Why ___ Lost: Survivor 47 Ep 10

This week, Gabe said it was the best he’d ever felt in the game and, “The fact that the fellow players around me have allowed this to happen is mind-blowing.” But they didn’t allow that to happen! It may seem obvious that Gabe was voted out because he was a threat. But it’s almost never that simple, because there are a lot of threats! David Bloomberg and Jessica Lewis go below the surface layer to look at why he was the primary target. At RHAP, we know Survivor, and we know Why Gabe Lost.

[00:00:00] If you lost Survivor and you're feeling down, David and Jessica will turn it around.

[00:00:07] They'll break down the rules and they'll show you how. You played yourself and got voted out.

[00:00:15] This is why __ Lost. And this is why __ Lost. Oh baby, this is why __ Lost.

[00:00:32] Welcome back to Why Blank Lost. I'm David Bloomberg and much like the immunity challenge,

[00:00:38] this podcast just got a lot harder with two balls. It's gonna be so good today and this is how I'm

[00:00:57] starting. You have a problem with me starting by talking about two balls? No, not at all. I, I,

[00:01:05] I think it's fabulous that you were just juggling your two balls. That's great for you. Excellent.

[00:01:10] Excellent. It's a great podcast. You and your props. Yes, yes. Uh, now of course there was also a reward

[00:01:20] challenge which turned out to be my co-host Jessica Lewis's favorite challenge ever.

[00:01:27] Yeah, really never, never my favorite ever. But thanks for reminding all of the listeners of that.

[00:01:34] Horrifying, just horrifying. But I feel like Jeff took it a little easier on this. Oh, 100%.

[00:01:41] Yeah. So maybe he listened to my struggles and my almost drowning in sand and dying and the rest of

[00:01:48] my castmates doing the same and said, you know what? Let's give them a little bit of an easier

[00:01:54] time with this one. Well, I mean, we had a discussion previously about it looked like they could move

[00:01:59] their hands more than when you did it. And this time I definitely noticed that I was looking for it.

[00:02:04] Yeah. And at one point to me, it looked like Andy had managed to maneuver his hands like almost

[00:02:10] in front of him somehow. Yes. Like that. And also he was, he was licking the ball.

[00:02:16] So he wasn't, he wasn't licking it. He was biting it as a creative way to get it over the hump.

[00:02:25] I still think that it is a horrible challenge to make anybody go through. It's just awful. But

[00:02:31] I will say, and I've said this before, Jeff was very proud of himself for managing to figure out

[00:02:39] a challenge where everyone had to be tied at their hands and feet. He was very, very proud of himself.

[00:02:45] And I still have scars from the constraints or restraints, whatever you want to call them that

[00:02:51] we're on. Yeah. So it's, it's not fun, not fun. I don't think they should do it anymore.

[00:02:57] That's just my humble opinion. I do still have a video in my draft. It is. Stop it. No,

[00:03:03] it is. It is in my TikTok draft. Nope. And it's the super cut I made of you in, in this challenge.

[00:03:11] I know you probably shouldn't share that with the world again, because.

[00:03:15] Well, what do you mean again? I never did it last time. I thought you did. I swear you put that out.

[00:03:20] I asked for your permission and then I never did it, but it was back in May of last year,

[00:03:26] 2020. Listen, that is the only challenge I had to have something of myself blurred out. Okay. That's

[00:03:33] how horrifying that challenge was. So, oh goodness. The world does not need to see that again. I mean,

[00:03:40] are you sure? Because you know, I've got it. Oh, no, don't. Yeah. I'm glad the glare,

[00:03:45] you can't see it at all. That's fantastic. All right. I guess we'll have to have a chat

[00:03:51] offline about whether I'm allowed to post it or not. Listen, it's not like people can't find the

[00:03:56] damn thing, but it is. I know, but the super cut that I made, it just focuses on the most important

[00:04:02] person. Oh, it was awful. And I will say, I said, I can't, but it's not because I can't do that.

[00:04:11] That was like, literally like I was drowning. I had so much sand up my nose and in my mouth. I was like,

[00:04:17] I can't breathe. I'm dying and nobody cares. So it's a very dangerous game. Just want you to all

[00:04:23] know that. And you want to know, I'll just say this too, because someone actually asked me this.

[00:04:27] They were like, well, but if you were to actually like be seriously injured or like even die,

[00:04:34] if you were playing survivor, like, I mean, you can, you can like sue them. And I'm like, no,

[00:04:38] you can't, you sign that away. You like, you're like, I understand I could die. Like that's

[00:04:42] literally in the contract you signed. Like I did it. Yes. But you're a lawyer, you know,

[00:04:47] you can't sign away. I understand everything. There's a lot of things you could still do

[00:04:53] regardless of what you signed, but I, but they try to take steps to avoid that from happening by

[00:04:57] going just so you know, by the way, this warning here could die. Hopefully they try to take steps

[00:05:03] to prevent you from dying too. You know, they do. They definitely do. They're very kind in that

[00:05:08] regard as well. But in the process, things happen. Like you almost drown sucking in sand through your

[00:05:15] nose and your mouth. And what do you do at that point? Anyway, this isn't about me. This is about

[00:05:20] Gabe, right? It's not. And yeah, this is about Gabe, which is the first time we've mentioned his name

[00:05:27] and we're five minutes in. But yeah, as I was watching the show this week, I noticed at one point that

[00:05:34] Gabe was talking about how he's going to make it to final eight. And it just instantly gave me a Rome

[00:05:41] flashback. And you know, people can check my blue sky live speeding to prove it. You can find it still

[00:05:49] in there. Obviously it wasn't at all near the same level as Rome, but some of that extreme confidence

[00:06:00] was there. And I felt like they showed it for a reason. Turned out I was right. But the question

[00:06:07] we're here to answer is why? And we will figure it out by following our usual path to compare Gabe's

[00:06:14] game to my rules for winning. I originally wrote way back after season one and have been updating

[00:06:19] ever since using all the non-spoiler information available to us from what we saw on TV, interviews,

[00:06:24] social media, and secret scenes. And the newest version of the rules can of course be found

[00:06:29] at robhaswebsite.com slash yxlossbeat. But before we address how Gabe did in terms of the rules

[00:06:38] and after we talk about balls and sand worms and stuff, yeah, we always have some other things

[00:06:48] to discuss from the episode. And this week I wanted to start with Andy. And as a matter of fact,

[00:06:55] it's almost all Andy. Because I feel like he has just grown so much as a player and a character

[00:07:02] in the game. Yes. And he is the type of person that you do not keep in the beginning because

[00:07:07] this is what happens. People who are watching. I said it, was it last week or two weeks ago?

[00:07:12] I think it was two weeks ago. I said, Andy is going to change the way people treat players like

[00:07:22] Andy and Banu and Emily and others in the past, in the future.

[00:07:28] This is a theme that we are seeing. They're going to be like, no, we're not keeping them around and

[00:07:34] trying to mold them. We're getting rid of them now. Yeah. It is. It is astonishing to me how he has been

[00:07:42] able to maintain still that mindset and so many of the people who he's playing the game with,

[00:07:47] that it's still just Andy. It's still just, and Andy's leaning into it so hard. So hard. Yes.

[00:07:56] But in the meantime, behind the scenes, in just this episode, we heard from him that he built

[00:08:01] a web of different alliances. So, you know, from that, I would compare him to Brian Heidek.

[00:08:07] I, the game, not personally. Um, and he was using the pendulum strategy.

[00:08:14] So I'd compare him to Will Wall. Uh, and he has found or placed himself in the middle of everything

[00:08:21] with different options. Uh, Genevieve talks to him, Sam talks to him, Kyle trusts him. He tells

[00:08:27] teeny they're his number one, et cetera. He wants to play people off against each other, like telling

[00:08:33] Rachel that Genevieve is coming for her and, you know, remaking an alliance. He does that in such

[00:08:39] an interesting way because she's, she's asking about, she's like, so what do you think about

[00:08:44] Genevieve? I think she's the one who brought it up. And then he just kind of says it in such a

[00:08:48] nonchalant, like non-threatening kind of way. And, and he does it by complimenting Rachel at the same

[00:08:55] time. It's not like, Oh, well, Genevieve says you need to be voted out. That's not what he says.

[00:08:59] Oh, Genevieve like actually was like, so I can't remember exactly what he said about

[00:09:04] Genevieve saying this about Rachel, but it was just incredible the way that he did it because

[00:09:08] it was just so non-threatening and just so like water cooler talk, you know, that like,

[00:09:13] Oh yeah, no, this is what I, you know, this is what she said. And Rachel was like,

[00:09:17] you know? And so I just, he's so non-threatening and everything that he does,

[00:09:21] nobody reads into it and thinks that he's trying to stir the pot at all.

