Tonight's episode is titled "Under the Wing of a Dragon." Based on a preview I'd say either this is the end for Kane or the start of a winner's arc.

--
Brian

On Wednesday, April 26, 2023 at 6:08:10 PM UTC-6, Brian Smith wrote:
> Tonight's episode is titled "Under the Wing of a Dragon." Based on a preview I'd say either this is the end for Kane or the start of a winner's arc.
>
> --
> Brian

This episode provided a number of examples of what's wrong with Survivor lately. Here's my two cents on the episode.

--Yam Yam confirmed he knew what was going on with the last vote. The Tika three are playing the middle but are not fooling everyone. Danny came right out at one point in front of everyone and said it was obvious that they were split 3–3–3 along old tribal lines. Frannie said the same in a confessional. It's strange that everyone is still so aligned with their old tribemates.

--Heidi finding the HII was very unexpected. She's getting a finale edit. I doubt she'll win but I can see her making F5.

--Frannie trying to trick Jaime during the rice negotiation at the IC was good. If she had succeeded I believe none of Jaime's people would have been competing and Frannie still would have got rice. Frannie's head is back in the game which is good.

--Dalton makes a great point about how they used to do food for sitting out was way better. It should be an individual thing to make the stakes higher.. And why no negotiating this time? Hard to believe no one asked Jeff to go down to three people sitting out being good enough to get rice. Other than saving Carson, what purpose did that twist serve? It was a waste of time.

https://twitter.com/DaltonRoss/status/1651382933452668930

--Frannie winning immunity was great. She's great at focusing and if she makes it to F3 will have a great story to tell.

--Production had fun at Jaime's expense. I wonder if she found out her idol was fake before the game ended? With Yam Yam, they had fun. The "I want some subtitles to see what's going on" line during TC while they subtitled it was pretty funny.

--Production's plan to have fake idols cause chaos was a total failure. All four fakes (3 production made) are gone and not one was played at TC. They need to give up on trying to manufacture drama and just let the game unfold naturally.

--TC was interesting. I sensed Kane might be in trouble but Heidi or Danny getting blindsided would not have surprised me. Nice to see Lauren's extra vote flushed. She could be next to go. The fact that Kane did not play his SITD is probably a good indication that he was in the dark more than the edit suggests.

--Yam Yam's track record of getting rid of people who voted against him is impressive. If he makes F3 he'll have a good case to present to the jury. Better than Carolyn's as far as I'm concerned and much better than Carson's who is now a nonfactor.

--
Brian

On Wednesday, April 26, 2023 at 8:35:44 PM UTC-7, Brian Smith wrote:

>Heidi finding the HII was very unexpected. She's getting a finale edit. I doubt she'll win but I can see her making F5.

Yes, with the idol, I think she is a lock for at least F5.
Given their strategic play after the merge, I have had to acknowledge that Kane and Heidi were/are much better strategists than I had previously
realized. The fact that their original tribes only went to TC once meant that we seldom had the opportunity to see them actually playing the game.

>Dalton makes a great point about how they used to do food for sitting out was way better. It should be an individual thing to make the stakes higher.

I am not in favour of Probst offering food rewards to players who opt to sit out challenges. Never have been. Furthermore, the "new era" policy
of not giving the players any rice at the beginning of each season adds nothing to the game. It just results in a bunch of players who are not
at their best, either physically or mentally. I don't see how that can be a good thing for the viewers. I am surprised that Probst didn't figure that
out during the tribal portion of S14 and the last few days of S02.

>Other than saving Carson, what purpose did that twist serve? It was a waste of time.

I completely agree.
>Production had fun at Jaime's expense. I wonder if she found out her idol was fake before the game ended?

I don't see how she could have. The only person who knew it was a fake was Matthew. Also, in his exit interview, Kane
said that he did find out that Jaime's bracelet had no power, but that it didn't happen at Ponderosa. I suspect that he
and Matthew spoke about this matter after the season had ended.
>TC was interesting. I sensed Kane might be in trouble but Heidi or Danny getting blindsided would not have surprised me.

