Survivor 50 B&B Ep 12 Recap w/ Lauren O'Connell

[00:00:11] R-H-A-P-B-M-E Mike and Liana gotta play in some games Let up pray to your mama that they're not super late And if that all sounds cool, I can tell you the name It's the R-H-A-P-M Hi everybody and welcome to the RHDP B&B for episode 12 of Survivor 50.

[00:00:41] My name is Mike Bloom, no Liana with me unfortunately. I like to think that she is still heavily in mourning for losing two heavy hitters from this cast The last multi-boot episode and it was quite devastating One devastating if you will You look up at the stars whether they be in feature or otherwise But you don't even need to crane your neck because we got to see a couple of stars

[00:01:08] get snuffed out over the course of this episode in Rick and Saree We're gonna break it all down an episode called Inconceivable, which makes sense given that I think a la the Princess Bride from the fandom is feeling mostly dead by the end of this. But I feel so full of life getting to talk with This person, someone who got to watch Rick Devins get his fortune up before it was cool from Survivor Edge of Extinction A fantastic Survivor player

[00:01:37] character like Lauren O'Connell I'm so excited to be here It did feel like a very edge of extinction heavy episode almost I almost was getting kind of PTSD when Jonathan was following Rick around the island I was like, oh my god, I've been on that island I've been walking behind him in that exact same spot while he's looking for an idol So it was such a fun episode Sad episode I thought honestly it was one of my favorite episodes of the season so far Interesting, tell me more

[00:02:04] I think any episode that weaves in the human aspect of like the people and I feel like the reason that we love Survivor 50 so much and I was talking to my dad about this because I'm at my parents house I'm in like some makeshift thing right here because my sister is graduating high school this weekend So I came to California to visit but my dad and I were talking he's like I love that episode it was so great and he's like I love season 50 because it's action, action, action but it's all the people we love it's all the people that we grew up

[00:02:33] I mean I grew up Survivor super fan so it's like I grew up on Sari I grew up on Ozzy I grew up on these people that we love so getting to see kind of their story play out in a way that I felt like was devastating to see Sari go home but she got to say you know the tribe has spoken it felt like it did them justice in a way like it felt like a very kind of Rick Devins send off it felt like a very sad Sari send off but it's like for example the Rick Devins vote right

[00:03:01] people were going to Sari like she was the godfather they were like okay so Sari this is what we're thinking what are you thinking and she's like so it's gonna be Rick everyone's like right it's gonna be Rick you know so like little things like that I just felt like it was a very fun episode to watch I felt like it was the first time personally that I thought we saw everyone as a character like I love hearing Tiff in confessionals I love Tiff like obviously I'm like I've team Aubrey all day that's my girl love her down but I freaking love Tiff

[00:03:31] and it has been a travesty not getting enough content from her I was literally telling my dad this five minutes ago like Tiff is so funny Tiff is so smart and so getting to kind of see her in the character that she is was so fun I don't know I felt like we just got more content from people and I know it's because there's less people in the game but it felt like I was getting to see the people as people this episode I think that's a really good way to put it it's so it was celebrational in a manner of speaking

[00:04:00] even though I think none of us were necessarily celebrating perhaps the fact that Rick and Sari were voted out here I think that they did take the time to allow these people to kind of take their their victory lap here even if it's not the last time they'll be going around the track and maybe that comes from the fact as well that I would say these were two of the bigger movers and shakers or at least two of the bigger you know presences on the season which sets up a very interesting finale from that perspective

[00:04:27] and also the fact that you know yes it was another double boot episode but this was maybe one of the more digestible structures that people have been joined before which is yeah the back to back rounds of course Lauren you had one of these in your season as well probably much more amenable than then throwing in some sort of twist where two people go home at once and I would also say you know this these were probably despite losing these big characters these were two of the rounds that also felt kind of the most straightforward

[00:04:57] like once Rizzo and Aubrey were on board with voting out Sari that was then open and shut case no matter what that if you had to cram two of these votes in the post merge into one episode it would make sense to be these two absolutely I did feel like it was it it felt poetic that they were the two people that were voted up together for some reason I do think it was like hurt I think it was like you had Rick who really didn't have any allies yet

[00:05:27] he was amazing TV like you cannot like watching Rick Deffens play survivor is fantastic TV and what he does so well is speak to the jury and I think he said it a lot in interviews like the jury is begging for entertainment I think that's why the jury loves him and the audience loves him and then you have Sari who I think was running the game from an from what I've seen in the edit it's like she genuinely had people come to her Jonathan's like I'm gonna go ask what Sari thinks I'm like how are we not voting out Sari

[00:05:55] like the fact that Tiff was the vote and I'm not saying Tiff wasn't a threat but the fact that they're like yep it's gonna be Tiff I'm like so does that is it everyone knows Sari still in the game yeah because they don't think she's gonna win an immunity I don't know but I'm like the fact that Sari was kind of a backup it's like it just shows her strategic prowess and how powerful she is in the game so it felt like okay our two I don't know they almost felt like two sides to the survivor coin

[00:06:23] yeah it's a really good way to put it in that you know Rick was being looked at as this big threat not necessarily from like a social strategic perspective but more so like look at this this resume you know look at the jury threat look at the yeah persona he's been able to build at tribal council and like his narrative as well being the underdog up to this point whereas Sari is more so the top dog here I'm trying to think if Rick voted correctly in a single tribal and I

[00:06:50] but I say that to compliment the fact that he is a jury threat and I feel like I have seen it when when was our season in 2018 I guess is when we played what I didn't I was so young I was so I was such a baby when I played the first time I had no idea how to make good TV because I and I say this a lot which sounds silly now because of how prominent survivor is but I didn't know anybody else other than my family that watched survivor so I didn't think of survivor as a TV show

[00:07:15] and I think watching Rick speak to the jury and play to the jury that is his superpower I mean the jury loves him and so I think that is at the end of the day the jury gets to vote for whoever the hell they want to vote for and if they want to vote for the person that entertains them the most even if he never voted for correctly once and didn't have any allies like

[00:07:37] he's gonna win and so I think he's he's such a threat in that way and then you have Sari like you said who is just from what I saw in the edit just a strategic powerhouse yeah I think that what's also interesting with Rick is that he is entertaining two very different types of juries across his two seasons two very different types of captive audiences I would say where you know the people the denizens of the edge of extinction I think were starved not only for sustenance but like for any sort of form of like all right let's see what's going on in this game

[00:08:07] any sort of perspective anything to liven up the trip they make all the way out from this demented deserted aisle before they have to go back again once more and I think with season 50 you know as we start getting into the finale I do think that by and large like a general sense of criteria the jury wants to vote on is okay like this is season 50 we want to of the people who are available at the end like pick someone who would best represent

[00:08:32] what this season is in the grand spectrum of 25 plus years of the show and so you could tell that like they were living for it not just because it was popcorn entertainment but it's like yeah this is what survivor should be optimally is this idea of yeah flip a coin change your fate throw people under the bus make things happen

[00:08:51] right make good tv make good tv um and he is he's phenomenal at it I mean he really is I I think it's almost like he he gets himself into situations and then he finds such interesting ways to get himself out and it's fun to watch it's fun to watch um and what you said about the jury trying to decide who would best represent them reminds me of something that Aubrey said in the episode

[00:09:17] and I think we got really interesting confessionals from Aubrey and obviously I'm biased because that's my girl I love her I've been team Aubrey since the beginning and I make it very clear I know nothing I know no spoilers I know nothing because I want to be able to say things on podcasts like this like I'm team Aubrey and I think she's gonna win and people know I have no idea what's gonna happen but she was talking a lot about her end game and she said something along the lines of like I don't know if people are gonna want to give two million dollars to the kid that annoys them

[00:09:44] talking about Rizzo thought it was such an interesting read and such a smart read on her part when she was kind of comparing Devin to Rizzo it's like yes because when you look at Devin's he might not be a social threat you might be able to out talk him game wise but the jury likes him the jury likes him and at the end of the day people are going to vote for who they like I don't care what anyone says you're not giving two million dollars to someone you don't like you're not yeah I mean not to mention the fact that Rick also had Christian

[00:10:14] and Emily and seemingly more people sitting on the jury who were more you know uh more pleased by those antics I was really surprised that that comment made the idea just because I feel like usually Survivor doesn't like to show their hand a bit by being like hey if this person gets to the final three there's a chance they're probably not gonna win and so I think I and a good amount of people out there had made the assumption of like listen depending on how Rizzo is perceived

[00:10:43] maybe if he gets to the end he's not necessarily going to be looked at as someone that people are eager to vote for but yeah it outright got confirmed here and I think as much as we have seen many many people completely misestimate what the jury is looking at in terms of the final three final four configurations I don't know in interviewing some of these jury members I do not think Aubrey is off the mark at all considering uh you know whether it be due to

[00:11:12] Rizzo's purposeful lack of worth ethic whether it's you know the health that he's been in up to this point like uh he's I will say the health thing boy was playing back to back I cannot even imagine and he's more cooked than that rotisserie chicken he barely ate at the auction I was like you guys but honestly I get it because we did kind of have a thing on our season where Chris was like eating the chicken that we were cooking and people were pissed and we voted him off

