no way they're planning for final 2. coz that would mean they would have a three double boot episodes.
They'd just need 2 double boot episodes. They could do it like Palau. I remember a spoiler that said the original plan was to lose 3 people in one episode, so they'd just need one more episode of 2 people leaving. And it was planned before the merge but Jonathan and Kathy's quitting caused them to cancel it.

They could've make a reward challenge for the finale, but I guess James' injury makes them think that now they can pull another twist.
That's why I think it was a planned F2 from the start. Nothing could have stopped them from having an F3 if they really wanted it, nothing at all. Even James leaving. They could have just had James be the only boot that episode like Mike or Bruce, OR had the finale like China's. James leaving did nothing to stop the F3 from still happening if they really wanted to.