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EPISODE 8 NOTES:

Here are a few important notes about Episode 8 and the rest of this story. Please be sure to read them so that you have a better understanding of what is going on.

1) So there is Episode 8. I've been saying for a while that Episode 8 would be a lot better than 7, and also that I think this is the best one since Episode 3. There are a lot of things that I liked about it, which I will talk about as I go through the notes. I just hope that you all enjoyed it as well, and that you agree with me about it being one of the best.

2) I assume you all read the episode if you're reading these notes, so I can hopefully say this without spoiling anything: In this episode, we lost two of the biggest characters in the story so far, which will undoubtedly seem like a blow to the story. However, with both Joel and Jason leaving that will finally leave a lot of space available for some of the quieter characters to step into the limelight and become more directly involved in the story. The characters that seem boring and UTR (like Alexis or maybe Sherea) are unlikely to stay that way for much longer, and we'll finally see them more as the post-merge game plays out.

3) The rest of the notes will go through the whole episode in order, like usual, and I'll also answer a few questions that I think you might have about what is going on right now:

4) I don't like to always have a scene with the losing tribe after Tribal Council, so this week I totally skipped that and got right to a Malakal scene that focuses a lot of Joel's character development and on advancing the strategic situation at Malakal. Joel talks about his family and what the game means to him as far as providing a better life for them, and he says that he's not going to let anyone stand in his way of winning the game. With this scene, I wanted you all to feel somewhat attached to Joel as a character and pull for him to succeed (even if you didn't like him on the real show --- this has actually been a goal all season). We then see Aras' group conspiring a little bit, before getting another confessional from Joel about how him and Kathy may NOT stay with that group because it's obvious that they're very tight. I have to say Joel was playing an excellent game up to this point. So Brooke goes to Joel about possibly forcing a tie at Tribal Council, if Joel/Kathy go with Brooke/Sherea. Unfortunately, Sherea was absent in this scene although she would definitely have been fighting to stay as well. I just felt that Brooke would be the far better negotiator.

For anyone that read the Insider clips from last week, you'll notice that I integrated parts of Brooke's confessional from the secret scene into her two confessionals in this episode. I thought that those same lines seemed to work really well here, and I've noticed spliced confessionals in the real show before too, so I don't think it's a big deal.

At this point, I'm hoping that you all expect Malakal to go to Tribal Council in this episode. There's no way Airai could lose again, right?!

5) We now go to Airai for a quick scene (the other half of it went as a secret scene because the episode was too long) where Jason describes having cuts and blisters on his hands and feet. Like the scene that focused on Joel, this scene was also to make you feel a little sorry for Jason and to make you think that he's a fighter and a hard-worker who won't give up in the game.

6) Then we get right into the Reward Challenge since there's so much important stuff that follows after it. I don't really have much to say about the challenge itself (I don't think there's anything special about it sadly, and it was a lot longer than I wanted it to be). I guess the only things to note are that Airai finally wins. I hope you're all very happy about that because you're supposed to be! And Tracy/Kathy both end up going to Exile Island like Tracy wanted to happen. Moving on…

7) We get a short scene at Exile Island here where Tracy talks about Kathy divulging all kinds of information about Malakal to her. We find out that Kathy wants to keep Joel around to the Final Four instead of Mikey (making Mikey fifth at best), and Tracy agrees with this. Little do they know, Joel is about to be out of the game. So Kathy lets Tracy know about the Aras/Ian/Mary/Alexis alliance, which is concerning to both of them, and the fact that Kathy says her and Joel might team up with Brooke/Sherea (Eliza's allies) is perfect too because Eliza already said these two would align with the Fans. The game is looking like it's going to go really well for everyone except Aras' people. HOWEVER…

8) Think back to the Press Conference where I said that there would be a medical evacuation this season. I didn't want to reveal exactly when or what episode it would be in since I wanted that to be a surprise, but the person who was evacuated was Joel. Yes, he was one of my best characters this season and I know he was getting a lot of support to win, but sadly, he was the victim of an injury. I'm going to talk about Joel's edit here:

Was Joel supposed to be a decoy winner like Ashley last season?

