Survivor: Edge of Extinction Finale

I’m wondering something about this show that I never thought that I would: should I be worried about the show’s fate? Normally, not only would they have renewed the show by now, they normally have already filmed the next season by now. I wouldn’t think that the show is in danger, but maybe it is. I do not think that this blog would stop as a result, but I’ll explain more about that later.

Let’s get to the idols from Heroes versus Healers versus Hustlers. There were a whole lot of them so this might take a while. Ryan found a super idol and had to give it to someone else when his tribe won the first immunity challenge. He chose Chrissy who never needed the super idol and tried to bargain with it later. Joe found an idol and used it to prevent a tie against himself and another player, arguably saving himself. Mike found one and wasted it. Joe found another and wasted it. Ryan found another one and wasted it as well.

Ben found one and used it to save himself. Lauren found one and it would have saved her, but she gave part of it away and it was put out of play. Thus, she was voted out when it otherwise would have saved her. Ben found one and played it before people voted which scared away any potential votes. He did not get to keep his idol and we don’t know if he might have or not if he wanted it back. Ben played one last one and saved himself yet again, resulting in the first ever tie caused by an idol play.

I will tell more about the history of idols in the next season that I blog about. I’ll even go more in depth and give each idol from Ghost Island its own section in a different post in future seasons. What I know is that we should find out soon whether or not this show is coming back for future seasons. It might be a split thing like what they are doing now with The Amazing Race or maybe, it is going to suddenly end. My sister was worried about the show based on the name of the season so we’ll find out what’s going on hopefully. All I know is that if they have no mention of a future season during the reunion show, that is the biggest red flag regarding if this show will stay around. They have mentioned a future season in every reunion show thus far. Will renewal be announced then? We should know by today if the show is renewed so we’ll see what happens. But enough of my ramblings.

UPDATE: By now, it was announced that Survivor will be on the schedule for next season. One can only guess that it was renewed as a result. I guess that I had nothing to worry about, although I have not yet seen an official link with the news in it yet other than one announcing the schedule.

In the first segment of the show, we have Jeff talking to us and about the other players before we get to the second and final Edge of Extinction challenge. Even this challenge needs people to have two balls at the end. No women allowed then, lol. Chris wins his way back into the game. Jeff talks to the players who lost the challenge just now. This is the first season thus far where no returning players will be at the final tribal council as a player in all of them that have included them thus far.

Chris talks about how he will do everything in his power to win. Jeff then returns to the reunion show stage where he talks to Joe and asks if a player like him could win. Joe might want to return after a while. Should he cut or keep his hair? Who cares?

In the second segment of the show, we return to Vata beach. Chris wants to make sure that he does a good game so far. Victoria doesn’t buy his whole nice guy act. Is he trying to win the divorce? Is that a real thing? Does anyone know what movie I’m talking about? Chris talks to Rick and they seem to form an alliance over what had happened with them. Rick admits that his idol is real and he says that he will play it. Chris talks to Lauren about her idol. Lauren makes an analogy to Ryan Reynolds. Is he single? And would someone like her have a chance with him? We then get to the next immunity challenge. Julie wins the challenge and she picks Chris and Lauren to join her on reward. Rick questions why Chris worked with Julie during the challenge.

In the third segment of the show, we get to the reward where Julie talks about her decisions. Lauren wants to get rid of Rick while trying to put a target on Victoria. Victoria wants to work with Rick at least this one vote. Rick wants to make sure that Chris is working with him. Chris got the same idol back that David had used earlier. Would they reuse the same thing or is this an extra of the same thing? Chris does give his half of the idol to Rick and Rick might be more likely to trust him now. He wants to use Lauren’s idol in the meantime to ensure that he survives the vote.

We then get to tribal council. Jeff talks about some of what has gone on thus far. Rick gets emotional over the fact that everyone thinks that he’s a threat. Chris wants to take the roll of messenger on to the people on the tribe in the game. Why keep someone who tells them everything? Rick plays his idol on himself. Lauren then plays her idol for Chris. I guess his sway works. Victoria is voted out and the idol on Chris was wasted. Victoria says that she is voting for Gavin.

