Why ___ Lost Survivor 50 Ep 11

[00:00:00] We all love Survivor, and in my first ever book, The Tribe and I have spoken, I'll tell you how this little show evolved from that juggernaut first season on the beaches of Borneo all the way into its landmark 50th season. I'm like a storyteller, that's what I do. What role did the greatest players, the unforgettable moments, and Jeff Probst himself have in shaping what Survivor has become today? And what contribution did we play in building this worldwide tribe of Survivor fans? Love you, bae!

[00:00:28] For you future players, I've also included my Ultimate Survivor Playbook to help you win the million dollars, unlike me. It's fun, you know what dude, it's fun. This hardcover edition is filled with beautiful Survivor illustrations in every chapter and is an amazing edition for every Survivor collector. I'm a meat collector. Pre-orders are everything for a book launch, so to say thank you to everyone who pre-orders, you'll receive an exclusive digital bonus chapter

[00:00:56] called The Ultimate Rites of Passage, my personal tribute to all the players who have ever competed on the show. All 751. This is huge. I needed this. Pre-order wherever books are sold, in hardcover and as an audiobook at robhasabook.com. That's robhasabook.com. Nicely done, Rob.

[00:01:22] If you lost Survivor and you're feeling down, David and Jessica will turn it around. They'll break down the rules and we'll show you how. You played yourself and got voted out. This is why blank lost. And this is why blank lost. Baby, this is why blank lost.

[00:01:55] Welcome back to the 10th anniversary year of the Why Blank Lost podcast and 25th anniversary of Why Blank Lost as a Concept. I'm David Bloomberg. And this week, we're going with a split tribe podcast. Joining me here is, of course, my co-host, Jessica Lewis. And on another version of this podcast are two other people who are going to be our guests. You'll just have to go searching for that podcast when you're done with this.

[00:02:23] Listen, this split stuff is really confusing to people. So I don't know if we should really go down that path. But, you know, I mean, sometimes. Hold on. I'm getting hold on. I'm getting some breaking news. It turns out that because I got both of my predictions right for who would go this week. We are immune. And Jonathan went to that other podcast and voted both of them out instead of voting one out from each. Oh, thank God. This just in.

[00:02:52] We are immune. Yes. Oh, goodness. Yeah. We have so many things to address with this particular episode, including what I truly think was a terrible twist, which will not shock people when they hear me say it. I know. I know, right? It's crazy. It's so insane. Oh, goodness.

[00:03:14] At some point, CBS will be like, maybe we should have Jessica and David come and help us when we're coming up with these twists that we'd love to do so much. It would be nice. But no, it would be. They will not do that, probably. No, they probably won't. So, yeah. Now, of course, Jonathan, in addition to voting people out of podcasts, had a fair amount of responsibility for voting off the two people we're going to discuss today. Yes. Some might say too much responsibility.

[00:03:45] But overall, we'll look at the games of both Emily and Ozzy to see what they did right and what went wrong by comparing their gameplay to a set of guiding rules for winning. I originally wrote way back after season one and have been updating ever since. We use all the non-spoiler information available to us from what we saw on TV, interviews, social media, and secret scenes.

[00:04:06] The newest published version of the rules can be found by going to robhazardwebsite.com slash yxlossfeed and clicking on the bubble appropriately labeled Survivor Rules. So before we get to the rules, we, of course, have some other things to discuss. First of all, you know, I just want to mention I am wearing, you know, my Rob shirt and which apparently has a hole in it. For those of you on video here, because apparently StreamYard can't tell yellow from green.

[00:04:36] I had that problem with the robot shirt as well. But you're just Tony Stark today. Yes. I figured that this was the appropriate shirt to wear because, of course, it was Rob's book release week. Yes. As we, you know, we all showed our copies last week. But so you can't preorder them anymore, but you can order them or just go to a bookstore and buy them. Exactly. And mine is mine is too far away to grab. It's over there. But I have one as well. And it is lovely.

[00:05:06] I've been going through it. Great, great information. Help. Anything. If you if you want to get on the show or if you just love the show, get the book. Just get the book. Yes. Now, once you get on the show, you may be subjected to some truly horrible twists. I know that's not encouraging, but, you know, we have to talk about it because people expect that to be the first topic. Even the people who don't like it when we talk about it expect it to be the first topic. Yeah.

[00:05:36] Yeah. I think that's where we're at now. There are a lot more people who agree with us than disagree with us. It's just the ones who disagree with us tend to be more vocal. Yeah. So. But. Yeah, I think we've already given a big hint of what we thought of it. But in case there's still any doubt, I think Dr. Evie Jugoda said it best in the New York City live show. F the split tribal. Yes. Thank you. Evie didn't say. F.

[00:06:08] Because, yeah, this is a terrible twist. It's awful. Into tiny groups with huge power given to one player to vote out two people because of a physical challenge that pretty much came down to luck with the one foot stance at the end. Mm hmm. Yeah. You know, I said on Blue Sky while live posting. Tribes of four. That's some serious bullshit. And Jonathan gets to vote in both. Idiotic.

[00:06:38] Mm hmm. And I posted that before we knew what the tribe splits were. So, again, I was just reacting to the twist itself, not the outcome. It would have been the same reaction, no matter who won the challenge, even if Tiffany's win or if Tiffany had actually won, giving one person too much power and putting them into these tiny, tiny groups. And no matter who won, it was practically luck.

[00:07:04] It is very hard to stand on one leg in that situation. Yeah. And it's I mean, that's what it came down to. I have been doing physical therapy for my knee for the past couple of months. And one strengthening exercise is standing on one leg on a thick foam pad. And it's a lot harder than you might think, even if you have a good knee because you're in a situation similar but worse because you're literally floating on the ocean. So, yeah, someone might balance.

[00:07:34] Someone might fall. You just you you you don't know. It's luck. Yeah. And I know that some people will say, well, aren't there certain components of this game that are based upon luck? And that is true. But I do think when when it comes down to challenges, it it needs to be not based upon luck. It needs to be based upon how long you can necessarily last. Like if you wanted to just have them stand there and see who is going to stand there the longest. Well, that's fine, because then that comes down to will.

[00:08:03] It comes down to like we've seen those challenges where it's basically endurance. And how long will somebody stay doing this thing? And then that person wins. That's much more exciting than, OK, one foot. Let's see what happens. And I just I think that that and then you have the thing that happened with Tiffany where it comes down to suddenly there's this weird moment where the judges have to get involved to see if somebody didn't lift their foot at the appropriate time. That's just that's unnecessary. That's silly.

[00:08:33] That should not have happened. It should have just been. All right. Now it's just endurance. Who's going to stand here the longest and just see who's going to do it? Yeah. Yeah. And just to be clear, we're not saying the judges being involved was silly. We're saying. Right. Right. They shouldn't have had a challenge where that ended up being. I mean, I guess all challenges have some element where that might be necessary, but sure. Adding elements to it that make it make it more likely to happen.

[00:09:02] And, you know, I think that this is because they just don't want challenges to last very long. You know, and I miss those. Notice I'm wearing my old school survivor shirt. Like I love those challenges. I went like eight hours. Do you remember that? Yeah, there's no way to do that. Like a floating buoy for like it's those are phenomenal. But but again, because they're they're dealing with 24 people, 26 days. We have to move really quickly.

[00:09:29] We've lost the ability to just test people's mental skills, their endurance abilities. There is something to be said when you do think that you are potentially going home. What that does to you mentally and physically kicks you into a different gear. Because you realize I might get voted out if I don't win. And so you have more capabilities than you would have normally to do something that's more difficult physically and mentally.

[00:09:57] And those are the best challenges, in my humble opinion, because you're really testing people's will. This is not testing people's will. And so that is problem number one. This whole twist. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, if this had been just a regular immunity challenge, oh, you're immune in a tribe of nine.

[00:10:20] OK, because, yes, we know luck does happen, whether it's the luck of the draw of what type of challenge it is or a gust of wind blows or a wave comes through. So it does. But it's the piling on that really gets me. It's not just, OK, you won the challenge. It's you won the challenge and you're immune from two different tribal councils. And you get to go back and forth. You get to be the only one who communicates. And you get to vote twice.

[00:10:48] And you get to eat twice as much rice as we saw on the secret scene. And and and it's all this piling on. It's not just giving someone immunity. It is giving them the power to be the king. Yeah. And that is just too much. And then. Yeah. So then you have these two split tribes. And I know I said earlier in the season. Players should know by now. And I may have said this in previous seasons, I think.

[00:11:16] So players should know that there will be tribe splits and they have to do their best to prepare for them. Fine. We know that. But pretty sure I also said at the same time, that doesn't mean I agree with the tribe splits. They're. Yeah. They're just a reality. It's kind of like I didn't agree with a lot of things my old boss did. And some of them were truly terrible ideas. But I still had to plan for and deal with them if I didn't want to get yelled at. So, yeah, players have to do their best to be prepared for a split.

[00:11:44] So I don't think they expected one at this point in the game. And this. But this, you know, on top of that, it really takes the cake with the added element of one person getting to vote twice and do all those things that I just mentioned. Yeah. And I think the the other component of this, too, that makes it. And I don't want to say inherently unfair because that sounds like a lot.

[00:12:06] But when you do have that one person who is able to determine what information will be provided to each half, it's much different than when you have an entire group together. And so one person might be choosing who they're going to share information with. The possibility that someone else might share information increases exponentially. I mean, you saw Sari and how she was struggling with this. Oh, my gosh. Ozzy needs to know what's going on. I hope Ozzy plays his idol. And she has no ability to.

[00:12:36] They even had a code word, for God's sake. So he would know when to play his idol. Like this is these are the things that Sari had planned for in regards to the social relationship she had created with Ozzy, so much so that they literally had a code word, which is incredible. But when you take that away from a player and they no longer have the ability to utilize their own social capital that they have created in this game because you now introduce this twist, it's one thing to split them. That's terrible enough.

[00:13:06] But it is another thing to let one person decide what information will be shared back and forth. And one person has all of the information as opposed to only some of it. It's it's just overall. I don't love this in the slightest. I don't think it should be a split tribal at this point. I think the basis of Survivor is supposed to be those social relationships like this is supposed to be a test of those relationships. And you're removing that entirely. You're taking that away from people.

[00:13:35] And that's just I don't agree with that at all. Yeah, I mean, earlier this season and he and Jeff says this almost every season. He said something like creating social and strategic bonds is the most important thing in Survivor. And then once again, they make it difficult or even impossible for them to use those social and strategic bonds. Yeah. And, you know, making it at the same time possible for one player to do things that they shouldn't be able to do.

[00:14:04] Jonathan even said, I have an opportunity here to make moves that I haven't had. Yeah. Why did he get that opportunity? Because of this twist. Not because he played the game better and put himself into a great position. No, because of the twist. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. And I know people will say, well, buddy, he won the immunity. Well, great. He won the immunity. But then you are hoisting upon him all of this additional power that doesn't normally come with having immunity.

[00:14:30] There is, again, something to be said about the person who is immune having more power than most because they are immune. And so oftentimes they kind of sway the vote a little bit more. But this is over the top. Over the top. Yeah. Yeah. And some of that power went to Jonathan's head, which I know probably shocked everyone.

