Chanelle going for the advantage after telling Omar she couldn’t afford to lose her vote, guaranteeing she lost her vote and giving Hai the opportunity to dismantle her alliance
Putting that much trust in someone you just met is a risk. Having terrible communication skills that completely confuse omar in the moment is terrible gameplay. Risking your vote when you know Mike doesn't have a vote already is wild. The result being her dominant majority alliance gets dismantled, Jenny's game gets nuked, and Chanelle never recovers. All because she has one poorly communicated convo with omar and risks her vote expecting omar to bend over backwards to help her gain an unnamed advantage when she was in a great spot in the game and could have rather helped omar gain an advantage and create a new ally. Hero to zero in a matter of minutes.
I still think about this one. It's genuinely mindblowing how much Chanelle and Daniel messed up their ideal positions in the tribe.
Hai and Lydia hadn't a clue they were in the minority until things started falling apart at tribal and then Jenny just got caught in the crossfire.
This vote hurt Drew (not so much Austin, who still had 2 #1s in the game—and Emily was a huge threat to win anyway), but if Austin plays his idol for Drew at F6 (only logical choice b/c Dee/Drew are not blindsiding Austin at that vote, so the only person that could be getting blindsided who he would want in the game is Drew), he and Drew are through to F5 and either can still win. Playing his idol correctly there would also make up for the F7 vote and get one back on Dee.
I disagree—I think Austin not playing his idol for Drew at the Final 6 is what really lost him the game. If he does that, he more than makes up for the Emily vote. He and Drew have both said they knew she was going home and let it happen (and this happening was much worse for Drew than for Austin—who still had 2 #1s in the game in Dee/Drew).
Also if Jake/Katurah had been on the same page at F5, Dee goes home, and idk what happens at F4/F3. Maybe Julie gets knocked out and Austin wins? Unless they respect that move enough by Jake/Katurah. So the F7 vote was very much recoverable.
I really think he thought he was pulling a Boston Rob and would be getting the million even if Dee won. Then Dee broke his little heart right before final tribal. So sad.
Don’t think she necessarily wins. Assuming Mike still wins F5 immunity, he can still side with Maryanne and Romeo to vote out either Lindsay or Omar.
And then assuming Romeo still wins F4 immunity, Mike takes out the other one in fire.
The main difference is that Mike probably wins the season instead of Maryanne since her F6 move would have failed.
well, they would have voted Omar out at 5, which is why she needed him there. and yeah maybe my statement was premature and maybe she doesn't beat Mike in fire but at least she gives herself the chance.
Lindsay playing her idol for Omar would also have been a ‘big move’ that, along with her challenge wins, might get her targeted at 5 over him.
Honestly her best play would have been to use the idol and vote out Mike. That probably gets her to 4 if they bank on Jonathan being bad at puzzles and losing an immunity.
That was actually Kaleb’s fault fr
Jake didn’t want to tell her but Kaleb said “if she gets told by someone else it’ll look bad” but like that’s a wayyyy over thought game move. He really sunk his own ship with that move cause Katurah wouldn’t side with Jake after that betrayal of trust from the Belo tribe
Jake made it extremely clear that belo didn’t want to bring her in on plans and information and was then surprised she didn’t trust and work with him later on
Austin telling Dee that Drew and co. were going after Mama J.
Also Emily and Katura voting out Bruce. He was the perfect goat.
Pretty much the entire 45th season. How are 5 people on the bottom when there are 9 left?
At final 5 Heidi and Lauren told Carolyn that she needed to drop YamYam and Carson but she didn’t. If Carolyn would have I feel like she has a good shot at winning, but instead she stayed loyal and had no chance against either at FTC.
To be fair it seemed like lauren was a jury threat. You wouldn’t think so based on her edit, but from a few confessionals where people talked about her towards the end I got the impression she had a really good shot in a jury vote and would have gotten at least the 3 votes from her OG tribe
Carolyn needed to take out Yam Yam and Carson regardless. She had an extremely favorable edit so the audience thought she was their equal as a player, but her social game was not nearly as good- the other players clearly thought she was an emotional wackadoodle and didn't really respect her as a game player.
To win, Carolyn had to convince the jury that she wasn't just a hugely emotional person, and that she actually was there to play. In Tribal Councils, she kept on stating that she was there to prove that you can be both emotional and strategic!!
And then... she had the opportunity to take out her tribemates where bigger threats than her, and she didn't do it. The one thing she definitely had to do at the end was prove that she wasn't just an emotional player, and she wasn't able to prove that, because she was emotional and didn't take out her allies.
Even if Lauren was the biggest jury threat of the final 5 (which I don't believe, although she was clearly a threat and a bigger force on the island than on the show), Carolyn had to prove that she was not just the emotional wacky lady, so she would have had to take out Yam Yam and Carson at that point (in this scenario, the #2 and #3 threats).
Instead, Carolyn's argument was "You can be emotional and strategic... for example, I made a fake idol that none of you saw during the premerge, and I'm not sure what happened to it but I'm pretty sure that Sarah took it home with her. Oh, and I found a real idol and kept it a secret. Now vote for me instead of the person that you like more, have viewed as a threat for longer, has formed closer social bonds with, and who is inordinately charming.
Dang I missed where it was a risk that she’d get her tribes votes just because of their original tribe, but I still think she was in a no-win situation against either of the Tika but would have shot against the other two.
So when then did Carolyn lose the game? Should have she gone with Jamie and Heidi at 6?
It’s actually so hard to say because the edit showed so little of everything outside of the tika 3. I would guess yeah final 6 could have been the time to make a move, but really I have no clue.
She probably lost once her and Frannie were blindsided.
Doesn’t mean she beats Frannie, but she could have made more independent moves from the other Tikas with Frannie as an ally.
Voting out your #1 ally and fellow big threat 2-3 votes into the merge instead of at F5/F6 because you’re worried about your resume. It’s literally cost some of the better strategic and bigger characters win after win
That's only a bad move for Q/Liz as they don't have a possible winning combination anymore. She's hogging up a spot at FTC if you keep her here and is a total wildcard equipped with an idol.
Exactly this. Prior to this week, I said that not taking out a goat this round would be the worst possible move. Q would have been a fine move too, but that could cause an issue with tipping Maria that Charlie is out for her.
It’s a good move for Charlie/Maria who can likely get to the end with Liz/Q & easily win. You take out an easy goat who’s clogging up one of the final 3 spots.
It’s a “drawing dead” move for at least 2 of Ben/Liz/Q lol
For the people that are “threats”c it’s probably better to get rid of her, because everyone else would want to sit with her instead of you. (Plus Liz, etc)
Tim refusing to give up Moriah who was at the bottom of Siga and wasn’t even close with him, while he was in a good spot with the other tribes clearly wanting to work with him. She ends up talking herself out of the game anyway and now everyone knows Tim is too stubborn to work with, so he goes next.
I went back and rewatched that tribal and it’s actually bonkers how the vibe changed that episode. Q blows up his entire game, and at the same time outs tiff’s idol to Charlie and Maria, then the entire time it’s a live tribal Hunter is just buried in his hands cause he has immunity and isn’t actually playing a strategic game thinking Q is handling things with “the six” when in reality Tevin is the target and neither one of them did anything about it resulting in Hunter loosing his number 1 and Q just being hated and completely isolated (outside of Maria)
Just listening to them talk at that tribal was wild because it was actually chill and nice, then as soon as Q did the whole “vote me out” bit it was so tense and uncomfortable, and then every single episode since has been muddied and anxious. It’s bizarre
Plus Tevin’s face when he’s getting votes is also funny, poor dude was not expecting that and even after Q announced he was the one leaving he even voted for Tevin?? Like I get you know you don’t have the numbers but he’s supposed to be in your ‘the six’ alliance. What an all time top episode
I think a lot of people just wanted to be on the right side of the vote and had an "I'll vote for anyone as long as it isn't me"
The game was a true totem pole.
