[Jeff Probst]

This is Lindsey's Final Tribal Council Thread.

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 Lindsey. In-fighting amongst the Final 3 should be reserved for the reunion on Monday.

Lindsey , 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.

[Lindsey]

Congratulations to the final 3! You did what 37 others couldn't do and that is an impressive feat, regardless of how you got here. I wanted to start by saying I am leaning really heavily to one side; however, my vote is still up for grabs. Please answer as thoughtfully and honestly as you can. I will be awarding my vote to who I recognize as the best player out of the three of you sitting in the finals.

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SHIRIN
I've never been a fan of your game and you know that, but I appreciated you defending your moves. It just seemed like a lot of what you did in the game was really passive and you relied on others to make moves for you or tell you a name for an upcoming vote. 

1. Can you please clarify the statement below? My understanding of this vote was that I was always the target at 8 (from your side) with Will going into that vote. This statement just confused me because at that time your side was definitely setting up Wendell as the decoy vote after Jacob won immunity, but I was still fully expecting votes on me... or was this all just before Jacob won immunity at 8? Was Jacob the decoy vote on your side before he won immunity? 

 *Side note – Since I knew the plan was to tie the vote between Will and Lindsey, I had a lot of fun talking to Jay, Lindsey, and Erika about this vote. They were trying to convince me to vote Jacob the whole time, so it was fun “debating” it with them since I knew it was all BS. 

2. Please walk me through your thought process on wanting to go to FTC with Wendell from, what seems like, pretty early on. Did you actually think you could beat him? If so, please explain your reasoning. Many times before I got voted out at 7, I mentioned him being the biggest threat in this game and he needed to go, but nobody listened. Now look where you are. Defend why you are a better player than him. 

3. Generally speaking, what was it about Wendell that made him so unthreatening/likeable that you wanted to go to FTC with him?

4. This entire season, going back from OG Maus even to my final 7 boot, I worked like absolute hell to build trust with you. I tried everything. I pitched Maus Strong, I pitched women strong. When you got to the first swap with Hali, I thought you both started building trust together so that by the time we met at merge (both merges) it was finally our time to work together. And we did, but only for a few votes. After my idol play at 12, I fell back to the bottom. This entire game, although we worked together on a few votes, you never seemed truly willing to work with me long-term. Why did you never trust me or where was your hesitation with me throughout this game?

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BRET
I don't have a question for you. Just read.

You are a goat and no move of yours was ever intentional on your end. You had a poor read on this game. You never had any intention to strike or make a move. Jay and I came to you multiple times to do LITERALLY ANYTHING to help your case. I told you repeatedly that you needed a move for your resume but you never listened. Ever. Regarding your idol play, it was the last night to use it NOT the perfect night. The night I left, I told everyone I'm voting for the best player in the Final 3 to win. You made no moves, you lied unnecessarily, and everyone always saw through your lies. You think you are really good at this game but you're just not. Your lack of awareness at this stage of the game is just baffling. 

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WENDELL
The only thing I found surprising after reading your opening statement was that you gave Jay your idol the night it was expiring for him to play that night. Everything else wasn't that surprising but I appreciate you going into detail from basically start of the game and then breaking it down by rounds after merge. I liked hearing your perspective of the game at every stage.

After I flipped and idoled Taylor out, you literally came to me and straight up complained about how you were "blindsided" and you never wanted to work with me again in this game. While I appreciated the honesty, it was just bad game play. You literally told me where I stood in the tribe, told me I had no chance of working with you, so I let it go. That made me fight that much harder. There was no point in doing that from your perspective. Then came votes at 11 (Tyler), 10 (Ricard), 9 (Rachel). Finally after Rachel got voted out, you messaged me. We started talking and we got on the topic of Will. Now everyone in this final 3 (and the entire game) is the Hero of Their Own Story. No move is entirely yours. Regarding the Will vote, that's not how that happened. You didn't make that move. It was me and Erika that started feeding you all kinds of things about Will. Her and I worked that night, and gave you as much information as you needed to make that flip. We knew if we played it absolutely right, you'd flip. You were that predictable. The move of Will at Final 8 benefited 4 players for 4 different reasons and that's why we all went along with it. I feel like we made you believe that is was the best move for your game and we busted ass to made sure you believed it. I wanted to get that off my chest.

How were you able to seem so unthreatening to people throughout this game? Like you led all the goats (aka leader of the goats) and everyone seemed more than willing to go to the end with you except basically me and Jay, lol. So how did you do it? How did you convince all the goats to go with you? I tried every tribal council to tell everyone that you were the biggest threat to win and nobody cared. Even the challenge you were painted as most likely to win, and nobody cared. Please walk me through it. 

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Thank you all for your time!