IMO, the best play was the one that Kane was driving; that the 6 members of the ex-Ratu and Tika tribes split their votes between Danny and
Heidi, with Lauren putting her extra vote on Danny. Carolyn was strongly in favour of this plan, but Yammy was not. He wanted to vote for
Kane instead. Carson just wanted to keep the Tika Three together, so it appears that some sort of compromise was reached. IMO, taking out
Danny was the correct move in that situation.

>Yam Yam's track record of getting rid of people who voted against him is impressive. If he makes F3 he'll have a good case to present to the jury. Better than Carolyn's as far as I'm >concerned

Yes, IMO the players who have received the best edits since the merge have been Heidi, Carson and (I can't believe that I am actually saying this) Yammy.
He has received a ton of face time during the past several episodes, and (although I don't consider the things he says to be particularly funny) he does
have a knack for coming up with colourful comments about himself and the game in general. If he makes it to FTC, his best pitch to the jury would be to
point out that he had attended more tribal councils than any other player since the start of the game, and was in no way a challenge threat, but yet found a way
to outlast fifteen of his competitors.
However, with that said, his claim that he got rid of people who voted for him is misleading. At F12, he voted for Josh, but would not have known that Josh
had voted for him at the time, and at F10 he voted for Frannie, not Brandon..

>and much better than Carson's who is now a nonfactor.

I disagree. Carson has been heavily involved in almost all of the pre-vote strategic conversations since the merge, and has done
an outstanding job of keeping the mercurial Yammy and Carolyn on point. Carson also appears to be trusted and liked by players
from the original Ratu and Soka tribes. Even when Frannie was trying convince Danny that a vote for one of the Tika 3 was the right
move at F9, she brought up Carolyn and/or Yammy, not Carson.

Two more comments:
-I had to laugh when we were shown scenes of Lauren and Jaime "throwing the absent Brandon under the bus" for not splitting the Ratu votes
between Danny and Frannie at the F10 TC. In his exit interview with Dalton Ross, Brandon said that a split vote had been discussed, but blamed
the tribe, as a whole, for not "nailing it down". I would side with Brandon on this one.

-After what happened to Matthew earlier in the game, I was shocked to see Carolyn climbing, and then striking a pose on, Cody's rock. At least
Yam had the good sense to crawl on his hands and knees when he was up there.:-)

On Thursday, April 27, 2023 at 2:35:31 PM UTC-6, zeppo wrote:
> On Wednesday, April 26, 2023 at 8:35:44 PM UTC-7, Brian Smith wrote:
>
> >Heidi finding the HII was very unexpected. She's getting a finale edit. I doubt she'll win but I can see her making F5.
> Yes, with the idol, I think she is a lock for at least F5.
> Given their strategic play after the merge, I have had to acknowledge that Kane and Heidi were/are much better strategists than I had previously
> realized. The fact that their original tribes only went to TC once meant that we seldom had the opportunity to see them actually playing the game.

Heidi seems to be in the know he vast majority of the time and appears to be pretty persuasive as well. If she wins a challenge or two she could easily make F3.

> >Dalton makes a great point about how they used to do food for sitting out was way better. It should be an individual thing to make the stakes higher.
> I am not in favour of Probst offering food rewards to players who opt to sit out challenges. Never have been. Furthermore, the "new era" policy
> of not giving the players any rice at the beginning of each season adds nothing to the game. It just results in a bunch of players who are not
> at their best, either physically or mentally. I don't see how that can be a good thing for the viewers. I am surprised that Probst didn't figure that
> out during the tribal portion of S14 and the last few days of S02.

I's say 90%+ of fans agree with you about the no rice at the start of the game. Jeff's logic is that it makes up for the game being only 26 days long now.

