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Previously on A Man's Man, Man: Judd, Cindy, Rafe, and Steph looked to be headed for F4, with Danni and Lydia battling for fifth and sixth place and the opportunity to spend as little time as possible in sequester with Judd, Jamie, Gary, and Bobby Jon. When the auction offered an even better shot at immunity, the rest of the group let Danni have it easily, because keeping your game plan for a million dollars in place is good, but it's no plate of cookies, after all. Judd bought his own wife at the auction, and took Steph and Cindy and their waxed boyfriend and chirpy sister (respectively) along on the reward, leaving Rafe to be sent off with Danni and Lydia. In exile, a new plan began to emerge, known as Operation Judd Has Been Here Way Too Long Already. And believe me, it is a plan with which I was entirely on board. After Danni caught Judd keeping his options open with Lydia and deftly tattled to Steph, Judd's stock began to drop like a rock. And at tribal council, Danni and Lydia joined forces with Rafe and Steph to get rid of Judd, who was such a good sport that he had absolutely no hard feelings except for hoping that everyone who voted against him got eaten by crocodiles. And wanting animals to eat people isn't that hard a feeling, after all. One boot left to get to the final four. Who will get the axe tonight and not make it to the interminable finale except in the capacity of Embittered Snotty Juror?
Credits. Wow, I really miss Blake. No, I'm just kidding, of course.
On the night of Day 33, after tribal council, the final five are standing around the fire discussing the booting of Judd. Steph says that although she felt bad about booting Judd, she felt somewhat less bad when he went all nutty on them and started calling everybody scumbags: "I mean, he almost started to turn into Jamie a little bit." I guess "Jamie" is now slang for "crazy person" around camp, which is both sad and funny. Danni, meanwhile, interviews quietly that this was the break in the big alliance that she was praying for all along. She did hold on admirably through a lengthy period during which it appeared that she was doomed, which she no longer seems to be. I like how, when she has an interview snippet, they still put up that caption that says, "Sports Radio Host." Like people are going to be watching the show at this point going, "Now, wait. Which one is Danni? Oh, the sports radio host. That's right." It would be much more useful if they really think people are joining the party late to caption her something like, "Not So Strong In Challenges, But Less Bitchy Than Most." That would give you some actual information.
An uncomfortable Cindy, for her part, wants to know why nobody talked to her about what was happening with the Judd boot. Steph claims that they wanted to tell her, but Cindy insists that they didn't even have to tell her; they could have just felt her out to see whether she'd be amenable. But the problem is...they really couldn't. Once you admit to one person in your alliance that you're considering turning on another person in your alliance, the risk is already out there. If they try to feel out Cindy and Cindy goes to Judd, then they have a mess. Once they had the votes to make the boot, not telling anybody else was the safe play for them, even though it makes Cindy uncomfortable. Cindy huffs in an interview that she was not "privileged to the information," by which I believe she means "privy to the information," but she's a zookeeper after all, and monkeys aren't big on precision. Cindy takes note back around the fire that she doesn't like the fact that Judd was the one left out of the Jamie boot, and now Judd is gone. Because if that's the case, then what does it mean that she was the one left out of the Judd boot? Girl has a point. That would make you feel a little isolated. Steph insists that the one to go "could be any of us," which is a nice deployment of the technique in which you comfort someone by saying something completely obvious and devoid of meaning.
“ Cindy says she should be able to win both if she plays right. Probably something she shouldn't have said, that last one. I think my strategy would have been to say as little as possible. Which would be a stretch for me, but I'd do my best. ”
But before they talk about whom Cindy wants to invite, Jeff wants to talk about the curse. The curse is the one where the person who wins the car has never won the million bucks in ten (really nine) seasons of giving away cars. As soon as Steph hears this, she sort of groans, "Ohh," as if she really thinks it's really low of Jeff to be hitting Cindy with this when she was so happy. Jeff goes on to explain that Cindy has a choice. She can keep the car, or she can give up the car. If she gives up the car, all four of the other remaining players will each get a car. Note the immediate reactions to this news: Steph looks genuinely horrified, like that is the meanest thing she ever heard, which is exactly what I thought. My mom watched this with me, and I think her exact words were, "That's horrible." And then the show actually makes it worse by driving up the four other cars that will be given away if Cindy gives up hers.