You may recall that last season I admitted that I deliberately edited Ashley a certain way because I wanted her to be a pre-merge Edgic contender and take some attention away from the winner. This season, Joel ended up getting a lot of Edgic support and quite a few people were picking him as the winner. Unlike last season, though, this was completely unintentional and I did not try to deliberately mislead anyone with his edit. With the content of his story, it just happened that it ended up looking winner-ish, but when his name first started showing up as a Contender in Episode 3, I wish quite surprised by it. In losing Joel AND Jason, we lost two of the top Edgic Contenders in one episode, so that is going to get really interesting from here on out.

Why did you decide to have Joel medically evacuated?

I had been wanting to have someone taken out of the game because of an illness or an injury for a while now, and I thought that this was finally a good time to use it. It seemed to fit well for the story that I was going for for Joel, most of which was told through his confessionals in this episode. I hope some of you found his story to be sad or moving in some way because I actually did. He wanted to improve his family's lives and was willing to do anything to win the million dollars. Then he cuts himself with the machete, and I really, really liked his confessional about being a father and a firefighter and always having to be concerned about safety. Then he talks about the fact that there won't be a huge financial change, but he's changed as a person and he wants to be more involved in the lives of his family. I know it is completely different from how he came across on the real show, but I just loved his story and character in this episode, and I hope I'm not the only one to think that it was nicely put together. I was just really excited for you guys to see this part because I thought it was good…

Oh, and even though it was small, I loved the part with Mary and the medical kit because I thought that part was funny.

9) The next Airai scene is the Reward scene at the waterfall and it's supposed to be extremely upbeat and pleasant, and you're supposed to be thrilled for Airai. Mikey doesn't seem to give the most positive confessionals, which is why Jason and Eliza get the majority of the speaking time here. I hope you can just feel their excitement over winning this challenge. I really like this scene overall, even though I don't have much to say about it, but I guess the important thing is that in Jason's last confessional, he still expresses doubt about Airai being able to win Immunity.

10) Now we go back to Exile Island where Tracy and Kathy endure a very rough storm (I promise this is the last storm that I'm going to have for a long time because it gets old for me too). I just wanted to have Kathy narrating this because I figured I could give her some good lines, such as the one about Noah's ark or "shivering like two epileptics with Parkinson's" (I think that section got moved to the secret scene). I probably could have cut this entire scene, but I decided not to. Rereading it, I don't think it's as great as I thought at first. Oh well…

11) This next scene is about the Airai tribe again, and even though the tribe is basically just sitting around and talking, I enjoy it because I like the fact that the tribe feels pessimistic about their chances of winning the challenge. They're not necessarily a weak tribe, but they've lost so much, they've had the worse beach, and they've been beaten down so much that they're just weak and depleted and I think this really showed here. Again, it also makes you feel sorry for them, which is really what I was going for again. And like the Reward scene, Jason and Eliza get most of the speaking time. Also, the quote about Jason's dream slipping away is foreshadowing of him being voted out, but it's also to make you feel sympathetic towards him.

12) Before the Immunity Challenge, there's a short scene at Malakal, which is narrated by Brooke and she talks about the mood of the tribe and the fact that her "back-up plan (Joel) just left the game on that boat." With Joel being gone, Aras' alliance was up 4-3 over Brooke, Sherea, and Kathy, so IF Malakal lost Immunity, then Sherea would have probably been voted out. She dodged a lot of bullets by being on so a tribe that was so successful.

13) So now we get to the Immunity Challenge, which is basically the Episode 9 Immunity from Fiji but I changed it a little bit and used a Micronesian storyboard so that it was more relevant to this season. Like the RC, it's not by favorite challenge that I've ever done. The one thing to notice is that because Jason's hands are cut and blistered, he struggles with undoing the knots and his hands even start bleeding because of it, but he continues to fight. Sadly, he does lose Airai some time though and Malakal does very well as always. When Brooke and Sherea were wrong at first about the symbols, that was only to give one last bit of doubt so that you think Airai might actually pull it off, but unfortunately, Airai loses again. Now, you should be feeling the complete opposite feeling of what you felt when Airai won the Reward (which is partially why I had them win, btw). You should be basically crushed that they lost and one of them is going to go home, so hopefully my tactics worked and you were at least a little disappointed.

