Hey everyone. Congratulations on making it this far! The last couple of jury questions have been really well-written and fun to read, so I'm here to bring everything back down to earth. Have you lowered your expectations? Good! Let's do this.

James: In your opening statement, you described yourself and Spencer as being “partners”. At the same time, however, you also owned up to playing the role of the Beta in this game. From my perspective, it seemed like Spencer was firmly in control of your partnership and that he was the one who eventually made the decisions. This is your opportunity to correct that assumption and potentially win my vote while doing so.

1. In your alliance with Spencer, what percent of the decisions and strategic planning would you say you were responsible for?
2. Did you ever consider making a big move by distancing yourself or flipping away from Ki? If so, what stopped you from doing that?
3. I was gonna throw in a question asking you what moves you were the catalyst for, but now I've heard two different people say that you sort of caused me to be voted out so I'll ask you about that instead. Since I thought I came across as pretty enthusiastic to be working with you guys, and since I wasn't a real threat after most of my original alliance got voted out, what made you decide it was the right time to vote me out?

Spencer: You have been in a solid position for a significant portion of the game. You have some really good strategic abilities that helped you get out of tight spots when you needed to and eventually took you all the way to the end. As tacky as it is, my only questions for you are about me. During the last TC before the merge, I worked out a deal with you and the rest of the original Ki alliance. Somewhere along the way, however, everything completely unraveled and I ended up getting voted out.

1. Where did everything go wrong? Did you guys plan to vote me out all along, as some other people told me, and if not, when did you decide to get rid of me?
2. Is there anything I could’ve done differently to prevent myself from being voted out?

Julia: As we both know pretty well, we didn’t talk much during the game. In the Ponderosa thread, a ton of people talked about how brilliant your social game was and how you were a threat to win. I wish I could've gotten to know you better and see your apparent social prowess in action, but I guess I'll have to settle for asking you some questions.

1. What's the biggest move you made in this game? Why do you deserve my vote?
2. In your opening statements, both you and Spencer took credit for voting out Sugar. How were you responsible for that decision, and not Spencer?

James and Julia: Why shouldn’t I vote for the other two people? Spencer, you don’t have to answer this because you already addressed it in your opening statement, but you can always provide more information if you want to.

I truly have not decided who I’m gonna vote for. All of your answers, both to my questions and to everyone else’s, are extremely important. Good luck to all of you, and congrats once again.

Thanks Gervase and congratulations on being the last surviving member of your tribe.

1. Where did everything go wrong? Did you guys plan to vote me out all along, as some other people told me, and if not, when did you decide to get rid of me?

No, we didn't plan to vote you out all along. The plan was Caleb up until the last few hours. I can't recall what exactly started the chain of events but I sensed (rightly or wrongly) that Jonny and James were not 100% happy to make such a big move when a consensus vote could be made. The ball started rolling and we ultimately decided to go with the consensus. Furthermore, I had my vote advantage so if we kept Dana on our side we didn't need your vote to take out one of the other 5 at the note. Obviously, that didn't pan out as planned.

2. Is there anything I could’ve done differently to prevent myself from being voted out

Yes. We had talked and whilst I enjoyed the conversations it also felt like you weren't that interested in developing the relationship far enough for me to know I trusted you independently of your ties with Dana. For me, it is important to be able to talk to the people in my alliance and maintain regular communication. I need to know where your head is at. I would always have had doubts in my mind that you were going to vote with us going forward and the only person you'd be loyal to was Dana. Had I felt a stronger connection with you, I would have fought to keep you and the Caleb plan would have gone ahead as planned.

Ultimately I probably expected too much considering we were only on the same tribe for about 2 days but alas.

3 I think I said the majority of what I wanted to say about the others in my FTC speech but I'll address some of the things Julia said in hers.

Quote

Pretending like a neurotic worrier really did come in handy a LOT in this game. It seems to make people trust you and gravitate towards you. I stopped trusting Spencer by the Gervase vote along with all the members of Ki, but they never thought I didn’t for a second

Firstly I'm not convinced she was pretending to be a neurotic warrior. Considering she went as far as to play her vote advantage when our alliance was 6-3 up on the coast in numbers, accidentally saving Debbie in the process. She's a fantastic and dedicated actor if was all just pretend. It must have been exhausting keeping it up for 40+ days. Secondly even if she was, it did not make for a pleasant experience talking game with her. Lastly, everyone who was has been in an alliance with me or James since the Gerv vote knows that no one trusted her as far as they could throw her LOL.

I'd like to add that I spent the time to try and get to know people on the Aso tribe despite never working together. I didn't just build social bonds with the people I thought were most useful to my game.