> >TC was interesting. I sensed Kane might be in trouble but Heidi or Danny getting blindsided would not have surprised me.
> IMO, the best play was the one that Kane was driving; that the 6 members of the ex-Ratu and Tika tribes split their votes between Danny and
> Heidi, with Lauren putting her extra vote on Danny. Carolyn was strongly in favour of this plan, but Yammy was not. He wanted to vote for
> Kane instead. Carson just wanted to keep the Tika Three together, so it appears that some sort of compromise was reached. IMO, taking out
> Danny was the correct move in that situation.

Taking Danny out was definitely the right move. I'm surprised Lauren didn't push for this move or was she afraid they would turn on her?

> >Yam Yam's track record of getting rid of people who voted against him is impressive. If he makes F3 he'll have a good case to present to the jury. Better than Carolyn's as far as I'm >concerned
> Yes, IMO the players who have received the best edits since the merge have been Heidi, Carson and (I can't believe that I am actually saying this) Yammy.
> He has received a ton of face time during the past several episodes, and (although I don't consider the things he says to be particularly funny) he does
> have a knack for coming up with colourful comments about himself and the game in general. If he makes it to FTC, his best pitch to the jury would be to
> point out that he had attended more tribal councils than any other player since the start of the game, and was in no way a challenge threat, but yet found a way
> to outlast fifteen of his competitors.
> However, with that said, his claim that he got rid of people who voted for him is misleading. At F12, he voted for Josh, but would not have known that Josh
> had voted for him at the time, and at F10 he voted for Frannie, not Brandon.

Yam Yam lately has probably been the "star" of the show. At F10 he knew what was going on and voted Frannie so he could keep playing the middle. I'll give him that one. Why would he not know that Josh voted for him?

> >and much better than Carson's who is now a nonfactor.
> I disagree. Carson has been heavily involved in almost all of the pre-vote strategic conversations since the merge, and has done
> an outstanding job of keeping the mercurial Yammy and Carolyn on point. Carson also appears to be trusted and liked by players
> from the original Ratu and Soka tribes. Even when Frannie was trying convince Danny that a vote for one of the Tika 3 was the right
> move at F9, she brought up Carolyn and/or Yammy, not Carson.

Carson's part of the talks but I don't think he's coming up with ideas on what to do like he was early on. I agree he's liked but I'm not sure how trusted he is. He and Frannie seem to have bonded so I'm not surprised that she didn't bring his name up.

> Two more comments:
> -I had to laugh when we were shown scenes of Lauren and Jaime "throwing the absent Brandon under the bus" for not splitting the Ratu votes
> between Danny and Frannie at the F10 TC. In his exit interview with Dalton Ross, Brandon said that a split vote had been discussed, but blamed
> the tribe, as a whole, for not "nailing it down". I would side with Brandon on this one.

That was weird. Jaime seemed to be implying that Brandon had veto power over them.

> -After what happened to Matthew earlier in the game, I was shocked to see Carolyn climbing, and then striking a pose on, Cody's rock. At least
> Yam had the good sense to crawl on his hands and knees when he was up there.:-)

I forgot to mention this scene in my initial post. It's a great example of production's sketchy decision making/sketchy behavior lately. I have a feeling they asked them to climb up there and if they didn't, they should have told them to stop. Why would they risk losing more players? And why would Carolyn and Yam Yam risk injury/death?

Another comment from me:

Why did Frannie vote for Jaime? She was the only one to do so. Was she kept in the dark? I expected her to vote the same as Danny.

--
Brian

On Thursday, April 27, 2023 at 6:52:23 PM UTC-7, Brian Smith wrote:

> Taking Danny out was definitely the right move. I'm surprised Lauren didn't push for this move or was she afraid they would turn on her?

She did, but she was adamant that the vote needed to be split in case Danny had found another idol. We saw her talking about it in confessional,
and she was a member of the group that was supposed to split their votes between Heidi and Danny. At TC, she did her job which was to vote for Heidi
twice.

