Crap. Lost my first pick. And he took his idol with him.

I counted points as if they survived an elimination, if they have a tribal before another immunity challenge, I'll go back and change the scores. Starting to spread out after last night.

Standings:

Moxie 35

Tom Hagens Wife 31

jdgilberg 30
Ranger222 30
Rebel-E91 30
txaggiefarmer05 30

Ronnie 29

kpaggie05 27

AcctAg11 24
Tony Franklins Shoe 24

tx1c 23

tallgrant 22

Cheese Sndwch 21

Bobcat06 19
cwpaggie07 19
Quinn 19

aggietony2010 18
ChipFTAC01 18
Dan 07 18
Moore Trucker 18
Unthought Known 18

The Sheik 16

BlackLab 15
gravy7 15
hurleyag 15
zap 15

LHIOB 13

After last night, both hurleyag and zap lost all 4 players, but they're still in the game. This season's standings link is on the previous page, but check out the amount of red compared to last year's pre-merge standings.

Second Chances

Now it's time to pick your final two, can be any two players. Since we had a misunderstanding earlier, picks will be locked as soon as Jeff Probst says, "Previously on Survivor" this upcoming Wednesday.

Also, there were talks about changing scoring for votes. It won't count in standings, but we could do a beta test to see how that works out if enough people said yes and agreed on how to score it.

Post-merge picks:

Nick (my remaining original)
Michelle

Post merge picks:

Nick
Tai

I'm sticking with my remaining two from the first pick.
Nick
Michele

Scott
Cydney

I'll be keeping the popular Nick and Michele as well from my original picks.

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Crap. Lost my first pick. And he took his idol with him.

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He was my "15 minutes into the first episode" impulse pick. He couldn't really give someone his idol while standing there because that person becomes an immediate target.

Wonder I'd it ever occurred to him to give the idol away? Perhaps he was told that when he was eliminated that the idol was no longer valid? Or, maybe he's saving it for next time??

He could have asked to say goodbye to everyone individually and had them all come to him one at a time. Might have made transferring the idol a little easier while passing it off as a way to make more personal farewells.

lost both guys to the elements, not votes... Bad luck for me.

Going to have to make some unpopular picks to try and make a run in the game.

Aubry
Debbie

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Going to have to make some unpopular picks to try and make a run in the game.

Aubry
Debbie

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I thought about that too, when everybody started copying my new picks.

You have to go with the person that is going to win challenges and then get the winner too.

Going to keep my two original picks

Nick
Joe

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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Why don't you start off by telling us when you and the medical team started to get concerned about all these various bumps and abrasions that players had all over their bodies and how you decided to proceed from that point.

JEFF PROBST: The bumps, abrasions, and infections were on our radar from the first few days. I think Tai might have been the first to suffer a scrape, when he scaled the tree looking for the idol. Our medical team always checks out the players before and after challenges and Tribal. We added another layer of monitoring after the infamous challenge, during which three players went down. From that point forward the players received daily checks at the beach.

We talked a few weeks back about the Caleb medical emergency and how it was your scariest moment ever on the show. Neal represents the other end of that evacuation spectrum. That has to be psychologically difficult to be done in by what probably started out as simply a little cut on his knee. How hard is it to deliver that news to someone like Neal who even said he "felt fine" that he is being pulled from the game in that way for that reason? Because this is a situation where you may get some pushback from a contestant since they do not believe themselves to be in any imminent medical danger.

Pulling someone from the game for a medical reason is never easy because it's not on their terms. As you say, Caleb was in a class by himself because that was a life and death situation. Neal is an annoying "evacuation" because the wound looks so tiny and insignificant and yet it has the potential to do major damage if left untreated. Jonathan Penner had a similar situation, when he got a cut that became infected and he had to be pulled. Telling someone the news that they are being pulled always leaves me feeling a bit "less than" after it's over. You rarely feel like this is a "win-win." They're not happy, you're not happy, the doctor who has to make the call is not happy.

People leave families and jobs to come play this game and to have it cut short is tough to take. And in the case of Neal, he leaves with an idol, which had to be even more frustrating. It has gotten easier over the years, but only because I learned to accept that the game of Survivor comes with highs and lows for everybody, myself included.

It appeared as if Neal did NOT give Aubry his hidden immunity idol on the way out of the game, but he would have been permitted to hand that over, correct? Or is he already considered out of the game at that point once the doctor pulls him?

That's a really good question and one that I'm glad you asked. Because we were aware he had an idol and knew he might want to give it to someone, either in public or in private, we discussed this beforehand. Our decision was yes, he would have been allowed to give his idol to someone and here's why he didn't know he was going to be pulled from the game. The decision to pull someone is made by a doctor after examining in private and that's not anything Neal should be expected to anticipate. So once he was pulled, it seemed fair to let him do or say whatever he wanted on his way out. I actually thought he would do it. I was surprised, but that's whySurvivor continues to be fun you truly cannot predict what people are going to do.

"Tai's balls banging into each other." And, "Nick with a lot of movement his balls dancing all over the place." Okay. Jeff, there is no way you can convince me that was not intentional. You're clearly taking one for the team here by giving immature morons like me something to chuckle about while watching the challenge, right?

Who me? You know, Dalton, here's the thing When I'm in a challenge, I am so in the zone, so absolutely focused on doing my job that I just don't censor myself. In fact, it goes beyond it being a choice. I'm so focused that I'm actually physically and mentally unable to censor. It's a trait most often seen in truly dedicated professionals. Harvard and Pepperdine have both done studies on it and both came to the same conclusion offering me honorary Doctorates. (No actual classification of study, just the plaque.)

Sometimes the Freudian parts of my brain rise to the surface and seemingly disconnected words come together to form a thought that seems to fit the situation despite the inappropriateness. And our editors know that I am a man who stands by my decisions. If I said it, you have to leave it in, even if it's embarrassing to me. So I take the lumps that come with these verbal hiccups because I want our fans to know that I leave myself as vulnerable as the players. So, long answer to a short question: Of course these are not intentional. I would never do that.

Yeah, not sure I'm buying that one, mister. Okay, since we had no Tribal Council, we're still not 100 percent sure exactly where things stand in this newly merged tribe, so tease us up for next week's episode.

Sometimes one event can change everything and Neal's evacuation is definitely a turning point. You're going to see moves start to be made from here on out. And a great immunity challenge!

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Give me Tai and Jason

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Going to keep my two original picks

Nick
Joe

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You suck.

Nick
Tai

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Nick
Tai

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You suck?

As I said before, as time goes on, Jeff wants a larger, more active role on the show. His "Balls" comments were on purpose and not from being, "In the Zone".

I guess I'm an immature moron because I laughed when he said that.

And of course they were on purpose. He actually said "Tai's balls are bouncing hard into each other - that's never good."

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I guess I'm an immature moron because I laughed when he said that.

And of course they were on purpose. He actually said "Tai's balls are bouncing hard into each other - that's never good."

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That has me rolling.

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quote:

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Nick
Tai

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You suck?

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You chose wisely.

quote:

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quote:

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quote:

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Nick
Tai

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You suck?

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You chose wisely.

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Ah. I'm a little slow on the uptake. New baby girl and 2 girls under 4 tax my mental capabilities at times.

Scot and Nick for me.

continuing with - Tai
and adding - Michele

for my post merge pics

Tai
Michelle

Sticking with Scot & Michelle

Cydney and Julia.

I'll keep Tai, and add Aubry, because why not.

I'll go with Aubry and Michelle.

I'll go with Tai and Jason.

I'll keep Michelle, and add Aubry.

This is the first time since we started doing this that I have no idea who the winner is at this point based on the edit.