Survivor 37.13 “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility”

In the end, the right guy won.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  Would I have preferred to see Christian or Davie take the million dollars?  I would have.  If they had made it to the final three, I totally would have wanted either one of them to win and I imagine that they probably would have.

But, as so often happens on Survivor, they didn’t make it to the final three precisely because their tribemates realized they were unbeatable.  Nick wouldn’t have made it to the final three if he hadn’t won the final two immunity contests.  Fortunately, Nick did make it and he I don’t think his victory was ever in doubt.

At the final tribal council, the jury was respectful.  I was expecting a bit more bitterness but, instead, the majority of the questions were intelligent and Nick and Mike both offered some compelling arguments about why they felt they deserved the title of sole survivor.  Less impressive was Angelina, who was selected for the final three solely because everyone knew that they could beat her.  Angelina talked about the rice, again.  (I was proud of Davie for calling her out.)  She talked about how she nearly killed herself getting the immunity idol that she would later use in an effort to humiliate Alison. That “hundred foot ladder” was actually an eight foot ladder and she didn’t find the immunity idol as much as Mike and Nick just let her have it.)  Angelina ended up with zero votes.  Mike got three votes, from Alison, Kara, and Christian.  (Alison and Kara had been allied with Mike from the start while I think that Christian …. well, I’m not sure why Christian voted the way that he did.)  The rest of the votes went to Nick.

All in all, it was a good ending.  Considering that the season’s theme was David vs. Goliath it seems appropriate that the last David standing won!

With Survivor coming to an end, that means we’re going to have a month without any reality tv shows to cover.  Celebrity Big Brother starts on January 21st and will run through February 13th and I’ll be covering it over on the Big Brother Blog.  Then, the 38th season of Survivor will start on February 20th, and I’ll be covering it on this site.  Finally, the latest season of the Amazing Race will finally premiere on May 22nd and, again, I’ll be covering it on this site.

Thank you so much for reading and commenting this season!  I was pretty skeptical when the season began but it turned out to be a memorable one and, most importantly, it featured a good winner.

Have a great holiday season and I’ll see all of you next year!

Lisa Marie

The winner of Big Brother 37, Nick!

Survivor 37.12 “Are You Feeling Lucky?”

Hi, everyone!

I’m back from my vacation!  Thank you, Erin, for the great work you did filling in for me while I was gone!

Last night, I returned just in time to …. see Christian voted out.

Boooooo!

Oh well.  I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised.  It seems like almost every season features one castaway who comes out of nowhere, captures everyone’s heart, and then ends up getting voted out right before the finale.  It sucks but it makes sense.  Nobody wants to go to the end with someone who would be unbeatable.

Last night’s episode was kind of a strange one.  After a massive build-up, the plots to take out either Nick or Davie didn’t really go anywhere.  Nick confessed to Davie that he had made a fake immunity idol and, as soon as he did that, Davie abandoned his plan to vote out Nick.  Mike tried to get Nick to vote out Davie by acting like a little snitch and telling Nick that Davie had been throwing his name around.  But, ultimately, Nick didn’t take the bait.  Instead, Nick joined with Kara and Angelina to vote out Christian.

Davie wouldn’t have been voted out even if Nick had come after him.  Davie had a one-time only immunity idol so he was safe at tribal council.  Nick allowed his paranoia to get the better of him and he also played his immunity idol.  So, now, all of the immunity idols have been played and Christian has been voted out.  Next week’s finale should be …. well, I won’t say wild.  But it might be interesting.

Here’s your final six players, in alphabetical order:

Alison — For some reason, Alison is viewed as being some sort of a threat.  I guess she is, in that she hasn’t really gotten anyone mad at her.  She’s pretty much just kept her head down and kept out of everyone’s way.  I guess she has a chance of winning if she makes it to the final three but an Alison victory would be a boring conclusion to an otherwise interesting season.

Angelina — Angelina has somehow survived to reach the final six, despite not really doing much.  Her strategy, so far, has been to beg people to let her win stuff.  If she makes it to the final three, expect to hear her talk about how she got rice for the camp.

Davie — If Davie wins, it would be a great story.  By his own admission, he doesn’t have much outdoor experience and yet, he’s thrived in this game.  Davie’s going to have to win some immunity challenges to make it to the end, though.  I get the feeling he’s going to be everyone’s target.

Kara — Who?  I always forget that Kara’s out there.

Mike — Considering how much I loved Mike on The Amazing Race, it’s amazing how little I think of him on Survivor.  Of course, on the Amazing Race, he was working with his father.  On Survivor, he’s on his own and his game can best be described as passive-aggressive.

Nick — Nick is not always the most likable person on the beach but I do think he deserves to make it to the final three.  At the start of this season, it was easy to make fun of Nick’s obsession with forming alliances and giving them cutesy names but those alliances have pretty much shaped the entire game.

So, I guess my ideal final three would be Davie, Nick, and …. I guess, Alison.  And, out of those three, I’d want Davie to win but I’d still be happy if Nick won.

If the final three turns out to be Angelina, Kara, and Mike, I will throw something at the TV.

We’ll see what happens!

Lisa Marie

 

Survivor 37.11 “So Smart, They’re Dumb”

Last night’s episode of Survivor got off to a heart-warming start  when Jeff announced that it was time for the loved ones challenge.  I always like getting to see everyone’s family and friends on Survivor.  Sometimes, it allows us to see a new side of a player.

Angelina and Nick won the challenge and then selected Davie and Nick and their loved ones to share in the reward.  That meant that Alison, Kara, Gabby, and Christian had to say goodbye to their loved ones and return to camp.  Everyone, though, was really happy to get those few minutes with their loved ones.

Everyone except for Gabby, who was annoyed when she saw Christian with his girlfriend and heard him talking about how much he loved her.  Gabby said that this somehow showed her that it was time for her to turn on Christian and get him voted out at the next tribal council.  Gabby said that blindsiding Christian would look good on her “resume.”

(Raise your hand if you think Gabby was just upset about Christian having a girlfriend.)

After Christian lost the immunity challenge to Kara, Gabby thought that she had everyone on her side but she made the mistake of telling Davie.  Davie went to Christian and told him what Gabby was planning on doing.  Before Tribal Council, Christian tried to repair his relationship with both Nick and Gabby and tried to get them on board with voting out Alison.

At tribal, though, Christian decided to play it safe by playing his idol.  The five votes cast for Christian did not count.  However, because Angelina and Mike decided to cast their votes for Gabby (just in case Christian had the idol), Gabby was voted out and sent to the jury.  As she left, she yelled that she loved Christian and Christian shrugged.

There’s only two more episodes to go.  From the start of this season, Davie’s been my favorite and I hope he makes it to the end!

Lisa will be back next week so I’ll see everyone in the comments. 🙂

Erin