> Yam Yam lately has probably been the "star" of the show.

And that may be the biggest reason why S44 has not been well received by so many fans of the franchise.

> Why would he not know that Josh voted for him?

He probably figured it out after TC, but, when he was actually casting his vote, he wouldn't have known that Josh was voting for him
unless Josh had told him before TC. We didn't see this happen and, on the contrary, we were shown a scene of Josh telling Yammy
that he would be voting for Kane.

> Carson's part of the talks but I don't think he's coming up with ideas on what to do like he was early on.

That's strategic. He doesn't want to appear to be a threat, so whenever anybody from either Ratu or Soka ask him about who he wants to vote
for he always says he doesn't care. He is still coming up with ideas, but he is only talking about them in confessional, or with Yammy and Carolyn..

> I forgot to mention this scene in my initial post. It's a great example of production's sketchy decision making/sketchy behavior lately. I have a feeling they asked them to climb up there and if they didn't, they should have told them to stop.

There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that Carolyn was asked to get up there. Production even put that damned drone back in the sky to capture the moment.
I also believe that Production wanted to show us Carolyn's courageous ascent of Cody's rock as a "bookend" to the addiction recovery story that she told near
the beginning of the episode. Back when Mark Burnett was the Survivor showrunner, he made it clear that the camera people were to remain passive, and not
interfere with whatever the players were doing. My goodness, how things have changed in 22 years.
> Why did Frannie vote for Jaime? She was the only one to do so. Was she kept in the dark? I expected her to vote the same as Danny.

I thought that was odd too. I understand that Frannie was trying to trick Jaime into playing her (fake) bracelet by making it sound like
she was going to get votes. But to actually vote for her didn't add anything to the attempted deception. I hope that Frannie explains her
move at the beginning of E10.

On Friday, April 28, 2023 at 5:57:36 PM UTC-6, zeppo wrote:
> On Thursday, April 27, 2023 at 6:52:23 PM UTC-7, Brian Smith wrote:
>
> > Yam Yam lately has probably been the "star" of the show.
> And that may be the biggest reason why S44 has not been well received by so many fans of the franchise.

I thought most fans love him and Carolyn? I know a lot of people are not happy with the excess powers floating around resulting in nonsense like Maddy going home at the first TC with just one vote cast against her.

> > Carson's part of the talks but I don't think he's coming up with ideas on what to do like he was early on.
> That's strategic. He doesn't want to appear to be a threat, so whenever anybody from either Ratu or Soka ask him about who he wants to vote
> for he always says he doesn't care. He is still coming up with ideas, but he is only talking about them in confessional, or with Yammy and Carolyn.

He needs to show the others he's being strategic otherwise it's going to be much harder to sell his case at the end.

> > I forgot to mention this scene in my initial post. It's a great example of production's sketchy decision making/sketchy behavior lately. I have a feeling they asked them to climb up there and if they didn't, they should have told them to stop.
> There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that Carolyn was asked to get up there. Production even put that damned drone back in the sky to capture the moment.
> I also believe that Production wanted to show us Carolyn's courageous ascent of Cody's rock as a "bookend" to the addiction recovery story that she told near
> the beginning of the episode. Back when Mark Burnett was the Survivor showrunner, he made it clear that the camera people were to remain passive, and not
> interfere with whatever the players were doing. My goodness, how things have changed in 22 years.

I don't mind the drone shots but it should be of natural gameplay moments not manufactured content.

The concerning the camera people, there was a scene very early on where it was so obvious that Frannie was communicating with a cameraman. Might not have been vocal communication but it was still communication. She's not the only one I've seen do this. In the past they at least covered it up.

