Jelinsky Recaps Survivor 48 Ep 11

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[00:00:30] Coming to you live from my apartment, it's Rob has a podcast and now here's the guy who don't got fun betrayals. I am Rob Cesternino. Hello everybody, welcome back to our recap here on Thursday and we have a fun one here for you today as we get ready to talk about the final several with who else? The one, the only David Jelinsky. Jelinsky, how are you?

[00:01:00] I am thrilled to be here Rob. I'm doing alright. You know life is kind of kicking me in the butt, but we keep moving. How is life kicking you in the butt? What's going on? Rob, I've had a crazy past couple of weeks and by couple I mean two. I got into a car accident. Oh my God. I was rear-ended. So my back hurts like crazy.

[00:01:24] I'm leaving my job. I'm leaving my job. So I'll no longer be a slot machine sales specialist, but I will be working in table games at another company. Oh, I wonder. Okay. So what we're going to be doing is focusing on different variations of games like blackjack, Baccarat, poker, just different table games like that. And I'm really excited. They're not really known for table games necessarily. They just acquired Shuffle Master, but they're no more,

[00:01:51] no more no for their slots. Are you familiar with slots? Rob do you play? I've played. I am familiar with the concept. Sure. Down at Harris Cherokee? Down where? Is that the- Harris Cherokee? Is that where you go? I haven't been to any casino in Raleigh. Is that the nearest casino to me? I think that's the nearest casino because that is the only casino in North Carolina. Yeah. What is it called? Harris Cherokee? Harris Cherokee. Yeah. Okay. Let me see. Let me

[00:02:17] look, let me look this up. Wait, are you going to come here on tour? Harris Cherokee Resort in Cherokee, North Carolina. Let's see. Where, where is that from? Okay. Um, I have no, I still have no idea. I'm on, um, I'm like getting a hotel reservation. Okay. We'll figure that out. But anyway, I hope you're feeling better soon. I'm doing all right, man. Um, yeah, I'm excited to step

[00:02:46] into this new chapter of life and it's going to be a lot of fun. Yeah. Okay. Um, let's see. Okay. So this is, uh, uh, it looks like it's, this is even West of Charlotte. Uh, wow. This is very incredibly far away from me. This is like four hours away. It's probably not the nearest neighboring states for North Carolina. Yeah. Um, it's one of the near neighboring states, South Carolina,

[00:03:12] what else besides South Carolina, Virginia, Virginia. There's some in West Virginia, but I don't even know the ones that would be in Virginia. I guess you're out of luck, man. You got to come to Vegas. That's okay. I'll come to, it'll be honestly, I'd probably get to Vegas quicker than I'd get to Cherokee, North Carolina. You probably would. I think they made a city just to put the casino in it. I think that's how it works. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, anyway, I'm excited to have

[00:03:40] you here to talk about what's going on because, uh, I think that we need to have a conversation here on survivor 48 where, you know, a lot of these players, they finished watching your season and they came out here and they're, you know, in this game where, and I want to try to like, look at it from the player's perspective here today and figure out like what's going on.

[00:04:05] And I saw some pushback today where on the know-it-alls Stephen said that he's really enjoying the season. Sophie said, this is, you know, watching people not make moves is the best. You get to watch them not make the big move and that's great. And so I do want to be respectful to everybody's opinions. How are you feeling about this Jelinski? Okay. So we all know I played survivor

[00:04:32] for three days, but I would like to consider myself a big fan. And in those three days, I feel like I played 26. So looking from the player's perspective, I can totally understand why they're making the moves that they're making, why they're making the decisions that they're making. But from a fan's perspective, I'm just getting a little tiresome. Okay. I'm frustrated with not seeing not even big moves,

[00:04:58] just satisfying moves almost because I'm pretty unsatisfied. Yeah. Actually, let me just set up what we're going to be doing here the next couple of days. So I'm talking to Jelinski tonight, talk to Mary this morning on Friday. I'll be back with the patron Q and a with our patrons 3 PM Eastern on Friday. And then on Monday, I'll not only have club condo with Chappelle, but we also have,

[00:05:24] and we announced it last night. Check this out Jelinski, that there was the announcement that went out that said this week on the podcast, Jelinski and Parvati shallow on the old school interview. And then there was a comment that replied to this from a Twitter account at

[00:05:48] Regis Philbin shared a picture of Julia Louis Dreyfus and the Rizzler. And you, you took offense to this. Oh no, absolutely not. You love this. The ultimate compliment. The Rizzler was dubbed the Rizzler for a reason. Now, Rob, I know you're a little bit older than I am, but let me tell you

[00:06:10] what Rizz is. Rizz is short, shortened word for charisma. Oh, let me get a pen. Cause I didn't, so what is it? It's short for charisma. It's short for charisma. What is this called? Rizz? But specifically, this is the difference between charisma and Rizz. Rizz is for the ladies. So I was absolutely enthralled by this compliment. And I mean, I've been working on my Rizz face since then.

[00:06:38] Yeah. Okay. So that's the ultimate compliment for you is for somebody to compare you to the Rizzler. Yeah, absolutely. I gotta take that and run with it. Um, what an honor. I mean, Rob, and this post was incredible. Parvati and Jelinski, a survivor legend and Jelinski. Yes. And Parvati. No, I can't. I gotta give her a flower. Okay. So then who's the big justice then?

[00:07:04] If you're the Rizzler, who is it? I gotta give it to Clint Tavius. Okay. And then who's AJ? Oh, big AJ? Yeah. That's a great question. I gotta give that to, I hate to say it, but Bonu. Bonu. Wow. I give him five big booms. How about that? He went out there to earn a million booms. I love it. Yeah. He went out there to win a million booms. I love it.

[00:07:33] Or maybe I, was it a million dooms? Say it again? A million dooms. It could have been a million dooms. Unfortunately. Yeah. I hate to say it. Doomsday is upon us. And I'm very excited for that, but not, not to get into Marvel, but the Yonu boys, man, they're unforgettable. What can you say? Yeah. Unforgettable. That's the word. You bring it all back together. See what I did there? It's persistence that I have, man. Yes. What a natural. Okay. So

[00:08:03] we've got Joe who's at the center of all this. And it's been fascinating to watch because Joe really has everybody just very much frozen in that they are not going to question and they're thinking about it, but there's something that Joe is doing that's stopping people from whatever they might have done

[00:08:28] in a different season. They're not doing to Joe. Can you see it? What is Joe doing right? I mean, Joe is doing a lot of things, right? And it goes back to day one. I mean, you gotta have these solid connections. This is exactly what I did wrong. What Joe is doing right is exactly what I did wrong. And he's built such a strong foundation with Shaheen and Eva specifically, obviously that it's really,

[00:08:56] really hard to just break into that. And I don't even think it's more so what Joe is doing right. I think it's what other people around him are becoming comfortable with. Like I was listening to you and Caleb last week, and even just before that with Drew and Tiffany, I mean, these players have the idea and you brought this up, Rob. We see players like a Mitch or even a Shaheen at this point. I hate to say it. Who are comfortable with the idea of maybe skating by and getting into that crack because Shaheen is a

[00:09:25] smart guy. Shaheen knows that he's not as close with Joe as Eva is. So I think it's just Joe has gotten really lucky with a lot of, um, I can't even say that he's just in a great, great spot. And I think it's who he is. He's so endearing. He has two children that are incredible children from what I see on social media. I mean, it's just a great, and who doesn't like a firefighter? You know, we've seen with Keith

[00:09:51] and Jeremy, it's hard not to like these guys. Yeah, sure. It's hard not to like them, but I also feel like, Hey, I think I'd be like, boy, Hey, remember Jeremy, I would not want to go up against Jeremy who won 10, zero in survivor second chance in winners at war. They didn't want Jeremy to sniff getting to the final three again. And these players don't seem to be that worried about it. And I, I feel like that that's the plan for Kyle and Shaheen right now is thinking about like, Hey,

[00:10:21] maybe I could sneak into the final three with Joe and I'll win over the jury. That I agree with as well, because I think you agree that that's a good plan. I agree with that. That is a good plan. If they can get there, it's just unlikely that both of them will. So I think one of them has to start taking a shot at each other because I think great survivor minds can recognize one another. I know Kyle knows that Shaheen is a threat. He said that earlier

[00:10:48] in the season. And I think Shaheen has also vocalized that as well about Kyle. These are two brilliant survivor minds and also Camilla, but long story short, I think if this is more so on Joe, if Joe gets to the end, I think he would lack explaining his strategy. I think that's where Shaheen and Kyle would excel. So I can totally see a world where they take Joe if they're fortunate

[00:11:12] enough to be in that position. I think in a vacuum, I think that both Kyle and Shaheen would fare better in a final trial of counsel than Joe, but they have to have things that they can point to. And other than getting David voted out, which Joe might also take credit for as being his move that he made. What will they be able to say to the jury? Yes, they are probably both better professional

[00:11:40] speakers than Joe, but they have to have a thesis, right? Oh, absolutely. And what's interesting about this jury in particular, I mean, we saw this with the Dalton Ross interviews, the Mike Bloom interviews. This is a group that I can't say is necessarily the biggest super fans. You know, we see this in their previous seasons that they loved. I mean, these happen to be the seasons that were on Netflix or

