It was the final 6, with an alliance of 4 against 2 struggling opponents. Straightforward. Eliminate the two opponents and progress.
Such an approach would have achieved respectability for whoever got to the end, but if one of the potential competitors for the million was a deserving winner, even those in the same alliance might have second thoughts. All this while, the prospect of having to compete with Jane for jury votes must have been reverberating in three players' minds like a refrain.
Can we read anything into Chase's decision to take Sash and Holly with him on the reward, rather than Jane and Fabio? Given that Chase and Jane were rather close, it would seem undiplomatic of him. Not taking Fabio was not a big problem, since Fabio was supposed to be voted out anyway.
And then to spice things up a little, Fabio rather inconveniently won the immunity challenge. Dan should have been eliminated according to alliance rules, but it hardly seemed a priority considering he was unlikely to win immunity or impress the jury. Now was the time to vote Jane out of the game. Sash, Chase, and Holly discussed this, but had no time to choose the option of blindsiding her, as she suddenly turned up at their intellectual discussion. Caught out, they had to tell her the blunt and honest truth - she was too good a player, and had to go.
Jane's final action of note will surely go down in Survivor folklore. She put out the fire, the one that she had started. In Tengaged parlance, we could imagine her kpelling and proceeding to eat all the food. It was a symbolic demonstration of her strong disapproval at being betrayed, but extinguishing the fire might have extinguished her faint hopes too. At tribal council, she could have got Dan and Fabio to support her against Holly, but they chose not to (and she voted for Sash!). Jeff did to her what she had done to the tribe - put out the fire. This time it was hers, and unfortunately it represented her life.
Had Jane forgotten that she had previously turned Sash and Chase against Brenda? Yes, that was the right thing to do in her circumstances, and she had no qualms about inducing them to betray her. Now she was vitriolic about them eliminating her. Unfortunately, she had to accept the rather unfortunate truth. The paradox of Survivor is that people generally want to lose to a good player, not someone who got to the final by default, but they would not want a good player to get to the final. Jane was this season's good player. For her age she was physically in great shape, and came far better prepared than anyone else. At one point, she only had the elimination of Marty on her mind, and although she achieved this before too long, he had done enough damage by warning people that she would be a very likely winner if she got to the final. Getting Brenda voted out immediately after Marty was quite a feat, but owed more to the poor unity among Brenda's allies. If it's any consolation, she has a high chance of winning America's popularity vote, and is the most likely to be invited back for a second appearance on the show.
At this point, what will happen next? Everyone's a threat, really. Officially 3 allies against 2 others, this might not really be the case. Who would win? Sash seems the most popular, followed by Chase. Fabio might get a vote or two, Holly could get a fair number of votes (but not Dan's unless he forgets she destroyed his expensive shoes), and Dan would get zilch. In the absence of an outstanding player, Sash, Chase, and Holly could choose to vote out Fabio for fear that he could win the final immunity challenge, and then think about letting Dan stay on as a feeble opponent. I don't think Sash and Chase were aware of the context of Dan's and Holly's rather poor relationship, but Dan would surely want to vote for Holly, and the prospect of competing for jury votes against that pathetic old hag Dan must be tempting...
will read later
luvs Philomena!!!!