All other Jurors should remain in their own threads. Final 3, remember... this is not for you to address each other, but to talk to jury. In-fighting amongst the Final 3 should be reserved for the Live Final Tribal Council on Sunday.
Jury, you have until Saturday at 8c/9e 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. There is a live Final Council on Sunday where you will get to address everyone live about the statements they have made as well ask follow-ups.
Theme music for my final question is about being open to love after a breakup. Really nice way to end a season full of blindsides I think:
Congrats to you both on making it to the F2! First thing's in order. David! I actually feel bad for trying to emotionally manipulate you by saying we wouldn't be friends after the game. That was pretty psycho of me, but you know me well enough to know I'm capable of such behavior on a whim if it means I get what I want in the game. I knew there was no way I could strategically convince you to change your mind, so I had to desperately depend on emotions as a last resort to survive. Sorry about that. It didn't work, and now we're here.
David: Tell me when you decided you weren't going to take me to the end and what made you come to that decision. Some detail would serve you very well here. Bonus point: tell me your favorite thing about getting to know me during this game.
Jarrad: Can you briefly describe to me how you wanted the end game to generally go? i.e. who did you want in the F3/F2 with you. And if it didn't go as planned, why shouldn't the jury hold at it against you?
This one will be hard to write. So I will do it with some music on at 2 AM, like the night owl you know I am. I think I'd be doing our relationship a disservice if I didn't find a good tune to (loosely) describe this or us:
In a fucked up way, it is kind of comforting to know that you were just trying to emotionally manipulate me. I'll be honest, it is difficult to be as vulnerable as I want to be here out in the open for everyone to see. But I owe it to you, and it's something that I have a desire to do myself. Especially since I fucked you over, plain and simple. I don't blame you for a second for doing what you needed to do. Conversely, I completely understand if you or others harbor ill will against the decisions that I made, or how I conducted myself.
My answer is a bit dynamic, since my perspectives evolved as the season evolved. I want to talk about what lead up to the moment where we fractured for the final time. I also want to give you a definitive answer in terms of a specific moment where I was 100% sure I had to take the shot.
I feel like it is appropriate to start at the round where Kylie was voted out. Obviously we began developing our relationship during the first swap of the game, but this was the moment we started to repair the damage that had been done from our messy break-up. I feel like that night something came over me, and allowed me to be authentic and raw with you in a way that I hadn't been able to previously. I'll share an excerpt from my confessional from the Kylie boot episode, "But anyways, Sharn and I had a really vulnerable discussion earlier. I think we can come to a place where we have some trust with one another again, but I don't want the impression to be that I am playing her. I mean the things I say, and am willing to be loyal to her." I didn't rebuild our relationship with the specific intention to tear it back down at my convenience. It was important to me on a personal level.
We consummated our re-bonding by strong-arming a unanimous Tegan vote the following day. At this point, I had a significant amount of trust in you. We had our own connections, but our partnership was mutually beneficial, especially with a double tribal around the corner. The lead up before, during, and after double tribal was probably the moment that I became sure of the fact you had, and would likely hold the most agency in the game. We went into 7 with your ass being covered from every angle, which was the first documented moment where I verbalized going against you since we got back together. Not so much against you, but against your options. After Michelle gave you coins, and you decided to get the Tribal Advantage close to the deadline, I began to feel more threatened by your game. I think it might have been a mistake for me to let you purchase the advantage, instead of topping up the bid. But I'll save that for another response I have in mind to another Juror. I digress, I wanted Michelle out during double tribal, but knew we couldn't pass up the shot at 7. She was too good, and held too much loyalty to you. This is where the game began to take a turn in my eyes.