[00:09:25] Right. Right. He thinks that people just see charming Andy, but he feels that he's lethal.

[00:09:32] Yes. Now I do want to mention that at least one part of the Andy segment was apparently not as it

[00:09:39] seemed. In fact, it was seemingly the opposite. We saw Andy talking to Sue and trying to get her as

[00:09:48] one of his allies. And in the scene, it made it look like, Oh, now with Sue, Sue's on board with him.

[00:09:53] But Gabe told Gordon Holmes that Andy actually described that as his worst survivor discussion.

[00:10:01] Because Andy tried to get Sue to turn on Gabe and she was like, screw you.

[00:10:06] Uh, and then Gabe said, possibly quoting Andy. I wasn't sure when he was saying this. He said

[00:10:13] that if Gabe was Sue's Island son and Caroline was Sue's Island daughter,

[00:10:20] then Andy was Sue's Island neighbor kid who she didn't really like.

[00:10:27] Yeah. And well, and I do think though, that there is something to be said about him making the attempt.

[00:10:33] I think it is interesting that it didn't, we weren't provided all of the information regarding

[00:10:38] that particular conversation. Yeah. Cause that was clearly meant to be a,

[00:10:42] look how great Andy is doing segment. Right. Exactly. Exactly. And unfortunately for Sue,

[00:10:48] we just got a whole lot of forget Kyle. I hate Kyle. I want to vote Kyle.

[00:10:53] I don't think the word was forget. I think it was a different, uh, F word that was bleeped out.

[00:10:59] Yeah. Yes. It was, it was a little aggressive, but, but yes. So she did post on, uh, on Twitter,

[00:11:05] uh, to say, just to be clear, I have never, and would never kill anyone. It was just in the context

[00:11:12] of the game. So, Oh goodness. Yeah. Fascinating. Fascinating stuff. Good stuff. Um, now I do also

[00:11:23] want to mention something that Andy said in tribal council about how they want to defeat the big

[00:11:29] threats there on the battlefield before getting to final tribal council. And I really liked hearing

[00:11:36] this because it almost seemed like it was a direct response to the types of players who in the past have

[00:11:43] said truly terrible things like to be the best, you have to beat the best. And that means going to the

[00:11:49] end with the best. I want to face off against the biggest threats in the end. And, and it's like, no,

[00:11:57] no, you, you don't stop that. Um, you beat the so-called best earlier. So you don't have to face them at

[00:12:06] the end. Right. Right. Whenever you beat them, that's still beating them. Mm-hmm. You know, like,

[00:12:13] like if you're, if you're in the football playoffs, you don't say, well, this team that we're playing

[00:12:19] is really good, but we only want to beat them if we can beat them in the Superbowl. So let them beat

[00:12:24] us. Hey, no, you beat them before you got there. Right. Um, stop them from getting to the Superbowl.

[00:12:29] Right. Um, now I won't comment further yet on how this might or might not apply to Gabe. I was just

[00:12:36] happy to hear a player voicing the truth. Yes. The other thing too, that I, I think is very

[00:12:44] interesting. We were provided a little more clarity regarding teeny finding out about the whole Saul

[00:12:50] thing from Andy during tribal council, because there, there were some questions posed as to why

[00:12:57] did she vote for Saul? And I understand why she did. She didn't want to be the lone wolf and vote for

[00:13:02] someone else, but she did have more information than we knew about until this episode. And we found

[00:13:08] that as well. So, you know, it bugs me a little to have previously ons that provide new information.

[00:13:15] Yes. But I don't know how else we find that information out because clearly they didn't want

[00:13:21] to tell us at the time they wanted to keep it a mystery at the time. So I, you know, as a viewer,

[00:13:27] you just have to remember to watch the previously's on, even if, even if you've seen it, it's like, huh,

[00:13:35] I need to watch this to make sure that, you know, I know something new. Yeah. Yeah. Well,

[00:13:42] I'm plus this particular previously on really outlined what the episode was going to be about

[00:13:48] because it started out with Gabe doing his, uh, Ray Lewis touchdown dance. And I was like,

[00:13:56] why would they show that? What does that have to do with anything previously on? Right. And then we

[00:14:02] found out, you know, because they were showing, Oh, look, it's, you know, him drawing attention to

[00:14:06] himself. And then, you know, they showed all the stuff about Genevieve and about teeny. And so it was,

[00:14:15] it pretty well laid out. This is how the episode is going to go. It is going to be one of these two

[00:14:21] people. Yeah. And I do think it's interesting that they were very much in the know that it was

[00:14:27] going to be one of those two people. And they had a discussion about that. So I do think that

[00:14:35] this particular episode was a little bit different because I don't feel like the two that knew that

[00:14:42] they were the vote reacted the way that people normally react when they know that vote, like

[00:14:47] we've seen the scrambling and the panicking and the, Oh my gosh, and trying to change things up.

[00:14:52] That's not what was happening. So it was a very interesting, calm kind of situation that they

[00:14:59] were both walking into. Yeah. Now, the only other thing I really wanted to specifically mention

[00:15:06] was the trade for rice when everyone pressured Sam to give up his shot in the dark, even though he

[00:15:12] didn't really want to do it. Uh, but you know, he realized he was the only person standing in the way

[00:15:19] which could put a target on him if he didn't do it. And you know, people got angry. Um, and you know,

[00:15:26] I know Rob has also pointed out that they can only use it a few more tribal councils anyway. So it's not

[00:15:32] that big a deal. Uh, not to mention that you can really only use it when you know you're the target

[00:15:38] or in a specialized situation like Rachel did. Uh, so I do think it was a pretty good deal overall,

[00:15:44] but I was glad to see Sam at least pause and think it through.

[00:15:48] Right. And I was actually really surprised that Jeff went along with it

[00:15:52] because it took away one of their trinkets.

[00:15:55] Yes. And he talked about that on the, uh, on fire podcast, you know, he talked about who in the

[00:16:01] moment I had to consider all these different things, you know, um, cause I was getting all ready

[00:16:07] to, uh, post to blue sky about how he called it a negotiation. And then when they tried to negotiate

[00:16:13] with him, he said, no, they're like, I might've tweeted that or, or skeeted it. I don't know which

[00:16:18] one I did. You did before he said yes. Um, but I was like, I had it all typed up. It's like, uh,

[00:16:26] Jeff, this is a negotiation, you know? And then, uh, players, how about this? No,

[00:16:30] how about this? No. And then they actually found something he was willing to bite on. So

[00:16:35] yeah. Yeah. No, I do think that this whole rice negotiation thing, I don't love it. I understand

[00:16:43] the idea behind it, but I just feel like if you are going to provide a rice negotiation,

[00:16:50] it needs to actually be a negotiation. You can't say you got four of you. That's it. It's four. And

[00:16:56] someone's like, what about three? No, it's four. That's, that's not, that's a trade. That's just a

[00:17:01] trade. You're like, you can, you can buy this bag of rice for four people stepping down. That's,

[00:17:06] that's what you're doing. Yeah. So, all right. Well, did you have anything or anyone else you

[00:17:13] want to discuss before we get to the rules? No, I think we touched upon all of the things that I

[00:17:18] wanted to touch upon. Okay. Um, well there were of course, some other things going on and I will be

[00:17:23] putting some of it in my YouTube shorts, uh, at David Bloomberg TV. Uh, for example,

[00:17:28] I already posted a video of Saul in the jury. Oh, wait a second. I should reference that for just

[00:17:37] a minute. That was super surprising and enjoyable. So thank you for that. Saul. Yes. Great. Um,

[00:17:44] and then of course I also posted about, uh, Jeff talking about people's balls and, uh, Sue, uh,

[00:17:50] being a tiny bit upset with Kyle, uh, but there's still, and also a tiny bit dirty. Yes.

[00:17:58] Yes. She's very dirty. Yeah. Maybe that's how people were wondering. I think you were one of

[00:18:05] them. How do you get your makeup to stay? Cause she never washes her face off. You know, maybe that's

[00:18:10] what's going on. Cause I don't know. I just, I do these super closeups and I'm like, someone,

[00:18:16] please just right here. Cause you got, you got a little something right here. Just take care of that.

[00:18:21] Or, you know, nobody wants to tell her because they've seen what she does to those coconuts,

[00:18:26] you know, when she gets angry and fair. So yeah, just letting her be, but it is, it is rather funny.

