Survivor: Cagayan finale

One of my old blog posts between the hiatus between Blood versus Water and this season was an assessment of the cast of this season before it aired. I predicted whether a person would be a premerge boot, jury member, or finalist. I have decided to go back to the predictions of all of the contestants to see if I was right with any of them. I notice that my assessment page was read by a lot of people, according to what Google tells me. In my mind, ten or more people reading a blog post of mine is a lot. So I might as well do a quick run through of everything, since you can read the whole blog post on your own. Tasha: guess- jury, actual placement- jury, accuracy- right. J’Tia: guess- premerge boot, actual placement- premerge boot, accuracy- right. Garrett: guess- premerge boot, actual placement- premerge boot, accuracy- right. David: guess- premerge boot, actual placement- premerge boot, accuracy- right. Kass: guess- finalist, actual placement- currently unknown, accuracy- currently unknown. Spencer: guess- juror, actual placement- currently unknown, accuracy- currently unknown. (I wish that I had put him as a finalist, but he could easily be the last one voted out.) Morgan: guess- premerge boot, actual placement- juror, accuracy- wrong. L J: guess- finalist, actual placement- juror, accuracy- wrong. (I might have mistakenly thought that I had Jeremy as a finalist instead of him. Regardless, both of them are on the jury. This is what I had posted originally so I must have forgotten that I had L J as a finalist instead of Jeremy.) Jeremy: guess- juror, actual placement- juror, accuracy- right. Jefra: guess- juror, actual placement- juror, accuracy- right. Brice: guess- juror, actual placement- premerge boot, accuracy- wrong. Alexis: guess- premerge boot, actual placement- premerge boot, accuracy- right. Tony: guess- juror, actual placement- currently unknown, accuracy- currently unknown. Trish: guess- juror, actual placement- juror, accuracy- right. Sarah: guess- juror, actual placement- juror, accuracy- right. Cliff: guess- premerge boot, actual placement- premerge boot, accuracy- right. Woo: guess- finalist, actual placement- currently unknown, accuracy- currently unknown. Lindsey: guess- juror, actual placement- premerge boot (quitter), accuracy- wrong.

I had a dream or two relating to this season. If some of you remember the editing for the third season, then you’ll remember that during the premerge part of the game, whichever tribe they showed first in the episode was the tribe that won the immunity challenge. I don’t know if obvious edits like that exist in other seasons of Survivor. But in this dream of mine, a season that I was watching (supposedly earlier this season) showed a tribe at the beginning of the episode and I knew that since it was the tribe that would go to tribal council in the same episode. That particular editing rule doesn’t apply anymore since they always show the tribe that had went to the previous tribal council at the beginning of the new episode. But there are still other editing rules. My other dream that might have been part of the same dream was that someone was talking with me about this season. He hoped that someone from the beauty tribe would win. I told him that they had all been voted out of the game. Apparently this dream person wasn’t keeping up to date with the game.

So, promos have revealed more information about this episode. This episode will feature the return of the final two. Now, technically, the final three is still there, but someone will get voted out there so two face the jury instead of all three people facing the jury. Now, in the future, stay tuned for more blog posts from me about various Survivor things. Primarily, I’ll be posting information about the first season of Survivor on Sundays. If I’m not able to do that (I have at least one planned vacation for the summer) then you’ll see a random post of randomness on Wednesdays, when I normally post. So you’ll continue to see blog posts from me in the near future. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, Jeff Probst does an introduction live from Los Angeles for some odd reason. I wonder how long the recap will be. I think that I will tell you the candidates for the awards that I give this season. There might be new confessionals during the recap, but I’m not going to count them. The recap lasted 7 minutes and 14 seconds, according to my count. Tony thinks that he had to oust one of his allies and since he’s allies with everyone but Spencer, he thought correctly. But why get rid of Trish? Weren’t there other people he could have gotten rid of instead? Tony’s idols are now useless which means that he got to keep both of his like James from China, only he didn’t need them like James from China. Unless I missed something, once again, we have no full version of the opening theme this season. The theme is called Ancient Voices and sounds like it consists of only vowels. Maybe they just don’t want to spend time on new themes. I mean, if they can’t afford loved ones challenges anymore, then a theme song would slip through the cracks too. And there’s good news for Survivor fans. Gabon and Tocantins are now released on DVD. Maybe it won’t be so long before my sister has the DVD of Caramoan that she needs.

