Mary Kwiatkowski on Survivor B&B: S47 Ep 7

Mike and Liana are joined by Mary Kwiatkowski for Episode 7!

[00:00:00] Mike and the Anna, yeah they're playing some games

[00:00:04] You better pray to your mama that they're not super lame

[00:00:07] And if that all sounds cool I can tell you the name

[00:00:12] It's the R-H-A-P-B-M-B

[00:00:16] Mike and the Anna, yeah they're playing some games

[00:00:20] You better pray to your mama that they're not super lame

[00:00:25] All sounds cool I can tell you the name

[00:00:28] It's the R-H-A-P-M-B-M-B

[00:00:34] Hi everybody and welcome back to the R-H-A-P-B-N-B for week 7 of Survivor 47

[00:00:41] My name is Mike Bloom and okay everybody it's officially now the jury

[00:00:47] Just when you thought it was safe to go into the merge

[00:00:50] Here comes Jeff Probst with a proverbial shark mouth that contains a bag of rocks

[00:00:56] To determine the course of misfortune for one contestant until it wasn't and then it was

[00:01:01] The course of misfortune for another contestant but it's only good fortunes today as we are talking of course on the eve of a very important vote

[00:01:09] We're going to talk about an episode where half the contestants didn't vote and uh

[00:01:13] The players were split like a highly contested electorate and we got to see the return

[00:01:19] Of a very interesting twist to carry out some very interesting results and especially a very interesting reaction

[00:01:25] To said vote of course, i'd love to welcome in the co-owner of the bnb here

[00:01:30] Who will never be separated from me via rock draw it's liana boris

[00:01:35] Yes, i'm i'm happy to be here. I guess mike uh, you know look I wasn't here last week

[00:01:41] And if I was I was gonna sing the praises of survivor

[00:01:44] Look you guys talked about it. We got the merge

[00:01:47] Regardless of how you want to say it and then

[00:01:49] We took it all away and only four people were eligible to go home and that was really painful

[00:01:55] But you know what regardless of the pain there's got to be some pleasure and I think that this group can find it

[00:02:01] Yeah, I mean isn't the lyrics to the infamous song last christmas

[00:02:05] You gave me a merge and the very next week you took it away. Yeah, i'll be singing that this christmas

[00:02:11] Well wham here comes our guest for the week. It is frail mary mary kakowski

[00:02:18] Fresh from her tour de force performance as bella swan in the twilight franchise in our halloween brand steel

[00:02:26] Mary have you broken character yet or you just fully immersed in it still?

[00:02:30] I've got some ketchup right over here. No

[00:02:33] For you mike

[00:02:34] Well, listen the survivor social hour infamously didn't have condiments so they would have loved that ketchup

[00:02:39] Yeah, and that's blasphemous, you know, you gotta have some mustard or something to put on those hot dogs

[00:02:44] I know that was ridiculous

[00:02:46] Well, mary give us your thoughts so far where you know

[00:02:49] Depending on what the episode count might be either halfway or a little over halfway through the season so far again

[00:02:54] Feels like the game is now gonna really start into a new phase with

[00:02:58] Truly going individual with the jury starting next week. What have your thoughts been through the first seven weeks?

[00:03:05] Here's the thing

[00:03:07] We love it when a sentence starts with here's the thing

[00:03:11] Yeah, if it's not uh, a hit kelly clarkson song I don't want to hear it

[00:03:15] I believe uh

[00:03:17] Most of my last appearances here at the b&b have been with my uh partner in crime asia welch so

[00:03:25] um

[00:03:26] You know

[00:03:28] Solo

[00:03:30] um

[00:03:30] Let's just say first three weeks of the season went real strong for me. I was really I was loving it

[00:03:35] Everything was great. Um, we're like really the first two weeks

[00:03:38] but um

[00:03:40] uh

[00:03:40] Due to

[00:03:41] an abundance of circumstances with a busy life and then also, uh, just feeling sad after episode three

[00:03:47] I watched episodes four five six and seven yesterday and today

[00:03:51] Oh

[00:03:53] I

[00:03:55] Was like when when liana asked for me to come on the b&b. I was like great. This gives me an opportunity

[00:04:00] To catch back up because I feel I feel out of it and I feel sad about that

[00:04:04] But also I just needed to take a little breather from season 47

[00:04:07] But i'm back and I and I will say

[00:04:09] That I think the time away was good because I loved those last four episodes