[00:14:51] And like I mentioned earlier, you know, most people probably haven't seen the secret scene about how each group got rice and he went back and forth eating from both pots to the point that he was full by the end of it. Because who would stop him when he had so much power? You know, Emily was even, you know, Emily was even like, this is really annoying me, you know, wish we could vote him out.

[00:15:13] But but but then on top of the power at the one camp, you know, he was survivor explaining to Aubrey that she could be in trouble. And she was like, I play this game four times. Like, I know what's up. Right. You tell him, Aubrey. Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Just all of this is terrible. It's just terrible.

[00:15:37] And I and some people might say that there's like results oriented thinking with this, too, because if Tiffany had won, perhaps things would have been different because she would have been sharing different information with both sides. But it's even if it wasn't Jonathan that won, even if it was someone else, it's still a terrible twist and it still shouldn't have happened. And when you get to this point in the game, let let it be a bloodbath. Let it be one big tribal council. Make them vote out two people in one big tribal council.

[00:16:07] That's fine. That's much more intriguing and interesting than what we saw. Yes, absolutely. And it uses their strategic and social relationships. And yes, of course, those did come into play in the small trot. And we will definitely be talking about those as we go through. True. But part of what we were talking about is how the twist.

[00:16:31] Interfered with a key strategic and social relationship in a way that it shouldn't have. And I think most people can probably guess which one I'm talking about, but we'll get to that. Yes. Until then, let's move on to another topic, which is both more and less fun at the same time. Joe, because he is less fun. On the show than, well, anyone or anything else.

[00:17:00] It was great to see the long segment on how much of a fun sucker Joe is. And how he just grumps around and he's pissy about Devin's. And he's so bad. Oh, it's disgusting. Oh, it's inappropriate. It's like, oh, come on, man. I know. To the point that nobody wants to deal with him anymore. Even Ozzy told Rob in his interview that he's difficult to work with.

[00:17:30] Yeah. Now, I already did a whole video on this, so I won't repeat the whole thing here or anything. But suffice it to say, there's a reason we saw the scenes of both Sari and Tiffany talking about babysitting Joe. Because he is the perfect person to bring to the end. Third place for Joe again. Yeah.

[00:17:52] Well, it is fascinating to me to see someone become so upset that another person is being, I don't know, strategic and trying to play survivor. It's crazy. Like, that would upset someone so much. And having fun. Yes. And to use the term disgusting. I mean, it's just really stunning. And I do love that Sari was just the way she was looking at him. It was amazing. Because she was like, really? Really?

[00:18:22] I was going to pop that up. I turned it into a gif. I was going to pop that up. So good. So good. She's great. Yeah. So, yeah. It's. Yes. And also, you know, Mr. Honolty. Honolty? I invented a new word. You did. Honolty. Honolty. Mr. Honesty and Loyalty, Joe, was mad at Devin's in part for telling the truth at the Mr. Beast Tribal Council. Right.

[00:18:50] He was upset because, oh, well, he said at the beginning of the episode, I know it's just a game, but. And I'm like, do you know? Do you know it's a game? Do you? Because you haven't shown that you do. And he's like, I didn't like, you know, nobody should have that happen to them and this and that. And it's like, Devin's told the truth. Right. And I know that others have pointed this out, including Devin's himself.

[00:19:18] But Devin's Christian and Emily stuck together. Yeah. Even in this tribal council where Devin's knew Emily was going, he still voted against Sari again. Yes. He didn't switch his vote at the time. Right. Right. They were the true honor and loyalty alliance. Mm hmm. Yeah. You know, while Joe was voting out players like Coach and Chrissy and Ozzy, all these people he's supposedly loyal to. Right. Yeah.

[00:19:48] What did Sari say? Hypocrisy Hill? 500 Hypocrisy Hill, I believe. I believe it was. Yes. So that's a little bit what that is. Yes. Mm hmm. So then we, of course, have our regular segment for the season. The CBS Mornings crew is wrong about blank. What did our CBS Mornings hosts do wrong this week?

[00:20:16] As it turns out, they weren't quite as terrible as usual. High praise for them. Probably because they had to squeeze both Emily and Ozzy into a single segment. So they didn't have as much opportunity to say dumb things. But let me tell you, Emily got the short end of the stick here when they were doing the talking. But even even though they were better than usual. There were still the usual dumb moments.

[00:20:46] Like. When Gayle King was talking to Ozzy, she talked about his exit and asked him if he was really hurt and as upset as he looked. What kind of question is that? No, Gayle, he was acting. He was like, oh, no. He was pretending. It really wasn't that terrible. What a stupid thing to say.

[00:21:15] Yeah, well, I think most of the questions that they're asking aren't really cutting edge or. They're certainly not Mike Bloom like, right? Yeah. I'm not getting at the heart of things like a Dalton Ross, you know. There are surface questions she could have asked that didn't involve. Sure. Did that really hurt? Were you really feeling bad? Right. What? What? Oh, my gosh. It's like. OK, I don't even want to.

[00:21:44] I was going to compare it. You know, she's allegedly a news anchor there. So it's like, would you ask that of a news story? You know, a tornado just ripped through your house. You look sad. Are you really? You know, like I know it's not the same thing. Losing survivor at a tornado hitting your house. Different things. Yes. Just. Yeah. Well, when you don't have the backstory of what Ozzy has been through previously, you certainly can't appreciate the effect that that would have had on him right now. Yeah.

[00:22:14] Yeah. Then, of course, Gail had to ask her infamous question. And she did it like without any transition. They must have been in a rush because she was talking to Ozzy and then she just goes, snap. And she goes, Emily, who do you predict is going to be the last man standing? Again, let me explain this to you slowly, Gail, because I'm sure you're listening. It's not a prediction when someone already knows the answer. Right.

[00:22:43] That's kind of like how those call she and predictive markets work. You know, when someone someone knows the answer already and predicts that something is going to happen because they have inside information. This is the same thing, except nobody's making money off of this. Well, some people might from what I heard of the prediction markets, but we don't want to go there. Uh, and the other thing is, uh, Gail, last man standing, excuse you, not last person standing.

[00:23:14] Uh, but Emily ignored that part and said, it's hard to argue with the game. Sari is playing today. Ozzy also said Sari is playing an amazing game, but watch out for snakes in the grass like Tiffany. So it's funny because neither of them actually picked a man who would be the last man standing. Take that, Gail. Fascinating. All right. Well, do you have anything or anyone else you want to discuss before we get to the rules?

[00:23:42] I don't know if we would like to do this now or if you intend on talking about it later, but the extra vote that was utilized by Sari, I think. Yeah, we'll talk about that. Okay, good. Because that is fascinating. Yes. And that's about it. Yeah. Uh, there were of course other things that happened. And like I said, uh, some of them I've already made videos on some of them. I will make videos on. So you can find those at TikTok and YouTube where I'm at David Bloomberg TV.

[00:24:09] And before we get to how Emily and Ozzy did, we do want to mention the rules we are about to discuss. Come in a shorter and much more colorful version as a poster. Mm-hmm. You can go to robhisswebsite.com slash yxlossfeeds, scroll down to the poster, click on it, and order it. Mm-hmm. And you can also get the poster on a t-shirt. And that way you can, you know, you can always have the rules with you. That's right.

[00:24:36] Or you can, well, and, as you know, you want to have a wide variety in your closet. Uh, you can keep scrolling and also order the checklist version of the rules. As you should. Get all of it. Yes. Uh, so again, it is robhisswebsite.com slash yxlossfeeds. All right. Well, Emily and Ozzy had an interesting game just between themselves as they were allies

[00:25:05] who turned against each other. That flip impacted Emily's path in the game, even though it didn't happen immediately. While Ozzy's path looked, well, very much like one he had previously traveled. Back in 2008, after Micronesia, I asked Ozzy how he had changed his game. And he said, I tried to do a little more politicking, and I think I would have been good if I had just played that stupid idol. It sounds familiar. I don't know why. Maybe we'll figure out why.

[00:25:36] But, well, were those the only reasons for each of them? And how did the split tribe trip? How did the split tribe twist? I'm not even going to try to say that again. Impact them. That's how terrible it is. You can't even say it. Yeah. At RHAP, we know Survivor, and we know why Emily and Ozzy lost. Now, the first and most important rule is, of course, to scheme and plot.

[00:26:06] And Emily, of course, knew that. As she said during one tribal council, every single person here signed up to come to a game where they were going to be lied to and backstabbed and ultimately have their torch stuck. As for Ozzy, well, he's still learning in his fifth time playing. As I just mentioned, Emily and Ozzy had an interesting history of working both with and against each other.

[00:26:31] Emily apparently offered Ozzy an alliance on day one, but then immediately set about to vote him off. But she couldn't get anyone to listen, in part because Ceri was already protecting him. And by the swap, she wanted to work more closely with him. Then after the merge, things got more complicated, and eventually they were opposing each other again. The funny thing is that although Emily got in trouble for approaching Ceri with that plan to target

[00:26:59] Ozzy a few episodes back, that wasn't even what she wanted to do. She thought she was coming to Ceri to agree with Ceri's plan to target Ozzy. She told Mike Bloom, I thought it's what my alliance, the CELA 4, Christian, Rick, me and Ceri, I thought it's what they wanted. I genuinely thought it was Ceri's idea. Actually, that's kind of how it was told to me.

[00:27:26] I remember thinking to myself, I don't really want to do this now, but I have to do it for the good of my alliance. So it seems like basically Ceri made Christian, when he approached her, made him think it was her idea, or at least she very much supported the idea and she'd been thinking about it when he approached her. And then he conveyed that back to Emily, which is why Emily was so willing to approach Ceri.

[00:27:53] We were all like, oh my God, why is another person doing this? Because she had a completely different understanding of the situation. It's an instance of things not being as bad as they looked for one person in the edit, but being even better than they looked for Ceri. Yes. And this is what I think is so amazing about the way that Ceri plays. I understand that we're talking about Emily and I'm not trying to give her any guff for what she did. She's clearly reacting to the information that she's being provided.

[00:28:22] But Ceri has, she said this in one of the episodes that, and she was explaining it to one of the players. Like if someone comes to me with an idea, I'm not going to say no, I'm not going to. She's following the rules, right? And so the fact that she's able to gather information and respond in a way that makes someone think that that's what she's doing,

[00:28:42] so much so that then they are like, well, I guess this is what we're doing, is so fascinating to me that Emily didn't check when that was happening. She just kind of said, okay, like this is what we're doing now, as opposed to like, hey, Ceri, I'm a little confused. Like, can you fill me in? Like, what's going on here? Because this is what I, if she truly believed that they were the seal of four and they were all together, perhaps Emily should have been like, hmm, I'll do whatever you want, Ceri,

[00:29:11] but I just want to make sure this is what we're doing because I'm questioning this information. That's the only thing I can say about Emily's response to that. It made sense based upon what she had heard, but there needs to be that check-in with Ceri because it seems so unbelievable that that's what Ceri wanted. I mean, even if she had checked in, I suspect Ceri would have said, oh yeah, that's absolutely it. So I think she still would have gotten like the same answer. You think so? I do because she told Christian that.

