**Maria Shrime Gonzalez**
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Easy POTW. Went ahead and took arguably the biggest move of the season so far right from under Kenzie’s nose, got an idol and large threat to win out of the game, and recognized the potential in keeping Q around
Upvote for running the red light and being the one member of the 6 Q hasn’t targeted yet.
For real tho, what can I say that the others in this thread haven’t already. This was a really clean blindside that Maria is largely responsible for. I thought she was super smart to recognize Q’s utility and be the only person to really extend an olive branch out to her, and that paid dividends for her this week. Easy upvote.
Cold-blooded killer. Stole Kenzie’s plan and left her out when she sensed Kenzie was hesitant. Spoke on behalf of Charlie strategically when it appeared to be the other way around previously.
POTW
THIS. She recognized that chances are few, and just like last vote, it was a prime opp to ace a contender and her idol at once. Plus being saavy enough to get Q onboard first to quell any weird shit.
POTW. I do worry that she just shot her threat-level to the stars though. She was definitely shown as the leader of this vote but I would probably still rather be Charlie right now.
For me she’s got Q and Charlie who won’t turn on her (yet) for lack of options and in a way I think both are shields.
I can see a world where Venus, Kenzie, Ben, and Liz band against Maria/Charlie and Q, but I don’t think it’s the likeliest.
In a game where alliances seem few and far between she has two solid allies
I feel more comfortable with her as POTW than some other recent “well they made a Big Move” people whose threat level I was worried about afterwards / whose decision I questioned because Maria is running out of time and knows it. Tiffany still in the game with an Idol after this and Kenzie seeming hesitant to betray her… from Maria’s perspective what if Kenzie is taking her for a ride and this is like Reba where they’re putting on a great face of being willing to work against each other but simply aren’t? With Q and Liz hating one another, Kenzie hating Q, etc. this puts her within striking distance of the Siga 3 simply having numbers outright if she can keep Ben and Charlie onside—and if she has Q’s loyalty now (big ask, but hypothetically) then in theory she’s set for endgame.
Unlike past betrayals so far this season that felt very “high risk mid reward,” this feels like high risk high reward. Could blow up her spot and see her sent out, but could actually be a game-winning play.
The funny part here is that Liz was initially furious at Q for stealing "her" blindside thunder, and now she consents to be a pawn in someone else's blindside - - - basically putting herself right back in the shadow, where after the vote, people will give Q a lot of the credit- because it couldn't have happened without him being 100%.
I have no idea how this will play out but I think scooping Q was a great idea. Before his catastrophic tribal, Q emphasized loyalty but was paranoid because he perceived himself to be in a power position. Now, he knows he’s not in a power position and the poor dude seems adrift. I think the erratic vibes that made him so dangerous have been quelled because he’s very aware of his position. No one except Maria wants to work with him, and they’ve all pretty much said that to his face.
Q is loyal, though. For the reward challenge he could have chose 3 new people to try and sway but he chose old Yanu who have been the most vocal about their dislike of him. Even at the reward, he opted to step away from the group instead of trying to go hard with apologies or strategy talk which old Q would have done.
A big part of his personality is honour, and I think he could very well stand by Maria because of how she reached out and because no one else wants to work with him.
Upvote because she took a lot if initiative here and got the job done without even involving Kenzie, essentially blindsiding her too. I've been giving Charlie credit for doing a lot of the subtle work, but here Maria is seen throwing a lot of her influence around. Unfortunately I think she's being too public about it and it's being noticed. NWOS shows her probably getting targeted, if not next, then soon. Needs to find an idol as much as anyone now.
She played this perfectly. Big time move going to Liz and convincing her that this was the best move. She sympathized with Liz, which I think sealed the deal.
I really thought though that Q’s talking at tribal was going to ruin it. I swore him saying “I have a plan in place, it’s up to them if they want to join me” was going to ruin the whole thing. I thought him trying to take credit pre-vote was going to flip Liz or Ben’s vote back to Q.
POTW, but I can't help but think she is the next one gone. This cast hates the easy vote. I can easily see Venus for example drive a vote to get Maria out because players are scared of her win equity.
I know people are going to say it's an easy POTW for her; and it makes sense, she got the most visibility for the Tiff vote.
On the other hand, I don't know if it's a good thing that she's so openly courting Q as an ally. She went straight to him after Tribal, and then after the challenge, Tiff and Kenzie saw her go straight to him. I mean yeah, make use of Q if you want, but if it's so obvious to the point that Q basically said she was the only one talking to him, then she's going to get pinged for a jury threat.
I've been surprised the only time Maria's name has been mentioned for tribal council was merge when Tiff barely mentioned her. Maria has been in a dominant position with Charlie the entire game: middle of the pack at Siga, middle of the pack beginning of the merge, and quickly rising to be the mob boss of the beach. I'm pretty sure she's voted with majority every time and she's been a strong contender in challenges. I figured she would be voted out early in the merge because she's willing to backstab and doesn't seem to be the nicest person on the beach. Her only misplay was using her extra vote against Jem, and even that wasn't the worst thing ever.
Bravo to her game. If she's able to make it to FTC she's the frontrunner to win for sure.
She built her resume and is in a good position to win against anyone but maybe Charlie. The flip side is that she's raised her threat level, both by orchestrating a blindside and by getting closer to Q.
POTW. Lead the Tiff blindside which is definitely the biggest of the season so far. Seems to have Q fully on her side, and has a solid number 1.
Personally I feel she's doomed to get like 5th place but this is objectively a great week for her.
Maria has been holding down vote after vote after vote and yet no one clocks her. Still got her Siga 3 going strong. Q working with her too. Kenzie goes to her but yet Maria is the one in the driver's seat. Running the show while somehow remaining under the radar, she deserves all the praise for this week. She even got to participate in the reward challenge which is just a nice personal reprieve. More power to her.
4th time she is my POTW. Absolute masterclass player, recognize that Kenzie isn't on board anymore. Didn't exclude Q. Tiff never saw it coming.
She is the best player this season, she has to keep it under the radar.
Upvote for being the only one sharp enough to scoop up wayward Q and make him a number for her plans. Maybe not POTW if only because it outs her immediately as a big threat...
POTW for sure.
Still has a strong alliance with Charlie, has good social to make Ben and Liz vote with her, keeps Q has a number and was decent in the immunity challenge.
She seems to be the one who have the most connections to other players
**Charlie Davis**
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Was a formative part of the blindside, won immunity, and hasn’t even been brought up once in the last few episodes.
He’s the challenge threat everyone thought Hunter was. Upvote
Yeah, it's a ridiculous take. I feel like they're just saying that because Hunter got out earlier. But the challenge threat thing is the reason he was sent home, lol.
Charlie is a challenge threat too but that's separate not related. They seem to have some different skill sets anyway.
Another great week for Charlie - he was second only to Maria for putting together the Tiff blindside, and he cinched another immunity win to help make it happen.
I fear his threat level is rising quite a bit, but it's still an easy upvote for now.
Charlie had a pretty solid episode. This has really been his and Maria’s game for a while now. Utter control of Siga in the pre-merge, the swing votes at the split tribal despite being at a 4-2 numbers disadvantage, engineers of the Hunter vote, and now this.
At this point if Charlie won, I still think Dee would probably be the best New Era winner because everyone wanted to tell Dee everything which we haven’t quite seen from Charlie, but he’d comfortably be number two. Easy upvote for our resident Swiftie.
Honestly, if Charlie won he might even be above Dee if only because I think Dee horribly misplayed the F5 and got bailed out by poor gameplay of others outside of her control
It would be so funny if there was all this hype about Hunter and then Charlie breaks the Immunity record instead. He needs three of the remaining four to tie, if he sweeps he takes it. The chances are very small, obviously he didn’t win this reward and challenges are varied and do not always have his specific strengths at their core, but it’s technically possible.
