-merged now we hit the merge.
[00:15:11] And the most significant moment where my light bulb really went off was when she played the shot in the dark to gauge the audience.
[00:15:26] And I know that sounds like.
[00:15:30] Not that big of a deal.
[00:15:32] But to me, that is what we that's your 3D chess move.
[00:15:37] I mean, that is taking an opportunity or taking a tool that you're given.
[00:15:45] And really putting it to use like no one ever has before.
[00:15:50] And I just feel like in this day and age, you have got to be playing the game like that.
[00:15:55] And I just feel like most people while like had no clue what she was trying to do there.
[00:16:03] They thought she was playing it because she just felt like she had to.
[00:16:06] But none of them had that mental capacity to say, wow, like we should be thinking like this.
[00:16:14] So to me, that was when I said, we're dealing with a different caliber player here because she's thinking the way no one else thinks.
[00:16:24] And I'll be honest with you.
[00:16:25] After that episode, I called her.
[00:16:27] I don't know if she called me.
[00:16:29] I called her.
[00:16:30] But I told her, I said, I'll be honest with you.
[00:16:32] I'm a little intimidated by you right now.
[00:16:34] Okay.
[00:16:34] Because it was the first time I looked at her differently, like in real life, like, wow, like you, you see it, you understand how to do it.
[00:16:42] Even if you go back to pre-merge where she was trying to steal rice.
[00:16:48] Again, one of those things that seem like a silly little fun moment in the game.
[00:16:53] Absolutely not.
[00:16:54] She was thinking of ways to advance herself and her tribe by feeding them.
[00:16:59] And no one, everyone else is focused over here.
[00:17:02] And she's thinking about this.
[00:17:04] That's how you have to play this game now.
[00:17:07] So again, like, can we compare that specific thing that she did to something that Kim Spradlin did or Boston Rob did or something?
[00:17:16] They're all different.
[00:17:17] There are some great moves that people have done in the past.
[00:17:20] Even Russell convincing Tyson not to, you know, to change his vote during Heroes Villain.
[00:17:26] There's a million.
[00:17:26] You can name them.
[00:17:27] But I just feel like that after 46 seasons of playing, of watching Survivor, if you have not evolved into a person who is seeing the scenario as it is and then figuring out a way to manipulate it to squeeze more juice out of it than what, like, everyone has done prior to you.
[00:17:46] Sorry.
[00:18:16] Do you know what that was playing the shot in the dark to, like, gauge the rest of the room?
[00:18:22] I mean, yeah.
[00:18:26] I mean, it would have to do with betting structure and putting it out to get a read.
[00:18:34] There's a lot of reads in poker.
[00:18:38] One of them is, like, I would say is, like, let's say you're in the hand and there's a flop and a turn and there's betting going on.
[00:18:47] Once, for me, a tell from when someone's trying to bluff me off a hand is when they react quick with their chips instead of thinking about what to bet.
[00:18:55] Okay.
[00:18:55] So sometimes I'll set somebody up to see if they're going to come over me.
[00:19:00] And if they come over me with a re-raise, if they do it quickly, that makes me feel comfortable like I'm good.
[00:19:07] And if they take their time and try to calculate how much more they can get out of me, then I'm a little more concerned.
[00:19:13] I don't know.
[00:19:13] That's kind of like the best thing I can come up with right now.
[00:19:15] And who's Rachel in that scenario?
[00:19:16] Is she the person who is –
[00:19:17] She's the person that's trying to put a teaser bet out to see what the reaction of the raiser is, if that makes sense.
[00:19:24] I'll give you another example in the game.
[00:19:27] Again, this is not to toot my own horn.
[00:19:29] But a similar example, and I think this is why I loved it so much, is because it just felt like my kind of game.
[00:19:39] Was at my final six when I played my fake idol before the votes were cast.
[00:19:46] And once I handed Jeff the fake idol, I had an opportunity to gauge the audience as well.
[00:19:53] And I was convinced that I had changed people's minds that I had a real idol.
[00:19:58] So I didn't end up playing my real idol either.
[00:20:00] Now, I did not do it nearly as good as Rachel did.
[00:20:04] To refresh us on that scenario, so you had the fake idol.
[00:20:08] If I recall, it was the J fake idol from Millennials vs. Gen X.
[00:20:14] And you had a real idol too.
[00:20:16] Yeah.
[00:20:16] And I wanted to preserve my real idol for final five.
[00:20:20] So I tried this maneuver where maybe I can do something that's never been done before.
[00:20:28] Hand Jeff this idol before the votes are read.
[00:20:31] See if I can get Sebastian to change his mind on what he was planning on doing.
[00:20:37] He did change his mind, but it was messy and it backfired in a lot of ways that cost me possibly the game.
[00:20:45] Where Rachel did it pretty well.
[00:20:47] Again, I'm not saying she stole the idea from me.
[00:20:50] This was something that came up in her own brain, which is why I respect it.
[00:20:56] And this is one of the reasons why I find her to be the greatest player.
[00:21:02] Okay.
[00:21:03] Um, what are some of the other positives that you saw that led you to this opinion?
[00:21:11] All right.
[00:21:12] So, I mean, there's a lot that happens in between, um, you know, from that shot in the dark moment to where she plays her idol at final six.
[00:21:27] But in between there, you can't discount all of these challenges that she's won.
[00:21:32] Now, there's been a lot of, uh, feedback on Twitter or X that Rachel had kind of a Mike Holloway or Ben Dreeberg and ending where if it wasn't for these wins and idols that she would have never made it.
[00:21:47] And like, basically she replicated that game.
[00:21:52] And I, like, you can say that all you want, but there's no one, those things may have happened.
[00:22:00] But at the end of the day, Rachel, like, won her people over at the same time where I don't think Ben and Mike did the way she did.
