Why ___ Lost Survivor 51 Premiere

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

[00:00:33] Welcome back to the Survivor edition of Why Blank Lost. I'm David Bloomberg and while we are of course starting our Survivor 51 discussions this week, my co-host Jessica Lewis is also celebrating 10 years since Millennials vs. Gen X premiered. That's right. You were actually the one that told me about it. I didn't even think about it. This is how much I'm not affected. It's been so long. I can't believe it's been that long.

[00:01:01] Like I feel like it was like so much more recent than 10 years. That's kind of crazy. That's a little nuts. Yeah, it is. It is. But thanks for remembering. Yeah, absolutely. So I mean, the thing is, it's not naturally by numbers because you were the 33rd season, but, you know, because we skipped a year. So we skipped two seasons, but, um, but yeah, I saw something that triggered the memory and I was like,

[00:01:30] Hey, is that right? Let me check that. Let me, let me look. So nuts. Well, and it's one of those things that like every once in a while, like it's brought up in, in some place. Like I was at a wedding. My niece got married recently. I actually officiated her wedding. It was lovely. Oh, wow. And yeah. And at the reception, people were coming up to me going, you, you were the one you were on Survivor. I was such a big fan. And I'm like, oh my gosh, like it's still happening.

[00:01:57] Like, it's so crazy that like, it's been so long, but people still get all excited when they are fans and then they meet me. So it's, it's just one of those moments. And then my daughter has to stand there and watch this happen and go, yeah, that's my mom. But yes, it's, it is fascinating to know that it's been 10 years, but it also feels like it was just yesterday. It's so weird. It's so weird. Time goes so fast. I mean, I get excited when I meet you every week here. So, you know. Same.

[00:02:30] Oh, that's great. That's great. All right. So enough about me. Let's talk about this new season. Yes. Yes. With this being the first episode of not just the new season, but the open era, we are going to have a fair number of other things to talk about here before we even get to Aaliyah. And then some listener questions afterwards, if we have time. But for any, because as we're sitting here, we don't know how long this podcast is going to go. So, you know, we're, we're playing it by ear here.

[00:03:00] Right. But for any new listeners or viewers each week, what we do here is we figure out what the player who was voted out did wrong and right by comparing their gameplay to a set of rules that I wrote for winning way back after season one and have been updating ever since. We use all the non-spoiler information available to us from what we've seen on TVs, interviews, social media, secret scenes.

[00:03:28] The newest published version of the rules, which are admittedly a few seasons out of date, can be found by going to Rob has a website dot com slash YX lost feed and clicking on the link bubble for survivor rules appropriately named. Now, like I said, we will, of course, be talking plenty about Aaliyah. But with there only being one episode under her belt, it's less than usual, perhaps.

[00:03:55] And there are more than usual topics in terms of other things. So let's start with one that I know you loved. Because it's amazing how much more exciting a vote was with 10 players on the tribe instead of six. Oh, my God. I'm glad you're starting there. I thought you were going somewhere else. I love the fact that we have two tribes of 10 and that people have more opportunities to

[00:04:22] scramble, to make relationships, to screw things up. It's so much better when you have 10 people as opposed to six. So thank you. Thank you, Survivor, CBS, Jeff, for listening and saying, you know what? We're going to give the fans what they've been asking for. And that's two tribes of 10. So I loved that very much. Much better than six. Yes. And, you know, Jeff talking about this in his various interviews, he's like, well, in the new era, we were always doing six.

[00:04:51] There was no way we were going to change that. And it's like. Why? Why? Like you were the boss. You were the boss, Jeff. Yeah. You know, you could have done this at any time, but you had to wait for the open era. Fine. Okay. You got it. Whatever. I don't care. We're here. And obviously we'll be talking about the outcome in a little bit, but the process was better. You had to get a whole bunch of people voting on the same page. It took more than just two discussions to make that happen. Yes.

[00:05:20] And someone who was on a season with two tribes of 10, it really does affect the way that you negotiate and talk to people because you know that there are 10 of you. And you can look at the permutations and numbers and who could potentially go over here or go over there. So it really does make a huge difference of what your conversations are and who you're having them with. Because that, I mean, we saw it happen. Like it can be one conversation that changes this shift into a different direction.

[00:05:48] And yeah, you've, you've 10 people. So it's, I was very, very excited about that. And I know that it was great on my season to have those options and to know the numbers, but yes, that was fantastic. So thank you, Jeff. Yes. Now with that said, and as much fun as that tribal council was, I do have to plant my flag and note that as usual, what appeared to be a live tribal and was called a live tribal was actually not.

[00:06:18] Um, I know that Aaliyah used the term in her interview with Mike Bloom, but then she told Rob that the vote didn't change. So it was basically just an incorrect use of that term. She's not the only one to do it. It doesn't just mean a bunch of people are standing up. That's not what a live tribal is. It means there are multiple options, people who could go as opposed to one where the vote was set ahead of time.

[00:06:45] In this case, the vote was set ahead of time and it stayed set through everybody standing up, moving around. It didn't change. There was one moment, which I thought was funny. Someone actually stood up and was like, why, why are we whispering? I was like, that's great because someone was clearly very, I, I think it might've even been your winner pick. Uh, but it was, it was quite comical because it was literally like acknowledging like, what, what are we even doing?

[00:07:14] Like, this isn't even a thing because we're not really talking about anything. I thought that was right. And that's, and that's exactly it. And that's the thing, even without her telling Rob that it wasn't going to change, we could deduce it from the clues at tribal council. Uh, as I did in a video, I posted Thursday, there was, you know, I didn't even catch that one, what you said.

[00:07:36] Uh, but then also during the huddle of various people with Devin, we heard other whispered conversations like, uh, someone telling Devin that he, he was blowing up the vote, which was of course the plan to get rid of Aaliyah. Of course he didn't want to vote her out. And then we saw Pat tell Aaliyah that she was in trouble coming into tribal council. Right.

[00:08:04] And it's also why there were so few people around Brady. They had all already decided to vote the way Brady wanted. So there was nothing to talk about with him. Yeah. I was seeing if I had a picture cause I do have the, you're blowing this up cause I do take pictures of my television, but I don't have the one where, um, where someone, I think, again, I think it was, I think it was your winner pick, but anyway.

[00:08:27] Yeah, no, I definitely, I think what is happening and I could be wrong, but this idea of standing up at tribal and we're going to make it more exciting and we're going to make it more interesting. It can be interesting if there's a purpose for it, but in this particular episode, I really don't know why it ended up happening because like you said, there was no change in anybody's vote. So was it smoke and mirrors? I don't know, but it was really unnecessary.

[00:08:55] I think it was really just that Devin was so insistent that people were like, you know, people thought we're voting, we're voting out Aaliyah. And then all of a sudden he's over there saying, I am not. And so they're all like, uh, we better go talk to him and find out what's going on here. But it didn't change anything. And maybe that's all it was. Right, right. That's probably all it was. And you know, like I said, it was still fun to see people up and moving at the very first tribal council, but it was never live. So there's that.

[00:09:24] Sure, sure. Mm-hmm. Now, the next topic, not as much fun. Let's talk about the return of the coin flip. Oh, boy, I'm trying to figure out where you're going next, but yes, this is fascinating. That's fascinating. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Because, okay, so he's added in the rolling jackpot if the person doesn't hit it. Mm-hmm.

[00:09:48] It might initially seem harmless. Like, hey, let's give the winner more money to account for inflation over 25 years. But there's one key factor here that is just wrong, and it's something we brought up last season. Jeff said the coin flip, other than that one change, will be like Survivor 50. So let's remember everything about the coin last season, not just the outcome.

[00:10:17] Because if Devons hadn't volunteered, it was going to rocks to force someone flip the coin. Right. Now, Jeff did not specifically say it would be forced this time, but he said, like I mentioned, he said it would be like last time. And his specific words that he said to these players were, in every season, one player will flip a coin. He didn't say may flip a coin. He didn't say could flip a coin.

[00:10:47] He didn't say we'll have the option to flip a coin. He said, will flip a coin, which tells me it's going to be forced, which is serious BS. Yeah, I don't like that at all. Yeah, I mean, there's always some luck in Survivor. You know that better than anyone. And some bad luck. Yeah. Getting knocked out because of a literal coin flip forced after a rock draw is ridiculous.

