Survivor 50 Episode 7 "That's Not How I Play Survivor" Recap

Everybody, everybody, everybody drop your buffs. Welcome back to Drop Your Buffs. I'm Sean Ross. I'm Evan Ross Katz. And we are here talking Survivor 50, Episode 7. 55 year old Ozzy. 55 year old Ozzy. In his mid 50s. An elder statesman. What are we saying? Put more old people on Survivor. Yeah, and I guess octogenarian Ozzy is here to save the day. Yeah. So you're in New York, Evan. It's not often I get to talk to you when you're at home in New York. And so I can't wait to find out what you've been up to and what all your latest goss is over on the after dark. Well, and I can't wait to hear about your experience at the Lily Allen concert. I'm wearing my West End Girl shirt right now for you. Special for you. So I saved it. Lot to catch up on. Lot to catch up on and that'll be over on the after dark. But let's jump into the Survivor episode here because finally we have some feistiness on Survivor. I was pleasantly surprised. Yeah, it was definitely enjoyable to see. And I feel like they were too, what do they say like when two, it's like two worthy adversaries. What's like the. Like, is that what it is? Worthy adversaries. Okay, great. Yes. This was that. I will say in like very classic New Era fashion, we had to have like the peanut gallery offering the like, what's the tea like kind of like. We have to have the audience represented at all times. Exactly. So there is that component to it, you know, firmly keeping us planted in the New Era. But yes, absolutely. And I think not for nothing, I want to say up top. I think this episode really cemented something that I think you and I have casually sort of gotten around to saying, which is that I think D cements herself as one of, if not the best new player of the New Era. And by the way, when we say player, I don't just mean like strategically, which obviously as we saw in her first season, she's quite good at. I'm talking about television maker because I've always been of the argument that while I love Carolyn Weigar, I don't think she delivered like big moments on her season. Like I don't think there's like the definitive Carolyn moment. Whereas I feel like D in this episode sort of showcased what I think she presented throughout season 46, which is that she's both good at survivor, but also just a really entertaining figure on television. Yeah, I think that there we've talked about this for a while now. There's a few people, very few people from the New Era who kind of have an old school energy to them. And I think top of the list has been D for some time, but survivor 50 certainly cements that for me that she can go head to head with the old era. She can bring old era energy and she fits in seamlessly. I mean, like if I didn't know the New Era from the old era, I would think that she played alongside coach, etc. Except that she's not in her mid fifties. Which is really, distinguishing difference here. Yeah, but in fairness, we didn't know that Ozzy was in his fifties until that tweet came out. So for all we know, D's in her eighties and just sort of, you know, moving through the world as a 30 something. Oh yeah, there's like a, yeah, okay, we won't go there. But it wasn't just D, like Tiff was pissed. Suddenly Tiffany's on this show ever since the merge. Happy to see her here. She's pissed off and letting off steam, more so in her confessionals. Yes, it did feel very much like there was a little bit of an element of like the comeback here of it felt like she was like coached by production to like the confessionals. Felt very prompted. They didn't seem like she was actually that pissed. It seemed like more like, so, you know, you're back from tribal and we're going to replay everything that just happened to you. How are you feeling? There was something about the delivery that felt more tell don't show. But it is a confessional. So, you know, famously about telling. So I'll give her that. But yeah, it did feel nice to have her activated still three confessionals for the episode overall for D, excuse me, for Tiffany. So though Tiffany came out of the gate strong in terms of, you know, bolstering her presence on season 50, I ultimately don't think it was a big episode for Tiffany. Well, and weirdly so, because of course she is the subject of the split. And as we are going to find out, D is going to play her shot in the dark. And so there should be a real sense for the audience that Tiffany could be in trouble of going home here tonight. But it felt like a foregone conclusion that D was going home because of the focus on D. Yeah, did you feel like just based off of how maybe this is always how the show has been edited and I'm just more aware of it. But the second they introduced the should we change the vote to coach that just was such an obvious mislead to me. It seemed like their effort to say because the conclusion is, as you said, so foregone that we're going to just add in this but what if element and that felt very obvious to me. But was there, did you ever think at any moment during the episode that coach was actually at risk of going home? I had hope that they could pull it off. But what was missing for me was anybody co-signing it. And I know that a lot of it was happening at Tribal Council where she was trying to pull together like a last minute live tribal vote against coach. But there were little moments on the beach where like Devons is talking about it, Emily is talking about it. But there wasn't enough substance there to make it a viable option where I can trust this with Australian survivor, which is so great at sort of like giving equal airtime to two plans where one is going to win. Out over the other and then you can really sort of like, I don't know, root for one of them or you can get invested in one of them and then understand why it did or didn't work where this felt like a very much a throw away like, oh, wouldn't that be fun? If anything, the talk about a counterattack on coach made me feel like the strategy this season is falling a little bit flat at the merge where it's like we've got 14 people. How exciting the options are limitless here, especially when we're pointing out that there are people in the middle. There's people who are trying to keep out