[Jeff Probst]

This is John'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 John. In-fighting amongst the Final 3 should be reserved for the Live Final Tribal Council on Sunday.

John, 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 7 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.

[John]

What's up brochachos?!










Man. It sure does feel weird stepping back into the ring after all this time.





Good news is that the rust wears off real quick once you get straight back into the action. And let's be honest out here, this game had a ton of action.





Total Nonstop Action was an understatement. Have to say that I don't think there was a dull moment throughout this whole thing. An entire month of complete insanity. I have to give credit to everybody for fighting all the way to the end but more importantly need to recognize the hosts for putting up with all of the absolute maniacs that agreed to sign up in the first place. That being said, need to see everybody keep on pushing themselves over the others in order to prove they deserve this win! My vote is still very much up in the air, and your answers today and tomorrow will be making a big impact on everybody's individual decision. And I need to clearly state that this is everybody's INDIVIDUAL decision. It's kind of ridiculous hearing speeches about how "Ponderosa thinks this" and "the jury has felt that". All three of you should know very well by now that nobody speaks for me, and I'm sure as hell going to make my own decisions as I have throughout the entire game.





I completely disagree with anyone who has called any of you three out for hiding under the radar. Maybe it's just me, but at least I've never considered someone to be hiding behind others while also getting yelled at by half the game like Jack did after he flipped to vote for Lauren. I've never thought someone could be labeled as under the radar while also calling people out left and right at tribal councils like Kara did. The same goes for Aaron who also had a massive target on his back for much of this game. All three of you had your own flashy moments and played this game hard in order to manage to make it this far. From my perspective, any of you would be deserving winners.

Glad to be able to get that part off my chest because now I've got a huge decision to make, and I need to know some real details about what you were thinking. One of the reasons I am extremely confident that you all were playing this game hard is because I got to know each of you all pretty well and tried to work with each of you to varying degrees multiple times throughout this game. What I also know is that you all lied to me directly, including but definitely not limited to when I was voted out. While I am curious to hear your thoughts and why you personally thought it was beneficial to get rid of me when I made it clear I didn't want any of you out that night, I'm more interested to hear what the rationale was for the need to blindside me when we were all under the impression that no idols were in play and there was a solid and confirmed majority on board to vote me out. Will say bluntly that if any of you gave me a heads up throughout the weekend, my vote would be locked in, but that didn't happen.

So from what I saw last Sunday, we had @Kara, someone I would have never voted for, trust others over myself. Then when I confronted her about her alliance with Nick and Tommy, she denied it despite that I told her Nick made the same alliance with me and Tommy and that Tommy had told me about the group chat she made to create it. Now I get to hear her brag about how her best move of the game was getting rid of me. We also had @Jack, someone I tried to work with on many occassions throughout the game and continued to fight to keep the huge target he had off of him, put absolutely no effort in trying to get the vote shifted on to anyone besides myself despite not having any social relationship whatsoever with the person I was targeting (Nick). And we can't forget about @Aaron who lied to me every step of the way since the merge started. Fact of the matter is every single one of you burnt me, and I need to decide whose strategy and logic made the most sense throughout this game. If I was a bitter juror, I guess my vote would have to go to Aaron because he was always the least trustworthy and technically backstabbed me the least despite his promises to vote for Nick, but I'm going into the final tribal council with an open mind. I'm willing to listen to all three of you defend yourself if you feel the need to.





Anyways, let's all try to move past that rambling mess, and I will leave you with my actual question. Hate to be the one to bring up the giant elephant in the room, but it needs to be addressed. Angelina had a huge impact on this game, and she was holding onto an idol at the final 8. Had she not been kicked out by the hosts, how does the rest of the game shake out from your point of view? What would have changed? What would have been your game plan and goals for the rest of the game?

Not only did two big personalities get kicked off the jury, but if they would have voted for the same person to win, one of you missed out on a couple of winner votes. So yeah, the whole situation blowed.....Can't even imagine the game without either of them in it. Absolutely crazy to think about it looking back, but we can't stress out about the past or what we can't control. I also need to bring up that no matter what your answers are, you three have all proven you can adapt to anything thrown at you by getting to this point. That is far more than rest of us can say. So no matter what happens.....definitely feel proud of what you've done to make it this far and keep your heads held high!

Good luck and see you on the flip side!

[Aaron]

John-

First off, I want to say addressing you was the thing I have been looking forward to the most. Your vote out has been a huge topic of discussion, as you can tell.