[00:11:38] that night so you know it worked out for him obviously but I've said people get touchy about chickens on Survivor I'm like stay away from chickens I think I don't know but I I thought it was just as I thought it was a great window into like you said Rizzo maybe not winning but I also thought it was a great I guess window into what Aubrey is thinking in game and I

[00:12:02] think so much of her edit this episode was trying to show us that if she does get to the end that the two people she is sitting by were purposeful and I think that that's kind of how I don't know I have so many thoughts about the edit this season yeah it's very interesting to me I think people have as a whole and I'm honestly not really on social I don't hear a ton of it I don't know anything about

[00:12:29] the edgic I think is what it's called but I feel like people are maybe disappointed in the final five or they feel like oh these aren't really the people that I want in the final five or it's not as interesting and I find it really interesting that the show we're watching is the reality that the editors have created no matter what this the episode we see is reality but it's reality through the lens

[00:12:53] of the editors they've chosen how we perceive each character yeah it is not it is not the capital t truth whatsoever it is the smallest lowercase t you could ascertain absolutely unfortunately it is it is the it is the truth is a strong is a strong word to use there but perception is reality and they've created the perception of these characters through their edit and so I find it really interesting

[00:13:17] that we have these people in the final five that as a whole I think you could argue have been under edited because the editors have the power to make us so invent I think if they wanted to I mean no one can tell me that tiff was not giving interesting confessionals sorry you can't like I've talked to just for five minutes I'm like you're the funniest person I've ever met like I you can't tell me that so I'm I'm it's so interesting to me and I'm so excited to see how it plays out because why would

[00:13:44] why would they create a final five that people aren't super invested in yeah it's such a good question maybe it's this idea again of being a celebrational season that they really wanted to dedicate a lot of time to these ogs that have you know put in their days and then some or with people like rick right who's sort of like becoming characters when you go to tribal a lot when you're making a lot happen at

[00:14:10] tribal proper but they sort of get the lion's share of the airtime but yeah it does come at the cost and not to say that like we're looking at a very purple final five but there was a really good uh post on social i'm trying to remember on on twitter i think that's like you know survivor 50 feels like a really good group of episodes but it's tough to see sort of like a through line you know like i think if i think if people

[00:14:38] like rick and sari had made the finale there might be okay i see this sort of thing they're trying to write out in a manner of speaking from episode one through the finale i think the closest would be aubrey right especially throughout this pre this post-merge when we keep getting these confession about like all right we're playing chess i've got to make my move eventually and like you said talking about okay i have to be tactful in the threats i take out when i do yeah it was just more so this

[00:15:05] episode i think we kind of low-key finally saw that come to fruition rather than it being a lot of tell no show absolutely no i think the fact that a what there's 24 people yeah in 26 days i mean in general people are just going to be under edited it just is what it is but also you have these ogs that honestly i don't have a problem with them paying tribute to them i don't have a problem with all of a sudden the music that they're starting to play when they're reading the votes for sari

[00:15:32] is like completely different and maybe that's just me but like completely different than any other music i've ever heard when we're reading votes and i'm like you know what yeah sure do it like i maybe maybe just see uh putting her thumb on the scale for the fan vote and be like i wrote a special song for sari right so everybody knows sari um but i don't mind that but i do think in general i always i tend to say that survivor editors are telling the story of why someone won or why someone lost

[00:16:00] for my season i think the argument was why rick lost yeah and they had to kind of showcase like build him up build him up and then they had to really validate chris's win and like i was an integral part in that like in that kind of build up of why chris deserved to win right and so i it's interesting in this season i don't know what that's going to be like i i'm talking to my family

[00:16:26] who are very i would say unbiased like i'm very biased i'm like team aubrey baby team i love joe like i i know these people um and so if i know them and they've been kind to me and i'm friends with them i'm like yeah i'm training for them i don't care what the edit says i'm training for them my family is just like yeah well we feel like honestly maybe jonathan is going to win based on the edit yeah i think jonathan does have a story but i'm talking about again what is a cogent narrative we have gotten from the beginning jonathan saying you know listen i know i'm bulky af but now i'm actually

[00:16:54] going to be three-dimensional in my gameplay and for what it's worth in a season that has been full of people coming in claiming like last time i was this but this time i'm most definitely going to be this and failing to break their way out of that box jonathan has uh fittingly for a man as strong as him busted out of that box i think he has largely succeeded in at least again from a confessional perspective being able to vocalize more of a strategic game absolutely the question who do you attribute

[00:17:23] the aussie vote too oh this is fun you know because from what we have been told and again like you said speak on what we have seen in the episode i mean this i'm thinking literally to the scene where aubrey and jonathan are talking and they're like and aubrey says i bet you we're both thinking of the same person right now so why don't we just say it so i don't want to like be a fancy fencer and be

[00:17:49] like can they share partial credit because i do think that you know i'm sure that jonathan was able to easily get joe on board i don't know what nudged rizzo in the direction of getting rid of ozzy maybe it was aubrey telling him everything that he told her so and considering how pivotal rizzo was and specifically not telling ozzy to play his idol i guess i would give the nudge to aubrey there if like

[00:18:17] the thing that got it over the top rope was bringing rizzo in specifically but that's the fun about this as well right like if jonathan and aubrey sit in the final three they're gonna have to fight over this yes exactly it's such an interesting point because i think it's aubrey as the catalyst um i think jonathan was a tool that aubrey used personally um and then i think that

[00:18:44] rizzo plays a bigger role than i think people are giving him credit for because at the end of the day he had full power to say yes or no he had all the information yeah he could have told him to play the idol and aubrey might have gone home so i think that rizzo played a huge role but i think it's interesting that the edit doesn't give a clear cut this was an aubrey play this was a jonathan play it is a little bit ambiguous like oh well i think it was both of them together so then where what do

[00:19:13] you attribute it to because if that's aubrey's kind of big first big move not first but big move that she might speak to does that mean that jonathan speaks to that too or i don't know it's well it also comes from i think how you tie this into your narrative now when we talk about rick having an underdog story aubrey has to to a certain extent you know he's been on the chopping block since the

[00:19:35] beginning yeah and so i think if you look at the move it makes sense for aubrey's story of okay i was on the bottom i was a dead woman walking and look what i was able to do over the course of an afternoon like that gets me a little bit enthralled from a storytelling perspective more than jonathan being like well i was safe that day and i had all the information i walked back and forth between these two camps that i knew what i wanted to do again like there's a reason why we we support the

[00:20:03] underdogs i think there is again if aubrey gets to the end that's an easy narrative that she can vocalize and not to say that like jonathan can certainly vocalize that as well him being like i had two of my closest allies and coach and stephanie get taken out from under my nose and i had to pivot but if you're using that as a feather in your cap to like you know it's one thing to call out the move it's another one to seamlessly tie into the the essentially the pitch you're trying to make

[00:20:29] the picture trying to make is like hey listen i was marked public enemy number one from the beginning i had an idol given to me because they thought i was sol and i climbed my way from the bottom now i'm here this is a very easy thing you could state from that perspective absolutely and i honestly think that aubrey has a fantastic narrative that we just haven't seen her articulate yet because we haven't seen

[00:20:55] a confessional like that but i think that aubrey's superpower is that she knows where every single piece on the chessboard is i think that she knows exactly where everybody lies she's been playing a middle position of underdog position for so long which is a very very difficult position to be in consistently because at some point people will feel like you need to choose i think it's like okay i'm in the middle i'm in the middle okay i'm going here okay then are you here and then what happens

[00:21:21] because now you're on the bottom okay can you shift i think her ability to adapt this entire game is incredible to watch and i do think that she has this it's almost like she's she's a she's a she's a slow burn that i'm gonna call her right because she's sitting there and she's really analyzing where everybody sits and i think now she is an end game player because she knows okay i have watched every

[00:21:47] piece on this chessboard this entire game because i have been in the middle and i've jumped here i've jumped there so i know who is connected to who and where people lie and what their next move is going to be so does that move benefit me or do i need to cut them out at the knees off the knees cut them off at the knees before they can do that and so i think that that's why again i know i'm biased but i really am saying this trying to be as unbiased as possible i do think that she has

[00:22:13] the best narrative when she gets to the end of this is where i was every single point analyzing each player and making decisions based on the knowledge that people were ozzy walked up to her and said hey this is my entire game hey me and sari we're besties till the end see you on the jury give me your vote that's crazy it's crazy and then she takes that information and distributes it in a way that benefits

[00:22:40] her and i think that that's something that people don't always do very well on survivor people are giving information and then do you fumble that information how do you use it and i think her ability to know where every piece on the chessboard is use information accurately and effectively is a great story to tell at the end i would be intrigued to hear from you what situation from the past do you think has been weighing on aubrey's mind more heavily this season losing to michelle and co wrong

[00:23:09] or getting blindsided by victoria in edge of extinction i don't ever want to speak for on aubrey's behalf because i actually don't know the answer to that if i was aubrey i think here's the thing about the