The following round saw you discussing the pros and cons behind the usage of your Tribal Advantage. We had talked about many options, but I feel like you intentionally didn't mention to me that you planned to send me away until late. Maybe it was truly a last 30 minute decision. Regardless, I was left with a bit of egg on my face. All I really cared about was the perception and the narrative. While I sat there, waiting for tribal to be over, I had a lot of time to think. I felt like the move asserted your dominance over me publicly, without accurately painting a picture of what our dynamic was like behind closed doors. I have mentioned this before, but you took control of the narrative that round. This is when I knew that going to the end with you would be very dangerous.
To be blunt, I began to more significantly warm up to the idea of not going to the end with you at this point. I went over the numbers, the jurors, the moves, everything. It really seemed like you had a heavy shot to win this game against anyone. I do want to bring one point up though, since it was a big factor for me. At F10 or F9, I was persistent in asking the hosts if a F3 or a F2 had been confirmed, or if it will be left ambiguous. It was going to be left ambiguous, which sparked my suspicion (I think this is around when we talked about a possible F2 happening instead of F3). The jury numbers made sense, and from my research of Australian Survivor, a F2 is possible. Especially recently. I kept the idea of the F2 in my mind, which added fuel to the fire for me to think about not going to the end with you from even before the Final 6 tribal. Regardless, I think that tribal was one of the main catalysts for my shift in decision making. I was going to play for myself for the remainder of the game, making decisions that I felt would benefit me the most. The Daisy vote was the next step, which of course lead to the infamous F4.
I can't even say that I was fully at 100% that you were going to go at that point. Even when Ben spoke to me before tribal, promising me a vote at the end if I sent it to firemaking, I still told him that I was probably going to have to send him home. Once tribal started, and I thought about it more though, I knew that the time was now. One of the main reasons, was to give myself 2 shots to take you out. I had already established your threat level with Jarrad prior to tribal that evening, so I knew he would vote you out over me in the F3. But you were so close to the end, if I let you get to 3, one win would have secured it for you. Seeing you win the firemaking was a lot of mixed emotion for me. I think I felt every range of disappointment, to comeuppance, to fear, to empathy, to guilt, and so many more feelings.
Once we hit Final 3, the decision had already been made for me. After surviving the tie, there was no way I could let you sit next to me in the Final 2. You were the player of the season, and I would have been willingly taking second place by following through with our agreement. It wasn't the ending we had planned. I had to make some really difficult decisions. But to answer your question, I knew for 100% certain that you could not sit next to me in the end at F4 tribal. But at F7/6 was when I really started to believe it.
It's 4 AM now so I'm going to go on to the bonus point. I might add to this tomorrow when I'm not falling asleep. My favorite thing about getting to know you during the game. This is such a simple yet such a complicated question to answer. I'm going to answer it Nice David style (or at least try to!):
I think my favorite thing about getting to know you specifically as a person has been the shared enthusiasm we have had, as well as the inspiration that you give me. Both with the game, and with personal conversations, I almost always felt engaged and enticed to keep speaking with you. It was always so natural. You would always tell me that you were going to bed, and we would keep talking for 30+ minutes after anyways. You always had new and interesting things to talk about with me. Even when there wasn't much to talk about in the game. I also had some of my most meaningful conversations in any game of my life with you. After I reached Final 2, I went back to read the conversation we were having before it all went down, when I was talking to you about affordable access to sports programs for kids and shit like that. I can admit that it fucked me up a bit. I was so comfortable and inspired to be open and passionate with you. I felt pretty dirty. It really made me feel how hurt you must have been, and that is devastating to think about. Ultimately we were playing a game, but damn if you didn't make it feel as real as it can possibly be! You brought out the best in me, maybe sometimes the worst too, but I wouldn't have it any other way. It has been one of the greatest pleasures of this game to be able to have gotten to know you so well. I am excited, and maybe a bit nervous, for you to finally find out who I am (unless y'all already know and I just sound like a dummy here!)
Can you briefly describe to me how you wanted the end game to generally go? i.e. who did you want in the F3/F2 with you. And if it didn't go as planned, why shouldn't the jury hold at it against you?
