Actually Yau, Ozzy, and Parvati had the only things close to a significant quote. I, too, feel that perhaps we have not heard it yet. Here are the specific quotes:

Yau-man: The only reason to come back is for the million dollars...

Ozzy: The fact that we, the favorites, have played this game before, I think that is our biggest advantage. It's an expectation that we've got to live up to....

Parvati: I have to win this time. It's my 2nd time. I'm not coming back to starve and be miserable. I was a flirt on Cook Islands. There was no other dimension to me, I don't think. Outwardly, yeah, I'm gonna be flirty. I'm playing smart this time, I want to make the right alliances with people that I know I can trust....

I keep going back to the utter LACK of face time for Cerie. I'. thinking this may be like S2 where Tina was virtually invisible in the 1st episode. Considering Ceries tribe was going to TC, and the voting alliances were still being negotiated, Cerie should have popped up and didn't. Is he the "FAN" that wins?

LAST EDITED ON 02-13-08 AT 07:40 AM (EST)

Never know if there's still something good in this thread that will help us narrow the possible winner as the game winds down.

Pepe: How do you like the contrast between:

Parvati in Epi #1: "I have to win this time. It's my 2nd time. I'm not coming back to starve and be miserable."

and Kathleen in Epi #7: "This is the stupidest thing I've ever done...I don't know how you can do this, twice."

The scenes in Airai during last episode, were telling me that Parvati wasn't thinking it was stupid to do it twice.

Agreed, and in following up with the "I'm not coming back to starve and be miserable" line, note how Parv was the most attentive of them all with the two big Palauan guys during the reward - and that she was the first to catch a fish and she actually explained to James how to fish too.

Sure looking more and more to me like Parvati is being edited as a winner.

LAST EDITED ON 03-31-08 AT 05:44 PM (EST)

Another candidate:

Certainly, compelling arguments for concluding that Parvati is Micronesia’s Sole Survivor have been made here and elsewhere on the Board.

But, I just can’t get past my feeling that, in a Season designed as a paean to the Game’s mystique, the vulgar mention of mere money is more indicative of failure than of success. So …

Alexis

In her opening post to Micronesia’s Editing thread, VerucaSalt told us that Jeff Probst had had this to say regarding Alexis:

"And she looks at me and says, 'I've read every person here.' And she had a pretty good read on everybody. I thought, This is all I need to know. This girl knows how to play. As a fan, I picked this girl to win."

And, in one of her following posts, Veruca had this to say regarding Alexis:

Alexis (conf) "I think the fans vs. favorites is the ultimate challenge because we have the favorites who obviously played the game before so they have the experience but at the same time you have us and we know their game, we not only know their strengths but their weaknesses too so I think that puts us at a huge advantage"

How the end result comes down remains to be seen, however the "ultimate" ending would be a fan against a favorite due to the enormous storyline potential. Alexis is the one chosen to voice this very big story which may be suggestive on her longevity. Since the fans did not get to see Tribal Council, we only touched on them in the first episode (and not even enough for any merit) but it should be considered that Alexis was given a very big confessional even if she was not one of the fans to be really thrown in our faces. Was it simply a great commentary? Perhaps. I am sure this was spoken by some others as well. The "bottom line" is that Alexis was chosen by the editors to encompass a huge thematic approach to this season and this cannot be ignored.

And then there is this entry by Alexis (click and scroll to Cues From Queen Elizabeth) rescued by AnomyBC at Survivor Sucks from a blog that has since been (presumably at the insistence of CBS) interrupted/terminated.

Below are excerpts from that entry:

In my grad program at USC I studied several female world leaders and one of the most influential women (especially in an era when women were not considered commensurate to men), was able to single handedly lead an entire country. I based much of my Survivor strategy from the life experiences of these women. Now, the brilliance of Queen Elizabeth was that she knew her power, her intelligence and her strength, but she was also aware that this greatly threatened people, especially men …

As I've said before, “In this game my greatest strength is my femininity. It's like the female CEO who kicks (backside), but then has the audacity to wear hot pink high heels, just because she can.”

