Natalie can buy herself an idol now. With Amber, Danni and Ethan as competition, she doesn't necessarily need an advantage in the challenge to get back in the game. But she can get one or two of those too if she keeps on scoring tokens in the next episodes.
I would agree that the idol is the better purchase proposition if one were to simply assess her current challenge opposition. My logic on reaching that conclusion prematurely is that we know there are going to be some legit return threats who have been presumably eating and sleeping better than she has by the time that challenge actually takes place.
Which should incentivize her to keep stockpiling fire tokens. Not just to stockpile additional tokens that can be used for challenge advantages but to keep them away from everyone else. There aren't too many challenge duds left to send her way... outside of Sandra and Denise (frankly, Denise could kick my butt in the shape she's in... but I doubt her challenge record scares Nat any).
Going to take the time to revisit my pre-game stat post from yesterday for a quick second...
If Boston Rob escapes tonight without getting his torch snuffed, he is poised to shatter Ozzy's all-time record for most number of days playing Survivor which presently stands at 128. Rob is at 123 and counting... although the first time he played the game in Marquesas he only made it to merge and got bounced on Day 21.
Boston Rob is now up to 126 days playing the game. Presuming the next boot happens on Day 12, he will have bested Ozzy's record (albeit needing an extra season to do it).
Parvati is presently building on her active record of having successfully voted out 28 different people at tribal council... good for an 84.8% clearance rate of successfully knocking out her intended target over a span of 33 tribal councils.
The 5 times she missed her mark...
- The merge in Cook Islands (Parv was targeting Yul; Penner flipped to the other side and put her on the opposite side of the numbers.)
- The subsequent vote that led to Candice getting bounced. (I'll give Penner credit for this one as well.)
- Her boot episode two tribals later.
- A meaningless vote split between Candice & Rupert during Heroes vs. Villains to protect against an idol play.
- Russell's blindside of Danielle later that same episode to curb Parvati's influence.
This record, on the other hand, was not built upon as Parv's intended boot victim this week was Adam. She was uncharacteristically outmaneuvered by Jeremy/Michele on this one in their blindside of Ethan.
This marks the first time in FOUR seasons that Parvati has not gotten her way in a pre-merge tribal council. I'd chalk this up as significant and does not bode well for her long-term chances - especially seeing how she was earmarked as the intended target before Adam got creative and blabbed to Boston Rob about it in a bid to curry his loyalty, which, if he had any sense, he would have known was never going to work.
In fact, there have been only two people this season that have placed a vote on the eventual boot in each of their first 3 tribal council appearances... Denise and Ben.
There aren't too many people to initially peg the correct boot in their first three tribal council visits and then wind up getting voted out before merge. Here are the most recent instances of this stat materializing...
- James Lim (Ghost Island - swap screwed)
- Jeff Varner (Cambodia - swap screwed; not in terms of alliance numbers but challenge liability)
- Brad Culpepper (Blood vs. Water)
- Julia Landauer (Caramoan - swap screwed)
- Russell Swan (Philippines - decimated tribe)
Denise went 6-0 during the pre-merge during the season she won and would have been perfect post-merge outside of two votes that were idol-nullified and the split vote that sent Jeff Kent packing. Not a bad record for someone that attended every tribal council that season in numerous different tribe configurations, never had an idol (either possessed or played for them) and only won individual immunity once (at merge).
Ben only visited tribal council once in the pre-merge of the season he won... although he did go 4-0 in his first four visits to tribal prior to the JP blindside which prompted him to get more creative with idol acquisition.
Lastly, if Rob/Parvati suss out that it's one of their heads on the chopping block (and not Adam) should Sele return to tribal council a 4th time, there is a possibility that they pool the 4 fire tokens they now have between them for an advantage in the next tribal immunity challenge. Those tokens won't be of any use to them if they get voted out of the game.