[00:12:08] Survivor 46, Survivor 45. So I mean, when you see things like that, I think there's another side of the coin. If Joe gets to that final tribal, they might really respect his loyalty, integrity, and honesty. Yeah, I don't know. I think Shaheen and Kyle need some minds on the jury. Yeah, I could see Camilla voting for a Kyle. I know there's maybe some anti-Joe sentiment, but I kind of feel like that

[00:12:34] people are anti-Joe, but they have to vote for something, right? Yeah. They've got to vote for something. I mean, it's not exactly like, which is it? Is Joe like the greatest guy ever and nobody can cross him? Or is he Russell Hance and the whole jury is going to be totally bitter again? He can't be both. He can't be this person that everybody loved. And then also the jury is totally bitter

[00:13:01] against. And so like the people, if it's only the people on the bottom that are, that are bitter, like the people at the top, then I think probably won't be. Yeah, I completely agree. And it can't be both. And I agree with you. I think Joe would fare well in a final tribal. And I think if any of them were to have taken a shot, I thought this week was a great week to do it. So I really didn't understand how we went from at the beginning of the show, we saw Camilla really leading the

[00:13:31] force, leading the charge on taking Joe out potentially. And then I feel like once they all got back to camp, it really just faded out. And I was kind of bummed to see that. Yeah. Didn't really make sense to me on Shaheen's side. I thought if anyone were to see it, it would be Shaheen. I kind of understood where Kyle was coming from, from the sense of keeping Joe around. He'd be such a target. Kyle knows that Joe would be more of a target than he

[00:13:59] would. And obviously if you get a little bit further, Mitch as well, they would want to vote Joe out. But I think if anyone were to have made a move and slid around to maintain their safety, it would have been Shaheen. So I was a little disappointed not to see that happen. Yeah. So let's talk that through. So Shaheen makes the move with Mitch and Mary and Camilla. Now the thing that he doesn't know is how close Camilla and Kyle ultimately are. But from his

[00:14:24] perspective, he might see it as, okay, I've got Mitch, I've got Camilla, I've got Mary. And tonight's the night we make the move against Joe. When I talked to Steven about this from Kyle's perspective, he said that, well, you know, Kyle puts himself in a very vulnerable position. I think it's actually worse for Shaheen to make that move. I think in terms of like, now we get to six and I do think that people might be looking at Shaheen, maybe more so than they're looking at Eva next.

[00:14:54] Yeah, I completely agree. And this is something we saw in the old, the swapped Vula tribe with Shaheen, Camilla, Kyle, they recognize that Shaheen was such a threat and early merge, they recognize that Shaheen was a threat. So it is a double-edged sword. Like you're saying, if Shaheen made that move, he definitely would have been more at risk than a Kyle. I think Kyle is just so positioned so well. It's really, really hard for him to make a move and go out

[00:15:24] after that. And why I like the move more from Kyle's perspective is because Kyle does have that built-in ride or die with Camilla where he has a number one. I don't know if Shaheen, I really think that Joe is his number one. And so for him to take out Joe, I think that Shaheen really does feel like I could see it more for him than for Kyle. I'm going to the final three with Joe and Eva, maybe they'll split votes and I'll be able to be the person that maybe people will think I was the brains of

[00:15:53] the operation. And I got, I got Joe and Eva here, but it was me. I was the one coming up with the plans. And that's what I'm going to say at the final travel council. I think it's harder for Kyle to make that case of that. Hey, I was the brains behind Joe and Eva. They weren't really from the same starting tribe. I don't know if, if people like looked in and we've heard Shaheen a couple of

[00:16:17] times referred to as I think star said, okay, he's the brains of the operation. And so I think that it'll be, it would be a tougher case for Kyle to make in the final three of, no, I actually was running this whole thing. Yeah, I agree. I agree. And you brought up an interesting point to where Shaheen believes that Joe is his number one. I would be, I would be curious to get into the mind of Shaheen at this point, because he had a confessional earlier on in the season where

[00:16:47] obviously Joe and Eva had their moment after the challenge. And that was just a moment that obviously transcended the game. And everyone was aware of that. I think that Shaheen is so bright, so intelligent. I'm just listening to him speak. I wouldn't, him and Kyle, I wouldn't want to be in a final tribal against them. I just find it hard to believe that Shaheen deep down doesn't know

[00:17:08] that Joe at least, Eva thinks that Joe is number one and vice versa. So I'd be curious to get inside Shaheen's mind and figure out when is the time to get rid of Joe? Because if I was Shaheen, I would, I don't know that that's a connection that transcends the game. You brought up that connection that transcends the game between Joe and Eva. And when we look back at

[00:17:35] this season, it really does feel like, I think that that was episode five that that ultimately happened. And it was such a big moment. And of course, Jeff cried and everybody talked about it, but it really does feel like that that was an inflection point. And the season, it really does feel like after that, that was a big turning point for things. How do you feel like the Joe and Eva relationship is affecting the status of the game right now? Absolutely.

[00:18:03] Do you look back to that as that, that being the point where things started to really get tight in terms of the fluidity of this game? Absolutely. Because there was a major turning point after that challenge, they all went back to camp and star gave Eva her advantage. And that's just absolutely crazy. I mean, Eva has a lot of power in the game. I mean, we saw her go on the journey

[00:18:29] at the final several and potentially get a knowledge as power advantage, which was absolutely useless because she had the knowledge of the power already. So I do looking back, I think that was absolutely the turning point and where it's affecting the game the most right now is at Ponderosa. Oh, okay. How so? I think everybody at Ponderosa knows that Joe and Eva are so tight and they're getting a little frustrated watching all this go down. And like we were talking about earlier, Kyle and Camilla,

[00:18:58] a lot of people don't know about the Kyle and Camilla connection. So they're watching these people like Shaheen, Mitch, just letting Joe and Eva skate by, which I can understand from a juror's perspective, not only can be frustrating, especially if you have some ill will towards the two, but you're frustrated as a juror because like, why, why is no one else trying to disrupt the power? Yeah. Julian, I want to go back to what you were saying because I think that that,

[00:19:23] so I figure what day it was in the game, but it's ends up being like, it's like day 11, day 12 or whatever. And then it's, it's Bianca's ultimately going to go home that night. But, you know, we have this very public moment, you know, we have sort of like the outing of the Joe and Eva are incredibly close relationship. Everyone finds out about Eva's autism that day. And then also

[00:19:50] that as you brought up, which is such a great point that also star ends up feeling like, okay, I'm going to, you know, Eva comes back from the challenge. She's feeling good star. She's able to solve the immunity idol puzzle for Eva and star says, okay, guess what? I'm giving you the idol. And for star, she felt like, okay, this is going to get me into the Alliance. It did not work out.

[00:20:14] And in one day, really so much of the power ends up being consolidated into the Joe and Eva camp, because then right on the heels of that ends up being mergatory. And I think a lot of people on the heels of that moment, I think, oh, wow, Joe, you know, uh, he was really celebrated. What a great, what a great bond. These are the type of people like we should be surrounding

[00:20:41] ourselves with. And so it really ends up being like the perfect time for the merge to happen too. Yeah, absolutely. And it's, it's hard to say, uh, sorry, I'm drawing a blank, but it's hard to say that Joe was not celebrated in that moment. And from a player's perspective, it's just hard for me

[00:21:06] to gauge how, how can you not look at Joe after that and not recognize how big of a threat he is. And beyond that, it's hard to reckon, not recognize the relationship that they have. So all the power is within those two people. And this is an opinion I have, Rob, I'm not sure if you feel the same way. A lot of people have spoken on this, but Jeff Brooks is great at what he does.

[00:21:30] I, I mean, I'm not the host of survivor, obviously. And I was the first boot on survivor 46. We all know that maybe one day you will be. Yeah, maybe, maybe one day I'll be the host and maybe one day I'll be the last boot of survivor, whatever, but not when anyway, anyway, I don't know. So in this fantasy you have, you, you get very close to, you want to be like the fallen angel. I don't know. I'm still Jolinski. You're like losing in fire. I make a lot of mistakes. Yeah.

[00:22:00] I could be out there for 25 days and not learn how to make fire. That would be a Jolinski mistake. Go ahead. So you were going to say something about the host of survivor. Yeah. I obviously love Jeff. He's a great guy. And I have a great relationship. I think, I don't know. We haven't spoken since the Island, but he's talking about me after. Okay, whatever. Um, I would not have brought so much attention to Joe and Eva in that moment. Why? I just feel like,

[00:22:27] like what we're talking about right now, it's so apparent that these two are such a pair, at least to me that I think if I was out there on the Island, it would absolutely be my number one agenda to break them up. And I mean, we saw this with charity and she got so much backlash at the time, um, speaking on Eva's autism and, you know, feeling like people are not voting her out because of her autism. Now Eva on the other side of that coin, she is not asking people to not vote her out because of her

[00:22:56] autism. In fact, I think Eva would be offended if that were the case. So as a player in that moment, when Jeff Kropes is calling these two players out, there's two sides of it. One is the player who's like, okay, we've got to separate these two. They're so lovable. They're so likable. We've got to get them out. And the other player is like, you know, I don't know if I feel comfortable voting them out. They're two great people. And in fact, I'm kind of working closely with them and my relationship

[00:23:23] might even be better. So two kinds of players there and Joe and Eva in the middle of it, holding a lot of power. Yeah. It must be so difficult for the players who go out there because you have to think about so many different things in terms of just not just trying to win your game, but you also have to think about like what the public perception might be for, you know, for you or against you based on certain moves you make. Absolutely. Yeah. And I'm sure a lot of players think about that. That was one of the things that

[00:23:52] I failed at. I did not think about the public perception. So I was doing very foolish things. I was disrespecting the game. I threw an hourglass. I was breaking props and I deeply regret that. You do? Oh, of course. Yeah. I feel like it was such an iconic moment. You know, I do agree that it was an iconic moment, but the last thing I wanted to do was disrespect the game, you know, and I hope that people didn't take it like that, which I think people did, but I wasn't thinking. I didn't see that from where I sat.

