[Jeff Probst]

This is Tai's Final Tribal Council Thread.

All other Jurors should remain in their own threads. Final 3, remember... this is not for you to address each other, but to talk to Tai. In-fighting amongst the Final 3 should be reserved for the Live Final Tribal Council on Sunday.

Tai, you have until Saturday at 8c/9e to post your statements/questions to the Final 3. Remember not to take up too much of their time as they have 10 other jurors to get to. Please no listing or questions requiring novels for answers. You should post all of your statements/questions in your opening post in this thread. There is a live Final Council on Sunday where you will get to address everyone live about the statements they have made as well ask follow-ups.

[Tai]

Hiiiiii everyone! Congrats on making it to the end! I clearly remember telling myself that Mike and Matt were definitely gonna get to the end and Sherri, you surprised me so much and so happy for you!

I am a pretty biased juror, especially wanting to vote for my ally in the end even if they had to burn me on their way there. I had genuine conversations with you all, and I’m kinda sad to hear that some of it might not have been genuine back.

Mike

I was surprised to hear that you told someone about me making a final 4 deal with you. I just want to clarify this was premerge and you asked me what a “mai tai” would like in the future and I answered. On top of that you were the only one who did not talk to me on the day of my boot(which adds the condescending nature other people are talking about) Why didn’t you ever give me a chance to work with you and why do you think have been coming off as condescending to the jurors?

Matt

My “intern” hahahaha, I told you you would get to the end! I’m really surprised to hear how the jury perceived you, they said along the lines of being kinda mean with your comments at tribal! I didn’t have that experience at all. So now I am getting extra thoughts of.. oh did he just play me? Because you didn’t try to save me at my boot at all, I don’t even think attempted and I really thought of you as one of my closest allies. Can you explain that and why do you think you are being perceived in this mean way by the jury?

Sherri!!!! Just an update, been gymming and eating super healthy, I hope you have had some more French toast while I was gone. You are such a sweet and genuine person, I absolutely loved getting to know you, I don’t think any jurors had anything personally negative to say about you. Can you rank the jury on who you trusted the most to least, explain anything worth noting and using whatever time frame you want!

Fun for each of you guys because I know some of the jurors on here love flattery, but swapping spots with you, who on the jury would beat the other two finalists and why?

[Michael]

Mike

I was surprised to hear that you told someone about me making a final 4 deal with you. I just want to clarify this was premerge and you asked me what a “mai tai” would like in the future and I answered. On top of that you were the only one who did not talk to me on the day of my boot(which adds the condescending nature other people are talking about) Why didn’t you ever give me a chance to work with you and why do you think have been coming off as condescending to the jurors?

Hey Tai,

I'll echo that the final four offer you gave of Mai Tai was premerge (I want to say around the Wardog boot, but that could be wrong). I think I was just more put off by it because I just always had an uneasy feeling about you as a player and you named me with Matt in that final four which really also freaked me out because Matt and I were trying to hide how close we were at the time.

About the day of your boot, I understand why you'd think of it as kind of a dickish move to not speak to you that day, I think it's really valid of you to think that. It goes back to what my biggest issue with you was: I genuinely liked you as a person and I really think we connected well. I loved talking to you about your goals, casinos, and talking about working bars. You were one of the people I found it easiest to talk to. But you were one of the people who I think had the best "gift of the gab" and able to spread information around the most, which is a skill that always intimidated me.

When it was your boot day, I didn't speak to you because you were one of the few people I think would have been able to successfully talk your way out of it with me. Your gift of the gab is very persuasive and I was worried that you'd be able to work on me and try and sway things a different way. Which would have been totally fun at the time but ultimately detrimental to my game.

In my application, I compared myself to Sophie. Which I still think is a pretty perfect comparison. I think I can be a bit cold, I think be a bit blunt, and condescending too. It's something that I'm always working on in my real life, but I believe that a game like Stranded really amplifies those qualities in myself. I know I don't quite have that magnetic personality, or a strong gift of the gab like I see in players here like yourself. I've never felt like I was anyone's favorite person here so I feel like I've really been trying overcompensate by putting on airs about my game.


