LAST EDITED ON 05-02-09 AT 10:33 AM (EST)

Question:

Is it possible that Erinn and Stephen were in on it together, and that he knew that Erinn would throw a vote in his direction then he acted like he was all surprised etc? It could be a ploy to lull Coach/Debbie into thinking that Erinn isn't with JT/Stephen as much as they thought, so they'd believe that the JT/S/C/D alliance is still strong.

If Coach/Debbie believed that Erinn wasn't strong with JT/Stephen, they wouldn't be as much in a scramble mode and it'd be easier to blindside them.

I realize it's probably unlikely with the message Erinn put under Stephen's name on the parchment.

If you look at the videos on CBS.com Erinn says

"I promise to Never Again write your name down" My guess is he probably knew about it...Erinn and Taj both promised to not vote for Sierra.

Also, during the fight Sierra had with Coach, you can hear Erinn clearly say in front of the whole tribe that she wasn't voting for Sierra.

I was really surprised that CBS used Taj's family in the previews for next week

I wouldn't be surprised if Jim Nantz introduced Eddie on the Ipod or whatever...I bet if he calls golf over the weekend, he'll hype up the promos...

Wasn't sure where these clues should be posted -- but thought they might be helpful here with the vidcaps:

A SHOCKING TRIBAL COUNCIL TURNS THE GAME ON ITS HEAD AND REVEALS THE TRUE INTENTIONS OF SOME VERY CONNIVING CASTAWAYS, ON "SURVIVOR TOCANTINS -- THE BRAZILIAN HIGHLANDS," THURSDAY, MAY 7

"The Ultimate Sacrifice" - A tough decision gives one castaway the chance to sacrifice personal comfort to benefit the rest of the tribe, and a tricky immunity challenge puts brains and brawn to the test as the weary castaways fight for a guaranteed spot in the final five, on SURVIVOR: TOCANTINS - THE BRAZILIAN HIGHLANDS, Thursday, May 7 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

(CBS Press Release)

Thanks Squid! But, they've already been posted in the title thread by michel...we usually reserve the vidcap thread for vidcap discussion...which, btw, always has a narration of some kind which are clues in and of themselves...

Jiffy must be estatic that Eddie George will be coming to his show...

Alot of folks are speculating on other board that it is Taj that is going to possibly make the sacrifice, yet, I do NOT think that...Taj is reacting to the VERY HAPPY, Jiffy...Jiffy is thrilled, as we all know he loves the love. (and, he must be doubly thrilled with Eddie George). Taj is the only married with children that is left in the game, and I think she will be the benefit of the sacrifice...it will be someone else that ensures the comfort of the rest, imo.

...and would'nt it be funny if they let the loved ones participate in the IC, as they did in Vanuatu when Chris and his wife won? I would say that JT has a chance to finally win a challenge if it requires brawn and brains, but if Eddie participates, he would probably run circles around our "fast" little JT!

LAST EDITED ON 05-02-09 AT 07:21 AM (EST)

Good Morning!

I know that she has been easy to overlook this Season, but Debbie is also married, with children and stepchildren. And she has an eight-bedroom home to prove it ...

G

PS: I agree with you about the sacrifice. And it's about time that Coach earned his 'hero' cape.

And if Coach made the sacrifice it would put a nice cap on his story arc. He's gone the full run of first impression as the strong hero, to mediocre, to joke, to empathetic towards Sierra and if he sacrifices to generous. It may be why he's not loathed by everyone and thought of as harmless. Anyway, he'll be safe this time but that will be it and he goes at the next, which seems to follow the quasi spoiler of him out at F5.

Agman camouflaged me for S17

Whoops, you are so right, Georgianna, how could I forget Debbie! HA! My bad, sorry Debbie!

I like where you and suzzee are going with the title..."the Ultimate sacrifice", and I like what you are speculating, I sure can see Coach saying that in regard to his own actions...I don't associate Coach with a "Brawn and brains" challenge win, so this would fit nicely, to buy him one more week...and would do alot to make him a likeable player...

...I like it!

LAST EDITED ON 05-02-09 AT 08:18 PM (EST)

Thanks to Survivor Fever...

Transcript:

Announcer: There's only 3 episodes to go.

Taj: Oh my God !!!!!

We see that this is a challenge that is similiar to one that was in China, and I think that Bob may have won it...clearly Matty didn't...but, it looks like they are in lanes and have to get through all of these obstacles....I think we see their starting platforms at the left...we can see JT's green platform, where most likely, he started. From there they jump and have to dig under the structure, than scale a balance beam, and then ???...seems like a challenge that JT could possibly win?

***One thing that we can note FOR SURE, is that these challenge shots DO NOT match up with the recrap photo of Coach - Coach is shirtless in this challenge, while he's wearing his shirt in the recrap photo...), so therefore, HE MUST SURVIVE THIS EPISODE! Coach is in the F5!

Also, note that JT now has the blue steer on his back, as is seen in the F4 spider challenge...

LAST EDITED ON 05-06-09 AT 06:17 AM (EST)

>***One thing that we can note
>FOR SURE, is that these
>challenge shots DO NOT match
>up with the recrap photo
>of Coach - Coach is
>shirtless in this challenge, while
>he's wearing his shirt in
>the recrap photo...), so therefore,
>HE MUST SURVIVE THIS EPISODE!
> Coach is in the F5!

Another question.

How do we know for sure that they didn't just decide that the image of Coach wasn't worthy of being kept in an episode even though we saw it in the promos? There's precedence for a promo image not appearing in the actual episode -- we were shown the two tribes pulling on ropes back in about episode 4 or so, but it never made it into the episode aired on TV.

What if this Coach image from the recrap has already happened and we didn't know about it?

