• S49 Ep12 Spoilers and Comments (12/10/2025)

    From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Wed Dec 10 17:53:12 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    Tonight's episode is titled "The Die is Cast." I believe F6 is the last
    time Steven and Sophi can play their advantages. Will Sophi steal Rizo's
    HII? Will Steven be stupid enough not to play his "Block a Vote" and let
    Sophi steal it from him. You'd think either Rizo or Savannah has to win Individual Immunity for both to advance, but who knows with this bunch.

    More later.
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Wed Dec 10 19:42:15 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/10/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is titled "The Die is Cast." I believe F6 is the last
    time Steven and Sophi can play their advantages. Will Sophi steal Rizo's HII? Will Steven be stupid enough not to play his "Block a Vote" and let Sophi steal it from him. You'd think either Rizo or Savannah has to win Individual Immunity for both to advance, but who knows with this bunch.

    More later.

    Just want to say for now that the end of TC was the best blindside we've
    seen in ages. I did not see that coming at all!
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Wed Dec 10 22:51:08 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/10/2025 9:57 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 9:42 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is titled "The Die is Cast." I believe F6 is the
    last time Steven and Sophi can play their advantages. Will Sophi
    steal Rizo's HII? Will Steven be stupid enough not to play his "Block
    a Vote" and let Sophi steal it from him. You'd think either Rizo or
    Savannah has to win Individual Immunity for both to advance, but who
    knows with this bunch.

    More later.

    Just want to say for now that the end of TC was the best blindside
    we've seen in ages. I did not see that coming at all!


    Agree completely.

    Rizo showed again what a brilliant player is by convincing everyone that
    his idol was only good until F6, which directed attention away from him
    and basically guaranteed him a spot in F4.

    I can't believe he got away with that. I'm pretty sure HIIs, regardless
    of when and where they're found, have always been good to F5. Rizo's
    amazing at the outwit part of the game.

    I also liked how the show orchestrated it that Steven would say in confessional that he no longer had an advantage because he had
    effectively had to play it before leaving for TC.-a That clued the
    viewers in that Sophi's advantage would not work on him.

    We actually knew that from Jeff's clarification to Dalton last week. I
    think that was a preemptive move on Jeff's part because a number of
    people online are not happy with that rule.

    The three big questions going into TC were: would Sophi use her KIP on
    Rizo to steal his idol (she didn't), would Rizo play his idol on Sophi
    or himself in this TC (he didn't), and finally, would Sage and Christina vote out Steven (they did).-a-a I had no idea what the answer would be to any of those questions.

    Either did I. The editing was great tonight.The part about Sophi's
    grandma made me think there was a good chance that she would steal
    Rizo's HII knowing there was a good chance that they had fooled the
    others about how log the HII was good for.

    I think Rizo's idol play fakeout was pure theater. I expect so was
    Sophi's reaction. I think we're going to find out that they and Savannah
    knew that Sage and Kristina were flipping for sure. Hopefully at the
    start of the finale we find out if it was just Rizo who caused the flip
    or did Sage flip Kristina. Sage is being called an idiot on X tonight
    for handing the win to Rizo or Savannah (assuming that's true), but if
    you look at the makeup of the jury thus far, Steven would have a great
    shot at winning.

    Some more comments from me.

    --Rizo sucked at the challenges once again. If he wins, will he go down
    as the winner with the worst challenge performance record?

    --Savannah's win in the Immunity Challenge was impressive. The way the
    first four were out so quickly, I thought it was going to be a short challenge. She and Sage lasting 35+ minutes and smashing Dee's 24 minute record was unexpected.

    --Savannah's decision to choose Sophi to go to The Sanctuary along with
    Rizo was a huge strategic move. Not only did that make Sophi drop the
    idea of going after her, it also made Sophi feel so comfortable with her
    and Rizo that Sophi told them about the KIP. Rizo also appeared to have
    told them that his HII is good until F5. Is this the latest in the game they've gone to The Sanctuary?

    --Rizo sure is emotional. Savannah and Sophi really didn't cry when they
    read their letters. Was Sophi's letter just from her mom?

    --Sophie Segretti will vote based on game. Did you see her smile and
    mouth "Hi" to the players when the jury walked in? That will be good for Savannah.
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 11 10:40:48 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/10/2025 10:51 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 9:57 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 9:42 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is titled "The Die is Cast." I believe F6 is the
    last time Steven and Sophi can play their advantages. Will Sophi
    steal Rizo's HII? Will Steven be stupid enough not to play his
    "Block a Vote" and let Sophi steal it from him. You'd think either
    Rizo or Savannah has to win Individual Immunity for both to advance,
    but who knows with this bunch.

    More later.

    Just want to say for now that the end of TC was the best blindside
    we've seen in ages. I did not see that coming at all!


    Agree completely.

    Rizo showed again what a brilliant player is by convincing everyone
    that his idol was only good until F6, which directed attention away
    from him and basically guaranteed him a spot in F4.

    I can't believe he got away with that. I'm pretty sure HIIs, regardless
    of when and where they're found, have always been good to F5. Rizo's
    amazing at the outwit part of the game.

    I also liked how the show orchestrated it that Steven would say in
    confessional that he no longer had an advantage because he had
    effectively had to play it before leaving for TC.-a That clued the
    viewers in that Sophi's advantage would not work on him.

    We actually knew that from Jeff's clarification to Dalton last week. I
    think that was a preemptive move on Jeff's part because a number of
    people online are not happy with that rule.

    The three big questions going into TC were: would Sophi use her KIP on
    Rizo to steal his idol (she didn't), would Rizo play his idol on Sophi
    or himself in this TC (he didn't), and finally, would Sage and
    Christina vote out Steven (they did).-a-a I had no idea what the answer
    would be to any of those questions.

    Either did I. The editing was great tonight.The part about Sophi's
    grandma made me think there was a good chance that she would steal
    Rizo's HII knowing there was a good chance that they had fooled the
    others about how log the HII was good for.

    I think Rizo's idol play fakeout was pure theater. I expect so was
    Sophi's reaction. I think we're going to find out that they and Savannah knew that Sage and Kristina were flipping for sure. Hopefully at the
    start of the finale we find out if it was just Rizo who caused the flip
    or did Sage flip Kristina. Sage is being called an idiot on X tonight
    for handing the win to Rizo or Savannah (assuming that's true), but if
    you look at the makeup of the jury thus far, Steven would have a great
    shot at winning.

    Some more comments from me.

    --Rizo sucked at the challenges once again. If he wins, will he go down
    as the winner with the worst challenge performance record?

    --Savannah's win in the Immunity Challenge was impressive. The way the
    first four were out so quickly, I thought it was going to be a short challenge. She and Sage lasting 35+ minutes and smashing Dee's 24 minute record was unexpected.

    --Savannah's decision to choose Sophi to go to The Sanctuary along with
    Rizo was a huge strategic move. Not only did that make Sophi drop the
    idea of going after her, it also made Sophi feel so comfortable with her
    and Rizo that Sophi told them about the KIP. Rizo also appeared to have
    told them that his HII is good until F5. Is this the latest in the game they've gone to The Sanctuary?

    --Rizo sure is emotional. Savannah and Sophi really didn't cry when they read their letters. Was Sophi's letter just from her mom?

    --Sophie Segretti will vote based on game. Did you see her smile and
    mouth "Hi" to the players when the jury walked in? That will be good for Savannah.

    Tweet from Sophi with some key details about last night's TC.

    It was a planned unan vote. Before tribal, Kristina told me about
    StevenrCOs Block a Vote but she didnrCOt know the specifics of it. Had I
    felt unsafe before tribal, I wouldrCOve taken the idol. Had Sav not won immunity, I wouldrCOve taken the idol. Only threat option left was Steven.

    https://x.com/sophibalerdi/status/1999121758075466063

    Here's another huge piece of info from Sophi in response to a comment.

    Did you have an idea that the idol expires at F5?

    It was my idea hahahahaha

    https://x.com/sophibalerdi/status/1999124604342649230
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rick@Rick@nospam.net to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 11 13:37:56 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/11/2025 12:51 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 9:57 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 9:42 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is titled "The Die is Cast." I believe F6 is the
    last time Steven and Sophi can play their advantages. Will Sophi
    steal Rizo's HII? Will Steven be stupid enough not to play his
    "Block a Vote" and let Sophi steal it from him. You'd think either
    Rizo or Savannah has to win Individual Immunity for both to advance,
    but who knows with this bunch.

    More later.

    Just want to say for now that the end of TC was the best blindside
    we've seen in ages. I did not see that coming at all!


    Agree completely.

    Rizo showed again what a brilliant player is by convincing everyone
    that his idol was only good until F6, which directed attention away
    from him and basically guaranteed him a spot in F4.

