This season was entertaining to watch but frustrating at times. The interactions between the cast members were great. The strategy was some of the worst we have seen in a long time. Had this season had 60-minute episodes, it would have been borderline unwatchable, like Ghost Island was. The episodes would have been heavy on twists and strategy, but the strategy was bad and everyone except Jake laid down for the Reba 4 just like everyone laid down for Dom and Wendell in Ghost Island. And the episodes would have been light on the character moments and conflicts that made the season entertaining. It would have been a slog, especially in the postmerge. Having the episodes be 90 minutes made a huge difference and I hope they stay that way.
The F5 vote will be discussed for a long time as a case of how not to play Survivor after Borneo. And it was only possible because the Reba alliance was so strong, and the other players so weak, that they were never really challenged. All five people played completely independently of each other. It's wild to see that after 45 seasons.
Dee was the glue that held the Reba 4 together and was so bonded to both Julie and Austin that she couldn't conceive of voting against either of them, and thought she could have beaten them both at FTC. (And she may have been right given how the F7 and F6 votes went down.) Since she knew Jake had an idol, the only option in her mind was to vote for Katurah. Her saying she thought Katurah was a jury threat may have just been rationalization on her part, because we certainly didn't see that in the edit. It could also be bad editing.
Austin was immune, was never going to vote against Dee, and knew that Julie was the biggest jury threat who wasn't Dee (and would likely beat him at FTC), so his vote made sense. We'll never know if he would have voted against Dee if they weren't in a showmance.
Jake was entertaining but had a major case of big-move-itis. It's understandable because he was on the outs since the Kaleb vote, but part of that was because he failed to get people to trust him, which manifested itself at this vote by Katurah ditching his plan at the last minute because she didn't trust him. His withholding the info that he was going to play his idol on her showed that he was too focused on making a flashy move and not focused enough on building the relationships that actually win you the game most seasons. He's the most likely from this cast to get a return appearance because Probst LOVES players with big-move-itis, especially if they also have an underdog story.
This vote showed that Julie was a pretty terrible strategic player. She voted Jake, who had little chance of winning, because she was still obsessed with avenging his vote against her at the Kaleb boot, even though she was told he had an idol. That's Rupert-level gameplay. She couldn't conceive of voting against Dee and couldn't vote against Austin, but a vote for Dee would have saved her and a vote for Katurah might have if Jake could have been convinced he was the target and should play his idol on himself.
Katurah's vote made no sense, like most things she did in this game. She went against her own advice -- she needed both Dee and Julie out before F3 to have a chance, and she knew Dee was more likely to win FIC, but she voted Julie because she didn't trust Jake. It was funny how she voted Julie, which was originally Jake's idea, and he voted Dee, which was originally Katurah's idea. Her confessionals were entertaining and her backstory was compelling, but I question whether it was a good idea to allow her on the show. It's clear she still has a lot of trauma from her cult years, which manifests itself as trust issues, especially with men. (I said earlier in this thread that I wouldn't be surprised if her visceral reaction to Bruce was because he reminded her of the cult leader(s) that traumatized her.)
I did find it amusing that a game which featured almost all unanimous votes (and a couple of split votes that literally everyone was in on, including the splittee), we had the complete opposite of that at F5 (four different people getting votes at the same tribal is very rare, and unheard of when there are five players left) and the first non-7-1-0 vote at FTC in the new era.
As is her custom, Sia has given money to her favorite players from this season: 100K to Katurah, 15K to Jake and 15K to Kaleb.