[00:22:11] Like, she just had the entire package where she was able to recover anytime she was blindsided.
[00:22:22] She never got down about it.
[00:22:25] Right.
[00:22:26] She never gave up on it.
[00:22:27] She gave people their space.
[00:22:30] She knew when to step away from it.
[00:22:32] And then she carefully inserted herself back into the game and spoke to the right people at the right time.
[00:22:39] You can't, you can't do anything about an Andy out there.
[00:22:43] If you have a person who's just decides to go this way one day and that way another day, the only thing you can do is try to take that person out.
[00:22:51] I think it didn't occur to Rachel to do that early enough.
[00:22:55] She finally decided, you know, this guy is, is all over the place and he may end up having a good story at the end.
[00:23:00] So let me take him out before Sam.
[00:23:03] So luckily she did that because who knows what it would have ended up as.
[00:23:07] But I just think the way that she dealt with people socially, people with her and people against her, that I just don't feel like I've seen someone.
[00:23:22] You can say there's people that have done that.
[00:23:25] Kim Spradlin was great with people.
[00:23:28] Right.
[00:23:28] You want to talk about Kim's game?
[00:23:29] But I just don't feel like someone had all of these components, like this whole package deal to me.
[00:23:35] Yeah. And not that I'm here to help you make your case.
[00:23:39] I'm here to call balls and strikes.
[00:23:41] But in terms of like to compare Rachel to Ben or Mike now, certainly like, you know, Ben was on the bottom.
[00:23:48] They wanted they wanted Ben out.
[00:23:50] But I don't think it's necessarily fair to say that Rachel was somebody who played the game from the bottom.
[00:23:56] Because after Kyle, I'm sorry, after Gabe gets voted out, it's Sam and Genevieve and Kyle that are on the bottom.
[00:24:03] And Rachel is kind of in at the center of a five person alliance, which is not something that really happened.
[00:24:09] Certainly not for Ben and not so much for Mike where people were like the people that were trying to get Rachel out were the people that were on the bottom.
[00:24:19] The people like it was Sam and Genevieve saying like, hey, you got to take out Rachel.
[00:24:24] She's going to win the game.
[00:24:25] But all the other people were like, no, she's in my alliance.
[00:24:28] We're doing, you know, four women are going to the end.
[00:24:32] She had a three person alliance with herself and Sue and Caroline.
[00:24:37] And then also was talking with Andy and Tini before Andy ends up flipping.
[00:24:43] So it wasn't like that.
[00:24:44] Rachel was at the bottom.
[00:24:46] Really?
[00:24:47] I don't know if ever in the late stages of the game.
[00:24:52] Agreed.
[00:24:53] Until Andy started his shenanigans, then it definitely flipped the game.
[00:24:57] And then, you know, Genevieve won immunity.
[00:25:00] So suddenly they felt like they had the power.
[00:25:03] And if it wasn't for Rachel winning immunity, she definitely would have gone home in that moment.
[00:25:07] But it definitely was a swap of power those last few episodes.
[00:25:12] But you're right.
[00:25:13] It's not like she sat on the bottom for the last four episodes.
[00:25:16] You know what I mean?
[00:25:16] Like she definitely was in the driver's seat, you know, was bamboozled by Andy and then lost it and then made a great move and regained it.
[00:25:26] And then once she got to final four, she knew she was good to go.
[00:25:29] So one thing I would have liked to see Rachel do, and I know she didn't need to, obviously, because she just about got a unanimous decision on her vote.
[00:25:42] But I was concerned when the Sam Teenie fire-making challenge took place because—
[00:25:50] I'm so glad you brought this up.
[00:25:52] Yeah.
[00:25:53] Well, my concern was that, like, she needed to stay central.
[00:25:57] She needed to stay in the spotlight.
[00:25:59] And I felt like giving someone who I thought had a shot at getting some votes, like Sam, putting on the performance he did, I thought that was a dagger.
[00:26:09] That's exactly what I said.
[00:26:10] And I really thought that since I know that you and Rachel, you know, were friendly, had this relationship, and I know this is something that you've talked about also, about having wished that you had made the fire.
[00:26:23] I almost wondered if that was going to be something that was going to be in Rachel's head where she was in that position, especially since she's so good at it, of, yeah, let me go make the fire.
[00:26:32] Yeah, if I—right.
[00:26:34] Exactly.
[00:26:35] Because she knew she had the upper hand in fire-making.
[00:26:39] But I will say this.
[00:26:42] There's risk at doing it if it looks like you're just humiliating somebody.
[00:26:48] Yeah.
[00:26:49] Does that make sense?
[00:26:50] Yeah.
[00:26:50] So you kind of—put it this way.
[00:26:55] If she knew that two people that don't know how to make fire were going up against each other, it would almost, in her mind, may have played out where they're going to aggravate the jury, that they're taking so long to do it maybe.
[00:27:09] Like, can someone just win this stupid thing already?
[00:27:11] And then Rachel's just sitting back like—because it is tricky.
[00:27:16] Final Four fire-making is such a tricky thing nowadays.
[00:27:18] And, like, after my season ended, I was like, you know, I wish I never won the Final Four challenge because I would have rather Wendell threw me in and maybe that would have boosted me.
[00:27:29] You know, there's so many ways to think about it.
[00:27:31] So for Rachel, obviously she had her finger on the pulse better than I did, where she said, I don't need to do this.
[00:27:38] Because I have enough people up there that I can definitely speak to my game, and I think I have their respect.
[00:27:46] I don't need to put myself out there.
[00:27:48] But I'm telling you, there really is something that if you think you're going to blow someone's doors off in fire-making, and it just looks like you're beating on people now, that's the last thing you want.
[00:27:58] You don't want people to be like, oh, what else are they going to win?
[00:28:00] Like, what else is next?
[00:28:02] You know what I mean?