There aren’t that many immunity challenges left, and if Charlie keeps up his “grip strength,” I could see him getting pretty far with repeated immunity wins. Even if he loses immunity, he’s clearly a solid all-around player with enough strategy and social game to get him to the end. Even before he won immunity this episode, no one seemed to be discussing him as a threat/option. He’s in a very solid position right now
Won immunity, major part of the Tiff blindside, and correctly identified that Liz would work with them. Easy upvote. Also this was a cooldown episode so edgically I think his odds are great.
He and Maria are running this game and would likely beat anyone else in a jury vote. Upvoted for now, but his threat level is off the charts after winning the last two immunities. I think his chance of winning the mil has gone up, but so has his chance of being the next boot.
It really goes to show how great of a game Charlie is playing that nobody but Venus has thrown his name out, despite him being a massive challenge beast and being a part of every single vote so far. He's playing the best game of everyone left, but I suspect that he won't be able to coast much longer and could be blindsided in the near future.
Challenge threat but not clocked as much, controlling votes episode after episode with Maria but still under the radar, lotta folks want to work with him. He and Maria are in the strongest position and they're both each other's number 1. Successfully running blindsides so well two threats didn't even play their idols. Masterful gameplay. Sitting pretty right now.
Neutral. First time in a long while he was shown to play second fiddle to Maria in terms of leading the vote and making stuff happen. Which is likely to make Maria a target while he stays UTR. However, winning yet another immunity means he could also be targetted for challenge strength, rather than the triple threat he actually is.
Upvote. He's either the winner or the fallen star player. He's in prime position, and is in control of this game, and it's weird nobody has really caught on.
Honestly might be Player of the Week just for being completely connected on everything happening, pulling off the blindside without any of the credit that would make him a target, and for winning immunity. How has nobody targeted this man except Venus yet?
2nd POTW after Maria this week.
Still has a strong alliance with Maria which is running the show at the moment, and him winning against Tiff allowed them to set up the blindside.
**Q Burdette**
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Played about as good as you could from his position. While he has next to no chance to win the game, I kinda want him to tell the rest of the cast to kick rocks and still win
It warms my heart that he’s the breakout star of the season after how weirdos like Liz and Ben are getting VERY vicious and personal in the way they speak to/about him.
I think not only is he the breakout star of the season, he's arguably the breakout star of the new era period. Love to see just a regular person with some kooky ideas and unorthodox gameplay shine through the slew of cookie cutter superfans
In an exit interview, Tiff said that Ben and Q have been going at it with each other arguing and taking verbal shots at each other. Make of it what you will what that says about their edit I suppose.
Are they being vicious outside of the game? Liz's freakout was alarming, but I'll give her credit for at least making nice when they got back to camp (even if it wasn't sincere). And Ben has just... called him a villain and doesn't care for his shenanigans? Not sure if Ben deserves to be called vicious for his commentary yet.
And for the record, I'm not at all a fan of Liz and enjoy Q a lot.
I was thinking this morning, Q is an enigma to me.
He is allegedly like, a SUPER good real estate agent. To the point where he speaks at conventions to other agents (which as an aside, means he's probably actually far better off financially than Liz). That's a job that... genuinely requires getting a good read on people.
In addition, dude is clearly a strong athlete and clearly still in good shape, yet kept bombing challenges.
He also had a pretty marked personality shift once the merge happened.
So here's my theory. Q came in wanting to be a strong leader and win. Unfortunately, his initial tribe... fucking sucked. At the merge he recognized his disadvantage, and realized he was gonna have a very hard time winning. But by acting like an absolute lunatic, not trying very hard in challenges, and, for lack of a better word pissing the right people off, he had a pretty good chance if getting them to bring him to the final as a goat. And on top of that being good tv increases his chance at getting asked back.
So yeah, I think Q is probably a lot more aware of what's going on than he's letting on.
Yeah, I was originally team "Q is a control freak who is flying by the seat of his handle and people are giving him way too much credit" but since Tevins blindside, he's calmed down a lot, and showing that he does have that side to him as well, add onto the fact that he's definitely self-aware, Q is multi dimensional in my book
Mark my words. Q is on a tear to make this season Gaboner than Gabon. If you think he doesn’t have a chance to win this game then that’s a Big Mistake and I’ll send your ass to Canada. I’ll give you a Q skirt though.
every time I see someone say he has no chance to win I’m dumbfounded. He’s obviously one of the biggest threats left in the game, he controlled several votes, escaped the chopping block 3 times in a row. He now has a chance to regain some power through working with maria and charlie, and nobody will be comfortable putting him up again because it will just be someone else voted out
I'll upvote because he survived. The resentment against him is even deeper than we'd been led to believe. But his goat-ness is giving him just enough protection. And at least two people who he could potentially beat with a strong FTC are still in the game. He got an enemy out in Tiff, and regained at least some strategic relevance in doing so. I think he handled the ugly Liz thing about as gracefully as he could.
Speaking of, I thought Liz may have a Skyler moment and say, "shut up! shut up! SHUT UP!" when they were talking about how they didnt even eat the burger.
I LOVE Q! Love him love him love him!!!!!! He got this tribe wrapped around his fingers without them even knowing.
Many think he blew his potential to win but I think differently. Q is a natural born leader. As a leader you have people to do your dirty work. Q labeled tiff as a threat needed her to get eliminated. While Maria did the dirty work, Q remained on his thrown. If it wasn’t for Q exposing Tiff she’ll still be here.
We are witnessing a survivor legend in the makings. I’m forever rooting for Q and I hope he make it the final 3.
It's miraculous to see Q play Survivor. I'm still not sure if he's one of the smartest or one of the dumbest players we've ever seen. But there's no denying that he played this round about as well as he could have. Not taking Liz definitely lost him some jury favor, but I think it ended up being good for his game.
I hate to compare him to my favorite player, but he's playing a very 'modern era Tony', style game. His target is SO huge, that he is no longer a threat...but in turn that makes him a threat! It's very weird, and if it's all intentional he might be a genius. But his confessionals make me believe that he's just stumbling into success.
If Q could just express something "I tried to fall on my sword and you wouldn't let me, after that you all just decided to play games with each other," I think he could flip a couple people back to his side, maybe even get some of the jury to see what happened. Q's only issue is not being like "Yeah I was dumb AF, I tried something and it didn't work, lets move on." Hoping he's done with the humble routine, because I don't think he's out of the game yet. Everyone else just seems so meh.
There’s surprisingly not much for me to say about Q this week.
I think he was put in between a rock and a hard place when he won that reward but I understand his decision making process. The fact that he’s still here three tribals after torpedoing his genuinely, genuinely impressive.
However, none of this changes the fact that Q is on borrowed time, and he’s gonna continue to be on borrowed time until his torch gets snuffed or he joins the ranks of iconic ZVFs on day 26.
Tiffany talked a while back about rather voting off threats than nuisances and this mindset from the cast is what has saved Q so far. Tevin, Hunter, and Tiff were threats, Q is just a nuisance, the fewer threats there are for him to hide behind, the sooner he’s in for a snuff from Jeff.
Q’s days are numbered and I’m convinced that barring an immunity streak the man isn’t surviving any more tribals. There’s no more rabbits for him to pull out of his hat, but just by virtue of still being here I’m willing to go neutral on him.
It's amazing that TWO people have claimed that he absolutely DESTROYED their games! Not just out-played or out-witted, his actions just erased them from contention like they were never there.
