Why ___ Lost Survivor 50 Ep 9

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[00:01:00] If you want to serve David and Jessica, we'll turn it around. They'll break down the rules and we'll show you how. You're playing yourself and God voted out. This is why Blank Lost. This is why Blank Lost. This is why Blank Lost.

[00:01:33] Welcome back to the 10th anniversary year of the Why Blank Lost podcast and 25th anniversary of Why Blank Lost as a concept. I'm David Bloomberg, and apparently I bought this shirt just at the right time because it arrived literally three days ago. And I was like, ooh, I'll wear it this week and then I'll wear it when Christian gets voted out. See what you did? See what you caused? That's right. Butterfly effect.

[00:01:59] Exactly. Joining me here is, of course, my co-host, Jessica Lewis. But before the podcast began, she told me she wants to vote out Ozzy. So I guess now I'll just have to consider getting rid of her. Oh, here we go. I know these secrets. No one can keep a secret. And now we have to change everything up. And listen, we have so much to unpack with this episode.

[00:02:23] We do. We do. But I will say, you know, while I'm still considering that whole thing you said about Ozzy. About Ozzy? It could have been worse. I could have forced you to read a letter that I wrote in which you say that you will do all the predictions from now on. And you love journeys. No. Especially the ones where they take away votes without giving them a choice for the matter. This sounds like torture.

[00:02:52] Yes. Well, I mean, you know, that's the new thing now. So, you know, you are correct. It is no longer about social capital that you create with the people that you play the game with. It's Jimmy Fallon. That's what matters now. It's Jimmy Fallon. Survivor 50 in the hands of the torturers. In the hands of the famous people who don't understand how Survivor actually needs to be played. We'll talk about, but it's not even that. It's in the hands of Jeff Probst. But now that's true, too, which I have a video ready for that.

[00:03:22] That will be out the morning that this video is out. Now, obviously, these are all topics we will discuss when it comes to Christian while we figure out how it all came into play by comparing his gameplay to a set of guiding rules for winning. I originally wrote way back after season one and have been updating ever since. We will use all the non-spoiler information available to us from what we saw on TV, interviews, social media and secret scenes.

[00:03:49] The newest published version of the rules can be found by going to RobHasWebsite.com slash YXLossFeed and clicking on the link bubble for the Survivor rules. But before we get to those rules, we always have some other things to discuss. And I know everyone expects me to talk about the big twist first. And I don't want to disappoint anyone. But the thing is, there were multiple twists. So let's start with one that I didn't hate.

[00:04:15] Jeff playing in the challenge to try to prevent the players from getting rice. Because, surprise, I didn't mind that one at all. Well, mainly because there weren't any real stakes. It didn't change the game like so many of the twists I get upset about. And, you know, they should have rice anyway. Plus, I just thought it was entertaining to see Jeff in that situation and the players razzing him and talking about him talking about how difficult the challenge was.

[00:04:42] Yeah, it is one of those kind of mixed components, right? Because we see a lot of Jeff throughout the season anyway. But to actually see him suffering, because, boy, he really was suffering. Like, that was not pretend. He was recognizing just how difficult these challenges truly are. And, yeah, he had a tough time with that. So that was a little fun to watch. And I will say, I thought he would do better because he does have some pretty impressive forearms. But I digress.

[00:05:09] Yeah, but I think, you know, we've heard it before, like from Charlie. There's a difference between muscles and grip strength in particular. Oh, for sure. You don't practice that specifically. Right. I'm curious what weight was in his bucket. Did he ever say? Just 25%, I would guess. So he didn't, you know. So it was 25%. No, no, no. I mean, but I didn't know if they had done the same because it was 25% of their pregame weight. So I'm imagining it's just what he.

[00:05:39] In theory, he shouldn't have a difference between his pregame and during game. Well, this is what I'm thinking as well. I just, I like rules, you know? Yes. I do this podcast. Yes. So, yeah, I just want to say, Jeff, if you want to add more twists, which we know you do, follow this path. It really is possible to make things more fun without ruining the game. Is that so much to ask for? Yeah, I don't disagree. I don't disagree.

[00:06:05] And I think, too, in those moments, the players really do enjoy. And I can say this because I was one of those people. Those moments that you have with Jeff, like interacting with him, really does make it more interesting because he's the only person other than the players that we're really interacting with besides being interviewed when we go on confessionals.

[00:06:27] But, like, you're having, like, those moments when you actually get to talk to Jeff, like one-on-one or when he's talking to you directly, like during a challenge. Those are some really great moments. So, it's nice to see the players having an opportunity to have that connection with him during a challenge as well. So, that I think was probably very fun for all of them, too. And to razz on him, as you said. That was great. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:06:49] And I do think that's also something that, you know, from my perspective, made it more enjoyable as I've heard these stories from you and other players about these things that happen when the cameras aren't on or that are edited off where they're having fun with him. He's having fun with them. Yes. And so, this was something we all got to see. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. That was great. So. So, that was fine. We can accept that. Right. And then there was the twist that was not fun. Mm-mm. Mm-mm.

[00:07:17] And before I even start, I want to mention, we won't be talking yet about how it actually impacted Christian staying or leaving. Because that'll be something we get to in Rule 7. Mm-hmm. Right now, we're just talking about the Jimmy Fallon twist itself, not the outcome. And nobody will be surprised to hear I thought it sucked. One main part in particular. And look, I said it last week. One main part? Yeah. Well, especially one.

[00:07:45] One was especially doubly bad. I said it last week, and yet somehow a few commenters still didn't get it. I'm not against every twist if it's fair. And no, I don't hate fun. I mean, we just finished talking about fun. Mm-hmm. And this was definitely not fair. And as Christian told Dalton Ross, it wasn't fun. Yes.

[00:08:07] I know I can't see every comment from every person on every platform, but I did not read, hear anything, a single person defending this twist. There's probably someone out there. There always is. But especially the part of taking away his ability to vote and making him vote for himself. And I mean, it's a combination. I say especially. That just encompasses the whole thing.

[00:08:35] So that part really turned him into like, well, a pre-programmed robot with no free will at all. Mm-hmm. But the worst part was not only did they take away his ability to choose who to vote for and make him turn it on himself, they even took away his ability to play the rest of the game because he couldn't lie about it. Right. For every other situation like this, as far as I can remember, and as of yet, even though I've asked on social media,

[00:09:04] nobody has pointed to a counter example. Even if something bad happens, the players can try to lie or otherwise finagle their way out of it. This isn't Big Brother where you're not allowed to lie about advantages or powers or else they yell at you. You're not allowed to use production as a strategy. But Christian couldn't even make something up. He was completely at the mercy of Jimmy Fallon. Yeah.

[00:09:29] And I do think that there are so many issues that exist in this particular twist, advantage, whatever the hell you want to call it. But I do dislike the lack of choice for a player. We've talked about this before. Right. Like if you are going to insert something like this, and it was a journey and they let them choose who wants to go. So there's the choice. You know, we started with a choice and people decided whether or not they wanted to go on this journey. Fine.

[00:09:58] But it does get to a point where you have taken away his ability to not only like choose how he wants to handle this disadvantage that he now has. You have you've you've taken away all of his choices. Like why did I mean, it's it's just obnoxious that like he even had to go to tribal council and write his name down. He could have just written it down and put it in the urn already and just been like, peace out. I can't do anything. So it doesn't matter. Sure. Um, I'm curious.

[00:10:26] What would have happened if he had just refused to write his name down? It was just like yelled at him. The same the same thing that happened with Joe last week when when Joe refused to write down coach's name and they were like, get back in here. Write down coach's damn name. Uh, so that's fair. Or his nickname, I guess, technically. Um, that's how he could have gotten around it. He said, I'm not going to write coach's name. He could have written Benjamin instead. He could have. Yeah. Joe didn't think of that.

[00:10:56] I'm sure. Uh, but yeah. In along the lines of exactly what you were saying, Christian told Dalton Ross having to announce it, it takes away sort of the ambiguity of the mystery of it because it's like a printed note. So it took away a lot of options. If I had to vote for myself, I could have feigned that I got an advantage given the fact that it was a puzzle or at least I claim it was a puzzle. People think he's lying. He's got an advantage. Right. Which could have backfired either way. But either way, that gives a choice.

[00:11:25] And I think that some of the advantages and disadvantages, what's most fun is when they give the player choice of what to do with them. And he's 100 percent right. So like I said, neither fair nor fun. No. Problems all around. Yeah. Yes. Now, as an aside, I have already blamed Jimmy Fallon for this. You have blamed Jimmy Fallon for this. I do want to mention Christian was on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on Thursday. Mm hmm. I did a four plus minute video about it that you could find on TikTok or YouTube.

[00:11:55] But a key point to mention here is that Fallon admitted he didn't even create the twist. Yeah. Jeff in production did. And he said he frequently makes suggestions, but they came back to him with this one. So we really can't even blame him. That's why I said earlier it's in the hands of Jeff Probst. Mm hmm. It's the usual situation of Jeff trying to blame the fans for his poor decisions. Except in this case, it's one particular fan, Jimmy Fallon. Mm hmm.

[00:12:25] Now, with that said, he did agree to it. He put his name on it. So he's by no means blameless. And he apologized to Christian. But an apology isn't worth a million bucks. And that is very true. The other thought that I have, too, in relationship to this particular twist is the issue that we have spoken on in regards to, like, taking away someone's vote and how terrible that is.

[00:12:51] Because the whole, like, idea behind Survivor is voting people out. Right. Like, that's that's the thing. Like, you don't want to get voted out. You want to be voted to win all of those things. And so that's like at the heart. That's the essence of the game is the vote itself. And so you've already taken a step into that world by taking away people's ability to vote. And that is incredibly problematic.

[00:13:16] And now you're forcing them as to who to vote for, which is, like, doubly problematic because it's like not only do you lose your vote, but I mean, like, you are telling him what to do. And like that, again, is not what this game is supposed to be about in any way, shape or form. It is supposed to be about the players making decisions about who they want to vote for and who they don't want to vote for. And I know that might just sound simple that they took that away from him.