[00:24:21] I appreciate that, Rob. You're the greatest. Well, and that's kind of the thing. I was watching seasons 41, 42, and I was watching these hourglasses break. And inherently, I just saw an hourglass and was, I just felt like it was the rightful thing to do. I saw some people saying on Twitter last night that they wished that they could break the hourglass. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, it's sad not seeing players like Say, Charity, Thomas. I mean,

[00:24:47] all these players. You know, I noticed something last night. I think that there was also a word used to describe Mary. I heard somebody describe Mary as chaotic. This comes on the heels of last week. Star was described as chaotic. And there's always this culture that each season has. And I think it's interesting in this season of stillness, of not making moves. It does feel like

[00:25:16] the worst thing that you can be branded by, by this group is this person is chaotic. That is a great note. And honestly, it's true from these other players' perspectives. They are living in sort of a utopia where nothing is going wrong. They have all of the power. Everyone in their alliance is making all the decisions together. If one person strays from that, you are causing chaos.

[00:25:43] You're chaotic. You've got to go. And Shaheen actually vocalized that great. He said, when everyone came back from the challenge, you know, Shaheen was singing in the hammock. Everyone was just kind of by themselves. And Shaheen had a great confessional where he said, after the challenge camp was bleak. You don't want to talk to the player that is chaotic, has a disease because you might be infected with whatever disease they have and be the chaotic or diseased person that goes home tomorrow.

[00:26:12] Mm-hmm. Yeah. No. And I don't mean to come across as so negative about this season, but I really think that in the new era, I think that this has been certainly my least favorite post-merge game. And it's so funny because it was such an amazing pre-merge. All five of the episodes in the pre-merge were super exciting, very electric, big, crazy things happening in the pre-merge. And I

[00:26:41] raved about the pre-merge, but the stillness of the post-merge in this season, I have found very unenjoyable to watch. And yes, there is something in terms of like keeping a group together, but I think that it has been for me a frustrating experience because I think that there have been other times in survivor history where that has happened. But I think that we have seen more from

[00:27:05] the people that are keeping the status quo in terms of the lengths that they are going to in order to keep their people in line. I don't feel like that from Joe and by proxy Eva, that we really see a lot about their story of all the things they're doing to keep things going right. Instead, I feel like we see very little of what they are doing to keep things going in the right direction for them. We see a lot

[00:27:34] of the other players just telling us why they're not going to change up the status quo, even though it does seem like Joe's going to win. I still don't feel right to make the move at this time. Whereas like, for instance, like go to Redemption Island where Boston and your mileage may vary on how

[00:27:54] much you enjoy Boston Robb. But you saw Boston Robb work his ass off to keep that group in line over 39, forget 26 days. Do you know how much harder it is to do that and get that group to the end to a 39 day game where people are thinking there's the other tribe was constantly trying to get people to come

[00:28:19] over and then also managing from within? Plus, somebody was going to be coming back from Redemption Island. So he had so many balls in the air that he had to deal with. We saw Joe last night find out that one that Mary was going to vote for him. And I thought that we really saw him panic. Oh, absolutely. And I'm actually surprised to see it go down so calmly the way it did. I mean,

[00:28:48] Joe is clearly flustered. And I mean, he was saying all the wrong things to Shaheen. And Shaheen was like kind of baffled. And I hate to say it, it feels like Joe's almost like entitled in a way to not receive votes. It did come across a little entitled. And I'm sure that's not who Joe is in real life, but it was like, whoa, whoa, hold on. Oh, so like, I felt like he kind of said to Shaheen. Tell me if this was how you said it. He's like, well, maybe I'll write your name down

[00:29:12] at tribal council. Absolutely. Absolutely. And especially when we saw Mitch and Kyle with Joe just before, Joe's like, listen, Mary, Mary said that she's writing my name down. I'm going to write somebody else's name down. Well, it's obviously not going to be Mary. It's not going to be Eva. It's not going to be the two he's sitting next to. That leaves one person. So obviously he was

[00:29:35] suggesting voting Shaheen's name now. So I thought that was a hilarious sequence. And Shaheen was totally in the right to be so offended. Like, dude, that's the game. I feel like we see that a lot from Shaheen. Shaheen was like, are you okay? Like, do you know what's going on here? Right, right. I mean, and to what you're saying earlier about what is Joe doing right? The example you just gave is so great. Boston Rob worked his booty off, making sure that everyone in his

[00:30:05] alliance was on the same page and over 39 days. That is unbelievably impressive. And you're right. We're not seeing, we are not seeing, it could be happening, but I don't know if it is. These people work so hard to keep these people in line. In fact, I think if anyone's doing that, it's Shaheen really keeping the herd in the corral and Kyle as well. And, you know, I think that what Joe is

[00:30:30] doing to give credit to Joe, you know, he does have these emotional relationships with the players where that they have had like deeply connected emotionally. And we've seen some of that. I'm sure we've not seen all of it. Also, Joe has an intense stare and an intimidating presence. And I think that that's also leading to why people are feeling like, okay, I can't cross him because

[00:30:56] of that's who he is. And he has a, he's a family man. And I think that he's not an easy person to cross, but it's just not the most interesting gameplay that we could possibly see for it to just go completely unchallenged. Absolutely. Absolutely. And to talk a little bit about the still, the stillness that you were describing and the post merge. Yeah, you're absolutely right. And it's not

[00:31:25] to discredit any of these players games, because if I were out there, you know, if I were to do it all again, I would love to just kind of lay back and make it as far as possible. That's awesome. And then maybe make a move like Marianne did later down in the line. Who wouldn't want that? Who wouldn't love to do that? It's just so hard. I can imagine how these players perspectives of how many layers there are that goes into this and I can empathize with them and to the stillness,

[00:31:53] it kind of just describes the game that Joe and Eva are playing. They're playing a good game. It's just not that fun to watch. Yeah. There's no sort of caginess about any of it. Eva is very straightforward. Here's what I'm doing with my idol. This is my friend. I'm taking Joe at this point in the game. If I get here with him, like they're not hiding anything. It just seems like that the other players are afraid. And I think that when we go back to even a season like big brother 19,

[00:32:22] I know you were a big brother guy first before, before you became a survivor guy. And when you think back to what Paul did and Paul steamrolled through all of big brother 19 for your big brother fans, and before ultimately losing to Josh in the end, uh, when Josh and in a final two, when Josh took Paul to the end, but it was not entry. It was not an interesting ride, but Paul was another person that

[00:32:49] had to work his ass off. And Paul really had basically three different groups thinking that they were in a three person alliance with Paul Boston Rob in go back to him in, uh, redemption Island. He had multiple groups that thought they were going to the end with him. It Boston Rob in survivor all-stars where he didn't win had, you know, they, that him and, uh, Amber had a deal with a big Tom.

[00:33:16] They also had a deal with Rupert and Jenna Lewis and they, and they had to lie and deceive people to get to the end of their respective games. The final four fire making has allowed it that Joe is able to play this game and not have to deceive anybody. And while yes, that that is great for, you know, the, the plays to Joe's strengths of being an honorable person, uh, being a person with

[00:33:43] a lot of integrity that I think that just from a game perspective, that it has made it not necessarily an exciting watch for us who tune in to see an exciting show. Right? No, absolutely. And you're giving great examples. I love the examples that you're giving. Um, I mean, and I think of like, if we're talking about big brother and Tyler Christman, you know, that's, that's the game that you gotta play. That's what big brother and survivor is obviously survivor. That's my heart.

[00:34:11] I don't mean to disparage at all. Of course, of course. But you were a young impressionable kid who found a brother. Someone walks up to you and you're like, Hey, you want to make, we should work together. You want to make an alliance? You don't say no. You never say no. That's how you get voted out. So I mean with Joe and Eva, but imagine if like where, and, and Joe also may have caught a break with Kyle and Shaheen,

[00:34:38] both wanting to take David out where that Joe may have had to ride the, all right, is my real alliance, me, Eva, Kyle and Shaheen, or is my real alliance, me, Joe, David and Mary? Like, I think that that would have been a more interesting end game. And the fact that both Kyle and Shaheen really took the lead, even though Joe ends up being the, the object of David's ire, because

[00:35:07] he went back on his word, according to David, like having to manage two different final fours. I think that would have been a little bit more compelling and challenging. I think to watch Joe have to figure out, man, David was so fun to watch. I'm really sad that he's off of our television screen. What did you think last night when David stood up at tribal council in honor of Mary?