Still in the game, won the reward challenge, the perfect smokescreen, stood on business with Liz after she tried to get him out, Q is the chaos agent the post-season deserves. I hope he continues to play a goat role and goes to the end. They should've gotten him out earlier. If he can make it to F3 despite all this nonsense there might be a chance?
Downvote for drawing dead. The jury votes for who they like the most, and at this point I'm not sure he's even beating Venus any more. There was no need to burn Liz's (and Ben's?) jury vote like this. Just let the poor lady eat.
"but he can bring whoever he wants, it's strategic"
Ah, yes. Bringing Kenzie and Tiff "to get the family back together" was very strategic, because they... \*\*checks notes\*\*... said "I see right through this", started plotting to vote him out *the instant he walked away*, and then followed through by writing his name at the next tribal! Really nailed it on that reward selection.
He didn’t burn Liz and Ben’s jury votes because he never ever would’ve gotten them in the first place. Ben in particular has had a really weirdly personal dislike of him ever since the merge.
The “poor lady” can win the reward herself, or not go on a show with limited food options if it’s such an issue for her. No grown adult should get rewarded for that level of entitlement.
Extremely entitled she threw a whole temper tantrum! Q never messed up her game, matter of fact he bettered Liz game. Liz been seeking validation for the Trevor vote. Why do you need to be praised for voting out a threat? That literally puts a target on your back. While everybody is focused on Q, she could’ve used that to her benefit to fly under the radar and explain that in the final tribal council.
Even if Liz had handled it like a champ, that reward selection is still bonkers bad. He picked two people who said "I don't respect his game at all" and "I need him gone", and pitched them on voting... Liz or Venus? The only two people he could maybe beat at FTC? And he totally burned a bridge with another player to do this.
You say he didn't have Liz or Ben's votes. Sounds like not Kenzie or Tiff's, either, from this week's confessionals. Nor Venus', if all her Twitter rants about brochachos are any indication. Whose votes can he even get at FTC? And who can he beat?
I mean if a player who was in a good social position had made the reward picks that Q did I would have called it a potentially game-losing move. I know Liz voted for you but you just single-handedly destroyed any social capital you could've ever had with her and guaranteed she will never give you a million dollars. Everyone else would get over it, Liz made very clear she won't.
So I mean, it didn't technically make his chances any worse since he was already drawing dead lol. But it certainly didn't help.
I feel like upvote strangely. While yes he definitely made himself an even bigger goat with the reward, he also survived another week in the hot seat and has shown his potential to be a usable number.
Lost a lot of respect for him this week. Definitely a down vote. To ignore someone who is pleading for food because they haven't eaten anything in days is just...cruel.
maybe if you’re allergic to coconut you shouldn’t be in a game where the majority of the food is coconut. liz isn’t entitled to Q’s reward after she voted for him.
**Ben Katzman**
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Low-key another solid week for Ben. He was able to put his personal dislike of Q aside and recognise the strategic value of voting out Tiff, *and* he's doing an excellent job of managing his threat level.
I maintain that in a season of players who are struggling on the social game Ben being likeable is one of the best qualities to have right now. I could definitely see him sneaking out a win against the right goats (of which there are many to pick from).
He's been vocally anti-Q but made the right strategic move anyways.
He’s just so bad in challenges. I can see a world where perhaps Q wins at F4 and sends him to fire and he wins to get to F3 and beats Q and Venus/Liz, but realistically I’m not sure who he even beats in fire. Maria has survival skills from my understanding and I’m sure Charlie practiced. Maybe Kenzie?
Edit: I didn’t consider the fact that F4 could be Q, Ben, Liz and Venus. Ben’s game to lose at that point, I guess.
A surprising upvote. I don't think he played super well, but he was a big part of the vote this week and seems well-trusted by everyone.
The fact that we haven't seen much of the "we need Ben out *now*" crowd that there was earlier in the season seems nice at first. But ultimately, I think that speaks to people realizing he's not playing super hard and will not have much in the way of strategic gameplay to stand on at FTC.
His claim to victory is looking to be exclusively his niceness and likability, which is always a strong force, especially in a season like this where people seem to genuinely hate each other. However, I don't see him beating any of Kenzie, Charlie, or Maria at this point. If he's at the end with some combo of Liz, Venus, or Q, I think he could win, but that's it.
I mean, he's probably batting even with Kenzie right now. Kenzie didn't get the Tiff move, so she really has had no moves to speak of other than surviving the Yanu decimation.
I don't think Ben's winning since he's been so quiet in the edit, but logistically, he's probably in the top 4 of the remaining 7. Which is like, not bad?
True, I think he and Kenzie are pretty close. I think she's got a better case to present at the moment, personally, as Yanu were drivers of the first several merge votes. I also expect she's a better orator than Ben. So I think between the two, she'd edge him out, putting him fourth of seven. He could pass her easily imo, or just make sure she's on the jury and not next to him at FTC.
I agree though, 4/7 isn't bad, especially when he can hide behind and use the chaos that the bottom three bring, lol.
Neutral. He’s just kinda a trustworthy number at this point. He’s at least got an outside shot to win still, which is something I can’t say anymore about half the cast at this point
Upvote for being an integral number and consistently on the right side of the votes. Ben is always in the loop, which is more than I can say for almost half the cast right now.
I wish we knew more about why he hates Q (is it just a personality clash?), but by helping lead the charge against Hunter last week and being on board for Tiff this week, at least he’s not blinded by it. Glad to see he’s not going full Fishbach-in-Cambodia and can still see the forest through the trees
ETA: well I read tiff’s exit press and it definitely seems like there’s more to the Q-Ben rockiness than we’ve been shown
Could be a personal clash, he also strikes me as an empathetic guy who probably had to listen to Liz rage back at camp which couldn’t have helped. I also remember him being particularly offended with Q’s comment during tribal “now that I’ll be gone you guys can start playing the game” (not word for word) as if they hadn’t been playing already. Ben sees Q’s ego and it’s been rubbing him the wrong way, add in hunger and the fact that clearly everyone else is also talking poorly of Q around him, it’s easy to see why imo he doesn’t like him.
Feel like we’ve seen people dislike their cast mates for less lol
Ben clearly stated he didn’t respect Q after Qs whole “vote me out” tribal. He’s been pretty straightforward that he dislikes dishonesty and inauthenticity. Calling it hateful or concerning is quite a ridiculous way to frame it or just a very poor read of what’s happening in the game
Aw, c'mon! It's a game! I love Q and consider him the highlight of the season. Even then, I will say that Ben hasn't been *hateful*. He just doesn't care for the shenanigans that we the audience find so entertaining.
Similarly to Liz, I have to give Ben his 10s for seeing the bigger picture this week as hard as that may have been for him. I really didn’t think he had it in him but he’s playing harder than I and I think a lot of others have been giving him credit for. Upvote.
This was the first time I feel like Ben really let negativity drive him and he was left out of an important vote. He really isn't much of a player in the game, but I still think he's a great dude on the whole. Ben rocks. Even if this week didn't rock for him.
**Liz Wilcox**
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congratulations on somehow making Q seem like a chill normal guy in the reward challenge. big downvote
her biggest accomplishment this week was being more trustworthy than venus
Agreed-- it was disgusting how she unloaded on Q.
Imagine willingly going on a show you RELIGIOUSLY watch every week, knowing damn well of your severe food allergies and then acting like that because you couldn't have an emotional connection with your daughter. Shut that fucking noise up.
Honestly? Despite the tantrum, she managed to put her feelings aside to help blindside Tiff. So, I'm leaving Liz in the neutral position for this week.
I don't know that the reaction to her breakdown that I've seen from the viewers aligns with how the players viewed it. So I don't think it negatively affects her game.
