Survivor Worlds Apart Finale

Well, we finally reached the end of another Survivor season. Things sure have gotten crazy at the end. If you ask me, introducing the next season may be a way of making us forget that this season was as terrible as it was. I am glad that it broke the format of the typical three tribe seasons that have happened in the past. But there’s plenty wrong with the season making me wish that they had done an all-stars season this season. But we have one to look forward to in the future. Are they making up for the failure of this season? Honestly, I don’t think that this season will go down as a good one. That’s why I’ll be glad to put it behind us. I just wish that they weren’t switching the orders of 31 and 32. They are filming season 32 now and will film season 31 next. So weird.

I give too much priority to Survivor sometimes. I gave up watching Arrow because of Survivor. I gave up watching Revolution because of Survivor. I normally don’t see The Middle episodes until they first hit syndication. I will have to record SVU tonight when I normally watch it right after Survivor. I guess I don’t know why I give it too much priority considering how I could watch shows online. I guess that I just don’t want to be drawn into that and I also don’t think that I’ll have enough time for it either. I should tell people what shows I watch each day on my TV blog. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, Jeff Probst introduces us to the finale. He mentions that this season has caused controversy. Now I’ll never understand why somebody would want something to be controversial. That seems dumb to me. I just hope that these pre reunion show bits won’t ruin the actual reunion show. They haven’t had good reunion shows lately. The usual long recap follows. Carolyn is glad that she played the idol and I’m glad that she hasn’t wasted it earlier. Can Mike win the last two immunity challenges and pull a Fabio to win the game? Or is he destined to be voted out soon?

In the second segment of the show, we get to a loved ones reward challenge for some odd reason. It seems odd to do it this late in the game. I wonder if Rodney is doomed to lose the challenge like he has lost every other reward challenge. You know, a loved ones challenge in the finale isn’t that bad an idea if the alternative is a reward challenge where the winner gets an immunity challenge advantage. It also explains why they went straight to the reward challenge in the first segment after the break. It also probably explains the last twist that they were doing in this episode. It turns out that there is an advantage that someone will get in addition to time with their loved one. Remember when I did the blog post on the ten worst Survivor twists? Well a reward challenge in the finale should have been on the list, but I had forgotten to add it then. I do wonder if all of the tiles have numbers on the back or just the ones without pairs. You’d think someone would just look at the back of all of them, but that might be against the rules of the challenge. Mike wins the reward.

In the third segment of the show, Mike enjoys time with his mother. I do wonder how they decide which loved ones visit. We find out what the advantage is. They are wasting water which I don’t like. Mike doesn’t think that the advantage will help him, but we’ll see whether or not it does. Deborah thinks that she let her son down.

In the fourth segment of the show, we have the awesome maze challenge. This is the number one reason that I want to be in the finale of Survivor in hopes that I can compete in this challenge. I just hope that I get the version where I can see. Mike ends up winning the challenge.

In the fifth segment of the show, Carolyn thinks that she’s at the bottom of the alliance, which is clear based on the votes in the previous episode. Carolyn, Sierra, and Mike decide to vote for Rodney. Mike tells Rodney about this and decides to stir the pot. Mike will have to figure out which side to join. Does he go with the men and vote out Sierra or does he join the women to vote out Rodney? If making the right decisions is the point of this season, then does this define the point of the season? Things are discussed at the tribal council and it is Sierra that gets voted out of the game, possibly unanimously. It’s sad to see her leave.

In the sixth segment of the show, we go straight into the final immunity challenge with no camp life in between. Mike has a close fight with Carolyn and ends up winning the challenge. If he can actually win the game, I really would love him doing the happy dance when he does so. We also get to see the second chance contestants waiting to see if they will be on the show or not. With 32 potential players, 12 will not make the cut while the other 20 will be on that season.

In the seventh segment of the show, I wonder if there will be a tie at the final four. Will thinks that Carolyn being a mother will help her win the game. It’s weird that he thinks that since too many women have lost the game over something like that. Mike would rather lose honorably than win with two goats. In a way, I hope that Rodney is voted out since that would put all three original tribes in the final tribal council. In a different way, I hope that Carolyn is voted out so we can see Rodney and Mike have it out at the final tribal council. Either way, I’d be satisfied. Meanwhile, I’m recording the finale of SVU right now. So many season finales this season are on tape for me to watch. There are also a lot of interesting cliffhangers that make me look forward to next season. It turns out that there is a tie as expected. We get a commercial before the tie-breaker was to occur. At least it’s better than making us wait until the next episode like they did in Panama. Also, I’ll be watching the last episode of the Late Show with David Letterman tonight. It seems weird that his last show is in the middle of the week and that it won’t be until the fall that Stephen Colbert starts hosting the show. Why not an immediate transition? I apologize if I ever don’t talk about Survivor and ramble about other things in this blog.

