Survivor 41 - week 10 results

 Although the pool points awarded was simple, the episode was really great, showing Survivor at its core and exactly what all the relevant players are thinking and feeling and how they're making their choices based on those.  And then how the voting plans changed a couple times before tribal.  Let's get to the pool points:

• Ricard wins individual reward!  5 points for him.
• Then, Ricard wins individual immunity!  Another 5 points for him.
• Before tribal council, the plan to vote out Erika was changed by Ricard to vote out Shan. In case Shan plays her idol, Erika manufactures a split vote to create a tie between Liana and Shan. At tribal council, neither Xander nor Shan play their idol, and everything goes to plan, creating the tie. Everyone votes for Shan on the revote except Liana, who couldn't vote. 2 points to everyone that banded together to vote out Shan.
• 9 points to everyone that survived tribal council #9.
• Ricard earned the most points by far with 21 while everyone else earned 11 or lower.

In the pool, 53% had Shan, the 34-year-old pastor.

• Jswizzle is still in first with the only entry with 6 picks left out of the 7 remaining contestants.
• Mitch is still in last by 20 points.
• massey jumped into the top 10 from 11th to 6th.
• That One Guy and Ezequiel both fell 8 spots out of the top 10 to 16th and 17th.

Next week: Liana basically declares war on Deshawn.

My episode observations:

• I can't believe Erika's last minute plan to get the 6 players other than Liana and Shan to split the vote and create a tie worked.  Even though it wasn't needed because Shan didn't play her idol, Erika did well to cover her butt just in case.
• Funny when Shan started humming her own song and Heather asking her about it.
• Xander not playing his idol again, correctly, was impressive again!  Ice in that guy's veins.
• Did perhaps Liana get her closest ally voted out?  If she didn't tell Shan about the guys' plan to vote out Ricard, and then Shan told Ricard, and then Ricard realizes then he's not top 4, maybe he wouldn't have decided it was time to take out Shan?
• Did anyone notice the somber music that was playing on the revote before Shan was voted out?  Wow, even the producers loved Shan.
• When Shan was leaving, she announces that Ricard would get her winning vote.  Did she mean that?  If she did, didn't she just put a bigger target on his back?