I have to figure Shambo was right. Galu fell apart when they voted out Erik. Or to be more precise when John suggested voting out Monica. As long as Galu was united in outcompeting and getting rid of Foa Foa's, their own divisions didn't hurt them.

If they hadn't voted out Erik, Russell's successful playing of the idol would only have saved him for another week, not made Foa Foa think they could gain control of the game. Looks like Foa Foa has been the aggressor ever since. (Some of that is Russell's pro active game play. He was telling Mick and Jaison about idol clues last week while the Galu's were still welcoming each other back.) But some of it was also that Foa Foa had evidence the Galu's would turn on each other. So they tried to convince Monica, and John, to flip.

Pretty good evidence it is not worth taking advantage of a numbers advantage to vote out strong competitors from within your tribe until you have reduced the other tribe to a couple of spare votes. Better not to try it while they still comprise a voting bloc.

• RE: Shambo was right,Tublecane, 01:36 AM, 11-22-09
  • RE: Shambo was right,garcor, 08:43 AM, 11-22-09
• Production Helped,michel, 06:43 PM, 11-22-09
  • RE: Production Helped,katethegreat, 09:28 AM, 11-23-09
    • RE: Production Helped,michel, 10:24 AM, 11-23-09
      • RE: Production Helped,Colonel Zoidberg, 07:24 PM, 11-23-09
        • RE: Production Helped,michel, 07:53 PM, 11-23-09
• RE: Shambo was right,grit, 10:26 AM, 11-23-09
  • RE: Shambo was right,michel, 11:11 AM, 11-23-09
  • RE: Shambo was right,LFJ, 06:00 PM, 11-23-09
    • RE: Shambo was right,garcor, 10:48 PM, 11-27-09

"Pretty good evidence it is not worth taking advantage of a numbers advantage to vote out strong competitors from within your tribe until you have reduced the other tribe to a couple of spare votes."

That is the best strategy. Or should I say the safest? Colby demonstrated the right way to do it in Australia when he buried his hatred and waited a while to blindside Jerry.

I'll go you one further and say that anything more than 4 or 5 makes for a bad alliance. 6-8 is too complicated. Too many personalities; too many subunits. I'd rather lose a few pre-merge challenges than try to keep 8 people together with the final 4 looming over the horizon.

Oh, and just to be contrary, I'd say it wasn't Erik. That was the beginning, but they had two tribals to pull it together. We have to give it the benefit of the doubt that it was possible to turn things around after Erik but before Laura, if Galu were not so Galu-ish.

A combination of three things, in my opinion, sunk Galu:

1. Alienating Shambo, for which the men share the blame. They ought to have offered themselves as Shambo's means to ousting Laura, and encouraged her to wait. The need to know basis pushed her into Russell's arms. Or maybe she was rogue (concerning Laura) all the way and really has no idea how to win and it was hopeless.

2. Voting out Erik. Perhaps necessary, but wait at least until only two Foas are left, perferably ones that can be split. It's not like holding your breath; you can do it.

3. Not devising a compitent strategy for the Kelly and Laura tribals. THIS was their fatal flaw. They still would have had the numbers had they been able to trick the Foas. Ignore Russell and his endless idols. Use Shambo. Disinformation! Pick someone other than Monica to sell lies. Fake internal fights! Make Foa-Foa doubt eachother.

In short, try. John ultimately gave up because his tribe, including him, was stupid enough to get backed into a purple rock corner. They had three tribals to pull it together. Sad.

Agree alliances that are too big will be very hard to hold together. 4-5 might be the maximum you can hold together.

Otherwise,

Think Shambo was always hopeless.

They definitely could, and should have, strategized better. Though they did learn enough to target Natalie, rather than Russell, last week. And I doubt they could have tricked the Foas last week regardless of whom they had sent to try and sell lies. Who else was there? Laura would not have been believed. The one time they showed Brett talking strategy, he gave up immediatly. Dave hasn't come across as all that articulate, or much of an actor.

