Previously on Stranded



Episode 13 - Final 4
The Scooby Doo Reveal

Fallen Comrades



Jeff: This is a great way to reflect on the game, complete your experience and also a great way to figure out a great jury speech since you will be going over every boot in the game and your experience with that person (or lack thereof).

Good luck and I hope you can take the time out to do this.




Helen: I never spoke to you, and it seemed like you getting voted out was a result of lack of dedication and inactivity. I guess that's all I can say.

Penny: Helios were privately hoping that Rob would be voted out. So your eviction was sad for us. While you obviously didnt get much of a go, I'd like to think you were cast as Butch because you were something like the real Butch, and if that was the case, you would have done well.

Brian: If you're new to these games, it's unfortunate that your experience started this way, but hopefully you stick with them and have a freer schedule at the start of your next game.

Joanna: Butch – second chance plz





Brian: Ken, I liked you! I really did. You were one of the most active players of original Helios and it was clear you were into this game. You suspected Ted of taking idol clues and being suspicious from the get-go...and you were totally right. Unfortunately you didn't make the social ties that you needed and were caught on the outside of larger alliances.

Helen: I really do think that you left before your time. Your conversations with others may have been infrequent, but they were better than a lot of other people in the game. I didn't connect with you until the day of your departure, and I wish that I had been able to do something to keep you around since I felt closer to you than Jake or Jan.

Penny: It seems like ages ago we voted you off first at Helios. If its any consolation your sacrifice was not in vain, as your former tribe have dominated the merge in your absence. I know you were having fun with the game, I wish you made more of an effort to talk to me on a personal level because then the first vote may not have been so regulation.





Helen: You were funny! Although I don't think you realized it. Some of the most (frustrating, and yet) entertaining moments were you trying to figure out challenges, like wanting to guess Ted for seven deadly sins over and over again even when he wasn't participating.

Brian: Jan: Oh, Jan... Unfortunately, it seemed to everyone that you were the weak link in the challenges and socially. Despite your connection with Erin, it just wasn't enough to stay in the game. Also, thanks for giving me my first vote. One thing I won't forget about you was your enthusiasm...even if you were lagging behind us all a few minutes.

Penny: Oh Jan! You were our tribe mascot for a while! I really enjoyed playing with you. Your character was really funny and I loved how uncoordinated you were at times. You definitely inspired me to have more fun with the game, and crack a few more jokes. I think in some small way you contributed to my social game and so I am thankful to you for showing up to play. It was fun while it lasted Jan!





Brian: You were a great player to talk to, and it's really unfortunate that our challenge loss streak ended your game. Seriously, I'm sorry for blindsiding you. You were actually better at challenges than Penny, but you were a victim of not making an alliance early enough in the game. Hope you still enjoyed your experience!

Helen: I was pissed when you voted for me, and I was then out for blood. But, when you apologized, it did seem very genuine. Although I was hesitant to trust you after that, you seemed truly kind-hearted, and you were simply another victim of needing to keep Helios strong to combat Asteria.

Joanna: I always rooted for you over Rob

Penny: Jake you were a loveable player on Helios as well even though I dont think you ever sent me a single personal message! I didnt really get much of a vibe from you in terms of being a strategic player, but not everybody comes here for the same reasons. I hope that you too got some enjoyment from the game and cherished the experience that we all shared for a time together.





Brian: I honestly don't know who you were, but apparently you scrambled at tribal council to stay safe or something? That might've been the only time that happened this entire season based on the lack of excitement at our votes until the blindsides happened.

Helen: Never spoke to you, either, but from Rob's input during his mutiny, you sounded very "bro"-ey.

Penny: I was personally surprised most by your elimination, although I later heard that it was because you were likely to flip over to us. Its a shame you never got the opportunity to join up with us, since I certainly wouldnt have minded another number on my side. I think we may have clashed heads a couple of times in the Arena, but it was a while ago and I am not entirely sure.

Joanna: Ryan – I would;e worked with you if you’d asked ;-;





Brian: Um, I heard mixed things about you. Both positive and negative. Apparently you left at a tribal council right after Rob mutinied back from Asteria that was filled with chaos? Apparently you were interesting enough to be missed and make an impression, so sorry that we never got to meet.

Helen: Also from Rob's mutiny stories, he seemed awfully critical of you. But from talking to others, it sounds like you were very sweet, and just you. Hopefully this proved to be a good experience for you, and you can use it for building to another adventure.

Joanna: Jeanne – I’m so sorry, if it makes you feel better my game was eternally fucked up because I booted you.

Penny: My favourite memory of you is the amount of times I mixed you up with Joanna. I think this is because I thought the two of you were practically the same. If this is the case, you can be proud knowing that with a bit of luck and a role reversal, you would have made it all the way to 4th place. It sucks not being able to get to know you guys pre-merge, but I hope you enjoyed the game!





Helen: This is where the game starts getting good... We barely talked. That's why you had to be targeted. You were a hit to avoid the idol, to keep the Rob/Christy/Joanna trio intact for possible future plans, and for the most competitive players to advance. Sorry that you had to be victim to that.

Brian: You're like the only juror I didn't actually talk to. I'm sure you had the potential to go further, but it just didn't seem like you were closely connected to anyone in either alliance, making you the easiest person to boot first. Sorry that you were the first victim of our Helios alliance.

Penny: I bet you didnt expect to be going out so soon Shawna and I think you had so much planned for the game that you unfortunately never got the chance to really explore. Your vote was essentially out of paranoia, it certainly was nothing personal. I regret that I didnt take the time out to get to know you on a personal level. Those first few days of the merge were crazy for me and I would have definitely loved to message you had you survived the first round. Unfortunately for you, Rob's apparent Immunity Idol saved him for quite a while, and you were the first victim in his place. Sorry girl!

Joanna: ILU gurl gone way too soon





Helen: Another victim of not talking enough to the people running the show. You switching to our side seemed like a cowardly moved to compensate for your own laziness of getting to know your own tribe. You specifically targeting me in your last immunity challenge was another misplaced move that lead to your ouster. I hope no hard feelings, and sorry for the blindside.

Brian: I hardly got to know you, but I think you were the biggest asset out of anyone from Asteria to allowing Helios to make it to the end. Thank you for your help, and sorry we blindsided you as a result! This was a move that was made, for one reason, to make sure that the power on original Helios stayed with original Helios.

Joanna: Piss poor decisions Daniel…

Penny: I was shattered to see you go so early Daniel! Without a doubt you were the one person on Asteria that took the time to get to know me when we first arrived and I intended to reward you by carrying you as far as I possibly could. My biggest regret by a mile is not asserting my authority over my alliance earlier and fighting harder to keep you in the game. I do hope you got some sense of satisfaction in seeing us eventually emerge victorious, and I have a feeling you were rooting for me this entire time. I hope I can go all the way and not let you down. Kudos to you for giving me a fighting chance. I owe you a great deal of thanks in this game.





Joanna: Ted – you’re welcome for letting you make jury, PUNK

Penny: Ted you had a terrific game going that nobody could quite figure out! I think you were taken out well ahead of your time and you were one of the players that I would have been happy voting for at the end had you gotten this far. You should be proud of the way you conducted yourself this season and you should also be proud for fighting so hard to stay in the game for so long. You faced tremendous adversity and you defied the odds to stay alive until the merge. Well done!

Brian: Ted - Wow, Ted. You really, really impressed me post-merge as one of the biggest players in the game. You weren't afraid to take risks. You were winning challenges, taking names, influencing multiple alliances. I give you lots of credit, and if we didn't get you out when we did, I would have been concerned because you were a huge threat to make it to the end.

Helen: You are the one specific person that I feel the worst about voting out. I honestly think you may have been truthful to the you/me/Brian F3 (that is, unless you'd think one of us to be too threatening in an FTC). The issue is that the path you wanted to take to potentially get to that point was far too dangerous. It left my safety entirely in your hands, or the hands of Rob/Joanna/Christy electing to eliminate one of their own. Ideally, I'd have like to have voted out one of the Asterias instead of you, but then, we wouldn't have been able to guarantee eliminating an idol, which you gave us certainty with. That said, you played a brilliant game. For someone as soft spoken as you, you managed to survive on Asteria for two TCs as a spy. You did Helios a great service by getting us a merge majority. You had a very strong hand in the first two (and almost three) merge boots, while winning two ICs on your way to that. I am genuinely sorry that you were a victim to planning my endgame, but I have the utmost respect for the almost-secure position that you setup for yourself, and more than any other person, hope that there are no hard feelings.





Brian: Erin - OUt of everyone, it hurts to see you the most on the jury. We were aligned since the start of the game, and as the game progressed, it became very apparent that you were one of the strongest competitors in all aspects: social game, strategy, and challenges. You being blindsided in probably the biggest tribal council of the season was unfortunate because if you weren't, there's a good chance you'd be sitting here instead of me.

Helen: NOOOO! I hate that this happened. But it was a great play by Christy. I feel bad, in a way, because without immunity, it would have been me in your place. I enjoyed working with you, although I knew all along that you'd have turned to take me out as a threat eventually. I was shocked that the Asterias chose to take you out instead of Brian, since that would have hurt my game far more. I actually could have seen you winning if you weren't there target here

Joanna: Erin – you love me GIT. OVER. URSELF.

Penny: Words cant explain how much I valued our alliance throughout the game. Without a doubt you were the one I loved strategising with the most and without a doubt I had you coming to the Final 3 with me the entire time. You never backed away from the pact we made together on the first day and I loved logging in to see your name down the bottom knowing you were online and knowing I would get an impending PM about what scheme we should hatch next. I hope that you got some satisfaction by seeing us prosper after your blindside, and I hope you enjoyed the Rob elimination. I am so sorry you were Idoled out the way you were. I hope you enjoyed conversing with me as much as I did with you, and I hope that the time you spent here was enjoyable and productive. Thank you for being such a loyal ally and a great friend throughout this journey.





Helen: What isn't there to say about you. I think you overplayed quite a bit and overestimated your own game, and your social interactions with others being somewhat of a flaw, I did enjoy playing with you, now that the dust has settled. In a different setup of original tribes, you and I probably could have been together til the end, but like you said, this ended up being a battle of the titans, and though I'm glad that I pulled out, I'd not have been surprised with either of the possible outcomes.

Brian: Rob - I seriously can't believe you voted for Christy and sent yourself out of the game. I give you credit for playing a risky game and trying to make moves, but unfortunately, you were probably one of the wrong side of every blindside that happened in this game including your own. Next to Helen, I think we exchanged the longest, most-interesting strategic PMs in this game.

Joanna: Rob – my constant damage control of your idiocy finally couldn’t keep up anymore

Penny: You were my toughest opponent throughout the game and my true rival. This season I think prospered because of the Rob v Penny showdowns that were so often evident, whether that be in challenges or when it got even more epic and we faced off at so many Tribal Councils. Despite what I said, I never meant any of it personally, and I hope I get the chance to explain to you at Final Tribal that I was purely strategic in my apparent dislike of you. I saw you as a fierce rival, a fantastic strategist and overall a terrific competitor.
Im glad I had the opportunity to play against such a great player of the game. While the blindside that I orchestrated on you would have been shattering, im sure you can appreciate my need to have you eliminated. To me personally you would have been a worthy winner of this game and in an ideal world, a great person to duke it out at the end with. I absolutely considered your proposal for a long time, but in the end I went with what would be the best decision for me personally. I hope someday we get the opportunity to play together again and team up to combine our magnificent talents. It would be a match made in heaven. Even though you were my rival and we never voted together once, you still get a love heart for being such a great player.





