LAST EDITED ON 10-23-10 AT 04:39 AM (EST)

Jud is in a fascinating position here, having finally cultivated himself the "Outback daddy" he was looking for before the tribes were put on the Young v Old course. Whatever he may have told Marty (and I do think it likely he was instrumental in Marty not playing the HII) he didn't give Marty the information Marty could have used to stage a coup and take control of New La Flor (knocking out Brenda, Sash or even Purple Kelly). Everyone seems to have fallen completely for the surfer dude act (except NaOnka who couldn't accurately articulate what she disliked about Fabio).

I've already said that I don't think that Jud is Nicaragua's Sole Survivor. But ...

In Jim Barber's latest Insider thread at SSucks (Warning: The thread contains references to sourced spoilers!), two posters - JT4ever and Jessiiiek - have noted and discussed something that I really hadn't given much thought until I read your post:

In an Insider Clip following Episode 6 and in one following Episode 3, Brenda says that 1)Kelly B cast a vote against her during the TC that booted Shannon and that 2) Jud cast his vote for NaOnka during the same TC.

The two quotes from Mr. Barber's transcripts:

1) Brenda - "I always, every person here, kind of minus Jill and Marty, I'm always pleasant to everybody, because you never know when you're going to need them. Look at Kelly B. Kelly B voted for me. Kelly B voted for me, which was a stupid move, even when her ship was sinking, she still voted for me, and I still made friends with her."

2) "Right now it's pretty obvious that anyone who was with Shannon is in deep trouble. Even someone like Ben, who did end up switching, but you were considering voting for me, you were really going to do it, you were going to take his side. Even Fabio, who didn't vote for me but voted for NaOnka, you were still kind of going for, basically no one saw the jerk that Shannon was, and no one was able to stop it. That makes it seem like if you weren't against him you were with him, you are him too, you're a jerk and a bad person, you're not trustworthy."

Note: Although I'm not going to quote them here, the two SSucks contributors make some very thought-provoking points about all of this and I would encourage everyone to click on the link and read them ( Warning: The thread contains references to sourced spoilers!).

Of course, the most obvious of those points is that Kelly B. did not cast a vote against Brenda. But Jud did. So, the question becomes 'Why does Brenda appear to be so certain that the opposite was true?'. And the obvious answer is that either Brenda was lying to the camera or someone lied to her. In the first instance, the question becomes 'Why?' And the answer to that question is again rather obvious: she fashioned an acceptable reason for her conduct toward a - sympathetic - Kelly B.

But, if the liar wasn't Brenda, then the question becomes 'Who lied to her?'. And that answer is not quite so obvious. It could have been Jud. It could also have been someone who considered Kelly B. more expendable and/or threatening than Jud. And that list could be a long one including, but not limited to, Chase, Sash, Benry and ... NaOnka.

But, whatever the answer to that question may be, the question then becomes 'Why was all of this edited out of the show?' And years of faithfully reading Veruca and Michel has taught me that the most likely answer to that question is that the producers separated the liar from a - sympathetic - Kelly B.'s fate.

For a reason ...