In the eighth segment of the show, we get to the fire making challenges. Suddenly I have flashbacks to Cook Islands. Both need flint replaced in the end. I don’t think that I like flint being able to be replaced so easily. This does seem very much like the Cook Islands tie-breaker as both people are terrible at making the fire. Rodney gets fire for a moment, but loses it. He then gets it back again and Carolyn finally gets fire as well. In the end, Carolyn finally wins the challenge meaning that Rodney gets voted out. Now who will win between Carolyn and Mike? Does Will have a chance? Could there possibly be a tie between the finalists? Maybe that is why they were both considered for a future season.

In the ninth segment of the show, the final three that has a member of each of the starting tribes thinks about their place in the game. They get a celebratory feast to celebrate all becoming finalists. Each of them talks about how they could win going into the final tribal council. There’s no rites of passage. Maybe they should do that again, but I’m not sure if they will. There are no opening statements for some odd reason. Joe talks first among the jury members. He talks about what needs done to own his vote. Hali directs a question to Carolyn about how the mother role could be a disadvantage to the game. Rodney is third and directs a question to Rodney before he wonders what Carolyn did in the game. He directs nothing to Mike at all. Tyler asks his question of Mike. It seems that the jury doesn’t like Mike that much. But is that because they were in an alliance that he wasn’t in? Tyler also wonders why Carolyn betrayed him. He asks nothing of Will. Sierra asks Will what traits from other players in the game he wished that he had. Jenn speaks out in support of Mike, which I find interesting. I love the support of finalists by jury members. Jenn, consider yourself redeemed in my eyes. Dan doesn’t like having to follow Jenn. But then Dan berates Mike about him not possibly caring about the jury aspect of the game. Mike apologizes to Dan for the game he was doing. Dan thanks Mike for doing it. Shirin then gets the last talk of all the jury members. She is glad that Mike is the nice person that he is. She talks about her life in the past but for some odd reason wants to vote for Carolyn. What? She then makes animal comparisons to the finalists. My favorite part is when she called Will a dead fish. She makes a nod to Sue Hawk.

Total confessional count: Mike- 57, Rodney- 37, Carolyn- 45, Will- 19, Sierra- 19. New confessionals this episode: Will- 3, Sierra- 2, Mike- 11, Rodney- 3, Carolyn- 6. Special loved one confessional: Deborah- 2.

In the tenth segment of the show, there no closing statements. I am not okay with this. You are not giving the finalists the chance that they deserve. Rodney votes for Will, which I find a bit strange. So it looks like all three finalists get a vote to win. Dan doesn’t know who to vote for. Will he be the swing vote? Will it be a 4-3-1 vote? This is going to be close and nerve racking. At least I’ll be happy with either Carolyn or Mike winning. Will Mike’s mistakes catch up with him? Or has he overcome all he needs to? It is Mike who ends up winning the season. Finally, somebody wins the game and plays an idol successfully on themselves. And a Mike finally wins, so that’s good.

In the eleventh segment of the show, Jeff talks about how Mike could have played better since he was on the bottom. He does seem similar to Chris from Vanuatu. Dan and Mike have a repaired relationship now. Rodney gets a chance to talk about how he played the game. Carolyn is surprised by the lack of votes that she got. But she’s eager to see if she’s on the next season. Joe is glad that people liked him this season.

In the twelfth segment of the show, we get to some of the controversial contestants on this season. We start with Dan trying to explain his decisions in the game. We get shown raw footage and it seems like Jeff is berating Dan. I don’t like that Jeff. Some people may not like him, but that doesn’t mean that you should talk to people like this.

In the thirteenth segment of the show, the Shirin and Will fight is brought to light. Will apologizes to Shirin about the fight. Now I don’t think that there was something at Ponderosa, but we can’t tell since we never see the finalists at Ponderosa. Rodney also gets a birthday celebration. As usual, being a premerge boot gets you ignored at the reunion show. Why can’t it be the usual hour anymore?

