I agree. Although she was stupid to not go with the girls, she probably won't go next. This next TC is the critical one to see who will hold the power. It appeared on the preview that Ian, Tom and Caryn were talking about how Katie is gunning for Tom. I figure Katie will jump over to Gregg and Jen and it might be a 3 - 3 split. Tom knows that Caryn is his pawn now. She's too valuable for a few reasons. She is an extra vote AND she will basically repeat to Tom everything anyone says to her. I actually think Katie might be the one to go.

Let's all pray that if we ever get into legal trouble, we don't see Caryn coming in to help as our court-appointed counsel!

Though I liked Steph, I can't blame Greg for orchestrating her leaving. While Tom is the one physically dominating, Greg seems to be playing the best mental game. Sorry if this has been asked already -- have these players had the chance to see the last season on tv? There we saw how an alliance eliminated all but 1 of the opposition, let that 1 hang around because they weren't perceived to be a threat, and that 1 ended up winning the whole thing. While I can see Greg's (and Jenn's) plan, I don't get Tom's. He seemed to have Ian, Katie, and Steph for a Final Four alliance. There were 7 tribemembers -- it would have been guaranteed FF sticking to the original plan. At least with what was shown by CBS, Tom expressed problems with trusting Steph. I don't know, I'd think Steph would be happy to get with a FF alliance, and try taking her chances with the challenges when it gets to that point.

I just hope none of the women win this. Not that I have anything against women! Just undeserving Survivor winners who ride other people's coattails and do little to contribute to the tribe. It's usually the fact that the jury is pissed off at the better player because of perceived backstabbing and lying. So far, there's not much sign of that, and I can certainly see Coby and Steph being Jury members who'll appreciate good game play rather than vote by who hurt their feelings the least.

BTW - Caryn is giving my law school a bad name.

Chris ruled

Nobody wants to start actually playing the game here. They keep delaying the fact that they will have to vote everyone off if they want to win. I think this is a result of being a tribe for so long without having to actually play the mental game.

She won the shooting contest almost single-handedly. She won all her heats in the wrestling/fight on platform in the water with ease. Anybody as athletic as her is a threat in most challenges.

Not against the strong men. She is more athletic than most women but that doesn't help her against Tom, Ian and Gregg. I put her as the 4th strongest physical threat left in the game. Gregg is the only smart one when he said leaving her in, screws with the dynamics. She is a threat because she can change peoples minds which can only hurt Gregg. Tom, Ian and Katie just weren't ready to play the dirty game yet and vote out Gregg. That would have been the logical step last week. This week vote out any of the following: Caryn, Janu, Jenn. If Janu quits like she did last week then vote out Gregg this week.

The problem is that to the other 3 women, she might as well be as much of a physical threat as any of the men. The men see her as the biggest physical threat among the women. Plus in an endurance challenge (particularly if it is something that requires balance more than strength), she is an even bigger threat.

But why pick off the least of 4 threats? The only reason is because it was the easy vote. No feelings are hurt. The only man that really wanted Steph out was Gregg. The others didn't vote her out due to being a physical threat. They did so because they are only thinking about making it to another TC.

It's suck that Steph is gone, but on the plus side, next week we do get to see her for a couple minutes at least. And all prettied up to boot!

i wanted steph to win so bad

anyone else see steph on the early show on cbs this morning?

I was going to watch it here at work, but I forgot.

Check out the Survivor site on CBS.com...lots of good stuff there . Plus, I think the Early Show's site has the video of the interview.

I come home from being out of town to find that Tivo recorded the President instead of the delayed broadcast. Then I come here to find that they voted Steph off.

It's a cruel world.

They should give Steph a million anyways.....Hell,they did it for Rupert even though he never won jack-shit so why can't Steph get a mil?

Let me know if I am out to lunch on any of this.

Alliance strategy will now be interesting. 3 guys and 3 girls. Seems like three pairs of people. And an original alliance of 5.

Gregg + Jenn
Tom + Caryn
Katie + Ian

Gregg REALLY wanted to get rid of Steph because it messed up his plans. All he wants to do is get to the final 5 using the orginal plans.

Original 5 alliance
Tom Ian Gregg Jenn Katie
Once they get to 5, someone needs to make an alliance of 3 to have the numbers. My guess is that Gregg has someone that has agreed to do that, and he already has Jenn. So it will be Gregg, Jenn, and (my guess) Ian. And as soon as Tom or Kathie does not have immunity, they get voted off.

I am thinking this because Ian was not worried when it was said to him, we need to vote off Tom. He seemed to think that this was not a problem later. Of course if Tom runs the tables, then that changes everything. Katie on the other hand seemed very motivated to mix things up. She does not see herself as having a winning strategy. Ian does. Gregg does. Jenn is just flying low and smiling. Tom seems concerned.


What will be interesting is this scenario.

Next Survivor... Caryn is voted off. That will be an easy choice, she will not win immunity and she is not part of the alliance of 5.

I can also see a possibility of Caryn/Tom swapping when they get voted off if Tom foes not win immunity...and the rest realize that they can vote of Caryn next time.

