Survivor Micronesia Final Thoughts

Comments

Cirie easily deserved to win, don't really think my mind can be changed about that.

I agree if it was a final 3 like they thought it was the rumor is she wins

Sent by woeisme,Jan 31, 2020

Here’s a ridiculously long write-up of Parvati’s winning game . . .

First One Out

While the generally accepted narrative is that Parvati would’ve been voted out first if not for Johnny Fairplay quitting, there’s a lot of evidence that it would’ve been someone from Penner’s alliance – most likely Eliza. Cirie said that she was already aligned with Parvati’s alliance and no one from Penner’s alliance even approached her about the vote1; this is backed up by Yau-Man’s exit press, where he said “I guess what we forgot was to include Cirie in this whole scheme”2. And Cirie has been very consistent in her interviews post season that she never liked Jonathan, and in the game was never comfortable with Yau’s previous idol finding. Eliza also confirmed in a Periscope that Cirie was close with Parvati and Amanda from Day 23.

So, Parvati’s alliance had a firm 5 votes, none of which had any incentive to flip over to Penner’s alliance. Whereas the other 5 – Penner, Yau, Eliza, Ami, and Fairplay – are not nearly as tight. In the case of a tie, it’s very hard to see anyone from the “couples” alliance flipping, but Penner and Fairplay are almost guaranteed to save themselves in that situation, especially considering Fairplay was/is a huge Ozzy fan1,4.

And the only reason Parvati was considered as the first boot is because she was viewed as a huge threat. On RHAP (and every single other interview he’s ever done), Penner said he was extremely impressed by Parvati’s game in Micronesia, and only targeted her because she was such a strong social player in Cook Islands5. This is backed up by Yul’s interview with RHAP, where he said she went out before Adam because she was so good at manipulating Ozzy6. And Fairplay said that she was targeted because he thought she was dangerous1.

Locking in Cirie

I’ll be highlighting this element of Parvati’s game a lot through this write-up because it’s often overlooked, but Parvati’s subtle social manipulation is absolutely outstanding. I think there’s two different kinds of “social game” on Survivor; one kind is an inherent likability a person has - like a J.T. or Ethan who kind of fall backwards into running the game because they’re so well-liked, and the second kind is a person actively turning their social capital into gameplay – like a Tyson or Wendall. And I think Parvati might be the best social player at combining both types into her game (the only people arguably better at it, IMO, would be Cirie or Kim).

Her ability to form genuine bonds with people while also manipulating them in her favor is on display when she pulls Cirie into the “couples” alliance. When Cirie questions the bonds her and Amanda have with James/Ozzy, this is how the conversation goes:

Cirie: What about Ozzy?

Parvati: We’d lose against Ozzy in a second

Amanda: I like flirting with Ozzy, if it bothers you, I’ll stop

Parvati: No, cause that’s how you keep him close, and he doesn’t ask questions. James asks me no questions, ever.

She does a great job pandering to everything Cirie wants to hear, in no small part because it’s the right strategy and her actual plan. The more impressive thing Parvati does is her handling of Amanda; she has built enough of a bond that she can sell out James and Ozzy without spooking Amanda. She also verbalizes her “flirt” strategy (which is a relatively small part of her game that the show intentionally exploits . . .), which keeps Ozzy and James blindly loyal to her alliance. Overall, this one conversation is exceptionally good at highlighting just how good Parvati is at understanding the social dynamics of her tribe (which is the most important part of Survivor).

Following up on that conversation, Parvati does a great job pandering to Cirie to make sure she doesn’t flip to Penner’s alliance. While Ozzy, James, and Amanda all balk at the idea of voting Yau because Cirie wants to, Parvati works overtime to convince all of them it’s the right thing to do; which again highlights how good she is at controlling her alliance, as she is able to talk to both sides without upsetting anyone.

