Richard's Opening/Closing Statements

[Host Sandros]

This is your final tribal council thread Richard.

[Richard]

To start, guys, I wanna say that this has been a great, great game. I've had a lot of fun getting to know all of you, and I've had so much fun playing the game of Survivor with all of you. Very rarely do I meet people who share my love of reality shows as much as all of you people.

I'll try to keep my answers short and sincere. I know people tend to blather on quite endlessly when it comes to these things about stuff the jury really doesn't give a damn about. Basically, what I want to say to you all is that, obviously, I hope you'll vote for me because you think I played the game the best, but no matter what the outcome, I hope we can all walk away friends. Honestly. I mean it.

You guys have seen me play this game, so I'm not gonna patronize you by telling you how I did it. I lied, made alliances, and most importantly...played Survivor. I rolled with the punches, and I hope I didn't hurt anyone while doing it. If I did, I'm truly sorry, and I implore you to ask me about it. I'm willing to be totally honest with you guys here, so please don't hold back.

Thanks, and good luck to Chelsea and Skylar.

[Richard]

Throughout this final process, I've been honest with each of you...which may not have been the case throughout the game, but I know you jury members are basing your decision on honesty now and I know you deserve honest answers. I know I've given that to you. In his final words, Skylar basically crusaded against me, just as he did at several points throughout the game. It's true that I had the hidden idol, and it's true that he called me out before anyone, but I know admit that I lied to protect myself. It was, unfortunately, a necessary evil. I apologize to any of you who found that an improper decision on my part, but I guarantee you would have made the same decision in my situation. It was a tough choice...just as a lot of my choices in this game were...but I felt that I had to do it.

I didn't want my final words to be a rebuttal against Skylar, but I refuse to let myself be walked all over. Skylar implored you guys to vote for Chelsea, simply because he thinks he'll win if Chelsea gets some of the votes I would normally. Skylar won a lot of challenges, but besides that he was pushy and offensive. Round after round, if he hadn't won (or been awarded immunity), he would have been voted out.

On the other hand, I find Chelsea to be a worthy ally...well, now adversary that we're both seated here on the jury. Chelsea played a strong game--we both played separately and together at different points. I appreciated her alliance, and I appreciate her friendship even more.

Finally, though, I want to extend my hand to everyone on the jury. Skylar may not care about Tom and Deighton's votes, but, honestly guys, I do care about all your votes. I want you to cast your vote for me to win. I think I played this game not with brute force but with brains. I carefully considered everything I did. I made all of my decisions for a reason, even if I now regret some. I never acted rashly or rudely to any of you, and I hope you can recognize that. You may still have harsh feelings towards me, and I understand that. After the votes are in, after this game is over, after we don't have to worry about anything, I urge you to IM me just to say hi...and I'll definitely do the same to all of you. Even if I didn't get to know you within the context of the game, we still played together and I'd love to get to know you better. Thanks for reading all these lengthy answers and best of luck making this tough decision of who you're gonna vote for.