[00:04:14] I had a really great time. Um, I mean, you know, I I I went through my my grief period and my mourning process

[00:04:21] But you know, I think we're all back and um

[00:04:24] And at this point like there are some fun characters. I feel like it took me about three or four episodes

[00:04:30] To really really feel like I got to know everyone partially because you know, the edit was hiding like four people

[00:04:36] um

[00:04:37] But like

[00:04:38] I think it's been said over the last several episodes

[00:04:40] Like caroline genevieve these people are popping now they're coming out they're playing

[00:04:46] Sue's out here. I'm loving it

[00:04:48] So

[00:04:49] And sue

[00:04:50] And also sue

[00:04:52] And also sue do it for the 45 year olds

[00:04:55] Yeah, I mean, it's I think it's been a great season

[00:04:58] I'm I I don't really know because i'm so behind on some of the podcasts

[00:05:02] I don't know like what the the thoughts and the ether are like what what everyone else is feeling

[00:05:06] But um for the first time in a while taking a bit more of like a casual stance to it

[00:05:11] I'm i'm loving it talking about it with my parents. We're loving it. So, you know, it's a good time

[00:05:16] Yeah, it is interesting because I think there was a lot of talk last week both on this podcast and off about like

[00:05:21] What do we look like in a post rome society?

[00:05:25] You know like this was a character that took up a lot of air time

[00:05:28] Especially in his boot episode and he also was an easy consensus target

[00:05:33] So what would the state of things look like afterwards and what we got was something that kind of answered the question

[00:05:39] But didn't you know it was looking at okay?

[00:05:42] Basically, we forced to go to a pre-merge tribal council in the post merge and the person that was probably going to get picked off there

[00:05:49] Ends up getting picked off here

[00:05:51] Uh, and so it does again kind of delay the answer to that question

[00:05:55] We get a lot of interesting setup leana in the first 15 minutes of like

[00:05:58] Oh my god is andy gonna finally

[00:06:01] Turn on the gatas has he been pushed bent so far that he's now going to break oh my god

[00:06:07] There's a women's alliance happening and then

[00:06:09] Reach it into a bag of rocks kind of stymies all that for the rest of the episode

[00:06:13] Yeah, exactly and I actually think it's so interesting that we do end up with

[00:06:18] An original tuku boot right where

[00:06:21] It even more so feels like it's not the merge like it even more so feels like we're just going back to the original tribe format

[00:06:29] Because of the ultimate outcome and also because you know, we see some of the talk at the reward where

[00:06:35] Oh, okay. Well if they get rid of rachel

[00:06:37] Probably will then it's gonna be you know us together, you know yellow and red or make an orange baby making fire right us against blue

[00:06:45] Let's do this

[00:06:46] But then that doesn't ultimately end up happening

[00:06:48] So then even those seeds that were potentially put in place. It's like

[00:06:53] I don't even think that that's gonna happen where I do think that we're gonna kind of go back to the andy stuff that we got at

[00:06:59] The beginning of the episode with him trying to turn on the rest of gotta

[00:07:03] So it just felt I don't okay. I never want to use the phrase a waste of time

[00:07:10] Oh my

[00:07:10] Because I don't believe anything is really a waste of time. I think you can learn anything from every experience every experience gives you something

[00:07:19] Uh, but it just felt like we hit rewind like we just went back

[00:07:23] Past the rome

[00:07:24] Smash the hourglass

[00:07:25] Yeah, we smashed the hourglass these episodes should have been aired in reverse order

[00:07:29] Like we should have had okay tuku goes to tribal council gets rid of someone else

[00:07:32] Then yeah, what did they just show out of context? They're like wait, why is rachel there?

[00:07:36] Yeah, exactly like huh? That's weird. That's okay. She leaves. She just like goes back. I also

[00:07:40] Oh my god. Yeah, anyway, okay, so that's my thought i'm done talking for now

[00:07:44] Yeah, I mean i'd be interested mary to see like in

[00:07:47] Retrospect of the season watching it in a binge might make this episode go down a little smoother to the honest point

[00:07:53] Is because it seems like from the next time on we're immediately gonna get a follow-up to andy trying to get revenge

[00:07:59] And this was more so just a bit of a detour on the way to the ultimate destination

[00:08:03] Yeah, I I can see that this is what I'll say is like

[00:08:07] I know there's a lot like i'm i'm an old-school survivor purist. I am

[00:08:11] But in order to enjoy the show that we have I feel like the way I look at it is

[00:08:18] Whenever someone gets screwed over in the game

[00:08:22] And and I you know, i've played orgs i've played lrgs the lrg I played

[00:08:27] I got I was a mergatory boot like it it sucks. It's not fun. You know it

[00:08:33] No, like are we talking like like outright mergatory like you did the whole half safe half not or were you just the merge boot?

