Well last Tribal Council was a huge blindside! It definitely gave me a reality check that this game is not as easy as I thought. Up until now things have pretty much gone my way and I've known exactly what was going to happen. I thought I had a pretty clear path to the Final 3 because Ovambo was in control and they all seemingly had me in their end game plans. But now things have shaken up and I'm not confident of my position at all. I expected things to kick up a couple of notches as we neared the end game, but still, this was not one I could've predicted.
I've had my Final 4 alliance with Grant, Mike and David since the pre-merge. On top of that, Kristina formed a Final 3 alliance with me and Ashley, with Grant and Sophie being our fourth and fifth. The only two people who didn't fit into either of these alliances were Whitney and Julie. So my plan was to keep both those alliances intact, and eliminate those two non-factors who weren't part of either alliance. I also figured that was a good plan, so that people don't take them to the end for the easy win. Then at Final 7, you have Grant, Sophie and Kristina who are clearly bigger threats than me, so it would be so easy to convince people to vote them out one after the other and get myself to the end with the likes of Mike/David and take credit for those moves. That's been my strategy since the beginning, to keep the big threats in as long as possible so as the end game nears, I can pretty much do as I please because nobody would have me on their radar.
It paid off, because Grant was a bigger threat than me, that's why the Nama girls + Julie put the votes on him. I do wonder what would've happened had Grant won immunity, I'm assuming I would've been the one to leave. I did want Grant gone eventually, but not this soon. :/ Now that strategy of keeping the big threats/schemers in the game is pretty much out the window.
Grant: Ashley, Julie, Sophie, Whitney
Sophie: David, Grant, Mike
Whitney: Kristina, StephanieBetween Julie and Whitney, Kristina and I figured it may as well be Whitney to leave, because she's a former Nama, to keep our Ovambo advantage going. Everyone seemed on board for it and it seemed like a unanimous vote. Yay! Well, then the paranoia came in. Sophie showed her idol at the previous Tribal Council where Ralph was eliminated. She claimed she was going to play it on herself at this Tribal Council, to get the target off her back. So suspicious! Grant thought so, therefore he came up with a plan to split the vote. The Ovambo girls vote Whitney, and the Ovambo boys vote Sophie. So no matter who Sophie played her idol on, we'd still come out on top. But! The Nama girls convince Julie to flip and make it a 4-3-
2 vote. The idol was played on Whitney, but it wasn't needed. Thankfully it's at least out of the way!
Julie's just been fodder this entire game. I get you hosts think I've been useless but for real, I've been playing hard behind the scenes. I know better than to play the game Grant did, otherwise it would've been me getting my torch snuffed last night! Anyway, Julie sucks. I know it, you know it, she knows it, EVERYONE KNOWS IT! This is her pathetic attempt to make a "big move" cause she's been useless the entire game. She was just used as a pawn by the Nama girls and they played her like a fiddle. She doesn't get that, she thinks this is her move. Also I kind of blame Kristina for this. She's an overplaying whore and includes me in all these alliances without confronting me about it first. >_< Trusting Ashley and Sophie to turn on Whitney was pretty stupid. And Sophie/Ashley told Julie we were planning on taking her out next after Whitney. Ugh!
So now, it stands as a 4-4 deadlock. Stephanie/Kristina/David/Mike vs. Sophie/Ashley/Whitney/Julie. Obviously we're trying to get Julie back onto our side cause Ovambo has the 5-3 advantage over Nama. We plan on assuring Julie that the other four Ovambo are voting together on this vote no matter what, and her only choice is to either vote with us, for a Nama, or draw rocks. Because none of us are flipping. We're certain that if we assure her that none of us are flipping, she'll crack at the prospect of drawing rocks, and jump to our side. Mike won immunity, which helps our case. Should it go to rocks, the odds are in our favour because only two of our four have to draw a rock, compared to three of the other four.
This also makes it more tempting for Julie to side with us. It's interesting because the Nama girls were targeting Mike before the challenge, due to him being "dishonest and a liar". Now they can't do that, so I'm curious who they'll switch the vote to. They've been trying to get me to flip as well, but there is no reason to. I'm here to win, you don't win by not taking risks. I'm not about to flip to secure myself Final 5 and be eliminated there. Not to mention, Sophie and Ashley are the two biggest threats to win the game. If I side with them, I have no chance, in addition to pissing off three people who would never vote me to win. So if it goes to rocks and I go out, so be it! It's my best play to win this game. There is no other option.
I'm hoping that David, Kristina and Mike all see this as well, and aren't tempted to flip. I think they all understand it would destroy their chances of winning. Mike has immunity so I know he won't flip, and Kristina is extremely angry at Sophie/Ashley for what they pulled at the last Tribal Council, so she's not flipping either. The only one I do have concerns for is David. Sophie/Ashley are approaching all of us and trying to get us to flip. Kristina and Mike have flat out told them "No". David said he's playing into flipping but actually won't. So that does concern me. I'm just reiterating that it would be a game ending move to side with Nama + Julie at this stage, and am hoping it sinks in. I'm sort of hoping that Nama + Julie put the four votes on me, so that I don't have to draw a rock. :-X But I don't think they will.
I'm going to speak with Julie and be polite, but firm. Vote with us and be safe, or vote with them and draw rocks. Cause none of us are budging and we're prepared to go to rocks ourselves. She doesn't owe Nama anything anyway, she helped them out by saving them and voting out Grant. There is no reason for her to risk her game and draw rocks for them, they're just using her as leverage to get themselves to the end. I'm going to tell her that Sophie/Ashley/Whitney are an unbreakable three, Kristina/Mike/David are not a solid group, so if she sides with Ovambo, at Final 5, it would be easy for us to convince one of them to join us to go to the Final 3. I'm promising her I'll get her to the end if she sides with us!
That along with telling her Sophie/Ashley being the biggest threats and the odds if it DOES go to rocks being in our favour due to Mike's immunity win. I just hope it works! We're thinking of maybe lying to her about our target. If she's honest it'll be a 4-3-1 vote. If she's lying it'll be 4-4 but if they found the idol, she'll tell them who to play it on, and we'd be screwed. That being said, if it goes to 4-4, she might consider flipping on the revote. And if we lied to her, she'd be less inclined to join us in that scenario. So I'm still thinking through about what the best decision is there. That idol clue seems fairly impossible, so I do think it's unlikely it's been found before more clues are given.
We're going to be targeting Sophie. She's the biggest threat to win the game and with her out of the picture, I'm confident I can make it all the way to the end. Stephanie/Kristina/Mike/David will have the majority to go to Final 4. Ashley will be our next target, then Whitney, then Julie. At that point I think we would take out Kristina cause she's been a very strategic player and could be tough to beat. I've had a Final 4 with Mike, David and Grant since the pre-merge. Since Grant was blindsided, I guess that is secured as a Final 3 alliance with Mike and David. But for now I'm not getting to far ahead of myself, getting through this vote with my alliance intact is my primary concern!
Either way, stay tuned! It's going to be another epic Tribal Council for the Himba tribe!
