Recapping ‘Survivor 51’ Episode 7, With Danny McCray!

[MUSIC PLAYING] All right, welcome back to the pod has spoken. I'm one of the hosts, Tyson. I'm here with the other host, Riley. And our other host, Ashley, is celebrating her birthday. By the time you listen to this, it will probably be her birthday. It will definitely-- yeah. She's in Hawaii, so there are a few hours behind us. But well-deserved break, happy birthday, Ashley. With us today, we have someone who I scheduled before I planned on wearing this costume to the recording session. We have one of my good friends, a good friend of the pod, Danny McCray from season 41 of Survivor, Dallas Cowboy, through and through. Danny, how are you? I don't feel like much of a friend right now, that I'll do it the hand. One month. I mean, I don't know if I've ever seen you just decked out in all Cardinal's gear. And you know, when just coming off the weekend that we had, it seems like this is a straight shot at me. And that's OK. That's OK. That's OK, because as a Cowboy fan and the Cowboy alumni, we know how to take those things. All right, you either love us or you hate us. And obviously, you don't like us very much. Oh, me? I don't really care, Danny, you know that. Oh, it's out there. Sure. You look like you look like you don't care at all. Not a care in a world. You didn't wake up this morning and put all this stuff on. It was like, here's about the Cowboys. You're just really excited about Gardner, Minds you. Yeah, as you get a start for us now, that's a different podcast for a different tablet. Yeah, they need the starter. Good for him. Well, that's our NFL coverage here at the pod is spoken. And now that's my body. Let's get into our survivor coverage. We had a wild merge episode and a couple of things before we get going, when we opened the episode, it said it was titled The Girl at the Prom with a thumbnail of Tanan. And I was like, oh, dead giveaway. Tanan's going home. Then also, all episode, I'm waiting for the Brody Brady explosion that they teased the end of episode last week. And it never came. So I was also like, oh, he's safe because that blowup is going to be down the road. Did they trick us to him? It never happened. We never got Brody raging out. He was like, he did last week, right? No, no, he was close. I love back footage, yeah. He was close, he was about to go, but he kept his cool. But then also I was like, well, maybe this happens when he's holding up the beer or he's drinking at the merge piece and then he might get a little wild. But yeah, we never got it from him. So yeah, we got tricked. I think that's fair. And I appreciate that, though, because everybody's trying to guess and read into the previews and all that stuff and then go to work and go, yeah, I know what's going to happen next week. And they're like, yeah, sure you do. Well, we did, Danny, because I think we predicted that Brody would be the first food at the merge. Is that what we predicted last week, right, Lee? That I was just looking back at it. You all predicted it. I thought it was going to be 10 on, so I was way off. But you, Ashley and Aubrey all had Brady. We can't all be geniuses, you know? Then we can't connect with the listeners ship that well. So we need someone for everybody. I'll tell you a quick story about Brady here before we get started, OK? So at work, we do our survivor fantasy, right? And fantasy, football, fantasy, survivor, it always makes watching the show that much more fun, right? Because you're picking them and then you're room for folks. So I was on vacation when they did the fantasy picks. And I wasn't able to pick my two players, where, well, Ori and Brady were the two players that were selected for me, right? So as you have your Arizona Cardinals gear on, OK? Last week, I lost my first player. And I'm very devastating, you know? They just had to select somebody. And then I come into this week with like, yeah, I got one player. I think he's going to be OK. And I didn't work out for me. So now I'm out of my survivor fantasy league. And for all intents and purposes, the Dallas Cowboys out of the playoff run. So yes, it's not going good. So who would have you selected? Had you got to do the picks? Did you even consider that or not really? No, because I didn't get a chance to watch them all, but like, I would be high on site 2020 of players that I would potentially select-- Or definitely not pick. I definitely not pick. And it probably wouldn't have been those two. Not to say you're bad players, but if you're just looking at it, and you're looking at the cast, it's probably not the first two people that you would select. Well, I've got good news and bad news for you. Daniel, and it's the same. They say things come in threes. So you only have one left, but you still have one. Oh wait, maybe you had all three because you had the cast. I had all three. I had all three. That's it. I'm done. That counts as three, and then the two-- OK. Fine. Well, thank you. It's like a lovely man. Things are-- My breath is going. The Cowboys are going to find a way to get to the playoffs. This is going to be insane. Well, yeah, you've got that to look forward to. So congratulations. Gillian Devon, what do you think? Would you-- a tribe of two? Could we have gone down to a tribe of one? Would that have looked like-- just make them draw rocks because they lost so much. Like, is that a possibility? I think you were about what the challenge will look like. Yeah. It's still a full team challenge. And then like 90% of the folks or whatever, they sit out on the bench and it's just two for each. Yeah, I think that may look a little strange. But it may be a little interesting, right? Because then how do you select those two people that are going to participate on the other two tribes? But now I don't think you go down the line. I'll do you go down the line. Because she has a challenge. You go to the challenge. Everybody who sits out, once that's announced who's sitting out, they go to the merge feast. Everybody competing. Compete's for something else? I don't know. I don't know. I'm just thinking outside the box. I don't have a lot on that. But I just are jelly and Devon sticking together. Are they writer, Diaz now? Or is jelly going to ditch Devon or is Devon going to ditch jelly? Because we get a lot there with Devon saying, or he woke him up a little bit. He needs to play his own game. He's ready to lie. Currently, he's been lying and not knowing himself that he was lying to people. He was thinking he was playing a straight forward game now. He's going to actively lie. Is that going to be different? I think it will be. I think he was walking up. But I also think he always had that in him. He made play the role of like, I didn't know. But he's been super loud the entire time. And he's like, I'm here to play. I want to have those conversations. And because I play it on season 41, you just draw comparisons to specific folks who may have been on your season. I'm just looking into them. And they're kind of going down the same path. Minus some of the chaos that Ricardo and Shan were went down on my season. So minus some of that stuff, you go, OK, these are two people who are really, really close, are really, really connected. But you imagine at some point, paths are going to have to go in opposite directions. Yeah, I think it'll be interesting because I think when you, as a duo, if you're both looking at each other, like you can beat the other one in the end, then there's maybe no reason to target them if you don't have to. But if one is coming out as the driver or the power player or something like that, then you do need to take care of business. So right now, I feel like they're pretty balanced. Does Jelly have the upper hand? I think that was pretty obvious at travel, at tribal, who has the upper hand of who's sitting in the middle and not speaking to anyone. Nobody's going to ask you any questions and who's surrounded Jelly, right? I'm like, hey, let's make sure season in the conversation because she's level-headed and she can make these decisions and we can kind of keep this under wraps. I think that picture that we saw when Jeff called it out, I think that was pretty clear of how people feel about each one of them. But Devon could have stood up and gone and talked to somebody. Could he have not? Was that any type of maneuver by Devon to stay out of it? You realized that nobody said, hey, Devon, come over here. We need to speak to you, right? So nobody was like, hey, man, somebody's missing. They're like, all right, he's sitting in the middle. If you're a move maker, you're one of those people who voices really matter, they're going to say, hey, we need to make sure we bring this person in so then we can get that information. Nobody, not a single person. looked over at Devon and said, "We need you in this conversation," which means they don't need his vote, which means he's probably not voting the right direction. He did vote the right direction, though. He did vote the right direction. He voted pretty. Yeah. Okay, so then he must have already known enough and they must have trusted him enough or they had the overwhelming majority to not care or who knows. It was a distraction for sure. You got that guy sitting in the middle narrating while the two sides are whispering back and forth and jumping sides, like, I don't know. I kind of feel like he's keeping his nose clean a little bit. And if he knows, he's not threat. And he knows he's not at risk of going home right then. Why get muddy? But I can see that, but I can also see like a jelly is going to take care of a film, right? Whatever information it needs to be given, right? For which direction he needs to go? Yeah. Jelly's going to take care of it. And she obviously did of saying it, right? And you could hear her in the tribal going, "Hey, we're dealing with man, like, man, child." So at this point, like, let's go ahead and and let's nip this stuff in the book. And I think just hearing, I believe that was her who said that I'm like, she has a pretty strong voice of, "Hey, let's go ahead and go to this direction to get this stuff out of the wind." She kind of acts a matter of fact when you watch her and how she communicates with other folks as well. Yeah, I do think that she will get more information than Devon. And I do think she's in the driver's seat when it comes to that duo and she'll