The Endurance Challenge lasts over 8 hours, here are the clips. Danny gives an amazing sample of showtunes throughout, and gives a nice little confessional at the end after winning:
Bryce seems confident that they've flipped Matthew which could be fun, but once again Bryce is pushing Lexi because she's the "safe vote". We're twelve rounds into this game and I've yet to see Bryce push for anything other than taking out a goat because it's easy. If I ever play a game with Bryce in the future I'm just going to bluff an idol because Bryce is so risk-averse that I don't think he'll ever take a shot at anybody who does that. He even knows that Sarena is who Jessaca is voting -- not him, and still doesn't want to take the shot.
Plus, imagine he actually blindsides Lexi here. Now Jessaca knows she's at the bottom, and there are only her and Danny to protect with that idol in the upcoming round -- 50-50 shot at playing her idol correctly. And if one of them wins immunity that changes to a 100% shot. What the fuck do you do with that? Matthew just flips right back and you're kind of screwed. If you're going to blindside that group, you've gotta make sure you vote for the person with the idol while it still can actually be a blindside. You can't tip Jessaca off that's she's on the bottom and try to out-manuever a pissed-off Jessfather in the Final 6 with a damn idol, that's suicide.
The fact that Jessaca hasn't gotten a single vote post-merge even though her idol has been public knowledge since F11 or 10 is crazy. Praise the Jessfather and her intimidation tactics.
Sarena is apparently in zero fucks mode and is just going around berating Lexi, Matthew & Danny, lmfao. Poor gameplay obvs but who cares? This is fun to watch and I'm here for the Sarena experience. No lies detected in this message from Lexi though.
Jessaca's response:
this is a pretty ballsy tactic from sarena who actually has no story and will lose in the end against the people she wants to work with lmao
Matt seems to be set on flipping this round and making his move. He also would prefer for Lexi to leave. His reasoning makes sense because we're getting to the point where everyone wants Lexi to be at the end with them pretty much. I think he's also scared of Jess idoling herself but if he does a good enough job convincing them that he's voting with them, she shouldn't feel the need to play the idol.
It's crazy that most of the game it's seemed like Jess, Chris and Bryce were all the favorites to win the game and they might all make Final 6. Kudos to each of them for sure
He has probably the most "control" in the game in that he can realistically dictate how the rest of the game goes vote wise. The issue is that he is going goat hunting for some reason? Lexi is one of the VERY FEW people Matt would stand a chance against right now - he has power, but he is using it in a way that completely undermines his own chance to win. Strategic-positioning wise its a fine move to go after Lexi - but a huge part of Survivor is self awareness and he has roughly none of it.
This is a perfect example of why control doesn't necessarily facilitate or connect inherently to goodness of play.
I think if Matt does flip, a lot of credit should go to Bryce. People might think some of the things he wants to happen are considered the safe and boring moves, but in my opinion, he's consistently had the right idea of what needs to happen.
Matt has openly said he trusts Bryce 100% and Bryce just voted him last round. I can't even fathom why Matt would flip back to Bryce after that, but I think Bryce just continues to charm everyone to death and connect with them on a more personal level than pretty much anyone else in the cast. That kind of thing goes a long way if you know how to use it right. Bryce seems to be doing that flawlessly with a lot of people, Matt included.
If Matt flips back to that group, I think Bryce wins the game.
Had Danny just not won immunity, I think this would've been a lot better for Matthew -- flipping and taking out Danny would've been a far better option than what he's left with here. But now he either goes goat hunting and takes out one of the only people he can potentially beat in Lexi, or he takes out Jessaca and has absolutely no social capital without her in the game.
I mean, I think overall I still approve of flipping. He's a goat at this point and if he continued on this route he probably would've had to wait until Final 4, win some challenges and take Lexi to the Final 2 for his only shot. But if he flips, maybe he can somehow manage to strategically dictate Final 7 through to the endgame and wind up getting some gameplay brownie points from whoever on the jury values that.
Also it's worth noting that while Matthew is head over heels for Bryce, Matthew does view him as a huge jury threat. So I can actually finally see him cutting Bryce at Final 4 or Final 3 if it comes down to it.
Watching Chris's confessional and talking about the stuffed animals being his cheering squad was cute, I hope he goes far. I haven't watched a ton of the confessionals since well half of them are missing them and then just been busy, but it sounds like it could be a Lexi boot. also I really don't get Danny, in his confessional minutes before the last tribal he said if it goes to rocks between Sarena and Matt he was flipping but then he didn't so I guess he just confuses me. I hope Bryce only being able to use phone doesn't hurt him too much. I feel like I really have no clue what is going to happen at this point and tribal is in 2 hours, but even if I had an idea it would probably change 3 times like every other vote. Sarena in addition to Danny confuses the heck out of me, she seems to be flipping back to working with Matt even though they were just against each other, the devils triangle alliance seems to be super messy alliance that is only together half the time.
Also I feel like after listening to Jess and Lexi they are debating using the idol but I feel like it would be played on Jess causing Lexi to leave because they feel kinda like they are giving up on Danny/Matt
