So much fun! Genie seemed like a very nice person but not up to this level of game, so I'm not sorry to see her gone. I must say Ricard is really growing on me, especially seeing now that he is doing a lot of strategy and somehow getting Shan to execute. If they make it to the end, they'd both have quite a pitch to the jury. The whole time they're arguing about the extra vote, she aggressively trying to get it back and he refusing, I thought they were setting up for them to betray each other, but in the end it appears it's made them stronger than ever. I also particularly like the tactic of "let's just say the broccoli phrase and see what happens."
This is the thing about this one, everyone's hearing these phrases, so by now unless you're a complete idiot you know that Xander, Shan and Naseer each have an II. Which also makes Liana's advantage rather interesting - she can only ask one person one question, but she already knows of at least three people who have one, and if I've interpreted this correctly, it's now a MASSIVE advantage because she can simply get it any time, from whoever she chooses, no?
And Shan must be laughing because she in particular sure locked in that alliance, especially when she essentially gave her the opportunity to have an advantage - just wait till she finds out that Liana can steal an II, and hers will be safe. And how delicious of Shan to tell Liana not to trust her biggest ally. Dare I use this emoji right now?
Other tribes. I really like Evvie but I have to say those striped shorts are just awful. Perhaps the wardrobe people's intentions were good, but it's making me actually miss the days of baggy underwear. I'd be interested to know the tribe's logic for choosing Shan and sending Liana. The two seemed to connect immediately, even before with both saying they had been wanting to connect, so is it possible that Liana actually engineered this, saying pick her and then me and I'll get her onside with us? I'd love it if that was the case, but it's probably not. Tiffany is more offputting each episode, to me. I appreciate the game play and even the asides to the camera are fun, but she's just kinda mean about it all. But at least
Xander lives another day
As for the blue tribe, who knows what's going on there. Heather's lucky to be there at all. I don't like the continued talk of throwing challenges, but at this point I can maybe see since they have such a numbers advantage, and it's making sense that pro team player Danny is now worried that come merge he's not going to have the teammates he's hoping for. Sydney isn't coming off well so far (to me), Deshawn's gameplay is not my style (mostly because he wants to throw challenges) and it's just a heresay at this point, but Erika does seem shifty (which is a shame because I want to root for a hometown girl!). I'm on the fence with Naseer - one minute I don't like him at all, and then the next minute he's being so adorable about everything.
So this merge. Those of you who have seen every season, what's going on because it sounds like there's a catch? I remember way back in Thailand, season 4 I think, when there was a fake merge, so much fun, but they could never pull that now, everyone knows Jeff's script. I do like a merge rather than a tribe switch. Maybe they can merge yellow and green because then it will be 6 vs 6?
Can't wait to hear what y'all think!
What an idiot! And he could have been saved from this embarrassment if the idiots on team blue who wanted to throw the challenge (I disagree with ever throwing challenges) could have successfully thrown it!
all the complicated twists, but I'm certainly enjoying the ride. What will Erika do? The obvious would be to turn on her 4 former teammates and take away their immunity, no? Such an opportunity to give the rest of them (including lucky-she's-still-here Heather) a massive gift, and it would be quite the Erinnn from Brazil move. At the same time, it's also an opportunity to stick with the original 6, vote out someone else and then it's blue 6, others 5. Either way, someone's not going to be happy with her choice.
Clearly it didn't hurt her new alliance with Liana in the long run, but that was a total power move. 
) but does anyone know of a site that tracks advantages/disadvantages/idols/penalties etc? Seems nearly impossible given that viewers don't get to see all the fine print on these things.
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