of the vote. There are people who are trying to keep in the vote but not let them know it's a split vote where all of that information is getting out. It feels right for like, you know, a plan C to emerge and it's for me, it was a little bit disappointing that it didn't at all. Yeah, I agree with you. The other thing that I am surprised at with 50 is everything just seems rather cut and dry in terms of who is working with whom. So it's like we have this faction of Christian, Devans and Emily. We have Rizzo, Suri and Ozzy. Like we have these, you know, small alliances and my question is like, but then all of a sudden we'll cut to a scene in which someone who's seemingly not a part of that alliance is talking to them. The example I would give was when Rizzo is coaching coach in that moment about how to play survivor. It's like, wait a minute, Rizzo just told us in a confessional that he's not working with coach, but that moment seemed to be like him authentically trying to help out someone who's were to understand us. He's his adversary. We ultimately come to understand everyone's ultimately in an alliance for this episode alone, which I guess is a voting block because they're all working together. But like our other people talking to other people like Suri, for instance, like obviously we know she's working with Rizzo and Ozzy. What about the Suri, Devans Christian from earlier this season? Is that still a conversation that's happening? I'm just sort of not seeing a lot of like who are people considering, you know, a plan B with. Stephanie would be another person where I'm like, who is Stephanie working with in this game? I can imagine who it's probably like, you know, Chrissy and Joe and all them, but I haven't really like seen too much of that. So just in terms of everyone voting together, that's going to happen sure. But I think what could have ultimately like saved this episode was the idea that like this is a means to a bigger end and that like division is coming, which the preview for next week implied maybe that is the case. But yeah, just I agree with you like not seeing a ton of high level strategy. Well, I feel like there's probably a mindset. I think we saw enough people who didn't want D there. And I think the unspoken thing was that she's a winner or maybe it was spoken like in a throwaway comment, but that she is the last winner available to vote out. And, you know, we saw that like Rizzo has an issue with D, which then, you know, that is adopted by his alliance of Suri and Ozzy. And so there's enough of a momentum against D that it just feels like an easy vote. And I think a lot of people are probably in the mindset of like survive this 14 person vote. And then we can start playing. But when I'm coming to survivor 50 with all of these, you know, alleged greats of gameplay of survivor, I would expect something a little bit more. And like to D's point at Tribal Council, where she's like, I'm on the outs. Like this is classic. Use me. Use me for a move. Like I'm disposable and you can use me right now. Plus they've got Tiffany. Like somebody could pull off a big move here. But I think they're a little gun shy because maybe they're feeling like whatever majority is voting on D, these seven people will be insurmountable in the future. Like until they until a few rounds down the line. But why is it not more obvious that you want to bring a winner with you to the end so that you can present the very fact that is so obvious to many? Who's going to crown a double winner? Now, obviously, you know, you can use the example of Sandra to say, well, it's been done before, but I just think there's a big argument. I think D was correct. I think it was Tiffany who presented the idea of Tiffany could be used as a shield. That's absolutely correct. And the idea that her being a winner would be more of a reason to take her out as opposed to more of a reason to keep her in at least for now. It just feels like that option far outweighs, you know, the direction they went to. And to your point about it's season 50. And in this episode, we have like, you know, Aubrey throwing away her immunity idol. Stephanie doing one of the easiest challenges we've ever seen presented on this show, but being told that it's the hardest thing she's ever done. Though it's compared to childbirth, she says it's up there with childbirth. But in the breath before that she says it's the hardest thing she's ever done. So is it harder than childbirth or is it up there with childbirth? And if it's harder, but it's up there. So then it's two things can be true. If it's up there, though, then it's no if you're harder than you're not up there with. If it's so if we have this challenge holding your hand. So wouldn't the sort of consolidate those thoughts? I get it. Childbirth can be number two. I get it. But when you say, couldn't you just consolidate the thoughts to say this was harder than childbirth? Well, you have to keep in mind also this was probably like an hour long confessional that they Frankenstein, you know, that line together. But my point being with Aubrey throwing away her idol with the boring segment of Stephanie pretending to do something hard that we knew was super easy. LOL at her being like, I hurt my shoulder and it's like this challenge requires you just to like hold up your hand. Hang on. Hang on. I got to interject here because this was my favorite segment of the whole episode. Okay, hold on. We'll get to it later. Don't think and I don't think that holding up your your arm over your head when you have a dislocated shoulder is easy. As somebody who has a shoulder issue and has had one for like 12 years, it's actually not easy. Like it's like distinctly difficult. Okay, I couldn't do that. I couldn't do that. But also so as she did in the episode, she just used the other arm. Yes. So which also would be somewhat difficult. Why? Because if I used so it like my shoulder issue is with well now I have to but I'm in my mid 50s. But if I held it like I'm right handed if my shoulder issues in my right shoulder using my left hand like that it's it is it's more difficult. It's holding up your hand is the dominance of the hand really factor into holding up your hand. It does. Yeah, can we get a scientist on this? Call