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    • Yes, poor Sharn’s hair does have a touch of the Thing Ones. It fascinates me that some people seem to glow on the island. Sharn is like me in tropical heat – we just look hot and rashy from insect bites all the time.
      I wish autocorrect would stop making Sharn other words!

  1. Ah, Zak, beaten twice in the challenges tonight by women.
    Astute of Mo and Sharn to pretty much give Jacqui the nod to vote Zak as long as it did not blow back on them

    • And just a tad less astute of Jacqui to guarantee she will be in the firing line next tribal. Of course her new friends from Exile will vote to save Jacqui, not themselves. Or not…

      • It seems a very short term strategy of Jacqui. Mind you, I think David, although he likes revenge, is more likely to be focussed on getting rid of Shonee. So maybe Jacqui can go further, especially given the suitability of challenges to her body type.
        I should like Jacqui more – as an older woman myself – but I just cannot warm to her.

        • Surely Jacqui is relying on Tarzan, Mo and Sharn to “forgive” her. They know she is still a more reliable number than the trio

          • Yes. They went along with the plan afterall. Mo said her hands would appear clean but they kept silent.

            Dave wasn’t good at reading the undercurrents.

          • Why would they? She’s broken their majority. She wanted to send Zach home after the balancing challenge where she threw her rope around, knocking Zach’s blocks down. Her allies all refused and kept refusing so this time she went off to Shonee.

            Tarzan appears to have joined Team David. Tarzan has said three times now, in three episodes running, that he doesn’t like double crosses.

            The Mo+Sharn faction is now vulnerable to either of Jacqui+Greens or Team David+Greens.

            Mo+Sharn can’t co-ordinate a vote against David or Tarzan because Sharn would blab. David is likely to start playing idols in the near future anyway.

            Mo+Sharn cannot make a deal with Shonee and the Underlings because they have nothing to offer that Jacqui hasn’t already delivered.

            I expect Shonee to suddenly discover an intense interest in fashion and do long heart to hearts with David. David will do a fantastic job convincing Shonee she was won him over. And then we’ll see what happens.

      • Jacqui showed herself to maybe only have one more kangaroo in the top paddock than Zach tonight. Shonee’s “social” manipulation is so transparent, yet she fell for it. Then she felt loyal, so had to tell Mo and Sharn (actually admire her for this, but still not smart). And seems to have no inklng that she just handed Mo and Sharn a gift of a big move that will not rebound on them. Mo even turned the credit for the move away from Shonee and onto herself by her clever wink to the jury.

        I agree though, that despite the desire for revenge, there are other targets of higher priority for the next few votes.

        • That’s what I don’t get. Shonee IS transparent with he poomvy smile and timely sudden “friendships”. Why are they coming under her spell?

          • I actually don’t think they are. Even Zach, deffo not the sharpest axe in the woodshed, looked distinctly unimpressed when Shonee the Allseeing told Brooke to talk about birds. It’s in production’s interest for the edit to show Shonee’s transparent machinations as effective.

          • It was Brooke who did the bird chat at Shonee’s instruction. I doubt Zach knew about the instruction but he did not look at all impressed.

    • It was stupidity that made him lose the fire challenge; scraping the magnesium then carrying it over the husk????

      • That could just as easily be anxiety or even panic. People do stupid things under pressure.

        I will not be nominating Zach for a Nobel prize in physics any time soon, but he’s not the first castaway to choke in a fire challenge, or even the first castaway to choke in a fire challenge this season.

  2. Okay, okay, so Jacqui made a key “Survivor” mistake tonight by voting with her emotions as opposed to logic …

    But seriously guys. She got rid of Zach. Are we really worse off?

    I thought the montage of faces at Tribal Council was easily the best part of the night. From Zach’s dumb-founded expression that he’d been betrayed, to Sharn’s look of shock, to David’s expression of righteous fury, to Jacqui’s smug smile of satisfaction as Zach got his torch snuffed. Good times.

    The yellow-three still don’t really have much of a numbers advantage (I mean, even with Jacqui, it’s still four versus four — Tarzan, Sharn, Dave and Mo), but it’ll be interesting going forward, because David’s power structure is significantly weakened without Zach, and none of the others really trust him either. Now’s their first real chance to start trying to get rid of him … and he’s got a backpack full of hidden idols to play with. So that promises to be a bit of fun, next week.

