On Wednesday, December 6, 2023 at 11:39:54 PM UTC-8, Brian Smith wrote:

> At the start of the episode when they got back to camp after the last TC, we found out via Julie that the plan to take out Bruce was all Emily. It was nice to have that confirmed.

But a vey stupid thing for Emily to brag about. She should have kept her role in the Bruce departure on the low down, rather than draw so much attention to herself.

> There was a lengthy segment on how close Austin and Dee are which included some Rob and Amber footage just for Zeppo.

Yes, you had it right all along, including the reason why the edit revealed nothing about their romance until the episode in which it made a difference. Well done!
I should also mention the other big reveal that occurred in E11: The immunity bracelet that Austin gave Julie in E09 was not returned to him, even though
her moment of concern had passed. The fact that she still had the bracelet shocked me (as it was supposed to do). How could that dumb sh-- Austin
not have stipulated that it be returned to him when it was not longer needed?

>Carson said this is one of the hardest puzzles he’s ever solved and believes Emily made the right choice.

So do I. The puzzle is called "Disentanglement", and it is the same one that was offered as the "savvy" part of the challenge in E01. the one that you
said that you couldn't remember in a previous post. Carson uploaded a video showing how to solve it, but, tbh, I couldn't follow what he was doing.

> When they got back to camp, Austin started having grave concerns about targeting Julie as he knew that would risk his relationship with Dee. He told Dee what the plan was, and she told Julie to play her idol >at TC. It’s the HII Austin gave her for the last (?) TC but she refused to give it back.
It was more a case of Austin not making it clear that he expected it to be returned once it was no longer needed, than Julie "refusing" to give it back.
IMO, there were two monumental blunders made on the afternoon of Day 21:
-Austin should not have been told about the move on Julie. He was not trustworthy, and it should have been no surprise that he told Dee about it.
If Emily, Katurah, and Jake had stayed with the plan, Julie would have gone to Ponderosa 4-3 with Austin's bracelet in her pocket. Afterwards, Drew's
relationship with Austin and Dee would have been over, but the game would have been turned around. Would that be any worse for Drew than
what he will be faced with going into Day 22?
There was a comparable situation in S16 (Fans vs. Favourites 1) in which Cirie and Parvati wanted to boot Ozzy. They decided not to tell Amanda
(or her staunch ally James) about their plan because they knew that, if they did, Ozzy would have found out. It was a cutthroat move, as Amanda
Parvati, and Cirie were very tight. But it was also a great example of separating the game from personal connections with the people that you
are playing with. FWIW, Amanda got over it, and made F2.

-The second blunder was the lack of a response once the cat was out of the bag regarding Austin blowing up the plan to blind side Julie.
Drew and his allies knew about this during the afternoon of Day 20. Why didn't they move their votes from Julie to Dee (AND NOT TELL
AUSTIN). The result would have been Dee going to Ponderosa, Julie wasting the idol, and Austin becoming a pariah around camp.

I didn't really have any emotional reaction to Emily's departure, as I had seen it coming for quite a while. I felt pretty confident in thinking that
there was no way that, once the Reba 4 had no more use for her votes or her intel, they would allow her to stay in the game. It just happened
earlier than I had expected. If Emily hadn't starting crowing about her game play after the F8 TC, she probably would have lasted for a few
more days.

Looking forward, it seems to me that Dee, Austin, and Julie are expecting themselves to be the F3. If Austin wins F6 immunity, he will probably
play his idol for Dee ensuring that they both make F5. However, as "Scarecrow" demonstrated in the F7 immunity challenge, sometimes the
unexpected can happen.

On Thursday, December 7, 2023 at 3:14:28 PM UTC-8, Brian Smith wrote:
> In hindsight it might have been stupid, but I see why she did it. If she had made it to the end, it would have looked really good on her resume.

Yes, but she should have saved the resume for the jury rather than get caught up in the group euphoria that followed the F8 TC. The only thing
that she accomplished by boasting about the way that she had played Bruce was to harden the Reba women's perception that she was too dangerous
to keep around much longer.

> Yes, telling Austin was a huge mistake. Did they not fully trust Jake and Katurah? Or did they not realize how tight Austin and Dee are and how close Dee is with Julie? Drew would have been better off >working with Emily to get Austin and Dee out and the jury might have appreciated him making a big switch at a critical point in the game.

Drew's fundamental mistake was continuing to believe that he and Austin were as tight as they were at the beginning of the game, when it should have been clear
to him that this was no longer the case.

> I was hoping Julie would see the benefit in keeping Emily to help break up the other three Reba members. Or does Julie think she and Dee are so close that Dee will convince Austin to take out Drew and she'll >slide into F3?

I think that's exactly what Julie was thinking. If she had used her vote to take out Austin instead of Emily, she would have gone back to camp with no allies
and no idol to protect her.

> I'm also starting to wonder if Katurah's religious cult story had an impact on Julie. Based on the edit, they have no relationship with each other.

That's interesting. What kind of impact do you think it might have had on Julie?

> Jake has had a lot of "winner" type confessionals which makes me think he'll make F3 and get no votes.

He has received a lot of face time, but I had assumed that it was due to his tendency to say weird things. However, I was saying the same thing about Yami
during the S44 end game, so one never knows for sure how the jury members are going to feel about "wild card" players who somehow make it to the end.

>I don't see Austin >making F3. His edit has been too understated for F3.

I agree to a point. However, unless something totally unforeseen were to happen, Austin is a lock to make it to at least F5, and should be able to maintain the
support of Dee and Julie. He is also capable of winning certain types of challenges. My F3 is Dee, Julie, and Austin, with Julie winning.

On Friday, December 8, 2023 at 1:23:53 PM UTC-8, Brian Smith wrote:

> She wouldn't have an idol, but she could have had a number of allies if she had joined the other side.

I can't see Julie wanting to align herself with the people who had just tried to get her out of the game. Given that Dee and Austin had
given her the "heads up" that votes were coming her way, IMO she is more likely to trust them than the trio of Drew, Katurah, and Jake.

> Wow! For Julie to win either she needs to win at least two immunities, fire, and kill at FTC or something happens to make the jury super bitter toward Austin and Dee.

Since the merge, Julie has received a total of nine votes at tribal councils. In comparison, Dee and Austin have received none. The other players think
that she is the one person who they don't want to be sitting beside at FTC. Dee and Austin should be thinking the same thing, but their loyalty, combined
with the belief that they have outplayed Julie, have contributed to their decision to maintain the status quo.

> On another topic, did you find it strange that no mention of Bruce's idol was made this past episode? I thought for sure people would be scrambling to find it.

The thought did cross my mind. The editors needed to fit a lot of plot twists, a journey, and a long challenge into 62 minutes of episode time, so if the players had
searched for the replacement for Bruce's immunity object but nobody had found it, I can see that content being left on the "editing room floor".

OTOH, perhaps we will be treated to a Day 20 flashback revealing that Austin had found the replacement and had given it to Dee. :-)