be making the decisions. But if Devon keeps playing it cool and being friendly and being fun with everybody, maybe there's a chance that she ends up feeling threatened by him and cutting him first. I'm glad we have you this episode because it's merge time. And anything can happen in the open era. Anything. And I don't know if you know this, Danny, but I heard that the one guy at Survivor who said the Hourglass idea was a bad idea, ended up being let go by Jeff immediately on the spot. So I thought the hour, we'd get the Hourglass back or you said it's not back just so you could see another, another cast pain. I don't, I don't believe you. First, I don't believe you. Someone's going to say no, he's joking. He's going to be a post on Survivor Reddit that's like, "Do you know the guy who said the Hourglass is a bad idea?" It's imaginary firing that just happened. I don't believe you, but I would hope that that thing is truly going. Now, I don't want to see anybody else go through that because I still feel the same way. Like, I still love Survivor. I love the show. I still think it was very, very unfair and very Marvel's Infinity War in-game panel, panel snap, right? Doomsday's happening in the movie theaters. Let's leave it there and keep Survivor where anything can happen except the Hourglass twist. Did you like this merge? A true merge, everyone's celebrating, everyone's excited with a twist. Did you like this? I mean, this twist is better than the Hourglass. Do you like these twists where not everybody gets the merge feast? Yeah, I enjoyed this one. I thought it was new. I thought it was first. I thought it was different. If I'm being honest, I think you kind of marry some of the other TV shows that you, you kind of get where folks have to go through the eating challenge, so they kind of put that in the old school way, but not them challenging each other for, you know, immunity. And boy, Jeff did play Brady, and it was Eric. I was like, yeah, yeah, go ahead. You can have this one, but you still got to eat your additional two because they're going to have one on their plate. And now they got to eat them both. Yeah, I saw Jeff's field notes where he talks about the episode. He said they fully knew they were still going to have to eat some before they ate those. So, I was on House of Villains, like they brought out some horned worms that we had to eat, and there were people that were like, like Tom Sandivall, just like 8-1, just to see what it was like. Johnny Benanas was actually the host and he ate one. And so, like it does happen, like people are like, well, I'm here. I might not get this experience, although they all got the experience. I did the mealworms. Those were no problem. Like it was a shot glass filled with mealworms. There were 40 of them. They were, you just put them in. I think I crunched two or three times and swallowed them. I was very fast. So I was like, I got this in the bag. Then they brought out these pig intestines that I don't know how they were prepared, but they didn't look cooked, but they had to have been, right? Soft boiled. I don't know what they were. Blanched. But they left the bile in there, too. So they had to have also treated that. But when you bit into it, it squirted bile all over your face and it smelled. If you've ever driven past a pig farm, worthed a pig farm, bent to a pig farm, it was that smeared all over your face. And I immediately threw up. And back then, when you threw up, Jeff was like, scoop the barf in your mouth, too. They're just like, don't eat the barf, but Jeff said, eat the barf. I got to see you eat the barf. I knew I was out. I just was like, I'm out. And actually in that moment, when it aired on TV, because I'd known, I pretty much knew I'd won that season. And when it aired on TV, they didn't make it look like I just gave up. It was kind of a softer check out. And a lot of fans were like, oh, Tyson must do really well, or even when the season, if they're not editing him to look like he just gave up and couldn't do it and it was weak and didn't try. And so there might be something to that, especially in these eating challenges, where somebody is like, oh, they tried their hardest, but couldn't versus, oh, they just checked out. And I think we got Kristen who just checked out, but she let the grubs live and she was like, whatever. And then Christian and Shron to both tried. Christian, I guess, did check out at the end. So he's like, you know, you couldn't do it. Yeah. And it wasn't that bad. But I didn't feel like they were clowning on any of those people. It was like soft for all of them. Yeah. That's what it seemed like. So it probably nothing. But I did think it was interesting that Christian, Shron and Kristen were the three that sat out. Was that intentional by any of them for any reason? Or did they just get lucky? No, I didn't like Shron to was trying. Yeah. Yeah. Christian was trying to do it. Yeah, Christian was they they were giving it a shot. And they were probably waiting for it to be over. But I think that was just happenstance that they they those three ended up being the ones that didn't do it because I can see it on at least for sure on Shron to face that she was trying to get that stuff to go down, especially at the end when it was between her and kill me. Yeah. Yeah. Shron it kind of says it later where she's like, oh, the three of us can strategize, but the 10 that are at the feast, like you can't strategize. Yeah. Group of 10 all sitting around a table of food, which is really smart. But I think that was like, you know, posts the everything happening and kind of the clarity of like, oh, we can actually talk. Yeah. Not like in the moment. Now it's like, okay, anyone watching this, you know, if I were to go on survivor now, I'd be thinking like, if it's a merge feast where it's going to be split 10 and three, I actually probably want to be on the side of the three because then I could talk to people. You know, now it's different when I, you know, I have a I'm watching at home and I had breakfast this morning as opposed to day 13. I'm not eating, but you know, also something to, I mean, it's so early at the merge. The lines are all criss-crossed every direction. So you're probably not that threatened about the conversation happening there, but in general, you want to be where the majority is. So you can just at least make sure they're not talking about you. And so I don't know. You think like even with 10 of them though, I mean, like it would get back to to somebody like they haven't even all like met each other and know each other yet. Yeah. Yeah. You can't just be like, you know, throw out a name of one of the three and expect that that that no one's going to talk you know, with the survivor players now. Yeah. I'm, but would you have that much confidence? Like I'd be back there with Christian and, uh, Christian and Charonda being like, you know, they're talking about one of us. There's 10 of them. They're talking about one of us. It's got to be one of us. Like I would just naturally like anytime, you're, but that's how I live my life. Like anytime I'm not in someone's presence, I assume they're talking. You just think somebody's talking about you. Yeah. Yeah. That's a horrible like to live, man. It's a horrible like you. But they're saying good things. They're probably saying good things. Yeah. That way to flip it. That way to flip it. Yeah. I will say this. If it's me, my preference is to go on and go to the merge and be with the other 10 folks. One, I just think through, you know, sometimes at the merge, you get an advantage or somebody has something under the plate that you could potentially find. And then also, yeah, I want to see what everybody else is saying. thinking I want to be I want to read the room. See see who likes who who doesn't like who I think you could pick up a lot of stuff when you when you're when you're just watching those other non folks talk and speak and you can figure out who you want to work with because of how their behavior is like a lot of people probably were like I'm not working with Brady. I just can't take his his attitude as demeanor. I like that that's not somebody that I can buy with it. You may learn that even with other non at the at the merge. Yeah and we did at the merge two people were extra grading to the other diners. We have Brady who's not chewing really and belching loudly and just I mean it was pretty impressive like you had a stack of deli meaty just like folded in half and just unhinged just jaw and swallowed hole and then we have Eric who is regaling everyone with tails of his fiance and man I got to touch into my notes here and see all this stuff he talked about the killer clowns from Atter's Beach and Kat's cats cats yeah the irony of that the irony of that is that they both made comments about the other being a little bit too much great I'm like great job for this great job great job of painting a picture of like both these dudes are at that point really unaware yeah we can't we can't like a Brady confessional he's like that Eric is a big personality which way you go in here Danny just based off of their table manners which one's great anybody you know I could probably deal with with the with the with the Brady I could probably deal with him again just me personally I've been around guys like that we've been in locker rooms all this so the guy who just consistently just goes and tells story after story after story after story to different folks I'm like it does just come off as you're doing just a little bit too much like it's more of acting Brady has been acting that way essentially the entire season like if you've met Brady that that's him yeah there I don't think there's any surprise there the other yeah he's he was just all over the place Riley there what's the uh what's the like statute of limitations for Halloween costume stories like this so this season 51 filmed in like May you know we're we're filming this episode on November 4th and I feel like I already don't care about Halloween costume from last week you tell me about it in May it's like oh man if you have a truly truly yes I mean outrageously good Halloween costume yeah like I had my mom so me a merman tale when I was like 35 and I walked around as a merman with a trident and uh it was just a merman tale shimmery gold is that was that worthy of a tail or not really nah not if it