Brian: Even though we didn't talk, you were one of my favorite players in this game. I thought it was amusing that the one non-game joke we did exchange about the fish actually carried through to your exit from the game. You probably made the biggest move of the game, blindsiding Erin at final 7, and you really were a great competitor and someone who probably everyone misses.

Helen: She's amazing. In an all-Asteria F3, she'd likely have won. Hell, in an Asteria/Helios mixed F3, she'd probably still have won. I thoroughly enjoyed talking to her, and she was a great player, but too great of a competitor to potentially ruin our Helios F3, and for that, she had to be taken out before the penultimate TC. For that I'm sorry, because she deserved to make it; she was great, and I have nothing but respect.

Penny: I wish so badly that you and I had started out on the same side, as nothing would have made me happier than sitting at the end with you. I know the person in you is disappointed in your elimination and shattered to coming so close but falling over at the final hurdle, but I also know the player in you is content with the game you played.
It was great to see somebody ferocious and uncompromising fight their way to the bitter end. In most ways I have tried to play the game which I think you played to perfection. Your perfect blend of physical, strategic and social gameplay is what I would like to be able to play. You were an inspiration for my own game and for that, I am thankful.

Joanna: Christy – I’m obsessed with you forever and ever and ever

Penny (Confessional): Im just going to devote 100% to this challenge.
If I win, I will bring Brian and Joanna with me to the Final hopefully.
If I can beat Helen, then I will win I think.



Helen (to Brian, Penny): You guys are awesome! Only one more to go! w00tw00t
Brian (to Helen, Penny): We're one vote away. Let's do this!

Helen (to Joanna): Congrats on F4!!!
Joanna (to Helen): hah thanks nothing like being the last man standing <3



Penny (Confessional): Ideal scenario for tomorrow is myself-Brian-Joanna.
In that scenario I will be able to bring up two main points that I wouldnt be able to otherwise. Firstly that I was good enough to beat Helen and voted her out at my first available opportunity like I told everybody I would. Secondly that I was strategic enough to keep the two biggest goats in the game and then carry them to the Final 3.




Final IC

Jeff: Welcome, final four, to the final immunity challenge of the game. This will be a straightforward 24 hour endurance challenge.

In a moment, you can begin counting. You will count by posting one number per post in consecutive order. The person who counts the highest by 7c/8e tomorrow wins the final Individual Immunity Challenge. If you mess up, you do not have to start over from 1, you just have to start over from the number that you messed up on and yes I will be checking. (It's easy to count posts per page).

Remember: The jury is watching so you might want to give it your best effort.

Joanna: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5..
Penny: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5..
Helen: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5..
Brian: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5..



Penny (to Helen): Almost there.
Penny (to Helen): This is a pain in the arse but I havent won a challenge before. So I would like to win at least one.

Penny (to Brian, Helen): If I had won a challenge before I wouldnt be bothering. But I hope you guys are prepared to stay up all night. Aussie time zone - dont forget.
Helen (to Brian, Penny): You definitely have the advantage for that, having nighttime later. Boo you!
Brian (to Helen, Penny): This is easily the worst night of the week for me because I have to get up early, and I have plans during the day tomorrow until the late afternoon.
Good luck you two! Keep Joanna from winning. :)



Joanna: 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105..
Penny: 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105..
Brian: 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105..
Helen: 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305..



Joanna (Confessional): idk i'm just crying about this challenge i have to make it look like i care ;-;
Penny (Confessional): Counting challenge is really right up my alley. I should have no excuse.
Australian time zone will mean I stay up all night. I took tomorrow off work too. I have to win this challenge so that I can tell the Jury this was my plan all along. I really feel like this challenge suits me more than any of the others, so if I dont win, it will be my own fault. Im so grateful that fate is in my own hands.
Helen (Confessional): The plan is to come on strong at the getgo, and allot myself enough of a lead over the others that me having to be out for 3-4 hours isn't going to cause me to fall behind, especially with Penny's advantageous time zone since she gets to see what I do tonight before deciding what she's doing during her nighttime. Can't give in to Penny's attempts to have me let her win, and show her not through words but through actions that it isn't worth wasting her time. I'm going to go to bed in an hour or so once I have a 6000 post (or approximately 6 hour) lead, but going to leave my computer up on the "Who is online" page which automatically refreshes to make Penny think I'm still around to scare her away.
Brian (Confessional): Ugh, Helen's going to win. I have to get up early tomorrow and have plans all day. It's a shame because my Internet is fast enough to beat her if I didn't have anything else to do. Having a life. </3



Joanna: 400, 401, 402, 403, 404, 405..
Penny: 400, 401, 402, 403, 404, 405..
Brian: 400, 401, 402, 403, 404, 405..
Helen: 1000, 1001, 1002, 1003, 1004, 1005..



Brian (to Helen): I hate my schedule. You are almost definitely going to get a lead big enough to clinch this by tomorrow afternoon I assume, at this rate. Keep it up! And good night.
Helen (to Brian): No worries. Definitely lucked out with the timing though, because today or yesterday would have been just AWFUL for me, but tomorrow is aight. Hoping to get enough of a lead by tomorrow morning that Penny can't catch-up in the afternoon while I'm out. She'll probably do whatever she can to 2-2 it, but I'll do what I can here... me winning this should keep her loyal to the 3-1, I'd assume, since you/me should split votes whereas Joanna would take the Helios.
Don't fret about it. Have a good night, and good luck with your stuff tomorrow!

Penny (to Joanna): How do you think you'll go with that challenge? I would rather Helen not win if you get my drift.
Joanna (to Penny): skyping sorry i'll be on later though. like way late. she's a baller though holy shit
Penny (to Joanna): Its alright, im in a different time zone. Its only 4 oclock in the afternoon where I live and ill stay up all night. Ill catch up to her eventually.
Joanna (to Penny): You know this is impossible right? She is posting every 2 seconds like how is that even possible? Fucking nerd
Penny (to Joanna): She's got multiple windows open and typing them while the other page loads if that makes sense.Hopefully she doesn't get too far ahead and I can catch her later tonight. Ill give it my best shot but fuck shes freakin miles ahead.
Joanna (to Penny): makes sense i'll do that although my case is hopeless. idk i just fear she is going to be uncatchable she already seems like it.
Penny (to Joanna): She definitely seems uncatchable but at least in my time zone I should be able to get her if she stops. Im not going to do anymore so she thinks ive given up.
Joanna (to Penny): yeah good call and good luck you're gonna need it lol
Penny (to Joanna): I know lol. Thanks.



Penny (Confessional): Blah. I hate counting challenges. Best chance to beat Helen is to not bother now, let her get so far ahead that she thinks she'll win and sign off.
Later tonight ill come and go all night. It should hopefully be enough, because I have nothing to do tomorrow but fuck me typing numbers all night will hurt my head. Gah.



Helen: What are you doing while post challenge-ing??
Helen: Finally pulled up this Hunger Games audio book? Been waiting for an opportunity to listen to it
*aaaaaaaand CRAMP*
Joanna: taylor swift <3
Penny: Ive got my iPod on shuffle. But then my internet craps out every 20 minutes and so I have to wait for it to come back. Im having a break for now, I will count more when I get home from work.

Helen: 5000, 5001, 5002, 5003, 5004, 5005..



Penny (to Helen): Aww man. You mean I have to spend my night chasing down 5000 posts? Grrrrr.
Helen (to Penny): I can give you the Hunger Games mp3 that I'm listening to! lol
Penny (to Helen): I think ill put on the "LIVE TO WIN!" music by Paul Stanley. Thats in South Park where they all play WoW. Its practically the same thing lol.
Helen (to Penny): HAHAHA yeah same thing. Love that episode, too.
Penny (to Helen): Great episode. Good effort staying up until 4:25 in the morning. :P Its only 8.25pm here.



Helen: 6000, 6001, 6002, 6003.



Penny (Confessional): Logged in, saw Helen was 6000 posts in the clear.
Massive fuck it from me lol.
Joanna (Confessional): I can see my game ending right before my eyes it's so sad:(
Penny (Confessional): I think im pretty safe regardless of who wins. Unlikely that Joanna will win, but that would be the only scenario where I could see myself losing.



Penny: 414, 415, ..so yeah, I logged on and Helen was ahead by about 6000 posts... Awks.
Joanna: hella awks
Helen:
Penny: 416.. , 9999, 10000!
Penny: Yeah thats right, I totes counted to 10,000. Hot sheeeeeeeeeeeet.
Joanna: hahaha<3
Penny: Jo Jo.
Joanna: can we lol at brian still trying?
Penny: Is he still going LOL.
Brian: ..537, 538, 539, ..I wanted second.
Penny: Helen is second Brian.




Jeff: Final Immunity Challenge results! Penny, score of 416. Joanna, score of 461. Brian, score of 539. Helen score of 6003!

That means congratulations, Helen. You have won the final Individual Immunity Challenge! You are guaranteed a spot in the final Tribal Council and cannot be voted out tonight.
The other three of you, not so lucky. In two hours we have the penultimate Tribal Council, where one of you will become the final juror of this game.. See you then.



Brian (Confessional): I assume Helen and I will vote for Joanna and hope Penny doesn't force a tie. If Helen betrays me, that would be ridiculous, so I hope to at least force a tie.
Penny (Confessional): Nothing to do now but sit back and wait. I dont want to look like im scrambling by spamming Brian and Helen with messages. It also looks like im not worried and that I trust them both. I doubt whether they would take Joanna, since she'd probably win. I myself would do as much as I could to make sure everybody knew how relatively useless Brian and Helen really were.
Brian (Confessional): Should I try to convince Helen to vote for Penny? I need to put some thought into this. How can I win? I need an angle.
Helen (Confessional): In my mind a Joanna boot is a foregone conclusion. I still want to try to quell her for the time being, so that she doesn't approach Penny with someone she actually gets her to believe. I'll also explain to Penny why it's beneficial to her for Joanna to leave, since Joanna would take votes from Penny whereas Brian and I will split votes. It might be a 2-2, but I'm more inclined to say 3-1.
I still think that I have better odds against Penny than against Joanna, but I'm only sure of Ted's vote, to be honest, and my gut tells me that Christy/Joanna would also follow him. I'd need to count on Asteria convincing Shawna, Rob not being bitter/hypocritical, or Erin's vote (who said when she left "my jury vote is up for grabs" which makes me think she's my best shot).
Brian (Confessional): I need to do my research and see if I can find any other winners who basically said, "I didn't have the time to be on all the time, multi-managing all my alliances. I didn't talk to people, and I couldn't post 24/7 in endurance. But I spent the time that I had wisely and came up with an approach that got me to the end, despite being targeted the last several votes." ...or something. Ugh.
Joanna (Confessional): I'm mean it's pretty bleak now Helen said she won't turn her back on those guys but idk I guess I'll try



Joanna (to Penny): so you gonna vote for me?
Penny (to Joanna): Probably. Im not gonna lie to you. I expect you'll be voting for me as well.
Joanna (to Penny): No I'll probs vote Brian but yeah I figured! :(
Penny (to Joanna): Brian huh? Even if we both vote Brian we'll still get a tie. I was depending on Helen losing but when I saw how far ahead that bitch was I just didnt even bother trying to catch up.
Joanna (to Penny): Yeah it was understandable. What a fucking psycho. Are you willing to throw a tie with me?
Penny (to Joanna): If I knew what the tie was, then I would. But we dont know what to expect, like if its that ridiculous thing where the two people who got votes become immune then I end up going home..
Joanna (to Penny): Ugh you're over thinking but I guess I understand :/



Penny (Confessional): Logged on to see Helen is 6000+ posts ahead of me essentially. I cant really pull an all nighter, since ill need to wake up tomorrow at a reasonable hour. So yeah, I tried to bluff Helen into getting her to stop this afternoon at a total I could reach, but there's no way im gonna catch her now.
Im fairly confident that I will be getting taken to the F3 regardless and lets face it, Helen is my greatest adversary but I think using my Final Tribal speech to slag off Helen and her dependency on Immunity, I may be able to garner some extra votes.
Plus Helen isnt liked. Joanna hates her for example. I think Christy and Rob like me more, especially the former. Erin will hopefully vote for me and so will Daniel. I hope that will be enough.