[00:28:02] Kind of like how Kellen's attitude was towards me at the end, like, what else is this guy going to do?
[00:28:08] So it's tough.
[00:28:10] But I definitely thought I was worried for her because I felt like she wasn't in the spotlight when she needed to be.
[00:28:17] And I thought that was a great moment for Sam.
[00:28:21] That's what she said.
[00:28:22] You know, I asked her about that, and she had said, she's like, and I wasn't so worried about Sam winning it, but the way he won it in spectacular fashion.
[00:28:30] She said the jury jumped up from the seats.
[00:28:33] She's like, oh, yeah, that's not ideal that he had that.
[00:28:36] Like, not just that he beat Teenie, but that he did it in spectacular fashion and really had a moment.
[00:28:42] Coming from behind.
[00:28:43] Right.
[00:28:43] It's this underdog moment, right?
[00:28:45] I mean, like, it doesn't get better than that.
[00:28:47] And then if he could have pulled it all.
[00:28:50] I mean, but she just had too much.
[00:28:53] She just, she did too much.
[00:28:55] And then if you come down to think about the, you know, the final tribal when they're, when they're talking it out.
[00:29:02] I mean, obviously Sam had that great few sentences and comments that he made where I was like, whoa.
[00:29:09] He did a good job.
[00:29:10] Yeah.
[00:29:10] He did a great job.
[00:29:12] He really did a great job.
[00:29:13] And he did make a lot of points where I got to give him credit because he, he really did play like one of the greatest scrappy games ever.
[00:29:21] You know what I mean?
[00:29:22] Like a guy that just like got punched left and right the whole game, but somehow made it to the end.
[00:29:26] And it's not like he was carried there.
[00:29:28] It's not like he was one of those good players.
[00:29:30] You're just like, well, let's just bring him because he's not going to get any votes.
[00:29:31] Like he was a contender for sure.
[00:29:33] He was a contender.
[00:29:36] But I think, I think Rachel really recovered really well.
[00:29:41] And I think her answers were just slightly more genuine and authentic.
[00:29:49] I liked how she said, I don't care about the legacy.
[00:29:52] I'm just here to play the game.
[00:29:54] I think at first some people were like, weren't sure how to respond to that.
[00:29:58] But to me, I was like, it doesn't get more real than that.
[00:30:01] Like that's sure.
[00:30:03] Everyone wants to go down as you did this, you did that.
[00:30:07] But I mean, you just, just appreciative to have had the opportunity to play the game.
[00:30:11] And if you can just do it and do it well, to me that, that's all you could ask for.
[00:30:17] You know what I mean?
[00:30:17] So, so my thing, Rob, for you is like, I've, I mean, I can get into more detail, but ultimately
[00:30:25] what I, why I make the statements that I do about Rachel, again, there is some bias there
[00:30:30] because she's a friend, but I think the other reason why I personally find her to be up there,
[00:30:38] should I call her the greatest to ever play?
[00:30:41] Maybe I shouldn't, but if I do say it, it's because it's not just how well she did.
[00:30:47] It's how familiar to me it felt.
[00:30:51] In other words, if I could have improved my game, it would have been more Rachel-like.
[00:30:57] Does that make sense?
[00:30:58] Like if there's any other, like if I was ever asked the question, who, like, who do you wish
[00:31:03] you can play your game more?
[00:31:05] It's, it's easily her and it, it's all based on this out of the box thinking.
[00:31:11] And that every moment in this game is an opportunity to do something instead of just sitting there
[00:31:18] and pouting and complaining about this or that.
[00:31:20] You got to really take those downtime moments.
[00:31:23] And there's a lot less downtime now with 26 days.
[00:31:26] You've got to really keep that engine going, keep it in neutral, just running and keeping
[00:31:32] it warm because you're going to have to make moves and decisions constantly with these 26
[00:31:38] days.
[00:31:39] All right.
[00:31:40] So let's get to the fun stuff.
[00:31:41] Okay.
[00:31:42] Let's, let's throw some other names out there and let's make some comparisons.
[00:31:46] And so let me, let me start in the new era because that's probably the easiest to make
[00:31:51] comparisons in, in the 26 day game versus the 26 day game.
[00:31:56] Now, Dom, how closely have you kept up with what's happening in the new era?
[00:32:03] I've watched every season, but I just am not a sponge and absorb it all.
[00:32:11] Yes.
[00:32:12] The way you do.
[00:32:13] But if you bring something up to me, I will remember the moment, especially if it's a significant
[00:32:17] moment, you know?
[00:32:18] Because I don't think it's crazy to say that she's played the best game in the new era.
[00:32:23] I think that the consensus is that D has played the best game in the new era.
[00:32:30] Now this is, this is the majority of feedback I got.
[00:32:33] This is a tough comparison because that D I believe had an easier road to get where she
[00:32:40] got and did a great job at the end.
[00:32:42] But D was part of an alliance where Rachel really for the whole post merge basically
[00:32:48] was kind of left to her own devices.
[00:32:51] Right.
[00:32:51] And it's something that she said too, in one of the interviews was that after the Sierra
[00:32:57] vote and she felt alone is when she actually felt free, free to do what she wants now.
[00:33:07] Cause she's not tied to one person.
[00:33:09] As she said, she actually thinks that was the best thing for her game.
[00:33:12] And let me just throw one other thing out there.
[00:33:15] I want to get back to D because D did play an amazing game and I'm not taking anything away
[00:33:20] from that.
[00:33:20] Not what we're here to do people.
[00:33:22] Okay.
[00:33:24] But one other thing, in addition to Rachel's freedom, when Sierra got the boot was that
[00:33:31] when she got the idol, I know she was given an idol in French fries.
[00:33:37] She didn't earn it.
[00:33:38] You know, look, every winner in this game gets lucky.
[00:33:42] There's not one winner that ever won this game without some luck.
