This round was a wake-up call for me. I'm not going to do my full write-up yet because I still need to organize thoughts myself tbh but this seems crucial enough to get down because it HEAVILY affects the game going forward. I thought that Hope was a really sweet and innocent girl. I've played with her archetype before and I thought I knew how to handle it. I've kept myself pretty close to her because I did ultimately feel like we connected and she did a good job about making it seem that way. I thought that we were going to work together for a while because, in the grand scheme of things, I was ultimately loyal to the Mushu side of things. I still had to figure out everything in terms of who I was actually going to try to go to the end with because I knew I realistically had no shot in hell against her at FTC but I was in it for the Lóng haul with her one way or another.



Then this round happened and I was so baffled as to why she wouldn't save Hunter when she had it in the palm of her hands. All she had to do was let me tell Rita about her knowing about the vote and Hunter would be saved. At first, I chocked it up to her not wanting to be responsible for Neal and Liz going but I see something else now. It took Rita telling me that Neal was nervous about me saying his name to realize that someone was throwing me under the bus. Hunter said that it was probably Rachel because she trusted them and didn't want to flip on them but then something else much worse hit me. What if Hope had told Neal about me saying his name? It could be a plan to save Hunter without making Hunter vote for me. Freak Neal out enough about working with me and get him and Liz to flip back to her, Woo, and Rachel. But no that's too bloody and doesn't make a whole ton of sense. She was definitely sowing seeds of distrust for me in Neal and Liz but why me?



I'm still not totally sure how I made this jump but a combination of factors helped me to put the pieces together. I realized that Hope was behind everything. Why were Neal and Liz flipping after how close Liz and Hope apparently were? It could be a flipper game but Liz's argument to me was that she was feeling uncomfortable on that side on an emotional left and she just felt like she had to make up for a few wrongs...which was her argument for being on Hope's side on the first place. Hope told Neal and Liz to flip. She knew it would look legit because they were just doing it before they put themselves in a guaranteed minority. And she knew Rita and Natalie would jump on board and that I would basically be forced to. THAT was why she wouldn't respond when I knew I had a way to save Hunter and why she ultimately let him go home. She wanted the votes to be on him and then she would vote him out too because she could say she was in on it but that she was just trying to stay with the numbers that were already there to protect herself going forward. Takes out a threat with little to no blood on her hands except that I exposed her on Hunter's way out.



I put more pieces together. Next round she just picks off Rachel who is now a loose number and challenge threat that she no longer needs. At F7, Neal and Liz "flip back" to cut Rita and Natalie. Now at F5, she can take me out because we're close enough to the endgame that she can say I'm a threat to her and she can pretend like she just has to make a move on me while she has the chance when she's been planning it all. Then she cuts Woo at 4 and gets to the end with 2 Sewer Rat goats who no one except Kenny likes or respects. She's brilliant. I should've seen it coming but I overlooked a couple of signs. Except this round she was too sloppy. I ended up telling Rita without Hope's approval that she knew about the plan and even c/p the messages to Rita. It almost saved Hunter because she didn't trust Neal and Liz's connection to Hope anymore but Natalie wouldn't flip. Now next round I have to actually be there in time. I can't let Rachel go. We have to go to rocks. Rachel's immunity necklace will help with that. Rita told me this round is a dragon challenge (which was on Liz's scroll) so if multiple people from our side can win immunity and Rachel uses the necklace, they can only vote for one of us ideally and that person is safe from the rock draw. Things have to change. To be honest, I don't know where I stand in Hope's boot order but I know it's not my boot order so it's not happening. This round was a wake-up call and I'm not going to ignore it.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