I want to first explain the rationale behind you and I never getting on the same page. My hope is this explanation will set the stage for what really happened during your vote out, and subsequently, what would have happened should Angelina have stayed in this game. I mentioned this to you in game following Dean's eviction, and I was surprised you took it as well as you did. Your game was threatening to me because you had lifelines with every person left in the game. Alison had told me she would not vote for you, Kara had hid behind your strategic maneuvering the entire game, Angelina had told me you were locked into her top 5, Nick had discussed his loyalty to you when I asked him about the flip, and Tommy had made it clear through his whispers at tribal who his number one was. Your social game was impeccable. You also were always incredibly careful with what you said to me, rightfully so, which made me realize there was no chance I fit into the picture of your game. Within my alliance, everyone knew who my number one target was- and now that someone who was in that said alliance, Nick, was in your back pocket, I assumed that information was revealed to you. You were the biggest social threat in this game.

Now, to your vote out. Kara has been toting this as her "MVP move", but the unfortunate reality for her is that her "MVP move" was nothing but her continuing to do what she did best- be a spoke on the wheel of a plan that was already in motion. Once Angelina was removed from the game, I knew that war had the chance of beginning. I always alluded to the war that would come in Stranded, and like a Christmas miracle, it came a day early for me. After a week of you telling me essentially to "stand by", even though I gave you ample opportunity to bring me in, Alison reached out with a Final 4 request of you, me, Tommy and her. This was exactly the information that I needed. You and I touched base shortly after, and you confirmed your Final 4 intentions, as well as your desired target- Nick. You also revealed the F3 you made with Tommy, Nick, and yourself (that I had already knew about from Tommy but needed you to say it). I took this information and went straight to Nick, who had also reached out to me the night before with a plan to take out "the big threats". I wasn't dumb, I knew Nick hadn't just magically regained trust with me, so I revealed to him you telling me about the F3, and the F4 you and Alison made with us. This was done to ensure Nick would take a leading role in the charge against you, and I would have a better opportunity of showing Kara and Alison that he was the true threat following you leaving. Nick obviously went much further with it then even I was expecting (epic). Another key piece of importance was that Tommy (who if it isn't clear by now, was my number one ally through the F10) wanted you to stay. His initial plan was for us to take out Nick, then Kara, and then take you both to the Final 5. I put the gears in motion to prevent that from happening because I knew there was no way either you or Alison would take me any further than you had to.

With regards to Ang, to that point I was of the understanding she was going next (even before she was removed). I believed that to be true, and prior to her removal I was working to ensure I wasn't the backup vote in case he played the idol. With that said, with the information we've learned, i'm sure she would have played that idol- considering she had a direct line of communication with a host and a jury member on Discord.

So, in spirit of this new trend I am just learning about, the TL;DR of this message is simple:

1) You and I couldn't get on the same page because you made it evident to me that you weren't willing to take me any further than you had to
2) The move to take you out began far, far before Kara "got the numbers to make the move". Specifically, Kara didn't even have the numbers to take you out before I put Tommy in the position to have to come over by outing your Final 3 to Nick.
3) Ang's removal certainly left smoke in the air, but if all went according, Ang would have left next- and the game would have unfolded as it did.

I want to repeat this, because I think it is important, this game is ruthless-but not personal. Shedding light on Kara's game is not a dig at her, it is something that needs to be done in order for her to understand what really happened. I also did lie to you often John, but I did very much enjoy talking to you. I hope this message provides a bit more clarity, and I look forward to explaining it a bit further tomorrow night. Cheers, lad.

[Kara]

John. You were undoubtedly my favorite person in this entire game. You're incredibly smart and I loved our dynamic that when one of us flipped out about something we'd calm each other down and how I could shit talk any of the other players with you. You 100% were my number one up until the day you were voted out. I trusted you wholeheartedly, and I love you as a person.

You were incredibly good at this game- player of the season in my opinion. In the beginning, you kind of played it coy with me- and I always knew you were smarter than you led on, and then when you found the idol that was a really proud moment of mine- I genuinely wanted to go so far with you. But things shifted at the point where you told about sending Jessica the idol and stuff- that kind of woke me up to realize how smart you actually were and the kind of game you were playing that I had no idea about. I remember having a really hard time getting you to vote against the grain for Davie (while it was against the grain) but you were taking these really big risks and showings of trust outside of what I knew- you were really good.