    I can't believe he got away with that. I'm pretty sure HIIs, regardless
    of when and where they're found, have always been good to F5. Rizo's
    amazing at the outwit part of the game.


    They haven't always been good to F5 (there was a period where they did
    expire at F6), but I'm pretty sure it's been F5 throughout the New Era
    and earlier. Surely one of Steven, Sage or Kristina should have realized
    that, especially Kristina who had her own idol. Maybe they got fooled
    because the KIP and some other advantages are only good to F6 and SITD
    expires at F7. And sometimes the show does switch things up, so maybe
    that's what they thought was the case here. Either way I agree Rizo did
    a good con job on this.

    I wonder if it was actually a long con - if he said it expired at F6 the
    first time he ever revealed it and they just never showed that. I
    thought for a moment that Jeff might correct him when he said it was
    only good through F6, but Jeff wisely said nothing.

    Funny how Sage called Rizo a turd when he admitted it was really good to
    F5. Of course she would call him that.

    And speaking of SITD, it's interesting how no one has used it or even
    talked about it this season. I guess players are starting to realize
    that the chances of success are pretty slim, and even if you get lucky
    there is a good chance you'll just get voted out next TC.

    I also liked how the show orchestrated it that Steven would say in
    confessional that he no longer had an advantage because he had
    effectively had to play it before leaving for TC.-a That clued the
    viewers in that Sophi's advantage would not work on him.

    We actually knew that from Jeff's clarification to Dalton last week. I
    think that was a preemptive move on Jeff's part because a number of
    people online are not happy with that rule.


    I'm certainly not happy with it, especially when the show knows there is
    also a KIP in the game. My view is that it is a technicality and an
    obscure one to say that the Vote Block is actually played before TC
    because producers have to be alerted to get the special parchment ready
    for the player who is blocked. They could clearly do that on-the-fly at
    TC once he announces he wants to block the vote. More better - just
    have the player publicly announce whose vote is being blocked and that
    person just doesn't get to vote. However they fix it, the current
    method is definitely confusing, and I'm glad Jeff recognizes that and
    will likely fix it for future seasons.

    The three big questions going into TC were: would Sophi use her KIP on
    Rizo to steal his idol (she didn't), would Rizo play his idol on Sophi
    or himself in this TC (he didn't), and finally, would Sage and
    Christina vote out Steven (they did).-a-a I had no idea what the answer
    would be to any of those questions.

    Either did I. The editing was great tonight.The part about Sophi's
    grandma made me think there was a good chance that she would steal
    Rizo's HII knowing there was a good chance that they had fooled the
    others about how log the HII was good for.

    I think Rizo's idol play fakeout was pure theater. I expect so was
    Sophi's reaction. I think we're going to find out that they and Savannah knew that Sage and Kristina were flipping for sure. Hopefully at the
    start of the finale we find out if it was just Rizo who caused the flip
    or did Sage flip Kristina. Sage is being called an idiot on X tonight
    for handing the win to Rizo or Savannah (assuming that's true), but if
    you look at the makeup of the jury thus far, Steven would have a great
    shot at winning.


    That's definitely true, but I still thought Sage's hatred of Savannah
    and, by extension, Savannah's alliance, would have caused her to keep
    Steven around to vote out Sophi after they stole Savannah's vote. I
    really thought Sophi was going tonight.

    Some more comments from me.

    --Rizo sucked at the challenges once again. If he wins, will he go down
    as the winner with the worst challenge performance record?


    Well I think that honor might go to Sandra, who I don't believe won an
    IC during either of her two wins. In the New Era, I think the only
    winner who never actually won an IC was Maryanne.

    I don't know how many previous winners never won an IC, but I believe
    the first example was Tina. Todd and Denise are other winners who I
    don't think ever won an IC. Don't know how many others there might be.

    --Savannah's win in the Immunity Challenge was impressive. The way the
    first four were out so quickly, I thought it was going to be a short challenge. She and Sage lasting 35+ minutes and smashing Dee's 24 minute record was unexpected.


    It looked to me like Savannah was in great shape and could have gone a
    lot longer. No way to really know how long she could have lasted. For
    that matter, the same could be said for Dee. Dee's 24-minute total just
    means whoever finished second dropped out at 24 min. It would be
    interesting if they repeat this challenge in S50 and Dee and Savannah
    can actually compete against one another.

    --Savannah's decision to choose Sophi to go to The Sanctuary along with
    Rizo was a huge strategic move. Not only did that make Sophi drop the
    idea of going after her, it also made Sophi feel so comfortable with her
    and Rizo that Sophi told them about the KIP. Rizo also appeared to have
    told them that his HII is good until F5. Is this the latest in the game they've gone to The Sanctuary?


    No idea. I've never been a fan of The Sanctuary, probably because of
    Jeff's annoying "where good things happen" mantra. I was really
    surprised that Sophi turned so quickly from her plan to try to shanghai Savannah and Rizo.

    --Rizo sure is emotional. Savannah and Sophi really didn't cry when they read their letters. Was Sophi's letter just from her mom?


    Not sure. It sounded like there could have been multiple letters from multiple relatives, but they didn't really go into detail with Soph.
    Maybe there's a secret scene where they expand on the rewards. This is another part of the show I don't care for and frequently skim past.

    --Sophie Segretti will vote based on game. Did you see her smile and
    mouth "Hi" to the players when the jury walked in? That will be good for Savannah.


    Yup, another case of Game recognizes Game.

    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rick@Rick@nospam.net to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 11 15:37:54 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/11/2025 12:40 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 10:51 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 9:57 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 9:42 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is titled "The Die is Cast." I believe F6 is the
    last time Steven and Sophi can play their advantages. Will Sophi
    steal Rizo's HII? Will Steven be stupid enough not to play his
    "Block a Vote" and let Sophi steal it from him. You'd think either
    Rizo or Savannah has to win Individual Immunity for both to
    advance, but who knows with this bunch.

    More later.

    Just want to say for now that the end of TC was the best blindside
    we've seen in ages. I did not see that coming at all!


    Agree completely.

    Rizo showed again what a brilliant player is by convincing everyone
    that his idol was only good until F6, which directed attention away
    from him and basically guaranteed him a spot in F4.

    I can't believe he got away with that. I'm pretty sure HIIs,
    regardless of when and where they're found, have always been good to
    F5. Rizo's amazing at the outwit part of the game.

    I also liked how the show orchestrated it that Steven would say in
    confessional that he no longer had an advantage because he had
    effectively had to play it before leaving for TC.-a That clued the
    viewers in that Sophi's advantage would not work on him.

    We actually knew that from Jeff's clarification to Dalton last week. I
    think that was a preemptive move on Jeff's part because a number of
    people online are not happy with that rule.

    The three big questions going into TC were: would Sophi use her KIP
    on Rizo to steal his idol (she didn't), would Rizo play his idol on
    Sophi or himself in this TC (he didn't), and finally, would Sage and
    Christina vote out Steven (they did).-a-a I had no idea what the answer >>> would be to any of those questions.

    Either did I. The editing was great tonight.The part about Sophi's
    grandma made me think there was a good chance that she would steal
    Rizo's HII knowing there was a good chance that they had fooled the
    others about how log the HII was good for.

    I think Rizo's idol play fakeout was pure theater. I expect so was
    Sophi's reaction. I think we're going to find out that they and
    Savannah knew that Sage and Kristina were flipping for sure. Hopefully
    at the start of the finale we find out if it was just Rizo who caused
    the flip or did Sage flip Kristina. Sage is being called an idiot on X
    tonight for handing the win to Rizo or Savannah (assuming that's
    true), but if you look at the makeup of the jury thus far, Steven
    would have a great shot at winning.

    Some more comments from me.

    --Rizo sucked at the challenges once again. If he wins, will he go
    down as the winner with the worst challenge performance record?

    --Savannah's win in the Immunity Challenge was impressive. The way the
    first four were out so quickly, I thought it was going to be a short
    challenge. She and Sage lasting 35+ minutes and smashing Dee's 24
    minute record was unexpected.

    --Savannah's decision to choose Sophi to go to The Sanctuary along
    with Rizo was a huge strategic move. Not only did that make Sophi drop
    the idea of going after her, it also made Sophi feel so comfortable
    with her and Rizo that Sophi told them about the KIP. Rizo also
    appeared to have told them that his HII is good until F5. Is this the
    latest in the game they've gone to The Sanctuary?

    --Rizo sure is emotional. Savannah and Sophi really didn't cry when
    they read their letters. Was Sophi's letter just from her mom?

    --Sophie Segretti will vote based on game. Did you see her smile and
    mouth "Hi" to the players when the jury walked in? That will be good
    for Savannah.

    Tweet from Sophi with some key details about last night's TC.

