[Jeff Probst]

Aaron, Jack, and Kara,

You have come as far as you can in this game on your own. The power now shifts from the three of you to the jury of your peers. 8 people, you had a hand in voting out. You will not turn around and ask them to vote for you to win.

Here you can leave your Opening Statements to the jury. You have 24 hours to post them here. You cannot add to or edit your opening speeches so please draft them up separately and copy/paste after edits.

Your deadline is 8c/9e tomorrow (Friday the 30th).
Good luck!

[Aaron]

I have been working on this all day, just in case things went according to plan. I was going to wait for the morning to post, but I have been staring at this thing for too damn long to wait any longer....so without further adieu, my opening statement:

First and foremost, it is an honor and a privilege to be here and to have played alongside you all. As I said in my final vote to Tommy- this game can be ruthless, but it is never personal. I never in a million years would have guessed that I would take so much away from an online Survivor game, but here we are. I can sit here today proud of overcoming what it took for me to get to this point, and confident in saying I deserve to win. Where my game lacked in challenge performance, I made up in spades with hard work. From 9am-3am, I was working. Whether that was incessantly messaging Kara & Jack because between work and school, they could only be on for certain periods of the day, staying up till 3am talking to anyone I could to better position myself in the game, or hammering Dean and Tommy with 40 messages before 9am with information I learned the night before, I never stopped working.

I have consistently been a staple of the strategic maneuvering in this game. From Day 1 building the 49th Parallel alliance with Tommy, Dean, and Elizabeth that controlled the early stages of Miombo along with Lauren, M***y & Chelsea, to Day 1 of the tribe swap making the Win or Booze alliance with Nick, Dean and Carl, to Dean and I throwing the next immunity challenge (Dean wrong letter wrong time) without either Carl or Nick’s blessing and blindsiding Jessica, to at the merge, managing my way through the 6-2 minority that was created as a result of John saving Alison with the idol, to ignoring Tommy’s idea of working with Alison and John- and using that information to build my personal relationships with Kara and Nick, to taking control of the game and spearheading the last 4 votes of the game- including the final eviction of my number one ally- my strategic movement shifted the course of the game. You can say what you will about my challenge performances, you can say what you will about some of my dishonest tactics, but what you can never question is my hard work.

The one thing I didn’t expect through all this hard work was to generate true relationships with you all. Between the real world talks with Alison, the 45 dollar Smirnoff talks with Tommy, the relationship talks with Dean, the suicide pool and fantasy woes with John, the me trying to force Nick to buy me beers once the game was over talks, the New York sports talks with Carl (Go Birds), the talks with Lauren that emphasized her unique yet infectious energy, and in the few talks I had with Dan- his passion for his family- I was able to learn a lot about the people behind the pixels, which made this all the harder, but all the more rewarding.

I know some of you will have difficult questions to ask, and I will be prepared to answer them. I look forward to answering those questions, and prove why I deserve to be the winner of Stranded in Tanzania.

Also, please forgive some of the run-on sentences, and grammatical errors- this is why I’m a salesman, and not an English professor.

[Kara]

Wow. I really did not expect to be all the way here 28 days ago but truly thank you all for making this such a fun and unpredictable experience. It truly has been the wildest ride to get here. I am so grateful for not only all of the hosts and everybody who made this season possible, but for every single contestant for making this experience truly one of a kind. To Aaron and Jack, Congrats! You guys have both played very different games from each other and from me so the jury will definitely have their work cut out for them when it comes to deciding a winner. Good luck to you both!

Now, I guess an opening statement is kind of where I do my first chunk of explaining why I believe I deserve to win- And I don’t think I’ll be necessarily the best at that BUT, I will do my best and hopefully all will become more clear through your questions.