[00:13:41] But I just really think that you've you've removed, like, the essence of the game by inserting things like this into it. And someone actually said I was on when I was scrolling through Twitter and they were X, whatever you want to call it, that they were like, why would you ever want to go on a journey again? Like, no one is going to want to go on a journey because there's this idea that I might not just lose my vote. I might have to vote for myself. Yeah. Why? Why take that chance?

[00:14:12] Why take that chance? Yeah. I mean, unless you're desperate. So. Sure. But yeah. Yeah. Now, you know, what you said is absolutely right. All these things took away choices. And I wonder what was what was Jeff thinking when he came up with this idea of the letter or approve this idea of someone else came up with it. And I feel.

[00:14:38] That he set it up to make the person in question, whoever it was, read the note, because more than anything, they wanted to emphasize how this is a first. And that way they could get everyone's reaction for me. Mm hmm. I feel like they cared more about that than they did the mechanics and the unfairness of it, which is the way several of the twists this season have been. It's it's too game showy.

[00:15:04] It's all about it's a game show as opposed to the social experiment that it was meant to be. Yeah. Well, moving on to other production issues, I already did a video about this, but I also want to mention briefly how bad it was that Survivor production put a clip of Christian talking about Jimmy Fallon in the preseason preview, which was a massive spoiler for the first eight episodes.

[00:15:32] This wasn't a situation where you had to be like a detective and pause the video and look for clues to get information. It was one of the most talked about scenes in the preview. And it meant that until we saw it on the show, until we knew the Jimmy Fallon segment was coming, Christian was 100 percent safe. Whatever the previews, individual previews might say, no matter how nervous people might get, Christian was safe because Jimmy Fallon hadn't arrived yet. Right. Right. And that is just a dumb move by production.

[00:16:02] And again, it seems like it was included to emphasize the Jimmy Fallon aspect of it without considering the well, not so much the game aspect, but the viewer aspect of it, that it could have been done a different way without making it a spoiler. Yeah. Well, production does that sometimes, right? Yes. I remember in my season, the preview included Jay with a black buff on.

[00:16:32] So that and that was the marked buff. So you're like, wait a second. He's not supposed to have a... Well, this season had coach with a yellow buff on. So, yeah. It's like somebody's got to be keeping track of this stuff because everyone's watching everything like a hawk. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and again, you didn't even have to. I didn't notice the buff. That's not something I stare at and wonder about. But a scene blaring Jimmy Fallon when the whole thing was about naming off the different people. Yeah. That's obvious.

[00:17:02] Yeah, for sure. All right. Moving from production to players, let's talk a little bit about how Jonathan is behaving. He clearly was all pissed off that things didn't go as planned when they wanted to vote out Devin's. And instead, he lost his buddies, Coach and Chrissy. So he began the episode by lying to Devin's about what was supposed to happen, according to him, in that previous tribal council. And sure, him lying to Devin's, that's part of the game. Totally get that.

[00:17:31] Even though he was pissy about it. But then he said something that made no sense in confessional. By saying to us, we're the only audience here that Devin's drew a target to himself. No, Jonathan, you already had a target on him and you were planning to vote him out. Yeah. So that's just dumb. Don't lie to us. That is not part of the game. We're not going to buy it. I don't know who you think you're fooling.

[00:18:01] Well, and wasn't he the only one who voted for Devin's? In the end, I think so. Yes. I think everybody else switched it. Yeah. He got a little, he got a little angry with Devin's during that tribal council too. Yes, he definitely did. It continued afterwards. And then throughout the rest of the episode, Jonathan behaved in a similar way, being pissy about Christian as well. Even saying that Christian playing the game was quote, making me sick. Well, you know, I'm glad that you mentioned this.

[00:18:31] I'm sorry. I'm not trying to cut you off or anything. I, you've just, you, you've brought it back to the forefront of my mind. How, I hate to say this, but how whiny everybody really seemed to be at the beginning of this episode that other people were actually playing survivor. Yes. And I was like, what is happening? Let's just be clear about who the other people were. The honor and integrity slash zoom alliance. The zoom alliance was, was very upset that people were wait, wait. Oh my God.

[00:19:01] They're playing survivor during, during the actual game. Like during being on the Island, not like at home on your computer, like planning things out, like you're actually in the thick of it and you're pissed off that people are playing the game. It felt so just like, like, stop it. Like you all signed up for this and you all know what the stakes are and what you're doing. And the fact that, oh my gosh, people are actually playing survivor. People are lying.

[00:19:28] People are like hiding fake idols and, and making shows of things. And, and I don't know, like playing the game. Crazy. Just crazy to think about. Just crazy. I think, uh, uh, I think the, the account's name is Hannah burner on a blue sky. Uh, maybe it's Hannah's burner account. Uh, said, said that, uh, Jonathan has that disease where he thinks only him and his allies are allowed to play survivor. Yeah. And, and I do think that sums it up.

[00:19:57] And then you were talking about other people. Joe got pissy with devils. Yes. And Joe lied. Despite Mr. Honesty lied. I know. Oh my God. Shocking. I mean, look at him go. Look at you. Wow. Joe. Your plans are over. Yeah. I'm surprised his head didn't explode by having to tell this one lie, but he always rationalizes it. Like they all do. It's not really a lie.

[00:20:27] If I'm telling it to someone who's not part of my core group, then it's okay. I just have to be honest to those that I'm loyal to. Whatever. Um, but the funny thing is he showed once again, that he still can't play the game because after winning the challenge, he was asked to make a very basic decision. Send one person on a journey. He couldn't do it. He was like, Oh, who wants to go? Who?

[00:20:56] I mean, the look on his face was terror. Like, Oh my God, I have to make a decision. So first he was like, who wants to go? And of course, multiple people raised their hand. So he's like, Oh, well then play rock, paper, scissors, which of course resulted in Christian going. Yes. Now we now know what the outcome of that was, but at the, in the moment, if there was one person they did not want to send on a journey, it was Christian.

[00:21:24] That's why Ozzy was visibly annoyed because Christian goes and get something in their whole plan to target him is ruined. Right. And yet Joe couldn't handle that one simple strategy related task. And also who decided who was going to play rock, paper, scissors against who to finally get to the final two playing rock, paper, scissors. It didn't make any sense. It was a combination of, it was a combination of Joe and Jeff, because I watched that.

[00:21:54] See, I made a video about this too already, but I watched it multiple times and it doesn't look like, well, Aubrey never raised her hand in what we saw. And yet Aubrey ends up playing rock, paper, scissors against Christian. And I think it was because there was an odd number. And so either, I think Joe was like, Aubrey, you play or something like that. But there was still six people, which means Ozzy had to beat his own partner and then the winner of the other two.

[00:22:24] Right. So he had to do three matches, whereas Christian only had to win two matches. Which is all of this is just craziness. Just make a choice, Joe. Yeah. Because that didn't that didn't make any sense. I was like, wait, I don't know who's doing rock, paper, scissors against who at this point. It just it was it was too much. Make a decision. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm sure Christian had some sort of algorithm that he knew about rock, paper, scissors, too. Oh, I'm sure he did. Oh, goodness.

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[00:24:14] Before we move on to our regular segment, I want to celebrate a milestone. Emily kept the secret for a whole episode. She didn't tell anyone that Devin's idol was fake. Yay, Emily! Wait, but I thought she did tell. No. Yeah, no, she did. No. Hmm. No, Christian said to her, I presume Rick told you. And she said yes.

[00:24:44] Okay. Maybe she was just telling people at Tribal Council then that it was fake. Oh, at the previous Tribal Council, she was stunned and was like, that's got to be fake. That's what we saw. Yeah, okay. But we also don't know if she was saying that for strategic reasons or it was just a shock reaction. Right. I suspect it was a shock reaction because that's usually when she says things that she really shouldn't say.

[00:25:14] I will talk about this later, but Christian says she gets, I don't know, flustered isn't the right word. Frenetic is the word he used. Mm-hmm. Yes, she just can't keep a secret. Yeah. But she did. For a whole episode. Come on. Excellent job. Emily, I'm giving her props. But I guess I just don't expect, I just assumed she must have told somebody because maybe we just didn't see it. Maybe they were like, we'll give her a pass this time. Yeah. We won't put that in the edit.

[00:25:44] All right. Well, we of course have our regular segment for the season. The CBS Mornings crew is wrong about blank. And for a change, it wasn't horrendously bad. In part because I think Christian is so easily able to make just about anything entertaining. Mm-hmm. But even the questions the CBS Mornings hosts asked weren't as dumb as they usually are. Are they listening? No.

[00:26:15] No. I think it's just coincidence. But, and there was a substitute co-host whose name I don't know and probably will never learn, asked a much better question than the usual co-host, Vladimir. I only know it's Vladimir because I looked it up. But then once again, of course, came the question we all know and hate.

[00:26:37] And it came up in a different way than usual as another co-host, Nate Burleson, who I also looked up, specifically reminded Gail that she needed to ask Christian who he thinks will win. And I'm like, seriously? You can't even let Gail forget? You've got to remind her? Oh, that's amazing. Between this and Gail interrupting Coach last week to ensure she got the question in there?

[00:27:06] That's incredible. It seems more and more like they are being forced to ask this incredibly stupid question. Like, was there someone in his ear saying, remind Gail, remind Gail? Yeah. Is there someone dumber than Gail running things who is making them do this? I don't know. But Christian handled it the way most of the others have so far and said he, of course,

[00:27:35] hopes it's Rick. Now, this is the funny part. Gail was surprised. And my read on it is I think she was surprised because I don't necessarily think she heard him say, I hope. I think she believed he was answering the question of who do you believe will be the last one standing? Oh, interesting. And so because the way she responded was like, really, Rick? How could it be Rick type of thing?

[00:28:05] And this again shows that no matter whose idea it is, she still doesn't understand that the people she's asking already know the answer. Right. I don't know. They might have had a hand in the answer to that question. Yeah. Crazy. All right. Well, moving on from that. Do you have anything or anyone else that you want to discuss before we get to the rules? I don't think so.