Jeff asks Cindy what she wants to do. "I normally don't believe in superstitions," she says. "But I also want them to have cars." Steph looks like she intensely dislikes this entire thing. Cindy says that she believes in making impossible things possible, which I guess is a reference to beating the curse, but which didn't make much sense to me at the time. She goes on to say she should be able to win both if she plays right. Probably something she shouldn't have said, that last one. I think my strategy would have been to say as little as possible. Which would be a stretch for me, but I'd do my best. Cindy bites her nails for real, now. When Jeff demands an answer, Cindy ultimately says that she would love to give away four cars, but that she's "here to beat the odds," so she's going to keep her car. Steph is the first to nod like "damn right," and to applaud the decision. Remember, Steph's never had a car. She would certainly have liked to have a car. Rafe applauds with a notable lack of enthusiasm.
Look, strategically, you can argue all day about what she should have done. I can easily make and accept the argument that giving people cars today is a good way to make sure they don't vote you off tomorrow, or that people on the jury who are torn about whom to vote for might go with the person who gave them a large gift. But I could also argue that if you're Cindy, and if you have strong reason to believe you're not going tonight anyway, then all you accomplish by giving away the four cars is making yourself the least desirable F2 partner in history. Who's going to take someone to F2 who has given cars to three people on the jury? It's completely no-win for her, because the more you think that giving people cars will make them more likely to favor her, the more you have to think that it will make them more likely to get rid of her on the theory that other people will favor her, you know? I think it's one of those situations where, all other things being equal, I would tend to strategically favor leaving things status quo and sticking with what I already had. When you add in the fact that Cindy's winning the contest and then being the only person not to get a car is ridiculously unfair from a pure competitive standpoint, and the fact that she could hope other competitive people would understand and agree with that, it seems to me like at the very least an entirely defensible decision.
Anyway, Cindy's choice is to take Steph on the reward, and as soon as Steph comes over to hug her, her first words are, "I would have kept the car." Good on her; she's driven me bonkers all season, but I give her big points for that, which seems totally genuine. Steph and Cindy hop into the car. You can tell that Cindy feels somewhat bad as they get into the car, and Steph pats her on the arm: "This is beautiful...be happy!" In the car, Cindy is already rethinking: "There's no guarantees in this game, and...giving people cars is no guarantee that they're going to say, 'Give her a million bucks.'" "Exactly," Steph agrees. Cindy and Steph take off.
“ Cindy and Steph start cooking up the meat, Cindy commenting that it's 'more meat than [they've] seen in thirty-some days.' I would make a Naked Judd joke here, except I fear that he would choose to find it flattering. ”
On the road to the reward, Steph talks to Cindy about how "sweet" her car is, and Cindy interviews about how excited she was to win the car like that. Her comment to Steph is that "zookeepers don't drive cars" (you can't insure them, I'm sure, because of the constant risk of a stampede on the way to work), but Steph insists that this one does. They also talk about how neat it was to see three women playing against each other in the second round, and my sense is that their happiness about that is pretty genuine. When not accompanied by revolting sexual politics, I don't mind people being happy about women doing well in a competition that often doesn't favor them. When Steph and Cindy pull up to the camp, there's an archeologist waiting. He welcomes them to the Yaxha archeological campsite. He invites them to come and eat, and he shows them the spread of meat and veggies and, of course, rum. I don't really drink rum by itself, though, so I hope there are some mixers or something. Diet Coke with Lime works well.
Cindy and Steph start cooking up the meat, Cindy commenting that it's "more meat than [they've] seen in thirty-some days." I would make a Naked Judd joke here, except I fear that he would choose to find it flattering. Steph offers a toast to the new car, and "to final four." Cindy voices over about the car issue again, and she explains how she didn't know what to do, because you think to yourself about when you'll ever get another chance to give cars to four people. Sure, it's four people you don't really care about, but...okay. Unfortunately, rather than let this drop with Steph -- who has already agreed with her -- Cindy keeps talking about how "if you win, you win" and so forth, forcing Steph to say it's okay over and over again. Cindy goes on in her interview to repeat the part about "no guarantees," and about how nobody is necessarily going to give you a million bucks because you give them a car.
