Know-It-Alls: Survivor 50 Ep 10

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[00:01:47] The smartest guys around are about to break it down like they've won. When they came at all. Surviving no way to over.

[00:02:36] We're back. We're live. I flipped a coin. We have to stay up past 10 p.m. and I lost. I got tails. Yes, yes. We lost and we are here. And we're live, live tonight here with you talking about what a night though to be talking about Survivor after. Electric.

[00:02:56] An electric night of Survivor where Mr. Beast came. Mr. Beast doing Mr. Beast things. Rick Devins doing Rick Devins things. And Stephanie LaGrosa ends up being, but I did not see that coming at the start of the episode. You did not see it. Did not see it. And so here we are and a lot to talk about here on a busy night.

[00:03:21] You know, Stephen and I, we have so much fun podcasting. Also, sometimes we're like, hey, let's do a guy's trip in the middle of the week. And so we just got back. We just got back into our respective towns. We're going to be back. We're going to be hanging out again this weekend.

[00:03:36] I'm coming to Stephen's turf in D.C. as I begin my book tour here for The Tribe and I Have Spoken, which is available for preorder for a few more days because it drops everywhere this Tuesday, May 5th. Rob has a book.com for that. The number one book about TV shows on Amazon.com. How about that? It's fantastic. Well, congratulations. It's such a fun, great book. I've loved reading it.

[00:04:06] It's just like it's filled with insights. It's also just like a really fun, great read. I mean, you like sum up this fandom and this 25 years of this show and like you have all these great water cooler moments. With forward by Stephen Fishback. But that's enough of the very look. Well, plenty of time to talk about the book. We got to talk about this big, big night. And Stephen, what's your reaction to I know there was a lot of hand wringing about Mr. Beast coming in.

[00:04:33] And people were worried. People were nervous. Mr. Beast was going to come in and ruin Survivor 50. What's your reaction? Listen, I thought it was fantastic. I loved it. Like, I'm sure over the next few weeks I'll break down why it was like a non-optimal game moment. But in the moment, I was so enthusiastic. I loved it. It was great television. It was electric, I thought, as we said earlier.

[00:04:58] And I was just like on the edge of my seat. And I, yes, I was just, I thought it was certainly the best celebrity related moment of the season. Low bar. But I think like we can confidently say much better than Billie Eilish's non-involvement. Who did show up in a commercial? I don't know if you were watching the commercials tonight. Billie Eilish said she will be back next week to talk about her new movie on the commercial. Was there like a Survivor theming to it at all?

[00:05:26] She said, hey, you know I'm a big Survivor fan. Not that I noticed, Billie. But I digress. I digress. Yeah. The lows of Zac Brown, certainly the dark days of Jimmy Fallon are behind us. This was a very fun twist. And I still thought it was great overall. Like, I don't want every Survivor vote being decided by a coin flip. But this was like a really fun moment. Rick opted in. He went for it. You know, this was so Rick Devins coded.

[00:05:55] This really was the most Rick Devins. Man-meaning the moment. Everything here was like that, you know, if you sort of like wrote this ahead of time. And where it's like, okay, it's going to be the final 10 of Survivor 50. Rick Devins is going to be on the bottom. But there's going to be a thing. They're looking for one person to do a desperate thing to try to save themselves. Like, yeah, this is like Rick Devins, Rick Devins, Rick Devins, Rick Devins. And so... He's a Mr. Beast fan too. He's, you know, he and Jack watch Mr. Beast.

[00:06:24] As a fellow dad, I could tell you. And I recently, I got to interview Mr. Beast. I asked him about this that was coming up. Mr. Beast was very excited for everybody to see this. You understand why. Mr. Beast forked up a million dollars to the eventual winner of Survivor 50. So now we are talking about a $2 million prize for only the second time in Survivor history.

[00:06:52] And it is really, I think that we'll... It'll be even... Or it's definitely a gross, I would say, for the third time in Survivor history. Yes? Is that what she said? No, no. She kept on saying her torch was snuffed four times. And in fact, it's only been snuffed. It's only been snuffed three times. Yes, that's correct. But we'll see if that impacts the game the rest of the way. But this was really, really exciting. It was an incredible moment. I will say that I do think that they played with fire tonight and they got away with it.

[00:07:20] I think that they put themselves in a precarious position where this was shaping up to be the most eventful vote of the season. And it almost didn't happen. And so I hope that the powers that be as Survivor, hey, this was fantastic television tonight. It was a jam-packed two-hour episode. This was... And again, I do not think that this will be the norm.

[00:07:47] But when you're at the risk of canceling a tribal council, tread lightly with that. I think I would have liked to have... I would have liked it even more had it been... Because I feel like... I don't want to be results-oriented because we got the optimal results for exciting television. If Rick Devins misses, Rick Devins strikes out, I think it would have been like... Womp womp. Everybody, go back to camp. We'll see you tomorrow. I think we would have been livid tonight. Like, we waited.

[00:08:17] This was the best... Everything, all hell was breaking loose. And then we didn't have a vote. So I think it should be like, hey, somebody can flip the coin if you're not safe, if you're not feeling good. But guess what? That person's going to be gone. And a second person's going to be out of the game tonight. I have two responses to that. What do you think? First of all, I agree with you abstractly. If that had happened, we would have been watching a very different episode, right? Like, we're not seeing... We're seeing a very different story if Rick Devins goes home.

[00:08:46] And then they're not giving us the womp womp moment. It's like, everyone is targeting Rick. There's a chaotic scramble, yes. But all the votes are going to be on Rick. Rick does this chaotic play, but he's back against the wall. This is his last chance. And we know that he's gone, right? Like, if Rick goes, we're seeing a narrative. Like, we know he's gone anyway. And he flips the coin. What a hero moment. But he's gone. But that's okay because he was leaving anyway. And he got this, like, cool moment. So first of all, like, I think we're seeing a very different story if that is the result. In terms of being results-oriented, I'm very edit-oriented.

[00:09:17] But I also think that the reason it was such a live tribal council was because of the uncertainty. I do think that. Like, Dalton kind of said, like, Rick still would have brought the heat tonight. I'm not sure if he would have had the avenue to bring the heat. I think that Jeff was right. That this big, looming uncertainty of, like, what's in the box was making everybody kind of ups the paranoia. It made it much harder to get a definitive plan in place.

[00:09:45] And that created this, like, back and forth where everybody kind of had to throw out 13 different names. But that's interesting because I feel like that, and this is something that our colleague, Taryn Armstrong, who we podcast about Beast Games with, typically says about Big Brother, is that the uncertainty that the players face when there is an unknown twist often causes the players to play more conservative, to be more safe.

[00:10:10] And so I think that for somebody like Rick and Emily, who are clearly at the bottom, I think that they were certainly incentivized to throw everything up in the air because they were on the bottom. But for the other players, I'm not sure if they were necessarily more aggressive because of the unknown of the Mr. Beast Super Beware advantage. Well, but the thing is, so, I mean, we do talk about that for sure with Survivor 2, right?

[00:10:35] That, like, the uncertainty of the game has caused, like, the chaotic nature of the game has caused more conservative gameplay. But I don't know. I think with, like, the, maybe I'll disagree with myself about this because I think that's a really good counterargument. But I do think that, like, the, it's not like two people are going home or, like, you know, there was, like, there was, like, this, like, you, you're, something really crazy and bad is going to happen. You know, just that sort of, like, glooming nature without any kind of indication of what the stakes would be or what the result would be. It wasn't like you got to have two plans tonight.