14) Okay: the Airai strategy scene --- that's four words I've had to say a lot these past six episodes. It opens up with Eliza feeling vulnerable as the last Favorite. She knows that Jason has to give Immunity to either her or Tracy, and it's 100% going to be Tracy. That is pretty much a known fact. So therefore Jason and Tracy are either going to vote for Eliza or Mikey. Even though Jason suspects that Mikey has the idol, Jason wants to keep the Fans together and vote for Eliza, while Tracy has her reasons for wanting to vote out Mikey. Eliza thinks it's her and doesn't know about their differing thoughts, so she goes to Mikey hoping to force a tie by eliminating Jason, who she considers to be the biggest threat. So the votes are lining up to go like this:

VOTING FOR JASON: Eliza, Mikey

VOTING FOR ELIZA: Jason

VOTING FOR MIKEY: Tracy

But of course that's not going to happen because Tracy and Jason are going to talk before the vote. And, as usual, Tracy brings up a very important point. If they vote out Eliza, then they might lose Sherea and Brooke as votes (especially since they already lost Joel, who would have been a guaranteed vote). So after some discussion that wasn't shown in the episode, Jason does agree to vote off Mikey and he reveals to Eliza and Tracy that Mikey has the hidden Immunity Idol.

So basically, Eliza, Tracy, and Jason end up agreeing that they're going to blindside Mikey to get rid of the idol (which many of you expected). Jason says he's going to make Mikey think that he's voting off Eliza (hence his answers at Tribal Council), and Eliza/Tracy are going to make Mikey think they're voting off Jason. Therefore, Mikey thinks it's a 3-1 vote against Jason. So, at this point, the vote is going to go:

VOTING FOR MIKEY: Eliza, Jason, Tracy

VOTING FOR JASON: Mikey

15) But now here's where the problem comes in for Tracy/Jason. Eliza essentially made an alliance with Mikey right before this and she still wants Jason to go because Jason is a bigger threat than Mikey. So she decides to tell Mikey that he is going to be voted off and he needs to use the idol. I gave Mikey a confessional saying that he wasn't sure he believed her just so it would remain unclear about whether or not he'd use the idol.

*** It wasn't shown and I know I should have put this conversation on Insider, but Eliza tells Mikey that he has to say that he used the idol because he had bad feelings, NOT because Eliza told him to. If he ever says that Eliza warned him, she will deny it to her grave (or until the episode airs), she'll get him voted out and she'll never vote for him on the jury. She has to pretend to Tracy and Jason like she was fully on board with their plan and that she didn't expect Mikey to use the idol.

Why didn't Eliza just force a tie and make it 2-2 between Mikey and Jason?

A few reasons: one, it would expose her as being an accomplice with Mikey and possibly tipping him off to use the idol. Two, if there was a tie, it would go to a fire-making challenge and outdoorsman Jason would most likely win over the guy who's never been camping. I think there's another one or two reasons but for some reason I can't think of them right now. But like Eliza said in her confessional, whether Mikey uses the idol and Jason goes, or Mikey DOESN'T use the idol and goes, the idol was gone either way so it was going to be a win-win for her.

16) So now we go to Tribal Council, and after a few generic questions like Eliza talking about the Reward, Tracy talking about the storm on Exile, and Jason talking about Joel leaving, etc. we get to some strategic-type confessionals. Jason answers everything as if he's going to vote for Eliza (so that Mikey does not suspect anything), but then people start to give really weird and alarming answers that don't make a lot of sense. I cut this out, but Tracy says that she's voting for her "strongest physical competitor," and Mikey says "Well, Tracy is voting for Jason then" but he doesn't believe that she would just suddenly turn on him after they were so close for so long. And then Mikey also doesn't believe that Eliza thinks Fans vs. Favorites would be over, when Jason clearly said that he was voting out Eliza, so there's a lot of weird answers going on and Jeff picks up on this as well. Mikey says there's a lot of deception going on, which is basically when Jason and Tracy start to get scared. Jason says that Mikey is just being paranoid and the vote will be between Jason and Eliza. However, I think Jason screwed himself and the whole plan became a little bit too obvious by this point. So Jason gives Immunity to Tracy, as expected, and we move on to the vote.

