Merge time! <3
That last challenge was crucial and I'm so glad I pulled it off for Ovambo! I definitely felt the pressure after falling off the balance beam the first time, when I had the opportunity to get the win. But Whitney messed up her chance too on an overrule, then it came down to me and Sophie in the tiebreaker. I came out on top! This made Ovambo an undefeated 4/4 in challenges. I don't mean to sound conceited, but I definitely feel I proved to be the strongest competitor in the pre-merge challenges, from either tribe!
Faced with the prospect of tribal council, initially Mike was the target due to being outside the initial alliance of six of Stephanie/Kristina/Ralph/Julie/David/Grant. But we then decided that Mike has integrated himself well, was even part of a core four alliance with Stephanie/Mike/Grant/David, which I must say, I feel much more secure with. Once Kristina signed onto the idea to vote off Julie instead, it was a done deal. But we ended up winning, so kept it under wraps! Julie has no idea she would've been voted off. <3
Now we're on the green Himba tribe! And most importantly... Ovambo has the numbers! My alliance has the numbers. Stephanie, Kristina, Grant, Julie, David, Mike and Ralph. We have a 7-5 advantage over Sophie, Papa Bear, Whitney, Cochran and Ashley. Winning those challenges pays off!
Due to the tribe swap at Final 14, Grant ended up on the Nama tribe. Due to The Mole twist, he was able to guess the Ovambo Mole. If he was correct, then the Ovambo Mole would be exposed, sent to Ovambo where an immediate Tribal Council would be held, and we'd have the opportunity to vote them off, and Grant would receive a Hidden Immunity Idol. If he was wrong, then Grant would be exposed, and likewise, we'd immediately have a Tribal Council. We planned to tell Grant to guess the Nama Mole at the challenge, but it seems he already had the idea. Grant guessed Papa Bear and was incorrect, and at our Tribal Council, we voted off Rick. He was the only original Nama member of our tribe, so it left us with no choice. I felt bad because he didn't really get a chance to play the game after he was replaced! But it was the best move to make, to ensure we had the numbers at the merge. I wasn't about to have us win all these challenges, only to merge without numbers!
Grant informed us that Sophie and Papa Bear were the two running the show on Nama, and suspected either Whitney or Sophie is the Ovambo Mole. Apparently they're not too fond of him, for pointing out Whitney's mistake in the previous immunity challenge, which cost them the win, and abandoning the tribe, instead of being their easy vote off. He said he bonded with Ashley but suspected she would be voted off next, and felt bad leaving her there to be targeted. Surprisingly, she was spared over Semhar! I thought maybe that would be so they could use her to get information from us cause she wasn't firmly on their side due to being a replacement... either way I let it be known she wasn't to be trusted. We had a solid group of seven, no point risking information getting out there with the Hidden Immunity Idol looming!
So Ovambo agreed we were sticking together, and to not let any scrambling from Nama affect our solid majority which we worked hard for! After all, even if one person flipped, it'd still be 6-6. So really, two people would need to flip. It seemed unimaginable. Also, due to the dynamics, nobody felt as though they were at the bottom. Mike was on the outside of the initial alliance of six, which he didn't know. Julie was going to be voted off had we lost the last pre-merge challenge, which she didn't know. Early on there was a core four alliance of Stephanie/Kristina/Ralph/Julie, which was kept under wraps. Then a core four alliance with Stephanie/Grant/David/Mike was created, which I must say I felt more comfortable with. Nobody knew about that either! Everybody thought they were in a great position in the tribe, which was just what we wanted.
Grant and Ashley won the first merge individual immunity challenge. It was an endurance, two people won. I came third before the page stopped loading for me. >_< So it sucked to come so close, only to just miss out. I definitely wanted immunity because I was scared of the possibility of an idol being played on Nama. I thought I would be a prime target due to being a huge challenge threat. But... I was wrong! I was never on anyone's radar.
Kristina came to me and let me know that Ralph is the Nama Mole. Apparently he really trusts her so let her know shortly before the merge. He told Grant as well, nobody else. So obviously he doesn't trust me too much! This of course meant he had received the Ovambo Hidden Immunity Idol! I completely believed Kristina on this, we had suspected for the longest time that The Mole was either Julie or Ralph. Initially we did think it was Julie because we suspected she was ranked first in the "trust ranking" which we did on the first weekend, but some others started to feel it made for sense for it to be Ralph. Grant said when he was on Nama, they told him they suspected it was Ralph as well.
So come merge time, Ralph revealed to Nama he was The Mole... Papa Bear started playing hard and tried to make deals with Ovambo to make them flip to Nama and take control of the game. Apparently those two were Kristina and Ralph. I was worried it was a real thing, but Kristina assured me it was fake! Kristina was annoyed at Ralph cause he told Sophie/Papa Bear that he gave her the idol, which wasn't true! Ralph told them to vote for Mike due to him running the show on Ovambo, which I thought was laughable cause really he was the outsider of the initial alliance of six! Nobody from Nama was approaching me for any deals, so that made me feel like they felt they'd found greener grass. ^_^ I certainly wasn't in their plans, so they weren't in mine. The idea was to have Nama think they had the numbers with Kristina/Ralph, so they wouldn't think to play their Immunity Idol.
Quite a few targets were thrown around. Papa Bear was the obvious one due to all his scheming, plus the fact Grant incorrectly guessed him as the Ovambo Mole, meaning he couldn't have the Hidden Immunity Idol. We were certain one of Sophie/Whitney was the Ovambo Mole, so decided to keep the votes away from them, due to risk of them playing the idol. We didn't have the numbers to split. And Ashley is someone who isn't firmly with Nama, so we figured she is someone we'd want to keep in the game. In the end, it was me who stepped up and urged all of Ovambo to put the votes on Cochran! So they'd never see it coming, the possibility of an idol being played on him was virtually non-existent. It was hard, cause I really did like Cochran. But I felt it was the best move for my game. We had to make sure Ovambo stayed intact, and voting Cochran was the best way to ensure that.
In the end it paid off, and Cochran was blindsided 6-5! <3 Nama were shocked at the outcome, they thought they had the numbers to vote off Mike. Even if they thought Ovambo were sticking together, they never saw Cochran as the target. Now Ovambo was in control, my alliance was in control! Everything went as planned. A perfect way to start off the merge!
