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Good writing as usual even where I disagree with the characterization.

Personally, I can't see Frank as Penny redux, worrying about someone not bothering to get to know him. And there's obviously two sides to that - Frank probably never approached Vee either. Again, I can't really see this bothering him very much although perhaps he just felt he needed to say something. Vee could have called him on the hypocrisy, but it isn't her style to be combative. Does Frank accept John's explanation? Who knows? I agree Frank would remain stonefaced and give no hint away.

I was a bit surprised that Rob went so hard on Vee, but the way it was written suggests he did so to force Vee to be a little more assertive. Not claiming to be the best player could hurt her with some (Kathy, for instance, though she'd never get her vote anyway), but it leaves open the issue of who she does think played better that someone has to ask - maybe Gretchen? My guess would be Tina if Vee is being honest rather than modest. John blowing off Rob, just like his blowing off Alicia, makes sense, and the odds of him getting either vote were low to begin with. I do wonder how that plays with the other jurors though (but the only jurors up for grabs in my opinion are Frank, Colleen, and Gretchen, none of whom are going to feel too sorry for Rob or Alicia).

We got more or less what I expected from Tina and Kathy who presented the two sides of the former winner coin. Kathy's deluded if she thinks she's being objective, but that's irrelevant to the vote. I do wonder if Tina and Vee may be laying it on a bit thick about the winners having no chance. If they have no chance, then why vote for them? The main audience for this argument is Gretchen, and I still don't know how she'll respond.

John led with his argument about being there to win, not to make friends. That clearly struck a chord with Kathy, but I wonder how that comes across to Colleen. To paraphrase, "Colleen, all that time I spent making friends with you was purely a means to winning the game. When I pretended not to care about the game, I was lying, and I was using you." Worse, this coincides with the callous comments he made when tossing her out of the game. I think Colleen really does not want to vote for Vee so she's still a possibility for John, but he's digging a hole and he better handle her question well if he wants out of it.

Wow. John does handle Colleen, and he probably gets her vote, but then he completely falls apart under Gretchen's questioning. Admitting to saying whatever people want to hear in front of the jury is not at all a good tactic, and I would imagine Frank at least would take notice in addition to Gretchen. Colleen, having gotten the apology she wanted, probably won't want to consider that John was faking it, but the admission proves John is at least as fake as Vee.

Vee may be too passive for her own good. She didn't really counter the accusations of Frank, Colleen, and Kathy at all, and her claim of dragging John could have used some supporting detail. It seems she has decided that arguing details with people is a losing battle. She figures she has three near certain votes and only needs one of the three tossups (though she probably would concede Colleen at this point) so odds are in her favor.

Closing arguments? Vee probably needs to at least address the perception that she's aloof and "fake". Her best course may be just to admit that she hung back from some people to reduce risk of being targeted. As to being "fake", all she can claim is that she's sorry that others may feel that way, but that doesn't represent who she is as a person. Even Colleen might find out differently if she hadn't kept up a wall the whole game. As for how she dragged John, point out how she was the center of the Ahi alliance, which would have fallen apart without her. Not only did she reach out to pull John into the core alliance, she rescued the alliance when Tina considered defecting to the Kekos. John's responsibility was to keep Colleen in line, and he couldn't even do that! (Vee probably wouldn't mention that, however.)

John needs to repair the damage from his response to Gretchen's question. He needs to insist that the game was over once it dropped to Final 2 so he's not giving out BS now. (I don't know how to make that believable, but he's got to try.) He'll also have to counter the claim that Vee dragged him by giving details, and I expect he will start listing things like voting out Alicia and Gretchen and deciding to vote out Lex in the first place. His problem will be finding anything midgame to hang his hat on since he spent that portion of the game riding Vee's coattails more than he probably even realized at the time. But if the facts are against him, perceptions are still in his favor so he'll probably try to make a joke of Vee's reputation as a tagalong. (Kathy and Colleen at least will appreciate it.)