[00:29:40] And so she wasn't going to change what she told Christian knowing that Emily would just run it back. Oh, that's true. Because Emily was sharing every bit of intel she had with everyone. That's not something we might talk about in the second rule. No, no, no, not at all. No. But if we rewind before this moment and then even after that moment,

[00:30:06] Emily was wheeling and dealing and coming up with all sorts of plans. Now, a lot of them didn't go through for various reasons. Right. But she was strategizing. She was bouncing ideas around. Angelina told Mike Bloom, Emily is completely not getting the kudos that she deserves. She is the mastermind on that beach. She had me convinced that she was with me. Emily was an incredible player. Nice. And, you know, sure, we remember other parts of her game, which I just mentioned we'll talk about in rule two.

[00:30:36] But, you know, she was doing a lot behind the scenes. Yeah. And I think what likely ends up happening is with the edit, sometimes like those things that appear to be mistakes can be overshadowed by the things that appear to be actually good. And that's a good game. And that's a good thing. And that's a good thing. One thing we've talked about is just creating those social relationships and how difficult it is to see that. But it's really easy to see somebody throwing other people under the bus. Right.

[00:31:04] And so I think they really leaned in on that with Emily because she was doing it a lot. And I know we'll talk about that later. But but it is fair to say that I think Emily was willing to kind of keep her options open and work through the permutations of if this, then that. And if we don't do that, then what about this idea over here? And the fact that she was working with Christian, I think, was incredibly beneficial to her because they seem to have that same type of calculus where they're working through the numbers.

[00:31:33] They're working through how things are going to shake out if we do different things. So I think that was that was really helpful for her as well. Yeah, I also think Emily is a survivor editor's dream because well, because she talks through so many different options and plans so they can grab those and use them as red herrings. Yes. Sometimes it's hard to it's hard to find the red herrings for them if everybody's on one plan.

[00:31:59] But if you have Emily there, she's going to talk through three or four different plans and they can put those on screen and be like, aha, we're going to keep the audience guessing. Even though this was only a five minute conversation where Emily was like, what if we do this and ended it by saying, no, we won't do that. Well, they cut off that part and they're like, oh, look, look what might be happening here. And that was something that she actually explained is how she processes information is verbally. Yes. And I thought that that was very fascinating because she's not having those conversations just in her head.

[00:32:29] She has to have those conversations with someone, which, yes, turns into a plethora of information that can be utilized to make it appears if Emily is doing some crazy stuff, when in actuality she's just working through multiple things that are possibilities. Yeah. Well, when we got to this week, Emily was already in trouble. The split tribal council definitely didn't help matters. And Emily knew Jonathan wanted her gone.

[00:32:53] So she came up with what she would later call a Hail Mary shot of convincing everyone else she was going to get Devens to play the idol on her and they could vote him out. But of course, she brought him in on the plan and the idea was to cancel three votes and target Sari. It was a good plan, except for one little problem. She didn't know about Sari's extra vote. So finally, an advantage worked for Sari.

[00:33:23] I love that. And on top of it, it was an actual good use of the extra vote. I mean, for Sari, not so much for Emily. Right. Yeah. Well, it was interesting because as it was kind of happening, I was watching the episode thinking to myself, well, if she plays the extra vote, then she can turn it into a tie. And I was so I was working through the calculus, but obviously Emily didn't know about the extra vote. So, yeah, Emily thought, oh, my God, we pulled this off. No, actually, here comes Sari.

[00:33:54] And there was one more vote in the urn. It's like, oh, you did not know about that. Wait a second. But yeah, that that was that was great gameplay by Sari. But certainly if Emily doesn't know to expect that there's an extra vote, she did what she thought was going to potentially benefit her. And it could have but for the extra vote. Which also and I know this isn't a podcast about Sari, but there's a reason we say to keep your, you know, keep advantages and idle secret.

[00:34:23] Yes, this is why only people who knew about the extra vote, at least until this episode were were Ozzy and Sari. And, you know, it helped because that meant there was no way to plan around it. Now, could they have planned around it? Probably not. But right. Which also takes me to wondering what would have happened if Sari didn't have the extra vote.

[00:34:49] The other three, they would have had to make a choice, either believe Emily or don't believe Emily. Right. I mean, I know on on screen we saw everybody going, oh, wow. Yeah, you can get him to do that. OK. But. I suspect. They would have ended up piling their votes on Emily. There's no way to know. Maybe they would have believed it. Maybe they could have been convinced that Evans could be persuaded to do that. I don't think so.

[00:35:17] I think they still probably would have piled their votes, but it would have made things more difficult. And you really don't know which way they might have gone. They truly might have been convinced that this could have worked. Well, and I'm curious, too, if maybe Emily and Devins shouldn't have taken it a step further. If you really want to be convincing, having Devins actually give her the idol with the understanding that like Emily is like, I'm going to play it for you, not myself.

[00:35:45] But then I could show it to people before we get to tribal council. Like, look, he actually gave me his idol. So like I'm playing this tonight kind of thing. I don't know if that would have been helpful for the ruse, but it might have been if they had actually seen it in her possession. Maybe. Boy, that would have taken a lot of trust on Devins part. Oh, it would have taken a huge amount of trust. But I think Emily is someone that he could have put that trust in because of the game. I agree with you. Maybe a better idea.

[00:36:13] Well, I was going to say maybe a better idea if they had had time, which they didn't, and access to materials, which they didn't. He could have made a fake idol and give it to her. Because even the Mr. Beast title was just a bunch of beads. It was Mr. Eads title. You know, so he could have given a fake one to her, but they didn't know that they needed to do that. Right. Until they were split on a barren beach. Right.

[00:36:40] So, again, another way that it, you know, hindered gameplay in this. Yes. With this twist. Yeah. But it ended up not mattering because of this. Sure. So, now switching over to Ozzy, by contrast, he only had bad plans. At least when he came up with them himself. As he said back in episode one, I'm still kind of new at the strategic game.

[00:37:10] Oh, Ozzy. At least he was trying. Five times? But without Sari. Five times? Yeah, yeah. Without Sari, he was kind of a strategic mess. Yes. But before we discuss that, let's go back in time. Almost 20 years ago.

[00:37:30] When I interviewed Ozzy after Cook Islands, he told me my strategy was basically to be the top provider and to let that sink in at an early stage in the game where if there was any thought of voting me off, people would feel the pangs in the stomachs and realize where their sustenance was coming from. I probably screwed up a bit in my strategy in that I didn't do enough politicking and did too much fishing. I think I spent a little too much time doing all the classic survival things and not making sure I had that one extra vote.

[00:37:58] And then he added, I never entertained the idea as much as I should have of doing something traitorous and backstabbed. And this, of course, was long before the traitors was even a concept in anyone's mind. Now, Ozzy has come into each new season since then saying he was going to change and be more strategic. Yeah. And each new season, we saw him revert to basically the same Ozzy. Till now. Because he really did try to change. Mm-hmm.

[00:38:29] He just didn't accomplish it. And his thoughts, many of his thoughts still lean in that old, old direction. Mm-hmm. Even after playing this season and trying to be more strategic, he still told Dalton Ross, I'm just one of those types of players. I want to play with, it's not that Aubrey's not the best, but when it comes to physical challenge and things, I just thought that Joe and Jonathan were, and he kept trailing off, you know? And he said, I was really naive about that.

[00:38:58] So in other words, even a changed Ozzy still reverts back to form, favoring the big, strong guys who can win challenges as if they're the, quote unquote, best in the game. Yeah. Yeah. And I just, I do think that there's something to be said about Ozzy really having that, like, really ingrained in him, that that to him is what makes a survivor.

[00:39:23] But then he also has this great appreciation for Sari and her capabilities in playing the game. And she's not that person, right? Right. So it's like he can see the benefit in Sari, he can also see the benefit in having those survival skills, but he was never able to, like, merge the two successfully.

[00:39:41] And it's just, it's really quite fascinating that he's able to recognize it, but not bring it to fruition for himself, which is why it is really quite amusing to watch him stumble and fall so much as soon as Sari is five minutes away from him. You know, where he's like, oh my gosh, like this, every time Sari was not in his presence, he would do something that made us all go, oh God, Ozzy, don't do that. And then Sari would come back and be like, no, we are not doing that.

[00:40:11] You know, like the, the gritted teeth and the, like, even reminding him, like, what type of facial expressions to make. I mean, like all of these things really almost like having to mother him to talk him through the strategic part of this game was so fascinating. And then we just saw it completely blow up because of this lovely twist that we've already discussed that gave him heart blanche to do whatever he wanted because suddenly Sari was on a different beach. And Ozzy was like, look at me, I'm going to be Mr. Strategist.

[00:40:40] And it was not a good look at all. Yeah, I really, that was the running theme for the season for Ozzy. Yes. He had that super strong alliance with Sari that picked up where game changers left off. But he knew that he needed her guidance when it came to strategy. So good for him to realize. Yes, 100%. Problem is that I'm not really sure he, well, I was going to say I'm not sure he ever learned from the master.

[00:41:06] I think we could change that to say he definitely did not learn from the master. He was just, like you said, taking orders from her. Yes. We saw it several times over. You mentioned this already in the Double Dumb Drama Duo twist where he was focused on wanting to vote out Devens and Aubrey. And then Sari unexpectedly came back from Exile Island. Get him in line. Yeah. And, you know, he even commented about it being a good thing that she stopped him from doing something dumb. Yeah.

[00:41:36] And, yeah, other times, like you said, each time he disagreed with her, she brought him back in line. And, you know, this came with benefits for Sari. Well, mostly for Ozzy because she saved him from himself and from others time after time after time. Yeah.

[00:41:58] And, you know, when I've pointed out his strategic misses in videos, a few people have jumped in to defend him and say his strategy was to get Sari to align with him. He's brilliant. And there are a few problems here. First, Sari is very much her own person. Some were just like he got her to align. It's like, no, she has free will. She is very much her own person.

[00:42:25] She would not have aligned with Ozzy if it was not in her best interest. So to suggest he somehow forced Sari into this alliance is ridiculous. You know, because, you know, if Sari maybe knows someone previously and had worked with them previously, but it's not in her best interest to stay aligned with them, she'll get rid of them. Just ask the person who was voted out last week.

[00:42:52] But, you know, also, these people seem to forget that, like I mentioned, the two of them were aligned the last time they played together. This was not some brand new, brilliant idea from Ozzy. It was a continuation. It was natural that they'd end up together, especially when they were on the same starting tribe. I had someone else say that about the person who was voted out last time. Well, Sari didn't align with her. Yeah, they didn't see each other for two weeks. Right, right.

[00:43:19] You know, we don't know what would have happened with Sari and Ozzy if they had started on different beaches. Maybe they would have come together. Maybe not. Maybe Ozzy would have been voted out a long time ago. Sure. And, you know, Ozzy said in interviews that his plan was to get to the end with Sari, which makes it a losing plan no matter what, even if he had made it past them. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Well, but he was willing to lose to her. He made that very clear as well because he wanted to lose to the best. Yes.

[00:43:48] And, you know, while fans of Sari could certainly appreciate that, it's not exactly judged positively on this podcast to come in with a plan to. Mm hmm. Right. And I do think that Sari is utilizing and you basically touched upon this, but keeping Ozzy around was truly helpful to her. Well, she knows what his capabilities are and how that can benefit her game. And I think he did recognize the same in her, but it's just that there was no balance there.