Joanna (to Helen): Closing time - one last call for alcohol so finish your whiskey or beer. penny did indeed come to me. this may or may not be relevant since you will have the idol, but you said you wanted that reason and i'm giving it to you. i haven't talked to penny in god knows how long and she approached me.
she is the only person stopping you from a guaranteed win. think about it you need four to win she has erin, dan, me, christy, rob AT LEAST. you probably have ted and shawna will most likely vote with me and christy. it's her game to lose. if you don't do this yeah you'll feel good about your decision now but looking back you'll say i had the game locked in the bag if i would have just done something that penny was going to do to me ANYWAYS but didn't have the chance.
Helen (to Joanna): *waving a lighter back and forth to the closing time lyrics*
Yeah, you present a very valid argument. And thank you for approaching me with that info, I really do appreciate you coming through. I'll update Brian on the happenings, but if you have a quote, that would probably be the best thing for me to forward to him to make sure that he's on board.
I'm guessing that's when she reached out to you, about trying to pull a 2-2?
Joanna (to Helen): Quote: How do you think you'll go with that challenge? I would rather Helen not win if you get my drift.
She wanted to do the 2-2 with getting you out but that was before you won. Regardless that you've won though, you shouldn't let blind loyalty to someone who isn't loyal to you let you lose this game. All want is to see the finale not to win. Penny is going for the win. Erin, Dan, Myself, Christy and most likely Shawna will vote for her. And I'm not bluffing with the "I will vote for her if I'm on jury". You always pimp her up saying she was the one behind the plans. If I go it's because of you and Brian, not her. Those two very solid reasons are reason alone. She has been on the radar since the beginning and managed to survive. That's a huge deal. She has given you a reason to be disloyal, now run with it.
Helen (to Joanna): Okay, so (cards on the table), I asked you when she approached you because I was hoping to trick you up. If you look at the address bar, you'll see the number assigned to this message. So, based on that, I knew that no one was having conversations that I wasn't privy to since like 3am this morning. However, after I sent that, I noticed that you and Penny probably did exchange 6-10 messages last night (which she told me what you guys talked about, though it may not have been truthful). I honestly wouldn't be surprised if you were telling the truth, but that's where I have to leave it. It was absolutely a valiant attempt, and one that I probably would've tried, as well, in your position, but that's not a decision that I'm going to be making tonight.
Now, to re-visit this from Thursday... Joanna wrote: If Penny really has been painting you as the genius in charge when in reality she is then hats off to her she has my vote.
I'm not saying that she's the genius in charge. Let's make that clear. We both know that I've lied about shit and planned shit, no hiding that. All I'm saying is don't believe everything you hear that people pin on me. That's not to say that EVERYTHING you hear that I do is actually Penny's doing. But if Penny has some idea to approach you/Christy about people targeting you or her, even though it's made-up, (a plan, which, mind you, is 0 for 2 in its attempts now), would you expect her to claim that she's the one who came up with it all, or that Brian and I are the ones conspiring your ouster? It's rhetorical, so don't answer. But it's just food for thought, is all.
If you vote for Penny, that's fine. It's your vote and it's entirely up to you what determines it or who it goes for. Nonetheless, best of luck tonight, whatever happens; you're absolutely hysterical. I hope you realize the things I've said to you for the past few days has been real. If you leave tonight, I do think that you've played a great game to get to this point; and if you do end up still around, then I'm looking forward to an exciting and competitive FTC with you sitting there
Joanna (to Helen): You're making a huge mistake. You will lose girl :(
Helen (to Joanna): Then I lose If I'm gonna lose to Penny, then I would lose to you, too, then (Daniel, Rob, Christy, Penny) Whatever happens, happens; I can handle it. It's been great playing with you, Jo, I've loved every minute of it. Sorry that it's come to this.
Joanna (to Helen): I betrayed Dan, I shit talked Rob and pissed him off, Penny will vote Helios over me we didn't talk all that much but whatever. You're going to remember this talk I had with you
Helen (to Joanna): I will. And you're free to say "I told you so" on Thursday
Joanna (to Helen): I'm just curious do you honestly think you have a chance? Or do you know you'll probably lose and just don't think a win is worth voting out an alliance member?
Helen (to Joanna): I think that I still have a chance. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, I lose, and that's fine. But, even though you disagree, I'm content enough with these odds to go for them. It's not blind loyalty or obligation.
Joanna (to Helen): I mean I understand it's just frustrating seeing you pick a maybe over a definite


Helen (to Brian): *sigh* Joanna says that her, Christy, Rob, Shawna, Erin, Daniel all vote for Penny, and that taking Joanna to finals is the better call. Heh.
Brian (to Helen): Um, I think you're winning in the finals regardless of what they say. I fear Joanna may get the Asterian vote if she makes it, and I'd just be happy with one vote.
Helen (to Brian): Agreed. I still want Joanna out. She claims that Penny approached her to team up against us, so I'm going to ask her if Penny sent her the proposal this morning to catch her in a lie.
I'll probably tell Joanna we'll go along with it until about 10 minutes before TC. I'll also probably tell Penny what I'm doing, explaining that it's with the intentions of keeping everything quiet until TC. Then, in the final minutes, I'll explain to Joanna how the message numbers prove that she has to be lying.
Brian (to Helen): Hopefully even if Penny did approach Joanna, it was just to make sure I was the target rather than her.
Helen (to Brian): I'm guessing that Penny actually did approach Joanna to force a 2-2 tie on me in the case that I didn't win immunity. They probably haven't talked at all since the immunity win has become all but official as Penny should realize (and I will explain to her in explicit detail) why it would be dumb to boot you, as Joanna would get the votes otherwise going to Penny and you/me will split. This doesn't change anything; everything is still set on Joanna, but the fact that she's probably telling the truth does make me feel a bit worse.
Brian (to Helen): Yeah, Penny likely did approach Joanna, but I think we'll be fine still. If I go in a 2-2 tie, at least I don't have to answer jury questions? I'd hopefully win whatever tiebreaker there was though.
Tonight's going to be very intense. I probably should force some free time in my schedule to prepare for it, so I don't go down as a total joke, which is what I'm fearing that my jury perception will be since everyone associated us but mainly just discussed strategy to you. We'll see how it goes, though!
Helen (to Brian): I seriously doubt that there'll be a tie. They haven't exchanged any messages since before 3am this morning. I think Penny only wanted to take me out and not you, hence why they haven't messaged since. You'll be fine.
And I think you have a much better argument for FTC than you give yourself credit for. It's just a question of communicating it. We have a few hours to prep. Part of my prep is definitely drafting an explanation of just what it is that Penny did every round, but probably saving that as a response to a question and not for my opening.
Brian (to Helen): Thanks! I mean, I think you played a great game and are the favorite, but I'll do my best here. I'm going to be slow to respond the next few hours focusing on it so I actually have a chance to communicate it.

Helen (to Penny): Thank you for sending that message, because otherwise, I would've stayed awake after my first alarm four hours ago
Penny (to Helen): Yeah no worries haha. I was never gonna catch you at 6000 anyway. So never mind lol.
Still the Helios Final 3. Im looking forward to being able to rename our tribe 'Helios'
Helen (to Penny): Haha sorry
Me too! So excited for that! Joanna came to me and said that she wanted to vote you out tonight, and went on to claim how you approached her about taking me out. Looking at the message numbers in the address bar (like this message is probably #3232 or something close to that), I'm guessing that you guys probably did have a conversation for five to ten messages back and forth last night, but haven't revisited it since. But that's fine, I honestly totally understand and it's no worries. Everything is still on track, as far as I'm concerned. Obviously, I want us three Helios still standing at the top to fulfill the alliance that we've had since Day 01, but also, I'd imagine that you realize it's better for you for Brian to be sitting there instead of Joanna, since Joanna will take away votes that you'd otherwise be getting (like Daniel, probably Erin, and even Rob tbh, maybe Christy), and since me/Brian being in finals means that he and I will split votes, which would also be better for you.
So, it's still Joanna tonight. Everything should be all-set. We can revive our champagne toast from the first night And then move in to a hopefully enjoyable FTC! Everything sound good there?
Penny (to Helen): Well I think if Joanna goes to the end she may potentially win, since she could get votes from Asteria members just to spite us. So I think we should be prepared for a little bit of back lash by the Jury.
Yeah Joanna and I had a chat last night, it was mostly about the challenge though since I told her she was probably going home. It was just along the lines of; 'Holy shit Helen is miles ahead', 'lulz that girl is cray', 'So excited for Final 3', 'Yeah im not voting for you bitch, Helen is going to win', 'Suck me off Joanna you fat cow'
Obviously I cant be bothered going to quote them lol. But yeah, our PMs basically turned into a bit of a bitch fight at the end.



Penny (Confessional): Ill vote out Joanna. Like it would be criminal if she won because Asteria wanted to piss us off.
At least going in with Helen and Brian the playing field is level, there are 3 Helios. So they have to vote for one of us. On top of that, I still get one of my preferred goats, plus I have Joanna on the Jury who is likely to vote for me (IMO) rather than a bitter, twisted Helen who would definitely vote for Brian.
Brian (Confessional): I think Joanna is going home. She may get the Asterian sympathy votes, or something. I'd be surprised if I'm blindsided by a tie or go home 3-1, and I don't think Helen and I should push for Penny going at this point. To be honest, I think I want Joanna gone so I can kill her chances at working on an angle I'd possibly want to pursue.

Temple Council #13 - Kronos



Jeff: Welcome final 4,
Let's bring in the jury:
Shawna, Daniel, Ted, Erin, Rob, and Christy voted out at the last Tribal Council.
Penny: Signing in Jeff.
Im afraid I am still incredibly angry about the challenge. I just cant fathom how I didnt win.
Penny: Yeah. Looks like its me by himself here.
Hai Jury hw r yew guiz?
Erin:
Penny: That doesn't even make sense. Sorry baby Jesus for my atrocious assault on the English language.



Jeff: First thing's first: Helen, I can't imagine you would give it up, but are you keeping Individual Immunity?
Helen I'll keep my immunity. Thanks, Jeff!
Also, thank god the challenges are over, because my internet is shit tonight. So if I'm laggy...
Jeff: Helen, glad you won Immunity tonight? Did you know it was this do or die?
Helen If I didn't win immunity tonight, after winning the past three and being voted good things at F7, I'd not be surprised if I was voted out, or received half of a tie vote. I'm glad to have this around my neck.



