Matt's Question

[Matt Quinlan]

Hey guys. Congratulations on making final three! I had such a great experience in this game, and I'd love to be sitting where you are right now. I was actually fully loyal to the Chelsea, Matt, Sydney final three, and my betrayals of the other players were done to help us achieve this easier. With that being said, I feel like you've all elaborated on a lot and there isn't much left to ask. So right now, I only have one thing that I'd like clarified here. This question goes to Sydney.

Sydney, at the final 6 vote, I understand you said here that you wanted to send me home and didn't intend for me to go to end-game like we had discussed prior. What I'm curious about is why you chose to force a tie initially and offer me hope as far as saying you'd re-force the tie and try to get Mick to switch his vote. Like, did you always plan to force a tie and then switch? Did you temporarily waver and consider keeping me? Were you uncertain and wanted to give yourself more time to think? Or was it something else? I'm just curious about exactly what was going through your head at the time.

Anyway, congratulations again, and good luck!

[Sydney Wheeler]

Sydney, at the final 6 vote, I understand you said here that you wanted to send me home and didn't intend for me to go to end-game like we had discussed prior. What I'm curious about is why you chose to force a tie initially and offer me hope as far as saying you'd re-force the tie and try to get Mick to switch his vote. Like, did you always plan to force a tie and then switch? Did you temporarily waver and consider keeping me? Were you uncertain and wanted to give yourself more time to think? Or was it something else? I'm just curious about exactly what was going through your head at the time.

I'll answer this as I'm sure other Jurors could be curious.

You were loyal to "us three" at the end because it was Chelsea's ideal goal, and she believed I would never default from it either - thus ensuring your safety. She had told me at the tie vote that you originally wanted to make a move against Mick/I earlier, but she had directed you to not do so. So you were only loyal to me in this game due to her influence over you. Which was pretty much a given to me based on you always reporting things to her.

My reason for tieing the vote was because I had told Chelsea I was voting Sandra all day and the day before. The move to take you out wasn't fully decided upon until after I had already told her I was on board. I knew you needed to go at either 6 or 5, and I was weighing the pros and cons as to which was the better time to strike. My main fear of keeping you another round was how big of a threat you were in challenges - and I deduced that this was the only time to strike. I would have been in a really bad spot (control-wise) if Sandra left at 6 and you had immunity at 5. The odds of Sandra winning / showing up for a competition were a lot more slim than yourself. Tieing the vote allowed me to gauge the reaction of Chelsea, and to see if I could keep her at bay in the upcoming rounds. I was voting you out regardless of her reaction, but it was good to know who I could sway in the next rounds. The reason I didn't tell Chelsea about the plan was because I didn't want a last minute coup with her going to Sandra. Yeah, it sucks that it instilled a bit of hope in both you and her with the tie vote, but had you just been snuffed with the "bandaid" being ripped right off, I think the reaction would of been a lot worse on me because I didn't get the time to explain and to make sure Chelsea understood fully. Keeping things hush were of course for my safety as well as Mick's. I never told you I'd re-force the tie, I just said I'd talk to Mick - meaning the decision we'd make together. I also apologized for not telling you, but you are a smart enough cookie to know what was going on.