[00:33:46] So even though she found it in her French fries, I can, I can, I can account to this that the
[00:33:52] moment you find an idol and you unfortunately didn't, you know, I don't know, unfortunately,
[00:33:56] unfortunately didn't get to play a game with idols, but until you like, you see it when
[00:34:01] someone finds an idol, you're like, all right, whatever.
[00:34:02] But when you find one, there is a, like, I just, you're just, you feel so relieved.
[00:34:11] You can now get crafty.
[00:34:14] You can now play the game and you know, you have a safety net in the event that it backfires on you.
[00:34:20] So I think the combination of feeling free from an alliance or committed to any player out there now with this idol,
[00:34:29] I think that's where her game really started to take off.
[00:34:33] And if we get into where survivors found idols in their games, you know, between, you know,
[00:34:39] Danielle and Amanda finding an idol in a bucket of popcorn or sitting down at the right place setting to find the idol,
[00:34:46] you know, that people, people get idol clues randomly.
[00:34:51] Like that's, you know, I don't think we ever like take anything away from winners before of like,
[00:34:56] oh, well they sat in the random seat and got the idol clue.
[00:35:00] And you also have to account for when people get advantages or idols gifted to them.
[00:35:08] You know, it's like, well, she, if Saul didn't save her with that idol, she, all right, but why did he give it to her?
[00:35:15] You know, there's, there's reasons for these.
[00:35:18] That one with, we didn't really talk about that.
[00:35:20] Just so when you were talking about the top level stuff from her game was, you know,
[00:35:23] she got very unlucky that she got switched to that whole group.
[00:35:28] And then she had some luck that Saul, who she had a relationship with, found the thing and sent her an advantage.
[00:35:34] I feel like that that's sort of like, just like nothing.
[00:35:37] Cancels it out.
[00:35:38] Right.
[00:35:39] Yeah.
[00:35:40] So I agree.
[00:35:41] So you're going to get some good luck.
[00:35:43] You're going to get some bad luck and you got to just try to navigate through it.
[00:35:46] But so somebody like D who really plays the game from the top for the most part,
[00:35:51] part of an alliance comes into the merge with the most numbers.
[00:35:55] Really?
[00:35:56] There's not really a point where even the minority alliance is really trying to come after her.
[00:36:04] It's a totally different game that you,
[00:36:06] you played both from the top and from the bottom in Ghost Island.
[00:36:11] Can you talk a little bit about the degree of difficulty of, you know,
[00:36:15] playing with a target on your back versus being part of the group that's kind of dictating how things are going?
[00:36:22] Well, my downside of my game was very early on.
[00:36:26] And it's almost like I didn't understand the game until I did get blindsided and I did have a wake up call.
[00:36:34] So for me, I feel like you have to go through that rite of passage to really understand how the game is played.
[00:36:41] You have to take a kick to the stomach one time.
[00:36:45] And lucky for me, I did have that safety net and I did have that idle from that point forward.
[00:36:52] So now what it does is it allows you to open your eyes up, figure out where your mistakes were made and try to fix them.
[00:37:01] But also don't play.
[00:37:04] You got to know when to play defense.
[00:37:06] You got to know when to attack.
[00:37:08] And I think my game became more offensive after the blind side on me.
[00:37:14] So for someone like Dee, though, you got to help me remember some of this.
[00:37:20] So she had a pretty, like pre-merge.
[00:37:26] What was her scenario?
[00:37:28] Did she, for the most part, like, was she on a winning tribe that won a lot?
[00:37:33] Yeah.
[00:37:33] Well, 45 had the Lulu tribe, which did not win at all.
[00:37:39] So basically, no tribal councils.
[00:37:41] And then she ends up going to two or at least one pre-merge tribal council where Sean stands up and quits the game.
[00:37:53] I think they were going to vote out Sifu in that spot.
[00:37:57] But ultimately, Sean ends up quitting the game there.
[00:38:02] And then they go into the merge with all of their original tribe.
[00:38:08] But they vote out two people from her original tribe.
[00:38:12] So that sort of like reduces the threat level of the rest of the four.
[00:38:16] Yeah, because you don't want to.
[00:38:17] Right.
[00:38:18] Understood.
[00:38:18] And that's actually what they tried to do this season as well with Tiku, I think, right?
[00:38:23] They were talking about that.
[00:38:24] But yeah.
[00:38:26] Yeah.
[00:38:26] So.
[00:38:28] All right.
[00:38:29] So tell me about D like besides her great social game, which it seems like is definitely her best case.
[00:38:36] I mean, it definitely helps to be on a winning tribe pre-merge.
[00:38:40] I know because I was on a winning tribe pre-merge.
[00:38:43] Yeah.
[00:38:44] So I only went to tribal, I think, one time.
[00:38:47] I don't know.
[00:38:47] Well, after a swap, I went another time.
[00:38:50] But for the most part, I was on a winning tribe.
[00:38:52] So that is very helpful.
[00:38:54] But besides D's like social game, give me an example of where D did something maybe that stood out to you.
[00:39:06] So I would say that D's best move, I think, comes at the point where Emily goes home.
[00:39:14] It's the final seven.
[00:39:16] And I think that, and I'm trying to remember the exact circumstances of that D or Austin, who him and D, there's like some romance happening there at that point.
[00:39:28] Austin is like, hey, don't tell Julie, but we're voting out Julie tonight.
[00:39:34] That's going to be the thing.
[00:39:36] And then D then tells Julie to play the idol that she ends up having.
[00:39:42] And then D played it off like, oh, my God, I didn't even know.
[00:39:46] I remember this.
[00:39:47] Yes.
[00:39:48] And so and that was really and then did not let Austin even know that that happened up until the final tribal council.
[00:39:55] So she does a really great job of like navigating her way through that.
[00:40:01] Like she gets to she gets to the, you know, the the final six with that four and then has really, you know, they they have Katora on board.
