[DeuceKicker]

Not a lot to comment on strategy-wise, since nothing really changed that wasn't forseen last week. I think keepitreal has a good point about JRB. The yellow alliance is stronger than it appeared, which puts JRB more on the outs than it originally appeard. This could actually be a really good thing for him, as he has the opportunity to be a vital swing-vote to the people who ally against Todd & Co. It's pretty ironic that JRB outed Courtney as someone who could slip into the final 3-4, when he has a very similar chance for very similar reasons (though her strengths are being hated and completely worthless, physically, while he can only boast about being hated).

From year to year they change things up, so it's impossible to tell exactly how things will work this year. For example, this is the first year there were two hidden immunity idols.

The first year they used the hidden idol, it could be played after the voting. That only lasted one year before they changed it. The past few years you had to play the idol before the votes were read.

I recall one year Probst said that the hidden idol would be re-hidden if the bearer failed to use it and was voted out. This year, with it being such a big and obvious thing, I'm not sure what they'd do. I imagine they didn't plan on anybody holding both of them, so they were OK with one being lost.

I went from thinking Todd was an idiot, to thinking he was the one-eyed man in the Land of the Blind, and back to thinking he's an idiot. Did he really just give James the first HII?

I'm sure he thought James would have to use it, but I assumed the agreement was, "I'll give you #1 to save yourself, and you get #2 and bring it back to me." If he is letting James keep two HIIs he's the one "peddling the short bicycle."

I know he saw his numbers advantage disappearing, but the worst-case-scenario was going into a merge deadlocked 5-5. The way alliances fracture (and his seems pretty fragile) I'd rather have the idol and even numbers than no idol but have the majority for a little while.

His [correct] assumption was that they'd merge at 10, but that hasn't always been the case. If they held off and merged at nine, he'd have the numbers advantage once again because there should be no fricking way the Yellows would lose against Peih-Gee, Erik, and Jaime. Even if they lost, it sure looked like Frosti was willing to jump ship to the Yellows when he found out who had the HII.