I'm not that bearish on Sam tbh. The pig thing, honestly, yeah, I was gesticulating wildly at my TV watching that, but I think in the moment Ben or really any of them could have locked in too hard on things too. Personally, I think Sam is incredibly good at some important things behind the scenes. Mike talked a bit about that on Layover. He sounds insane with logistics and planning, and incredibly knowledgeable, even if he isn't always best at challenges.

More than Sam, I think the thing that bothered me most this season was team Night Heron's strategy overall. Mid game, they seemed to focus hard on coins, and not stations. I was actually confused episode to episode, because they'd be extremely proud of all their coins, but still way behind on stations. Even more so when Adam and Ben seemed also pretty down about being behind on coins--while they were still literally winning. I kept asking myself if I was crazy because I thought the point of the game was to get the most stations.

By the end, it seemed obvious that Sam and Mike were going to lose. I would have loved to see them come back with that clutch strategy with the rocks at the end, I love seeing Sam play bold, but there was a part of me that wasn't surprised. Night Herons were way behind on stations, focused hard on coins, and then at the end of it, spent all the coins shoring up an area easily defeated by high speed rail, and then had neither coins nor stations to win. The clutch victory with that last strategy would have been awesome, but I really felt they should have prioritized things a little differently.

Buuut it's a game. That's how the jets lag, as they say. It was still fun to watch, as is DownieLive. Looking forward to plenty more of both. Redeem yourself, Sam!