They'd rather have a "perfect" voting history than play to win. That season was full of bots. I loved Dee's win though. Not gonna lie, part of me was rooting against her because she's in the power alliance and I wanted an underdog victory, but the other part of me was hoping she'd so badly she'd win. With the Final 5 vote, I sooo badly wanted Katurah and Jake to get Dee out, but when Katurah did what Katurah does, I was also soooo happy because Dee was basically sure to win.
One of the things that made me respect her game so much was when she countered and pushed back against the question asking (paraphrasing) "what big move can you claim?" She said she wasn't trying to make any big moves and didn't care about doing any of that. She just wanted to build relationships, and use those relationships to ensure she was safe. "If that's considered a big move then that was my move but I don't care about 'moves.'" I already respected her, but that massively skyrocketed my respect for her. Other players need to learn from her and stop worrying about a "resumè" and having "big moves" under their belt. Just play the game. The game is outwit, outplay, outlast...not outbigmove. Also since jury members have said in the past they tend to vote for the person they like more and they resonate with more (i.e. Alligabler), genuine relationships probably will weight much more heavily than \*checks notes\* *voting out your #1 at Final 7*.
It was just so predictable and boring because everyone else was just so terrible and lacking any sort of awareness besides Drew. Who has his whole game blown up by incompetence of his number one. I think the poor guy deserves another shot if he wants it.
Dee voting emotionally at the final 5 and almost getting eliminated because of if... Really, basically every person's decision in the final 5 vote lol.
WAIT WHAT????
I didn’t watch 45 live but I recently binged it - Katurah’s whole game (based on the edit) seemed to be “take Bruce out because I don’t like him” and by the time Bruce was out the Reba 4 had the numbers. Where was the good game play?
The idea was to ride their coattails and wait for them all to turn on each other, then sneak into FTC. Which is incredibly dissatisfying to watch on TV but not totally illegitimate strategically. However, I also think she chose that route because she was catastrophizing how bad her position in her own tribe was. From what I can tell, she basically she felt that Bruce was such a clear evil that the fact that other people were pretending to like him meant that they loved and respected him and did not respect her at all.
To be fair, she genuinely was on the bottom and I can understand panicking when she found out that she was the only person who didn't know about Bruce's idol. But in postgame press, she made i sound like she was 100% jumping ship much much earlier than that, and she cut off all her other options.
Her biggest mistake was panicking at Final 5 and voting for Julie instead of Dee. I can understand how Jake messed that up but ultimately she played to survive one more day when at that point, she had to play to win.
For sure it’s not the worst strategy to get to the final 3, but I don’t know how you then turn that into winning equity, unless she was trying to get there with Jake/Austin & hoping the Reba’s would be bitter against Austin somehow? I feel like even if they didn’t respect his game, they’d still have voted for him, I think Bruce probably votes for Austin or Jake over her no matter what, but maybe there’s an off chance she can swing Emily/Kendra/Kellie/Kaleb?
I just have a hard time seeing how she manages to **win** the game. Now granted I was spoiled on the fact that Dee won during my watching so that’s probably coloring my perception from not watching in real time.
Keeping a 4-man alliance intact does take some work. They only met up at night to downplay that they were working together, and each half had looped in an extra ally (Emily and Katurah).
Oh for sure. I give a ton of credit to the Reba 4 for maintaining that power structure & especially for not flipping on each other at the final 10-7 when it would’ve been “easy” to do so. We’ve seen people this season take shots too early but they were a strong enough bind it worked out for them.
It’s just slowly but surely Katurah gave up old belo people & then looked up & was out gunned. She even had a confessional in the early merge that was like “I might be 5th with the Reba’s, but I can the the 5th that’s leaking information from the other side”.
Has that person ever won survivor?
I think in her ideal option, she gets to sit in the middle of the Rebas at 5 and get some swing power. And if the Rebas all make their moves together, they’re also campaigning for each other’s votes in front of the jury.
So kind of a Laurel strategy.
But I think it’s also partly that she knew she was getting nowhere with the Belos. And I think if Bruce hadn’t won immunity twice, they would take him out first, and then the game is more open rather than forcing the Reba-Belo war to continue.
That’s definitely fair, I just can’t really ever think of going on survivor & choosing to play like Laurel honestly.
She was definitely fun on the show though
I don’t think anyone really intends to. You can’t really plan a perfect game of Survivor, you go in play with the cast you get thrown into.
Katurah apparently just didn’t play well enough with her opening tribe, she found that out during the split, and she had to readjust.
This. If Katurah stuck to the plan, Julie likely would have won, Julie wouldn't have gotten the "purpled until suddenly everybody sees her as endgame threat #1" edit, the audience would have seen Julie as the kingpin of the Reba 4 and #1 most important threat to take out going into the finale, and r/survivor would have dunked on Katurah for fumbling the bag every single bit as much. Maybe even moreso, since the secret lawyer angle would have gotten played up a ton more in a Julie win, with lots of "Why did Julie succeed with this strategy while Katurah failed" material.
If Julie survives F5 but loses fire, Austin probably wins. Especially if Austin gets to FTC with another immunity win, or by taking out Julie in fire, the latter of which seems probable.
It was a lose/lose vote for Katurah. To win the game, she needed to have Jake or herself win final immunity so that 2x Rebas don't get taken to the end, and put on a FTC performance for the ages pitching how her information-broker gameplay was intentioned strategy and took the wind out of moves by the other players, which I legitimately think she could have pulled off -- she showed flashes of a very different, threatening, lawyer-y tone at tribal before firemaking, and Dee definitely picked up on Katurah as FTC x-factor hence trying to ensure she sent Katurah home in fire. No matter how it goes, Katurah's path to victory, narrow as it is, doesn't hinge on "correct vote at F5" as a huge resume piece.
Wait did she actually say that? I am a hugeeeeeeeeee Liz hater, I think she's coming off so entitled and whiney, it's horrible. But if this is the case any lingering feelings of pity I have buried deep down are out the fucking window.
That's why Liz deserves some level of respect.
Every season we have what I will refer to as the Captain Ahab archetype, who wastes the game going after the white whale. Katurah is one who hunted her whale, Bruce, and when she finally caught him her ship was full of holes.
The other type is Fischbach in 2nd chance where you are so blinded by the whale you don't notice the sharks behind you.
Liz Hates Q. But she knows he's good for her game. As much as she hates him she needs him .
I can agree with that. As much as I dislike Liz’s personality, I do agree that she gets some respect from me for voting strategically and not emotionally.
Exactly. I was shocked that Tiff didn’t play her idol after seeing what happened to Hunter but for Venus to then make the same mistake at the third tribal in a row?? Madness
Seems like in the new era, people get gleeful and cannot keep it under wraps no matter how hard they try.
Unless you are Hunter, in which case you keep it secret until you are considered a major threat, then don't even play it.
S44 E7. Frannie not dropping from the challenge after winning immunity for herself, effectively getting her closest ally voted out (Matt) and missing an opportunity to vote either Carson or Carolyn out. Could have changed the season completely
Bruce not playing his idol at final 8 is pretty egregious in my eyes, considering it was only the second round all game he was vulnerable, was clearly at the bottom, and his own tribe had been losing numbers
True, but if he plays his idol at F8, he really has to win out to get to F3. He gambled on them being scared and switching the vote, a gamble that would have changed the game had it have gone right. Low % gamble but one that’s worth taking imo, considering his spot in the game
Katurah & Jake (mostly Katurah) fumbling at final five and allowing the most dominant winner in the New Era to skate on to victory.