[00:44:17] And so I do think that, you know, this is just one of those moments where we got to give Ozzy props for trying to do something different than he did previously. But I do think the fact that they included the one clip where he's like, I'm going fishing. Yeah. It's like going back to Ozzy. That's exactly it. That was the example I was going to bring up of what happened. Another example of what happened when she wasn't around. When, you know, Rick told us early in the season, Ozzy is playing a very old school game.

[00:44:47] And, you know, acting as a provider, thinking that makes him indispensable. But Rick was like, no, if he's not in the plans, he's gone. And, yes, we saw Ozzy decide to go fishing rather than sticking around camp in the swap tribe when he believed, well, the voting decision's been made. Right. You know, he leaves expecting it to be Angelina. The vote switched like three times and ends up being Mike White to Ozzy's surprise and dismay.

[00:45:12] It was a truly cliche moment that while all the scheming and plotting and strategizing was going on, Ozzy was fishing. And, you know, of course, what we came to realize was the main factor, Sari wasn't there to tell him not to do things like leaving camp before a vote. Exactly.

[00:45:35] So Danielle said in the RHAP New York City live show this week that Ozzy was doing so much better with the things that he worked on until this episode. And then it was funny because, much like we've just talked about, Parvati was like, pretty obvious whenever he's unsupervised by Sari. You know, that's what happens there. Yeah.

[00:46:02] He just he never really did get the hang of strategizing on his own. No, it was. I feel like it was just very surface level because he's not thinking through all of the permutations like Sari is. And he's kind of like like you mentioned, like, oh, decision made. OK, we're done and I can move on.

[00:46:21] And things are never that straightforward and easy and survivor, especially when you're dealing with returning players who are working through strategy differently than they might have the first time they played. And so I think everyone is looking at it like this is time five for Ozzy. And you think at this point he would understand that there's there's things much below the surface when you are deciding who you're going to be voting for.

[00:46:46] And he never has realized that that's what you need to do before a vote. Yeah. And, you know, again. Like you said, it's time five and we can still see that even even now in his interviews, because he told Mike Bloom, and this is exactly what you just said. I'm OK with losing to somebody that I think is an amazing player. I really am.

[00:47:15] I don't have that sort of cutthroat stab you in the back. I'm going to get rid of all the best players so I could sit next to a bunch of people that don't deserve it so that I can win. I would rather sit in the end with people that are the best of the best and to win that way. I just think that's the best way to win survivor. And a lot of people will disagree with me. A lot of people will say, well, that's not how you win. And you're right. I never won. I appreciate his little bit of humor there.

[00:47:42] But yes, add us to the chorus of people who say that's not how you win. Right. Maybe the choir leaders in that regard. I think we would be for sure. All right. Well, we can move on to the second rule, which says not to scheme and plot too much and to keep your scheming secret. And I want to say something to both Emily and Ozzy. OK, listen, listen up. Did you hear that part?

[00:48:10] Keep your scheming secret. Sorry to anybody whose ears I just blew out there. But you did back up too. I did back up from the mic. Yeah. Yeah. Both of them had big issues. Yes. Obviously. The difference is Emily's mistakes in that area did not lead to her game demise. Ozzy's definitely did. Mm hmm.

[00:48:40] We were certainly entertained by Emily's missteps in this part of the rule. Getting freaked out by what Christian said about the aisle to the point that she immediately spilled it to Q, revealing to Rizzo that D had told her about the aisle and so on. But none of those led to problems for her. She immediately realized her mistake with Christian and said it right. Moments after her initial panic.

[00:49:08] And D, of course, paid the price for the other faux pas that I mentioned. Mm hmm. I think people realized she wasn't doing intentionally for any strategic reason. So people like Christian, although he got frustrated, it still considered her a trusted ally. Yeah. And she even acknowledged that there was not she's like, I wish I could say it was strategy and I was doing this for a reason. But no, I literally had diarrhea of the mouth and I would just say things.

[00:49:36] And so I do think that that's kind of a telling moment for someone when you watch yourself on TV and you're like, oh, God, I did it again. Oh, I did it again. Oh, I just did it again. So it really became like the the Emily. Mm hmm. It was just a repeating thing that we saw with Emily, that she was just sharing information, but it was not strategic at all. It was literally diarrhea of the mouth. Yes. Yes.

[00:50:03] Now, as for the first part of this rule, after the episode, I saw some people saying, well, Emily plotted in scheme too much. I disagree. She was in a position here where she had two choices. Go down without a fight or fight and have a slim chance of it working. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Of course, you're going to go with the second. Was it a complicated plan? Yes. Was it likely to work? No. But otherwise, it was just going to be a straight vote against her. Yeah.

[00:50:32] She said in tribal council, I genuinely believe to my core. I have done everything that I can do tonight. And I agree with her. Yeah. And I do think that her breaking down the should I just do the shot in dark or should I try to fight? I appreciate the fact that she was wanting to fight as opposed to just taking a chance, because if it had worked, she is correct, I think, in that it would have had a huge shift on how people viewed her game because it would have been a really I mean, Sari would have ended up going home. Right.

[00:51:01] And that would have been a really big resume booster as far as Emily is concerned, that you were able to take her out by this ruse, essentially. So, yeah, I mean, I think she made the right call here for sure. Yeah, she she called it in her interviews a potentially game winning move if it had worked. And I think it could have been. Yeah. And then there was Ozzy, who, as I said a few moments ago, did have a problem with keeping his scheming secret.

[00:51:29] That helped lead to the vote against him. He thought he was jury managing Aubrey. Instead, he was telling her why and how to vote him out. Yes. This was so uncomfortable when it was happening. I was literally like it was like embarrassment for him. Yeah. Oh, it was really, really. And you could just see it in Aubrey's face. Like, what is going on right now? Why is he telling me all of these things?

[00:51:58] I'm still standing here. Like, I'm still playing the game. Like, it's not like I'm out of the game. That is all information that you share in the final three, if that's what you want to do. You don't tell the person who is the person who is being voted out. Like, by the way, we're voting you out. And just, you know, here's how I'm winning the game because I'm going to win the game. I mean, it was so uncomfortable. It was so uncomfortable to watch. Yeah. And that is part of rule two. I specifically say in there, don't tell the person you're voting out that you're voting them out.

[00:52:27] You don't know what can happen. You know, I mean, he was so certain it was all locked up. Yeah. That he literally told us that he didn't have anything to lose with her. And many people immediately compared to Andy saying too much to Rachel in 48. And it definitely tracks. Rachel had an idol that Andy didn't know about. Aubrey had the ability to change minds that Ozzy thought were rock solid.

[00:52:53] But even if she hadn't been able to change minds, she could have had an idol too. Right. The fact that you don't know. I mean, that's the main reason. She could have even played. You could have even gotten her to play her shot in the dark. Yeah. Which I know is only a one in six chance. But it has hit before. Mm hmm. And now, admittedly, if she had played her shot in the dark in a hit due to the process you love so much, he would have been able to then play his idol.

[00:53:23] So, yeah, I guess the shot in the dark part wasn't as big a deal. That's true. That is true. Still, you just don't tell someone you're going to vote them out. You don't know what can happen. Yeah. And what I think is interesting is even if and I'm not going to say that you should do this, but even if the approach is, hey, Aubrey, like things are not looking great for you. Like, is there anything you and I should work on or you can you can use that to your benefit

[00:53:53] if you think someone is on the bottom and perhaps there's a different move you want to make or whatever. Try to get information from Aubrey as opposed to you throwing up all over her. The additional information that he provided to her, I know he thought it was jury management, but you wait until like that's not the right type of jury management. Jury management is inclusive of I'm going to be nice to people and I'm going to not piss people off during the game, but I'm not going to tell them all of my secrets while they're still playing the game.

[00:54:22] And so it's like he took it to just a different level. It wasn't like, hey, we're voting you out. And by the way, here's all of the reasons why I'm going to win the game and I want you to vote for me. It was just it was a whole lot of of talking in that didn't need to happen. Yeah, it wasn't just that Ozzy was pushing himself as a viable winner.

[00:54:47] Like you said, he told her everything about her plan, past, present, future, how he wanted to go to the end with Ceri and and someone else who is the best ever. And he revealed the extra vote. And, you know, Aubrey described it as him giving his final tribal council speech before she was even out the door. And. He thought it went great. Yeah. He was sure that he would now get her vote on the jury.

[00:55:16] And it's like, well, I don't know. Maybe she'll get his now. I don't know. But because. His information allowed her to tell Rizzo, Jonathan and Joe getting at least the first two to realize it made Ozzy a threat. I don't know that you can really get through to Joe that way using logic. And, you know, Rizzo realized his whole game plan has just been exposed and compromised. Yeah.

[00:55:42] Well, and I think that this put Rizzo in a very tough spot because if you are concerned about your alliance, which is supposed to be Ceri and Rizzo, Ozzy should have realized the position that he's putting Rizzo in as well. Like if you want to have this conversation with with Aubrey, maybe you need to go have a conversation with Rizzo first and be like, I was I was toying with the idea of doing this

[00:56:07] is something because you are negatively affecting Rizzo. Ozzy described Rizzo's decision as short sighted. He probably felt like Rizzo was going to be in his final three. So he had to get a leg up on Rizzo. Oh, I see. Yeah, that's interesting. So so you wouldn't tell him that. Plus, this was him taking the lead, you know. Yeah, no, and that's a fair point. Yeah.

[00:56:31] And I do think that it's it is, I think, unfair to Rizzo for Ozzy to have called it short sighted because Rizzo has to look out for himself. Rizzo is doing what Ozzy is not. And he's like, I have to I want to win the game. So I need to do what's best for me and not necessarily best for someone else who's going to be sitting next to me. So, yeah, that that was an interesting commentary by Ozzy as well in this regard. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:56:59] Now, Ozzy, of course, now realizes the error of his ways, at least partly. He said in interviews that if he had actually played his idol, telling Aubrey all that would have been a good move. And since he didn't, it was a, quote, stupid mistake. I'm still not convinced telling her the way he did would have been a good move no matter what he did. But we can discuss that more when we get to Appendix B. OK.

[00:57:27] Now, Ozzy also had problems with the first part of this rule, because in addition to the issues we've already discussed in terms of his attempts at strategy, some of them veered here into rule two territory. A good example was back in episode two when Ozzy proposed an alliance to Savannah and Devin's of the three of them plus Joe. And people may remember this not because of the fact that he proposed this alliance, but

[00:57:56] because it's what led to what really sparked the big fight between Devin's and Joe. Because Devin's thought this alliance thing was stupid, so he didn't want to talk about it with Joe. And and that's when Joe knew he was lying. And then it just all blew up from that from there. But even at the time, Savannah told Mike Bloom in my head, I'm like, this is the most random hodgepodge group of people, Ozzy. Why would you approach us? None of us are working together at this point.

[00:58:25] It just felt so random. And so, again, he was trying to strategize, apparently on his own without Sari, because this was way back in episode two. I mean, Sari was there, but I don't think Sari would have told him, go make this random alliance here. I think he was trying to and he was like, oh, there's four people. Let's make an alliance. It's like, no, that's like you said earlier. It's surface level. Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Very much. Yeah. And I think I said something.

