Ya, great survivor player. Not a very good person, though.

They've got time to make friends after the game. But it's Outplay, Outwit, Outlast, not Outfriend.

Kim seems like a perfectly nice person in real life, but she's not there to be a nice person on Survivor, she's there to win a million.

Isn't the survivor experience part of her real life?

People make moral decisions on that game. It's what makes it interesting. And people are so corruptable, so willing to justify "it's just a game", or "it's just business, it's not personal."

The show is a great business allegory.

I've been described by a lot of people as a good guy and a fair person. But if I ever go onto Survivor, I'd lie and cheat, make people think they were my friend, and so on -- it's a game to win a million dollars and has nothing to do with who I am in real life. I wouldn't have a problem with trying to be a different person than I normally am for 39 days.

I can vouch for Pepe. I have had dinner with him, and while he seems to be a "good guy and fair person", he did show up at the restaurant with a strong alliance and he brought along a posse of short people who were cute enough to get him jury votes!!

(Pepe, how are the kids?)

Survivor is a contrived situation, for purposes of playing a game and making a television show, where the necessities of the game do not conform to the normal moral codes of real life. Even though the players are out there living it 24/7 for the duration of whatever time they are in the game, they are under stress both from the game, the other players, and the difficult living conditions. Some players can successfully step out of their normal MOs of real life to play the game, some cannot, most land somewhere inbetween.

I wouldn't vote for Kim.
I don't like cold people.
I would vote for Chelsea.

Chelsea looks warm.

Here is the problem for Chelsea. The other players will not vote for her b/c they will be hurt (not expecting her to backstab) by her move more than Kim's who they "know is playing the game". Sweet players get lectured at the end and then lose b/c of the bitter vote.

Humbly disagree. Strong "out-there" players lose because of the bitter jury. Sweet players lose when the strong player gets more respect from the jury. (I'm thinking Kim from Ethan, Katie from Tom, Becky from Yul, Amanda from Todd&Parv, Sugar from Bob, Natalie from Boston Rob)

The question is whether this jury will be bitter. Jay and Troy, definitely. Three girls not at the end, maybe (at least Alicia/Kat/Sabrina will be, maybe not Christina). So that's already 4-5 strikes against the kingpin (queenpin?) Kim. Toss in Leif fawning over Chelsea, Tarzan "respecting" Chelsea... and you're looking at a blowout.

A juror becomes bitter when a player does something to hurt them personally. Some of the bitterest jurors include Lex, Big Tom, Alicia on A$$, the women of Yasur and the Galu tribe. Rob, Twila and Russell all made it very personal.
- Rob had a pre-game alliance with the two guys and made a F2 deal with Alicia when he thought Amber was gone.
- Twila swore on her kids' life to Leann and Ami.
- Russell doesn't need explanation.

Kim has done nothing on that level. She has played much more like Todd and Earl. Chelsea is seen as a wishy-washy idiot! I don't see her getting votes besides Leif's. Kat would get more!

PS. LOL at Katie, Becky, ChinAmanda and Sugar being considered sweet by those out there!

Kim looked to be sitting on pins & needles during TC every time one of the other women opened their mouth!
She wanted Jeff to just stop with the questions and get on with the vote before someone let the cat out of the bag!

That turned out to be a much more interesting episode than I thought it would be.

Stupid Jay -- he should have listened to Troyzan....he basically did himself in.

Good episode for Kat -- she actually came across much more strategic than I gave her credit for.

Another good episode for Kim -- and Jeff gave her all the credit, calling it's "Kim's plan" in the recap.

Looking ahead:

Seems like Troyzan will get the underdog/fan favorite edit. Can he pull off a Chris and make it against the odds/women?

I walked in on the part where Kim was talking about her F3 plans...did she say specifically who she wanted to be there with her? I'm assuming Kat and maybe Alicia.

P.S. Very interesting, did I see correctly that Tarzan voted for Jay?

Yup, Tarzan voted for Jay. And it makes his comment at TC all that more interesting as he was talking about feeling secure if all of those followed in what they were telling him back at camp...

Sounds like Kim, Chelsea or others have already set the wheels in motion to consider Tarzan as a perfect goat to carry along and replace Troyzan in their end game alliance!

My impression was that Kim meant Kat and Chelsea but I'd have to watch again.