[00:28:34] I think we can just get right into this. Okay. Well, we can't get right into it yet because we have to mention. We have to. I've got someone in my ear saying, David, remember, you have to mention that the rules we're about to discuss come in a shorter and much more colorful version in poster form. You can go to robhazwebsite.com slash YXLostFeed, scroll down to the poster and click on it.

[00:29:00] And in addition to the poster, you can also get the rules on the same design on a t-shirt and you can get the checklist design on a t-shirt. So again, go to robhazwebsite.com slash YXLostFeed and order away. Yes. Order away. I will say, I have to send you a photo.

[00:29:25] We had an individual who ordered a poster from us, put together a beautiful, I'm not even really sure what, it's almost like a tribute to Survivor and our poster is. I thought it was a tribute to us. Like they were, you know. Well, we are like dead center. The poster's dead center and then everything is surrounding. It's very, very beautiful. I have to send you a picture of it. It's great. Yes, please. All right. Well, Christian had a lot going for him at this point in Survivor 50.

[00:29:54] What he didn't realize was that significant forces were mounting against him as well. When he tried to aim his allies at a new target, things went really awry. Then when he came back with a note from Jimmy Fallon, it only got worse. Was he headed out of the game even before the horrible twist? If so, what were the reasons? At RJP, we know Survivor and we know why Christian lost. Mm-hmm. The first and most important rule is, of course, to scheme and plot.

[00:30:21] Christian certainly knows this very well and did a good job of it for almost his entire time on Survivor 50. Mm-hmm. He positioned himself well quickly in his starting tribe, beginning with what I called at the time Christian and Devins, a love story. And indeed, that story lasted the entirety of his game. And he talked in interviews about the complete trust they had in each other, plus his plan for what he would say if the two of them got to the end together. Yeah.

[00:30:50] I think the impressive thing with Christian is it's a lot of pre-planning, and I hate to say pre-gaming. He played a huge part in what he was doing. But he does try to look ahead and kind of see where things are going to fall and the effects that certain things could have potentially down the road.

[00:31:11] And rather than being reactive to what's happening, he's more of the, I'm going to stop it before it starts, or I'm going to cause something to happen that I think is going to be beneficial to me, which I think is a really great way for someone to approach the game. Because when you are being reactive, you're obviously multiple steps behind. So I never felt like he was playing catch-up. I felt like other people were always playing catch-up to Christian. Like Christian always kind of knew what was going to be happening and where things were landing and what was going on.

[00:31:39] And I think Sari is someone that we can say is doing the same thing. And so it's very interesting to see a player in that camp and then other players like going, oh, we got to get to Christian because he's kind of figuring things out before they even happen. Yeah. And I think, I mean, I don't know if it's Christian went into robotics because his brain already worked like this or his time in robotics helped him.

[00:32:05] But it's definitely an engineering way of thinking, a programming way of thinking. You know, like if you put this in there, how will the program, the robot, whatever, react? Right. Right. You know, I am an engineer, but I never got the hang of computer programming in part because of that.

[00:32:25] Because what would happen is I, I mean, in the one class I took in college, which I, you know, barely got a C in, I, oh yeah, it was terrible. You were, I think I've mentioned this before, but throughout the, throughout the class, you were supposed to build on a program. Like you started by drawing a square and then you drew squares inside and then you did alternate black and red colors. And then you created a checkerboard.

[00:32:49] And then I don't know that I ever got the alternating black and red colors, you know, and you were supposed to like have it playing chess by the end of the semester. Oh no. Yeah. No. And the problem is, you know, you could do something in program line 15, but it doesn't trigger an error until program line 732. So it would spit out now, admittedly, this was a long time ago. So the programming is probably different now, but it would spit out something like error in line 732.

[00:33:19] And you'd look at it and you'd go, okay, there's nothing wrong with that line. Now I have to go back through the whole program to figure it out, which is reactive. Like you said, proactive would have been me realizing in line 10. Oh, if I do it this way, it's going to screw up. Yes. And that, and I, this is why I hate computers because the same type of things happen to me. I don't understand them and they don't like me. And I think I'm one of those people that has an energy about them that makes them not work well. But Christian is not that person.

[00:33:49] Christian clearly understands the dynamics of both computers and also people and is able to, weirdly enough, put the two together. Which is, you would think that someone who has such a construct in his brain about how things work would find it difficult to apply them to like human emotion. But he really does seem to do it well.

[00:34:11] And it was always very impressed just to see how he was really working through the calculations of all of the, if we do this and then what could happen there. So very impressive and certainly found himself in a great position from the start of the game because he was kind of like almost the center of so many things. Yeah. In addition to Devin's, obviously, he, of course, also had a tight alliance with Emily, who he knew from outside the game.

[00:34:38] And back at the beginning of the season, when Emily kept spilling Christian's secret, there was a chorus of people saying he should vote her out. But I said, no, I said, no, she wasn't doing it to target him. She was just. Doing it. And I would much rather have someone on my side who, you know, sometimes accidentally spill secrets instead of all the times. Well, yes, you know, instead of someone actually opposing me.

[00:35:06] And he validated what I had said by telling Mike Bloom, while I didn't always understand her tactics, I always felt she wasn't gunning for me. And she wanted me to stick around and she was willing to protect me. I felt that she always wanted to go deep with me and would be willing to protect me in spite of the spilling of the secrets. It wasn't an act of disloyalty. It was an act of freneticism. That was ultimately validated at this vote because she could have thrown me under the bus. Instead, she tries to throw the target on Ozzy.

[00:35:36] I feel so vindicated that I didn't get spooked by any sort of comparisons to Gabby or things like that. I had the right read of her intentions. And I mentioned earlier, I like the word he used to describe it, freneticism. I think that seems perfect. Now, when he talks about being spooked, like the Gabby information, I mean, but he was spooked earlier by Mike White. Well, he was spooked, but he didn't act on being spooked. He realized that Mike was trying to scare him. Understood. Okay. Yeah.

[00:36:06] Just looking for some clarification there. Yes. So also in his starting tribe, of course, he made a final three alliance with Sari on day one, which he had talked about pregame if they were together. And the deal was that he would help her or he would help protect her early in the game and she would help protect him early at the merge. And based on, you know, what he saw as those were the times each would need it. And he was clearly right about himself.

[00:36:35] It just didn't exactly work out for, I guess, reasons we'll get to as we proceed through the rest of this podcast. But as he told Mike Bloom, she did a great job of cultivating me. She's very good. I'm going to go on record saying Sari is quite good at Survivor. Look at Christian being all controversial in his interview. Oh, goodness. Well, and I do think that that is really, that's a strong idea to go into season 50 of Survivor with.

[00:37:04] Like, I want to be in a final three with Sari. What? What are you thinking? To me, that's a terrible idea. That's a terrible idea. He might have wised up by the time it got to final three. I would hope so, because I can appreciate the we're going to help each other in the beginning. We can help each other in the middle, but I'm not going to help you towards the end.

[00:37:27] I really do feel like that is that is walking yourself to a loss if she's sitting on the final three. But that's just my opinion again. I think you're right. Now, of course, one problem was that although they had that alliance, both of them had multiple other alliances. Yes. As Sari told us, Christian wasn't her number one, more like her number three. And to be fair, I think Sari, despite what you just talked about, was probably around his number three as well after Devin's Emily.

[00:37:57] It's just that his fate was in her hands, not the other way around. And of course, he did something we'll get to in rule two when it came to her. But before we get to that, we do have a few more things to discuss in this rule, such as the situation in which Christian found himself at the merge with his entire David versus Goliath trio on the same tribe. Oh, yes. Yes. We already discussed quite a bit about this when Mike White was voted out.

[00:38:24] And Christian, of course, talked in interviews about his decision to take out Mike. I have seen some people saying, see, he never should have gotten rid of them because they weren't around his allies to save him. And they would have been. No, sorry. No. Remember that Mike wanted to take out a different ally of his, Emily. And just a couple of minutes ago, we talked about how solid Emily was for Christian. Mm hmm. I said at the time that his decision made perfect sense.

[00:38:53] And I stand by that. Probably even more sense now because he added in additional details in his interviews that we didn't see. Like he asked Mike for assurances that there was a plan for the merge. Mike didn't have one, which made Christian realize, as he told Mike Bloom, I was going to be marching into a slaughter. I'd be taking the bullet for the three of us. Yes.

[00:39:17] I thought that that was really quite fascinating because, again, this is what we were talking about previously, where he's being proactive instead of reactive. He's he is looking down the road as to what place they're all going to be in. And he knew how close Angelina and Mike White were. And he knew that if if Mike White needed to protect one of them, it would be Angelina and not Christian.

[00:39:39] And so his thought process there, although it frustrated us that he took out Mike White because we thought Mike White was just so enjoyable and fun. He really worked through the permutations of what's going to happen, come merge. And where am I going to find myself? And he would be the sacrificial lamb as far as Mike White and Angelina are concerned.

[00:39:58] So I'm curious, too, if some of the prior game situations had any effect on that, because he learned a lot about Angelina and Mike White when they played the game before and they targeted him previously. So perhaps, you know, that's something he's considering as well, that they've done it to me before. They'll gladly do it to me again. So he got ahead of that before it happened.

[00:40:22] Yeah, I I'm sure that was in his mind, but I think it was more like he told Mike Bloom, Mike is doing everything he can to save Angelina, including trying to convince me to do something I know is a bad idea. Right. Right.

[00:40:37] Yeah. So now one aspect of Christians scheming was that was a bit of a mystery after last episode and into this one involved Jonathan and his allies, because during the tribal council, when Devons pulled out the fake idol, Jonathan and especially the other woman in the alliance pushed Christian. She got up in his face. You know, you do this. You do this.

[00:41:00] And they were trying to get Devons to reveal what was happening and also grilled him about whether he would keep his promise to vote against Devons, which is a clear indication that it was already something that they foolishly expected him to do. And that is, I think, a major part of the reason that Jonathan was so pissy with Christian in this episode, because Christian had lied to him. Christian. Now that's what Jonathan thinks of him probably.

[00:41:29] Um, uh, you know, so pretty much Christian knew that bridge was burned. And I mean, even though he went through with the whole, you know, promising the shot in the dark and giving it to him, although it was meaningless, he knew it wasn't going to do anything. But it is still astonishing to me that he managed to convince them originally that he would vote against Devons. Yeah. Actually, actually, let me stop myself there.