[00:40:11] And she really does a good job of navigating, you know, how to get ultimately drew and then get to the end with Austin feeling still like with the wool over his eyes, feeling very good about D.
[00:40:21] And then she's able to sort of like drop this bomb.
[00:40:23] But like, well, actually, I was playing you when we had that other vote.
[00:40:28] So if I may, I would say then D also is the beneficiary of some luck also because there's a situation at the final five when it's actually a really crazy vote where we're going to see that Jake has his idol and he wants to play it and is going to play it on Katora, I believe.
[00:40:54] And then when he plays it on Katora, he was going to have he needed Katora to vote with him to vote out D.
[00:41:04] And then Katora that they just could not get on the same page, Jake and Katora and Katora ends up voting for Julie instead, where D could have gone home at the final five.
[00:41:16] Right. If Jake and Katora were able to get their act on the same page.
[00:41:19] Right. Yes. Yes. I do recall that.
[00:41:21] So that's all right. So that's her moment of things falling in place for her.
[00:41:27] But there's easily an argument to be made that her game could go down as best new era game because she did have a path of least resistance.
[00:41:41] And that is something that's not easy to accomplish in the game of Survivor.
[00:41:46] So it really it depends on what you feel constitutes the best style or gameplay.
[00:41:55] And again, I love and respect the hell out of someone that can navigate their way through this game without so much resistance.
[00:42:06] And I do that because I've played the game and I know how every day is a struggle just to make sure that all of everything is is on course.
[00:42:17] It just doesn't stay on course every day you're fighting something else.
[00:42:21] So for her to be able to navigate her way through the entire game fairly clean, you can't take that away from her.
[00:42:29] That's an amazing accomplishment.
[00:42:30] And it's it's fair to argue that that's a better game than Rachel's game.
[00:42:35] I'm not going to I'm not going to say anyone that makes that claim is crazy.
[00:42:40] For me, I just I find more value in someone that can kind of recover from from these punches and and just keep everyone in her good graces, even when she's taking them out somehow.
[00:43:03] Like even with the Andy vote, like just he's hugs her and he's like amazing job like that just doesn't happen.
[00:43:11] There's no ill will.
[00:43:12] Nobody on the jury is bitter towards Rachel because she'd give no one a reason to be bitter, you know.
[00:43:19] And I think another thing that people take for granted when watching players is that like she talks about it in that way.
[00:43:27] Her and Genevieve even talk about being frenemies and they hug and I'm like, you know, we're at it with each other.
[00:43:31] But, you know, like it's all love.
[00:43:33] And they talk about how they they respect each other and they respect each other's games.
[00:43:39] I mean, I think it's fun as the viewer to have two people that absolutely hate each other.
[00:43:43] It's fun to see that occasionally and have some dirt thrown all over the place.
[00:43:49] But I just can't get over how well-rounded she is, how well-rounded.
[00:43:55] So, all right.
[00:43:56] What else you have besides D?
[00:43:57] Because like I said, I respect these.
[00:43:58] So, we have D, but then we also have Jam Jam.
[00:44:02] We also have Marianne in the new era.
[00:44:04] Of course.
[00:44:05] And two people with great social games.
[00:44:07] And Marianne's game I think was mostly like laying in the weeds and then really popping up at the last second.
[00:44:14] Yes.
[00:44:14] To make a big move and then ultimately have an idol.
[00:44:18] Marianne does not have the challenge wins that Rachel has.
[00:44:23] Right.
[00:44:24] No, she doesn't.
[00:44:25] But she brings her own attributes to the game for sure, Marianne.
[00:44:30] And you can also argue that Marianne was – there's no ill will towards Marianne anytime she's responsible for someone leaving the game as well.
[00:44:39] So, she definitely had a strong social game in that aspect.
[00:44:45] I know Marianne as well.
[00:44:47] She's an amazing person.
[00:44:49] And, again, you can't discount – you can't discount any winner's game at the end of the day.
[00:44:58] You know what I mean?
[00:44:59] I just have my flavor.
[00:45:01] No discount.
[00:45:02] No discount.
[00:45:03] Yeah.
[00:45:03] Okay.
[00:45:06] Okay.
[00:45:07] Do you want to go to the old era?
[00:45:08] Yeah, let's dip.
[00:45:09] Okay.
[00:45:10] How about this?
[00:45:11] Okay.
[00:45:11] And this is – I'll put you on the spot here a little bit.
[00:45:14] You were with Wendell for 39 days.
[00:45:17] You saw everything he did or didn't do.
[00:45:20] How would you compare, Rachel, to the game, the winning game that you watched up close and personal?
[00:45:26] Wendell?
[00:45:30] Um, I mean, he played a phenomenal game.
[00:45:36] His social game is – the problem is a lot of his advances involved me.
[00:45:43] Mm-hmm.
[00:45:44] You know?
[00:45:45] So you're saying that Rachel as sort of a – I'm trying to think of the right word of just basically like an army of one.
[00:45:56] Yeah.
[00:45:57] Absolutely.
[00:45:58] And she became an army of one after the Sierra vote.
[00:46:02] A lone wolf.
[00:46:03] A lone wolf.
[00:46:04] A lone wolf in wolf's clothing.
[00:46:05] Who picked up whatever scrap she needed at the time to get through the next vote.
[00:46:13] Wendell's game was different and we – look, here's another thing we got to take into consideration.
[00:46:21] No disrespect to my season.
[00:46:23] Yeah.
[00:46:24] But the caliber of the cast on my season was not as tough as Rachel's.
[00:46:30] Okay.
[00:46:30] This is an interesting point because –
[00:46:33] That in Survivor – okay.
[00:46:36] And we're about like 10 seasons after.
[00:46:37] Ghost Island is 36.
[00:46:38] This is 47.