[00:08:38] More or less half safe half not like all of my allies pretty much ended up being in the half safe and they didn't vote and so I was just

[00:08:47] Yeah, basically it was more or less this kind of scenario and

[00:08:51] unfortunately

[00:08:52] What i'd say is

[00:08:54] Kind of the way you have to wrap your mind around it

[00:08:57] Is if you're at least given the opportunity to make some connections with people like

[00:09:02] Rachel was put in a bad scenario and

[00:09:05] If rachel had gone home that would have been really unfair like I think you know for her from her perspective

[00:09:10] I don't I don't view like the tiana boot to be particularly unfair or whatever

[00:09:15] I feel like it's like she was on the bottom of her group. She didn't know it

[00:09:18] She had those weeks to do it and uh

[00:09:20] To get in a better position and this is what it was I have to look at it like and I think jeff looks at it this way, which is

[00:09:27] 99% of the time

[00:09:28] If you get voted out you probably could have done something to to save yourself now

[00:09:33] But the thing that you might have had to do might have been

[00:09:36] Weeks in the making that you like it was like a thing that you couldn't have just done on that one day

[00:09:40] Like it might have been a much bigger thing and there's so much luck involved

[00:09:44] So, you know, it stinks. It is what it is. I feel I feel really bad for tiana

[00:09:49] It's unfortunate, but I I feel bad for everyone who gets voted out of survivor, uh when they're not

[00:09:54] Actively making horrible

[00:09:56] I mean now you're kind of speaking like tiana, right?

[00:09:58] She's like i'm crying for myself and i'm crying for everybody who won't make the jury. I mean it is

[00:10:03] Interesting because I would sort of put tiana in the same category as like a jenny guzan by on the pyramid of being screwed over

[00:10:10] Of those that don't remember jenny guzan by she was part of a tribe that did a twist where they voted somebody out

[00:10:16] And so theoretically she'd be safe for another round

[00:10:18] But then they were going to vote someone else out immediately and so it was like

[00:10:22] Okay, because the last place option wasn't available

[00:10:25] She loses because she's second to last basically in the pecking order

[00:10:29] I sort of put that on the same level and you know

[00:10:33] People watched 44 so maybe they were planning for once they saw a version of this twist like

[00:10:38] Okay, someone from the other tribe is going to have some ability to sway the votes, but

[00:10:43] It just seems like almost impossible to plan for when you're a survivor contestant

[00:10:47] You have to plan for a through z you can't start adding letters of the greek alphabet in there as well

[00:10:52] Otherwise, you're going to drive yourself crazy over the lack of calories in your brain

[00:10:56] The simpler way of looking at it is it's not planning for someone to get a magical advantage that will help you

[00:11:01] It's think about it like I need to plan to make really good

[00:11:05] Make a great impression on these people so that if someone got some sort of thing that I would be the one they'd want to use it on

[00:11:12] And like that's what it's really what it boils down to is more of relationships

[00:11:16] It boils down to the fact that tiana couldn't see that caroline and sue had a relationship with gabe that went beyond her and

[00:11:24] She didn't she didn't do enough to break that up, you know, and I mean and maybe maybe she couldn't have but that's the scenario

[00:11:30] The scenario is she's out of the alliance and it stinks

[00:11:33] Um

[00:11:34] There there's you know, I I don't think like a lot of times when there's advantages used

[00:11:38] It's a calculus of like, okay

[00:11:39] Well instead if this person had gotten with this person and voted this way, but this one is a little simpler

[00:11:44] It's just yeah, she was she was the bottom person on the alliance and it stinks

[00:11:47] Um, and and it's very true that if she if this had not happened and they were back together with you know

[00:11:52] And she made the merge. I don't think she would have been in this scenario

[00:11:55] But it's like it's like what robin steven said on the know-it-alls. This was final destination

[00:11:59] It was just gonna happen probably you know, it's the way it's the way it worked out and now now the tribes are evened up and here we go

[00:12:06] And if fittingly a franchise that started with the plane crash for the flight attendant

[00:12:10] Oh, no

[00:12:12] I I I yeah, I I don't know. I don't think obviously and rachel had gone home

[00:12:17] Then I think the conversation looks very different, right?