[00:41:59] Um, maybe it's not so astonishing when it comes to the other woman, because she'll apparently believe anything as coach and Chrissy complained about last week. It's quite possible. But even in that last tribal council, when all of the craziness was happening with Devons and the idol and people were looking at Christian, like, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? I'm voting Devons. And he was, he was very much like, that's, that's what I'm doing. I want, I'm staying out of this. I'm voting Devons. Right.

[00:42:27] And it is interesting that they completely discounted the relationship that Christian and Devons actually clearly have. It doesn't seem to be much of a secret for people that are playing the game. Yeah. I mean, I, the way he talked about it in, in, in interviews was they, you know, clearly like we saw a scene of them coming up and hugging each other. He said, well, obviously we didn't do that in front of others. Sure. Sure. But yes, they should have been able to pick up on it.

[00:42:55] But then again, you know, like I said, this is the same person who was convinced that, that Sari and Ozzy were on their side fully. Well, I say that, I guess everybody now thinks that Sari is on their side. So Sari is aligned with everyone. Yeah. That was, and we didn't mention this at the beginning. We probably should have, but that was an incredible scene to hear her talk about how she's, she's in a situation. Yes. With the particular player.

[00:43:25] She's aligned with this one. She's in a situation with that one. Yes. She has, that was, that was amazing. That was incredible. I love that. Apparently that may have pissed off that woman a bit. I heard and saw a bit of a post that she made on social media where she was saying some things about Sari and she's been, I feel like mouthing off on social media, dropping, not, not full on.

[00:43:50] Like she did preseason, but like just saying things about Sari that make it clear. She's not happy with whatever this outcome is going to be. And I'll talk about that. I'll talk about that in my predictions. I think later, but no teaser. Yeah. Yeah. So. You know, come to this tribal council.

[00:44:17] And like I said, Christian was the one who was fooled. Yeah. And, you know, everything we saw leading up to the vote made it pretty clear to us that he was at risk. But when he saw the votes coming in, he was obviously shocked and called it a blind side. And even at the time, immediately that told me Sari had assured him she and others were with him and he believed it. And indeed, he confirmed that was the case in his interviews. He thought everyone was voting for Ozzie. And it seems Emily and Devins did as well.

[00:44:46] Sari and company just outplayed them. As he said, Sari is quite good at surviving. She is quite good at surviving. Now, the second rule says not to scheme and plot too much and to keep your scheming secret. Of course, one thing stands out above all else here. That's a lot. A lot of words. Yeah. I hinted at it earlier, which, of course, is Christian telling Sari that Ozzie needed to go. Yes.

[00:45:16] It was good insight on his part to realize that Ozzie was really the one in the middle, not obviously Christian himself. Unfortunately, he didn't realize the middle was big enough to accommodate more than just Ozzie. And remember that Sari was right there with him. He even told Sari, no way Ozzie sees it coming. And I'm like, well, no way unless someone like his closest to hell tells him. Yeah.

[00:45:48] Yeah. Well, and it is interesting that he acknowledges that this was where he really messed up. He said this was my mistake. I trusted her and I should have. He said as soon as I said it, I went, oh, maybe I shouldn't have been sharing this with her. And I do think that that's always an interesting place for players to find themselves when you when it comes down to it. You need numbers and you have to try to formulate a plan. Who can know the plan and who can't know the plan?

[00:46:18] And Christian had a very interesting little point about this in one of his exit interviews about if you want to know if you are in the actual plan or if you're getting the fake plan, ask a follow up question. And if they can't give you an answer, then, you know, that's the fake plan, because if it's the real plan, you've worked through all of the possibilities. If it's a big plan, they don't have an answer for you. I thought that that was really quite an interesting take on whether or not you are being bamboozled by someone out there. Yes. Yes.

[00:46:47] Not to take away from him. I'm sure I've heard that before from other people. I don't know who. Maybe it was him in his first season. Who knows? Or or one of his podcasts. You know, that could be also. Yeah. So so I may be saying, you know, it's not just Christian. It's also Christian. I don't remember. But but yeah, you know, it's a very good point. And there were a combination of issues at play here. First, as we already discussed, I may have mentioned this a couple of times.

[00:47:16] Sari is quite good at Survivor. Oh, is she now? Yeah. Yeah. I know. Revelation. I think I've heard that before. Part of it is she kept a good lead lid on all her various alliances. And, you know, we you just mentioned that. And it reminded me and I might put together a video on this on Big Brother. She was in so many alliances. And at one point she got into this discussion slash argument with Corey.

[00:47:47] And she said, I didn't want to be in 75 alliances. And it was just like, yeah, you did. Yeah, you did. So that just reminded me as I was watching this. Amazing. But yes. Like you said, Christian told Mike Bloom, to be clear, I made myself a target specifically by telling Sari the name of Ozzy. That was just a pure mistake. And on Survivor, you're kind of only as good as your worst day. I think that was my worst day by far in the 18 days I was in the game.

[00:48:17] So it put me on the target. And he added, good on Sari and Ozzy. I mean, to be clear, there were rumblings about this alliance. We talked about it a lot back on old Sela. So I feel partly it's just a boneheaded mistake. How did I forget this element? So it's just that's the simplest explanation. I lost track of all things going on with the 11 different people having relationships. And indeed, while, you know, while he might not have talked a whole lot to Savannah back

[00:48:44] in the earlier days, she told Rob back in her exit interview that Sari was solid with Ozzy. On top of that, I think some people have forgotten that Sari and Ozzy worked well together on Game Changers. I did a fairly recent rewatch. And I think most people just think back to before when Sari went against him and forgot that they made up because Emily then made the same mistake. It wasn't just Christian doing this. Yeah.

[00:49:13] And again, this goes back to those prior relationships certainly affecting the gameplay that is happening here. And Ozzy has put so much faith into Sari that he's just like, oh, thank God she came back. That when they were going to the vote was going a different way. And then Sari was like, no, this is what we're doing. And like this, everything changed. And and I do really think that that shows how much he is relying upon her in this game.

[00:49:39] And the fact that she has his back is also really incredibly smart for her because out of the two of them, I mean, she's the mastermind and he's the extra vote who can come along and and help her. Really? I mean, I hate to say that about Ozzy. This is the most strategic we've seen him. Who also gave her an extra vote.

[00:50:09] With what she does. And so the fact that she's looking out for him is also looking out for herself because she knows that she's got someone in her back pocket. Yeah. Yeah. In hindsight, Christian does realize he didn't go about it in the right way. He told Mike Bloom, I kind of woke up with this terrible epiphany that Ozzy was in the middle. I mean, it's true. Ozzy was in the middle, but the tactics where I went about it were not good. And frankly, targeting Ozzy was probably not even the right call here, period. Why did I target Ozzy? He's the one I sense was in the middle.

[00:50:39] But clearly there was more going on around. Yeah. And I think the position that he was in at that point in time was such a terrible one to be in because he's at that point. That's after he knew he had to vote for himself. Right. Like the journey had been done. No, this was before. That was before. Okay. Shoot. Now you're me. I've watched the show twice. Now you're making me rethink it. I can't. I feel like. Yeah. I feel like it was before because they.

[00:51:09] Yes. Yes. It was because. It was before. Okay. Because Sari makes a comment after he reads the letter. It says, well, he was already on the hook. Oh, okay. So she was already coming after him even before then. Yeah. So this is the timing thing as well then, because it could have been if it was after that, if it was after he was already, that he was already his own target, right? Like he was told you're voting for yourself.

[00:51:36] He's probably not in the best headspace to be strategizing at that point. Obviously you need to try to get the target off of yourself, but that can, you can just not be in your best, in your best game mode at that point. Yeah. But prior to, this is when it's, it's very tricky to decide at what point do you start strategizing as to who has to go next before you get to the challenge, before you know who's won immunity.

[00:52:02] We see this happen a lot because it's almost like the more time people have to talk about a plan, the less likely that plan is going to happen. It's almost like you have to wait until you get closer to actual tribal council because then people can't run around and try to switch things up and come up with plan B and then plan A and C and, and, and switch things and, and a backup plan. So timing really matters. And I think he was just, he was too quick to start dropping names. It wasn't necessary at that point in time.

[00:52:32] Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's what Tony said in Winners at War. He waited until the sun was in the position where he knew there would only be like 10, 15 minutes before they went to tribal council. And that was when he went to work so that people couldn't do that. Yep. No scrambling. Now, aside from Sari, Jonathan and company, we know were also eager to get rid of Christian apparently because as I mentioned earlier, that he lied to them before the double bubble

[00:52:59] toil and trouble tribal council saying that, you know, he would vote for Devon's looking at the outcome of that vote. I do wonder why he lied to them other than that Jonathan was his partner in the duo twist. So maybe he felt like he had to for some reason, but he really didn't. I guess they were just trying to keep him off balance in case, in case of what, I don't know, but in case.

[00:53:23] And the fact that we didn't see any conversations about this makes it difficult to say for sure what happened. But if he had not promised them, the numbers would have still worked out. And the fact that he did promise and then went back on it clearly pissed off Jonathan, as we discussed earlier. And, you know, Jonathan even said he's always stabbing people in the back or acting fishy. He's not going to shoot you straight like ever.

[00:53:50] And like we mentioned earlier, Jonathan, that's called playing the game. Right. And again, Jonathan lies. It's OK, but it is not OK to lie to Jonathan. Well, and I'm curious if that's the test, right? Maybe that's why they asked Christian and said, this is who we're voting for. Who are you voting for? Because it's a lot easier for Jonathan to then blame that person and be like, you lied

[00:54:18] to me, but you lied to other people, too. But it's just it's a very I feel like it's a pointing fingers like it gives him an opportunity to like I have an excuse now to be angry at this person as opposed to just I'm not playing survivor with this person. I don't know. I feel like you're giving him too much credit. I don't see Jonathan planning ahead that much. I know that I know that we've been told, you know, he he he is more strategic and smarter

[00:54:48] than maybe he comes off. But I think planning like, OK, I'm going to put Christian to the test in this vote that doesn't in his mind was already resolved and didn't matter. I don't see him doing. OK, so I also, you know, just on the whole Jonathan thing, I still don't think he would have survived telling Sari he wanted to go after Ozzy, even if he hadn't lied to Jonathan previously.

