>Jenna Morasca had beauty pageant experience
>and she acquitted herself well at the final TC

Danni Boatwright too.

And anyone participating in this thread should definitely read this morning's Reality TV World interviews with Amanda, Cirie, and Natalie as they get posted -- there's answers (OK, maybe alleged answers, given it is all in hindsight) to lot of the above in there. Parvati's interview should be happening any minite.

LAST EDITED ON 05-12-08 AT 03:44 PM (EST)

Chris is still transcribing it, but here are few teasers:

Reality TV World: So if everybody thought Parvati was beatable, what happened?

Cirie: Parvati was good with her answers . Amanda's answers weren't true. Even the question I asked -- why Parvati over me -- and to say that Parvati's game was better than mine? People were there! (laughing) They saw it! They were there. So I think Parvati's answers came across more truthful and that's why she won.

Reality TV World: Did Amanda's answer to your question surprise you? What type of answer were you expecting?

Cirie: I kind of anticipated her answering it that way. I knew she would never honestly say, "Well I wanted to take Parvati because I think I can beat her." I wanted the jury to see that.

...

Reality TV World: Did Amanda's poor answer -- and Parvati's good answer -- to your question determine your vote or had you already decided to vote for Parvati?

Cirie: You know what? Honestly speaking? If Amanda would have said, "Cirie, I took Parvati because there's no way I would have beat you. I wouldn't have been able to out-talk you with the jury. Plus everybody here knows that Parvati's done a lot and everyone hates Parvati and everybody wants to take Parvati," then maybe it might have been a slight chance. But honestly, no. I probably would have still voted for Parvati.

Thought Amanda's final TC was better this time than in China. Even after their answers, I thought Amanda likely to win because of all the jurors Parvati had a hand in voting out despite previous alliances.

Message I got from the voting is that if you make strong connections with other players while being honest that you will do whatever is necessary to win, many players will still vote for you even if you break alliances. They'll give you credit for strong gameplay. Others will not be as forgiving; e.g. the three jurors who voted for Amanda all said or implied that there were limits to what they were willing to do to win.

Also agree that for large portions of the game Amanda came across as Ozzy's sidekick while Parvati was always actively and obviously playing. And if the biggest single move of the game was the Ozzy blindside, Amanda not only took no part in it, she wasn't even told about it.

Amanda had a MUCH better FTC this time than in China. Really, the only votes she could have swayed were Eliza's and Cirie's, and Eliza didn't ask any questions, and Cirie just said in that interview that the answer probably didn't matter.
Amanda should have answered Cirie thus:
Cirie, Parvati DOESN'T deserve the million more than you. I don't even deserve the million more than you. You played the best strategical game out there. The only reason I am sitting here right now and not you is because I won that last IC and you didn't. The only reason Parvati is sitting here right now and not you is because I made an alliance with Parvati on Day 1. Between the two of you, I don't know that I could beat either of you in front of the jury, but I played a loyal game and so I had to bring Parvati with me or I couldn't sit here and say that I played a loyal game.

THAT would have been the perfect answer. However, as I already said above, Cirie herself said she was probably voting for Parv anyway. I am curious as to why. Personally, I have no clue what Cirie is saying about Amanda's answers not being honest. I don't know what answers she is talking about. Amanda said Parvati played a BOLDER game. That isn't true? Seems true enough to me. I think Cirie is just trying to make her vote look better, which is typical post-game revisionist history. But I am really curious as to why Cirie wouldn't vote for Amanda. I hope it is because she honestly feels Parv played the better game. I hope.

>

I had a sinking feeling from the final three tribal - you could see her stock plummeting with the jury at the time. She did some serious damage there.

But she seemed perked up the next day, which was encouraging - bring on the final tribal.

However, as soon as she made her opening statement, I said to my wife that she was dead in the water. Historically, the under the radar player is punished and the bold player is rewarded, and given the players this season, this was even more likely to be the case this time. It was almost an identical approach that cost her the game against a similar player in the season before.

As someone else said, I speculate that perhaps had she seen her show, she might have adjusted (the others did).

Also, she had so little to play with - she got a slam or a throwaway question whereas Parvati got a "Parvati, why are you so cool?" question. "Well, I don't know, juror, I just am!" You would think that Ozzy could have served up an easy one for her to hit out of the park as well as declaring his undying love (snore).

I was somewhat surprised that Jason was already set for Parvati (or it seemed so, he was one of the ones who gave Amanda a pretty much nothing question, and Parvati a straightforward one), expected his vote to be up for grabs. Perhaps he believed she saved him with the deal at the immunity when they blindside Ozzy instead of voting him, and Amanda still voted against him and was therefore bad. He did think a stick was the II so that's plausible.

I wonder if some posters gave too much credit to Amanda ... she made some slick moves, but didn't try to use them to justify why she should win. Ah well.