Just when I'm whining this season isn't strategic enough, we get this! Loved Noelle's move, especially since she's been on the edge of this the whole time it seems - so often not part of the votes, scrappy in her play. Very smart to take advantage of Owen's frustration because I'm not sure a lot of players would agree to give up their vote like that. I was also very interested to see the advantage used in a way that it was not intended for - it was supposed to be pretty simple, prevent someone from voting and gain an extra vote yourself. But here's Noelle realizing that she could use it in a much more meaningful way - it prevented James from using his advantage. Brilliant.
Interesting that once again an evictee thinks it's because they were a threat, when we know that many of the players considered Ryan expendable. Not even sure they were keeping him for the fish, maybe more bigger targets/a shield as Cody and Jesse discussed. And did I hear right, that he said he had a bunch of oysters or something in his bag that he's taking with him if he's voted out? Was that a poor attempt at bribery or something? Because obviously he's going to eat in ponderosa, so that's just childish. This was the team that was waiting to see what happened on the first TC, so I do wonder if James had not been sitting there if Cassidy would be the one gone, not Ryan.
For the others, I was happy for a minute there that Gabler seemed to find a home, but then in the preview looks like he's ready to blow that up. Also just starting to like Cassidy, but then when she voted she said it was part of some revenge plan? That's not strategic, that's stupid. Unless we find out later that her revenge plan was in fact a long range win plan, I don't know.
Targets now could be Noelle for showing that she can pull a fast one like that, which also seems to put her in a leadership position with her group. Karla for showing that she can both win a difficult challenge, and betray one of her besties (James was rather obvious during the challenge that he was rooting for her, if everyone didn't know it already). Owen and Gabler because it appears they'll go anywhere, and free agents are only useful to a point.
Jesse because they're going to want to flush out those idols (not sure how much the others know about what he has), and at this point, he seems to want to hang onto them. That's part of the fun of this, the players with the idols feel confident until they get to the point where they become paranoid about whether they need to use it (imagine sitting there when Jeff asks if anyone has one, then goes straight to counting the votes - the stress at that particular moment for the person who played or didn't play it!). Having an idol isn't enough, it's knowing when to play it.
Still thinking Cody is a really astute player. Making a big deal of winning for the first time (which isn't quite true - his tribe won a lot of challenges, with him playing a prominent role) and that he won food for his team, thus playing down his own abilities. Bonus that the other winner was Karla, who no one likely looked at as a challenge threat before this. Wondering if among other reasons he's close to Jesse in the hopes that at least one of the idols will either be played for him, or ala Noelle, played to his advantage.
ew.com
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figure out what's still valid and under what circumstances?
that Jesse has Jeanine's idol and no one knows. Finally, someone is keeping his mouth shut! But why did Dwight give it to him? I know Jesse said that Dwight was getting paranoid before tribal, but still--if Dwight was paranoid, why didn't he play it?