The Tribe Swap

One of the biggest arguments against Parvati’s winning game is that she avoids going to Tribal for the entirety of the Tribe swap, where she could have potentially gone home. I think this is a bit unfair for two reasons – there is a HUGE number of winners or players considered great that got very lucky they avoided Tribal early, even if they weren’t explicitly in danger (like Jeremy, Sarah, Rob, etc), and this argument is pretty much always used to prop up Cirie’s game, even though she would have gone home during the swap if not for some incredible luck in Chet quitting.

I also don’t think Parvati would have gone home if nuAirai went to Tribal. Even though the edit places Parvati’s alliance with Natalie/Alexis as right before the merge, Alexis has confirmed that they aligned immediately and Natalie was never going to turn on Parvati, and Alexis was never going to turn on Natalie7. So, Parvati had 4 of 8 votes on her side (her, James, Natalie, Alexis). According to Jason’s Survivor Oz interview, he wasn’t super close with Eliza until they were on the outs together, and he spoke highly of both Parvati and James as well as having a previous alliance with Natalie and Alexis8, so I think Parvati’s side was much more likely to pull someone over than Penner.

And, along similar lines as Chet quitting, I am 100% sure that if nuAirai lost, Kathy would have asked to be voted out.

Playing Both Sides

Like I said earlier, Parvati’s “flirt game” is actually a very small part of her strategy, but people focus on that instead of what actually makes her such a dangerous social player – her ability to appeal to everyone. (Part of why I’m always so impressed watching her HvV game is that she had to play that whole game without her strongest skill because no one was ever going to be snowed over by her even if she was a literal angel, considering the target and reputation she had).

In Micronesia especially, Parvati was incredibly effective at parlaying her social capital into strategic alliances. First with the couples - which was so effective because James and Amanda came into the game as a pair, and Parvati and Ozzy were a pair (from Cook Islands), and by latching onto James in a flirtatious way once Amanda began flirting with Ozzy, there was no incentive for any of the three to turn on her until they made it to Final 4 (and I’ll get to it later, but the way she uses those bonds to blindside Ozzy is very impressive). And pulling Cirie into that alliance, Parvati was able to make a sub-alliance within her majority with two people absolutely willing to take her to Final 3.

And once the tribes swapped, she pulled in Alexis and Natalie to have a mixed alliance of Fans and Favorites, making herself the swing vote for the entire merge. In the reunion show, Parvati says that was her strategy (she didn’t just luck into leading all her alliances) because she could always play the sides against each other or use them to target someone else, and she really was the only player in that position for the entire merge. Alexis and Natalie were tighter with each other than with her, but by themselves can’t accomplish anything and never looked outside of Parvati as far as alliances; this is what Alexis says before the merge:

If Parvati feels more of an alliance to her original group, then Natalie and I will be out, and that’s the game. But I think right now we’re certainly banking on the fact that it’s not really Fans vs Favorites anymore

And while Cirie was in the 5-person alliance with Ozzy and James, the guys always viewed her as a 5th wheel and never would have used her to take out Parvati or Amanda. Parvati also maneuvered into being Cirie’s number one ally, even though she was apart from her for the entire swap, and used that bond to blindside Ozzy (and yes, Parvati used Cirie as a number to take out Ozzy, not even a debate, but I’ll get into that later). At the same time, she was also tighter with Amanda than Cirie was, and had a solid enough friendship with her that she was able to blindside her and make other alliances without losing her trust.

And outside of the people Parvati actually intended on playing with, almost everyone felt incredibly bonded to her (Eliza is the only one to actually dislike her, and Erik seems to have had no relationship with her. Even though Penner was always targeting her, he’s never said anything negative about her personally and he gave her his hat, and was rooting for her in HvV5). Kathy Sleckman is probably the most notable person to really love Parvati, considering the pretty awful language she used to describe her game in the Cooks:

When I watched her on Cook, I couldn't stand her. I thought her strategy was being a w****, and I thought that she gives women a bad name. But, after being on her tribe, I realized she has a heart of gold, and all that flirting is just the way she is all the time. She giggled, and smiled constantly even though we were all miserable. She really lightened, and brightened the camp. So I went from a Parv hater to a Parv respecter. She is a tough cookie.9

Ami also loved Parvati on the island:

I always felt like she cared about me and wanted me to be successful 10

Ami also said Parvati made everyone “feel loved and cared for”, and that she is a better player than Chris Daugherty.10

And even though Parvati hated Jason, he never realized that and both in the game and in post-show interviews has spoken very highly of her game.