[00:18:32] Yeah. Um, now before we get to how Gabe did, we do want to mention the rules we're about to

[00:18:37] discuss come in a shorter and much more colorful form, uh, as a poster, uh, go to Rob has a website

[00:18:44] that com slash YX last feet, scroll down to the poster, click on it, order it. And you and I forgot

[00:18:50] to discuss black Friday. We did forget. I knew there was something else we were going to,

[00:18:55] there is something else, but I think we definitely need to provide. I was trying to think of what's,

[00:19:00] what are they usually like 20% off sales? That's what they usually do. Right. When it's,

[00:19:04] uh, um, you know, uh, I don't remember how much we're selling them for. I'd have to ask the shipping

[00:19:11] department that they're $20. Okay. Um, so, so do you, well, okay, we will come up with a percentage

[00:19:21] off and you can find it by going to Rob has a website.com slash YX last be clicking on it.

[00:19:28] And by black Friday, we will update that for you. Um, we got it also post it on social media.

[00:19:36] Yeah. So there we'll have a little black Friday special. So we need to have our own little, uh,

[00:19:42] poster negotiation because we don't want to end up making it, you know, uh, uh, cost more to ship

[00:19:50] than actually. Yeah, no, we'll figure it out. We'll definitely sort it out. Right. Uh, now there

[00:19:57] is also, you can get a poster on a t-shirt and you can get the checklist on the t-shirt. Now we have no

[00:20:03] control over those prices. No, we do not. RHAP store. Um, typically the RHAP store does have a

[00:20:11] black Friday deal, at least for patrons. Typically I am not, I am not in the know. I do not know at all

[00:20:19] about that. Um, it, you know, sometimes it's happened in the past. So keep an eye out for that.

[00:20:24] And if it does happen or frankly, even if it doesn't, uh, you know, you can, you can go here and

[00:20:29] order, uh, the shirts that way to order some good stuff. Yeah. So again, that's RAP has website.com

[00:20:34] slash Y X lost. All right. Well, leading up to the vote, uh, Gabe said he felt the best he's ever

[00:20:46] felt in the game and four two coos could have made it to the final eight. Uh, adding the fact that the

[00:20:53] fellow players around me have allowed this to happen is mind blowing. But then his fellow

[00:21:00] players didn't allow it to happen. Uh, now it may seem like it's obvious that Gabe was voted out

[00:21:08] because he was a threat, but it's almost never that simple in part because there are lots of threats.

[00:21:16] So what did he do or not do to make himself the primary target right now at RHAP? We know survivor

[00:21:25] and we know why Gabe lost. Right. Now I just mentioned that of course, Gabe was a threat

[00:21:34] and considering the way things were portrayed to us on the show, it would be silly to put off talking

[00:21:40] about that. So we might as well go out of order and discuss rule six right off the bat.

[00:21:45] I love it when it goes out of order. Yes. Uh, now that rule of course warns against being too much

[00:21:52] of a threat. Um, we knew Gabe was a big threat. His tribe mates knew Gabe was a big threat. Gabe knew

[00:22:03] Gabe was a big threat, which was what made an entertainment weekly secret scene from last week.

[00:22:10] So odd because in it, Gabe complained to Rachel that he didn't understand why people considered

[00:22:17] him to be a threat. He said he hadn't even come close to winning a challenge, which then he won the

[00:22:24] very next one. Uh, he claimed he was on the bottom of two crew coming into the merge, which was total BS

[00:22:33] as we'll discuss in a few minutes. Uh, but then he also gave a confessional in there where he seemed

[00:22:41] similarly confused about why he was considered a threat. So it's, it's not like he was just putting on a show

[00:22:47] for Rachel. Yeah. And that would have been my initial thought on that. But then yes, the confessional

[00:22:52] throws that off. Yeah. Yeah. Now based on something he told Mike Bloom, which we'll get to in a moment, I think

[00:22:58] he believed he was doing a better job of hiding his threat level and that's why he was confused.

[00:23:04] Hmm. But the facts are the facts and everybody knew he was a threat. Yeah. I mean, I think maybe

[00:23:13] it's one of those situations where you're hoping to kind of figure it out because in his mind, maybe he

[00:23:20] really was like, God, I don't know. I don't know why everyone would think I'm such a threat. Maybe

[00:23:24] you're trying to work it through your own self. And when you're having a confessional, you have an

[00:23:30] opportunity to talk through things that you might not be able to talk through with anyone else because

[00:23:34] none of the players are going to be like, Oh yes, this is why you're a threat. It's all of these

[00:23:38] reasons. And not that the producers are necessarily going to do that, but it gives you an opportunity to

[00:23:44] just say things out loud. And sometimes just saying them out loud allows you to go, Oh, well, maybe that

[00:23:51] is what that was. You know, maybe that's why someone thinks that. And so I'm curious if, if that was part of

[00:23:57] his thinking was, I just really need to kind of like air this out to try to figure it out myself.

[00:24:03] Yeah, maybe. Um, but let's go through, well, let's start by going through what a few different

[00:24:11] players were saying about him. Um, in this episode, Kyle brought it up to Sam and Rachel at the reward

[00:24:18] when even Kyle is bringing you up as a threat. Yeah. You know, you're a threat. Um, Sam said people

[00:24:27] were sketched out by there being for Tukku and more specific to Gabe himself, quote, he's somebody

[00:24:33] who is a massive strategic force. And then later he said, Gabe is such a threat in this game because

[00:24:40] he is the leader of the Tukku. And we saw just last week, how true that was when Genevieve.

[00:24:47] So Genevieve talked to Sue about going after Saul, but then she had to talk to Gabe to make sure

[00:24:55] he'd go along with it. Um, and then she said, uh, the reason Gabe is pivotal to this plan is because

[00:25:01] Gabe has the numbers behind him. All of the Tukkus will listen to him. He is the one who will make this

[00:25:07] happen. So, like I said, just a couple minutes ago, when he claimed to Rachel that he was on the

[00:25:12] bottom of the Tukkus, that was BS and everybody knew it. Sure. Um, now indeed, Rachel even said when

[00:25:19] voting, you're the biggest threat out here and we'd be fools to not do this while we can,

[00:25:25] which by the way, they showed Rachel from the back, holding it up and saying that as if it was going,

[00:25:31] if it could apply to both people, it couldn't apply. I mean, as soon as she said, I was like,

[00:25:36] well, she's obviously voting Gabe. Why are you right? You know, nobody's saying that there were

[00:25:41] reasons to get rid of Genevieve, but people were not saying she is the biggest threat out here.

[00:25:46] Right. She was a threat. Yeah. Um, and you know, then also, um, uh, I think,

[00:25:57] oh, uh, uh, his supposed tight ally, Caroline, uh, told Andy, if Gabe is in the final three,

[00:26:07] he wins. Hmm. Yeah. Well, and I think part of the idea of, of his ability to

[00:26:14] kind of control the Tuku perhaps goes back to those very early votes. A lot of discussions that

[00:26:22] we've had, people think pre-merge doesn't necessarily count that much, but when you're

[00:26:28] taking someone out like TK and Tiana, then there is something to be said about how does a vote like

[00:26:37] that happen? How, how, how do you end up structuring it in a way that two very strong people end up

[00:26:44] being voted out so early in the game? And so I'm curious if that's where that kind of stemmed from

[00:26:50] as well, when this idea of him kind of controlling the Tuku and that being part of the, the processing

[00:27:00] to get there. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I mean, he did control it. You know, it was kind of like the

[00:27:06] people who said, uh, Oh, Sam and Sierra look like a tight duo. And they were like, what, how can you say

[00:27:11] that? Right. That's like, well, because they're seeing it and the same thing is here with Gabe.

[00:27:16] Yeah. Yeah. Like just look at the, just look at the votes that have happened and who's getting voted

[00:27:22] out. I think most people would scratch their head and go, Oh, well that's interesting. Yeah. So

[00:27:26] yeah. Um, now even Gabe himself told Genevieve, he felt like his threat level was sky high. Uh,

[00:27:33] as you might say, you think, um, but he didn't fully realize how high it was until after the game.

[00:27:41] Uh, I mentioned a few minutes ago how he thought he was doing a better job of hiding his threat level.

[00:27:46] And he talked to Mike Bloom about that. Now, obviously you should read or watch Mike's interview for

[00:27:53] all of his answers, but specifically here, he mentioned that Saul at one point warned him to

[00:28:00] chill out at tribal council because he was saying smart things. And you know, at camp he was, uh,

[00:28:08] he said kind of a fun goofball, but he thinks he freaked people out by like changing personalities

[00:28:14] at tribal council and giving Jeff deep, thoughtful answers. And he thinks that made people worried

[00:28:21] about what he might do if he were in a final tribal council. I know someone just like that.