Jeff: Joanna, you're the odd woman out in this equation, is this a foregone conclusion?
Joanna jeff, there is no way i'm going home tonight
Shawna:
Joanna no i'm kidding shawna i don't want you to get your hopes up :(
it is. it's my fault though. the only chance i had was if helen lost immunity and well.... we have all seen what a psycho she is...
Shawna:
Helen <--- psycho
no denying it, either



Jeff: Brian, being honest here as it's so close to the end. Who is the biggest threat to win out of the 4 of you?
Brian Helen. I think it's been clear for some time that she's the favorite to win this all.
Jeff: Joanna, do you think if Helen hadn't won Immunity, she would still be safe tonight?
Joanna nah she wouldn't
Jeff: Joanna, have you grown to respect any of the other 3 players more after spending time with them alone over the past day?
Joanna not really
Christy:
Joanna i never got to do my scoody doo reveal! :(
i'll post it in ponderosa though doubt anyone will read it its fuckas long.
Erin:



Jeff: Alright everyone. At this time all votes are final. I'll tally the votes.
Erin:
Penny: 10 minutes to play the Hidden Immunity Idol.



Penny: I think I should be ok tonight. Ive been ignored by Jeff at every Tribal so far and ive been safe. Hoping this pattern continues.
Erin:
Joanna erin make a smiley to me
Erin:
Joanna perfect!



Joanna helen if your vote out for me goes over one line then i'm not voting for you and viciously campaigning against you in jury
Helen*checks vote*
FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK Jeff please don't show mine.
jkmaybe
Penny: I spent the challenge time coming up with my Final Tribal speech. It better not have been for nothing.
Totes voting for Joanna if I get sent to the Jury. Not even kidding.
Erin:icon_lol
Joanna that was really rude penny. guess i'm back to voting for helen!
Penny: Nooooo.
I actually spent yesterday coming up with reasons why Joanna was such a sexxii biatch.
...
Penny: Reason 1) She's a sexxii biatch.
Joanna hmmm alright i'll reconsider




Jeff: Alright, I'll read the votes!
Jeff: images/councils/ktc13.html


Jeff: First vote: -- Brian -- "lol"
Jeff: Second vote: -- Joanna -- "Here's hoping for a Helios final 3."
(One vote Brian, one vote Joanna, two votes to go)



Jeff: Third vote: -- Joanna -- "It's been great playing the game with you. You're hilarious. I hope there are no hard feelings. At this point, there's a line in the sand, and that's why your name is on my ballot tonight. And if you're right, you can feel free to wave your finger in my face."
(One vote Brian, two votes Joanna, one vote remaining)





Jeff: Final vote -- Joanna -- "Sorry girl, but you're probably voting for me"


Jeff: And that means Joanna rounds out our jury.


Joanna wtf i did not put lol i put nothing :(
Penny: Jo Jo. .
Its been great fun girlie!
Shawna:
Erin:
Brian Bye, Joanna!
Penny: My comment wasnt shown, I said that I was voting for you because I figured you were voting for me.
Thats hell awks.
Joanna toldja i wasnt doucher
Joanna way to go helen you lost my vote!
i thought someone was just being a bitch and copying me :(
Helen Good game, Joanna!
Christy:
Erin:
Joanna pennys got my vote!



*smuff*



Jeff: In 30 minutes time, Final Tribal Council will begin. So final 3, if you haven't already. Think on your opening statements so we will be ready to go.



Final Fallen Comrade



Brian: Lol, I didn't get to know you, but you were hilarious on the board. Skyping during challenges, fearing you were going home every vote, etc. And honestly, even though people said you were a goat, you could have won in the final three by continuing to play that role.

Helen: Joanna is hilarious. Her attitude and lackadaisicalness are much of the reason why the closing days of the game were so enjoyable because her persona was just so humorous. Rob never gave her much credit for her strategic game, but as it turned out, both Joanna and Christy were far superior strategists than he, and her game has been underrated. That's much of the reason that she can't make it to finals because her sitting there is a guaranteed win on likability facing an Asteria-heavy jury.

Penny: Joanna you were always very funny and alot of the times I just laughed out loud at the random stuff you had to say. I dont really know what you offered to the game in a tactical sense, I think people kept you in the game because you just wanted to follow the leader and try and Natalie your way to the end. I wish you would have been more receptive towards me, since you seemed to come across as quite cold whenever we spoke. But I guess I single handedly destroyed yours and the rest of Asteria's dreams. So I dont mind if thats my punishment.





Vote Reveal
Brian - Joanna "Here's hoping for a Helios final 3."
Helen - Joanna "It's been great playing the game with you. You're hilarious. I hope there are no hard feelings. At this point, there's a line in the sand, and that's why your name is on my ballot tonight. And if you're right, you can feel free to wave your finger in my face."
Joanna - Brian "lol"
Penny - Joanna "Sorry girl, but you're probably voting for me"

Penny: Helios reigns supreme!
Penny: Our new tribe name for thirty minutes is HELIOS!
GET YOUR BROWN ON GUYS! WEEEEEEEEEEEEW.
Helen: "like"
Brian:
Penny: Before we go to Tribal, best of luck guys. Its been great playing with you this season.
Im obviously going to try my best to win. But the three of us, regardless of what happens, are the winners in my eyes.
Well done all of us! <3
Helen: Agreed, you guys! Congrats, and good luck!
Brian: Yep. Congrats on making this far, and good luck!
Penny: Tribal should have started 5 minutes ago shouldnt it?
Brian: I still need to finish my opening, so I don't mind.
Helen: I need to cut stuff. #typical
Penny: Oh you guys! I finished mine yesterday. Ive been sitting here for half an hour bumping old threads.



Brian (Confessional): I'm not delusional; I understand these games and juries really well. I'm going to be absolutely crucified tonight. The jurors are going to say I didn't make any big moves and just followed Helen. They're going to say that I was boring and that I didn't talk to them nearly enough. All of that is completely true, and I'll likely end up in 3rd place without receiving a vote. If I do somehow win, I'll possibly be considered one of the worst winners in Stranded history and not All-Star material.

However, I'm still going to try AS HARD AS I CAN to steal that win. The issue is that every juror votes so fundamentally different and what crazy angle I can make to appeal to one juror may not appeal to the others. I'll try a lot, though. My biggest weakness is the lack of PMs I sent to people not named Helen. That's going to bite me. I'd have a much better chance if I just made casual conversation with the other players, even if I had no intention of working with them. So that's a weak angle I'm going to have to find a justification for (the actual truth is that I just didn't have time, but I need to make it sound better than that).

I made my position quite clear the whole time, and didn't say a word against Helen knowing that if I did, she'd probably get it and not trust me. So I generated that full trust with her the best I possibly could knowing that I'd be in the core of her plans and that even if they went wrong, I wouldn't be the one who went home.

- Also need to hope that I don't screw up Helen's chances of winning and give it to Penny. As a juror, I'd vote for Helen

Jeff: Welcome everyone,
Final 3: Helen, Brian and Penny,
You have come as far as you can in this game on your own. Now it is up to the jury to decide a winner. The seven people you had a hand in voting out, now will decide which of you to crown the winner of Stranded in Greece.
Let's bring in the jury: Shawna, Daniel, Ted, Erin, Rob, Christy and Joanna.

Before the jury will speak, I will open the floor to the final 3 to make your opening statements. We typically don't have closing statements so make sure your opening ones are good. This is your chance to change some opinions on the jury before we begin.
Good luck!


















Jeff: Thank you for those novels,

I will now allow for the jury to read these a bit, and then I'll open the floor to them.

Jeff: I think it is only fitting that we begin the jury questioning with the person who has waited the longest to speak to you all.
Shawna, my dear, please get us started.



Shawna: Penny, of the three finalists, you are the most hostile and also the one with the worst challenge performance, why should i vote for you over someone who did better at challenges and wasn't so rude?

Penny: Hi Shawna!
Im sorry if I came across as hostile. It certainly wasnt something I intended to do on purpose. I actually tried to be as friendly as I could with people. I regret that I didnt get the chance to PM you in the opening round of the merge, as I spent the time working strategically with my alliance and Daniel since we went into the merge down in numbers.

Hopefully Christy and Joanna will tell you that once I had done the hard work, I did become more social and tried to connect with them as best I could. I'd like to think if you'd survived the opening round that I would have been able to connect with you too.

As for challenge performances. I did highlight that in my opening statement. In the end, I didnt need Immunity and I feel that is an important aspect to take into consideration. I definitely tried in the challenges, I wanted to win, but in the end, I just wasnt efficient at the tasks as some others. I survived every Tribal Council with no guarantees and its my personal opinion that Helen shouldnt be rewarded for this, especially because she would have been sent home long before this.



Shawna: Brian, There was one tribal council where the host didn't ask any questions, and everyone was free to talk, and you were the person who spoke the least, also in another TC you admitted you were not the driving force behind your alliance strategic moves.
My question to you is who was the person behind those moves and why should i vote for you instead of her?

Brian: I felt like Helen was the driving force between practically every strategic move for my alliance. Occasionally Penny was unwilling to compromise with her moves, so even though Helen and I wanted to do different things, we were forced to compromise. Some of Penny's plans worked; some didn't. For the most part, Helen's moves all worked out mostly successfully in my opinion. I feel like you should vote for me over her because she made herself known as an obvious threat (proven in the challenge where everyone thought she deserved to win the most) and thus was vulnerable if she would've slipped on immunity or something like that. My game was more complex in the sense that I intentionally played under-the-radar so that I wasn't in the vulnerable position that Helen was and didn't need immunity to win every round.

Honestly, I didn't have the time to be here socializing for hours, answering tribal council questions like other players such as Helen. I didn't have the skills to win the challenges, even though I wasn't terribly bad. So I chose an a route that I felt worked best for myself and utilized it to make the finals.



Shawna: All, If you weren't in the final, and you had to vote for one of the other two finalists, who would you vote for and why?

Penny: I made a comment at the last Tribal that if Joanna took my place I would have voted for her. I honestly dont think Helen or Brian would get my vote, and I would probably vote for whoever else was in the Top 3. This is because I feel that the two of them owe their appearance here directly to me. A third person sitting up here in place of me wouldnt be indebted to me at all.

Once again I am sorry I came across as rude. I honestly didnt think I was portraying that at all. I hope you werent personally offended by anything I said.

Brian: I would 100% give my vote to Helen here. Along with elements of the game they played, I factor in personal bonds into my vote. I felt like I established one with Helen more than anyone else. I think that, more than anyone else, I saw the game that Helen played and woke up regularly with 10+ paragraph PMs detailing each possible move, the probabilities of success and failure for each one. She was committed to this game to an enormous degree, and she executed when the time was right. If I can't win, I'd love to see it be her.

Helen: I would vote for Brian because, unlike you guys, I know how involved he was in all of the decisions that we made. He has a very sound judgment when it comes to strategy, a very appeasable social approach (always polite, never rude), and performed well in challenges.

The same can't be said for Penny. She claimed above that she carried Brian and I, but the truth is, that she forced strategies on others in a stubborn manner (much in the way that she seemed in public arguments), ignored reason, and tried to sabotage any plans that weren't her own. For example, at F8, we needed to get Ted/Rob/Christy/Joanna to split their votes to make sure that our four votes on Helios were a majority. So, Brian and I worked with Rob/Joanna/Christy and Ted's plan to have their votes split between Erin/Penny so that our votes would evict Ted. We explained everything, and both Erin and Penny agreed. Asteria needed to think that nothing was up, that Brian and I would stay loyal, and the vote would be split between Erin/Penny. But this wasn't Penny's plan, so she runs around to Asteria making up a story that Brian and I are trying to vote out Joanna for absolutely no reason, but to make up clean up the mess that she's made.