[00:35:33] I absolutely loved it. That was one of the highlights, if not maybe the highlight of the season. I saw a tweet from Jay Gocaine. So funny. He goes, you know, David standing up at the end of tribal council is something that survivor Twitter is so confused about and realizes how funny it is. But my mom is going to call me tomorrow morning and say how great of a guy David is and how he respects or how she respects David so much. Cause it's so nice seeing him show Mary and her flowers,

[00:36:02] but it was not only hilarious, but it was almost uncomfortable. I would have loved to have seen a full shot of the entire jury and the entire players and Jeff just watching David in that moment. It was just so hilarious. Yeah. And it really got a huge musical score in the episode, but what do you think it must've been like to have been there in the real time with no music and Dave?

[00:36:26] Oh my God. It had to have been so, so awkward. And I mean, I was looking at star in the background. That's exact. I'm not good with awkward tension. Like I'm fine with voting somebody out and it's whatever. I'll keep my head down. But being behind David, just watching him stand, he stood like John Cena almost like with his arms like this. Yeah. Yeah. Like a Dr. Thugonomics, almost the backwards hat, man. It was just, you couldn't make it. It was too good to be true.

[00:36:53] David had a bit of a heel turn, right? This spring. Like he came in and he was a little bit of like a fan favorite. Hey, drink your milk kids. I like nodding Hill. Absolutely. He did have a heel turn and it was so great. He's such a complex character. I love to watch that. But Rob, you made a great point just a bit earlier that I want to circle back to about the fire making challenge and having Joe potentially win that fire making challenge, which is ironic

[00:37:21] because he's a firefighter. But I am such an advocate of the fire making challenge because I feel like we did you vote for it for survivor 50? Rob, I haven't voted a single time for survivor 50. I love the idea. I just, I don't know, man, I can't get behind it because I've got a lot of survivor ideas, but I'm also not a producer. So they might not be the greatest ideas. Yeah. But why won't you vote for any of the ideas? It's a lot of work, man. And you know,

[00:37:50] I just want to sit around the shelter, man. Like I don't want to pull my phone out, scan the QR code. That takes a lot of effort, man. And then I got to think about my decisions. Okay. Well, make your case for why do you like the final four fire making? Okay. I love final four fire making because of the antithesis. I do not like watching a straightforward vote, which nine times out of 10, it will be. I mean, just off at the top of my head,

[00:38:15] thinking about a final three scenario where it was about final three just comes to my head when Tony was able to convince Wu to take him. That was awesome. That was an awesome vote. We don't, I feel like we do not see a lot of that. So fire making, that's the only time we've had a final two really is that in the last final two before that, I think was token genes.

[00:38:39] Yeah. And it's crazy because I mean that ironically 28 is 20 seasons ago. Yeah. And so token genes was 30 seasons ago. So do you think that final two, do you think that we end up only in seasons with eights of a final two? I mean, wow. What, what a curve ball that would be is to find out. Did we just discover something? Well, I'm sorry. I feel like we just discovered something. Well, now I'm thinking back 38 wasn't.

[00:39:07] No, 38 was somebody came back from the edge of extinction and won. So yeah, yeah, absolutely. And that was, I mean, I'm a Devin's fan, so I won't get into that, but that was also a fun watch. So you feel like that the final four vote would be too straightforward if there wasn't final four fire making? Yeah, absolutely. And especially with this group, this group, whoever's sitting there,

[00:39:29] like if it's, if it's Kyle, Camilla, no, actually, let's play that out. I mean, if, if it was Joe, I mean, I guess it could be potentially very bad for Kyle. If it ends up being going to the final four of Joe, Eva, Shaheen, Kyle, I think Kyle is the odd man out there at final four. I agree with you. And looking at that final three, I do think Shaheen would have a great chance to win

[00:39:58] that if he vocalizes it correctly, which I think he would considering Kyle and Camilla being on the jury, because I'm sure they would advocate for a player like that in Ponderosa. So it comes back to this jury and how important the jury is. And this group of individuals specifically, I want to get inside their minds. I mean, who is Cedric voting for to win this game? That's what I want to know. I think he'd vote for Kyle if Kyle was there, but I don't know. I don't think he's really had a

[00:40:25] relationship with Joe or Eva. Uh, I mean, he got voted out with Shaheen that time, but he really doesn't know those guys. Right. He doesn't know. He doesn't know. Let's think about another final four scenario. What about Joe, Eva, Kyle and Shaheen? What about that group? Or no, Camilla and Kyle. That's the two duos. Yeah. So I think that, uh, chances are, I think that Joe or Eva would win

[00:40:51] immunity. I think that then they would take the other ones at the final two. And then I think we're set for a Kyle versus Camilla fire making, which I'm sure would be a very emotional moment in the, in the season. But I think that ends up being, we saw in the episode last night, I think that that was prophecy that for, for Camilla to say to Kyle, one of us has to make

[00:41:16] the final three. I do think one of the two of them will make the final three, but I think that it will be in a losing effort. And I think that the other one will go out at fire. That is my prediction. Absolutely. And that is so well said. And I agree with you. I was telling my girlfriend about this. It's hard way to soft launch the girlfriend. Oh man. I mean, we keep it private, but she, she's the greatest. She's one of the greatest of all time to do it. Let me tell you how we met real

[00:41:45] quick, Rob. So we met four years ago now on hinge and she didn't like any of my pictures, which is kind of crazy because yeah, they're basically the survivor Rizzler. Yeah. The Rizzler, but she likes my prompt that said I geeked out over survivor. So she likes that swiped up and said, let's watch survivor in all caps. Yeah. So I was telling, I was telling my lovely

[00:42:11] girlfriend, Kaylee, um, it's hard to see a world where one of Joe or Eva and one of Kyle or Camilla are not in the final three. Like it's very hard for me to imagine that world. So I think what you're saying is right. And especially going back to when they were old Siva or what was the tribe? Siva Vula, old Vula, when they established that for some connection, that was such an important

[00:42:38] moment that I feel like viewers could understand and sort of imagine in the future, how important that that relationship is going to be. And I truly see a world where three, at least three of those people are in the final four. Let me give you my theory of where I think this is going. I'd love to get your reaction to that. I do think that there is a big move coming in this season. I think that

[00:43:06] we've been waiting. We've been, I don't know if we've been patient, but we have been waiting. Uh, I think that the move that gets made, I think that Kyle and Camilla target Shaheen in the next episode. I think that ultimately, and maybe they get Joe and Eva to turn on Shaheen at the final six. And I think that we do end up with a final four of Joe and Eva and Kyle and Camilla. And I think

[00:43:33] that there is some beauty and some poetry in that, in that Jeff called this a season of partnerships at the start of the season. It's a season of duos and to have the most public duo and the most private duo, make it to the final four that I do think that that is, you know, something that is, you know, you could get romantic about. I think that that's ultimately the final four. And I do think that it

[00:43:59] ends in a Kyle versus Camilla fire making. Ultimately, I, this is my prediction. I think Kyle will win and then Joe wins in the final tribal council. Wow. Uh, so, I mean, I, that's a plausible theory and I can see the world where the final four is the two duos. I think that's poetic. I think it makes sense, especially considering what Jeff said at the start of the season. Now I would be so upset to

[00:44:25] watch Shaheen go at six, but looking at like the meta, you know, looking at like outside of the game, people recognize that Shaheen is a threat. If he gets to final three, I could, I mean, he's in debate. He's so eloquent, so charismatic too. He has such a charisma. I knew this before he even played the game. Yes. Because you went to Fiji with beard guy. That's exactly right. SD. And we all knew it,

[00:44:51] my entire cast, he had this thing called aura, Rob. He was radiating aura. He was like, he was another level of cool. So we just knew he was going to be a problem. And when I say problem, I mean a threat to win the game. Okay. So what was your read on Shaheen when you saw him at Ponderosa? Well, I could actually gauge, I potentially thought that I didn't think he was the alternate just by his

[00:45:19] look. I thought he looked so cool. He was too cool to be an alternate, but his behavior was crazy. Like he was trying to get all of us to talk. He would be walking around when he wasn't supposed to, he, you could watch him talking to other people, which he was the bad boy of Ponderosa. Yeah. He was the bad boy. So I was thinking to myself, I was like, why would this guy be breaking all these rules? I actually found it. I don't know. I was intimidated. So that was kind

[00:45:45] of my, my scouting report thinking that he was going to be in the game. I was like, he is someone to watch out for. He's going to go balls to the wall. He doesn't care what happens to him, but he's honestly one of those people that has so much aura that he could kind of move the way he wants and nothing would happen to him. Like people would be scared to vote him out. So seeing him on this season though, and of course, like getting to know him, he is such a caring guy. He's a great guy. And I think he's done really, really well at taking

[00:46:12] a backseat position. Now it sucks that he, when I say, and when I say backseat, I mean, uh, being the backseat to a duo that we're observing Joe and Eva, um, it's really unfortunate that he's out on the Island with a duo like Kyle and Camilla. Cause I really, really think there's so, so thoughtful and strategic in their moves that I can see a world where Shaheen goes next.