No matter how the numbers played out during and after the merge, there is almost zero chance that Parvati could have ever been in danger (I mean it really says something that the closest she comes to getting voted out is Erik’s galaxy brain take at Final 5). Especially since she makes sure that Eliza is the merge boot, because Eliza was the only player unwilling to work with her (even though Parvati didn’t have a relationship with Erik, he was a lock to vote with Ozzy at the merge).

As a side note, I kind of think the evidence speaks for itself as far as Eliza hating her being Eliza’s fault. Obviously, Parvati should have found some way to get along with her, but considering everyone else got along really well with Parvati, and Eliza became really close friends with Parvati outside the game, it seems like Eliza was determined to dislike Parvati on the island. (Which is the exact same thing that happened in Vanuatu).

The Ozzy Blindside

Damn you, Survivor Historians! Their coverage of Parvati is incredibly biased all the time (at least from Mario), but they were especially wrong when it comes to the Ozzy blindside. (It’s particularly embarrassing that their whole argument is that Jeff makes stuff up during the Previously On, but Jeff literally says “Parvati and Cirie” blindsided Ozzy). There’s a huge amount of evidence that it was entirely Parvati’s idea to blindside Ozzy, and Cirie was just in on the vote as Parvati’s ally.

The timeline the show presents is this: Cirie is mad she is sent to Exile > Cirie realizes that Ozzy can win out once Jason goes, and also has an idol > Cirie decides she wants him gone and tells Parvati > Parvati doesn’t really want to blindside him, but ultimately goes with Cirie’s plan.

First, I’m going to discredit the show’s timeline, then I’ll provide quotes that prove it was Parvati’s idea to blindside Ozzy.

We all know that the editors often manipulate the footage to better form a coherent story, and just in this season alone they’ve done it twice (I’m sure they did it more than that, but there’s concrete proof in these two examples): 1) Cirie was already with Parvati/Amanda on Day 2, and was never going to side with Penner’s alliance. 2) Not until Penner is medivaced and Kathy quits do the editors show Parvati’s alliance with Natalie/Alexis, but it’s obvious she aligned with them way earlier, because in the shots where she’s talking to them, her busted lip (from the swap day challenge) magically re-appears.

So, with the understanding that the editors are always going to present the best story, here’s why (IMO) the show presents the Ozzy blindside through Cirie’s eyes: there is exactly 0 suspense if it is Parvati’s idea. The way the votes break (5/4), they are able to present Parvati as the swing, and play off her tight friendship with Ozzy to make it a “will she/won’t she” vote, which is very exciting to watch. But if the blindside is her idea, there is no doubt she’s going to go through with it, and the only question is “will Ozzy play his idol”, but they can’t make a story out of that because he very clearly wasn’t going to (in his confessional he doesn’t even plan on bringing it to Tribal).

Back to the show’s timeline though; this11 unaired confessional takes place after the Reward Challenge but before the Immunity Challenge – BEFORE Cirie has come back from Exile – and Parvati very clearly says she wants to take advantage of Jason being completely on the outs to blindside Ozzy. This order of events is supported by Parvati’s winning the immunity challenge and making sure Jason doesn’t (it’s Parvati’s idea to have everyone promise), since him being the target was a part of her plan to vote out Ozzy. Clearly, the show’s timeline is wrong.

Further, we only see one conversation between Parvati, Cirie, Alexis, and Natalie where they discuss blindsiding Ozzy; and if you’re only half paying attention, it could seem like it shows Cirie pitching everyone on the idea of voting off Ozzy. But if you listen closely, it’s pretty clear that this is not the first time they’ve discussed this – both Cirie and Parvati are giving the pitch, telling Alexis and Natalie who not to tell.