Spencer Duhm @ 6/5/2016 7:51

Thanks Gervaise

Jesus Christ is this ever gonna end

Jefra Bland @ 6/5/2016 12:34

Spencer Duhm @ 6/5/2016 7:51 Thanks Gervaise Jesus Christ is this ever gonna end

What are you talking about?

Hey Gervase!

Thank you for your comments and questions. I’ll try to answer them as best as I can.

First, I want to say that I understand why you would interpret the partnership between Spencer and I as one where he led and I followed. It was my strategy to play up my role as the Beta because he was so clearly visible as the Alpha, not only in our alliance, but as a player in the game.
I will tell you that this perception was intentionally created by me to not only preserve a relationship with Spencer, but to also appear non-threatening in the game. Spencer is telling everyone that he made the decisions and controlled me the way, and I went along with him and allowed that to happen. It’s true that I allowed him to think that…but in reality, he is pretty far off. Aside from individual social move by him (which I don’t think helped him very much), there was not a move that had any impact in the game that he made on his own. It is impossible for him to have made moves totally by himself, aside from the playing of items (which he asked for advice about as well.)
This game is about convincing people to do what you want them to do…and making it seem like it was their idea the entire time. Spencer did what I wanted him to do, and he is taking credit for it all, when in reality…he deserves partial credit at best.

So now to your questions…

1. In your alliance with Spencer, what percent of the decisions and strategic planning would you say you were responsible for?

I would say that was involved in almost every decision and strategic plan with Spencer after the merge. While he still sought my advice and guidance before the merge, I can’t take credit for some of the things that he did. We were very close and stayed in constant contact, but I wasn’t in on his votes and so it would be unfair to take any credit. After the merge though, there is very little to nothing that happened where Spencer was concerned that I did not either have a hand in or influence is a major way.
Lets look at the vote info that Spencer says the made on his own from his opening speech…
-Spencer says that he pushed for Caleb at F9. Everyone on the Ki side wanted Caleb out at the point. I had my own reasons, and so did everyone else. Spencer can not claim to be the one person who pushed for Caleb and then made it happen.
-Spencer says that he suggested putting the votes on Eliza and Sydney. Not true. I was talking with Kat at the time and felt that there was a possibility of her flipping, and I brought this to Spencer. I also felt that Sydney was the biggest threat over there and figured that she would be the least likely to have an idol played for her.
-Spencer’s idea about Dana was not his and it was not a reach. It was the only move that made any sense in a game with very few numbers left. We discussed it together and moved from there. Not his idea and not his move to claim.
-Spencer voted with me for Kat because he thought that he could beat me. Plain and simple. I knew that Kat was a threat to win the game if she made it to finals. Anyone paying attention or reading her fallen idol thoughts could see that she was smart and well spoken. Spencer did what he thought that he needed to do. He had no choice but to vote to keep me.

So, if you are looking for a percentage…I’d go with maybe 85% involved.

2. Did you ever consider making a big move by distancing yourself or flipping away from Ki? If so, what stopped you from doing that?

I absolutely considered flipping away from the Ki tribe from the point that I mutinied to where Jonny was voted out. At that point, I saw myself as being in the middle and having to make the decision on which side I would go with. Your vote didn’t reveal my position at that point in the game since it was almost unanimous, but after I saw what happened with Caleb, Eliza, Sydney and Kat with the Jonny vote, I knew that I was going to stick with the Ki’s. I knew where I stood with them, and I could not quite put my finger on what would happen with the other group. I couldn’t trust them, and so I couldn’t flip to them. It wasn’t a difficult decision.

3. I was gonna throw in a question asking you what moves you were the catalyst for, but now I've heard two different people say that you sort of caused me to be voted out so I'll ask you about that instead. Since I thought I came across as pretty enthusiastic to be working with you guys, and since I wasn't a real threat after most of my original alliance got voted out, what made you decide it was the right time to vote me out?

After I mutinied away, I lost most of my hope for teaming up with you. I guessed that you would hold a grudge, and that even though we liked each other personally, I felt that we would probably not have a good shot of working together in the game. I threw your name out as a possibility for the vote, and pretty much everyone agreed. While I don’t want to call the vote for you easy…I will say that the decision was simple once I saw how it united the newly merged players.

Thank you, man.

Quote

Julia: As we both know pretty well, we didn’t talk much during the game. In the Ponderosa thread, a ton of people talked about how brilliant your social game was and how you were a threat to win. I wish I could've gotten to know you better and see your apparent social prowess in action, but I guess I'll have to settle for asking you some questions.