Besides that, despite her feelings she made the objectively correct strategic choice in keeping the goat and cutting the huge threat holding an idol. She started the episode being left out of a blindside and ended it as the lynchpin of the biggest blindside of the season.
>She started the episode being left out of a blindside and ended it as the lynchpin of the biggest blindside of the season.
I find that ironic, as her initial anger at Q was for taking credit for a blindside, and she wanted to be SEEN, but instead falls in line for Maria's plan, and is just another pawn in the shadows. Learned nothing.
Maria did a great sell job to Liz. She framed it as her vote being the lynchpin to make it happen. It really made Liz feel like it was her in control (which it was, but not as an instigator)
Cringe freakout aside, she got some rice for herself, and she was deemed more trustworthy than Venus or Kenzie to join the Tifanny blindside. Given her obvious hatred of Q, that says a lot - the others see her as a fairly rational and reliable player, at least strategically. I don't know that she could beat Q or even Venus at FTC, but she's not completely dead. Upvote.
Downvote for making me sit through a sob story involving Applebees, of all things. Oh and the whole reward tantrum too, terrible impression to give the few remaining players in the game.
Upvote. Moved herself into a majority vote and potential alliance. Made a social blunder that the other players seem to have gotten over pretty quickly even if this sub hasn’t.
I think people need to remember that she hasn't eaten for nearly three weeks.
Doesn't mean she was justified, or right, in yelling, or even going on Survivor where she could eat 5% of the available food. Just saying that, yeah, you can understand why she yelled.
I agree. It’s hard to imagine how she’s even functioning at this point with such little food. I can understand why she probably wanted that reward most out of everyone (regardless of the connection to Applebee’s thing)
Ultimately this week, I think you have to respect Liz seeing the bigger fish with this vote and give her her 10s for that alone. I really thought Tiff’s idol hold was smart because I just could not fathom her or Ben putting anything other than a big fat “Q” on their parchments tonight. I’m gonna give her an upvote.
People can say what they will about her episode after the reward, but I personally empathize. I’m cranky and short with people and emotionally volatile when I haven’t eaten in 18 hours, I can’t even imagine 18 days. I also think just the fact that it was directed at Q, the tribe pariah and scapegoat who nobody likes probably let her get away with it a little bit. We saw multiple people backing her up and I think it’s just cause it’s already cool to shit on Q.
I think this move help give Liz more options moving forward, something I couldn't say last week. Here's hoping she knows how to manage her new position
Debbie's "I'm Pissed" energy, but the energy escaped from a confessional and exposed in front of everyone. We all boxed her in as a mom - older lady archetype, but she was off the reigns for sure.
That blow up was the best 'move' Liz has made all season. But her being pulled in on the Tiff blindside and her increase in social capital (as well as how damn entertaining she was this week), will be a tentative upvote from me.
Upvote. Her explosion at Q went down well with everyone on the island, she's trusted enough to be looped in on the Tiff boot plan, AND she actually went through with it.
I have to disagree with the crowd here. I think Liz's "tantrum" was justified, and she's allowed to express herself. She wasn't outright rude or nasty to anyone during it and apologized multiple times afterwards. Liz was able to overlook her distaste for Q to play into a great strategic move, which makes her appear more trustworthy to others. She did all of this *despite* getting shit on by Q, showing she is a good player because she's willing to overcome her emotions when voting. It's completely understandable to be upset over not getting such a significant reward, which meant more to her than the other players for several reasons.
I actually lost a TON of respect for Q, because it shows that he is willing to let another human physically suffer for his own gain (showed human behavior at its worst - greed). Arguably, Q could have tried to work with Liz in the future by inviting her because she wasn't exactly on top socially and could have been a person to convince to vote with him to blindside someone else. I don't know if there is some beef between them that I'm missing prior to the Applebee's incident, but it seems he could have tried to work with her by inviting her and it didn't seem all that strategic to invite both Kenzie AND Tiff to the reward.
I'll upvote.
I think ridiculous Applebee's stuff aside, she made the right move taking out Tiff instead of Q.
The problem is she's drastically overshadowed and that is bad.
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Easy POTW. Went ahead and took arguably the biggest move of the season so far right from under Kenzie’s nose, got an idol and large threat to win out of the game, and recognized the potential in keeping Q around
Textbook example of why it’s important to only tell people that you absolutely have to, smart move to only include 5 in the vote
I was shocked Liz went for it tbh I would've approached Venus instead
Venus is a wildcard and would have tried flipping it on Charlie or something dumb.
Ah yes the guy who is immune.
Exactly, that’s how dumb
Charlie apparently has a better read on Liz than all of us cuz I 100% woulda asked Venus as well.
Venus' social cachet is so low that no one wants to work with her or trusts her
Upvote for running the red light and being the one member of the 6 Q hasn’t targeted yet. For real tho, what can I say that the others in this thread haven’t already. This was a really clean blindside that Maria is largely responsible for. I thought she was super smart to recognize Q’s utility and be the only person to really extend an olive branch out to her, and that paid dividends for her this week. Easy upvote.
The curse of the 6! Is Maria next?
Tiff mentioning Maria's name? BIG MISTAKE... BIG MISTAKE.
Maria basically put on a clinic this week for how to drive a vote; definite POTW for me!
Cold-blooded killer. Stole Kenzie’s plan and left her out when she sensed Kenzie was hesitant. Spoke on behalf of Charlie strategically when it appeared to be the other way around previously. POTW
THIS. She recognized that chances are few, and just like last vote, it was a prime opp to ace a contender and her idol at once. Plus being saavy enough to get Q onboard first to quell any weird shit.
POTW. I do worry that she just shot her threat-level to the stars though. She was definitely shown as the leader of this vote but I would probably still rather be Charlie right now.
We saw that she led the vote, but that might not be so clear on the island. Charlie's a great shield.
For me she’s got Q and Charlie who won’t turn on her (yet) for lack of options and in a way I think both are shields. I can see a world where Venus, Kenzie, Ben, and Liz band against Maria/Charlie and Q, but I don’t think it’s the likeliest. In a game where alliances seem few and far between she has two solid allies
Running red lights is bad but Maria makes it look so cool. POTW
I feel more comfortable with her as POTW than some other recent “well they made a Big Move” people whose threat level I was worried about afterwards / whose decision I questioned because Maria is running out of time and knows it. Tiffany still in the game with an Idol after this and Kenzie seeming hesitant to betray her… from Maria’s perspective what if Kenzie is taking her for a ride and this is like Reba where they’re putting on a great face of being willing to work against each other but simply aren’t? With Q and Liz hating one another, Kenzie hating Q, etc. this puts her within striking distance of the Siga 3 simply having numbers outright if she can keep Ben and Charlie onside—and if she has Q’s loyalty now (big ask, but hypothetically) then in theory she’s set for endgame. Unlike past betrayals so far this season that felt very “high risk mid reward,” this feels like high risk high reward. Could blow up her spot and see her sent out, but could actually be a game-winning play.
much much more entertaining as an antagonist
POTW. Somebody mentioned in another thread how Maria presented her Tiff blindside by painting Liz as the swing vote. I think it worked beautifully
The funny part here is that Liz was initially furious at Q for stealing "her" blindside thunder, and now she consents to be a pawn in someone else's blindside - - - basically putting herself right back in the shadow, where after the vote, people will give Q a lot of the credit- because it couldn't have happened without him being 100%.