17) Although Jason has had some not so bright moments in the game (and especially on the real show), I love the idea of his vote and I think the concept of outing someone for having the hidden Immunity Idol on a vote is completely brilliant. If it was ever done on the real show, it would be a way of revealing that information without it necessarily being traced to you because it could be anyone's vote. Jason figured he was probably going home by this point and that Mikey would use the idol, so he wanted to let Mikey know that he (Jason) knew about Mikey having the idol --- remember, Jason didn't know that Eliza told Mikey Jason knew. Yes, it sounds confusing. But the most important thing is I think this is a brilliant idea and if there are any future Survivor players reading this episode, I think you should use this concept on the real show.

I showed Mikey's vote just because I think everyone knew the vote would go to Jason, and the only suspense would be whether or not Mikey would actually use the idol or not…

18) Mikey DID use the idol, and Eliza, of course, had to act so surprised like she didn't know it was about to happen, but honestly, I think Jason and Tracy both came to expect it by this time. And Jason was voted out 3-1.

THERE IS A WAY THAT JASON COULD HAVE SAVED HIMSELF. WHAT WAS IT?

Unfortunately for Jason, he must not have caught on to Dave's strategy at the end of China where Dave made a 2-1-1 vote at F4 incase Frosti used the idol. Jason could have done the exact same thing here and voted for Eliza like he always wanted to. That would have been 2 for Mikey, 1 for Eliza, and 1 for Jason. The votes for Mikey would have not counted so it would have been a tie between Eliza and Jason. A re-vote would have occurred and Tracy would have voted out Eliza, and Mikey would have voted out Jason. The vote would be deadlocked and it would go to a fire-making challenge between Eliza and Jason. 90% chance that Jason would have won it and Eliza would have been sent home, but that is some extremely advanced strategy with a lot of planning and variables, so it's just too bad that Jason didn't think to vote out Eliza.

19) A LOOK AT EPISODE 9

Since two people left the game this episode, there are now 10 Survivors remaining and the tribes are going to merge next week. Here's some interesting stats. There's 5 Fans, 5 Favorites; 7 new Malakal, 3 new Airai; 7 women, 3 men, which is definitely the first time that that ever happened. The women have dominated this game so far, and it will be interesting to see if that continues to happen. There's definitely some post-merge strategy that involves members of both of the tribes, and all I can say is that even though Malakal has been winning so many challenges and some of their storylines have not yet amounted to anything, all of the seeds for what happens after the merge have already been sown in the first part of the story, so those loose pieces will finally be pulled together. There will definitely be some surprises in the last six episodes, and I think the merge episode will be another really good one. But in terms of the story and the editing, all of the foundations of everything are already there and it will all make sense in looking back at the season after the finale.

20) So that's it for Episode 8. 6 more episodes to go. Sorry that we lost two big characters this week, but I hope that the outcome won't negatively affect your feelings towards the episode. I really, really like this one, and I think that Joel and Jason both had two powerful stories in this episode. There are still many great episodes to come, and I appreciate you all sticking around for so long to read them all. As always, thanks for your patience and continued support.

Thanks to all of you for being loyal readers. Hope you all enjoyed Episode 8 as much as I did, and I'm extremely interested to see the comments on this one! :)

My sincere thanks to you for reading this episode. I'm amazed to still have so many people reading and commenting into the seventh season. I would greatly appreciate it if you could spend a few minutes to leave some comments on the episode and let me know what you thought. Thanks in advance for all the replies!

Best regards,

- Guatemala fanfic

I really liked it. I knew Tracy would want to take out Mikey for the HII, but I did not see it coming that Eliza would tell Mikey ... cuz it was a risky move in case Mikey was voting for her. Was also really surprised with Joel's medevac. Everyone picked Joel to be the winner, except me, except for last week I think... I thought he didn't comment enough on the end game etc, so I didn't think he won.. until this episode with the opening scene with him/Kathy. So I was shocked to see him leave just when I thought he'd win.

(B) Next week, the two tribes merge. Do you have any other predictions for Episode 9?