Yeah, my social game really lacked with you and it was no one's fault really. We never were put on the same tribe until merge and then you were out the first round. I apologize for not reaching out to you sooner or anything, but it did make me lol that it was between us two during the Final 11 vote. :P

Quote

1. What's the biggest move you made in this game? Why do you deserve my vote?

The biggest move I made in this game was keeping Spencer around. At Final 5 I had the opportunity to execute the angel or the devil and since this game is designed to be vicious I had to go with the person who was most likely to win. Dana was a shoe in and I know this is a broken record, but she had an impressive game and unbelievably played without pissing off a single person. I didn't see any real reward in voting out Spencer except that maybe the scheming would go down to a minimum and it would be tranquil, but I didn't want that. I didn't want people to get comfortable. I knew Kat and him have been at each other since YOUR elimination so leaving him in at Final 4 ensured me I was going to the FTC. Dana was the threat to win and keeping around Spencer ensured I'd be making it to the end. Sitting next to Kat or Spencer I was indifferent too because I believe I am confident in how I played this game.

Despite us not talking at all in this game, I think I deserve your vote because I feel like I played a strong, confident scrappy social game. I feel like you're actually one of the only people who saw through it because your last ditch effort to take me out before you left. I only received two votes in this entire game and one of them was from Jefra (because we told each other we would vote for one another) and the other one was from you. You voted for me the round of your elimination and tried to take me out because you saw me as a threat and were saying how I could win this and I'm too charming and everything. That scared me so much and it was the first time I felt nervous about going home. Avoiding that vote and attempting to do damage control the next round was the only thing that was on my mind and I feel like I bounced back pretty good from it. I bounced back from a lot of stuff in this game and I never gave up. Even when things looked DOOMED for me after I flipped during the double vote and I was obviously outnumbered at Final 6, I still never gave up. And that, Gervase, is why I think I deserve your vote to win this game.

Quote

2. In your opening statements, both you and Spencer took credit for voting out Sugar. How were you responsible for that decision, and not Spencer?

This is a vote that Spencer and I would talk about for the remainder of the game to each other. He is my opponent right now and I could say that NOPE IT WAS ALL MY IDEA AND NOT HIS, but I simply can't say that. I believe it was a 50/50 decision between the two of us. We have four Coasters and six Mountaineers and whole BUNCH of powers that were floating around this game that was pretty scary. Dana practically LIVED at Ukiyo so everyone was way too scared to vote her out and Sash and Debbie both made a trip there. Sugar never went to Ukiyo and she was the least likely to have a power played on. BOTH of us pitched the idea of voting out Sugar to our allies and they were all pretty reluctant. My game was a social game, as was Spencer's, and that fact that Sugar had all of our allies gushing over her after one day really got us nervous. We both said that it was the smartest move to blindside her because she'd be least likely to have a power, but in actuality we were both taking out a huge threat to our own game. I believe that if we didn't vote out Sugar when the opportunity presented itself at Final 20 it would've never came around again- at all.

Quote

James and Julia: Why shouldn’t I vote for the other two people?

James: You shouldn't vote for James because he didn't have a mind of his own in this game. Spencer said it himself that he contributed 10% to the entirety of the Ki-lliance. I even gave James the opportunity to take matters INTO his own hands at Final 6 and to align with me and make a big move to put on his resume, but he refused. I really don't know why James thought he had a fighting chance, by just remaining loyal to an alliance that only used him as a vote. People told me he thought he had a shot to win because he was the "nice guy" but that doesn't deserve to win Survivor, sure it's an attribute, but it's definitely not a winning strategy. James was a sheep who followed his shepherd. He followed his shepherd so hard it nearly landed him in the slaughter house at Final 4.

Spencer: I believe that I deserve to beat Spencer because everyone is commending him for leading this entire alliance and having loyal followers until the end. While this is true, I was aware of it all happening. I knew Spencer was playing like this and I kept him fat and happy through the whole game. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a "loyal follower" in the pre-merge stages, but after the merge happened I saw that he was just a huge liar and a huge threat. There were opportunities to take out Spencer, but why would I do that? I left my meat shield in this game for good measure and it worked. The heat was always on him and he had to think of ways to get out of it. He was able to because people like James and Marisa who would ask him how they should vote all the time, but it still showed. I feel like I had self-awareness in this game of where everyone stood and how people were perceived-- Spencer did not. Prime example? He actually let me slip into Final Tribal Council over someone like Kat.


Thank you for your hard hitting questions Gervase and giving me a chance at your vote even if we never spoke a word to each other. Good luck in your choice!