Christian Hubecki. No, thank you. Okay, but what I was going to close out by saying and then also so Aubrey throwing away her idol, Stephanie having what I see controversial controversial opinion perhaps as being a really easy task at hand here and then D shot in the dark not working. It's like there just seems to be like all of these opportunities to present something really exciting. Just keep getting foiled. And so ultimate and also to what as you said earlier with the vote being more or less unanimous. It's like we finally have an episode where we don't have like producer manipulation. So on the surface it's quite exciting right we had like 14 players actually playing the game of survivor that we know. And yet when everyone isn't really playing some high level strategy or nothing sort of out of the ordinary is happening and ends up being a pretty status quote episode. I think it's worth noting that this was one of the better episodes for me in the last grouping. I would say one and two. I know you're hotter on three than me, but I think we can agree that the season came out of the gate incredibly strong. And then I think we really fell off with these last few episodes, especially with like the boot order. And then I think this episode was definitely like there wasn't an element of like return to form in this episode. And I also think had we gotten us down from these 90 minute episodes, which I find incredibly necessary, had we consolidated this episode to 60 minutes of television and also fixed the challenge, which we can talk about later. But I think this could have been a great episode. Yeah, I look I think that given all of the issues that we have to work with. It was like a pretty good episode. And I loved all of the interpersonal drama. I loved everything that was happening at camp, but there wasn't anything that I didn't love, even the stuff that is very clearly sort of like playing to the cameras like coaches, haikus and stuff. I still kind of got a kick out of them because it was so classic coach. Yeah, we'll get to coach. We'll get to coach. But the only problem for me when it comes to the conflict is that I love to see it play out. The problem is that the root of the conflict is coming back to these pillars of honesty and integrity, which are rearing their ugly heads from the coach and Joe and Jonathan alliance. And it's like, I just wish that it was something meteor to chew on than that because this narrative that we're getting from coach where it's like, nobody can win Survivor 50 with my telling lies. It's like that since when? Who made that rule up? I appreciate that it's creating conflict. I just don't like the source of the conflict. I wish that it was something that wasn't so blah and something that we hadn't just lived through on Survivor 48. Totally. Now, I do want to talk about Stephanie's journey because I thought that this was a great segment because, okay, when I found out there was a journey, I was like, okay, here we go again. I felt like in terms of journeys, this is about as good as it gets where we have Stephanie LaGrosa going to do a classic survivor challenge. To your point, the stakes are so low because the reason this challenge is so exciting is because you're doing it against other people, one person doing it on their own competing against a pot of water. So why do you think that was? I don't know. It just felt like such an odd decision. It's a totally odd decision. Because also, mind you, if it hadn't been Stephanie, if it hadn't been like a Joe or something, I mean, granted, they would have cut the segment, but nonetheless, it's like, why not give us the opportunity to see, again, what we had with Ozzy and Q and Coach in the first episode, why not give us that opportunity to create that drama once again? I love your optimism that had it been Joe, they would have cut the segment. I don't know if that's true. It seemed though that like, it's interesting, I obviously think the fandom is piled in many senses. And when I say the fandom, I mean the online faction of the fandom. I mean, this is the same fandom that celebrates Genevieve as though she's John F. Kennedy. But still, I have seen a turn in the sense that I feel like Joe and who's the big guy with the big breasts? Jonathan. Joe and Jonathan, or the big, well, yeah, the one to it out. I feel like Joe and Jonathan, like fans really do not seem pipe on them. Even when they do those like, I think it's, is it Rob's fact checker that does like the likeability thing each week? Yeah, popularity. And it's like that, the firefighters like at the bottom. So I feel like whatever the fumes he was riding on with 48 and sort of the sentimentality that people had about honor and integrity, I think there's, it seems to me like a general eye roll around what just two seasons ago was more or less just accepted as like, okay, this season's about honor and integrity. And now it feels a little bit like kind of like how a lot of people look back at like the Biden presidency where it's like, well, we allowed it at the time because we were like, it's better than Trump. And then now, you know, with a few years of hindsight, we're like, Jesus, like that's the best we could do. I just about two presidents. No three, because I say Trump's name three, two of two throw another one in three. Let's see, Andrew Jackson. Nice. You're like Madison. We'll be talking, we'll be talking about love on the spectrum in the after show for sure. But yeah, look to your point about Joe's popularity. I think there's something I'm surprised at the lack of content about Joe. I do think if he went on this journey, he would have a hero's journey at it for sure. But given his being kind of pivotal in this coach alliance, which is the dominant alliance at this point, they're calling the shots. We're not actually hearing from Joe a whole lot. And it makes me wonder, does Joe have anything to offer this show without Eva? There's no wire Eva. Well, it's also just a matter of, you know, we got introduced to this alliance, which the four horsemen, the name that had we heard that before this episode. We heard it in Survivor Fiji. Okay. T. But had we heard it, that's Eduardo, right? Yeah. Yeah. But had we heard it around these guys? Not that I