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Um, I totally understand the anger. I do. But Neal, if you were hoping to help your pal, Aubry, you should have used your 15 seconds better. You actually made Michele look more sympathetic and did nothing to help Aubry. Also, it's just bad form. If given the opportunity to build up one player or tear another down, you should always be a builder. Also, I should mention that a real nice speech here (rather than an anger driven insult) could have made you a candidate for a returning season. You may have just blown that out of the water too. As we head to commercial, Neal tells us that Michele was really smart to get rid of him. He also says he doesn't think it will matter as she's sitting there with two people who played a better game than her.

After the commercials, the trio returns to camp and they discuss Neal's exit. This is the first taste they all get of how the Final Tribal may go. Michele is glad to have removed Neal, but is worried if that's how the rest of the Tribal go. Aubry tells us that the worst case scenario actually played out with Michele dumping her best advocate. She's not giving up, but she is going to have to fight hard for every vote she gets.

The sun rises on Day 39 and Michele has Tree Mail that directs them to head toward the back of camp to see what toll the 39 days have taken on them. They get to a scale and a mirror. As they check themselves out, Michele tells us that her plan is to tell the jury that she didn't just slide through the game. She made slight moves and adjustments along the way and when she needed to win in challenges, she did. Next up is the traditional finalist breakfast. As they cook and dine, Tai tells us that it's up to him to explain his game at Tribal and to get them all to vote for him. He goes on to say that his biggest move was blindsiding Scot and that set the table for the rest of the game. He hopes that Scot gets over that and can see that he played the best game and still give him his vote.

While they pack for Tribal, Aubry tells us that she hopes people can see that she's grown from someone who was afraid to make a decision at the beginning of the game to the person who was running the game and didn't care if she was seen as the biggest threat. She took the game into her own hands and controlled a lot of it from behind the curtain (at first) to right out in the open (toward the end.) As they file into Tribal Council, I'll go ahead and say it. Aubry should win this game. Julia will vote for Michele, guaranteed. I would expect everyone else to vote Aubry. She played head and shoulders above these other two and I would think she'll be rewarded for it. Her only real competition was Cydney, and Cydney didn't make it. That only leaves one legit option for Sole Survivor.

So Tribal begins with Jeff giving his usual spiel. I should point out that Tai has brought Mark the Chicken with him to Final Tribal. Through most of the proceedings, Mark just sits in Tai's lap very calmly and quietly. Hell, this chicken is better trained than my dogs! There are no opening statements; we just go straight to the questions.

Nick starts us off, but he doesn't ask a question. He decides to "help" the finalists with what they'll need for the rest of the Tribal. He says that most of them have not made up their mind and that tonight's answers will determine the winner. From Michele, the jury wants to see her display intelligence and let the jury know that she actually did have a strategy. From Tai, they want him to show some awareness of what he did out there. And from Aubry, she needs to show confidence in her game if she wants to get any votes. He then sits down and we move on. Okey dokey. Can't call what his vote will be.

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