In the fourteenth segment of the show, we get to the contestants for the next season. Kelly from Borneo gets to be on the season. Both Kimmi and Jeff Varner from Australia are playing next season. Keith from San Juan del Sur is on the next season. Peih-Gee from China is on the next season. Ciera and Vytas from Blood versus Water are both on the next season. Terry from Panama is on next season. Andrew from Pearl Islands is on next season. Abi-Maria from Philippines is on the next season. Kass from Cagayan is on the next season. Kelley from San Juan del Sur is on the next season. Monica from Samoa is on the next season. Shirin from this season is on next season. Stephen from Tocantins is on next season. Woo from Cagayan is on next season. Tasha from Cagayan is on next season. Jeremy from San Juan del Sur is on next season. Spencer from Cagayan is on next season. Joe from this season is on next season. Those are the twenty players for the next season. That means that the people that aren’t on the next season are Teresa from Africa, Max from this season, Mike from this season (his votes were made void), Shane from Panama, Jim from South Pacific, Carolyn from this season, Troyzan from One World, Natalie from Redemption Island, Sabrina from One World, Stephanie from Redemption Island, Brad from Blood versus Water, and Mikayla from South Pacific all did not receive enough votes and won’t be on the next season. I’ll talk more about the next season over the summer as there are a lot of blog posts that one can create about it. For now, I need to finish talking about this season.

Points at reunion show: So- 0, Vince- 0, Nina- 0, Lindsey- 0, Max- 0, Joaquin- 0, Kelly- 0, Hali- 0, Joe- 1, Jenn- 0, Shirin- 1, Tyler- 0, Dan- 2, Sierra- 0, Rodney- 1, Will- 1, Carolyn- 1, Mike- 1.

What a lame reunion show. Ever since Caramoan, they have cared very little about the reunion show. Over half of the cast was paid to sit there and say nothing because everyone gets paid for doing the reunion show. With a bunch of stuff that they had to fill in, people got short shafted at the reunion show. Bring back good reunion shows! Plus, the ending was heartbreaking to all the players that weren’t chosen to be on it. Now some lucky players will be on the next season while the other players just go back home empty handed. At least they knew that this could happen. Meanwhile, I probably have a future blog post to write about Kelly Wiglesworth, but it could be a while before it happens. We’ll get to the future of this blog in the last paragraph.

You may be wondering what I think the three dumbest moves this season are. I’ll forgo mentioning the nominees and go straight to who I think should win the rewards for dumbest moves of the season. The bronze award would have to go to So and Joaquin choosing to deceive their tribe instead of going with the honest choice. The silver award for dumbest move of the season, in my mind, is the collar twist. It didn’t seem to add anything to the season in my mind and seemed more random than use worthy. In my mind, the gold award for dumbest move of the season has to be Will attacking Shirin.

You may be wondering who I think is the breakout start of the season. Before we get to that, I’d like to apologize if I ever give the reward to men more often then I give it to women. I’m not sure that I’ve ever given it to a woman yet. I should. I won’t do it to be politically correct. But will work better in the future to make sure that women are considered for this award. Between Mike, Joe, Tyler, and Kelly, I think that the breakout star is Mike. Sorry to the others who didn’t make the cut. Since next season is all returning players, you won’t see that award then. But you will see it on any season that has new players on it.

You might be wondering what I think the most memorable moment of the season is. Well, at lot of this season couldn’t have happened without the axis of evil. So that alliance will be what I think is the most memorable moment of the season.

Now we get to how this season ranks out of the 30 seasons of Survivor that have aired. But first, I’ll also rank the tribe swap of this season. Out of the 19 tribe swaps, I rank this season’s swap as 15^th best. So it may not be too high, but it is better than a lot of them. While I’m satisfied with the ending of this season, I don’t like the season in general. Out of the 30 seasons of Survivor that have aired, I rank this season as 22^nd best. In my mind, it is currently the best of the bad seasons. 21 would start the list of average seasons. Hopefully things will be better in the next season, even if I voted for a different cast. But, since I like a lot of these contestants, I’m probably looking forward to the next season more likely than not.

Well, with another season of Survivor behind us and two more to look forward to in the future, you might be wondering what this blog will do. Well, I don’t think that I’ll have another old season to blog about for a while. I probably will at some point, but not during this upcoming hiatus. Until the next season starts, I will still update this blog on every Wednesday. In the event that I miss a Wednesday, I’ll be sure to point out why I did, but I won’t make up for it by double posting on Sundays and Wednesdays. I would only do that during the winter Survivor hiatus and not the summer Survivor hiatus. It will be a while before the next season starts, but I will be sure to post every Wednesday possible with a random post of some sort. I already have some written in the future. I’ll be sure to write more since I have a lot of thoughts on the upcoming Survivor season. Plus, I have other thoughts about Survivor in general. For now, this is Adam Decker signing off.