Moving on from the edit, the opinion of the players on the island is unanimous that Parvati was the person who voted Ozzy out:

Amanda in confessional: Parvati is pretty much running the show at this point. She has Natalie and Alexis wrapped around her finger. And Cirie didn’t even tell me that she was voting for Ozzy, so she’s got little Cirie wrapped around her finger

James at Tribal: Parvati, she want to make herself in a better position, so she did what she had to do when she got rid of Ozzy

Jason (Survivor Oz): I won’t take credit for getting Ozzy voted out, because that was totally Parvati’s doing 8

Jason’s voting confessional (after Ozzy goes home and when he believes James is the boot): James, you played a good game, unfortunately Parvati got you in the end

Cirie: I’m just hoping that his anger is geared more at Parvati than it is toward me. *I was just a cog in the wheel!*12

Cirie (again): I didn’t start the blindside for Ozzy, I participated 13

Eliza (jury speech): I think taking out Ozzy was a brilliant strategic move. I respect that move that you made

Less reliably, Ozzy’s jury speech makes it clear that he also viewed his blindside as Parvati’s move.

As far as the players not quoted (Alexis, Natalie, Erik), I couldn’t find anything from them about Ozzy’s boot in particular, but they have not given the credit to Cirie or anyone else.

Honestly, I really don’t understand why so many people are so eager to take the Ozzy blindside away from Parvati, considering how many times she articulated it as her strategy – both before and after the vote. Either in confessional or conversation with other players, she says she wants to blindside Ozzy and James more than 7 times, and that’s just the ones that made the air.

Now that I’ve established that blindsiding Ozzy was definitely Parvati’s move, I want to articulate why it was such a brilliant one. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Parvati is the first person to ever pull off the “meat shield” strategy of taking the alpha male/obvious threats to the merge specifically to hide her own threat level. Most of the time I see people credit Jeremy with this strategy, and that was 15 seasons later. This was brilliant on her part, and way ahead of its time as far as Survivor gameplay back in 2008.

And beyond the concept, Parvati executes this move perfectly. She had been planning this since Day 1, and builds her alliance around the idea; picking two huge threats who will never try and vote her out (which she articulates to Cirie in episode 3). And by aligning with Cirie as her fifth alliance member, Parvati guarantees herself a partner-in-crime for when she finally blindsides Ozzy. After the swap, she pulls in Alexis and Natalie specifically to give her two more votes to get ride of Ozzy and James after the merge. Then, instead of getting trigger happy and blindsiding Ozzy as soon as they merge, Parvati goes one vote to make sure he trusts in their alliance, and firm up her own numbers.

And again, I just want to call attention to how well Parvati had maneuvered herself alliance wise; a lot of times in Survivor, when a player blindsides one of their closest allies and strongest competitors, they go home next because they don’t have anyone else as close (think Wentworth and Wardog). But when Ozzy goes, Parvati still has Cirie, Alexis, and Natalie as ride or dies, and is able to pull Amanda back in (and by extension James); and because of her idea to earn Jason’s trust (when she pitches that idea to him at the immunity challenge, she already knew Ozzy was going home, based on her confessional), he now believes he’s part of her alliance. There is almost no way this ever could have backfired.

Going back to my point that Parvati is really good at subtly controlling the social politics of her tribe, the conversations she has with Alexis, Natalie, and Cirie in the days leading up to Ozzy’s blindside are a great example of this. A lot of strategic blindsides go south for the mastermind because they require someone having to be blatantly selfish in their gameplay; so instead of relying on pure logic to vote Ozzy out, she starts to turn people against him on a personal level:

Parvati (to Alexis): He is such a little brat. He’s like – everyone else is downplaying how good the food was, and he’s like “it was sooooo delicious”

And the manner she goes about it is perfect, too – her and Alexis are laughing and joking about it, which makes it seem much more natural than if she was trying to make everyone really angry. These are the small moments where Parvati just really excels at the social aspect of Survivor.