    It was a planned unan vote. Before tribal, Kristina told me about
    StevenrCOs Block a Vote but she didnrCOt know the specifics of it. Had I felt unsafe before tribal, I wouldrCOve taken the idol. Had Sav not won immunity, I wouldrCOve taken the idol. Only threat option left was Steven.

    https://x.com/sophibalerdi/status/1999121758075466063

    Here's another huge piece of info from Sophi in response to a comment.

    Did you have an idea that the idol expires at F5?

    It was my idea hahahahaha

    https://x.com/sophibalerdi/status/1999124604342649230


    So Sophi knew the votes were going to be unanimously against Steven, she
    knew that Rizo wasn't going to have to use his idol, and all her
    mopiness when RIzo said he couldn't use his idol on her was all just
    theater. She knew all along that she and her teammates were all going
    to be safe.

    But the one thing that did surprise her was when Steven said no, he
    didn't have an advantage. That clearly surprised Soph and her friends,
    and she admitted while voting that it was "embarrassing". That was
    obviously intended as a moment where she would distinguish herself and
    be on the same level as Savannah and RIzo, with each having an advantage
    - but it fell completely flat.

    Next episode Rizo finally uses his idol and I presume Savannah is likely
    to win immunity. That means the power 3 will likely vote out Sage and
    carry Kristina to F4. That's the likely scenario considering the
    spoilers about Savannah making it to S50. In the event Savannah somehow
    loses immunity, it would give Sophi an opportunity to make up for the embarrassment from this episode and team-up with Kristina and Sage to
    take out Savannah, which could be her last chance to make a big move.
    But at this point, that seems really unlikely.

    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From shawn@nanoflower@notforg.m.a.i.l.com to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 11 16:43:30 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 23:57:47 -0500, Rick <Rick@nospam.net> wrote:

    On 12/10/2025 9:42 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is titled "The Die is Cast." I believe F6 is the
    last time Steven and Sophi can play their advantages. Will Sophi steal
    Rizo's HII? Will Steven be stupid enough not to play his "Block a
    Vote" and let Sophi steal it from him. You'd think either Rizo or
    Savannah has to win Individual Immunity for both to advance, but who
    knows with this bunch.

    More later.

    Just want to say for now that the end of TC was the best blindside we've
    seen in ages. I did not see that coming at all!


    Agree completely.

    Rizo showed again what a brilliant player is by convincing everyone that
    his idol was only good until F6, which directed attention away from him
    and basically guaranteed him a spot in F4.

    That was great.

    I also liked how the show orchestrated it that Steven would say in >confessional that he no longer had an advantage because he had
    effectively had to play it before leaving for TC. That clued the
    viewers in that Sophi's advantage would not work on him.

    That I hated and almost turned off the show because of how they
    clearly played Sophi. Allowing the advantage to be played and thus
    nullifying her advantage felt like the producers playing with the
    rules to get a good TV moment. It also seems like she couldn't play
    her advantage until the TC so she had no way to get his advantage
    other than playing her advantage at the last TC. Something I'm sure
    none of them would have considered even if they all knew about her
    advantage.

    The three big questions going into TC were: would Sophi use her KIP on
    Rizo to steal his idol (she didn't), would Rizo play his idol on Sophi
    or himself in this TC (he didn't), and finally, would Sage and Christina >vote out Steven (they did). I had no idea what the answer would be to
    any of those questions.

    When they didn't raise the issue of their votes towards the end I felt
    like he could go but nothing was settled. After all Sophi isn't seen
    as a challenge to win the money. She's likely well liked but that
    alone isn't going to win her a million dollars where as Steven is a
    clear threat. As said, Rizzo has done a great job of selling his idol
    as having to be used at this TC so the three weren't likely to go for
    Rizzo.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rick@Rick@nospam.net to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 11 17:26:42 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/11/2025 4:43 PM, shawn wrote:
    On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 23:57:47 -0500, Rick <Rick@nospam.net> wrote:

    On 12/10/2025 9:42 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is titled "The Die is Cast." I believe F6 is the
    last time Steven and Sophi can play their advantages. Will Sophi steal >>>> Rizo's HII? Will Steven be stupid enough not to play his "Block a
    Vote" and let Sophi steal it from him. You'd think either Rizo or
    Savannah has to win Individual Immunity for both to advance, but who
    knows with this bunch.

    More later.

    Just want to say for now that the end of TC was the best blindside we've >>> seen in ages. I did not see that coming at all!


    Agree completely.

    Rizo showed again what a brilliant player is by convincing everyone that
    his idol was only good until F6, which directed attention away from him
    and basically guaranteed him a spot in F4.

    That was great.

    I also liked how the show orchestrated it that Steven would say in
    confessional that he no longer had an advantage because he had
    effectively had to play it before leaving for TC. That clued the
    viewers in that Sophi's advantage would not work on him.

    That I hated and almost turned off the show because of how they
    clearly played Sophi. Allowing the advantage to be played and thus
    nullifying her advantage felt like the producers playing with the
    rules to get a good TV moment. It also seems like she couldn't play
    her advantage until the TC so she had no way to get his advantage
    other than playing her advantage at the last TC. Something I'm sure
    none of them would have considered even if they all knew about her
    advantage.


    Right. The Knowledge is Power, like the immunity idol, can only be
    played at Tribal Council. In fact, most advantages can only be played
    at TC.

    But weirdly, they seemed to have established that the block-a-vote (and presumably the steal-a-vote) can only be played BEFORE TC. And not only
    is it played before TC, but the person playing the advantage literally
    has to go outside of the game and tell a producer that they want to play
    it, which is really breathtaking in its stupidity. It's the one time on
    the show that a player is REQUIRED to talk to a producer to do a game
    element, which means it can never be shown on camera because of course producers and behind-the camera staff members are never shown except in
    some cases of emergency. That's why they had to contrive that awkward on-camera confessional right before TC where Steven was obviously told
    to say "I am ready to declare I am using this Block-a-vote advantage on Savannah....so I don't have an advantage any more."


    The three big questions going into TC were: would Sophi use her KIP on
    Rizo to steal his idol (she didn't), would Rizo play his idol on Sophi
    or himself in this TC (he didn't), and finally, would Sage and Christina
    vote out Steven (they did). I had no idea what the answer would be to
    any of those questions.

    When they didn't raise the issue of their votes towards the end I felt
    like he could go but nothing was settled. After all Sophi isn't seen
    as a challenge to win the money. She's likely well liked but that
    alone isn't going to win her a million dollars where as Steven is a
    clear threat. As said, Rizzo has done a great job of selling his idol
    as having to be used at this TC so the three weren't likely to go for
    Rizzo.

    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 11 15:46:10 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/11/2025 11:37 AM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/11/2025 12:51 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 9:57 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 9:42 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is titled "The Die is Cast." I believe F6 is the
    last time Steven and Sophi can play their advantages. Will Sophi
    steal Rizo's HII? Will Steven be stupid enough not to play his
    "Block a Vote" and let Sophi steal it from him. You'd think either
    Rizo or Savannah has to win Individual Immunity for both to
    advance, but who knows with this bunch.

    More later.

    Just want to say for now that the end of TC was the best blindside
    we've seen in ages. I did not see that coming at all!


    Agree completely.

    Rizo showed again what a brilliant player is by convincing everyone
    that his idol was only good until F6, which directed attention away
    from him and basically guaranteed him a spot in F4.

    I can't believe he got away with that. I'm pretty sure HIIs,
    regardless of when and where they're found, have always been good to
    F5. Rizo's amazing at the outwit part of the game.


    They haven't always been good to F5 (there was a period where they did expire at F6), but I'm pretty sure it's been F5 throughout the New Era
    and earlier. Surely one of Steven, Sage or Kristina should have realized that, especially Kristina who had her own idol.-a Maybe they got fooled because the KIP and some other advantages are only good to F6 and SITD expires at F7.-a And sometimes the show does switch things up, so maybe that's what they thought was the case here.-a Either way I agree Rizo did
    a good con job on this.

    I wonder if it was actually a long con - if he said it expired at F6 the first time he ever revealed it and they just never showed that.-a I
    thought for a moment that Jeff might correct him when he said it was
    only good through F6, but Jeff wisely said nothing.

    Funny how Sage called Rizo a turd when he admitted it was really good to F5.-a Of course she would call him that.

    And speaking of SITD, it's interesting how no one has used it or even
    talked about it this season.-a I guess players are starting to realize
    that the chances of success are pretty slim, and even if you get lucky
    there is a good chance you'll just get voted out next TC.

    Interesting tweet from Rob's Fact Checker on SITD plays.

    #Survivor 49 is the first New Era season that had no Shot in the Dark
    plays. I compiled stats for all 15 plays:

    https://x.com/RobsFactChecker/status/1997375185474003040

    I also liked how the show orchestrated it that Steven would say in
    confessional that he no longer had an advantage because he had
    effectively had to play it before leaving for TC.-a That clued the
    viewers in that Sophi's advantage would not work on him.