[00:11:16] You could be. Go ahead. Okay. I was just going to say, you could be in a great position. Right. Too bad Jeff doesn't care. Well, and that's why I feel like, and this is a discussion we've had multiple times, right? Where like, let the players play the game. And if you have someone like Devons who volunteers to do it, fine. If nobody volunteers and it doesn't happen, then there is no coin flip. Then there is no chance for an extra million dollars.

[00:11:45] And that's the players decisions then, right? If they decide, no, I don't want to do this. I don't want to risk it. Well then, okay. Then the prize is just a million dollars and we have a regular vote like we did before. I agree wholeheartedly that it should not be forced upon the players because yes, I mean, rock draw, I was involved in one, but that was our choice. We were told this is what's happening. We had opportunities to try to get out of it. We had a rock draw. That was a player's choice. This would not be a player's choice.

[00:12:15] And so I just feel like if you want to do it, that's fine, but it should not be based upon a rock draw. It should be if you want to, and you want to volunteer or someone is interested. Great. If not, then we just regular vote. Yeah. I mean, like you said, there's not going to be a Rick Devins every season who wants to risk their whole game to potentially give someone else money. Right. You know? So that should be the end of it. If that person isn't there, but no, Jeff's going to push this twist on us.

[00:12:45] I'm there. Yeah. Yeah. That's kind of crazy. And then think about like, oh my gosh, if it doesn't hit and then it moves on to the next season. Yeah. Yeah. That's a lot of money. It is. It is. I want to know who's ponying it up. Is it CBS or is there, are they going to bring in somebody else like Mr. Beast? I don't think it's Mr. Beast because they, I think Jeff showed the coin at one point and it said survivor on both sides, you know? Interesting.

[00:13:13] Which is the other thing that's funny. And this has less to do with it in the game and more to do with just me being snarky. Jeff said in an interview that this was an innovative twist. You literally stole it from Mr. Beast. How is that innovative? Jeff, I'm so sorry. We're so, we're so terrible to you, but it can help it sometimes. Yeah. I mean, he, he sets himself up for it.

[00:13:43] But yeah, getting, getting back to it. You know, well, like I said, we talked about this last season. So many people were taken in by the excitement of the moment, but it could have been horrible. And some people have already been responding to me and say, no, whoever's on the bottom, we'll do it. Definitely. But there are many times when everyone thinks the person on the bottom is someone else. Yeah. Let me, let me lay this out. That's called a blind side.

[00:14:13] We see those fairly often on survivor. Right. Yeah, for sure. So he, did he indicate when the flip would be happening? Like, I'm trying to remember when it was with Devin's, like at what point in the game they were at. I don't remember if he did or not. So where were they at when Devin's did it? Like how many people were left? I don't remember. Plus they had an over, you know, an overly large season anyway.

[00:14:43] Oh, that's true too. Okay. Nevermind. I'll stop talking. Yeah. So. But when Devin's did it, let's remember also they interrupted the most interesting tribal council of the season to do the coin flip. If Devin's had just missed and was gone and there was no tribal council, it would have been a huge mood killer. Yeah.

[00:15:11] So again, Jeff is only remembering the outcome, the jubilation, the fun. Right. He's being completely results oriented. He clearly just believes something like that's going to automatically happen again and again and again. There's no guarantee of that whatsoever. It's a risky move, Jeff. Yes. Yes. All right. Well, speaking of Jeff, for years now, yes, we, for years that we have had a regular segment

[00:15:40] on the podcast, Jeff Probst is wrong about blank. Now last season we modified it to the CBS mornings crew is wrong about blank. Usually focusing on Gail King, but now we're back to Jeff again. And the thing is we could have talked about the coin flip in this section. Sure. But there are two areas in particular that really need to be here.

[00:16:09] And the first of which also encompasses some things we've already talked about. So I felt, I thought that we had to put them here. Now, the first is something you've already referenced in a way, which is Jeff's ridiculous and repeated claim that they put the game in the players' hands. Because you said it earlier, let the players play, Jeff. And according to Jeff, we are letting the players play. He said at the beginning of the show, we turn the entire game over to you. You're in total control.

[00:16:38] And he told Mike Bloom in an interview. At that point, he was talking about the negotiation for supplies specifically, but it applies to everything. He said, it really speaks to, we try to stay out of the way. We didn't manufacture how you decide. And then he continued, all of these scenes and the things that are turning the story go back to what I said on the boat. It's not our game anymore. And what I'm really proud of, honestly, is we don't F with the game. No, they figure it out.

[00:17:07] And we trust the format. We trust the people. Which. But you're F-ing with the game with the coin flip. Exactly. Exactly. That sounds great. It is absolute BS. Yes, it is BS. I'm sorry. I want, listen, I can appreciate the fact that Jeff wants to make the game more interesting and innovative and all of these things. But I thought it was fascinating.

[00:17:32] Was it, I can't remember, was it Mike Bloom who pointed out the fact that the opening words by Jeff were actually from Borneo? So it's interesting that we want to get away from old school Survivor and how it was played. However, you're actually quoting yourself from the first season of Survivor. And that season was so raw and it was so natural. And the players really did figure out how to play Survivor on their own without the distractions,

[00:18:02] without all this extra noise. And, and I, I, so yes, let the players play the game. Don't input yourself or insert yourself into the game. But Jeff continues to do so in different ways with more advantages. And I, and I know what's coming and what else are you talking about? I can, I can guess. But there, there is something to be said about advantages being fine and idols being fine inserted into the game.

[00:18:28] If you let the players utilize them the way that they wish to, but they all come with long scrolls of rules and regulations and when you can, when you can't. And I was ecstatic to see just a regular idol without a beware advantage thing on it. That was fantastic because again, like I can appreciate the idea of wanting to change components of the game, but I can also appreciate the fact that these players will play even without the extras being thrown in and added. They're going to play.

[00:18:57] So just like them. Yeah. And the thing is what he said was shown, it was demonstrated to be BS right off the bat when someone had to be sent away to exile Island. Yeah. Because if he had truly left it up to the players, nobody would have gone. Right. But they weren't allowed that choice. Right. Somebody had to go. Yeah. It was only who would do it. He just said, don't F with the game, but they do.

[00:19:26] We just spent how many minutes talking about the coin flip. That's F with the game. Don't tell me that potentially forcing someone to do it isn't F with the game. Don't tell me that I'm staying out of the way and letting the players figure it out. No, you're adding a new element into the game that could take someone out of the game because of bad luck. All while mouthing pretty words to the contrary. Oh, goodness.

[00:19:56] All right. What's next? I know it's coming. Well, then of course, there was Jeff's super defensive whiny moment. Uh, when it came to final four fire making. So he pretended that it was up to the players to decide whether or not it should stay in. But first he told his captive audience that he loved it. Then he said they would vote.

[00:20:27] But even then he wasn't confident enough to do a simple majority vote. No, it had to be unanimous. Which also, can we just stop? Yeah. Let's just pause that for a moment. Just for the mere fact that what vote in survivor ever has to be unanimous? Exactly. You're not getting 20 survivor players to be unanimous on anything.

[00:20:51] Hey, it's never been, must be unanimous, other than the idea of not going to rocks, right? Where it was like this idea where like, if you can all agree, then you don't have to go to rocks. But if you can't agree, then you have to go to rocks. That's different. This is like, and what I do think is, is so just sad about this moment. One, players don't want to go. They don't want the fire making. I don't care that these players are like, there were some of them who were like, oh yeah,

[00:21:19] no, you gotta make fire. No, no, no, no. That's not what it's about. You know what the problem is? These are fresh, off the boat, new players who haven't been out there long enough to be realizing in that moment, if they're playing a stellar social game, the last thing they want is to have a fire making thing happening at final four. If you have the majority, the last thing you want is to have fire making at final four. Like there are reasons that are going to affect your decision.

[00:21:48] Just as we saw with Devin's with the, with the coin flip, right? He knew he was on the bottom and he was like, whatever, fine. I will volunteer as tribute and I will, I will flip the coins. But if you have a situation where you are actually in the majority and you are controlling the game, the last thing you're going to want to do is go to fire making. It's not going to happen. Yeah. I mean, so Jeff brings them out there, tells them why they should vote a certain way, tells them it has to be a unanimous vote.