In the fourth segment of the show, Rick looks for a real idol after hiding numerous fake idols that he had made earlier all over the place. I think that I speak for most Survivor fans when I say STOP HAVING THIS MANY IDOLS ALL THE TIME! Rick does find an idol and gives Chris back his idol. They couldn’t turn on each other know, or can they? Julie thinks that she will find a second hidden idol. It is a fake one. Lauren finds one of Rick’s old clues and he laughs at her for searching for it. She found another fake idol and she sure is glad that she’s not an idiot this time around. Um… We then get to the immunity challenge. Rick wins the challenge.

In the fifth segment of the show, we get back to the tribe after the challenge. Rick is a superhero or super villain or anti-hero named the cockroach. Rick wants to give Gavin the idol, but Gavin does not want to return the favor by keeping him out of the fire making challenge. But that only works as long as Gavin wins and he doesn’t have to win. Lauren finally thinks that some of the idols could be fake. A lot of the other players want to vote out Chris. Chris wants to be on the same page with Rick for the vote.

We get to tribal council next, which Rick thinks will be fun since everyone thinks they will be safe in his own mind. Chris wants to use his little cards in order to stay in the game. There are too many unknowns and if they want someone who can beat Rick, they might have to keep Chris. Are people too focused on getting rid of Rick? We then get to the vote at hand. Julie plays her fake idol. Lauren also plays her fake idol. Rick plays his idol on Gavin. Chris plays his idol on himself. “Anybody else?” asks Jeff. Lauren is the one who gets voted out of the game as a result.

In the sixth segment of the show, we get to the final immunity challenge. They made this challenge way more difficult than they needed to. With as wobbly as Chris was shown to be, it only made sense that he was the person who won the challenge based on what the edit normally shows us. Chris thinks that this is the most important decision that he has to make in the game.

In the seventh segment of the show, Rick feels that he blew the challenge, but still wants to make sure that he can do what he can to last in the game. There is fire making material out for people. Rick pleads his case to Chris. Gavin wants to take on Rick at the fire making challenge. Julie wants to take on the mission herself. Everyone is trying to make fire in preparation for what is going on. Chris might have to go all in on this last part of the game.

At tribal council, Jeff thinks that the Edge of Extinction has really helped Chris at this game. You think, DiNozzo? He wouldn’t be in the game were it not for this twist. Chris doesn’t want to have any regrets. He gives his necklace to Julie and will make fire against Rick. He’s taking the risk that Domenick didn’t want to make. But will this result in his own elimination? (You’re a reflexive pronoun! My grammar check does not like the phrase his own.)

Due to the high winds, they have to make the challenge in the voting confessional. Is this being live streamed somehow? Or do they just have to take Jeff at his word. No one can really see what’s going on in the jury. Both of them keep losing flame over and over again. Chris gets his fire going. Rick gets his going too late. Chris wins the challenge and Rick is eliminated as a result. This is the biggest elimination in a finale since Terry was voted out. Now who will win and why did they get such a small edit?

After giving his exit confessional, we return live to the reunion show where Jeff talks to Rick. His time in the game has been awesome thus far. Rick talks about his decisions in the game thus far. Was Chris not being loyal? Rick thinks that Chris never broke his promise. Now this is around the time that we should be starting the reunion show in every season before San Juan del Sur so let’s have a moment of silence for the reunion time lost that we’ll never get back.

In the eighth segment of the show, we get back to Vata and the finale three get their feast. Julie is glad that she did as well as she did. She thinks that she played a winner’s game. Chris thinks that he was able to do a great game despite being voted out of it at one point. Gavin thinks that he has played the best game thus far. Who will win the game?

Total confessional count: Lauren- 22, Julie- 21, Gavin- 20, Victoria- 18, Rick- 46; Reem- 14, Chris- 16, Aubry- 14, Joe- 9, Eric- 10, Julia- 8, David- 22, Kelley- 24, Wardog- 17, Ron- 18, Aurora- 15.

New confessionals this episode: Victoria- 2, Rick- 9, Lauren- 4, Julie- 4, Gavin- 3.

Extinction Island confessional count: Reem- 0, Chris- 7, Aubry- 0, Joe- 0, Eric- 0, Julia- 0, David- 0, Kelley- 0, Wardog- 0, Ron- 0, Aurora- 0.

In the ninth segment of the show, we get to the final tribal council. We first get to the outwit part of the game. David asks what the most valuable part of each person’s game way. Gavin says that his biggest ally in the game was Victoria. Chris says Rick. Julie says Ron and Lauren. We talk about the major twist of the season and Gavin thinks that he’s not a goat although Chris asked that question of him. Joe wonders if Julie’s emotions weren’t controlled as well. Julie thinks that she was behind Julia’s vote. Gavin was able to sway the votes to get rid of the returning players. Chris thinks that he convinced Lauren to play his idol on the game.