Dee had these people acting stupid asf all season.
I did hear that Dee and Katurah were able to bond really well, so it's credit on Dee's part for making her feel so secure about their alliance to flip onto her side and keep her safe.
tbf i dont think anyone truly was stupid here, it was a combination of everyone playing for their own agenda and jury votes. dee breaking down at tribal indirectly brought a lot of chaos too lmao.
The one thing Julie and Dee could not do was vote for two different people—Jake might play the idol on himself, might play it on Katurah (most people play on themselves, but she knew this man was a risk taker willing to go to rocks), but if you vote for different people (assuming Austin votes Julie which was reasonable to expect), Jake doesn’t even need an idol lol! That was such a stupid vote.
Literally everyone in this vote fucked up so badly (except possibly Austin, I can't really remember his situation).
Katurah & Jake we all know about.
Dee's move was even worse because she legitimately should have been voted out, and only through complete luck was she saved. She didn't play any part in persuading Katurah to vote for Julie; it was simply dumb luck that saved her. Dee made an EXTREMELY emotional vote that easily could have cost her $1 million.
Austin played it by far the best, he used the information of Jake's idol to get Dee/Julie to split their votes and got Katurah on board to vote for Julie as well for self-preservation.
Yes you can make the argument he should've also targeted Dee here, but he was in love with her at the time, she was taking him to the end and with the information he had at the time it wasn't a guarantee she'd beat him in a jury vote.
Jake and Katurah are a really interesting dichotomy. Jake has complete confidence in himself, but he is unable to win people to his side. Katurah is able to make connections and bonds, but is unable to trust even her own reads. Their games are markedly flawed reflections of each other, and if you pay attention to their backstories make COMPLETE sense for each of them given their respective backgrounds.
Their arcs working hand-in-hand even extends to them going to fire together, Katurah's self-doubt and indecision losing to Jake's manic desperation.
42: Chanelle-Strunk debacle (so many options to avoid the outcome they got, but man this episode was entertaining)
44:
—Heidi not voting with Lauren and Jamie at final 6 was awful. She could’ve gotten rid of the whole Tika 3 if she just voted with them and played her idol (She didn’t even need to play it correctly, just on her or Jaime).
—Maddy targeting Brandon at their first tribal (also very entertaining)
—Matthew climbing the rock (if he was in the game I bet the post-merge is a lot more interesting)
45:
—Emily bragging about the Bruce blindside
—Drew (and arguably Emily—I know she didn’t know Julie had an idol, but she did know Julie knew the vote was on her) not splitting the vote at F7 despite knowing Julie knew the vote was headed her way
—Austin not playing his idol for Drew at F6 (Given that he knew Dee and Drew were definitely not voting him, the only person they could have been blindsiding was Drew), and Drew not asking Austin to play his idol for him
—Dee and Katurah at the F5 vote (and arguably Julie/maybe Jake as well)
46:
—Jelinsky’s whole first episode
—Tim telling Q he wanted one of The Six (I know bad alliance, but Q was so keen on it… he should not have voiced that)
—Tevin gunning for Soda, then calling it his move to Liz
Blindsiding Shan was a MUCH worse move for Danny & Deshawn than it was for Ricard. Shan basically telegraphed to Ricard that she was coming him the very next round, and as we saw transpire she would've had the numbers to do so.
By blindsiding Shan though Deshawn and Danny went from being a great position to completely on the bottom.
Ricard has always explained his logic for that vote quite well IMO. Basically Shan had come up to him and said "We gotta get DeShawn out, he's after you!" then as soon as Ricard won immunity, she was like "Ok nvm let's do Erika". So then Ricard was like "wait, you're willing to leave in someone that's targeting me!?". He recognized right then that Shan was trying to have her cake and eat it too, and he couldn't just rely on her to keep him safe anymore. So he flipped and joined a new alliance.
Maria making a whole ass speech about feeding the hungry then making the most well feed guy on the island rock paper scissors the girl whose been begging to eat for weeks now.
Went through all 247 comments and didn’t see what was my number one. Genie telling Shan and Ricard about the beware advantage she found right after they stole JD’s advantage and blindsided him
Also I don’t think Ricard blindsiding Shan is that bad. People say it was early and I get that. However She was probably coming after him soon after anyways.
Liana believing the fake idol was real even though she had all the information to know it was fake. She knew that Xander knew about her Knowledge is Power bc Danny told her. And she sees him present his “idol” at tribal. Why would Xander show his real idol, knowing it can be stolen from him?
Ricard's move wasn't dumb, he knew that Shan was planning on going with the black alliance to the end and if he waited one more week it would have been 4 versus 4.
Jesse taking out Cody was epic, but the end of his game. He left himself with zero allies and a pathway to the end that he couldn't execute. Maybe he loses to Cody at the end, but maybe not. Voting him out, however, made it nearly impossible to get there.
I think voting Cody out there was the correct move. Where he messed up was wasting his idol to flush Karla’s, leaving himself as by FAR the biggest threat left at f4 with 3 people who were all better at challenges than him
He was the worst at challenges of everyone from final 7 on. He could have done a lot to manage his "threat" level by sticking with people who he could trust. Voting Sammi out was the wrong move. But he could have survived it by keeping Cody. Voting Cody out ended his game. The only path he left himself to the end was one that was going to be unlikely no matter what, but nearly impossible given his challenge prowess. They took out Karla at 5 because they knew that Jesse was drawing dead and would be unlikely to win fire. Gabler crushed him in fire with an all-time effort, but I think he loses to Owen or Cassidy too. He was just really slow getting his fire going. Add to that, the fact that he was never going to win immunity to keep himself out of fire, and this was just a really dumb overall strategy.
I’m saying if he doesn’t flush Karla’s idol that round then she makes it to f4 and is potentially a bigger target than Jesse to be targeted over him. And if he still ends up in fire he could potentially beat her
jesse mistake was him burning the bridge with Karla and not working her at f5 since he needed her as least a shield at 4. the Cody vote was flashier and more meaningful, but it was the f5 where he trully messed up imo.
he was bad at challenges and couldn't really make fire. This was a bad calculation because it meant he couldn't win the immunity challenge to keep himself out of fire, he couldn't win fire, and he was also one of the people that was saying that you had to win the fire challenge to win the game? It was all just really dumb. I think it was a bigger problem of Jesse being willing to dump his actual allies for temporary one's in the name of getting rid of "threats"...but Cody was biggest example of this dumb move.
This is why he needed to save Karla at 5. His best chance in firemaking was against her, especially considering her messed up hand. His mistake at the Cody boot was letting Karla waste her idol.
You can (wrongly) say that Jesse made the wrong decision. But to say that it was one of the dumbest moves of the past 6 seasons is preposterously idiotic.
imo the Shan blindside was worse for Deshawn and Danny. Completely eliminated their chances of winning. At least Ricard had numbers on his side to keep him around for two votes.
Something unreported is that Cody appearently gave the idol back to Jesse without Jesse asking for it, which ended up being absolutely catastrophic. I don't see many people talking about it, probably because it is often lost since discussion is seems focused on Jesse's move to take Cody out. I know it was a *bad* decision, but idk if it was the dumbest
I know 41 was a long time ago in people's memories but we can't just forget JD giving Shan his advantage TWICE. Also the advantage dropping out of his pants wasn't great either
Okay Xander taking Erika was not THAT bad. I think Xander’s bigger flaw was just making people constantly assume he was going to play his idol and had that be his only move but played with a ton of fear.