The answer to this question changes depending on what part of the merge you're talking about. Even at the very beginning of the game, I had an ideal Final 3 of some combination of me along with Mat, David, or Kylie. I knew it was wishful thinking and I soon realized into the merge that I was not at the top of the totem pole of that alliance, and so my way of imagining the game opened up to include everyone else that wasn't involved in that alliance of the Imanpas + Sarah more closely than they were. So, my first true final 3 that I wanted to happen was Michelle, Tegan, and myself. I thought that this had solidified and would be a good group to ride to the end. That's the final 3 that I wanted to play with and I did my best to make this happen, but with us only being 3 and with Tegan and Michelle not more closely playing along with David, Mat, and Sarah, they were soon to go after.
So, the first to go from that was Tegan. I'm not sure if you've read my answer to Tegan, but she was absolutely the person that I got along with the most on a personal level in this game, so my head and my heart was operating under the assumption that we were a pair and would be for a long time. Shortly after this bond was formed, was whenever Michelle and I became closer. Michelle came to me aggressively wanting Kylie out, especially after the way that Kylie had controlled many of the votes before and the general flow of the game, including the Tessa vote. I expressed to Michelle that I didn't think it was the best time to take Kylie out now, mostly due to the fact that I didn't want to show my cards too soon. However, I was willing to do it for the sake of showing to them that I was serious about trusting them and also in the hopes of showing that I wasn't just going to sit back and let the rest of the Imanpas and Sarah decide what I needed to do. So, Kylie went, which in the process of that happening, raised too many red flags that put a target on Michelle and Tegan. This is specifically why I wasn't wanting Kylie to go as early as she did, as I saw other threatening players that I would have preferred to leave before her (such as Baden or you), that would have still given us ample opportunity to take her and Mat out at a later time.
After Tegan had left it made me change my entire plan. I still did have my F2 with Michelle which I was leaning heavily into, and Michelle had mentioned that she felt close to you. It was during this time that it was proposed that Michelle, you, and I would have been a final 3. I would like to tell you that I genuinely wished that to have happened at that time but I did not want that. I would have preferred to take you along until around the final 5 mark, and go to the Final 3 with Michelle (priority) and someone like Daisy or Sarah. So, at this point, the plan was to continue along with Michelle and you, only to inevitably chop you towards the end. This, of course, led to another moment of adaptability when the tides turned on me and Michelle had left.
I'm not sure if this is fault of mine or of hers for the reason why she left, but I do think I'd made it a bit too clear that Michelle and I were close. Mat and David were always asking me what Michelle was thinking and relied on me to provide information to them for how she was wanting to proceed, while I was doing the same for Michelle. Even through this, I was never exposed as someone that had their hands in too many pots. However, Mat and David felt the need to not tell me about Michelle leaving, and for good reason. If I had known beforehand, I would have made a larger effort against them to keep Michelle, but I played it off in a way that I believe was convincing to you guys. I said that I would have voted Michelle.
Once Michelle was gone, there was only Mat, David, Ben, Daisy, you, and me. From this group I had to decide what the best way to get to the end was and who should be there with me. From this list, my ideal final 3 was Daisy, David, and myself. I wanted to keep you as close to me as possible so that I could continue to use you as a shield, and obviously I wanted to cover my bases in some way, so I did have a final 3 with you and Daisy. My goal was to position myself so that if you or David were in the final 4 with me, that I could go to the end with Daisy either way. You almost had me fooled until you voted for Daisy. Once you'd voted for Daisy, that absolutely kicked it in to overdrive as far as me communicating to David just how threatening you were.
I specifically remember telling David about everything that you'd done so far in the game, and he told me that it hadn't occurred to him how threatening you were until I had that conversation in the end. So, once Daisy had left, Ben was my next target and thankfully that came to fruition, but I had my bases covered in both you and David.
It shouldn't be held against me because it's a testament to how I was able to protect myself above all else.