[00:12:20] Oh, it goes back to the whole matt blankenship conversation, right of like how screwed over was this person?

[00:12:25] Right exactly and then we're talking about oh my gosh like the

[00:12:30] Talking about preparing for delta, uh, you know lambdas plans, right?

[00:12:34] Like this is just this is just it's just impossible

[00:12:38] But instead, you know now we're having a conversation of like well

[00:12:41] This is what would have happened if tuku had just gone to tribal

[00:12:44] Like if just tuku had lost like this is what would have happened and then there's sort of some other like interesting smatterings

[00:12:50] But I actually don't think that the tribal council

[00:12:52] Decision was ultimately that interesting to me because it was like well clearly they had talked about it and they were like prepared for this

[00:12:57] So yeah, that's what they did that was the that was the thing for me that maybe led to a lack of like

[00:13:04] Big you know anticipation for this except for the thought of oh, I wonder what's the face crack gonna be once rachel reveals the advantage?

[00:13:10] Is it's all gonna like come be outright with it? Or is he gonna give the performance of a lifetime turns out? Yes, and yes, uh

[00:13:17] But with the what?

[00:13:18] Uh, but I from my perspective at least as soon as like

[00:13:22] Saul got the advantage and he said that one of them is safety without power

[00:13:26] It was like, okay, he's giving it to rachel. Rachel's using safety without power tiana's gonna get voted out because we know that sue caroline and gaber thing

[00:13:33] And that's three versus two at best now

[00:13:34] I was confused on one thing because I didn't rewatch it was um

[00:13:38] Could salt choose which advantage to give or was it rachel's choice?

[00:13:42] So is rachel's choice allegedly? Okay, so they probably just cut that part out then or or yeah, there's I think there's a secret scene where it shows

[00:13:48] Her finding the advantage and she basically is able to take her pick and you know

[00:13:52] Maybe if there were tighter numbers and it wasn't so open and shut then she could use the block of oh

[00:13:56] But it was so easy for her to just be like yeah, nope

[00:13:59] And this is also a very fun situation where

[00:14:02] She got to arrive at tribal council before everybody else like half the people

[00:14:06] Couldn't vote at that tribal council and you think that jeff would also summarily dismiss them

[00:14:13] But no, she's gonna get back by herself despite the fact that she basically left a final five vote early

[00:14:20] I

[00:14:20] I was obsessed with that moment like I thought first I was like

[00:14:23] Maybe she'll go get to sit on the jury seats with everybody else because technically that's camp

[00:14:27] Like camp right now is jury seats, but no

[00:14:30] She's just the one person that has to go back to camp and just like chill by herself

[00:14:35] Before everybody else comes back and tells her exactly what happened

[00:14:38] It's so funny to me. I would be doing a happy dance if I was her so yeah, I mean that was great

[00:14:42] Yes, but are we getting to like sandy territory mary from your beloved token jeans?

[00:14:46] It's like why didn't you start this fire? Why didn't you get the camp going rachel? You had the extra time

[00:14:51] It's just sorry. I I didn't know what a pace was

[00:14:53] Yeah, um

[00:14:56] Like here's the other thing is okay pretend this doesn't happen pretend she doesn't she doesn't get this advantage

[00:15:00] It doesn't go home. I think the and this is what is, you know, this is how survivor works a lot

[00:15:06] Yeah, if she had gone home people would have said oh she was screwed by the swap, whatever we've seen scenarios similar to this before though

[00:15:13] Don't ask me to quote one, but i'm sure there have been ones where like there is one person on the okay

[00:15:18] Okay, here's one, you know amber mariano, right? Yeah

[00:15:21] I also seen scenarios where the person who is on the obvious outs

[00:15:26] Does make it work for whatever reason and you know does does get by so it's possible it could happen

[00:15:32] I think the original plan that came in like

[00:15:35] I think that even if they were going to all vote out rachel

[00:15:39] I think that there was a non-zero chance that they wouldn't have that they could have done one of the many alternative plans that were

[00:15:46] We're brought up about, you know voting out one of the uh, two coo members. So

[00:15:51] I think it was possible

[00:15:53] Yeah, I mean yeah, you say that but then caroline's like she's the best to ever do it

