[Jeff Probst]

Charlie, Gillian, and Michelle,

Here you can leave your Opening Statements to the jury. You have 24 hours to post them here. You cannot add to or edit your opening speeches so please draft them up separately and copy/paste after edits.


Your deadline is 7c/8e tomorrow (Friday the 6th).
Good luck!

[Michelle]

Hello everyone,

I am so honored to be here in the final three, and I’m excited to have the chance to defend my game and answer any questions you have for me. I’m going to start off by taking you on a journey through this season, from my perspective, beginning to end. Doing this required that I go back through my old confessionals and votes, and I’m going to be referencing some of those here for you tonight.

Going back to the very beginning, my goal was to have a tight alliance with two or three other people, and for each of us to have side alliances. I was immediately drawn to Aurora and Lauren, thought that Reem was really funny, and that, and I quote, “Gillian seems nice but a little weird.” It didn’t take long for Aurora, Lauren and I to form a threesome, and we were excited when just a little bit later, Reem and Jacquie approached us about having a five person alliance.

I went into this warily, and as the days went by I began to suspect that Reem and Jacquie were playing the field. I diligently watched the Sharing is Caring and Mess group chats, cross referenced the number of people there to which people were online, and quickly painted a picture for myself of who had an alliance with whom. The sides as I saw them were like this: Reem, Jac and Crystal on one side, me, Lauren and Aurora on the other, and Susie and Gillian in the middle.

In my mind, Reem was already the biggest threat in the game, and it was either her or me. So when I heard that Reem was targeting Jac, I did not believe it. Meanwhile, everyone was still trying to figure out where Gillian and Susie stood. They never talked a lot of strategy with me in my early game, and talking strategy is one of my love languages, so I was having trouble fully trusting them. Aurora was extremely confident that she had Gillian and Susie, but I was not.

Then, we got to the infamous pre-swap vote. Aurora, Lauren and I were originally going to target Crystal, but after losing the competition I suggested we tell Jac that Reem was targeting her, and ask her to vote Reem out with us. Instead of going to Jac like I suggested, however, Aurora went to Gillian, thinking wrongly that Gillian was on our side. As you know, I was on the wrong side of that vote, and Jac went home, leaving me, Aurora and Lauren to go into the swap with huge targets on our backs and, for me, the label as Least Loyal.

So then there was the swap, and low and behold, I ended up on a tribe with Reem, the person I had just tried unsuccessfully to evict. Awwwwwkward. I pretty much grovelled at Reem's and Gillian’s feet, assuring them that I wanted to be girls strong, and that I had deep regret for what happened at the last vote. I said that the whole thing had been Aurora’s idea, and that we had just voted Reem as a safeguard in case Jac had the idol. This wasn’t untrue exactly, but I did leave out the fact that the idea of flipping the votes to get Reem out had been my idea, not Aurora’s. I was thrilled to be in a tribe with equal numbers of boys and girls, and we decided to throw the first challenge in order to give the girls on the other side more time to rally and work their magic.

Going into the swap, I fully intended for Lauren to remain my closest ally in the new tribe. But she started being online less, and Reem more. The boys were never online, showing up an hour before the comps and rarely earlier. If you want to see how I felt about that, boys, please feel free to check out my confessionals later. Reem was always on, however, and the two of us started to bond. Then, in one of the biggest and most important changes to my game, Reem and I decided to make a final two alliance called Fuck All Y’all. The fact that I went from trying to vote her out to being her closest ally in a matter of a few days is evidence of her incredible social game, and my incredible ability to kiss ass.

As FAY continued to bloom, I also made sure to continue building relationships with Gillian and Lauren. I knew that Lauren was wary of Reem, and pretended that I was also. I didn’t even have to lie--I did know that Reem was a massive threat. But she was MY massive threat. And due to our history, no one would suspect we were a pair.

FAY passed its first strategic test with flying colors. At the first vote, 3 out of 4 of the boys received votes, and Ron was so rude in his goodbye message to Marcus that I knew they would never work together moving forward. It was truly a work of art. We even made Wardog think it was his idea to vote Ron out, and he did indeed proceed to vote for Ron. This allowed me to build my relationship with Ron, whose life in the game I had apparently just saved. It wasn’t hard to convince Ron that Wardog had been out to get him, and that we had to turn on him instead of voting Marcus, in order to save Ron’s life in the game. Ron was grateful, and immediately wanted to make an alliance with me, Charlie and Lauren. Of course, thanks to my relationship with Reem, I knew that he was also playing the field, but for me, any connections are good connections if they can be used to leverage information.