> > Why did Frannie vote for Jaime? She was the only one to do so. Was she kept in the dark? I expected her to vote the same as Danny.
> I thought that was odd too. I understand that Frannie was trying to trick Jaime into playing her (fake) bracelet by making it sound like
> she was going to get votes. But to actually vote for her didn't add anything to the attempted deception. I hope that Frannie explains her
> move at the beginning of E10.

Same here. If she's out of the loop she could be the next targeted.

--
Brian

On Thu, 27 Apr 2023 13:35:30 -0700 (PDT), zeppo
<rgibbs%telus.net@gtempaccount.com> wrote:

>On Wednesday, April 26, 2023 at 8:35:44?PM UTC-7, Brian Smith wrote:
>
>>Heidi finding the HII was very unexpected. She's getting a finale edit. I doubt she'll win but I can see her making F5.
>
>Yes, with the idol, I think she is a lock for at least F5.
>Given their strategic play after the merge, I have had to acknowledge that Kane and Heidi were/are much better strategists than I had previously
>realized. The fact that their original tribes only went to TC once meant that we seldom had the opportunity to see them actually playing the game.
>
>>Dalton makes a great point about how they used to do food for sitting out was way better. It should be an individual thing to make the stakes higher.
>
> I am not in favour of Probst offering food rewards to players who opt to sit out challenges. Never have been. Furthermore, the "new era" policy
> of not giving the players any rice at the beginning of each season adds nothing to the game. It just results in a bunch of players who are not
> at their best, either physically or mentally. I don't see how that can be a good thing for the viewers. I am surprised that Probst didn't figure that
> out during the tribal portion of S14 and the last few days of S02.

I'm not sure what they think that accomplishes. Do they expect to see
someone quit over the lack of food, or to create more anger with each
other due to a lack of food? In any case, as you say, it hasn't
created any impact other than seeing people at less than their best.
Which may be the goal as Jeff keeps pointing out how the players are
going to find the mental puzzles so much harder with the lack of food
and gives production a chance to play up the benefits of winning food
rewards.

> >Other than saving Carson, what purpose did that twist serve? It was a waste of time.
>
> I completely agree.
>
>>Production had fun at Jaime's expense. I wonder if she found out her idol was fake before the game ended?
>
> I don't see how she could have. The only person who knew it was a fake was Matthew. Also, in his exit interview, Kane
> said that he did find out that Jaime's bracelet had no power, but that it didn't happen at Ponderosa. I suspect that he
> and Matthew spoke about this matter after the season had ended.
>
>>TC was interesting. I sensed Kane might be in trouble but Heidi or Danny getting blindsided would not have surprised me.
>
> IMO, the best play was the one that Kane was driving; that the 6 members of the ex-Ratu and Tika tribes split their votes between Danny and
> Heidi, with Lauren putting her extra vote on Danny. Carolyn was strongly in favour of this plan, but Yammy was not. He wanted to vote for
> Kane instead. Carson just wanted to keep the Tika Three together, so it appears that some sort of compromise was reached. IMO, taking out
> Danny was the correct move in that situation.
>
>>Yam Yam's track record of getting rid of people who voted against him is impressive. If he makes F3 he'll have a good case to present to the jury. Better than Carolyn's as far as I'm >concerned
>
>Yes, IMO the players who have received the best edits since the merge have been Heidi, Carson and (I can't believe that I am actually saying this) Yammy.
>He has received a ton of face time during the past several episodes, and (although I don't consider the things he says to be particularly funny) he does
>have a knack for coming up with colourful comments about himself and the game in general. If he makes it to FTC, his best pitch to the jury would be to
>point out that he had attended more tribal councils than any other player since the start of the game, and was in no way a challenge threat, but yet found a way
>to outlast fifteen of his competitors.
>However, with that said, his claim that he got rid of people who voted for him is misleading. At F12, he voted for Josh, but would not have known that Josh
>had voted for him at the time, and at F10 he voted for Frannie, not Brandon.
>
>>and much better than Carson's who is now a nonfactor.
>
> I disagree. Carson has been heavily involved in almost all of the pre-vote strategic conversations since the merge, and has done
> an outstanding job of keeping the mercurial Yammy and Carolyn on point. Carson also appears to be trusted and liked by players
> from the original Ratu and Soka tribes. Even when Frannie was trying convince Danny that a vote for one of the Tika 3 was the right
> move at F9, she brought up Carolyn and/or Yammy, not Carson.