I made a decision, especially at the beginning of this game to patiently allow others to step up and have their voices heard. As a woman, I know my strength, but in confidently knowing that, I needn't prove it to anyone. I can disarmingly smile from ear to ear and know exactly what I'm capable of. Women and men are different and inherently have different methods of leadership and ways of influencing.

I have a feeling that Queen Elizabeth mastered the art of persuasion so well that people around her were utterly unaware that they were her very own marionette dolls. If anything, the Survivor experience was a social experiment in effective leadership. In this game, men and women alike, could certainly have used cues from the Queen; undoubtedly, she would have dominated the game of Survivor.
Emphasis Added

Now, I have learned not to take everything that Mr. Probst has to say at face value: I seem to remember that buried somewhere in these threads is a reference to the fact that, in a later interview, JP indicated that James was his preseason pick to win the Game. But, her avid reader for several years now, I have also learned never to ignore what VerucaSalt has to say.

And, although I still think that we are being told Cirie’s (or, perhaps but far less likely, even James’) Fan/Favorite story, I am having a great deal of difficulty imagining why Alexis would – so – set herself up.

Had she lost the Game.

I don't think Alexis is going to win.

Why?

Because I have no idea who she is. Seriously. I only have a vague idea of what she looks like. Whenever she gets a minute of screentime, my family is always like 'who's that? she doesn't get a lot of screentime'.

I know that Natalie has puffy lips. Without going to the CBS website, I think that Alexis has dark hair, maybe like Jiffy's GF Julie?

No idea.

I don't think Alexis is the winner, either FWIW, but we've had several winners in the past where we had absolutely no clue or only knew a bit about who they were until after the merge. We haven't had the merge episode yet so there's still time for their storylines to be fleshed out.

It would be a nice turn-around if Alexis could not only get into the Favorites alliance but also overturn it. However, since her strong first episode, she has had some very weak ones. Her opening confessional about knowing the Favorites strengths and weaknesses was practically negated when she let us know how great having some Favorites helping build the shelter. It was almost telling us that "Experience" his the greater advantage.

It even seems that the season's theme is "Survivor is Harder than Fans Think". If so, a fan couldn't win. From the previews, this upcoming episode will either revive her chances of winning or completely burry them. See you in the eidting thread!

And BTW, if Alexis wrote this:

"the Survivor experience was a social experiment in effective leadership"

I hope she meant that she learned what effective leadership WOULD have been because the Fans had terrible leadership!

Hello, MM and Michel!

I don't disagree with either of you. But, a month after the fact, I was still asking myself how Danni (until Guatemala's tribal "swap", another virtually invisible Cancer) won that Season.

And, I think that the Fans' leadership crisis had far more to do with its quantity than its quality and that, for their remaining leaders, the crisis (but not the challenge) is past.

About the Editing thread, Michel:

Although I seldom post to it (and didn't post my comments concerning Alexis there because I was uncertain if her out-of-the-Game ramblings would be considered appropriate in that spoiler-free forum), I love reading it. As much because of your own and others' contributions as because of Veruca's. In fact, because of my conviction (then and now) that China was staged and cast to produce a female Sole Survivor, I was enormously impressed by your decisive (and accurate) prediction of Todd as its winner. So, I am, very sincerely, fully prepared to be absolutely dazzled by your skill if Parvati (who, given the odds against it, shouldn't) does win this Game.

BTW: Before this Season's biographies (including the castmembers' birthdates) were posted at CBS, I had hoped that Ami would be its winner. I don't (and, although I admired her survival skills in Exile Island, never did) "like" Cirie, don't "know" either Alexis or Natalie, and have little hope that Eliza can prevail. And that is, regrettably, now my not-so-short short-list.

Yes I do read the spoilers, but rarely post. Leave it up to you experts

Something stood out for me last episode about my girl Alexis. Not sure if it could be called a million-dollar quote, but Alexis had the final confessional on the Kathy situation.

Something about "the game goes on". There have been a number of occasions so far this season in which Alexis put the final stamp on a situation. It might have been her only confessional in the episode, but most of her confessionals this season have been meaningful and not fluff. This was how Danni was edited in the early to mid-game.

I lubs Alexis and think she is adorable, so I'm probably tainted in my wishful thinking that she could win