[00:15:58] You see the fact that you like her so much. That's why we got to get rid of her like

[00:16:02] I love caroline low-key stepping in and just like

[00:16:05] It feels actually very big brother to me where it's like somebody gets like a wild idea

[00:16:10] Especially just watching so much bb26 like someone comes up with this wild cockamamie idea

[00:16:14] And then there's usually the person to come through with the bucket of cold water

[00:16:17] And sometimes it doesn't work when you're dealing with people like tucker and angela, but

[00:16:21] Caroline very much is that person like caroline's the chelsea here being like no no no no

[00:16:25] We're not doing this right now. Stay the course vote out tiana or vote out rachel and then we're golden

[00:16:32] Um, here's a question I have about sol's advantage

[00:16:37] Do you think someone else could just claim that they were the one to do it?

[00:16:40] Like just go go to rachel privately and do it like I don't mean sure could they I think do you think someone like would that be a good game move?

[00:16:47] Well, I think the only person that did would do it has been voted out in

[00:16:51] Fair enough

[00:16:51] I think yeah, I would absolutely be like you're welcome

[00:16:54] I did that. I guess the question is does saul have the like the paper like does he have the evidence

[00:17:00] Well, I assume he gave her the paper like yeah, it was only one paper

[00:17:05] So if it was only that one paper, but see no one knows that except for him

[00:17:08] But if somehow people knew then like that's almost why I would love in in survivor for

[00:17:13] People to be a little more aware of exactly what

[00:17:16] The like I want people to use production as a strategy. I want people to

[00:17:21] To be able to claim that they did it to where rachel has four people going up to her claiming that they saved her like yeah

[00:17:26] I mean, I think there's a very non-zero chance that happens like because I

[00:17:30] I imagine rachel's first instinct would be that it's one of either andy sam or sierra

[00:17:36] Yeah, uh, and so because then she doesn't know the other lavos from a hole in the wall

[00:17:41] So it would be interesting of like all three of them approach her saying it

[00:17:46] I think that I don't think they would I think that andy in like day three may have but not andy anymore who's like

[00:17:52] Listen, you're just gonna be fodder to the slaughterhouse coming up soon

[00:17:56] But saw might at this point, uh, or maybe saw might recruit somebody like a genevieve and a teeny

[00:18:04] And maybe the three of them all do a little bit of three card monty and are all going to her saying

[00:18:08] Yeah, I use the advantage on you. So it's like, okay, well, I like lava

[00:18:12] I don't know who used it on me. So I can't target one specific person if the info comes out, but i'm happy for lava

[00:18:18] Do you think it's better for saul to tell her or not?

[00:18:23] Yeah, I so I was essentially debating

[00:18:26] All of the decisions that saul had to make right and what he should do. So, okay. So one he finds it

[00:18:31] Okay, first decision. Who's he gonna give it to right? So that's one decision second decision

[00:18:36] Does he tell the other people that he went on the reward with? Okay, that's a yes or no question

[00:18:41] Then the other question is does he tell rachel that he's the one who saved her of all of those?

[00:18:48] The one I felt the most confident about was tell rachel you saved her

[00:18:53] That's like the one to me that felt like

[00:18:56] Unless you're gonna save it for final tribal council

[00:18:58] What good does it do you because I don't think that necessarily saving rachel was the best strategic decision for saul in that situation

[00:19:06] I don't think it was a bad decision. I also don't think it was the best decision, right?

[00:19:11] Because I think on one hand you get rid of rachel you help to solidify this group of six, right?

[00:19:16] Okay, great. That's one option

[00:19:17] The other option is you choose to save rachel now

[00:19:20] She's potentially indebted to you and then you keep the group of gata together as four strong

[00:19:26] But then you have andy turning on them. So maybe it creates more interesting dynamics and then tuku

[00:19:30] You know starts to fall apart like to me

[00:19:32] There didn't seem to be a really clear outcome for him in terms of who he should give it to but I do think he should tell rachel

[00:19:38] I think

[00:19:39] If it was me I would have given it to rachel and I would have my inclination would have been to tell her

[00:19:46] I think thinking about it. I think the better move is give it to rachel. Don't tell her

[00:19:50] I think it's it's a good move to go up to her after the fact and say oh my gosh

[00:19:54] I'm so glad you're safe. That was awesome. Let's work together. I think that's good

[00:19:58] I think that the disadvantage is if you're not gonna tell everyone you went on the reward with