[00:11:04] Like, maybe they think they're swapping. Like, there's just no way to know, you know, who's going home. I'd love to, let's stay on Mr. Beast for a little while and just talk about this. Do you think that the Mr. Beast coin flip ultimately, was this too overpowered in any way where not only does Rick Devins get to double the prize money, also gets immunity?

[00:11:30] Also, this is the part that I wonder, is this too much where he's safe for this vote and gets a hidden immunity idol? Yeah, well, see, I actually think it's kind of, like, you need the idol because otherwise they can just say, okay, yeah, let Rick do it. We'll just vote him out tomorrow. You know, like, yeah, this is fine. This doesn't really matter. Like, Rick's safe for tonight, but who cares? Like, he's getting us $2 million. If he flips the fire, he goes home.

[00:11:55] And, you know, worst case scenario or best case scenario is he hits the two million and we can vote him out at the next Tribal Council. I mean, Dalton kind of tweeted something similar, you know, that a shot in the dark is a 17% chance. And this is a 50% chance of staying. So if you know your back is against the wall, this greatly increases your odds. So, yeah, if you know your back is against the wall, this greatly increases your odds. That's it. Nobody else did this.

[00:12:21] And maybe Rick really was the one who was, like, definitely knew he was going to go. But we certainly saw a lot of other names out there tonight. Nobody else went for this. It wasn't like there was a scramble. Because I was a little confused when I was watching it because I thought that, okay, here's your idol to play at this Tribal Council. And I had to ask in chat BCC, wait, Rick gets an idol and he's also safe for this vote?

[00:12:46] Because to me, I feel like that this was just like instead of a 17% chance shot in the dark, you get a 50% chance shot at the dark. And also, you become a hero. You get to ultimately, you know, everybody is loving Rick Devins right now for what, maybe not Joe. And, but now you say for two votes potentially because of this. Yeah. You know, but like also shot in the dark, you can't vote, right? I mean, and like, and like that only matter, like, you're not instantly eliminated.

[00:13:14] Like, there's a chance that like the votes go your way, which this is like you're no matter what instantly eliminated. Yeah. I mean, the real, like it would have, I do think like if nobody had volunteered, they'd had to draw rocks. And then, I mean, as Sarif flips the coin and goes home, that would have, that would have felt bad. They really did walk on a tightrope tonight and they nailed it. They totally aced it. Every, they got like the best case scenario with this.

[00:13:44] And listen, I know that there are certainly plenty of Mr. Beast detractors that are out there, but I feel like. Detractors. Detractors. Oh, the tractors. I don't know if I've seen any Mr. Beast tractors out there, but. I thought he was like competing with John Deere. I didn't know. Maybe perhaps. Yeah. But I really did feel like that this was a very exciting night of Survivor Tribal Council.

[00:14:14] Yeah. I mean, that's the thing. Like if you're, I mean, is it like pure Survivor game? No, but I thought it was really fun. And I mean, I also like, I actually think in some ways, like they were really benefited by all the like negative advance hype, you know, and all the anima. Oh, Mr. Beast is coming. They're going to edit the episode out. They're editing Mr. Beast out of the episode. Yeah. And they really, they did, though. They made it very like I felt like he was there and a very appropriate amount. Right. Like he was there. He came in like they celebrated him.

[00:14:44] He didn't have 13 confessionals. He didn't go spearfishing. And it was like it was, you know, he like added a little bit of like Mr. Beast sizzle to it. And I understand that some people don't want that. And maybe like I a few years ago would not want that. But I enjoyed it. Yeah. So I think that it just came in. It was about the game. It was we didn't see. Mr. Beast had zero confessionals tonight. Zero confessionals. Really, you know, it was a zero confessional night for Mr. Beast. So I don't know that that's. In one. Yeah.

[00:15:14] Yes. He really did not even have that much dialogue. Yeah. He said very little. In fact, the tribal council, he said basically nothing until, you know, I think like he had a few a few moments. Look at their faces. You know, like like. Yeah. There's just a few little moments. Yeah. But it's all appropriate. I honestly thought we could have had more Mr. Beast, you know? Yeah. And it'll be very interesting based off of whoever wins the season is going to be like, Oh, my God. I like. Thank you, Mr. Beast for. Mr. Beast, I love you for.

[00:15:42] Like if Sari goes on to win this and Sari wins a second million dollars courtesy of Mr. Beast. Oh, no. Mr. Beast is the hero of Survivor. Yeah. He's going to be like. Yeah. People will be really celebrating him. Okay. Yeah. Steven, I want to talk about ultimately the vote, though, of how this ultimately went down this path.

[00:16:07] And I really do believe that the inciting incident here was Jonathan. And Jonathan has been on a really good run here in this season. And you have really commented a great deal about how Jonathan's played a really good game so far. This it was curious that the flip against Ozzy where it was really like Christian touched

[00:16:32] the third rail last week when he said went to Sari and said, hey, we're going to get out Ozzy. And then it was that I that really pushed Ozzy into the arms of Jonathan and Stephanie and Joe, although it does seem like that Joe is also like getting pretty close to Tiffany and Sari. And then this week to turn it around after the Jonathan after the Ozzy play flopped at the

[00:17:00] last vote for Jonathan to try to push this idea. I think this is where all hell starts to break loose. And this was really interesting. Right. So Jonathan goes to Sari and she says, like, absolutely not. Right. And then who does she push it back on to? She kind of pushes it right back on to Rick. Who did she push push for there? I don't remember. But then then Stephanie kind of approaches her as well. And like Sari seems to consult to this. Stephanie is lying so badly to her, like at least.

[00:17:29] And then so she's like, maybe I need to get Stephanie up. I actually wondered. I'm about to say something potentially sacrilegious here. OK. I wondered if Sari and I is voting out too many of her allies. Because Stephanie comes to her. Like she's putting so much on the line just to save Ozzy. Like Christian who thinks he's in alliance with her comes to her. He's gone. You know, Stephanie who thinks she comes in alliance with her. Yeah. She's gone. These are all people who want, who are rooting for Sari to be in the game.

[00:17:59] But they're not targeting Sari. They're just targeting Ozzy. Stephen, the problem is. Is she spending too much capital? Last week she said, I'm working with every single person in the game. So by that proxy, every single person she gets rid of, it's somebody who wants to work with her. So I think that there is so much history between Stephanie and Sari. I think Sari has now outlasted Stephanie on four different seasons of reality TV. And I have to do the La Grossa math because maybe it's five.

[00:18:29] But certainly the first heroes versus villains or the only heroes versus villains in American Survivor. Snake in the Grass. The Traitors. And now here in Survivor 50. Yeah. Dirty Dancer has the remark, Ozzy is the only one who may drag her to the end. There's something to that. I think like she had a confessional that she didn't think that Stephanie would go all the way with her.

[00:18:57] And I think that that's probably true. Like maybe she believes that Ozzy will actually take her. Well, I really thought that this was a pushback against our Jonathan, Stephanie and Joe accumulating too much power. And I think it's been really interesting to watch Sari operate in a true Will Wall pendulum strategy here of that we hit Chrissy and Coach a couple of weeks ago. Okay. Then let's swing back. Let's break up Christian and Emily and Devin. Okay.

[00:19:27] Now this week, oh, we don't want Jonathan and Stephanie and Joe to get too much power. Let's hit Stephanie. And now I kind of wonder is on the comeback, is it time to take out Emily or Rick? Like that's what I think. So, I mean, I think Rick's got his idol. I think there's no way that Emily's not gone next. That's really elegantly stated in terms of how she's doing it and probably where her inspiration comes from. Will Wall and Millennials for Gen X.

