On Wednesday, November 22, 2023 at 11:42:02 PM UTC-8, Brian Smith wrote:

> I’m going to say this upfront. The twist in this episode was crazy and took most of the strategy out of the game. WTF is production thinking?

I'm guessing that they were hoping that the audience would be interested in whether Emily, Austin, or Katurah would be able to win their votes back.
But watching them do math was not going to do it.

> This was beyond sad. One chicken on a table, no chairs, no utensils, no side dishes, no napkins, and possibly nothing to drink.

That was brutal. An alternative should have also been provided for anybody who did not eat meat. Forcing Kendra to choose between her
dietary restriction and eating nothing was dirty pool IMO.
> Dee wanted to take out Kendra, but Julie wanted Bruce out.

Bruce wasn't available. Julie was pitching a Jake vote to several of the other players.

> TC was interesting. When they started to walk in Kellie said to Kaleb, “I wonder who has immunity?” They then saw it was Bruce and Kaleb said that Bruce has been safe for 16 of the 17 days which is very >impressive.

The editors don't usually include any conversation between members of the jury during TC. IMO, this was simply a way to milk more face time from the two beloved losers.

> In the end, Kendra was voted out 6–1. She voted for Jake.

Good riddance IMO. I wish that she'd left the game weeks ago. She was a crappy player, looked like a fish, and was a camera whore.

On Thursday, November 23, 2023 at 2:13:17 PM UTC-8, Brian Smith wrote:

>This was one of the worst challenges they've ever come up with.

Ah...you have clearly forgotten about the "savvy" challenge that Kaleb, Brando, Jake, and Truck Driver were confronted with in E01:-).

> If that was their reasoning, I'm glad they did. Kellie looked amazing last night!

Yes. She cleans up very well.

>If Emily makes F3 that's one vote she won't be getting.

I will have more to say about this in a separate thread, but I really don't like Emily's chances of making it to F3. Based on some comments that she
made in E09, she definitely understands that she is on the bottom of the Reba 4+1 alliance, and I am having a hard time thinking of any way that
she can improve her position during the end-game. She has the option of flipping at F8, and voting with the former Belo members to force a tie.
However, Jake and Katurah are not trustworthy alliance partners, IMO, and Bruce appears to have decided to play an individual game down the
stretch. Herding those three cats into any kind of workable partnership would be a long shot IMO.
Alternatively, she could stick with the Reba Four, and hope to take advantage of rifts that may develop between them as the end-game pressure
mounts. However, despite the fact that we have seen a couple of differences of opinion between Julie and Dee recently, it looks like the Reba Four
are locked into a final four pact that will only be broken by an immunity run by one of the former Belo members. However, Bruce has an immunity
bracelet that is good till F5, so, if he is still around at F6, the four former Reba tribe mates might have to sacrifice Emily in order to remain a unified
group.
The third option, and, IMO, the most unlikely, would be for Emily to do what Heidi did in S44. She could hang in through the remainder of the
Belo "pagongning", win the F5 immunity challenge, and win the F4 fire making challenge. IMO, that would be one hell of a tough trick for her to
turn given that even the mighty Heidi only won at F4, not 5.
I hope that I am missing something because I have become quite fond of Emily, but, at this point in the game, it is hard to see a way forward
for her.