[00:20:02] I think it's risky to tell rachel because I think rachel

[00:20:06] Could tell them now. Maybe you wait it out. Maybe you wait for a little while

[00:20:09] See if you become close with her

[00:20:10] That's a bond

[00:20:11] Go through some boats and then tell her you don't necessarily need to save it till final tribal

[00:20:15] But I think that if you're going to keep it a secret from anyone

[00:20:18] You should keep it a secret from everyone because it benefits him to have

[00:20:22] As long as rachel is someone he wants to work with and that he plans on building a relationship with

[00:20:27] It benefits him to have rachel here

[00:20:30] Um, I think the obvious thing to do is to tell her which is like probably what my first instinct would have been

[00:20:35] But I wouldn't have been thinking about the disadvantages to that

[00:20:38] It's kind of like the more things you do in survivor. There are pros and cons you think oh pro

[00:20:45] I'm gonna get her on my side con what if she thinks that now i'm a threat

[00:20:49] Because I I right she owes me right whereas not telling her doesn't give you a pro

[00:20:54] But it doesn't give you a con either

[00:20:55] And if you do make it to the end you could at least add be a final tribal thing to just say hey

[00:21:01] I did this thing that everyone witnessed right and so you know, you could do that

[00:21:05] I think that's the thing is if he's willing okay

[00:21:07] So if so in my head you're telling rachel because you want to create a strong relationship with her

[00:21:13] If he's keeping rachel to continue to throw rachel to the wolves then that obviously don't tell

[00:21:20] Oh, no, then you're just playing with her right if you're like yeah, I saved you once i'm not gonna save you again

[00:21:24] I don't think that when that's like

[00:21:25] I guess maybe apparently making the jury is a huge deal to survivor players, but I don't think rachel would be like

[00:21:30] Thanks for helping me make the jury soul. I really appreciate that and then voting me out the next week. Thanks, you know what?

[00:21:36] I mean, so yeah, it's only a situation where you really care about fostering that relationship

[00:21:40] But if it's to continue to let andy throw got onto the bus then like no

[00:21:44] And it's tough because I would imagine that saul has to have some sort of relationship with rachel to claim

[00:21:51] I mean, I know they've only been merged for a couple days

[00:21:53] But like I I think he has to have some sort of idea in his head of like

[00:21:57] They're having something going which is why he wants to do this because to your point mary

[00:22:01] The huge downside about this is great new person to build a bond with but if I tell her

[00:22:06] I don't know who she's gonna tell like there's a fair chance

[00:22:10] She's gonna tell at least a couple of other people and then that's gonna spread to a bunch of other people and then

[00:22:14] Before you know it. Hey, guess what? Mr. Saul found an advantage without behind everybody's back and like led to this big move at tribal council

[00:22:21] Let's get rid of him

[00:22:22] But I will say this discussion here goes to show why in my opinion

[00:22:27] This was by far the best part of the episode like it is very interesting to me that survivor has not done more anonymous

[00:22:36] Advantages

[00:22:36] It's basically this and the legacy advantage

[00:22:40] Where it's like, oh, I don't know who gave this thing to me

[00:22:43] But I have it now I know like australian survivor for instance did an instance of it where

[00:22:48] Somebody could play an idol on somebody like at the voting booth anonymously

[00:22:52] Um, and I just think it's such an interesting idea because there is the duality now of not only am I playing this idol for someone but also

[00:23:01] Okay, who's gonna own the move when I get back to camp?

[00:23:06] But it's also funny because survivor has been trending away from that we see with the amulets

[00:23:11] We see it with the journeys where everybody's like, okay, you have something so

[00:23:14] Okay, sure. It's not in the sense that you're saying where you're like playing it anonymously

[00:23:18] They're like trending towards everyone knows everything so I think that's also why it was really refreshing to see saul not tell anybody

[00:23:25] Because you got to see his acting at tribal council

[00:23:28] But also we've seen so many negative consequences of telling people about advantages and he just was like

[00:23:36] I'm shutting up now. We'll see ultimately if he does end up telling people later

[00:23:39] But at least based on his initial behavior, it seems like he wants to try to keep it under the rug

[00:23:45] Also, i'm sure that it was mentioned the last week

[00:23:49] But like jeff

[00:23:51] You know the amulets have consequences. Why were we acting? Oh, I thought the amulets were great. No

[00:23:57] Yeah, that's the point of the amulets. The point is that they have some consequences now at the point where all of the players