Stinky Musings <--- blog's been updated!

Thanks Survivor Fever...

Transcript:

Announcer: Survivor, Thursday, it's the most extreme auction ever.

Erinn: Ahhh!

Announcer: Why is everyone freaking out?

Long time lurker here. Thank you for all the spoilers. I was looking at the picture of Taj and I know they show her on the promo looking at the phone video. But in Flowers post it looks like she is looking over Jeff's shoulder as if someone is walking in. ??

Thanks to Survivor Phoenix!

From the looks of the PIP promo shots, I'd say that JT is going to get some food at the auction, while Debbie and Stephen are going to miss out...Taj looks to be the big winner...

For the IC, I think Coach and Stephen are losers, I think that either JT or Debbie will win it. Debbie is so little, could possibly squeeze under that bar quicker than most, and I believe she is better at puzzles than say, Erinn. But, JT could possibly finally win this one...

LAST EDITED ON 05-04-09 AT 05:06 PM (EST)

Thank you so much, FP!
You thank Phoenix and Fever (as do I), and I thank you for so faithfully doing the work of bringing them over.

There is a new Probst promo. Not sure if there are caps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-BvEJwmwgY

Probst says that brilliance wins the IC, and we see math. Stephen and JT are working it.

Stephen is the brain who went to Yale.
JT's bio mentions how he does all the books (as in accounting) for his ranch.

JP mentions that reading a book can help you in Survivor ... could Stephen win this?
Whatever his limitations on the brawn portion, this promo shows he is in it at the end, so he doesn't get bogged down so badly that he misses his chance to use his brain.

ETA
In the promo shots of the auction, Debbie does have a plate of food, as does Coach. Then Probst announces the chance to bid on the phone. Only one can win, no sharing. I think Debbie will not have enough money left to outbid Taj.

Then Taj does something for Debbie. Whether Taj makes the sacrifice, I don't know, because she does she at least the opener of her video.

Wow, great find there, OFG, thanks for posting it in here! Jiffy's preview video is out early this week. You are right, this is going to be a good episode...I think Taj will win the phone and messages from home...but she and Debbie do seem to be bonding in a way that could pay off for Debbie, perhaps?

Yes, you are right about the challenge as well...we see Stephen and JT going strong at the math puzzles...I am not discounting JT, but geez, I sure do wish he'd win one!

Re the brains/math part of the IC:

Yes, I agree that Stephen would likely be good at this, but we probably shouldn't rule out Debbie the Middle School Principal either.

And wasn't Coach's brother a Calculus teacher and his dad a famous mathematics professor in Russia? (Thankfully it appears from the vidcaps that Coach doesn't win.)

In the promo, Jeff also mentions the advantage that the winner of the IC enjoyed by virtue of reading a book. And Jeff and Mark Burnett are quite taken with Nobel Laureate/Mathematician John Nash's Equilibrium/Game Theory. So, I think that it's possible that Jeff is referring to one of the many books on the subject (including Dr. Nash's own Essays on Game Theory).

But, because Nash's work is so universally applicable (I think that Survivor's production staff recommends that every new Survivor read Nash), it's probable that more than one of the Final Six are familiar with it.

But, if I had to rank them in order of their likelihood to put the Theory to work in the heat of a Challenge, the list would be (from most likely to least likely):

Stephen, Benjamin, Debbie, Erinn, J.T. and Taj.

G

Now, watch it be The Art of War ...

Would be interesting if S/JT applied Nash's theory and decided to cooperate on the puzzle vs. compete individually to get the optimum result and win -- that might be the "brilliance" Jeff is referring to? (Although I'm not sure if that is allowed in a challenge?)

LAST EDITED ON 05-05-09 AT 05:05 PM (EST)

That's brilliant, Squid!

I know about Nash, but I don't know Nash. So, your post was a revelation.

As to whether or not overt cooperation to complete an IIC - and win it - would be allowed: I have no idea. I can't think of an instance when it was done.

But we've seen numerous examples of cooperative effort to throw Challenges. And numerous examples of deals made during Individual Immunity Challenges that resulted in a player abandoning his/her effort to win. And perhaps the most famous one of those deals would be the agreement struck between Tom and Ian in Palau. So, production could hardly argue that a pact based upon the sacrosanct Nash Theory would compromise the integrity of the Game, could they?

But, even if J.T. and Stephen managed to finish the IIC in a dead heat, I doubt that the staff whipped up a second Immunity Necklace for the occasion and the question becomes which of the two is the designated winner?

On another note:

Assuming him to be the only witness to it, would Jeff be allowed to expose their cooperation at either the IIC itself or later, at Tribal Council? Because, can you imagine the reaction of the rest of the Final Six if it became apparent that J.T. and Stephen had joined forces to solve the puzzle and/or intended to coordinate their IIC efforts all the way to F2? That would certainly go a long way toward fomenting 'A shocking Tribal Council that turned the Game on its head and revealed the true intentions of some very conniving castaways', wouldn't it?

For instance: With three more Tribal Council votes to go before two became a majority (and only two left before the HII expired) I would think that the duo would have to perform some immediate - and major - fence repairs. Beginning with Taj.

And that is probably the reason that the scenario is implausible.

Although, in his interview of Stephen for Reality Blurred, Andy Dehnart observes:

"Another fear is that he might just have too much fun with the game, and because he’s 'not here to make friends,' he intends to play intensely. 'I actually think one of my downfalls might be, I love backstabbing people,' Stephen told me. 'I might backstab someone just for the fun of it, rather than for the logic of it.'"

So ...

G

LAST EDITED ON 05-04-09 AT 05:01 PM (EST)

With all the drama we're promised at TC this week, I'd say both Debbie and Coach must be non-immune.

A tribe glows in Brooklyn