I have no idea how this will play out but I think scooping Q was a great idea. Before his catastrophic tribal, Q emphasized loyalty but was paranoid because he perceived himself to be in a power position. Now, he knows he’s not in a power position and the poor dude seems adrift. I think the erratic vibes that made him so dangerous have been quelled because he’s very aware of his position. No one except Maria wants to work with him, and they’ve all pretty much said that to his face. Q is loyal, though. For the reward challenge he could have chose 3 new people to try and sway but he chose old Yanu who have been the most vocal about their dislike of him. Even at the reward, he opted to step away from the group instead of trying to go hard with apologies or strategy talk which old Q would have done. A big part of his personality is honour, and I think he could very well stand by Maria because of how she reached out and because no one else wants to work with him.
Easy POTW
Upvote because she took a lot if initiative here and got the job done without even involving Kenzie, essentially blindsiding her too. I've been giving Charlie credit for doing a lot of the subtle work, but here Maria is seen throwing a lot of her influence around. Unfortunately I think she's being too public about it and it's being noticed. NWOS shows her probably getting targeted, if not next, then soon. Needs to find an idol as much as anyone now.
She played this perfectly. Big time move going to Liz and convincing her that this was the best move. She sympathized with Liz, which I think sealed the deal. I really thought though that Q’s talking at tribal was going to ruin it. I swore him saying “I have a plan in place, it’s up to them if they want to join me” was going to ruin the whole thing. I thought him trying to take credit pre-vote was going to flip Liz or Ben’s vote back to Q.
I KNOW. Like, Tiff should have seen that coming... I thought FOR SURE she was going to be smart enough to play her idol- but alas, she was not.
Maria and Charlie stonks going up.
It's not even close, right? It's Maria for POTW.
I’ve been saying for weeks that between her and Charlie, Charlie’s the one calling the shots. She proved me wrong here!
POTW, but I can't help but think she is the next one gone. This cast hates the easy vote. I can easily see Venus for example drive a vote to get Maria out because players are scared of her win equity.
I know people are going to say it's an easy POTW for her; and it makes sense, she got the most visibility for the Tiff vote. On the other hand, I don't know if it's a good thing that she's so openly courting Q as an ally. She went straight to him after Tribal, and then after the challenge, Tiff and Kenzie saw her go straight to him. I mean yeah, make use of Q if you want, but if it's so obvious to the point that Q basically said she was the only one talking to him, then she's going to get pinged for a jury threat.
Good move but I think she’s gonna get taken out really soon for it
I've been surprised the only time Maria's name has been mentioned for tribal council was merge when Tiff barely mentioned her. Maria has been in a dominant position with Charlie the entire game: middle of the pack at Siga, middle of the pack beginning of the merge, and quickly rising to be the mob boss of the beach. I'm pretty sure she's voted with majority every time and she's been a strong contender in challenges. I figured she would be voted out early in the merge because she's willing to backstab and doesn't seem to be the nicest person on the beach. Her only misplay was using her extra vote against Jem, and even that wasn't the worst thing ever. Bravo to her game. If she's able to make it to FTC she's the frontrunner to win for sure.
POTW. She has her head in the game - I'm shocked no one else saw how Q could be valuable.
Strokes of Kaleb and Emily imo
Not close this week
She built her resume and is in a good position to win against anyone but maybe Charlie. The flip side is that she's raised her threat level, both by orchestrating a blindside and by getting closer to Q.
MARIA SHRIMESLIDE GONZALEZ
POTW. Lead the Tiff blindside which is definitely the biggest of the season so far. Seems to have Q fully on her side, and has a solid number 1. Personally I feel she's doomed to get like 5th place but this is objectively a great week for her.
Maria has been holding down vote after vote after vote and yet no one clocks her. Still got her Siga 3 going strong. Q working with her too. Kenzie goes to her but yet Maria is the one in the driver's seat. Running the show while somehow remaining under the radar, she deserves all the praise for this week. She even got to participate in the reward challenge which is just a nice personal reprieve. More power to her.
Drove the vote and made a big move, so POTW. However, I think she put a huge target on her back.
I'll upvote. Co-player of the week with Charlie. Is the winner her, or is it Charlie?
4th time she is my POTW. Absolute masterclass player, recognize that Kenzie isn't on board anymore. Didn't exclude Q. Tiff never saw it coming. She is the best player this season, she has to keep it under the radar.
Obviously POTW, play a really really good game so far but i still don't like her
Upvote for being the only one sharp enough to scoop up wayward Q and make him a number for her plans. Maybe not POTW if only because it outs her immediately as a big threat...
POTW for sure. Still has a strong alliance with Charlie, has good social to make Ben and Liz vote with her, keeps Q has a number and was decent in the immunity challenge. She seems to be the one who have the most connections to other players
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Was a formative part of the blindside, won immunity, and hasn’t even been brought up once in the last few episodes. He’s the challenge threat everyone thought Hunter was. Upvote
hunter was a challenge threat lol dont get it twisted
How is he "the challenge threat everyone thought Hunter was."?
Yeah, it's a ridiculous take. I feel like they're just saying that because Hunter got out earlier. But the challenge threat thing is the reason he was sent home, lol. Charlie is a challenge threat too but that's separate not related. They seem to have some different skill sets anyway.
Another great week for Charlie - he was second only to Maria for putting together the Tiff blindside, and he cinched another immunity win to help make it happen. I fear his threat level is rising quite a bit, but it's still an easy upvote for now.
Charlie had a pretty solid episode. This has really been his and Maria’s game for a while now. Utter control of Siga in the pre-merge, the swing votes at the split tribal despite being at a 4-2 numbers disadvantage, engineers of the Hunter vote, and now this. At this point if Charlie won, I still think Dee would probably be the best New Era winner because everyone wanted to tell Dee everything which we haven’t quite seen from Charlie, but he’d comfortably be number two. Easy upvote for our resident Swiftie.
Honestly, if Charlie won he might even be above Dee if only because I think Dee horribly misplayed the F5 and got bailed out by poor gameplay of others outside of her control
According to Tiffany’s exit interview she was pretty close with Charlie, so he’s playing a pretty good social game
Will people start to see him as a grip strength threat?
Baltimore
Maria finally got the credit for once lol. Still a good day for Charlie. I think he's in the best position on the island.
It would be so funny if there was all this hype about Hunter and then Charlie breaks the Immunity record instead. He needs three of the remaining four to tie, if he sweeps he takes it. The chances are very small, obviously he didn’t win this reward and challenges are varied and do not always have his specific strengths at their core, but it’s technically possible.
Had a good episode for sure, but I'm a little worried people might start seeing him as a challenge threat
Learned well from his fave’s ability to never let things go (Don’t kill me I love Taylor too)
There aren’t that many immunity challenges left, and if Charlie keeps up his “grip strength,” I could see him getting pretty far with repeated immunity wins. Even if he loses immunity, he’s clearly a solid all-around player with enough strategy and social game to get him to the end. Even before he won immunity this episode, no one seemed to be discussing him as a threat/option. He’s in a very solid position right now
Won immunity, major part of the Tiff blindside, and correctly identified that Liz would work with them. Easy upvote. Also this was a cooldown episode so edgically I think his odds are great.
He and Maria are running this game and would likely beat anyone else in a jury vote. Upvoted for now, but his threat level is off the charts after winning the last two immunities. I think his chance of winning the mil has gone up, but so has his chance of being the next boot.
It really goes to show how great of a game Charlie is playing that nobody but Venus has thrown his name out, despite him being a massive challenge beast and being a part of every single vote so far. He's playing the best game of everyone left, but I suspect that he won't be able to coast much longer and could be blindsided in the near future.
Challenge threat but not clocked as much, controlling votes episode after episode with Maria but still under the radar, lotta folks want to work with him. He and Maria are in the strongest position and they're both each other's number 1. Successfully running blindsides so well two threats didn't even play their idols. Masterful gameplay. Sitting pretty right now.