recall. Okay. So it was presented where in my mind, I'm like, wait a minute, because my impression from, I don't know if it was last week or the week before was that who's the guy with the big tits? Oh my God, it's Jonathan. Jonathan. My impression was that Jonathan and Chrissy had something going, you know, as we saw Jonathan switched his vote in favor of Chrissy over Camilla. And so it's either like, is this coach's misogyny where he just can't consider Chrissy within the alliance he's forming? Or is this for, well, that's one option. But like, is this ultimately coach trying to convey a narrative that only he's on board with? Because as you said, we're not hearing Joe's perspective here. We're not hearing Jonathan's. It's our understanding that Chrissy and Stephanie are probably a part of this. So part of me just thinks this is entirely coach presenting an alliance and also because Colby's not there to fact check it, an alliance that never was. Potentially. I think the alliance always was. I think certainly the alliance between coach Colby and sorry, it's Jonathan and Joe. I think the alliance between coach Joe and Colby certainly was because they were on that swapped tribe together. That's where he gave them the nicknames. So how strong Jonathan is in this alliance after being separated from it for what, a few days. However long that swap lasted, I think remains unclear because I haven't really heard that. But I mean, Jonathan's certainly like swooping in to help coach out in the D fight. He's like, he's doing all the things that are aligned with what coach is trying to do. But to your point, we haven't heard anybody talk about a four horsemen alliance. And I think that him going and offering that to Rizzo was so dumb. And I have to say credit to Rizzo here. Like I've got to give credit where credit to do. I think I was so pleasantly surprised with the way that Rizzo played this of sort of being like, oh, yes, of course. Like I'm honored to be one of your four horsemen. And then in confessional being like what like how stupid does coach think I am. I feel like this was the first time that I've been pleasantly surprised by Rizzo. Yeah. But going back to like the four horsemen of it all. So I want to cite a tweet that I shared on the Drop Your Buff social from it's either Caleb's islands or Caleb s islands. But the tweet reads too many men of the same archetype on this season. I'm so sick. And I totally agree because I feel like between these four horsemen on the one side and then Devin's and Christian and even Rizzo who I would put sort of in this same archetype of like the nerdy guys on the other side. We really only have like Ozzy holding it down for just like the hot him bows. And it's like I really do feel like we're missing just like hot guys for like to like be hot and serve body and flirt with the girls and have some fun. I'm thinking about I don't know why this person of all people is coming to mind. Do you know the guy from Gabon who's cock popped out? Was that Marcus that perhaps and then also you know who else is coming to mind. This is so also so one of them one of them is dead. No, no, no, it's not but like someone like that someone like that or God his face is in my mind right now. And so you know I'm thinking of that would be great Dean from Survivor 39. You're always thinking about Dean agree. But that's exactly no person. Yes. So I just think that's like there's obviously a lot missing from Survivor 50 much of what we've what we've already talked about much of what we will continue to talk about till you know we get another Democrat in office. God willing. But God what's with the presidency. I don't know. But needless to say I'm like yeah I'm like in addition to the common refrain of we need more hot people on Survivor. Yes. And specifically with this season it just feels like and I'm speaking to the men specifically here. It just feels like there's really just two archetypes and it's like we just need more diversity of archetype which is the archetypes are like the Republicans and Brainiacs. Right. Okay. Yeah. And then Aussie and then Aussie. Yeah. You're right. It's not fun. Okay. I don't. Okay. Wait. Did we wait. Did we finish talking about Stephanie's journey. I'm not done talking about it. The floor is. Oh yeah. This is. Oh yeah because we're to we got on Joe and then we got sidetracked. The thing is what I loved about it was one seeing seeing this challenge back. I know it's in like a very lackluster way. Like how great would it have been that this was the challenge for individual immunity. Oh I would have loved that. Loved that. That would have been so fun. But nice to see it back. Nice to see Stephanie doing it because I think a lot of other people it would have fallen flat. And then nice to get survivor lore tied into this. It's not just that Stephanie dislocated her shoulder. It's that Stephanie dislocated her shoulder in the first challenge of heroes versus villains. I loved that. I loved that. See it to me that just felt so shoehorned. It didn't it just didn't like it was very new era to me of like giving us this like a sob story and I'm like how does this relate to what's happening because nothing about her is like she has to use her arm and she had no struggle at all Sean. It didn't factor into the challenge at all. If you would have taken all that out if you would have had no context about Stephanie shoulder at all it would not have changed how she didn't the challenge or your viewing experience of this whatsoever. There was no moment where she seemed to be an extreme pain like it did not factor into the narrative whatsoever. It's literally shoehorned in so that it can be a nod to a past event but it didn't factor. If you're going to bring something up from the past like the coach Ozzy stuff. The reason the reason that worked in that early episode was because you're seeing how that feud from however many years ago is playing out today. This didn't have that so I'm going to actually call you here and just say call you out bitch. No but I'm just going to say I vehemently disagree with you. Okay well I still liked it and then do you know we got you out. All you do is call me out seriously. It's like what I'm not going to get into the ditch thing. I don't know