And with that, we have the first four members of the merge!
Sean and Miller return to merge fame. Sean, who came into this game with a huge target on his back and Miller, someone who looked doomed on OG Sekani have overcame the odds and have navigated their way back to to the road to the end game.
Jesse and Nick, two current fan-favourites, have the opportunity to see their stock rise further and live on in Endure infamy as they have also clinched their spot in the merge.
Miller passes the idol to Kate in the event of a Ties That Bind round (smart, kind of. Loyalty. Cool.)
Immediately... [to Scully]
[11:53:44 PM] Kate: hey
[11:53:49 PM] Kate: can you keep a fucking secret this time
Kate's going to burn everything good for her in the game to the ground for the two shadiest players of the season -- of which one is her ex, and the other is her friend.
As a fan, I hope Vic and Scully get their comeuppance. They deserve it. The heroes are dying and they're absorbing all control and power.
[12:04:48 AM] Scully: (kiss)
[12:05:40 AM] Scully: Tell meeeeeeee
[12:05:45 AM] k8: give me your word
[12:06:17 AM] Scully: Sigh.
[12:06:24 AM] Scully: Yes. You have my word.
[12:06:30 AM] k8: i have an idol
[12:07:02 AM] Scully: Miller outright gave it to you????
[12:07:07 AM] k8: yes
I think either of the Maryland kids are going to fight hard come merge. Remind you Holli has only been to 3 tribal councils, of which all votes were unanimous. She hasn't had to fight in this game yet. Give her the chance and I think she'll put in work and come off as a star in this cast.
That being said, I'd rather neither of them go before merge. Scully keeps talking about these "drag-them/underlooked" threats rolling under the radar but completely overlooks the Morgan's time and time again.
Kate also says that passing the idol further solidifies the trust between her/Scully and Miller/Nick. Little does she know Scully has already discussed with Vic taking out Miller early in the merge before he can gain steam whether Kate likes it or not. I really fear Kate's going to be roped in as a 3 and play their games for the rest of the game. It's too early to tell, but I hope I'm wrong because from my perspective I see the early foundations being placed down to make it so.
Is there ANY hope that Sam would want to push for Scott after how he's been acting the last few rounds? Or is that a moot point to even pray for?
It's definitely not a moot point, but I think we'd see greater odds of a Scott boot if Kate wasn't safe. I think it's going to come down to whatever kool aid Scully decides to stir -- because I think Sam will drink it. Chris wants Jesse out first come merge which lines up with Scully's motivations. But Scully and Vic have already talked about wrangling up the Morgan's so that the duos can rock the merge from the getgo 6 on 5. Nick and Miller have pretty much forfeited all control over to Kate and Scully and right now I think what Scully says goes. By no means am I saying the writing is on the walls ala Jake's win in Season 3, but Scully coming into merge, in my opinion, has the greatest odds of winning this game.
Scully confuses me. Why vote against Sam? Why not just get Sam to vote out Scott? Why not just vote one definitive way? Maybe he's voting Chris but just calming him down by lying.
...But what's the point of lying to him? It's non-live, non-confrontational. He could easily sign off for the next however many hours.
I don't know what the hell he's doing. Maybe that's his intention. To confuse us.
I kinda just wanna give my final thoughts on the Ties that Bind twist.
First, I get why people think it wasn't pre-planned, because there was no certain way of determining if couples would make it to this point. Rest assured, it was planned. Three TTB for three major shifts in the game: swap, swap, merge. There was a huge uncertainty that at this point of the game that couples wouldn't start reigning supreme over singles and it was a risk, but it paid off in another tribal council. People don't like the twist, I thought it was great. You either sacrifice your loved one, or sacrifice your safety -- and the longer your loved one isn't out, the greater odds you have of going. Maybe it's because I'm not in the game and I see things glass half full, I don't know. At the end of the day no matter the twist you have to play it to its full extent and use it to your advantage.
The people who are complaining have only had it used to their advantage, and it sucks for the three who are going to be casualties of it much like it sucked for Tyler in season 2. The seasons have a central theme and sacrifice is this season's. Either sacrifice your loved one, or sacrifice someone who's loved.
In Endure lore it isn't the greatest twist in the world, no. But it shook the game up. It set up the fall of the Boy's Club, and it set up the storyline of potential Scully/Vic domination in this game. I may have a bias, rose coloured glasses view but I think it was a gutsy twist that wasn't a rehash and I think that it kept the game interesting and shook it up when it needed to be shaken up.
Even though I love these people and hate to see them on edge, as a viewer I'm excited because I think the final 11, no matter who goes tonight, are on edge and ready to battle it out to win. I'm hoping for a string of live triabls because too many great ones have been avoided this season for whatever reason by the players.
Also Scully toying with Chris is kinda ehhh. I get it's Survivor, and I get this is what Scully intended to do -- he said so in his interview. This is what he intended to do and in the latter half of the game I think he's going to be a great player and a great villain. I like the guy on a personal level, but I think he's being too much right now.
Chris gets a lot of flack sometimes but he's a good guy and someone I really enjoy talking to. He joins many others in this prejury who have just wound up in the wrong place at the wrong time. It joins the long lists of dark days in the pre-merge stages of the game.
I'm going to keep giving the Morgan's shit, but people wanna keep them around so more power to them. I can't understand why, since I'm on the outside of the game, but they're doing it. They're still here, against all odds they're still in tact. No matter what reason people have as to why they're here, they're at the merge stage of this game and that deserves some props.
"So Chris told Brian he has a super secret "couples idol" so now Brian is lying to Chris about how he's voting, which is the dumbest thing ever because now he's burning Holli, who is sitting here just asking me for the truth about if Chris is leaving, which Brian is telling me I can't tell her just in case this idol exists. Spoiler alert: IT DOESN'T EXIST. Fucking stupid. We're gonna lose Holli. Why does Brian seem to have no grasp of how relationships work in a BvW game?"
Merge tribe Nkwala off to a lit start. 15 minute call discussing zygotes. Scully calls Miller a zygote. Miller doesn't know what that is and Scully berates him. Vic comes out and admits he thought zygote was a random nickname he made up.
to 