Ryan Aiken / americanidolfan4life
9th Place

My strategy this game initially was to play as honest and upfront as I possibly could.  Unfortunately, once we merged and Ami left, I really couldn't afford to play nice anymore.  I did lead you on with the false pretenses of thinking an alliance with myself and Brad was a viable option, but I did that with the intent of trying to keep you the longest on your tribe because you were the one person on Tambaqui I trusted without any hesitation.  I knew you'd think I was after Shambo because all I did the entire game was complain about her because I thought she was targeting me on numerous occasions and I had to ensure that the votes were there to take Christy out.  Ultimately feel bad about betraying your trust and then to see you get evacuated right afterwards really sucked because I never got a chance to prove to you that I wanted you to stay longer in this game.  I do think that it would have been a difficult task, because I know Shambo and Brandon were threatened by how close you were to both myself and Brad, and I think Todd may have wanted to vote for you at the final 9 also, so I'm not really sure if it was really possible for you to get anything but ninth place unless I flipped on Jaburu.  It just sucks to see you go out the way you did and I was really looking forward to playing with you more.