Survivor: Philippines Finale

Michael, Lisa, Denise, or Malcolm: One of them will win this season. I don't know who. Survivor Whispers says that the winner is not Michael. As to whether that rumor is true or not, we don't know for sure just yet. As much as I like Lisa, I'm not really sure that she has to win. I'm okay with her not winning. It doesn't matter in my mind as she probably has enough money left from doing the Facts of Life. But that could be an unfair assumption that isn't true. Malcolm would be a nice winner, although he isn't my favorite to win. I hope that he does well regardless. Michael is doing much better than he was the first time he played. Although, had things gone different, he might have been in this exact spot on the second season the first time he played. Some say that with him returning, it keeps the classic Survivor fans into the new seasons. Denise is the person that I want to win. She has gone to every tribal council this season. Not even Stephenie in Palau went to every tribal council. The vote at the final tribal could be a tie and whatever the producers have prearranged to do to resolve the tie would happen. They showed the votes to the camera when they were cast at the final tribal council so somebody must already know who won or if it was a tie. Also, if former Survivor contestants read this blog, I want you to know that I'm following a lot more of you on twitter. So if an account without a picture called @IamAdamDecker is following you, that would be the reason why. And I'm glad that someone posted a reply to this blog. I do not know where I found the location for 27 and 28 but I believe it was a google search possibly linking to www.survivorsucks.com. But I do not know for sure if they are using the Solomon Islands for those two seasons are not. Besides, locations could be changed. But enough of my ramblings. (PS Whoever you are, I'm glad that you read my blog).

There were a lot of delays on the east coast (although I'm from the Midwest, I technically get the east coast airing an hour earlier/at the same time as them) before this episode aired. So the delays were numerous due to sports, CBS airing a brief 60 Minutes, and a special broadcast of CBS news on the school shootings. Since this is not a political blog, I will not make any second amendment rants regarding how it talks about more than just guns and talks about virtually every weapon. But I'm for guns rights. In fact, if someone would want to get rid of our guns and keep our nuclear weapons, they are hypocrites. The atomic bomb is much more dangerous than a gun. But whether there were delays in airing Survivor or not in your region, at least the episode aired unedited in its entirety. And I honestly have no idea how the time zones work for those in the mountain region.

After the long recap of the whole season, the tribe got an interesting treemail. A reward challenge took place. The reward was an advantage in the final immunity challenge. I do not think that they have ever done a reward challenge this late into the season before. The only exception I can think of is Australia where they had 42 days of game instead of 39. But I'm glad that they keep the game fresh with interesting twists to the format like this. And I don't think that this has ever been a reward offered before. The reward challenge is interesting and apparently nobody ever tells Jeff that no one likes his endless commentaries. He knows that, but no contestant has ever said that to him during a challenge. Malcolm won the reward.

In the next segment of the show, the rest of the tribe was bummed out that Malcolm had won the reward as they want him to be voted out. The scrambling seemed to happen instantly back at the beach and nobody even won immunity yet. Everyone wants to know who to sit next to at the final three. And before going to the final immunity challenge, they went through the fallen comrades. I still don't know if they consider Dana a medical evacuation or a quit. The torch wasn't laid down on the walk so maybe she wasn't actually a quitter. I still wish that she could have lasted longer and I don't know if she could have played more or not. The contestants who were voted out had interesting things to say in the flashbacks/montage while the final four talked about them. I really wish that we had gotten more out of these voted out contestants on the air as we didn't get much of them on air. I still don't know if I would get any airtime or not if I played the game.

Anyways, the final immunity challenge of the game happened. The challenge was strange and not the regular type of endurance challenge that they typically do. Malcolm's reward is a second chance in this challenge. The challenge probably looks easier than it is. Wood is added to each part of the challenge which makes keeping a ball on it more difficult. Malcolm needed the second chance so it's a good thing that he got it. They might vote him out if he loses. He ended up being the first one out of the challenge even though he had the advantage. Denise was the second person out of the challenge so poor Matsing really is the losing tribe. Just ask Russell Swan. He was on the dominate tribe the first time and this time his tribe sucked. But as for the final immunity challenge, it came to Lisa and Michael, the original members of Tandang. Michael is the winner of the final immunity challenge.

