Which she owes them, since basically all the problems of this season trace back to her convincing Richard to stay with Raviga after Peter Gregory's death, FOR LESS MONEY. She convinced them to stay with a company that had their interests in mind that IMMEDIATELY dropped them and made them toxic to all other investors,…

We all thought that when Cercei sent away Ser Meren Trant that it was a bad sign for Trant and Margaery's dad (and it still may be). But it also ended up taking away one more weapon for Tommen.

Unless they were on reward or a challenge, they were stuck in the same patch of land the entire time for fear of death. Fun!

Here's an idea: Only five teams. Picking four players in a draft might be more interesting than two. It might also mitigate the "team with the winner always wins" factor. (I'm guessing it doesn't in the pick four, but that's because multiple teams have the winner).

Ehn, I feel like the cast got about as much time as they've been getting of late. The difference is that we didn't get random fans/older Survivors in the audience segments.

Africa is just so dour. People are fond of Australia. Notsomuch with Africa. I also think the positive work by Jeff Varner gave Kimmi a bump too, since they're so linked.

She was iconic because 40 million people were watching. Look, I get that you have your preference, but I don't see where the "deserving" argument comes from. Kimmi was unceremoniously and unanimously dumped by her only tribe as the fifth boot. Kelley was voted out at the swap in a vote split. They are equal.

Joe should pair up with Savage/Terry (I'm guessing they'll be split into different tribes), Woo/Keith, and some women that will need them to win challenges. He'd be set up pretty well there with people less likely to flip on him.

I'd have to imagine the answer is easily no (as others have pointed out below). But she's likely in the top ten.

I also think that people who have been on the show realize that while a million dollars ($600 K after taxes) is nice, it's not the life-changing revelation that many make it out to be before they play. Almost every winner besides maybe Rob and Amber had to go back to their day jobs.

Sierra had been second place to Mike in the more recent challenges. Carolyn only beat him once (in a challenge more physically suited to someone of her stature), but hadn't come close since then.

I half-wondered if that was part of Mike's motivation to force the fire-making challenge: to demonstrate to the jury how poorly the winner was at basic survival stuff. Certainly for Carolyn, he eliminated any argument she could have made about "getting herself to the final three". She didn't get herself there; Mike…

Most opening statements suck. An even higher percentage of closing statements sucked too, which is why they dropped them.

I think you may be reading into the significance of her not going out instead of Sierra incorrectly. Perhaps instead of giving Carolyn credit for that, we should be asking ourselves "why wasn't she considered a target"? Combine that with her one jury vote (which, depending on what you believe, was fewer than what…

She campaigned really well. Her and Kelley's inclusion seem to be proof that getting out there with fans and trying to get their votes mattered. I like that.

I don't know why you assume that CBS wouldn't have selected Keith and Woo themselves. Plus Culpepper.

Same as Max: he was probably really good to work with from a production standpoint. Also, were this a producer-cast season, he'd be on as a villain. That many of us don't like him and have strong opinions in that direction confirms this.

It's for the best that they didn't, as he wouldn't have gotten in. Turns out, getting a villainous edit doesn't help you win a popular vote among fans. (Yes, Abi and Kass got in, but the women's field was pretty weak).

Also, the new final challenges have all been incredibly impressive structures visually. They need time to build those, and can't build them to accommodate 8 people.

This whole tribal council seemed really oddly and over-edited to me. None of those three were allowed to make much of a case for themselves. Will was probably given the biggest opportunity.