As we continued to draw closer to the merge, I made sure to deepen my relationships with both Lauren and Reem. I knew that they would most likely be on opposite sides come merge, and I needed to be able to have multiple options to choose from. Before the merge I had alliances with every single member of my tribe, and I was a driving force in the vote to evict Marcus once the merge happened.

Next came the merge. The girls were down in numbers, but I was feeling pretty good with two different sides to choose from. The women were supposedly going to be united, but I knew that wouldn’t last long.

If I had my choice, I knew that going with Reem would be better for my game than going with Aurora. Aurora was one of the “very threatening” trio I was part of, and it was scarily impressive how quickly she could move when she wanted to change a vote. I needed someone who was cool-headed and wouldn’t go changing things last second on me.

I TOLD the girls that Matty should've been the target for the second merge vote, and instead of listening to me they fell for his cunning manipulation tactic and the girls sank even lower in numbers. I thought Reem was done for that night, I really did. If she and I weren't as close as we were, we would never have been able to pull that off.

Aurora HAD to go home that night. If I had voted the wrong way and Aurora had stayed, it would have been very, very bad for my game. And that’s why, despite deeply caring for Aurora as a person, I had to use my extra vote to ensure that she left. In less than 24 hours I found the extra vote advantage, as well as the hidden immunity idol.

I’m not going to go over every single vote of the merge, but I do want to touch on the Matty vote. Finally, after days of me trying to convince them that Matty was a huge threat, my claims started to gain some traction. On the day he was evicted, I sowed chaos all day, systematically throwing him under the bus to each of his alliance members (AKA everyone) and bringing chat receipts with me. I even created a chain of ridiculous incriminating private chats that people didn’t stop talking about for hours.

The chats were petty, but worked just as I intended them to--they lightened the mood and gave people an excuse to talk to tribe members they usually wouldn’t talk to as much; this day is when I was able to start building my relationships with Randy and Chris, and I attribute that directly to the chats. I convinced Randy that Matty had created the chats himself in order to incriminate Randy, and convinced Matty that Randy had created the chats in order to incriminate Matty, and they continued to fight about this even into tribal.

And tribal. TRIBAL. I’m sorry Matty, but I was dying of laughter the entire time. The boys dogpiled on Matty, repeating all of the things I had told them during our chats, but never mentioning me by name. They came down hard on Matty, smashing their jury management with him to smithereens, and all I had to do was sit back and watch it all happen.

The closest I ever got to being evicted was the week Reem left. If I hadn’t won immunity, I would have had to play my idol correctly in order to stay in the game. There’s a reason I was able to do so well on that particular challenge, and it was because I had built true relationships with almost everyone in the tribe.

When it came to the vote, I had a strong feeling Reem would be going. She was too big of a threat. I could say that I didn’t play my idol to save her because I was sure that Gillian would be the person to do that. But the truth is, I was scared of the target Reem being in the game put on my own back. I voted for Eric to go, but was not surprised by the results.

By this time in the game, my clear final three alliance became Charlie and Gillian. I let Gillian take the lead a bit more here, because after Reem’s eviction she seemed to finally want to start playing. As long as we had the same final three in mind, I didn’t care about which order the others joined the jury in. Letting her feel like she was in control was an important micro-strategy, because it made me into a smaller target at a time in the game when people were finally starting to realize that I existed and might actually be a threat.

My game hasn’t been perfect, but I’m proud of the game I played. I was able to manage many different relationships at once and leverage those relationships for information; I stayed under the radar for almost the entire swap and merge, even after being targeted on multiple occasions for being part of the “dangerous trio”; and I’ve been playing hard since DAY ONE, not just since the merge or since Reem’s eviction. I believe that the two people with me in the final three have both played great games in their own way, but neither of them have played as persistently hard or had game strategies that were as multifaceted as mine. I want to finish by saying that all of the friendships I built with people are real on my end, and I hope that you can see that I voted not to hurt people, but to further myself in the game while protecting my core alliance. I respect all of you, and ask that, out of respect for this game and for my gameplay, you vote for me to be the winner of Stranded in Kuril Islands.