[00:58:56] Well, I know I said something in an earlier podcast where I said he says things that sound strategic, but it's like a toddler with a squeaky hammer, you know, that thinks he's hammering something in. And no, it's not. What you're doing is not accomplished. It looks like it, but no, you're really not. Right. Right. He's certainly not like Emily, who's working through all of the permutations. He's like, here it is. Ta-da. Yeah.

[00:59:24] So then last week after Sari told him it was Jonathan and the other woman who were behind the plan to target him, I still don't understand why Ozzy told Jonathan that they were going to target his partner in crime. She said in interviews that he told her he did it to see if it would get back to him. If that's true and it was a test, it was a weird one. And I still haven't quite figured it out.

[00:59:52] And it very well could have been counterproductive. I just can't wrap my mind around what he was thinking. But my guess is he probably didn't tell Sari he planned to do it or she would have stopped him and been like, really? Is this really what you want to do? Well, again, but I think that I know we've already said it, but it is a surface level thinking because in Ozzy's world, he's like, oh, well, this is if I do this, then this could happen.

[01:00:20] If it doesn't happen, then we're fine without realizing that Jonathan is also playing a game and Jonathan is going to utilize this information to his benefit and the way that it's going to work best for him. And this is why picking and choosing those moments of who you share information with and when becomes so significant to the strategy of the game that you're playing. And Ozzy just doesn't know when to do that. There are times to do that, to share nuggets of information, to see what happens.

[01:00:48] But then there are other times to realize this is not the appropriate step for the game I want to play. Because again, it is just very surface level. He thinks, well, if I do this and that happens, then that done. Yeah. All right. We could go to the third rule, which tells players to be flexible. I suspect I know your answer based on what we've already talked about here. But what did you think of Emily in this rule? Well, I do think that Emily was, I don't know if it was necessarily being flexible.

[01:01:18] I think she was willing to try whatever she needed to try because she had to. And so there is a flexibility to it. But she was also locked in with the people that she wanted to play with, even though she had occasionally threw them under the bus, but then realized she shouldn't have. And so she came back and tried to fix what she had done. So I do think that she was being flexible in the type of game she wanted to play and realizing the maneuvers that she needed to make in order to get to the end, but also to win.

[01:01:48] And that's what she was concerned with is like, I need to have a winning game. And right now I'm necessarily not having a winning game unless I do something more. So I have to give her credit for wanting to always consider those options. But then she was also locked in with the people she wanted to play with. And I think once she found people like Devins, she didn't initially want to play with Devins, but then she realized, oh, he's great to play with and I want to play this game. So she was willing to go outside of the initial plan she had coming in as well. So I think overall, yes.

[01:02:17] I mean, I think she made her decisions based upon what she needed for her game. She wasn't so locked into one idea and one plan. So yeah, I mean, I think she was flexible, but also still willing to stick with the people that she knew she needed to stick with. Yeah. It's funny. The one thing you didn't bring up was something you had already brought up, which was her talking through all these different plans. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I agree.

[01:02:43] I think she was one of the more flexible players in the game, at least in the idea of talking things through in that way and working out. What might work? What wouldn't work? And she even said in a tribal council, you have to come into conversations with an open mind, which means being open to changing your mind. And I do think she was. I mean, I talked earlier about how she was the editor's dream because she went through those different things.

[01:03:11] And yeah, she did talk those through to see if those might work or not. She might circle back and end up with the original plan. But she at least was willing to discuss it and get it out in the open. Yeah. Now, how about Ozzy? We know he came in this time wanting to change the way he played, which sounds flexible. But after what we've already discussed, did it end up that way? Well, I would say no.

[01:03:40] But also, it's very strange because I feel like he might have thought he was being flexible because he was like, look at the things that I'm doing now and I'm trying new things and I'm doing new things. But it was contradictory to a good strategic game. So I don't it's it's really tough to say whether or not this was the correct type of flexibility to have.

[01:04:06] He wanted it to be, but it certainly wasn't to his benefit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I would say he tried. It was good to see him trying. Yes. You know, I was going to say a for effort, but maybe B for effort. But he was he was like a rubber band. You could stretch him out, but he kept snapping back to his original form. Yes. You know, time to strategize. Nope. I'm going fishing. Vote out the strong threats. Nope.

[01:04:36] I want to face them at the end. And so. Uh huh. Yeah. Very much the same. So, yeah. All right. Well, the fourth rule tells players not to let their emotions control them. And we know Emily certainly had emotional reactions to certain things, which often caused an almost involuntary need to spill secrets. But aside from that, do you think her emotions played a big role in her decision?

[01:05:01] I don't think so, because because I do think that she did have those knee jerk reactions to information sharing. But I think she also had a realization afterwards and knew what she needed to do to kind of correct if she could. And I think the the idea, as we've discussed already, her working through these permutations showed that the decisions that she was making were not from an emotional state. It was from a strategic state and and what's best for the next move we want to make.

[01:05:32] So I don't think she had any any real issues here other than just sharing secrets as a knee jerk reaction. If we want to call that emotional. Yeah. No, I think it was. But yes, I think she was very good in this regard. Once you exclude the knee jerk reaction. Yes. You know, I we discussed a couple of times that she was willing to discuss plans, hash things out. And I don't think we ever saw her say something like, well, I like that person too much to vote them out.

[01:05:59] You know, as it happened, she really liked Christian and Devin's, but they were also her tightest allies. So strategically, it made sense for her to work with them. And, you know, I, but also I'm sure she really liked Sari too. And that didn't stop her from trying to take Sari out. Right. Mm hmm. So. As for Ozzy. I was. You could tell when I sigh at the beginning of something. Just makes me giggle.

[01:06:29] I go, Ozzy. Yeah. Yes. I was trying to put into words what I think of him in this role. And I was having some difficulty because on one hand, I do think Ozzy could vote out people that he liked and work with those. He didn't. If the need arose as an example of the second, he was annoyed with coach, but he still pretended to be with that alliance while telling Tiffany how he planned to serve coaches head on a platter.

[01:06:59] Mm hmm. But for the first, it's kind of a sticky situation because he said he would separate such things. Like I mentioned earlier, Joe began this episode by telling Ozzy, look, I know it's a game. Again, I'm not sure he does. But anyway, he continued by complaining and talking about how he didn't like what Devons had done. And Ozzy replied, well, I can separate the two.

[01:07:26] And in that situation, I do think Ozzy could separate the emotion of maybe I don't like what Devons is doing, but that doesn't mean I'm going to vote him out, which Joe clearly cannot. But. I mentioned earlier how he talked about wanting to get to the end with the muscly men. And it just seems like one reason he trusted Joe and Jonathan and told them certain things was that's who they were.

[01:07:56] Was it an emotional blind spot or a strategic blind spot? It's kind of hard to define exactly for me. Yeah, I do think that Ozzy is kind of a mix when it comes to this, because the decisions he was making were were so very I want to say strange, but it was kind of what is it based on? Is he is he going to this person because he has a connection with them or is he going to

[01:08:23] this person because he really feels like this is a good strategic move? Because, again, what he was doing didn't really seem to make sense until you had three there. And so I think that the bond he had with three was very emotional, but it was also necessary for his game. So it is really hard to decide whether or not he was coming from an emotional space.

[01:08:46] But I if we were to compare old Ozzy to new Ozzy, I think we could say old Ozzy was more of an emotional type of player because he was doing things based upon how he felt as opposed to what I should do for the game. I think he was trying to do that less this time, but he was still falling back into it. And so it's it is really it was like, again, be for effort. We could say he was trying to not do that, but he was still doing it. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:09:16] And certainly, you know, you mentioned Sari and everything. Certainly him being willing to lose to her at the end. Yeah. Yeah. That is a purely emotional. Yes. You know, way of looking at the game. Yes. Well, it's OK if I lose because this person who I like, who is a strong player will win. Yes. Yeah. And, you know, and I think that that does come from instead of a game mechanics and the fact that he's dismissing sitting next to two other people at the end that he knows

[01:09:46] he could beat as a bad thing. It really kind of fascinates me because that to me is that's a strategy. Like you want to get to the end of people you can beat. There's nothing wrong with that strategy. But to to knowingly put yourself up against someone who you likely will lose to because you recognize they're a great player. And it's based upon this idea of this construct. I want to beat the best. And if I don't beat the best, well, that's OK, because they're the best is certainly not the way that you win survivor.

[01:10:15] And he maybe recognizes that. I don't know. Maybe. All right. Well, the fifth rule reminds players they need to pretend to be nice and play the social game. What do you think of Emily here? Emily is fascinating in this in this particular rule because she was able to develop very close relationships. And she had Christian and then she had Devons and she and Devons were just hysterical together

[01:10:40] because they were they were they were very mindful of like they're almost like hooligans, right? Like we should not. I can't remember exactly. We should not be playing. We're unhinged is what they said. We should not be playing this game together. So I think she was able to form very close bonds that she needed to. But I also do think that there was something about Emily that almost rubbed people the wrong

[01:11:04] way just because of the way that she would speak her mind and say things that she thought. Yes, very blunt and sharing information. And so all of these things can put you in a bad social light because, well, Emily will tell everybody every secret and that doesn't necessarily bode well for you to maintain those relationships. But she was able to still maintain the really close relationship she had. So I think it was it was just an Emily thing, if that makes sense.

[01:11:33] Like this is just who Emily is and this is how she is. And so I don't think she's going into this game wanting to make best friends. I think she's going into this game wanting to play a game and is recognizing that this is a game that you're going to be being strategic, voting people out. And so she's less concerned with necessarily forming bonds. I mean, she openly acknowledges I had no relationship with Jonathan. She talked about that. And so I think she was very aware of those people.

[01:12:01] She was able to create bonds with and those that she was not. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think she probably had a relationship with everyone but Jonathan and probably not Joe because she was close to Devin's. And there's no way Joe would be friends with someone who was friends with Devin's. But and yeah, I think I think you're right. You know, her her manner may have put some people off a little bit.

[01:12:28] But I also think generally she was well liked, you know, and certainly it wasn't a situation where they were going after her because of anything in this rule. Right. Right. Exactly. The way Joe was going after Devin's. So, yeah, I think she was fine in that regard. So so how do you think Ozzy did? I think everybody liked Ozzy. Right.

[01:12:52] And like Ozzy is just one of those people that I think others gravitate towards because he is kind of a fascinating human being. And we've seen so many we've seen Ozzy. Right. Play this game now five times. And so the people who are playing with him have seen the Ozzy that we've all come to know. And he's very nonthreatening as a person playing survivor. And he's someone who wants to be a provider and he wants to take care of the people around him.

[01:13:20] So I think, you know, socially he made a lot of connections with a lot of people. But I also feel like he created those connections before they even existed. I mean, you've mentioned a lot about Joe and Jonathan. And so it's like he almost saw himself in them because of who they were. And so then he would create a bond, even though maybe that bond wasn't what he expected it to be. So I do think that Ozzy puts more of an emphasis on his social capital and his ability to be

[01:13:49] liked by people and discounting the effect that that can have on people kind of taking advantage of it, too. Right. Like Ozzy is just being Ozzy and Ozzy is going to do certain things that might not help his game. But we're going to let Ozzy be Ozzy because that's what he does. And then it doesn't necessarily bode well for him, except when you have someone like Sari that you've created that relationship with and you've got that bond with that was hugely beneficial to him.