Often overlooked in his blindside is how crucial the relationship between Parvati and Ozzy was. Whereas Ozzy never felt particularly connected to Cirie and viewed her as #5 in a five-person alliance, he really trusted Parvati. In the reunion show, he says he probably would have played his idol if it had been anyone but Parvati he was trusting. It’s very impressive on her part that she was able to separate her actual friendship with him (if you’ve ever listened to any of her interviews, it’s very clear she really likes him), and then play him so well even though she was always planning on double-crossing him. Even if it had been Cirie’s idea to blindside him – which it wasn’t – she never could have done it without Parvati, who fully controlled Alexis and Natalie’s votes and had Ozzy’s trust.

And after Ozzy is voted out, she does an exceptionally good job dealing with the aftermath. As she said in episode 3, she picked James as an ally because he asks no questions and will never strategize; so even though she’s broken their alliance irreparably in voting out Ozzy, James will never do anything about it. If there’s one person in Survivor you want working against you, it’s him.

But the way she is able to reel Amanda back in after blindsiding her basically-boyfriend is really impressive. First, she makes sure that Amanda’s other closest ally, Cirie, also voted Ozzy out, leaving Amanda with no appealing alternative. Then she falls back on their prior close bond, guaranteeing Amanda that the Final 3 is still the two of them and Cirie; and because Parvati did such a good job bonding with her for the first half of the game, Amanda goes along with it. The ideal move for Amanda at this vote would have been to tell Jason they were actually going to vote for him, throw three votes on Parvati or Cirie – herself, James, Jason – and take advantage of the majority splitting votes by having Jason play his idol. But instead, she goes right back to Parvati and lets Parvati call the shots for the rest of the game. And when James tells her they should both vote Parvati, Amanda refuses, because Parvati did a great job making a deep enough bond to withstand a blindside.

The Black Widow Brigade

The alliance of women Parvati forms is a great example of how strong a social player she is. I’ve already laid out why the interpersonal dynamics gave her complete strategic control over the season, but I want to call attention to the concept of the Black Widow Brigade. Parvati is the one who brought all of the women together, and is also the first one to name their alliance. Both of those moves are impressive for two different reasons; Parvati accurately understood the social dynamics of men and women in Survivor, and then used the gender divide to establish loyalty amongst her allies.

To elaborate on my first point, it was an extremely heads up move on Parvati’s part to intentionally create an alliance of exclusively women because they are constantly less respected than their male counterparts (which she makes clear in her conversation with James after the Ozzy blindside). Statistically, juries overwhelming prefer men to women; roughly 161 votes for men in gender split FTCs compared to 76 for women - that’s a disparity of 68% to 32% (and only men have won unanimously). I think Parvati’s own experience with this in Cook Islands, watching Becky be passed over in favor of Yul and Ozzy, really drove that point home for her. So, by aligning solely with women, Parvati already gave herself a much better chance at winning.

To elaborate on my second point, Parvati used the inherent social instinct of “men vs women” to her advantage to prevent her alliance from teaming up with the people on the bottom. Going back to how strong a subtle social player she is, doing things like naming their alliance “The Black Widow Brigade” and creating inside jokes such as “Stir the pot!” fostered a sense of camaraderie between her group while also creating outsiders – and by hammering home “men vs women”, she gave all the girls a sense of moral superiority in their alliance that dissuades them from working with anyone else.

Alexis’ Blindside

I think the way the Final 6 vote goes down really highlights how dominant Parvati’s social game was throughout the entire merge.

Once Erik wins immunity, it means the Black Widows will have to turn on each other; but no one ever considers voting out Parvati. (Amanda was partially the target because she was viewed as a jury threat, but it speaks to both Parvati and Cirie’s games that no one ever considers them jury threats even though they are). Amanda pretty quickly becomes the target because, of the five, she is viewed as the biggest jury threat, but Parvati is able to tell Alexis, Natalie, and Cirie that she will never write Amanda’s name down, and no one is mad at that; because all three are so tight with her, they either don’t realize or are unbothered by the fact that Parvati is guaranteeing herself Amanda’s jury vote.