    We actually knew that from Jeff's clarification to Dalton last week. I
    think that was a preemptive move on Jeff's part because a number of
    people online are not happy with that rule.


    I'm certainly not happy with it, especially when the show knows there is also a KIP in the game.-a My view is that it is a technicality and an obscure one to say that the Vote Block is actually played before TC
    because producers have to be alerted to get the special parchment ready
    for the player who is blocked.-a They could clearly do that on-the-fly at
    TC once he announces he wants to block the vote.-a More better - just
    have the player publicly announce whose vote is being blocked and that person just doesn't get to vote.-a However they fix it, the current
    method is definitely confusing, and I'm glad Jeff recognizes that and
    will likely fix it for future seasons.

    They should definitely have the holder announce publicly whose vote they
    want to block or steal. Why should those advantages allow the holder to
    remain anonymous? And it's crazy that they're more powerful than the KIP.

    The three big questions going into TC were: would Sophi use her KIP
    on Rizo to steal his idol (she didn't), would Rizo play his idol on
    Sophi or himself in this TC (he didn't), and finally, would Sage and
    Christina vote out Steven (they did).-a-a I had no idea what the answer >>> would be to any of those questions.

    Either did I. The editing was great tonight.The part about Sophi's
    grandma made me think there was a good chance that she would steal
    Rizo's HII knowing there was a good chance that they had fooled the
    others about how log the HII was good for.

    I think Rizo's idol play fakeout was pure theater. I expect so was
    Sophi's reaction. I think we're going to find out that they and
    Savannah knew that Sage and Kristina were flipping for sure. Hopefully
    at the start of the finale we find out if it was just Rizo who caused
    the flip or did Sage flip Kristina. Sage is being called an idiot on X
    tonight for handing the win to Rizo or Savannah (assuming that's
    true), but if you look at the makeup of the jury thus far, Steven
    would have a great shot at winning.


    That's definitely true, but I still thought Sage's hatred of Savannah
    and, by extension, Savannah's alliance, would have caused her to keep
    Steven around to vote out Sophi after they stole Savannah's vote.-a I
    really thought Sophi was going tonight.

    There were several times during the episode I thought Sophi was gone.
    Sage and Kristina's logic for voting out Steven makes no sense to me
    unless they were very confident that Steven staying would mean Savannah
    would be gone.

    Some more comments from me.

    --Rizo sucked at the challenges once again. If he wins, will he go
    down as the winner with the worst challenge performance record?


    Well I think that honor might go to Sandra, who I don't believe won an
    IC during either of her two wins.-a In the New Era, I think the only
    winner who never actually won an IC was Maryanne.

    Was Sandra worse than Rizo at challenges? He's horrible at them.

    I don't know how many previous winners never won an IC, but I believe
    the first example was Tina. Todd and Denise are other winners who I
    don't think ever won an IC.-a Don't know how many others there might be.

    Interesting.

    --Savannah's win in the Immunity Challenge was impressive. The way the
    first four were out so quickly, I thought it was going to be a short
    challenge. She and Sage lasting 35+ minutes and smashing Dee's 24
    minute record was unexpected.


    It looked to me like Savannah was in great shape and could have gone a
    lot longer.-a No way to really know how long she could have lasted.-a For that matter, the same could be said for Dee.-a Dee's 24-minute total just means whoever finished second dropped out at 24 min.-a It would be interesting if they repeat this challenge in S50 and Dee and Savannah
    can actually compete against one another.

    I'm sure they would have loved that. The problem is that the challenges
    are built in advance. It would be nice to know how long it takes to
    build them and how much testing they need to do.

    --Savannah's decision to choose Sophi to go to The Sanctuary along
    with Rizo was a huge strategic move. Not only did that make Sophi drop
    the idea of going after her, it also made Sophi feel so comfortable
    with her and Rizo that Sophi told them about the KIP. Rizo also
    appeared to have told them that his HII is good until F5. Is this the
    latest in the game they've gone to The Sanctuary?


    No idea.-a I've never been a fan of The Sanctuary, probably because of Jeff's annoying "where good things happen" mantra.-a I was really
    surprised that Sophi turned so quickly from her plan to try to shanghai Savannah and Rizo.

    I've mentioned this before, Sophi seems to really like Savannah. Knowing
    that Savannah kept a promise to her probably meant a lot to Sophi.
    Rizo's also been loyal to her. She probably also factored in Kristina's horrible game logic.

    --Rizo sure is emotional. Savannah and Sophi really didn't cry when
    they read their letters. Was Sophi's letter just from her mom?


    Not sure.-a It sounded like there could have been multiple letters from multiple relatives, but they didn't really go into detail with Soph.
    Maybe there's a secret scene where they expand on the rewards.-a This is another part of the show I don't care for and frequently skim past.

    There's a secret scene where Kristina says what would have been said in
    her letters. She was upset because Savannah didn't choose her. She
    basically said moms should always be chosen for the letters and that
    kids trump boyfriends and girlfriends.

    --Sophie Segretti will vote based on game. Did you see her smile and
    mouth "Hi" to the players when the jury walked in? That will be good
    for Savannah.


    Yup, another case of Game recognizes Game.

    I can see Sophie making a case for Savannah with the other jury members. Hopefully Nate does the same. If Kristina ends up on the jury Savannah
    will need both of them to fight for her. Kristina will be a bitter juror
    and likely a hateful one.
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 11 15:58:19 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/11/2025 1:37 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/11/2025 12:40 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 10:51 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 9:57 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 9:42 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is titled "The Die is Cast." I believe F6 is the >>>>>> last time Steven and Sophi can play their advantages. Will Sophi
    steal Rizo's HII? Will Steven be stupid enough not to play his
    "Block a Vote" and let Sophi steal it from him. You'd think either >>>>>> Rizo or Savannah has to win Individual Immunity for both to
    advance, but who knows with this bunch.

    More later.

    Just want to say for now that the end of TC was the best blindside
    we've seen in ages. I did not see that coming at all!


    Agree completely.

    Rizo showed again what a brilliant player is by convincing everyone
    that his idol was only good until F6, which directed attention away
    from him and basically guaranteed him a spot in F4.

    I can't believe he got away with that. I'm pretty sure HIIs,
    regardless of when and where they're found, have always been good to
    F5. Rizo's amazing at the outwit part of the game.

    I also liked how the show orchestrated it that Steven would say in
    confessional that he no longer had an advantage because he had
    effectively had to play it before leaving for TC.-a That clued the
    viewers in that Sophi's advantage would not work on him.

    We actually knew that from Jeff's clarification to Dalton last week.
    I think that was a preemptive move on Jeff's part because a number of
    people online are not happy with that rule.

    The three big questions going into TC were: would Sophi use her KIP
    on Rizo to steal his idol (she didn't), would Rizo play his idol on
    Sophi or himself in this TC (he didn't), and finally, would Sage and
    Christina vote out Steven (they did).-a-a I had no idea what the
    answer would be to any of those questions.

    Either did I. The editing was great tonight.The part about Sophi's
    grandma made me think there was a good chance that she would steal
    Rizo's HII knowing there was a good chance that they had fooled the
    others about how log the HII was good for.

    I think Rizo's idol play fakeout was pure theater. I expect so was
    Sophi's reaction. I think we're going to find out that they and
    Savannah knew that Sage and Kristina were flipping for sure.
    Hopefully at the start of the finale we find out if it was just Rizo
    who caused the flip or did Sage flip Kristina. Sage is being called
    an idiot on X tonight for handing the win to Rizo or Savannah
    (assuming that's true), but if you look at the makeup of the jury
    thus far, Steven would have a great shot at winning.

    Some more comments from me.

    --Rizo sucked at the challenges once again. If he wins, will he go
    down as the winner with the worst challenge performance record?

    --Savannah's win in the Immunity Challenge was impressive. The way
    the first four were out so quickly, I thought it was going to be a
    short challenge. She and Sage lasting 35+ minutes and smashing Dee's
    24 minute record was unexpected.

    --Savannah's decision to choose Sophi to go to The Sanctuary along
    with Rizo was a huge strategic move. Not only did that make Sophi
    drop the idea of going after her, it also made Sophi feel so
    comfortable with her and Rizo that Sophi told them about the KIP.
    Rizo also appeared to have told them that his HII is good until F5.
    Is this the latest in the game they've gone to The Sanctuary?

    --Rizo sure is emotional. Savannah and Sophi really didn't cry when
    they read their letters. Was Sophi's letter just from her mom?

    --Sophie Segretti will vote based on game. Did you see her smile and
    mouth "Hi" to the players when the jury walked in? That will be good
    for Savannah.