[00:55:18] But having that trio eager to jump on board certainly did not help matters. Yeah, for sure. All right. Well, the third rule tells players to be flexible, considering how often we heard that Christian was supposedly part of the middle group. How do you think he did here? I don't know. Maybe he's rather flexible. He doesn't seem to want to commit to anyone specifically other than Devin's and maybe Emily.

[00:55:47] I do think that it was interesting that they kept referring to him as being in the middle, which I guess he was. But it's also not like he didn't have a core group that he was going back to. So it was an interesting spot for him to be in because, yes, that damn middle people were not very happy with the middle and he found himself there. But I don't know. I mean, I think Christian's flexibility really stemmed from that long term thinking that we've already talked about. Like he was always kind of thinking, where's the game going?

[00:56:15] And where do where will I be if this vote goes this way or if this vote goes that way? And so that's why I think he was so good at being flexible and keeping those options open because he wanted to create the best result for himself. And that was what he was continuing to do, even though he was working very closely with Devin's and Emily in the process. Yeah. Yeah. I'll say it's still weird to me that they said Christian and company were in the middle because there was no other side to be in the middle of.

[00:56:45] Right. Because the honor and integrity alliance believed Sari and Ozzy were part of them. Yeah. So you had them and then you had the middle. So yeah, we know Christian was obviously aligned with Devin's, Emily and Aubrey and with Sari and apparently by association with others like Tiffany and maybe even sort of Joe, too, at times in some way.

[00:57:15] Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, I like what you said about his proactiveness being, you know, one way of staying flexible here. And as we discussed at the end of the second rule, there were clearly parts of his strategy and scheming we didn't see. For example, whatever promises he made to the Jonathan group and then went against. Was he flexible to agree with what they wanted? Yes. Yes.

[00:57:41] But he seemed to do so knowing it wasn't going to work out that way, which is why we talked about it in rule two. So not sure that was a place he should have been. But overall, I do think he played flexibly analyzing each situation. We talked earlier about how he turned on Mike White and Angelina, which was definitely unexpected. Yeah. But when he was discussing that in interviews, he did mention that he was ready to vote out

[00:58:10] Emily when he and Mike first talked until he came back with those questions. Mike couldn't adequately answer, which again, like you said, he was considering all the options. He was weighing, you know, which way should I go? Which I mean, that that's the heart of flexibility right there. Yeah, for sure. Well, the fourth rule tells players not to let their emotions control them. For Christian, I guess we could reword this to ask basically, was he able to be an advanced version of the robots he works on?

[00:58:41] All right. Maybe that's a bit much, but either way, the answer is a very clear yes. He literally voted out a friend from his first season who put him on a TV show. Yeah. So yeah. And he knew how much Mike truly loved Survivor. It wasn't easy. It wasn't personal. But you have to be a real game player to be able to do that. And Christian definitely is. It was difficult.

[00:59:11] He wasn't happy about it, but he realized it was best for his game and he did it. He put those emotions aside. Yeah. And how about the fact that one of his closest buddies is continuing to spill all of the tea to everyone about everything that she's not supposed to. And while he's getting frustrated when it's happening. Yes. He's not allowing it to cloud his ability to continue to play with her because he does

[00:59:36] see the benefit in the relationship that they've created. And so he's not letting his anger take over. And not for nothing, but he should. I know he was angry with this twist that we've already complained about. Boy, I would have been so angry. I mean, I think there would have been a lot of expletives being said at Tribal Council

[01:00:00] and that this is absolutely insane expectations of this game to have of a player. I think the reason he wasn't was he believed he was going to overcome it. He believed that the vote was still going against Ozzy. And therefore, that's why he could joke. He could be mock upset, which if you I mean, at the time it was Jeff was a little taken back. Yes. When Christian said what he said.

[01:00:28] But it was I think it was clear to anyone who has seen Christian. This is his humor. Very dry. It's very sarcastic. And he was joking. You know, he did, as he said, on Jimmy Fallon, he did a whole five minute set in the voting booth about Jimmy Fallon. Right. Right. And so I don't think he would have been doing that all. If he had believed he was going home.

[01:00:56] But since he didn't, it was easier to have humor. Interesting. Yeah, I could see that. So. So. But as far as his other decisions, I do think that he kept emotion out of it. Like I said in the last rule, he he would have even you mentioned Emily already, but he would have voted out Emily if Mike had had better responses to his questions. Yeah. But this does bring up a question I have seen mentioned online.

[01:01:26] Why didn't Christian flip against Evans to save himself? And more specifically for this rule, was it due to an emotional attachment to his friend? And the answer is clear. No. There were very good strategic reasons to not do it. First off, as I just mentioned, he was blindsided. He didn't think the votes were coming his way. So there was no reason to throw Evans under the bus. Why would you do that? He had already thrown Ozzie under the bus. Yeah, that's fair.

[01:01:55] It's just the bus took an exit. Second, even earlier when he felt a little heat. I just don't think it would have worked to tell others that the idol was a fake. All it would have accomplished is putting Devins in more danger because people know they could get him any time. So that would have meant, oh, and we never need to worry about him. We could just focus on Christian like we were planning and get him next time. Yeah.

[01:02:24] And I think, too, that there's almost like that slippery slope because we've already seen Jonathan be so upset with Christian promising it would be Devins and then it not being Devins. And then him turning around and going, oh, no, no, I'll really vote for Devins this time. I know I didn't last time, but this time I will. I mean it. And I feel like. And it's a fake idol. They'd be like, why are you telling us this? Is it really a fake idol? You lied to us last time. Are you trying to get us to pile our votes on him and then you're going to flip it on us? Yeah.

[01:02:52] It'd be very suspect for him to start doing something like that on the heels of that tribal council. So I do think that it was smart for him not to do so. Yeah. All right. Well, we can go to the fifth rule, which reminds players they need to pretend to be nice and play the social game. What do you think of Christian here? Is he a nice guy? Oh, my gosh. Here's the thing. Christian is like not human. It's basically what I think it boils down to. He's not a robot.

[01:03:22] He's not a robot. But when we saw so much of him and it was almost like Christian overkill. And I'm not saying that. Like, I love the guy. He's great. But he was clearly very much the center of season 50 at the beginning, middle and right before he left. There was a lot of Christian. So he got to see a lot of Christian. I think he had like 19. Didn't he have like 19 confessionals or something in this last episode? It was something. I know it was. It was a lot. It was a lot.

[01:03:52] But I do think that that Christian is someone who that's what makes him so dangerous is that he is so captivating and you can't help but listen to him and just be curious about this person. He has such a unique personality and the way that he explains things, the way that he presents himself. Everything about him, it makes you go, oh, that's interesting.

[01:04:18] Even when I'm going to mention it, when he shit his pants on TV, the man, the way in which he handled it, the way in which he interacted with the cameraman at that time or the camera person, whoever it was like. It was very it was you felt it like it was there was like an honesty to it and it was very vulnerable, but he always presented himself in a way that was like you didn't necessarily

[01:04:45] question what his motives were because you were always so kind of confused as to what's going on with Christian just because of the way that he is. So he was just he's a fascinating individual. And this is why I think he in the last season was able to talk for like six hours to Jeff Probst about things because this is who he is. So I think overall, you can't help but like him. But that's what makes him so like you got to act like, what's his deal? What's going on?

[01:05:14] Because he is just so captivating. And so I really do think people like him, but that's why they feel like he's dangerous. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Obviously, I think Christian was pretty well loved by almost everyone except maybe smug Jonathan who couldn't handle other people playing the game. And even that was still mostly game related, I think, rather than anything social. It's not like people were upset that Christian was talking too much or annoying them or anything. Everything they said about the reasons they wanted him out was game related. Yeah.

[01:05:43] And I know what you what you said reminded me or triggered something in my head. Christian, you know, there are some people who can get egotistical. Mm hmm. Chris, Christian is like the opposite of egotistical. He, you know, go back to the first season when the very first challenge he solved that slide puzzle in what, five seconds. Yeah. And what did he talk about?

[01:06:12] Yeah, I'm just upset I couldn't do it in three. And then there was a whole, there was a whole confessional of him as they left the boat to go to, you know, to camps. It was a whole confessional of him saying, well, yeah, I did it this way, but I'm a little disappointed in myself. I could have done it a little bit different way and I should have done this and I should have done that. And it like trails off. It does this thing where, you know, that anything where it trails off.

[01:06:40] He had this whole long confessional after he was super successful in his very first attempt. Mm hmm. All he could think about was how I could have done better. Yes. Yeah. It's a self-deprecating. Yes, that's the word I was looking for. And yes, which makes him that much more endearing because he's not acting like he's better than. He's acting like I'm not good enough. And this is why I was not good enough, because I didn't do it in three seconds instead of five. Yeah. Mm hmm.

[01:07:11] Yeah. And it's the same when he, you know, when the puzzle shot off into the water. Yeah. You know, he was upset, but he talked about, you know, this is I'm going to use this as a lesson for my son and all of this. And it was like, I'm sad for him. But what a turnaround how he uses this moment to do. Mm hmm. It's very impressive. Incredible. Mm hmm.

[01:07:36] But that takes us to the sixth rule, which warns us against being too much of a threat. And well, I just said. Everything people said about the reasons they wanted Christian out was game related. Mm hmm. And here we are. Almost everyone we heard from talked about Christian being a huge threat. But I have some examples. Earlier, I mentioned Jonathan's comment about Christian stabbing people in the back.

[01:08:05] But another part of that statement was more about his threat level saying, how far do you let somebody like Christian get in the game? Rizzo said he's the most dangerous player here because he's going to boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. Or he said something like that. And in a different conversation, when the idea was brought to him of voting out Emily instead, he correctly noted Christian can win immunity. Emily can't. Yeah.