[00:23:31] blindside on such an interesting question um but the blindside blindside on aubrey i didn't find it that shocking because we were playing with like listen kelly was my girl i'm like kelly's my girl keep her till the end that it was very clear that's not how the other players viewed the returner the returners yeah so to me aubrey was always on the bottom and i think that it was not shocking

[00:23:58] or really that brilliant of a play to blindside her as i think maybe the edit made it out to be um obviously bias right like i am biased it is what it is but so i don't think that she if i was her again i actually do not know the answer to this if i was her i would not feel that bad about that because you're the only returner player on a tribe of people that felt very

[00:24:26] desperate to prove that they were not going to be besties with the returners and then there's me over here like thank kelly for life um so that i don't really look at that as like aubrey downfall there was she got she got swapped screwed honestly i think it's less about if i was her less about

[00:24:43] losing to michelle and maybe the aftermath of like okay this is what i thought my reality was and having to understand that the lens you were looking through was not the lens that everybody

[00:25:06] was looking through ah and therefore adapting to this new reality that was very uh i think vocal on social um and so then when she gets to this new situation where we hear her say i'm careful who i'm sitting at the end with i think it is less of a oh i'm so if ptsd from losing to michelle i think it has nothing to do with michelle and i love michelle aubrey loves michelle like it has nothing

[00:25:35] to do with michelle it has to do with am i reading these people and the way that they are perceived by the jury correctly and i think that's why i brought up her confessional about riso versus devins because that's exactly what she was doing she was looking at it through not just her lens of like yeah i think i can out talk devins but the jury is going to look at riso this way and because the jury is who i

[00:26:04] need to get votes from who do i sit next to that way we're all looking through the same lens i think that's that's such a good way to put it and yeah i mean it's so interesting to hear her outright call tiffany like michelle part two here and i wonder if it's again maybe less so about losing to michelle and more so about like not taking the opportunity when she did to go for michelle this idea of like i think it was maybe something like final six and listen we could don't need to relitigate as

[00:26:34] a season that was a decade ago michelle could have been dead to rise to final five if joe del campo didn't eat too much meat maybe that's the ptsd that aubrey should have been like riso do not eat that chicken put the chicken down don't want to get you medevac buddy and that's what gets him into this whole situation in the first place um but i think it's this idea and i think maybe one of the reasons why she's so laser focused on someone like tiffany is like tiffany has won three individual immunities so far would have been four she would have tied her record if uh you know

[00:27:01] actually devastating we were at the new york we were watching the new york um uh watch watch party together yeah and she wins i'm texting her i'm like hell yeah that's my girl go off i didn't know what happened like you yes literally i'm sitting there and they take it back i go dude i'm so sorry that's crazy like oh my god that's on me like to be fair you got to know you got to really immerse her back in the emotional i know i said this and i go inconceivable baby

[00:27:26] go off like i love it um but speaking on that really quick just yes no side note i literally took a picture not even a joke of the because people were blaming jonathan and joe on social about their like things being spelled wrong and so i zoomed in took a picture i'm like guys it was spelled correctly facing them yeah like i literally i don't know if you can even see this but like i literally

[00:27:52] took a picture of like it's spelled correctly facing them now did they know how to spell it originally no thanks a bunch albury but i was like when i saw kind of the clips because i watched it after um it came out i was like guys what are we doing but it was it was right facing them but the fact that tiff got on the first run because i'm gonna be honest i was looking at those letters like ain't no chance no chance so i love seeing her win i love i just have an all in all aspects but i do think

[00:28:20] you're so right and that maybe that's why sari is not as big of a threat in all his mind because she's hasn't proven that she's going to win an immunity and therefore she is available to be voted out later on in the game that's i think exactly the reason oh not to mention not to obfuscate as well like the relationships that sari has i mean hell she was still able to get jonathan and joe twisted

[00:28:44] around despite the fact that again this vote made the most sense in the world but yeah i mean i i agree with you that as much fun as it is to see joe hunter go over to in spelling challenges this was this is the fun twist of this challenge is that like there's multiple eyes there's i wouldn't know that i'm not i'm not even gonna lie this is so embarrassing to say but i was watching the episode of my cousin and she had to explain because i'm like i don't understand like how are you supposed

[00:29:11] to get it to spell like what and she's like well because one e wouldn't go there a different e would go on the other side i was like right so this is why i never won an immunity challenge okay right right right i literally was like i like it didn't even make i didn't understand why it was spelled like i couldn't figure it out so yeah listen i i have some sympathy for him okay well listen uh again as we've seen throughout the season as well joe and spelling maybe do not necessarily

[00:29:37] mix uh they're like fire and water perhaps so they're tired and spelling is hard oh and he was able to spell immunity come on and as we saw from one particular shot sari wasn't able to do that she was like my cousin so much she goes she oh wait my um she drops it she goes don't worry girl you had the wrong block anyway she had like the eye or i mean that would be so cruel that like sari's like i finally have won in 20 years my first immunity challenge is like what do you

[00:30:04] misspelled it better than it just saved yourself the embarrassment uh but i mean watching tiff do that was so much fun it's actually very fun coming full circle from you know uh a bit of the controversy one of the few talking points that happened in the survivor 46 finale where if you remember uh liz actually like colluded with kenzie to win immunity to block out maria from winning and there was a lot of talk afterwards i think jeff even said as much on the podcast of like we're going to prevent people

[00:30:32] from doing that and here tiffany was able to show that like maybe given the level of competition or like the challenges that are involved you are able to overcome that handicap to a certain what are your thoughts on that on him limiting the amount you're able to collude together i mean it's always going to be very loosey-goosey in terms of the rules and what's allowed like i know people have been jockeying for years about like why are they allowed to look at other people's puzzles you know isn't that

[00:30:58] cheating but like if it's airbud style like if it's not against the rules then you certainly are allowed to do it and i think that it sucks to be that person who feels like okay now it's two three in this case like arguably six ours five against one but that's when you know the going gets tough and you try to push through and then maybe you try to enlist help from other people as well this is where the social and strategic components of the game are able to happen and

[00:31:26] not to say again that this is not an unfair concept but there are so many unfair concepts the path of a survivor lauren as you can very much attest to is laid with iniquities and unfairness that's the thing is i was gonna say like i feel like the concept of fairness is not applicable in the survivor

[00:31:52] reality i just don't i think it being fair in the real world it's like get over it it's it's like what aubrey and more dog have both said it's like the theme is not on trial it's like if you i i just i just think there are things in this game where it's like yeah that sucks get over it i don't i don't know what to tell you like you're telling me that like people are getting there's so much luck in this game there's so much luck in this game and i think if we start like nitpicking little things do i

[00:32:21] think it's great to for people to be working together to get somebody out no but it ended up fine you know for tiff and also looks like you're the biggest threat you know i don't know i i feel i lean towards the side of sucks for you away like i don't think there's i don't think there's a way to start almost like gerrymandering what is fair and what's not fair because there is the line it's like

[00:32:48] we keep begging production to stop changing the game in a way that like so drastically impacts the players when do we where do we draw that line and how do we do it well i think as well it goes back to what i would imagine is one of the main credos of not only survivor production but a lot of reality tv production in general which is uh the rule of cool which is like hey if it makes good tv we'll let it fly like if you institute a rule that's okay if you're working on a puzzle it is only you you

[00:33:17] cannot talk to anyone next to you then like if you get into a pre-merge situation where two tribes are like hey let's work together to box out this other tribe which i think is really interesting television that's no longer allowed and so it really is a balancing act of like okay you could make this more equitable for everyone involved but it does come at the cost sometimes of again what ends up being a really interesting narrative here which is even outside of this challenge it was basically everyone against tiffany and she was able to put her entire game

[00:33:47] on her back here and be able to to spell her way to success at least without from what we saw in the edit without even really knowing that it was her on the line oh my god i love that scene when her and tiffany are talking or everyone her and seri are talking and uh seri's like i think i'm in danger tiff he's like what are you talking about it's crazy and she's like no girl it's gonna be you

[00:34:09] it was like i thought that was so funny and it speaks to how good seri is and how she just had everyone kind of wrapped around her fingers like she knew everything she's like yeah no girl it was gonna be you it's cool to you and she's like well that's not me you're crazy absolutely crazy yeah i do want to ask uh because i i've been thinking about this uh not to you know uh poke uh a little bit of a scab of

[00:34:39] yours but like i i feel like we have been kind of missing out with one very obvious exception on like fake idols and other shenanigans around them like that's that's so interesting to me is if you think about it lauren we've had four idols this entire season that is such a long cry from your era of survivor which felt like there was an idol hidden every day under every single rock every single

[00:35:06] rock literally and it was like i had rick devon's name on it and that's so interesting because again i feel like there has certainly been commentary about how this season has felt like just tossed asunder each and every week with all of these twists but it comes at the cost of like not actually bringing in a lot like what we we also had we had an extra vote and we had a vote steal but there also haven't been like any big other types of advantages that we've seen in seasons past it's something that