Often overlooked in the Black Widow Brigade is how much Amanda and Natalie/Alexis did not get along. Amanda always disliked Alexis because of her relationship with Ozzy, and at some point after his blindside her and Natalie had a small falling out, which led to both mutually disliking each other14,15. In Natalie’s Survivor Oz interview, she specifically notes how impressed she was that Parvati was able to manage the alliance in a way that everyone was loyal to her but not the other side15. I highlight this because it really comes through in Alexis’ attitude after being blindsided by Amanda’s idol, which Parvati knew about and participated in; even though Alexis was really mad at Amanda, it’s clear both from her jury vote and exit interviews that she never held it against Parvati7 – which seems irrational except for the fact that both her and Natalie just completely adored Parvati and did pretty much anything she wanted for the entire game.

(Side note for those few people who think Amanda was the leading strategic force of Parvmanda – Amanda wanted to blindside Natalie with the idol because Alexis’ injury prevented her from being a challenge threat, but even though Amanda holds all the power because she has the idol, she followed Parvati’s plan of blindsiding Alexis.)

Exile Island

In every interview Parvati has done since Micronesia, she’s told the story of finding the idol on Exile Island and deciding to leave it there16,17,18; but for some reason, the show cut it out completely. This is a big deal for two reasons. . .

The first is that it cuts out a really strategically savvy play by Parvati. We see the conversation between Parvati and Amanda before the Final 5 reward challenge, and it is Parvati’s idea to get sent to Exile; not because she needs the idol, but because she wants to make sure Natalie doesn’t get it. The reason she leaves the idol instead of taking it is extremely well thought out; she knows the idol cannot be played passed Final 5, so she is risking nothing by leaving it there (because no one else could get it). She also knows that she absolutely won’t need the idol, because if Erik loses, he would be the consensus boot, and if Erik wins, the majority of Parvati/Amanda/Cirie will vote out Natalie. But she also knows that she is way closer to Natalie than anyone else left in the game, and that if she came back with the idol, Natalie would want Parvati to do her the favor of giving her the idol16. So, by leaving the idol on Exile, Parvati gets to vote Natalie out with no hard feelings, thereby securing her jury vote.

The second reason this is a big deal is because it shows how willing the editors are to paint Parvati in a negative light as long as it works to build her femme fatale persona. Instead of showing Parvati finding the idol and then presenting a very logical argument for why she won’t take it, they give us extended footage of her body as she sunbathes on the beach. This is a pattern in the way they present her (most on display here and in ep3 of HvV), and makes her look less strategic than she actually is. And if you watch all of her bonus content vs what makes the air, it’s clear they cut a lot of her logic and reasoning out of the show in favor of sound bites that make her seem like more of a “flirt”. A side effect of this is that she doesn’t get nearly as much content coherently verbalizing her game – even though she does so in unaired confessionals – and people are less willing to give her credit.

Final Three

Just to quickly break down how the votes would have gone if there had been a Final 3 with Cirie:

Amanda gets Ozzy and James19

Parvati gets Jason8 and Natalie15

Cirie gets Eliza20, Erik21, and Alexis7

So, Parvati would have lost a close vote; BUT it is worth calling attention to Alexis’ Survivor Oz interview, where she says that she both liked Parvati more and thought Parvati played a better game, but that Cirie had kids who needed to go to college7. By any typical jury metric – who played a better game or who does the juror personally like more – Parvati earned Alexis’ vote, but outside-the-game factors made Alexis want to give Cirie what amounts to a sympathy vote.

I also think there is a chance Alexis would have actually voted for Parvati (a small one, but still . . .). According to Erik, she was extremely pro Parvati to the point of annoying Erik so much he didn’t want to vote for Parvati22. Also, in her Survivor Oz interview she says she would have voted for Cirie over anyone7, but that is contradicted by her final words where she says she is rooting for Natalie to win. I also think it’s important to remember that all of Alexis’ pro-Cirie statements came after Cirie was voted out in an extremely emotional Tribal Council where she came to Ponderosa broken hearted. If anything was going to swing your sympathy to someone, it would be that. And by all accounts, especially Alexis’7, Parvati gave an absolutely amazing FTC performance; in the moment, after the person you like more has just crushed all her questions, I can see Alexis going against her sympathy in favor of Parvati (I mean she literally wrote "I *heart* Parv" on her jury vote).

