Episode 07 - Merge

Well done!

Give me a breakdown of the overall game dynamic for you right now. How do you get from here to the end, and who do you go there with?

Making it to the merge is an exciting milestone. However, only a third of the players have been eliminated up to this point so there's a long way to go. Having been on the same tribe as each of the other 11 remaining players at one point or another in the game is an advantage coming into the merge. I have some form of relationship with everybody and am able to skip the introductions and get straight into business. I have a lot of options to play with now:

Original Chorotega - The original Chorotega tribe have a numbers advantage of 7 to 5. Current consensus is that Caryn should be the next person voted off, but even if that eventuates the original Chorotega could hold the power. I can see Kim floating her way to the final 6 or 7 without being a key payer in any alliance.

Jolanda/Ibrehem/Gregg - My very first alliance has remained intact through to the merge, despite two tribe switches. Having voted off the rest of NuGuatuso besides Chad (whom Ibrehem hates), they have few other options than to run back to me with arms wide open. This is a very viable path to the end, but I am wary of the fact that each of them would have a better story to tell the jury than me having been to every Tribal Council besides one.

The Fiveskins - Tom, Mia, Chris, Ami, and I established an alliance after the first tribe switch. Ami is not trusted due to her old ties with John, Brook, and Chad, not to mention she is suspected of possibly having an idol, and was included only for numbers should NuChorotega have ever needed to go to Tribal Council. The other four of us could very well go to the end together. Tom and Mia have a very close bond that I may need to break up before the final 4.

The Fourskins (or more accurately, Ami) - After Chris was switched to NuNuGuatuso, The Fiveskins became the Fourskins (a far superior name). However, neither Tom nor Mia want to work with Ami, so The Fourskins is really just a cover I made to ensure Ami felt included. I believe she trusts me, as I play the naive puppy dog role with her and have led her to believe she has me in her back pocket.

The Wildcards - Lisa was a member of NuChorotega (AKA the winningest tribe ever), but she was very quiet and was not part of the Original Chorotega alliance, obviously, or part of The Fiveskins. Her closest allies are probably Ami and Mia, but I don't see her surviving further than the next three votes. Chad, on the other hand, is essentially a free agent who could flip-flop his way deep into the game. I believe I did a good job at making him feel welcome after the second switch and pretended to be empathic to his situation on NuGuatuso. As a result, we have a pretty open line of communication that really only goes one way - from his mouth to my ears.

With so many people still in play, I am going to continue working my magic from behind the scenes. I predict that eventually the other players will perceive that Tom is in control of the game and will want to take him out. As he is currently looking like a decent threat in front of a jury, I will have no qualms in blindsided him when the time comes. After a couple of rounds of post-merge play, I will take notice of which two players are shaping up to be good goats to take to the end with me and will try to make it happen.

I am so proud that my idea for a game of Hangman, created in the first couple of days on Chorotega, has now been copied to at least three (maybe five) other tribes. A better idea for tribe bonding has never existed.

Since I'm immune at tonight's vote, I have decided to stir the pot and have a little fun.

In all likelihood Caryn will be voted out tonight, but I am going to ensure it's not the unanimous vote many people are expecting. I am voting for Lisa and making it seems as though my vote is actually Caryn's vote. I am telling Caryn to vote for Ibrehem, in the hope that Ibrehem thinks the vote comes from Chad. Ibrehem already hates Chad as Chad has voted for him on two previous occasions, and Chad publicly promised not to vote for Ibrehem this time around, so it should make for some good post-tribal drama. This should serve to keep the attention away from myself for the next vote, and nobody will suspect I was behind it.

Can I just say I f*cking hate hangman. Comments on the rest of this into Episode 8!

Yet you couldn't resist joining in on the fun