[00:28:26] And his name is David, right? He'd walk into tribal council and suddenly you were like, who

[00:28:34] is this man? I just the phenomenal things that would come out of his mouth during tribal council.

[00:28:42] He always had the perfect answer. The, this deep thought, this just things that just made you pause

[00:28:52] and wonder where did he just come from every tribal council? So yes, I know exactly what that feels

[00:28:58] like. Yeah. Yeah. Um, now there is also another issue that Gabe himself brought up when he was

[00:29:05] talking to Dalton Ross. He noted that if you look at his tight allies, Sue and Caroline are

[00:29:12] not exactly the most threatening looking people. This is what I'm talking about. Boyd now, TK and Tiana.

[00:29:19] Right. Uh, so anybody who was considering breaking them up would naturally go for him. Uh, he said,

[00:29:26] if he had one thing he'd do differently, he would find more intimidating looking allies.

[00:29:31] And it is a good point. You know, one issue was that the other players were worried about there

[00:29:38] being four, two coups still in the game and, you know, getting along with each other of those four.

[00:29:44] Kyle wasn't an option and Gabe stood out compared to the other two. Sure. Yeah. Well, and this is why

[00:29:51] Kyle was so hesitant to vote Gabe out because he knows, well, then I'm next because then everyone's

[00:29:57] going to be looking at me. My, my shield will be gone and he still opted to vote out Gabe. So

[00:30:03] yeah. I mean, I don't know that he had much choice at that point, but, um, but some on one of Rob's

[00:30:12] podcasts, I don't remember if it was Rob or, or one of the guests, um, said, you know, earlier,

[00:30:20] right, right around, I think the beginning of the merge, I think it was Tiana said something like,

[00:30:25] well, to Caroline, yes, they might be coming for, uh, for two coup, but they're not coming for me

[00:30:32] or you. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Very fair point. And then look what happened. Right. Right.

[00:30:41] All right. Well, we can now move back to the top and talk about the first and generally most

[00:30:46] important rule, which is of course to scheme and plot. Now, Gabe obviously knew how important this was

[00:30:51] and even had a confessional a few weeks back where he talked about using players as tools and game

[00:30:56] pieces and the like, he had a plan going in that he put to work within hours as he wanted to get in

[00:31:04] good with an older person and immediately pulled 45 year old suicide to make her his number one.

[00:31:11] Uh, from that point, she never wavered from him. No, she didn't.

[00:31:17] And he talked about how they rarely even had to check in because that was how steadfast her

[00:31:25] loyalty was. Um, and this was one reason TK and Tiana never realized the two of them were tight

[00:31:34] because they weren't running off into the jungle, talking to each other.

[00:31:37] They didn't need to check in. She was with them a hundred percent.

[00:31:42] Which is such an incredible thing to develop so quickly and to put so much faith into another

[00:31:49] person because we talk about this all the time, the check-ins and how significant and important

[00:31:53] that. And we will again in a minute, but yes.

[00:31:54] Yes. Because that, that was something he did not continue to do well. But I think that that

[00:32:00] definitely speaks volumes of how important those initial conversations can be right off the rip

[00:32:07] because it moves so fast and the game is immediate. As soon as you step on that beach, people are

[00:32:14] already trying to create bonds. They're already trying to create connections. And I think this

[00:32:19] is such a great example of how not only quickly they can form, but how strong they can be. Sue was

[00:32:25] definitely wherever Gabe went, Sue went. And that was that. So I really think that that, that was

[00:32:31] incredible that they were able to do that so quickly.

[00:32:34] Yeah. Yeah. And it's something that's in, in right near the top of rule one, it says from the very

[00:32:42] beginning, you have to start making alliances and cementing relationships. And I do mean the very

[00:32:47] beginning, you know, that is underlined there. And so, yeah, it's a situation where it's, you know,

[00:32:56] he showed it perfectly that, yeah, when we say the beginning, we mean like now, right now, now.

[00:33:02] Yeah. Yeah. Because if you're not quick, you're going to miss out. Right. And I think it's

[00:33:08] interesting that he ended up mentioning as well, though, that he, because he developed such a quick

[00:33:15] relationship with Sue, he then developed a quick relationship with Caroline. And then it,

[00:33:21] and you already mentioned needing more intimidating looking like alliance partners. So I think he was

[00:33:27] potentially rethinking that choice, even though it certainly worked well for him at the beginning of

[00:33:34] the game, for sure. Right. Right. And so to continue from back then, um, you know, Sue connected with

[00:33:44] Caroline who said Sue was the main person she wanted to work with. Now, even at that time,

[00:33:51] I said, it appeared Caroline was more tightly connected with Sue and would be more likely to

[00:33:56] turn on Gabe because remember she was skeptical of him until he showed her his immunity idol.

[00:34:03] And then she was on board, but I can't even really take credit for saying that because what we didn't

[00:34:10] see was the further ongoing conversations he described in interviews that the two of them had together

[00:34:16] where they would talk like intense strategy for hours and became very close. Yeah. Fascinating.

[00:34:24] Um, but that's part of editing, I guess too. Right. So, right. And he even said that he was like,

[00:34:29] Hey, I understand why it wasn't shown. We only went to tribal council once. Right. So, you know,

[00:34:35] um, now one interesting thing to me about his relationship with Caroline was, you know, we,

[00:34:43] we just talked about needing to check in and how he didn't with Sue, but he did need to check in with

[00:34:52] Caroline. It's, it's something we've discussed many times before, including just two weeks ago

[00:34:58] when Sierra kind of forgot to do it with Andy as much as she should have. Um, and something similar

[00:35:05] happened to Gabe, he told Dalton Ross that early in the game, he was constantly checking in with

[00:35:10] Caroline and involving her in his plans to the point that he knew about, uh, she knew about them

[00:35:16] before anyone else, but much like with Sierra, they got to the merge quote that time of coming up with a

[00:35:23] plan and telling Caroline about it got longer and longer and longer. And then when he discussed

[00:35:29] this week, the possibility of voting out Genevieve, he talked to various people. It got back to

[00:35:35] Caroline before he told her himself. And as he said, from Caroline's perspective, she was like,

[00:35:42] dude, I have three other people telling me that you want to vote Genevieve before you tell me that you

[00:35:47] want to vote out Genevieve. So what's going on here? Am I not part of your plans anymore? You not see me

[00:35:52] as a peer the way you did early in the game. Now, was it the main reason Gabe was voted out?

[00:35:59] Probably not. Did it contribute to her thinking about getting rid of him? Almost certain.

[00:36:07] Yes. Oh, I'm sure that it did because you start to question how significant you are to that person's

[00:36:13] game moving forward. And if you are not part of that person's moves to get to the end, then

[00:36:21] maybe this person doesn't really have my best interests, even though he was telling her we're

[00:36:26] final three, we're final three. Actions speak louder than words, right? And if you are not

[00:36:31] feeling or making that person feel as if they are completely involved with you 100%, then yes,

[00:36:36] they're going to start thinking other ideas and looking outside the box and considering other options.

[00:36:42] And you might not be that option. Yes. Yes. Now, speaking of wanting to go after Genevieve,

[00:36:50] which he did not speak to Caroline about in time, Gabe said in interviews that he knew the vote at

[00:36:57] final nine was going to be crucial and he needed to find someone to make into a target. So everyone

[00:37:02] didn't focus on him. Genevieve obliged by becoming a possibility due to the solve vote, which is almost

[00:37:09] certainly why he pointed it out in the previous episode when he was like, oh, this is all her.

[00:37:14] This is all her. Yeah. But even then, he just wasn't able to pull it off.