just comes up you can't just bring it up like I'm not gonna be sitting there like we were talking about how are we now ready exactly I'm saying here we were were they but no but if I just was like hey guys I got a Halloween costume story I'm about to tell everybody gather around then work yeah I don't know there was like my my best costume ever was I think I was like eight years old and I dressed up as a Lego okay so we had like a cardboard box that we painted and so that was pretty cool but this is the end of the story you know how does the Lego and then it's also my more merman story actually no no you know you was eight not 35 but that's what makes my story good that I was too old to probably be doing that yeah says a lot about you man I was probably only 28 29 it was it was before I was on survivor so 26 27 whatever anyways we talked about that for way too long and I'm annoyed with myself now for that um Maggie also uh come into life here she is so annoyed by Brady's uh table manners I think that's a thing that you have to have going into survivor is the self-awareness to understand when someone is just annoyed with your actions uh is Brady oblivious tone deaf what's uh is he not picking up on it at all because it seems like there's moments this episode of Brady's like Maggie's with us Mike's with us I know that they're with me say go are you sure Maggie was with him but Maggie was like I don't think Mike's with you and he's like yeah he is yeah I think I think he was going up the his own little vibe in his film and I think he was he was wrong at times and I think I think him and Maggie's relationship is is is unique because of the extra vote and she probably probably didn't like them before the extra vote he just ended up giving it to her so I think they've just been kind of hanging around each other and being being close just because of that but I I don't think she ever really liked them um I don't think that somebody that she probably hangs out with outside of survivor well we'll get to ask him tomorrow um if him and Maggie have met up post uh post season so nice so nice back at camp I guess we get everybody going did we get anything from Kristen Shoranda and Christian as they were talking were they talking targets did they talk Mike do who do who did they who did they decide needed to go anybody um they talked about Mike being the odd man out and then they were talking about like they need to vote with the other block before kind of flipping back like it was very they were like yeah a real path forward for them yeah they wanted to be they still wanted to maintain the toka relationship which is interesting because I think it's a tale is all this time when you get to the merging you're like I'm going to stick with my original people but first I'm going to get rid of just one of my original people and then we'll go back to my original people but then you burn the one person and then they're like well this whole thing's blown up nobody can trust anybody we're all for ourselves like that when does that work out I think that is part of the human experiment and it's like it's just a common thing it's just a common thing and I think that and that's the thing about survivor like and a lot of people go on because of that reason right you want to find out what the heck is happening to folks out there that makes them consistently do the same thing that a lot of them said they wouldn't do before they went out there and it's something I don't know what it is I don't know what it is like don't tell people you have an idol I'm never going to tell anybody have an idol and your parents tell you that before you leave out go out there and then you watch yourself on the show and it's like I have an idol and he give up like season after season it happens it happens you probably watch them in their pre-game interview and they all say I would never tell anybody and then it comes to the common thing of I'm going to tell them Mr. Bill trust and I was like every season you just see it you just see it nobody had to know yeah well so that then leads us to the big idol moment on this episode which is Kristen giving the tethered idol to Charanda yeah tell her about the whole thing like you know oh if you go home this becomes a full idol for me but I'm going to give it to you to build trust and I was like I thought this is a really interesting play is not what I would have thought to do at all but I was like split on whether it's a good move or not I mean it does build a lot of trust but it's also like you could you just say nothing I'm two steps down the road on that one I'm hoping that what what happens or what she's thinking is what I told her was that you give it to me and then I'll play it for you so that gives her an opportunity one to get the idol back before if she ever wanted to go ahead and blind saw Charanda to get her out so now they're tethered together no matter what and if she wants to blind saw Charanda she has a clear path to go hey give me the item I'm gonna play it on you and then throw all the votes on her because she has no protection and now she has a high play it yeah I mean either which will be which will be great either way because she does have to play it on Charanda first until Charanda's gone so you're right like it probably builds extra trust with Charanda but it's gonna eventually be the same choice for Kristen if she's still in the game when Charanda is getting voted out because then Kristen just makes the same decision she would have to make anyways if she was silent so then you just have to measure like is she gaining more trust with Charanda by sharing all this information yeah I see them I see them at six I'm seeing them at six right now and Charanda's about to go home and it's like what do you do yeah she's like hey let me get the idol back I'm gonna save you and she hands it back to her at tribal and then Kristen does not get up and Charanda goes home and now Charanda I mean Kristen's good at five with an idol and then And she just came up with it. - Perfect play. - Is it the perfect play because Shuranda will Shuranda then vote for a Christian? To win. - Yeah. - You're burning her so hard. You didn't have to burn her that hard because you didn't have to share the information. You could have just kept it to yourself. Then I wouldn't have known, wouldn't have heard his bad. - Yeah, but you know, Massey can't give us a bowl. - At least you could say, like, you know, in this scenario, if I'm Christian and this works, and I get only a final tribal, and of course, Shuranda's gonna be like, what the hell on the jury? I would at least be like, look, like, you would have beaten me here and I had to stab you and at least I stabbed you in the front, you know? - I would have been like, I planned to save you, but then when we got down to it, I realized the only way I could get to the end was if I held onto the idle framework. Like, there's ways to justify it, but I kind of feel like it's now gonna be a really tricky balance for Kristin to win Shuranda's vote. And Shuranda is somebody who could have some influence on the jury as well, like everyone respects her, everybody listens to her, everybody, you know, takes her for everything she says. So I think that it's gonna be an awesome move. I think it's gonna be an awesome, if Kristin does that, you're gonna be like, holy crap, that was, I envisioned it, like Jeff's like any idols to be played and Shuranda looks at Kristin and Kristin looks straight ahead, does not look at Shuranda, doesn't do anything just like sits there like nobody's like out like, yeah, it doesn't blink. - But Tyson, yeah. - But Tyson is so much worse than that though. It's so much worse because at that point, Shuranda has taken the idle out of her hiding, but a given attempt to restrict-- - Yeah, that's a question. - Wow. - And then Kristin's not getting up. She's like, she doesn't stand up and it's over. - Yeah, it's bad, but I'm optimistic that there are players that respect the game on here and that'll be a hell of a game move that the rest of the jury when she explains how it happens, right? She uses, if she does that, she uses it perfectly. It got them both to the end and she caught them when she needed to and then she got herself to an easy five. I mean, easy four. - Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I, I mean, I think it's a good move. I think part of it comes down to obviously always the question, can you beat your right or die in the end? If you feel like you can, you should ride with 'em. If you feel like you can't, you can cut 'em and that's your whole jury's speech is I couldn't, wouldn't beat you. - I could. - Yeah. - So-- - Let's be honest, it won't happen. Somebody will mess it up. - Who would dream it? - Kristin's gonna go home before Shuranda and then the idle just dead. But if Kristin goes home before Shuranda and Shuranda has it, what does it become? - I think-- - I think I don't know. - I don't know. I think it becomes a fake idle. Well, it just nothing. Man. I guess, I guess it does. - But nobody knows who's always gone. - Yeah. I bet it becomes something. I bet she gets another male and the thing, whatever. But I mean, I need to see it now. I'll have to text somebody and ask 'em. But it's gotta be-- - It takes the guy to get fired. - It takes the guy to get fired if we're bringing up the hourglass. - For the same reason, it's a bad idea of reviving pre-production. - We should get clarity on this. But what I had written down from last week from my notes was the tethered idle has a breaking point. If both players are voted out, it becomes a full-powered idle. So in this situation, like, Shuranda would have it, but she wouldn't be voted out. It can only becomes a full-powered idle if the two people it's tethered to-- - So then what if Shuranda gets voted out? Then does it become a, if Christine gets voted out and then Shuranda gets voted out? - Shuranda gets voted out and she just like tosses it to somebody or does it become a full-edal? - I gave it before. - Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. That's a lot of loose ends here. We gotta figure this out. But either it's gonna be exciting now. - This is the type of thing that if you're a Shuranda, you now have possession of this. You could like as a player, ask producers for clarity on this stuff on the beach, right? Like, by the way, like, if I vote