[Jeff Probst]

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

Dan, 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.

[Dan]

Well guys, congratulations on your achievement to be sitting here at the final 3! I feel like the three of you played quite different styles so it is pretty cool to see such variety of gameplay here at the end.

I will be brief, especially as I was not expecting this to be the final three at all. I at least expected someone that I felt good about voting for but that did not play out. I will not waste your time with expectations of any of you explaining why you did x, y, z. You did what you had to do to get here and that is proof enough that your actions were clearly sound decisions. After all, that is the foundation of the game; win at all costs. You've done well.

Additionally, all three of you wrote some very fine, eloquent opening statements. They were great reads.

Aaron - Man, I gotta say your game was like a Phoenix rising from the ashes. After the split you were begging for help to get off your new tribe and how there was no way you were going to make it there. Shortly after that, you infiltrated the Nyiri OG alliance by gaining Carl's trust and then systematically screwed them to be where you are now. That's some serious game. It was quite impressive, really. After Carl got screwed, we started talking and it was pretty clear you were done with what was left of the Nyiri group so there really wasn't anymore to say or do. Your blood flows greener than any other Miombo player and you managed to pull off a stealth infiltration worthy of the Hitman series of games.
The only two things for me, and why I cannot support voting for you, is that I was on that group with whom you gained trust and then iced. Secondly, the difference between the Aaron who wrote his opening statement and the Aaron I talked to are like two entirely different people. The opening statement feels like it is filled with fluff which I did not see in you when we spoke. Might be a great move, but it doesn't hit the finish line for me.

Kara - Ohhhhh Kara. You were something else. Anytime we spoke, all you wanted to know is who I was voting for. One time I told you Tommy, which was a total distraction from the actual vote, and you acted like that was solid. But once tribal council hit, you were obviously playing in a majority. You played as if you didn't even know how the game worked and amazingly, I mean really amazingly, that style managed to get you here. Lots of people will say you rode coattails throughout the game but I'm not so sure that's the case. The problem for you is that I'm voting based on my interactions and what I saw from people. You probably had a whole thing going on and only played the airhead position to me. There's no telling. But based on our interactions, I would say you don't really deserve a seat in the final three.

Jack - And then there's Jack. Dude, we barely ever spoke. What gives you an advantage here is the actions of those you sit with. Aaron infiltrated and destroyed an alliance from within and then describes himself totally different from what I ever saw. Kara only ever presented to me as being like Dementia Joe Biden, confused on where she was at nearly all times. It turns out that our lack of interaction seems to have helped a lot. You also wrote a really impressive, honest, straight-forward opening statement (which is about all I have to use to assess you). You also won some very consequential immunity challenges. I mean, seriously, the challenges that you really needed at that exact moment. Despite not knowing much about how you ultimately played, you sure were good at it, and that is what gives you your seat here in the final three. I congratulate you on your work and appreciate your candor in your opening statement.

That all said, I have not brought forth any questions to any of the F3. They are free to respond to my statements in whatever manner they like should they want to try and change my views/opinions on who I should vote for. Will it work? Tough to say. I'm open up until the end with regard to my vote but, in reading what I have wrote, it is pretty clear whom I intend on voting for the win. My mind can be changed, but boy would it have to be a doozie...

[Aaron]

Dan-

While I appreciate the time it took for you to write such a detailed response, I'm going to have to correct you on a few things-

The first i'll correct you on is the tribe swap. I'm not sure where you got your information regarding me "dying to leave" the new Nyiri, or if you are just guessing based on how you saw the game, but I was thrilled about how the swap went. We were the only tribe who ended up being 3-3, and I was moved over with one of my closest allies in Dean. I not only didn't try to leave, but I actively helped someone else move from their new tribe. So, again, I'm not sure if this was an assumption on your part or someone feeding you false information but that is simply not true at all.

The second piece was systematically screwing the alliance I had created. Again, I'm not sure if this is your perspective of the game or someone feeding you bad information, but I was true to the alliance we all created till the end of this game- as one of the people in that group is sitting with me now. Tommy & Nick had flipped on Carl the vote prior, and the numbers stood 6-4 in favor of John, Alison & Co. I had no choice but to allow your game to be sacrificed, as to that point we hadn't built much of a relationship besides Carl's glowing reviews of you, and I needed more time to continue building my relationships with the other side to see where I fit. In a dream world, of course it would have been our group to the end- but it didn't happen that way. I'm not sure in your eyes if I was supposed to drown with the ship to protect your game, but I wasn't willing to do that, and i'm sorry.

Third is with regards to the fluff of my opening statement- I think the issue with opening statements in general, especially in a Survivor format, is that you have to fit as much information into a short amount of time (or in this case, space) as you can. You need to paint a broad picture of how your game went without taking up too much time (or in this case, too much space). My attempt wasn't to "fill it with fluff" but try to be clear and concise in making the game decisions I made while not having you guys read a JK Rowling novel.

I hope some of my responses helped clear some things up, and possibly make you reconsider your vote. If not, I understand, and I thank you for being honest and playing a hard game.

[Kara]

To be honest Dan, You were never a key part of my game- I had no reason to ever tell you anything that was going with me or my allies at all- like I said Alison and John may have talked to you about certain things but that doesn't make me any less of a player it just made them a bigger part of the spread of information. We were never allies and though I did want to work with you at the beginning of the swap you were just untrustworthy and when you told me Carl was p much your number one I just couldn't work with you because I knew he was much closer with the other side of things than he was with me. In fact, I specifically remember pitching you an alliance at the beginning of the merge without the input of Alison and John at all- I was 100% my own player and had my own game conversations with you that were only brief because I didn't trust you.

We played a game this season where a lot of information was spread around very quickly and that style of gameplay was not mine- not letting you in on things that were going on and my game was completely strategy because I did not trust you at all. I think you can also recall me literally attacking your gameplay because I had a better read on it than you- I told you you're voting block would flip on you and that's exactly what happened. So If I didn't know what was going on, what would that make you? And let's say I didn't know what was going on or how to play- I was in and pretty much every single vote this season and may I remind you had no votes cast against me all season- sounds like I knew everything I needed too, sometimes an overload of information can cause spiraling and paranoia- which is good for nobody's game.

Now it's clear we weren't fans of each others gameplay, but I hope you can take in this answer and vote with your head- however that may be, because every juror's opinion matters, and if I went wrong with you game-wise then that's fair. Congratulations on playing hard

[Jack]

Dan, I really appreciate your comments and I’m glad to hear my opening statement had an impact. I do wish we had gotten to know each other better. I was working too closely with Dean and John and saw them outside the group you had with Carl and Nick. I knew they would, or I would encourage them to, target you early on so I figured I wouldn’t waste your time with a bunch of bullshit or empty promises of possible moves we could make. For what it’s worth, your decision to walk away from working with Angelina and Missy helped me decide it was something I should do as well. Thanks for that.