In the second segment of the show, Kass is complaining about Tony. A boat comes to the camp and suddenly loved ones appear at the final four which happened in a dream of mine. Only, this isn’t a loved ones challenge. They automatically get them at this point, it seems. Will this happen to affect the immunity challenge? Using them for a reward challenge can be bad enough at affecting the game in a way it shouldn’t. Although, it doesn’t always do that. I just remember Chris lying to his loved one about getting voted out that night after she visited, when he made it all the way to the end. That should teach contestants not to tell people about what has happened in the game, although telling false spoilers are perfectly fine with me. Woo is surprised about the challenge being for immunity. He might propose in the end. We get a little insight into what goes on at the reunion show. I’m not sure what’s with the difference in the finale format, but they might be trying to forever avoid the disaster of the Caramoan reunion show happening again. I don’t hate it at the moment, but it does seem kind of random. We’ll see if this format, which has actually appeared a long time ago, will be often used.

In the third segment of the show, the contestants and their loved ones arrive at the challenge. The loved ones are only watching the immunity challenge happening, it appears. This challenge might be misnamed Perch, when it isn’t the Perch that we know from other seasons. This version has only appeared in Panama before. I forget if it had the puzzle element at the end. Kass is failing at the challenge. If she’s like Shane was in Panama, then she’s getting voted out tonight. Maybe she has a strategy, but it sure doesn’t seem like that. Tony seems to be doing well in the challenge. Spencer starts coming in second. Woo then comes in third at the perch part of the challenge. This means that all the men are at the final phase of the challenge, the puzzle part. Now Kass is totally failing at the challenge. I can’t tell if she’s normally this bad or not, but she probably is. Now that everyone is at the puzzle part of the challenge, it is hard to tell who will win. I think that they have different puzzles. Somehow, Kass wins the immunity challenge. Now, does this mean trouble for Spencer or Tony? The loved ones now leave the game as we wait to see what happens with the final four.

In the fourth segment of the show, Kass is pretty sure that Spencer will be voted out next. But is that’s what’s going to happen? I think that some people think that’s it a final three, but Spencer is quick to learn otherwise. He’s right too. Spencer knows that it’s a final two. He might also be trying to work people and not actually believe that a final two is happening. Woo is confused about what happens at a final four tie. I don’t know what will happen, but I believe that a tie is likely, given the possible edit of Spencer being a “surprise” winner that they’ve been showing us. Kass is glad that she pulled a come from behind win. I don’t think that I’ve seen something like that before, although I might have. Spencer seems to be playing to the jury and giving everyone a show. He might be hoping that Kass would turn on Tony if she wins the next immunity challenge. Kass reveals that she thinks that she couldn’t win against Tony. I’m starting to wonder if Tony will be voted out instead of Woo. I just know that if a tie happens, a commercial break will probably happen before the tie-breaker challenge. Tony makes a speech about how his idol is useless now. The votes are read and Spencer gets voted out. Sad day indeed. L So it looks like Tony really will win the game, unless it’s a Kass/Woo final two. Honestly, with Spencer out of the game now, I would want Tony to win before anyone else did. I might get distracted texting my uncle during the finale.

In the fifth segment of the show, the tribe gets back from tribal council and reacts to the fact that a final two is happening. Kass believes that she might be a goat to take to the end. People talk about how stupid it would be to take Tony to the end. Will he win the final immunity challenge? We’ll see. The final challenge is an awesome maze. I would love to play Survivor just for the hopes of doing a great challenge like that. But I have never done any applications to be on Survivor. Now many fans would know that I don’t have to do that to get on Survivor. I could get recruited. But, probably not. Kass is green in the challenge. Woo is purple. Tony is orange. The dream team had green winning the challenge. If you remember what I’ve said before in the past, they typically show the loser of the challenge as a fake winner. Now green could win the challenge, but we have yet to see if the edit is fake, as it normally is. Could Kass win again? Will Tony get his most important win last? Will Woo win the challenge? Woo narrowly wins the challenge and Kass loses in the same way Vytas was eliminated from the game last season. But, will Kass survive the tribal council vote? Will Tony remain in the game? I don’t think that Tony will lose, but if he’s voted out, then he obviously won’t win. Does Woo have a chance at winning? Maybe I should have kept rooting for Kass from the start since it looks like she might pull a come from behind win. It’s not the same as Spencer winning, but can Tony really survive the vote? I guess it all depends on how dumb Woo is. He might not realize that he’s voting for the person he wants out of the game and instead votes for the person he wants to take to the end, thus eliminating the wrong player. It would be like how a jury vote was messed up in Canadian Big Brother.