The votes:
Leif and Jay = Alicia
Troy = Kim
Kat and Alicia(? Could have been Chelsea) = Troy
Kim, Christina, Sabrina, Tarzan, Chelsea = Jay

So it appears that Tarzan was clued in and/or decided not to go along with Troy at the end....or maybe he just realized the guys couldn't get their act together so better to stay on Kim's good side. Seems like he never liked Jay, so perhaps he was still holding that grudge.

Pepe, good point about Tarzan's TC comments taking on new meaning now. Maybe he's hoping to be the goat? But can't imagine any of the women allowing a Y chromosome anywhere near the F4.

Michel, I was also thinking that Kim has nerves of steel....but now seeing the vote, she must have known that Jay did her a huge favor...they were able to take votes off Troy and add them to Jay to ensure that even if she did get 4, Jay would still go before her. It would have been quite a blindside if Troy's plan worked out. Still nerve-wracking...

Will be interesting to see the Insider and LL clips this week!

P.S. Funny how Christina was thisclose to going home and now has skated by for several episodes...

LAST EDITED ON 04-12-12 AT 08:24 AM (EST)

And nobody believed me back when I said the merge saved both Christina and Alicia. They will both skate for a while longer, more fish to fry.

*Edited to remove signature.

That's because you never explained why or how you came to that conclusion, or your posting style made it sound like a fact that you never expounded upon. You've already had it explained to you by at least a couple other people why people don't bite with your posts.

LAST EDITED ON 04-12-12 AT 08:24 AM (EST)

If you have read any of my posts since you guys called me out you will see that I explain things better. Plus, if you go back to the thread where I posted my opinion on why I thought the merge helped both those girls you would see that I did explain my reasons.

So for you to say I never explained myself proves you didn't read what I wrote. You don't have to read what I wrote or agree with me I don't care, but get off my back man.

*edited to remove signature

LAST EDITED ON 04-12-12 AT 00:06 AM (EST)

Arnold, he's trying to be helpful, you need to recognize that. He's talking about this post:

And nobody believed me back when I said the merge saved both Christina and Alicia. They will both skate for a while longer, more fish to fry.

Unilateral declaration without explanation, nothing to discuss. And in your next post you again provide no explanation. You only say you did provide an explanation. Again, nothing to discuss.

It doesn't prove, by the way, that he didn't read that explanation, maybe he did or maybe not. In these posts here you are not participating in discussion, not encouraging discussion (except, as it turns out, discussion of your lack of discussion).

If you have to repeat yourself, go ahead, repeat the explanation for discussion, condenced if need be.

These boards are populated with a lot of us feeble-minded old fogies who encourage participation and discussion. There are vote threads where for fun you can say anything you want without having to worry about discussion, vote threads are not discussion threads. Pretty much all other threads in the spoiler forum are discussion threads.

We enjoy your participation, please do more participation.

Sorry, but I've mostly seen self-bragging posts or statements that comes across like a fact - if there's been more than that, then obviously I've missed it.

There's been a lot of "I told you so" posts, which doesn't go over very well on this site - sorry if that seems harsh, but that's how we roll here. Survivor Sucks is for people who like to say "I told you so".

Honestly, I don't think a bragging post is all that out of place in an ECST thread. I think what you were responding to was the arrogance as represented in "but nobody believed me." Which, according to the vote thread, you and several others came to the same conclusion per this week's boot, with or independent of Arnold's contributions. But you found Arnold elevating himself above everyone else irksome.

That I do understand, I get it. Spoiling is not a competition, here at Blows spoiling is a collaborative effort. When we prevail we prevail as a group. We share information, we participate with our opinions, we communicate, we deliberate.

A little tooting one's own horn every once in awhile, that's fine, but keep it in perspective, appreciate the community and everyone's efforts.

Arnold, you know how it says no siggies and no graphics in this topic and the vote thread? You are the only one ignoring that. When you hit reply in a no graphics topic, please erase the url to your basher babe pic.

I had missed reading that Outfrontgirl, very sorry and duly noted, have removed my signature and pay more attention to that in the future.

I notice however you didn't admonish Dabo (maybe because he posts here a lot more than I have) for posting results of the show in the non East coast spoiler thread where you are supposed to keep all information about the show until the time that the west coast can see it? He posted in the vote thread. He also started the thread for the east coast spoiler and said not to post results anywhere outside this thread.

This is in response to Pepe and Dabo:

I saw Agman (10101 DAW posts) post in last weeks east coast spoiler thread "Face it, for this season, the men have no chance against the women!"