[00:35:33] we don't necessarily think about when we say oh this is a twisty season that may not be twisty in the ways you expect when you use the label right no absolutely i think it is it is interesting the lack of idols that have been implemented in a way that i feel like have truly impacted the game because what aubrey just plays hers yep and then an ozzy walks out with his yep and rizzo has his

[00:36:01] rizzo has his rick played one rick played one and like you could argue it saved him but like they knew he was he was gonna play it anyway i know that we had that intrigue it's like well emily convinced him to do it but like that they knew he was safe no matter what that maybe would have saved him around but that's basically it from my experience in uh tribals in which rick devins has an idol or doesn't have an idol um 99.9 percent of the time exactly what happened was planned prior

[00:36:30] to anything he did at tribal i know it makes great tv but from what i've experienced like everything we were gonna do what we were gonna do anyway and whatever he did at tribal i can think about the aurora vote um specifically for my season it's like that was already planned and then you know he but the thing is that's why i say he's so good at speaking to the jury and he's such a jury threat because the jury doesn't see what's happening at camp they only see what's at tribal and it's why

[00:36:59] he's such a threat but yeah i um i i wonder because what what oh ozzy's idol would have been back in play and i guess rick's too right yeah i'm like rick was certainly looking for it so yeah i do wonder like if one got hidden like i have to imagine that production wants people to find and play these but i feel like honestly they knew go ahead they didn't throw a bunch of idols back in the game

[00:37:24] on the off chance that everybody has an idol and sari gets idled out but the thing is that they love that moment like jeff has spoken so much about how much he enjoyed that they would feel counterintuitive to their entire nature i from our perspective certainly yes you do not want to play with fire but i just find it so interesting because i even look back like across every season that's began with the four essentially and we kind of have largely operated by this logic i'm trying to think of like

[00:37:50] has there been a season where there has been like more than four idols that have ever shown up at any point in time and again that seems a far cry from your season and the one that came afterwards that felt like half the cast had an idol at that point yeah yeah i mean yeah i'm trying to think i mean it was me it was me kelly and rick that had idols and obviously aubrey at one point um and then you had the half idol situation oh my god sorry how could i forget

[00:38:21] all the scabs right now like who else had that oh right chris um yeah no you're so right you're so right there were there were a lot of idols and i think another thing was that the idols because rick kept playing never had an alliance and we were just voting him out because you know he wasn't he didn't wasn't involved in the strategy of it it's like he kept playing his idol so it kept getting back

[00:38:47] and play and so it kind of felt like okay here it goes again and here it goes again it was like this almost like hamster wheel of idol and idol and i think that it's i wrote it down like in my little notes from the episode of it's really interesting to watch and why i kind of felt like it was a very rick devins closeout episode of like what happens when rick can't find an idol because i mean it really

[00:39:13] did feel so reminiscent of my season of like he didn't have any alliances he wasn't involved in the strategy he had been voting incorrectly in these challenges or in these tribal councils but he kept fighting an idol and that's the game of survivor you find an idol you could stay in like good on him but what happens when he can't and so it kind of felt like okay like a book into this chapter of like there's no idol for you to find it maybe there was an idol and he just didn't find it

[00:39:39] but i will say i find him to be extremely resilient in that regard and if there was an idol that could have been found i feel like he probably would have found it yeah it's a really good point that it kind of feels like he he was going down the rick devins decision tree of like okay i'm on the bottom look for an idol okay no well i could win an immunity challenge i won four nope all right well i'm screwed

[00:40:03] last time this happened i got voted out so gg everybody yeah yeah yeah and yeah exactly it felt like i think that's what i what i meant at the beginning of this when we started talking of like it felt like a rick devins send off like very much so this has been my game i am unable to kind of pull a rabbit out of a hat this time and so i'm going to say goodbye and i honestly i thought his goodbye was

[00:40:32] beautiful i thought it was like he's such good tv he's such good tv and this is the thing is that you know uh as we'll get into it a little bit with my predictions you know maybe i didn't have the the warmest prospects for rick because every time when i was out there talking with the cast they kept saying like oh my god he's so cheesy he's playing things up emily's like he he you know dramatically pulls out pictures of his family to look when everyone else is around and when i kept thinking is

[00:40:59] like no that is rick like rick is a ham and we love it but like that's also him to his core and leave it to him to like go on to this entire chalingua at the end being like when i look up at the stars i see the ghosts of those that who have left me i've seen the present of those who are wishing me well of those who don't even know me the ghost of christmas yet to come they're all looking down upon me and smiling like yeah it's a little hokey but it's coming from a place of sincerity at the end

[00:41:28] of the day you think so i i think so like i think i don't think he is that inauthentic to be like i'm putting on a complete facade i think especially after you know you can speak to this certainly as well like after 20 something days i think your just body is not like all right time to play the part it's like no just please i need to i need to sleep i need to eat something for sure yeah i i don't know rick well enough as a person to speak to whether or not his actions are authentic or not

[00:41:57] i think he is innately aware of when a camera is on him or when eyes are on him and i think he plays that part better than than most um but you know i i thought his send-off was beautiful and like i said what we see in the edit is reality that's the thing is like i'm not uh i'm not saying that he's he's changing the size of the font i think when a camera is in front of him i don't

[00:42:25] think he's changing the font yeah no no and i think that's a totally fair assessment i yeah i don't know him well enough to know um whether or not you know pulling out pictures of his his family are in front of people who's authentic or not i think that when you have a large but it sounds like the jury loved him you know i don't know i don't know i don't know i truly do not know rick as a person um other than what i experienced on my season um and so i i think i just come i always go back to

[00:42:55] he is phenomenal television well i want to talk about a moment of phenomenal television that he had because i really want to get your thoughts on this mr b's travel council because at the time people were saying this is the greatest you know jeffy in the moment was like this is the most live tribal council i've ever seen and i said positive passengers would like to have a word that is still my would like to have a word that is still my favorite live travel of all time it took up an entire two-thirds of an episode i mean it was the longest tribal council ever yeah well so

[00:43:23] what do you think in terms of like do you see any connective tissue between everything that happened that night versus probably a night you prefer to forget and during that course of the julia vote um honestly julia vote was great for me i thought it was fabulous i mean it was i thought it was great i think um i'm trying to honestly remember because so much of what i experienced there like i feel like i kind of forget and then you watch it back on tv and then that kind of becomes your new

[00:43:48] reality um unless it was like something that i remember very viscerally i'm trying to remember how it kind of started from what we were told i think was like it was going to be david david and rick were kind of told it was going to be kelly um and mind you and just something i'm just going to say off the bat because i i heard someone say something um about the like the lesu tribe and how we didn't want to work together kelly and i wanted to work with david and rick the second rick got back

[00:44:14] in that game we wanted to work with them and they told us no and i just want that on the record on the record and i want someone to roll the tapes okay i want someone to roll the tapes of us jumping up absolutely elated so excited and rick is like screw you guys i'm not working with you i was gonna say watch that uncut confessional of kelly saying oh my god for the real evidence watch the uncut confessional and i'm like heck yeah i've been wearing your sweater babe welcome

[00:44:41] back to the tribe and he goes screw you guys you voted me out i'm like yeah on day 11 you're right it was so long ago nice to see you again um but i'm like we were so excited and then they were like screw you and we're like well okay then yeah bye um so i just want that on the record just you know as a little formality saying um and then we then we were gonna vote him out but that from what i remember that i had already started a relationship with julie um and then war dog and julie had had

[00:45:10] conversations i don't remember what the catalyst would have been other than the fact that like i think julie freaked out what start what like what when we watched the edit back what started that yeah i'm trying to remember i mean all i remember is her jumping ship and sitting in someone's lap yeah yeah no totally so she's sitting right next to me and what you don't see in the edit and that i do remember is she's looking at me like freaking out and we had been talking the whole time because like me and julie had gotten i love julie i think she's phenomenal we were very close um and she's kind of

[00:45:39] talking to me blah blah blah and then it all kind of blows up and she goes i'm jumping ship ah but the thing that i think that people did not credit her for is i don't think julia was very nice to her i think that a lot of the people like were not very nice to her and that's why that started but i i digress the point is the chaos of that i don't know that it necessarily relates directly to the mr beast

[00:46:05] um tribal however rick devins is involved and so you always know that it's going to be a crazy tribal and someone asked me were you surprised that rick you know went to flip the coin i was like not for a single second what are you talking about but that that's like what what do you mean like rick devins gets to go and be the center of attention absolutely he gets to maybe make it two million dollars

[00:46:28] absolutely like i think what's so fun and draws people in with rick is that he is always on the bottom and so he never has anything to lose and it's an amazing it's such a like almost freeing place to be and i think that's why we get to see him like do these crazy things because he doesn't have anything to lose he doesn't like once christian i guess was voted out he didn't have any allies

[00:46:52] so it's like he can do whatever he wants and it's such good tv and i mean yeah someone's gonna win two million dollars because of him and i loved like listen i loved his exit yeah tidbit thing where he's like you better take me out to a good dinner do you do you think i mean it depends if the joe wins maybe that's not going to be the case i think honestly i've i also they're like let's speak for me they're good now they're good um and i listen i love joe