    Tweet from Sophi with some key details about last night's TC.

    It was a planned unan vote. Before tribal, Kristina told me about
    StevenrCOs Block a Vote but she didnrCOt know the specifics of it. Had I
    felt unsafe before tribal, I wouldrCOve taken the idol. Had Sav not won
    immunity, I wouldrCOve taken the idol. Only threat option left was Steven. >>
    https://x.com/sophibalerdi/status/1999121758075466063

    Here's another huge piece of info from Sophi in response to a comment.

    Did you have an idea that the idol expires at F5?

    It was my idea hahahahaha

    https://x.com/sophibalerdi/status/1999124604342649230


    So Sophi knew the votes were going to be unanimously against Steven, she knew that Rizo wasn't going to have to use his idol, and all her
    mopiness when RIzo said he couldn't use his idol on her was all just theater.-a She knew all along that she and her teammates were all going
    to be safe.

    When she ended up being safe I figured this was all planned and that she
    and Rizo were putting on a show.

    But the one thing that did surprise her was when Steven said no, he
    didn't have an advantage.-a That clearly surprised Soph and her friends,
    and she admitted while voting that it was "embarrassing".-a That was obviously intended as a moment where she would distinguish herself and
    be on the same level as Savannah and RIzo, with each having an advantage
    -a- but it fell completely flat.

    Steven saying he didn't have an advantage was surprising to a lot of
    people. Jeff and company failed miserably in trying to create TV moments.

    Next episode Rizo finally uses his idol and I presume Savannah is likely
    to win immunity.-a That means the power 3 will likely vote out Sage and carry Kristina to F4.-a That's the likely scenario considering the
    spoilers about Savannah making it to S50.-a In the event Savannah somehow loses immunity, it would give Sophi an opportunity to make up for the embarrassment from this episode and team-up with Kristina and Sage to
    take out Savannah, which could be her last chance to make a big move.
    But at this point, that seems really unlikely.


    It would be something if Rizo finally won II and used his HII to ensure Savannah's safety. If Savannah's vulnerable at TC it would be crazy not
    to take her out. I think you'll end up being right about Sage going next.
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rick@Rick@nospam.net to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 11 18:42:57 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/11/2025 5:46 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/11/2025 11:37 AM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/11/2025 12:51 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 9:57 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 9:42 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is titled "The Die is Cast." I believe F6 is the >>>>>> last time Steven and Sophi can play their advantages. Will Sophi
    steal Rizo's HII? Will Steven be stupid enough not to play his
    "Block a Vote" and let Sophi steal it from him. You'd think either >>>>>> Rizo or Savannah has to win Individual Immunity for both to
    advance, but who knows with this bunch.

    More later.

    Just want to say for now that the end of TC was the best blindside
    we've seen in ages. I did not see that coming at all!


    Agree completely.

    Rizo showed again what a brilliant player is by convincing everyone
    that his idol was only good until F6, which directed attention away
    from him and basically guaranteed him a spot in F4.

    I can't believe he got away with that. I'm pretty sure HIIs,
    regardless of when and where they're found, have always been good to
    F5. Rizo's amazing at the outwit part of the game.


    They haven't always been good to F5 (there was a period where they did
    expire at F6), but I'm pretty sure it's been F5 throughout the New Era
    and earlier. Surely one of Steven, Sage or Kristina should have
    realized that, especially Kristina who had her own idol.-a Maybe they
    got fooled because the KIP and some other advantages are only good to
    F6 and SITD expires at F7.-a And sometimes the show does switch things
    up, so maybe that's what they thought was the case here.-a Either way I
    agree Rizo did a good con job on this.

    I wonder if it was actually a long con - if he said it expired at F6
    the first time he ever revealed it and they just never showed that.-a I
    thought for a moment that Jeff might correct him when he said it was
    only good through F6, but Jeff wisely said nothing.

    Funny how Sage called Rizo a turd when he admitted it was really good
    to F5.-a Of course she would call him that.

    And speaking of SITD, it's interesting how no one has used it or even
    talked about it this season.-a I guess players are starting to realize
    that the chances of success are pretty slim, and even if you get lucky
    there is a good chance you'll just get voted out next TC.

    Interesting tweet from Rob's Fact Checker on SITD plays.

    #Survivor 49 is the first New Era season that had no Shot in the Dark
    plays. I compiled stats for all 15 plays:

    https://x.com/RobsFactChecker/status/1997375185474003040

    This is interesting, but what I think he should have added is on the
    ones that were SAFE (and I guess they could do it on the NOT SAFEs who
    weren't booted that episode), how many more episodes did the player
    remain in the game after that?


    I also liked how the show orchestrated it that Steven would say in
    confessional that he no longer had an advantage because he had
    effectively had to play it before leaving for TC.-a That clued the
    viewers in that Sophi's advantage would not work on him.

    We actually knew that from Jeff's clarification to Dalton last week.
    I think that was a preemptive move on Jeff's part because a number of
    people online are not happy with that rule.


    I'm certainly not happy with it, especially when the show knows there
    is also a KIP in the game.-a My view is that it is a technicality and
    an obscure one to say that the Vote Block is actually played before TC
    because producers have to be alerted to get the special parchment
    ready for the player who is blocked.-a They could clearly do that
    on-the-fly at TC once he announces he wants to block the vote.-a More
    better - just have the player publicly announce whose vote is being
    blocked and that person just doesn't get to vote.-a However they fix
    it, the current method is definitely confusing, and I'm glad Jeff
    recognizes that and will likely fix it for future seasons.

    They should definitely have the holder announce publicly whose vote they want to block or steal. Why should those advantages allow the holder to remain anonymous? And it's crazy that they're more powerful than the KIP.

    The three big questions going into TC were: would Sophi use her KIP
    on Rizo to steal his idol (she didn't), would Rizo play his idol on
    Sophi or himself in this TC (he didn't), and finally, would Sage and
    Christina vote out Steven (they did).-a-a I had no idea what the
    answer would be to any of those questions.

    Either did I. The editing was great tonight.The part about Sophi's
    grandma made me think there was a good chance that she would steal
    Rizo's HII knowing there was a good chance that they had fooled the
    others about how log the HII was good for.

    I think Rizo's idol play fakeout was pure theater. I expect so was
    Sophi's reaction. I think we're going to find out that they and
    Savannah knew that Sage and Kristina were flipping for sure.
    Hopefully at the start of the finale we find out if it was just Rizo
    who caused the flip or did Sage flip Kristina. Sage is being called
    an idiot on X tonight for handing the win to Rizo or Savannah
    (assuming that's true), but if you look at the makeup of the jury
    thus far, Steven would have a great shot at winning.


    That's definitely true, but I still thought Sage's hatred of Savannah
    and, by extension, Savannah's alliance, would have caused her to keep
    Steven around to vote out Sophi after they stole Savannah's vote.-a I
    really thought Sophi was going tonight.

    There were several times during the episode I thought Sophi was gone.
    Sage and Kristina's logic for voting out Steven makes no sense to me
    unless they were very confident that Steven staying would mean Savannah would be gone.

    Some more comments from me.

    --Rizo sucked at the challenges once again. If he wins, will he go
    down as the winner with the worst challenge performance record?


    Well I think that honor might go to Sandra, who I don't believe won an
    IC during either of her two wins.-a In the New Era, I think the only
    winner who never actually won an IC was Maryanne.

    Was Sandra worse than Rizo at challenges? He's horrible at them.


    My recollection was she was pretty bad. But of course she was also
    older and seemingly more out of shape than Rizo. It actually makes me
    half wonder if a young, seemingly healthy guy like Rizo may be
    deliberately dogging it in the challenges to lower his threat level.

    I don't know how many previous winners never won an IC, but I believe
    the first example was Tina. Todd and Denise are other winners who I
    don't think ever won an IC.-a Don't know how many others there might be.

    Interesting.

    --Savannah's win in the Immunity Challenge was impressive. The way
    the first four were out so quickly, I thought it was going to be a
    short challenge. She and Sage lasting 35+ minutes and smashing Dee's
    24 minute record was unexpected.


    It looked to me like Savannah was in great shape and could have gone a
    lot longer.-a No way to really know how long she could have lasted.
    For that matter, the same could be said for Dee.-a Dee's 24-minute
    total just means whoever finished second dropped out at 24 min.-a It
    would be interesting if they repeat this challenge in S50 and Dee and
    Savannah can actually compete against one another.

    I'm sure they would have loved that. The problem is that the challenges
    are built in advance. It would be nice to know how long it takes to
    build them and how much testing they need to do.


    But this one is already built and they film the seasons back-to-back. I
    don't know if the challenges are all in the same place and have to be reassembled fresh every time, but if they liked this challenge enough
    and wanted to repeat it in the following season, perhaps they could just
    leave it up or move the components somewhere temporary..