[00:19:53] And it was Coach who warned of we have to keep an eye on the middle. We can't let the middle gain too much power. And he, unfortunately, he just mislabeled of who the middle was. He thought the middle was Christian and Emily and Rick and possibly Aubrey. And really the middle was Sari and Ozzy and Rizzo. Yeah. And Arya Stark of Winterfell is commenting, Stephanie said her name. So, of course, she did the right thing.

[00:20:22] But Stephanie said her name like after she was pushing it back on Stephanie, I believe. Right? Like Stephanie said we should get Sari. Yeah, I think that when Stephanie went to Sari, I think Sari was a little cold to Stephanie. And then I think Stephanie started to get the hint that Sari wasn't feeling it. And then I think then they told Joe the plan, I believe. And Ozzy told Joe the plan. And then Joe went back and told Jonathan and Stephanie.

[00:20:51] And then Stephanie confronted Sari about it. But I think that just to go back to where this all started, the genesis of all the chaos that happened in this pre-tribal scramble. Jonathan tells Stephanie a little white lie where like Jonathan, who had been doing a really good job.

[00:21:14] He tells a he makes up a lie to Stephanie that, oh, Ozzy said he wasn't feeling great about Stephanie. Something to that effect. Yeah, yeah, no, that was that. But he was like worried about that. He was worried about Stephanie. Yeah. Yes. And she's like, what? Oh, well, if that's how he feels, then sure. We got to get rid of Ozzy. If they don't do that, if they keep the plan on Rick Devins, Stephanie doesn't go home here.

[00:21:44] Right. Yeah. Do you think Rick is getting voted out here if he doesn't flip the coin? I don't think so. I think that, you know, we talk about these live tribal councils and how at the live tribal council, not that much changes. I have just on this season, I just defer to what did Sari want to have happen? Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And I think it's pretty clear. The thing that Sari wanted was for Stephanie to go home. I think that Sari had had it with Stephanie.

[00:22:14] And once you lie to Sari, it's over for you. And Sari wants to be working with Ozzy and Rizzo who tell her all the secrets. And Stephanie was serving her purpose as long as Sari could look at her and Stephanie could be like, all right, I have the advantage. But then when Stephanie is trying to snow Sari, then Sari's like, that's it. You're done. Now, Stephanie at tribal council, when she's being called out, could very well have pointed the finger or even before then, right?

[00:22:44] Like, at Jonathan and said, no, it was Jonathan who was the one who was initially talking about Ozzy. But she didn't. And I think she even said in her final words, like, Jonathan, right? She's like, just so you know that that wasn't, I didn't say that. That wasn't my idea. Yeah. And it wasn't. And she never, but she never, like, put it back on him. Is that noble or is that dumb? Like, is that a good idea or a bad idea? Maybe that's a simpler way to bring that. I mean, I think that she wanted to clear her name. I don't know if it's a great idea for Jonathan. Yeah.

[00:23:12] Now, I believe Jonathan does vote for Stephanie. Everyone voted for Stephanie. Except Stephanie and... By the way, Stephen, is it time to revisit the curse of the Steal a Vote? Yeah. Listen, only Sarah Lucina has ever played it perfectly. Right? I don't know. I think that she used it... To no effect. Yes. I don't know. I think she used it, but it had no effect. I think that maybe there's a little, like, controversy there of, like, how effective was it? Right.

[00:23:41] But it's not as easy as it looks, right? No. No, she really... I mean, that was... Yeah. Yeah. Listen. Always happy to see a Steal a Vote go down in flames. Yeah. It was fun in then the live tribal scramble of Stephanie, like, asking people... Because you saw a lot of people who were not on the same page, like, talking to each other. You see Ozzy talk to Stephanie, and Stephanie says, hey, so what do you think? Should I use the Steal a Vote?

[00:24:11] And Ozzy's like, no, don't use it. The best was Jonathan going over to Emily, and he's like, what are we doing? And she's like, put the votes on Aubrey. And he says, you're so full of it. Yeah. I love that. But it'll be interesting to see now for Jonathan. Can Jonathan pick up the pieces here? Jonathan's had a rough go. Like, he was in a really good spot at the merge. The double elimination totally screwed him in terms of his, you know, both coach and Chris. But then he bounced back.

[00:24:40] He bounced back beautifully. And then this kind of, like, upends him. He needed Ozzy. That was a big mistake for him to get rid of Ozzy. Because I thought... They were always worried about Ozzy. Like, that's been, like, he and Joe have talked about it. Like, that, and he's, you know, that Ozzy is not a long-term ally for them. But why? They've got the similar vibe. I don't know. They've got the same people. Ozzy was somebody, he said, Mr. Ozzy, he's somebody who's playing a much better game.

[00:25:07] And if he gets to the end, he's going to have a lot of votes, including mine. But it's the final 10. And, you know, you needed... Like, if they... They don't know that Ozzy is truly with Sari. But right now, they have three. And Joe is starting to wander off. And Ozzy was potentially four if they were pulling him in. Like, you kind of needed Ozzy if you were going to be pulling him in, too. Like, Ozzy, I think, was kind of, like, deep down,

[00:25:34] he's an honor, loyalty, integrity guy. Yeah. Do you think, like... I mean, I think, like... I mean, I think Aubrey mentioned this in the episode, somebody else, that even though there's 10 people left, which is a lot of people, just the fact of starting with 24 makes it feel very endgame-y. Like, there's so few people left compared to how many there were. It feels kind of like they're right at the endgame. But it does feel a little premature to take a big swing at someone who is kind of a fringe ally here.

[00:26:05] Just in... The reasoning of that he could win if he gets to the end. And Sari is still sitting there to go after Ozzy because he's the biggest threat to win the game at this point in time. It's too early for that. I think so, too. They need the numbers. Yeah. But who's a better target for Jonathan? I think that for Jonathan... I mean, you have Joe, who, that his mission is to get rid of Rick Debbins.

[00:26:33] You know Emily Flippen is never working with you. Yeah. So, and Ozzy, you got indignant Ozzy at the start of this episode, which is classic Ozzy, where he's really so indignant about Rick, who's a liar, and Emily, and you can't trust her. And then to push Ozzy away when he was like eating out of the palm of their hands right now. I think for those people, that their move should have been,

[00:27:03] we're splitting the votes against Emily and Rick Debbins tonight. Because those two people were never working. Instead, they go to Rick Debbins and bring Rick Debbins in on the plan to vote out Ozzy. Yeah. I do think in these seasons, it's like these alliances are never that neat. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, because you're never going to run the table. I mean, I wonder where they think Rizzo is. Like who do, because we know who Rizzo's allies are, but does Jonathan still think Rizzo's a horseman?

[00:27:33] One of the four horsemen? No, I don't think so. I think that they probably just think he's just kind of a free agent. Yeah. Like a kid who's just happy to be there. He's just happy to be there. Not like a real power player. Yeah. Let's take him to the end. Nobody's going to vote for him. Probably they don't know him. So they're just, I don't think they're taking him too seriously. I don't think they're really looking at Aubrey, but I think that for Rick and Emily, it's just like, they're never going to work with those people. Yeah. Yeah. It makes sense. I mean,

[00:28:02] maybe just because Rick has been always with these votes. It's like, if there's someone who's so obvious, people just get restless. Like, let's do something different. Why would we do the expected thing? Just do the expected thing sometimes. This time of year, the weather is crazy. It makes figuring out what you're going to wear almost impossible, but the trick is to simplify fewer things, but better ones.

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[00:29:22] quince.com slash rawpod for free shipping and 365 days returns. That's quince.com slash rawpod. This episode is sponsored by better help. Money stress is something that people carry quietly bills, uncertainty, the feeling of trying to figure it all out on your own. It adds up in ways that go beyond your bank account. 88% of Americans are feeling some form of financial stress right now.