[00:47:18] joe has been nothing but kind to me oh yeah um and that's kind of my bar when i talk about people it's like they have been so kind so sweet to me and so i cheer for them yeah i know i yeah for what it's worth yes rick has expressed in interviews with me as well as online multiple times like him and joe were really good on a personal level it was just i think fundamental disagreements as to how to play the game though rick has also established after the fact he's like god i did

[00:47:43] not realize that you just liked me that much out there i think i think that from my read on joe is like joe especially after playing with eva and like in that kind of i think game style i think rick is his worst nightmare because the chaos and the unpredictability he's like what the hell is going on like what are you doing this is not how we play this is not how i play and i think after and he did play so recently it's like you're you live in this reality of like okay

[00:48:11] well this is how survivor is and i don't know that there's been like a ton of time for him to be like oh wait there are different not there are different ways in which people are now evolving in the game first and i think i don't know who said it but someone said it recently um and they said they love season 50 because everybody kind of brings their era of survivor to this season it's like how did

[00:48:37] that era play and have you been able to adjust and i think seri brought it up in a confessional early on too of like you know i i think she has adjusted to the new era very well obviously um but it has been fun to watch how these people bring their seasons into this season yeah i think for joe if i'm trying to put myself in his headspace i think he'll probably do a much better job explaining it than me next week when he gets the chance to uh speak for it from his own terms but i feel like for joe

[00:49:03] not only does he end up you know finishing second runner-up despite the fact that he felt like he had a very good chance going in but he just watched back his season where he finds out like how much kyle and camilla were undermining him he said that kyle gave him a wedgie and camilla pantsed him on national television and so i think he feels incredibly hesitant to try to put his full trust in somebody

[00:49:29] and so like he has to commit to a person and so when you bring in somebody who says like yeah i'm gonna lie to you it's survivor i think that is as you mentioned the worst possible thing you could tell him because like listen dude i already was struggling with people who i didn't think were lying now you tell me that you're gonna lie to me i have no idea how to deal with that absolutely and i also think

[00:49:53] one aspect of exactly what you're saying is that the reunion they did it right after the vote and i think that that is such a disservice to both the players and the survivor community in general because i think so much of what happens at the reunion was because you have had not only time to digest what has happened but time to watch it back and see what people were actually saying and i think you're so

[00:50:17] right in that he lived in this one reality of okay wait kyle and camilla like i guess we're friends and then all of a sudden oh wait hold on i have been completely blindsided and now there's this person who quite literally could do absolutely anything at any time and i have no idea what's gonna happen it would be his worst nightmare yeah well let's continue on the path of talking about joe's worst nightmare here let's stay on the rick devins train shall we much like i guess age of extinction

[00:50:45] edit here truly an edge of extinction podcast in so many ways let's get into our pre-season predictions here now of course biana is in absentia uh dearly missed here but she has recorded her pre-season predictions for rick and for seri okay so i do have them i will play them here uh and i will offer my own perspective i'll start here on rick uh just to to make sure that i'm not putting

[00:51:10] my thumb on the scale compared to leon i'll put my guess out first uh because i did have rick going out pre-jury you did yeah i mean dalton ross and i did a draft out there uh like on location when we were interviewing the players and rick was the last person picked because i cannot tell you like how many people were like don't want anything to do with this guy both in the way he's presenting himself now and like what he's known for he's the idol guy he's the tribal council shenanigans wild

[00:51:38] card guy so i sort of did you hear when he because i know he recently said that like the whole jury told him that they wanted him to win i would be really interested to hear that from the jury yeah not to be like because i mean it would be weird if he said that and they didn't say that so i believe i believe

[00:51:56] him but i would i would love to hear why they said that if their initial i guess perception of him was this specific way yeah i mean i think it also goes to show and this happened to rizzo as well with a certain extent of just like you can paint a picture for somebody but like once that 2d image becomes 3d it's like okay i think i maybe might have judged you the wrong way or my preconceived

[00:52:23] notions now granted again a lot of it is gut reactions as well and some of these play into relationships more than you might think but in this case it did seem like rick was able i'd also help that he was on a tribe with emily and christian who were like two people like his i mean i don't think he could have been on a first tribe that would have been better for him like it was just ideal situation well pre-season me disagrees apparently let's see what i had to write about rick here i said uh rick sticks to his pre-season promise in the early game vowing to sit on his hands

[00:52:53] but idle hands are the survivor devil's play thing and soon enough we got trouble right here in a seal of city even when rick authentically opens himself up emotionally talking about his family people assume the worst perceiving him as inauthentic as the days wait on the only person actually in his corner is christian and with rick becoming more of an outsider his number of allies turns from one to zero facing the vote yet again rick finds himself cornered which is exactly where he

[00:53:21] wants to be he'll spend the entire afternoon running around the island three or four times ultimately coming up short in his idol hunting despite not being flushed with idle cash rick dials up his other trademark move tribal council fireworks as soon as his butt hits the stump he immediately gets up pulling out a fake idol and insisting they fight among themselves while this does raise some eyebrows among the joes and aussies of the world emily flippin throws a big old

[00:53:48] bucket of water on the fire he's trying to make calling his bluff a frustrated rick takes one last shot in the dark literally but it's for naught as he gets taken off the air early on in the season his closest ally was christian and his enemy enemy was emily i mean you kind of nailed it other than the whole emily being his his enemy but you nailed it i mean listen it might pale in comparison to what

[00:54:14] god so i will not put the cart before the horse let's see what she had to say okay here's my prediction for devins i had devins making the jury i said that devins forms early connections with christian linking up with aussie and sari to form a solid group in the pre-merge and early merge at the merge devins thrives in the chaos helping christian orchestrate several

[00:54:38] key blindsides including the takedowns of genevive and mike white however while christian is viewed as the mastermind devin devins quietly becomes the public face of the operations thanks to his outspokenness at tribal and constantly hunting for idols after christian is finally taken out devin suddenly has nowhere to hide with the remaining players realizing they cannot let him get anywhere near the end game the most notable devin's shenanigan this season was when he played a fake idol on tiffany

[00:55:07] only devote her out that night uh his ally was christian and his enemy was the loyal to the soil alliance all right thank you liana uh coming to you live i guess from like a waterfall considering all that background noise you guys i mean you both kind of nailed it i was gonna say liana not to uh promote my competition too much feels uh inherently against the spirit of it all but like she does now that he

[00:55:33] made the jury does nail that uh christian gets taken out and he runs out of options shortly after that so i will take it back to myself i did uh say that he would play a shot in the dark you did and you also really uh nailed the whole tribal council and playing the fake idol and all that and i do wonder how much the big idol actually shifted that tribal council but yeah the right i mean rick it's good it's tough

[00:55:59] because rick well what he told me was basically like i feel like i was in danger they'll tell you that i wasn't but like i don't take what they say for fact considering it could all be a lot of revisionist history okay rick what do you mean like i'm not sorry yeah okay you're gonna say that i right like that's the whole point is you felt a certain way but everybody else is telling you they weren't gonna vote

[00:56:27] for you so whatever but that's kind of my point is i i wonder because that was my experience with him is like he would go into tribal and he would do all these shenanigans and it really never shifted anything that had already happened but it makes great tv yeah all right so you are the judge during here lauren you get to figure out who had the more accurate prediction on your boy rick devins

[00:56:52] oh my god i know oh my god we did not make this easy okay so it is easier because she's not here and if she was here it'd be a lot harder um because it was so good and she did say make the jury but i'm gonna go with you because you're here oh listen i'm happy that my uh attendance my perfect attendance record is finally half the battle half the battle no i do think i think for yeah you

[00:57:15] just i think you nailed like the the main plot regardless of if it's like before after jury it's like everything's like christian and he has no allies and he's gonna spend the afternoon going you just yeah you know that so no i'm sorry no it's listen uh and it is mandatory now you realize that liana all right well let's go back beneath the falls to hear liana's take on a sari uh liana

[00:57:39] an avowed sari fan so i'm very intrigued to see uh if she picked sari to win if she was really trying to manifest this finally happening or if she forecasted get another tragic fall for one of the most iconic players in survivor history okay that's devins now let me scroll to sari

[00:58:02] i had sari as the winner sari enters season 50 with the impossible task of being sari fields on survivor for the fifth and then in parentheses i wrote sixth time and somehow still convinces people to not vote her out immediately early on sari settles into the center of the sila tribe building strong relationships with ozzy christian and devins while subtly influencing the direction of the game

[00:58:27] unlike players such as christian and genevieve sari never overextends herself always flashing her charming smile while ensuring there is someone louder scarier or more obviously threatening sitting in front of her by the finale sari's social game is so undeniable she somehow convinces joe of all people to take her to the final three appealing to his loyalty and desire to either beat or lose to the best

[00:58:52] at final tribal sari finally gets the ending survivor fans have begged for for nearly two decades winning season 50 in a near unanimous vote and cementing herself as the greatest player to ever play her ally was everyone and her enemy was no one because she's amazing and please just let me have this uh it's what i it's what i wanted anyway have fun with the rest of the bmvk bye oh my god i don't know if that was a message to you lord and their survivor community of let me have this