In the sixth segment of the show, Tony tries to convince Woo to keep him in the game. Will it work? Will Kass be a finalist or will Tony squeak his way to the end? Kass also convinces Woo to try to keep her in the game. She compares him to Fabio from Nicaragua who ended up winning after winning the final immunity challenge. Can Woo actually win in any setting? It could wind up like when Danielle won the final immunity challenge in Panama and was guaranteeing a win to whoever she brought with her. The final vote may all come down to loyalty. What will Woo do? He decided to vote out Kass. Well, I guess that Tony is probably going to win the game. I will have to do a quick summary of my predictions again for this season.

Kass: guess- finalist, actual placement- juror, accuracy- wrong. Spencer: guess- juror, actual placement- juror, accuracy- right. Tony: guess- juror, actual placement- finalist, accuracy- wrong. Woo: guess- finalist, actual placement- finalist, accuracy- right.

In the seventh segment of the show, Woo’s big power move is taking the obvious winner to the end with him instead of the not so obvious winner who would probably still beat him. Meanwhile, I have to update my list of Survivor: Second Chances contestants. Kass is totally worth of the list and should probably replace someone else on the list. Typically, they haven’t done final twos (in my opinion, at least) because the third place person is screwed in some way. (Look at the last three seasons before Cook Islands, if you don’t believe me. Plus, people keep bitching about how Cirie would have won Micronesia when they aren’t even sure that there would have been a final two that season in the first place.) I think that Kass can replace Kourtney on the list of players that I have there. So, the final two arrives at tribal council and the confessionals are set in stone. I will also do a rundown of how things work for the contestants at the reunion show.

Total confessional counts: Tony- 55, Spencer- 40, Woo- 24, Kass- 39. New confessionals this episode: Kass- 5, Tony- 5, Spencer- 3, Woo- 7.

In the eighth segment of the show, we get to the jury statements. Sarah is the first person up. As usual, we get to a never write your vote down promise that means that she could vote for Woo out of spite. Jefra is the second person up. She fights with Tony and wonders if Tony really deserves to win. Morgan is the third person up. She seems to favor Tony. Jeremy is the fourth person up. He doesn’t know if he can trust Tony. Tasha is the fifth person up. She has some interesting questions for both people. L J is the sixth person up. He only speaks to Tony. Kass is the seventh person up. Kass wonders why she was the one voted out instead of Tony. Woo feels that he took the person that deserved to be there instead of who he wanted to beat. Trish is the eighth person up. She wonders who was behind her getting voted out. She seems bitter at Tony. Tony feels that it was worth swearing on his father’s grave. I do wonder if his father is really dead or if he’s pulling a Johnny Fairplay. Spencer is the ninth person up. He wonders if Woo made the right choice by taking Tony to the end. Spencer is telling people that they should probably vote for Tony to win. But will it work? Now I’m wondering if they are running into the time for the reunion show since there isn’t much time left.

In the ninth segment of the show, Spencer votes for Tony to win and Tasha votes for Woo to win. They only showed two votes so you might have a win in a landslide. I’m so nervous! What’s going to happen? I guess that we’ll find out soon. Tony won the game, true to edits I’ve seen in the past. Now we may have less airtime at the reunion show than usual. He truly deserves the title of better Russell Hantz and is a better villain than anyone else who has played the game before.

In the tenth segment of the show, Tony talks about how his crazy strategy won him the game. I’m finally able to eat supper which is finally ready now so my posts during the reunion show may not be the best that they can be. I think that Tony deserves the win. A lot of random things happen, as they usually do during the reunion show. Remember that you want to have more than 0 points at the reunion show to have some airtime.