[Gillian]

Ok so first of all I wanna congratulate my fellow F3 contestants!!! Michelle we have been together from day 1 and made it here!! I love u girl!! Charlie we joined forces later but I truly have enjoyed our talks and how close we bacame!! Never gonna forget the "are u really a grandmother" question!! But I love u as well and this trio stuck together against the odds and we were a force!!! I will cherish our time together forever

Thank u to the hosts Jeff and Danni and Jaquin and Gary and the rest but those are the main ones! Oh and Ziggy can't forget Ziggy my secret showmance!!! Thank u for this opportunity and allowing me to play! Thank u for believing in me when I doubted myself!

Thank u to all of my fallen comrades
Victoria(who), Julie (not sure what happened), Jaq the one who was gunning for me and then got herself voted out, I hope there's no hard feelings! Wardog miss u sorry I had to vote u off!! Ace never got to meet u wish I had, Crystal sorry u got booted at swap was hoping u and Susie would team up, Marcus, I didn't want u gone but everyone was after u! Aurora we had our moments but I'm sorry u had to be first juror, Susie ur boot was a complete blindside and I was shook and I was sooo sad! I have missed u Soo much. Devens well u were cool sorry u had to go. Matty, I loved u so much and I'm still not sure who made all those alliance chats but I'd like to know! I really did love playing with u and I know u were playing both sides! But u held a very soft spot in my ! Reem oh my dear reem I was pissed at myself for missing the post about the 5 minutes cause I was gonna play that idol on u!! I am still royally mad at myself!! U were my closest ally and I didn't want u gone!! Eric well I was determined u had to go knowing u and Chris were a duo and a threat! Sorry!! Lauren well u were gunning for me but funny u said u were over it when u made ur bed and Michelle and charlie and I were over u!! U played a great game but u had to go. Randy I wanted to go to the end with u but I just couldn't u said I was ur f2 and not sure if u meant it but if u did ty!! Chris oh dear Chris u lost everyone and I am truly sorry but I could not let someone with guarenteed jury votes get to the end! I do love u though. And Last but not least, my hubby Ron!! I was sure u were voting Michelle but as her and charlie and I had been a trio for so long I had to go with that! And good thing I did! I love u even though some may not! U played amazing!!

Ok now let's talk about my game!!!
So Atlasova was all the ladies and we sadly lost the first challenge and since Victoria was not around at all and us evidenced by 0 posts she was the first boot. I started forming some good bonds with Julie and Susie and reem and Michelle!! Well we lost the 2nd challenge and Julie fell off the planet and so we voted her off. Then we lost our 3rd challenge!! Well I was told Aurora was throwing my name out before that ever happened but then I was informed by Susie and reem that jac was pushing for me. I told reem.i wanted jaq or crystal gone and after this we agreed jaq needed to go!! I didn't have to push to hard. But jaq was playing all sides!! So it was clear she was a threat and had to go!!

Drop your buffs
So we swapped and due to rankings Michelle had to seperate the tribes. I wound up with her and Lauren and reem so we had a solid 4 -4 and we had Matty on the outside getting info and we learned the bottom on the other side and so we were not trying to let a girl go that fast after 3 straight losses. So reem and Lauren and I and Michelle agreed throwing the challenge was good to protect the ladies and then we vite out a threat and get Matty! So wardog was the biggest threat and the guys were turning on each other left and right so us ladies were like ok this is good! Sadly wardog was voted off!! At this point everyone thought I was a goat! But really I was sitting back trying not to be perceived as a threat! Anyways the next 2 challenges were lost by new atlasova so we didn't do much!!

