[Susie Smith]

The Survival Sequences challenge was a bit of a blur, with Shan emerging as the winner! Everyone seemed to agree to send Heather packing, and just like that we’re down to 7! 

1.      That challenge was a doozy! Did you have any particular strategy for Survival Sequences? How’d that work out for you?
2.      Was voting out Heather YOUR idea, or did you go along for some reason? If it wasn’t your preference, why did you go along with it?
3.      Do you have any true ride or dies at this point? Do you think you’re theirs? Who thinks you’re loyal to them, but you’re not?
4.      Who do you think is the biggest threat to your torch right now? What will you do about that?
5.      Who do you think is most likely to give a bitter jury speech?
6.      Have you made any big moves so far this season? What were they?
7.      What would your fellow tribemates find the most surprising to learn about you? 

We've been loving all the confessional videos that so many of you have been making! If you haven't already, we encourage you to record a shortish video on YouTube, mark it as 'unlisted,' and share it with us! You can talk about your thoughts on the game and share your answers to the confessional questions.  If you need some inspiration, here’s a reaction video Cakes did after making the merge in one of her ORGs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLHZ9YH_HJE 

[Deshawn]

Holy shit Carolyn.

We didn't get a merge feast so is that like a reward for making it this far in the game? Cuz I'll take it.

Ok but seriously, I was kinda confident that Heather would go home but I never *ever* thought it would be unanimous. This late in the game it was a huge surprise. I know we were really stressed out about last night because 8 is a turning point where a tie is so much of a possibility.  

1.      That challenge was a doozy! Did you have any particular strategy for Survival Sequences? How’d that work out for you?

How did it work out? Well, I was perfectly sandwiched between 2 halves of the winning answer so, you know. not fantastic. So, thanks a lot for making THAT call, guys! lol

Seriously though, I just had the loop playing non stop in a seperate window so as soon as the question came out, I was pretty much already good to go. But I know Shan works in tech so she for SURE had it play on a seperate screen or something, too. That's why she was so quick to answer. So I guess that was the winning strategy. 

2.      Was voting out Heather YOUR idea, or did you go along for some reason? If it wasn’t your preference, why did you go along with it?

I was pretty set on voting JR but Heather was brought up and it seems like it would be the least risky move to make at 8. We already knew 8 was a pivotal point so going with something a little easier was definitely not a bad idea. We for sure wouldn't have gotten a unanimous vote if we had tried to vote JR and if voting Heather means avoiding going to rocks then, it feels like the right decision. 

3.      Do you have any true ride or dies at this point? Do you think you’re theirs? Who thinks you’re loyal to them, but you’re not?

Abe is my 1 true ride or die. In the sense that he's the one person who I know will be next to me if I make it to the end. The final 4 I have with Evvie and Xander, for me, is true and 100% real. But we haven't talked about what happens then. It's great to get to 4 but someone's gonna have to get cut at the end. 

I'm not being 100% disloyal to anyone right now but obviously if they aren't in my F4 alliance then they have to get cut at some point. That being said though, I've been very, very careful in my conversations and I didn't make promises that I couldn't keep. I'm fine working with Shan, JR or Leslie and I've had varied amounts of success in doing so, but I've never promised them specific things that I couldn't deliver on. So technically I'm not being disloyal, I'm just walking the line.

4.      Who do you think is the biggest threat to your torch right now? What will you do about that?

The person who seems to want me out the most is JR but I think my biggest threat to win is Evvie. I'm not overly worried about JR (although, let's be real, I'm always worried. I think I've said it 100 times at this point). For Evvie, I plan on making sure she's not there at the end, unfortunately. As much as I like her, she will win in a landslide if she makes it to the final 3. 

5.      Who do you think is most likely to give a bitter jury speech?

Sara. 100%. I expect a few people to be bitter, maybe towards me, maybe towards others, maybe towards everyone, but I know that Sara will be bitter. I've started going through answers to the jury and how to approach every person and Sara will definitely be a tough one. 

6.      Have you made any big moves so far this season? What were they?

I think the best moves I've made were planting seeds about Sara to Xander and Abe very early in the game and working so hard on my relationships with Kallpa (and on keeping them in the game). I think I first brought up Sara back on day 4 or 5, because the guys wanted to work with her so much and didn't see her as a threat and I wanted to slowly get them thinking how dangerous Sara was with the way she strategized and played the game. Looking back, I think it's a good thing I did it so early because it took forever for people to finally decide to do something about it. For Kallpa, I know more than a few people were really wanting to pagong them for an easy way to F7 and I knew that absolutely not the right path for me to take so I made sure to find every possible way to delay them getting voted out while I still worked on my relationship with them.

7.      What would your fellow tribemates find the most surprising to learn about you? 

I don't think they realize how much thinking, strategizing and planning I do. I've been careful to play it down at certain times and work the happy-go-lucky guy angle regarding certain elements of the game so they wouldn't know how invested I was in it. I know I was already extremely active in the first half of the game so I didn't want to paint a bigger target by telling people I've probably tried 200 passwords to find an idol or running scenarios in my head at literally all times of day and night.