-Lindsey

[Wendell]

Hi Lindey! I know we weren't too close in game but I always had and always will respect and appreciate the way you played. You were a hell of a tough competitor and I truly enjoyed playing with you. You addressed 3 things so I'll reply to them in order (sorry if this is too long)-

After the Taylor vote, I'll admit I was a bit upset and probably a bit too emotional. Taylor was my number 1 and I felt used by the people I *just* planned to trust and work with. It was a good game move, and if I ended up on the jury I wouldn't hold it against you in any way, I would be impressed, but on a game level I felt like I was not able to put trust in you as I thought I would. Me and Will talked about forming the 6 at F14 (which I know didn't mean much to you probably but for me it did), and I was lied to before it was officially formed. I put trust in you the next vote with the Genie move and you guys stayed true to your word. I was excited and ready to put the Jessica vote behind, only to be lied to the next vote (I knew Will knew about it too and didn't tell me about Taylor's name being out there, and I still perceived you two as a duo so I was sure he was in on it too, and I was just as mad at him for it). I'm not the type of player to close doors over lies or anything (As seen with me and Shirin being a duo after actively targeting and lying to each other, same with Erika, and same with many people I worked with even though they weren't always with me), but Taylor being voted out was sort of a breaking point, and I set my mind I want you out next. I felt like I was actively giving trust to you 2 times, and you didn't give it back or tried to do damage control with me, I had ideas about how to work together but you had different ones, so I just simply wasn't about to come with a plan to try and work together or even to fake it since it didn't work before, and I felt like I can get you out. I did have the numbers, but obviously didn't anticipate the idol. I tried playing with some amount of honesty, and I felt like it would be just jury managing to be fake with you like that. I wasn't 100% closed tho and I did tell you that if you think there's something that will benefit me by working with you I am willing to listen and I was but I felt like you weren't on board as well. From my perspective, you were at the bottom, and I wasn't just gonna try and think of ways to save the person who just betrayed my trust. Maybe I shouldn't have been so brutally honest about it but I don't think it cost me too much on a game level, and it felt wrong faking it and saying it's all okay and forgotten. At F10 I did approach you with Brets name and I really intended on going with it. I was afraid our 4 will be perceived as too tight at F9 and I still didn't establish my firm trust with Shirin, so I wanted to have control over who of us 4 goes, and I preferred it to be Bret. I wasn't shutting you off and was willing to make a move together, but not long after I suggest it, Bret asks me if I threw his name, so I had to do damage control and I knew that this plan won't work, and as much as it is "boring" or "playing safe", I just felt that you were trying to pit us against each other and you are desperate, which I appreciated the gameplay but in-game I just couldn't work with that. We wanted to blindside Ricard/Rachel that vote and make you think it was you (I know some people leaked tho) so I purposely did not reach out at F10 and made comments in tribal about you leaving. That was to try and hide the vote (which didn't end up mattering). At F9 I still preferred you gone over Rachel (me and Rachel had an open and honest relationship even though we were never on the same side) so I wanted her to stay as I felt I could trust her more to make a move with me down the line. I even voted her to receive the public idol, in hopes she could idol while we were splitting on you and her (thank god she didn't get one lol that would've backfired hard after you won immunity). At that vote, I probably should have been more communicative, but I just didn't see a way for us to work together and I don't like being fake to people if it's not necessary. Maybe it's bad gameplay but this is how I would've loved to be treated personally.

About the Will vote, I'm sorry if it came off as me trying to claim all the credit. You can't ever make a move on your own in this game and you do deserve credit for saying the right things to me to make me flip on Will. My talks with you and Erika (and some with Jay) were the ones that revealed to me new info that helped make my decision, and I respect you for knowing to use that info to your advantage. The reason I take credit is that from my pov, I was the deciding vote and that vote was reliant on my decision whether to flip or not. No one told me an exact plan to follow (of flipping, tying the vote, throw will under the bus before the revote, and make Bret feel comfortable to not play the idol), I was the one pushing it, after also telling it all to Shirin to ensure we avoid rocks when she flips. That move benefitted the 4 of us, and everyone had a part in it (like Jay coming at me and Jacob in tribal), but I feel like it benefitted me the most, since it put me in the middle of the next 2 votes, better hid my connection with Shirin, and separated my game from the "goats" side.

And now about your question- I honestly think the most of it was just my bonds with the people I played with that made them loyal to me, and just generally being a good ally to them as much as I can. This game was filled with big personalities and big players, and I wanted to be a rock to my allies, letting them feel I am with them and I won't flip on them "to make a move". I didn't hide the fact I'm strategic, and I really tried to listen and respect the opinion of my allies, even those called "goats" (for example, letting Shirin have her way at your vote at F7). I knew not to burn bridges if it was unnecessary and I was honest to the right amount which helped them trust me and want to work with me. 

I hope this all answers your question and clarifies my point of view on the game. I just want to add- me not wanting to work with you and not talking to you a lot around the F11-F9 votes, was never personal, and just on a game level, I'm sorry if it came off otherwise, and I think the 2 arrogant parchments gave me a wake-up call about how I treated you (and maybe others) and try to do better. Our convo and the F8 cycle was probably one of my favorite moments in the game.