[00:22:17] He already was the one who picked these people and undoubtedly knows that some of them hold pro fire making opinions. And it only takes one. Mm hmm. You know, it was like an election in Russia where the outcome is predetermined. And I'm sure that Jeff Putin was so surprised that most people agreed with him. It's aggressive.

[00:22:43] But yes, I do think that I think that's a really valid point because I'm sure in the, when they were at the finale, the finals for the season to be whether or not to get on the show, he was asking them about fire making and knew I've got people in my back pocket who are going to be like, yeah, no, 100%. We want fire making. Mm hmm. Yeah. And then as if that wasn't all bad enough, we saw that when Jeff initially asked the question, a number of hands went up.

[00:23:12] But then some people like looked around and you saw hands that were up start to creep back down when they realized, oh, it's it's not going to be unanimous. Therefore, I don't want to stand out in the crowd. So when Jeff gloated that only five of the 20 raised their hands, well, no, that was after people had pulled them down. Yeah, that was that was such a joke. Yeah.

[00:23:39] Gwen Stevens brought up on Blue Sky that this was a perfect example of what's called the Abilene paradox. Now, have you heard of this? I have not. I have not. And I'm so sorry if you can do this right now. But if you look it up, you'll find that it's described in Wikipedia as a situation in which a, quote, group of people collectively decide on a course of action that is counter to the

[00:24:07] preferences of most or all individuals in the group, while each individual believes it to be aligned with the preferences of most of the others. Each member mistakenly believes that their own preferences are counter to the groups and therefore does not raise objections. A common phrase related to this is a desire to not rock the boat. This is clearly what we saw here. And it explains why some raised their hands, then kind of looked around and went, oh, OK,

[00:24:37] I'm going to pull my hand down now to make the rest of the group happy. While others just didn't start it. But I'm going to look around first before I even do it. Making it worse is a survivor. Many people don't ever want to stand out with a contrary opinion, even if it's the right one. And I think and I'm sorry, I'm going to jump in here, too. You don't want to have a contrary opinion to the guy who's running the show, because there

[00:25:05] is this there is an innate fear of every player. I don't care what anyone says. If you are on Survivor and you think for a second that you are going against the grain as far as production is concerned, it terrifies you. It absolutely terrifies you because you want to believe that production is not going to mess with your game and you want to believe that production is not going to involve themselves in your game.

[00:25:34] But I hate to break it to you. They they they just might occasionally because they might have people that they like a little bit more. They might give a little more attention to or things. So like you don't want your edit for sure. Yes. Run. So like you are so very concerned about how you were going to be perceived by production that the last thing you want to do is go against what Jeff Probst is standing there in front of you saying.

[00:25:59] And and I really feel like you are taking advantage of people's already very vulnerable state. Right here. They are on a national TV show. They're being broadcast to the world in their underwear and they're being put through all of these terrible things. They're hungry. They're tired. And then there's Jeff who comes in and you're like, look at that. That's the you know, like, oh, you know, the angels are singing. And then he's telling you, I love this. Who doesn't love this?

[00:26:28] You know, let's see who's going to who's going to be the brave one to actually say that they don't. So, yeah, I just feel like all of that just makes it very problematic because, again, you are I agree wholeheartedly with what she's saying. This this like influence that is being thrust upon them in a way that like you can't help but agree because you have to, because if you don't, it could have really negative effects on you throughout the rest of this game. And it's just one moment. It's one discussion. It's it's one decision, but it can have lasting effects.

[00:26:57] And I do not think that it's fair to do that to the players. And I don't think it's fair that it was done in the way that it was. And also fire making it for just sucks. I'm just going to it just sucks. I understand there are some people who think it's great. I think it's terrible. And I we've talked about it for years. All it does is push the numbers back as to well, now we have to make sure we get rid of this person at five instead of four, because this is what we're going to be dealing with. So, yeah. Yeah.

[00:27:25] And I mean, so you've got it's like the double hit. Like you said, you've got the Jeff thing and then you have that paradox issue. And I think most of us have experienced maybe not the Jeff thing you have, but the other thing in our own lives, because I love telling the story and I might have told it before on the podcast about how me and coworkers one time we were traveling. We had to get dinner.

[00:27:51] We ended up with a whole sausage pizza that none of us actually wanted because each of us thought someone else did. And we were being nice. It fits exactly into the definition of this Abilene paradox thing. And that's the same thing here. People were looking around going, oh, well, I, you know, I don't want to be the one that stands out. But yeah, after Jeff Putin's rigged election, he went on to mock fans for saying fire making

[00:28:22] shouldn't be in the game because we aren't out there. Well, OK, first of all, Jessica, you are out there. I was. I would say 100 percent of people on this podcast who are out there believe that we should not have fire making. You know who we should ask? Let's ask Chrissy. How does Chrissy feel about fire making? Right. Shall we get her opinion? Yeah.

[00:28:46] I mean, that poor woman, she literally lost a million dollars because of this introduction of fire making that she didn't see coming. She didn't know that it was going to be happening. She and her crew were controlling the game. They had they had done the social thing. I mean, all of it played great. And then all of a sudden it was like, oh, hey, by the way, we're going to introduce this new this new little thing here. And all of a sudden now Chrissy is like out a million dollars because she doesn't count

[00:29:15] only the players who were there and only only if all 20 of them vote that way. That's the only way. Oh, just crazy. It's just crazy. Yeah. Now, second of all, we're the ones watching the show. We essentially pay his cell because if we stop watching, he has no cell. You know, not you and I, if everybody does, you know, the players aren't. And as bitter jurors noted on Blue Sky, it was an attack on passionate fans. Yeah.

[00:29:43] And then Jeff went further by setting up a straw man to ask the players if they want to get rid of all twists, idols and advantages. Now, we've joked about doing a back to basics season, but at this point that would end up being a twist and we know it's never happened. Yeah. Okay. So who has seriously, how many people have seriously said, are there people out there? Sure. They are a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent.

[00:30:13] So he's taking the most extreme example and making fun of all fans because we hurt Jeff's feelings. Sorry, Jeff, but I hate it. So I'm just going to keep saying that. I don't think I'm ever going to play again anyway. It doesn't matter. Yeah. No, it is. It is. It is just insanity. It's insanity. I do want to give props to those who were willing to keep their hands up.

[00:30:43] Kilby's shut up so fast. It almost broke the sound barrier. And despite Kristen saying she's been practicing fire making for years, she still voted against it because she knows it's bad for the game. So she this is someone who probably has an advantage over most of the other players in that area. And she's against it. Yeah. Okay. And so and there were a few others who did it. I couldn't see who everyone else was because a few of them were in the back.

[00:31:10] And I have to admit, I didn't like freeze frame every frame to determine it. But thank you to you as well. They were willing to stand up for Jeff to Jeff and good for them. Yeah. Yeah. But it won't matter because he's going to do with it what he wants. Right. Jeff. Yes. Well, you know, Jeff, he just lets them play the game as long as they don't go against what he wants. Or I'm sorry, as long as all of them together at the same time don't go against what he wants.

[00:31:40] Then it's okay. You know, then then he lets them play the game. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So. All right. Well, we knew that was going to be a lot. Do you have anything else? Because I know you kept waiting for me to bring things up. Have I brought up everything you thought of? Yes. It was the fire making. I was because I was just stunned watching that. And I think we've convinced enough. We're now 38 minutes and we should probably talk about Aaliyah, which is really what brought us here. I don't know what timer you're on. Mine says 31. So.

[00:32:10] Oh, okay. Well, that's better. Yeah. Yeah. We're in different time zones. Yeah. But. But there were, of course, some other things going on. I'll be posting or have posted about some of it on TikTok and YouTube where I'm at David Bloomberg TV. But before we do get to how Aaliyah did, we want to mention that the rules we're about to discuss come in a shorter and much more colorful version and poster form. They do.

[00:32:38] Go to RobHasAWebsite.com slash YXLostFeed. Scroll down to the poster and click on it. In addition to the poster, you can also get that same design in t-shirt form. So you can always have them near you or on you. And there is the checklist version that you are currently wearing. So you can get all three of those by going to, again, RobHasAWebsite.com slash YXLostFeed.

[00:33:07] Get it all. In Aaliyah's, yes. In Aaliyah's final words, she said, I think what went wrong was I just wasn't as good at playing Survivor as I thought I was. Now, that's a very honest sentiment from someone who has just been voted out first. But it's also very general. In what ways was she not as good as she thought? How could she have improved?

