{Suzy Bishop}

[Wes Anderson]

Jury questions from Suzy Bishop will go here.

[Suzy Bishop]

Dear Richie,

Congratulations. I never thought I would actually be a bitter juror. I love this game a lot in all its highs and lows and usually I'm able to put aside negative feelings to provide a cheerful and upbeat FTC. So congratulations on successfully converting me into a bitter juror. Many have come before you and no one has yet been successful.

I'd also like to clear up something. You assumed I was a new player and I just leaned into that narrative, but I am not, not really anyway. I guess I did not realize you held so much anger for me and it's perfectly reasonable. I went against you but I gave you an out. I said that I understood if you no longer wanted to go to the end because I betrayed you. You assured me that nothing had really changed. What could I have even done if you honestly said you were hurt? You had an idol in your pocket and you idoling me out was just cruel. I hope you're happy with your style points. I was very genuine in our relationship. Even when you consistently did things that broke my trust, I assumed there was a deeper meaning to it. It only makes sense that our initial trust and bond, the Society of Crossed Keys, was built on a lie. How I wish I did things differently knowing who you truly are.

Let me set a scene for you though. I was at my friend's wedding on Saturday. The ceremony had just wrapped up and my partner asked if I needed to check the game. At first I shrugged it off saying that if for some reason I was no longer in the game, I didn't want to deal with it at the moment. Curiosity did get the better of me and I checked. Against all better judgement, I just needed to know. I really didn't expect for you to have idoled me out. It hurt so much in a way I did not expect. I actually cried Richie, I cried at this freaking wedding and wanted nothing more than to withdraw and just cry more. I just never felt so stupid in my life before.

Ever since you idoled me out, I've been thinking about what I would say to you in our final confrontation. My heart is racing as I write this. I wavered on whether I would say nothing to you or whether I would just curse you out. As you can see, I went with neither. I guess that's just not who I am. I don't know what I wanted to accomplish with this. You just seem to have no freaking remorse about what happened, and maybe you don't, and perhaps that actually makes me want to give you respect. I guess I just wanted to clearly say how much you hurt me and how angry I still feel at you.

No longer yours,
Suzy

[Richie Tenenbaum]

Suzy, I never assumed you were a new player.  By leaning into that narrative maybe you believed I would treat you with kid gloves and so you let your guard down.  You were my equal as a partner in this game and you played a superior game to me in many ways.  I held no anger against you for making your move, just an understanding that it made going to the end with you an unwinnable situation for me.  And because you are so competent, because you were so beloved by the other players remaining where I was not, and because the margins at five are so slim I could not just tell you to your face that I no longer wanted to go to the end with you.  That I had an immunity idol does not change anything about it.

To say our initial trust and bond was built on a lie is wrong.  I do not accept that.  Our initial trust and bond was not the Society of Crossed Keys, it was the Fan Club.  We made that commitment clear to each other repeatedly.  I died on that hill and put my whole game on the line while you let Writer go, and even though I was upset I didn't stop working with you or working towards getting to Final Tribal Council with you.  Our relationship was genuine on both sides.  That we both did things that made each other question our trust and yet we believed in each other so strongly in spite of it is what made us the most powerful alliance in the game.  It's what made it so that people could not believe we could actually be as close as we were.

Of course it makes me feel guilty and horrible that a dark cloud was cast over your experience at the wedding.  I hate that you felt stupid because you are anything but that.  The smartest people in the world can still get blindsided in Survivor.  I felt that guilt when it happened just as much as I do hearing what you went through now because I knew you would be gutted by what I did.  I can't control the way the timing worked out.  Using the idol wasn't out of malice or cruelty and it wasn't to flex or style on you.  It was to control the outcome as precisely as I possibly could, and do so by telling the absolute minimum number of people because you had a better grasp on the players left in the game than I did.  If you caught wind of ANYTHING you could have gotten out from under it with just one other person's vote on your side.

So yes, I feel guilty for your emotional turmoil.  And no, I don't feel any freaking remorse for doing what I had to do in the game of Survivor to put myself in the best position I could to win.  Respect me, hate me, never speak to me again if that's what you need to do.  Vote against me.  Because Suzy, whoever you are behind the screen with your Suzy Bishop costume and your personal connection to your character the same as I feel with mine, you are my friend.  But I respect you enough as a Survivor player to do exactly what I had to do and nothing less.

[Suzy Bishop]

Thank you for your response.

This is a long preamble to my question.

I just remember that during the multiple times I was freaking out about the vote (I think this was the round Writer was voted out), you had asked me if I were new. So that's where that conception came from. I didn't let my guard down because I thought you thought I was new. I let my guard down because I believed that you, like me, were playing a loyal game to the end.

I just had a few clarifying questions in regards to our relationship. I told you almost everything I knew in the game, and I kind of expected you would tell me things as well.  During the game, I got the sense you would only share things with me after I had already found out through other means, i.e. you volunteering to mutiny, the rings you shared with Madame, etc. There are things I've only found out more recently, i.e. your idol and the ring deal you had with Writer. Although Writer's overall absence contributed to me no longer having faith in Fan Club, I also got the sense that there was something lurking between the two of you that I did not know about.

Here is my two part question:

Did you really see me as your ally/partner in this game or just a number/someone to be moved around/manipulated? Why/How did you choose to give the rings to Writer and not me?

[Richie Tenenbaum]

Yes Suzy, I did.  I really, really did.  The Crossed Keys chat, the Four Horsemen chat I was in, those were just numbers.  Numbers are majorities, numbers are in groups and out groups that give you an idea of who should go next.  Sam and Duke could be next on the block at Ivanhoe for me, because they weren't in anything with me.  Herman absolutely could not, because he was in the Crossed Keys and because we had an internal trio within that together too.  That's why I protected Herman.  But you were my partner no matter what happened to those other groups and you were the person I was always trying to get the numbers WITH so we could keep moving towards the end together.  Numbers are why the Crossed Keys chat, which started nominally as a discussion group to talk about where items went, turned into a majority alliance the moment Kylie went home and it was actually the majority on the tribe.  Heck it's why that same group of five were all willing to take a shot together at ten even though a lot of us were leaving other trusted allies in the dark!  I didn't tell Royal, Oracle didn't tell Duke, nobody told M. Gustave, and right up until we cooked up that move together most of that chat group was planning to turn on Writer without going to any tie.  There is power in numbers.  None of us really expected that we would all make it to the final ten intact, right?  But we were there and it was worth everyone's while to hang onto that.

When I got those Rings from the Auction and saw what they were, I had a great debate with myself about who I was going to use them with.  But this was only ever a debate between you and Writer.  At that moment, you two were the only ones I trusted completely not to take that attempt to use an Auction item, reveal it and turn it on me.  The reason why I settled on giving the Ring to Writer is actually because I trusted you as a long term loyal ally more than him.  The Rings function as forced loyalty.  I didn't need that mechanical reassurance that you would be on my side for the long haul.

Humbly yours,
Richie