Following episode... anyone but Katie wins immunity. They vote off Katie. If Tom does not win immunity, they vote off Tom...leaving Katie to twist in the wind.

But lets say Tom makes it to the final 4...because he won immunity twice.

Tom, Ian, Gregg, Jenn.

Everyone wants to take Jenn with them to the final two. I would bet Tom would win the final two no matter who he took.. but Ian and Gregg want Jenn with them. She has not done much and they would win. If both went, it may be a toss up..though I would give the nod to Ian.

But if Tom wins immunity again... then Ian is gone. Gregg and Jenn will be a stronger alliance and they vote off Ian. But... what if Tom aligns with Ian and they vote Gregg? A tie and it will require a tie breaker.

Tom would have to win immunity every time from now on to get to the end.

In the end, it will be most likely either Gregg or Ian....and Jenn... in the final two.

Did you have some watermelon with your lunch?






Seriously, for me it is difficult to ascertain anything from these people. Maybe it is simply the editing, but I think anything is possible from here on out. For what it's worth, my read:

Gregg never had the opportunity to implement his plan, which was to include Coby, Janu, and Caryn to eliminate Tom, Ian, and Katie. While they always made it seem as if Gregg and Jenn were partnered with Tom and the gang, it is obvious that he himself does not have that view. This is precisely why I was perplexed by his insistence on voting out Steph. As things stand, based on what we have seen, there are two groups: Tom, Ian, & Katie and Gregg & Jenn. Caryn is the perceived outsider, who apparently is easily swayed and is leaning towards Tom's group. This makes it 4 to 2 against Gregg. Had he voted off one of those four and kept Stephanie it would be at worst 3 to 3, and in those circumstances anything can happen.

I think Tom and Ian are closely aligned, hence Ian's adamant assertion that Tom was not going home this week. This is also a reason why he should have kept Stephanie and voted off either Gregg or Jenn to break up their partnership. Keeping his planned final four would have assured him of just that. Be that as it may, my guess is he feels he has solid support from Ian and Katie, with Caryn being the wildcard. His likely next play is to vote off Gregg if he fails to win immunity. Assuming Jenn, as lovely as she is, can not win immunity ever, that would give a final four of Tom, Ian, Katie, and Caryn. In this scenario Ian would be the only realistic threat to Tom, either in challenges or in the final vote for the million. I think it would come down to immunity though, as Katie would side with Ian, feeling that she would have no chance to win against Tom, and Caryn siding with Tom. (Not that this would be the smart thing for either women to do, but what I would expect).

However, my gut tells me tha Katie, fearing Tom's strength, has already softly aligned with Gregg and Jenn. She will try to persuade Ian to vote out Tom, but he will not, and Caryn will become the true swing vote. If she stays with Tom, there will be a 3 to 3 tie, or Katie will waver and vote off Gregg. Otherwise Tom goes next.

I honestly can not imagine Gregg would be stupid enough to simply go with the originally planned final five, as he would be on the outside looking in. Tom or Gregg goes this week. Ian and Katie the final two.

I think what happened is that it's a little like watching Stockholm's Syndrome unfold, where the captives are all sympathizing with one another (Kororians), and group-think became paramount to apparent individual gain (i.e. the 4 women gaining up and voting Tom or Greg out of the game). Greg used that "group-think" mentality to push his agenda through, while the others let him by voting out Steph.

Why would he hook up with Steph? With Coby, Janu, Caryn and Jenn he's not only the strongest in immunities, but would probably be the best liked at the end. Coby was annoying and the rest of them didn't do a whole lot. If he pulled Steph into his alliance, he not only would have a much harder time winning immunity, I think she would have whooped him had those two made it to the end. She overcame great odds and was an awesome player. He wanted her gone as soon as possible. And I expect he'll move on Tom next for the same reasons.

Plus he seems to have a stick up his ass about Ulong. I don't think it was enough to wipe them out like they did. I think he wanted all traces of them gone.

I don't like Greg and would love to see him walk next week.

This was my situation exactly. I waited, got all settled in, hit "List," clicked "Survivor," and got the Prez.

I fast-forwarded like a mofo, but all I got of Survivor was Stef's parting speech. DOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Luckily I recorded CSI and got Survivor... and Without a Trace was CSI and w/o a Trace is now going to be rebroadcasted tomorrow at 7:00 PM Central.

Sorry to see Steph go, but there was no other choice for them... sad but true.

Like Jeff said, this "family" is going to fall apart now.

how come jeff called steph "jersey", i think it was at the auction?

i didnt get that

Steph to college in New Jersey

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivo...tephanie.shtml

I'm not so sure Ian and Tom are that tight anymore. I'm thinking Ian and Katie have something going now behind Tom's back. It only makes sense for both of them. They probably figured Tom could get them into the final 4 and then they might have a chance to get rid of him. It's always risky to wait that long to make your move but they (Katie especially) might think it's their best shot.

I also think at this point Gregg and Jenn have as big a target on their back as anyone else, as it's a given that they are an alliance of 2.

Its a very good move to align with Tom...since he's soo physically dominant, he never gets paranoid and has to vote you out...he only voted for Steph because Gregg wouldnt budge, and it was a tie...then Janu quit.