[00:33:31] We will discuss all of that because at RHAP, we know Survivor and we know why Aaliyah lost. The first and most important rule is, of course, to scheme and plot. We know Aaliyah was in the Helicopter Alliance, two other members of which were in her tribe, Devin and Jelly. And indeed, those were the only two people who voted against Jenna instead of her. She said in interviews that Devin was her true number one. And I would say he definitely showed that.

[00:34:01] And she said Jelly did as well, although it wasn't, it didn't appear in the episode as much. In addition, she had Kilby, who she said was her fake number one. Now, considering he turned on her, I'd say it was fake on both sides. But in terms of how much actual scheming and plotting she was doing in those first three days, it really didn't seem like a whole lot.

[00:34:25] Rather, it was others doing most of the work from what we saw and she described. Now, part of that seemed to be on purpose in that she said in interviews she didn't want to reveal how she knew her name was being bandied about. But on the other hand, that means she put all the workload onto Devin and Jelly to save her.

[00:34:51] She needed to do what Jenna did and find a way to save herself. Yeah. And what I think is interesting is this is almost like this. You're too comfortable because you've made connections and you kind of rely upon the connections that you've made and lose sight of the fact that you also need to be continuing to play. Like, I thought it was interesting when we saw Jelly and Devin's talking about, like, we don't want to be seen talking too much, but you need to go talk to people

[00:35:20] and I'll talk to people like they understood the assignment, you know, where it's like, yes, we're going to be we're going to be a duo or or a triple or whatever we end up being. But we need to branch out and talk to other people. And we really didn't necessarily see that with her. And so I do feel like Aaliyah was like, oh, I'm good. I've got my I've got my crew and and we're going to be all set. So there is this idea of just being comfortable in that space with those people.

[00:35:46] And then I think just relying on them more so than you should, because really at that moment, you do need to step up and do something yourself. If that's if you feel or hear that the tides are turning, which she she admitted that she did. She knew that she was going to be in a bad spot. She was already considering playing her shot in the dark. So, yeah, at that moment, you can't rely upon the people you're working with. You can hope that they're going to be with you. Right. And you can continue to, like, seek their support.

[00:36:15] But you also have to do some of the work, too. Yeah. I mean, she just didn't seem to really have those other connections through the tribe other than Devin and Jelly, who would have either alerted her or tried to put a stop to this idea spreading in Survivor's new. I think it's new YouTube series behind the buff. It was like three and a half minute video. She said that. Yeah, me neither.

[00:36:43] I went to look for secret scenes and I found this and I was like, oh, it's kind of like a mini Ponderosa video, except it's just asking her questions. She said if she could do one thing differently, it would have been to make more strategic connections early. You know, now, as a side note, I will say, unfortunately, most of that three and a half minute video is filled with inane stuff like questions like how is it to meet Jeff? Jeff and how is it to see tribal council?

[00:37:12] Yeah, I don't really care. I want to know her strategy. I, you know, how is it to meet Jeff? We know how it was to meet Jeff and see tribal council. But, you know, I guess that's what we're here to talk about is the important stuff. Yeah. And you know what? You meet Jeff in California. You meet him before you go out to like actually be on the island. I mean, every time you see him, you're like, oh, wow, there's Jeff. But trust me, there's a lot of Jeff sightings happening before you actually get out on the island. There's a whole lot.

[00:37:42] Unless they've changed things, I don't know. But there was a lot of Jeff at Ponderosa before the game started. He came out. He talked with us like there's he came in a helicopter. There's a whole thing like it happens. So I don't know if it's as significant when you then see him on the island. But you do. I'm not not. I'm going to say I was I was I was fangirling when it happened, of course, and you always do.

[00:38:07] But yes, you just have to kind of move forward and be like, OK, I've seen him five times already. Now it's like, OK, game time. Yeah. But anyway, we can go to the second rule, which says not to scheme and plot too much and to keep your scheming secret. This was a problem for Aaliyah because she revealed to other players who weren't aligned with her just what she thought about Brady. Yes.

[00:38:32] Yeah, I have to say it's not like she went around specifically trying to put ideas into other people's heads like Rob was about Eric over on the other tribe. It seemed like she felt like they were just kind of sitting around and having a nice little chat. But she appears to have forgotten that one of the people she was having that chat with was the target, which everyone pretty much agreed upon. Yeah.

[00:39:00] This is one of those moments where it's like you're better off saying nothing. Yeah. I remember very distinctly with our first vote. I was asked point blank by Rachel. She was like, am I am I in trouble? Like, is anyone say anything about me? And I it was the first one. I just I had to lie straight to someone's face and it felt gross. But I was like, no, everything's fine. I was like, yeah, no, actually, we're we're going to vote for you. But we don't want you to know that.

[00:39:29] And so you have you have to think ahead. Like, what are you going to say to that person that, you know, you're voting out? And the last thing you want to do is give them any ammunition. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, at the moment, she did not know she was the target, much like Rachel in your season. Right. But if they find out which she did, they're going to be looking for a way out of it. Such as, oh, I don't know, getting people to aim at someone else.

[00:39:58] And like you said, she literally just handed a full ammunition clip to her. OK, not literally. I said literally. I should not have said that. Not literally. Not literally. Figuratively gave her a whole ammunition clip there. Mm hmm. But there she was sitting in the water with Jenna as well as Pat and Jelly. And the thing is, she didn't even bring up Brady. Jelly did. Now, Aaliyah jumped on board in discussing the way he acted.

[00:40:26] But then she even said it wasn't time for Brady to go yet. However, if you're Jenna, details like that don't matter. No. As they shouldn't. She was fighting for her life in the game. Once Pat told Jenna she was the target, Jenna figured out what she had to do. So she told Brady that, oh, hey, Aaliyah was talking about you being too intense, etc., which served to make Brady more intense.

[00:40:52] And even as he ranted, Jenna wisely nodded along and agreed. Oh, yeah, yeah, you're right. Uh-huh. Yeah, yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah. Well, and I have a theory, but maybe I'll leave that till later because it's about Jenna. So we can talk about that later.

[00:41:13] But I do think that Jenna utilized this moment very well and took advantage of how other people were going to respond emotionally to some information. So she's clearly like doing the strategizing that we did not see Aaliyah doing. We saw Aaliyah being comfortable in her position and her space, whereas Jenna was strategizing and doing the exact opposite. Yeah.

[00:41:39] Now, from Aaliyah's perspective, she said in interviews that she was actually somewhat trying to help Jenna by bringing up another name because she didn't necessarily want her to go home either after Jenna did well in the challenge. But at the same time, she told Mike Bloom, I don't want to get rid of him. I'm just making observations like, hey, he was like kind of aggressive at the challenge. It's a trait that scares me a little bit. However, that's not exactly the way we saw it.

[00:42:05] And like I said, she admitted in a different response to Mike that she was looking to throw somebody else under the bus. So sure, she ended with them all agreeing that, of course, they weren't talking about taking him out now. But what she said gave Jenna plenty to bring to him. And as Aaliyah put it to Dalton Ross, Jenna knew her butt was on the line. And she took a very minute comment that I said, not even thinking twice about it in my ignorance.

[00:42:35] And she turned the tide in her favor. If my butt's on the line like hers was, you do what you do to save yourself. Yep. I have nothing but respect for the move. And yes, I mean, I think we both agree. Props to Jenna for doing it. But Aaliyah gave her that, quote, minute comment to use as a seed. And especially with Mr. Intense over there, of course, that seed grew very quickly.

[00:43:04] Oh, my gosh, it really did. Boy, he was frustrated. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, then let's go to the third rule, which tells players to be flexible. On the one hand, we discussed earlier how Aaliyah had a real number one and a fake number one. Plus, of course, Jelly is a solid real ally as well. So that seems at first glance pretty flexible.

[00:43:34] But she also told Mike she planned to roll with the helicopter alliance, quote, the whole way, 100 percent. Which is a rather inflexible to say after three whole days in the game. So what did you think of her? Well, that was really the impression that I had as well. It was there was an interesting moment that happened when they were on the mats. And it was before Jeff asked about the whole fire making.