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[00:30:51] Money stress is something that people carry quietly. Bills, uncertainty, the feeling of trying to figure it all out on your own. It adds up in ways that go beyond your bank account. 88% of Americans are feeling some form of financial stress right now. And honestly, that tracks. It can affect your sleep, your relationships, and your mood. And a lot of people feel a kind of shame around it. Like struggling financially means that you've done something wrong and it doesn't.

[00:31:19] Therapy is not financial advice. It's a space to work through the anxiety and the weight that comes with it. To unpack beliefs you grew up with around money and build healthier ways to cope and feel a little less alone in it. BetterHelp makes it easy to get started. Fill out a short questionnaire. They match you up with a fully licensed therapist. And if it's not the right fit, you can switch anytime. Over 6 million people have used it and rated it 4.9 out of 5 based on 1.7 million reviews. They've been doing this for 12 years.

[00:31:47] So when life feels overwhelming, therapy can help. Sign up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com slash R-H-A-P. That's BetterHelp.com slash R-H-A-P. Where is Daredevil? I'm right here. Don't miss the return of Marvel Television's Daredevil Born Again. So what's next? I've been liberated. We're going to take this city back. Over-Medicated.

[00:32:16] In an all new season now streaming only on Disney+. They're hunting us. It's time we started hunting them. I can work with them. This should be tons of fun. Marvel Television's Daredevil Born Again. Now streaming only on Disney+. I'd love to talk about Tiffany, who's had such an interesting ride here in the post-merge. She really came into the post-merge at the devote. She's the person who's totally at the bottom. I had a great podcast with Kelly Wentworth the other day.

[00:32:45] And we were talking about the different trajectories that Rick Devins and Tiffany have taken since they've been at the bottom. And of course, Rick Devins is doing the flashy Rick Devins things that you know and love from Rick Devins. But Tiffany's taken such a different trajectory and really just rebuilt her game from the bottom up. And she's in such a interesting position.

[00:33:11] And she's really done this the traditional way that people have clawed their way back from the bottom where she's kept her head down. She's had good relationships. She is beloved. When she wins immunity, everybody is—you can always—that's such a tell when the group celebrates the person who won immunity. And she has the great moment where she talked about how, like, you know, last time I played, I went out on day 19. And all the old school players, that's so cute. That's so adorable.

[00:33:41] Yeah, exactly. But for Tiffany, that it was such a great moment for her. And she's really sort of just like she's in the sidecar with Suri. And it's a great spot for her to be in as a challenge beast, as somebody who you presume that she could make fire. If she's sort of just like drifting off of Suri and, you know, that Survivor has a strange

[00:34:10] way of just like doing bad things to Suri right at the end of the game. And Tiffany's in such a great position where nobody's gunning for her, nobody's targeting her anymore, where she could be somebody who just sneaks into the final three. Yeah, you're absolutely right. You can see it. And, you know, when they—because they're all obviously—their eyes are all off Tiffany, right? Because all of her allies were voted out. You're right. She's kept her head down. She's like built relationships with them. But nobody sees her as a threat.

[00:34:39] She's like the one that they're bringing in. And so you totally could see her kind of sneaking in. But if she sneaks in, if you sneak into the final three, it's hard to win if you're sneaking. It's hard to sneak in, but she's so well-liked. And she does have such a story where she was like, hey, I was at the bottom. We merged with, what, 17 people? And then all my allies went home and I had nobody. And I won immunities and I fought hard.

[00:35:04] And I think this is her second immunity that she's won now after the immunity that she won with Joe a couple of weeks ago. So I think she is building up a story. It is interesting to see that personal relationship that she's having with Sari. We're not seeing a lot of it in terms of the story. Back in Survivor Game Changers, we actually saw more of it with Michaela where Sari talked

[00:35:30] about more about her relationship with Michaela, about how she looked at Michaela as like a younger version of herself. I remember in the preseason interviews, Sari talked about how she didn't really want to work with Tiffany. She said that she looked at her as sort of like a millennial who they, she said that the thing about some of these younger people is that they have their own ideas. They don't really listen. I'd love to hear some more confessional at some point.

[00:35:59] Like what does Sari think of Tiffany? Yeah. That's a really good point. Yeah. Yeah. But it seems like they've become incredibly close. And we always see them together in these scenes. You see Sari on the hammock and Tiffany is parked right there. And it's really like a great spot for her. Yeah. It's a really good spot. You're absolutely right. And because that, because that's the decision maker, you know, it's like you're, you're sitting next to the king. Yeah. You know, you get to like kind of weigh in, put somebody, you know, get your, get your voice heard.

[00:36:29] And it's like Ozzy is off doing his own thing. And Sari has to always keep filling him in on what's going on. Like Tiffany doesn't need to get filled in. She's right there. If I was on survivor, that's, that's what I want. I would, I would want to be sitting next to Sari. You know what I mean? Like I'm learning a lot. I get to like weigh in on what's happening. This is what happened to Christian. Yeah. Yeah. Well, but he wasn't next to her enough because then he was, you know, he, he, he said he didn't, he missed some, some key meetings. He missed his schedule conflicted with some key meetings of that alliance. Yeah. Okay.

[00:36:57] So for Rick and Emily, do you think that the worm has turned for them where they have a path going forward? No, I think you're right that this, I mean, this is bad for Emily, right? Like this is bad because obviously like Rick has got a lot of heat, but he's kind of untouchable. So the closest thing to Rick is Emily. So I, and I think you're right that Sari's going to swing back. She's going to swing back to the wall and hit Emily next. Next. Like a wrecking ball. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:37:28] I was shrinking like to the, to the windows. I didn't get it. Yeah. But there was like, what's the, you know? Yeah. Yeah. It had been like, Rizzo had been voted out. That'd be good. From the Rizzo to the wall. Anyway, there's something there, but we'll work on it. Okay. Yeah. Let's talk about Steven. It was auction night too. How about that? Oh yeah. Okay. So the auction came back and we went to the survivor auction and Jeff's greeted the cast members and said like, Hey, all right, you know what?

[00:37:57] Survivor 50 today. We're finally going to have some fun today. Okay. Like forget that yesterday, Jeff did a challenge for the rice negotiation. Okay. So listen, we've been way too serious around here. You guys haven't eaten anything. We need the auction right now. And I think that the new era has broken me in some ways because I'm sitting there and I'm like, what the hell? They're just like, everybody's eating so much.

[00:38:25] And it's like, that this is like, okay, Aubrey had to eat a bug and Jonathan had to eat. There was a lot of food. There was so much food. There was like going for like no money. It was like cheaper than you get some of this stuff at the store. I feel like, especially with the prices now. And the bad stuff was not even that bad. I mean, even my kids were like, wait, I thought you said that there was going to, there was going to be like a lot of chaos that happens at this auction. And it was really just like, yeah, just a free for all.

[00:38:55] And I'm sort of like, oh yeah, but Hey Rob, guess what? It's, it's just the survivor auction. Like it doesn't have to be, it's supposed to be low stakes. It's supposed to be fun and goofy. Yes. I actually felt like there was not as many fun, goofy auction moments as there have been in the past. I guess because it's like setting up the Mr. B stuff, but there weren't a lot of like fun, like classic goofy auction moments, right? Like what was the Aubrey eating the bug was the, was by far and away the goofiest. That was great. That was very fun. Great Aubrey. Yeah. Yeah. It's great. I'll be a moment for sure.