[00:46:37] I completely agree with you. I'm just curious about what a Mitch does and this, and all of this. What do you think? I think he's going to wait to strike. I think he's going to wait to strike his move. I think he's going to be waiting to strike. And I think the bus is going to leave without him. Yeah. Yeah. I think this is what I think for Mitch is that if they do make this move against Shaheen, I think that Mitch is going to be sitting there at five. Great. This is perfect. I'm at five

[00:47:06] with two duos and he's going to be like, all right guys, let's make a move. And I think they're going to say to him, nah, I don't think so. No, no, no, no move for you, Mitch. And he's going to say, this is crazy. You're too, you're going to go to the final four with each other. Man. So on the record, Mitch is my favorite, uh, my girlfriend's favorite player and Mitch has been

[00:47:32] so fun to watch. He's been really, really great, especially in the pre-merge of this season. I feel, um, two things, Ron here. I feel like Shaheen would be the person to try to really get close to Mitch in this next episode. I mean, and we saw a little bit of preview saying something's stirring in the pot. Yeah. I think it very well, I think it has something to do with Kyle and Camilla, but I could see another world where it's Shaheen getting close to Mitch.

[00:48:00] Sure. But where is he going with Mitch that I think that the boss might've left for Shaheen also in terms of making the move because that if he even, okay. So, okay. Shaheen has Mitch. What is he going to do? He's going to get Joe and Eva to vote out Kyle or Camilla. No, I think Shaheen, maybe I have too much faith in Shaheen, but I think Shaheen would want to make a

[00:48:25] move against Eva and Joe. That's, that's what I think. I could be totally wrong. I think he wants to go to the end with them. It would be so foolish. And I hope that he knows that. And I think that he recognizes that. I really, really do. Um, I think he is better, better versed to go to an end with a Kyle and Camilla and have Joe and Eva on the jury. Cause I think that they, you know, loyalty, integrity. I do believe that

[00:48:53] the relationship that they've bonded and created. I think that it's enough for them to vote for them. And, you know, just looking at getting to the end, I really truly feel like Shaheen's best chance would be taking out those that he's closest to. I think that Shaheen might have been able to do, and look, he's in the final six and maybe headed to the final three. I wonder if in a fluid season

[00:49:21] like survivor 46, that maybe that might've been the place for him to really operate. Because I think that he had a really good instinct at times of like, okay, say he's at the bottom. I'm going to talk to her. Mary's at the bottom. I'm going to talk to her. Mitch is at the bottom. He seemed like he had people who would have made a flip with him. It just wasn't a very flippy season.

[00:49:47] Yeah, I agree. That's well said. I mean, 46 in my humble opinion was the best new era cast. And honestly, one of the best casts of all times in terms of characters, everyone had their own agenda out there. Very few strategists, fun to watch. And like you said, I think Shaheen would have thrived on 46 and I don't know who he would have replaced on Yonu. Maybe it would have been me, but I would

[00:50:11] have loved working with him out there. Can I tell you something? Please. 46 for me has been from, from where I sit my favorite season in the new era. Wow. Because it was just so wild the whole way

[00:50:33] through. We always had so much to talk about both on and off. Your cast was not Kumbaya. And look, I love it for the players who all like, you know, have these, these great relationships, but your cast was not that. And for people who love to, you know, nerd out about what's happening

[00:50:56] on Survivor. It was a very, very, and no shade to the other casts who also, you know, had these like really great, fun relationships. But I think that both on and off of the television, 46, I feel like was, uh, you know, I'll say that, but you, I will say, let me give you now, uh, the five,

[00:51:20] five big dooms. Uh, yeah, it took a while to get there that those that, you know, after you went home. Okay. You could be like, say like, uh, yeah, the ratings, I think went down for a couple of weeks. Yeah, man. Yeah. I, that's such high praise coming from you, Rob. I mean, you're, you're the expert. I mean, you, you want to survive. It was really, really fun. Yeah. Thank you. And I feel like, if you could take the pre-merge of this season, uh, and you know, with the present company excluded,

[00:51:49] take the pre-merge of this season and take the post-merge of your season. Yeah, absolutely. And I think our pre-merge, I can't even say that looking back, obviously the whole Yannou tribe. And I feel, I hope I'm not like some pompous douchebag saying this, but I truly believe that Yannou is, if not the best tribe of all time, I mean, a hundred percent, the best tribe in the new era. I mean, all of the characters on there, all the story. I guess the fun best,

[00:52:15] because it wasn't really a winning tribe. Yeah. Well said. I mean, we did have the winner. Did have the winner. Yes. We did have the winner. We also had five other losers, uh, two big ones, uh, myself and my boy Bono. But, um, when I say the best, I mean, most entertaining. I mean, we were always, always up to something. And especially throughout the course of the season, I mean, everything that we provided, it was just so much fun. Um, I'm glad that I was,

[00:52:44] I was able to be a part of that for a small time, but I mean, I just saw on Reddit, you know, someone posting, um, 46, give them their flowers. Like we didn't appreciate how, how awesome these people were when we had them. And like you're saying this, uh, this pre-merge for 48 was very, very strong. I agree with that. The post-merge for 46 was an all timer. It was fantastic, especially towards the end, watching all these people go out with idols, seeing, uh, people that

[00:53:09] are like this thing and duo turn on each other. Just, just great. You can't make it up. And anyway, long story short, our pre-merge might not have been the best. I do think I'm a Bono fan though. He brought so much to the show. He's so memable. He's such a great person. So funny. I remember being out there. Have you checked in with Bono? I have man. Bono is one of the greatest people to ever walk the earth. I remember when we first

[00:53:38] got on the shuttle bus to go to the hotel, to check in, Hey, we're about to play survivor. It's me, Kenzie, Venus and Bono. So we're all on the same bus. I'm just checking everybody out. I realized, well, this isn't really relevant to the story, but I'm looking at Bono. This man has the longest fingers I have ever seen in my life. Whoa. He, his, his fingers, his middle finger might be like several inches long. Wow. Do you know how big seven inches is?

[00:54:06] Wait, wait, okay. Hold on. Let me go back to how Bono's doing. Bono's great. Um, he's doing, you know, away from survivor now, uh, just enjoying his life, focusing on himself. And I'll never forget being out there on the beach. Bono wanted to wear his shirt inside out because I don't know if you remember this, Rob, but, um, his shirt said, be kind. And I'll never forget during the persistence puzzle. Um, that I was not there for Bono wasn't really the kindness. He was shouting at my home

[00:54:35] girl, Jess. Yes. Yes. I recall. Yeah. Get it together, Jess, but he wanted to wear his be kind shirt inside out because he wanted kindness to hit his heart. So that is how Bono is doing. Bono is great. He's still spreading smiles and winning a million hearts. Yeah. Okay. Let me ask you about the journey from last night's episode. And we saw that everybody had to pick a rock, uh,

[00:55:04] to go on the journey because nobody could decide. Remind me again, you went on the journey. How did you end up being the person to go on the journey? Yeah. Um, I sort of spearheaded, um, myself to go on and I told everybody on my tribe that they weren't allowed to go. Yeah. That I'm doing it. Okay. Do you feel like that in hindsight, that was a mistake? That was a big, big mistake. Yeah.

[00:55:28] And my boy Q is on record telling me that, you know, the sweat task wasn't even what really did me in. It was being so, so insistent on going on the journey. And from my mistake, you shouldn't have done that. I love him too. He's too funny. But, um, he, he told me that he was so put off by me being so insistent on going on the journey. That's what really sealed my faith. And, but from my perspective,

[00:55:58] I wanted just someone in our core for me, Tiff, Kinsey or Q to have the advantage looking back. I was fine with any of them three going. I shouldn't have been so insistent about it, but you know, none of them were speaking up either. I, so I was like, let me go. So one person spoke up out on, um, Nui Nua beach or whatever the hell the tribe is called. And, uh, all of a sudden, you know what? I want to go on the journey. You know, I know I want to go on the journey too.

[00:56:26] So I wish I kind of had some of that. Yeah. And in this season, the journeys really hurt the players who all went on them. Did you think that the players who go play survivor 49 are going to be very willing to go on journeys if they have the opportunity to do so? No. And I think that it took a little too long to learn. I think journeys will hurt you more than it will help you, especially if

[00:56:51] you're in an average or good position and your tribe, you do not need to go on a journey, especially in the new era of survivor. From my opinion, now advantages will fall on your lap. You don't need to go out and get an advantage. You will have an opportunity. It's going to come to you. It's going to be in your bowl of popcorn. It's going to be in your burger. You're going to buy it. Eva maybe, but not for anybody else. I've actually been very surprised with the lack of

[00:57:17] advantages and idols that have been in the post merge game. Yeah, I agree with this season, but I mean, we saw it with like Rachel Lamont, you know, the, the whatever clue was in her popcorn. So I'm just under the impression that an advantage will come your way. Like you don't need to seek it out at least because that'll hurt you more than it helps you. So we saw where Eva was one of the people puts her hand into the bag, ends up getting the purple

[00:57:42] rock. And she goes to go and go on this competition to go and stack up these tiles. It's just to spin the thing with her feet. And it just, to me that this ended up being so anticlimactic. And I heard Jeff on the on fire podcast and he talked about like, they felt like, okay, they built this really cool challenge, but it just so happened that the person, there was like no stakes for Eva to like,

[00:58:09] had anybody else had the chance to go do it. They're going really to go for it, to go after knowledge is power. But because it's Eva, she's like, well, I'll just do my four things. And then that's it. I'll just hang out. Right. And I'm sure that production hated that, that she ended up being the one who not even pulled the rock. She was just left with it. Yeah. You know what? I gotta be honest also with all due respect to Eva, peace and love to the great Eva. Uh, this was even a tease that

[00:58:38] Eva was going to go for the advantage in this season of teases where it was like, oh, okay. I've got the thing. Woo. I got my vote, but knowledge is power is right there. I'm going for it. I'm like, all right, yeah, let's go. You know what? I decided not to, it was, it was the same thing with the vote every week. Right. I mean, Rob, and this is kind of what frustrated me, man. So we saw Eva gain her

[00:59:04] vote back. Cool. And I listened to the on fire podcast as well. I heard Jeff say, you know, I'm not really a fan of it. He ended up liking it, but then he mentioned that challenge itself. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The challenge itself. Yeah. Sorry. Um, they ended up testing it, finding the sweet spot of where the threshold would be for getting the knowledge is power. Now I, I personally thought it was a lot like going for four more stats. Let me guess. You thought maybe one too many was eight.