Kristen out, does this become a full idle or does it become nothing? - Sometimes they'll give you an answer and sometimes they'll be like, you'll have to see. Like if part of their game design was to hit them with something after that happened, they're not gonna tell you. They'll just say you'll have to see. Or I don't know, or whatever. But if it is already built into the game design that they can know, like you can ask them questions all the time and you get if it's already supposed to be common knowledge they'll tell you for sure. They'll tell you the rules of the game and stuff like that. But it just really depends. Like if their whole strategy was to hit Shuranda with it after if Kristen does go home before her, then they'll probably just be like, well, you'll just have to wait to find out, or vote Kristen out and we'll see. Like, yeah. So the merge people come back or the merge feast people come back to camp. They're on the Savu beach and everyone agrees after Mike has done a lot of campaigning to, like he didn't learn from the last time he did this. He goes around immediately and just starts like proclaiming he's a free agent. Does the same again, and it immediately bites him in the ass. And everybody's like, should be Mike. Is there a way for Mike to win this game, Danny? Is he just gonna keep stepping on his own toes? You know, I don't think he can control it. I honestly don't think he can control it. And I think that now, like that is the perception that everybody will have about him for the remainder of the game. So like there'll always be like, I'm not sure if I can trust that. He's talking to too many people. He's just saying too many things. So yeah, I don't think he can win the game just because of now how everybody just thinks of him as an individual is not. Yeah. I think it'll happen. He's like, he's careening tour. Like I know everyone wanted to get him out this episode and then he got the necklace, but he's very rapidly, I think it'll get in the spot where nobody wants him out because everyone just wants to sit next to him at the end. Okay. So he's a lowercase goat. I think that's where he's headed. I mean, unless something changes here, it's like all we ever get is people being like, I don't like him. He's like talking to a brick wall. He gives you nothing. And then this episode, he like bungled everything. He played way too hard with the necklace around him. In a way that, you know, you are supposed to play hard when you have immunity, but this was so much that it, like people felt like disrespected by it basically. They were like, oh my God, this guy. Yeah. It's not, it's not good. He's not a good spot. Would you disagree? No. Yeah. Yeah, it also doesn't help that he was probably to target before you won anyways. So they were already frustrated that it was like, how it happens all the time. Like we were shooting for this guy. And of course he goes and wins. So now everything he says is frustrated in him anyways, anything that he does. So can that change the next one? If he's like not the actual target and they're targeting somebody else? Probably so, but I don't think he can change his behavior of not playing that way because of where he feels like he is. Right? Yeah. And he felt like he needed to use that in order to create new relationships. When he loses, I don't know if you'll feel the same way, but it's, yeah, currently, I don't think it's a good path for him to win the game. Yeah, I agree. I think I think he recognized that he was doing too much last time. Like a couple episodes ago when the swap happened and he went around, he's like, heads up. I'm ready to play ball and you're my number one and tell us to know on that they would be best friends in real life. And she and me, he's like, this dude bogus. Only once she has power. Yeah, only once she has power. And so I think he didn't learn and he does the exact same thing steps right into it by just going and declaring. And it's hard. You play one time and there's a balance. And it's like, I want to make sure that I'm playing the game because I want to be featured on the TV show. I don't want to play too hard and overplaying, get voted out, but I also want to be in control of my destiny to a certain degree. So sitting back and doing nothing while maybe the best strategic move a lot of times is tricky for these people. Isn't that part of like being on your own out there though and not having any allies because you don't have anybody to reel you in and let you know what people are saying about you, right? So you just buy yourself. Nobody's there to check him and go, hey, man, people saying you're talking too much. So he just keeps on going because nobody's telling him that he's doing it wrong and he believes that he's doing it right. But if you have an ally out there who's going to look off or you go, hey, listen, just just reel it in a little bit. You're talking a little bit too much. Just they're starting to look at you in a way that's not favorable for you to win the game. Then I think he changes. But until he gets one of those folks, he's going to be full speed ahead. Which is actually more offensive if you're Mike and you're out there and you're watching this back on TV now and being like, why didn't anybody tell you 'cause everybody just enjoyed watching you sink your own ship by yourself without, and they all laughed. - Oh, man, it's insecurity just went through the roof. If he watched this episode, he may not have been thinking that part to this and now he's going to go back and rewatch everything, go, well, I thought we were friends and this happened and now he shoots texts to people and not getting any responses. Nice insecure Tyson you didn't make it better great job. I want to let him know that it wasn't me I just want to let him know it wasn't me. I know I started their part off, but it wasn't me it was all Tyson. Yeah No, it was not all me. I May have said it Danny drew an even bigger highlight on it But you do raise a really good point like if you had someone there watching your back They would tell you to shut up and and just duck during the merch like for Mike especially like hey You're not in trouble. You're in the toka group enough Like let's wait until you people are whisper in your name a ton But he immediately hits the ground running at the merge before even the challenge and as we know I mean part of that could also be the edit the pre-challenged stuff because Doesn't it happen in a normal amount of times that the person they're targeting before the challenge ends up winning the challenge Yeah, or is it just because we remember so They edited it that way I think yeah, yeah, it's got to be edited that way But I thought that's where you were going at the beginning when you were like hey I thought this is gonna happen because of the thumbnail Yeah, and then we got to that part where everybody's talking about Mike and then they get to the challenge and he's like He's looking like a statue and I'm like oh, yeah, he's about to win. Yeah Of course he is it is true And I don't know why I thought why I wasn't even thinking that until he did win I was like oh, yeah, now it all makes sense of course he wins because now they're gonna have to really play so Yeah, this immunity challenge we get a couple things Does Jeff like interacting with Eric? He's got something he's got something planned to say to Jeff and it almost looks like Jeff is just like We're like pulling his eyes at Eric or just be like okay Eric. Yeah, good to see you too, buddy like Just out of here. I think maybe a little bit I think you understand What? You have to talk out there for Jeff. Who didn't see you all the times and just be so frustrated That was a day 14 you know, that's a 20-jit Yeah I think I think it takes a lot for Jeff to just like let that roll off of him and be like okay Eric Yeah, yeah, I did think jumping back a little to the grub thing where you know, Brady was like give me one of those grubs And it's like that's pretty cool and then Eric had to be like and give me one - and now I'm gonna make it You know like my big model log about it. I was like alright just that was kind of Brady's thing like he had the idea first Like we're not just handing out a bunch of free grubs here out of hell. Well, and even Brady called it He was just like I'm a big personality, but I'm Me Eric seems like he's trying hard Yeah, that felt a little true in that moment. Yeah, I don't think he always is I think I mean I think he's trying hard to connect with everybody by Talking about bands from the 90s Danny which band from the 90s would really connect you with someone if they were like hey This is my favorite band from the 90s and you're like yeah me too. Yeah, Fooji's Okay, yeah Now actually, I don't know. I didn't listen to very many bands. Give me some hip hop or something Tyson you're a little older than me also, so 90s, you know, I'm I'm between one and 12 at that point So probably not supposed to be listening to too much uh too much insane clown pausing or whatever Whatever he's got going on He keeps quoting beds from the 90s and not everybody is 45 years old, you know I've really seen anyone else react when he does quote a band like that be like oh hell yeah, dude I wonder if he's just like it's been two weeks of him being like and then you know this band or whatever and just no one says anything He just keeps going with it. Yeah, is that a part of like like some of these some players who go on and they watch all the shows And then like they watched the most recent show and I don't know what season it was but I think Charlie and them They had their little thing where they were Created bands and all that stuff. And I was like okay, maybe that's a way and then hopefully we can connect you know based on that He's just like just keeps throwing it out there and hoping somebody's gonna go. Yeah. All right. I'm thinking the same way You think and let's go in and connect based on that and it's just not working and he's just trying everybody at this point Yeah suicidal tendencies. Okay, you're my rider die Love that band. That's enough for me to trust you completely. I like it. I think it's funny But I don't think it's working. It's not it's definitely not working and music's important to him. It's important to some people but The people it's not important to Do not care even a teeny tiny bit Like I like music just fine, but if