In the eleventh segment of the show, Woo would have probably won the game against Kass. When people cheer for Woo, I can’t tell if they’re just saying this name instead. He stands by his decision. Tasha likes her time in the game, even though she didn’t make it as far as she wanted to. Spencer thinks that changing things with Jefra might have won him the game. Jeff Probst wrote a letter to himself to give to Spencer because he thought that Spencer wouldn’t win.

In the twelfth segment of the show, Tyler Perry talks about his “new” idol in the game. This was pretty much a waste of a segment. Tony was ultra powerful with his idols, but he still deserved the win that he got without them when it mattered.

In the thirteenth segment of the show, we got to tons of updates from random contestants in the game. They know that they are running out of time and want to talk to as many people as possible. But it looks like, unless the show is overrun, they will not get to talk to a good chunk of people.

In the fourteenth segment of the show, we get to see where Survivor is going for the next season. I’m not sure where this location is, but it sounds South American to me. Now, is this a newbies blood versus water or much like the first one, with returning players? I don’t know yet, but I believe that I will find out more about it soon. At the very least, I’ll know who’s in the cast when they announce who the cast is. Upon a quick search at www.google.com, I found out that San Juan del Sur is located in Nicaragua, where they filmed the twenty-first and twenty-second seasons. I do wonder that since they release new Survivor seasons on DVD in pairs (typically) if that means that Samoa and Nicaragua will be released at the same time or if Samoa will be released all by itself since Heroes versus Villains is already on DVD. But I should get to the point of the rest of this blog post.

Points at reunion show: David- 1, Garrett- 1, Brice- 0, J’Tia- 1, Cliff- 1, Lindsey- 0, Alexis- 0, Sarah- 1, Morgan- 1, L J- 1, Jeremy- 0, Jefra- 0, Tasha- 1, Trish- 1, Spencer- 1, Kass- 1, Woo- 1, Tony- 3.

So, being overrun on time with a shorter reunion show may have given less people airtime. Brice, Lindsey, Alexis, Jeremy, and Jefra all didn’t get to speak. Anyone they talked to in the last segment before they end almost didn’t get to speak. This might be the first time that a quitter got no airtime at the reunion show. I wonder if that will happen a lot in the future. Maybe it has happened before and I just can’t remember it. But it’s time to get to the awards for this season.

So, there are different dumb moves from this season and I really hope that I can limit myself to just three choices. What are the candidates for dumbest moves? Well, I’ll tell you- 1: After an open forum where you tell the target that you are voting against them, you get voted out instead after not playing your hidden immunity idol, 2: J’Tia for overall being unbearable and more or less causing people to turn against her, 3: L J for not sensing that he’s the target and getting voted out, 4: Kass’s questionable game play, 5: Woo for taking Tony to the end instead of Kass. Well, I might as well tell you starting with third place and going all the way up to the dumbest move of the season. Who gets the award for third dumbest move? J’Tia gets the bronze. She brought her downfall on herself. What’s the second dumbest move? Well let’s say that you have a hidden immunity idol and you know that someone else is the target. Is it a good idea to tell everyone that you are voting that person out and then leave your idol at camp when you go to tribal council? No. Garrett wins the silver award for dumbest move of the season. Who wins the dumbest move of the season award? That would easily have to go to Woo for bringing Tony to the end of the game.

Now we get to the award for most memorable moment of the season. Here are the candidates- the very first episode, Tony and L J wasting idols on each other, the mad hunt for hidden immunity idols, and the whole finale episode. I would have to go with the mad hunt for hidden immunity idols being the most memorable part of the season. We then get to the breakout character of the season. The candidates are Tony, Sarah, and Spencer. I would have to say Spencer deserves that title the most. Where would I rank this season among all the seasons? Well, with one being the absolute best and twenty-eight being the absolute worst, I would give this season an eleven. There may be ten seasons that I rank higher, but that’s a pretty good place for it to be since it is still with the good seasons. I have also ranked this season’s tribe swap as eighth out of the seventeen that they’ve had.

So, a great Survivor season comes to a close. I’m about to start watching another season known by many for being great: the very first one. I have been wanting to see it for a long time. I got it for Christmas but still haven’t watched any of it yet. Well, this summer you can expect to see posts in this blog about the first season. But I have other things planned as well for when I can’t blog about the first season or should it not last until the twenty-ninth season starts. You will only see season one posts on Sundays, regardless of when I watch it. But, I have the season on DVD and I will spend time watching it. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.