[00:59:30] I thought one too many. That's exactly what I thought. So also something I didn't like, which I actually feel like would be great from a production perspective. Maybe I could help out a little here. Um, being a gambler and even made a post on Instagram about this, you know, she's the gambler. She needs to test out her luck in Vegas. Um, we're playing her Oilers tonight, by the way, VGK. How is she the gambler? Because she got the purple rock. She will not even that she decided

[00:59:58] to, well, we saw her be risky and go get the advantage. Um, off in the night. We saw that she took a risk. She gambled. Now we saw her how much of a risk that was to go get the advantage. Like I can't imagine the survivor plays like, okay, I found this secret advantage, but too risky. I can't sneak out of the camp at night. Right. I agree. But now being, this is what I didn't like about

[01:00:22] this, uh, advantage potentially to earn. I feel like it's unfair to start on the next stack and then be like, you know what? I feel like I can't get a little too greedy. Yeah. That's not right. Cause I feel like if I wish that I could go back and once I drew the skull card, you know what? I don't really want to even take part in this journey anymore. I want to leave.

[01:00:49] Yeah. I'm just going to use my safety without power and go back home, go back to camp. Yeah. Um, so I feel like once she got going on that fifth stack, she had to keep going and that would have made it a lot more interesting too. Did you want to see her break the hourglass also before it ran out? Yeah. You know what? I feel like, um, I feel like I saw that, but then it kind of went off screen really quickly just because they saw the, the Jolinski backlash and I don't know, those hourglasses. I need one tattooed on me. I really do.

[01:01:19] You get an hourglass tattoo. Absolutely. Maybe a shattered one. I was thinking there's a great shot of it after I throw it and it's just broken on the beach. And when I did it, I didn't even think about all the glass they had to clean up. I still feel so bad about that. I need to do some community service to help out. To you, the broken hourglass tattoo. What does the broken hourglass signify for you?

[01:01:44] Oh, it signifies several different things. Um, it signifies quitting. It signifies change. It signifies a sad, sad journey. I'll tell you another tattoo I wanted to get. Um, I wanted to get a QR code of an article of Jeff talking about my failures and how disappointed he was in

[01:02:08] me. Hold on. You won't even scan a QR code to vote for fricking survivor 50. You're going to get a QR code tattoo that you can scan all the time. Yeah. I was thinking about it just to, it's ironic now that I, that I had said that, but I wanted to scan that whenever I'm feeling bad about myself and I'm getting in the gym, getting ripped. And then I'm thinking, what is this all for? Then I scanned the QR code to see, um, man, you know, I liked Jelinski seeing how he played out there was a

[01:02:37] disappointment. And that would inspire you to stay, keep going to the gym that Jeff was disappointed. Yes. But on the other side of that token, man, like we were saying, pulling out the phone, scanning the camera, that's a lot of work. Once I get jacked, man, the QR code might not even be readable. It might not be. Should you wait until you're totally jacked to get the QR code tattoo?

[01:03:05] You know, as I'm getting older in life, I'm starting to realize I'm more of a Tyson, uh, but I just lacked taking responsibility. So what I will say is, um, I will not be getting jacked. Oh. And I admit that. Um, so I guess I could get the QR code tattoo now because my body's not changing. I might get a little, a little bit fatter if anything. I mean, look that, you know, time comes

[01:03:33] for all of us, Jelinski. Now you were telling me yesterday when we were talking about this podcast that you were saying that you are already jacked and you were maybe going to do the podcast with no shirt on because you were so jacked. Yeah, man. Um, that was actually the first plan, but you know, like survivor, you have to be adaptable. Like sounding like a survivor 48 of like, Oh, here's the big move I'm going to make. But you know what?

[01:03:56] On second thought. Nah, I don't think so. Listen, Rob, listen, Rob, the big move will be made before the podcast is over. That's fine. You don't need to take your shirt off. I did not. I've never called a guest and said, like, Hey, uh, when you do the podcast, can you do it? Well, only on listen that I saved that for when I'm playing survivor. Okay. Right. I never ask any of

[01:04:21] the guests to take their top off. You brought that up. Hey man, what can I say? Being on the RHCP podcast, especially just talking about an episode recap, I got a little excited, man. I got a little ahead of myself. That's okay. That's okay. I don't want to put any pressure on you. I do want to go back just to the hourglass tattoo. Cause I do think that it's so interesting of that. Uh, you want to, uh, cause I feel like that most people, and I don't have any tattoos, but I think about it

[01:04:49] sometimes that they want to do something that reminds them of something positive. You feel like that you've mentioned a few different things that are negative that happened to you. And that's what you want to get as the tattoo. Well, I feel like there's something I love about the RHCP patrons. You know, I feel like out of all survivor fans, they know the most about me. You know, they listen to my pregame interviews. They listen to my post game interviews. And I feel like they at least know who I am, what my story is. And I can appreciate that. And something that I want to commemorate,

[01:05:19] in my life is just recognizing all the things that went bad, the negativity, because that's important. You know, that's what you got to do for self-improvement and betterment. So that's kind of why I want the hourglass tattoo. I'm really thinking about it, but Rob, what I hate about myself, guys, listen, I'm not, Jolinski's not perfect. And Jolinski also does not talk to the third person in his real life. But what I hate about myself is that I'm a walking contradiction

[01:05:46] because I say that I, you know, obviously I have tattoos. I want to get the hourglass tattooed, but I hate my tattoos. What am I doing, man? Well, you know, I know some of your backstory from when you went through Survivor 46 and you spoke with Mike Bloom. And, you know, I know some of the things that you've been through that I just feel like that the broken hourglass almost seems like that of all the things that

[01:06:14] you've overcome seems almost trivial. I know. And you're totally right. To go back to Eva's journey, like I was, you can't unspin a slot machine. Once you put your money in, you've lost, you've lost your money. That's right. That's a good point. So, um, you know, and I don't know, like what am I supposed to get tattooed from my

[01:06:37] early childhood? Like the FBI season, all of my family's assets, my, my grandma kind of being, I don't know. It's, uh, yeah. Well, what are the tattoos that you have? I have a lot, man. So I've got an entire sleeve, uh, going from my chest to my lower arm. Yeah. And the reason I will not tattoo any more than that is because I have two massive scars scars on the, uh, front of my arm and the back of my arm.

[01:07:07] What's that from? When I, I broke it when I was a child, um, when I was in kindergarten. So I learned to write with my left hand. Did I continue that? No. Now I write with my right hand. But, um, anyways, I also have this scorpion tattoo right here. Why? I'm a Scorpio. And also, um, I got stung by a scorpion. I've been stung by a scorpion three times, all in my bed. They're, they love palm trees. Yeah. They love palm trees and the neighborhood I lived in, um,

[01:07:35] just probably like for eight years, uh, the past eight years had a lot of palm trees. So they always found their way in my bed. The first time I got stung was in my neck. The second time I got stung was right here. And that's where the stinger is on my elbow. And the third time I got stung was on my ankle. Yeah. So yeah, I've been stung three times. This is my mom's birthday. And then I also have,

[01:07:59] a tattoo on my, uh, thigh. It's a good news tattoo. It's a newspaper that says good news and, uh, memorial of Mac Miller. It was one of my favorite artists. Yeah. Okay. But, but you don't like them. You don't like the tattoos. I like the good news one. Yeah. Not even my mom's birthday. I just want to redo it all. You know, if I could go back, maybe, uh, maybe I would not get any tattoos and just get

[01:08:25] ripped instead. You could do both. I guess I could do both. I could do both. But I, uh, I don't have any tattoos, but the, you know, I feel like that, uh, the more, the older I get, I think more about it, about how, because I constantly, I write a ton of notes to myself and I have notes to myself everywhere, cards all over the place of different notes. I'm trying to

[01:08:52] things I'm trying to remind myself of. And I do feel like that if I found the perfect thing that I feel like what better than to get the tattoo. Right. Well, and have you thought, first of all, I love that about you. Have you thought of anything that more than once, maybe several different times that you're like, you know what, if that's the tattoo, I'm going to get that. You know what? I think that the problem is that I wouldn't want to just

[01:09:19] get words. And I think that all of my, you know, things that I'm trying to remember are words. I think I need like the, I am not doing a verbal rebus puzzle either. Okay. So I think that I have to find like the, what, what is the symbol of the thing that I'm trying to remember? Rob, it might, it might be a microphone or a bell. Yeah. I think that's a little basic. I'm not

[01:09:46] sure if a microphone necessarily reads so great as a tattoo. Yeah. Fair. Well, you know what, Rob, do you care to go on a journey with me? Um, like what, in what way do you care to potentially gain an advantage or lose your vote? Okay. Um, let's go on the journey. All right. That's great. Rob, let's, let's make a bet. How about if I am not the first person voted out of a survivor

[01:10:14] season in the future, if I've ever played again, you have to get a tattoo. Okay. Uh, I get to decide what it is. You want, I, I, what's in it for me that I get to see you lose on survivor. Maybe like, I'm not going back and never played survivor. Yeah. And if I, if I pull up Francesca, my homage to her, she's the greatest. Yes. You're good to decide any tattoo that I get.