That is not different from some of my one line posts, it offered no further discussion or link or opinion and it was stated like a fact and not one person got on his/her back about it. Others chose to respond and some good discussion came out of it.

Further in that same thread:

Michel (9104 DAW posts) said:

"Woohoo! I got it right about hearing Tarzan's cheers!"

Not one person got on his/her case about tooting his/her own horn. I've seen others do it too but I am not going to go back and document each one. I see a comment like that, I think good for them and then move on to read the next.

The very definition of desperate attention whore is that we seek out attention and since I know that nobody is going to go back and re-read or care about what I said earlier, I was replying directly to a post about how far under the radar Alicia and Christina have gone since the merge, so my post, bragging as it was, was applicable to the thread contents.

I do believe Arnold has a point. He has made an apology for his earlier infractions and has tried to be a good citizen of this board since. Cut him a little slack till he can find his footing here. His style may not be as smooth or subtle as you're used to but he's making an effort to contribute. And personally I'm starting to be offended by him still being called out, feels like bullying to me.
JMHO

I did that? Ooops, consider me admonished, how mortifying. Bad dabo, bad bad bad! No excuses, if I goofed up I goofed up.

A bit puzzled what you mean, though, help me out with that.

As I said above, I don't consider a little tooting one's own horn all that out of place in ECSTs, which traditionally are for not just spoilers but fanatics and bashers as well during the blackout period.

It wasn't huge, but you updated the vote tally and said this:

Jay: 7
Christina: 6
Alicia: 3
Chelsea: 2
Leif: 2
Greg "Tarzan": 1
Kat: 1
UTR: Kim, Sabrina, Troy "Troyzan"

Fun week! At least I got a partial, Jay was gunning for Alicia.

It didn't give away a ton, but the editorial comment clearly indicates to a west coaster that Alicia didn't actually go home.

Ah.. Thanks for the clarification, my bad. Mainly I bumped that thread to put a buffer between this week's ECST and last week's, which had some late discussion. That little toot, though, you're right, I goofed, minor as it may have been. Live and learn.

LAST EDITED ON 04-12-12 AT 03:13 PM (EST)

I apologize if I haven't always been complimentary toward you - the first couple of weeks, you were shrugging off other people's comments and continued to toot your own horn even with that, so I came away with a certain impression and basically glossed over your more recent posts. I will not do that any more.

The reason why I replied to your original post above was the use of "I told you xxxx and xxxx were safe after the merge and none of you believed me!" (paraphrasing) so that came across as bragging and rubbing our faces in it, which is rather different than a simple "Fun week! At least I got a partial..." Maybe it's just semantics or a case of dabo already having the gravitas on this site as one who doesn't usually go into self-hyping, but you're right, that probably wasn't fair to you. I based my response on initial impressions that you hadn't initially tried to change upon.

With that mea culpa... what do you say we get back to figuring out the next boot and bashing the characters on the show instead of each other?

I agree wholeheartedly and reach my hand out in a fair shake. Thanks for the words. I will continue to strive to tone down the breast beating and really sorry if it comes off as a "see I told you so" and who am I to know if none of you believed me, maybe one person did besides me

I'm sorry we've been tough on you, Arnold. You're really handling yourself well and I'm glad you're here.

As you are seriously striving to understand the dynamics, I should explain that I didn't read the vote thread after the show. It is not a safe thread for someone who is three hours behind west coast. Hawai'i and Alaska folks don't get no consideration on any board ... if we don't wanna know, we don't go. Didn't see dabo's comment.

I can explain why your statements concerned me, the ones that didn't contain reasoning. Primarily it's because new folks can show up and have inside information but not say so, and it came off like that. It has nothing to do with me minding a little crowing after the fact. But there is something about the style that has been reminiscent of Sucks, and this board is kind of the anti-Sucks place ... I participate over there but many here do not.

agman has been around a long time, so we know he's not throwing out sourced hints. You have now made it clear that you aren't doing it either, so it's all good. It still doesn't hurt for anyone to throw in an I think or IMHO when presenting a statement on what will happen.

Glad you are responding to critique and aren't going off in a huff as some would. I'm enjoying your posts.

As for dabo, with the way he has tirelessly attended to the vote thread week in and out for some years now, even if I did see a little spoilerish comment, I'm not going to diss him in his own topic! What if he just stopped starting the vote thread? Just kidding, look, he even apologized for the slip.