[01:14:19] And that's the one thing with Ozzy that I find so fascinating is that he he knew how significant that relationship was with Sari. But I don't think he realized how significant strategically that relationship was with Sari. And so it's like this weird inability for him to put all of the things together, like socially, Sari and I are great. Game mechanics were going to be great because of her ability to be more strategic than me. So it's just kind of a mixed bag with him.

[01:14:48] But I think overall he he's just he's just someone who people gravitate towards in this game and they like. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. You know, I think this was an area where he did well. A for effort here. Yes. You know, he had he had good social relationships with pretty much everyone, even after blowing up when Mike White was voted out, which he really shouldn't have done. But he circled back the next day and all seemed to be fine going forward.

[01:15:15] And yeah, I think he was well liked by everyone from the muscle heads to the strategists from the old school to the new era, you know, just across the board. Muscle heads. Muscle heads. Yes. All right. Well, we can go to the sixth rule, which warns against being too much of a threat. And when it comes to Emily, I don't really think people saw her that way. I even she even knew and talked in interviews about how she wasn't looking good to win,

[01:15:44] even if she made it to the end. So. It's you know, people didn't vote her out for this reason. Right. And I would agree. Yeah, I would definitely agree. I mean, she was hoping that her Hail Mary was going to get her where she needed to go. But yeah, I don't I don't think anyone was looking at Emily as a threat in that way. Yeah. Now, we definitely cannot say the same thing for Ozzy. Indeed, the last week I was trying to figure out why we saw Jonathan and Ozzy himself both

[01:16:13] praising Ozzy's game so much. If you recall, before we got to the rules, I was talking about that. And now we know. I think it was kind of like a setup to show that he was seen as this threat, even though us watching it were like, but but he's not he hasn't done those things. They had to set it up, especially from Jonathan's point of view. And, you know, Jonathan had talked about how Ozzy had changed his game, playing with brains and not just brawn.

[01:16:42] And if he were to get to the end, he'd have a lot of votes. Like I said, I think Jonathan was way overestimating Ozzy in that regard. But. Like we always say, perception is reality on Survivor. And that is how Jonathan perceived the situation. And it is interesting that on returning seasons that someone's like almost redemption could help them win the game because all of a sudden you're playing a different game than you did previously.

[01:17:11] And because of that, we're going to credit you and we're going to potentially give you a win. I do find fascinating. I mean, that's true. But that happens even on regular seasons. I mean, one reason your David was going to go, it was going to win if he had made it to the end was his story arc being afraid of, you know, being afraid of everything out there to taking command basically. Yeah, that is a fair point.

[01:17:41] And that's what happens when you get a 39 day season. Oh, wow. Weird. Weird. It's crazy. Yeah. Well, there were plenty of other reasons that Ozzy was also seen as a threat, whether he was looked at as a strategist or not. Ozzy was certainly well liked, as we just discussed in Rule 5. There was, of course, his challenge performance. If you don't get rid of him now.

[01:18:08] When there's this opportunity, it might not be possible in the future. Plus, he had an idol. Mm-hmm. And if he didn't play it this time, that meant he was going to hold it for the future. Again, making it more difficult. Yeah. And he was close to Sari when other players like Rizzo and Tiffany probably wanted to be in that preferred spot, whether to get to the end with her or to be in a good position to take her out when the time was right. Mm-hmm. And that, I think, is a really good point that being so close to Sari probably did elevate

[01:18:37] his threat level to those two people. I think that's, yeah, that's really, that's a really fair point to bring up. Mm-hmm. So, yeah, definitely that, you know, all came into play and it certainly didn't help when he told Aubrey all those things to give her ammunition to talk about what his threat level was. He was telling her how threatening he actually is. Like, look, I'm going to win this game and these are all the reasons why I'm going to win.

[01:19:03] So, he's shining a light on all of the things that could be seen as, I don't know, potentially threatening. So weird. Yes. All right. Well, Rule 7 covers idols and advantages in game mechanics and we obviously have some things to talk about here this week. Before we get to them individually, let's address a question that we keep having to discuss. Was the twist responsible? You know, we've had to discuss this multiple times so far this season. Mm-hmm.

[01:19:33] So, for Emily and Ozzy, was it? Well, I would say definitely not for Emily because I think she was going to be the target no matter what. I mean, I predicted exactly that. Of course, we can't say for sure what would have happened. There would have been more people in the mix. You never know what, you know, which way it would have gone. And, you know, so it is possible things could have been different. I wrote up these notes.

[01:20:00] Then I saw some of her interviews and she basically gave the same answers. Like, yeah, I was probably going to be the target anyway, but you never know. Right. Well, and I do think it's interesting, though, if at this point in the game, she doesn't think that she's going to win if she gets to final three. The fact that they would be targeting her as opposed to someone who is more of a threat chance to win. I'm curious if that would have been considered as well. Like, we can't go after Devin because he has an idol, so we don't want to take that chance. Then who's the other option?

[01:20:30] Because if you want to bring Emily to the end, I just feel like at this point, because they're so close to the end, that maybe a different choice would have been a smarter move for everyone. Because if you do think Emily doesn't have a shot, why are you taking her out? Well, this, you know, to briefly jump ahead to what would have been Appendix A in that discussion, I do think, you know, we were still at the time and we mentioned this the past couple of weeks of voting out the quote unquote week.

[01:20:58] The people who didn't have the stronger alliances in the main group. So I do think it would have made sense to get rid of her at that point anyway, just because it doesn't fracture your group yet. You don't have to have that big fight yet. Okay. So I do think it would have made sense even in that situation. Okay. Now, as far as Ozzy and the twist, I think if it hadn't been for this particular twist,

[01:21:29] Ozzy probably would have played his idol because Sari would have told him to. Yes. She would have used the code word. Yes. And he might not have even been the target, thanks to Sari. Yeah. And possibly both things could have happened because the episode began with Sari talking about how she might tell him and Rizzo to play their idols just to flush them. Yes. But no matter which of these would have been the case, Ozzy was almost certainly not in

[01:21:58] danger if this twist had not come along. Mm-hmm. I agree. That is not to say the twist caused him to get voted out because we have addressed plenty of reasons already and have another biggie to talk about in this rule. But we wouldn't be talking about any of them today if not for the specific circumstance of this split with Jonathan pushing the action from a position of power. Yeah.

[01:22:27] I mean, Jonathan wanted Ozzy gone. But I think if Jonathan had been in a large group with someone like Sari, he wouldn't have been able to pull this off because, yeah, Ozzy's got an idol and Sari would have snuffed this all out. And I do think that but for splitting those two, but for Ozzy being away from Sari was really his demise.

[01:22:50] And I do think that we can blame the twist for Ozzy ending up being sent home because he didn't have the benefit of the social capital that he had created with Sari. Right. Right. Now, as for idols and advantages, also part of this rule, Emily, of course, didn't have any. But her plan to survive this vote revolved around the idol that Devons had. And, you know, we already discussed that. I think.

[01:23:20] We've already talked about it. She made the most of what she had available. Sure. Now, you did mention the shot in the dark, which she did have. And she discussed in her interviews that without knowing about Sari's extra vote, she felt the odds of her plan working were very close or better than a shot in the dark. Plus, this was more fun. Now, admittedly, you know, the fun part should not really be taken into account in the math equation there.

[01:23:47] But I can understand if you're looking at very similar odds, plus the fact that, like she said, if her plan succeeds, it propels her forward. It doesn't just get her another day in the game, which the shot in the dark would. Right. I think between those two things and not knowing about the extra vote. That makes sense to do what she did and not play the shot. Had she known about the extra vote, she probably would have changed her thoughts of the matter. Yeah.

[01:24:16] And I can really appreciate her making this distinction and determination because this is about winning the game. This is something that we talk about all the time. You make decisions because you want to win the game. And you don't go into that game to, you don't want to be a zero vote finalist. You want to have a chance sitting in the final three. So she was really working through that and making this choice that if I pull this off, this could really elevate my game status and have people look at me differently if I'm sitting in the final three. And I appreciate that a lot.

[01:24:46] Yeah. Now, Ozzy, for his part, of course, had an idol. And he had also gotten that extra vote that we just talked about. At least the extra vote was played correctly. Yeah. So not by him. But the idol, what can we say? His past came back to haunt him. And this was yet another lesson he didn't learn. He had a dream about it, for God's sakes. I know.

[01:25:13] His own subconscious was telling him, play the idol. He didn't listen. He told Mike Bloom, I've been on the chopping block so often this season. Once it finally came to the real moment, I was on the chopping block because I'd had so many other times. It just didn't register how it should have. Although the signs were there the whole day. Yeah. You know why it didn't register the way it should have? Because all the other times, Sari was there telling you it was happening. Yeah.

[01:25:43] And diverting the target away from you. So once again, we see without her, he could not read what was right there. He says it was in front of him. He could not see it. Yeah. Or he could not understand it. I guess he did see it. His supposed allies were talking for a long time when he believed they were all locked in on an easy target. Aubrey. Mm hmm. Huh? That's odd. But I'm going to continue on my merry way. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:26:13] And I do think. Come on. I know. And what's interesting, too, is one of the other components he brought up was, well, if I could have the idol one more tribal. Right. And how much further that could bring me. I think what he should have been doing is comparing if I can have Sari for one more vote. Right. So like I got to get back to Sari. I have to get back to the other half of my game. And so I'm going to use my idol now because that is going to get me back to the the alliance

[01:26:43] that I have. Right. You have Sari. You have Rizzo. And so you're putting yourself in a better position with your alliance, even though you're you're still utilizing the idol. It's almost like Sari is as good as an idol at that point because of her ability to like work through the game. Right. She's better because you can use her over. Well, I don't want to say you could use her. She can. She can have that effect over and over. Yes. Right. So it's like in that moment, thinking through and kind of almost it could be this like selfish

[01:27:11] idea like, oh, but but if I could make it past this one, then I would have it for the next one. You know, you're you got to get past this one and to make it to the next one. And then you'll have Sari back with you, hopefully, because I better not split them up again, because that would be insane. I think we would riot. But yeah, I mean, I do think that that this obviously was a very big miss for him. And I am curious to see if he had played his idol and then Aubrey had gone home because he's convinced that that was a good move.

[01:27:42] I mean, I don't know. I don't know if he had played the idol. He thinks that would have been a game winning move. And I'm curious how that would have resonated for him when Aubrey went back to like Ponderosa to be like, hey, everyone. This is what Ozzy told me. I don't know if it would have done what he had hoped it would do. No. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:28:06] Again, me sighing when it comes to Ozzy here, because there's really no way to summarize this idol situation other than just saying it was a huge blunder, huge blunder. There was no reason for it to happen that way. He could he could only use the idol for a few more tribal councils anyway. And like you said, he'd be back with Sari, who was better than an idol. Mm hmm. So, yeah.