Penny's entire game has been blinded by her personal vendetta on Rob. Almost every round, she's come up with some plan designed to orchestrate his ouster. And, in doing so, she's been blind to reason and ignores anyone who tries to reason with her. At F9, she wanted to approach Christy to vote out Rob. I told her "that doesn't make any sense, she's not going to vote against her ally, all you're doing it wasting your breath." Erin told her "it doesn't make any sense." Brian told her "it doesn't make any sense." She ignored everything that we told her, and went ahead and did it anyways. And better yet, she BELIEVED Christy when she said she would vote against her closest ally.

I'll give it to her, some of her plans did succeed. That credit goes to her. But the only reason that we agreed with some of them is because she ignored us and stubbornly refused to do anything else, so we either voted with her, or lost because our votes were split. She'd propose a plan, we'd shoot it down, she'd copy/paste the same plan, and regardless of what we did, she'd go through with it anyways. And we had to clean up the mess.

Penny: Brian and Helen will tell you that I made a 'mess'. But I think the Jury needs to consider some of these facts.

1) Who was the person who spent the weekend getting Daniel to come over to Helios and vote with us? Helen and Brian are both here purely and simply because we won out at the first vote. Without Daniel, the pair of them would have been sent packing after me. I was the one who worked to propel all of us further in the game. Helen and Brian both fell for Rob and actually believed he would flip on Asteria and vote with us. Lol.

Helen: If you read my statement or paid attention to any of our public strategic discussions pre-merge, you'd realize that we needed Rob to believe we were with us so that we would know his target to play Ted's idol so that we would win a 5-5. But because it wasn't your idea, you devalued it, and have subsequently misremembered it entirely.

Penny: 2) Our path was made a lot more difficult when Helen and Brian ridiculously flipped on Erin and myself and voted out Daniel, one round AFTER he had flipped to us. The move made absolutely no sense and gave Asteria back the advantage that I had worked so hard to get for us in the end. Who had to clean up that mess? Me.

Helen: No, YOUR path was made more difficult. Because YOUR path would have been easy and you would have had the ability to toss us out (as challenge threats) using Daniel as a vote in YOUR favor. That is why it was a good move for US which you still don't understand the reason behind weeks later.

Penny: The reason I pushed so hard for my plans was because they were the correct ones. Helen and Brian's big strategic moves this game include blindsiding Daniel, Erin and myself and almost ruining their own games in the process and then after I fought back to get us an advantage, they almost ruined our games AGAIN by obsessing over an Immunity Idol and wanting to vote out Christy instead of Rob, who ended up pulling an Idol herself and blindsided my number one ally. Then after I fought back and got us in control again, Helen and Brian almost ruined that AGAIN by wanting to vote Joanna when I had a perfect plan set up to vote out Rob.

Helen: Christy played the idol on herself based on the fact that YOU revealed to her that we were splitting votes on Rob/Joanna. It wouldn't have ruined our game. It would have eliminated Joanna instead of Rob. Because that was the agreement ALL THREE OF US had for the three days leading up to that vote until you changed it in the last five minutes and demand that we followed you like you're so prone to do.

Penny: Helen and Brian should have been voted out three times lol. Brian was carried by me all the way to the end. Helen has been on the chopping block the last four rounds in a row.

Helen: Because I was voted "most deserving" while you won "biggest goat."

Brian: If I should've been voted out the last three times in a row, then why wasn't I? I didn't have immunity. You can say that you carried me to the end. I can argue that my strategy is what convinced you to keep me.

Penny: I always wanted you at the end with me for that very reason. The fact that I carried you the entire game and I have already proven it.
You had no strategy. Every PM I ever received from you was "Thats a great idea Penny." "Well done Penny!" "I owe you my life in this game Penny!"
Erin:
Joanna: x2

Brian: Um, this is completely absurd. I did have a strategy, and it was solid enough to make it to the final two under this scenario and probably other scenarios that didn't actually occur. As Helen admitted, we talked strategy to an incredible great degree. Helen's strategy was semi-obvious and was out there. Mine was more complex and under-the-radar.

And those responses to your PMs (sounds good!) were again simply to make you think that I supported your plans in order to keep you with us and thinking Helios was on the same page. You sending a new plan, discarding almost everything we discussed 15 minutes before a tribal council became such a habit that Helen and I actually were nervous when the tribal council came and you didn't initiate a "New Plan" PM. Also, it was part of my strategy to seem like the loyal follower even and let Helen send all the replies disputing the elements of the plan so you'd be more likely to get annoyed and turn against her than me.

Penny: You admit your strategy was to seem like the loyal follower. If that was your strategy then kudos, it worked perfectly. You were a loyal follower the entire game.

What strategic plans? Both yours and Helen's games will ever be described in the following:

1) Voting out Daniel because Ted asked you to, even though HE was playing in both camps and even though WE had the numbers advantage.

Helen: As Ted can attest to later, I wanted Daniel out, as well, for a multitude of reasons that I've already described, including him singling me out in the IC, and him being someone that you and Erin would want to ride to the finals at the expense of Brian and I, sooner rather than later.

Penny: Then you have only one of two explanations:

- You trusted Ted more than Daniel. This proves that your tactical game was inadequate because you didnt successfully read the true intentions of Ted. I did. You stupidly voted out Daniel who was voting with us rather than vote out Rob who was AGAINST us.

- You were plotting against me from that episode. This proves that I am a better player than you. Not only did I survive the vote from the other Asterians. I also survived the vote from you and Brian. I didnt hide behind Immunity, I was vulnerable at every Tribal Council.

Penny: 2) When I got us out of the hole you both dug us into there, then you decided to obsess over the Immunity Idol some more, even though I told you Rob wouldnt play it. But no, we had to vote Christy, who did what? She pulled the Idol didnt she? I told you both all day to vote Rob but you didnt. I bended to your judgement that time, how can you say I was uncompromising when I did that knowing that Rob was the move we had to make.

Helen: Christy wouldn't have played the idol on herself if you didn't tell her that Joanna and Rob were the targets, not to mention that whatever you do it's still a 1/3 chance. And Erin can share later who she remembers was the one domineering most of the plans that round.

Penny: The fact is if we'd voted for Rob not only that round, but the multitude of rounds beforehand he would have gone home. Christy playing the Idol is not my fault, had you two both trusted my judgement and voted out Rob just once before, we wouldnt have been in the mess in the first place. Erin will also share the amount of times that I brought Rob's name up for elimination, and the amount of times the pair of you shut down that option because "Oh he might the Idol, boo hoo."

Penny: 3) Then after I dug us out of THAT hole I told the two of you to vote for Rob because he was voting for Christy. But no, the two of you wanted to vote for Joanna instead. I had to actually verbally assault the pair of you at Tribal Council in order to get you to actually make the right decision for once. You both nearly ruined not only my existence in the game, you would have ended your own existence in the game, three times.

Helen: You seem to forget that even YOU wanted to vote for Joanna for the three days prior. It wasn't until the last minute that you told us to vote for Rob with hardly any accompanying explanation besides "TRUST ME" and we HAD TO because otherwise, our votes would have been split and worthless, just like Asteria's when Rob voted Christy. Also you're ignoring the fact that it wouldn't have MATTERED if we voted Joanna or Rob since it would have been a plurality to take any of them out. The only reason you're so livid about it is because you'd made a plan to get out Rob every day for weeks and you had to get your way.

Penny: This is completely false. I told you to vote for Rob the entire time, because I knew that if you happened to lose the Immunity Challenge, you would beat Rob in a challenge tie breaker and so my greatest threat would be out of the game while I would keep my numbers.

I made a plan to vote out Rob every day because he was the strongest player Asteria had and it made sense to go for the strongest player. The two of you were stupid enough to believe that Rob would actually flip to us after we spent all pre-merge bagging him and that, combined with the fact you were so paranoid about the Immunity Idol is the reason he survived this long.



Jeff: Alright, Thank you Shawna love.

Jeff: Let's continue going in order...
Next up: Daniel!

Shawna: Jeff is it ok if i ask some more questions?

Jeff: Go ahead Shawna

Daniel: I'm waiting patiently, Shawna. :)

Shawna: Sorry Dan.

Shawna: To Penny, I know what you dislike about Brain and Helen game now tell me what you liked about either of their games.

Penny: I think Helen was a definite threat. She has my complete admiration for the way she dominated the challenges. She has my complete respect in that regard because when Rob and I were strategising over the past weekend, the promise always was that I would vote Helen off if she lost. I knew she wouldnt lose, and so I didnt have to go back on my word. She was very dependable in that sense.

Brian played a good coat tail game, and although I have slagged it off tonight, there isnt necessarily anything wrong with it. It IS a legitimate strategy after all, and we've seen it employed successfully in Survivor in Samoa and Heroes vs Villains.
Christy:
Penny: I am hoping that the Jury will value my game more over Helen and Brian. But both of them do deserve to be here. Brian because he made himself appeal to my sense of bringing somebody who was dependent on me to the end with me to maximise my chances to win the game. Helen because she worked in the challenges and guaranteed herself passage through the game, even though I had been scheming to vote her out the last four Tribal Council's in a row.



Shawna: To Helen and Brian, We are at FTC where you make a cse for YOUR victory, but you seem to be a tribe of two trying to vote out, Penny, why shouldn't i reward her for having to work extra at FTC?

Brian: I think the fact that Helen and I worked so closely together means we share a lot of the same opinions about how the game went down and how strategy occurred in it. Despite Penny's opinions being different than the two of ours and her estimates of her strategic moves, this is sort of the obstacle that we were presented with concerning Penny the whole game. Neither of us felt that her moves were as beneficial to us as she is claiming, and negative results (such as Erin being blindsided at final 7 due to us picking the most obvious target and Penny trying to approach Asteria in a way that was obvious that she was faking targeting Joanna can be attributed to her plans). I think that if you were rewarding effort based on how hard that one has to work at tribal council, it would almost be me against Helen and then me against Helen and Penny because I think I'm least likely to win and essentially have to prove my points against both of them?

Helen: You shouldn't reward her because the entire reason she has "extra work" at FTC is her own doing. It isn't because we're trying to gang up on her, it's because she's been difficult to work with, and now, she's trying to mischaracterize everything that has happened in the sense that the plans that she came up with (many of which failed, were naive and blind to reason, or outright ignored the opinions of others) and forced on us by refusing to do anything besides her own idea (which is the very reason that Ted totally left Erin/Penny's side and approached Rob/Christy/Joanna to vote Daniel out since Penny wasn't willing to compromise after hours of explanation that we'd lose Ted), and then claiming that she's created the heavens and earth for saving us with it (if it worked, that is; it didn't work for Erin -sadface-). Also, much of the things that she's taking credit for or faulting comes down to the blind luck of who to play an idol on, or preparing for if one even exists.
The case for my victory is that, between Brian and I, I was the one that was more instrumental in coming up with the plans that were executed, demobilizing groups that could have teamed up to eliminate us. I was the one that talked more to the other players so that those plans could be implemented, and I performed better in challenges. That's a summary, to enhance what I've already described in my former statement, but would be happy to provide more detail and distinction to you or other jurors upon request.

Penny: Ted was never on our side. Helen and Brian both admitted that they knew Ted was playing BOTH sides. They even conspired to vote him out the very next round!

They will attempt to cover up their horrendous decision at the second tribal at the merge. Fact is they chose Ted who had his feet in both the Helios and Asteria camps and was going to flip flop his way to the end, over Daniel who had successfully switched sides and was going to vote with us right down to the end.

It was an extreme tactical error by the pair of them, which almost cost all of us a chance to progress further in the game, this is after I single handedly worked to turn the tables on Asteria. Helen and Brian also neglect to mention that they actually believed Rob when he said he would flip on Asteria and vote with Helios, after we'd spent the entire pre-merge stage paying out on him at every challenge lol.