[00:46:39] But, you know, you had people on Ghost Island who, you know, were not –
[00:46:44] We're there for vacation.
[00:46:46] And people that had not seen 25 seasons of the show.
[00:46:51] Right.
[00:46:51] And a lot of them that were there for the adventure, not the game.
[00:46:57] You know?
[00:46:58] Like kind of like Kyle this season.
[00:47:00] There for the adventure, not the game.
[00:47:03] Yeah.
[00:47:03] I had – we had like several Kyles my season.
[00:47:08] And also age played a big factor.
[00:47:13] There was – I had the youngest cast I think in the history of the show.
[00:47:17] And not knocking young people, but life experience is a real thing.
[00:47:22] Yeah.
[00:47:23] Okay.
[00:47:23] And when you're a little bit older like myself and Wendell, it's easy to see things coming from more emotional younger players.
[00:47:35] Or non-emotional where they're not having a reaction to certain things that they should be.
[00:47:40] So I'm going to say about Wendell is that he had – I'm not saying I –
[00:47:51] We had a – we had like a conference every morning.
[00:47:55] Yeah.
[00:47:55] We discussed things every – we had – and we never left each other.
[00:47:58] We never flipped on each other.
[00:48:00] So we always had this general assembly of Dom and Wendell and sometimes Laurel where we could bounce ideas off each other.
[00:48:10] And sometimes we went with my ideas and sometimes we went with his.
[00:48:14] So I just feel like there's not much of an underdog story for Wendell.
[00:48:19] Yeah.
[00:48:20] You know what I mean?
[00:48:21] Let me ask the question this way and see what you think about this.
[00:48:24] Okay.
[00:48:24] So it's very hard to parse one game versus another.
[00:48:28] But what if like some scientist, Dr. Christian Hubicki builds a machine that puts two survivor players into a random season and simulates it 100 times, 1,000 times.
[00:48:43] Could we try to figure out which of the two survivors would win a majority of those simulations?
[00:48:50] What do you think of that?
[00:48:52] That's wild.
[00:48:53] I always thought about that, like a season where you just put the entire cast back out there a second time.
[00:48:59] Yeah.
[00:49:00] Just see what changes.
[00:49:01] And obviously things would change.
[00:49:03] Okay.
[00:49:03] Right?
[00:49:03] Well, what if we – okay.
[00:49:05] So Rachel and Tony Vlachos have never played Survivor before and into the simulation they go.
[00:49:11] And now they're starting with random new people every time.
[00:49:15] With random new people, maybe other random survivors.
[00:49:18] Okay.
[00:49:18] It's that the simulator is putting them in –
[00:49:21] How easily you have to give Rachel the edge 70-30.
[00:49:26] Mm-hmm.
[00:49:27] 70-30.
[00:49:28] Tony's first win was kind of a miracle.
[00:49:31] Like I will say that – and Tony is a super entertaining player.
[00:49:37] And his second win was like thoroughly incredible.
[00:49:42] But going back, there were a lot of things that broke Tony's way.
[00:49:45] Oh, sure.
[00:49:46] Oh, yeah.
[00:49:47] For sure.
[00:49:47] Oh, let me ask you this question too.
[00:49:49] In the simulator, when they start the new season with the new cast, has that new cast seen their previous win?
[00:49:57] I think everybody is first-time players.
[00:49:59] First-time players.
[00:50:00] Everybody's like brains are –
[00:50:01] So there's no history of Rachel, no history of Vlachos.
[00:50:04] Yeah, it's Rachel.
[00:50:05] It's got to be Rachel like significantly higher.
[00:50:08] Like if you broke it into percentages, I'd say 75% in Rachel's favor.
[00:50:14] Given Tony 25% is being generous.
[00:50:17] Mm-hmm.
[00:50:18] Okay.
[00:50:18] That's my personal opinion because I just –
[00:50:20] 75% of the time Rachel does better than Tony.
[00:50:22] I just think you got to look at a well-rounded player.
[00:50:26] And Tony has his attributes that you can't –
[00:50:30] And look, Rachel stole some of Tony's ideas, right?
[00:50:33] I mean she's out there hiding in bushes.
[00:50:37] So, you know, it is what it is.
[00:50:39] But I think if you're starting fresh with fresh casts every time a million times, you got to give the upper hand to Rachel.
[00:50:45] So who do you think besides Tony would give Rachel a run for her money in that simulator?
[00:50:52] Well, I think that historically the best first-time player that we have is Kim Spradlin.
[00:50:59] So you put Kim Spradlin and Rachel into the simulator.
[00:51:03] Interesting.
[00:51:04] And now they're both going to play a thousand times.
[00:51:07] Who's coming out ahead more?
[00:51:09] Now that's a lot closer.
[00:51:11] Yeah.
[00:51:11] That's a lot closer.
[00:51:12] And obviously Kim would have to be aware of new rules, new conditions.
[00:51:17] They have a different skill set.
[00:51:19] Yes.
[00:51:19] That's what I'm saying.
[00:51:22] But if you bring back Kim Spradlin in her prime – and I don't mean age, but I mean she was sharp as a tack that season.
[00:51:31] And you put Rachel the way she played this season.
[00:51:35] I think you got a fair fight.
[00:51:37] I think also what we have to factor into account is like when are they playing in Survivor history?
[00:51:43] Because I think that Rachel comes in with like the perfect skill set for Survivor as it is now in the new era.
[00:51:50] That she is like a woman who does not like stand out and pop off the page where we've seen with other players like our Caleb's and Genevieve's of like, okay, oh, keep an eye out for them.
[00:52:02] They really stand out.
[00:52:04] I think that Rachel has like the perfect makeup to be sort of somebody who you're not thinking about like from the jump and then also has the ability to like play this very fast-paced game and be able to think about all of the different machinations of the advantages and whatnot.