In truth, I've struggled a lot playing Stranded because I've had so many highs and so many lows. I've been on top and I've been a pariah. I grew up in a bad situation as a gay youth where I ended up learning to use over confidence and cockiness as a defense mechanism to self soothe myself. Because if my family wasn't going to love me, I'd need to love myself twice as hard. So it's very much something that I find hard to shake even today. It really comes out in times of hard stress and adversity, which can be a great tool to motivate myself...but I know it can really come at the cost of how those around me view me. I deeply apologize if I came off as cocky and/or condescending, I never meant to offend you or hurt you in that manner. I told you that for me 2021 was about ownership. This is something I own and I know I do need to apologize for.

Fun for each of you guys because I know some of the jurors on here love flattery, but swapping spots with you, who on the jury would beat the other two finalists and why?

Alexis and Hope would, 100%. I think Alexis is an obvious one so I want to talk about Hope a bit.

Hope is someone I truly underestimated throughout the premerge and I'd say the start of the merge as well. But she quickly grew as a strong force in the game and I don't think I realized it as early as I should have. She was hilarious to talk to and she knew how to stab someone in the back while making a dick joke to them about it- something I appreciate. I think her aggressive gameplay and strong personality, especially towards the end, is something I admire.

[Sherri]

Hey there Tai! So happy to hear your fitness journey is coming along nicely! I was always very happy to live my own health dreams through you while you lived your fatty, carb eating dreams through me lol. And yes I have had so much French Toast since you've been away...you'd be totally jealous! Thank you so much for saying all that too, I also loved getting to know you. Onto the question, and here's how I trusted the jury from most to least...

REYNOLD - One of my earliest and strongest allies. He pledged his loyalty early and told me he'd never vote me out. I'm not sure how that would have all held up as we came into the endgame but I trusted Reynold a huge amount.

STEPH - Ditto with Steph. We had been together slightly less time than I had with Reynold but we really built something great on our swap tribes. I trusted her with pretty much everything and I had her back 100%.

TAI - Then comes you! We got split after that first swap but I really bonded with you there and then once again when we merged. I think us giving you immunity and then you sharing your clue really solidified something great with the pair of us.

SHAMAR - I'm not sure what a lot of Shamar's goals were in the endgame, but I still trusted him a fair amount. I tried to get his input on things and even when he was booted, I didn't necessarily want to see him leave there. Great friend.

HOPE - Hope was definitely a mixed bag because there were times I did trust her and times I didn't but for the most part we were on the same page during the merge and I trusted her at least up until the endgame.

ALEXIS - Okay well I guess I didn't trust Alexis that much lol but I think at least in the early merge she felt genuine with me. Long term I knew I wouldn't really be able to trust her but for those first few votes I felt that I could.

JESSICA - This was such a unique relationship since we were only just meeting at the merge and I'd say there was trust....but careful trust. We didn't always vote together or want the same thing but there was enough trust there to share some information.

ALLIE - Allie and I weren't often on the same side of things and I think after the Jed boot, that kind of drew the line in the sand a bit. We both knew that though, and we still talked and kept up conversations even if weren't sharing everything with each other.

AURORA - Aurora and I had a bit of a strange relationship because we were on that swap tribe together but then took out Hannah and things weren't quite the same. Then we met back up at the merge and I voted her straight away whoops. I didn't expect her to trust me after that and I didn't trust her fully, but I think we were able to get something going for at least a couple of rounds.

LIZ - Started off really great on our first tribe and then early on in our second swap but obviously things really broke down with the Jed boot. I don't think either of us trusted each other much after that and come the merge, we were definitely both out to get each other eventually. Managed to hash things out but weren't really going to be sharing much important information with each other from that point.

ROCKER - Someone has to be last and that someone is Rocker. Mainly just because out of everyone in the jury I think I spoke the least amount of game with him. Our goals just weren't aligned, I didn't build some super strong bond and even if we kept talking, I think we both knew we weren't in each other's long game plans.

~

As for your other question and well yes, Alexis is an obvious answer, but my second answer for this is going to be Steph. I saw Steph's game up close and I know how strong she was socially, strategically and with challenges. She was always considering every option and going into detail about what we should do and what's the best for our game. I saw she said that she was a 'villain' on her last season but I think she definitely became a hero here. Super sweet, super smart and super likeable. I think if she was up here in an alternate world instead of me, she'd have a real great chance at taking it all.

Thanks Tai!