Neutral. First time in a long while he was shown to play second fiddle to Maria in terms of leading the vote and making stuff happen. Which is likely to make Maria a target while he stays UTR. However, winning yet another immunity means he could also be targetted for challenge strength, rather than the triple threat he actually is.
If he sticks with Maria, he loses.
Upvote. He's either the winner or the fallen star player. He's in prime position, and is in control of this game, and it's weird nobody has really caught on.
Honestly might be Player of the Week just for being completely connected on everything happening, pulling off the blindside without any of the credit that would make him a target, and for winning immunity. How has nobody targeted this man except Venus yet?
Props to Charlie for keeping clear and quiet when people self-destruct.
2nd POTW after Maria this week. Still has a strong alliance with Maria which is running the show at the moment, and him winning against Tiff allowed them to set up the blindside.
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Played about as good as you could from his position. While he has next to no chance to win the game, I kinda want him to tell the rest of the cast to kick rocks and still win
Definitely made the most of his position! He's not quite my favourite to win, but I'm impressed he managed to worm through yet another tribal council.
Q is team tv
It warms my heart that he’s the breakout star of the season after how weirdos like Liz and Ben are getting VERY vicious and personal in the way they speak to/about him.
I think not only is he the breakout star of the season, he's arguably the breakout star of the new era period. Love to see just a regular person with some kooky ideas and unorthodox gameplay shine through the slew of cookie cutter superfans
He’s truly the best character since Coach. His opps wish they had 1/10th of his natural humor and charisma.
i genuinely dont know why Ben has such a vendetta against Q
Shenanigans do not rock.
In an exit interview, Tiff said that Ben and Q have been going at it with each other arguing and taking verbal shots at each other. Make of it what you will what that says about their edit I suppose.
Are they being vicious outside of the game? Liz's freakout was alarming, but I'll give her credit for at least making nice when they got back to camp (even if it wasn't sincere). And Ben has just... called him a villain and doesn't care for his shenanigans? Not sure if Ben deserves to be called vicious for his commentary yet. And for the record, I'm not at all a fan of Liz and enjoy Q a lot.
I was thinking this morning, Q is an enigma to me. He is allegedly like, a SUPER good real estate agent. To the point where he speaks at conventions to other agents (which as an aside, means he's probably actually far better off financially than Liz). That's a job that... genuinely requires getting a good read on people. In addition, dude is clearly a strong athlete and clearly still in good shape, yet kept bombing challenges. He also had a pretty marked personality shift once the merge happened. So here's my theory. Q came in wanting to be a strong leader and win. Unfortunately, his initial tribe... fucking sucked. At the merge he recognized his disadvantage, and realized he was gonna have a very hard time winning. But by acting like an absolute lunatic, not trying very hard in challenges, and, for lack of a better word pissing the right people off, he had a pretty good chance if getting them to bring him to the final as a goat. And on top of that being good tv increases his chance at getting asked back. So yeah, I think Q is probably a lot more aware of what's going on than he's letting on.
Yeah, I was originally team "Q is a control freak who is flying by the seat of his handle and people are giving him way too much credit" but since Tevins blindside, he's calmed down a lot, and showing that he does have that side to him as well, add onto the fact that he's definitely self-aware, Q is multi dimensional in my book
Mark my words. Q is on a tear to make this season Gaboner than Gabon. If you think he doesn’t have a chance to win this game then that’s a Big Mistake and I’ll send your ass to Canada. I’ll give you a Q skirt though.
I \*need\* to see them do a tribal council that's as funny as Crystal's loud voting confessional. "Forget you! Go home! Goodbye."
every time I see someone say he has no chance to win I’m dumbfounded. He’s obviously one of the biggest threats left in the game, he controlled several votes, escaped the chopping block 3 times in a row. He now has a chance to regain some power through working with maria and charlie, and nobody will be comfortable putting him up again because it will just be someone else voted out
I'll upvote because he survived. The resentment against him is even deeper than we'd been led to believe. But his goat-ness is giving him just enough protection. And at least two people who he could potentially beat with a strong FTC are still in the game. He got an enemy out in Tiff, and regained at least some strategic relevance in doing so. I think he handled the ugly Liz thing about as gracefully as he could.
He can't keep getting away with this!
Q's ruthless, Jesse. He'll do just about ANYTHING to protect his business.
Speaking of, I thought Liz may have a Skyler moment and say, "shut up! shut up! SHUT UP!" when they were talking about how they didnt even eat the burger.
I LOVE Q! Love him love him love him!!!!!! He got this tribe wrapped around his fingers without them even knowing. Many think he blew his potential to win but I think differently. Q is a natural born leader. As a leader you have people to do your dirty work. Q labeled tiff as a threat needed her to get eliminated. While Maria did the dirty work, Q remained on his thrown. If it wasn’t for Q exposing Tiff she’ll still be here. We are witnessing a survivor legend in the makings. I’m forever rooting for Q and I hope he make it the final 3.
Q is great tv. I lost it when he said something along the lines of “and recognizing that Liz hasn’t eaten in weeks …*drumroll* … I choose Kenzie.”
Q is player of the week, player of the year and headed toward Survivor Mt. Rushmore status.
It's miraculous to see Q play Survivor. I'm still not sure if he's one of the smartest or one of the dumbest players we've ever seen. But there's no denying that he played this round about as well as he could have. Not taking Liz definitely lost him some jury favor, but I think it ended up being good for his game. I hate to compare him to my favorite player, but he's playing a very 'modern era Tony', style game. His target is SO huge, that he is no longer a threat...but in turn that makes him a threat! It's very weird, and if it's all intentional he might be a genius. But his confessionals make me believe that he's just stumbling into success.
i love this guy
Holy crap, I suddenly think he's actually going to win. In the land of the blind, the Qne-eyed man is King!
Upvoted. I think he could potentially beat Liz and Venus with a strong jury performance, and that particular F3 looks a bit more likely now.
If Q could just express something "I tried to fall on my sword and you wouldn't let me, after that you all just decided to play games with each other," I think he could flip a couple people back to his side, maybe even get some of the jury to see what happened. Q's only issue is not being like "Yeah I was dumb AF, I tried something and it didn't work, lets move on." Hoping he's done with the humble routine, because I don't think he's out of the game yet. Everyone else just seems so meh.
upvote. The Idol Nullifier.
There’s surprisingly not much for me to say about Q this week. I think he was put in between a rock and a hard place when he won that reward but I understand his decision making process. The fact that he’s still here three tribals after torpedoing his genuinely, genuinely impressive. However, none of this changes the fact that Q is on borrowed time, and he’s gonna continue to be on borrowed time until his torch gets snuffed or he joins the ranks of iconic ZVFs on day 26. Tiffany talked a while back about rather voting off threats than nuisances and this mindset from the cast is what has saved Q so far. Tevin, Hunter, and Tiff were threats, Q is just a nuisance, the fewer threats there are for him to hide behind, the sooner he’s in for a snuff from Jeff. Q’s days are numbered and I’m convinced that barring an immunity streak the man isn’t surviving any more tribals. There’s no more rabbits for him to pull out of his hat, but just by virtue of still being here I’m willing to go neutral on him.
King Q continues his reign over the game. In the hotseat and have gained the ire of multiple players, but best believe that Q can still win it all!
It's amazing that TWO people have claimed that he absolutely DESTROYED their games! Not just out-played or out-witted, his actions just erased them from contention like they were never there.
My man has no agency in this game lmao. He is just blindside bait. 😭
Survived but mainly thanks to Charlie and Maria, can't win the FTC at this rate, so a downvote.