[00:37:21] Yeah. Well, I do think that it was a great attempt for sure. And the fact that he could see this as

[00:37:28] being the option, right, where, oh, here's this idea that she wants to vote out solve. This is going to

[00:37:35] be a big move. I want to highlight that as much as I can and give her as much credit as I can,

[00:37:40] because then that will help me target her next time. It's a lot of forward thinking, which I don't

[00:37:47] think we necessarily see that many players do. And the fact that he was able to do that and do it

[00:37:54] in such a way that, again, didn't seem like he was putting Genevieve in a bad spot. I mean, he was

[00:37:59] he was very proud of Genevieve to Genevieve's face like, oh, look what you did. You know,

[00:38:03] this is so great. And then she started to realize, oh, goodness, just shined a big light

[00:38:09] on myself, didn't I? Yeah. But yeah. But I do think that that is a great way to show a player

[00:38:15] that is thinking so many moves ahead and how someone else's move can benefit you as well,

[00:38:20] because you can use it against them. Right. All right. Well, we can go to the second rule,

[00:38:25] which says not to scheme and plot too much and to keep your scheming secret. In some ways,

[00:38:30] Gabe did very well here, such as completely hiding his relationship with Sue from TK and Tiana,

[00:38:36] as we mentioned earlier. But in other ways, he drew way too much attention to himself,

[00:38:41] such as TK telling Dalton Ross that Gabe was playing erratically even back then. And, you know,

[00:38:47] different people caught him doing different things, such as talking to Caroline in the middle of the

[00:38:51] night, which we now know more about. Right. Even Kyle, who became a somewhat tight ally for much of

[00:39:00] the game, said in episode three that he thought Gabe was shifty and tried to get the tribe to turn

[00:39:07] on him. You'll recall that because I had in episode two in the podcast, I had called Gabe twitchy.

[00:39:13] And then, and you, you and our guest got a laugh out of that. And then the very next episode,

[00:39:21] Kyle called him shifty. And I was like, Oh, I was so close. So close. Yes. So close. Yeah.

[00:39:28] Yeah. Yeah. You know, go ahead. Well, and I was just, I was just going to say that I think that Gabe

[00:39:34] probably struggled in this rule a little bit because I don't think that he was as aware of how he was

[00:39:41] being seen by people. And I think that becomes very clear when he starts talking about him being a

[00:39:47] threat, like, wait, but why, why am I a threat? And so that would cause me to think he just doesn't

[00:39:53] understand that he's being perceived a particular way. And he's being perceived that way because he's

[00:39:57] doing these things that in his mind, he's probably not thinking are a big deal. But when there's only a

[00:40:03] few people, when there's six people to start, everything that you're doing is really highlighted

[00:40:08] because there's not very many people to focus on. So I do think that that's likely why

[00:40:14] this rule he struggled with, but good for him that he had Caroline and he had Sue in his back pocket

[00:40:21] because it didn't do as much damage as it could have. Yeah. You know, and we already discussed in

[00:40:27] rule six, that part of the reason he was such a threat was he was the leader of the remaining two.

[00:40:32] Right. But again, everyone knew he had those obvious tight bonds. You know, we talk about a

[00:40:38] tight duo being bad. There's a tight quad, right? You know, it made it even worse than,

[00:40:48] you know, people could look at and say, oh, there are four people from that tribe.

[00:40:51] Okay. But you know, that's fine until you realize they're all voting together and one guy and they're

[00:40:59] going to one guy for approval. Yes. Yeah, for sure. Now, one other thing I want to mention here is

[00:41:06] related to his discussion we had in the pregame podcast. I'm not sure it fully fits in this rule,

[00:41:13] but I couldn't think of anywhere else to put it. Going way back. Yes. Back in his pregame

[00:41:19] interviews, he said his superpower was reading people and he talked about body language and

[00:41:25] believing he could spot when someone was lying. Now, I don't know for sure how much he tried to

[00:41:31] rely on this actually in the game, but we've talked about this before. It's, you know, this idea that

[00:41:37] you can read someone this well through their body language is one of the most overused and incorrect

[00:41:41] ideas in all of reality TV and almost nobody can actually do it with any level of accuracy.

[00:41:49] If he did follow through on that and was using it to tell him that certain people were still loyal,

[00:41:54] like Caroline and Kyle, well, then he was counting on it too much. And, you know, just in general,

[00:42:02] he mentioned that he needed Saul to tell him the people were getting freaked out about how he was

[00:42:07] acting in tribal council. So clearly he wasn't able to read people in that aspect here.

[00:42:13] Yeah. But it's also tribal council. It's a hard place to necessarily read people. Yes. Unless they're

[00:42:18] talking. Right. All right. Well, we can move to the third rule, which tells players to be flexible.

[00:42:24] How do you think Gabe did in terms of this rule? I think it's interesting because he didn't

[00:42:30] necessarily need to be right. He, he had his plan and it was actually working, which is fascinating

[00:42:36] because oftentimes we've talked about people come in to the game with their ideas, but it doesn't

[00:42:43] always mesh with what they've been given. And he came in with the idea of, I want to align with an

[00:42:49] older person and that's going to be like my number one. And he got Sue like this and then he got Caroline.

[00:42:55] And so I think for Gabe, he really didn't need to be flexible because it was like everything worked

[00:43:01] out so well in the beginning with Tuku. And by the time they got to the merge, I think he was

[00:43:06] considering his options, but by then he thought he had so many paths to get to where he needed to go.

[00:43:12] So he would have been flexible if he needed to be. So I don't think that there was necessarily an issue,

[00:43:16] but I don't think we really had to see him needing to be flexible because things were just working out

[00:43:22] for him the way that he wanted them to. Well, yeah. Till he got voted out.

[00:43:27] Well, right. But when you're the other option, well, yeah, what are you supposed to do?

[00:43:32] I mean, I do think he tried to play flexibly in terms of being willing to go with the flow.

[00:43:36] Sure. When it meant he could keep himself and his allies safe. You know, like last week was a perfect

[00:43:41] example. He had nothing against Saul. He didn't want to target Saul, but if Genevieve wanted to gather

[00:43:46] the troops and get everyone pointed in that direction, great, go do it. Right. And that benefited

[00:43:52] his game. Well, or did it? Well, he thought it did. Right. I thought it did. Right. I think he

[00:43:59] should have considered taking that flexibility in another direction. Kyle was available to be voted

[00:44:05] out last week. Oh, I don't disagree. Yeah. Gabe knew that people were not happy about there being

[00:44:13] four tight tokers. Now he may have considered Kyle something of a shield that he didn't want to give up

[00:44:20] yet. But what's the point of a shield? The point of a shield is they get hit instead of you.

[00:44:27] Right. But if you go back to what he's talking about with there being nine and then wanting to be

[00:44:33] eight and he had he did have an idea in his head, keeping Kyle was going to or in his mind, I think

[00:44:40] could have benefited him because he does still have that shield there and he wanted to go in with

[00:44:46] four to go. So I'm not saying he's being flexible because he's going to be working through the

[00:44:50] permutations of this. Right. So if he's looking at what his options are, I can either vote out Kyle

[00:44:57] now and then lose a to go and then run the risk the next vote of being the target because now I'm down

[00:45:03] to two people voting with me. So that's only three and that's not four. And so obviously that is a little

[00:45:07] of a different feel to it. And I still have Saul as an option and Genevieve as an option. But who are

[00:45:15] they looking at that point? They're not really looking at Genevieve. They really started looking

[00:45:18] at Genevieve because of the Saul vote. Right. Right. So I think he would he have considered it?

[00:45:24] Probably. He did say, I think, in one of his confessionals at some point he's going to have to

[00:45:28] take Kyle out. But he understood the effect of that and that suddenly now he's going to be the focus

[00:45:34] of Tuku. So I understand entirely he had that option. But I think he thought his he was in such

[00:45:43] a good spot that it was working for him. Yeah, I agree that he thought it. I just think that

[00:45:49] he could have sacrificed Kyle. This would have showed people that the Tukus were not as tight as people

[00:45:55] thought. And then maybe people aren't thinking about him so much this time. You know, one reason

[00:46:04] kept coming up that there are four Tukus, there are four Tukus. There were only three Tukus and the

[00:46:10] Tukus had turned on one of their own. Yeah, not such a big threat anymore. And that's fair. That is

[00:46:17] fair. You know, he could have, for example, made a deal with Genevieve. OK, I know you want to get

[00:46:23] out Saul. How about you help me take out Kyle this time and we'll get Saul next time?

[00:46:30] And that could have worked. Yeah. You know, and that gets him past that crucial,

[00:46:36] you know, final nine vote that he was so worried about.

[00:46:40] Mm hmm. Yeah. You've convinced me maybe that would have been a better play. Yeah.

[00:46:46] Um, so and I do know Rob brought up something similar on the know-it-alls, but I already had

[00:46:51] this written out before before the know-it-alls even recorded. So we're going to need to start

[00:46:54] checking your notes. I'm just saying. Yeah. Yeah. Um, you know, Rob, I think Rob must have been

[00:47:01] Rob found a way to get into my, uh, you know, so he's stealing from you. Yes. All right. We can

[00:47:09] move on to the fourth rule, which tells players not to let their emotions control them. Uh, considering

[00:47:13] that I mentioned earlier, he had a confessional about using people as tools. It's pretty clear.