[Matt]

Hi Tai,

It's great to get to connect again! I really enjoyed getting to know you during the course of the game and apologize for not treating you right during your boot round. I'd like to address your comments below:

My “intern” hahahaha, I told you you would get to the end! I’m really surprised to hear how the jury perceived you, they said along the lines of being kinda mean with your comments at tribal! I didn’t have that experience at all. So now I am getting extra thoughts of.. oh did he just play me? Because you didn’t try to save me at my boot at all, I don’t even think attempted and I really thought of you as one of my closest allies. Can you explain that and why do you think you are being perceived in this mean way by the jury?
Throughout the course of the game up until your boot round I thought of you as one of my closest allies too. I ranked you high on my merge list (right after Michael and Sherri and Stephannie) and was hoping to make things work with you.

Going back to the beginning on Pink 2.0, I found myself naturally gravitating towards you. I loved talking to you about our boyfriends, work, the gym, and hobbies just as friends. When it seemed that Jessica/Liz may have been trying to control the vote on our tribe by protecting Aurora/Hannah (through Alexis/Michael) that didn't sit right with me. I worked with others to ensure that you and Stephannie were protected because you were the two Green players I was most into. So on my end everything was genuine with you there. When people called you sketchy I tried to counter or I tried to put the vote onto someone I had connected less well with.

Moving to Pink 3.0 with you on Green 3.0, I hoped you did well and was worried about you. I worked with Stephannie, Reynold, and Sherri to pool our coins, and when Stephannie won the necklace that one round before merge, I and the others pushed for you to get the other necklace. I wanted you to be safe. I liked you.

Coming into the merge, Michael immediately told me that you were sketchy and you immediately told me that Michael was sketchy. I felt caught in the middle from the launch there. I wasn't sure how our long-term plans would align. I could've come to you about it and I may have but I heard from Michael that you had talked to Aurora about the fans coming together to vote the vets out. This comment kind of annoyed me because I think it rocked some of the fans on the fence about voting with us in that f14 round. I could've given you the benefit of the doubt, and I didn't, so I'm sorry for that.

The round you left it seemed like it was a lost cause. Nobody from our group talked to me about keeping you or coming up with a plan to keep you. Based on the way I positioned myself I felt comfortable moving forward without you and thought that I would be okay with my other bonds on both sides of the game. It wasn't personal and I did not handle our relationship well the round of your boot round either. I could've come to you and told you what was going. I was worried about you scrambling given your reputation (whether justified or not) and I was also worried about you potentially having an idol. Those aren't excuses, I still sucked and treated you poorly that round. I did play you that round particularly by not proactively helping you out.

In terms of my 'meanness', I think some of this is true and I take ownership for it. I was really competitive internally and I sucked at voting people out. I think the jury is perceiving me as mean because of the personal connections I built with certain players. To have those sort of good feelings coincide with bad feelings is difficult and rubs people the wrong way. I tried to keep all my comments about the game and player activities and how they were making me feeling. If I could do things over I would've been a lot more cordial in my voting reasons and in how I acted at tribal council. I felt like a lot of people talked shit in DMs and then were super sweet at tribal and in vote sign-offs and in goodbyes. I could've taken that approach too. For example, Sherri called Elizabeth "the ultimate goat" several times in our DMs but was fake nice to her at tribal and is now being sweet to her here. I guess I could've done the same thing.

Fun for each of you guys because I know some of the jurors on here love flattery, but swapping spots with you, who on the jury would beat the other two finalists and why?
I think based on who went out when they went out, I would put Alexis, Hope, Stephannie, and Jessica here. Alexis is an obvious one for her all-around threat status. Hope is obvious to me too because she really had an iron grip on the merge for a large part of it even if everyone knew she was playing the middle. Stephannie I think managed her visibility better than Sherri, and Jessica would've made for a fun FTC with any lingering fan vs. vet issues. I haven't been in the jury lodge and I don't have the best read on the dynamics of everyone but that's who I would be considering if I were a juror and why.

Thank you and I hope we can talk once this is done!

[Tai]

Thank you all for answering my questions gracefully! I believe I have my mind set up now and ps. Lol Aurora admitted to making up the lie that I started the newbie alliance rumor!

Great game everyone and I hope you guys make the most of what’s happening! Love you all!