[01:28:32] You know, I understand he felt those three guys were his allies. But he should know the way this game works by now. Mm hmm. Yeah. So. All right. Well, we could go to Appendix A, which discusses players keeping their end goals in mind when voting. And we talk about voting out the weak than the strong than the weak than the strong. Because of the twist, we have kind of a mixed bag here. I've already mentioned this earlier.

[01:29:01] Emily falls into the quote unquote weak category. And that's pretty much by her own words. As she told Rob in her interview that she was a non threat at that point. And she said similar things to, you know, in other interviews. Meanwhile, Ozzy was seen as strong. And we talked about him as a threat in the game, not to mention all of the allies that he thought he had. In those two separate situations. It made sense to treat them differently.

[01:29:27] Though we could say that this was an opportunity for Jonathan to take out two strong people. He just needed to flip his vote at the tie to Sari. And, you know, I just. I suspect he doesn't see Sari quite the same way we do as being the strong competitor, as being someone who can beat him. I think Jonathan sees Sari still as an ally.

[01:29:55] I mean, he was asking for her permission to vote out Ozzy. Yeah, it is so. She just has such an effect on people. It's amazing. It's absolutely amazing. So I tend to agree that he probably does look at her that way. And Emily is not someone that he's looking at that way. Emily is Emily, someone who's going to work against him. And he doesn't necessarily see Sari working against him because he does think that she's an ally.

[01:30:21] So, yeah, that is that is an interesting idea that he could have just voted for Sari and completely flip the vote, but doesn't see her in that light. Now, the most interesting decision amongst all the various players was probably Rizzo, who had to decide whether or not to tip off Ozzy. A lot of the focus has suggested that Rizzo did it primarily to leapfrog Ozzy in the alliance and put himself as the closest person to Sari.

[01:30:50] Though, I do wonder if it's him or Tiffany who's in that position now. Right. But as we discussed earlier, I think it was mostly because he realized that with Ozzy dumping all the information, just staying with Ozzy was not his best move going forward. And that's what he tried to tell Ozzy immediately after the vote. Yeah. Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

[01:31:20] So. So, yeah, I just. It's difficult to judge exactly, you know, because some people are saying, oh, this was a terrible move for Rizzo. Some people are saying it's a good move for Rizzo. Yeah. Well, and I find out. And that's the thing. It's like we have to see what what Sari's reaction to this is going to be, because she was like willing. She's like, Rizzo, please tell him to play as idol. Like, I just hope Rizzo does this. Yeah.

[01:31:45] And I think it's going to be interesting for Rizzo to come back to Sri and say, this is what happened. And this was the decision I had to make because he was spilling the tea on everything and it wasn't to your benefit. So I'm I am very curious because I do think that Rizzo was putting himself first, which he should be doing at this point in the game. Although you do have to keep your alliance strong. Mm hmm. He Ozzy's not helping the alliance. And also Ozzy's not talking about Rizzo.

[01:32:15] Ozzy's talking about Sri. Right. He's not telling Augury, like, I'm bringing Rizzo with me, too. Like he's so it's like in Rizzo's mind. Well, Sri is more important than me in this threesome. So perhaps this guy's got to go because I would like to be the second to Sri as opposed to Ozzy. Yeah. I mean, in the in the overall scheme of things, do I think it'll matter? Probably not. I don't think Rizzo was winning this game or is winning this game or could win this game at this point.

[01:32:45] I just don't think he has the votes in the jury. Sure. I think there are too many people on that jury who have said bad things about him like, oh, he did was lie around. Oh, he didn't work hard at all. Da da da da da. Things that I don't care about. But, you know, people like Coach and Chrissy and a couple others do. Right. And so I find it difficult to think of a combination he could beat in the final three.

[01:33:15] I don't disagree, but I think Rizzo feels differently about himself. Yeah. Well, I think that goes back to, you know, this has been discussed elsewhere. I know. I think Rob talked about it, that he didn't get to see. And really learn what everybody thought about him. Yes. In his first season. He didn't realize he was turning off jurors by something. Now, by no means has he played the same game.

[01:33:44] He has changed his game dramatically, whether it's because he just doesn't have the energy or because he's, you know, not in a position with a bunch of new players where he can take control like he did. But even so, I don't think he realizes. I mean, you're not going to out Devin's Devin's. Right. You know. Right. So I just don't know that he realizes at this point what this jury is looking for. Yeah. No, I don't disagree.

[01:34:14] Or he may and just be like, well, you know, I'm going to ride it out and see what happens here and get as far as I can. This is where I am. Mm hmm. Yeah. All right. Well, earlier I talked about us discussing Appendix B. And usually about this time of the game, we don't have a whole lot to say with Appendix B. But thanks to Ozzy, we do because it discusses the jury phase of the game. And before we get to Ozzy, let's just talk about Emily. She was trying to even make it to final three with some sort of story she could tell.

[01:34:44] I referenced it in Rule 6. She indicated in interviews that she knew she was fighting an uphill battle and people did not view her game in a winning light. Mm hmm. Which is too bad because I think she was doing a lot of good work behind the scenes. Right. But when you're when you're with I'll call them forward facing players like Devins and Christian, it's hard to demonstrate your own accomplishments. Yes. Mm hmm.

[01:35:12] You know, at least she was thinking about it. And she even said had her plan worked, she would take out Sariah could have been a game winner. We mentioned that earlier. That would have moved her kind of to the front. Mm hmm. Of course, it also would have still involved Devins. So she would have had to deal with that aspect of it. But yeah, she was trying. She was thinking about what will the jury want to see? And she was trying. Well, and at least with Devins, you know, a lot of them don't like him.

[01:35:38] So there is that component, too, where you could kind of rely upon the fact that for some reason, everybody's hating on Devins. I don't know why. I think the guy's great. But maybe that's something else she could have kind of leaned into a little bit. Yeah. Now, Ozzie tried to follow Appendix B. Too soon. He was a serious idea. Yeah. Well, I. Was it too soon? Well, he was too much. Maybe too much. Yes.

[01:36:08] Too much. He was overzealous. Because yes, it is true. Players should try to convey what they did in the game before final Tribal Council. Because as Andy indicated on the New York RHAP show, too many people wait till the end and it's too late. We've talked about that before. You can't go in to a final Tribal Council with everybody thinking you've done nothing and magically make them think you were behind everything. Right. Right.

[01:36:38] But there are two things you need to do in this area. One, you need to be subtle. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. And I think you kind of hinted at that earlier, like ways to tell people things without being like, look at me. Yes. But Ozzie just came right out. And, you know, as I mentioned earlier, you mentioned earlier, Aubrey described it as him giving his final Tribal Council speech. Mm hmm.

[01:37:06] And then two, you need to make sure you're not outright telling the person that they're getting voted out, especially if you give them information they can still use to change the outcome. Yeah. Like this is that you're just feeding the enemy. You're like, oh, we're going to vote you out. And and here's everything I want you to tell everybody about me. So that way, maybe you don't go home. It's it's it's really not great thinking at all. No, no.

[01:37:31] Back in rule two, I mentioned that Ozzie said in interviews, telling Aubrey all the information would have been a good move if he played his idol. And both of us said, but would it? But would it? And again, subtle. You can't just like hand someone a resume. Here you go. Here you go. Here are all the reasons that you need to vote for me. Yes.

[01:37:53] Jumping all that information on Aubrey the way he did was so transparently a ploy for a jury vote that I really think it would have turned her off even if she had ended up on the jury. Yes. He got the final three. You said that, too, earlier. You said if she had been on the jury, she should have gone back to them and been like, can you believe what Ozzie did? Yeah. And also because he was basically saying, I'm about to vote you out, but you should still give me the prize.

[01:38:20] And the way he was the way he presented it to her, like, you know how much this game means to me. You know how much winning means to me. Like the game was meaningful to him, but and not to her. Right. Yeah. Someone who like also almost won her first season. Right. You know where it's like, certainly she's in a headspace where it's like, I would also like to win this game. So, yes.

[01:38:51] Unfortunately, Ozzie, we're both trying to do that. And so you're telling me I'm getting voted out. Well, now the gloves are off. I'm going to take care of myself here. Yeah. All right. Well, it is about time to wrap things up for Emily and Ozzie. So what are your final thoughts on them? Well, I think it's interesting that Emily kind of described herself coming into this game as an incredibly anxious person.

[01:39:15] And I think we saw some of that anxiety coming through when she was knee jerk reacting to information that was being shared with her. And I think that was a great struggle for Emily because she really did want to play a strategic game. But she also has this inability to necessarily work through things in her head. She has to work through it verbally. And working through it verbally also included sharing information that she shouldn't have shared.

[01:39:44] Although she did try to correct it when she could, we did find Emily in kind of a tough spot. And I think it's interesting what you mentioned previously about her being with Christian and Devins. Regardless of how many plans she was working through and regardless of how strategic she was being, when you are working with people like Devins and Christian who are very outgoing and very forward and everyone is looking at them, you can be lost in the shadows.

[01:40:10] And I think unfortunately, Emily's game was getting lost in the shadows because of the people that she had aligned with. It was beneficial to her. However, they appeared to be outplaying her, even if she was the one actually kind of running the scheming and plotting between the three of them. If that were the case, we didn't necessarily see it because of who she's playing the game with. I am impressed with Emily's ability to want to win this game and to come into it with a desire to do so.

[01:40:37] And recognizing her position and trying to create a Hail Mary if she could save it. She didn't. And I can't say that I'm sad because it would have been Sari then and that would have been very sad. But overall, Emily's game, I think, really did reflect who Emily is. She recognizes who she is as a person and she recognizes how she has to play. But sometimes who you are as a person doesn't necessarily help you play in the manner that you think you should.

[01:41:05] And so her diarrhea of the mouth, she wished she didn't have. And I think that that certainly wasn't to her benefit, but it was very entertaining for us to watch. So overall, Emily was certainly fun to watch. And I really did appreciate her relationships that she created with Christians, especially Devin's. As for Ozzy, I do think that we need to go back to something he said pregame where he was asked about himself.

[01:41:31] And he said, look, I'm one of those people that can't be told what to do. Even when people give me great advice, I'm like, I'm going to go F up. So I've made a lot of mistakes. And I think it's interesting that he acknowledged that pregame because I think that's what we saw him do here. I do think that we saw Ozzy F up in kind of a grand way.

[01:41:58] He had all of the possibility of playing the game he wanted to play this time because he had the benefit of Ceri. He had the benefit of himself because he's a physical person who can win challenges, who can go fishing. He can provide for the tribe, but he was also having a sidekick of strategy. And that was in Ceri. And I think Ceri put him in a great position in this game to elevate the changes that everyone seemed to see in Ozzy.

[01:42:27] That, oh, Ozzy's playing a different game. Well, Ozzy was trying to play a different game, but he was getting to because of Ceri. And so there was this bond that was formed between them. But he needed her in order to play the game as opposed to recognizing from her what he needed to do himself. And unfortunately, every time Ozzy had a chance to do something himself without his sidekick Ceri, he seemed to F up. And that's unfortunate for Ozzy because he knew that about himself.

[01:42:55] And I know that he's probably feeling, well, he is feeling very bad for the decisions that he made. He says he wakes up and has nightmares about not playing the idol and wants to go back in time and change what he did. And I can understand that feeling entirely. There are things that I wish I had done differently. And you can't change the past. But Ozzy's had a chance to change it now five times. He's getting to go back and do again.