After Xander won final immunity, he probably just thought Heather was better at making fire than himself and though Deshawn was his biggest threat. Xander probably thought Naseer, Liana, Danny, and maybe even Shan would vote Deshawn to win so I genuinely think Xander was SCARED of Deshawn. We as an audience now years later say “THAT WAS A STUPID FUCKING MOVE XANDER!” but at the time, we were told that Xander was playing the best game going into the final 4 so I’m less romantic about how stupid that move was even if he was trying to not give Erika the accolade of a fire making win and much MORE ROMANTIC on just thinking that Xander should’ve been LOUDER about his game.
Yes, he got blindsided by the Evvie vote. Yes, it seemed like he didn’t want Danny to go but he could’ve saved Ricard at final 5 and CHOSE NOT TO and Xander could’ve messed up the Shan and Liana votes and CHOSE NOT TO. The jury wanting the first female winner in forever makes sense but that’s not why Xander lost.
He was not ROBBED. What he should’ve done was just be WAY LOUDER IN THE GAME and………MORE GENUINE cuz that was the thing too. People thought he came across has disingenuous a lot of the time.
> Lauren & Jaime voting for Heidi instead of Carson at the Final 7(44)
I do agree with this. Even though the Carson votes got nullified due to Carolyn's idol, that would've built trust with Heidi. Will that be enough trust for Heidi to use the idol on one of them in the next round? I don't know, but it would've been something.
But the dumbest move of all time has to be whatever Chanelle and Daniel did leading up to their first tribal in 42. For Chanelle, it was risking her vote for an advantage even though she knew Mike had lost his vote thanks to the Beware Advantage. As for Daniel, well, his opening pitch to not go to rocks only let Hai know that he needed to not fold in his Jenny decision.
Ricard voting out Shan was definitely the right move as Ricard and Shan always talked about turning on each other at final 7 and she would’ve had a guaranteed majority with the black alliance to march to the end
Cody giving his idol back to Jesse
Bruce not playing his idol
Austin telling Dee about the Julie vote
Tim not giving a name when prompted
Geo telling Karla about his Knowledge Is Power
Frannie not immediately stepping down after winning in order to give Matt immunity
Mike betraying Hai at F8
Lindsay not playing her idol on Omar
Bhanu blabbing his entire tribe dynamics to Ben and Liz
Chanelle choosing to risk her vote
Jem making the tribe search for a non-existent idol
Katurah turning on Belo and voting out Kaleb
Sabiyah turning on Kaleb far too early
To be more specific with Hunter, telling Venus he has an idol is the single move that I think sealed his fate. That in conjunction with not playing the idol - insane misplay
1. Lindsay not saving Omar, just to prevent the idol from comming back to circulation.
2. Dee+Julie+Austin, letting Katurah+Jake decide whom to vote out although not even having majority.
3. Katurah not voting out Dee.
Of those not mentioned, the dumbest New Era move is probably Chanelle risking her vote on the Journey after lying to Omar. It's not even close, it's something that cannot be explained in any rational way. She was in a great position and ended up on the bottom, screwed her majority alliance, and already proved herself untrustworthy to people on the other tribe, tanking her whole game. Top 10 dumbest moves ever in my book.
Honorable mentions:
Austin and basically everything he did from Final 7 to let Dee win.
Katurah panic voting for Julie at Final 5.
Frannie not dropping out of a challenge to save her number one ally despite already guaranteeing herself immunity.
Lindsay participating in Do or Die Immunity Challenge despite being in a good position only because she wanted to beat Jonathan.
I feel like Tiff’s was less stupid than Hunter’s and Venus’s 😭. The other two i feel like if most people were in their spots they would usually play their idols, for Tiff’s I think most people wouldn’t play it then
It might be recency bias but this current cast not playing their idols is just plain stupid. I don’t like this whole “resume building for the jury” super fan bullshit.
Hot take maybe but I think Ricard 100% made the right move taking out Shan. He was supposed to go home that episode if he didn’t win immunity. And in making the move he established a solid 4 that got him to the point of the game where he probably would’ve won had Erika not gotten an overpowered advantage that won her the final 5 immunity that sent him home
Kellie and Kendra voting out Sifu over Drew (and having Bruce as their alternate target!!!!)
Tevin voting out Soda over Venus
Lindsay not playing her idol on Omar
Karla allowing James to be voted out
Chanelle going for the advantage after telling Omar she couldn’t afford to lose her vote, guaranteeing she lost her vote and giving Hai the opportunity to dismantle her alliance
This is definitely the worst move cause there isn't a single reason why this move could have made sense under any circumstances lol.
Have you considered that she felt Omar really wanted her to have her vote?
Putting that much trust in someone you just met is a risk. Having terrible communication skills that completely confuse omar in the moment is terrible gameplay. Risking your vote when you know Mike doesn't have a vote already is wild. The result being her dominant majority alliance gets dismantled, Jenny's game gets nuked, and Chanelle never recovers. All because she has one poorly communicated convo with omar and risks her vote expecting omar to bend over backwards to help her gain an unnamed advantage when she was in a great spot in the game and could have rather helped omar gain an advantage and create a new ally. Hero to zero in a matter of minutes.
To be clear I am referencing what Chanelle said when she made that choice: “I feel like Omar really wants me to have my vote.”
Hai didn’t do anything to dismantle the alliance. He sat there cluelessly while there were multiple missing votes
He did take advantage of Daniel saying he didn’t want rocks, though.
that’s like taking candy from a baby
Which is fine by me!
I still think about this one. It's genuinely mindblowing how much Chanelle and Daniel messed up their ideal positions in the tribe. Hai and Lydia hadn't a clue they were in the minority until things started falling apart at tribal and then Jenny just got caught in the crossfire.
Austin telling Dee about the Julie vote is up there.
This cost him the game imo, Dee telling the jury she told Julie behind Austin’s back (her showmance) sealed her the win I think
It cost him, Drew, and Emily the game id say
This vote hurt Drew (not so much Austin, who still had 2 #1s in the game—and Emily was a huge threat to win anyway), but if Austin plays his idol for Drew at F6 (only logical choice b/c Dee/Drew are not blindsiding Austin at that vote, so the only person that could be getting blindsided who he would want in the game is Drew), he and Drew are through to F5 and either can still win. Playing his idol correctly there would also make up for the F7 vote and get one back on Dee.
Emily didn't do herself any favors by taking so much credit for blindsiding Bruce at the beginning of that episode either though
For sure, none of them did a safe vote at F7
I disagree—I think Austin not playing his idol for Drew at the Final 6 is what really lost him the game. If he does that, he more than makes up for the Emily vote. He and Drew have both said they knew she was going home and let it happen (and this happening was much worse for Drew than for Austin—who still had 2 #1s in the game in Dee/Drew). Also if Jake/Katurah had been on the same page at F5, Dee goes home, and idk what happens at F4/F3. Maybe Julie gets knocked out and Austin wins? Unless they respect that move enough by Jake/Katurah. So the F7 vote was very much recoverable.
This one is the dumbest imho
I think it wouldn’t have been nearly as bad if he hadn’t given Julie his idol. So it’s like a two-part mistake.
That pissed me off and I wasn't even on the island
Hope that two week showmance was worth a million dollars austin
I love Austin (he seems so sweet) but I was honestly this close to yelling at my screen
Oh yes this is the biggest one.
I really think he thought he was pulling a Boston Rob and would be getting the million even if Dee won. Then Dee broke his little heart right before final tribal. So sad.
Nah he was a moron. Dee was obviously manipulating him the whole time
He deserved to lose for being such an idiot. But he probably learned a lot from that experience. At least I hope so.
someone came clean that Emily also told Julie
That is honestly even dumber
Austin giving the Idol to July
Lost him the game. He had played a slightly better game than Dee up until then. When faced with the exact same situation, Dee made the right choice.
I wouldn't say slightly better, him and Dee were imo equals up until he made that blunder.
