I disagree, WJ. How can Tim be called a scapegoat when it was his idea, he sold it, he practically forced it down their throats, and then they lost? The only other person you can blame at all for the loss is James, who approved Tim's ideas, but James also has won like the last 3 tasks as PM. It would be kind of hard to fire him after losing once. No, Tim knew he was on the hot seat, and they lost. End of story.
I agree that Tim did a good job of staying loyal during the tasks, but his team still had the right to doubt his loyalty and take issue with a guy who was periodically going to the hedge to kiss-and-tell with someone from the other team. So, yeah, he might not have let it affect his challenge performance, but it still affected his position within his own team and it was completely understandable to me that they went after him.
Frank might have been irritating, which is probably a foreshadowing that he will be out soon as well, but he also happened to be right when he didn't like the finished product. Tough to blame him too much when he was right.
This season has made a step forward with Tim being gone, and if we can just get rid of Nicole, then things will be 100% better.
I believe what happened at the end was a matter of editing and what was caught by the camera and what was not. Tim was closer to James and Frank than nearly anyone let go so far this season. I'm quite sure they said goodbye in some fashion before the camera showed them all walking out.