As you can see, the majority of the jury is convinced I rode the coattails of you and Alison to get here- which is exactly why I had to vote you out if I wanted to win. Aaron's going to build it up to be his masterful play and whatever- all he is saying could be true, I was not playing with him up until your vote out but the truth of the matter is I approached him about us working together when #Kaaron was born and approached Tommy and Nick about a final three deal- I positioned myself in a position where voting out my number one ally didn't hurt me as much everyone thought it would- it actually got me to the end which is why it is the main move being brought up in regards to my game. Aaron's only really backing up everything I said- I knew you were the best and I knew I'd have to vote you out, I did so at the perfect time when there were other numbers on my side (willing to vote you out and work with me heading forward) I didn't mean to ever brag about it so sorry if you feel that way, but you're just a key part of the jury view on my game so I have to explain why making the decision to vote you out was a move I made on my own that resulted with me in the final three. I simply had to turn on you if I had any fighting chance here at final tribal council, I knew coming into the merge and more specifically past the Carl vote I needed more meat on the bones of my game, my confessionals will prove that everything I'm saying is true and you were honestly just too good, you would completely overshadow me.

As for why I didn't tell you about the move, I honestly thought if I had admitted to making the final three it would be twisted into me outing it (because you were just that smart) and people had told me I wasn't a part of your end game (whether this is true or not I don't know- but either way I couldn't go that deep with you) so I thought if what people were saying had any truth in it you would end up using that against me. I did tell you truthfully, that you were a huge threat and nobody wanted to go to the end with you- I lied about me wanting to go to the end with you but that was just to put it in your head that I was someone you needed for your end game after I had heard you planned to vote me out after Nick.

You were so good of a player that I was cautious about tipping you about the vote- if I got caught plotting to vote you out with anybody I would lose the trust of you and Alison + you could manage to throw me under the bus with the other side and I could be put in a very precarious situation. Had I told you I don't know what you would've done with that information and how it could've hurt my game.

I loved playing with you and I have no doubt you'll probably play again one day if you want too and I'm excited for when you do because you were just that fricking good at this game.

--

Now onto Angelina. TBH I wasn't super worried about her idol- I was confident in my position within the game and I knew if anything Angelina wanted to make a move against you. I did have a final three with her and Alison which I told you about and I think Angelina was confident in her ability to beat me in the end and wouldn't have come after me. But I like you a lot more than Angelina so I think I would've worked with you and Alison on trying to get the idol out of her hands- we all knew she most likely would've played it but if she wasn't the actual vote she had an informant possibly on her side, which would've made her more of a problem than anticipated.

I was confident in the fact I wouldn't be getting any votes anytime soon so her idol didn't phase me, I wouldn't be going to the end with her as she was a huge personality and challenge threat. Throwing her name out there probably wouldn't be necessary bc Alison felt the same as i did and she seemed to have the information spreading as a part of her game, so I see Angelina going next after you or after she played her idol and the rest of the game for me continuing as it did.

sorry for errors and stuff if there's any You were king of this season to me, so great job you killed it and if you were sitting here you'd be the winner undoubtedly. Thank you so much and hope we can talk tomorrow.

[Jack]

John, that intro is instantly iconic. I expected nothing less.

When we talked after the Dan vote, I gave you my opinion that it seemed like you were in a great spot with the girls and that I could understand if that’s the way you wanted to go. You gave me the impression that the four of you maybe weren’t as tight as I thought - which I considered, but you had given me a similar line on Poroto and you were still working with them just as closely as you were then, in my eyes. However, I saw there was potentially an opening there. Had Angelina stayed, I was certain that I was next. I had just lost Dean, which was devastating, and I was going to push all my chips in on you. I felt like you had kept hinting that you weren’t in control, that you were keeping me in the game to help you make a move later, and if I put the pressure on, I might be able to pull you over to me, Aaron, and Tommy.

But then two things happened. One, which we talked about, I jumped in a car Friday morning to do a weekend trip to a cabin - it was a seriously last minute “let’s get outta here before Covid winter hits” thing. Two, when I got back on Sunday afternoon, I found out that Angelina had been removed from the game.

After reading a couple messages from Aaron that came in over that weekend, I saw a new path to the end: going with Aaron and Tommy as three against what I saw as two pairs: you & Alison and Nick & Kara. When I got messages from Kara encouraging me to vote for you, I thought if we both betrayed you at the same time, maybe there’d be some sharing of blame. Sounds like there was even more to go around! So yes, in a very short time, I made the decision to close the chapter of my week bouncing between you and Dean and to make my final week a push to the end with Aaron and Tommy.

I thought about telling you, but then that clue to the idol came out right before Tribal. Instead, I decided to play it off like I was voting with you and I started working on the clue with you, sharing my opinions on what it might mean and asking for yours. I knew you’d found two, I thought for sure you could find a third on little notice. When I felt you didn’t have it, I decided to follow through on my vote for you. (If I had thought you did have it, I still wouldn’t have tried to shift the vote that late. I would have just voted for Nick and then hoped that Kara’s flip would make her your next target and I could be in the middle between you & Alison and Aaron & Tommy.)