[00:24:03] Collectively decide to break the consequences. Yeah, maybe you need to rethink your horrible trash advantage, but like

[00:24:11] I mean do we think this was a direct rebuke of

[00:24:15] Rome sitting down and calling out how

[00:24:18] The amulets for a disadvantage like all right, i'm gonna show you all i'm gonna throw a bunch of twists your way

[00:24:24] And so one of them has to be good right so

[00:24:26] I mean, I think the best thing about an advantage in survivor is being able to have power over the game to do

[00:24:33] What you want with it without getting any heat for it

[00:24:36] And so yeah, an anonymous advantage why half the people who find idols like they say the reason that people say oh i'm gonna

[00:24:44] Keep this a secret is because it is a good idea to keep it a secret. No one ever does it but like it's a great idea

[00:24:51] Okay, I think on principle I can understand where they're coming from that if you're gonna get a benefit in the game

[00:24:58] It has to come at some kind of cost right? So if you're gonna get the ability fun liana

[00:25:02] I know exactly we love dangerous fun. That's why it says beware

[00:25:06] Right, so if you're gonna be aware all right

[00:25:10] That's fine, but it's almost the level of the risk that is now starting to outweigh the reward

[00:25:18] And I think that's why we're seeing this pendulum shift in the way that players are treating advantages where

[00:25:24] The risk is so high that people aren't willing to do it, right? We see it with the boxes where

[00:25:31] Two of the three decided nope, that's enough one and we're out even if I mean

[00:25:35] I mean, yeah all three decided to nope out before they reach the final stage

[00:25:40] Yeah, exactly and it's the same thing with the amulets. Okay, let's just get rid of them

[00:25:43] Let's just burn them because why the risk does not outweigh the reward

[00:25:50] Yeah, I would agree with that. And so again, it's interesting that they present this

[00:25:53] I don't know if they were thinking this necessarily

[00:25:55] When they put it in from what jeff talked about with on fire

[00:25:58] This really was sort of like a two-piece plan where they had decided to do this split again, which

[00:26:03] I'm not entirely sure why when you're looking back on new era seasons they decided like survivor 44

[00:26:10] Was the the the bees knees of places to go back to between like the journey where you can't

[00:26:16] Just sacrifice your vote your votes basically gone get your vote back versus again the matt blankenship memorial

[00:26:23] Okay, half of you aren't going to vote but one of you is going to win a reward

[00:26:26] That's basically going to go help the other side which

[00:26:30] I mean, I suffice to say I was not very happy to see this back no matter who went

[00:26:35] I felt it was

[00:26:37] Like we just talked about it. It felt just rather

[00:26:41] Reasonless to bring this

[00:26:42] But I think it's semantics like I like the the split

[00:26:47] One tribe wins and and the other tribe

[00:26:51] Votes. I like that. I just think you need to stop saying that they made the merge first

[00:26:55] Just like don't say that just say hey, you're on

[00:26:58] Yeah, it's just a we're doing it at the end of the at the end of the three tribe format

[00:27:01] We go to a true two tribe format

[00:27:03] Yeah, one vote for two votes or whatever and then we go to this like that's the problem

[00:27:06] The problem is the fact that you've claimed that they've made the merge

[00:27:09] But then the point of the merge is that everyone then gets to vote like yeah

[00:27:15] Yeah, there and that you have all these new people to deal with

[00:27:18] So I think I think that's the problem

[00:27:19] It's just like if you if they didn't structure it this way if they just moved it back one vote

[00:27:23] It wouldn't be that big of a deal

[00:27:24] But that's the thing mary is that I don't know if the show necessarily wants to look at the merge anymore

[00:27:29] The first couple rounds as everybody voting together. I mean, I did some research here and

[00:27:34] You know, there are a few seeds if you look at every new era season

[00:27:38] There are a couple that do like the first two post merge rounds are both twisty whether it be like

[00:27:43] Mergatory and then immediately splitting some have one in one

[00:27:47] This was the first one to like obviously not have mergatory proper, but then have a twist involved

[00:27:52] And I do wonder from a production perspective if it's as simple as looking at the rome vote for instance and being like

[00:27:58] We don't want big, you know near unanimous votes at the start

[00:28:02] We don't want the prevailing gameplay to be like everyone jump on a target instead

[00:28:07] We want to scatter all these factions to the nines

[00:28:10] And so let's throw a little bit more randomness to begin with shake it up so that nobody settles into a pattern to begin with