Merge baby!
So matua was born!! I reunited with Susie and that was amazing!! So Susie was kinda running the show on new atlasova it seems and aurora was after her at merge and that was not on the Gilly agenda so where a guy was gonna go we decided aurora was going!! Susie was voted next which was a complete blindside to me! And I was out for blood!! So the next vote was devens I just went with it! But I started to hatch my plans!! I knew Eric and Chris were a tight duo and they had to be broken up and Eric won immunity and was a pretty big threat to win more. So he was taget 1 for me. Matty leaving was another hiccup as I was after Eric again! I told everyone Eric was my target. And I meant it, so when all the drama ensued that day and Matty became the target I about flipped. Cause here was another vote I was getting ramrodded. I tried to get him on the reem vote and had I not missed the damn post and played my idol(more on that later) she would of been safe. So reem I am taking full responsibility here and I love u Soo much!! U told me stick with Michelle and her and I stuck together like glue!! Well after Reem was voted out I said enough, I am not a goat and I will not let people walk all over me! So I was steadfast in the Eric vote! Lauren said she would vote with us but since they were close couldn't really believe it! I tried 4 times to get Eric and finally succeeded. I was like ok everyone get off Eric's dick please cause he gotta go!! I finally won!! Then Lauren was the next target. We were friendly but I knew I couldn't trust her so I told charlie and Michelle and Ron I wanted her gone next!! She didn't win immunity and with Eric living so many times I was scared this was not gonna happen, but it did!! Randy helped us with that vote! So granny gilly was making it known she was not a goat!! Well then it was either Chris randy or Ron and charlie and I were on Randy and Michelle was on Chris so we got it on Randy and he was gone. Oh and I played my idol as it was the last time!! I found that idol hidden in a post! I went to quote and hit the more Smiley's to use Jeff's emojis and there it was I found it at F10 or F9 and told reem immediately!! But the only one who knew I had it was her!! So that's why I was so mad I missed the post to play it on her!! Well after she left I told charlie!! Michelle I didn't tell till later! Sorry love!! Oh and if her or I won immunity at f6 since we both had an idol we agreed we would give it to charlie! But he won immunity so we 3 were all safe!! So back to the game! After randy Michelle and chair and I knew we had numbers we just had to make sure the other 2 didn't win immunity. Charlie won again!! So we had this on lock we voted Chris out as he had some votes already locked for jury!! And that is never good!! So sadly Chris was gone and we had 1 more person left. Again the trifecta and charlie wins immunity! We were all voting Ron!! And though I lied to Ron which I feel horrible about it seems he lied to me as well! So it was written that Gillian,Michelle and Charlie were F3 and Charlie's angels lives!!!

So I may not have had a very flashy game but I made moves and I was loyal to those who were loyal to me!! I thank u all for ur time!!

[Charlie]

Hi, my name is Charlie, I deserve to win Stranded, and here’s why

I’ve been playing this game hard from Day 1. I came in on the beach talking seventeen miles a minute. I love to talk. I make friends everywhere I go and my genuine desire to get to know people has always been a huge strength of mine. I also love to think. I love running through scenarios, solving complex problems, garnering information, and anything else that puts my mind to work. Stranded is both a social challenge and mental challenge and I thrived in this arena.

When I started the game, I elevated the parts of my personality that make me comfortable, lovable and safe. I was a little bit sweeter, a little bit sillier, more anxious and in need of comfort. My most important goal in this game was to make sure that I was someone everyone felt they could trust and believe the information that I was giving them. Everyone needed a different side of Charlie but they got the side that made them feel the most secure. That way when I was spreading rumors and telling lies people would believe me. On Day 1 I wrote:

I mean I'm being myself as much as I can. I am also lying quite a bit. Spreading lots of misinformation about my impressions of others. Could bite me in the ass, could be the beginning of a great social game. I think I've got my hand in just about everyone's cookie jar right now

On that day and until the tribe swap I went to each person and just speculated. Floating fake alliances. Telling people what other people said. Giving false impressions of people as threatening or shady. Passing off my own devious plans and judgements as coming from other people in the tribe, namely Ron. Talking about how big of a threat the people I was working closely with were to build potential meat shields. Within a short time on the tribe I was either in a formal alliance with or presumed to be working with everybody and my way of managing my threat level while playing all sides was to keep everyone’s eyes moving towards everyone else instead of onto me.