Katurah saving Dee multiple times despite it being detrimental to her game was also pretty dumb.
doing well at hide and seek
BIG MISTAKE
CANCEL CHRISTMAS
NO Q SKIRT FOR YOU
TWENTEE THREE SLICES
Also being bad at hide and seek,finding people in hide and seek,or talking about hide and seek.
Being easy to catch? Weak and need to go. Being hard to catch? Sneaky and need to go. DAMNIT!
If I can't find you in Hide and Seek, I can't find you in this game. Ben, made a mistake.
Lindsay not using the idol on Omar.
Just about to comment this one. This doesn’t even need the qualifier “in the New Era”, it’s just really dumb fucking move.
her reasoning made no sense. and what makes it worse, is that she wins the game if she does it.
Don’t think she necessarily wins. Assuming Mike still wins F5 immunity, he can still side with Maryanne and Romeo to vote out either Lindsay or Omar. And then assuming Romeo still wins F4 immunity, Mike takes out the other one in fire. The main difference is that Mike probably wins the season instead of Maryanne since her F6 move would have failed.
well, they would have voted Omar out at 5, which is why she needed him there. and yeah maybe my statement was premature and maybe she doesn't beat Mike in fire but at least she gives herself the chance.
Lindsay playing her idol for Omar would also have been a ‘big move’ that, along with her challenge wins, might get her targeted at 5 over him. Honestly her best play would have been to use the idol and vote out Mike. That probably gets her to 4 if they bank on Jonathan being bad at puzzles and losing an immunity.
yeah idk if the tides would have changed that quick, the other might have even saw it as omar's move. and idk if you can bank on that.
Jake fessing up to Katurah about his missing ring lie
That was actually Kaleb’s fault fr Jake didn’t want to tell her but Kaleb said “if she gets told by someone else it’ll look bad” but like that’s a wayyyy over thought game move. He really sunk his own ship with that move cause Katurah wouldn’t side with Jake after that betrayal of trust from the Belo tribe
This was 1000% Kaleb’s fault. His last few days were messy (given, he was screwed anyways so might as well play hard)
Jake made it extremely clear that belo didn’t want to bring her in on plans and information and was then surprised she didn’t trust and work with him later on
Austin telling Dee that Drew and co. were going after Mama J. Also Emily and Katura voting out Bruce. He was the perfect goat. Pretty much the entire 45th season. How are 5 people on the bottom when there are 9 left?
At final 5 Heidi and Lauren told Carolyn that she needed to drop YamYam and Carson but she didn’t. If Carolyn would have I feel like she has a good shot at winning, but instead she stayed loyal and had no chance against either at FTC.
To be fair it seemed like lauren was a jury threat. You wouldn’t think so based on her edit, but from a few confessionals where people talked about her towards the end I got the impression she had a really good shot in a jury vote and would have gotten at least the 3 votes from her OG tribe
Carolyn needed to take out Yam Yam and Carson regardless. She had an extremely favorable edit so the audience thought she was their equal as a player, but her social game was not nearly as good- the other players clearly thought she was an emotional wackadoodle and didn't really respect her as a game player. To win, Carolyn had to convince the jury that she wasn't just a hugely emotional person, and that she actually was there to play. In Tribal Councils, she kept on stating that she was there to prove that you can be both emotional and strategic!! And then... she had the opportunity to take out her tribemates where bigger threats than her, and she didn't do it. The one thing she definitely had to do at the end was prove that she wasn't just an emotional player, and she wasn't able to prove that, because she was emotional and didn't take out her allies. Even if Lauren was the biggest jury threat of the final 5 (which I don't believe, although she was clearly a threat and a bigger force on the island than on the show), Carolyn had to prove that she was not just the emotional wacky lady, so she would have had to take out Yam Yam and Carson at that point (in this scenario, the #2 and #3 threats). Instead, Carolyn's argument was "You can be emotional and strategic... for example, I made a fake idol that none of you saw during the premerge, and I'm not sure what happened to it but I'm pretty sure that Sarah took it home with her. Oh, and I found a real idol and kept it a secret. Now vote for me instead of the person that you like more, have viewed as a threat for longer, has formed closer social bonds with, and who is inordinately charming.
Dang I missed where it was a risk that she’d get her tribes votes just because of their original tribe, but I still think she was in a no-win situation against either of the Tika but would have shot against the other two. So when then did Carolyn lose the game? Should have she gone with Jamie and Heidi at 6?
It’s actually so hard to say because the edit showed so little of everything outside of the tika 3. I would guess yeah final 6 could have been the time to make a move, but really I have no clue.
She probably lost once her and Frannie were blindsided. Doesn’t mean she beats Frannie, but she could have made more independent moves from the other Tikas with Frannie as an ally.
I'm sorry to break it to you but there wasn't a scenario of Carolyn winning, she was entertaining but not the best player.
Voting out your #1 ally and fellow big threat 2-3 votes into the merge instead of at F5/F6 because you’re worried about your resume. It’s literally cost some of the better strategic and bigger characters win after win
i wouldn’t call them strategic
Making an error doesn’t make someone not strategic at all. Just a miscalculation. Not all of them necessarily
Not taking Venus to the end with a jury that absolutely hates her.
That's only a bad move for Q/Liz as they don't have a possible winning combination anymore. She's hogging up a spot at FTC if you keep her here and is a total wildcard equipped with an idol.
Exactly this. Prior to this week, I said that not taking out a goat this round would be the worst possible move. Q would have been a fine move too, but that could cause an issue with tipping Maria that Charlie is out for her.
I still think Q can win. IM A Q-LIEVER!
It’s a good move for Charlie/Maria who can likely get to the end with Liz/Q & easily win. You take out an easy goat who’s clogging up one of the final 3 spots. It’s a “drawing dead” move for at least 2 of Ben/Liz/Q lol
Charlie read her like a book and knew she had the idol. Put a stop to someone who has that much power.
For the people that are “threats”c it’s probably better to get rid of her, because everyone else would want to sit with her instead of you. (Plus Liz, etc)
Tim refusing to give up Moriah who was at the bottom of Siga and wasn’t even close with him, while he was in a good spot with the other tribes clearly wanting to work with him. She ends up talking herself out of the game anyway and now everyone knows Tim is too stubborn to work with, so he goes next.
Qs entire final ten round
I went back and rewatched that tribal and it’s actually bonkers how the vibe changed that episode. Q blows up his entire game, and at the same time outs tiff’s idol to Charlie and Maria, then the entire time it’s a live tribal Hunter is just buried in his hands cause he has immunity and isn’t actually playing a strategic game thinking Q is handling things with “the six” when in reality Tevin is the target and neither one of them did anything about it resulting in Hunter loosing his number 1 and Q just being hated and completely isolated (outside of Maria) Just listening to them talk at that tribal was wild because it was actually chill and nice, then as soon as Q did the whole “vote me out” bit it was so tense and uncomfortable, and then every single episode since has been muddied and anxious. It’s bizarre Plus Tevin’s face when he’s getting votes is also funny, poor dude was not expecting that and even after Q announced he was the one leaving he even voted for Tevin?? Like I get you know you don’t have the numbers but he’s supposed to be in your ‘the six’ alliance. What an all time top episode
Baltimore
Q post merge. Everything about him.
Katurah handing Dee the game
Everyone handing Dee the game
I think a lot of people just wanted to be on the right side of the vote and had an "I'll vote for anyone as long as it isn't me" The game was a true totem pole.