[00:52:24] That's not Kim's game.
[00:52:25] You know, Kim's game is that just like off the charts charisma and leadership and can get a bunch of people to, you know, basically like go, you know, down with the ship to follow her to the, you know, off the cliff.
[00:52:43] And so that's a game that's probably –
[00:52:46] Very powerful tool in this game.
[00:52:48] And Kim was like the perfect player to play in the era in which she played.
[00:52:53] But I'm not sure necessarily that Kim comes in in the new era and dominates.
[00:52:57] And I think Rachel would still do well in Kim's era but probably not as well as Kim in Kim's era because you're right.
[00:53:08] Kim was the best of her time.
[00:53:13] You know, so this is what I'm saying.
[00:53:15] That's why this exercise is fun but it's not going to solve anything, right?
[00:53:19] But I love the comparisons and I honestly do believe that that's – I love the simulator question.
[00:53:25] Somebody will do it eventually.
[00:53:27] Someone should design the simulator.
[00:53:29] I would be at least like a – well, the thing is like you can take these votes all you want and people do it all the time on social media.
[00:53:36] Who wins in this battle, this one or this one, you know?
[00:53:39] But you do have to put all those variables in the simulator though.
[00:53:45] You really have to talk about what time period are we talking about?
[00:53:48] Are idols in play?
[00:53:49] Are advantages in play?
[00:53:50] Because, yeah, and I think Rachel is only as good as she is in this time period because of the 46 seasons that came before her and all of her knowledge of all of it.
[00:54:01] So think about it.
[00:54:02] If you throw Kim Spradlin into today's game, she's not marathon watching, right?
[00:54:10] She was just on Winners at War.
[00:54:12] She came in looking like a deer in the headlight.
[00:54:16] She didn't know what was going on.
[00:54:17] And part of it is also her reputation of people didn't necessarily want to get fooled by Kim or just like – but so that's part of it too.
[00:54:28] So yeah, agreed, agreed.
[00:54:32] It's just – I think anyone's – any player in the most recent season obviously has an edge because of the knowledge that they've – and these are all diehard players that play now, right?
[00:54:48] I mean you're not getting Chris Nobles out there anymore.
[00:54:50] You're getting people who not just watch the show but most of them have watched every season.
[00:54:57] Yeah.
[00:54:58] And if you're not like picking up on the evolution at this point, you don't belong out there.
[00:55:04] Dom, I think you could even argue for Rachel that like a lot of things went wrong for her in this season that may not have gone wrong in other seasons.
[00:55:12] Like this may have been like one of the – not necessarily worst case scenarios but like this was – you know, this was not a magic carpet ride for her in this winning game.
[00:55:25] No.
[00:55:25] And that's why I have a lot of respect for it.
[00:55:29] Like she might be in another season like have an easier path to the end.
[00:55:34] Right.
[00:55:35] And then there's that question.
[00:55:37] She doesn't play in the tribe with Andy who is, you know, such a hard player to read who goes back and forth a bunch of times and comes into the merge with, you know, her alliance with Annika and Sierra intact.
[00:55:51] And then maybe she ends up like not needing to win as many immunity challenges.
[00:55:56] Think about what trouble Andy gave her.
[00:56:00] Like he caused so much trouble for her.
[00:56:04] Yeah.
[00:56:05] Yeah.
[00:56:05] Oh, yeah.
[00:56:06] When he pulled her out on the beach and she's like, look, I am here for you but we can't be running off just the two of us.
[00:56:12] That's another example of how great she is to know, look, Andy, can we go talk with – in front of them?
[00:56:20] Those are things that people need to pick up on.
[00:56:22] And yeah, Andy definitely put a few monkey wrenches in her game.
[00:56:28] But look, she was resilient.
[00:56:31] Yeah.
[00:56:31] She came out of it and never gave Andy crap about it.
[00:56:36] Was like, look, this is who you are.
[00:56:38] You're going to do this.
[00:56:39] You're going to keep doing this.
[00:56:40] I think Andy just – I think Andy was doing so much because he wasn't getting respect for his gameplay.
[00:56:48] So he's just like, all right, you don't think I'm a serious player?
[00:56:52] I'm going to stab you in the back today.
[00:56:54] And then he'd stab someone else in the back.
[00:56:55] So to be able to navigate through that environment with a player like Andy is another huge accomplishment.
[00:57:04] Dom, I'm curious to know, was there any responses you got from your Twitter conversation that really stood out in your mind, points that were made?
[00:57:15] Yeah, you know, there were a few really good points.
[00:57:17] But I think a lot of them were a lot of the things that we hit on that's like – people were like, how do you compare conditions, things like that.
[00:57:24] But I will say that the majority of people's response definitely fell in the Kim, Tony Vakos, and D.
[00:57:40] You know, it was a lot of responses, a lot of opinions, and a lot of good substance.
[00:57:44] You know what I mean?
[00:57:45] It's just it was too much to take all in and have everything ready to go while I was trying to do a rewatch.
[00:57:49] It's so hard with the errors.
[00:57:51] And I think that sports is like the best example where you have like some of these like, you know, like these little running backs and slot receivers like who would have been like snapped in two if they played in the 70s.
[00:58:04] You know, Rachel like, you know, could be a first boot in, you know, a lot of eras way back when where they say –
[00:58:13] That's the 26th that she was an alternate for.
[00:58:16] Possibly could have went home first or second.
[00:58:18] That's so weird that – I mean we hear it all the time, these alternates that like it – but to come back the following season and win, that is quite a roller coaster of emotion if I would.
[00:58:27] Yeah.
[00:58:27] So I think that probably like we can – very hard to say definitively greatest of all time.
[00:58:38] But I did want to at least come up here and give you my reason.
[00:58:44] And like I said, it's just her way of thinking these days.