[00:47:18] He wasn't going to let his emotions interfere in the game. If he wanted someone gone, he was going to

[00:47:24] do what it took to make that happen, whether or not they were otherwise friendly, you know,

[00:47:28] just as Kyle and Caroline turned on him, he knew he would definitely have to turn on Kyle at some

[00:47:33] point and possibly even Caroline, depending on what happened. He was buddy, buddy with Genevieve last

[00:47:39] week as she made the move against Saul and then perfectly happy to turn things on her this week.

[00:47:45] So overall, I would, I would say he did, you know, a good job in following this rule.

[00:47:50] And I think he also played on other people's emotions, which was certainly helpful to his game.

[00:47:55] One thing that he mentioned was in relationship to Tiana and how he really like focused on what TK

[00:48:04] had been saying that like, he called you a loser. Can you believe he said that about you? And it was

[00:48:10] very directed at Tiana when that really wasn't what TK was necessarily doing, but he knew that Tiana

[00:48:18] was upset and he knew if I just keep fueling this fire a little bit, then she'll end up voting for TK.

[00:48:25] And so I think that that is a great representation of using someone else's emotions to make them vote

[00:48:31] the way that you want. And it doesn't appear as if you're the one who's driving the bus or the boat

[00:48:37] or whatever in that particular analogy that's being used at the time. But yeah.

[00:48:43] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think we're at a boat at this point. Was it a plane?

[00:48:48] Planes, trains, automobiles. Yeah. Rachel talked about a boat. I'm pretty sure it was a boat.

[00:48:53] Oh, well, she talked about the ocean and being in the captain. So she didn't want to be on the boat.

[00:48:59] She wanted to be the ocean. She's the ocean. Right. So whatever driving analogy we can come up with.

[00:49:06] That's right. I'm not the car. I'm the road. And I will take you where you need to be. I don't know.

[00:49:14] We'll leave that to the next, next tribal council.

[00:49:17] I want to put that on a t-shirt for you. I'm not the car. I'm the road. I like that.

[00:49:24] That was good.

[00:49:26] All right. Well, the fifth rule reminds players they need to pretend to be nice and play the social game.

[00:49:31] How do you think Gabe did here? Well, I think the fact that he had Sue so much in his pocket,

[00:49:37] he had to have been doing this very well. I do think that he likely struggled just a bit once they

[00:49:45] came to the merge, because I mean, he sounded like he was talking about being goofy and having a good

[00:49:50] time with everyone in the tribe. I don't know if he was necessarily connecting with everybody that same

[00:49:55] way, because I think people were a little bit leery. But I think overall he had to have had

[00:50:00] some type of a social game happening. If you're able to bring someone like Sue,

[00:50:07] as long as you have built on such a small amount of time and discussion,

[00:50:11] and then also bring Caroline along as well. And we've learned more about their relationship.

[00:50:15] So I think overall, I think he did fine. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I think that people probably

[00:50:20] enjoyed his presence in camp, at least, you know, according to the way he described it,

[00:50:25] you know, but those friendships that he made did not necessarily turn into allies. I mean,

[00:50:32] Sue and Caroline, yes, but everybody else. Right. You know, he talked, for example,

[00:50:37] in an interview about how he and Sam shared a lot of interests and had a great time together.

[00:50:42] But there was the social aspect only in that they never came together in the game.

[00:50:46] He needed to find a way to make that happen, turn his socializing into social game.

[00:50:53] Yeah. Well, and I think that this is something that you see very few survivors pull off well,

[00:50:59] because there there seems to be a great disconnect that, oh, just because you're nice to someone and

[00:51:04] getting along with someone doesn't necessarily mean that that person is playing the game with you.

[00:51:09] It's a really big step when you can take it to the next level where like that person's really nice

[00:51:15] to me and I want to play the game with them. And so I, you know, I think he probably wasn't able to

[00:51:23] make that next step because I honestly like it appeared as if he didn't necessarily need everybody.

[00:51:29] Right. He had such I mean, this this two coup four was was so overwhelming for so many people

[00:51:34] that they were probably not interested in like building that bond with Gabe.

[00:51:39] I know Sam's been like looking for people because he's like, I need people now.

[00:51:44] But as far as like your options, are you really going to go to Gabe as one of the options?

[00:51:48] Or are you going to go to someone like teeny and be like, hey, do you need a friend?

[00:51:52] Because here I am. I need a friend, too.

[00:51:54] Gabe didn't need friends. He had three other people with him.

[00:51:57] Yeah. Now, I do want to say on the flip side, speaking of teeny,

[00:52:02] Gabe talked about one thing that may have helped turn teeny against him.

[00:52:07] He mentioned to Mike Bloom that he accidentally rubbed teeny the wrong way the morning after Saul

[00:52:12] was voted out. Teeny came to him knowing he lied to their face in tribal council and teeny wanted to

[00:52:19] talk about it. But he just said, you know, we've moved on from it. Don't worry about it.

[00:52:27] Yeah. If teeny had been the one who said that to him, teeny was the offended party, not him.

[00:52:33] Right. So teeny had said it, it would be one thing.

[00:52:36] You know, he was the one who had done the line.

[00:52:39] But him saying it was obviously not what teeny wanted to hear from him.

[00:52:43] It sounded very dismissive. And he now realizes it was, in his own words, kind of an FU.

[00:52:51] Yes. Now, another thing that probably wasn't the main reason he was voted out, but sure didn't help.

[00:52:57] Yes. And the thing about teeny is, and teeny has said this a lot, that she's a very emotional player.

[00:53:06] And so I think as far as teeny is concerned and what what they needed for the game was much different

[00:53:12] than necessarily what Gabe was was realizing at that time.

[00:53:18] So it probably had much more of an effect on teeny at that point because of how they were playing the game.

[00:53:25] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:53:28] All right. Continuing along here, the seventh rule covers idols and advantages and game mechanics.

[00:53:33] I mentioned back in rule one how Gabe used his immunity idol to cement an early alliance with Caroline.

[00:53:40] Caroline. Lots of commentators have talked about doing something like this with an idol, but he was actually successful.

[00:53:49] You know, Caroline was questioning him and he turned her into a strong ally for most of the game.

[00:53:57] Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. No, you're absolutely correct about that.

[00:54:01] So now, of course, he then used that idol to protect himself in case of a rock draw.

[00:54:08] Now, many of us at the time suspected that's why he played it and he confirmed it in interviews.

[00:54:13] Also noting that it might help prevent a rock draw from changing the odds.

[00:54:19] If Tiana, you know, had voted for a tie, it would have meant, hey, if you stay as a tie, you have a 33% chance of getting knocked out.

[00:54:28] Yeah. I thought that was really fascinating that it was actually like a mathematical equation that helped him make that decision.

[00:54:35] So, yeah, that was that was don't do a rock draw. Just don't do it.

[00:54:39] That's my suggestion to all.

[00:54:41] They haven't. You have scared everybody away from them.

[00:54:43] So good. Keep being scared.

[00:54:45] Be afraid.

[00:54:50] All right. Well, Appendix A is next.

[00:54:53] It's about the players keeping their end goals in mind when voting.

[00:54:55] And we talk about voting out the weak and the strong and the weak and the strong.

[00:54:59] At this point in the game.

[00:55:01] They should still be voting out strong threats, as was discussed in tribal council this week.

[00:55:06] It was.

[00:55:06] It was fascinating.

[00:55:08] I thought of you when that happened.

[00:55:10] Oh, yes. Yes.

[00:55:10] A number of people did.

[00:55:12] Thank you to everybody who thought of me, who mentioned it online.

[00:55:17] And they even talked about something I said last week on the podcast, which is there are so many different ways a player can be strong.

[00:55:24] You can have strong connections.

[00:55:26] You can be strong in challenges.

[00:55:27] You can be a strong social player.

[00:55:30] I feel like Rachel was speaking to this appendix when she said in tribal council that if they were voting out the weak now, Sierra and Saul wouldn't be in the jury already.

[00:55:41] Right. Yeah.

[00:55:43] And with the way Saul looked, the word strong definitely came to mind.

[00:55:46] Oh, my God.

[00:55:47] You commented on his biceps.

[00:55:49] Yes, I did.

[00:55:52] I did.

[00:55:53] They were some nice looking biceps.

[00:55:56] Yes.

[00:55:57] And he had the perfect sheen, too.

[00:55:59] You know, the one that you like, like when was it James oiled up?

