Board Thread:Virtual Tribal Council/@comment-2002887-20171207181523/@comment-5002930-20171208120935

Degrassifan314 wrote: TribalChants wrote: Ivanornels wrote:

'''Lauren gave Mike possession of that half of the idol. In the Sarah advantage situation for Cirie, Sarah explicitly said it was just as a sign of trust. We didn't hear that specific language so I believe Mike did something that was allowed for the purposes of the game. Otherwise Probst would've edited it out like the Sash/Jane controversy. Either way, even as a Lauren fan, that idol thrown in the fire made good tv. Lauren shouldn't have given it to him in the first place.''' Well, I feel stupid now about the whole thing because I just rewatched it. I mistakenly thought Lauren was letting him hold onto the idol (similar to Sarah letting Cirie holding onto her Legacy Advantage) and then was wondering why wasn't Mike in trouble for burning it; I understand it all now and feel stupid. I now admit it was a dumb idea for Lauren giving it to him (but aside from that, I still like her and hope to see her again in a future returnees season). It may just be me, but these seems like it could take us into dangerous waters. Having to say special magic words in the heat of the moment could be a dangerous precedent in that what would prevent someone from giving an idol to someone else, then if they play it at tribal council, person A says they only gave it to person B to hold onto and they can't actually use it. I don't know if that made any sense, but if it did does anyone else think this or am I just overthinking this?

The difference between this and the Sarah-Cirie situation isn't physical possession, but that the rules clearly stated that the Vote Steal was non-transferable (which is a stupid rule, but that's another argument for another day). Thus, even though Cirie attempted to use it as it was in her physical possession, she couldn't because it was Sarah's from the moment she found it.

We do know, however, that Hidden Immunity Idols are transferable. The idol was Lauren's, but she gave half of it to Mike, making it his possession. As Lauren transferred ownership to Mike, he had every right to do what he wanted with it. The closest precedent we have for this would be Stephen and Taj in. Although Taj physically found the idol, she almost immediately passed possession of it to Stephen because "he has pockets" for safe-keeping. But as Stephen explained in a confessional, the idol was now his.