Well, another season of Survivor is in the books!
Survivor Heroes vs Healers vs Hustlers was one of the stranger seasons of Survivor. I hate to admit but, as a viewer, I never really got into this season. Some of the castaways, I liked but I don’t think I ever really had a favorite during this season. In fact, I think this may have been the least likable group of Survivors since the fifth season, Survivor: Thailand.
I’m happy Ben won. I didn’t think I would be because, during this season, there have been times that I really disliked Ben. On the one hand, Ben did have a compelling personal story. On the other hand, the guy could really be a jerk sometimes. But, tonight, I found myself rooting for Ben to win.
A lot of it has to do with the fact that the other members of the final five were so unlikable. For a self-described strategic genius, Chrissy did a lot of dumb things and I think a lot of her success in the game had more to do with the other players being weak than with her being strong. For me, the last straw was when Chrissy decided to try to fool Ben with a fake idol. Maybe if Chrissy had made some sort of effort to the find the real idol, it wouldn’t have bothered me. But instead, she and her alliance let Ben continually go off on his own. They made no effort to find the idol on their own. And then Chrissy not only tried to trick Ben with an obviously fake idol but she also acted very smug about it as well.
As for the other three members of the final five, I liked Ryan but he really didn’t do much during the game beyond take orders from Chrissy. I liked Dr. Mike but he was all over the place strategy-wise. Devon basically tried to coast to the end on his smile. It’s a nice smile but a smile isn’t much use when your life in the game depends on being able to make a fire.
So, by default, I wanted Ben to win and he did. And this very strange season of Survivor came to an end.
What did everyone think of the final twist? Personally, I liked it. Instead of allowing Chrissy to just bring the weakest players to the end, it instead forced everyone (but Ryan) to really fight for their right to make it to the final three. I’m not really sold on how they’re doing the jury now. I miss the days when everyone would ask one question and then shut up.
Well, that’s it for Survivor 35! This will probably be remembered as one of the less regarded seasons of Survivor. Survivor: Ghost Island might be fun. If nothing else, I like the horror theme!
As for me and my reality TV coverage, I’ll be back next year for The Amazing Race and Celebrity Big Brother! I hope to see y’all then! Thank you everyone for reading and happy holidays!
Lisa Marie
Ben, the winner of Survivor 35
realitytvchatblog 
Great recap Lisa Marie. I totally agree with your assessment of this season. I never really got behind anyone. I still can’t believe they sat around camp talking about Ben looking for idols (knowing he seems to find them) but never doing anything about it. Maybe they did but it wasn’t shown. I said at the start last night if Ben makes it to Final 3, he deserves to win.
I was disappointed in the reunion show. They should either do away with the reunion show since they don’t talk to anyone or go back to the days where they did talk to the cast. Seems like they only talked to the Final 5 and that’s it except for asking Lauren if she regretting giving up her idol which was only asked to set-up next season’s theme. I wanted to know if anyone realizes there was only 10 votes instead of 11. Maybe I’m wrong but last night the vote was 3-2-1 when Jeff said one vote left. I thought there were 8 jurors so there should have been two votes left.
See you for TAR. Wishing everyone a happy, healthy holiday season.
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Thank you, Lisa, for sharing your writing talents with us! I always enjoy reading your take on each episode. One question: does anyone have the results of the actual voting as to who voted for whom? I either missed it, or it wasn’t shown. Just curious. Have a wonderful holiday, everyone!
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We were happy Ben won. I think this is the first time my daughter’s favorite actually won, so she was excited. Have you seen the people complaining that they think it was rigged? Apparently, they all missed the fact that Jeff said there was a twist before the challenge started and claim they threw it in to save Ben when he lost.
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No doubt, it was lack luster game play to allow Ben, the prime target for torch flame out in the final weeks, free roaming privileges in the jungle while idles were somewhere to be found, but I do believe that production might as well have just dropped that final idle Ben “found” in his boot directly rather than putting on a all nighter spoof.
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Idols, not idles – what my mind often does.
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Merry Christmas, old friend.
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Excellent recapping all season, Lisa. Thank you.
I was happy Ben won. I liked him, and mostly respected his game play. Chrissy played a good enough game, I suppose, I just didn’t like her. Smug Chrissy is just too much Chrissy for me. Ryan was an early favorite whose game wore thin after a while.
One good thing – this was overall a fairly nice group to each other…. not, like, “nice” nice, but at least no weird d-bag bullying types. They seemed personally respectful to each other.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
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