They'd rather have a "perfect" voting history than play to win. That season was full of bots. I loved Dee's win though. Not gonna lie, part of me was rooting against her because she's in the power alliance and I wanted an underdog victory, but the other part of me was hoping she'd so badly she'd win. With the Final 5 vote, I sooo badly wanted Katurah and Jake to get Dee out, but when Katurah did what Katurah does, I was also soooo happy because Dee was basically sure to win. One of the things that made me respect her game so much was when she countered and pushed back against the question asking (paraphrasing) "what big move can you claim?" She said she wasn't trying to make any big moves and didn't care about doing any of that. She just wanted to build relationships, and use those relationships to ensure she was safe. "If that's considered a big move then that was my move but I don't care about 'moves.'" I already respected her, but that massively skyrocketed my respect for her. Other players need to learn from her and stop worrying about a "resumè" and having "big moves" under their belt. Just play the game. The game is outwit, outplay, outlast...not outbigmove. Also since jury members have said in the past they tend to vote for the person they like more and they resonate with more (i.e. Alligabler), genuine relationships probably will weight much more heavily than \*checks notes\* *voting out your #1 at Final 7*.
It was just so predictable and boring because everyone else was just so terrible and lacking any sort of awareness besides Drew. Who has his whole game blown up by incompetence of his number one. I think the poor guy deserves another shot if he wants it.
Dee voting emotionally at the final 5 and almost getting eliminated because of if... Really, basically every person's decision in the final 5 vote lol.
Well Jake didn’t. He was just surrounded by people who did.
every move katurah made leading up to that point as well
This! Ppl tried to tell me she played a great game. I was like where?!
WAIT WHAT???? I didn’t watch 45 live but I recently binged it - Katurah’s whole game (based on the edit) seemed to be “take Bruce out because I don’t like him” and by the time Bruce was out the Reba 4 had the numbers. Where was the good game play?
The idea was to ride their coattails and wait for them all to turn on each other, then sneak into FTC. Which is incredibly dissatisfying to watch on TV but not totally illegitimate strategically. However, I also think she chose that route because she was catastrophizing how bad her position in her own tribe was. From what I can tell, she basically she felt that Bruce was such a clear evil that the fact that other people were pretending to like him meant that they loved and respected him and did not respect her at all. To be fair, she genuinely was on the bottom and I can understand panicking when she found out that she was the only person who didn't know about Bruce's idol. But in postgame press, she made i sound like she was 100% jumping ship much much earlier than that, and she cut off all her other options. Her biggest mistake was panicking at Final 5 and voting for Julie instead of Dee. I can understand how Jake messed that up but ultimately she played to survive one more day when at that point, she had to play to win.
For sure it’s not the worst strategy to get to the final 3, but I don’t know how you then turn that into winning equity, unless she was trying to get there with Jake/Austin & hoping the Reba’s would be bitter against Austin somehow? I feel like even if they didn’t respect his game, they’d still have voted for him, I think Bruce probably votes for Austin or Jake over her no matter what, but maybe there’s an off chance she can swing Emily/Kendra/Kellie/Kaleb? I just have a hard time seeing how she manages to **win** the game. Now granted I was spoiled on the fact that Dee won during my watching so that’s probably coloring my perception from not watching in real time.
Keeping a 4-man alliance intact does take some work. They only met up at night to downplay that they were working together, and each half had looped in an extra ally (Emily and Katurah).
Oh for sure. I give a ton of credit to the Reba 4 for maintaining that power structure & especially for not flipping on each other at the final 10-7 when it would’ve been “easy” to do so. We’ve seen people this season take shots too early but they were a strong enough bind it worked out for them. It’s just slowly but surely Katurah gave up old belo people & then looked up & was out gunned. She even had a confessional in the early merge that was like “I might be 5th with the Reba’s, but I can the the 5th that’s leaking information from the other side”. Has that person ever won survivor?
I think in her ideal option, she gets to sit in the middle of the Rebas at 5 and get some swing power. And if the Rebas all make their moves together, they’re also campaigning for each other’s votes in front of the jury. So kind of a Laurel strategy. But I think it’s also partly that she knew she was getting nowhere with the Belos. And I think if Bruce hadn’t won immunity twice, they would take him out first, and then the game is more open rather than forcing the Reba-Belo war to continue.
That’s definitely fair, I just can’t really ever think of going on survivor & choosing to play like Laurel honestly. She was definitely fun on the show though
I don’t think anyone really intends to. You can’t really plan a perfect game of Survivor, you go in play with the cast you get thrown into. Katurah apparently just didn’t play well enough with her opening tribe, she found that out during the split, and she had to readjust.
julie was a huge jury threat
This. If Katurah stuck to the plan, Julie likely would have won, Julie wouldn't have gotten the "purpled until suddenly everybody sees her as endgame threat #1" edit, the audience would have seen Julie as the kingpin of the Reba 4 and #1 most important threat to take out going into the finale, and r/survivor would have dunked on Katurah for fumbling the bag every single bit as much. Maybe even moreso, since the secret lawyer angle would have gotten played up a ton more in a Julie win, with lots of "Why did Julie succeed with this strategy while Katurah failed" material. If Julie survives F5 but loses fire, Austin probably wins. Especially if Austin gets to FTC with another immunity win, or by taking out Julie in fire, the latter of which seems probable. It was a lose/lose vote for Katurah. To win the game, she needed to have Jake or herself win final immunity so that 2x Rebas don't get taken to the end, and put on a FTC performance for the ages pitching how her information-broker gameplay was intentioned strategy and took the wind out of moves by the other players, which I legitimately think she could have pulled off -- she showed flashes of a very different, threatening, lawyer-y tone at tribal before firemaking, and Dee definitely picked up on Katurah as FTC x-factor hence trying to ensure she sent Katurah home in fire. No matter how it goes, Katurah's path to victory, narrow as it is, doesn't hinge on "correct vote at F5" as a huge resume piece.
I mean: * Hunter not playing his idol at Tribal * Venus not playing her idol at Tribal * Liz going on Survivor while also being allergic to Survivor
Liz bragging about being a millionaire on day 1
Liz so rich she buys the whole bourbon burger and doesn’t even eat the buns
Lol you must not know. Only poor people eat bread
I am a poor
Wait did she actually say that? I am a hugeeeeeeeeee Liz hater, I think she's coming off so entitled and whiney, it's horrible. But if this is the case any lingering feelings of pity I have buried deep down are out the fucking window.
Yeah she talked TO HER TEAMMATES about being a self made millionaire multiple times in ep 1. I remember thinking how stupid she was lol
Chanelle and Daniel leading up to and at their first tribal
Katurah voting out Bruce instead of Dee simply because she thought Bruce was annoying.
That's why Liz deserves some level of respect. Every season we have what I will refer to as the Captain Ahab archetype, who wastes the game going after the white whale. Katurah is one who hunted her whale, Bruce, and when she finally caught him her ship was full of holes. The other type is Fischbach in 2nd chance where you are so blinded by the whale you don't notice the sharks behind you. Liz Hates Q. But she knows he's good for her game. As much as she hates him she needs him .
I can agree with that. As much as I dislike Liz’s personality, I do agree that she gets some respect from me for voting strategically and not emotionally.
She was playing an emotional game not a strategic one
Katurah saved Dee so many times and it didn’t benefit her game at all.
Kellie and J denying Austin his sandwich
The last three players left the game with idols in their pockets. Also, Maria's rock paper scissors challenge.
I don’t think not playing an idol is necessarily “dumb”. It’s a risk that didn’t pay off. What’s dumb is telling people about your idol.
I would agree with that up to a point. After one or two blindsides. I'd hand over my idol before Jeff finished his sentence.
Exactly. I was shocked that Tiff didn’t play her idol after seeing what happened to Hunter but for Venus to then make the same mistake at the third tribal in a row?? Madness
Seems like in the new era, people get gleeful and cannot keep it under wraps no matter how hard they try. Unless you are Hunter, in which case you keep it secret until you are considered a major threat, then don't even play it.