[01:08:35] Yeah. Do you have more examples? Those were the main two. OK, I just didn't know if you had I don't know if you had any more examples. I what I do think is interesting is that it was almost like Christian recognized this in himself, which is why he chose Sari, which I know he talked about before. Like you have to really feel a lot about yourself and your ability to play survivor if you want to sit next to a Sari in the final three.

[01:09:03] So I do feel like Christian saw what others were going to see in him and said, you know what? I will be that player that's going to sit next to the best in the end because I think I'm one of the best, too, which is really ballsy. I'm just going to say it like, wow, like you really like you feel a particular way about your game if that's what you're willing to go up against.

[01:09:26] And so there is this maybe that confidence is something that also helped him through the game because he knows how good he is at playing this game. And he has seen the response from the last time he played. And so you're coming in with this air of confidence that you might not have had before that allows you to play the game even better because you're already good at it. And now you're like, oh, OK, I'm good at this game and I'm recognizing that in myself. So I've tried it once and here we go. I'm going to try again.

[01:09:55] But I have this additional component, this additional nugget that's going to let me play better. I so I do think that it's he certainly put himself in a threat category because he recognized it and was kind of like, I'm going to lean in on this because I know I know who I am and I know how they perceive me already. So instead of trying to minimize, I think he really leaned in, which I don't know if that was the greatest option.

[01:10:21] But what else would he what else could he have done? Because, you know, he's he's like Tony. I feel like if we were to look at someone like Tony who recognized the things about him that he needed to minimize and he did. Christian's not a Tony. It's a different type of gameplay. So he really leaned in on it instead of trying to minimize it. Yeah. Yeah. I do want to mention I had talked about Emily not being able to win immunities. And but there are other aspects of Emily that, you know, we we should know to be fair to her.

[01:10:52] We have heard in several interviews that she's not getting the credit she deserves for the game she's been playing. Oh, yeah. Of course, what's important here if she's being compared to or if Christian's being compared to her is what the other players think of her. And clearly they don't see her as anywhere near Christian when it comes to being a threat. Sure. And I have to admit, it was somewhat astonishing. That Christian lasted as long as he did without.

[01:11:19] Being taken out for being a threat, and I do think that speaks to his ability to scheme and plot for all the reasons you just said coming in. I would have thought of him as a big target. He said in pregame he felt he wasn't as big a target because there have been other threats more recent, like three people from Survivor 48 all being there. Right, right. Well, and that is something, too, with this particular season.

[01:11:44] I feel like a lot of the individuals who were chosen to play had decided amongst themselves, well, other people were picked to play because they have X because of this. Like everyone was picked for a particular reason. And so I think it gave players a little bit more freedom to be the type of player they wanted to be because there is that narrative that seems to be centered around everyone who was chosen to play season 50.

[01:12:13] Well, there had to be a reason why you were picked. Of course, there's a reason people are picked to play Survivor in whatever season. If you were coming back, returning season, or if it's a new season, there's a reason you were chosen. Sometimes you're chosen because production thinks you're going to win. Sometimes you're chosen because production doesn't think you're going to win, but you're going to be entertaining. You know, so like there are reasons for this choice.

[01:12:35] But in a returning season, if you look around and you see big players who are great strategists like a Sari and you're like, well, she's here. So I don't need to be as concerned about the way I strategize and what I do when I play this game because she's here. She is kind of a shield. And again, like I said, he leaned in on that. He went to her immediately and said, we can help each other.

[01:13:01] So I do think that there's a lot to be said about it being a returning season and with people who. Most people who are chosen to come out and play, I have the ability to or a good reason for being here on season 50. All right, well, we can move on to rule seven, which covers idols and advantages in game mechanics. Earlier, we covered our thoughts about the Jimmy Fallon twist in general. But now is when we can apply it to Christian's game specifically.

[01:13:29] Based on what we saw, I think he was likely a goner no matter what. And I further don't think success or failure in the journey would have mattered. I just don't feel one vote either way was going to do it when everything had swung against him. Even if he succeeds. I do wonder if he would have had to bring a letter if there was a letter he would have had to read for winning. I didn't think of that till just now. Like, does he have to go and say there's already one vote in there for someone?

[01:13:58] But either way, one vote for Ozzy, who I guess he probably would have put it on. That wasn't going to change. It's not like he lost by one vote. However. I did have a bit of a revelation when I was looking back at my preseason notes.

[01:14:19] And I realized that what made this twist especially bad, even worse than we talked about before in general. Oh, oh, there's more. Yes. Is that in his pregame interviews, Christian specifically talked about how he could craft narratives, including doing things like inventing advantages that don't exist because the fan votes results were uncertain.

[01:14:48] This stupid twist literally took away the very thing he had planned for. So he might have been able to convince them he won an idol or some new advantage if he if it hadn't been for this mandatory letter reading. With that in mind, I'll hedge a little bit and note that the letter part. I mean, you know, it definitely had the biggest impact.

[01:15:16] Could he have swung things a different way if he had been able to do what he planned to do and create that new narrative? Yeah. And I am curious if he would have been able to do that, because I also feel like this this helped the momentum, even though Christian was already the potential target. Now Christian comes back and goes, hey, by the way, everybody, you have to vote for myself. That's what this letter is telling me to tell all of you. And this really sucks.

[01:15:45] So if the momentum is already towards Christian and now they're like, oh, well, look at that. Now we just now we have a vote. There will be a vote for Christian. And and I think this is something that Rizzo spoke to. Like, why would we do anything else? Because we already had this. There's already a vote on Christian. This is like the easiest thing to point to and go, well, look, this is what's happening.

[01:16:08] So you lose that like idea that maybe someone else is more enticing because you're like, but why not just vote out Christian? Because he already has to vote for himself and he can't play a shot in the dark. So, you know that you've taken that away from him as well. So he has to vote for himself. He can't play a shot in the dark. So that's two reasons why to continue to target him, because why not? He's not going to be able to screw up anything that you want to do.

[01:16:34] So, yes, I think overall, even though the momentum was already shifting towards him, this just helped kind of tip that scale, I think, for them to go. Yeah. OK, this makes sense, because we've essentially removed any potential that Christian has to sway this vote in a different manner because he can't really do much of anything.

[01:16:56] Yeah. And if he had been able to craft the narrative that, you know, he talked about, he planned about it. It goes back to something he also said in the episode to Tribal Council. It's something that we have noted. Others have noted. When there is more uncertainty, you seek safety. Yes. Which is a major reason we often see in Survivor and Big Brother. The twists have the reverse effect of what are intended.

[01:17:24] It causes people to play tighter, more conservatively. It doesn't loosen up the game. Yes. So if others had been uncertain about what happened on his journey, it is possible they wouldn't have targeted him just in case. We don't know. You know, let's see. But we can't know that for sure. They might have just said, well, we don't know. So let's split the votes on him with a backup of Emily. There's no way to know for sure.

[01:17:51] And, you know, of course, Christian was asked about this in his interviews. And his general answer was also it's difficult to say. And, quote, I'm not sure I will ever know. For example, he refused to say the twist screwed me. But he did note that he believed it was significant. And the fact that I already had a vote on me when you have two targets could have stopped people from flipping the vote to Emily. He pointed out the same thing you just said about Rizzo. And those are all good points.

[01:18:22] I just I think like they were convenient for people to use. Like for Rizzo. So Rizzo wanted to get rid of Christian. Sure. So, of course, he was going to use whatever reason he could. I had to bolster that argument. Right. And I and I totally agree with this. But this is the other problem with this whole twist. Right. Because that should fall on Rizzo to try to convince people that this is what we need to do. And this is why it shouldn't come down to.

[01:18:51] Well, look what production handed us. Isn't this lovely? Like Christian has to vote for himself and he can't use a shot in the dark. Ta-da! Like, no, you are you are making it easier for players to convince other people to vote people out because of an effect of a really terrible twist. It should have never been utilized in the first place. And so I do think that even though, again, maybe they were already looking at Christian,

[01:19:18] you've just you've made it much too easy for everyone to just hone in on that target and just go, yep, done, done and done. We don't really have to talk about this that much. It's it's just all that. It's terrible. I hate it. Well, like Christian said, we'll never know. You know, Rizzo, I quoted Rizzo earlier talking about Christian being a bigger threat. He already wanted that. I mentioned earlier, Ceri said he was already on the hook even before that. So this was already there.

[01:19:47] It's just a question of, like you said, did this add more momentum to it or did it stop momentum from swinging to Emily? We don't know, which leads to the question, of course, whether Christian should have even gone on that journey. You know, and Emily mentioned he didn't have to go. But the thing is, well, he was going to be the target at that point anyway. When he went on the journey, I thought that was the main reason he wanted to go, that

[01:20:16] he was worried he could be the target. He said in interviews it was more to prevent someone else from getting something. Right. But either way, this goes back to a topic you and I have discussed many, many times. Journeys with, you discussed it earlier. Journeys with surprises suck. Yeah, it's it's one thing if he had lost his vote at this point. That's probably what he thought was the most likely potential negative outcome. We have talked about that. Yes.

[01:20:44] At this point, if you are given the option to go on a journey, you should know you could lose your vote. We don't like it. But at least by this point, the players know that. But. That this is something different. I mean, even voting against himself, it would not have been the end of the world. We'd have hated it, but it still wouldn't have been the end of the world. It all comes. It would have been like a steal of them. It would have been the effect of giving someone else a steal of vote.

[01:21:13] Mm hmm. It all comes back to that stupid letter that he had to read aloud. Yeah. It's something they've never done before. There was no way he could predict that this was a possibility. Oh, yeah. And I and this this is why, you know, it comes. We've and we've talked about it. I know we're kind of on a soapbox, but it is like it should be a choice of a player. I know they should have a choice with how they want to handle situations such as this.

[01:21:43] And if you are going to take away their ability to. Respond to what is provided to them in a way that benefits their game instead of not giving them any options at all, then what the hell are we doing? I mean, it's just this survivor. Whatever all of this idea with these twists and advantages is like we want to see what player how players are going to react and what they're going to do. OK, well, then let them do something with it. Don't completely take everything away from them. Be like, oh, here's this twist. And guess what?