Shawna: To Brian, it's very noble that you are loyal to Helen but are you willing to sacrifice your game for hers? I really need to be able to separate the game both of you played.

Brian: No, I'm absolutely not willing to sacrifice my own game for hers. Strategically, as Helen admitted, we discussed pretty much everything and knew what we were doing at all times. But when Helen came up with a plan, the difference was that I intentionally let her go about sending all the PMs, doing most of the tangible work to implement it. If she wasn't willing to do it or needed my help, I did it myself. But since, she almost always offered to do everything herself anyway, I capitalized on that and let her put the target on her back sending massive strategic PMs on a regular basis. That made the major weakness in Helen's game the fact that she was at risk to be idoled out or voted out most of the post-merge rounds. I didn't face the same risk. When Helen won F7 immunity, it was Erin idoled out over me. Even if Helen was voted out (and I did say there were points where I considered doing it if the potential to make end-game was still there) my game would've lived on and I still may have made it to the end --- as a "goat" essentially based on the fact that I was considered her follower. So I think that's the main difference between my game and Helen's game.

Shawna: Thats' all good luck everybody.
Helen: Thanks, Shawna!

Jeff: Okay, Daniel my boy. Are you ready to go?



Daniel: Firstly, congratulations to all three of you! You've succeeded at what thirteen of us fell just short of accomplishing. No matter what means you've used as an ends, objectively speaking, you three have outwitted, outplayed, and outlasted the rest of us. Some of your endgame methods might appear to be lazy, or even unscrupulous compared to the competitors you are sitting next to, but fair is fair, you got us, you got all of us. Major props!

While you guys HAVE gotten to the very end, I certainly admire some of your gameplay more so than others.

I'm gonna get one of you out of the way.
Brian, I really have nothing to address toward you. Like the actual Lord Brian Heidik, you played a callous, clinical game. But very much UNLIKE Lord Heidik, you were another player's bitch the ENTIRE game. You never went out of your way to make moves on your own accord, and I simply cannot respect this method of gameplay. Sorry, bud. You'll have to really, REALLY, REALLY impress me to earn my vote tonight since I'm not entirely decided yet, but don't press your luck.

Brian: I understand. I put myself in this position and was willing to risk having to enter tribal council with an extra low chance of winning based on my strategy. So I'll just try my best and hope to impress you somehow.

Daniel: Why risk this though? Why not make a move at some point? Imagine how your game could have played out if you had blindsided Helen at F9?

Brian: At F9, the dynamics were too complex, and I feared you working with Joanna and Erin/Penny over me along with fearing that Asteria would reunite and I'd lose Ted's support if I took out Helen. I aimed for safety at that point. I slightly elaborated on it, but at final 7, if we could've taken out Christy successfully, immediately at final 6, that was the first time I legitimately thought and detailed a plan to take Helen. I discussed it in my confessional during the final 7 round, but I was going to approach Erin after the vote and tell her that she COULD NOT warn Penny about this plan (since Penny might warn Helen), explain all the sub-alliances that Penny was involved in with Helen and sell-out other aspects of Helen's game to make Erin trust that she might not have known in order to get her trust. I discussed a way to get Helen out that round, potentially being idoled (if the idol hadn't been wasted the round before), or even with the majority. I felt that then, I could've gone to the end with Penny and Erin (being safe at final 5 with Helen gone) and been responsible for taking out the biggest threat.

But the way the game worked out, she won immunity at all points where I had a chance to take her out, so I couldn't. And at final 6, I wouldn't with the 3 Asterians left in the game.



Daniel: Penny, oh Penny. The ever tenacious Penny. You were the impetus in my flip at the merge. I like you as a person, and I wish I could be sitting next to you right now, but things just didn't work out did they? I was played, I get it. I do have a question that I believe I already know the answer to but I'm going to ask it anyway. If the plan at F9 went smoothly and Rob was booted, what would have been your next course of action? Would I have gone next regardless? Another Asterian perhaps? How would your endgame plan have changed? I look forward to your answer, thanks! :)

Penny: Hi Daniel! My end game changed completely when you were blindsided and it hurt me big time.

I honestly hadnt thought so far ahead. I wont sit here and tell you that you would definitely have been in the F3 with me, because I am going to be 100% honest with everybody tonight.

However, the thread that Rob started after you turned to us definitely would have helped you. To me if we had continued and Asteria grew to really dislike you, I would have absolutely taken you to the Finals with me. Because I believe that would have maximised my possibility of winning the game.

For what its worth, I didnt play you. I was completely unaware that you were even the target and you shouldnt have been voted out that night in the manner that you were. Both Erin and I wanted to keep you and we were both shocked when you got sent home.

Ill say again that voting you out was a huge tactical error by Helen and Brian. They robbed us of another vote and that cant be overstated. The two of them were at times a hindrance to me and did at times actually get in the way of the plans I was putting in place to get to the end.

Helen: Alas. If Daniel is in finals with you and Erin, I'm not.

Penny: Thats the problem with your strategic game. You looked towards the end but didnt think about getting there in the first place. I gambled all game that I would be going to the end and made the best moves not only in my interests, but in both of your interests as well. You two tried to play safe, which is evidenced by your obsession over the Immunity Idol. It didnt get played for like 3 or 4 Tribals, yet it came up every time with the pair of you.

I made the big moves and the big calls. I was prepared to go home every night and took huge risks. The pair of you were content on surviving on the words of Rob and Ted, who were both obviously playing us.

You're lucky that I fought so hard to keep us alive after the Daniel vote, or else all three of us wouldnt have made it this far.

Brian: Um, isn't it smart to consider all the scenarios and the possibility that the idol MIGHT come up? Because it was out there, and it did come up, so it just makes sense to idol-proof votes as much as possible. And keeping Ted with us and agreeing to his targets was partially to prevent his idol from being used against us also.

Penny: Um it didnt make sense because nobody from Asteria was going to play the Idol when they believed they had a 6-4 numbers advantage and would be looking towards the end themselves. The logical thinking for the Asterians was to keep the Idol for as long as they could.

You all waited so long to flush the damn the Idol. Fact is I brought Rob's name up for elimination at EVERY Tribal Council and you both flat out denied it. How many times did Rob play an Immunity Idol?



Daniel: And finally, the head honcho herself - Helen. Where do I start? You DOMINATED this game, physically, strategically and socially. It is without question that you do deserve the win more than the other two tribemates and I think the rest of the jury will agree to that. So, I'll lay it out simple for you:
1.) Are you sane? Seriously, 6200+ posts in your final immunity challenge is excessive, no? Was your plan going into the challenge to drive everyone else into committing suicide out of shame? I mean, shit!
2.) What does it feel like to subvert free will and have your own collared bitch yapping at your ankles for the entire duration of the game? The bitch in question, which of course I just got done speaking with, being Brian.

Helen: Haha! Thanks, Daniel! I really appreciate and respect your views on the game and how to assess the finalists, and I'd like to think that I'd approach it the same way in your position. Sorry that things didn't work out between us.

1) I'm not sane, at all lol. Up until this week, I've been on break, so I've had heaps of time to dedicate to the game, which is much of the reason that many of my plans and relationships were able to be as developed as their were. I owe much of my ability to being here to the fact that my "life" hasn't resumed until this past Sunday.

I expected that if I lost the challenge, Penny/Joanna would team up to 2-2 me into a tiebreaker to make it to the final. Whereas, if I was immune, Penny wouldn't see the reason to vote out Brian over Joanna. So it was important.

It wasn't my intention to make anyone shit themselves or kill themselves, but my thinking was this: Penny spent the first few hours of the challenge trying to convince me to let her win because she hadn't yet won immunity. Knowing that she was in the AUS time zone, I also knew that she had the advantage in that she'd know how late she would need to stay up posting in order to beat me. If the number she needed to reach was at all realistic, she'd attempt it, and take advantage of the opportunity to eliminate me. I couldn't let her have that, so I spent an extra few hours listening to an audio book and clicking away (and still got eight hours of sleep). Now, after I won the challenge, she's re-scripted reality to make it sound like she prevailed by "tricking me" into trying too hard even though we all know she'd have tried to win immunity herself and take me out given the chance, and she wanted that chance badly.

2) I appreciated Brian for being loyal to me in the game. He was always there to talk to. He had very sound judgements and was always very reasonable. It was very calming to believe that I would potentially always have his trust, because I told him practically everything to keep him loyal to me and made sure he didn't question. And I have confidence that Brian and I will continue to talk long after this game is over.

I (and I think he does too) understand that no one on the jury is likely going to realize the full extent of his gameplay over the course of the next two days, but I hope that episodes or confessionals or something will allow you guys to give him a bit more credit post-game for the intuition and intelligence that he did bring to the table.



Daniel: Alright, thank you guys.
Good luck to all three of you guys! You (mostly) deserve to be sitting where you are!

Jeff: Alright guys, I hate to break up a fight, you all know that... BUT we must push on with this tribal for Ted, Erin, Rob, Christy and Joanna will get their turn.

Jeff: Welcome finalists. I hope you guys are well rested and ready to face the snake pit yet again.

Brian: I suppose I'm ready.
Shawna:

Penny: Im hungover. Please dont post any of those flashy gif's because there's nothing worse when you have a headache lol.



Brian:

Jeff: I can let you guys fight for another 5 minutes while i sort out jury order XD

Penny: I got half way down before I realised you were just rambling. The Jury will notice that both Brian and Helen have done nothing to negate the key strategic moves that I made which not only resulted in me moving forward, but both Helen and Brian.

Fact: If I hadnt scrambled arriving at the merge I would have been voted out and Helios would have been down 6-3. Helen and Brian would have both been sent home following me as well. I was the one who convinced Daniel to flip, while Helen and Brian were content to let Rob decide our fate. He voted against me, if it wasnt for me we would have lost the opening vote.

Brian: Even without Daniel, since Ted was willing to vote for Shawna, we still had a 5-5 tie right there with Helios. You wouldn't have necessarily been voted. And if Ted wouldn't have won immunity, there's a good chance that he would've gotten the Asterian vote that round.

Penny: Fact: Helen and Brian trusted Ted more than Daniel, even though they admit that they knew Ted was playing both sides. They still thought it made sense to vote out the player that was actually voting with us.

Fact: I put Rob's name forward at every Tribal Council for elimination because he was the best strategic player (in my opinion) from the opposing side. Everytime Helen and Brian said no because he might play an Immunity Idol, how many times did Rob play an Immunity Idol? Christy ended up playing the Idol, the person that Helen and Brian forced myself and Erin to change to after they continued to obsess that Rob would be the one to play an Idol.

I have continually had to come back from adversity after these two ruined the strategic position that I worked to put us in on more than one occasion. They wont address this, they will just continue to skirt the issue and make baseless accusations that I made a mess, when in actuality, they made the mess, I cleaned it up. Three times.

Helen: To Penny's points, I already addressed each of those above, and you haven't added anything new, so I'll save everyone from more drudgery.



Jeff: Okay Christy, please start us off this evening my queen.



Christy: Hey, guys! Gj at being the final three. I'm not going to say anything more, because noone wants to hear the same things over and over again about how deserving the three of you are. I'd rather keep this relatively short, so here we go.

Brian - In your opening speech you basically described how you willingly rode coattails. If you want my vote tell me why you deserve it more over Helen. That's it.