you're like I'm a die hard music lover. I'm like oh We're not gonna have a lot to talk about You might know some songs, but also again like I'm not I don't celebrate them all the time. So I Love it. I think it's fun on TV. I think Eric is fun for that reason, but I can also see how It's not really connecting with people Mike wins and the scramble begins and The most notable thing in this whole school because it was a wild scramble. You got 13 people at merge everyone's scrambling and I see the Mike and the Brady and the Eric the way they're playing Versus Maggie and Shoranda and Kristen and their style of play and It seems like these guys are just burying themselves They're just naming names. They're being brazen. They're just assuming everybody's with them if they just tell them to be with them Versus Maggie who's like I got to lay low. So I'm just gonna let somebody else poke the bear and then all You know, I got to incept them with the thing I want to happen, but then make sure that it's not on me Shoranda doing the same thing targeting Eric instead of Brady and and letting Mike be the one that's I think is it oh, no Shoranda eric goes to Shoranda to target killby instead of Brady and so and then Eric does all the dirty work and I just think it's such a juxtaposition Like we didn't even nobody even mentioned Maggie's name nobody even mentioned Shoranda's name nobody Kristen was for a a blip the target. Yeah, Maggie mentioned Kristen, but then dropped it. Yes Yes, she let uh She let Brady do the dirty work on Kristen and then it kind of evaporated. They did color the white well for a little while, which I think is Is that more convincing Danny if you're just like we're gonna slay the giant cyclops dragon You're like fuck yeah, we are dude. Who's that? He's like the scariest one here You're like who's that you know like Kristen And you're like no that's not helping you It's not it's not helping me if I don't see them as a dragon. No, it's not helping Especially if I have my own other plan and I don't I don't know what they know about Kristen I know some of them assume that she has something from from makes out, but they don't they don't know So some people are probably like yeah, I deal with it She's not that big of a deal to me. So I don't I don't see it as a drag and how you're trying to put your it So it wouldn't help not not for me with Kristen. Yeah, I don't think so either I think she's too well liked by too many people she has too many good connections. Nobody is like you're right. She is dangerous to me Like the other thing with like the the white whale metaphor is not a good metaphor because it's like That means that you get a tunnel vision on this person and it leads to the ruin of everything else like that's what happens in bobe dick right Yeah, and so it's like you don't want to be like yeah, this is my white whale I'm just gonna pursue Kristen at all costs and then lose everything that's like The opposite of what you want. So who's captain a half then is that Maggie? What's I'm saying if you're like oh she's my white whale then you're like I'm captain a half and it's like you don't want to be captain a I'm like Erin Yeah, that's what I'm asking you who is who is captain? Yeah, I think Maggie. Yeah, I think Maggie is a little well Actually, I think she does a good job here because she does drop it right she does drop the person thing and does not She recognizes that she already made a big move and she can't do that again without becoming basically too hot of a target um, so It might be Mike is like captain a half in this episode Yeah, he's like, but he he ruins a lot of his whole game basically And tell us more how does he totally ruin it here in this scramble Well, I Okay, we have not talked about I think my favorite moment of this episode when and he comes up to Kristen and is it, I think Shurana and Christian are with him and he goes, it's either Brady or it's you next. - Yeah. - And everyone's like, whoa, yeah, or it's gonna be you. It like, I know a lot of characters get compared, a lot of players get compared to mob bosses, but this was like some true mob boss stuff and it was like, Mike, I know you got that pretty necklace around your neck, but like, you're not calling the shots here and especially not like that. Well, the baby, you try to fix it. - He tried too, but he did not fix it very well and the beautiful thing about that interaction was that Mike wasn't threatening her. He was communicating to her that her name had been thrown out and she actually, from our perspective, had the majority on her to vote her out for maybe a handful of minutes, 10 minutes, 20, whatever it was circulating and Mike got wind of it and he delivered the message. - So bad. - He just doesn't articulate it at all. He just said, yeah, he did, but he's talking to a Brad wall. - Yeah, yes. - Well, I was confused on why he was so in a rush 'cause that's what got him. - He's like, why do you think I can't go? - Like, I can't say an extra word. Like, the max amount of words that I could see and I got to get out of here. And I think that's what got him. Like, bro, just slow down. Slow down. And say what you have to say in the lead. - That's crazy. - I think he articulated wrong. She was like, what, that's a threat. And he's like, no, no, no, no, no, what I meant was and she's like, well, who? And he's like, I gotta go. I can't be seen with you. And it was like, I think part of it was, everyone was watching him talk and Toka, Oji Toka did think that Mike was with him and he wanted to maintain that. But it, Kristen Mike immediately went to Brady of all people and was like, hey, this is what's happening which has been blew Mike's game up. And I love this moment of the scramble too, is where Brady, for a good five to 10 minutes of the episode decides to target Mike for the future. He's like, he's like, guys, I know we gotta vote tonight, but fuck it. What about in like the next time we get rid of Mike? And it's like, stop wasting your energy in that moment there, Brady, like, have that conversation in two days, but there was quite a chunk of time this episode devoted to Brady trying to target Mike for the future. The Brady and Mike conversation in the shed on the bed, that was probably the most mob like conversation that I've seen on Survivor. It's like, hey man, why'd you do that to me? He's like, what are you talking about? He's like, I know what you did. He's like, talk to me, man. He's like, I know, it's messed up, man, you heard my heart. It's almost like he's like, I'm finna put a hit on you. Like, I feel like I was watching Godfather for a second, and I'm glad Mike just went ahead and, you know, at that point, he's like, he knows what you said. He knows that Christy went back and told him and all that stuff. But I said that I was watching. I was like, this is actually pretty, this is, that was entertaining to me with that, and I actually like Brady at that point because I thought he handled it pretty well. He didn't go off, he didn't start yelling and cursing at Mike and none of that stuff. He kind of just said, I'm real relaxed. And at that point, I'm sure he felt confident that he was gonna be able to save himself, but, you know. - Was it too relaxed that it was scary? - That's how you do it, Tyson. - Why is he so calm and cool? - Yeah, I guess you do. But it leads me to the top of this episode where we were chatting, did Brady blow up and we didn't see it. Like, what was the clip from last week, the teaser for this week, where Brady is unhinged for a split moment? Was that something that happened in the past? Was that something that happened this episode? Couldn't it happen in the future like I initially thought? So did he blow up and they didn't show it? - I think I'll make a piece of garbage after this. - I can't, I don't know. - Yeah, but he didn't like, he wasn't flipping out and yelling in anybody's face. And it kind of seemed like he was having like a moment at the end of the teaser of last week. So that's where I was like, was it more so Brady because he did that and they didn't put in the episode because it would have been too obvious then or what. But yeah, Brady tells Mike that he broke his heart. That's why he says, you broke my heart, which is also very mob, like you broke my heart. - I know you broke my heart. - Kiss on the forehead. - Yeah, that's it. - Don't ever go against the family. - You broke my heart. - Yeah. Is that, I think it takes a certain personality to deliver that message in a way that is really, like I'm not feeling, if Brady did that to me, I would be like, well, he's on to me. But him saying that I broke his heart doesn't make me feel sorry for doing that. But there are people that I do feel like, like it was Brady going for an emotional control or was he going for a threatening vibe? 'Cause I think it was more of a threatening vibe. I would have taken it that way if I was Mike, rather than like a heart-strength thing which he Brady might have been going for. - I think we miss how Brady believes him in Mike's relationship is or how he thinks that Mike thinks of him. - Yeah. - Right, so for whatever it is, I think he thinks like, hey, Mike thought things that we're friends and we're close. So me essentially saying that you broke my heart. It's telling somebody like, hey, man, I thought we were cool. I think we connected at some point. I thought we were on the same page. I thought we kind of talked about, you know, going forward in this game together. And that broke my heart that you, we had all those conversations. And then you went to tell Kristen. And then Kristen trusted me more than she trusted you. So, yeah, so less of a threat. But it definitely to me as a soprano's fan came office. Yeah, this is, I know, and it's over for you. - Yeah, I can see that. I agree with that actually in that. Cause Brady did constantly assume that Mike was with him. Even after he like badmouthed Mike and talked shit on him and stuff. And he's like, Mike's with me. Where Mike is locked in with me. - Yeah. - Yeah. - He's like, you broke my heart. He keeps being like, are you sure? Are you sure about that, Brady? Are you, but are you sure like with Mike? And he's like, yeah. And she's like, I don't know about that. He's like, no, he's locked. - Oh, Tyson, you just did it. So there's a bigger part of that too. So now Brady's, his heart is broken now because he has to