while all the evidence seems to show Lil coming back, I'm not buying it. I think this is like the first Survivor, where everybody thought Gervase was going to win. Was all a big misdirection.My belief is that there will be some kind of competition or event involving the bootees (or maybe just the most recent ones), but that competition doesn't necessarily mean they re-enter the game as participants. They're just there to throw a wrench in the system, but can't win. I just think this would undermine the 'integrity' of the game, and doesn't fit with the 'survivor' motif.
Submitted for your approval -- the season has a pirate theme. When pirates made people 'walk the plank' (analagous to the voting off the island thing), suppose they swam to another ship and joined a different pirate ship (moved to a different island). Now this pirate ship can come in and raid and pillage the original, but they wouldn't be able to re-join the group.
In Survivor terms -- the bootees get sent to live in a separate tribe. This third tribe pulls the ultimate piracy of coming to their original islands and attacking (competing), or even stealing treasure or player(s).
Then MAYBE, just MAYBE, if they're successful, they get to put their leader into the merged tribe. Still don't buy that part, and I'll be disappointed if they bring somebody back that's already been booted.
Personally, the rumors seem un-survivor like, and I think it's a snowball effect -- they came back with weight loss, so they must've done well, a worker said an older woman came back and did well (maybe two separate women, one came back, the other came in second), people buy into the rumors and MB plays it up.
Now I'm waiting for somebody much more well-informed (probably everybody reading this) to blow this theory up.