An "Insider" Look at Survivor: Fiji, Episode 11 - “If I Was [in] the Last Two, I'm Sure Everyone Would Vote for Me”

Mookie's Final Words
Mookie starts by saying “I'm proud of the way I played this game.” He notes that being moral and honest doesn't work in this game. He thought he could trust some people and he got backstabbed. He learned some lessons. In some ways, Mookie's glad to be out, but he also wants to still be in the game, “making everyone's lives miserable.” Mookie says he had a lot of bad luck. He never got to see the nice Moto camp. He never was on a side that won an immunity challenge.

Mookie's learned a lot about himself and his willpower. He says that 17 days without food is a long time. He wishes luck to everyone back at camp. It's going to be rough and there will be a lot of backstabbing. Mookie tried to be trusting and now he's out of the game. But it was a great experience and he wouldn't trade it for anything. Now that he's in the jury, he'll get a chance to think about who screwed with him and who played the game well. He played the game as well as he could, “If I was the last two, I'm sure everyone would vote for me,” because Mookie played hard. His vote will be based on how people played.

Ah, Mookie, not much insight in these comments. Maybe he'll have better insight after having a night to think about it.

Mookie, the Day After
Mookie's gelled his hair and is ready to talk! He says that he knew it would be him or Alex before Tribal Council. There's relief in being out. You have to think strategy all the time when you're out there. But once he got over the relief he has to think about how close he was to a million dollars. One of the people left out there will be a millionaire (well, if they don't pay their taxes, Mookie!) Mookie thinks he'll miss the dynamics of people trying to outwit each other. He says that he knows he can outwit at least half the people out there! Most of them are there simply through luck. They were on Moto and never had to do anything. For Mookie, it was hard work and chance and a lot of wit. He misses outsmarting, “if that's a word.” Heh.

Mookie notes that the game is really in play now. Friends will have to turn on each other. If Mookie was to start over he'd think more about strategy rather than concentrating on winning. Mookie voted off a lot of people based on whether they'd help win challenges or not. He got rid of a lot of probably loyal people by doing that. The dynamics of the game change all the time, and you can't predict what's going to happen. At the time, everything seems natural, but then you look back and think “why'd I do that?”

At first, he tried to keep Michelle and Rita in the game. They were both on the chopping block early and he knew he needed them for his alliance. But once you stop eating and drinking, you're not thinking straight – you don't even know what thinking straight is any more. All he cared about was winning challenges. Mookie would have kept Rita and worked more on his relationship with Michelle if he could do it over. But he was hungry and Rita started annoying him, so he voted her out. They were cannibalizing their own alliances just to win. He's never lost so much before, and it hurt his ego.

When he gets to the jury, he'll be looking for lies and seeing how people played. He knows you have to lie in the game. He wants to see who outsmarted and outwitted the others. The strategy he'll most admire would be one like his own because it “obviously would come from a great mind.”

Okay, then. Mookie officially has no insight. He mentions voting out members of his own alliance prematurely as being a problem, but seems to have little cognizance of his other strategic shortcomings or mistakes in either of these clips. He seems all about his own ego and how good a player he was, while others were just lucky. Oh, and the best player is the one remaining who plays like him. Yeah. Right.

Reward Challenge: Slop Pit
This is the challenge clip we saw on the show. The teams seem pretty evenly matched in this one. Boo gets hurt. The players get muddy. Oh, and Mookie throws a lot of unnecessarily dirty looks at Yau-Man.

Alex's New Plan
Alex starts off by gleefully interviewing that Mookie and he are “going out swinging.” They aren't going to take it calmly. They're going to “bring Hell” with them. Alex says that Stacy, Boo, and Dreamz didn't know Yau-Man has the idol. Alex thinks outing this information will make him more of a target, or at least make him of more concern to others. Alex thinks if he can make it though the coming tribal council, there will be an odd number of people and his vote will matter more. There will be a potential 4-3 situation. Right now, he's sure they're all just planning on getting rid of him and Mookie.

Alex knows he may be gone, regardless. But he needs to lay low through this vote, get Mookie gone, and try to “bob and weave” and try to get into a 4-3 voting alliance. Alex thinks that, after this vote, the others may want to see Boo gone because he's more of a threat. If that's the case, Alex can be a wallflower and make it to a final six position. A lot can change one or two votes into it. For now, he just needs to make it through this vote. Alex believes Boo is trying to get in with Cassandra right now. He goes on to say, “Boo's not very smart. He's just not.” Alex says he's tried to work out scenarios with Boo, but he just doesn't get it. He doesn't think appealing to logic will work with Boo. If Alex tells Boo anything, he'll just tattle to Cassandra. Alex is better off just trying to forget about what just happened and attempting to wiggle his way back into the alliance.

Alex seems to have a reasonable grasp of his situation – once he gets over the initial macho histrionics bit. He's correct in wanting to just get through this next vote by sacrificing Mookie if he can, and then hoping to take advantage of a schism in the alliance of six. I'm pretty sure Mookie did not work this out the way Alex did.

Immunity Challenge: Torch Island
This is the same challenge shown on this past week's episode. Some of the players struggle to even remember where their own squares are, let alone what else is happening in the game. Stacy, Alex, and Yau-Man are the final three left in the game, and Stacy makes a winning move that hits all three of them, leaving only herself with a square remaining.

Tribal Council
This week's tribal council wasn't nearly as dramatic as last week's, although the majority's vote-splitting strategy made it at least theoretically possible that a swing vote or two could have done some damage. Of course, the only swing vote was Alex's.

Earl votes for Alex. “Great guy, look forward to hanging out with you, but it's checkmate right now. You understand. Talk to you later.”

Boo votes for Mookie. “Sorry, brother, but that's just the way the cookie crumbles.”

Cassandra votes for Mookie. She doesn't say a word about it.

Mookie votes for Boo. “Nothing personal. Someone needs to go.” That would be you, Mookie.

Stacy votes for Alex. “Even though you got nutty at the end, you still gave a good fight. But this time you got outplayed.”

Yau-Man votes for Alex. “Alex, you're a very strong leader and you can still plot. So, you have to go now.”

Dreamz votes for Mookie. “Better luck next time.”

Alex votes for Mookie. “Just trying to stay this(?) another day, buddy. Good luck.”

From Yau-Man's comment, it sounds like the six planned on voting Alex out if the expected tie happened and no immunity idol was pulled. So, Alex's vote kept him in the game another few days. Good job, Alex.

Teeuwynn is a professional puzzle, game and event designer. You can check out one of Teeuwynn's current puzzles here. You can reach Teeuwynn at Teeuwynn@gmail.com

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