    --Savannah's decision to choose Sophi to go to The Sanctuary along
    with Rizo was a huge strategic move. Not only did that make Sophi
    drop the idea of going after her, it also made Sophi feel so
    comfortable with her and Rizo that Sophi told them about the KIP.
    Rizo also appeared to have told them that his HII is good until F5.
    Is this the latest in the game they've gone to The Sanctuary?


    No idea.-a I've never been a fan of The Sanctuary, probably because of
    Jeff's annoying "where good things happen" mantra.-a I was really
    surprised that Sophi turned so quickly from her plan to try to
    shanghai Savannah and Rizo.

    I've mentioned this before, Sophi seems to really like Savannah. Knowing that Savannah kept a promise to her probably meant a lot to Sophi.
    Rizo's also been loyal to her. She probably also factored in Kristina's horrible game logic.

    --Rizo sure is emotional. Savannah and Sophi really didn't cry when
    they read their letters. Was Sophi's letter just from her mom?


    Not sure.-a It sounded like there could have been multiple letters from
    multiple relatives, but they didn't really go into detail with Soph.
    Maybe there's a secret scene where they expand on the rewards.-a This
    is another part of the show I don't care for and frequently skim past.

    There's a secret scene where Kristina says what would have been said in
    her letters. She was upset because Savannah didn't choose her. She
    basically said moms should always be chosen for the letters and that
    kids trump boyfriends and girlfriends.

    --Sophie Segretti will vote based on game. Did you see her smile and
    mouth "Hi" to the players when the jury walked in? That will be good
    for Savannah.


    Yup, another case of Game recognizes Game.

    I can see Sophie making a case for Savannah with the other jury members. Hopefully Nate does the same. If Kristina ends up on the jury Savannah
    will need both of them to fight for her. Kristina will be a bitter juror
    and likely a hateful one.


    I hate to say this, because I actually liked him, but I think Jawan may
    also be a bit of a bitter juror. He's really been crossing the line a
    lot with his overt cheering from the jury, such as when Sophie was
    eliminated. If the finale is Savannah, Rizo and Kristina, I wonder if Kristina will get a couple of stray votes from Jawan, MC and maybe even
    a bitter Sage?

    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rick@Rick@nospam.net to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 11 18:54:03 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor



    It would be something if Rizo finally won II and used his HII to ensure Savannah's safety. If Savannah's vulnerable at TC it would be crazy not
    to take her out. I think you'll end up being right about Sage going next.


    Wow, I hadn't thought about the possibility of Riz winning IC and then
    giving his idol to Savannah. That would certainly be a major big move
    and would solidify his selection for S50.

    Another possibility is that Sage wins immunity, making Savannah
    vulnerable, and Sophi decides to side with Kristina and Sage and vote
    out Savannah - but Rizo becomes aware of what's happening, saves the day
    by giving his idol to Savannah, and he and Savannah vote out Sophi. That
    would also be a major big move that would solidify his legacy. But I
    don't really expect that because I do think Sophi values her
    relationship with Savannah and will remain loyal to Savannah and Riz.

    Sage winning the next IC is definitely a possibility, but I think the
    gang of three would probably just vote out Kristina in that case.

    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 11 15:13:08 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/11/2025 2:43 PM, shawn wrote:
    On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 23:57:47 -0500, Rick <Rick@nospam.net> wrote:

    On 12/10/2025 9:42 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is titled "The Die is Cast." I believe F6 is the
    last time Steven and Sophi can play their advantages. Will Sophi steal >>>> Rizo's HII? Will Steven be stupid enough not to play his "Block a
    Vote" and let Sophi steal it from him. You'd think either Rizo or
    Savannah has to win Individual Immunity for both to advance, but who
    knows with this bunch.

    More later.

    Just want to say for now that the end of TC was the best blindside we've >>> seen in ages. I did not see that coming at all!


    Agree completely.

    Rizo showed again what a brilliant player is by convincing everyone that
    his idol was only good until F6, which directed attention away from him
    and basically guaranteed him a spot in F4.

    That was great.

    I also liked how the show orchestrated it that Steven would say in
    confessional that he no longer had an advantage because he had
    effectively had to play it before leaving for TC. That clued the
    viewers in that Sophi's advantage would not work on him.

    That I hated and almost turned off the show because of how they
    clearly played Sophi. Allowing the advantage to be played and thus
    nullifying her advantage felt like the producers playing with the
    rules to get a good TV moment. It also seems like she couldn't play
    her advantage until the TC so she had no way to get his advantage
    other than playing her advantage at the last TC. Something I'm sure
    none of them would have considered even if they all knew about her
    advantage.

    What they did to her was complete bullshit. She wasn't happy about it
    either.

    Can we be fr tho rCLI choose to block Savannahs voterCY in a confessional is weird af rCa

    https://x.com/sophibalerdi/status/1999138899663130843
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 11 17:17:29 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/11/2025 4:54 PM, Rick wrote:


    It would be something if Rizo finally won II and used his HII to
    ensure Savannah's safety. If Savannah's vulnerable at TC it would be
    crazy not to take her out. I think you'll end up being right about
    Sage going next.


    Wow, I hadn't thought about the possibility of Riz winning IC and then giving his idol to Savannah.-a That would certainly be a major big move
    and would solidify his selection for S50.

    Another possibility is that Sage wins immunity, making Savannah
    vulnerable, and Sophi decides to side with Kristina and Sage and vote
    out Savannah - but Rizo becomes aware of what's happening, saves the day
    by giving his idol to Savannah, and he and Savannah vote out Sophi. That would also be a major big move that would solidify his legacy.-a But I
    don't really expect that because I do think Sophi values her
    relationship with Savannah and will remain loyal to Savannah and Riz.

    Sage winning the next IC is definitely a possibility, but I think the
    gang of three would probably just vote out Kristina in that case.

    Sophi needs to make a big move to stand out, especially after Jeff made
    her look bad playing the KIP. Taking out Savannah would be a huge move
    and might trump Rizo's flashy moves. I see Sophi staying loyal and
    possibly making a big move at F4. If she wins F4 Immunity, she could
    tell Rizo and Savannah that she's taking Sage/Kristina to the end
    because she can't beat them. If Savannah won F4 fire that would lock the
    game for her as far as I'm concerned. For Sophi to win she either needs
    to take out Savannah at F5 or beat her at fire at F4.

    Sage could easily win F5 Immunity. She's been close to winning a number
    of times. Like you said, that would likely just seal Kristina's fate.
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 11 17:30:03 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/11/2025 4:42 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/11/2025 5:46 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/11/2025 11:37 AM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/11/2025 12:51 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 9:57 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 9:42 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is titled "The Die is Cast." I believe F6 is
    the last time Steven and Sophi can play their advantages. Will
    Sophi steal Rizo's HII? Will Steven be stupid enough not to play >>>>>>> his "Block a Vote" and let Sophi steal it from him. You'd think >>>>>>> either Rizo or Savannah has to win Individual Immunity for both >>>>>>> to advance, but who knows with this bunch.

    More later.

    Just want to say for now that the end of TC was the best blindside >>>>>> we've seen in ages. I did not see that coming at all!


    Agree completely.

    Rizo showed again what a brilliant player is by convincing everyone >>>>> that his idol was only good until F6, which directed attention away >>>>> from him and basically guaranteed him a spot in F4.

    I can't believe he got away with that. I'm pretty sure HIIs,
    regardless of when and where they're found, have always been good to
    F5. Rizo's amazing at the outwit part of the game.


    They haven't always been good to F5 (there was a period where they
    did expire at F6), but I'm pretty sure it's been F5 throughout the
    New Era and earlier. Surely one of Steven, Sage or Kristina should
    have realized that, especially Kristina who had her own idol.-a Maybe
    they got fooled because the KIP and some other advantages are only
    good to F6 and SITD expires at F7.-a And sometimes the show does
    switch things up, so maybe that's what they thought was the case
    here.-a Either way I agree Rizo did a good con job on this.

    I wonder if it was actually a long con - if he said it expired at F6
    the first time he ever revealed it and they just never showed that.
    I thought for a moment that Jeff might correct him when he said it
    was only good through F6, but Jeff wisely said nothing.

    Funny how Sage called Rizo a turd when he admitted it was really good
    to F5.-a Of course she would call him that.

    And speaking of SITD, it's interesting how no one has used it or even
    talked about it this season.-a I guess players are starting to realize
    that the chances of success are pretty slim, and even if you get
    lucky there is a good chance you'll just get voted out next TC.

    Interesting tweet from Rob's Fact Checker on SITD plays.