[00:39:25] Um, but, but yeah, I, I felt like it was like, and obviously we're building towards Mr. Beast and then, and then we had like the flip of, okay, now you're going to do a challenge. And I was like, okay, this was like, I'm always looking for like the little wrinkle of like, oh, you thought you were getting something good, but it's actually something bad. But the challenge that they, I kind of thought they were going to do the challenge where like, where, remember when Marianne, they were all spinning in a circle and I thought they were

[00:39:55] going to do something of like, okay. That would be too disgusting. Because they, they gave them so much food. I really thought, okay, now, but now they'll pay for it and they'll do a challenge. That's really good. But the challenge that they did, it was almost like, okay, well, you had so much excitement. Now, can you bring your heartbeat down to do this show? Like, I would have loved to have seen something where, okay, now it's an obstacle course. Now you're going to go and run and compete and do something strenuous after you've been overfed.

[00:40:23] Like, I don't need to see everybody puking. I'm not with you. Are we part ways here? I do not need to see everybody being vomiting. But then who cares that they did a challenge immediately right after that? Why did they- That's a good point. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is probably just like, they're running out of time here. We got to get to, we got to get to Mr. Beast. Yeah, I don't know if this was all in one day and that's probably why it was all so chaotic in this episode. But I really felt like when Jeff was like, all right, now you'll get those letters back at camp because guess what? You're going right into a challenge. You're like, uh-oh, here we go.

[00:40:52] But there was like no impact of- Totally normal challenge. Yeah. Irrelevant to the auction. Ready, set, stand still. And so there was like, nobody really seemed to have like the ill effects of like, oh, they overindulged or somebody like drank at the, like, first off, where was the margarita? How could you do the auction without the margarita? Especially now that there's the margarita curse. You know, it seemed like that Joe didn't get anything. There's always things that get cut out of the actual- I'm sure they cut stuff out. Yeah.

[00:41:22] So who knows? But like, yeah, it would have been funny if somebody was drunk and then having to be in the challenge. Yeah. I wouldn't mind that it was action-packed. I don't need to see a lot of, you know, I like, I like that. Let's keep it moving here. I mean, I like the strategy. I like, I do like the camp stuff. I do like the downtime. But I didn't- Yeah. But Steven, as we are going into the 50s, okay, of Survivor and the era that will come

[00:41:45] after Survivor 50, which we do not know too much about, although there are some rumors- Do the name? Oh, there's rumors. What are the rumors? There's a rumor that it's going to be two tribes. Whoa! Whoa! That's crazy! Everybody, do Mr. Beast hands. Yes. Two tribes, but each episode, the tribes split into two other tribes. Yeah.

[00:42:10] But I'm wondering, the whole premise of the new era, you have to earn everything. You got to earn it. Everything is earn, earn. And now we had an episode where it was just an auction free for all. Nobody lost their votes. We had big tribes here all through the post-merge. All the things we want. I'm just wondering that, has the new era run its course? Wow.

[00:42:38] Maybe the next era is everyone just sits back. You know, it's all very comfy and cozy. AI does everything. AI does all the work for us. You think so? That's what it's going to be. Yeah. Yeah. It's like trying to stay concurrent with the times, you know? Mm-hmm. Everyone got chat sheet PT. Who should I backstep? I mean, we gave them, like, they just got all the rice yesterday. And then we had an auction on top of that? Yeah. It's great. And nobody even lost their vote? Yeah. It's, it's, that's, that's, but someone flipped a coin for elimination. Yeah.

[00:43:09] Yeah. So I'm just wondering if maybe that some of these things have, are, we're starting to look at maybe other ideas. I'm optimistic. Yeah. Right. There's less of the same, like, right. The, the, the same mentality. That's great. I'm very excited too. I mean, because that, that, that would be really nice to go back to some of the things we love and keep some of the wonderful parts of the new era. Sure. We also ended the auction with the old classic, let, you know, the price of everything is

[00:43:38] going up, but the price of letters at the auction has remained $20 for over a decade now. Yeah. The, the, it was, I liked the letters. The letters never get me like, let's bring back the people. If we can bring that, that would, that's the change that I would make, Rob. I want the people back there. Yeah. Everybody got their letters here and you really, you know, shades of winners at war where, uh, kind of broke the loved ones visit. That was the last loved ones visit that we had.

[00:44:05] Uh, also COVID broke the loved ones visit and we got, everybody got their letters, uh, here in the, uh, final 10. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was very moving. I mean, that we, we see, we hear from Ceri's dad who's never written her letter. Like that's incredible. Like what an, what an emotional moment. You know, it really is very meaningful. And, you know, I, I don't know about you, um, but I, I, I have a letter, like I, I too

[00:44:32] never got a letter from my dad or very, got very few letters from my dad, uh, in my life. Maybe like when I first went away to college, but the letter that my dad sent me, um, and my dad, uh, as many people know, uh, has, uh, you know, passed away some time ago. Uh, I, I have that framed in my office. Uh, like it really is, uh, a very nice thing to have from somebody of like, that there's like a, like a permanence to it even beyond the game.

[00:45:03] Yeah. And it's cause it's, it's, there's, there's that sort of like formal setting of like, I am communicating something to my child in this moment when they're suffering and when they are most looking for my kind of like encouragement and love and support and wisdom. I actually really regret not having saved those letters. Um, yeah. Oh, well, what'd you do? You lost them? I don't know. I threw them out. You moved a lot. They're probably somewhere. They're in a file folder somewhere. Well, no, but that is it. They're in a file folder. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's true.

[00:45:33] That's true. No, but it's, it's, it's beautiful though. I mean, it really is. It's nice. I mean, seeing, you know, Mike Bloom tweeted, it's just like a new aspect of this character we've been watching for even this human being we've been watching for 20 years to see this like other aspect of her that we've never seen before. You know, it's really, it's really kind of is a beautiful moment. Yeah. You know, Cerise had some famous loved ones visits where HB came out back in Survivor Panama.

[00:46:03] And I think like, uh, did, I think he might've come back to the camp and Cerise was showing him what was going on. And then Jared has a great loved ones visit when he spent the night in Panama. Am I remembering that incorrectly? I don't know if he spent the night. Yeah. I do remember him back at camp. I know he did. He, I do remember that he was at the camp. I'm sure the chat went out. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, but Jared had a really great loved ones visit in Survivor Game Changers to the point where they wanted to cast him on David versus Goliath.

[00:46:31] Uh, and then ultimately we got to know Jared on, uh, big brother, but now, yeah, we now have to start to, uh, know about the Cerise dad too. Yeah. I mean, it's, I mean the whole Fields family. They're all, they're all legends. Presumably. Steven, I know you love the edit. I want to make an edit observation tonight. Is it about Aubrey? I thought that this was like the all Aubrey episode to me.

[00:46:58] This was almost like the Tony extortion episode of confessionals for Aubrey tonight. What was the extortion? I mean, there's an episode in Survivor Game Changers. I think it might've also been episode 10 or 11 right around this time where Tony, I think set the record for one hour episode of Survivor. I think he had 20 professionals in one episode of Survivor in the episode, uh, where he, uh,

[00:47:26] got the extortion advantage or disadvantage. The, um, yeah, yeah. I mean, this was very Aubrey focused. I, I speaking as a person, her person who has been burned many, many, many times by calling out a winner's edit. I felt like this was a little aggressive. Like even though, you know, it certainly made me think Aubrey will be here for a few more weeks that I predict she will be in the end after, after tonight. Yeah.

[00:47:52] A lot of like, a lot of Aubrey, a lot of like Aubrey as like a mom and how being a mom is going to like make her a, you know, a better player. Um, you know, a lot about how her, her person go ahead. Oh, I, and maybe I missed it and maybe it was like more on the subtle side, but I really did not feel like that Aubrey was a key factor or contributor in the outcome of tonight's vote.