Here's my take on how Cindy misread the situation. She accounted for the part of the equation where giving away her car might make people vote for her, and she decided how she felt about that. And she also accounted for the fact that it would be fun to give away four cars. But I think she never accounted for the possibility that anyone would be enough of a dickweed to feel entitled to have her give up her car, and that this would make people vote against her. I think Cindy saw the choice as an opportunity to give a gift, but I don't think she seriously considered that anyone (Rafe) would conclude that she was somehow obligated (Rafe) to give him a gift (Rafe, Rafe, Rafe) and that anyone (Rafe) would turn on her as a result specifically of her failure to make that gift. Honestly, I would have made the same mistake. When I saw the situation presented to Cindy, my reaction was that I'd probably keep the car, but I'd be very tempted by the opportunity to give four people cars. But it would have never occurred to me, if I were one of the four other people, to think anybody had any obligation to do that, or that it was somehow selfish or inappropriate for her to turn down that opportunity. If I won the lottery, I'd give away a lot, including to my friends, but if my friends won the lottery and didn't give me any -- particularly to the point where they got ZERO as a result -- I certainly wouldn't be pissed at them, you know?
“ Cindy interviews that she thinks getting rid of Rafe would be the best move: 'I think the girls would have a much better shot at winning this.' Well, yes. The odds would certainly... improve somewhat. ”
Rafe and Steph take a walk in which he says he thinks they have a much better chance against Danni than against Cindy in F3, and that's actually a valid argument, and I wish he'd stick with that one. Rafe also insists that either of them will lose against Cindy but not against Danni, which...huh? Danni seems to be by far the most well-liked person left, and she almost definitely would have Bobby Jon and Gary's votes against anyone left. Lydia is more likely to vote for Danni than Cindy, and I suspect that Judd is, too, just based on personalities. This part of Rafe's argument appears to be kind of ridiculous, really. Steph points out that if she votes off Cindy, then that's just another person on the jury who's going to think she was backstabbed by Steph, meaning that Jamie, Judd, and Cindy would all refuse to vote for Steph because she got rid of them. ["On the other hand, there's not one person on the jury that Steph didn't put there, so I don't know what makes Cindy so special in that regard." -- Wing Chun] Rafe insists that they don't exactly have a deal with Cindy, which is goofy, because they all talked about their expected F4 back before Judd got booted off. Steph explains to us that she raised this point with Rafe -- that it might not be smart to vote off another member of their own alliance who will hold it against them. Steph says that, at the same time, Cindy is a huge threat who "has a car, at least." Ugh. She says she just doesn't know what will happen at tribal council.
Interestingly, Steph goes right to Cindy with this business from Rafe, probably because, that way, Cindy will blame Rafe and not Steph if it happens the way it looks like it might. Cindy's extremely dark roots are on display as she grinds corn and Steph explains to her how Rafe would rather face Danni than Cindy. Cindy counters that she's not the threat -- Rafe is the threat, having won a bunch of challenges. Cindy interviews that she thinks getting rid of Rafe would be the best move, because he's such a threat in challenges. "And I think the girls would have a much better shot at winning this," she adds with a smile. Well, yes. The odds would certainly...improve somewhat.
Later, sitting around with Danni and Steph, Cindy tells them that if they get rid of her, they'll be keeping the strongest competitor in the game, and indicates Rafe: "He's going to beat you guys in all the challenges." Steph insists that she knows Rafe's the strongest and has told him so. "He can beat any of us in the immunities; we already know that," Cindy says. Despite the fact that Danni has already won immunity, Steph has already won immunity, Cindy has been a top finisher in several challenges and won twice, and Rafe hasn't exactly been on a white-hot winning streak lately. "Smartest thing to do would be to eliminate him," Cindy says to Steph and Danni, neither of whom is considering doing that.