So if any of y'all watch Survivor, were you as surprised as the rest of the world at seeing Amanda lose to Parvatti? There's no question (in my mind) that Cirie (she was my favorite to win) would have beaten Amanda, which is why she got cut, but Jelly and I both think that Parv won more by default than anything. Amanda's QQ fest at the 2nd-to-last tribal council turned away a lot of people, and her answers at the Q&A sessions were pretty terrible. Parv wasn't a stellar competitor, but she was better than most of the remaining people and she didn't hesitate to throw Amanda under the bus and stand up for what few things she did do. Amanda took the opportunity to instead just talk about loyalty (didn't she just lose a game because she was loyal while her partner Todd was devious?) and ended up losing the swing votes with her pageant-queen answers.
Locked votes
Amanda
Ozzy, James
Parvatti
Natalie, Alexis
Swing Votes
Eliza, Cirie, Erik, Jason
Erik should have been a lock for Parvatti based upon Amanda's treatment of him, but he "forgave" her, which is exactly why Parvatti won. You can be devious in this game and still win the jury's respect by acknowledging that it was done in the context of the game (see Todd last season). I wasn't sure about Jason or Eliza, (I had a feeling Cirie would have voted for Parv while Parv would have voted for Amanda if she had gotten booted instead), but I think Amanda was going to lose this game no matter what based upon her answers. Cirie is a masterful speaker and had no trouble using her carefully worded questions to trap Amanda into a terrible answer, giving Parv the chance to give a few halfway-decent ones.
There's no doubt in my mind Cirie controlled this season by getting the swing votes to push to Parvatti's side. Well played.
Subject: Well played (Survivor) 
Mon May 12, 2008 10:23 am