[00:48:17] And we really saw like, we saw this whole thing really through Aubrey's POV from, we started the episode where Aubrey talking about the survivor game is like a chess board and we have a dwindling number of moves, uh, that could be made. And of course, uh, Aubrey has, uh, a couple of really, uh, great moments during the auction from eating the bug to the macaroni cheese, uh, you know, tastes like home.

[00:48:44] And then, uh, we ended up getting her, uh, with the letters, but then also we have Aubrey reminiscing about, uh, how, uh, she is remembering Michelle and Michelle, you know, she felt like that she should have gone and, and she should have been the winner of survivor co-wrong as, as, as, as many people did. And we were like, really, we lived through that discourse of the Michelle and Aubrey wars of what, 2015. And it was intense.

[00:49:13] It was, it really was intense. And, um, she said that, well, but you know, Michelle did make moves and she made moves at the end and maybe that's how I'm, I'm looking at the game. And we saw that Aubrey, she talked about really wanting to blow things up at the tribal council with Rick Devins. I didn't see her blowing things up at tribal council as much. Maybe she'd hoped to, but he kind of sucked the air out of the room. Like, how do you follow that? You're like, no, I'll go on tomorrow night. Yeah.

[00:49:39] You can't out blow things up when Rick Devins is around. Rick, Rick does like, what a performance. We haven't even talked about that yet. I'm very excited too. Like what a performance from Rick. Um, but yes, I, uh, yeah, she, she, she talked about it. But I think after that, you're kind of like, okay, okay. Like, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna call that. But yes, I mean, as someone who is attentive to the edit, like, I felt like I was being trolled. It was such a heavy handed way to me. You really feel like, okay, well, like Aubrey is one to watch.

[00:50:06] And we really did see, uh, you know, looking back where, you know, it wasn't like that she was, uh, the main character really at any point in this season. You know, we have had consistent eyes on Aubrey all through the season from the battle with Genevieve to then ultimately, uh, you know, trying to work out a relationship with coach and having a relationship with Tiffany and then, uh, with her relationship with Rick and Christian

[00:50:34] and Emily, and then, uh, ultimately a relationship with Jonathan. So we, we've seen many different sides of Aubrey so far this season. Yeah. And we got a lot of her emotion along the way too, which is often a sign of a winner. Like, you know, just like sort of seeing her, you know, obviously struggling at the beginning and then, and then struggling a little more and now could then kind of like finding her footing. Um, just to clarification, Rob, uh, and this was throwing me too. It was winners at war. Tony got eliminated, I think in episode two or three of Game Changers. You were just saying, Tony. I apologize. I apologize.

[00:51:03] No, obviously you knew that, but like, I know people are screaming at the podcast right now. Okay. Please, uh, have some, some grace for Steven and I here at 11 o'clock at night. Okay. Please, please everybody. All right. Anything I say now, I disavow tomorrow. I, because if you disagree with it, if you agree with it, I'm, I, I stand by it. Yeah. Oh my God. Thank you. Thank you. And then I heard someone, anyone to please help.

[00:51:33] So he's like Superman being able to carry me off the mount. The award-winning Tell Me What Happened podcast from OnStar is back. New emergencies, new heroes. Find out what happens in season six of Tell Me What Happened. Out now. Steven, I know you wanted to talk about the Tribal Council and, uh, Rick blowing everything up.

[00:51:59] I mean, this was, I mean, Rick Devins is maybe the great Tribal Council performer of all time. Who is, I mean, there's a few, he's, he's among the greats. I don't want to like, you know, rankings arbitrary and reductive, but he is very great. Yes. And, um, no, I, this was just. I think you're really onto something. I think that Rick is really one of a kind in terms of being a survivor player who really

[00:52:24] is, he's the great showman and he's somebody, and this was, in talking with, with Kelly, it was a really interesting conversation about Rick and about how he plays the game and how that for the audience, he's so fun to watch. And for the audience that sits across from the players, the jury, he is also an incredible spectacle to watch.

[00:52:50] I do feel like that for the people that he is playing with, he does consistently irk them because I feel like at Tribal Council, he's always trying to score points and point out the hypocrisy of the other players. Some often to his detriment, but he often has ways to wriggle out of it.

[00:53:13] But he loves setting the whole thing on fire and then pointing out where everybody is scrambling to and then who's talking to whom in the scramble. And then looking back to the jury and to Jeff, like, you see, you see, this is why this is my point. And it really does irk the other players. But I mean, I think we talk about those moments when the underdog calls out the top dogs and makes them scramble against each other as some of the big moments in survivor history.

[00:53:41] I mean, the three amigos tribal council, you know, those moments when that person kind of like takes the stage and is like, this person is saying that this person is saying that he's targeting you. She's targeting you. Yeah. You know, as a way of like forcing those different factions. And I do think you're right that they'll probably all come together and still want to vote out. Yes, because I remember our three amigos debates from back in 2013.

[00:54:06] And I remember well that you did not think that that was a good idea when those guys were doing that then. Okay. Well, so, okay. But this is my friend. It's great theater. It's great. It's great spectacle for the jury. It's just the type of thing that the other players really do. I think start to have some animosity. Now, I think that there's some synergy between the Aubrey eating the grub and Rick Devins flipping

[00:54:35] the coin that there is like that they did something crazy and it worked. And I think that it really garners a lot of goodwill. I'll say from Matthew in Survivor, the Amazon, Mateo was kind of somebody who nobody really had like really positive feelings towards. But the day that he ate the giant disgusting grub and like just put it down his throat.

[00:55:04] It was like, you know, he's a weirdo, but he's our weirdo. And so much of. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. I feel like that with Rick Devins, they were ready to like carry him out of the tribal council on their shoulders after he put that million dollars on the board. And so I think he did really earn himself a lot of in the same way that Aubrey had so much fun at the auction. I do feel like that Rick really did change the narrative around himself tonight. Yeah.

[00:55:31] And so much of like, you know, how you're performing in the tribe is just based on vibes, really. You know, it really is based on who wants to, you know, who's excited about working with you versus like mad at somebody else. But I also, I mean, you know, from Rick's perspective, nobody wants to work with him. His back's against the wall. Everyone's saying he's an easy vote. Yeah. Why not have some fun? Why not try to cause some chaos in the hopes that something sticks? But I think it's an interesting turn from at the start of the episode.

[00:55:58] It was classic Rick Devins. Everybody like Rick Devins doing Rick Devins things to by the end of the episode, like classic Rick Devins, Rick Devins doing Rick Devins things. Like he really did just like he exactly the same. But the like the branding around being Rick Devins really did change. Yeah. In a brand refresh. Same same item. New packaging.

[00:56:28] Yeah. Yeah. And I think that people really came around to maybe not Joe, but that that was a very funny moment. It might be screenshot of that too, where everyone leaps to their feet when Rick hits the coin and Joe's sitting there. And I think it's also fun that that Joe really came alive talking about how much he doesn't like Rick Devins, where Joe really showed his personality like in a fun way last week talking about how much he can't stand Rick Devins.

[00:56:55] So I think it's just been really fun to get to see all these character moments from everybody. And for Rick, just what a night for him where I think that you'll never forget Rick Devins flipping the coin. What a great moment for him and his family. I'm sure, I'm sure like as a boy dad, I'm sure it meant so much for his son, Jack, to watch all this.

[00:57:24] Shout out to Becca Devins also, who gets mentioned in the episode as well. So just a huge, huge night for the Devins family. Yeah. Should the winner tip out Rick Devins? Like do you have to like buy Rick Devins? Yeah. Like what's a nice gift for like you, like you win the million dollars. Rick Devins, Rick Devins doubled it for you. Well, what's the gift for Rick Devins? I would try to get him like a facsimile of the coin, like a nice facsimile of the coin.

