[Jeff Probst]

This is Kim's Final Tribal Council Thread.

All other Jurors should remain in their own threads.

Kim, you have until Sunday at 12c/1e pm to post your statements/questions to the Final 3. Remember not to take up too much of their time as they have 10 other jurors to get to. Please no listing or questions requiring novels for answers. You should post all of your statements/questions in your opening post in this thread.

[Kim]

Hi all.

Yve- I have one question about your game. Let's rewind back to the Final 8. I am begging, BEGGING you and Loveita to vote with me and Cassandra to make it a 4-2-2, but both of y'all were just like "it's not the right time, I want a safe majority". How much of that was just smoke and mirrors on your end? Like, let's just hypothetically, Loveita is one million percent down to vote for Catalie. Do you go along with me, her, and Cassandra? Or do you stick with Joaquin and Russell and vote Loveita out? Your life was on the line during that tribal council. Tell me what you did ~specifically~ to rally the votes to make sure you stayed that night.

Stephanie- I do like you a lot, my question for you is, would you have upheld your end of the bargain if things got reversed? If I had won the final immunity challenge and taken you out? Would you have supported me in the end like you said you would?

Russell-- I don't really have much of a question for you, but just a statement. I do appreciate some aspects of the way you played this game. But the way you talked to me at times just... bothered me. Like, you characterize your social game as "blunt" but a lot of times, I thought it was just abrasive and condescending, like you're telling me how I should be playing the game and giving me pointers as if I hadn't already won before? and in your inaugural season, may I remind you? I mean, I was actually really excited to meet up with you once we merged, and I fully intended to see if we could make things work. I didn't want you out per se during the Jeff vote, it was just that Cristina was the only Munin entertaining a flip and she brought your name up specifically. So I'm sorry that things went sour during that round. That wasn't my intention.

[Russell]

Hey Kim,

I've received this feedback before and I have a tone issue sometimes with my vocal tone and how it comes across on text. I know who I am in the real world, so I'm at peace with this, but I get that it rubbed you the wrong way. I don't think I'm a better player than you and, actually, I think you were the best player in this game. In no way did I ever attempt to tell you anything. I was probably just trying to validate whatever it is you were saying at the time.

I'll stick up for myself though, you were absolutely guilty of this as well. The prime example being when you randomly messaged me around the Tammy vote and told me, after ignoring my previous IMs, that it was 'best' for me to separate from Tammy and Joaq. You made more attempts to control me and tell me what to do at the Lov and Cass boots as well, something I often complained about to Cat. You did this even after you had broken my trust and then complained to me about how I wasn't being honest with you, which to me, shows how little you regarded me as a person. The difference between you and I is that, even if I liked Stephenie and Yve more, if you were in the Final 3, I wouldn't it be holding it against you.

[Kim]

That's fine. One follow-up (if I'm allowed), but during the Jeff vote, was it you who wrote this:

"Your play style is too rigid to win this game. You think in unmoving squares and lines instead of dynamically. By the time you catch up, everyone will have long passed you"

?

[Russell]

I was. I was really upset with Jeff and this was definitely an emotional response.

[Kim]

Thank you. But that really just proves my point re: your tone, honestly, and that it clearly wasn't directed just towards me, but that you had no problem doling it out to others too. I was super mad when I saw that at the time, but I'm over that now, and honestly, if I don't vote for you, that voting comment isn't going to be the reason. I just wanted to point out that your unsolicited "gameplay advice" rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, not just me.

[Russell]

I appreciate you letting me know.

To anyone else listening, this voting parchment was emotional and performative. I think the last season I was on I was called boring a lot so, at any possible moment, I did do my best to play things up. This is disrespectful and it was my intention to be disrespectful.

If I ever seemed like I was condescending to you or 'explaining the game', I absolutely wasn't and I wish that I was better with my tone. I don't think that I have any better idea on how to play the game as anyone. I think I enjoy discussing the more finite parts of Survivor, so if I was ever saying "this is what should happen" or "this is what you should do", I was often probably just trying to spit shit with you or level in some way. I take responsibility for how that could've come across. I'm not that guy, I have very genuine intentions with very silly results.

[Yve]

Yve- I have one question about your game. Let's rewind back to the Final 8. I am begging, BEGGING you and Loveita to vote with me and Cassandra to make it a 4-2-2, but both of y'all were just like "it's not the right time, I want a safe majority". How much of that was just smoke and mirrors on your end? Like, let's just hypothetically, Loveita is one million percent down to vote for Catalie. Do you go along with me, her, and Cassandra? Or do you stick with Joaquin and Russell and vote Loveita out? Your life was on the line during that tribal council. Tell me what you did ~specifically~ to rally the votes to make sure you stayed that night.

This was one of the most complicated rounds in the game. I'm truly not trying to write so much in these responses. I feel compelled to give you all of the information I have. There is no reason to hold back from anyone at this point.

In the round earlier, in our days off leading up the double boot, I went to Loveita and Stephanie with a plan. There had been significant rumors floating around about a "threats" alliance, and as someone who was absolutely not a part of that, I realized I had an opportunity to help foster a counter-alliance of other players like me. I saw Loveita and Steph as quiet players, folks whose names I had heard come up as decoy names in the past. Double boots are notoriously hard, and historically have lead to a huge target, and a minor player getting the boot. I went to those two woman on opposite sides of the battlefield to make a deal where we would let each other know if we heard our names. Simple and easy and a great first step to a legitimate alliance.