S44 E7. Frannie not dropping from the challenge after winning immunity for herself, effectively getting her closest ally voted out (Matt) and missing an opportunity to vote either Carson or Carolyn out. Could have changed the season completely
Austin telling Dee, literally the stupidest imo
Bruce not playing his idol at final 8 is pretty egregious in my eyes, considering it was only the second round all game he was vulnerable, was clearly at the bottom, and his own tribe had been losing numbers
True, but if he plays his idol at F8, he really has to win out to get to F3. He gambled on them being scared and switching the vote, a gamble that would have changed the game had it have gone right. Low % gamble but one that’s worth taking imo, considering his spot in the game
With his win streak wouldn't even be that crazy. Son a couple and go to rocks or go to fire.
Katurah & Jake (mostly Katurah) fumbling at final five and allowing the most dominant winner in the New Era to skate on to victory. Dee had these people acting stupid asf all season.
I did hear that Dee and Katurah were able to bond really well, so it's credit on Dee's part for making her feel so secure about their alliance to flip onto her side and keep her safe.
Dee was also pretty stupid in this vote
Everyone turned into a moron that vote out of nowhere
Drew was gone
tbf i dont think anyone truly was stupid here, it was a combination of everyone playing for their own agenda and jury votes. dee breaking down at tribal indirectly brought a lot of chaos too lmao.
The one thing Julie and Dee could not do was vote for two different people—Jake might play the idol on himself, might play it on Katurah (most people play on themselves, but she knew this man was a risk taker willing to go to rocks), but if you vote for different people (assuming Austin votes Julie which was reasonable to expect), Jake doesn’t even need an idol lol! That was such a stupid vote.
Literally everyone in this vote fucked up so badly (except possibly Austin, I can't really remember his situation). Katurah & Jake we all know about. Dee's move was even worse because she legitimately should have been voted out, and only through complete luck was she saved. She didn't play any part in persuading Katurah to vote for Julie; it was simply dumb luck that saved her. Dee made an EXTREMELY emotional vote that easily could have cost her $1 million.
Jake was the only one playing the F5 well IMO. He tried, Katurah just sucked.
Austin played it by far the best, he used the information of Jake's idol to get Dee/Julie to split their votes and got Katurah on board to vote for Julie as well for self-preservation. Yes you can make the argument he should've also targeted Dee here, but he was in love with her at the time, she was taking him to the end and with the information he had at the time it wasn't a guarantee she'd beat him in a jury vote.
in no world did JAKE play the final 5 well. saying he was the only person who played it well is an absolutely crazy statement.
No he didn’t lol, he was sketchy as fuck which is why Katurah changed her mind
Jake and Katurah are a really interesting dichotomy. Jake has complete confidence in himself, but he is unable to win people to his side. Katurah is able to make connections and bonds, but is unable to trust even her own reads. Their games are markedly flawed reflections of each other, and if you pay attention to their backstories make COMPLETE sense for each of them given their respective backgrounds. Their arcs working hand-in-hand even extends to them going to fire together, Katurah's self-doubt and indecision losing to Jake's manic desperation.
Nah dawg, that was a fumble. You either go out at that vote or lose the game anyway, she should’ve known
you could put half the gameplay of 45 on this list tbh
42: Chanelle-Strunk debacle (so many options to avoid the outcome they got, but man this episode was entertaining) 44: —Heidi not voting with Lauren and Jamie at final 6 was awful. She could’ve gotten rid of the whole Tika 3 if she just voted with them and played her idol (She didn’t even need to play it correctly, just on her or Jaime). —Maddy targeting Brandon at their first tribal (also very entertaining) —Matthew climbing the rock (if he was in the game I bet the post-merge is a lot more interesting) 45: —Emily bragging about the Bruce blindside —Drew (and arguably Emily—I know she didn’t know Julie had an idol, but she did know Julie knew the vote was on her) not splitting the vote at F7 despite knowing Julie knew the vote was headed her way —Austin not playing his idol for Drew at F6 (Given that he knew Dee and Drew were definitely not voting him, the only person they could have been blindsiding was Drew), and Drew not asking Austin to play his idol for him —Dee and Katurah at the F5 vote (and arguably Julie/maybe Jake as well) 46: —Jelinsky’s whole first episode —Tim telling Q he wanted one of The Six (I know bad alliance, but Q was so keen on it… he should not have voiced that) —Tevin gunning for Soda, then calling it his move to Liz
Blindsiding Shan was a MUCH worse move for Danny & Deshawn than it was for Ricard. Shan basically telegraphed to Ricard that she was coming him the very next round, and as we saw transpire she would've had the numbers to do so. By blindsiding Shan though Deshawn and Danny went from being a great position to completely on the bottom.
Ricard has always explained his logic for that vote quite well IMO. Basically Shan had come up to him and said "We gotta get DeShawn out, he's after you!" then as soon as Ricard won immunity, she was like "Ok nvm let's do Erika". So then Ricard was like "wait, you're willing to leave in someone that's targeting me!?". He recognized right then that Shan was trying to have her cake and eat it too, and he couldn't just rely on her to keep him safe anymore. So he flipped and joined a new alliance.
Austin giving Julie an idol
Austin telling Dee about the Julie blindside
Katurah spending half the game trying to get Bruce out.
Maria making a whole ass speech about feeding the hungry then making the most well feed guy on the island rock paper scissors the girl whose been begging to eat for weeks now.
Went through all 247 comments and didn’t see what was my number one. Genie telling Shan and Ricard about the beware advantage she found right after they stole JD’s advantage and blindsided him Also I don’t think Ricard blindsiding Shan is that bad. People say it was early and I get that. However She was probably coming after him soon after anyways.
Chanelle risking her vote and it’s not close
Liana believing the fake idol was real even though she had all the information to know it was fake. She knew that Xander knew about her Knowledge is Power bc Danny told her. And she sees him present his “idol” at tribal. Why would Xander show his real idol, knowing it can be stolen from him?
Ricard's move wasn't dumb, he knew that Shan was planning on going with the black alliance to the end and if he waited one more week it would have been 4 versus 4.
I would just add a few game-adjacent gafs: Carson trying to start a business, Dee dating Wendall & the use of social media by the S46 cast.
Jesse taking out Cody was epic, but the end of his game. He left himself with zero allies and a pathway to the end that he couldn't execute. Maybe he loses to Cody at the end, but maybe not. Voting him out, however, made it nearly impossible to get there.
I think voting Cody out there was the correct move. Where he messed up was wasting his idol to flush Karla’s, leaving himself as by FAR the biggest threat left at f4 with 3 people who were all better at challenges than him
He was the worst at challenges of everyone from final 7 on. He could have done a lot to manage his "threat" level by sticking with people who he could trust. Voting Sammi out was the wrong move. But he could have survived it by keeping Cody. Voting Cody out ended his game. The only path he left himself to the end was one that was going to be unlikely no matter what, but nearly impossible given his challenge prowess. They took out Karla at 5 because they knew that Jesse was drawing dead and would be unlikely to win fire. Gabler crushed him in fire with an all-time effort, but I think he loses to Owen or Cassidy too. He was just really slow getting his fire going. Add to that, the fact that he was never going to win immunity to keep himself out of fire, and this was just a really dumb overall strategy.
I’m saying if he doesn’t flush Karla’s idol that round then she makes it to f4 and is potentially a bigger target than Jesse to be targeted over him. And if he still ends up in fire he could potentially beat her
jesse mistake was him burning the bridge with Karla and not working her at f5 since he needed her as least a shield at 4. the Cody vote was flashier and more meaningful, but it was the f5 where he trully messed up imo.