Its all good no worries, I've got very thick skin. I can be trained

Hawai'i and Alaska folks don't get no consideration on any board ...

Oh, LOL, you want we should extend the blackout period another two or three hours? As I recall you don't observe daylight savings time in Hawai'i so that would currently be three hours, yes?

The blackout rule has been part of Blows like forever now, and I understand the reasons for it though I did kind of agree with some longgone clown that it seemed kind of odd applying it to the spoiler forum. Still, it is simpler to have it be universal on all forums.

No, I wouldn't ask that at all. I just stay away until I've seen the show. Then I go look and am glad to see topics up for next week.

By the time the show airs here during DST, it's 2 am on EDT, so that would effectively shut down conversation until the next day. I think I'm the only regular who is in such a backwards time zone.

I think the west coast rule is sort of reasonable, but sort of silly too. If you want to review vidcaps and stuff up to the last minute on the west coast, OK but all game picks and stuff closed when the show started east coast. If you're in the ECST, then you are spoiling it knowingly ... so really what is the point of being on the board for those three hours if you want to stay unspoiled? I stay away.
Carry on ...

By telling Kim about Troy's idol, Jay probably caused his own elimination. Although Troy did show it to Christina so that may have also played into it.

Agree. But Troy was running wild and ended up both throwing away his vote and wasting his HII. If he had thrown in with Jay to organize an Alicia boot it might have worked, with the correct play of the HII.

Yep...Jay, again, shut up and look pretty

Actually they could have gotten Alicia out with a little balls

If Troy knowing that he showed his Idol to Jay and Christina that they would vote for Jay instead and they had Leif (Leif was in Jay's pocket imho...why else vote for Alicia...he voted for Michael last week too bc Jay told him to--he's so gullible..Chelsea got him to leave IC Leif: "really?" he's clueless...but he did get food)

Therefore, Troy could have stood up and used his HII to save Jay (no way Kim would have used hers to save Alicia) Jay and Troy really needed to stick together Jay was playing with Little Jay instead of his brain

Then it's 5 no votes for Jay (Kim Sab Tarzan Christina Alicia voted for Jay)
2 votes for Troy (Kat and Chelsea--I guess Kim hadn't gotten to them-they were supposed to vote for Troy originally--only Sab and Kim (and Leif) changed their votes)
3 votes for Alicia (Troy, Jay, Leif)

Then next week the guys minus Tarzan (who's with women now) could've gotten Christina to side with them for 5-4 majority....ugh STUPID STUPID PEOPLE

Seems that Jay decided to trust the girls despite knowing better. He committed to his decision so much that he even walked away from immunity . . . for chicken wings. He seems to be a heart-over-head kind of guy. Not the makings of a great survivor player. But a good person, maybe the best one left out there.

Oh, well, good people usually don't win at that game.

Does gullibility make someone good? Didn't Jay say he'd backstab Troy? And, if he wanted to go to the F3 with Chelsea and Kim, that meant he was ready to do the same to Kat and Sab.

There is a game to play and playing it well doesn't make someone a bad person. A "bad" person would make the votes personal, denigrate the people eliminated and be a poor sport when it came back to bite him. There was nothing personal in that vote, just a well executed plan.

I was watching Kim's facial expression's during the TC and the votes. I came away with the impression that all went down the way she wanted it to.
I'm now on the band wagon the Kim wins

I'm not on that bandwagon yet, but I would say that I think Kim's gonna last a while yet. She doesn't seem to be on anybody's radar screen or in anybody's bullseye, at least the way they're editing things, so her ouster doesn't seem to be imminent.

I don't know RR....with the preview promo, Troy is on the war path and if he is capable of rounding up some supporters that want to shake up the game, she could indeed be in trouble...fwiw. Hopefully, that is what will happen in the weeks to come...crossing fingers!

Great job, everyone, sorry I couldn't be here last night! Sure appreciate your efforts!

if it happens there are no bragging rights. A Kim win was made obvious as very likely from Ep 1 on. It's like picking out Boston Rob as the winner. It's so obvious the entire time that it's boring.

I've been hoping that they have a trick up their sleeve and didn't edit such an obvious season, but they did it in 22 and they could do it again.

Oh, and Tocantins, JT obvious winner from the episode he lost his tooth if not from the get=go. (I rooted for Stephen.)

Other winners have been easy enough to pick out as it went along (Sandra, Natalie White, Fabio, Sophie), but there was some doubt. It wasn't just shown how they were pulling the strings all the way like it is with Kim.