Brian: Despite riding coattails, I was still involved in every decision that Helen made and completely understood her game, saw how it was going to work and believed that her ideas were able to make it to the end. I contributed to some of the ideas and some of her actions as well. I feel like the best player in a Survivor game isn't necessarily the one who makes all the moves and is seen as such an obvious threat. It's actually rare for that type of player to make it to the end, so I used her as a shield. I believe I played an extremely intelligent, under-the-radar type game, and at this point, my argument is radically different than Penny's and Helen's because I'm not trying to say I was responsible for us going to the end.

My strategy was mainly just get MYSELF to the end. If Penny would've left, I had options. If Helen would've left, I had options. I was seen as a goat essentially, which increased my chances of making to the end, but I had all the knowledge and forwarded messages from Helen to get myself further. And I considered several times (mainly at final 7 if you wouldn't have gone home) actually stepping up and taking Helen out, but when Erin was blindsided, it forced me to maintain this strategy until the end of the game. And I was vulnerable without immunity all but one vote and lasted safe. I feel like it's not necessarily smartest to do so much, so obviously. I wanted to make it to the end of the game, and I did just that.



Christy: Christy: Penny - hey, girl! Actually I've rewritten my entire question after your opening. Before it, I was 80-20 about voting for you (you with 20, Helen with 80), but I'd say I'm fifty-fifty right now. My question is: was there any point in this game when you seriously considered voting out Helen over anyone had she not won immunity? Thanks, and good luck

Penny: Hi Christy!

I did say that Helen was lucky to survive this long, because her name was constantly on the chopping block for elimination.

Long term my plan to eliminate Helen was ruined, twice, when Daniel and Erin were both blindsided. I still had three opportunities to eliminate her and would have definitely done so the last two times had she not won Immunity. I seriously considered flipping with Rob to vote out Helen, I would have flipped with you and Joanna and I would have flipped again with Joanna and done my best to get Brian to flip too.

Strategically I knew that I wanted to get rid of Helen to give myself the best possible chance to win the game. Unfortunately it didnt pan out as I had to keep Helen on for longer as numbers because I lost allies unexpectedly, however I still believe my game was better than her's, and I still believe I deserve to win the most here.

I hope that answers your question.



Christy: Helen - Great game, great opening full of fluff. Here's my concern: I think that after the first few merge rounds you set yourself up for a fall. Everyone knew you were a threat, and I think that the biggest reason you're there is because of your immunityrun. I think that a great player doesn't need immunity, eventhough it's part of the game. So, here's my task for you: give me a possible rundown on events, assuming you never won immunity (and assuming that the winner of the immunity-challenge was always safe and that it never played part in who's going home). Got it?

Here's the catch though. We all know how much do you like writing, and since your opening speech was long enough, I want you to answer my question in less than... say, 110 words. Have fun!

Helen: The original plan was for F5 of Helios4+Ted where Ted would vote out Erin since he had no relationship with the girls, and Penny/Ted would jostle to join Brian/me in finals. Being the uniting force between the two sides of the alliance would have provided safety, but Ted’s loyalty caused that to fall through.

Without an idol in play (since we’re nulling immunity), Helios 4 makes Final 6 with one of you (say Joanna) being out at F7. Keep Rob til F6 so Penny thrives on eliminating him thus keeping me in, and Brian/I make F5 with you or Joanna who we’ve bonded with more than Erin/Penny have for F3.

Christy: exactly 110 words



Christy: Additional task for everyone - rank everyone you've met in this game, based on how much you liked them. No explanation needed. Good luck guys ^_^
Penny: In terms of pure likeability mine would go something like this;
1. Erin > 2. Brian > 3. Daniel > 4. Christy > 5. Helen > 6. Joanna > 7. Rob > 8. Ted > 9. Shawna > 10. Jake > 11. Jan > 12. Ken > 13. Ryan > 14. Jeanne > 15. Butch
Erin:
Brian: 1. Helen > 2. Erin > 3. Christy > 4. Jake > 5. Penny > 6. Ken > 7. Ted > 8. Rob > 9. Joanna > 10. Jan > 11. Daniel > 12. Shawna
Erin:
Helen: Brian > Christy > Erin > Joanna > Ted > Rob > Ken > Penny > Jan > Jake > Shawna (hardly talked to) > Daniel (hardly talked to)
Thanks, Christy!
Christy: Thanks everyone, this definitely helped! :)



Penny: Brian wrote: If Penny would've left, I had options.
This is incorrect.
If I was voted out, these two were following me to Ponderosa. I was the one who got us the numbers advantage in the first place. Brian and Helen did not want to try and approach Daniel because it was too 'risky'. They both depended on Ted and Rob and both were playing us.

Helen: Ted wasn't playing us at F10 and F9. He wanted Asteria down two numbers. We'd have won F10 with or without Daniel. And since Ted's utmost loyalty did appear to be to me and Brian (since he had a deal to go further in the game with us than with Asteria), but his projected path to the end was too dangerous. Still, if you or Erin would have left at F8 as was being planned with us a part of it, since Ted was still loyal to Brian and I (but not necessarily all of Asteria since he was fine with you and Erin going that round) we'd have continued to make it through.

Penny: You admitting that you were targeting me this early just dampens your strategic game even further. You had the entire merge to take me out if you really were against me. You didnt and you have no excuse. I did not have Immunity. Had you not been safe I would have ensured your elimination.
You conspired to vote Ted out at the very NEXT Tribal Council after Daniel was blindsided. Trusting Ted was a tactical error which I identified at the very beginning and you refused to see. Ted did what was best for Ted, and had he had better odds on Asteria, he would have stuck with Asteria.

Helen: Ted was FAR more loyal to Brian and I than he was to you in Erin. After he was voted out, even Christy and Rob admitted that he seemed closer to the two of us than anyone else. He was taken out because the path he wanted to take to get us to the end was too dangerous and relied on his vote too often.
You hardly even talked to Ted post-merge so you can't claim that you even have an idea of what Brian and I discussed with him or how far he intended to go with us and us with him.

Penny: I didnt need either of you lol. Thats the entire point, you both were expendable. Anybody could make the observation that Ted was being the double agent. It took you two whole rounds of the merge before you could actually realise this.
Ted was playing both sides and kept his feet in both the Helios and Asteria ponds. Ted would have flip flopped all the way to the finals and I knew this from the very start of the merge. You chose to vote out Daniel, who was completely loyal to us, ahead of Ted, who was a double agent.

Helen: You seem to assume that just because it was advantageous for us to target an individual in one round given the current setup and numbers that it is necessary to target them EVERY round. I'd assume that you claim that because you targeted Rob every round because you were too blinded by the need to eliminate him. Others didn't have to do the same thing because others didn't unnecessarily initiate a personal rivalry against another player (and take pride in it, no less) thus needing to do the damage control that you did in trying to take him out against the best interests of others.

Penny: But who did you target? Lets look back at the first three Tribal Council's of the merge.

1) You targeted Shawna, which only succeeded because I managed to get us the extra vote we needed.
2) You targeted Daniel, the person who had flipped from Asteria and was voting with us.
3) You targeted Ted, the person you yourself was trusting more than me and Erin according to your words.

Your game was completely full of back flips. In the first three Tribal Council's you knowingly targeted two members of our alliance at the time. You said you trusted Ted so much so you voted out Daniel, but then you decided to vote Ted out next. You really didnt have any idea strategically in this game. The members of old Asteria were eliminated due to my strategic game, Shawna because I got us the extra numbers, Rob because I convinced him to change his vote. Your strategic moves were eliminating two people who were at the time, voting with us.

Helen: I have already explained multiple times (not just during FTC but throughout the entire game) that we'd have gotten Shawna voted out even without Daniel using Ted's idol on a 5-5, but you keep ignoring what's being said and repeating your broken record.

I have already explained multiple times that you'd have used Daniel staying in the game as an opportunity to take me out at the nearest opportunity, so me taking him out was a necessary move of self-preservation, but you keep ignoring what's being said and repeating your broken record.

Penny: So wait, why wasnt the Idol played? You said yourself at the time you couldnt be sure if Daniel would flip or not. You didnt trust him, but you still were content to go through with a 5-5 tie? If what you are saying is the truth, then an Idol would have been played, because you had no way of confirming if Daniel had flipped.

But Daniel was voting with us. Regardless of whether or not you thought I would make moves after this, I was still very much on your side. Helios was always a tight 4, despite me sending out the fake Tribal dynamics. So you voted out Daniel to lessen my position in the game, knowing full well it would lessen all our positions in the game.

Helen: It wasn't just YOU sending out fake tribal dynamics. ALL OF US DID. Per the plan that I came up with at F11 when communicating with Rob. And then we extended it to the merge. He knows it. Brian knows it. Erin knows is. And yet, you claim to take full credit for it, and haven't even addressed me pointing out your inaccuracy pages back.

Didn't you already admit that is everything was stable at any point in time that you'd have used the opportunity to take me out? And Erin did the same? If we ever, ever a SINGLE time, had a disposable number, and I didn't win immunity, you could and claimed that you WOULD take me out because I displayed that I was a challenge threat pre-merge to save our tribe. If I gave you the opportunity, I'd have been eliminated at F8. I had to play round to round or I could've been easily taken out because you guys knew how dangerous I would be at the end of the game in challenges, and yet YOU never did anything about it.

Penny: It was my idea to separate the Helios 4 into 2 sub alliances. Ask Erin, shes on the Jury, she'll tell you.
Dont try and take credit for strategic moves that you were not responsible for.

Helen: Because you were the one talking to Rob to get Asteria to throw F11 IC by convincing him that Brian and I were in jeopardy...... right. We told you VERBATIM how to respond to him to fulfill the ploy, and you did.

Penny: I didnt talk to Rob when he mutinied because I knew what his intentions were. You were actually the people that believed he wanted to vote with us lol.
I was the one who convinced Rob to actually change his vote and you two STILL didnt want to vote Rob out. He really did a number on the pair of you lol.

Helen: We didn't. Do you even READ anything that I've written? I've explained this to you five times and you keep ignoring it. If we believed him, then why was it ALWAYS the plan to vote out an Asteria at F10.

And Rob didn't even HAVE the idol, but you keep going on about it anyways.

Penny: So why didnt we vote Rob out at F10? I brought Rob's name up for elimination. If you knew he didnt have an Immunity Idol why wasnt he voted out? Were you such an ego-maniac that you didnt want me to take the credit for being able to blindside Rob? lol.
It sounds like your entire game was based around trying to negate any strategic moves I could make. You two were the ones obsessing over the Idol, not me. I brought his name up for elimination countless times regardless of him potentially having an Idol.

Penny: If I was voted out, Rob would be here at the end because Helen and Brian simply refused to vote him out. Rob was my greatest strategic rival in my opinion and would have probably won had he made it, given the target he had on his back the entire time.

Helen: He did have a target on his back. From you. That's why we kept him in the first three rounds because it was guaranteed to keep you loyal to us since you'd still be targeting him. If you read my earlier statement, you'd realize that this was all intentional but you were blind to it because you were too determined to take him out.

Penny: You kept Asteria's best strategic player in the game for far longer than was necessary. You were scared of his Immunity Idol and I had to verbally bully both of you in order to vote him out when eventually was.
Your insistence on voting out Shawna and Joanna, you were playing safe. I was the one taking the risks and defying the odds.

Christy:icon_lol

Helen: To Christy: hopefully this allows you to get an idea of just what kind of a grasp Penny had on the dynamics of the other players in the game, and how that affected the misguided strategies she forcibly implemented that we both have provided contrasting views of.

Penny: It may not be what the proper Asteria tribal dynamics are.