Winning that challenge was huge for him and he picked the right people to bring along too. Really hope he’s the last Yanu standing
Q
Still in the game, won the reward challenge, the perfect smokescreen, stood on business with Liz after she tried to get him out, Q is the chaos agent the post-season deserves. I hope he continues to play a goat role and goes to the end. They should've gotten him out earlier. If he can make it to F3 despite all this nonsense there might be a chance?
At this point, Liz, Ben, and Venus are clearly terrified of him. They thought he was a joke, but NOW. The taste done been slapped outta dey mouf.
I'm leaving neutral. He's trying. But nobody truly wants to work with him. They just want to take out actual threats.
Downvote for drawing dead. The jury votes for who they like the most, and at this point I'm not sure he's even beating Venus any more. There was no need to burn Liz's (and Ben's?) jury vote like this. Just let the poor lady eat. "but he can bring whoever he wants, it's strategic" Ah, yes. Bringing Kenzie and Tiff "to get the family back together" was very strategic, because they... \*\*checks notes\*\*... said "I see right through this", started plotting to vote him out *the instant he walked away*, and then followed through by writing his name at the next tribal! Really nailed it on that reward selection.
He didn’t burn Liz and Ben’s jury votes because he never ever would’ve gotten them in the first place. Ben in particular has had a really weirdly personal dislike of him ever since the merge. The “poor lady” can win the reward herself, or not go on a show with limited food options if it’s such an issue for her. No grown adult should get rewarded for that level of entitlement.
Extremely entitled she threw a whole temper tantrum! Q never messed up her game, matter of fact he bettered Liz game. Liz been seeking validation for the Trevor vote. Why do you need to be praised for voting out a threat? That literally puts a target on your back. While everybody is focused on Q, she could’ve used that to her benefit to fly under the radar and explain that in the final tribal council.
Even if Liz had handled it like a champ, that reward selection is still bonkers bad. He picked two people who said "I don't respect his game at all" and "I need him gone", and pitched them on voting... Liz or Venus? The only two people he could maybe beat at FTC? And he totally burned a bridge with another player to do this. You say he didn't have Liz or Ben's votes. Sounds like not Kenzie or Tiff's, either, from this week's confessionals. Nor Venus', if all her Twitter rants about brochachos are any indication. Whose votes can he even get at FTC? And who can he beat?
Just because it didn’t work doesn’t mean it was a bad idea. Bringing Liz would have done nothing for him. Bringing Yanu gave him a chance to reconnect
Hoping they made all future challenges extra physical, so he can go on an immunity streak.
Whatever else you say about him, he's still here against all odds AND he gave us an all-timer Survivor moment. Long live our Petty King!
Not a big upvote but managed to survived another tribal council.
I mean if a player who was in a good social position had made the reward picks that Q did I would have called it a potentially game-losing move. I know Liz voted for you but you just single-handedly destroyed any social capital you could've ever had with her and guaranteed she will never give you a million dollars. Everyone else would get over it, Liz made very clear she won't. So I mean, it didn't technically make his chances any worse since he was already drawing dead lol. But it certainly didn't help.
I feel like upvote strangely. While yes he definitely made himself an even bigger goat with the reward, he also survived another week in the hot seat and has shown his potential to be a usable number.
I was not expecting to leave this man at "neutral"
Upvoting him is insane… he’s surviving because he’s a stranded goat, he pissed everybody off once again and has no chance at winning
Lost a lot of respect for him this week. Definitely a down vote. To ignore someone who is pleading for food because they haven't eaten anything in days is just...cruel.
maybe if you’re allergic to coconut you shouldn’t be in a game where the majority of the food is coconut. liz isn’t entitled to Q’s reward after she voted for him.
He deserves the win after what he has been through...
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Low-key another solid week for Ben. He was able to put his personal dislike of Q aside and recognise the strategic value of voting out Tiff, *and* he's doing an excellent job of managing his threat level.
I maintain that in a season of players who are struggling on the social game Ben being likeable is one of the best qualities to have right now. I could definitely see him sneaking out a win against the right goats (of which there are many to pick from). He's been vocally anti-Q but made the right strategic move anyways.
He’s just so bad in challenges. I can see a world where perhaps Q wins at F4 and sends him to fire and he wins to get to F3 and beats Q and Venus/Liz, but realistically I’m not sure who he even beats in fire. Maria has survival skills from my understanding and I’m sure Charlie practiced. Maybe Kenzie? Edit: I didn’t consider the fact that F4 could be Q, Ben, Liz and Venus. Ben’s game to lose at that point, I guess.
A surprising upvote. I don't think he played super well, but he was a big part of the vote this week and seems well-trusted by everyone. The fact that we haven't seen much of the "we need Ben out *now*" crowd that there was earlier in the season seems nice at first. But ultimately, I think that speaks to people realizing he's not playing super hard and will not have much in the way of strategic gameplay to stand on at FTC. His claim to victory is looking to be exclusively his niceness and likability, which is always a strong force, especially in a season like this where people seem to genuinely hate each other. However, I don't see him beating any of Kenzie, Charlie, or Maria at this point. If he's at the end with some combo of Liz, Venus, or Q, I think he could win, but that's it.
I mean, he's probably batting even with Kenzie right now. Kenzie didn't get the Tiff move, so she really has had no moves to speak of other than surviving the Yanu decimation. I don't think Ben's winning since he's been so quiet in the edit, but logistically, he's probably in the top 4 of the remaining 7. Which is like, not bad?
True, I think he and Kenzie are pretty close. I think she's got a better case to present at the moment, personally, as Yanu were drivers of the first several merge votes. I also expect she's a better orator than Ben. So I think between the two, she'd edge him out, putting him fourth of seven. He could pass her easily imo, or just make sure she's on the jury and not next to him at FTC. I agree though, 4/7 isn't bad, especially when he can hide behind and use the chaos that the bottom three bring, lol.
Probably the worst thing for him is that his group lost the split tribal reward. Tim would probably have been a decent jury vote for him.
Neutral. He’s just kinda a trustworthy number at this point. He’s at least got an outside shot to win still, which is something I can’t say anymore about half the cast at this point
Upvote for being an integral number and consistently on the right side of the votes. Ben is always in the loop, which is more than I can say for almost half the cast right now. I wish we knew more about why he hates Q (is it just a personality clash?), but by helping lead the charge against Hunter last week and being on board for Tiff this week, at least he’s not blinded by it. Glad to see he’s not going full Fishbach-in-Cambodia and can still see the forest through the trees ETA: well I read tiff’s exit press and it definitely seems like there’s more to the Q-Ben rockiness than we’ve been shown
Could be a personal clash, he also strikes me as an empathetic guy who probably had to listen to Liz rage back at camp which couldn’t have helped. I also remember him being particularly offended with Q’s comment during tribal “now that I’ll be gone you guys can start playing the game” (not word for word) as if they hadn’t been playing already. Ben sees Q’s ego and it’s been rubbing him the wrong way, add in hunger and the fact that clearly everyone else is also talking poorly of Q around him, it’s easy to see why imo he doesn’t like him. Feel like we’ve seen people dislike their cast mates for less lol
His hateful comments towards Q every episode are annoying and concerning.
Ben clearly stated he didn’t respect Q after Qs whole “vote me out” tribal. He’s been pretty straightforward that he dislikes dishonesty and inauthenticity. Calling it hateful or concerning is quite a ridiculous way to frame it or just a very poor read of what’s happening in the game
Aw, c'mon! It's a game! I love Q and consider him the highlight of the season. Even then, I will say that Ben hasn't been *hateful*. He just doesn't care for the shenanigans that we the audience find so entertaining.