[00:44:01] But I just remember watching all of them standing there. And she was all the way on one end. And she just almost looked like she was smelling something funny. Like she just it just seemed like she didn't want it. Like she wasn't interested in being there. And she just wasn't really like and I know that there is this current state with Survivor where the players are like very excited. And everybody's like jumping and screaming and yeah.

[00:44:26] And and they're clapping and dancing and singing and doing all of these things, which I think is a little bit too much. But she just seemed very much like disinterested in all of it. Like I just I remember like looking at her going, boy, she just looks like she could be somewhere else right now. And so I do think that there was this idea that she had about playing Survivor. But it was more just like I'm going to be in like the cool kids alliance or I'm just going to hang out with my with my with my group.

[00:44:56] And so she went to school the first day and met two people and was like, all right, peace out. I'm good. And this is who's going to be my my friend group. And this is who I'm going to hang out with. And I mean, the rest of them, whatever, like I'm not going to waste my time. So it was like this weird idea of like being very comfortable immediately. And so, yes, I don't think that she was keeping her her eyes open and her thoughts open to I really need to be sociable and interact and get to know everybody.

[00:45:25] So, yes, I don't think that she did a great job with with wanting to be flexible. She was like locked in immediately like, all right, this is it. Wasn't that easy. I found who I needed and now I'm good and I don't need to worry about it because we're going to just make it to the end together. Forgetting that there are all of these other people in her tribe. Yeah, I think I saw an interview. I don't think she was specifically talking about that, but other things like why she wasn't jumping up and down like some people like she was just kind of shocked.

[00:45:54] Shocked in the moment that all of this was happening type of thing. And, you know, some people, everybody reacts differently. You can't, you know, read someone's mind from it, you know, but. Right, right. You know, but I think that, yeah, she was just saying, I can't remember the exact interview or exactly what she was talking about. But I think she felt like she was I don't know if it was being overwhelmed or whatever, but that's she was kind of just absorbing it rather than. And, you know, and. Yeah.

[00:46:23] And I can appreciate not jumping up and down and not screaming and not. I mean, like, I have no I'm like, I'm not judging her for doing that. But I just remember in that moment looking at her going, she just doesn't seem like she's in with everybody. Like sometimes you have to pretend and that's just that's just it's survivor. And you have to be like, yeah, even when you're not, because that's kind of like the appearance that you need to put out there for other people.

[00:46:50] And and, you know, it's like those moments when you see people who are like, oh, I'm going to go in for a hug. And then they look at the camera and they make like a snarky face because they're like, I'm pretending right now that I'm doing something with and I'm connecting with this person, but I don't really want to. And I feel like she just wasn't necessarily doing that as much as she should have because she was very comfortable with the people that she was with. And maybe that was just she was overwhelmed and there's a lot happening and that can certainly be true.

[00:47:15] But it's just something that I noticed about her that she just seemed less interested or less desirous of like wanting to connect to people in that way. I don't know. It was just something that I picked up on. Okay. Well, the fourth rule kind of connects to this a little bit because it says not that players should not let their emotions control them.

[00:47:36] Now, I was going to say, I don't know that we even saw enough of her time in the game or thought process to find any specific emotional moves. Maybe there was something related to what we just talked about. I don't know. What do you think? Aside from that, even. Yeah, I mean, I would I would say, well, I mean, perhaps the conversation. Just about Brady in and of itself where she was reacting to how he how he acted.

[00:48:04] And she was like, I didn't really I didn't really like that very much. But I don't know. I think that was maybe just a genuine moment, not necessarily her emotions controlling her. She was just having a genuine conversation. But I think she forgot that someone like the other players who she's speaking to might decide to utilize that to their own benefit. And then someone else's emotions, which we saw exactly happen. If someone is intense and someone's going to react a particular way to a challenge.

[00:48:33] Well, how are they going to react when they find out their name is potentially being dropped by another player so soon into the game? So soon after a challenge. Yeah. He he acted emotionally and then everything ended up shifting back onto her. So. So, yes, there is this like she didn't necessarily do that, but someone else took advantage of the emotional response of another player. Yeah. All right. Well, the fifth rule reminds players they need to pretend to be nice and play the social game.

[00:49:02] How do you think she did here? Well, this is what I what I think is interesting about Aaliyah. I mean, I do think that she connected very quickly with Devin's and she connected with Jelly. So she clearly. Devin's was last season. Oh, Devin. Excuse me. I know. I know. I love to. I know. So Devin and Jelly. She connected with them and they seem to have a very genuine connection. And I don't think she was necessarily pretending to be nice. She just was being nice.

[00:49:31] But I do think that she just didn't like if you look at the way Devin was trying to connect with like basically everybody in the tribe. He was formulating different types of connections with each person. He was talking to everybody. He was planting seeds in everybody's mind about Jenna and and like starting conversations. And she just didn't seem to be doing that. So it's it's not like she wasn't pretending to be nice.

[00:49:58] I just feel like she was a little maybe she was more introverted, which is interesting because I was looking back at my notes. And she definitely like she talked about how she likes to boost egos. And and she was like, I don't know, like social politics in the kitchen and how you have to work together. And I just didn't really see that with her out there. So it was it was interesting because maybe it was just you're a fish out of water, right? You're in a different you're not in the kitchen anymore. You're an island and survivor.

[00:50:26] And so, you know, maybe it just it just wasn't just wasn't her her place. I don't know. But so I don't think she did bad here, but maybe it was just it was not it was a comfortable thing. Like she just wasn't comfortable in the space. She was comfortable with certain people and certain people only. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we saw her chatting to some people, including the three women in the water and that discussion that ended up, you know, getting her from ocean water to hot water.

[00:50:51] Uh, even even Mr. Intense wasn't going after her because he didn't like her. Right. He didn't like what she had said and because he felt she didn't do well in the challenge, which, of course, we'll get to in Appendix A. So, yeah, I don't I don't think this was a particular issue. Yeah. Now, the six were warned against being too much of a threat. And I just mentioned that Brady didn't like what Aaliyah had said with good and understandable reason.

[00:51:20] When someone brings up your name in a negative way on Survivor and you find out about it, that's something you need to nip in the bud. Mm hmm. Or bringing up Brady's name or in this case, not even bringing it up herself, but adding to the discussion about him and Jenna making it seem like she was the primary offender and bringing it up would mean that to Brady. She was indeed a threat. And you know what? I'm going to stop you there for just one second because this is interesting.

[00:51:50] I just thought of this since Jelly is the one that actually brought it up and Aaliyah just kind of agreed with it. Isn't it interesting that Jenna chose Aaliyah to be like the target? So that would lend you to believe that perhaps there was already this like I'm not too sure about Aaliyah kind of mindset in the players, because otherwise you would have been like Jelly was all over that because it was Jelly's idea to just like bring him up. Instead, you focused on Aaliyah.

[00:52:17] So I feel like she was it's like you're you're going after the the more vulnerable person in that moment where you see two people and you're like, I'm not going to talk about Jelly because no one is even going to give me the time of day. But Aaliyah, people might just listen. And I think that's interesting that that was that became the focal point for Jenna. Yeah. And I think we'll see why her name would it might have been on some people's minds when we get to Appendix A.

[00:52:44] You know, now, as far as Aaliyah, I know she tried to cover herself by saying, oh, I wasn't talking about taking him out now. But, you know, like I've been saying, we've been saying Jenna didn't convey that little piece of important information. And even if even if someone else told him when to made him feel much better, because that would just mean he'd have to be on the lookout for like exactly when she was planning to make her move.

[00:53:11] Maybe you just get rid of her now and then you don't have to worry about it later. Right. Mm hmm. Exactly. All right. Well, rule seven covers. Well, I've got the Jelinski shirt on. So rule several. Several. Yeah. Covers idols and advantages and game mechanics. Now, none of those were in play other than the shot in the dark, which she was obviously smart to go for at that point. Unfortunately for her, fortunately for Jenna, it didn't hit.

[00:53:41] Yeah. I mean, I guess that's it then, right? Well, almost because we don't know what went on in that tribe as far as idol hunting. On the other tribe, it sure seemed like Rob found his pretty easily and quickly. So maybe if Aaliyah had done some of her own, she might have had the same luck.

[00:54:02] But it's so difficult because production usually doesn't show idol hunts that come up empty unless there's other drama that's caused. Yes. That is fair. So for all we know, Aaliyah was looking and just didn't find anything. Now, she didn't say anything about it in her interviews that I saw, unless it's in one that I missed.