[01:22:12] You can't do a damn thing. Isn't that so funny? They pre-programmed the roboticist, you know, like, let's see what Christian does. Oh, he's doing exactly what you allowed him to do. Right. Because anything else. Shocking. It's like running a program. It's like running a robot that says walk to the door, open it, close it. Right. And then when the robot does that, you're like, wow, shocking. I thought it might do something else. No, no.

[01:22:41] That's what you programmed it to do. Right. Yeah. So there were a couple other things we should discuss under this rule. For example, Christian's idea for him and Devon's earlier to pretend Devon's found the idol and sent it to Aubrey. Yeah. At the time, I thought that was fine. It made sense given that those two had played on the same season together. Right. Nothing really changed to make me think otherwise. How about you? As I ask her right when she takes a drink. No, that's fine. No, I don't.

[01:23:11] I don't think that that was a bad choice. And I think part of it, too, is also if if he's thinking long term and if he is recognizing that and I don't know if he was or not in it. Maybe you might recollect something. And I don't. But Aubrey kind of seemed to be the odd man out on that tribe as well. I don't know that he had any way of knowing that. And that's what I'm curious about, because the idea of it being a boomerang, if you're

[01:23:35] going to give it to somebody who might end up getting voted out and then you get it back kind of thing. But yeah, I mean, overall, it did make sense for them to decide that it was going to go to Aubrey. Yeah. And then there was his use of the shot in the dark, which he told at least one interviewer he didn't really value. First, he temporarily gave it to Ozzy to earn back his trust, which worked. And then he did the same to Jonathan when it was truly useless for that vote. And he really didn't think it would work.

[01:24:04] But hey, might as well try. And again, I think both of those were fine. Mm hmm. Yes, I agree. So we can go to Appendix A, which discusses players keeping their end goals in mind when voting. Time out. What? We are going to talk about the planting of the fake idol in the tribal council. Oh, I mean, yeah. I mean, that wasn't his idea. That was a Devon's ideas. Devon's couldn't have pulled it off without the tripping that we did see Christian pull

[01:24:34] off. So I do want to give him some credit for the acting and also the fact that he didn't like when it was all happening, he didn't know that Devon is actually going to go for it in that particular tribal council. But he still stuck with the game plan. Like, I'm not going to I'm not getting involved in any of that. Like, this is fine. So I do have to give him credit for the thought that went into that and their ability to figure out how to maneuver and pull that off in the way that they did. That was impressive.

[01:25:04] Yes. Yes. All right. Thank you. All of a sudden, you're like, time out, time out. I'm like, oh, my God. What did I forget? Oh, that. Okay. The trip. That was a big deal. It was. It was. And I love, too, that he just acted very confused, too. And Sari was like, are you OK? Yeah. That was great. Well, as as a. Like I was going to say, Appendix A talks about keeping their end goals in mind.

[01:25:34] And we talk about voting out the weak and the strong and the weak and the strong. And as with the past couple of weeks, we were in the phase at early merge of voting out strong players last week. I even noted that you want to get rid of players, the strong players when you have the opportunity. And that was definitely on the minds of the other players when it came to Christian. They had the opportunity and they took it. When Sari and Tiffany wanted to switch over to voting out Emily instead and Rizzo helped

[01:26:04] shoot down that idea, I hated to admit it in the moment. But he was absolutely right from a project objective strategic standpoint. It was 100 percent correct to stick with targeting Christian for, I mean, all the reasons we've been talking about. But again, especially since he was a significantly bigger threat, I feel like they way overreacted to Emily essentially doing the exact same thing that made them want to vote out Christian earlier.

[01:26:35] I was kind of surprised at the way Sari knee jerked that way. I don't know. Maybe she was still upset about the whole rice debate thing. Oh, my gosh. That was hysterical. That was a lot of rice, too. Let me just say, I love you, Sari, but that was a lot of rice. Well, I think that's what I think that's what Emily was trying to say. But it got all mixed up in. Are you saying it's too much rice to eat? Or are you saying it's it's the wrong mixture of rice? Or I don't know. It was a very confusing.

[01:27:04] It was too much rice to eat. They had. Oh, apparently not. They've been starving. Well, yes. But still, how quickly are they going to go through that rice if they're cooking piles? What do they care? They need it now. That's true. That's true. Yeah. While we're talking about Sari's decision, let's also remember that before the double Dutch dingo duo twist, Sari and Ozzy were likely planning to vote out someone from Christian's group anyway.

[01:27:33] Maybe even Christian himself. They they never really fully laid it out to us because the twist changed all that. So swinging back in this direction isn't really a surprise overall, because remember, they had that whole debate that they were going to target two of the quote unquote middle people and middle. That's not actually a middle. Right. And before that, that means they were going to target one of the quote unquote middle people, which could have included Christian.

[01:28:02] So, yeah, swinging back. I talked about it. This whole, you know, the real wall pendulum strategy. They want to keep the two sides relatively even while they whittle them both away. Yes. Yes. I'm sorry. I'm distracted by what you called it. I mean, if he's going to come up with a dumb name, I'm going to find better ones, you know, so very entertaining. I did think it was interesting that they split the vote and put a few on Devons.

[01:28:32] I guess they thought that there was still a chance Christian could have something they didn't know about. Well, this is OK. I'm interrupting here, but that's a very interesting point. Let's say Devons. I brought it up. Of course it is. That's right. Because you are always right about everything, David Bloomberg. If Devons has an idol that is real. Yes. He could have played it on Christian. Right?

[01:29:00] No, because they knew it was a boomerang idol. Oh, wait, no, this wasn't a boomerang idol. They didn't know it to be a boomerang idol. You're right. You're right. Sorry. It's a fake idol. It could be any type of idol. It could be any type, any type. So that was probably a smart move on them to split because there was a chance that Devons has an idol and maybe he plays it on Christian and then Christian safe. That's a very good point. I had not thought of that. I had not seen that anywhere either.

[01:29:30] Look at me. Bonus points to Jessica. Oh, I love that. I'm sure someone will write the comments. Well, I saw it on Reddit in this deep, dark comment somewhere. Okay. We didn't see it. I'm sorry. But yeah, that's a good point. I think that does explain quite well why they would have split the vote that way. Like we want to target the Christian, but just in case Devons uses it on Christian, then we get rid of Devons. And okay. Yeah.

[01:29:59] And, you know, it didn't matter because they call, you know, it was a blind side no matter what, which is, you know, because Suri and company convinced them the vote was going to Ozzie. Yeah. So yeah, this does, that does work as a split. That really answers all the questions that I had about that vote. Well, look at that. Yes. I'm glad I was able to help you out there. Me love that. Love that for me.

[01:30:29] Now, appendix B discusses the jury phase of the game. And I don't think this one really played much of a role, if any, in the decision to vote out Christian now. Certainly they didn't want to go to the end with him, but we've already talked about that. Right. And I will say from their perspective, one thing that's good about having Christian in the jury, I mean, you wanted him in the jury anyway, instead of against you, but you can vote against him and not worry.

[01:30:57] He'll hold it against you because you know he will evaluate the final three objectively on the game level, even if you lied to him in the blind side. So in other words, he's not Jonathan. I mean, just look at his original season when Mike White got him voted out and then he voted for Mike White to win. Right. If anyone is going to choose the best player, it is going to be Christian. So yeah, he is.

[01:31:21] And also, if you believe you are the best player, Christian is going to fight for you. Like, you know that you'll have a voice of reason, if you will, on the jury going, listen, maybe that person pissed you off, but they outplayed you. They played the best game, blah, blah, blah, whatever arguments Christian might want to put forth because it's good to have an advocate in that particular circumstance. Yes. All right. With that, it is about time to wrap things up for Christian.

[01:31:50] So what are your final thoughts on him? Christian, my mother is very sad that you're gone. Just want you to know that she was very sad. And I will say that Christian is someone who I'm not surprised to see him back on season 50, as I indicated. Some people I might question why they were chosen, but that's okay. Christian, I'm not questioning your being chosen because I do think that we saw the type of individual that he was in his previous season and what he can bring to this game.

[01:32:18] He does have this ability to really win people over, but not necessarily make them feel like he is better than they are. There's this ability for him to connect with people on every level, multiple levels in different ways. He seems to be someone who you want to work with, but then someone you also fear because he's so good at making those connections. And he's so good at formulating a plan and working out all of the permutations in his

[01:32:48] head and seeing what that final end result will be, which is why it's so shitty that this is what happened to him. Okay. This is a guy who works through all of the permutations. I'm sure he did that going into whether or not he wanted to go on this journey. I'm going to work through all the permutations of who should get an advantage and who shouldn't and how it's going to negatively affect me or my crew or whoever. And then Jimmy Fallon or Jeff Probst, whoever you want to blame, swooped in and went, Hey, guess what?

[01:33:18] Christian will blame both. You don't get to do anything that you're really good at. We're going to take that away from you. So sorry. So that is very, very frustrating. I know it was his choice to go on the journey and I can't fault entirely the fact that he did not solve the puzzle and then got this terrible advantage as to why he was voted out. As you and I talked about, he was the target going into that vote. But there is something to be said when momentum is behind a name.

[01:33:48] And when you can add to that momentum, it does not bode well for the person whose name is being said. And so poor Christian has to come back and announce to the entire group. Hey, by the way, I'm voting for myself because I've been told I have to. You have lost the essence of survivor in that moment, making any player lose every possible option they have in that moment. They cannot lie. They cannot make up something.

[01:34:16] They cannot convince anyone that there's something else happening and they cannot vote for anyone but themselves. That's just all crappy news as far as I'm concerned. So please don't do this again, CBS. That being said, Christian has handled it with grace. He did confront Jimmy Fallon, which was lovely. But all in all, Christian was a huge threat in this game. There's a very, very great chance that sitting in the final three, he would have been tough

[01:34:44] to be set sitting next to three. I will say that again. I think that was a bad choice for him to want to make. But overall, he really was someone who was a concern at the beginning of the season before it even started. He was someone that people were thinking about targeting early on. And the fact that he was able to make it this far just goes to show how incredible he is at making the connections he needs to make in order to be successful in this game. So Christian, my mother said I am sad as well, but I'm glad that you got to tell Jimmy Fallon

[01:35:14] how you felt. Yes, we're all sad. Yeah. The big question for Christian is, of course, whether or not he was completely screwed by the twist or if the damage was already done. We can't give 100% certain answer to that because both things were happening at the same time. He had done a good job in the game up to this point with some solid allies who were willing to even put themselves at risk to help him. But there were a couple of problems.

