Tony also had a very solid alliance in Cagayan with an impressive social player (Trish) and a loyal soldier (Woo). Trish played "good cop" to his "bad cop" and kept people like Jefra from flipping, and Woo always voted with him. He didn't have either of those things this time before he ran off into the jungle making…

"Hate everyone else" when Malcolm, Cirie, Ozzy, Sandra, Michaela, and Zeke are around?

Exactly. People underrate Trish, but she was constantly putting out the fires Tony was starting. I'd actually love to see her play again, but you could basically invite the entire Cagayan cast back and I'd be down.

That's true, but keep in mind that the other players have no idea how well Zeke and Michaela placed in Millennials vs. Gen-X. Game Changers was filmed before Millennials vs. Gen-X started airing. Michaela and Zeke could tell people that they were booted early or that they made the final three, and no one else would…

It really depends. The pre-merges have been getting shorter. Cambodia only had six pre-merge rounds despite having 20 players, and three of those rounds included three tribes. Compare this with other 20-player seasons like Palau and Cook Islands, which had eight and nine pre-merge rounds, respectively.

No worries. The quote from Carolyn came from a video AMA she did on Reddit, but I'm sure it can change from season to season. Aubry, Michele, and Tai were allowed to make closing statements in Kaôh Rōng, but the way Jeff framed it made it sound almost like a last-minute decision to give Aubry one more chance to plead…

I've heard castaways say in subsequent interviews that they still do opening and closing statements, they just don't show them anymore.

I think the issue is that Adam didn't exert a ton of control over the shape of the game, either. He was often left out or on the wrong side of the numbers. Hannah was in the know, at least, although I absolutely agree that she wasn't a great player. (Her main faults were social, not strategic, in my mind. A smoother,…

If it isn't already fact, Ken proved loyalty games are dead in Survivor. He played the best loyalty game you could and cut ties at exactly the right time. No one cared. I sorta feel bad for him.

Sometimes talking up your own game works, even if it's not entirely true. I think Hannah played the final Tribal Council very well, but it didn't make up for her personal and strategic deficiencies earlier in the game. Had Hannah won, her win would have been very similar to Kristie's from Australian Survivor, since…

Like Cambodia, kudos to the editors for turning a 10-0-0 blowout into a tense final Tribal Council. The nerds on Reddit and Survivor Sucks (myself included) who meticulously try to predict the winner based on the edit had almost all of our eggs in the Jay or David baskets. Once David was voted out, there wasn't any…

The way he said it, I thought he simply told her he won even though he didn't really know, which is even more devastating.

The other is that she would make moves that were pretty much random just so that her game is recognized and piss people off as a result.

Like I said, my concern isn't about women winning. It's about women winning when they're up against men.* Big Brother has the same problem, and they just saw their first woman beat a man in the final two in their 18th season (and even she was a returnee going up against a newbie). The fact that Jeff Probst actively…

There's no way for the Jury to split votes anymore. They used to be kept separate, but now they all get to hang out at Ponderosa, so I'm sure Bret and Sunday's friends would have collaborated and decided which one of the two deserved their votes.

To be fair, Chris didn't even ask her about that, so in order to to counter him, she would have had to interrupt him. This is why I wish they would bring back opening and closing statements. The players need a chance to advocate for themselves and present their games as narratives. I remember reading that the Jury in C…

I thought Hannah's final Tribal Council performance was very interesting. Let's get this out of the way first: Hannah didn't play a masterful game, and I have no problem with Adam's win. They were both erratic and socially flawed players, and this final three nearly matches Gabon's with regards to its utter randomness.

When creationism and cryptozoology meet!

It was a dress with a stuffed dragon attached. According to a secret scene on YouTube, Michelle is obsessed with dragons and actually thinks they're real. Why that scene was put on YouTube instead of the main show is beyond me.

This might sound very heartless, but I wish Adam had kept his mother's illness a secret during the final Tribal Council. I don't think he won solely due to pity, although I do think it influenced the unanimous decision. (Michelle's question made it seem like she was going to vote for Hannah, for instance.) I think…