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As always, the players are given the chance for opening statements. Let's start with Gervase. He tells the jury that he played a great game. He used some old-school and new-school Survivor strategy to get where he is. He takes sole credit for Aras's ouster and feels that he has done enough to earn their votes for Sole Survivor. Next up, Monica starts addressing that they all think she was dragged like a puppy to the end. She says she had the choice at the last three TCs to flip on her alliance. She stuck with the guys on purpose as she felt she had a better shot with them to get to the end and then win at the end.

Tyson finishes us off by saying that he knew he would be target numero uno, so he decided to just have fun and wait it out. But when he saw Rachel on Redemption, everything changed. If she sacrificed herself, he needed to get to the end. He tells them that at that time, he decided to dig in and he searched for idols, won challenges when he needed them and made the big moves when they needed to be made. Everything he did was strategic and nothing was done out of spite or malice. His voice wavers a little as he talks about Rachel. He finishes by saying that he's at the end because of Rachel's sacrifice. We'll take a quick break while the jury works on their final questions.

And we're back! Vytas will start us off. He says to Tyson that the name of the game was to "get before you got got." He admits that he and Aras had no plans to take him to the end so he made the right play. He mentions that he told Tyson (as a last ditch effort) that he would never vote for him at the end and he plans to stick to that. So he addresses the other two. Gervase, you keep talking old school and that the reason you're there is that you hooked up with a "dope new school player.” He tells Monica that she was the only one he really had a bond with, so when she voted him out it hurt. He tells them that he has not decided which of them to vote for yet, and that he would be figuring it out during the questioning.

Next up is Katie. She says she only has one question. She calls out Tyson on the "malice" thing and recalls when he told her after she pulled the white rock that her seat was over on the jury. She says that was out of malice. I kinda wish Tyson had brought this up in his opening statement, because apologizing for it now is way too little way too late. That being said, he does apologize and said that when it came to drawing rocks, that his mouth ran before he could stop it. He tells her that he hopes she can look past it and he hopes that he would look past it if he were in her shoes, but he can't say for certain that he would be able to.

Caleb takes the stage next and has a question for Gervase. He wants to know what Gervase's big, game changing move was. He says it was voting out Aras. He says that he knows he jury thinks Tyson did all the work, but he did a lot of it and left Tyson out there to take all the hits. Caleb moves on to Monica. He wants to see her be vulnerable. He wants her to talk from her heart, not her head. She says that for the last 21 years, everything has been about Brad and she wants this one thing for herself. She hasn't had a friend out there since Brad left and that she's proud of herself for getting to the end and she really wants to have something other than being Brad's wife and Rex, Judge and Honor's mom. Seriously? Rex, Judge and Honor?





Ciera is next and I kinda expect some fireworks here. She starts with Tyson and asks him whether he sees himself as a villain or a hero. He says that everything he did was strategic and he was constantly thinking about numbers and what was best for him and his alliance. He says that Rachel thinks he's a hero and that if he's not the villain, he has to be the hero, right? Ciera moves on to Gervase. She asks him if he was ever going to vote out Tyson. He said only in the right spot and that he was targeting a Final Four vote for Tyson. He was worried that if he flipped and took Tyson out, he would be next. So he decided to ride it out with Tyson. I'll add in here that since Tyson won the last two immunities, he waited too long to make that move, though I agree with him. They were seen as a team and once Tyson was gone, he'd be the next target.

Laura steps up next and tells Monica that she doesn't know who she is. Laura says that she has learned that she can be real prickly to be around and that some people don't like her. She claims that's being vulnerable and wants Monica to share something ugly about herself. I like Monica's response here. So much so, I'll quote the beginning of it, "I think that all my uglinesses have been poked on in this game." This kind of answer will not win her jury votes, but it does win my respect. She goes on to list all the things that everyone says bad about her. She says that she learned a lot about herself and that she is emaciated, down to 100 pounds and eating grubs out of the dirt. She says that she weighs half of what those guys weigh and she's still there. "I don't know what else you want me to say." Again, it probably won't win her jury votes, but enough is enough. How many different versions of, "Monica, you did nothing to win this game and we don't like you" questions need to be asked? Apparently, Monica is done with them and I applaud her.

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