go essentially admit to himself or Maggie that how right she was and how wrong he was on the read with Mike. So his mind is all messed up at that point. So yeah, and I feel bad for Brady now. I feel worse for him. - Yeah. - Especially since he's, yeah. - So about you, Brady. You did good, man. - I think it can be, I mean, it definitely is a bit of a mind-fuck like watching like him at tribal council and everything and even to the point where he's like, at tribal council, he was like, well, my gut's been wrong a bunch of times this game. So now I am just gonna do a different thing and even at the end before we get into tribal council, the OG Toka group of Brady and his group decides we're gonna target Eric and goes to Kristen and says it's Eric, he's going home tonight unless everyone is lying to me. And she's like, that's definitely happening. Like, yeah. (laughing) Unless everyone's lying to me and she's like, no, that's definitely, people are definitely lying, Brady. - Well, that's what he was with, like, no, that is definitely happening. The lying is happening. - Yeah. The other moment right before tribal was when Mike is like, kill bees on board and Devon and Jelly in you to sit or like, no, he's not. (laughing) - No, he's not. - Everybody's wrong, everybody's wrong. - Yeah. - Like, what are you talking about? He's voting Eric. Did the two tribe, to three tribe, to the journeys, to all of that stuff, muddy the water so much that we're getting this ridiculous scramble from everybody who has no idea who's with them. Or are we just getting people who are bad at reading other people? - I don't wanna be cliche here and say it's a mix of both, but I feel like it's a mix of both. I think when you think of Eric and you think of Brady, they're on that side where you say they're, it's folks who they don't read other people very well. And they're not very self-aware of how people are seeing them. And then you have a mix of, you know, hey, we were on two tribes and then three and then we had those conversations, but I haven't talked to you in a long time and you come back here and now you think everything's still the same. Yeah, we're not really not because you're right. So I think I think you have a mix of both and that's just kind of depending on which individuals we're speaking of, but it's definitely two sides on there. Yeah. Riley? Yeah, I mean, I think it's always gonna be a scramble at the merge, there's just, you know, modern survivors is such an individual game now that it's like even if they hadn't done a swap or mutiny or any of that stuff, you'd still have some people who perceive that they're on the bottom and wanna work with others and there would have been like some connections when they do summits, journeys, and some, you know, defeating information to the other side. And yeah, right. Right, they got some connections from day one on the beach. It's like there would be people flipping and trying to do different things. It wouldn't just be Toka and Sago, like going head to head for the entire merge, no way. Yeah, I'm just, I'm just when I'm looking at this and we're talking about these blunders, like Mike kind of threatening Kristen in her mind, like had he not done that, would Kristen have not gone to Brady and would, I mean, okay, hold on, hold on, hold on. You say in her mind, I know that he didn't mean like I'm targeting you next, but isn't saying like, hey, if it's, you know, it will be you next as in other people are gonna come after you, also kind of still a threat. Not, I mean, saying like, hey, Kristen, right now, there's a majority on you. Why don't you say that? That's what I'm saying. You can go with my plan or it's you. Yes, that's what I'm saying. It was threatening the way he delivered it, but it wasn't even his threat to give out. Like it wasn't like he pushed all the numbers on Kristen and then went over to her and was like, I got you right where I want you. It's you come with me or you're next. Like that's what it sounded like and that's definitely a threat. But he didn't do any of the late work to put her in that position. So it wasn't really his threat to deliver. He should have any, if he wanted her on his side, he should have gone to her and been like, listen, I know there's a lot of people against you. I've heard your name, people are saying your name. Here's the people saying your name. Here's how the numbers are laid out. It could be you and like it's crucial that we figure out how it's not you. Like there's a way to lock her in and whatever Mike did and whatever negotiating he does in real life. I would start taking pictures. I'd love to see how he negotiates like these ball trades in real life based on this interaction. But I know I'm taking us backwards, but just so wild to me because it's like, this is literally information that you're bringing to Kristen that should bring her in, right? Like, hey, I've heard your name get thrown out there. Here's who it was. Here's how I want to work with you. So I want to strategize to keep you in. He delivers it in such a way that it drives her against him. Like very, very dramatically so too. And immediately, yeah, she just locks straight over to Brady. And then we immediately cut to a confessional where she's like, fuck that guy. I'm not going to work with him. Yeah, if you have no head necklace, this might have been like a 12-1 vote today. - Have you ever put yourself in a position of where you were trying to do something good for somebody and end up hurting you, right? In your daily life where you're like, all right, well, I'm gonna let this person cut in front of me because I just want to be nice today. And then there's the slowest driver in the history of drivers and not your late to where you're trying to go. Like, that is Mike in this situation. Oh, I thought I was doing a really, really good thing for Kristen. And now I'm watching this back and I'm realizing this was probably, it didn't end up going the way that I wanted it to. All because of one, the way I delivered it. But I was trying to do something good and ended up being something that was horrible for me. - Yeah, yeah, that's exactly what happened here. And I think, I don't, he can't recover from that. I don't think he can recover from that. Like, it's, there were witnesses, she feels threatened. Like she's never believing. - Everything she says, we're like laughing, is it happened too? You actually had like an audience that was being received. And he still didn't pick up on it. He's just like, all right, I gotta go. - See, I can't be seen with you idiots. - I'm out. - So let me go pretend we're friends with Brady. - I've got three words, I can't take it. - Oh, man. - I got to go. - I can't take it. - Yeah. The thing is, he's got the necklace. If he believes he has the numbers, he should technically just be floating with the side and spending time with the side he's gonna vote with. As much as he can. - Yeah. - So just to give them peace of mind and stuff like that, like he knows it's not him. So tribal council. (dramatic music) - It gets really wild. Kristen describes it as a golf ball bouncing around a tile bathroom. - A tile bathroom? - Yeah. - I like that analogy. Is it like that, Dan? - No, I'm anti. You know, I'm extremely anti-tribal council metaphors. - Yes. - I think they should get a penalty in the next challenge every time I make one. This one is actually good. - Yeah. - So a person that's not a golfer, sure. That was great. - That was great. - You know, bouncing golf balls are in their heart. They hurt, they break stuff. - Yeah. And that good old tile bathroom. - Yeah. Yup. - No, it was good. - No, it was good. It was good. It was good. - I have my notes scroll down to my notes to the bottom to the, because there was so much, there was a lot at tribal council. It was, it was going live the whole time. Like, whispers were happening. And I think that in this moment, I like this tribal council, but couldn't a Jeff Ben like, oh, it looks like you guys are just wanting to chit chat. So you guys just talk and chit chat and stuff. Like get going, do the live thing. Cause nobody's paying attention. If Jeff's trying to talk to me and I hear people whisper behind me, I'm trying to hear what they're saying. And I'm tuning Jeff out a little bit. - Yeah. But was it, I think Devin was still paying attention? Somebody was still, cause he was like, all that stuff that's happening behind you and Devin's having this conversation. And somebody was still just, you know. - Yeah. - Trying to come up with their metaphors and, you know, talking about how they were doing the cap and all that stuff. So he was still listening. - I'm sure I wasn't. - And also giving. - Shrana was like, wait a second. People are talking over here. Yeah. - But that also puts us back into what we talked about earlier with Devin specifically of, amen, all this stuff is going on behind you. And your focus is to continue talking to Jeff, which is okay if you're just trying to stay out of and stay in the middle, but not so much. So if no one is interested in hearing your opinion or your thoughts. - Right. Yeah. I think he killed me also wearing a skirt. Like Devin did give us that. Why did kill be have a skirt on? Was that his skirt? Did he have a skirt? Was it somebody else's skirt? Did he make it? I don't know where it came from. - I have no idea. - That I don't know either. But he did. It was long green, wasn't it? - Yeah, it was a green skirt pleated all the way around. I don't remember seeing that anywhere. So interesting choice of fashion, but good for you, kill be. We get Christian. I think we get Christian here whispering. He's kind of starting the whispering. And he whispers to Eric to not panic at one point. That's the point where I panic. That's where I'm like, oh, okay. Okay, I see what you're doing. You want me to not flip out right before you vote me out. Who played it? Who played it well here at this tribal council? Who played it the best? Do you think Devon was out of it? I don't hate Devon just sitting there if he feels like he's not the threat. Like, be out of it completely. Now I have zero blood on my hands or less blood on my hands 'cause I wasn't the driving force and can't be perceived as that because I wasn't even in the circles of conversation. Riley. Who played the best? Who played this tribal council well? Um, I don't know. I mean, I guess it's like