Sophie and Coach have a whispered strategy talk. Sophie lays out why she thinks Ozzy is the most dangerous player, with an interesting twist. She points out that Ozzy is the last person to talk to every single jury member. He gives them shelter and food, and then beats them by outplaying them and not backstabbing them. So Ozzy might get a lot of jury votes if he makes it to the finals. That's a really smart take, and one I haven't heard before. Sophie says that they have to send Brandon to Redemption Island and get rid of one of the two most dangerous players left in the game. Sophie interviews that she and Coach seem to be on the same page, and that Brandon is "superficially at least" the most trustworthy, loyal, and Godly man left in the game, so she doesn't want to go up against him in the finals. Sophie calls Rick over and explains the strategy, and Rick agrees to vote Brandon out. This is Rick's role in this tribe: "What do you want me to do? Done." Seriously. He just sits around and waits for someone to tell him how to vote.

Now Albert approaches Coach for some strategy talk. He claims that Sophie is a huge threat in the finals, because she's been saying some interesting things at Tribal Council and the jury might respect her. He begs Coach to vote out Sophie and keep Brandon for the finals. Coach interviews that Albert "just blows whatever way the wind goes" and it's unsettling. Well, some might call that being flexible, and I think in other seasons, that may have been a good strategy. But this season, with all the talk about loyalty and integrity, it doesn't seem to be working as well. Coach interviews that he's in a tight alliance with Sophie, and he thinks Albert is scared of Sophie's intelligence and the fact that she has agency. That might be ascribing a little more depth to Albert's feelings than exists; I think he just sees that the jury likes her and he's scared.

Anyway, Coach and Albert try to continue to discuss the merits of Brandon vs. Sophie for the finals and Brandon wanders up so they have to cut it short. Coach pretends like they were talking about how the jury works. Brandon doesn't have anything to add, so he just says seeing them talking together made him nervous. Coach gets overly defensive and tells Brandon not to act like Russell and to believe him when he says what they were talking about. I would empathize with Coach a lot more here if he weren't totally lying. He was just talking about voting out Brandon, Brandon busted him, and now he's all blustery and "How dare you?" No, how dare YOU, Coach.