[00:59:21] i think it's to everyone i know i think it's to everyone um yeah that was i think it was it's a good it's a good it's a good it's a good read i'm excited to hear yours all right well i was not terribly far behind i did have sari making the finale but uh buckle up let's get a crack into what this is despite establishing herself as the weak link of her tribe in the early challenges you wouldn't know it looking at the other 22 hours of the day astoundingly yet again

[00:59:50] she'll be close to the center of all the action seen as the mover shaker and ultimate decision maker of her tribe what certainly helps sari's position is she almost immediately links up with ozzy making micronesia a microscopic part of their relationship as ozzy will even excitedly say in a confessional i'm ready to be a black widow jungle man isn't the only tree she's barking up however indeed at the swap sari is able to reconnect with aubry picking right back up from where they

[01:00:19] lopped off in game changers and with all her biggest pre-season ops taken care of in the pre-merge she's able to get in good with an alarming amount of people sari gets gifted a golden opportunity when tiffany lends her a steal a vote to hold on to fearing a knowledge is power after checking the legalese off camera she finally succeeds in her decade-long mission to use someone's own advantage

[01:00:43] against him with many at the time calling it her most impressive move to date we'll get a full circle moment during the surprise loved ones visit this season talk about manifestation wish that happened as as hb comes out once more grateful to not be put to work at camp this time he instead vocalized to jeff how much the show has changed his family forever after aubry is taken out in a chaotic

[01:01:07] vote at the final six sari now finds herself in the same position her bespectacled ally was the last time they played seen as outnumbered and a presence that looms too large to let near the end even to fire making sari gets voted out unanimously by a majority for the first time her final tribal council is all about celebrating her impact on survivor and vice versa her torch snuff earns a standing ovation

[01:01:34] from the players the jury and even the crew eat your heart out can knowing this is truly sari's last time around the survivor son the show just so happens to introduce a post-season fan favorite award in the vein of america's tribal council you knew they wouldn't leave the season without putting one last thing in the hands of the fans her ally was america assumingly not america lopez uh and her enemy

[01:02:02] was her legacy but more corporeally speaking rizzo interest i mean i feel bad and i'm not taking lana on this next one um i mean rizzo was her downfall there um i think well not really but kind of um he was maybe like the nail in the coffin i don't think he would have forced a 3-3 tie to keep

[01:02:26] burn the game i don't think so i don't think he can but i yeah uh wait did he still has idol he saw his idol that's true so i mean he could have played his idol i mean i wouldn't like that's the thing i actually think rizzo played the aussie vote and the sari vote well i mean i i think that you can't like his strategy behind making sure that he was the number one to sari after aussie i thought

[01:02:51] was smart and then you know you can't sit by sari but i digress the point is oh i mean it has to go to you too oh no well take it listen default the two best words of the english no i wasn't the the sari one was not default and honestly the devins was wasn't defaulting there it just made it easier to pick yours well thank you very much but liana right on the money as per usual i i'm so

[01:03:18] sad that your winner pick went out but you did a lot better than my winner pick of a coach so she wins that coach was my winner pick yeah again he was one of those people that uh what jonathan was able to do coach could i'm like wow he really has changed he's not going to sit in a hammock making up haikus and singing his own theme song he's not going to give nicknames to others i think he's really got it this time he's not at this time yes i just saw um a clip of tyson who is genuinely one of my

[01:03:44] favorite people to watch on survivor ever like yeah i'm like you're you kind of terrified me i think you would be mean to me in person but i don't care you're so funny um and it's him just like telling coach like stop doing this they make fun of you don't tell i'm like god bring back tyson i love tyson um but yeah love coach obvi was my winner pick so we'll see um what happens there we go what are you anticipating from next week's finale are you excited to see the reunion back i mean you

[01:04:11] were one of the last live reunions that was done yeah literally um i say to this day that finale week was one of the most fun weeks of my life like we had such a good time it was so fun the reunion was so fun um i'm so excited for them to have a live finale i think it's really really important for this group of people for it to be a live finale and for them to have this amount of time to kind of digest

[01:04:35] the season and to come to terms with it and to watch it back um yeah i don't think this i think it's such a it's also a fan service too like i love a live finale one of my absolute favorite things in the entire world growing up and i think about it to this day is the micronesia finale of where you see parvati and amanda and they're sitting there at the final tribal and then all of a sudden it cuts to them like looking hot and gorgeous in la and you're like ah love you guys love you so much that's the thing if anything if you just want to see the the looks that'll be turned to watch

[01:05:04] everyone get glammed up instead of having to sit in their like island rags in the after like everything is just like there's just no way to even process that after yeah no though i will say the worst happy medium was i don't know if you remember this but in i think it might have been africa they were trying to create this like seamless like a single shot you know to make it look like they're still in africa so they had poor ethan and kim johnson still dressed up like they were on day 39

[01:05:33] in africa when it's months later and one of them is about to win a million dollars totally crazy crazy but i kind of like like i love that i like watching jeff like walk through like the jungle and it comes out and i was like ah like that's like that's that's og survivor to me so i'm excited for a live finale i'm excited um i'm gonna be down there to um cheer on my people but what do i think is going

[01:06:01] to go unfortunately unless she wins immunity just because i think it's so clear that rizzo and jonathan and joe are in an alliance um that we like haven't seen very much of because i think that rizzo thinks he can eat them and i i don't know really what the dynamic is but i do think that they're gonna vote out tiff um i think honestly aubry's best play is to vote out tiff too i think that she can't sit next to tiff at the end no um i think that's the only opportunity she has to vote

[01:06:27] for tiffany assuming that there's final four fire making which again is still up in the air we don't know yet yeah i will say i kind of hope that aubry wins fire i think you don't want her to know it so if there's fire making you don't want her to win immunity you want her to win fire oh my god this is such a point of contention i literally hate the conversation around do you keep your necklace and i have i have a point about this and because i think my season was the season that changed the

[01:06:57] trajectory of that i was gonna say chris underwood is the one that you have to thank for the entire district around this i for for the larger survivor community yes however it is war dog that came up with the idea i'm gonna credit him for that um and i will even back it up further and it is ghost island that is the catalyst right dom yeah because my season was sitting in ponderosa and we watched the

[01:07:23] finale of ghost island oh that's it i didn't know that you got the chance to see the finale of it before we were marooned we watched the finale of ghost island i'm telling you had we not watched the finale of ghost island i do not think that that would have been a conversation that war dog had with chris i stand by it and i think i'm pretty sure that we're going to have talked about it and he said i mean yeah it was like top of mind because it was this kind of like oh does dom get like well like what do they do you know does dom look up does he go to wendell so it was just like a top

[01:07:51] of my conversation because it was literally the last thing that we watched before we were marooned the next morning and so then chris you know whatever my take is that i do not think juries value immunity challenges i don't think they care i think you could never win a single immunity challenge and you would still win the game i think you could win every single immunity challenge and they could not care less and so i think that unfortunately because they don't see the final four

[01:08:18] or the final five a meet final four final four immunity challenge they only see the fire making the fire making has become the final four immunity challenge and i think the only way to fix that is for the final four immunity challenge to be in front of the jury yeah um because the whole point is that you have one safety then you get into the conversation of okay well if your game has you know

[01:08:47] if your game has been so good you don't need it you don't need to win fire it's like right but because there's been a precedent set set because this is a conversation every single year of oh i can win i can give it up and i can go into fire it's like it it's top of mind for the jury and it's the last thing they see it's the last thing they see before the final final tribal it is such a big

[01:09:11] deal and it drives me insane in a way i can't even explain because it started off well let's not really talk about why it started off but it started off as this way to like to save yourself and so the idea was like hey i will obviously this isn't it they're probably a big threat blah blah but the idea is like okay so i didn't make it to final tribal or i haven't made it to final tribal i haven't had a good enough alliance i didn't win the immunity challenge like this is my last chance like i'm so

[01:09:40] desperate that this is the last chance i have to make it to final tribal and now it's shifted into this power play of i'm so good i can win fire and do i think that everyone should know how to make fire absolutely right but it's just this like ongoing conversation that drives me mad it drives me mad because i'm like what there is no winning there's no winning because i i think that people will be like well aubrey has to give up her necklace like she just won a challenge i'm not saying she wins i have no idea but let's say that she did it's like yeah i think that there's going to be

[01:10:09] conversation of oh you should have to give up your idol and go to fire maybe maybe i think a lot of where that argument comes from though is dependent on the situation where there is like one very clear front runner in the final four that's again what chris did that's what you know it wasn't cassidy putting herself into fire but it was like whoever defeats jesse and fire making 43 wins and to perhaps

[01:10:35] your earlier point about the perception of this final five i don't necessarily know if right now at least from our perspective later on the juries if there is that person if there is that one dragon and so i know yes i don't argue then how do you differentiate yourself yeah that might be the only way to differentiate yourself because it's like yeah because it's i guess my if you're saying like they're all kind of on even playing ground the fire making challenge is the last thing they see