I played this game from the second it started all the way until now. I won the very first individual immunity challenge and proved to my tribe that I was a valuable member of Nyiri- The first couple of days is where I built my most important relationships with John and Alison- who became my two closest allies this entire game. I didn’t take back seats early on in this game, I led the charge of a Davie vote as I feared a guy alliance forming, was a part of the black widow female alliance and formed the james dean alliance with Jessica, Nick and John right before the swap to ensure I had more numbers on my side. I embraced the twist of stranded coin by giving some away to players throughout the game as a showing of trust- Nick specifically, which saved me about six conversations pertaining to trust with him. My mind was always turned on as to what I could say or do in order to advance myself further- thinking about how many people could I make feel like they owed me or wanted to keep me safe was critical to my game.

Socially, my eggs were never all in one basket- regardless of sides I spoke with everybody and was for the most part honest with everybody- If you did something that upset me, you probably heard about it from me. I don’t believe there’s a juror that didn’t know where I stood the second they were voted out besides maybe John- who was my closest ally that I knew I had to take out at some point in order to solidify my gameplay as my own. When he let me know some of the more self-serving moves he made I kept tabs on them and ultimately chose the perfect time to blindside him when I knew I'd have the numbers on my side to do so. I had a very strong and visible presence yet I managed to make it to Day 27 without a single vote cast against me all season. I knew when I needed to fall back and when it was time to step forward and I think I chose those moments perfectly.

I won 2 Immunity challenges, found an Idol I never actually needed to play and made it all the way to the final four with no votes cast against me (The only vote cast against me I did not contest or try to get off me as it was crucial to making it to the final 3)- despite being a very visible player within the game. I played every aspect of stranded including the twists, and I played them to the best of my ability which is why I think I deserve to be the winner of this season.

I'm so looking forward to getting the chance to answer all of your questions so please ask them good luck and finish strong boys!

[Jack]

I want to start by thanking the hosts of Stranded for their immense efforts. I was constantly blown away by the experience you have designed and by how much thought went into every moment of this game. Aaron and Kara, it is my pleasure to sit at the end with you and, may I say, you both look radiant tonight.

Jury, hello. Let’s talk about the goat in the room.

It’s no secret that I have been labeled the goat of this season. I was given the superlative on Day 20 at the In-Crowd challenge and it was brought up over and over, much to my chagrin, at the Tribals that followed. Jeff shone a spotlight on me, put the Goat Signal in the sky, shared fun anecdotes from previous seasons about the consequences of bringing a goat to the end, I mean… the warnings were public and numerous from host and players alike.

So as the goat, maybe it’s no surprise I’m here at the end then. But overcoming that scrutiny is one of the unique challenges that I faced in this game.

Another aspect of my game that is unique to me is playing this game as an outsider. I started on a tribe full of huge personalities. I’ll admit, I was overwhelmed. But I got to work having one-on-one conversations to establish myself as a friendly, humorous, level-headed individual and I knew that if I could make that impression on these over-the-top players, when shit eventually hit the fan, that I would be an appealing second option. These connections, especially with Aaron and Tommy, paid off in the last week of the game when I was finally able to team up with them and forge a path to the end.

After the swap, I found myself outnumbered by former Nyiri members but went right to work creating connections, selling myself as a team player. Poroto was the only swapped tribe to go to Tribal twice and I survived despite coming in on the wrong side of the numbers. I found a way to surmount a challenge that was unique to me and my game.

At the merge, I tried to ride the middle. My closest allies, Dean and John, were firmly on different sides. I flipped on Poroto, infamously, which I do not regret, but I fumbled hard when it came time to own that to the people I betrayed. That I do regret. Instead of working to squash their anger, I allowed it to fester and that undoubtedly contributed to me earning the title of goat.

I won the two immunities I absolutely needed: the first after my flip, which bought me a little time to recede into the shadows again, and at the final four, so that I could sit here as a result of my own efforts.

I played a cautious game. It wasn’t flashy. I worked hard to keep my alliances under wraps. For what it’s worth, it was pretty much the game I set out to play and it got me to the end.

Jeff cautioned me about Scooby Doo reveals at the end. Tonight, however, I invite you to rip off this goat mask and, through your questions, to get to know the man underneath.



This man.