Episode Fourteen

[Wes Anderson]

Previously, on Survivor... in a shock move, Madame D. and Suzy Bishop ditched the Khaki Scouts late in Tribal Council, joining up with Oracle and M. Gustave to vote out challenge threat Margot Tenenbaum.  Richie Tenenbaum was left hanging all alone on the vote, albeit with an idol in his pocket to keep him company.

So I go between two main states of mind/moods.

Mood number one:

"OMG OMG OMG what have I done? Why did I do that? What on earth was I thinking? MARGOT DIDN'T DESERVE THIS! THEY'RE ALL GOING TO VOTE ME OUT NEXT OR MAYBE EVEN RIGHT NOW AND THEN I'M GOING TO HAVE TO FACE THE PRODUCERS WHO WILL ALL BE LIKE WTFF AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH"

--

Mood number two:

"F the haters! I did what I wanted to do and I feel EMPOWERED! Nothing can stop me. I will make all the friends! I am INVINCIBLE"

--

As you can see, this is quite a bit of emotional whiplash going on.
...
Ultimately, effectively "saving" Oracle by doing a move with Suzy was the best way I could think of building connection with Oracle and Suzy, leaving me with options outside of Richie and Margot at the end. If my attempts at building that connection with Oracle and Suzy didn't work, then they didn't work. But if I had just voted with Margot and Richie then to them I'm still part of the Margot/Richie club and there's no reason for them to see me in a different light.

Suzy Bishop: I actually feel very good about this and not something I thought could happen. Not sure why Madame suddenly felt okay doing that but I'm glad I made her feel safe enough to do this.
Some part of that was irl circumstances. I was at the airport when all of this came together quickly with Madame. I didn't really have the bandwidth to also explain to Richie what I was doing. He was just going to tell me it was a bad idea and blah blah and I really didn't want to hear it lol. I also feel like I needed to make some moves of my own and not just follow his plan to getting at the end. I feel like I have an incredibly strong resume now and just need to make it to the end, whatever way possible.


Madame D.: I think most of all I just had to get out of that situation where I felt like I needed to play my game in the best interests of Margot and Richie. Richie has this way of asserting what he thinks is the best plan in a way where he (probably accidentally) discourages disagreement. Even his response to my vote on Margot is starting off with the assumption that my feelings of needing to separate my game from his and Margot's are not valid and must have been an idea that someone else put into my head.


Richie Tenenbaum PM to Suzy Bishop:

I don't doubt that you want to be at the end with me, but it seems like you're equally attached to Oracle and those two things have been incompatible for a long time now.  I just feel like if you're forced to make a choice you've sided with him all along and this round you gave him all the leverage to force me out whether you want it or not.

I don't know if other people were filling your head with the idea that you needed to do something outside of our relationship or if that was your own thought process.  I guess I can see why you would feel like a passive partner, but you had already done a ton that was not in lock step with me and had plenty over me to talk about at FTC.  You flipped on the Writer vote and left me on the wrong side of it, you forced the tie at the final eight.  If you were just my passive partner neither of those things would have happened.  That was you playing your game to the detriment of mine, as well you should, but it just makes the idea that you needed to blindside me on this vote to have a resume feel hollow.

Suzy Bishop: I don’t know what it is about this game in particular but I feel so moody. Like since merge I’ve been moody. Maybe it’s because I trust others so little. Richie is mad at me for not trusting him more and yeah, that’s on me. He just has not felt that trustworthy and I could see in a different scenario, him apologizing but just cutting me loose. Maybe that’s unfair to him but he’s been thoroughly sneaky throughout the game.


Richie Tenenbaum: Anyway I'll take any final three I can get now I don't owe loyalty to anyone that wasn't loyal enough to me to inform me which way that vote was going


Suzy Bishop PM to Richie Tenenbaum

I know, I'm very sorry about how this all panned out. In retrospect, I would have done this differently.

