[Jonathan LaPaglia]

Congrats! You have made the Merge!

1. How does it feel making it to the merge and the halfway point of the season?
2. What are your initial impressions of the merge and where you slot in?
3. Who would you like to get to know more that you haven't already?
4. Were you expecting to merge tonight and who would you ideally like to go first?

[Lee]

[Lee]

MY EYES

[Lee]

MADE THE MERGE! It’s actually so much more exciting than I thought it was going to be. Like, I’ve played plenty of games before and I tend to make it to this point often but there’s something about this that feels like such an accomplishment. When AuStranded is in its 20th season I’ll be able to say I was a part of the first season and I made it far! hopefully I’ll be able to say I won.

This merge is crazy, 13 people with a hell of a lot of dynamics to take into account. My strategy right now is just to lie low. I was a really big factor (as in, swing vote) in all three of the votes I’ve been to before - and it’s only a matter of time before people start to realize that I’m well connected. So I have to delay that as much as possible. Right now, I feel like I have good relationships with everyone and would be looped into whatever happens tonight, but I don’t want to be putting forward any plans.

It seems like there are two distinct groups that might end up clashing here: Peter, who is sort of associated with Jacqui & Shane, could be in danger tonight because he’s made a lot of enemies and had kind of been on the table as a target previously. I don’t have a problem with Peter but I don’t have a strong bond with him either, so if that’s where the numbers go I’ll go with it and just get to this weekend to figure things out from there. on the other side seems to be Brooke & Zach, with maybe Monika? That’s a strong group, Brooke is looked at as a huge strategic threat and Zach apparently had an idol and now has a vote nullifier? So they’re power players in this. That might not be a bad group to link up with right now because they’ll keep me safe and their advantages will be my advantages , but their target will not be my target.

then myself, Benji, Moana, Phoebe, AK, Rohan, and Fanella are all kind of in the middle or off to the side in some of their cases, and I think the smart move might just be to let the power players battle it out for dominance at the start, and swoop in to become the power player when it’s too late for anyone to do anything about it.