    #Survivor 49 is the first New Era season that had no Shot in the Dark
    plays. I compiled stats for all 15 plays:

    https://x.com/RobsFactChecker/status/1997375185474003040

    This is interesting, but what I think he should have added is on the
    ones that were SAFE (and I guess they could do it on the NOT SAFEs who weren't booted that episode), how many more episodes did the player
    remain in the game after that?

    Rachel's probably the winner of that. She played her SITD on Day 15 and
    won the game. Jake played his on Day 16, and IIRC, he made it to the
    finale but not to the end.

    I also liked how the show orchestrated it that Steven would say in
    confessional that he no longer had an advantage because he had
    effectively had to play it before leaving for TC.-a That clued the
    viewers in that Sophi's advantage would not work on him.

    We actually knew that from Jeff's clarification to Dalton last week.
    I think that was a preemptive move on Jeff's part because a number
    of people online are not happy with that rule.


    I'm certainly not happy with it, especially when the show knows there
    is also a KIP in the game.-a My view is that it is a technicality and
    an obscure one to say that the Vote Block is actually played before
    TC because producers have to be alerted to get the special parchment
    ready for the player who is blocked.-a They could clearly do that on-
    the-fly at TC once he announces he wants to block the vote.-a More
    better - just have the player publicly announce whose vote is being
    blocked and that person just doesn't get to vote.-a However they fix
    it, the current method is definitely confusing, and I'm glad Jeff
    recognizes that and will likely fix it for future seasons.

    They should definitely have the holder announce publicly whose vote
    they want to block or steal. Why should those advantages allow the
    holder to remain anonymous? And it's crazy that they're more powerful
    than the KIP.

    The three big questions going into TC were: would Sophi use her KIP >>>>> on Rizo to steal his idol (she didn't), would Rizo play his idol on >>>>> Sophi or himself in this TC (he didn't), and finally, would Sage
    and Christina vote out Steven (they did).-a-a I had no idea what the >>>>> answer would be to any of those questions.

    Either did I. The editing was great tonight.The part about Sophi's
    grandma made me think there was a good chance that she would steal
    Rizo's HII knowing there was a good chance that they had fooled the
    others about how log the HII was good for.

    I think Rizo's idol play fakeout was pure theater. I expect so was
    Sophi's reaction. I think we're going to find out that they and
    Savannah knew that Sage and Kristina were flipping for sure.
    Hopefully at the start of the finale we find out if it was just Rizo
    who caused the flip or did Sage flip Kristina. Sage is being called
    an idiot on X tonight for handing the win to Rizo or Savannah
    (assuming that's true), but if you look at the makeup of the jury
    thus far, Steven would have a great shot at winning.


    That's definitely true, but I still thought Sage's hatred of Savannah
    and, by extension, Savannah's alliance, would have caused her to keep
    Steven around to vote out Sophi after they stole Savannah's vote.-a I
    really thought Sophi was going tonight.

    There were several times during the episode I thought Sophi was gone.
    Sage and Kristina's logic for voting out Steven makes no sense to me
    unless they were very confident that Steven staying would mean
    Savannah would be gone.

    Some more comments from me.

    --Rizo sucked at the challenges once again. If he wins, will he go
    down as the winner with the worst challenge performance record?


    Well I think that honor might go to Sandra, who I don't believe won
    an IC during either of her two wins.-a In the New Era, I think the
    only winner who never actually won an IC was Maryanne.

    Was Sandra worse than Rizo at challenges? He's horrible at them.


    My recollection was she was pretty bad.-a But of course she was also
    older and seemingly more out of shape than Rizo.-a It actually makes me
    half wonder if a young, seemingly healthy guy like Rizo may be
    deliberately dogging it in the challenges to lower his threat level.

    I don't know how many previous winners never won an IC, but I believe
    the first example was Tina. Todd and Denise are other winners who I
    don't think ever won an IC.-a Don't know how many others there might be.

    Interesting.

    --Savannah's win in the Immunity Challenge was impressive. The way
    the first four were out so quickly, I thought it was going to be a
    short challenge. She and Sage lasting 35+ minutes and smashing Dee's
    24 minute record was unexpected.


    It looked to me like Savannah was in great shape and could have gone
    a lot longer.-a No way to really know how long she could have lasted.
    For that matter, the same could be said for Dee.-a Dee's 24-minute
    total just means whoever finished second dropped out at 24 min.-a It
    would be interesting if they repeat this challenge in S50 and Dee and
    Savannah can actually compete against one another.

    I'm sure they would have loved that. The problem is that the
    challenges are built in advance. It would be nice to know how long it
    takes to build them and how much testing they need to do.


    But this one is already built and they film the seasons back-to-back.-a I don't know if the challenges are all in the same place and have to be reassembled fresh every time, but if they liked this challenge enough
    and wanted to repeat it in the following season, perhaps they could just leave it up or move the components somewhere temporary..

    I think they use different locations for the back-to-back seasons.

    --Savannah's decision to choose Sophi to go to The Sanctuary along
    with Rizo was a huge strategic move. Not only did that make Sophi
    drop the idea of going after her, it also made Sophi feel so
    comfortable with her and Rizo that Sophi told them about the KIP.
    Rizo also appeared to have told them that his HII is good until F5.
    Is this the latest in the game they've gone to The Sanctuary?


    No idea.-a I've never been a fan of The Sanctuary, probably because of
    Jeff's annoying "where good things happen" mantra.-a I was really
    surprised that Sophi turned so quickly from her plan to try to
    shanghai Savannah and Rizo.

    I've mentioned this before, Sophi seems to really like Savannah.
    Knowing that Savannah kept a promise to her probably meant a lot to
    Sophi. Rizo's also been loyal to her. She probably also factored in
    Kristina's horrible game logic.

    --Rizo sure is emotional. Savannah and Sophi really didn't cry when
    they read their letters. Was Sophi's letter just from her mom?


    Not sure.-a It sounded like there could have been multiple letters
    from multiple relatives, but they didn't really go into detail with
    Soph. Maybe there's a secret scene where they expand on the rewards.
    This is another part of the show I don't care for and frequently skim
    past.

    There's a secret scene where Kristina says what would have been said
    in her letters. She was upset because Savannah didn't choose her. She
    basically said moms should always be chosen for the letters and that
    kids trump boyfriends and girlfriends.

    --Sophie Segretti will vote based on game. Did you see her smile and
    mouth "Hi" to the players when the jury walked in? That will be good
    for Savannah.


    Yup, another case of Game recognizes Game.

    I can see Sophie making a case for Savannah with the other jury
    members. Hopefully Nate does the same. If Kristina ends up on the jury
    Savannah will need both of them to fight for her. Kristina will be a
    bitter juror and likely a hateful one.


    I hate to say this, because I actually liked him, but I think Jawan may
    also be a bit of a bitter juror. He's really been crossing the line a
    lot with his overt cheering from the jury, such as when Sophie was eliminated.-a If the finale is Savannah, Rizo and Kristina, I wonder if Kristina will get a couple of stray votes from Jawan, MC and maybe even
    a bitter Sage?

    You're right about Jawan. He's not even hiding who he likes and
    dislikes. I totally forgot about MC. It would be wild if the final vote
    ends up being 3rCo2rCo2. If they have Kristina cast the deciding vote that could be a win for Rizo.
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rick@Rick@nospam.net to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 11 20:01:10 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/11/2025 7:30 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/11/2025 4:42 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/11/2025 5:46 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/11/2025 11:37 AM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/11/2025 12:51 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 9:57 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 9:42 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/10/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is titled "The Die is Cast." I believe F6 is >>>>>>>> the last time Steven and Sophi can play their advantages. Will >>>>>>>> Sophi steal Rizo's HII? Will Steven be stupid enough not to play >>>>>>>> his "Block a Vote" and let Sophi steal it from him. You'd think >>>>>>>> either Rizo or Savannah has to win Individual Immunity for both >>>>>>>> to advance, but who knows with this bunch.

    More later.

    Just want to say for now that the end of TC was the best
    blindside we've seen in ages. I did not see that coming at all!


    Agree completely.

    Rizo showed again what a brilliant player is by convincing
    everyone that his idol was only good until F6, which directed
    attention away from him and basically guaranteed him a spot in F4.

    I can't believe he got away with that. I'm pretty sure HIIs,
    regardless of when and where they're found, have always been good
    to F5. Rizo's amazing at the outwit part of the game.


    They haven't always been good to F5 (there was a period where they
    did expire at F6), but I'm pretty sure it's been F5 throughout the
    New Era and earlier. Surely one of Steven, Sage or Kristina should
    have realized that, especially Kristina who had her own idol.-a Maybe >>>> they got fooled because the KIP and some other advantages are only
    good to F6 and SITD expires at F7.-a And sometimes the show does
    switch things up, so maybe that's what they thought was the case
    here.-a Either way I agree Rizo did a good con job on this.

