It's become fairly standard issue now. So much so that it doesn't always get shown.

Yeah, the point she was making was that Joe winning immunity wouldn't be enough, because they might vote out Shirin instead, since they'd want to keep the potential quitter around. So she had to be the one to take the Joe option away at the last minute to make them vote her out.

Until that moment, I felt like the only thing standing in the way of Mike's victory was not seeing the threat from within. That is clearly not a problem now. I put his chances at victory well within 80%.

Most likely candidate to leave hickeys on Joe's chest: Probst.

Yeah, the burn is stinging. He's a delightful person.

So good that there was no reason for her to make the NCs think she hadn't flipped on them!

Would this episode been more satisfying if the only conversations they showed were 7 people deciding between Hali and Shirin?

I don't even think about lying, blindsiding, or going through people's bags as evil, so I wasn't even thinking about that stuff.

Honestly? It would depend on how many confessionals they gave me. Luckily for everyone, I will never be on Survivor.

Joe, Sierra, and Mike. Shirin has yet to hit the sweep. And it's not just the top 11. It's "everyone who has met Shirin that is not named Max".

It's instructive to remember that Shirin has succeeded in a very differently structured "corporate" world than what we think of as "corporate America". The tech industry is full of weirdos. Her board rooms are probably green spaces next to the razor scooter parking.

I think you're absolutely right that many viewers think there's a point where the evil must be punished. I used to watch that way too. Sure, it was 20 cycles ago, but still. Moreover, I think viewers get angry at people for not doing the thing that would be most interesting to them. Tyler and Sierra flipping is…

Isn't it adorable that Shirin is a superfan?

Which is why it's a great thing for Mike for Joe to stick around.

Rodney, Will, Carolyn, Tyler = a path to victory for Tyler.

As for why the editing would swerve us like this, it could be something as simple as "avoiding an episode built on an obvious pagonging". They probably overcorrected, but in retrospect, it's pretty amazing that we're treating like the removal of one of Hali or Jenn as a surprise given where they were coming into the…

"Tell me why I’m an idiot and Tyler made the right call. I need to hear the other side of the coin."
I'd never suggest you're an idiot, but it's entirely likely that the plan of Tyler/Carolyn and Shirin (independent of Tyler/Carolyn, but the same basic plan), is to split the middle and reassemble a new power the…

This is absolutely true. That said, they made Mike look GREAT tonight. In one idol sequence, they put in all the necessary pieces.

It took until Hali's third vote for me to remember that I was playing fantasy Survivor. I was right to want to walk away last season and have now debased myself with one last, terrible season. I am Willie Mays on the Mets.

Dan has also outlasted Boston Rob. Dan is amazing at Survivor and this proves it.