[00:58:49] In other words, she's maximizing everything she can out of every opportunity in every moment, which I believe if you're not doing that in this era on the game, you're selling yourself short.
[00:59:04] And it doesn't mean you have to be super aggressive and always doing something.
[00:59:08] A lot of the times it means not doing something.
[00:59:12] But being aware and knowing that you don't have to just do this thing that's been done over and over and over again.
[00:59:20] You can do it differently.
[00:59:22] You just have to come up with a way to do it.
[00:59:24] And that to me is what constitutes an amazing player.
[00:59:28] And that to me is who Rachel is.
[00:59:30] An amazing player certainly in this moment where she has just like the perfect skill sets to do very well on Survivor like in – at this current moment, in this fast-paced game where you've got to be thinking on the fly.
[00:59:45] But then also the ability to have like a social game that like also I think that there's like a sportsmanship in the game that she like doesn't get too hot with, like having personal differences with people even if things don't go her way.
[01:00:03] She's able to take it in stride.
[01:00:05] She can win challenges.
[01:00:06] She can do the puzzles.
[01:00:08] She's very resilient.
[01:00:10] You know, doesn't get – let personal feelings get in the way when she doesn't get taken on a reward.
[01:00:15] So she just has like a really great skill set for Survivor in the new era.
[01:00:22] So we can just restate the claim as maybe not hard to say greatest player of all time.
[01:00:30] But we can – I can say personally, I can say greatest player of this current era.
[01:00:37] Based in this time, this moment in time, she's playing the greatest game.
[01:00:42] It could change next season with new conditions, new rules, new this, new that.
[01:00:48] But for the card she was dealt, she maximized every opportunity she had better than anything I've seen in a long time if ever.
[01:01:01] Yeah.
[01:01:02] So that's where I can leave it.
[01:01:05] Again, I respect everyone's opinion on this.
[01:01:08] And to bring it back to poker one more time, that she didn't get dealt the best card.
[01:01:13] We have other players that we could go through, and they get pocket aces.
[01:01:18] You know, they start with a great pair, and they play it really well.
[01:01:23] Where her starting cards are not amazing.
[01:01:28] Yeah, she needed to redraw several times.
[01:01:30] And she's kind of in the tournament, like down in chips, like halfway through, and then plays it extremely well.
[01:01:39] My outbluff crew is going to love you for these analogies.
[01:01:42] I'm trying.
[01:01:43] I'm trying.
[01:01:43] Yeah.
[01:01:44] It's a little bit out of my element, but okay.
[01:01:48] Good enough.
[01:01:49] Dom, anything else on your mind?
[01:01:51] No, Rob.
[01:01:52] I just – I'm happy that you let me come on here and do this.
[01:01:56] I was thrilled that you said you wanted to.
[01:01:59] I love stuff like this.
[01:02:00] Yeah, we haven't spoken a while.
[01:02:01] I mean, you know, we haven't spoken a while.
[01:02:03] And I – look, I did have a lot of thoughts on this season anyway.
[01:02:11] And again, I know it's because I know Rachel.
[01:02:15] But I had a lot of fun with it this season.
[01:02:17] It felt like I had a horse in the race, so I got – you know, I kind of really got into it.
[01:02:25] And I just – look, I have respect for the whole cast.
[01:02:29] They all did great.
[01:02:30] And I hope I didn't – to all the other winners out there, I hope I didn't offend anybody.
[01:02:36] I think everyone that wins played great games, obviously.
[01:02:40] I just had some real strong thoughts about this season for me for some reason.
[01:02:45] And yeah, I opened my mouth probably when I shouldn't have, but that's the way it goes.
[01:02:50] But we can have fun.
[01:02:51] We're having fun.
[01:02:52] Yeah.
[01:02:53] We're just having fun.
[01:02:54] We don't have to be so serious about everything.
[01:02:56] So look, everybody is going to have their favorite.
[01:03:01] And Rachel did a great job.
[01:03:03] Dom thinks she's the best.
[01:03:05] If you have your favorite, you're allowed to have your favorite too.
[01:03:08] Right.
[01:03:09] And you can tell me about it if you want.
[01:03:10] That's fine.
[01:03:11] Yeah.
[01:03:12] So hopefully the comments aren't too much of a mess after all this.
[01:03:17] I'm not worried about it.
[01:03:18] Yeah.
[01:03:18] It'll be fine.
[01:03:19] It'll be fine.
[01:03:20] Anything else you want to tell people to check out?
[01:03:23] No, man.
[01:03:24] I just want everyone to have a happy, healthy, safe holiday season.
[01:03:29] Be kind to one another.
[01:03:32] Just, you know, keep watching Survivor.
[01:03:35] It's a great thing.
[01:03:35] Yeah.
[01:03:36] Okay.
[01:03:36] Well, Dom, I appreciate you so much for being here.
[01:03:39] And best you hope.
[01:03:40] Hopefully, you know, you get a not too tough of a day on Tuesday and get to enjoy a couple
[01:03:45] of down days later on this week.
[01:03:48] And yeah, come back anytime.
[01:03:50] Thanks for having me, Rob.
[01:03:51] Okay.
[01:03:52] And everybody else, we've got so much stuff coming your way.
[01:03:55] Make sure you subscribe to all things RHAP.
[01:03:57] Go to robinswebsite.com slash subscribe.
[01:03:59] And if you can be civil, go ahead.
[01:04:02] Post your opinion here in the comments in the YouTube comment section.
[01:04:07] I'll be reading them.
[01:04:08] I don't know if Dom will, but I'll check it out.
[01:04:10] And we'll see what you have to say.
[01:04:12] All right.
[01:04:13] And remember, yeah.
[01:04:14] Be kind to one another.
[01:04:16] We're all part of the same Survivor community.
[01:04:18] All right.
[01:04:18] Take care, everybody.
[01:04:19] Have a good one.
[01:04:19] Bye.