[01:35:40] One, he lied to the kind of people who believe only they can play the game, not others. And yeah, I don't know if all that played, but it was it was Ceri saying, you know, back in the day saying you lied on Survivor. Ooh, and they wanted him to pay for it.

[01:36:06] Maybe Jonathan and company could have started something against him, especially with the Jimmy Fallon disadvantage. Maybe not. But what we do know is that bringing up Ozzy as a target to Ceri was definitely not the right move. Ceri has done a great job of hiding her multiple alliances and fooling various people. Christian admitted he forgot about the earlier whispers and he wasn't the only one.

[01:36:33] The funny thing is that Emily also not realizing it could have accidentally saved Christian, which was her goal, but obviously not in a way she anticipated. And his other tight ally, Devins, was also a possible target. But Devins theoretically had an idol and they had time to get him to play it. And Christian stood out above Emily as a bigger threat in terms of challenges, strategy and his social game. Plus, just the simple possibility of winning.

[01:37:04] And pile on top of that, the fact that he already had one vote against him and couldn't play his shot in the dark. And most importantly, couldn't lie about what happened on the journey. Christian came into the game with a plan to use the uncertainty of the fan vote to create new narratives. And that was ripped away from him when he needed it most. All this was a gift the others could not turn down.

[01:37:32] Would Christian have been screwed by the twist if he hadn't talked to Ceri about targeting Ozzy? Maybe. But it doesn't matter because he did. Would he have been voted out without the journey? Maybe because he was already a target for talking to Ceri about targeting Ozzy and being a threat in general. Based on what we saw, I tend to think that was the most likely outcome in that situation. But we could only truly go with what actually did happen, which was both of these things.

[01:38:02] Christian himself summarized it well when he told Mike Bloom, I think that telling Ceri or the Jimmy Fallon advantage were dangerous. But together, it was pretty deadly. And that is why Christian lost. There we are. All right. Well, before we get to our predictions, I want to let everyone know that James Jones will return to join us for our discussion next week.

[01:38:30] And it should be a doozy because it's going to be another two hour episode with Mr. Beast and almost certainly two eliminations. So, yeah, I'm already hating this. Yes. Well, be ready. Yes. And we want to remind everyone that the rules we just discussed are available in poster form and poster on a T-shirt form and checklist form.

[01:38:55] And you can get all of those by going to Rob has a website dot com slash YX lost feed. Yes. And if you would like to look for us on social media, I am at Jessica Lewis 89 on both blue sky and X or Twitter, whatever you want to call it nowadays. I'm at Jessica Lewis 6789 on Instagram. But my social media is terrible, terrible in comparison to the guy that sits next to me,

[01:39:24] because David Bloomberg has just taken over all of the platforms so much so that he has a link tree page that allows you to find all of the locations where he is posting the content that he is creating daily. And I'm fascinated by the amount of things that you create. So, David Bloomberg, tell them where they can find you. Yes, you can go to link tree slash David Bloomberg or you could find me directly on blue sky is at David Bloomberg and on the video sites, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram is at David Bloomberg TV.

[01:39:52] I've been posting two or three reality TV short videos every day, almost all about Survivor 50 with some million dollar secret thrown in. And you never know when another show might have something that strikes my fancy. Speaking of million dollar secret, I am back on the Tradar podcast for our special coverage of season two with our discussions of the second batch of three episodes now available.

[01:40:18] So just search for Tradar, T-R-A-I-D-A-R in audio or on YouTube. Okay, well, with that, we can go ahead and talk about our predictions. I hate that. Next week, as I mentioned, and you loved so much, it seems like we will have two eliminations and Mr. Beast with a super beware advantage, which the press release for next episode also tells us will involve the auction.

[01:40:47] We don't know what a super beware advantage is. We don't know if it's a real auction or the BS fake auction. We've gotten recently. Meanwhile, the preview showed us lots of people saying they'll vote for others and someone threw a grenade, which relates to the press release saying there will be chaos. I think, and I'm certainly not alone in this, I think the grenade in question is Emily realizing

[01:41:15] she's in trouble and the way to get out of trouble is revealing that Devin's idol is fake. Oh, interesting. Interesting. I just can't think of what other grenade would be tossed at this point. Yeah, that's true. Obviously, not good for Devin's. But no, we also don't know how two people will presumably be knocked out.

[01:41:40] Theoretically could be two quick, regular tribal councils like they used to do. Like I think it was in your season. It was Will and Sunday. You know, they had like a half hour devoted to each. Yes. Mm hmm. Yeah. It more likely, I think, because this is Jeff we're talking about, is it'll be a split with five in each group because we know he loves to do that. And we don't love that. Right.

[01:42:09] It, you know, with the numbers being this way, that does seem to be the right time. Well, I mean, there's no right time for it. But from his perspective, I'm going to guess that's what happens. Hopefully it doesn't royally screw Sari, who seems well insulated. But I could see someone like a Jonathan taking a shot at her if he has the opportunity. Yeah. Even if he tries, he's not gonna be able to do it. I mean, it depends what the split is. Well, sure. If it's, you know, we'll have to see.

[01:42:36] I can't think right now of who it would have to be, but it's it's possible. I'm I'm going to put that one out of my mind and say they manage the Sari group manages to take out one from each group. So I am going to predict that Devin's and Joe get voted out. Oh, OK. OK, see, I'm going back to my my Jonathan ways here because I do agree.

[01:43:06] Devin's is in trouble. I think that everyone is is, you know, his name is on their lips and they're going to be looking for a reason to take him out. But I also feel like even though like Jonathan is getting frustrated with people, Joe is not Joe is not playing the same way Jonathan is. Joe is much more easily swayed and manipulated, I think.

[01:43:35] So he is probably one that they would be more inclined to just like, nah, we'll keep him here because he's not necessarily going to come up with any strategic mastermind gameplay that we have to concern ourselves with. So I'm going to go with Devin's and Jonathan. OK, all right. Now, for the part that I mentioned earlier, looking into the future, I think there is one person who ends up getting taken to the final three as a goat.

[01:44:04] And it's the one I least want to see there. The person who Coach and Chrissy both slammed for believing Sari and Ozzy were with them. And I think she still believes that Sari and Ozzy are with them because Devin's fake idol play gave them perfect cover for voting out Coach and Chrissy while claiming, oh, we weren't planning to do that. We had no choice. With the way those two talked about her in interviews, I just feel like she's going to

[01:44:32] get to the end and be ripped apart for you had, you know, you weren't playing the game. You believe the people were on your side when they weren't. And I think that's why they talked about it in interviews, because I think it comes up in final tribal council. So this is a longer term prediction here. Just wanted to get that. Listen, if we're going to be putting things on the books for longer term predictions, I think Rizzo has got a really good shot.

[01:45:01] Of winning or getting to the final three? Well, I think if he makes it to the final three, he's got a really good shot. If he's sitting with the right people, obviously. With the right people, yes. There have been a lot of references and mentions of Rizzo as of late with the exit press and just how people are quite surprised at what he's doing and how well he's playing.

[01:45:26] And I think what he's been able to do so well is finagle it and find the cracks and fit in the places where he needs to fit in without necessarily being at all in interest of anyone. Like everyone's like, oh, no, we're going to talk to Rizzo. But no one's looking at Rizzo like, oh, gosh, we need to take care of him. It's very much, and I'm going to say this, it's very much like a Russell Hance, right?

[01:45:53] When he made it to the final three because nobody knew anything about Russell Hance because he was a repeat, right? So it was like. They knew Russell Hance by that point, though. I mean, they knew in the game what a jerk he was. Oh, for sure. So I just feel like I feel like he's he's got a really good. He's he's in a good spot. He's in. Oh, I absolutely think he's in a good spot.

[01:46:19] I mean, the the the final three I want to see are Rizzo, Sari and someone else. So that Sari wins. Well, if Sari is sitting there, she's winning. Period. Done. There's no I'm sorry. There is nobody that is going at this point. I agree. She's winning. That's it. Yeah. If she's not sitting there, he's got a he's got a shot. Yeah. Yeah. I would say so. All right.

[01:46:47] Well, we have our short term and long term predictions there. As we wrap up, I want to encourage people to check out the R.J. P. Patron program at Rob has a website dot com slash patron. You get access to all the special podcasts that are put out just for patrons, plus Facebook groups and discord. And of course, you support shows like ours and everything on the network by becoming a patron at Rob has a website dot com slash patron. And make sure you're subscribed to all the R.J. P. Survivor podcast by going to we know survivor dot com.

[01:47:17] And we would like to thank everyone at R.J. P. For all of the incredible work that you do. Thank you to Scott St. Pierre for leading the editing charge that does exist with R.J. P. And all of the content that is created, not just for the white blank loss podcast, but all of the amazing content that you just heard David Bloomberg reference. There are so many things for you to view, so many things to listen to. So thank you for everyone at R.J. P. For all of the great work you do. Thank you to Will from America for the theme song that you did create for the audio version

[01:47:47] of the white blank loss podcast. And, you know, it's kind of sad that we don't have a Jeremy Faust here at this time to be like, hey, I'm going to take over, you know, Jessica's little spiel and and David's little spiel. We had to do our own work. I know he did so great. It was such a lovely surprise. And again, my mother was impressed with that as well. So I'm just going to give her another shout out. So thank you to just you today, David, because it was just the two of us. Look at this. It's like we still went an hour and 45 minutes. I know. I know.

[01:48:16] Look at us. We like to talk. Well, it was Christian. There was a lot to talk about. It was Christian and Jimmy Fallon and Jeff Probst and so much three. Yes. So yes. Yes. Thank you. As always, we will see everyone in a week when, as I mentioned earlier, James Jones will join us for what is likely a double elimination episode with Mr. Beast. And you can, of course, find us on social media before then. Bye. Bye.

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