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TallBill wrote:

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Seacrest22 wrote:

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I'm not sure about that. I think JT threw him off his game and got in his head. Up against someone he wasn't as close with, maybe he's able to keep his composure better.

I guess we'll never know.

Exactly right. I think it illustrates the quality of emotional intelligence. Stephen is quite the smart fellow, but JT is both intellectually smart and emotionally smart -- he knows how to deal with people. He played both Stephen and the jury perfectly during the questioning, a truly bravura performance. Stephen made a couple major blunders, starting with the previous tribal council, where he tried to argue that JT should take him to finals based on their friendship, and that he would carry over his personal feelings into post-game if JT didn't take him. Given that Stephen's whole game (and JT's and Taj's ... all the final players, really) was about cold calculating plays aimed at getting rid of the biggest threats, there was simply no way he could credibly argue that friendship should determine game behavior, and certainly not to threaten someone by witholding friendshipo.

Classic case of the smart guy losing to the smart + popular guy (the guy with superior social skills).

I think, on the one hand, that JT was one of the best players in Survivor history, with a combination of survival knowledge, athleticism, focus, determination, likability, and very strong social skills.

On the other hand, I think he, and some of the others too, had some weird ways of looking at people, and I think that's part of the reason for the difference in perception between fans and contestants about a couple of the women. For example, in the final episode, we saw both JT and Stephen complain about Erinn talking so excitedly after tribal council when she was kept rather than Taj. You have a couple things going on there. JT and Stephen are upset with themselves for blindsiding someone they truly admired. Erinn was shocked and excited to still be there, and suddenly realizing she really is at final three after a long and winding struggle through the game. So all three are having completely natural reactions ... just reactions that are incompatible, under the circumstances.

JT may be one of the greatest players ever, and an all around good guy. But I question the way he assesses people. This is a guy who I believe genuinely liked Coach. Let that sink in. He spent a lot of time with Coach -- a man with a deep-set personality disorder that compelled him to show off in the most ridiculous ways, and to insult people when challenged about things. And JT basically liked the guy, while considering Erinn one of the most annoying people he ever met.

colleenlover wrote:

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I still don't think there was anything I could deduce differently.

JT by logic in storytelling was a great personality, and the type of character to exploit on a tv show. I think I pegged him initially to be the feel bad boot at the merge. But then we had the bean scene and the talk about a swap. Fine -just is foreshadowing that a swap is happening and JT either foresees the importance or ironcially winds up in a situation without food.

But then the idol of episode six happens- which connects him to all the Exile business, and the repeated plotpoint that Jala is down in numbers and will be hard to win. (if it was a straightforward knockout of the Jalas it would be downplayed to make the viewers forget the numbers thing is an issue)

the merge is where it was driven home -and here's where I think visibality does not matter, it's all content. And where we really have to look at the working backwards thing. JT's confession that he never wins; the handshake, the repeated danger of the numbers.

Stephen looked good too for obvious reasons. But to me, JT had the edge in being in the end (doesn't mean he has to be the winner though) simply because he has the manipulation of others commenting on him, drawing throughlines from juror to finalist.

I thought Sierra and JT had the strongest cases of this manipulation -both manipulated scope and manipulated comments from others on them regarding themes.

I thought it was good work though from the editors in creating the tension between Stephen and JT, but wished the others had been developed more complexly, so we're never sure if they are leaving or not. (Debbie comes to mind -with a little more development, she could have been a fantastic distraction of running the game). Anything so we don't know immediately that the Jala Three are going to rebound successfully so many episodes before they do.

*anyone think Taj was following JT in the net challenge to block him so he wouldn't win?
*I still don't get why they would knock out Taj at final four.
*the taking of Erinn to the final two is something that would have been so risky simply by the betrayals they were doing, and causing Erinn to win simply as a payback- a up yours to either Taj, Stephen or JT (whichever one took her) by the other two and the possibility of Timberia understanding why Erinn fly their own coop.

I actually approached Taj early and I approached Erinn. In fact, I was the one who got Brendan to pick Joe to go to Exile. Brendan and I had developed a signal to send if he should pick Joe. I gave him that signal because we knew Erinn was on the outs and we wanted to create those bonds early on. I wanted to create as many Jalapao-Timbira bonds because we knew were in trouble. I talked to Joe, and Erinn and I were really close. It's weird, Erinn and I are never on screen together but she was one of my strongest allies in the game.

My strategy going in was to target the outliers and I did that. It was unbelievable to me that nobody had spoken to Taj. The same was true with Erinn in Timbira. They were just mean to her. They just told her that they were voting for her in case the target had the idol, as if she should just accept getting votes. She was an easy target for us to pick up.