Episode Nine

[Wes Anderson]

Previously, on Survivor... After missing consecutive votes, Buckley exited the game of his own volition, leaving an idol with Madame D. in the process.

After the departure of Buckley, it was Young Writer back on the chopping block. 

The option I'm leaning towards at the moment, is letting Young Writer go, because while he has short-term value for my game, it is indeed only short-term. I am doing my best to appeal to Oracle's touchy-feely-talky side, providing what I like to call an "emo honest" interpretation of my current thoughts and feelings.

I am putting effort into open-strategizing with Margot, to a point where I do genuinely feel like we are aligned in how we are thinking about the game.

I have even softened a bit on Richie. I still think that his approach to the game is quite "agenda-driven" but I do think there is also genuine vulnerability and paranoia there. Plus he is just simultaneously funny and intriguing and I do enjoy his PMs very much.

On the other side of things, Richie Tenenbaum was working to protect Young Writer, and Richie's relationship with Royal Tenenbaum bore surprising fruit.



It was a fascinating move by Royal to pass the full set of Zissou rings to Richie, instead of bonding himself to Richie by offering him one half of the set.

Meanwhile, the third Tenenbaum, Margot, would claim immunity with a beautiful portrait of Madame D.



The win would not be entirely without controversy.

Dear Diary,

I FEEL SO FREAKING FRUSTRATEDDDDDDDD!!!! HOW COULD I HAVE NOT WON THAT CHALLENGE? MAKE IT MAKE SENSE.

Yours,
Suzy

Suzy's entry:


Back on the Society of Crossed Keys beaches, Suzy Bishop helped craft a split vote plan with M. Gustave, who was feeling confident enough in the plan against Young Writer to begin formulating a split vote. 


Suzy Bishop: With Margot immune, it just seems like another day where she amasses a tiny bit more power. Richie tells me that she's floated my name to him and this pisses me off so much. I am an incredibly emotional player so I think I just saw her with rage in my eyes. It became my #1 plan to take her down. I create a group chat between Gustave/Margot for the sole purpose of mining information. They have idol fears so we decide a vote split is necessary and it becomes between Richie/Writer or Writer/Royal. I sway them to go for Writer/Royal to keep Richie safe.

Duke was not exactly high on the plan.

Votes in the air right now - Gustave wants a split between Writer/Richie. Not going to work. Too many people like one or the other, but I think Gustave is too confident to see that - he came to me saying Margot and Madame are on board with the idea and I'm just there thinking... why the hell did you even pitch that to them? Writer vote sure, but if you confidently pitch a plan that requires seven people right from the outset, when five of those people are all from the same initial tribe and everyone knows all five worked together on the Sam vote, what are those two going to think? They're going to think 'oh god oh fuk we're at F10 with a group of 5'.

No wonder Margot and Madame aren't too keen on even a Writer vote anymore. But they're being very very cautious about what they say to me and Oracle right now, I think.

The countervote is *supposedly* Gustave, but nobody's actually pushing Gustave. I've heard whisperings it might be Suzy - I couldn't care less if they do actually boot Suzy, it's not me, but I do care if they boot Suzy without telling me. I want this Oracle/Duke/Margot/Madame four to stick together (at least until I want it gone) and that would blow it up completely.

With word of a split vote between Writer/Richie or Writer/Royal filtering around the tribe, the infant alliance between women and dogs...

...would finally see a counter power emerge to protect Writer, with the Crossed Keys alliance (aka the auction alliance from episode one) searching for an alternative.

With Margot Tenenbaum immune, and each member protecting certain players, the crosshairs eventually landed on Madame D., leaving Oracle stuck in the middle.

So here's the thing. I always knew Madame was going to be a social threat to go the end that people were going to have a hard time cutting. If she does go here that would solve one problem, but might have a ton of other implications I'm not sure are beneficial to me.

It would definitely make me lose Margot's trust. But the same can be said for Richie and Suzy. Really I have no idea how this shakes out.

I'm seriously considering it though. So long as no one comes for my Duke or Gustave I'm pretty open to most plans but I have to make sure we balance threats and non threats. So this is going to be ruff either way I think.