[00:54:28] If she wasn't looking for it even after she heard from Devon's and Jelly. See, I said Devon's. From Devon and Jelly that she was potentially in trouble. Then I'd say she should have been out there scouring the jungle, especially with what we talked about in rule one, how she left her hands. She left her defense in their hands. So if she did that, then she would have had time to run out to the jungle and look. Very fair.

[00:55:01] So, so yeah, I guess we'll just see. Well, no, we probably won't see. We don't know. We don't know unless Aaliyah comes up and says, oh, yeah, by the way, I was looking. But until that point, we can move on to Appendix A, which discusses players keeping their end goals in mind when voting. And we talk about voting out the weak, then the strong, then the weak, then the strong. And I have to give a shout out to my winner pick, Kilby, because he posted on Blue Sky.

[00:55:27] I was constantly repeating weak, then strong, then weak, then strong. In my opinion, it's the most important of the rules by a lot. So I just want to say, take that, Rob Sestranino. There you go. Love that. Look at you and your winner pick. Yeah. So good. I knew I picked well. So now the first vote is typically when players perceived as weaker are targeted.

[00:55:55] Not always weak in challenges like Jenna was initially being talked about because she was weak in social skills as far as they others said. But in this case, Aaliyah being perceived as weak in challenges did indeed play a role. And I think that is where Jenna, you know, I think people were already talking about like we even saw in the challenge. People were muttering. Why is she not running faster? Why is she taking so long to get back here? Et cetera.

[00:56:25] Yeah. So Jenna being on top of things, she picked up on that clearly. Yeah, she's. Yeah, she clearly did. Mm hmm. I was all ready to argue in Aaliyah's favor and say that people were mostly full of crap based on where they ended after her segment. But then she told Mike Bloom, I did terrible at the challenge. I'm not going to negate that fact. So never mind. If you're not going to argue for yourself, I'm not going to argue for you. Right. Right. Exactly.

[00:56:51] Now, she did mention that they something I was going to say, they were still ahead after that section. Which contradicts what Maggie said in a confessional who said, oh, we just fell behind then and we couldn't make up the time. No, Maggie, you're wrong. I don't know if memory is playing a trick on you or what, because you actually fell behind at the crates, which Aaliyah also mentioned in her interview with Rob. Yeah.

[00:57:19] But I suspect part of the issue is there wasn't like one specific person to blame for the crates. It was a group issue. Yes. And I think that that often happens when we see challenges where you do have portions that are group, portions that are singular. It is much easier. That's why the puzzle is always like you're on full display when you're doing the puzzle, which is why everybody saw Jenna and how well she was doing. And suddenly they were like, wait, she's really good at puzzles.

[00:57:48] So is it a good idea? Because we all know everything ends in a goddamn puzzle at this point with survivors. So maybe we should keep the puzzle people around. Right. But anyway. And that was the situation for Aaliyah as well. She stood out alone as the one untying and bringing over the balls, which, of course, is a reason she never should have volunteered for that part. Don't volunteer. I'm telling you, people don't volunteer for a damn thing.

[00:58:17] Don't. Yes. Because then you act like if they just elect you and put you in that position, you're like, well, listen, I didn't want to do it anyway. But you all made me. Right. So let that happen. Don't volunteer. Don't. Yeah. And she told Mike Bloom, was I brave enough to put myself in a position for that challenge? I was. I would never put myself in a position where I thought I would ever set the team back. But I did. And I owned that. And I didn't perform well in the challenge. The problem is.

[00:58:47] You never know what you're going to be good at. Thank you. Exactly. You might know I am good or I'm not good at a puzzle. You might believe I am good or I'm not good at throwing a ball or a bean bag or whatever. Untying a bunch of knots and grabbing balls and running them over. Yeah. When have you ever experienced that in your life that you would know whether or not you'd be good? Right. Until you try it. Yeah. And by that time, it's too late.

[00:59:15] So again, please, for the masses, Jessica, please repeat what you just said. You don't always know what you're going to be good at. Or bad at. No, the other thing before that. What was that? Don't volunteer. Oh, yes. Don't volunteer. Yes, exactly. Don't volunteer. And here's the thing. When you don't volunteer and then they want to volunteer you for something, you just suck it up and you go, okay. Okay. Because then you've been volunteered. It's different.

[00:59:43] And you can die inside knowing if I screw up, they think I'm good at this, but I didn't volunteer. So it's like it cuts both ways because they're like looking at you. But also be mindful that somebody might be doing it to also screw you up by volunteering you to do something. So you need to be aware of that, too. There's so many things you have to think about because Chris did that to me. Chris was like, oh, Jessica can do this twice if David doesn't. And I'm like, oh, that's funny. He was just trying to mess with me.

[01:00:12] So you have to watch out with your being volunteered or volunteering. Just stand there quietly. Just let things happen around you. Like we actually saw. Oh, who is it? I have to remember his name now. The one who is he's the Yankees negotiator. Yes. What's his name? Moneyball. Moneyball guy. Moneyball. What's his name? Mike. Mike.

[01:00:42] Mike is the Moneyball guy. Mike was standing there. And when they were talking about who's going to do the negotiation, he's like, I do this for a living. This is what I do. Do you think I'm going to offer now? No. And I was like, thank you, Mike, for recognizing I am not going to put myself in the forefront and be like, oh, let me do it because I'm so great. Because then when you screw up, everybody talks about you. So don't do it. Yes. Yes, exactly. I mean, and then the thing is some people are like, well, if I do well,

[01:01:11] I'll get good vibes. But if you do bad, you might go home. Yeah. I mean, did Jenna earn good vibes and potentially save herself? Yes. That's rare. Usually whatever good vibes you do aren't going to be worth the negative effects if you don't do well. And again, like we both said, you don't know until you try it. Yes. In this case. Like, I mean, there are some things. Yes.

[01:01:40] Not in this case. No. Now, oddly. Aaliyah also claimed to Mike Bloom that Kilby wasn't doing so well on the puzzle. And if she were going to flip the vote, it would have been on him. I feel like that's a lot of 2020 hindsight knowing now that he has her fake number one turned against her first. Yeah. Sure. Because it was very clear to me watching that he was doing well on the puzzle also.

[01:02:07] And Kilby responded to her claims on Blue Sky by saying we came back by a lot. So during the puzzle, basically. Yeah. Yeah. Fascinating. So now the puzzle did play a role in other ways because, like we were saying, Jenna's performance there was the main reason Pat didn't want her to go and gave her the heads up about the danger she was in. Others seemed to feel similarly.

[01:02:33] They had been talking about her for the first few days, mostly because of vibes. But then they had something concrete and saw she could be an asset. And even Aaliyah herself told Mike Bloom, I think the challenge in a way changed her perception. Because although we lost, I looked and even I was like, damn, she kind of did pretty well in the puzzle. Maybe we should do. Maybe we should consider somebody else.

[01:03:01] And unfortunately for Aaliyah, she was the somebody else in question. Because, well. Because she volunteered. Yes. Well, because she volunteered and then gave Jenna the perfect piece of information at the perfect time. And well, and one more thing, too. I just want to say this. If you screw up in a challenge, don't point the finger at somebody else and say they were a problem at the challenge. Don't do that. Because when you point the finger at one person, there's only four fingers pointing back at you. Right. So don't do that.

[01:03:31] One more word. Only three. There's really only three because your thumb doesn't point back. Okay. I guess it depends. That's a fair point. All right. So three are pointing back at you. One is kind of pointing to the side. Doesn't help. And she didn't end up doing that. That was what she said she would have done if she was trying to. But. Yeah. But that was the problem. She didn't try to flip it on anyone else. Right. You know. She agreed. See, that's where the thumb was pointing. To Aaliyah.

[01:04:02] Thumbs up. So Jelly was doing it. Jelly was pointing. And then it was pointing over at Aaliyah. See, we got there. Yeah. I mean, just as people change their opinion about Jenna in a positive way because of the challenge, they change their opinion in a negative way about Aaliyah due to her challenge performance. As we just discussed. Right. I do want to say, and I said I was going to defend her earlier, but didn't because she admitted she did poorly.