I think most of the game this round was very quiet. I had no plans of doing anything different and Gustave/Oracle were feeling really defeated. Gustave pm-ed me saying he was willing to go to rocks since it seemed like him and he would understand if I wasn't willing to do that. Oracle was really upset that you had said there's no way they were going to rocks and wanted to go to rocks to spite you. An hour before TC, I lamented to Madame about feeling afraid of booting Oracle and that I wish Margot could go here. I didn't really think anything would happen on that front. Madame unexpectedly said that she was willing to vote Margot here.

I didn't have time to type a long explanation but I should have told you what was happening. I thought you would be upset at me though, which is reasonable.

Sometimes I've felt that I have been passively following your plan to get to the end and I really felt that I needed to do something outside of our relationship to have something to talk about for FTC if I'm so lucky to get there. I'm sorry again Richie for how that went down.

Richie Tenenbaum: Your appeals to fear and emotion do nothing but strengthen my resolve to idol you out

While Richie plotted revenge, Oracle was plotting a potential betrayal of the player whose surprise willingness to flip had saved him the previous vote.


Oracle: I think no matter how this breaks out, barring an idol play, that I have now multiple paths to the end.

This round: If Richie wins immunity, I pretty much have to turn on Madame or Suzy. Probably Madame. Suzy doesn't make any sense for me here. And that's going to literally feel so gross because if I do cut Madame that's yet another person I didn't manage properly.

At the challenge, a modified version of Set or Gyul Hap, immunity ended up coming down to Richie and Madame going into the final round.  Click here to read the challenge results, complete with a double twist ending.


M. Gustave: richie winning again is inconvenient. now, if suzy and madame have some deal in place, they could enlist richie and vote me out; i think that's a strong possibility because madame doesn't flip on margot just to hope that we're merciful. yet again, suzy is pivotal, and likely untouchable unless richie decides to work with me and oracle on this vote. and like i said before, there's basically zero trust there, so... magic 8 ball says "don't count on it."

Unvote: Madame

Vote: Gustave

This is the one thing I said I would never do this game. I absolutely hate myself right now and I feel like a piece of shit. I think I'm going to need therapy when this game is over.

This is the only conclusion Suzy and I could come to and I'm pretty sure it's the wrong one. However I don't trust myself or Suzy to beat Richie in a challenge, and I kind of want him to win next round so we have an easy Madame f4 vote.

Madame D.: Well uhh... Suzy and Oracle are both telling me they'll vote Gustave. I don't really believe them, but I also don't know how much they have to lose by just telling me if they're voting me out... At this point, if Suzy voted for me I would think "yeah fair enough", but if it were Oracle then I would feel that he is continuing the pattern that Royal had pointed out in his announcement post, and I'm not sure that I would respect him continuing to pretend with me?


Oracle: I think I explained my vote in the voting thread. Currently Suzy and I have come to a standstill and realize we can't beat Richie in a challenge (I mean I might depending on what it is) but still, she thinks a better option to go for is Gustave here.
I think it's a terrible option but I don't know what else to do.

I believe this is tracking towards everyone else voting for Gustave, so my plan is:
Confirm with Gustave that he's about to get cut by everyone he was with but that I have the power to save him
Extract a promise from him not to vote against me next round, guaranteeing at worst a tie vote at 4 so I get a chance at fire making if I lose final immunity (balanced by my own promise to vote for him as a juror should I lose said fire making)
Get his agreement to vote Suzy with me here and stay hush hush about it
Play the idol on him

M. Gustave: oh ok wow, so this is happening. richie has an idol and is going to use it on me, to get revenge for two people he trusted most (madame and suzy) leaving him out of the margot vote. in exchange, i have agreed to vote with him and get him to the firemaking challenge, with the added bonus of getting his jury vote should he be eliminated.
this is great news, because madame i think is not going to flip to vote suzy and oracle feels stranded like he can't make a good choice. ah, the tangled webs we weave...


Suzy Bishop: I think I’ve always wanted to go to the end with Richie! It’s nice to see plans from the beginning coming true!
I think I want FTC to be me/Richie/Oracle or me/Richie/Madame. I feel like Madame is my favorite person but she’s the only person I don’t 100% win against.

Was Suzy in for a rude awakening?  Read Tribal Council to find out.

Spoiler

Suzy Bishop voted out 2-0, with 3 votes on M. Gustave cancelled out by Richie's idol.

[close]