if you caught this but at the end towards the end of the challenge she said yes you can. Do you know where yes you can and show not recently. Joe Biden. Oh my god isn't it. Isn't it yet. Oh Kamala Harris yes we can. Yes yes we can. Oh I thought that was Obama. I mean yes we can. But no the point is that last week we were trawling through Stephaniethebrand.com and she is selling a t-shirt that says hashtag yes you can. Wow. So it was a little wink and a nod to what was to come. She's lucky it got aired. Do you think that she's going to say do you think that at some point she's going to like get to the final tribal council and she's going to be like I was raised in Delco made for war. Yes. I would love that and I will be up out of my seat for that I will be I'll be hooting and hollering. But needless to say I just I don't think this moment landed at all for a combination of reasons as I stated already with just the the shoulder of it all her being alone and then ultimately I'm a proponent of the fact that that is two advantages rolled into one. We've talked about this in the past with previous instances of this but you're basically having a steal a vote and then getting to take that vote and have an extra vote it's it's a block of vote and an extra vote. Excuse me yes a block of vote and actually I think it's too much power. Yeah fair enough. But if we didn't have her go we wouldn't have the Suri moment exactly. And that's the great part is that she comes back and she tries to sell this over complicated lie about what it was and that all she did was keep her vote. And that's which is so funny for obvious reasons but like just say that you got the block of vote. Yes say say anything. Sure but I'm just saying if you're saying you failed it. This is what I thought she should have done is that instead of like she was so dainty there and she was like I won I'm going to like carefully take this off so I don't get wet. No get yourself drenched and say you failed the challenge. Because of your bad shoulder there bring the shoulder back into it. Now it's part of the lie. Yeah but at that point it's like I agree with you. But if you're going to like make up that lie it's like then just make it it's like I don't know you can make a simpler lie. It's like why even go through the trouble of telling all the truths of how the the the I guess just to make it easier but needless to say a fumble for Steph fumble for Aubrey earlier in the episode our old school girlies. I just okay wait let me finish this let me finish this thought because when Saris sniffs her out I thought it was such an incredible moment when they're at the well and Saris like like that didn't happen. And you just have a Stephanie immediately break and say listen bitch I got a steal about that's so great for me because I feel like. We were nervous in the preseason because all Stephanie was doing was talking about talking shit about three and how she doesn't want to work with her. And maybe that is still the case I don't know but she's sort of like backed into a corner here to reveal information to Saris which gives. Me a little bit hope that even if you know Stephanie is not in this alliance with Ozzie and Rizzo and Saris that at least they have some options moving forward in the near future together. Because that's what I want to see coming back to Aubrey burning her idol I credit Aubrey for burning her idol I think that was exactly the right move for Aubrey. What else was she going to do. Well knowing that she wasn't going to get I mean it's I heard them talking about this I know it all so I want to give them credit for getting to this conversation first but I think that what they were saying is basically she made a strong defensive play. But could she have turned it into an offensive move knowing that she wasn't going to have any votes and. Have that idol again going into the next vote and also kind of endear herself to her allies and say amongst my allies we can use this idol for our gain you know what I mean. It would it's a risk right but also flushing your idols equally a risk. I hear what you're saying and I also think you know she said it explicitly like. Having the scarlet letters not something that she wanted sure but I also think as Aubrey correctly noted why is her public idol a problem but not other people's so I kind of feel like she could have. Strong arm did a bit more and then like listen if I'm going to give up my idol which I'm happy to do here then I need all the idols to be flushed. I don't know that it she's in a position to be doing that but then if you're not in the position to be doing that then don't give up your idol it's like so. Just you know just entertain you on this what's the if you were to say. If you were to say in favor of why Aubrey should keep it what would your argument be. In favor of keeping it is that in case she needs to use it in the next round or two the longer she has it the more likely she is to be blindsided with it especially if she's heard. The terms of the idol now which she probably has that it will boom or ain't back to whoever gave it to which I don't remember actually gave it to her. Rizzo no Christian gave it to her Christian gave it to her and so that it be it's it's risky so if she's. Going to use it just use it soon and I feel like she's not in the position right now to be like. Because if she's gonna orchestrate something to use it she's got to be the target of a vote and I just don't think that she's comfortable enough in any. Alliance we don't really know what her alliances are but the only one we've seen her try to make is with coach really and coach clearly has his own group of people and so. To like you're either gonna draw attention on to yourself to force a vote on you so that you can use your idol and decide who goes home. And then you just piss off a whole bunch of people who will get you out next time I just think it's way better for Aubrey to not have an idol at this moment than to have one. Fair enough can you think of any other character besides Aubrey who's getting as much of a long tail story. I. How do you mean long tail story. Well so like in the case like Christian for instance who we'd spoken about has been really very much a main character in the early