I think you may be wrong on the going home part. Members of the jury don’t go home, of course. But it would make little sense to keep the early losers around for a month twiddling their thumbs.
Everybody knows when they take off to play the game.
Everybody will know anybody who shows up back home in under 30 days got bounced.
They sequester everyone so the spoiler sites don’t know who is in or out based on the players movements. As standard procedure. Now, I’m sure they made an exception for Jenna Morasca when her mom had cancer and she quit to go see her.
But with Fairplay, he obviously knew his girlfriend was pregnant. That’s why I think it was a setup.