But if they had voted out a Foa Foa rather than Erik, it might have been the Foa Foa's who started flipping to stay in the game.

LAST EDITED ON 11-22-09 AT 06:44 PM (EST)

"Galu fell apart when they voted out Erik."

It happened before that.

Their collapse was partly due to bad luck and partly due to production decisions: Galu's troubles started when Swan was medevaced out of the game resulting in Jeff calling off the double elimination. They fell apart right after production acquiesced to Russell's wish and merged the tribes at 12.

Which Russel made this wish?

During their last Tribal Council, the one that saw Liz voted out, Hantz said: "We're hoping for a merge." Next day, they merged.

It was Day 22 or so. The game had progressed at a snail's pace. If they didn't merge then, they may as well never merge.

It's hardly Russell's fault they cast too many damn people.

How many people did we have in CI? 20. When did they merge? At 9.

Funny how that time it worked for Yul's underdogs and this time it worked for Russell's.

I think Galu fell apart before the merge when they alienated Shambo and then kept sending her over to Foa Foa, which almost guaranteed that she would flip.

They can't be a cohesive group if one person feels that they're on the outside of the group. They should have done everything to make her feel part of the group, no matter how much they disliked her.

At tribal council, I laughed when Laura said she didn't know what Shambo was saying that Galu was broken because the Galu she's been in is tight. Then Jeff said a group can't be tight if one of the members isn't. Laura replied, "I guess it depends on how big a group you're considering." So in her mind Galu is still strong because she doesn't even consider Shambo to be part of Galu, even though Shambo was in Galu from day one. And that was Laura's fatal mistake.

It was Laura's fatal mistake but it's also Shambo's fatal flaw. She outlasted Laura but can she win the game?

Was Shambo ever in Galu? Don't forget that Shambo was the first to distance herself from the group as we saw in episode #1 when they all went for a swim while she stewed on the beach. Kelly told us that Shambo always slept apart from everyone else.

Galu would have voted Shambo out if the merge at been at 10 like usual or if Jeff hadn't called the vote off after Swan's evacuation.

In a sense, Galu fell apart when they voted out Yasmin instead of Shambo.

"I think Galu fell apart before the merge when they alienated Shambo and then kept sending her over to Foa Foa, which almost guaranteed that she would flip.
They can't be a cohesive group if one person feels that they're on the outside of the group. They should have done everything to make her feel part of the group, no matter how much they disliked her."

ITA with this. Laura had such an elitist attitude. And she fostered that attitude among the Barbies - so much so that Kelly referred to Shambo as "trailor trash". The Galu men didn't trust Laura, with the possible exception of Brett. And she delivered the death blow when she told RussH that she was 90% in charge, while he ranked at a mere 10%. She might as well have slapped him in the face. After that, she decided to sacrifice the "rocket scientist" to save herself.

With Laura as a member of Galu, the FF's probably didn't even need to show up, and Galu would still have lost.

Will go back to original argument. Maybe they had some bad luck with Russell being removed from the game and they might never have all liked each other; but you don't have to like each other to be a successful team. All they had to do was not turn on each other until they had either knocked out all the Foa Foa's or reduced them to one or two people. (And they didn't need Shambo's vote to do it.)

John started it by targeting Monica and trying to get enlist the Foa Foa's to vote her out. Once they saw that the Galu's were willing to turn on each other the Foa Foa's made use of that knowledge.

Question: If the Galu men were four votes; the Galu women were three votes, Shambo was a floater, and the Foa Foa were four votes, wouldn't the Foa's be a bigger threat than the Galu women. Think John, and allies, miscalculated. They must have thought they could keep Shambo on their side. But, if John didn't feel secure about Brett's vote, (and possibly Shambo's as well) thinking Brett was with Laura, he might have had good reason to try to use Foa Foa to change the numbers.