episodes he's kind of all the sudden like fallen out right like he's just not a part of this episode and I don't think he was a part of the last episode. But with Aubrey I feel like from episode one we've kind of had like this dipping into Aubrey at fits and starts to kind of check in. Previous previously it was Aubrey versus Genevieve but I just feel like we've constantly been checking in on Aubrey where she's at in the scheme of things who she might be working with how she's doing in the game and I just can't think of any other character outside of Aubrey that we've had as consistent eyes on which is not to say she's I think Emily. That's a good example. Yeah. Even the two of them. Yeah. I don't disagree we've had more narrative control. The difference is that Emily has been going to tribal council in the plumberage and so that makes sense but Emily hasn't disappeared for me in the same way that Christian has disappeared. Right but but going back to my question though because as you said Emily is a little bit more circumstantial. Can you think of anyone besides Aubrey who we've just checked in on as much and has a long tail story building. Well I just don't know what you're referring to in terms of long tail story. Well I guess it's just like when we okay so for instance like take I guess three would be maybe the other one though just to answer that question but I guess it's like when it comes to like. Because I don't I don't see how you how you. Oh and maybe Aussie too. Coach doesn't have a long tail story. It's just because we well maybe there is an argument that she coaches in the same category but it's like I just feel like when Aubrey hasn't been a part of the narrative the show has still found a way to check in on her and to see what Aubrey is up to which seems to be something like other players aren't afforded. I think Emily's afforded that. Okay fair. Yeah. I would say Emily Suri even Rizzo to some degree. Definitely. Yeah yeah that's a good point. Okay but it is. But like to your point like there are lots of people who aren't Chrissy is not. Right and I also feel like they're building it's like with in the case of Aubrey and I agree totally with this with Rizzo as well where it's like I just feel like they're. Building as opposed to just like checking in with like it does feel like it's like as we start to look down the pike and think about the end game it's like interesting to think of. Cause like to your point it's like right now it's hard to imagine Chrissy in the end and if Chrissy is in the end it feels like she's a goat just based off of what we. Do you know what you're doing right now? You're doing edgy. That thing you hate. You're actually a master of edgy. Oh my god. How's that? How's that for growth? There's your growth story. There's your redemption arc. How's that coming to. There's so many ways you can say it. How's that? Yeah, I look I got my eye on a certain age. I'm the voice of a woman of a certain age. I've got my eye on Aubrey. I've got my eye on Emily. I'm really pleasantly surprised with how comfortable Saria is right now in the game. Yeah. The only thing is what we haven't been getting is any kind of real understanding of where there might be lines drawn in the sand in between say Saria, Rizzo and Ozzy and coach Joe and Jonathan. Like we don't really see all of them have conversations together or talk about each other in any way that indicates where, you know, they see each other in the game. And that's something like I would be expecting to see come the merge and now we're allegedly two episodes into the merge. I would argue one. And I still have no further clarity about that. And then to your point, it's like when it comes to Emily and Aubrey in particular, and I know like Emily is with Christian and Devans and all that, but like Aubrey is allegedly with coach, I imagine. But I'm just not getting a sense of like with a 90 minute episode. I'm not hearing from those people of like, what is their plan? What's their plan right now and who are they working with and who are they pretending to work with whose short term whose long term. And also wasn't it a few episodes where it was like Aubrey and Tiff seem to be like, you know, but if that doesn't really compute because Aubrey, as you just said, is working with coach and Tiff is working with D. So it was Aubrey sort of torn on that. Did Aubrey have to have a conversation with Tiff that was like, I have to vote with the majority, but girl, it's not going to be you and you know, I'm with you. Like there's just seems to be. Or hey, I'll play my idol for Tiff. I don't think she's going home, but if if one of us is just to show my loyalty. Yeah. Or do you think it would have been fun if Aubrey had played the idol for D and save D. I think that would have been so fun. And then Aubrey would have gone home. You think episode. Yeah. Why? Because she would have pissed off seven people. I don't know if she would have. I think things get shaken up. I think she 100% would have. It's like, why would I go up and play my idol for the minority of two right now? Like Tiff, Tiff, she could get away with like talking her way out of it of like, this is my friend. I knew she wasn't going home. There was maybe a risk that D was going to play her shot in the dark and it would work. Sorry. No, no, no, no, no. There's an instance and I know I don't have the, is it Kaga Yan? There's a player who constantly fucked with the majority and we kept being like, oh, they're going to go home. And they would just, they just kept making it through. Kaya, is this Cass? Is this? Kaya's Cass. Is this Russell? I don't, I don't know which one you're referring to. Needless to say, there are instances of people that turn on a majority and then the next week people just turn their days elsewhere. And I also think with this many. It happens all the time in Australian Survivor, but I don't think Aubrey's that kind of player. I don't think everybody can do that. I don't know. I think there's a world in which Aubrey and her obviously as, as we know Christian gave Aubrey that idol, right? So there's got to be some goodwill there. I think there's a world in which she saves D, D, her and Tiffany, there are three. They get Suri Devans and Emily. Like I think