[01:11:02] it's very true but i guess if you're also thinking about like okay let's put yourself in this situation where aubrey does win final four immunity and again if the narrative she's going to be putting forward here is i was the underdog i had my back against the wall i clawed myself in every time i don't know for being like i was safe and then i put myself with a literal line of fire and one wouldn't necessarily jive with that narrative more so than just yeah i won the immunity challenge i protected myself totally i i mean i wouldn't i say this all the time i would never give up my

[01:11:31] necklace i'm not doing that i don't know when when on my season the wind was so crazy they had to go up to the voting yeah voting circle or whatever like we didn't even see it we didn't see it we heard it and so that must be wild by the way like sitting 10 feet away and just hearing jeff's commentary being like we had no idea what's happening must be very interesting yeah we were like they were up in kind of i don't even know what the turret i don't know voting booth i think

[01:11:55] use that term lord or in a survivor podcast i'm like i don't know um but it's like up in like little voting yeah voting booth i guess um and so we never saw it so it's like i so much can happen so much can happen and my argument is i already won i already won the challenge i already won the challenge this is just another step i'm not doing it i won and i it's frustrating that it's become a conversation but so if i i think if aubry wins i don't think she gives up the necklace um i don't

[01:12:24] i think that she is intelligent and eloquent enough in her arguments that i don't think that she's going to feel like she needs to yeah well as we stay on the subject of the finale what's to come in mere days lauren i have a game for you right now now as you've said we've had a bevy of survivor finales in the past live or not in fact we've had 49 of them

[01:12:48] but we've also had a huge pantheon many many more seasons of fantastic series finales of acclaimed tv shows this game is called what's in a name and how this is going to work is that i'm going to give you two names of episodes one is the episode name of a survivor finale the other is the name of an

[01:13:14] episode of an iconic tv series finale oh my god this is my worst nightmare okay i'm ready so to make this a little better uh i have sort of stripped out any of the either more generic titles or ones that would give it away for instance uh lauren i don't know if you remember the title of the finale for your season at all sure don't um yeah nope what my guess would be um you haven't

[01:13:42] seen him since episode three but he's back i mean that would be a fantastic spoiler but unfortunately not the case uh it is i see the million dollars which is sort of along the lines of again these types of titles that i discounted anything that said the final four anything about a million dollars i didn't want to make it too easy ones nice great the layups are not necessarily a pledge right now you really gotta shoot from the from the crease here so again i'm gonna read you two names i've got a

[01:14:09] quite a few of these for you all right we'll have you pick the survivor episode i will make it easy so one of them survivor title again what the other is a title of a series finale of a tv show okay here we go yeah slip through your fingers or everyone's waiting uh slip through your fingers that is correct you are right off the ball did you remember it or did you just feel like no but i'm

[01:14:37] assuming that it's a final four challenge where you're like it's either the balls are falling or you have like a rope yeah i mean uh you're not necessarily correct on the object but you are on the accuracy of it this is the finale of survivor thailand where the final three immunity challenge might be the most painful challenge in survivor history where they had to stand in a squatting position holding coins in their fingers uh i mean it was very uh symbolic of i guess the entire viewing experience of thailand in terms of how torturous it was but yes that is correct everyone's

[01:15:06] waiting is the serious finale of six feet under actually i've never seen that show uh you should very much recommend it all right next one is the last one or thunderstorms and sacrifice oh my god when i think thunderstorms and sacrifice i think of like it was probably like something with coach like south pacific or something um i could put in jeans uh you know i'm gonna go thunderstorms

[01:15:33] and sacrifice that is correct yes but you're a little off the mark when it comes to the person involved uh this is the guatemala finale oh listen yeah that was wild though yeah that was a lot of time it's it's uh sacrifice involved because again more chicken drama lauren if you remember uh no but as a rule stay away from chickens on survivor like i just it's the it's never goes well certainly in this case because uh the maya people were so gracious to come in and like perform a ceremony

[01:16:01] where they sacrifice a chicken and then everyone was so starving that they ate the sacrificial chicken there may be a couple reasons why survivor doesn't go to various locations anymore so listen og survivor was something else man it's a precursor to like logan paul going to japan was uh was the guatemala folks eating the sacrificial chicken survivor started it all that's hilarious

[01:16:25] all right next up um by the way the last one is the uh finale of friends oh oh the last one oh that makes sense yeah uh next up no good deed goes unpunished or one for the road no good i wish i could sing i was gonna say i wish i could sing i'm like so toned up i should add a third category of wicked songs oh my god now you're speaking my language like do you want them

[01:16:53] in chronological order do you want them in like difficulty to sing like what do you want um do you want them in best choreography okay let me think no good deed goes unpunished and then what was the second one one for the road one for the yellow brick road perhaps i mean i i'm hesitant to say uh no good deed is punished but i'm gonna go with one for the road that is incorrect uh one for the road is the series finale of cheers but no cheers

[01:17:22] were emerging what was the no good deed that no good deed goes unpunished is the season finale of survivor game changers oh that's a good that's a good title yeah that's why i tried to go again for the more like generic ones no that's a good one yeah i don't even know i've now i'm sort of thinking back to like who said that and why did they say it totally uh was it coach that said he has like the most episode titles of anyone i would that's something that i would not like put him to a lie

[01:17:50] detector test to tell like i would not be uh completely surprised by that whatsoever i know like i believe you all right next up we've got mama look at me now or with open eyes i'm gonna go mama look at me now that is correct maybe it's that top of mind for you because mama look at me now is the season finale of the season that came right after yours island of the idols it is a detective dean

[01:18:19] quote and uh with open eyes is the finale of succession another season that dealt with uh perhaps uh less than savory individuals that's so funny that you just put those two together oh my god you're so right it's hilarious yeah succession's great show very good show all right next up

[01:18:38] whenever you're ready or what about me like whenever you're ready sounds like a jeff quote to me um and i keep thinking of like colby being like let's go and jeff being like i'm ready buddy um being back bring back mean jeff um and then what was the second one it is uh what about me

[01:19:07] okay i think i have to go with what about me that is correct uh what about me i was asking like because i'm the right answer that's why you should pick me what about me is the season finale of survivor nicaragua and whenever you're ready while not a jeff probes quote i believe is a quote from uh ted danson's character in the good place oh yeah that's good yeah two ted danson shows back to back or no uh two out of three all right next up here i promise no more ted danson shows oh no i'm locked in

[01:19:35] all right into that good night or a slippery little sucker a slippery little sucker that is correct you or did you remember this title no but like i i i can i i don't know what it's from but i can i remember it being said um and i feel like into that good night for some reason i i remember the show i don't what show is that from that's from roseanne i don't know if you're a big roseanne fan

[01:20:01] oh no i'm not no i mean that's um definitely nowadays uh but yeah no that's your own but no that was the uh infamous uh serious finale where it's like oh john goodman's character was actually dead the whole time and they never won the lottery yeah yeah okay yeah what was the survivor a slippery little sucker was the season finale of survivor china okay such a good season no so good i love

[01:20:29] join the throng yes i could not agree more uh that's a little bit of a slippery little sucker when it comes to bringing back return needs from that season though unfortunately yeah did you see uh seri being so ecstatic with the idea of amanda kimmel coming onto the season even though it did not end up happening i didn't see her what she said but i'm like yeah i i mean everyone wants to see amanda kimmel back for sure she's like she's amanda kimmel yeah though to be fair amanda uh did was the person that uh prevented seri from actually making it to

[01:20:58] the finale of to the finals for her entire survivor career totally totally what was seri's reaction to it uh she was ecstatic she's like oh my god yes absolutely i would love amanda she said that there would be a new black winter brigade with her amanda and tiffany oh love love yeah all right next up nice while it lasted versus perception is not always reality perception is not always reality

[01:21:24] that is correct that is the season finale of survivor one world yeah that tracks that tracks yeah it feels like i mean when you quoted it before i'm like should i strike this question like it's it feels like a very survivor it's such a yeah it's such a survivor statement of like yeah yeah 100 well nice while it lasted uh is the season series finale i should say of bojack horseman they lived in one

[01:21:47] world but it was full of talking animals all right next up here not fade away or with great power comes great responsibility oh my god i think i'm gonna go with great power comes great responsibility you got trapped in my web fittingly no i know it's not it's so it's a spider-man quote but i'm like

[01:22:13] i was like that sounds like something that like someone would say on survivor but then i'm like you're so right they probably couldn't use it oh wait you said that was the survivor title that's correct yeah i pulled the reverse on you there yes that is correct uh makes sense because we do have a quite the the nerd-filled cast lovingly so survivor david versus goliath which is the finale of that season

[01:22:37] 100 that's exactly who i kind of who said that i wonder i it's gotta be davy no oh maybe yeah i feel like he's probably in his wheelhouse yeah 100 yeah i could see um i could be a mike white thing yeah maybe um not fade away is the series finale of angel oh i've never seen that god all these shows i've never seen i'm now i'm recommending yeah i know because i'm backwards recommendations to you