    I wonder if it was actually a long con - if he said it expired at F6
    the first time he ever revealed it and they just never showed that.
    I thought for a moment that Jeff might correct him when he said it
    was only good through F6, but Jeff wisely said nothing.

    Funny how Sage called Rizo a turd when he admitted it was really
    good to F5.-a Of course she would call him that.

    And speaking of SITD, it's interesting how no one has used it or
    even talked about it this season.-a I guess players are starting to
    realize that the chances of success are pretty slim, and even if you
    get lucky there is a good chance you'll just get voted out next TC.

    Interesting tweet from Rob's Fact Checker on SITD plays.

    #Survivor 49 is the first New Era season that had no Shot in the Dark
    plays. I compiled stats for all 15 plays:

    https://x.com/RobsFactChecker/status/1997375185474003040

    This is interesting, but what I think he should have added is on the
    ones that were SAFE (and I guess they could do it on the NOT SAFEs who
    weren't booted that episode), how many more episodes did the player
    remain in the game after that?

    Rachel's probably the winner of that. She played her SITD on Day 15 and
    won the game. Jake played his on Day 16, and IIRC, he made it to the
    finale but not to the end.


    In Rachel's case, that was a purely strategic move since she already had
    a pass to leave Tribal early and knew she was safe.

    Jake was legitimately in danger and had votes against him, but Kellie
    ended up getting the most votes that time. After that, Jake for some
    reason was less of a target and he indeed made it to the finals as the
    zero vote 3rd finisher.

    I also liked how the show orchestrated it that Steven would say in >>>>>> confessional that he no longer had an advantage because he had
    effectively had to play it before leaving for TC.-a That clued the >>>>>> viewers in that Sophi's advantage would not work on him.

    We actually knew that from Jeff's clarification to Dalton last
    week. I think that was a preemptive move on Jeff's part because a
    number of people online are not happy with that rule.


    I'm certainly not happy with it, especially when the show knows
    there is also a KIP in the game.-a My view is that it is a
    technicality and an obscure one to say that the Vote Block is
    actually played before TC because producers have to be alerted to
    get the special parchment ready for the player who is blocked.-a They >>>> could clearly do that on- the-fly at TC once he announces he wants
    to block the vote.-a More better - just have the player publicly
    announce whose vote is being blocked and that person just doesn't
    get to vote.-a However they fix it, the current method is definitely
    confusing, and I'm glad Jeff recognizes that and will likely fix it
    for future seasons.

    They should definitely have the holder announce publicly whose vote
    they want to block or steal. Why should those advantages allow the
    holder to remain anonymous? And it's crazy that they're more powerful
    than the KIP.

    The three big questions going into TC were: would Sophi use her
    KIP on Rizo to steal his idol (she didn't), would Rizo play his
    idol on Sophi or himself in this TC (he didn't), and finally,
    would Sage and Christina vote out Steven (they did).-a-a I had no >>>>>> idea what the answer would be to any of those questions.

    Either did I. The editing was great tonight.The part about Sophi's
    grandma made me think there was a good chance that she would steal
    Rizo's HII knowing there was a good chance that they had fooled the >>>>> others about how log the HII was good for.

    I think Rizo's idol play fakeout was pure theater. I expect so was
    Sophi's reaction. I think we're going to find out that they and
    Savannah knew that Sage and Kristina were flipping for sure.
    Hopefully at the start of the finale we find out if it was just
    Rizo who caused the flip or did Sage flip Kristina. Sage is being
    called an idiot on X tonight for handing the win to Rizo or
    Savannah (assuming that's true), but if you look at the makeup of
    the jury thus far, Steven would have a great shot at winning.


    That's definitely true, but I still thought Sage's hatred of
    Savannah and, by extension, Savannah's alliance, would have caused
    her to keep Steven around to vote out Sophi after they stole
    Savannah's vote.-a I really thought Sophi was going tonight.

    There were several times during the episode I thought Sophi was gone.
    Sage and Kristina's logic for voting out Steven makes no sense to me
    unless they were very confident that Steven staying would mean
    Savannah would be gone.

    Some more comments from me.

    --Rizo sucked at the challenges once again. If he wins, will he go
    down as the winner with the worst challenge performance record?


    Well I think that honor might go to Sandra, who I don't believe won
    an IC during either of her two wins.-a In the New Era, I think the
    only winner who never actually won an IC was Maryanne.

    Was Sandra worse than Rizo at challenges? He's horrible at them.


    My recollection was she was pretty bad.-a But of course she was also
    older and seemingly more out of shape than Rizo.-a It actually makes me
    half wonder if a young, seemingly healthy guy like Rizo may be
    deliberately dogging it in the challenges to lower his threat level.

    I don't know how many previous winners never won an IC, but I
    believe the first example was Tina. Todd and Denise are other
    winners who I don't think ever won an IC.-a Don't know how many
    others there might be.

    Interesting.

    --Savannah's win in the Immunity Challenge was impressive. The way
    the first four were out so quickly, I thought it was going to be a
    short challenge. She and Sage lasting 35+ minutes and smashing
    Dee's 24 minute record was unexpected.


    It looked to me like Savannah was in great shape and could have gone
    a lot longer.-a No way to really know how long she could have lasted. >>>> For that matter, the same could be said for Dee.-a Dee's 24-minute
    total just means whoever finished second dropped out at 24 min.-a It
    would be interesting if they repeat this challenge in S50 and Dee
    and Savannah can actually compete against one another.

    I'm sure they would have loved that. The problem is that the
    challenges are built in advance. It would be nice to know how long it
    takes to build them and how much testing they need to do.


    But this one is already built and they film the seasons back-to-back.
    I don't know if the challenges are all in the same place and have to
    be reassembled fresh every time, but if they liked this challenge
    enough and wanted to repeat it in the following season, perhaps they
    could just leave it up or move the components somewhere temporary..

    I think they use different locations for the back-to-back seasons.

    --Savannah's decision to choose Sophi to go to The Sanctuary along
    with Rizo was a huge strategic move. Not only did that make Sophi
    drop the idea of going after her, it also made Sophi feel so
    comfortable with her and Rizo that Sophi told them about the KIP.
    Rizo also appeared to have told them that his HII is good until F5. >>>>> Is this the latest in the game they've gone to The Sanctuary?


    No idea.-a I've never been a fan of The Sanctuary, probably because
    of Jeff's annoying "where good things happen" mantra.-a I was really
    surprised that Sophi turned so quickly from her plan to try to
    shanghai Savannah and Rizo.

    I've mentioned this before, Sophi seems to really like Savannah.
    Knowing that Savannah kept a promise to her probably meant a lot to
    Sophi. Rizo's also been loyal to her. She probably also factored in
    Kristina's horrible game logic.

    --Rizo sure is emotional. Savannah and Sophi really didn't cry when >>>>> they read their letters. Was Sophi's letter just from her mom?


    Not sure.-a It sounded like there could have been multiple letters
    from multiple relatives, but they didn't really go into detail with
    Soph. Maybe there's a secret scene where they expand on the rewards.
    This is another part of the show I don't care for and frequently
    skim past.

    There's a secret scene where Kristina says what would have been said
    in her letters. She was upset because Savannah didn't choose her. She
    basically said moms should always be chosen for the letters and that
    kids trump boyfriends and girlfriends.

    --Sophie Segretti will vote based on game. Did you see her smile
    and mouth "Hi" to the players when the jury walked in? That will be >>>>> good for Savannah.


    Yup, another case of Game recognizes Game.

    I can see Sophie making a case for Savannah with the other jury
    members. Hopefully Nate does the same. If Kristina ends up on the
    jury Savannah will need both of them to fight for her. Kristina will
    be a bitter juror and likely a hateful one.


    I hate to say this, because I actually liked him, but I think Jawan
    may also be a bit of a bitter juror. He's really been crossing the
    line a lot with his overt cheering from the jury, such as when Sophie
    was eliminated.-a If the finale is Savannah, Rizo and Kristina, I
    wonder if Kristina will get a couple of stray votes from Jawan, MC and
    maybe even a bitter Sage?

    You're right about Jawan. He's not even hiding who he likes and
    dislikes. I totally forgot about MC. It would be wild if the final vote
    ends up being 3rCo2rCo2. If they have Kristina cast the deciding vote that could be a win for Rizo.


    You mean 3-3-2. That would really be wild.

    While I think Rizo winning is a definite possibility, I kind of think
    the edit is leading to a Savannah win.

    I also am intrigued by the fact that the teams are reportedly split up
    in S50 in a way that previous winners Dee and Kyle are on separate
    tribes, and Savannah is on the third tribe (Rizo is on either Kyle or
    Dee's team). That symmetry really hints at Savannah winning and the
    three prior winners in S50 all being on separate tribes.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2