[01:04:27] But it is pretty ridiculous for everyone else to focus on her untying and running balls back and forth as if that is likely to come up again in a challenge. Like, no, just because she's bad at that doesn't mean she's bad at all challenges. No, that's true. That is true. And Survivor comes up with some kooky things. Not as kooky as Big Brother, I will say. There's no, you know, but there's still some things that you're like, this is what we're

[01:04:56] doing for a challenge. Okay. Dee just got knocked out because she couldn't sit on the toilet fast enough. So I heard, I heard weird, not as bad as the big bananas, but I'm just saying. I know you love the big banana. Yes. That's terrible. Terrible. All right. Sorry, people. We're moving on. Moving on. Well, not quite moving on because I do think that it would have been possible for Aaliyah

[01:05:24] to escape it all if it had been someone other than Brady pushing it. Because as she told Dalton Ross, he was really a bold, loud voice at camp and obviously also an athletic attribute to the team as far as challenges go. So if he wasn't as adamant about me going, I don't think it would have moved the tide in that way. So in other words, he was the wrong person to piss off. Yeah.

[01:05:50] You know, even the fairly loud voice of Devin couldn't defend against it, perhaps because, you know, he's more of a friendly and less threatening presence. I don't mean threatening necessarily in a bad way, but intense, you know? Yeah. All right. Well, it is about time to wrap things up for Aaliyah. What are your final thoughts on her?

[01:06:16] Well, thank goodness she didn't pretend to be a photographer, right? My gosh. Oh, I forgot to bring that up. Yeah, I know. This is what I have. I have to spend just a moment here. I do. I know we're going to talk about Aaliyah and we're going to wrap it with Aaliyah, but I do think that it's fascinating that someone who includes in their wedding contracts a survivor clause is actually then being called out by her survivor castmates as not being a photographer.

[01:06:44] Like, this is like her livelihood and my dog is crazy barking right now. So hang on one second. Well, I mean, we can't really hang on. Okay. I just need to try to make a distractor for a minute. So, yeah. So I do think that it's rather fascinating that Jenna, who has a clause in her contracts about survivor, is being called out for being an actual photographer. And yes, people do pretend to be photographers. I pretended to be a photographer and nobody.

[01:07:14] But you know what's interesting? When Devin was actually walking down the path and was like asking her questions about photography and she wasn't really giving an answer. Do you know who did that to me? Brett. Brett was asking me all kinds of questions about photography and how I would line up a shot and the things I would do, which I was like right back in that moment. I'm like, look at that. It's just like Brett. Anyway, so I'm going to get my dog to bite down. Hang on one second. Well, you said, yeah, you were talking about Brett, which is funny because he was, of course,

[01:07:41] a cop pretending to be a funeral director. So he was out, but he did a very poor job of it. He got. He did. He absolutely did. Part of that was because Jay's familiarity with being on the wrong side of the cops, perhaps. But perhaps that was it. Yeah. But yes, so I can certainly tell you my thoughts now about Aaliyah.

[01:08:07] So I do think that I thought that Aaliyah was going to come off more tough than she actually did. And so I am curious if there is this world in which Aaliyah went out there and was overwhelmed by it all. Because you can thrive in the real world and you can thrive in what you do for a living and you can be the best at it. But then once you go into Survivor, everything is different. And I think you made a really incredible point about like the untieing and having to chase balls and move.

[01:08:36] But like who's doing that in their everyday life? You're not right. Like Survivor puts you into situations that you've never been involved before. In addition to being tired, sleep deprived, hungry. You're with strangers. All of this stuff. They're intimidating you. You're making me feel vulnerable. You're in your underwear. I thought I talked about all those things. So all of that stuff can negatively impact you. And then on top of it, you have to try to get to know people.

[01:09:04] And you have to like be friendly and you have to like hang out and be like, oh my God, you're so great. Even if you don't think they are. And you have to ignore how people smell and how they might snore. All of this stuff is just piling on top. And I just feel like maybe Aaliyah was like realizing, wow, I'm not in a kitchen anymore. Like I'm really, I'm on an island and I'm on an island with people I don't know. But these two people over here seem really great and like I can connect with them. And I want to focus my attention and energy over there because they make me feel comfortable.

[01:09:33] And I feel good with those people. Not that she didn't feel good with everybody, but I just don't feel like she felt like she was in place with everyone like Devin did. Devin clearly was like, I'm going to just kind of steamroll everybody with my charm and I'm going to talk to everybody. She wasn't doing that. And so I do think that there's just this place that Aaliyah didn't necessarily belong.

[01:09:55] And I do think that her final words by saying, I guess I'm just not as good as playing Survivor as I thought I was going to be rings true because you never know what's going to happen when you get out there. You don't know how your body is going to respond. You don't know how you're going to respond mentally, physically, emotionally. And I think it was a lot for Aaliyah. And so I do think that she didn't grab the moment the way that she should have. And Jenna did. Jenna was like, oh, we've got some vulnerability here.

[01:10:24] And if people are looking at me, I need to make them look elsewhere. And if there's one thing that we have learned with Survivor is if you give people a reason to pay attention to you and it's not a good reason, that's going to be enough to get you voted out. And I think that's exactly what we saw with Aaliyah. She didn't do well in the challenge.

[01:10:41] She was already someone that maybe they were feeling a particular way about, which is why I think Jenna really honed in on her specifically instead of Jelly and then found herself flipping things onto Aaliyah. Jenna did what Aaliyah should have been doing and Aaliyah just didn't. So those are my final thoughts. Yeah. Yeah. Many players, especially those who go out first, have a very different view of why it happened to them compared to reality.

[01:11:10] Aaliyah was the rare exception of that not being the case. As with just a few exceptions, she really seemed to understand in looking back why everything happened the way it did. The problem was she didn't see it coming when looking forward. The examples were all there. One that we've certainly mentioned many times before and repeated it here. Do not volunteer for a spot that will make you stand out in an early challenge.

[01:11:40] It can end up being almost the only piece of information other players will have about you, and they will exaggerate it if they need an excuse. Oh, my gosh. She couldn't untie balls quickly enough and run them back to us. She's clearly bad at all challenges.

[01:11:58] Another mistake she should have avoided was talking about the person who was most likely to blow up her spot to the person who most needed her spot to be blown up. Heck, that was literally her main complaint about Brady, and she said it to Jenna. Even though she had a change of heart in wanting Jenna out, she didn't really seem to have another target in mind aside from Brady.

[01:12:27] And she should have realized that only relying on other people to make your arguments for you would not be the way to go. You need to be your own best promoter and defender. Now, I do want to mention I was quite happy to see her telling Dalton and Rob and others how she has taken this loss in stride. She specifically said to Dalton that she's always been scared to fail so she would just not go for something to avoid that possibility. But here she went for it and was out first.

[01:12:57] Quote, and instead of falling into being super sad about it and being super low about it, I took a different approach. And it was really just honestly a freeing experience. No one can shame me. No one can embarrass me. It's the game, and it happens, and it's how it goes. I applaud her for this attitude. I'm not sure I could do it. But it seems to go along with her overall honest attitude towards the game.

[01:13:23] I mentioned earlier that Aaliyah said in her final words, and you mentioned it too, I just wasn't as good at playing Survivor as I thought I was. I think that may have been being a bit hard on herself as the first boot in that moment. Her errors were not that huge. Now, when you look at them all together, yes, she should have anticipated certain issues and dealt with them better. But mostly, she just got outplayed by Jenna and Brady.

[01:13:52] And that is why Aaliyah lost. Look at that. So. All right. Well, we have predictions coming. But before we get to them, we want to remind everyone that the rules we just discussed are, as I said before, available in poster form, poster on a T-shirt form, and checklist on a T-shirt form.

[01:14:17] So, again, go to robhaswebsite.com slash yxlostfeed to get any and all of those. Also, people can reach us at various points, can't they? They can. They can follow me. I'm at jessicalewis89 on Blue Sky and on Twitter. I don't post nearly as much as David Bloomberg does. But occasionally, and I'm getting a little bit better now that Survivor started again.

[01:14:46] But David Bloomberg has a link tree because he has so many media outlets in which you can look for him, find him, follow him, love him, adore him, send him chocolate or hot chocolate, I should say. So there's all kinds of things that you can do for David Bloomberg. So, David, talk about your link tree, would you please? Yes, you can find that at link tree slash David Bloomberg. You can find me directly on Blue Sky is at David Bloomberg. And on the video sites, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, I am at David Bloomberg TV.