The first chance I had to vote we blindsided Wardog. He and Chris were two of the final 2s I made on day 1 but also who I identified as my biggest threats day 1. On 2raku my only authentic alliance was formed. Reem and I compared notes and devious ideas like lightning in our chats and Michelle and I had such a strong personal and game connection. I knew they were the perfect alliance to get me to the end because I would always seem like the odd man out and Reem was the most beautiful meat shield I could ask for. Meanwhile my f2s with Ron Marcus and Matty were still being nurtured and loved in case of emergency. It was not an easy feat and there were some dicey moments. Like telling Ron that Wardog was trying to flip the vote on him which was not true. Like staying composed and talking my way out of Matty confronting me about making a (very real) plan to vote him out. The leaks started leaking right before merge and when merge hit I struggled to find power.**

For a lot of the game I was very heavily playing up my emotionality to decrease my threat level and match the energy of others but I was actually very stressed right before and at the merge. Marcus was an extra vote for me that I lost because of the merge twist. I did not have influence over the Aurora vote, it wasn’t a bad vote for me but I was totally out of the control seat. I was also told that my name was being brought up for playing all sides and it was the first time that I was unsuccessfully managing my target. And it all culminated in the only time in the game I was blindsided by a vote. It felt like the pipes had burst.

Turns out it was the turning point in the game that sent me down the path to final tribal council. After the Susie vote everyone who had left me out of the blindside came to me begging for forgiveness. The only person who got a little taste of how upset I really was Chris, because overall I played like it was no big deal and cemented my role as the potential swing vote with the others. I had created a rivalry with Eric out of very little because I needed people to believe I had enemies and was not playing all sides, but was discussing strategy and pretending to be aligned with everyone who had blindsided me other than Eric and Devens. Meanwhile I was still able to maintain my tight alliance with the milfs because I didn’t have to vote against them.

The vote after being blindsided was critical for me. At every stage in the game I examined my potential for the final tribal. And after the Susie vote my potential was crap. So many votes were being floated and I was of course adding to that chaos whenever possible but I had my eyes on one target. Devens. Continue eliminating the Ataslova with which I didn’t have deep alliances. Up my chances of winning immunity. Save Chris who I knew was never going to vote for me. It seemed like a great plan when Matty and I set off to make it happen. But I was still trying to pass off all of my schemes as coming from others and the vote started to flip. It was at this point my game shifted dramatically when I had to look Reem in the virtual eye and fully claim my decision for this first time in the game. I wanted Devens gone. My alliance trusted in my decision and I steered Devens right out the door finally putting Charlie on the board and putting me into a power position that would take me to the end of the game.

I lost my meat shields in the next two votes. I’d been plotting against Matty for quite a while so it wasn’t a terribly hard loss and I knew a Reem had to go home eventually to allow me to take over the power we shared. Possibly my only emotional and non-strategic decision in this game was not voting for Reem. I was clued in before her departure but I could not do it.

From then on I was in the power position for every vote of the game. Even those who weren’t voting with me wanted to work with me. I ensured that all of my immunity challenge threats went home. I was directly responsible for every vote after this point because everyone wanted to know what Charlie thought. My power only increased when I achieved a dominant physical game to round out my social and strategic strength. I won the last three immunity challenges because each of my prior votes was calculated, not because I was the best competitor in the game but because I made sure I was the best competitor left in the game.

Randy Eric and Lauren were threats who I didn’t have final 2 deals with and were easy to get rid of. I made sure to keep Ron and Chris safe the many times their names were brought up because I knew I had their loyalty even if they didn’t have mine. I sat in the decision-making position on every vote in the end game and managed to go the entire game without receiving a vote cast for me.

I played a very devious game and a very loving game at the same time. And I promise the personal connections were all authentic. I really am a joyful, ridiculous, and larger than life person. But I am also cunning and manipulative. And I don’t think I was all that shy about both my social and strategic abilities. I was frequently the only person to answer strategic questions posed for the group in Tribal and I talked loads of strategy with so many people. There were times where people took notice of my strategic side, but I always tried to make sure that my loving, safe, non-threatening side was more prominent.

On this season of Stranded, I played socially, strategically, and physically and came out on top in each realm.

I am nervous of course but so excited for your questions. There is still plenty of tea I have been dying to spill. I hope people can forgive the deception. I hope we can be friends after this. And I hope you will reward my gameplay with the winning title.

Thank you for listening.

Love,
Charlie

**Fun side note I was in Mexico at this time which I couldn’t tell people because I was afraid it would be an easy reason to send me home especially for missing challenges. Funner side note I was picked up by the policia in Mexico and had to pay a bribe and I’m the first player to get arrested during the season! Making my momma proud.