granted it's a risky move, but I think it could have had a big reward. Yeah, potentially. It's just like she, like they would have had to, she would have had to put in a lot of legwork to figure all that out. I think like we're working with all the information or at least most of the information of who's working with who and she doesn't have that. I cannot believe how long we have talked about Aubrey in an episode where she was in it for like five minutes max. Okay, well, let's talk about coach because he was really the star of this show. Is coach putting it on a little too fast? Yes. Yes, but like this or my who was it? Was it Rizzo that I said this about a few weeks ago? I just like don't have a strong reaction to coach as a player in the game. And I see like the fandom right now. It's like he is taking so much heat. It's like, you know, get the coach off my screen. I'm not watching that. And I think it's a combination of like people's love of D and not loving the boot order and not wanting to see Queen D go. And also it's just sort of like if you're going to come for my queen, you are my enemy. I think that's part of the rhetoric here. But I just like coach to me in season 50 feels very like tapping back into something that's not quite there anymore, which I know is its own potentially interesting narrative. But I just don't find coach nearly as compelling as I find Aussie in terms of, you know, re appraising past players in the game. And I feel like it's way more exciting. Someone like an Aussie who we're kind of like seeing new layers of on this season, whereas like the coach 5.0 of it all. I do really like coach. I think he's like a I certainly respect that he is an icon of this game, but he doesn't like activate in me enough to like feel love for him or hate. I'm like, I think that just he strikes a level of ambivalence for me that is it I feel is incongruous to the fandom who I feel like is he he and he invites so much emotion from. I just don't wait. I got a positive because rewind the tape in the first couple episodes of this season. We both yourself included were so activated by seeing. Yeah. And so where did it where did that go wrong? Yeah, that's interesting. I do I have it like I feel the exact same way. And for me, it I think it started to go wrong. Maybe a couple episodes ago. I think it was like when he was started giving Colby and Joe their nicknames. It was all and he gave himself a nickname Tide Walker. All that was like a little bit like I was starting to feel like an act, I guess. And then here it's like just it's like at a level that I think is unsustainable for me as a viewer. At the same time, I am like there is a part of me that's reactivated of like, oh, this is why I hated coach. And I'm like, I need like we need to get Sophie Clark back on the podcast to take him down a notch or something because I am feeling reactivated in a South Pacific way. And it's like and then I think back what did I hate about coach in South Pacific was all the same shit. It was like it wasn't that he was authentically coach in South Pacific. I disliked him in South Pacific because I felt he was laying on too thickly the coach like persona that was developed in token chains, which is exactly what he's doing here. Like it is a repeat of history. Yeah, I don't disagree. I just like he's not someone I feel the desired. I'd rather talk about Aubrey. You know what I mean? Like I just think he's not. It's not even I and I I understand what you're saying that in the early episodes we were really up out of our seat. I think an element of that too was just the excitement about old school players and them sort of reinvigorating this show that had, you know, become a shell of it of itself. I think there was there was that element to it. And I also just think, listen, that moment with him and Ozzie and Q at that challenge in the first episode remains one of the highlights of this season so far. So yeah, we were definitely really hype on him and where he fit into, you know, all of the scheme of things early on. But yeah, I think one question I always have is sort of like when it comes to your turning player season is the desire in the case of like as we have with Ozzie, these new layers, or do you have like Sandra on Heroes vs. Villains where it's just a character you love and they come back and they do the exact same thing and you love it once again. And I think as evidence with those two examples, it's really case by case. In the case of coach specifically, I think it would have been exciting had he come back with that same coach bravada in those early episodes, and then something maybe softened him or linking up with someone and how he was organizing caused him to play differently. But it's just giving exactly if this was a scripted season of Survivor, how Dalton Ross would script this season. And as such, it's just like, I feel like we're a little bit end game here. Yeah, yeah, I think also there's sort of like a limit, like a capacity of coach that I can take and we've reached capacity. But I think because of going back to the tweet from Caleb S. Islands, because we have so many of these, this same archetype of guy here, someone like coach, there's not a large subset of people being like enough of the bullshit. Yeah, I also think it's interesting that like coach in this episode is dictating the vote. He is getting his way like he's doing everything very successfully in this episode that he's attempting to do. And yet he's still getting a dodo at it, where like that that is interesting to me because can coach win with this kind of an edit like he's being shown as being annoying, like having delusions of grandeur like all these things we know about coach. And yet he's succeeding in the game. He's doing exactly what he's intending to do. All of his plans are going off without a hitch. And so there is a disconnect in the way that the show is telling us coach's story and the way coach's story is playing out. Yeah. Which I think is interesting. Okay, is there anything else we need to talk about before we head over? Oh, do you want to talk about the challenge? You've got to. Yeah, challenge. Get rid of the challenge. The massive boulder took six seconds to get out of that ditch. They literally like