DJariya

Sorry this is posted a little late for those in the East and Central areas.

Axeramm

Tribal was great tonight.

buckeyes8604

Terrific episode and a great Tribal.

It's amazing how everything went down. Aubrey turns on Debbie because she trusts Julia too much and shares all the information with her about who's getting voted out. But then the only way to actually get Debbie out is to trust Julia and get her on board with the plan.

brainee

And Scott, Kyle, and Tai survive without even having to play the super idol. I wonder if they had to join them before the vote to use the super idol like they did. And can they pull them apart if they want now?

Blatant sabotage is a pretty shitty move though. Unless all 3 are in the finals together, it's going to be tough to win with crap like that on their resume. Tai looks especially bad since it goes so far against everything he says he stands for. All he had to do was distance himself from the sabotage but still stay aligned with Scott and Kyle. But he had to needlessly join in.

wirefan

Tribal was great but the superidol is just too much power especially if only a few people know about how it works.

With that many idols out they have to split votes, and then they will still lose even if they split things correctly. If it fails like tonight, than it just keeps repeating. And if they don't split they still will lose.

I though Julia made a pretty solid play playing both sides, but I wonder if that will bite her. If the rest of the majority hold together she could be the target if they are worried about the idols and think the guys wouldn't use them to protect her.

Spiderbite

So is there a concrete explanation on how the superidol works?

Can it be broken apart now (as someone else mentioned above)? If not, then last night's scenario could be played over and over.

Are both guys who had an idol safe or whoever holds the superidol and whoever he chooses to stay safe?

I am not a big fan of idols but I hope they never do this again. One idol every now and again tends to makes things interesting but this show had gotten ridiculous with the amount of idols out there at one time and now it comes back to this silly superidol. Not a fan.

hdnmickey

I would expect they can do anything they want with the idols. Seems what we saw was a very good play by the three of them to force the others into choosing who they vote out rather letting the three men choose.

Personally I love those twist. If done well, the point is they could do exactly what they are doing. Then it up to the others to decide if they want to do what they did last night or still vote for some mix of those three and force the idol(s) to be played. That's how it is supposed to work. So many times the idols have a lesser impact as the player of the idol doesn't get to choose who goes home. If played well you get to save yourself and take out the player of your choosing.

GuessWho

Michele and Julia were here in Chicago last month? I need to be told about these things.

hdnmickey

Julia is definitely one of the best lookers they have ever cast. She was looking real good during that least immunity challenge. Damn blur machine!

TomOpus

I guess the trick is if everyone knows how the superidol works. Some of them may not even know what it is.

As far as I know, since the idols haven't been used, nothing has really changed in relationship to how they can be used. From what I gathered an idol is still an idol but you can combine two idols to make a superidol to be used AFTER the votes are taken. It can only be used to save one person.

So, right now, each individual idol can still be used individually.

TomOpus

Whoever edits the shows must have some really nice outtakes saved to their thumb drive

dino88

I can't believe Jason just gave away his idol. You only do that just before you're going to use it to form the super idol. Now Tai has both and can go with whichever group he wants. I really hope that decision is what takes Jason out as it's one of the dumbest moves I've ever seen.

bluetoast

I only saw last night's episode and my head was spinning from the tribal council. How were the idols obtained in the first place?

Jeremy517

The idol rules said that the idol had to be given away after votes were cast but before votes were read. In other words, one person had to have both idols before Jeff read the votes.

hdnmickey

Exactly. It would be a shock if they didn't stand together each round telling the others they hold all the cards as a group and actually share the idols as necessary. Basically the idol version of the "voting block" stuff that came about in the prior season, except this time it REALLY is you decide who is going home (by creating a voting majority and not overly splitting the vote) or WE pick who goes home.

dino88

Ah, that changes things. I didn't realize that. Even though I'd like to see Tai screw Jason and Scot over, I don't think it's best for his game. He's guaranteed the votes if he's with those 2 at the end.

GuessWho

Here are the rules that appeared on the show

That last part uses "played" and I'm not exactly sure if "playing" refers to solely cashing it in or if that includes passing it off too.

brainee

Ahh ... that really makes it seem like the guys did what they had to do (well, besides the sabotage and rock-paper-scissors).

Tai is in an interesting spot. Everyone knows he has the 2 idols, and with his blabbing and that gameplay everyone probably knows about the superidol possibility. You know the other side is going to try to pull him over ... sell him some kind of line about needing to redeem himself.

hdnmickey

I envision we'll see what almost happened during the last episode. A 4 person alliance of Jason, Scott, Tai, and Julia. Could be your final 4.

brainee

If all 4 of them are on board with that, there's nothing the other players can do to stop them. Superidol play guarantees they leave next tribal council up 4-3 (with Cydney almost certainly being the 1st target). Then you pick off the other players, none of which have been competitive at winning challenges.

Scott and Jason seem thick-headed enough to completely underestimate Julia, and work to have her in the finals with them. Where, unless she completely chokes her answers, she should completely mop the floor with them for getting votes to win a million dollars.

hdnmickey

As she showed in the last two episodes I think the real key is that outside Tai, Julia is your best bet to win most types of challenges. I can see her being the one to win the challenge that lets her pick who she sits next to. If it's Scott and Jason she could probably not say a thing at that final tribal and win by default. But if Tai is the one that chooses, Julia is likely toast.

bluetoast

I'll ask again: how the hell were the idols obtained? Were they hidden along the island and these guys found them during everyday living, or were they secretly discovered during challenges?

creekdipper

Well, unless I'm mistaken, "playing" any idol includes giving it to someone else. Normally, this happens just before the votes are read, so it only makes sense that the SuperIdol would work the same way (only afterward). Otherwise, the SuperIdol has no more power than a regular one (if it can only save the person holding it). Well, it has a little more power in that the person who has it doesn't have to play it not knowing if he/she is in trouble. They can use it like a get out of jail free card.

Of course, that all depends upon the person holding the two idols coming through & not flipping. But Scott or Jason could just hold Tai upside down & shake the idols out if they're worried about that.

It's a different twist but don't like it since it potentially gives one alliance control of the game if they stay strong. As long as those 4 have the numbers, the best the others can do is to sacrifice one of themselves in order to make the SuperIdol get played.

Is this how it would work?

Aubrey, Joe, Cydney, & Michelle all vote together for the same person. The other four do the same (resulting in a tie). At that point, the SuperIdol gets played to save somebody & avoid a revote, and one of the other four goes home. Then the group which played the SuperIdol still has numbers & can simply pick off the other three at will barring an immunity win when the last one is remaining.

Cardsfan111

It wasn't during challenges.

Though it was a little complicated in that clues were discovered leading to a locked box containing the idol. Contestants had to use a long pole to knock the key from a tree in order to get the idol out of the box. That's what I remember, but it's been a few weeks, so I might be off on parts of it.

Tai got his on his own. There were several going after another idol, with Jason reaching the key first when it was knocked out of the tree.

Strapped4Cash

That seems the case to me. Then, as you say, once 1-2 idol(s) is played then they go back out there to be hidden, up to a certain point in the game. If the 4 you mentioned do this in the next episode then there's still a chance that the idols will be re-hidden, and the remaining 3 will have a chance to find 1 or both in the following episode.

Even if they don't, then those 3 might have a better chance at convincing Julia, or maybe Tai (though I doubt it), to flip their way.