Oracle would discuss the situation with Duke as the Tribal Council deadline loomed.


Duke: So... Oracle told me they've been reached out to about a plan that involves them voting Madame. I've been sworn to complete secrecy about this and I'm going to keep to it - I really like Madame, but I don't think I'd beat her at the end, and if I blow up the game by going to her here I not only lose Oracle's trust, but I become the big player, and I do not have the connections to be the big player here.

Oracle didn't tell me any more. The idea is for me to act blindsided afterwards and then we're distanced a bit. The lack of information has me on edge. Is this an attempt to pagong Rushmore when they're not expecting it? Why am I being left out?

Meanwhile, the Keys alliance would head into Tribal Council not only counting on Oracle's vote, but hoping the opposition's split vote would let their Madame mission hit the mark.


Richie Tenenbaum: In a different timeline me and Madame D. could have been awesome late game allies.  She's a super fun PMer.  But the viable path out of this round was really narrow.

See what happened at Tribal Council.

Spoiler

Ultimately, although Oracle voted with the Keys in an attempt to keep Suzy and Herman on side, the votes against Young Writer were not split, resulting in a 5-5 tie. 

That was almost not the case, however, with Royal Tenenbaum submitting a vote onto M. Gustave a mere 51 seconds after deadline that would have sent Madame D. out 5-4-1.  It was the second time Madame D. would be less than a minute away from elimination.


Royal Tenenbaum: Switch to Gustave if I can.

With the tie vote officially in the books, chaos was unleashed and players began to focus their ire on Richie Tenenbaum, as Margot pushed back fiercely against claims she had ever floated Suzy's name, even in confessional.


Margot Tenenbaum: like holy shit

saying I pushed Suzy this round is a gigantic stretch of the truth

I really do think Oracle and Richie are at the center of all this and coincidentally the biggest threats


Oracle: In other news Richie is a snake. But a fun snake. Like the one you want to pet but know will squeeze the life out of you if you let it.

Duke would drive home the point by finally revealing that he had volunteered to go with the Pirates.  Since he hadn't been taken, it was now revealed that Richie's claims of being kidnapped against his will were lies.

Although Richie really did have the receipts to back up his claim of Margot pushing Suzy, at this point he'd even lost Suzy.


Suzy Bishop: During the 24 hours for revote, I get a chance to honestly talk with Madame and Margot. Margot swears that she never floated my name to Richie/anyone. Madame says there's nothing in her chat of Madame/Margot/Richie that would indicate Margot trying to push me. I ask Richie about this and he says Madame is lying. I get the sense that Richie is manipulating me. He knows I wanted to cut Writer and instead I feel he fabricated this story about Margot. I try to win favor back with Gustave/Duke by saying I'm willing to flip.

Duke tells me he volunteered for mutiny and so Richie has been lying about the nature of his kidnapping. Margot says Richie was the one who said no Rushmores should be voted out. It seems like he's creating multiple paths, with or without me, and he just needed to be taken down a peg.

Herman Blume was fully committed to go to rocks.


Herman Blume: I did not expect those 5 to be able to get on the same page. I know that no one in my group is going to flip. I expect Gustave or Duke to flip. Maybe both. This is only bad for me if it goes to the random draw and one of my group gets eliminated. Even in that scenario, I think I have some cards left to play down the road.

But it seemed Richie was becoming too tarnished for people to side with him and Young Writer any longer.

I have thrown Richie under the bus, then I have thrown out the bus driver, and driven the bus over Richie again and again... and again.

I think it may have worked

However, the first piece to move was Royal Tenenbaum, who switched his vote from Young Writer to Madame D.  For a moment, it looked like Madame D.'s nine lives might finally have run out.  But then Oracle turned too, putting rocks back on the table.


Oracle: Okay soooooo I may be revoting writer.

Because you know, I haven’t done enough damage to my game this round.

His goal was to bring Suzy Bishop with him.  Was she ready to move against her #1 ally in Richie?

Head back to Tribal Council to read the exciting part two of this round!

Spoiler

Young Writer was voted out 5-3 (three votes Madame D.).

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