{Margot Tenenbaum}

[Wes Anderson]

Jury questions from Margot Tenenbaum will go here.

[Margot Tenenbaum]

Hello, Gustave. I am both impressed and sincerely happy to see you make it to this point. Congratulations!

Even when it was clear we weren't aligned, you were someone who was effortlessly easy to talk to. I also definitely owed you for not choosing to boot me on Trash Island. I don't know that I would classify that as a mistake, but it's hard for me to be objective. I do wish I had managed to work with you and Suzy more earnestly beyond that round. But I digress.

I will get straight to business now.

I noticed in your speech that you pointedly saw Richie as more threatening than Madame D, which was a little surprising to me. Could you go into further depth about how you read for threats in the game and what your strategy was for playing around them, particularly post-merge? I am interested in what went into deciding who needed the most careful attention beyond the obvious visible factors like challenge wins.

[M. Gustave]

Thanks for the kind words, I thought that you were great to talk to as well. In another universe, we'd have been strong allies.

In my experience as a juror and spectator, I've seen that most of the time people appreciate: tenacity/endurance, decision-making independence, and general level of influence. Both Madame and Richie pass the 'tenacity' criterion easily, they were tough players to target and they were able to talk their way out of trouble also. Both also were very much playing their own game, so check that off; and both had a big impact on how the game went. I rated Richie higher as a threat because his impact was a bit more overt than Madame's impact. But who exactly is on the jury is a big factor too, and Madame does have a lot of friends here. Possibly I was off-base if the ex-rushmores would have been a lock to vote Madame to win.

For the 'how to play around threats' part, I made sure that I wasn't anybody's biggest threat, which was pretty easy this game with so many strong players running around. Suzy was both a great ally and a shield in the end, and my bond with Oracle was so tight that it was almost like we were confessionalizing to each other. With those two on board for the long haul, the first step was removing people I knew weren't going to be voting with me: Peter and Writer. Then with my immediate safety addressed, it was time to get rid of my competition. The Herman vote was meant to be a Madame vote, and then I leapt at the chance to get you out when you finally weren't immune. So many possible plans that I'd brought up had been ruined by the simple line, "but we'd need Margot to do it." I knew you were widely respected, and strong socially, on top of being in a pivotal strategic position. Suzy was a threat because she's extremely likable and was, like you, crucial for making so much happen, while still showing so many feelings that nobody could ever call her a gamebot.