LJ Idol Presents:

 The final 5 started out with an epic hidden immunity idol hunt! 

It was the most difficult one yet, because it was the most vital one to win.  As long as they played it, that idol was a guaranteed spot in the final 4 and one of the prizes! 

I know most people had forgotten about the prizes at that point in the game, and I don't think they played a huge role in how this week played out. But in theory, they could have...

I had so much fun creating the puzzles and clues for the idol hunt. I couldn't have done that for the first couple idols, most people weren't even looking for them. But now that people knew how to find them, I knew this one needed to be a little more work. 

I was excited when I started getting emails from people as they solved the first puzzle and as they progressed through the others. I know that a couple people were even working together, to make sure they had control of that last idol. 

Ultimately, it was gunwithoutmusic  who found his first idol!  Which meant, going in the last tribal council to use them - he had one, and flipflop_diva had two. 

Even if someone wanted to flip here, there really wasn't much room to do so - and there was a clear target -  murielle. 

Going into this week, I thought there was a chance that the prize MIGHT play into things - who wants to be the a-hole to snatch away a prize from murielle?  On the other hand, you simply CAN NOT let her get to the finale. There are some people you have a fighting chance against.  She's not one of them. Everyone loves her. The same reason no one moved against her all game is the same reason she needed to go at this point. When it comes to a Jury, you simply can't let someone like that sit next to you at the end. 

The plan went out the window because murielle ends up winning immunity! 

The question was brought up - by her - of "how did that happen"? 

and I promised to share my thoughts on the subject. 

The biggest component is "Where do votes come from?"  Some people seem to assume there is a giant pool of voters out there that exists, just waiting for the opportunity to read their work. And sure, there are definitely people who have wandered in over the years, maybe played a season or two and then stuck around to vote... or their friends.  But the bottom line is that these people come from somewhere! You have to let people know that you have wrote something and where they can go to support it!  This was the first time that murielle *actually mentioned her writing* to other people... or at least the first time I saw her mention it.  She was talking about sharing the stories with friends and how they were excited about the story.

If you are telling other people are your work - and where to find it - there is a better chance of getting support from them than you would if you sat there and expected people to show up for you "just because". 

So that's one aspect of "how someone gets votes"... pretty straight forward. 

In this case, she was writing a really popular serialized story, and things were moving toward the conclusion. So this was the right time for people to make sure that they got to read more of it! 

Go back to the "why she shouldn't be allowed to get to the end" comments above and then think about that in terms of why someone would WANT her to be safe. 

Now combine all three of those elements and put them in a blender.  You can variations of that mix to pretty much every single person who has every "won" a week in Idol.  Part of it is just getting the word out. Part of it is people wanting to see what you do next. And some of it boils down to luck of a specific situation. But in this case we are talking about murielle... and how she beats the odds, by quite a bit to win her first immunity!

I used the picture of Bob Crowley winning immunity - the oldest Survivor winner, who was seen as "floating along", just "being helpful" around camp... and ended up going on an immunity run at the end of the game that put him in the finale, where he dominated. 

***
Which brings us to the vote. 

flipflip_diva ends up giving one of her immunity idols to halfshellvenus, securing her spot in the final four.  A gesture that would be repaid when halfshellveus wins immunity at the final three and takes her... 

If you assume that flipflop_diva and gunwithoutmusic AREN'T turning on each other at this point - because they both know the other has an idol, then it comes down to either halfshellvenus or alycewilson going home... and now halfshellvenus has been given an idol to play. 

My big question at this point is WHY halfshellvenus and NOT alycewilson, other than "it's our final 3 and we're not changing our mind"... more importantly for my Survivor-brain though is why hand it to her to play for herself rather than flipflop_diva making the dramatic "I am saving you" gesture in front of the jury.  I know there were conversations about this, who was playing the idols, when and why... and I'd love to hear some insights.   From a viewer standpoint - it just looked like she had found one on her own and was using it to secure her spot. 

Did halfshellvenus convince her to give away an idol? Was that the game winning move? 

Was there a chance that halfshellvenus would decide NOT to play it? 

Ultimately, flipflop_diva and gunwithoutmusic decide NOT to play their idols. Which means had the other three taken a shot at either one of them - their game would have been over. But part of the game is knowing when you are safe... so good on them for having that awareness. 

But it also means that alycewilson didn't know in that moment that she had just joined the ranks of greats like Cirie Fields and Keith Nale... where she was literally the only choice anyone had to vote for, and was eliminated by default.  it was an epic "slow motion back against the wall" moment - with a tragic ending. 

At this point everyone was still thinking it was a Final 3, despite my known dislike for them on the show.  :) 

So there was only one more round to get through until the alliance made it to the end... and flipflop_diva won that challenge by a landslide. 

Which meant that it was a no-brainer that murielle was going home. She managed to get to the Final 4 without a single vote cast against her in the game! Which is remarkable and speaks very highly of what people think of her as a person... they knew she was a threat, and no one wanted to get rid of her, until it was almost too late...

***
Now here is something that I've been pondering - I do not think murielle would win the Final 3 challenge, I think she would give it a good go and we'd get some great chapters of her story out of it... but submitting an entry every single day for a couple weeks? I don't think that is going to happen. 

and as I've said, it's game-suicide for anyone remaining to take her.

So I think her own real path - at this point in the game - was to make the Final 3 and hope that both of the others missed a deadline. Regardless of the make up of that 3 (if different moves were made in the last round) I think the double tribal council made it nearly impossible to get to the end.  Had it been a regular vote? Yeah,  I think there' s a good chance of her getting there. But an endurance competition? Probably not. I'd love to see her prove me wrong with more chapters of her story every day for the next week or so though.  :D 

flipflop_diva, gunwithoutmusic and halfshellvenus had made it to the end of the game... or so they thought.  What came next completed the transition from "it's like Idol" to "This is Survivor!"  :)