everyone who got their way. I do like how Devon played it because I think that he perceived correctly that he's kind of in the middle on a few different factions. And so like if it was Eric or Brady, if you've gotten wind that it's between those two, Devon might have just been like, it actually isn't that important to me which of those two it is. So we'd seen him a little bit with actually both of them at various times this season but it's not super close relationship. And so I think he was correctly like, I'm not gonna stick my neck out here. Like I'll just chill. It's not gonna be like me. It's not gonna be jelly. It's not gonna be Shuronda. So I'm chilling. So maybe Devon actually. Ooh, rebuttal Danny. Oh well, I'm an opposite of the fence on the Devon part, but I think. with that. I think jelly again, I was impressed with jelly just watching her and seeing how people kind of gravitate to her and then how much how much people how much power her voice has when they're having those conversations. And then also again, she's trusted and this may work against her moving forward, but she's trusted to really wrangle Devon and control his vote as well, which is shown by him not being there, but everybody's she's in their sand. Devon's going to do what I what I'm doing. So don't worry about it. Let's go ahead and she won't I think she wanted Brady out and she she got Brady out. I think jelly you're correct there, but I do think she made a blunder at tribal council where Eric asked her who they're voting for and she said I don't know. And that is a clear sign that someone is not with you. Who are you voting for? I don't know what we're literally like 35 seconds away from voting. So if you don't know, it's me then it's me then like you're probably like did jelly vote Eric? She voted Brady probably. She voted Brady. So then why didn't she just tell Eric she was voting Brady? Yeah, maybe they didn't know. 35 seconds. I think it's not going to come back to her to her at all, but I do think like if you have to wear with all in a very tense tribal council like this to get an answer from someone that is I don't know they definitely do know and they're not telling you and it's probably got something to do with you. This is this is this is my last verbota that it's Eric. It's it's it's Eric. It's Eric's fault. You can't tell Eric anything. No, you can't tell I mean I listen to them tell stories for the last day. The perception of Eric is out there and all of a sudden if I say it's this person he knows and they go play the shot in the dark or whatever it is he announces it or whatever then it becomes an issue and I'm the one with the loose lips. A fair answer is I don't know which really means I'm not telling you it's it's said I don't know, but it really says I'm not telling you bro. What Johnson says I don't trust you. Yeah, I mean when she she probably doesn't. She probably does. She probably does. She called me on guard. It's the same thing I'm like when you again this is my tribal council analogy. Yeah, you meet a lot of people throughout your time. I take it we had a conversation. I went to my 20-year class reunion and boy that people look a lot different and I did not recognize a lot of people that were there. The worst thing they could have done to me was ask me hey do you remember me? And I was dreading that from every single person there, but if they did I would have probably been caught off guard just like jelly. And I don't know what my response would have been but it would have been it would have been something that that wasn't right. So I got jelly's on my side. Nobody asked you if you remembered them. They didn't they didn't but I did a good job of maneuvering to stand away from folks that I really didn't recognize and then if I saw them walking my way I would go to the bar I'll go talk to somebody who I knew that hopefully knew them. So yeah, it was still a strategic. But they all have name tag. Did you wear name tags? No name tags for there. No name tags. I had somebody do that to me and say hey we went to high school together. I was in your class. Do you remember me? And I had to say no. I said no I do not. But I don't think you're lying. But I don't know. They could be. Yeah, so the worst case there you just say no. I do not remember you at all. You've definitely look bad and then when they tell you who they are just be like wow, you look amazing. The true question is why does it make you feel so bad when you don't remember somebody? If you just don't remember them. Yeah, that doesn't make me feel bad. Makes me feel bad. But I remember you testing and Riley. Good. Thank God. At the top of the hour before we had the court, Danny did ask Riley who he was. Yeah, he introduced himself. Danny introduced himself to Riley and said nice to meet you. And I said you've met Riley before? Yeah, the name wasn't in the bottom left corner. So I asked him what his name was. You're new here. What's your name? I think Christian also did a little bit too much heavy lifting. We don't we're not seeing a lot from Christian, but I don't think he had to spearhead all the whispering. And I don't think I don't think he was even on the right side of the post. Did he end up voting Eric like because we see kill be whispering him whispering to kill be like I'm going to vote Eric to prove that I'm with you. You vote. No, he voted Brady. So what's he's whispering to kill before just to make an enemy? I don't know. I think it might have changed some during that because it's it feel like the last thing that we get in this live tribal. Yeah. Is Maggie and jelly talking and Maggie is like I'm tired of the leaking information. And remember, she was like aligned basically with Brady. Yeah. And then and jelly is like we're dealing with man children. And she's like I'm sick of it. I didn't sign up for this. And so I think that that was kind of the decision between them. It seems like they may have been the swings here where they decided, okay, it's Brady. Because Maggie was really annoyed. She felt like Brady blew the whole thing up. Yeah. Okay. Uh, yeah, I just uh, Mike is the one sharing a lot of information. But well, he can't vote Mike. I think I think I think it might have been 12.1 if Mike were eligible tonight. But with that big of a group like Kristen went and shared information that Mike had shared to her to Brady and like you get that. Like if you do not understand who's aligned with who or where the lines are or who you can share information with, it gets very murky very quickly. Lewis said 13 people 300 plans. That's right. Uh, they even alluded to like until you're in it, you do not understand the confusion of it. It is so confusing. So many names being thrown out, which directions we should go. 13 people is a lot. And without understanding truly where allegiances are is, I mean, it's understandable, but it also makes it very messy. Anything else from the episode from tribal council before we move on. Well, I thought bringing up Lewis was interesting because he and Kilby are not on the same page this episode. And like the story, the episode doesn't make it this huge deal out of it, but I picked up on it when I think Maggie was asking Kilby about who he's with. And he mentioned a few people and he did not mention Lewis. And then later at tribal council, Lewis is kind of like, what does he say? I've got it in my notes. It's something like, oh, what's like, why is everyone talking so much? Lewis is asking jelly this and jelly is like, well, Kilby wants to get Eric. That's like the answer. And it's like, how is Lewis not know about this? And then they end up voting against each other. Uh, Lewis votes for Eric and Kilby's on the right side. He votes for Brady. And I'm like, these two two episodes ago, they concocted the most like convoluted long shot plan and survivor history to burn two extra votes and stick together. And now they're just, they're not even on the same page about this vote at all. Yeah. And we don't get them talking to each other. I'm like, what happened with Lewis and Kilby? I don't know if that's something for a future episode, but I noticed it earlier in the episode and I could not stop thinking about through tribal and then through the votes that it was like, I just can't believe these two are not on the same page. They were like, they were so tight at that, that big pivotal, pivotal vote two episodes ago. And now it's like, they're not even talking. Yeah, you think they come together. Yeah, that's a good catch. I didn't, yeah, I definitely didn't pick up on that and more confused now because there are so many folks now. I think we named three where we thought they were going to vote a specific way. And they voted a different way. And then these two are voting against voted for Riley. Did they show it? They show it during the final, the last words. You know, Brady says his like last words, they always show all the votes. So yeah, it's at the time. Okay. Yeah. So then it's, it was Brady Lewis, Tanon and Carter voted Eric. Everybody else was ready. Brady Lewis, Tanon and Carter. So you got Lewis, Tanon and Carter coming back as the people who voted for Eric. Yep. And none of those people really burned Eric. So because they weren't on his side to begin with, like it's not surprising. It's not going to be shocking to him. So they'll probably be okay. Yeah, I think so. Okay. Different factions of form. Yeah. Yeah. Let's get to your reads, Riley. What do we got? Okay. Okay. Let's do it. Who advanced their game the most this episode? - Danny, which I actually am struggling on this one. Yeah. - Advanced at the most, I know I've been saying this the whole show, but I feel strongly about where Jelly's headed and then also having Devon on her side as well and then having an idol back with Shoronda and then being able to, seems like she's gonna rally all the girls at some point. I think, I think, I think Jelly's in a really good position. - I agree with that. I think though that I think, I think you have Shoronda, I think you have Jelly, I think you have Kristen, all who I mentioned at that scramble were just laid back, let everybody else kind of do their thing. They accepted ideas when they needed to, but never got the blowback of being the one to say the idea, Maggie, another one like that. I think Maggie, I'll say Maggie, we haven't had Maggie up for anything recently. I think she did good to