Jeff Probst ‏@JeffProbst
#survivor Troyzan still alive! And he could turn this game around. Ah yeah baby it ain't over.

Chris 2.0?

Is anyone else wondering about why there seemed to be no real hype for yesterday's ep? I feel like they almost got the weeks mixed up and meant to use last week's promos, tweets, etc. for this week. To me Michael was never as involved in the decisions as Jay and was not the "power player" that Jay was. Did Jay make a producer/Jeff mad or something? Seems like he should have gotten a bigger send off.

Here's a question for Outfront Girl and others that find Kim cold or unemotional: what it is about her that is leaving you feeling that way? I'm asking 'cause I've seen that opinion here and Sucks and I've ended up with pretty much the opposite opinion. To me she's coming across as friendly with a sense of humor all while being a strategist. I'm not trying to be a smarta** here, I'm honestly trying to find out what I'm not seeing with her. Since I'm a fan of hers I may not ever agree with you but it never hurts to hear what others are thinking?

I feel that way - I think Kim's cold, unemotional, and calculating, making the best moves based on mental skill and probability. She's a total strategist. Her head is always in the game. She's playing with a goal in mind. All great (required?) assets to have if you're looking to go to the end.

She seems fake when talking to anyone other than the camera. Before Troyzan outed her for trying to over-pacify him, I said "Yeah, that lady doth protest too much."

But I still like her. I like the player-players, like Boston Rob, Russell, Brian, Rob C, JT's Stephen... and Kim. They aren't nice, but they're trying to win a million dollars, so... maybe fake personality is better?

I don't think she's winning, though, if that wasn't obvious from this episode. I'm anxious to see where Michel places the obvious winner (Chelsea) in his recap...

They have been overboard on the hype this season, and then yeah this episode they went flat. I don't know, maybe they had just exhausted their blahblahblah Tribal Council material, which frankly was getting old and even laughable. I doubt that Jay did anything to upset anyone, Troy's antics this time overshadowed Jay's strategy though.

As for Kim, she does kind of hearken back to the Iceman, Brian. I do like that she has a head for the game, she just doesn't have the persona to bring more amusing material to the table as did Boston Rob, it is just all the joy of the blindside. Unlike Brian, though, she hasn't been shown taking on a lot of the day to day chores, giving others their due, so she is more susceptible to a revolt or an angry jury throwing the win to Kat(Amber).

LAST EDITED ON 04-12-12 AT 03:18 PM (EST)

Considering that they have had a hard time historically of editing a female story (whether the eventual winner or not), the edit of Kim has been very interesting. In my opinion I think she is getting the top dog spot in the editing to make her boot by the eventual winner an even bigger boost to the reason the winner wins. Kind of like Ami was edited in Vanuatu, she was the leader and top dog for so long and then got shot down and so did her sidekick Leann.

I don't think Kim's sidekick Chalsea will have a similar fate however, I see her more as the person that will lead to a Kim boot maybe even by exposing that Kim has the idle. If that happens and Kim gets out then it makes Chalsea a hero and more likely a good chance to get the win vs whomever she sits by.

Kat was shown as smart last night as someone else pointed out a little different than a goat. So if she gets to the final 3 then she may make a good case for herself too.

Sabrina is no dummy either and so we can't count her out as someone who could possibly foil Kim's winning bid.

Not a lot of Zombies on the womens side. Lets just hope they get rid of all of the men before they start on themselves, but I fear like Vanuatu that a man will slip through to the end, just a gut nothing more. I still think that a woman will win even if this happens.

Last but not least is how Chalsea manipulated Leaf last night into feeling guilty about being a threat. Shades of Natalie Bolton and the all girls in fans vs faves.

Will make for an exciting next few episodes, of that I am certain.

edit to remove signature that I keep forgetting, grr

For that matter, I thought Chelsea at IC was quite amusing, Southern Belle playing the must prove herself card. Or rather playing on male sympathy, and why not. When it got down to Leif and Chelsea, neither one was at risk anyway, but the logic of getting Leif to give up put Chelsea herself potentially higher on the boot list.

Chelsea struggling with the realities of the game being so different from the realities of real life is turning into a very interesting story.

"In my opinion I think she is getting the top dog spot in the editing to make her boot by the eventual winner an even bigger boost to the reason the winner wins. Kind of like Ami was edited in Vanuatu, she was the leader and top dog for so long and then got shot down and so did her sidekick Leann."