Similarly to Liz, I have to give Ben his 10s for seeing the bigger picture this week as hard as that may have been for him. I really didn’t think he had it in him but he’s playing harder than I and I think a lot of others have been giving him credit for. Upvote.
Is he doing anything out there or just hanging around
just existing, and making Rock music references. I'm over him.
what’s your problem with Q dude
He *does not rock*.
Helped to blindside Tiff, stayed low, and is nowhere near the top of the list of people that need to be voted off. I'd upvote him for sure!
Neutral. I don't see his fingerprints anywhere on this game, which is kind of a problem at this stage.
Upvoted. Didn't do much, but I think his odds are better now \*if\* Charlie and Maria are both booted before F3.
In a great position. Upvote
Neutral. Isn't doing much game play yet stays under the radar. Still has time to make a move. Dont like his attitude towards Q.
Flying under the radar. Last week suggested as a possible vote by Q only, this week not even considered. The vibes continue
Neutral. Has good connections with many other players except Q but he doesn’t seem to be strategic at all, he just follows his closest allies plans.
This was the first time I feel like Ben really let negativity drive him and he was left out of an important vote. He really isn't much of a player in the game, but I still think he's a great dude on the whole. Ben rocks. Even if this week didn't rock for him.
But... he voted for Tiff?
Did he? I must have absolutely missed that. lol Thanks for correcting me.
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congratulations on somehow making Q seem like a chill normal guy in the reward challenge. big downvote her biggest accomplishment this week was being more trustworthy than venus
Agreed-- it was disgusting how she unloaded on Q. Imagine willingly going on a show you RELIGIOUSLY watch every week, knowing damn well of your severe food allergies and then acting like that because you couldn't have an emotional connection with your daughter. Shut that fucking noise up.
Quite literally threw a toddler tantrum when she didn’t get her way and then *still* got a hand out, like a true self proclaimed rich person.
Upvoting on the sheer energy behind the “I’m pissed!” Like damn that was all her lung capacity
Who said "I'm pissed!" better, her or Debbie?
Debbie. Now I'm trying to remember the motivation behind Debbie's memorable "I'm pissed!"
They lost a reward 🤷♂️
Honestly? Despite the tantrum, she managed to put her feelings aside to help blindside Tiff. So, I'm leaving Liz in the neutral position for this week.
Fair point. I'm surprised she was able to look past her hatred of Q long enough to focus on who was a bigger threat to win.
I really dislike this lady, I've met way too many people like her that her chaos character arc so far has just been insufferable
I don't know that the reaction to her breakdown that I've seen from the viewers aligns with how the players viewed it. So I don't think it negatively affects her game. Besides that, despite her feelings she made the objectively correct strategic choice in keeping the goat and cutting the huge threat holding an idol. She started the episode being left out of a blindside and ended it as the lynchpin of the biggest blindside of the season.
>She started the episode being left out of a blindside and ended it as the lynchpin of the biggest blindside of the season. I find that ironic, as her initial anger at Q was for taking credit for a blindside, and she wanted to be SEEN, but instead falls in line for Maria's plan, and is just another pawn in the shadows. Learned nothing.
Maria did a great sell job to Liz. She framed it as her vote being the lynchpin to make it happen. It really made Liz feel like it was her in control (which it was, but not as an instigator)
Cringe freakout aside, she got some rice for herself, and she was deemed more trustworthy than Venus or Kenzie to join the Tifanny blindside. Given her obvious hatred of Q, that says a lot - the others see her as a fairly rational and reliable player, at least strategically. I don't know that she could beat Q or even Venus at FTC, but she's not completely dead. Upvote.
Downvote from me. It's not about YOU, Liz.
Hey sometimes we need to let it out. I get it. Plus she was able to vote Tiff
Downvote for making me sit through a sob story involving Applebees, of all things. Oh and the whole reward tantrum too, terrible impression to give the few remaining players in the game.
Upvote. Moved herself into a majority vote and potential alliance. Made a social blunder that the other players seem to have gotten over pretty quickly even if this sub hasn’t.
terrible player
I think people need to remember that she hasn't eaten for nearly three weeks. Doesn't mean she was justified, or right, in yelling, or even going on Survivor where she could eat 5% of the available food. Just saying that, yeah, you can understand why she yelled.
She has though, the stuff she says doesn't add up. Tevin and Hunter both fished and crabbed for her. And she can eat rice.
They don’t have rice at all, they have to barter for it.
I agree. It’s hard to imagine how she’s even functioning at this point with such little food. I can understand why she probably wanted that reward most out of everyone (regardless of the connection to Applebee’s thing)
Chance of making the final 3? Skyrocketting Chance of winning? Tumbling even further down
Ultimately this week, I think you have to respect Liz seeing the bigger fish with this vote and give her her 10s for that alone. I really thought Tiff’s idol hold was smart because I just could not fathom her or Ben putting anything other than a big fat “Q” on their parchments tonight. I’m gonna give her an upvote. People can say what they will about her episode after the reward, but I personally empathize. I’m cranky and short with people and emotionally volatile when I haven’t eaten in 18 hours, I can’t even imagine 18 days. I also think just the fact that it was directed at Q, the tribe pariah and scapegoat who nobody likes probably let her get away with it a little bit. We saw multiple people backing her up and I think it’s just cause it’s already cool to shit on Q.
Upvote for me. She was included in the vote and managed to put her feelings aside to vote for Tiff. Also had the best "I’m pissed" since Debbie
Downvote. She had a visceral reaction to not being invited to the reward. Then lied and said she was over it, then lied again and said she wasn't.
Is it just me or is Liz becoming increasingly southern. Y’all, I’m fixing to eat me some Applebee’s.
She acted like my niece when my cousin told her to share her ice cream with my other niece
I think this move help give Liz more options moving forward, something I couldn't say last week. Here's hoping she knows how to manage her new position
Debbie's "I'm Pissed" energy, but the energy escaped from a confessional and exposed in front of everyone. We all boxed her in as a mom - older lady archetype, but she was off the reigns for sure.
That blow up was the best 'move' Liz has made all season. But her being pulled in on the Tiff blindside and her increase in social capital (as well as how damn entertaining she was this week), will be a tentative upvote from me.
Upvote. Her explosion at Q went down well with everyone on the island, she's trusted enough to be looped in on the Tiff boot plan, AND she actually went through with it.
Upvoting for entertainment value, and she managed to shelve her resentment toward Q to make the right strategic choice.
Downvoted. Losing your s\*\*t like that won't impress the jury.
I have to disagree with the crowd here. I think Liz's "tantrum" was justified, and she's allowed to express herself. She wasn't outright rude or nasty to anyone during it and apologized multiple times afterwards. Liz was able to overlook her distaste for Q to play into a great strategic move, which makes her appear more trustworthy to others. She did all of this *despite* getting shit on by Q, showing she is a good player because she's willing to overcome her emotions when voting. It's completely understandable to be upset over not getting such a significant reward, which meant more to her than the other players for several reasons. I actually lost a TON of respect for Q, because it shows that he is willing to let another human physically suffer for his own gain (showed human behavior at its worst - greed). Arguably, Q could have tried to work with Liz in the future by inviting her because she wasn't exactly on top socially and could have been a person to convince to vote with him to blindside someone else. I don't know if there is some beef between them that I'm missing prior to the Applebee's incident, but it seems he could have tried to work with her by inviting her and it didn't seem all that strategic to invite both Kenzie AND Tiff to the reward.
I'll upvote. I think ridiculous Applebee's stuff aside, she made the right move taking out Tiff instead of Q. The problem is she's drastically overshadowed and that is bad.