[00:56:04] Oh, you know, previously, you know, you know, Saul, Saul didn't oil up, but he had the rain coming down.

[00:56:11] James is a specimen.

[00:56:13] I mean, that he's just so unbelievably strong.

[00:56:17] Just ridiculous.

[00:56:18] Just there are very few people that you watch survivor and you're like, oh, that person can literally do everything.

[00:56:23] And he could.

[00:56:24] Except playing idol, maybe.

[00:56:27] Two.

[00:56:28] Yes.

[00:56:29] Yes.

[00:56:30] Sorry.

[00:56:31] Sorry about that little reminder.

[00:56:32] Anyway, we will go back.

[00:56:34] I'm sure he's listening.

[00:56:35] I'm sure he's listening right now.

[00:56:37] Absolutely.

[00:56:41] But anyway, getting back to tribal council, it went back to evaluating who the strongest threat was for each individual player.

[00:56:49] Hmm.

[00:56:50] And, you know, we, of course, began the rules by looking at the reasons Gabe was a threat overall.

[00:56:55] But there were some other specifics.

[00:56:58] Caroline was truly doing what, you know, what this rule says.

[00:57:03] Because, you know, looking ahead to the end game, making, you know, keeping in mind that end goal.

[00:57:11] Yeah.

[00:57:14] As Gabe talked to her about them realizing their day three dream and making it to final three together with Sue, she realized that his track record to this point was better than hers.

[00:57:26] So if she got rid of him now, she could emerge and really start her game.

[00:57:32] And I really hope that if she does make the final three, that she remembers to highlight that component that, like, I had to do this for myself, Gabe, because you were going to beat me if you were sitting here.

[00:57:45] It's always nice when you make the people sitting in the jury feel better about themselves.

[00:57:49] And so I really hope if she's in the final three, that's what she does.

[00:57:52] Yeah.

[00:57:54] Now, Kyle did it mostly because he felt Gabe would come after him if he didn't get Gabe first.

[00:58:00] Which I don't think is necessarily a good reason, because newsflash, Kyle, everyone is probably coming after Kyle if he doesn't win immunity.

[00:58:09] Yes.

[00:58:10] You know, they let him through once and then he won the very next time after that.

[00:58:14] Right.

[00:58:15] But at least he was trying to find a way out of his predicament.

[00:58:19] Sure.

[00:58:20] Yeah.

[00:58:21] But I think Kyle's going to be in a tough spot.

[00:58:25] Yes.

[00:58:26] Meanwhile, on the flip side, Teeny had good reasons, both personal and strategic, for wanting to get Genevieve out.

[00:58:34] But they were willing to put that aside because now was the time to get out Gabe instead.

[00:58:40] There were people lined up to do it.

[00:58:42] He was a bigger threat.

[00:58:44] And when you have a chance to take a shot like that, you have to take it.

[00:58:48] Yes.

[00:58:49] And you also don't rock the boat when you go along with it.

[00:58:53] Right.

[00:58:53] So if everyone is saying we should probably do this and you have a different idea, if you start really pushing for your idea instead, well, then people might start looking at you.

[00:59:03] So I think certainly in anyone's best interest, if there is a name that seems to be the consensus, put your feelings aside for a minute and say, we can come back to that later.

[00:59:15] Right.

[00:59:16] Right.

[00:59:17] All right.

[00:59:18] Well, Appendix B discusses the jury phase, including preparing yourself for being at the end and also preparing the jury to want to vote for you.

[00:59:27] So Gabe talked in tribal council about how players were thinking of who they wanted to sit next to at the end.

[00:59:35] And well, clearly he was not the one they wanted next to him.

[00:59:39] Right.

[00:59:39] We've already discussed how he was viewed in terms of his tribal council discussions.

[00:59:44] Plus, I just mentioned how Caroline felt his track record lined up compared to hers.

[00:59:49] And I think the same would be true of several other people if they compared themselves to him.

[00:59:55] So.

[00:59:56] I think Gabe was doing a pretty good job of setting himself up to be seen as a kind of mastermind if he made it to the end.

[01:00:05] But the problem was the people saw he was setting himself up to look like a mastermind if he made it to the end.

[01:00:13] And that contributed to his threat level.

[01:00:16] Yes.

[01:00:17] The only one who didn't was Sue.

[01:00:19] Yes.

[01:00:21] And she might have thought it, but it didn't matter because she was loyal to him.

[01:00:25] So.

[01:00:25] Right.

[01:00:26] Very true.

[01:00:29] All right.

[01:00:29] Well, it is about time then to wrap things up.

[01:00:34] What are your final thoughts on Gabe?

[01:00:37] I am pleasantly surprised with Gabe.

[01:00:39] I really am.

[01:00:40] Like, I don't remember exactly my initial thoughts about him.

[01:00:45] I do believe there's a podcast somewhere where I talk about him.

[01:00:47] But I just, I think that Gabe ended up coming out of the box a little bit strong.

[01:00:57] Like, I know at the beginning there was some concern that he was a little sporadic and might have been playing a little too much too fast.

[01:01:04] But I think he did a really great job.

[01:01:06] But I think he did a really great job in realizing who he was playing this game with and realizing what their weaknesses were to further his own game in the process.

[01:01:15] And that's something that I think really needs to be highlighted about Gabe is his ability to do just that.

[01:01:22] Because it's something that I don't think we see very many players do where they focus on, well, what is important to that person?

[01:01:29] And how can I make that person's move affect me but benefit my game in the long run?

[01:01:35] Which I think we saw him do multiple times with multiple players.

[01:01:38] So very impressive in that regard.

[01:01:40] But unfortunately, he just kept making himself look more and more like a strategic player by doing it.

[01:01:47] Because people were starting to look around and going, well, wow, look at all of these things that are happening.

[01:01:52] And look at Tuku.

[01:01:53] And look at where we're at.

[01:01:54] And who seems to be the center of all of this?

[01:01:56] And that's Gabe.

[01:01:57] And so he was just rising that threat level without even realizing he was doing it.

[01:02:03] Because what he thought he was doing was so sneaky and underhanded and behind the scenes.

[01:02:08] No one's going to pick up on this.

[01:02:10] But they eventually did and said, oh my gosh, this is all Gabe.

[01:02:13] And we need to send Gabe home.

[01:02:15] And so I think his ideas to play this game were great.

[01:02:18] His attempts to do so were the same.

[01:02:21] But unfortunately, he really did put himself in a situation where everybody was looking at Gabe.

[01:02:27] And when they had a chance to take him out, they did.

[01:02:32] Yep.

[01:02:33] Yep.

[01:02:35] Yeah.

[01:02:35] Gabe knew the final nine was a crucial point for him.

[01:02:39] While he tried to take steps to get people to focus elsewhere, the problem was he had done so much previously to make them focus on him.

[01:02:50] Everyone knew he was the leader of the Tukus.

[01:02:53] Everyone knew he was a good speaker at Tribal Council and could think deeply about the strategy and philosophy of the game.

[01:03:01] Everyone knew he was well-liked at camp.

[01:03:03] In fact, everything that everyone knew about him made him a bigger and bigger threat.

[01:03:11] But I talked earlier about how it's almost never that simple.

[01:03:14] And that's still the case.

[01:03:16] It's not just that he was a huge threat.

[01:03:19] It was all the actions he took to cause it and didn't take to address it.

[01:03:26] Knowing the final nine was so important to his game, he needed to have a better plan than just hoping he could push the target off onto someone else.

[01:03:33] If Kyle hadn't won immunity and Genevieve hadn't made her obvious move, he had planned to probably push Kyle forward as the target.

[01:03:42] But that was something he should have done in the previous vote when Kyle was vulnerable rather than hoping it would happen again.

[01:03:52] He would have reduced the overall threat level of the Tukus and therefore his own as well.

[01:03:57] He could have turned the focus to someone else this time, but instead he remained as such a big threat that even one of his closest allies, Caroline, not only didn't save him, but turned on him.

[01:04:11] Even beyond that, just because someone is a smart player doesn't mean they have to show how smart they are.

[01:04:20] Gabe seemingly did a good job of hiding his full self around camp.

[01:04:24] But as he said in interviews, a switch just flipped when he got to tribal council.

[01:04:31] He didn't even recognize it himself.

[01:04:34] He had to be told.

[01:04:35] We've talked before about how all of tribal council is theater, but he became the star of the show.

[01:04:42] The thing is, nobody wanted to be his understudy at the end of the game.

[01:04:48] Like Andy said, they wanted to defeat the big threats now before final tribal council.

[01:04:55] You don't wait to the end.