To me it seems like Carson got a big edit early on but now Carolyn and
Yam Yam seem to be getting much more screen time. Given how they are
seen as non-threats it likely means they make it to the final three
where it may come down to who does the best argument on their game
play as to who wins.

>
>Two more comments:
>-I had to laugh when we were shown scenes of Lauren and Jaime "throwing the absent Brandon under the bus" for not splitting the Ratu votes
> between Danny and Frannie at the F10 TC. In his exit interview with Dalton Ross, Brandon said that a split vote had been discussed, but blamed
> the tribe, as a whole, for not "nailing it down". I would side with Brandon on this one.
>
>-After what happened to Matthew earlier in the game, I was shocked to see Carolyn climbing, and then striking a pose on, Cody's rock. At least
> Yam had the good sense to crawl on his hands and knees when he was up there.:-)

I was too. Especially considering I recall reading that Cody was
encouraged to do that climb by production. You think that they would
be encouraging players to not put themselves in a position to get
seriously hurt given the limited number of players they have.

On Fri, 28 Apr 2023 19:36:13 -0700 (PDT), Brian Smith
<dcg_brian@hotmail.com> wrote:

>On Friday, April 28, 2023 at 5:57:36?PM UTC-6, zeppo wrote:
>> On Thursday, April 27, 2023 at 6:52:23?PM UTC-7, Brian Smith wrote:
>>
>> > Yam Yam lately has probably been the "star" of the show.
>> And that may be the biggest reason why S44 has not been well received by so many fans of the franchise.
>
>I thought most fans love him and Carolyn? I know a lot of people are not happy with the excess powers floating around resulting in nonsense like Maddy going home at the first TC with just one vote cast against her.
>
>> > Carson's part of the talks but I don't think he's coming up with ideas on what to do like he was early on.
>> That's strategic. He doesn't want to appear to be a threat, so whenever anybody from either Ratu or Soka ask him about who he wants to vote
>> for he always says he doesn't care. He is still coming up with ideas, but he is only talking about them in confessional, or with Yammy and Carolyn.
>
>He needs to show the others he's being strategic otherwise it's going to be much harder to sell his case at the end.
>
>> > I forgot to mention this scene in my initial post. It's a great example of production's sketchy decision making/sketchy behavior lately. I have a feeling they asked them to climb up there and if they didn't, they should have told them to stop.
>> There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that Carolyn was asked to get up there. Production even put that damned drone back in the sky to capture the moment.
>> I also believe that Production wanted to show us Carolyn's courageous ascent of Cody's rock as a "bookend" to the addiction recovery story that she told near
>> the beginning of the episode. Back when Mark Burnett was the Survivor showrunner, he made it clear that the camera people were to remain passive, and not
>> interfere with whatever the players were doing. My goodness, how things have changed in 22 years.
>
>I don't mind the drone shots but it should be of natural gameplay moments not manufactured content.

Sure, the drone shots of the vegetation or of challenges are great.
Just don't create a manufactured moment that you just happen to catch
with a drone.

>The concerning the camera people, there was a scene very early on where it was so obvious that Frannie was communicating with a
>cameraman. Might not have been vocal communication but it was still communication. She's not the only one I've seen do this. In
>the past they at least covered it up.
>
>> > Why did Frannie vote for Jaime? She was the only one to do so. Was she kept in the dark? I expected her to vote the same as Danny.
>> I thought that was odd too. I understand that Frannie was trying to trick Jaime into playing her (fake) bracelet by making it sound like
>> she was going to get votes. But to actually vote for her didn't add anything to the attempted deception. I hope that Frannie explains her
>> move at the beginning of E10.
>
>Same here. If she's out of the loop she could be the next targeted.

