chapera rocks wrote:
Stephen, it looks like you have a great grasp on strategy from posting on here, but I wasn't sold at all during the show. You, IMO, made one of the worst moves of the season that any other time would result in a power shift, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on it:
At final 7, when you won the challenge, why send Erinn to exile, who's vote you need. And then on top of that, take the other 2 members of your alliance on the reward, that were members of your tribe? It was a miracle the Timbiras didn't regroup after that. What was going through your head (I know that you tried to change your mind about sending Erinn, but suggesting it in the first place caused damage to be done anyway).
I agree with you that this was a horrible move, and at the time I was WISHING I could jump into the boards to talk about it. But I don't think the move is quite as bad as it -seems-. What I should have done is deliberately lost the challenge and let Taj win, assuming she takes me and Erinn on the reward and probably sends Coach (or maybe JT) to Exile. And I was actually on the point of doing that, considering throwing the game-winning question. But ego got in the way and I thought, "Wouldn't it be nice to win something?" That was a huge mistake.
But having actually won the reward, I think I made the choices I had to. First of all, let me say that the subject of "Who gets to go on reward" is discussed ENDLESSLY at camp. There's not much to talk about, and deals and bartering are constant. There's a sense of tribe hierarchy - who "deserves" it most, who hasn't had it, etc. That's why Timbira basically let Taj and me win that one. For that reason alone, I had to choose Taj - added to the fact that she was mercurial. The second choice was trickier. The problem was, we had separate alliances with Coach and Erinn, who hated each other. If I had taken Coach and sent Erinn to Exile, Erinn would have been livid. If we had taken Erinn, Coach would have been FURIOUS. Sierra and Debbie had been on a few, and weren't even on the tribe list for potential considerations. My strategy largely rested in keeping things around camp quiet.
The other thing is, that my alliance with JT looks super-solid to the viewer. But at that point, I still was concerned ... especially because he -really- cared about going on rewards in a way that sometimes superseded his concern about the game. For example, he was supposed to throw the ball challenge at F9 so that we'd send Brendan to Exile to weaken him up for the IC. But he just couldn't!
Additionally, Coach had been adamant about sending Erinn to exile. And we had told her in advance that she might be going - which perversely proved to her that we trusted her, the fact that we'd be willing to send her to see if there was a new idol clue. So sending Erinn to Exile actually accomplished two goals - placating Coach and roping in Erinn.
Of course, as soon as we left on reward, I realized I had made a huge mistake - especially when I saw those thunderclouds rolling in. That's why I insisted that when Erinn got back from Exile, we institute a "lockdown" policy, where either JT or I were with her at ALL times. If Timbira couldn't talk to her, they couldn't strategize with her. And of course, when we got back to camp and realized what a shitshow was happening, we knew we had gotten hugely lucky.
Anyway, I think the best choice would have been to throw the challenge to Taj. But having won it, I think I made the choices I had to.
ETA: And it was bc we had agreed on it in advance that I was surprised about how pissed she was when I chose her.
