all Callista has ever done was supposed to be in service of the goal to give Kane a fighting chance at surviving.
Not quite. She's clearly working on a KG-DS peace resolution, which is both unnecessary, and holds no bearing, to keep Kane alive. Rather an alive Kane, according to Veronica and Callista, might be necessary to make the peace resolution. There's also whatever scientific discovery that V-C mention in their first meeting that Callista was helping with (which sounds like Veronica already solved in the second meeting?) It seems to be related to Veronica's "star" hologram anti-gravity system that the pair are in, and thus definitely not contributory to Kane's longevity in any way. Now the planet-saving/Second Collapse prep can be associated to the goal of keeping Kane alive as a by-product of keeping thousands alive.
1. Just because the board "met" to welcome Olivia doesn't mean they had an actual board meeting that day...From how Cassandra described it, it was an irregular, informal "meeting" to greet Olivia and nothing more.
Day 2 Veronica and Elena discuss a recent revelation (we now know this was Olivia's mother).
Day 3 Grymm also knows of Elena-Olivia, thus who could have been Alessandra's swing vote is now "Only Olivia".
In the very next scene, Elena asks for pics/vids [of Olivia] but she doesn't confess of whom specifically, meaning that she's not supposed to know yet and is hiding that she does. Dominique detects Elena wanting one of the siblings specifically, and tries to pry it out of Elena, so either she truly doesn't know, or she does know but like Elena she can't reveal that she knows. Since neither come out and say the name, the Elena-Olivia has not been officially announced, so anyone who already knows has broken the rules.
Day 4 Board meeting. You think this pack of perpetual liars are going to tell anything of value to one as lowly ranked (from them) as Cassandra? Yes Olivia's part in the meeting is just to say "hi" (just like Zuko's part in his first War Council was to sit and listen), but Cassandra briefs Olivia before Alessandra arrives, so there was definitely time for the Board to meet and quickly address pre-Olivia topics. One such topic clearly was A+E=O is publicly announced, not only with Yvette's warning to Elena hours later at the pier, but also with all the sisters saying how excited they are that Olivia "is finally here", but since they've also been instructed not to inform Olivia of her parentage until the Welcome Party, they don't reveal the reason behind such statements. It's also clear that Elena and Alessandra are now openly aware of the other's knowledge, because Elena tries to reach out to Olivia, but Alessandra intercepts, silently communicating to Elena to keep her hands to herself. If they were all briefed and given instructions about A+E=O, then Veronica certainly had the opportunity to explain to the Board WHAT is Alexander's goal, and thus the objective of the Second Gambit, but she doesn't.
Students are told what topics to study ahead of time, but not all ace the test...
That's only when all the students know the same information at the same time. Sticking with your analogy, here's what's going on: Teacher sets a final exam on the 31st, but on the 1st of the month he announces "the final exam will be some time this month." So the students (and parents) start scrambling to try to prep for a test that they don't know the material that will be covered, nor when the exam will occur. With no specifics, they start reviewing everything they have ever learned. The teacher then has a family emergency and leaves for the month. At around the 10th, the student teacher's aide, whose 4.0 GPA has exempted them from the exam, starts piecemealing POSSIBLE covered material to the class, so no one is positive how much of the exact exam she has, or what instructions she has been given from the teacher, all they know is she's "acting substitute" for the exam. About the 15th, one of the students is secretly given the list of chapters from the textbook that will actually be on the exam, and that the exam will be on "one of the last days of the month." While not the actual test questions, it's still more information than what any other student has. On the 20th, the aide meets with the PTA, which is just the aide's mother and one other parent: "Mrs. Smith", and shares both the exam questions and matching answers, instructs them not to share with the students, and tells them that they will need to help administer the exam. On the 30th, the aide finally gives a list of covered material to the class, and the exam is conducted on the 31st. Is Mrs. Smith being the only parent of a testing child having the full exam, or one student receiving exclusive but limited information before official common knowledge, sound like "fair play" to you?