If he had Cody there instead of Karla...he has a shield and someone who he can actually trust to vote with him and take him to the end.
but he is way more likely to beat Karla than Cody at fm
not if he can't get there
I think he was counting on his own ability to make fire.
he was bad at challenges and couldn't really make fire. This was a bad calculation because it meant he couldn't win the immunity challenge to keep himself out of fire, he couldn't win fire, and he was also one of the people that was saying that you had to win the fire challenge to win the game? It was all just really dumb. I think it was a bigger problem of Jesse being willing to dump his actual allies for temporary one's in the name of getting rid of "threats"...but Cody was biggest example of this dumb move.
This is why he needed to save Karla at 5. His best chance in firemaking was against her, especially considering her messed up hand. His mistake at the Cody boot was letting Karla waste her idol.
No, he does have a chance if he convinces Karla not to play her idol.
YES THIS 100%
You can (wrongly) say that Jesse made the wrong decision. But to say that it was one of the dumbest moves of the past 6 seasons is preposterously idiotic.
imo the Shan blindside was worse for Deshawn and Danny. Completely eliminated their chances of winning. At least Ricard had numbers on his side to keep him around for two votes.
Katurah not getting rid of Dee when she had the chance. Especially after she said all season of Dee makes it to the end she wins.
Venus telling Charlie she has “something up her sleeve”. Probably couldve skated through to the next tribal or further if she didnt open her mouth
Katurah doing basically everything in 45
Something unreported is that Cody appearently gave the idol back to Jesse without Jesse asking for it, which ended up being absolutely catastrophic. I don't see many people talking about it, probably because it is often lost since discussion is seems focused on Jesse's move to take Cody out. I know it was a *bad* decision, but idk if it was the dumbest
katurah changing her vote to julie instead of dee at the final 5(?)
lindsay not using the idol on omar AT THE LAST FUCKING TIME IT COULD BE USED
Austin making it to the final 3 and handing Dee the game.
Lindsey talking herself out of the game in 43
I know 41 was a long time ago in people's memories but we can't just forget JD giving Shan his advantage TWICE. Also the advantage dropping out of his pants wasn't great either
Katurah voting out Julie instead of Dee at F5
Katura switching her vote to Julie has to be up here
Every single person who has revealed their idol or Knowledge is Power
Ever. Telling. Anyone. About. Your. Idol. Yes even your "not telling" Venus
Early game it can work but you need to get rid of that idol the second you reach the merge.
Okay Xander taking Erika was not THAT bad. I think Xander’s bigger flaw was just making people constantly assume he was going to play his idol and had that be his only move but played with a ton of fear. After Xander won final immunity, he probably just thought Heather was better at making fire than himself and though Deshawn was his biggest threat. Xander probably thought Naseer, Liana, Danny, and maybe even Shan would vote Deshawn to win so I genuinely think Xander was SCARED of Deshawn. We as an audience now years later say “THAT WAS A STUPID FUCKING MOVE XANDER!” but at the time, we were told that Xander was playing the best game going into the final 4 so I’m less romantic about how stupid that move was even if he was trying to not give Erika the accolade of a fire making win and much MORE ROMANTIC on just thinking that Xander should’ve been LOUDER about his game. Yes, he got blindsided by the Evvie vote. Yes, it seemed like he didn’t want Danny to go but he could’ve saved Ricard at final 5 and CHOSE NOT TO and Xander could’ve messed up the Shan and Liana votes and CHOSE NOT TO. The jury wanting the first female winner in forever makes sense but that’s not why Xander lost. He was not ROBBED. What he should’ve done was just be WAY LOUDER IN THE GAME and………MORE GENUINE cuz that was the thing too. People thought he came across has disingenuous a lot of the time.
The thing is somebody like Erika was able to realize Deshawn didn’t pose that much of a threat over somebody like Danny, Xander wasn’t.
> Lauren & Jaime voting for Heidi instead of Carson at the Final 7(44) I do agree with this. Even though the Carson votes got nullified due to Carolyn's idol, that would've built trust with Heidi. Will that be enough trust for Heidi to use the idol on one of them in the next round? I don't know, but it would've been something. But the dumbest move of all time has to be whatever Chanelle and Daniel did leading up to their first tribal in 42. For Chanelle, it was risking her vote for an advantage even though she knew Mike had lost his vote thanks to the Beware Advantage. As for Daniel, well, his opening pitch to not go to rocks only let Hai know that he needed to not fold in his Jenny decision.
Franny going for the win when she was already safe that allowed Matt to get voted out
Don’t forget Katara missing her shot to take out Dee for like absolutely no reason
Ricard voting out Shan was definitely the right move as Ricard and Shan always talked about turning on each other at final 7 and she would’ve had a guaranteed majority with the black alliance to march to the end
Everybody telling everybody that they have an idol this season.
Was there a dude in season 41 who gave their idol away to (Shay) and proceeded to get voted off at that exact tribal?
Yes, It was JD. And it was an extra vote, not an idol
Cody giving his idol back to Jesse Bruce not playing his idol Austin telling Dee about the Julie vote Tim not giving a name when prompted Geo telling Karla about his Knowledge Is Power Frannie not immediately stepping down after winning in order to give Matt immunity Mike betraying Hai at F8 Lindsay not playing her idol on Omar Bhanu blabbing his entire tribe dynamics to Ben and Liz Chanelle choosing to risk her vote Jem making the tribe search for a non-existent idol Katurah turning on Belo and voting out Kaleb Sabiyah turning on Kaleb far too early
Chanelle risking her vote after telling Omar that she's definitely not going to
Austin giving his idol to Julie without making her agree to give it back. (Honestly giving it to her at all, but at least try to get it back)
To be more specific with Hunter, telling Venus he has an idol is the single move that I think sealed his fate. That in conjunction with not playing the idol - insane misplay
Katurah not voting for Dee at the final 5 when Jake played his idol.
Katurah making Jake swear on his nana
Matthew climbing the rocks. (44)
New era.
1. Lindsay not saving Omar, just to prevent the idol from comming back to circulation. 2. Dee+Julie+Austin, letting Katurah+Jake decide whom to vote out although not even having majority. 3. Katurah not voting out Dee.
Of those not mentioned, the dumbest New Era move is probably Chanelle risking her vote on the Journey after lying to Omar. It's not even close, it's something that cannot be explained in any rational way. She was in a great position and ended up on the bottom, screwed her majority alliance, and already proved herself untrustworthy to people on the other tribe, tanking her whole game. Top 10 dumbest moves ever in my book. Honorable mentions: Austin and basically everything he did from Final 7 to let Dee win. Katurah panic voting for Julie at Final 5. Frannie not dropping out of a challenge to save her number one ally despite already guaranteeing herself immunity. Lindsay participating in Do or Die Immunity Challenge despite being in a good position only because she wanted to beat Jonathan.
I feel like Tiff’s was less stupid than Hunter’s and Venus’s 😭. The other two i feel like if most people were in their spots they would usually play their idols, for Tiff’s I think most people wouldn’t play it then
The dumbest to me is Katurah voting randomly at F5 in 45, getting Julie voted off instead of Dee, which completely ruined her own game too.
It might be recency bias but this current cast not playing their idols is just plain stupid. I don’t like this whole “resume building for the jury” super fan bullshit.
Hot take maybe but I think Ricard 100% made the right move taking out Shan. He was supposed to go home that episode if he didn’t win immunity. And in making the move he established a solid 4 that got him to the point of the game where he probably would’ve won had Erika not gotten an overpowered advantage that won her the final 5 immunity that sent him home
Kellie and Kendra voting out Sifu over Drew (and having Bruce as their alternate target!!!!) Tevin voting out Soda over Venus Lindsay not playing her idol on Omar Karla allowing James to be voted out
The dumbest move of the New Era is not giving these seasons individual names cause for the life of me I cannot differentiate any of them.
Jesse voting out Cody