On Saturday, April 29, 2023 at 5:27:07 AM UTC-6, shawn wrote:
> On Thu, 27 Apr 2023 13:35:30 -0700 (PDT), zeppo
> <rgibbs%telu...@gtempaccount.com> wrote:
> >On Wednesday, April 26, 2023 at 8:35:44?PM UTC-7, Brian Smith wrote:
> >
> >>Heidi finding the HII was very unexpected. She's getting a finale edit. I doubt she'll win but I can see her making F5.
> >
> >Yes, with the idol, I think she is a lock for at least F5.
> >Given their strategic play after the merge, I have had to acknowledge that Kane and Heidi were/are much better strategists than I had previously
> >realized. The fact that their original tribes only went to TC once meant that we seldom had the opportunity to see them actually playing the game.
> >
> >>Dalton makes a great point about how they used to do food for sitting out was way better. It should be an individual thing to make the stakes higher.
> >
> > I am not in favour of Probst offering food rewards to players who opt to sit out challenges. Never have been. Furthermore, the "new era" policy
> > of not giving the players any rice at the beginning of each season adds nothing to the game. It just results in a bunch of players who are not
> > at their best, either physically or mentally. I don't see how that can be a good thing for the viewers. I am surprised that Probst didn't figure that
> > out during the tribal portion of S14 and the last few days of S02.
> I'm not sure what they think that accomplishes. Do they expect to see
> someone quit over the lack of food, or to create more anger with each
> other due to a lack of food? In any case, as you say, it hasn't
> created any impact other than seeing people at less than their best.
> Which may be the goal as Jeff keeps pointing out how the players are
> going to find the mental puzzles so much harder with the lack of food
> and gives production a chance to play up the benefits of winning food
> rewards.

Too bad Jeff forgot to factor in that a lot of the challenge puzzles are available to buy which allows people to practice before playing. And now people will get 3-D printers to copy what Carson did.

> >>and much better than Carson's who is now a nonfactor.
> >
> > I disagree. Carson has been heavily involved in almost all of the pre-vote strategic conversations since the merge, and has done
> > an outstanding job of keeping the mercurial Yammy and Carolyn on point. Carson also appears to be trusted and liked by players
> > from the original Ratu and Soka tribes. Even when Frannie was trying convince Danny that a vote for one of the Tika 3 was the right
> > move at F9, she brought up Carolyn and/or Yammy, not Carson.
> To me it seems like Carson got a big edit early on but now Carolyn and
> Yam Yam seem to be getting much more screen time. Given how they are
> seen as non-threats it likely means they make it to the final three
> where it may come down to who does the best argument on their game
> play as to who wins.

If they both make F3 I can see the other person winning as their games are too intertwined for one of them to take the bulk of the credit for making it to the end.

> >Two more comments:
> >-I had to laugh when we were shown scenes of Lauren and Jaime "throwing the absent Brandon under the bus" for not splitting the Ratu votes
> > between Danny and Frannie at the F10 TC. In his exit interview with Dalton Ross, Brandon said that a split vote had been discussed, but blamed
> > the tribe, as a whole, for not "nailing it down". I would side with Brandon on this one.
> >
> >-After what happened to Matthew earlier in the game, I was shocked to see Carolyn climbing, and then striking a pose on, Cody's rock. At least
> > Yam had the good sense to crawl on his hands and knees when he was up there.:-)
> I was too. Especially considering I recall reading that Cody was
> encouraged to do that climb by production. You think that they would
> be encouraging players to not put themselves in a position to get
> seriously hurt given the limited number of players they have.

Wow! I was under the impression that Cody did that on his own as that was part of his character. What else in the new era has been manufactured?

--
Brian