In the next segment of the show, Michael tried to figure out who would be voted out and who would go to the final tribal council. Poor Malcolm's idol isn't good anymore and there is no way he can use it next season. He could have it as a personal item, but he couldn't play it as it would not be a new idol. I do not know who will get voted out. It's interesting how the alliance of Matsing fell apart when both of them voted for each other. Poor Malcolm was voted out. I wish him the best of luck in the next season since he didn't win this one. I see why he would return for the next season as he was the last voted out this one. Alas, people considered him too popular and thus made sure he was voted out now and wouldn't win the game. In fact, they wanted to get rid of him for quite some time so they won't end up like some other seasons where the players waited too long to vote someone out and that person ended up winning. That happened in seasons 21, 9, 4, 5, 8, 22, and probably others as well. Meanwhile, the final three were wondering what would happen next.

The final tribal council happened and Lisa, Michael, or Denise will win the game. The jury remarks happened. Artis gave badass black guy comments. Carter questioned Michael about getting rid of him. Pete questioned Denise about her motives in the game. RC congratulated Denise on her game and questioned Michael with how he was voted out. Malcolm was mad at Denise and said that he might vote for Lisa, although I wouldn't be surprised if Lisa got no votes. Jeff wanted to know more about Michael's role in the game. He also thought that Lisa was floating by in the game and not doing much for herself in terms of the game. Abby said that she didn't know who she'd vote for so she asked the final three why she would vote for them. She was the first person to ask every person a comment. Jonathan made a speech. He talked to each person about themselves and revealed Lisa's secret as a teen star. Lisa mentioned that it didn't actually matter. I just realized that it's possible that the final three may have avoided getting votes in the actual game. I know Denise has at least one vote, but I do not think that anyone has ever voted for Michael or Lisa. That could be a first, in a way. For those who remember the second season, nobody voted for Michael that season either throughout the entire game and he left with no votes.

So, the final tribal council would come to an end. Something that I've noticed them do all the time is reveal who got a vote and have an equal number of votes revealed for each of the possible people. Everyone in the final three got a vote which hasn't happened since China. There is a jury of eight and one of the three of them will win. Denise won. I think she got every vote not otherwise mentioned. I'm sure that Stephanie would be proud. And I guess Michael might have only thought he won because he made it to the final tribal council. But Survivor Whispers is correct. And I hope that none of you on the west coast were spoiled to the winner before it aired in your region. Lisa wasn't bummed out about losing, which is good. Michael thought that he might have won, but didn't. Lisa was talking crazy about the whole Christian aspect of the game. I could do a religious blog if I wanted to, but I'm not sure that I ever will. I don't know why some people are so hell bent on the idea that there is no God, but I'm not one of those morons. If you read this blog and you aren't a Christian, then I'm sorry of my opinion offends you. And with that I'm not talking about religion anymore. Not really sure what else there is to say as the reunion show is very boring. Lisa was the player of the season. Poor Jeff got kissed again. Season 26 is reusing the fans versus favorites twist again. It is called Survivor: Caramoan and will feature five men and five women from previous seasons with five new men and women. And for those of you who know that Jeff Probst is a pastor, it is with the Universal Life Church and isn't a biblical church. I have no idea what type of church it might be, but if anyone knows, feel free to tell me. From what I understand, next season will have Erik, who was originally new on the first fans versus favorites. It would only seem appropriate for him to return to the next one. Also, if anyone knows who voted for whom at the final tribal council and if Denise did, in fact, get all the other votes that weren't shown, I would very much appreciate it. Besides, it probably doesn't matter anyways. You'd think that they would have shown more votes for other people if they actually got more votes. So maybe they didn't. I guess this means that there is no second runner-up, which hasn't happened since Fiji.

The three stupidest moves this season: #1- Abby for the way she played the game, #2- Jonathan rejecting a deal to be in the finals, #3- Zane for being too strange. Stay tuned for my thoughts on next season, although they might not come until the next season's premiere. I hope that you enjoyed this blog so far and I hope that you will enjoy it in seasons to come. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.