Post by John on Dec 8, 2020 16:27:26 GMT
ROUND 8
Now onto this round, there's almost something poetic about watching the round Lee will likely (barring a legit miracle) get voted out seeing Louise win the individual Immunity Challenge. Sometimes in these games you really can't write better shit.
So the Lee situation, there's been a lot of takes on Lee as a character this season in the VL. He is definitely one of the least popular and the clear villain. I definitely think although Lee hasn't given his all to the strategy and game elements (literally not having attempted a case since round 1), he's added a lot to the dynamic of the game. It's great to have an antagonist in the game, but this round with the COVID lie that he was faking COVID when he actually has it, he went too far. He's absolutely poisoned the well, I believe it was totally unnecessary for him to gaslight Louise this round, and it was silly to think he could get away with it. Abby told Juju everything and Lee told Louise he "faked" COVID to get her reaction, so when he tried to pretend like it was some outrage and rumour Louise started, it absolutely sealed his and Abby's fate in the game. Everyone already believed Louise's story that he did tell her that, and on top of it they had Juju's confirmation from Abby. This also poisoned the well for Abby because almost all players lost respect for her and the fact that she just let Lee go into Louise when she knew the truth all along. Major kudos for Juju putting the game aside and defending Louise, Roy as well and many others. Louise has been exceptionally strong during all this and proving why she's such a strong player in these games. This plan was stupid for Lee to begin with and the fact that it blew up in his face probably only surprised him.
I'm not going to go into details on every player, but I wanted to give some shout outs. First to Juju, I've been waiting all season for him to play his own game and he's finally showed up! Juju has been biding his time, but he's come out swinging now and he's positioned really well with his close alliances to Louise and Marissa. He may not be in the majority, but he's getting all their info for when the split occurs. He's been so much fun to watch right now and we're seeing him hit his peak in the game at the perfect time.
Marissa, finally we're seeing a bit more confidence and her actively positioning herself in the game. I love her being a part of an alliance with Juju/Louise and starting to see her talk about cutting Zaid at some point. That will be a move she has to make and has to make before he does it on her. I hope she continues to play hard and really own it.
Now I've done two positive call outs, the last will be a bit of a negative. Zaid is really frustrating me to watch. In the pre-merge I felt like he was the confident boss, and then come here and he's playing like such a little chicken. He's all over the place, he's scared to vote for people and burn people in jury and he's so hyper aware about the finale. Carson even had to be like dude chill, you're thinking about the Final 3 when we're at the Final 9. Zaid needs to think for the round he is in instead of 10 steps ahead.