dig a little bit of sand out and it's out of there in an instant. So there's that but it's like so what was this one? It's like get a boulder out of a ditch. It's the same fucking challenge they do with the merge every single they did this in season 41, like every single season. What about the part where we go into individual immunity? And Jeff says, what if somebody was just tuning into survivor for the first time? What would they think? What do you think that they would think? He said that at one point during this episode. So during the individual portion where they're holding the pole, balancing a ball, he turns to the people sitting out of the challenge who had lost the ball portion and said, what do you think people would think if they were just tuning into survivor? I have no response to that. I don't get it. They think they would think they're watching survivor. What's the joke? I don't get it. I just thought it was interesting that he dwelled on that somewhat. Like he's still like into the meta nature of that. I would think that would be like a more interesting question to ask like because you know Jeff's obsession with like that challenge with the mud. Which mud? When they all get covered in mud and have to go through the wood chips. Yeah. Yeah, like you're going to have to narrow it down a bit. But yeah, I know the concept. Yeah. Anyway, I just I would think it would be like a more odd challenge that would, you know, he would bring that up. Yeah, abolish this challenge. I still think it's such a shame where first of all, it's funny how the in the hand of the fans component like comes in at some portions of the game. And then it's completely out the window. And I bring that up to say, wouldn't it have been fun if the if the fans had more of a say in the challenges this season and could have voted on bringing back some of the iconic challenges we've seen in the first 39 seasons of the show. It just surprises me that on like this epic season 50 that there was no consideration of around something that's such not only not only an important part of the show in terms of like airtime like right this is like a third a quarter of the show. But also I think it's the thing that like endears so many people to this show is they really come for the challenges right both players and audiences. And so the idea that it's just like roll a big ball and then you know do a little puzzle. It's just like really. And so that was disappointing. And then as I keep saying, why couldn't we do the reward and the immunity as to fully separate challenges. I just don't understand this budgetary need to consolidate this down to a single day, but not for nothing. What a thrill watching Ozzy succeed. It's just like I had a similar reaction watching him dive into the water a few weeks ago. Ozzy is just magnetic during challenges. But on that note, we're going to say this once and then this becomes a bleepable phrase henceforth the Wizard of Oz. I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that. And I got to say bring it up. Well, I bring it up now so it's a do not disturb henceforth. This is that one part of Suri that puts an asterisk on her. Now still Mount Rushmore will put her up there. But Suri is like a her desire to move through the game with Rizzo is its own sort of frustration. But part of me is like well if she clips him at the very end, it can still you know it could all be worthwhile. But stepping into this sort of like Barney and Friends very new era territory. I'm like Suri this is beneath you. Yeah, you were just holding hands with Janine in the jungles of Samoa not six months ago making deals. Yeah, we can't jump to this. Can't. One more thing before we wrap it up and head over to the after show. I want to ask about the brownies. Now you you asked AI or brownies. A classic Chinese takeaway dessert and AI said no. Who's with the brownies? But there was something about the way he said it where he was like as something in effect of like as everyone knows or like a staple where I was like is he trolling. I think he was joking. Okay, just didn't read because it's him. Yeah. Okay. Do you know what they could have done here? They could have given them the the classic Chinese takeaway dessert of fortune cookies and they all open their fortune cookies and one of them has a clue instead of a fortune. That'd be great. That would be so that's so Australian survivor of them to do which is probably where they didn't do it. But it's like what a missed opportunity. The one last thing I wanted to bring up was I was surprised to see Steph's vote ended up being for Tiffany and I bring that up because we got that whole moment of Steph being like if we're going to do the split vote I want to put my vote on D because I'm friendly with Tiffany and that's when a coach had his meltdown about the how the votes get split. But it's just interesting that in the end Stephanie acquiesced and put down who I think she's trying to build an allyship with in Tiffany. It's just interesting watching her bend. Okay so I'll be posting a meme cap on at drop your buffs pod Instagram and what is the emoji we're going to choose for this week. Should we do the Cuban flag for D. Yeah that'd be great. So let's do the Cuban flag and then tag D. Yeah. I gotta say like once again before we go to the after this show though I do think it's like let's just give our flowers like D really strong showing in survivor 50 and a really great player would love to see D on the traders. I know we've I know people have said she was on the challenge you and I we don't watch the challenge so we don't know about her there but I think both a great survivor player but like I've also I dipped a toe in her exit press today. I really enjoyed that we'll get into some of the specifics of some things that she brought up but like flowers to D. Yeah. Okay. All right some questionable choices in terms of who she aligns herself with outside the show but. Yeah. But some people have their. Yeah. As they say you can't win them all. All right. Thank you for listening. We're headed over to the after dark episode this week every week we do an after dark on our sub stack and you can find the link to that in the show notes to this episode. Thanks for listening. Bye. Bye.