[00:57:54] You know, here's like a coin. Yeah. Maybe the coin itself. Coin itself. Ask Jimmy. Yeah. You got to do something, right? Something kind of like, like, like, like something that's like, you know, that represents the moment because that's what's, that's what the memory, the core of the memory. You know, you sort of like, you win at the blackjack table. You're supposed to tip the dealer. Yeah. Yeah. You do something. Does she have to tip to Jimmy? I don't think you have to tip Mr. Beast. I think you just like and subscribe.

[00:58:22] I think that smash like and subscribe. I think then that's, that's good. Yeah. They'll say Rick Devins, your money's no good here. But I'm not even going to belabor it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I'm not going to belabor it, belabor it. Fishy for Rick Devins. I thought that this was a great episode for him. He certainly made the move of the episode, flipping the coin, getting heads, calling the beast, you know, well, I guess. No, no, no. I got it. Okay. You know, maybe that's smart, right?

[00:58:52] A strategic move to call the beast. You know, you think that Mr. Beast. I would say it was a ballsy move for Rick Devins to like, it's like, all right, Rick, we got the beast logo and the survivor logo. Like, well, I'm going to take the beast. My son would want that. Don't get mad at him if I don't get it. But I think that like that was really ballsy in front of Jeff to pick the beast logo. Yeah.

[00:59:18] But, you know, he knows, listen, he's the next, the next phase of his, of his reality TV career is beast games. Yeah. By the way, uh, I didn't announce that who's coming up on the podcast, but Jesse Lopez is going to be here with me. He's coming, he's coming over tomorrow and he's coming to the studio of Jesse Lopez of beast games season two.

[00:59:40] And of course, uh, Jesse's son, geo one, $500,000 on the Mr. Beast, uh, YouTube channel. Wow. Pretty good. Pretty good. So, uh, we'll hear what Jesse has to say about all that. And then Bryce Isaiah is also going to be on the podcast this week. So a, uh, big episode here for a big week of podcasting after the two hour episode, Stephen, uh, should we take a couple of questions tonight? Yeah.

[01:00:10] Let's bring it back. Old time. Let's get some questions in there. Uh, for many, many years, Stephen and I were live, live after the episodes. And we took when we were younger, when we were, when we were younger and we, uh, many times are able to record the know-it-alls earlier in the day on Wednesday. And then we air it live for you, everybody. Uh, and, and sometimes I'm in bed. I'm going to go. Oh, I'm, oh, I'm definitely in bed. I'm always in bed. Yeah.

[01:00:40] Uh, but I'll be in the live chat every, uh, every now and then, but we are live, live here tonight. And, you know, it's also going to be the last time that Stephen and I are able to be, uh, here together with you for, so, uh, is that true? No, no, you know what? Am I wrong about this? No, there's going to be a week in between. Uh, my math is wrong. Cause, uh, one week from tonight, I can tell you we are going, I'm going to be in New York

[01:01:08] city for the biggest live show we've ever done here on RHAP. And look who I'm bringing with me. Whoa, look at that. Yes. Parvati shallow and the captain of sports. Danielle DiLorenzo. Nath is going to, uh, there we're bringing the show from the West coast to the East coast. We had so much fun in California that they're coming on out to see us at the biggest live podcast.

[01:01:37] I think this might be the biggest civilian gathering of survivor viewers ever on, uh, next Wednesday night at town hall in, uh, New York city. So that's going to be one week from tonight. Stephen will have a know-it-alls for you on Wednesday. And then we will have the live show from New York city coming up on Thursday here on RHAP. But then we'll be together. We'll be together for the week after that.

[01:02:06] And then, uh, I will, uh, be going out to the finale, the finale. Oh, that's exciting. Very exciting. Very exciting. Yeah. So I'm nobbing with the glitter. I'm nobbing with the glitter. All right. Let's see some questions from the listeners. Do you have any good questions? Okay. Uh, do we think Mr. Beast was edited back after the Zach Brown backlash? No, I think really, I, I, first of all, I think they did a really good job with him. He was there. He was a presence.

[01:02:35] He wasn't like in your face. I mean, I heard a rumor that they, that they did. I don't think it's crazy that that happened. Why, why do you think, you think that like Mr. Beast was like talking a lot more and they, and they showed less of him. Maybe I had a confessional from him. Like, yeah, why are you here? You know, like, I don't think it's crazy. No, I think that Zach Brown had confessionals cause he was off doing stuff without the, survivors. I like, there might've been a whole segment with, with Mr. Beast. I guess it's possible. I mean, this was a two hour episode. I don't think they really edited out a lot of Mr. Beast content.

[01:03:04] But to your point, like there was very little like stuff for him to do. This was a very jam packed episode. There was like, you know, in addition to the strategy sessions, there was the auction. There was the, so there was a lot going on. Um, so yeah, there was, there was, it was, he was not off doing other random stuff. So maybe there wasn't really any, any room for him to. Yeah. Sarah Cupcakes wants to know, uh, why was there no alcohol at the survivor auction? Yeah. Is that a new policy here? Has there not been, when was the last time there was alcohol? I mean, I know we had, we had the margaritas in survivor 47.

[01:03:35] Right. Um, yeah, that's, that's, that's, that's interesting. I mean, the margarita curse really became a thing in the forties after Kelly now bandy in. And then, um, it was also, uh, uh, from Sierra on survivor 47. Right. I wonder if they didn't want to get people like margaritas and then ask them to go to a balance challenge. That would be kind of crappy. Yeah. That would have. Dangerous fun. Isn't that what we want? Okay. Dangerous fun. All right.

[01:04:05] Um, Nick Townsend is Riz God old enough to drink. You know, this is the thing and people say, you guys, you got to do the show live. You need to get questions from the audience because we got to get questions from the audience. And so we could answer is Rizzo old enough to drink. We haven't talked about Rizzo though. Rizzo had a really good line in this episode that I really like. If you want to plan to happen, you make it happen. I really liked that.

[01:04:34] Like, you know, like that's, that's, it's like, it's like, um, if you had, if they had, if they had been the inventors of Facebook, they would have invented Facebook, you know, from the social network. Oh yeah. Like, yeah. Um, but, but, uh, Rizzo looks dangerously thin. Can we talk about that? Like Rizzo looks real thin. Yeah. Uh, yeah, he's getting like, uh, again, we, I guess we shouldn't talk about people's bodies, but, uh, the, uh, two, two seasons in a row of very chiseled jawline though.

[01:05:03] Uh, clavicular getting jealous. It's not necessarily his like the bone structure impeccable, but it's like, eyes like hollow. Like he looks like he's been starving for two months, which is basically what's been happening. Well, it was a good thing. He got cookies. Maybe. Is that why Aubrey picked him? Oh yeah. That's definitely why Aubrey picked him. He also got a chicken. He got like the healthy dinner of like, uh, you'll get chicken breast and a protein shake. Yeah. There you go. That was those.

[01:05:32] Those, I couldn't believe that the healthy items were so hot. Like, like the, the, the veggie plate was very, it was very much desired, you know? Like they got more money. Yeah. Who wanted the cracker plate? All the, yeah. I can't believe they wanted vegetables. Like I do not want, give me the, the sweets. Okay. All right. Um, uh, what auction item would you have wanted Steven? The chocolate chip cookies. Chocolate chip cookies. Yeah. What was the, uh, the, the whole cake that Ozzy had? I'd like to know more about the cake. Oh yeah.

[01:06:02] They just kind of gave us a real snapshot of him eating a bite of a giant cake. I mean, after he already had the fried chicken. Yeah. Yeah. Ozzy, Ozzy might've won the auction. I will say, um, there was something interesting with the, they called it the fall on the sword item, which I thought the branding was a little, uh, a little bit of a stretch there on the fall on the sword item for, okay.