[01:10:42] Yeah. Not good enough. No, not that exciting for me. I gotta be honest. Uh, like I'm, I'm open to the tattoo, but, uh, you know, with all due respect and you know, I'm a big fan of yours that, uh, I don't want you to pick my tattoo. Oh, Hey, I respect that. I was, I was feeling a little lucky. I wanted to see what I could do about that. Maybe next time, maybe next time. Like, uh, maybe I, I, you had me at like, okay, if you go and come back and don't give it

[01:11:07] up first, I'll get one, but I don't know about you get to pick what it is. Okay. All right. Well, let's change it. Let's change it. How about you just get one right here, right on my face tattoo above the eyebrow tattoo. Okay. That's tasteful. It is. It is. We can't damage that beautiful face. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. Okay. Let's all I'm reading.

[01:11:33] Let me bring in, uh, some questions from the listeners. Okay. All right. This is from North who says who gets the Jelinski award for the biggest legend of the season. Jelinski is a legend. Wow. Wow. I love it. Um, so many, so many to choose from. Can I give two? Okay. I'll give one to the

[01:12:01] pre-merge and one to the post-merge. Okay. The biggest pre-merge legend is Thomas. He gave us everything that we wanted. And I'm, I know we're craving to have him back on our screens. Yeah. The biggest post-merge. Notice I'm saying merge legend is say, say, say legend. She brought so

[01:12:27] much to the show. So fun to watch. And maybe I'm a little biased because that's the kind of player that I was out there, but she was so much fun to watch. Yeah. What was it about her that you thought was so fun? I love that she always had her own agenda and she played survivor to the best way that say would win survivor or at least everything that she wanted. She marched to the beat of her

[01:12:53] own drum. She didn't take, she didn't take any crud from anybody. And that's just so satisfying to watch. What about from you? If we would have seen you go further into the game, is there a player from the new era that you feel like that the end product would have looked maybe not exactly the same, but similar to? Yeah, absolutely. There's a, there's a couple. Uh, the first one is Andy. Oh, Andy. Um,

[01:13:19] you know, and I'm a big believer and you need time out there. You need time. And luckily for Andy, I feel like he was on a tribe not to say that. Okay. So there's two things. I don't think Andy did as much as I did in the first three days, uh, to get him voted out. And two, I think that there were some, uh, overly strategic minds on Andy's tribe that recognized, okay, Andy is a person that we

[01:13:47] could bring in. He had not a great first few days, but that's the one I want to keep around and someone who I can really build trust with. If I had someone like that on my tribe, it could have turned out very similar. Um, and the second person I believe that I could have emulated was Charlie Davis. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Um, why am I saying that just because I'm hopeful? Um, would I have actually done

[01:14:14] that? Maybe not. Uh, Charlie is a great strategist and I feel like it's hard to make claims without proving them. Yeah. Charlie though, that you feel like would have been similar. Like I could see Andy a little bit more. I think I would have been similar to Charlie. Once I got my feet settled, I'm more, see, I'm making all these claims, but it might not even necessarily be true. Cause we saw Jelinski out there for three days. That was wild. But the claim I'm about to make is if I was out there

[01:14:42] for just a few days longer, able to get my feet in the sand, we would have seen how crazy Q was. We would have seen how crazy Bono was. I just needed some time. And I think I would have been so cool, calm and collected. And that's what Charlie was really great at. He was always cool, calm and collected. I feel like I could have emulated that. I want to go back to, uh, your season and Charlie and, uh, the final tribal council. And I do wonder if that this is again,

[01:15:11] the last thing that the people saw in this season was that people saw, okay, if you maybe burn somebody you're close with, you don't get their vote at the end of the game. Do you think, is it possible that the specter of the fallout of Charlie and Maria is looming over survivor 48 where people

[01:15:35] are feeling like, Hey, Joe is my guy. If I burn Joe, I'm not going to get his jury vote. I'm not going to win. The jury's not going to like that. Do you think that this is a little bit of a survivor 46 hangover, considering that they watched the survivor 46 finale late may, 2024, they went out to go play probably within like maybe seven to 14 days of that. It may be shorter.

[01:16:03] I think there is a little bit of hangover in that. Absolutely. And I mean, that was the biggest story from the finale. People were shocked by that. And looking at someone like Joe, who I think that that was just his personality in the first place, seeing that happen with Charlie and Maria. And now in comparison to like him and Eva, for example, it is hard to disagree with that.

[01:16:29] I think Joe recognizes that. I think that if someone burns Joe or vice versa, it could potentially lose a jury vote. I think I see it more so even with Kyle and Camilla. Like that's almost like, let's just, let's just do it in the gender situation that they were in. Say Kyle ends up surpassing Camilla and Camilla is hurt by that. I don't see a world where Camilla doesn't vote for

[01:16:59] Kyle. So I don't know. I think that was just such a strange situation. And with this season, more so we've seen the theme of these duos, I would argue that we didn't see Maria and Charles, uncle Charlie that close. I don't think we saw that, that close of relationships. They told us, I think more than we saw it. Right. Right. And you know, being out there, I heard of this relationship,

[01:17:24] but what I'm seeing more so in 48 and what I'm being told is these, these duos exist. Yeah. So I will walk back what I said about them leaving so close to the survivor 46 finale. It looks like that they didn't film survivor 48 until June 27th of 2024. When did you all play survivor 46?

[01:17:45] Wow. This is crazy because it was such a long time ago. We flew out in May of 2023. Right. So yeah. I like, uh, I don't know why necessarily, I don't know if there was some other reason why, uh, they, well, I guess they filmed survivor for maybe they, they, they filmed a little bit later. Cause I think that they filmed survivor 47. Cause I remember when Asia left, uh, that was

[01:18:11] right around the time when, uh, we were in Chicago for the live show. So it was around a year ago now. And so I guess they have a couple of weeks in between. So yeah, I guess that, yeah. And, and Asia was playing survivor when the survivor 47 trailer came on. So I guess it wasn't exactly so close to the end, but that was the last thing they saw at least. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. And I mean, that was, that was so crazy when Asia popped up on the screen.

[01:18:38] I remember being at the Bryce and when finale in New York and we all like lost our minds. Yeah. All right. It was an exciting time for sure. Okay. Sarah asks Jelinski, how was the Vegas watch party? I wanted to go, but I had a conflict. Oh man, Sarah, I wish we could have had you. It was so much fun. Tell me what was the Vegas watch party?

[01:19:03] Yeah. So, um, I threw like an impromptu, um, watch party is something I've always wanted to do, especially being in Vegas. There are never any watch parties out here, which is crazy to me because Vegas is such a destination city. I mean, I would argue it's more of a destination city than like some of these other popular cities that it's a destination city, you know, people love to come to Vegas anyway, long story short, there's no like Vegas survivor alumni. So it's really,

[01:19:30] really hard part of the problem. Yeah. It's such a problem. It's really hard, like getting these people to come. So I was working really hard to try to make sure that the watch party, uh, was great grand. Uh, we had Sammy from 43 and we had Rome from 47. So, and they both made drives from different States. So I really, really appreciate them doing that. Uh, the watch party was so great, Sarah. And I hope that you're able to come to the next one. Uh, there will be a next one. The whole reason I had the watch party though, was, um,

[01:19:58] I'm competing in live to give this summer, which I'm sure, you know, what live to give is Rob, but for those who don't know, it's basically a survivor inspired game, but you compete for a charity. So I'm doing that, um, mid July. I'm really, really excited about it. The charity I'm competing for is serving our kids. Um, it's a local organization. And what they do is, um, it's kind of like three square. They focus on weekend meal bags though, for students in the school district who don't have food during the weekends, opposed to the week when they're in school.

[01:20:26] So we do a lot of volunteer work with them and a thousand dollars to them. It is such like a, a huge donation compared to like a three square. So that's kind of why I wanted to do it for them. Um, I'm hoping to raise a lot of money. Yeah. If you guys want to donate, I got a link in my bio. Now on the live to give it now, are you playing the survivor season? I am. I am. Is it in person? Yeah, it's in person. It's going to be in Minnesota three days long.