[00:28:16] I don't think that's optimal to do considering that we've had 40 seasons where it's gone

[00:28:21] Okay, but after watching it now for seven seasons. I'm pretty sure that's their prerogative at this point

[00:28:26] But also like and I know it's a one-off thing but like this isn't just a new school thing

[00:28:31] I mean this happened in survivor fiji like it's not

[00:28:34] It yeah, it wasn't great there. Everyone didn't like it at that time either

[00:28:38] But like it's it's more than they they just reached back into the well and I think I think you're right mike. I think it's like

[00:28:44] It's a status of they don't want it to be this, you know cohesive thing at the merge

[00:28:50] I would say the flaw in that is if you're not going to do tribe swaps earlier on

[00:28:54] Then people just don't have the time to build the relationships that I was talking about are important to make this not feel like someone's getting screwed over

[00:29:01] Yeah, except that's not really happened what happened this time, but like yeah, it would have been if rachel wasn't safe

[00:29:08] I think I think maybe this episode and combined with last week's episode as well

[00:29:13] It feels a little bit like that scene in parks and recreation where there's the influencer that's talking about beef milk

[00:29:19] And it's like almond milk that's been squeezed through the holes in cow and living cows or something like that

[00:29:25] It's all about rebranding. Yeah, it's all about rebranding that we're just getting the same thing

[00:29:28] And then this was just a tribe swap and rachel got swap screwed, but then there was a twist or she got saved

[00:29:33] Like that's just what it was. We just we just had a little itty bitty tribe swap

[00:29:37] Just for like a day just for like funsies and now we're gonna go back to I assume regular merge

[00:29:45] Uh, but yeah, it is. I agree with you mary that it does feel a little bit like semantics of just how you're defining

[00:29:52] What's going on and what we call it and

[00:29:56] Uh, I lost my train of thought because I was thinking about the whole beef milk thing

[00:29:59] You're just talking about jeff offered that as a luxury on the reward would people be like vociferously disgusted or would they

[00:30:07] Eventually put two and two together? I don't know man. Oh, I remember what I was gonna say

[00:30:11] Do you think that this would change at all would make you feel better if

[00:30:15] um

[00:30:16] everyone who is on the

[00:30:19] Viewing group who's just watching if they have complete

[00:30:22] um free reign

[00:30:24] To play advantages on the people who are there like I think you meant like that free reign to just walk around tribal council

[00:30:30] If they wanted like well

[00:30:31] I would also say I mean this is this would also be like I don't think this is what they want because it's basically

[00:30:37] Mergatory, but I think like also they could you could change it so that they have the ability to also talk and be in the tribal conversation

[00:30:43] And that blanket ship could have gotten his bag

[00:30:46] If that had been allowed

[00:30:48] Yeah, I mean it's interesting looking at from this perspective because there's pretty much nothing

[00:30:53] Else besides saul's advantage like sue has an idol and I don't know maybe if she feels like she or someone else is in danger when rachel

[00:31:00] Gets uh noped out of the the tribe that she would play but otherwise like yeah, if sam had an idol right now

[00:31:06] Would have been really nice to play on rachel, but you wouldn't have anything it is interesting like I don't

[00:31:11] I don't think i'd be too

[00:31:14] Mad at it like the toothpaste has kind of already been out of the tube of both times

[00:31:18] We've done this one person on the other side has been able to have an influence over what's going on in the tribal council

[00:31:24] So for me, it's like yeah, sure

[00:31:27] Yeah, give give someone your extra vote to use at tribal council play an idol on them

[00:31:32] Uh hell everyone pull your shots in the dark and give it to one person so they can just start playing them one right after the other one of

[00:31:38] Them's got a hit

[00:31:39] Oh

[00:31:39] Is that allowed?

[00:31:41] Can you play someone else?

[00:31:43] Oh, because yeah, it's like your vote is

[00:31:45] I'm pretty i'm pretty sure the rule is that you can't play someone else's shot in the dark

[00:31:50] You can't kill them

[00:31:51] That'd be so cool

[00:31:52] Imagine going up to jeff essentially with your lottery tickets of like

[00:31:56] I'd like to play that can't scratch this one. Can we scratch this one? Can we scratch this one?

[00:32:00] Like maybe you'll win the lottery because you got everybody shot in the dark

[00:32:03] That would be fun. Yeah, I mean if you have six shots in the dark