Board Thread:Survivor: Skye Islands (Season 12)/@comment-24277959-20151016000829/@comment-107.193.224.209-20151017231656

Hey Evan!

I'd like to explain where I was when it came to Zane, Perry, and Sam when they were voted out.

Zane was a complete blindside because our alliance obviously had no idea Tyler had an extra vote like Sam did. Perry and Zane each voted for you and Alex in the event that either of you had the brawn idol, so there were two votes. However, I became anxious about the merge idol possibly being at play as well, so I wanted to initiate a different plan than what Perry had come up with (and I was candid with Perry about this too). The plan then became to load all votes on Tyler instead of splitting them between you and Alex. So at this point it was me, Nuno, Szymon, and Sam that were voting Tyler. With Sam's extra vote, we believed the vote would tie 5-5-1-1. Any number of revotes from this tie would have been possible if the assumption that idols were going to be at play were true. Aside from not anticipating Tyler's extra vote, Szymon also lied to us about voting with us, which then resulted in the actual 7-4-1-1 tribal from hell.

With the Perry vote, I was willing to vote Nuno out because the plans that we were both involved in kept blowing up in our faces (first it was the Wes vote, then it was the Zane vote), so I was really tired of landing myself in these unfortunate situations, and one way out that I saw was voting him off. I wanted to trust Perry's word that Joe and Dom were with him instead of talking to them myself because I felt like when I would do too much investigating and not enough trusting of my allies, I'd ended up in dire straits. I ignored my gut when it said Perry didn't have the numbers, and yes, I did give my trust to something out of my control. However, I still don't regret voting with Perry even if he went home anyway.

The Sam vote was another blindside, and I do have to give you specifically credit for it. At this point in the game I just thought you were Alex's goat, but you proved you can turn on even your closest ally, which is often a necessary evil in this game. So Alex gave his pendant to Nuno, which removed one less person from the chopping block for the majority alliance, but also removed one less number for the minority alliance. I was operating under the assumption that you were still with Alex, and I made an effort to reach out to Sam to see if he would be willing to work with us. I was surprised to find that he was cooperative, even though I had just used my vote reveal on him two tribals past (which I apologized for not trusting him, but I wasn't sure if he was still understandably upset about). So it was me, Sam, and Alex, and Alex was going to use his idol because he was afraid he was the target. Sam and Alex were voting Joe, and I was voting Tyler in case Dom used her idol on Joe, which she did. We actually would have had all of our bases covered, but like I said, you shattered the plan.

Yes, I came into this game as a beauty, but just because I didn't talk to you until Day 36, doesn't mean I sat on my hands the entire time wondering when you would talk to me. I talked to everyone else before I talked to you, and when I did talk to you, it was because I believed we could both benefit from working with each other, FINALLY. When I made a Final 3 deal with you, I wasn't blowing smoke up your ass then, and I'm not doing it now either. I really, really wanted to come to F3 and sit next to you. When I said I was willing to vote Nuno out instead of you, I was sincere. I had written his name down before, and I was ready to do it again. Although Nuno and I managed to work together a lot, on my end, it was purely by default. I knew he would trust the last beauty in the game, we had history together, and although previous plans had gone off like one pipe bursting after the next, I was forced to work with what was available to me. Before you say "but what about the majority alliance", Sam was enough proof of working with the majority alliance would mean the end for me too. He got caught spilling tea, and he was swiftly dealt with. Rather than making any assumptions that I would have been better at keeping my tea together had I tried to work more with you guys, I took Sam as a hint to be patient to work with any of you. Day 36 rolled around, and I knew it was the right time talk to you. I made it clear to you that I was fine with voting out Nuno, and you made it clear to me that you were fine with voting out Tyler. I know when I feel trust building, and I really felt like we were on the right track to get to F3 together. Unfortunately, Nuno won immunity, so we couldn't vote him out. Tyler on the other hand wasn't immune. After I saw Nuno had won, I was ready to vote for Tyler with you. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I was serious about wanting to be here with you, and I trusted you when you said you wanted to be here with me too. Call it woman's intuition, or whatever you'd like, but I listened to my gut when it said you had just voted for me right after the results were posted. I'm not here to say pull the "you didn't talk to me" card, because I hate that card too, and I'm sorry if I've come off that way. I have nothing else to say other than I had a visceral reaction to seeing that one vote had already been submitted less than an hour after the results were posted, and that reaction told me it was you. I truly didn't want to go back on my F3 word, because I'm not one for false promises, but I felt like I was forced to. All I have to say for myself is I'm sorry, I wish things had turned out differently between our brief, but sincere, alliance.