[01:43:19] So it's like you do have a chance to correct those mistakes and you do have a chance to come back and fix what you've done previously. And he's been in this situation before with an idol and didn't play it. And so it's really unfortunate for Ozzy to have been split from Ceri. I do think the outcome would have been different if she'd been sitting there. I think he would have played his idol and I think we would have seen Ozzy continuing in the game.

[01:43:42] So but for his inability to play his own game separately from Ceri and play it well, I think Ozzy put himself in a terrible position by divulging too much when he did to Aubrey and not playing his idol. And the twist definitely was a kick in the ass. So overall, those are my thoughts on both Emily and Ozzy. Well, I had forgotten that pregame quote from Ozzy.

[01:44:11] So that was a good one. Thank you. Yes. I thought so. Well, both Emily and Ozzy had some problems keeping secrets, you know, secret. The differences were that Emily's faux pas happened early in the game. She did it by accident and she kept surviving them. Ozzy's mostly happened very late. So, of course, he did talk about his idol prior to that. But he spilled all his secrets on purpose.

[01:44:40] And, well, we've been talking about him now. So clearly he didn't survive it. I was happy to see Emily back, especially after she insisted on interviews and even directly to me when I met her in Chicago that she would never go back again. I thought she was fun to watch. And she definitely played the role of a behind-the-scenes strategist, patching all sorts of plans, though most of them didn't come to fruition.

[01:45:03] Unfortunately for her, she was in the Sari alliance that Sari tossed out first, in part due to Christian going after Ozzy, but also because Sari considered them a second or third tier alliance by that point compared to her others. Largely because that group was more of a strategic threat to Sari than people like Joe and Ozzy. Emily thought the Christian Devons-Sari herself alliance was tight. But that's the thing about Sari.

[01:45:34] Everybody thinks they're in the tight group with her until they suddenly find out they're not. From that point on, it was a matter of surviving as long as she could and looking for a way forward. It worked briefly, but they were always going to circle back to her. Without Sari's extra vote, she might have pulled it off. But with that little surprise in her pocket, Sari was able to cover herself from the otherwise good plot that Emily had cooked up.

[01:46:04] But as people were hugging Ozzy goodbye, it's like they were also giving him one part of a Y-blank loss. Rizzo told him he said too much. Jonathan said he had no chance against Ozzy. And Ozzy himself said he knows he should have played the idol. And indeed, those were three major points we discussed. But when the tribe split happened, Ozzy was thrilled with it, telling us in confessional,

[01:46:34] I feel phenomenal about the twist. It couldn't have gone better for me. I'm with two people, Rizzo and Joe, that I trust with my life in the game. We have Aubrey, who has been on the bottom since we merged. This is as easy of a vote as we could possibly have. Remember, listeners, if you ever get on Survivor, never, ever, ever say something like that. I don't care how much you think it's true.

[01:47:04] You just know they're going to play it for all of us when you're about to get completely blindsided. Yes, Ozzy thought it was an easy vote. So easy that he ignored the signs telling him to play his idol, despite the fact that he, of all people, should have been on high alert to play it, rather than going home with it in his pocket again. But that was just the final straw, really. Ozzy definitely improved his game.

[01:47:33] But he is still no strategist. He needed Sari to tell him what to do. When she was there and doing that, he was fine. When she wasn't, he was cooked. Improvement wasn't enough when he was starting where we had seen him before. And he still held on to some simply wrong beliefs about how to play the game and who to play with.

[01:48:00] As we discussed, without the twist, Ozzy would have been fine for this episode. I still don't think he ever would have won anyway, because as we talked about, he wanted to protect Sari and go to the end with her. And if he had succeeded, he'd have lost them. Even now, there were plenty of other issues that had been lingering in the background. So again, the twist didn't cause him to get voted out per se.

[01:48:28] It's funny that Ozzy had an idol and didn't have the strategic know-how to realize he needed to play it. Sari had an extra vote from Ozzy, but knew everything, including that she needed to play it. Sari doing so helped knock out Emily. Ozzy not doing so helped knock himself out. And that is why Emily and Ozzy lost. There we are.

[01:48:58] Yes. All right. Well, before we move on to predictions, I want to let everyone know that we are excited to have Sam Phelan return to join us for our discussion next week, which will be the penultimate episode. I can't believe that, but here we are. It's insane. Yeah. No, it's going to be crazy. But Sam's great. My mom thoroughly enjoys Sam as well.

[01:49:21] And we want to, of course, remind everyone that the rules we just discussed are available in poster form and poster on a t-shirt form and checklist on a t-shirt form. So just go to robhaswebsite.com slash yxlostfeed. Click and order and have stuff sent to you. Yes, you should. And may I talk about social media at this point in time? Thank you so much.

[01:49:47] So I am at Jessica Lewis 89 on both Blue Sky and Twitter, and I am at Jessica Lewis 6789 on Instagram. And I mention that because, well, sometimes I post some things. It's mostly just about Survivor because I am nothing like the David Bloomberg who sits next to me because he is a social media guru and is posting so many, so many delicious things, not just Survivor related. His content is really across the board. So, David Bloomberg, why don't you show them where they can find you on your Linktree?

[01:50:18] Yes, that is where they can find me. I am at Linktree slash David Bloomberg, or you can find me directly on Blue Sky as at David Bloomberg and on video sites, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram as at David Bloomberg TV. I have been posting generally two or three reality TV short videos every day, almost all about Survivor 50 at this point. But, you know, like you said, I like to spread it out when I can, when there are other things on.

[01:50:43] And I know there are some things coming in the near future, probably after Survivor is over, but we'll see. And, you know, I will transition to those things as they happen. So, yeah, now, of course, like I said, almost all Survivor 50 and plenty of it. So, predictions.

[01:51:10] In the preview, we saw that Tiffany mentioned Rizzo has an idol. Joe tells Aubrey that Tiffany is the most dangerous. Which just makes me laugh with Joe saying anything like that, because it's like, Joe, you're not going to win. Everyone's dangerous to you. Jonathan thinks Aubrey is a snake. Devins appears to know he's on the bottom, but is trying to psych himself up by telling himself he's never out. But, Sari tells Jonathan she knows everything. Aubrey tells us Sari is the biggest threat in the game.

[01:51:40] So, that's a lot going on. And, once again, we don't know if there will be one vote or two votes. Right. So, let's prepare for two. Oh, good. If, yes, if other players are smart, they will take out Sari now. Mm-hmm. I know some of them are probably willing to get to five before they do that because she won't win immunity.

[01:52:05] But, in this twist-filled season, if I were a player, I'd just be worried that is a huge risk. That's too big of a risk. Mm-hmm. It certainly isn't what I want. But, it would be if I were one of the players. She will beat anyone at the end. Mm-hmm. The question is, of course, whether they will actually do it.

[01:52:27] Before I answer, let me say I think an even bigger issue is Jonathan because he can win immunity. So, if there is any opportunity next week to get rid of him, they have to do it. Because if they take out Sari and leave Jonathan, he could actually be positioned to win it all. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:52:50] And I think with this last episode and everything we saw that happened where he was given so much power, perhaps they would like to minimize that. Yes. So, I just think take him out first and then her. That's what I think they should do. And so, you know, picking two players to go, I think that's what will happen.

[01:53:17] It could be a huge week if the others manage to get both out. And, you know, maybe I'm kidding myself. Devins is the obvious choice to go. They've been wanting to do that for a while now. He has no idol. So, it just, it seems so clear. But, what do we often see about quote-unquote obvious choices? I do think a lot of people see Devins as a threat as well.

[01:53:46] So, yeah, he could replace Jonathan or Sari. But I'm going to stick with what I said. I think Aubrey will find a way to maneuver both of them out and it will end up propelling her to the win that I predicted pre-game. Of course. Look at you. Well, I am going to select a Rick Devins as, unfortunately, one of the two people going home. I think he's fantastic. He's great TV.

[01:54:13] But I do think that there's a couple of things working against him. One being, I know Joe can't really do much, but Joe's going to have blinders on and want nothing more than Devins to go home. So, there might just be like, let's appease Joe because we just want to keep him with us. And also, the Mr. Beast thing where he did get them all $2 million. And that was a big, like, you know, his willingness to do that whole thing, I think is a huge light shined on his game.

[01:54:42] So, I'm going to pick Devins. And, gosh. Okay. Dead air is bad for a podcast. I know it's bad. And I'm so sorry because I don't want to say Sari. I don't want to say Sari. So, I'm not going to because I feel like she just has this power over them. I'll say Sari because you're bad at predictions. So, that will pretty much mean that it won't happen. Oh, so that's good. So, I'll do that then. I'll say Sari. So, then that way she won't be voted out and everything will be lovely and fine. Yeah. Okay.

[01:55:12] All right. Well, there we have it. We overlap in Sari. So, we'll see if my being right cancels out Jessica's being wrong. You can't do that. It's not fair. We'll have to see. Fine. Fine. But in the meantime, I want to encourage people to check out the RJP. The patron program at RobHasAWebsite.com slash patron where you get access to all the special podcasts plus Facebook and Discord and you support shows like ours and everything on

[01:55:40] the network at RobHasAWebsite.com slash patron. Plus, make sure you're subscribed to all the RJP podcasts by going to WeKnowSurvivor.com and just signing up for whatever service you use if you don't already. And, of course, you know, pick up the tribe and I have spoken by this guy, Rob Sestranino, who happens to be all over my shirt as well. So, except for that one hole, you know, weird hole. So, yeah.

[01:56:08] Just, you know, get everything, everything Rob related. Do it all. Yeah. If only you could be higher on with the poster behind you, you could fill that square with his face because he's on the poster as well, but he's right behind your head. So, you'd have to really like get higher. Yeah. Okay. We're not going to do that. Okay. Yes. Yes. And we would like to thank everyone at RHAP for all of the incredible work that you do

[01:56:36] and the content that you do create and provide, not just for the Wybling Gloss podcast, but all of the content that is created. Thank you to Scott St. Pierre for leading the charge on the editing of the content as David Bloomberg attempts to fill that hole with. Oh, there you go. You got it. That's perfect. See, now Rob was in your shirt entirely. Um, so thank you to everyone at RHAP for all the work that you do. Thank you to Will from America for the theme song that you did create for the Wybling Gloss

[01:57:06] audio version of this podcast. And David, thank you so much for this early morning Saturday sit down. This was lovely. It was so great to start my day with you. So, uh, I can't wait till we get to do it again next week. Yes. Yes. Thank you. As always, of course, uh, happy mother's day to you and, uh, all of the, all the moms out there. Happy birthday to Hannah.

[01:57:30] Uh, and, uh, uh, that is not the Hannah you played with, uh, but now they're the, you know, who is your daughter? Uh, and, and, uh, uh, yeah, we will see everyone again in a week. Uh, technically I think a little less than a week now, uh, when, as I mentioned, Sam Phelan will join us. And you can, of course, find us on social media before then. Uh, so bye everyone. And, and happy mom's day to my mom. Cause she loves listening to this podcast. Yes. And your mom, of course also. Yes.

[01:57:59] So I have to say thank you. So thank you. All right. Bye everyone. Bye. Bye.