[01:04:56] You take them out when you can.

[01:04:58] Gabe allowed himself to be seen as that kind of endgame threat.

[01:05:02] And he didn't have the allies that he thought he had surrounding himself to protect him.

[01:05:08] And that is why Gabe lost.

[01:05:13] There we are.

[01:05:15] There we are.

[01:05:18] So.

[01:05:19] All right.

[01:05:20] Well, before we move on to a couple of things, including our predictions, which you don't want to miss because they are always right on the money.

[01:05:29] Or at least funny.

[01:05:31] Very funny.

[01:05:33] Very funny.

[01:05:34] I want to quickly remind everyone the rules we just discussed are available in poster form and in t-shirt form or the poster on a t-shirt and in checklist form on a t-shirt.

[01:05:47] So, again, go to RobHasWebsite.com slash YXLostFeed for that.

[01:05:53] And you should definitely check us out on social media.

[01:05:56] I am at JessicaLewis89 on both Twitter and Blue Sky.

[01:06:01] I'm still warming up to this whole Blue Sky thing.

[01:06:04] So be patient with me.

[01:06:06] But I'll get there.

[01:06:07] And then I am also at JessicaLewis6789 on Instagram.

[01:06:11] But I am certainly not the social media guru of the guy sitting next to me, David Bloomberg, who has so many social media sites and really was the star of Blue Sky as far as I'm concerned.

[01:06:24] He's been selling everyone on Blue Sky forever.

[01:06:28] And it took, you know, some current events to make people really go to Blue Sky.

[01:06:32] But David was there a long time ago.

[01:06:34] So, David, where can they find you besides Blue Sky?

[01:06:37] Well, they can find me.

[01:06:39] Including Blue Sky.

[01:06:40] Yes, I'm all over the place.

[01:06:43] You know, first of all, you can find everything of mine at Linktree slash David Bloomberg with a dot before the EE.

[01:06:52] Or you can find me more directly.

[01:06:54] Now, if you look at my Linktree, I said last time, I said, ooh, I have to switch things around.

[01:06:58] And I did.

[01:06:58] Blue Sky is now right near the top.

[01:07:01] And Twitter is dropped, you know, much way down there.

[01:07:06] So, yeah.

[01:07:09] Yeah.

[01:07:10] You can find me directly on Blue Sky and also Twitter as at David Bloomberg.

[01:07:15] On threads is at David Bloomberg TV.

[01:07:18] You know, as, you know, we've been talking about a lot of people moving to Blue Sky.

[01:07:22] I encourage it.

[01:07:23] If you're an RHAP patron, there's a whole list of patrons that you can kind of subscribe to and follow everyone or follow select people.

[01:07:34] You can do the same with all the RHAP podcasters.

[01:07:37] You could do the same with Survivor players who are on there.

[01:07:40] So, it's easy to suddenly find all the people that you want to have conversations with.

[01:07:45] That's lovely.

[01:07:47] And there's even like an RHAP feed and a Survivor feed.

[01:07:50] You can do that as well.

[01:07:52] So, you can really modify it to do whatever you want to do on Blue Sky.

[01:07:58] This is a Blue Sky commercial again.

[01:07:59] Yeah, another one.

[01:08:00] Yes.

[01:08:01] Now, I'm also, of course, on the video platforms, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram as at David Bloomberg TV.

[01:08:08] Still posting two or three or sometimes more videos per day.

[01:08:13] You know, come on over and join the fun on YouTube.

[01:08:17] Especially YouTube because like it's so interesting.

[01:08:22] You know, I posted that Saul video on TikTok and boom, shut up.

[01:08:26] I posted it on YouTube and it's like, meh.

[01:08:29] I'm like, really?

[01:08:29] Why?

[01:08:30] YouTube?

[01:08:31] Where are you YouTube people not seeing here?

[01:08:34] That was, you know, a fun video that I posted there.

[01:08:37] Well, and you know what?

[01:08:38] There's just so many social media options.

[01:08:40] People are overwhelmed.

[01:08:41] I know.

[01:08:42] I know.

[01:08:44] But in addition to stuff from Survivor, I'm also posting from the Traders Canada, the Summit and House of Villains.

[01:08:53] In addition, speaking of the Traders Canada, I am co-hosting the Trader podcast for the Traders Canada season two.

[01:09:01] Excellent.

[01:09:02] Look at you.

[01:09:02] Mm-hmm.

[01:09:05] Now, it's time for predictions.

[01:09:08] So I guess I should do that there.

[01:09:10] It is.

[01:09:11] The preview tells us Kyle doesn't trust anybody and knows that as a family man, he's a dangerous person to have at the end.

[01:09:22] Sue doesn't want to hear any of that.

[01:09:23] Yeah, no kidding.

[01:09:25] Sam thinks Rachel has something up her sleeve, which she does.

[01:09:32] And there's an underdog alliance of Sue, Caroline, Teenie, Rachel, and Andy.

[01:09:37] Whether it's real or not is another matter.

[01:09:40] But, you know, they at least seem to all, you know, agree on this.

[01:09:45] And Andy feels like he's in a crushing position in the game.

[01:09:49] So what does that all tell us?

[01:09:51] As usual, not much.

[01:09:53] Right.

[01:09:53] I'm a little worried about Andy because of the part about him thinking he's in such a great spot.

[01:09:59] But I just don't see things turning on him that quickly.

[01:10:02] I agree.

[01:10:06] So Kyle talked this week about how if Gabe went, he'd be the next obvious target.

[01:10:12] But we also know there was a discussion about whether Genevieve should go instead, meaning her name is definitely still in the mix.

[01:10:19] And, you know, she was somewhat lucky to make it past this one.

[01:10:23] If Kyle wins immunity again, I think Genevieve could be in trouble.

[01:10:28] If he doesn't, he could be in really big trouble.

[01:10:33] It's hard to bet against Kyle winning immunity.

[01:10:39] So I'm going to say he does it again.

[01:10:42] And Genevieve pays the price for her move against Saul.

[01:10:46] Oh, interesting.

[01:10:47] Because I was going to say Genevieve as well, but not because Kyle was safe.

[01:10:53] I think Teenie, she's looking for some retribution.

[01:10:58] Is it retribution?

[01:11:00] What was Teenie's words?

[01:11:03] She was going to avenge Saul, right?

[01:11:07] Everything I do from this point out.

[01:11:09] Yes.

[01:11:09] Something like that.

[01:11:10] Yeah.

[01:11:10] And so I feel like Teenie's focus is going to be that.

[01:11:16] Where this past week, Teenie said, okay, I'll go along with everyone.

[01:11:21] I'll vote out Gabe.

[01:11:22] That's fine.

[01:11:24] We are going to be revisiting Genevieve when we can.

[01:11:29] So regardless of what happens with Kyle, I think Teenie's going to go to Kyle and say, listen, we need to come together now on this one.

[01:11:40] I need Genevieve gone.

[01:11:41] And I think Kyle is going to say, absolutely.

[01:11:45] Great idea.

[01:11:47] Yes.

[01:11:48] Right.

[01:11:48] So I think it will be Genevieve regardless of what happens to Kyle or with Kyle regarding immunity.

[01:11:56] Okay.

[01:11:56] All right.

[01:11:57] Well, we're still on the same page.

[01:11:58] Whether it happens or not.

[01:12:00] Right.

[01:12:00] All right.

[01:12:01] Well, as we wrap up, I want to encourage people to check out the RJP patron program at robhazwebsite.com slash patron.

[01:12:07] You get access to all the special podcasts that are put out just for patrons.

[01:12:11] Discounts to the live shows, Facebook groups, Discord.

[01:12:16] And as I mentioned, you can be put on a list on Blue Sky.

[01:12:19] Yes, you can.

[01:12:20] And also, you can support shows like ours and everything on the network by becoming a patron at robhazwebsite.com slash patron.

[01:12:27] Also, make sure you're subscribed to all the RJP Survivor podcasts by going to weknowsurvivor.com and selecting your podcast service of choice.

[01:12:37] You'll find a ton of great content.

[01:12:41] And we'll be right back.

[01:13:05] Like, of course, us.

[01:13:12] Thank you.

[01:13:16] Thank you.

[01:13:17] Thank you.

[01:13:22] Thank you for that.

[01:13:22] And Will from America, the song that does play prior to just the listening portion as opposed to the video portion of this podcast.

[01:13:31] So thank you for that.

[01:13:32] We really appreciate it.

[01:13:33] And David Bloomberg, it's been lovely.

[01:13:36] It's been a lovely time.