The Final Four

[Richie Tenenbaum]

M. Gustave

What an up and down, hot and cold horseback ride of a game we've had together man.  Against all odds here we are together.  Three of the Four Horsemen.  From that early game alliance we went through the trial of getting painted as a dangerous pair by Sam, we came back together at the merge and then we lost faith in one another and our paths diverged.  You point blank told me I was getting voted out when Herman was sent to the jury to try to shake an idol out of me (surprise, I did have one after all!)  At our lowest point I didn't hear from you for almost two full rounds.  But neither one of us ever closed the door completely and I am so glad you were still here to make the big play with me.  Thank you for taking me up on my offer and I sincerely hope you do uphold the deal we cut, because I am pretty damn sure I'm not winning final immunity.  So, either I'll win my way in on fire making to sit next to you in the finale or I'll be giving you my jury vote as promised.  Either way I tip my hat to a game well played.  You've earned your spot at the end.

[Richie Tenenbaum]

Madame D.

My dear Madame, I fear I am going to give your torch walk short shrift here because I've allowed myself to run up against the deadline after my very frustrating attempt at final immunity this morning.  But please don't take the lack of verbiage as a sign that I adore you any less.  You have been my absolute favorite person to exchange PMs with in this game.  You are just so clearly having fun with it, and that energy is infectious.  You dodged a lot of bullets this game and I think you're about to win the whole thing, though I'm going to do my best to get in your way.  One way or another I congratulate you on your accomplishments and I've had an absolute blast playing with you.  Thank you for accepting the Team Zissou ring and flipping this whole game on its head with me from the final nine onwards.  You're a legend.

I have the honor to be

Your obedient servant,
R. Ten

[Richie Tenenbaum]

Oracle

Ooooh boy, have we had a tumultuous time together.  We were so tight at the beginning, although I don't know how important I ever really was in your plans and you never quite figured at the top of my own alliance hierarchy.  But that part of it didn't end up mattering too much when we ended up at opposite poles of the merge battlefield after you flipped on the final ten revote.  There were some serious FIREWORKS in our PMs sometimes, but it was never personal and I'm glad we were always able to talk about things with cooler heads later on and could always agree that no matter what it's a game and we're friends aside from anything else.  I know this game meant a lot to you and I know you've been feeling down about your chances heading into the finals.  I hope you'll be able to look back on it fondly no matter how things go from here.

Just once more for posterity I'll reshare one of my very favorite moments of the game, when our verbatim PM exchange landed perfectly:

[Richie Tenenbaum]

Richie Tenenbaum

Look at this big idiot heading for the last seat on the jury.