    • Dave’s picked up Tarzan so the yellows are still split into two factions, if and only if Sharn and Mo are now a faction. Dave and Tarzan are solid. Sharn and Mo are not. And Jacqui’s successfully executed the always brilliant move of flipping from the middle of one alliance to the bottom of another.

      Jacqui is a challenge beast with a shaky grasp of the social game. Now who does that remind me of?

  3. I get the move.
    Jacquie knows that she is on David’s short list and no-one seems to be making a move against David (idiots).
    It makes sense to target Zach. Apart from being on every woman’s “dislike” list, this is the move that damages David the most.
    Sure, that means that she now has a huge target on her back (along with Shonee) but if you are going to go out anyway, go out in a blaze of glory.
    I, for one, am glad to see Zach go,
    And I am starting to wonder whether David is mostly just talk. Things have not been going his way recently.

    • I tend to think, if you’re down to the final 8, you already have a gigantic target on your back (simply because you’re at the pointy end of the game).

      I can’t help but think, whoever ends up being in the Final Two, Zach would only vote for the non-female member to actually win. I’d be surprised, otherwise.

    • What you say makes sense, but I think the part that will backfire the most will be the telling Mo and Sharn the plan. Jacqui put huge power in their hands, and probably hauled Sharn up from unreliable bottom-dweller to ally of one of the two with the most power. Sharn must be over the moon. And Mo used the knowledge to increase her kudos with the jury.

      When you say David is “mostly talk”, I believe this is his greatest strength. I am seeing parallels with the Rob guy on the US version. Everybody knows, knows, knows that they are hugely powerful and should be eliminated, and yet they somehow hypnotise people with their words. We can see a huge contrast between the cocky Dave playing up for the to-cameras, and the almost humble, gracious, deferent Dave in the game who gently turns opinions and plants seeds. He is also a great actor who has incredible control of his facial expressions and body language.

  4. Interestingly, AK posted on Twitter that just before the votes were read, Mo told Dave to play his idol for Zac. Now, is she going to say it was because she had a feeling or will Dave know that she knew Jacqui had gone rogue.

    • And she grinned at Locky and Harry and did the “microphone drop” gesture as they were all leaving Tribal. So how desperately was she to try and save Zach? Because it didn’t look like she was too unhappy about it.

      • I think either option worked okay for Mo, she would have just had a Plan A and a Plan B. She certainly made sure the jury knew that she had not been blindsided.

  5. Can I just boast that I predicted the fire challenge


    Brooke and Shonee need to go before Jacqui. Surely even Dave knows that

  6. There’s no question that Dave is one of the most strategic players ever on Survivor Australia.
    So it’s got to make you wonder if he manoeuvred Zach into a vulnerable position and then, when chance fell his way, deliberately chose not to play an idol to save him. I wonder if it was a way of getting rid of a threat while keeping his hands clean.
    Or possibly I am just overthinking this.

    • Dave would never play an idol to save Zac. He wants to go as far as he can with two idols in his pocket. It will look good if he makes it to the end

    • I think David did have a reasonable expectation that Zach could come back. Naturally he wouldn’t put HIMSELF in that position, that’s his genius. Why on earth would you waste an idol to get a number that could possibly save you. . . when you have an actual idol that will definitely save you? I would have been very disappointed in the GG if he had wasted an idol.

    • It is possible, but (like Mo) I suspect that he had several plans in his head. Certainly he manoeuvred Zach to exile, that is clear, and AK showed us why he should be more of a threat by seeing that plot. But, as the others say, Dave won’t ever play an idol for someone else unless it directly saves himself. The question is, did he believe that Jacqui would be turned while at exile (good chance, and he would know it) and was he happy for that to happen if it did? Despite his shocked face at TC, maybe he would have been happy with any of the three going? I suppose we will hear next Mon more about his real motives.

      • I thought that he needs a shocked face to make sure that the jury vote of Zac was safe – David is playing the long game and wouldn’t like Zach to be bitter that he could have been saved. Zach seemed to totally believe that David would have played the idol IF he thought there was a shot Zach was getting votes. So it definitely behooves Dave to look as shocked as Zach!

        • Good point, and it is likely that Zach would fall right into that trap.
          Might also explain the claim that Mo told him to play it for Zach.

  7. So, overall, the three episodes of exile shenanigans yielded exactly one single elimination, and a tiny flip by one player. Worth it?

    • Yes and no.

      I’m glad we’re through it, and the game can continue moving forward. I’d say the point of it all was just to try and shake up the established-alliances (no matter who was in charge, sending two-thirds of the players to Exile for a couple of days while only leaving three people at home, would’ve done that), and with Zach gone (yay) and Jacqui flipping, I’d say they’ve accomplished what they were hoping to do?