Anyway, on to your questions.

1. My game has been one of patience ever since the Zane vote. I realized I was doing too much, and I actively told myself i needed to calm the fuck down before it was too late. I was able to create a bond with Perry and Luke on my own volition pre-merge, but being a close confidante with the social threat that Perry is was dangerous. Often times, I found myself talking strategy with everything and everyone under the sun, and the Zane vote was a huge wakeup call for me. I realized I needed to take in information slowly so that I could make the best decisions possible for my game, and a lot of those decisions resulted in actively choosing not to talk anyone in the majority alliance until I felt like I wouldn't be burned. During the Zane vote, I was supposedly in an alliance with Szymon. I realized we weren't actually on the same page, and that he was just with the majority. I ended up feeling burnt shortly thereafter. And like I said before, Sam unfortunately became a slaughtered bunny to the cult that was known as the majority alliance. I wasn't writing you, Alex, or Dom off completely - I just knew I had to be patient.

Where I was introspective and adapted my method of strategizing, Nuno continued down the windy road with a flat tire. He did have more conviction than me, so I give him complete credit for that; but he was still impulsive throughout his gameplay. He was flashier than me, and that worked for him. I learned not to be flashy, and that worked for me. We had different styles of playing, and we were only aligned with each other because we had to be. That's not to say I didn't enjoy getting to know Nuno as a person, or that our connection wasn't real - we just would have voted each other out if we had the opportunity to.

2. I believe it's because people felt like they could trust me, and they could because I made it a point to form deeper-than-surface level connections with people. I can honestly say that everybody here has a different personality that I've been able to appreciate because I took the time to get to know them a little better. I always went into a conversation thinking "I want to know who you are, person that I'm talking to!" I've also never once thought "well I doubt I'll talk to you ever again" (not even with Joe, and I CAN STILL SAY I DON'T DISLIKE HIM I JUST DON'T KNOW HIM AND THAT SUCKS BECAUSE HE SEEMS LIKE A COOL PERSON OUTSIDE OF THIS GAME UGH). I want to be friends with everybody here because I genuinely like everyone, and for the contestants that I didn't get to talk to at all, I'm excited about the prospect of getting to know them! Maybe I sound like a Polly Anna, but I don't actually care because that's how I feel.

3. Like I said before, I was being sincere. I didn't offer a F3 deal with you to use you for one vote, I offered it to you because I really did want to be here with you. I didn't offer Tyler anything at F5. I didn't offer Tyler ANYTHING until I operated on the hunch that you had voted for me (and Tyler can confirm this). He was really anxious that Nuno and I were going to write his name down, and I explicitly PROMISED him he would be here with us. I know you said you were waiting for me, but I assumed we would just talk the next day about strategy. I didn't know waiting one hour would force you to write my name down. I feel like this was bad communication on both of us, and I still am truly sorry. Had you won final immunity, it would have been either Tyler or Nuno, depending on what you and I would have discussed.

4. Domonique - Physical: 10, Strategic: 18, Social: 15

Perry - Physical: 10, Strategic: 17, Social: 19

Alex - Physical: 10, Strategic: 17, Social: 15

Evan - Physical: 9, Strategic: 16, Social: 15

Szymon - Physical: 7, Strategic: 15, Social: 16

Top 5 Scores: Dom (46), Perry (46), Alex (42), Evan (40), Szymon (38)

Thank you for your questions, and I have to say I appreciate how pragmatic your speech is. If you have anything else you need to ask me, please feel free.