Episode 08

[Jeff Probst]

So wow, what a fucking night! This game just got kicked into overdrive. First there's a ranking floating out there that either should make you nervous because you aren't towards the top, or nervous because you are too far towards the top and therefore will probably be kicked down a notch. What were your thoughts on the challenge and the cluster fuck of a vote afterwards?

[Stephanie]

Final 10! <3

It's becoming more and more clear that everybody from Ovambo wants me in their Final 3. Not necessarily cause I'm easy to beat, but because they value me as a close ally. At the same time, I don't think I'm the biggest threat to win. They certainly aren't scared to death to be up against me in front of the jury. If they felt that way, that could work against my favour as well cause if they didn't think they had a chance against me, it could cause me to be blindsided. So I think I'm playing it perfectly.

The thing that sucks is now everybody knows that I'm perceived this way, cause I was ranked first out of everybody in the bootlist which was shown publicly at the challenge. So people are thinking, "Wow! Everyone wants to go far with her! What other deals does she have?" I knew that challenge could cause problems! I hope that doesn't change people's perception of me or affect my position in the game. After all, I wasn't voted as "Who is in control of the game", Grant was. For "Who is the biggest threat to win everything" I was voted along with Grant and Sophie. So I don't think the target is looming that large on me.

Anyway, I have to apologise. I know my confessionals have been lacking. The truth is I've been pretty busy with uni, work and other things, thankfully it seems to be settling down a bit. Obviously I've still been playing the game, I've participated in every challenge and was the best pre-merge challenge competitor from either tribe and was a large part of the reason Ovambo merged with numbers. Obviously I've been talking and strategising privately with everyone as well, cause I feel I am in a great position to go far. Just cause I haven't been writing down my every thought here, it doesn't mean I'm not doing that! I think I've done everything I can so far and I wouldn't change anything about how I've played to get myself to this point. It's the road ahead where things can go wrong, so I have to stay on top of everything to give myself the best chance.

But I'll try and give recaps of what went down the first two rounds since the merge!

[Stephanie]

For real I think I'm included in every alliance in this game. Ok maybe not quite, but I'm being approached for so many deals it's making my head hurt. >_< In that respect I guess I'm not surprised I was ranked highest in everyone's bootlist. It really seems everyone DOES have me in their end game plans.

I'm definitely double dealing big time. I need to be careful to not be caught! But if people are approaching me for deals, how can I say "no"? I have to at least entertain every avenue, then make my decision for what's best for my game, when the time is right.

The bad thing is... I'm gonna have to screw so many people over to get to the end. Stephvillain will then make her play! <3

[Stephanie]

OMG Mia I see you're reading this! <3 Ily. Please read my Episode 6 confesh I just did a massive recap. ^_^

[Jeff Probst]

So I noticed Kristina and Ashley have both approached you for alliances and you have yet to respond to them, avoiding it?

[Stephanie]

So I noticed Kristina and Ashley have both approached you for alliances and you have yet to respond to them, avoiding it?

There is so much in there which is confusing. Kristina really wants me as her "number one" and I believe she is genuine. She said a few days ago we should bring Ashley to the end as the goat cause nobody would vote for her, due to her being a replacement, giving the two of us the best chance of winning the game. I don't necessarily think this is true. Nobody cares about the pre-merge game and let's face it, all we did was eliminate inactives.

She then mentioned something about us joining with Grant and Sophie, which I don't agree with at all. I mean, at least not the part about Sophie. She is a huge threat and needs to go! She's strong at challenges, plus I'm fairly certain she was the Ovambo Mole and thus has a Hidden Immunity Idol. I think she needs to be taken care of quickly and my path to the end of the game will be much easier with her out of the way. I don't want to go too far with Grant either, I like having him around cause I feel as long as he's in the game, he's always seen as a bigger threat than me. So the target will never be on my back. But come Final 5/6, it will definitely be time to cut him loose! He's been a major schemer/player, I don't want to be up against someone like that at the end.

I'm going to agree to Kristina's proposal, I don't have a choice. If I ignore them, they'll become suspicious and can plot against me. Or figure I have deals with other people. On one hand it's great that everyone considers me one of their closest allies, I really do feel like I have a great chance of going extremely far in this game. I just don't want to blow it. The problem is, I can either get caught for having all these deals, people will see me as a big time schemer and blindside me. Either that, or I do make it to the end, but have to screw over so many people to get there.



Here are all of my alliances.

Stephanie/Kristina/Ralph/Julie/Grant/David/Mike (Ovambo alliance)
Stephanie/Kristina/Ralph/Julie/Grant/David (Ovambo six)
Stephanie/Kristina/Ralph/Julie (Ovambo core four 1.0)
Stephanie/Grant/Mike/David (Ovambo core four 2.0)
Stephanie/Kristina/Ashley + Grant/Sophie

Some of them sort of blend together, others are conflicting so it'll come a time where I'll have to choose one or the other, and screw over a group in the process.

On top of that, David wants to go to the end with me. Julie approached me for a Final 3 deal which I agreed to. Grant says I'm his number one, and so does Kristina...



My strategy for now is to leave every avenue open for as long as possible and play out every scenario in my head, then make my move when the timing is right, to commit to one side take out a big threat. Now's not the right time to make a huge move like that, but I feel it will be coming up in the future.

I don't want to think too far ahead, but I think I fancy my chances in front of the jury against the likes of Julie, David and Mike. Grant and Kristina will be tough to beat at the end. But like I said, I don't want to blindside/betray them too early, because then I'm open to being targeted as the next biggest threat to win the game. I sort of feel like those two are my "shields" and people will always come after them before they come after me.

I would say any of those alliances which include Ralph are kind of non-existent at this stage, he is more or less on his death bed, especially with his idol gone. I think he'll be out of this game fairly soon. He's rubbed a lot of us the wrong way with being the Nama Mole, keeping that a secret from most of us, playing his idol at the last tribal council. Also him missing all those challenges, and just generally being annoying. He's proven he's not to be trusted!

We're still trying to get a feel of which direction we want to head in for the next tribal council. Either way, with Ralph on the chopping block and Kristina willing to work with the likes of Ashley and Sophie, I feel the Ovambo/Nama lines are more blurred than ever before. Everyone's playing for themselves!