Airai + Brooke/Sherea/Kathy team up.

First, let us have a moment of silence for two of my favorite characters who grew and evolved over the course of these eight episodes, and were major Edgic contenders.

Despite ALL the screen-time Malakal got, it felt exactly the way nuAirai did with all the focus being on the injured player and Kathy, with some mention of Brooke as well. Once again, Alexis, Mary, Aras, and Ian, are no-shows, which is basically exactly the way the couples' alliance, which I hated on the real show, was portrayed.

Granted, I understand that young, twenty-something white girls are probably one of the hardest demographics to write for, given how they all wind up the same (even in the real show), but that's why it's so hard to see them making it so far.

But Ian is the one I'm really disappointed in. I mean, he's a great character, and he's made it halfway through the game now, so it's not like Earl and Ruthie, who went out early, and thus weren't a major part of the story. I dunno. Sherea's another character that has been kinda disappointing, given how her whole story was focused on Dave last time, and this time around, she takes him out on day one and then has absolutely nothing else.

Even Brooke, who got a lot of development this episode, has become bland. I remember really rooting for her in Guatemala, but here, she's just so meh.

The only Malakals I really like are Kathy, because she's so emotional and so willing to just wear her heart on her sleeve and be funny, and Joel, god rest him, for being a sane mind that wasn't a complete dick like in the show. It REALLY sucked to see Joel go home the way he did, because even though that's one of the most badass ways to get medevaced, it's basically EXACTLY what happened with the real couples' alliance, where they got lucky and were saved by a medevac that screwed over their adversaries.

Airai was nice, but I think one of the major problems with this episode was the fact that the whole episode was basically focused on Malakal until the immunity challenge. I was so excited because FINALLY, one of my favorite players would be safe from the vote. And then Airai loses AGAIN, and it was just so heartbreaking.

I called it last week though. Jason and Tracy were smart enough to try and boot Mikey this week, and unfortunately, Eliza had to go and fuck everything up by telling him about it. I don't see her logic of Jason being the biggest physical threat when Mikey is pretty much no slouch. Jason may be more nimble and agile, but Mikey's strong too. Really, Eliza is the only one that benefits from this, because she'll be able to rejoin with Brooke and Sherea, and even if Mikey and Tracy and Kathy stick together, it'll be easy to sway one side to take out the other.

This week really sucked because the fans, who had gotten their shit together, are suddenly tied right back up with the favorites through little fault of their own. Last comment: I liked how Tracy and Kathy got TWO exile island scenes with really strengthened their bond and their friendship. With Joel gone, Tracy is going to become Kathy's one and only rock in this game as they're the last two older players left. If Tracy goes out before Kathy, I can imagine Kathy going absolutely insane.

I liked the way Joel's medevac was handled, even if the actual event depressed me.

To the winner, how would your game have changed if Joel hadn't been medevaced?

I think it's your best one yet, storywise, but I still prefer Exile Island in terms of characters (Like I said, everyone who made the merge, except Austin, really, was a great character)

Eliza - 4 (*grumble* Screwing over Jason like that)

Mary - 1 (I hate showmances with bland bitches like her)

Sherea - 4 (She's a shadow of her former self)

Very good, as usual, GF! I love how you manage to cram in so much, but make it all flow so well, ranging from Airia's desperation for an immunity win, the foursome alliance and it's counter alliance, and of course Joel's untimely and highly unfortunate end.

I loved Kathy and Tracy's stay on Exile Island, the dynamic between the two of them is very interesting and I can't wait to see them reunited for good at merge.

Oh, and I was also proud of myself for picking up on Jason saying he'd "deserve to go home" if they lost. I knew it was over for him at that point!

I'd say this is on par with China, which was my favorite one of your fanfics to date. I haven't read anything pre-All Stars, though, except Fiji's endgame (which was awesome, may I add).

Jason - OTTP5 (He talked about his "dream" a lot and narrated, but the only thing complex in the slightest was his talk of the idol, so no CP. I could see a MORP.)

Mikey - MOR3 (Surprisingly, he was very menial in his role in the episode, just enough for a MOR. He was barely mentioned until after the immunity challenge.)