But then the double boot actually happened. And Loveita's moves happened. And suddenly, Loveita was a strategic powerhouse, and no longer belonged in our group. That made her the biggest threat to my game at that point. In my mind, if I wanted a shot at the win, I needed to somehow take out Loveita, Joaquin, Catalie AND Cassandra. I didn't create this list off the top of my head, it was researched and tested out. And then you saw the results of that work, everyone agreed to vote them out one after the other. I'm not saying it was entirely my influence or move, but it was always my intention.

Each of these players had a close ally attached to them. Joaq had Russ, Cat had Steph, and Cassandra and you were a close pair as well. The only two people who hadn't truly paired up were myself and Loveita. My plan was simple. Work with Cass/you to get out Cat, work with Steph/Joaq/Russ to get out Cass, then work with Steph/you to get out Joaq. If it worked, the final four would be you/me/Russ/Steph and I didn't plan beyond that, because the dynamics and threat levels in this game shifted from round to round. Of course, that sequence of events didn't actually happen. And with Loveita in the picture AND aware that I intended on focusing on the "threats," that in itself was a huge issue for me.

So when the option came up for a vote at the final 8, I heard it was going to be Joaquin. At the time, I wanted to keep Joaquin as long as I could, because I knew we would protect each other. Fortunately for my game, Joaq was safe at the vote. Cassandra, Cat, Love, and your names all came up at various times throughout the hour after immunity results. My backup plan in case things went wrong was to try and go for a tie at the final six with you and Cassandra. The only person standing in the way of that was Loveita, as she was closer to the two of you than I ever could be. I realize that a final 7 with four allies instead of three is ideal, but the three of you were extremely dangerous beyond the final 7. If Love or Cass didn't go in the final 7 or 6, I was all but guaranteed to lose to one of them in the end.

Joaq and Russ were going to vote for Loveita, and I only heard about Steph and Cat locking in their votes for me in the last five minutes before tribal. I knew the boys wouldn't lie to me at that time, and I knew you and Cass both saw me as an endgame prospect. So, in the last ten minutes, from my perspective, I was aware I had two votes coming my way (even though Catalie told me she wasn't voting for me), two votes going Lovita's way, and two votes for Cat. I couldn't predict what Loveita was going to do, but I was going to assume she'd go after Cat.

You wanted to know how I rallied the votes, but I truly didn't. I was provided all of the information about what was going on through my conversations with players, and ultimately made my choice based on the options presented to me. Outright targeting and leading the charge every round is tiring and dangerous. Even war generals delegate smaller battles to others on their side.

There was also the looming possibility of an idol floating around. If it was 3 votes for Cat, and 3 votes for Loveita, then either way I was removing a threat from the game. Even if an idol was played, or we had to revote I was safe.

But instead, Loveita voted for me. In this game you can't predict everything, and you've got to make bold choices if you want to make it to the next round in a better position. I can absolutely say that my position from the final 7 onwards was much better than the one I was in at the final 8. I took a risk, and it paid off, leading to me following through with the rest of my plan to the endgame, albeit with a completely different boot order. Becoming numb to being targeted also helped, after it happened so many times before. It allowed me to think clearly while also knowing votes were coming my way.

I wish I could have told you this while we were in the game together, but if I had let you know about everything, you would have certainly done everything you could to disrupt it. I'm glad I can tell you now.

[Stephanie]

This is a super short and succinct question with an easy answer, so I'm not going for the full-blown essay approach here compared to my responses to some of the other jurors who were asking a lot more. But the answer is yes, if you won the final challenge and took me out, then you would've honestly had my vote and support to win in the end over Russell and Yve as I told you.

The same reasons I voted you out at four are the same reasons I would've respected your game to win and be a deserving contender over Russell and Yve if I were on the jury. It maybe wasn't the "flashiest" game in terms of finding idols and winning challenges, but it was extremely clean and to never receive single a vote cast against you until final four was something I found to be immensely impressive. Obviously if you'd won the final challenge, then you'd be able to claim you made it to the end with such a feat.

I meant it when I told you I saw your game and mine as mirror versions of one another, with you being the Fenrir version and me being the Munin version and we played it similarly in a lot of ways. Cass was seen as the more threatening of your duo in the last stretch just like Cat was seen as the more threatening of my duo with her which was another similarity we had.

We weren't necessarily players who had the most negative attributes associated with us in a way that Russell and Yve were, but we also weren't seen as the biggest threats like Catalie, Joaquin etc. were. So I saw you striving for that balance which would reduce your target much like I strived for, and arguably you did it even better than I did seeing as you were even less of a target than I was.

I mentioned this in my response to Loveita, but in my eyes there are two main reasons for people to vote you out in these games and that's either they don't see a place for you in their games or they see you as a threat to their games, and you were able to build relationships to make sure enough people saw a place for you in their games, both within the Fenrir group and cross-tribally within Munin, while also positioning yourself to where you weren't seen as a threat to eliminate with bigger targets surrounding you at all times.

In my eyes, you excelled in that area much better than both Russell and Yve, as you were able to use your social game more effectively to foster widespread connections where you were impenetrable from every angle while Russell and Yve were easy names to throw around from the start of the merge and I believe that was due to their own social and strategic shortcomings, relying on other people to bail them out and a stark contrast to how you'd set yourself up by virtue of your strengths.

So I would've seen my vote for you to win over Russell and Yve as respect for the type of game I was striving to play, and hope to earn your vote similarly.