Survivor 40.14 “It All Boils Down To This”

Well, that’s that.

Last night, the 40th season of Survivor came to an end.  Natalie won the right to reenter the game.  Denise and Ben were voted out in the next two tribal councils.  Natalie won the final immunity challenge and selected Michele to come with her.  Sarah and Tony made fire and Tony’s fire burned through the string first.  Tony made it to the final three and he won the title of sole survivor.

There were 16 jurors, basically the entire cast with the exception of the final three and Sandra.  Tony received 12 votes.  Jeremy, Tyson, Parvati, and Ethan all voted for Natalie.  No one voted for Michele, which I think was unfair.  Michele played a good game but I don’t think the jury ever saw that and she didn’t make her case loudly enough during the final tribal council.

In the end, though, Tony deserved the win.  Of the final three players, he played the best game.  Really, from the merge onward, Tony pretty much controlled the game.  There were some angry people on the jury but most of them were able to set aside their hurt feelings and base their vote on gameplay instead of emotions.  I think that’s the advantage of having a jury made up of returning players instead of newbies.

It’s going to be a while until we have a new season of Survivor.  Because of the COVID-19 lockdown, the show’s production has been temporarily suspended but, last night, Jeff Probst promised us that Survivor would return and I’m looking forward to it.  Winners at War was a good season and it was one that reminded us of why we love Survivor.  Don’t get me wrong.  I hated the Edge of Extinction twist and I would have thrown a fit if Natalie had managed to win the game.  And I still think they need to do a season without idols.  But, with all that in mind, Survivor 40 was still a blast, featuring all of the twists and blindsides that you could hope for from a season of Survivor.

Well, that concludes this round of Survivor coverage.  Thanks for reading and commenting!  Next week, our coverage begins of The Amazing Race.

As for Big Brother, I don’t know when it’s coming back.  Whenever I hear something, I’ll post it.

Thanks for reading!

Lisa Marie

 

Survivor 40.13 “”The Penultimate Step of the War”

We had two hours of Survivor last night.  Usually, I love the big, 2-hour shows because something unexpected usually happens.  Last night, though, it was pretty much two hours of the expected.  “Expect the unexpected?” as Julie Moonves might say, “Not last night.”

We had two tribal councils and there really was never any suspense as to who would be voted out.  Tony and Sarah are united and they’re both running the show right now.  They were more comfortable working with Ben than with Jeremy or Nick and, as a result, both Jeremy and Nick were voted out last night.  That leaves poor Michele without an ally in the game.  Unfortunately, Michele also wasted her only advantage last night.  She flipped her 50/50 coin and was ruled safe but it turned out that she really didn’t need to do it.

For those keeping track, Nick won the first immunity challenge and then Michele won the second. At the first tribal council, Denise and Sarah voted for Michele, Jeremy and Michele voted for Ben, and Nick made the fateful decision to team up with Ben and Tony and voted for Jeremy.  Jeremy was exiled with a 3-2 vote.   At the 2nd tribal council, Nick and Michele voted for Denise.  Everyone else voted for Nick and Nick was exiled on a 4-2 vote.

I was hoping that we would at least see someone return from Edge of Extinction last night but we didn’t.  That bothered me, to be honest.  The show ended on a cliffhanger and it didn’t feel right to me.  Of course, I have to admit that I don’t really like the whole idea of Edge of Extinction.  I don’t mind someone reentering the game at the merge because the entire game changes when the tribes merge into one.  But letting someone reenter the game at the very last minute feels unfair to me.  We all remember what happened the last time with Edge of Extinction.  Some guy who wasn’t even in the game for the majority of the season won and the totally awesome Rick Devens was cheated out of the final three sport that he deserved.

The finale is next week and here’s who we have left:

Tony and Sarah.  It’s pointless to think of these two as being separate player.  They are Cops Are Us and they’ve pretty much got control of the game right now.  Tony is talkative and funny.  Sarah is boring.  I think Sarah probably has the better chance of winning because she’s allowed Tony to do all of her dirty work for her.

Ben.  Ben has a reputation for being a great player but he’s really not.  The last time he was on, the producers had to introduce the fire-making challenge just to get him into the final three.  He has a terrible social game and it’s hard to think of anything decisive that he’s done this season.

Denise.  Denise was a lot more likable when she was allied with Malcolm.  She’s gotten a bit self-righteous this season and I’m a little tired of listening to her brag about blindsiding Sandra.  (Sandra was one of the most overrated players in the history of the game and she came into Winners at War with a cocky attitude and not much else.  If Denise hadn’t taken her out, someone else would have.)

Michele.  I hope Michele wins just because she’s so underestimated and has never gotten the credit that she deserved for her previous win.  Unfortunately, Michele doesn’t have any allies left in the game but she will have a lot of allies on the jury so she’s going to be a natural target over the next few immunity challenges.  She’s going to have to win next week’s immunity challenges to make it to the final three and, despite her victory last night, challenges have never been what Michele is strongest at.

And then, we’ll have whoever comes back from Exile.  If the castaways are smart, they’ll vote out whoever returns as soon as they return.  Whoever returns from Exile has spent weeks bonding with the members of the jury.  There’s no way anyone should want to sit next to the player during the Final Three.

We’ll see what happens!  Overall, this has been a good season so I hope we have a good finale to go with it!

Lisa Marie