[01:15:14] I've been posting two or three reality TV short videos every day, a mix of Big Brother 28, Survivor 51, The Traitor's New Blood and more. I got to say, Survivor fans, we're not getting the views here. The Big Brother players are getting the views. I don't know if it's the algorithm or what. So we got to step it up here, Survivor people. Get out there and watch those videos. But in addition to that, I've also been podcasting quite a bit.

[01:15:42] For the traders, the traders Ireland just finished up. I will be on a special Q&A episode on the Tradar podcast. It's T-R-A-I-D-A-R. The traders U.S. started last week. We, of course, talked about the premiere already. And I'll be talking about episodes three and four tomorrow. And then also probably doing a special Q&A episode a few days later. And the Traders Canada season four began Monday night. So I talked all about that earlier this week.

[01:16:11] It will continue throughout the season. Plus, there's, like I said, this little show called Big Brother 28. And Chappelle and I have been talking about that all season long on the Big Brother version of Why Blank Lost. We have a couple of podcasts left. We'll be covering the two people who were evicted this week, tomorrow. And the winner and other two finalists next week. It has been quite a lot of podcasting lately.

[01:16:40] Sounds like it has been a lot for you. It has. It has been a lot. All right. Predictions. So. Next week, the preview shows us a challenge in one heck of a rainstorm. I believe it's Brady that we see chopping his own hand and bleeding a lot. Oh, God. Yes. And then the episode description for the press says,

[01:17:05] Tribal Council takes a wild turn when one player attempts a never-before-seen move to save an ally. And I'm like, really? A never-before-seen move after over 25 years? I find that very hard to believe. So I'm going to say that's a typical PR exaggeration. Clearly, even if Brady gets medevaced out there, there still is a Tribal Council, which would make sense with 21 players in the game. But we've seen players give themselves some pretty good cuts on the hand and stick around.

[01:17:34] So my first part of the prediction is he stays. But with him as their strongest player injured, it does suggest that Tribe will probably return to Tribal Council. I'm stuck on what kind of move it could possibly be. I don't know. Maybe someone threatens to quit if they vote out another person. Like, we already saw Devin sticking to his guns. So maybe he's like, if you vote out Brady, I'm leaving. Who knows?

[01:18:04] But I do think they're actually going to vote out Brady because his name was already out there. I mean, thanks to Aaliyah. And, well, and Jelly. And they might look at him and say, yeah, even though he wasn't medevaced, he can't really help us in the challenge. So what's the use of keeping him? And with his intense personality, he's not worth keeping around. So I'm going to predict Brady goes. That's fascinating.

[01:18:35] Can you tell me again what it had on the, what the, the, whatever the commercial said? I mean, not the commercial. It was a press thing. It was only a small part. But it said Tribal Council takes a wild turn when one player attempts a never before save, seen move to save an ally. Hmm. That's interesting. Hmm. That's fascinating. I'm going to say Devin. Why not?

[01:19:05] Wow. Okay. And the only reason I'm going to say that is because he was so vocal at the last Tribal Council about who he wanted to see get voted out. And this is what I wanted to also say about Jenna. It was very interesting that Devin said, if we don't vote Jenna out now, we are going to see her in the final three. Why would they include that unless Jenna really makes a run for it? I thought that was fascinating. Possible.

[01:19:34] But I'm going to just say Devin because why the hell not? Yeah. All right. We all know how good I am at predictions. That's right. That's right. We had, we had said we would do some listener questions. We are running very short on time. Um, but since some people sent them in, I'm sorry, I can't get to all of them. Um, but you know, thank you to those on blue sky who did send them in blue sky, the official social media site of why blank loss.

[01:20:01] Um, and, uh, so, uh, I, I do. So let me just, uh, get a couple of things here. Uh, one that's particularly appropriate given what you just said. And this is from, uh, Mike, uh, who asked, did you see anything from Jenna that makes you think she'll be able to come back and be in a good position from the game? A la Emily flipping. So what do you think, especially considering you just said, yeah, that's you believe it.

[01:20:30] I was worried about Jenna coming into this season just because I wasn't sure how she was going to mesh with everybody. And sure enough, she's not meshing with everybody very well, but it turns out it's, it's not, it's because of a personal thing that she's going through. And so she's having a hard time connecting, but I think this is probably going to be a wake up call for her. And I think also this is going to be that kind of like igniting that she needed where she's like, Oh, I can play this game because look what I just did.

[01:20:59] I just turned this game around by just mentioning this nugget of information. I took advantage of somebody else's emotional state and I, and I came out on top. And so I think this is probably going to be a very good moment for her and her game because she's going to realize I can play this game. And she's also going to realize others might listen to her. She still has a lot of legwork to do because she does need to make those connections and

[01:21:27] find somebody that she can connect with. But maybe that's going to be that super attorney, um, military person whose name, I don't remember everybody's name at this point, but, um, there was one that was very much like, I think Jenna needs to stay because she's really good at the, uh, puzzles. So maybe that's going to be, is it maybe it's Pat. There you go. Pat, Pat seemed to have her back. So maybe that'll be the connection that Jenna needs.

[01:21:55] So I do, I do think that there is a world in which that Jenna can definitely come back and based upon them, including that nugget, that little edit, I feel like she's going to have a run. Okay. Yeah. I think she can come back now. She showed quite a spark in getting the vote flipped from solidly on herself to Aaliyah as we just discussed, and people were already changing their minds about her and she got to defend herself in tribal council.

[01:22:22] So I do think she has a, has a chance to go far, you know, in the game. I'll do one more question here. Uh, uh, Mia asked, what is the best way to navigate the period of time after marooning when there are no tribes yet, yet, and everyone is on the same beach. Oh, that's a good one. So I'll, I'll, since you answered the first one first, I'll do this one. I think at that point, you can either treat it like speed dating and try to meet as many

[01:22:49] people as possible, or you focus on a smaller number number to try to get in as good as possible within that short period. I'd say the latter is the better way to do it, but you're taking the choice, the chance that those people won't be on the same tribe as you, and you'll be stuck with a bunch of people who did make tighter bonds early. Still, it was a relatively short time period. And yes, there were some alliances that formed.

[01:23:16] I don't think that there were any situations that left someone completely in the lurch, like when, like in the new era, when one person from each tribe had to leave for hours on end to fight for supplies. Right. We have Lewis. That's about it. Lewis has been like living by himself for three days. We don't even know who he is anymore. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so if you do happen to create a few good bonds early and they end up on different tribes, well, that could help you later in the game. So you never know. It could.

[01:23:46] But also I would say, don't try to stick out either. Like you don't want to be overwhelming. You don't want everybody to necessarily notice you at the marooning. And try to make some bonds. But don't be like, you know, gas hands or anything because, you know, you might just get noticed for the wrong reason. Yeah. Yeah. All right. As again, thank you to everyone who sent in. I'm sorry we couldn't get to all of them. Um, as we wrap up, I want to encourage people to check out the RHAP patron program at robhazwebsite.com

[01:24:15] slash patron. You get access to all of the special podcasts that are put out just for patrons, plus Facebook groups and discord. So, you know, help support shows like ours and everything on the network at robhazwebsite.com slash patron. And make sure you're subscribed to all the RHAP survivor podcasts by going to weknowsurvivor.com. And we would like to thank everyone at RHAP. Thank you, Scott St. Pierre for all the editing that you do just for all of the work that you do as well.

[01:24:43] And everyone else who works behind the scenes to not only put forth the Y Blank Lost podcast, but all of the incredible content that you do see on RHAP. There is so much content that is put out there for you. So thank you to everyone, all the work that you do. Thank you, David, for this lovely moment that we've had together. I apologize to all listeners about my dog. So she's a little old lady at this point in time and doesn't understand that sometimes bedtime needs to wait until mommy is ready to put her to bed.

[01:25:12] So thank you for putting up with that as well. And David, this has been fabulous. And it's just the first of many to come. Yes. Yes, it is. Thank you, as always, Jessica. It was fun to be back even in the midst of all the other podcasting. It's always, you know, fun to see you and to talk to you. And, you know, again, happy 10th anniversary of Survivor Premium. So crazy. And we will, yes, we will see everyone in a week.

[01:25:41] I will see all of you Big Brother fans in just a few hours, really. And everyone can find us on social media. Until then, bye. Bye. Bye.