But put yourself in my shoes with no prior knowledge. There was no doubt Rob was a powerful player in Asteria Tribe politics. To me, after talking with him, he struck me as a very powerful strategic player. But this was just my own personal viewpoint.

Once again this may not be the truth, but it is what I had assumed during the game. I targeted Rob as my personal strategic threat and thats why I pushed hard for him to go home.

Erin:

Penny: At least I was actually making moves against Asteria members. Maybe Rob wasnt the strategic player I thought he was, but I backed in my judgement and targeted him to better my own game.

You've openly admitted that you trusted Ted more than myself. Yet given the ample amount of opportunities you've had to eliminate me, I sit here at the finals. The Jury knows given the opportunity, I would have voted you out. I have an excuse as to why you're sitting here, whats your excuse?

Helen: Because you could always be trusted to target Rob, and you always did, giving everyone else safety in the process. You had ample opportunities to eliminate Brian, but you didn't, because he served a purpose to you, much like the both of you served a purpose to me.

Penny: I didnt target Brian because he has been my end game goat plan for the entire game. Did you have the same excuse with Rob? You knowingly left an Asteria member in the game for too long, all the while you had the belief he had an Immunity Idol, yet you never intended to even force his hand. What kind of strategy is allowing a player from the other side to waltz through the merge stage with an Idol in their pocket?



Helen: All you're doing is repeating the exact same thing over and over again even though it defies the very response that I gave you just one post beforehand. This is the same way that you approached strategy with us, when all three of us (me, Brian, and Erin) shot down one of your plans, and you'd copy/paste it to us again and go through with it anyways.

Penny: The fact of the matter is, both Brian and Helen were entirely dependent on the moves I made at the merge. Brian is here because I decided to bring him here, Helen is here because she was lucky with a few Immunity Challenges.

Why am I here? I was vulnerable at every Tribal Council, they could have eliminated me at any time. The fact is they couldnt afford to vote me out because I was the one carrying both of them to the end.

Helen: You weren't carrying either of. Your argument for being safe at every TC is the equivalent of Katie Gallagher saying that she deserved to win Survivor: Palau because she wasn't targeted. She wasn't targeted because she was unnecessarily mean to people, much in the manner that you've been proud of "controlling" the pre-merge fighting between the tribes.

Penny: I should have been targeted, you've said so yourself. So why wasnt I? Had I had the opportunity you were gone, I had plenty of opportunities and you were lucky by winning Immunity. I never had Immunity, why didnt you vote me out if you knew I was such a threat?

Helen: You CLEARLY misunderstand who Katie Gallagher is. I never called either of you a threat. And that's why you weren't voted out.

Penny: So if you're such a strategic player and you think I am not, you must assume you're going to walk over the vote tonight. Are you willing to admit to the Jury that you expect to win this in a landslide?

Helen: Do not put words in my mouth. I not once uttered to anyone (you, or Brian, or Joanna, or anyone otherwise) that I would win a jury vote much less win in a landslide. When YOU told me that I would win in a landslide, I didn't even take the compliment, but responded by saying that both you and Brian could most certainly win; anything could happen at FTC, and the jury should vote for whomever they believed played the best game, and I'll be satisfied whoever that person is. You've fabricated enough things this evening, but this is one that I'm not going to let slide, and there isn't even any reason for you to make the callous comment.

Shawna: Helen wrote: both you and Brian


Penny: But you just told me I wasnt a threat? If I am not a threat, why would they vote for me?

Brian wont get any votes, everybody knows he just jumped on my coat tails already. So if I am not a threat, you should, by default, gather the votes shouldnt you? Isnt that why you just said you never voted me out? Because I was never a threat?

Ted: Which James Bond character do you think you, your fellow finalist/s, me and any relevant jurors are most like? You may not pick James Bond. Give as much detail as possible.

I will be judging you based on variety, justification and quality of your answers.



Penny: I believe I am like Elektra King, because I tried to collaborate with everybody to achieve my goals. I held game related grudges as well.

I believe Brian was like General Grubozaboyschikov, because nobody knows who that is and they actually have to google him to find out what he actually did.

Helen is like Octopussy. She was a 'jewel smuggler' because here she is at Tribal Council trying to justify playing a strategic game when in actuality I was the one calling the shots. Octopussy is attempting to 'steal' the game from me tonight.

To me Rob was Auric Goldfinger, symbolically in this game he was my primary antagonist, although hopefully he knows it was never anything personal between us.

Erin would be Bill Tanner, to me she was my number one ally or 'chief of staff' and always helped me with my decision making and kept me on track during the early stages of the merge.

Ted, to me you will be Vesper Lynd, because you were 'born on a dark and stormy night'. To me you were also a double agent, working for both Helios and Asteria.

Christy to me is like Christmas Jones. When we initially met, Christy was distrusting of me, but over the course of the game we began to trust each other little by little.

I am not a Bond fan, so this question was very difficult for me.



Helen: My knowledge isn't that far spanning, but here's my attempt:

Ted: Oddjob, silent you may be, but very deadly when you chose who and when to attack, being intimidating with your approach of how quiet yet successful your attacks were

Helen: Goldfinger, connections to far-reaching places (his gold deposits) as an analogy to my far-reaching social links to other people, with a very methodical approach to completing tasks

Penny: Jaws, in her approach that she always thrived on attacking Rob and would have bit out his jugular if given the chance

Brian: Man with the Golden Gun, with his gun embodying his assassin like characteristics making hits on the individuals that were important for us to remove from the game

Rob: Dr No, elaborate evil plans and mad scientist like persona with his approach

Erin: Moneypenny, amicable nature, kindhearted, good-natured, and very easygoing



Brian:

Rob: Emilio Largo
Rob, like Emilio, was basically the "villain" and leader of the other side from our perspective the whole game.


Erin: Christmas Jones
Fierce, Very fierce, smart, competitor in all forms. Worked in Kazakhstan to dismantle nuclear warheads. Helped Bond on his missions. Just like Erin helped her allies out in the game.


Bill Tanner: Brian: I was a loyal ally and great in a crisis, ultimately.


Vivienne Michel: Christy was considered to be a girl next door the whole game. Even when we didn't like working with her, everyone loved talking to her.


Penny: Strawberry Fields
Faced and Identity crisis: Agent Strawberry Fields was built as a supporting character, but by the end of the series, everyone was debating whether she was a main, lead character or not. This sort of supports Penny's argument at this tribal council.


Rosa Klebb: Helen
They were both fierce and resorted to any measures (such as torturing) to get what they wanted. Helen essentially did whatever was needed and everything she could to make it to the end of the game.


General Gogol: Ted
Everyone wondered about you. Were you a villian, were you a hero? General Gogol's status is left uncertain. What was he? You were a major character, but we don't fully understand you.

Brian: Boo to not having an edit button here for typing and bad formatting.



Jeff: Okay. Thank you, Ted.

Jeff: Next Up, we have: Joanna!



Joanna: Wow congrats guys. You came into the merge with the odds stacked against you and were able to take advantage of my tribe members when you needed to (much to my dismay :( ) and come out with a solid Helios final 3. I’m only going to be addressing Penny and Helen tonight.

Brian:

Joanna: Penny! Wow I knew you were a gamer but every post you have made so far in this thread has me seriously fanning myself. You know we didn’t really talk all that much during the game but I knew that was because I wasn’t a part of your plan, and you definitely weren’t a part of my plan, so I appreciate you keeping the bullshitting to a minimum. I am amazed at how hard you had to work for your tribe. I think creating the fake division and leading a dumbass such as Rob to believe it and he comes back to Asteria to tell everyone, was probably the best move of the game. And you thought of it, so kudos. I also like how you have emotion, personality, and humor, three characteristics the other two severely lack. It made me feel comfortable to talk to you the few times we did talk. I honestly think you SHOULD have this in the bag, but some of the members are still wavering on the jury. I think just because Helen built this persona that she is a “great player” shouldn’t be the reason she should get votes. You intentionally kept your strategic mind under wraps while Helen didn’t bother, and now you’re at risk for being seen the emotional and unstable player to Helen’s calm cool collected which simply isn’t the case at all. Basically I think you’re doing phenomenal so far so keep fighting. Just the fact that Helen/Brian feel like they need to gang up on you, shows how awesome you’re doing.

So I just have one quick question. Final 4, I look back now and see you had no real intention of trying to get Helen to lose and hopefully voting her out, so why bother PMing and implying that that was what you wanted to happen? I just kind of saw that as a lack of respect on your part, because there was no reason to lie to me at that point.

Helen: There seems to be a disagreement here. Even though Penny claims to take credit for creating the fake division, it was something that Brian and I devised while working to get Rob to throw the F11 IC for Asteria. We were the ones messaging both Penny and Erin with explicit instructions on how to respond to Rob's messages to convince him that Brian and I would be endangered in the event of a loss. That was the origin of the plan, and it came from us working with Rob.

Penny: Come Final 4 I had every intention of trying my best to beat Helen. As ive already pointed out, my timezone is different to you guys, so I actually wasnt online much when Helen really got going and built a substantial lead. You'd know from watching that I started with everyone else and kept the pace, but I had to leave while the rest kept going.

When I arrived Helen had roughly 6000 posts and I couldnt catch her even though I wanted to. I tried to bluff Helen to keep her to a total I could reach, to her credit, she didnt buy it and set a target I simply couldnt reach.

I did message you prior to this as I had every intention of voting with you to oust Helen. You'll note though, that once I had surrendered to Helen's mammoth total, I did PM you and say I would probably be voting you out, since I needed Brian at my end game.

I hope this answers your question. Thank you so much for your support! I've really done my absolute best this game so I loved reading your comment and know that you respect my game. I cant imagine how much it would suck to be eliminated at the Final Tribal Council, for you to have such an unbiased and controlled comment I think really shows your maturity and your level headedness. I wish we could have been allies. Maybe next time.



Joanna: To my dear Helen. No questions, just comments. You know I can’t help but smile watching Penny slowly rise from the ashes in this FTC and watching you continuously fumble. This whole game, you were incredibly condescending towards me and all the other Asteria members. I honestly did not believe you were legitimately serious with some of the things you said to me. I could not get through your PMs without rolling my eyes roughly 10-15 times. It just amazes me how one person can be so rude, disrespectful, and conceited. You are void of any kind of emotion to the point that you came off as very unlikable. Remember when I was discussing with you that you needed to keep me because you probably wouldn’t be able to beat Penny? You didn’t agree to go with me and I asked if it was out of loyalty or because you seriously thought you could win. I know unfortunately that it was the latter. You were so cocky going into this but you now spend the majority of your time fighting against Penny and what she is saying rather than showing what you’ve done. You’re constantly on the defensive which looks really, really bad on your part. Penny should kill you with the votes hands down. Thank you for playing, choose your final three wisely next time, and don’t let that inflated ego get in the way. :)

Best of luck to all of you! <3

Helen: I apologize that I came off that way to you guys. I never intended to be rude, disrespectful, or conceited in the way that I treated you. Completely aside from the game and strategy, I will absolutely take your criticisms to heart and try to use them to better myself as a person. Thank you for your honest.

On the topic of final three, it's completely alright. I've said all along that my intention was to make it to the final to be judged by a jury of peers, and if they determined that I didn't deserve to win the game over one of the other finalists, then fair enough. If Penny outperforms both Brian and I in jury votes, then she has my accolades. And although the outcome may (or may not) have been different if you were sitting here instead, I'm still satisfied with this, because this entire exercise was intended to be a learning experience for me, which is why I want my game to be judged against others at the end, whatever the outcome, to weigh how well I actually performed.

Thank you for your insight and critique, and whatever the verdict, all the best.