I want to give credit to Parvati for losing the Final Immunity Challenge, because she has a great chance of winning either way it goes. We see her beat Amanda, and if Cirie won, Parvati at least gets Jason8, Amanda, Natalie15, and James19, with outside shots at Alexis and Ozzy (since Cirie also voted him out, and Erik said Ozzy wasn’t nearly as mad as he seemed and thinks his FTC speech was an attempt at acting 23). So worst case scenario she would have tied with Cirie.

Also, in another good example of Parvati’s subtle social manipulation, she does a great job of completely trash-talking Cirie to Amanda in order to make their bond tighter, which pays off hugely for the Final 2.

Final Tribal Council

Largely overlooked by most fans is the fact that Parvati had an absolutely amazing Final Tribal Council performance:

Eliza: Parvati was amazing. I don’t know if you’ve had an opportunity to speak with her or meet her, but she is one of the most charming, charismatic people you could possibly meet. She just has like this magnetic energy that makes you wanna be her friend, and around her, and like her . . . She nailed every question, she said “You know, this is what I did and this is why I did it. And Ozzy, no I’m not sorry I voted you out because I had to do that to be sitting here, and otherwise it would have been you . . . She was just, she was fantastic. And she earned my vote truly, I voted for her. 20

Alexis: Parvati murdered; I mean it wasn’t even a fair game she was so good at the final. All of her answers were so good for everyone. It wasn’t even a competition, honestly. . . She owned it. She was like “Look, I get it. But you vs me, I chose me. Why? Because I came here to win. Period. End of story. Do I feel bad that I hurt your feelings? Sure. But if I could do it again, would I? Yes.” It’s like, you don’t have to like it, but you have to respect it.7

(It’s worth noting that Eliza is a lawyer and Alexis is a motivational speaker, so both of them are literally paid to present their case well. If anyone would know a good FTC performance, it’s them.)

And despite the way the show edits James to seem mad at Parvati, he said it was a really hard decision for him choosing between her and Amanda19, and Parvati’s pitch of “I played the best game, not the nicest” is exactly what he wanted from her based on his jury question. Jason as well has said he was voting for whoever played the most cutthroat game, and Parvati’s FTC performance made it clear that was her8. Cirie is the type of juror who will always vote for the strategist over the nice guy (as evidenced by her vote for Sarah and the fact that she is *gags* a Russell in HvV defender24), so Parvati’s speech appealed to her as well (and while Cirie is very pro Parvati in interviews, she has no respect for Amanda's strategic game24), and again, good on Parvati for losing the FIC because Cirie was mad at Amanda for years. Natalie was also impressed with Parvati’s FTC15, but that doesn’t really matter since she was always voting for her anyway.

Focusing on Eliza in particular, though, really highlights how good Parvati’s performance was. Eliza has said that she bonded with Ozzy at Ponderosa and he really pressured her to vote for Amanda, so even though she hated them both equally, she was leaning towards Amanda going into FTC20. But Eliza is (or at least tries to be) a strategic player who respects “the game”, and since she had no personal allegiance to either of them, Parvati’s approach is the exact right one to sway her vote.

Of course, Amanda absolutely sucking at FTC probably helped Parvati look even better; but if you look at the consensus best FTC performances, it is made up of Todd, J.T., and Chris. Todd also went up against Amanda, J.T. went up against Stephen who was atrocious at FTC (actively losing himself 2 votes), and Chris went up against Twila, who might be the only person worse at FTC than Amanda.

Sent by Birks4444,Jan 31, 2020

I love Micronesia, it's my second favorite season ever (HvV is first)

Sent by Tester,Feb 1, 2020