[01:06:27] So Jonathan had to pick a box and then Ozzy got, what was in the other box? Ozzy got fried chicken. Jonathan had to eat the disgusting boiled sea slug. And then he couldn't even get to eat the, like, it wasn't like that he got to share the fried chicken with Jonathan afterwards. And did any part of that lead to Jonathan saying like, you know who I want to vote out? Ozzy. Yeah. Pat it with this guy.

[01:06:57] He ate the fried chicken. Didn't he? I would, I'd eat a disgusting sea slug. Oh yeah. I don't think so. You know what though? I, so Jonathan picked, I, do you think Jonathan was picking to get the good, choice or the bad choice? I think he was trying to get the good choice for himself. I think so. Why not? Cause the, the, the two tops, the two like container tops, one was very like chaotic. And that was what the safe choice was under. And I was like, I was thinking like, they're not going to put the chaotic choice under the chaotic top,

[01:07:26] but Jonathan picked like the very placid top. And that was the chaos choice. You know, the sea slugs, I think. So I, I wondered like, is he not thinking through the tops enough or, or do you think I couldn't really tell where the strategy was? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Um, I'm not going to weigh in on the tops. Uh, Brandon Donlin wants to say, uh, Shaheen can sing the grilled chicken and broccoli song. Okay. There we go. Okay. All right. Um, oh, this is an interesting question.

[01:07:54] Matt Farr says, did nobody repeatedly bidding against Sari reveal the hierarchy? Were people afraid to outbid Sari at the auction? Oh, that's funny. I didn't even notice that. Is that a thing? I don't know. I feel like that Sari was going for a lot of things that nobody else really cared about. Like the blanket, uh, the mouthwash. Blanket, blanket is invaluable though. I mean, blanket is going to serve, I guess they only have like a week left on the show, right? Well, Sari on big brother famously was all about having the bathrobe.

[01:08:24] Oh, so I think comfort at night. I, I was very big for me on survivor too. Like I, that's, uh, yeah, that's really important. Good night's sleep. That's everything is downstream of a good night's sleep. Okay. And this is an interesting question going back to what you were talking about earlier, uh, Stephen. If Sari has so many allies, how long can Sari protect Ozzy or will, uh, this, uh, turn on the Wizard of Oz alliance? Okay. So Sari has so many different allies.

[01:08:53] As far as, how do you foresee Sari wanting to whittle this down? Well, I think the whittling we, as described kind of makes a lot of sense, right? You just said, uh, the, the will wall strategy, um, you know, you get Emily out, then probably, you know, go back the other direction and look at it. It's a little bit of a Jenga game. So, okay. All right. So Emily, you could take out and, and, and, and Rick too. I think he gets a little dicey.

[01:09:17] I think, I think that Jonathan, um, so now if you get it down to Rizzo and Joe, well, now it's Tiffany going to be like, Hey, but Joe's my person. Yeah. No, she's not going to say that. I don't know. Maybe she'll say that. She's not gonna put up too much of a fight for Joe. Is she? I think that Tiffany would be like, well, why not Rizzo? Yeah. Right. You know, I think nobody, nobody's worried. Nobody's threatened by Rizzo though. I think that's like the, you know, nobody's worried about Rizzo.

[01:09:45] It does start to get dicey when it gets down to, uh, like, you know, around six is when I think it's going to start to be a problem. I think that she has a few more rounds where she's able to just, uh, do what she wants. But I do think that there will be a point where there could be a couple of people that say, well, but wait, hold on. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. All right. Anything else on your mind, Steven? No.

[01:10:13] As you can see, I'm like losing the capacity for speech. Yeah. All right. Uh, let's just talk about what else is coming up. Big week. We're heading into mentioned it at the top of the show. The tribe and I have spoken really the full court press is on. Now we are less than a week until the tribe and I have spoken. Spoken hits bookstores. And if you haven't done so yet, Rob has a book.com.

[01:10:39] Of course we have the pre-order bonus digital chapter of the ultimate rites of passage, a tribute to all 751 people who have ever played us survivor. And that will be yours. Go to, uh, Rob has a website.com slash pre-order perks to get signed up. Once you pre-order at Rob has a book.com. And then Steven and I are going to be together this weekend in Washington, DC.

[01:11:08] Come on out and see us at the miracle theater at the East city bookshop. Tickets are available at Rob has a website.com slash events. And then Sam, are, are all the other places sold out? Let me see. He's saying no, no, they're not. Okay. Okay. Sam's saying they're not, uh, not everything else is sold out. Yeah. Go to Rob has a website.com slash events for that. Okay.

[01:11:35] Next Wednesday night, a couple of tickets are still available for the live show. Uh, hope to see you there. And then I mentioned Jesse and Bryce are coming into the podcast this week. Of course, check out everything else going on in our survivor podcast feed at we know survivor.com. I'll be back taking your questions on Friday afternoon at 3 PM Eastern for the patrons of Rob has a podcast, including also club condo, special,

[01:12:04] club condo coming up Monday night with Chappellee. And then Steven, let me put on my escape hat. Uh, I've got a whole merch. Uh, yeah. You're looking very stylish. Yes. Yes. And that's part of your traders. Your traders. What's this? The limited edition surf dogs merch. Yeah. So Brian Malloy, whom you know very well had this idea and he was like, let's just do like a one-off let's do a fun shirt. Let's just sell it for a week. And if anyone wants it, they can buy it and then we'll make it.

[01:12:33] So, um, that's what, that's what we did. Uh, I thought it was a really funny idea. And so we four week ending tomorrow on April 30th. Um, you can, until then you can buy a surf dog shirt celebrating the dogs of summer. There's a logo this summer or reality TV is going to the dogs. It's a, uh, part of escape. It's a show within a book, um, from escape, but, um, it's a go to a surf dog or sorry. Surf dogs dot shop. Is there a website?

[01:13:01] I think that I think it's surf dogs dot shop, um, to purchase your shirt and, uh, one, one more day. And then that won't, it won't be possible anymore. Okay. Uh, and then of course, this is like a for a week. One night on chat BCC. Check it out. Everything that the alumni are saying. Sam Moore said, I, I cracked him up on chat BCC, uh, with, uh, comments tonight. All right. So check that out. Go to robsmuffs.com slash VIP chat.

[01:13:31] There you go. All right. Am I, am I pulling off the escape hat? I think you should keep it on forever. Keep it on forever. I'll sleep in it tonight. Yeah. I'm a little, a little surprise for the missus tonight. Hey, getting into bed with, I'm wearing the escape hat and nothing else. Do you feel like you're going to pull that off? Wow. Wow. That's, that's like every person's fantasy. Yeah. We'll see. Okay. All right. Steven, anything else on your mind? No, this was a pleasure.

[01:13:59] Uh, yeah, I'm very, I'm not sure. I feel like I did at some tribal councils where I was like, what am I saying? Look, uh, Steven, uh, a trooper tonight to, uh, come back in and just got off a plane. And we, uh, so much survivor excitement to talk about. I'll talk with Stephanie LaGrosa on the exit interview tomorrow. Okay. Find out, uh, is Stephanie salty with Jonathan for throwing that plan out there?

[01:14:29] What's going on with her and Sari and so much more. Thank you so much for joining us here live after the episode and take care of everybody. Have a good one. Bye. Bye. Bye. I'm always looking for those tips and tricks to help optimize my life ways to save money, travel better and make life a little easier. That's why I love all the hacks. The podcast hosted by Chris Hutchins. That's all about practical tips.

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