    • I say the result would have been the same if production had not pulled the stunt. Jacqui has been gunning for Zach since Day 28. She was the obvious crack for Shonee to use. A non-elimination round followed by a regular episode would very likely have sent Zach home.

      It would also have been much more respectful of Lee’s loss.

  8. I need to have a survivor rant. Brace yourselves or avert your eyes.

    Maybe this hit home to me as I am more likely to be a casual than a Superfan as I am late to survivor.. . . but there is a definite vibe in the air, even from people like Shannon Gaitz who I previously super liked, which centres on two main tenets:
    – casuals are wowed by David theatrics and don’t understand the finer points of the game
    – real superfans are going for the little rascals and support Nick, Harry, Shonee – and should pay endless homage to the “social” game of Shonee.

    AK posted a thing whining that “filthy casuals” think he is rubbish at challenges. Now, I don’t care about his point about the challenges, because yes – Sandra won twice and sits out everything – but his pejorative styling of “casuals” totally incensed me.

    Shannon’s allegiance to Nick Idanza notwithstanding, she kept going ON and ON that Nick knew he was getting voted out so David didn’t ‘blindside’ him so Nick had that over David. I mean, as if it mattered! Nick out, David in. Plus Nick utterly failed to spook David into playing an idol so he can’t even claim he wounded David on the way out. I haven’t listened to talking tribal this week as I can’t face more of this vibe.

    There you go. I know it’s pushing buttons with me and I don’t like being lumped into the “filthy casual” watcher – but more importantly if these superfan people truly want survivor to succeed they surely should realise that they need to attract, not repel new viewers!

    I cannot bear being expected to think exactly how the in crowd thinks and blindly mirror the current accepted thoughtspeak. What I love about this site is that even though we are united by common interests, people can have a range of different and nuanced views and EVERYONE is allowed to input, even if they disagree. So Thank YOU Juz – now just make the rest of the world like TT!

    • Fine rant, in my opinion.

      I sit in the middle in terms of Survivor experience. I don’t recognise maybe half of the “winners” in the current US version, and my only experience of Queen Sandra is her being voted out first in our season! One of the successes of Survivor, I think, is the journey that the viewer takes over the seasons in analysing the play and recognising patterns. After a while, you do begin to at least learn the classic wrong moves.

      But if the gameplay had become so predictable, then the show would have lost all those diehard fans long ago, because there would be no surprises. You can suspect what might happen, but the players are real people, and they are playing against real people, and so some succeed with unwinnable moves, and some fail when they should succeed, because people are irrational generally.

      I don’t follow the discussions you mention above (only here) but I don’t see how anyone can be definitive about anything we see in the episodes. There are too many variables, including the editor’s choices, to really know for certain. That’s what is fun about discussing it.

      It sounds like some of those discussions hinge on how people feel personally about the players, and so they attribute clever or poor play according to their feelings about the player. Hmmm, pretty much like we do here, too. That’s fine, just no need to cause hurt over a tv show.

    • I think AK’s been spending way too much time with Nick and not enough time with BrussellSprout. AK’s metagame ‘explanations’ have not made any senses at all.

      Superfans don’t make great players. They usually overthink and overplay everything; often, like Shirin and Nick, across multiple seasons. They often focus on winning the metagame by tweeting how each and every one of their defeats was actually a master stroke. Shonee is not a brilliant social player. She is not terrible, but not brilliant either. She is quite good at telling the camera she is a brilliant social player and may have said she is about to take over more often than Nick. The less said about AK and Nick as social players the better.

      The edit is trying to tell a dramatic story. Shonee, Nick and AK flame out yet again is not a particularly dramatic story. For that matter, production picks a band of klutzes who make Inspector Clouseau look competent is also not a particularly dramatic story.

      • I dropped Shannon’s podcast. Better things to do than listen to someone who doesn’t want me in their audience.

  9. So Tom Hanks has got coronavirus. Life is like a box of chocolates.

    Harvey Weinstein cops 23 yrs on Exile Beach.

    AK never impressed me much. He’s learned a bit since his first effort, but zzzzzzzzz.

      • I’m for Jacquie.
        I’m not sure that I really believe that she will, it’s more that she could -particularly given that she may getting the producers cut.
        If it’s GG, then I despair at the intelligence of this mob. It’s not as if he’s not an unknown quantity.

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