[01:23:03] like hey here's the title of the series finale you should probably check it out no i love it i love i need new tv shows anyway all right next up snap some necks and cash some checks or the promise that's hilarious um i mean yeah we'll go with that snap some necks and cash some checks you gotta

[01:23:31] go with the more entertaining option and it is the correct one yeah i'm killing this you are doing so well here season finale of survivor 43 oh who's uh that was the gabler we just were speaking about jesse going out on fire yeah okay yep yeah it's interesting i feel like maybe that should low-key be the new survivor motto if they ever move on from out without play a last snap some necks cash some

[01:23:55] checks perfect on the back of a t-shirt all day and the promise is the series finale of the show justified you were very justified not to pick it all right just a few left here but listen you are on only this one right now knock on wood all right well let's see if we can break the streak right now we've got person to person or i trust you but i trust me more that one i trust you but i trust me

[01:24:21] more yeah you keep keep on a roll here uh that is correct that is the season finale of token chains uh surprisingly i think that's a jt quote maybe it sounds like a jt quote yeah i can see that or um steven fishback well steven fishback was a madman at the end of that final tribal council and the other option was the series finale of madmen yeah oh good good show good show very good show all right

[01:24:48] lie cheat and steal or goodbye farewell and amen lie cheat and steal that is a correct season finale of survivor second chance versus the season finale of mash the most watched episode of television ever uh survivor borneo finale got close but not nearly as close as the mash finale

[01:25:13] all right well survivor second chance love love love love i'd gotten that one wrong i would have been embarrassed all right last oh listen you have crushed this game but i'm like shocked i'm as shocked as you are we are we're gonna buy a lottery ticket wait we'll finish on a high note here hopefully i hope so reverse the curse or made in america oh dear god we're leading on this one okay well

[01:25:38] i'm gonna go reverse the curse there's a reason why i ended on it because it contains the episode title of the season finale of survivor 50 which is reverse the curse that is correct this one was not cursed for you lauren oh my god you're a crazy survivor like i mean technically it's true i guess though it's technically made in fiji now no totally but i'm thinking like they're they always use the title of

[01:26:03] something that someone has said yeah in the episode and i'm like what who's gonna be like made in america that feels like a joe hunter quote though like being in what context and like why you know what i mean like okay we're in fiji though we're in fiji exactly well congratulations my god am i the best it's ever do you do this have you done this game before this is the first time i've done this game so you can tell people how good i am at it i'm gonna call this the lauren o'connell presents

[01:26:32] what's in a name do you need your own mr b super beware advantage billy eilish boomerang idol you need to put your name behind a b&b game i've not offered this genuinely to any other guests this season i'd be happy to extend the offer to have you be the first love nothing more please do all right officially branded write some sharpie on my screen we'll make do but thank you really actually can only do this a couple times because there's only 49 options 50 options i know eventually

[01:26:59] it'll have to be a million dollars versus the end what is it you can start doing first episodes we'll figure it out premieres would actually be a very good idea oh my god listen you're just taking this game idea and running with it well it's my game so it's your game now this you take full ownership of it listen i'm down well as we talk about all good things coming to an end unfortunately this must as well but of course we've got to close out the podcast every week we do on the b&b which is to give our guests an opportunity to highlight a charity or cause that

[01:27:29] is important to them so laura now we'll keep the spotlight shined on you what would you like to highlight for the listeners out there i would love to highlight the buying time fund is actually a foundation that um one of my very best friend's family started when um her dad's brother passed away from cancer and it's an incredible foundation that helps really bring doctors from around the world that have you know game game changing treatments to people that are going through cancer

[01:27:56] treatment and it's really the way like if your family is struggling to find a doctor or is going through something like that then this foundation helps connect you with doctors and treatments and just you know support uh while your family member you are going through that so it's a fantastic fantastic cause um and the bettler family is so so close to me so i love them and yeah it's called buying time well beautifully said well this was such an incredible time lauren thank you

[01:28:25] yeah i mean you offer so many wonderful perspectives to look at not only this episode but everything that is to come in just a matter of a few days then we'll see who might be able to reverse said curse but this is truly a blessing to be able to to have you on the title oh aubry's winning sorry sorry sorry aubry's winning and like i just want everybody to know that i've always said that and i am not spoiled i do not know what happens i have not known anything all season i've said this

[01:28:53] from the beginning and to be honest with you i was gonna wear my team aubry tank top but i flew in to california today and i forgot to pack it and i'm actually crushed i might make a new one before wednesday get that sharpie out you can buy my honestly will i will i will before yeah i'm gonna need to but i'm telling you reverse the curse aubry's winning oh or could they just accidentally re-air the finale of ghost island and that's the actual ending of the season and we're done no totally i'm sorry who else is i guess joe might whatever i mean like yeah technically you

[01:29:21] know rizzo and jonathan both went out in fire joe made it to the end but didn't win there's some curses still left all right fine whatever if you want to take it that way well regardless of what curse is affiliated with next episode this was an absolute blessing lauren i had such a great time getting to chat with you anything else you want to bring up about this season anything you'd like to plug for listeners out there as to where people can check you out yeah i mean you can find me on

[01:29:47] instagram i always hate this question because my instagram is like spelled incorrectly but it's lauren with two a's dot alexandra um and tiktok we'll be getting back on my tiktok game lolly alexandra but um no i'm just so excited this has been it's it's been so fun watching i think just like the greater survivor community come out and like the marketing around survivor and like meeting people that like love survivor so much because survivor is so special to me and i feel like this has just been

[01:30:13] so fun to watch the people that i grew up watching and like fell in love with it to play and get to know them and i don't know i just i love survivor so much it's given me so much in my life and i've only played once and you know it's like it's so far it's just but it's the best thing that's ever happened to me and i'm just i love getting to do stuff like this and talk to people that love it as much as i do yeah i mean that is so wonderfully expressed and i think that this episode while incredibly devastating as again to to lose such two massive spirits and not only this season but

[01:30:42] the survivor franchise as a whole like again the way they were personified in this episode did really call back to this aspect from the very beginning of the season which is like a celebration of what survivor is to see these people not only have their lives changed by the show but be able to also change the show subsequently and express despite again not necessarily being blindsided just like how much this experience meant to them it was a very to go back to the one of the very first things you said

[01:31:07] in this entire podcast a very human episode it was it was yeah you just you can't help but just feel how much rick loves survivor and it's it's contagious it's it's like so beautiful to watch it makes you want to root for him and seri it's like she's on the mount rushmore of survivor and to see her have the wherewithal to have just been voted out and just be able to articulate how much survivor means to her it's why she's one of the greats and always will be so it was it was a really fun episode to get to talk to talk about

[01:31:35] thank you so much for inviting me oh my god of course the pleasure was all mine but we've got one more hopefully very fun episode coming up and it's a big one the three hour finale of survivor 50 apparently things are going to be done a little differently it sounds like jeff is on the record saying that might be a little bit of like a finale reunion mixed together where they might do some segments in the middle of the episode so things might be looking a little unusual perhaps over the

[01:32:01] course of a wednesday night but still it's going to be incredibly exciting as you mentioned been a while since we've been back in this live environment there's nothing that really beats like having a big crowd there to react to the finale as you mentioned also having all the players together glammed up to the nines getting to watch the experience getting to talk about it it's going to be certainly an unforgettable night and i cannot wait to break it all down but lauren thank you so much for making

[01:32:25] this an unforgettable podcast for walking away with a whole ass game okay listen came conquered i feel great about it exactly you won the game in my opinion survivors a game this was the game to win and you got it exactly it's named after me that's all i could ever ask for well listen we've got one more trip here on the bnb but if you have any suggestions we have one more game to play feel free to email it rhapbnb at gmail.com or feel free to reach out to us using the hashtag rhapbnb on social media also

[01:32:54] uh do not malign yourself for your instagram handle my very first screen name was bloomingdales yo and i spelled it b-l-u-m i misspelled my own name there are five letters in my last name lauren two of them are the same i misspelled 25 of my own last name that's my very first screen name if anyone i mean that's that's amazing you win but if anyone knows how to change your instagram name and don't

[01:33:21] nobody come for me and be like you just go to no they won't let me you guys i've tried all things i'm like you guys i would like to change my instagram name like i would like for the first two letters to not be the same like at least put the a at the end like it's whatever and no one will let me change it so it is well let's let's let's communicate this up the ladder folks okay let's get meta on the horn don't they know who they're talking to let's make sure if we can fix this let's reverse the curse reverse lauren's curse handle i'm now like i'm a bnb game owner named after like

[01:33:49] who they think they are all right well thank you all as always so much for listening and special thanks again to everyone behind the scenes at rjp for packaging this podcast for your eyes and your ears and welcome america for his fantastic theme song which uh maybe even is able to trump the uh fantastic unusual music that sent sari off it will be sending you all off into this good night but lauren thank you again so much for such a sublime podcast liana and i will be back next weekend

[01:34:18] covering the finale and reunion of survivor 50 until then everybody we'll check you out at your next day