I think that's a really interesting idea, Arnold. Especially if the eventual winner hasn't done much that would make him or her worthy of winning jury votes up to that point. Getting rid of mastermind Kim would make someone like Christina, Kat, Tarzan, Lief or Alicia a more palatable winner.

Right now, I see only three people who have already received a good enough edit to win: Chelsea, Kim and Troyzan. Sabrina is on the cusp. But if someone orchestrates a move to get rid of Kim, that would change things.

LAST EDITED ON 04-12-12 AT 01:49 PM (EST)

Arnold and Corvis, I like your train of thought. (Granted, maybe it's because while I really admire Kim's gameplay, I haven't warmed up to her and don't want to see an obvious winner.) Here's a related part of Jeff's EW Q&A that hints at some of your discussion points:

EW: Outside of her milk and cupcake detour, Kim appears to have some serious game when it comes to plotting things out and covering her tracks. Where at this point does Kim stack up as a Survivor strategist?

JP: Only time will tell as Kim still has a long ways to go to deserve inclusion as a great strategist — but I’d say at this point it’s her game to lose because in addition to being a smart player, she has the charm. Nobody else out there has that combination of very good strategy and an ability to deliver an execution with a smile and get away with it. Her biggest problem is going to be somebody realizing that and voting her out. I’d even go so far as to say the only people that can’t win this game right now is Christina. She just doesn’t have the respect of the other people in the game. I actually think anybody else left — depending on whom they are lined up against — could have a shot.

P.S. Jeff's tease for next week is that it's the auction.

>the edit of Kim has been
>very interesting. In my
>opinion I think she is
>getting the top dog spot
>in the editing to make
>her boot by the eventual
>winner an even bigger boost
>to the reason the winner
>wins. Kind of like
>Ami was edited in Vanuatu,
>she was the leader and
>top dog for so long
>and then got shot down
>and so did her sidekick
>Leann.

Do you recall who got the "credit" for the backstabbing of Ami/Leann in Vanuatu? Did Chris get the credit or did the scheming of Eliza/Twila get the credit while Chris merely went along to save himself?

Chris orchestrated it by telling Eliza the women were turning on her. He convinced Eliza to go along with it.

Nice theories, guys. Now, why don't you post them in the editing thread?

Good post!

Yes, that was well played by Chelsea.
I don't think Troyzan will make it to the end.
I've liked Chelsea for possible winner from the beginning, due to key confessionals and scenes even though she wasn't puppetmaster like Kim.

After Chalsea had such a rough start ie: getting soaking wet and crying to the guys about needing to get warm and dry for just a bit and then turning her back on any return favor.

also getting the chickens = good, being a little rude to the guys after saying they would share maybe not so good.

Or good if you use that as a sign that she really doesn't have a problem turning her back on her word. I think now thats why they showed so much of this from her in the beginning.

First Episode:
“Don’t mess with the country girl”, she said.

I've been meaning to bring up a question I had about something in this episode.

After we saw Chelsea waffling about voting out Troy/Jay we had a small scene with Sab and Kat. When they were talking they mentioned the final three. Since they were talking about it together I can only assume that they have a deal that includes a third. What I couldn't tell for sure was who is the third in that? Is it Chelsea? I think that Kim would be another possibility with Alicia having an outside chance since she was close with Kat early on.

Another question I have is why didn't we see the formation of this deal the way we saw the Sab/Kim/Chels discussion? The two reasons I can think of is that it's because it doesn't happen so it's not important or it does happen and TPTB want to surprise us (and they showed us this small hint so it's not a completely WTF final three).

Any thoughts would be appreciated 'cause for some reason this is bugging the heck out of me

Early in the season Pepe keyed on the trio of Kat, Kim, Sab as the control base in Salani. Didn't quite see it that way myself, but it is starting to look as if he was correct, and each of the three have been working the other players in different ways, various alliances. This may now be the emerging storyline heading into endgame, book 3 (though in the course of events Kim and Sab may realize they don't want to be sitting next to each other at F3).

To be clear, I identified Kim, Kat and Alicia as a potential power trio before the season started because these three were frequently shown together in "alpha" roles in the vidcaps.

After episode one or two, I amended my early F3 viewpoint to take out Alicia and insert Sabrina based on the tribal role and editing respect she seemed to have in the early going as compared to Alicia.