They made them elect leaders. I don't know why. I was wondering if they chose Shambo because they realized they screwed up and left her out by sending her to the other tribe so many times. They even have a special necklace for the leaders, which is odd. It is this season's "twist" I guess?

I think that missing most of last week's episode greatly contributed to being confused about Shambo being leader.

Last week, the guys took Shambo under their wing, and realized that they wanted to keep her around, and instead, vote out Monica (which if I remember correctly, was mainly because she did so poorly during the immunity challenge). Also, I got the impression that a lot of people had started to not like her, and they wanted to vote her off.

This is why I was mad that they didn't have the double elimination last week, as I would have loved to see her get blind-sided and go home.

But basically, the guys made Shambo leader to show their loyalty to her, knowing full well that they would collectively vote her off later in the game. But for now, they have an extra person on their side.

It doesn't matter that much about Shambo being elected leader, because her only decision was to make someone else leader in the only challenge she will be leader for...they merge next week. Even if the leaders have to make decisions as to which camp to stay at, etc, there's still not much that can go wrong there.

Exactly.

Making her leader was simply a strategic move made by the guys of Galu.

I think they even said they'll eventually vote her off, but they wanted her to at least make it to the jury.

I'm sure you're right! Thanks for filling me in.

Random thought: They usually don't start the season with 20 players. Now that we've had two players eliminated due to injury, do you think it's safe to assume the remaining eliminations will be from tribal councils?

I don't think it's ever safe to assume anything when it comes to Survivor.

You know, when I wrote that, I had originally put "(ha!)" after "assume". For some reason, I deleted it.

Let me rephrase: At this point, do any of you anticipate any non-tribal-council eliminations?

I thought along the same lines when (good) Russell was taken out of the game.

My guess is that the remaining contestants will be taken out through tribal council.

However... think about it. When they start a season, they don't know how many people are going to get injured, and they can't base the number that they start with on how many people will be taken out of the game through a method other than a vote.

I actually looked up "Survivor Contestants" on Wikipedia, and I'm not sure how they come to decide how many people will make up the cast. But there does seem to be a pattern forming, although I'm not sure if it's intentional or not. Here is a list of the number of contestants for each season, in order:

16 - Borneo
16 - Australian Outback
16 - Africa
16 - Marquesas
16 - Thailand
16 - Amazon
18 - Pearl Islands
18 - All-Stars
18 - Vanuatu
20 - Palau
18 - Guatemala
16 - Panama
20 - Cook Islands
19 - Fiji
16 - China
20 - Micronesia
18 - Gabon
16 - Tocantins
20 - Samoa

They started off with 16 contestants. Then they bumped it up to 18. But since Palau, there seems to be a pattern... 20, 18, 16 (except for Fiji, where there was randomly 19)

Just a fun fact :)

ETA: I'd also be curious to find info about how many people were taken out of the game each season due to injury, and also when the tribes merged. I know that while they're merging at 12 this season, they've also merged at 10 in the past. I'd be curious to know how many contestants they started with in each of these scenarios.

For the first time, I was actually rooting for Russell to not get voted out. But I did think it incredibly stupid that he was telling everyone about the immunity idol.

But that tribal council and vote was priceless :D

I was clueless going into Tribal. First it was Laura, and that didn't work out - then it was Monica, Russell (but then not for real - only to flush the idol), Jaison, Erik, Monica, Jeff Propst (I liked that comment that Shambo could vote Propst for all he cared).

Did Erik really think that Natalie, Jaison and Mick would go along with pretending to vote Russell to flush the idol?? I think FoaFoa was on to something when they said that they were at least going into the merge united, while Galu was divided. Erik was SOO funny trying to argue in Tribal that Galu was still one strong united team. Was he really that clueless? I really hope that FoaFoa does stay united. It would be the second time in a row that the tribe that went into the merge weaker pulled out a victory and rule the other team.

The previews make it look like Russell is in trouble next week. While I really do think he started scrambling too early and showed his cards to everyone, rarely does the person who looks in trouble in the previews really go home.

Ditto to all points above.

You're definitely right about this. I couldn't believe he went around to each Galu member and told them he had the idol. To do that, and to also tell each one that he hadn't told anyone else, was pretty short-sighted.

I'm still kinda puzzled by Russell. I don't like him much, but there are times when he seems to be playing Survivor as well as I've ever seen it played. Then again, there are times when he makes extremely obvious (from the viewers' POV) mistakes. I like it when there are players like this - those who I don't want to see win, but who I also don't want to see get voted out. Strange, I know.

I was happy to see Eric go home. Based on the votes, I suspect Shambo will be on the chopping block next week (despite the previews that suggest Russell is in trouble).

My guess is that Russell wins immunity - otherwise, it's too obvious that he's the target from the previews. But, with all the scrambling last night, who knows who might be voted off - geez, they changed strategies many many times last night!!

Erik played too hard too soon! It's best to lay low until the numbers are smaller, try not to become a target!! Loved the look on his face when he got the boot!! I was worried he might play his idol when Russell played his, but NO, he was too confident, as usual with idol holders (except in Russell's case - wasting his).

He's gonna wish he had that idol in the next few weeks. Unless, he goes on an immunity winning streak, he's wearing a big target on his back for all his scheming!

I'm very curious to see what will happen with Shambo in the next episode. She was the only person, besides Eric, who voted for Jaison. I wonder if no one let her in on the plan, or if they did, and she didn't approve of it.

Either way, I think she might be in trouble.

Yes, he really is.

True that the previews often mislead us, but I think he may be in trouble next week. He clearly wasn't confident in what was going to happen this last tribal council, because he played his idol, so he wasn't really in the know. They successfully flushed his idol out (which he told way too many people about) and got rid of Erik with his idol. Hidden immunity idols are not a factor they have to worry about now.

Stupid Shambo for giving hers to Erik -- I wonder how long it took her to realize that he took it out of the game with him.

Exactly.

Although Dave told her that some wanted to vote for Erik, they didn't let her in on the plan -- she clearly thought Jaison was going out. The look of confusion on her face when Erik was voted out was just priceless. She should be worried that she's such an outsider, but I'm not sure she's got enough sense to be properly worried.

I think the guys of Galu have her right where they want her. In the last two episodes before the merge, they got her to trust them, but now they're not really keeping her apprised of what's going on.

I think if they hadn't "been on her side" and voted her as leader, she would have gone right over to Foa Foa when the merge happened. Instead, she has no friends on Galu, and she just voted for Jaison, making her look bad to Foa Foa if they figure out that she wrote his name down.