recognize, like now's a time to duck after she had that spearheaded that wild tribal council with Lewis and Kilby not long ago. She got Brady out like she has been wanting and so, yeah, I think Maggie did a good job and now she's in the majority on the right side of how the votes went, right? She voted Brady. - Yeah. - So, yeah, Maggie, who you got, Riley? - I'm Maggie too. - Yeah, I'm Maggie too. It's good for her to get out from under Brady as well, like that. They shared that extra vote and whatever, but it didn't feel like that was a good partnership and I think ultimately, and then her not pushing Kristen too hard once she realizes it's not there. - Yeah. - And instead of pivoting to Brady, I think is the right move for her. Okay. Who damaged their game the most? - You can't say Brady, Danny. - Can't say that. - Huh? Can we all just say it at the same time and go Mike? - Yeah. - But you just keep doing it, Mike, I, yeah, dang, the fact that he did so much that Brady, who was a target and understood he was a target, spent some of his afternoon targeting Mike for the future, is how bad Mike damaged his game? - I actually feel like he might come out of this with like a clearer path to the end, because again, I think he's just going to become the zero vote finalist type. - But that's still a damage game. - Yes, exactly, yes, it is, it is like the path to actually winning. I'm like, I don't know what it is from like at this point. - But it's also hard. - You say that, but it's also hard because he shares information with people on the other side, because he doesn't know who's with him, he doesn't fully understand that. And so I think he's a liability, like you're viewing him in these moments as a liability too, not just someone you can beat in the end. - Yeah, yeah, that's a good point, right? You can't trust him. You could blow up your whole game and so that maybe then he doesn't even have a path to the end. So it's even worse. - Yeah. - He's bad for Mike. Nobody wants to be like Mike. - But I think if he inches closer, then I think he does. Like if he can get to like six or seven or eight where they're just like, ah, there's bigger fish to fry, uh, Mike can be is beatable. Like I think then you, then he gets there. So okay, it was Mike, your answer to Riley. - Yeah, absolutely. Um, okay, let's do winter picks. Danny, have you had a winter pick this season? - I have not, I was hoping because, you know, I had my de facto, uh, Brady and, and Ori that one of them will win. Now, do I have to say it, anybody want to say it for me? - Jelly. I don't know what. - Jelly. - Yeah, jelly. - Yeah. - Yeah. I, I, I, I, I, I think she's in a really good position. Um, and then, you know, if I want to do honorable mention, then I, uh, I, I, I, I think I would go Kristen, because if she pulls off that move that we spoke about earlier, with this tethered idol and is able to tell the story and she actually uses it. So she's sure on to keep us keeps her safe. And then she cuts sure on that and because like that is, I think that's a gain winning move. Uh, because she has to do that throughout the rest of the game. I think that will be that, that, that's honorable mention worth worthy. If she, if she's able to complete it. - Okay. - I like that. I, I think, yeah, uh, I think jelly definitely has a shot here. She's also like on that tribe that got decimated, which oftentimes is good for an end game because you haven't really had to cut anybody. You haven't, you know, you've just been surviving until that point and now you start ramping it up and people are like, well, they were on their last breath. And then all of a sudden, they rose to the top. And here they are. Uh, mine is still is Kristen. I've had Kristen sense the beginning and, uh, she's doing great and good balance. Uh, she's one Shoranda over even more. So it'll be interesting to see if Shoranda ever has to choose between keeping Kristen or, uh, the helicopter alliance and what she, she chooses to do there because I do think Kristen made a really strong case for being Shoranda's number one, no matter what. Like, if someone's holding an idol, if someone is there and your idol can only be played if they play it for you, it's a pretty strong reason to keep someone around. - Yeah. And I think also Shoranda knows that Devon and, and jelly are probably one and two. - Yeah. - So that leaves her an opportunity to go, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm a stick with Kristen. - Right. - She needs her number one. - Is it a great point? - Mm-hmm. - Riley? - Well, I have Shoranda here who have had since pre-season. So I'm taking the other side of this, but I, I mean, we've talked about Shoranda a lot. - Yeah. - Um, in general, in this podcast and how perceptive I find her to be and just how good at the game I find her to be, um, yeah, I think she and Kristen feel like they're going really far. - Yeah. - All right. - Oh, I get it. I get it, Riley. I'm sorry. I get it, Riley. So, yeah. That plan doesn't work for you. Okay. Kristen cut Shoranda. It doesn't work for you. - I think it could be. I, I, I, I, I, like you were saying earlier, you know, I feel like it's going to get down to like six-ish and then it's going to be like, can, who can win against the other and who has to cut the other? And I don't know. - No, that's good. - But right now it's final 12 and that's like, all right, they're working together for a lot of votes here. Um, okay. Who goes home next week? - Is it so obvious that it's Mike? - Yeah. That's what we want to say. - I think it's Mike. - I think it's not Mike. - No. I think it's an obvious one. - I'm a sick. - I think it's Mike. It's going to be. - Yeah. I think it's just going to be one of those. - Well, it looks like it might be one of these, like, they're paired together. - Oh, yeah. - Like, they do for 50. - Yeah. - And you then like, oh, shit, like the second you're paired with Mike, you're like, I'm dead. - I'm scared. - We have to win. - I'm scared. - I'm scared. - Yeah. - Do they vote a pair out then? Probably. - Yeah. - They probably do. - Why? - They probably do vote a pair out, which essentially means it's between six people, less places to hide. - Um. - So do we have to pick two or do we just say whoever Mike's teamed up with? - We just say. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Then you just got to pick one because we don't even have a pair. - Yeah. - Yeah. - I don't know. - If our audience is expecting us not only to get the boot right, but also what the pairs are correct, like, uh, this is the best thing that could happen for Mike, uh, is this pairing thing in the hopes that he pairs with someone like Kristen or Shurand or somebody who's well connected who they're going to protect and be like, we'll get Mike next time. We don't need him right now. Let's keep our ally in the game. So that's the best thing that can happen for Mike. If Mike and Eric get paired together, if Mike can kill me, if Mike and Eric is a fish, sure. - Mike and Eric is a fish, sure. - Sure. - That's a whole, Jeff does this so they pair up randomly. It's Mike and Eric and Jeff just goes, oh, you guys are going home and doesn't play the challenge or do you track accounts or anything? - No, the whole time he's like, hey, you guys better, we like, it's an emphasis on him speaking of Mike and Eric of like, you need to win this is a matter for you. - I do hope it's Mike and Eric now because I would, I think it would be fun to, we get some entertainment too. - They get paired up and probes is like, Mike and Eric, how important is this challenge? It's like, why are you asking us? - Yeah. - It's not. We've done our work. We have our allies and they're like, nope, it's you, yeah, Mike's like, I got my fingers on the pulse. - That's also great if they win though. Like if they pair up and they win, that also makes for a very interesting exciting episode. - The bullshit. figure out who they both say so then who is it? Yeah. Um. Riley, who are you sending home? So whoever, I'll say whoever's paired up with Mike, I guess. Okay. Fine. Then it's unanimous. This is the pair makes it. Yeah. Yeah. It makes it our Mike plus one. Obviously, the pairings are going to make a huge impact here, I think they could, like potentially, you know, Mike's pairing could save him could definitely be a little exclamation to getting rid of him, but they could go a different direction because of this. So I think maybe it's the best thing that happened for Mike this episode just luck in that he gets paired in pairs with someone who's alliance decides to keep him. So, but I can also see him being safe, being paired with somebody who's safe, and then Mike ruining all of it and getting them both voted out by deciding to work at the scramble. What do you say? Or they're going to get voted out in a few years, they'll get voted out. So he'll get paired with someone like, let's say, who's the safest pairing for Mike? Probably Kristen or Kristen. So he gets better, and they're like, okay, Mike's like few were good. And Kristen's like, I think I'm okay because of the work I've put in. And then Mike during the scramble, ruins everything and gets them both voted out. Yeah, that'd be a bummer. I could see Mike negotiating his way into a vote out that shouldn't be him. They were from Mike. Anything else right? All right. That'll do it here at the pod has spoken tune in tomorrow when we talk to Brady about his exit and the episode and everything in between. Also, let us know in the comments if we miss something that you need us to talk about. Obviously, it was a wild episode. There was a lot happening and we most definitely missed something. So if you let us know in the comments as soon as you listen, there's a chance we can see it and talk about it tomorrow after exit press. Danny always a pleasure. Thank you so much. Good luck to the Cowboys this weekend. I hope that they redeem themselves. And even if it was a rematch between the Cardinals and Dallas, I there's a part of me that that Dallas, yeah, would be able to do something. I think they need it. They need that. We don't want to play. We don't want to play y'all anymore. We've got the coast, but thank you, Tyson. I appreciate you. Okay. Riley, thank you so much for being here. Thanks to Olivia, our fill in producer while Ashley is celebrating her birthday in Hawaii the way it should be until tomorrow. See you.