[01:20:53] I think we start July 17th. I'm really bad about dates and whatnot. So I really got to write this down somewhere. So now are there other returning players or other survivor alumni who are going to be playing in this, uh, LRG? So a lot of survivor alumni have done it in the past. Um, I mean, I know Elaine has done it. Um, I know Jack Atkins has done it. Circle alumni. There's a lot of people

[01:21:18] who've done it. Um, but no, I'm going to be the only one. Uh, okay. Well, can you tell me, talk me through how you're going to play? Are you worried about putting your strategy out there? No, no, I don't mind. Um, I mean, I'm just going to go out there and try to be more myself this time and enjoy the experience. Not to say that I wasn't myself on survivor 46, but I really forgot that I was out there with 17 other people. Yeah. Do you think it'd be a target

[01:21:44] though as such a, like one of a kind that they're all a civilian normies and you are a beloved survivor alumni? No, no. Um, in fact, I think it'll, it'll help me because you know, I didn't play great the first time around. So I think if people were smart, they would want to use me. Um, and don't worry, Rob, I'm actually going by, um, a pseudonym out there. So I'm not going to be Jelinski.

[01:22:11] What are you going to be? I'm going to be DJ DJ. Okay. Do you think they'll recognize me, Rob? I think people will. We'll see. We'll see. But I kind of even going back, like in my entire life, people, I'm a man of many different names. It's either David, uh, it's either DJ, it's either Jelinski. Um, those who are above me usually call me Jelinski, like teachers.

[01:22:36] What does your girlfriend call you? She calls me DJ. DJ. And the reason for that is, well, and babe and stuff like that. We don't need to know all that. But, uh, her dad and I have the same name. Oh, okay. So she, for the family's sake. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Four years. This is a long time. Yeah. Yeah. It's a long time. I don't know how she's put up with me for that long. Uh, during

[01:23:05] survivor 46, it was tough. Um, especially considering how the narrative ended up being, and I can't even say the narrative. Maybe I am like that. I don't know, but it was a hard watch. It was hard for her that how you were portrayed on survivor. Yeah. Yeah. It was hard on all of us, especially considering like, you know, I've been, everyone has a story, you know, everyone's been through a lot in their life and for the

[01:23:31] narrative on survivor, for me to be being a quitter, um, having participant participation trophies my entire life and just being so out of my mind, it was just kind of hard to see. Um, because there is so much more there and everyone who plays survivor has a three dimensional story. There's so many layers, so many complexities and just everyone in real life, you know? So it's so easy to get attached to these characters and be like, Oh, I hate them.

[01:23:57] Oh, I love them. Oh, why'd they do this? Why'd they do that? They're an idiot. Um, and that honestly, that's kind of how I felt like I was portrayed on the show, which I don't blame anybody. Yeah. And that's something that I was so persistent on persistence. Uh, before I played the show, I was like, man, these people are idiots. They suck. Why do they do this? Why do they do that? And just being out there. But you said that, uh, your girlfriend, Kaylee? Yeah. Kaylee. That you

[01:24:23] said it was hard for her. Was that, that did she was, it was hard because you were going through such a hard time or it was hard for her to see people perceive you that way? Uh, definitely both. Definitely both. Um, it takes, you know, so I wrote about this in the confessional, um, for Kevin Jacobs and RACCP. Um, I spoke about surviving after survivor and I was inspired by Tini's article. Um,

[01:24:49] what he spoke about online, surviving online after a survivor. It's such a real thing. And I thought surviving survivor, like the real survivor being out there is going to be the hardest part. The hardest part was absolutely coming back home and dealing with everything that being perceived the sort of way and having to tell my story a million times. And even going on our hat and being like, I was so looking forward to all my exit press and everyone was like,

[01:25:15] you're delusional. This guy's really an idiot. Blah, blah, blah, blah. And then Q tries to quit. They're like, Oh my God, maybe Jalinski was right. Blah, blah, blah. So it's just really, really hard. And honestly, I'm very lucky for how it all went down because, you know, Jeff speaking about me the way he did after, um, I was voted out, like long look Jalinski and, uh, set up only seven. Like that's, that's just so awesome. And I'm so grateful for it. I absolutely love Jeff. Um,

[01:25:39] and my, my cast even just continuing to talk about me and, um, you know, Q trying to quit at the tribal. Um, I don't think he was trying to quit. I do think there was strategy behind that. I think Q is a brilliant, a survivor strategist, believe it or not. Um, he's just a madman in his ways, but long story short, I was very vindicated and not a lot of people have that experience. So I'm very lucky. Well, it sounds really great that you had a support system around you. And,

[01:26:07] you know, I don't talk about this a lot, but when I came off of survivor all-stars, that was a really hard time for me that I had to deal with where I had a very different experience where I had such a great experience in survivor, the Amazon. And then I came back and then I felt like, you know, I really, uh, came off like a real dummy on survivor all-stars. And it was hard for

[01:26:32] me to both have my survivor, you know, uh, achievement. I felt like taken away from me, but it was also, I felt like that it was like, okay, now go away. And I felt like that there was, it's the social media is definitely different now than I was then. But I had just started dating Nicole within like the first year of that relationship. And I think that, you know,

[01:26:59] had I not had that thing in my life that was going so well, I'm not sure necessarily how I would have gotten through that really hard time of, you know, the fallout from doing survivor all-stars. So it really, you know, having somebody there with you, uh, like can make a lot of difference. Wow. And that's, thank you for sharing that, Rob. That's actually really incredible to hear. Cause I mean, I know obviously coming off of the Amazon, you were considered maybe the greatest strategist

[01:27:27] of that time. Riding high baby. Yeah. Yeah. And then to come play all-stars crashing down baby to be on that tribe too, man. Uh, just, I feel for, uh, sometimes you're on a six person tribe and, uh, you, you know, despite your best efforts that they say, all right, you're the guy. You can relate to that, which I really appreciate that. You're the man, Rob. And you know,

[01:27:54] I know Rob didn't win the Amazon guys. Okay. I know that. Yeah. I don't think you said that. No, but, uh, you know, I read all the comments. People thought that I thought you had won Amazon or whatever. Anyway, just time loosens. Um, Rob. Time loosens. I know, but also that you also, you have so much time also. Absolutely. I've got nothing but time ahead of me. I'm so grateful for everything. I'm just ready for whatever. I had no idea all the things that were going to happen,

[01:28:24] uh, in my life. And, uh, so many amazing things that happened well after I was, uh, at, you know, experiencing some very low lows from survivor all-stars, man. I mean, look at what you've built. This is incredible, man. I mean, we would, maybe we wouldn't have crossed paths and how, how sad would that have been? It would have been very sad. Yeah. Oh, I love Rob. You're going to be my best man at my wedding. Oh, wow. Okay. I mean, I feel like maybe like I could be like the

[01:28:52] ordained minister more than the best man. I'm holding you to that. I feel like you probably have what, like 12 different guys in the running for best man. Right. I I've got a lot of guys. I feel like you have a lot of bros. I really do. I've got a lot of bros. I've got a lot of, a lot of bros. Um, and I'm very lucky to have so many people in my life. Yeah. And you're one of them, Rob. Thank you. Jelinski. Uh, well, your friend group,

[01:29:20] how many people is in your close friend group? Oh my God. I hate to say I'm a people pleaser. My, my close friend group though. I'd say literally probably seven. Including you? Uh, no, not including me. Okay. Not including me. Yeah. Do you have a name for the friend group? Is there like a name for the group text? The boys. The boys. How do you spell it? B O I Z. B O I Z. Yep. God, I hate us. But I mean, we're the boys, but we've been friends for

[01:29:49] forever. Does Kaylee approve of the boys? Yeah. Most of them. Mm-hmm. And what was their reaction to Survivor? Oh, they thought it was hilarious. They, they, they know that I needed to be put in my place a little bit because I mean, I, I've been very fortunate too in my life. Like I've had great experiences. Um, I just needed some humbling. Well, absolutely. So I deserved everything that came my way. Yeah. All right. I, I'll disagree with

[01:30:16] that, but Jalinski what's next for you. Oh man. Well, Rob, um, there's, uh, there's a lot ahead. There's a lot ahead. Um, nothing specifically just my starting my new job. Um, wrapping up school. I'm like a super duper uber senior. So, but after I graduate in hospitality, gaming management, I plan on going back for my master's. So what's your master's going to be in?

[01:30:40] I don't know yet, but I plan on going back. I'm really excited about it. Um, just enjoying everything life has to come my way. I'm really looking forward to it. And who knows? Um, who knows? There's a lot of great things. Who knows is right. Okay. And Rob, you know, before, before we get out of here, I just, I want to give you my flowers now. Hold on. Just give me a second here. Okay. All right. Jalinski, if you're watching the podcast, listening to the

[01:31:07] podcast, he, I need you to, um, I need you to entertain the folks here for a second. All right. Well, I'll tell you what else is coming up on Friday. I will be hosting the patron Q and a answering questions from our patrons. We have such a fun time. Like two hours, two and a half hours, sometimes taking all of the questions live from the patrons. And then on Monday, we've got a club condo and Parvati all on RHAP. And Jalinski has now,

[01:31:34] yes, gone into David mode. And now he's standing on, he's too tall. He has to push his camera backwards. He needs like a wide angle fisheye lens to be able to do this bit as we're getting the whole Jalinski futon now. Yes. Perfect. Nailed it. Yes. Okay. She's still there. Still standing.

[01:32:01] Okay. All right. Jalinski, anything else you want people to check out? Uh, no, uh, nothing really to check out. Just be positive. Love your life. Uh, tell somebody that you love them. Okay. All right. How about that? Yeah. What a sign off from Jalinski, everybody. I will be back on Friday for the patrons of the patron Q and a take care, everybody. Have a good one. Bye.