A lot of the jurors are still undecided. I know that I would be because I have no idea who might win. I can only guess, but I think that everyone has around a 33% chance of winning. Chris talks about how he did well in the game and Rick wonders about how they all did knowing how he did. Chris feels that he did the best game that he could in such a short amount of time, but some feel that he got advantages that helped too much. Gavin admits that no one ever voted against him this whole game.

Gavin talks about how his dream was to play Survivor and all that he has done to do that. Chris talks about the theme of the season over and over again. He knows that without his third chance to get back in the game, he wouldn’t have one to even talk about. Without the twist, he’s nothing. Julie mentions that she has done a great journey thus far playing the game. Julie likes how she played the game. I do think that Gavin might be the most likely winner at this point in time.

In the tenth segment of the show, we get to people casting their votes for people to win. Will we see any of them? They don’t really doing voting confessionals anymore and that’s a real shame. I guess they think that we are all into other parts of the game. Will this be a unanimous vote? I guess we’ll see. It is not a unanimous vote. How many votes are there? I didn’t keep track. Chris wins the season. After all that we never saw from him. Was this really just camaraderie among the players who were on the edge of extinction with him? This is the weirdest win yet.

In the eleventh segment of the show, Chris is talked to regarding the win. Was there guilt in what went on in the game that Chris had over his decisions to take Rick out. Rick says that he is friends with Chris, but only because he won. David gives another one of his analogies about eating little, but feeling that he had still done well. David is writing for Star Trek: Discovery with John Cochran. I think I know what I need to do to start a writing career for television. But why didn’t this work for Mitchell from all the way back in the second season? Lauren is glad with how she played and Gavin talks about his experiences outside the game with Survivor. Rick wins the Sia award and wants to swing from a chandelier because of it.

In the twelfth segment of the show, Jeff talks to Reem about her doing the edge of extinction. She has to be on Survivor Shade if that ever starts again. I don’t think that it will, though. I’d still like to see her on a podcast in the future and if I ever start a Survivor podcast, she might be on it at least once. Wendy then talks about her Tourettes Syndrome. I also want to hear from her on a podcast. Ron talks about how he was a teacher and talked about his time in the game and villain like ways. Julia talks to her peace with her dad that I don’t think that I understood quite that well. Jeff talks to Aubry, Lauren, Victoria, Wardog, and Aurora about their games in largely brief mentions.

In the thirteenth segment of the show, Jeff briefly talks about Ponderosa. I haven’t seen that in a while so I might watch it this time. In the next Survivor season, Boston Rob and Sandra was returning, but are not going to win as they are just mentors who aren’t playing the game. It is called Island of the Idols so I feel that instead of some idols, they are going to give even more. In the immortal words of Gir, Yay! We’re doomed! I’m glad that neither of these winners are playing again, but they still have far too much exposure in the community, even if they haven’t been constantly seen again and again.

In the fourteenth segment of the show, we pretty much get a wrap up of everything and we get a send off to the season in general. I don’t know yet what to think of the next season as I’m not sure what the point of it is just yet. How many island twists do we need? As for the rest of this season, Chris does seem to be an even more unlikely winner than the last Chris to win the game back in Vanuatu. Did people vote for him simply because they spent time with him? That didn’t help Lillian, but she didn’t have nearly all of the outcasts on the jury to help vote for her to win. Who has been this underedited a winner? I do not think that we’ve seen a winner’s edit this bad since Sophie back in South Pacific, but unlike Sophie, I actually like Chris as a winner. It just seems kind of dumb that he did so little yet got so many votes. This ending lowers my initial ranking of this season which was going to be 19^th best.

Points at reunion show: Reem- 1, Keith- 0, Aubry- 0, Wendy- 1, Joe- 1, Eric- 0, Julia- 1, David- 1, Kelley- 1, Wardog- 0, Ron- 1,  Aurora- 0, Victoria- 1, Lauren- 1, Rick- 3, Julie- 0, Gavin- 1, Chris- 1.

There’s not much to say about the reunion show in general. They keep cutting it done from the usual hour we are used to. I don’t like that Joe was the only person that was talked to out of all of the people who were on the edge of extinction after those people lost. Sure, we got to hear from more of them at the actual reunion show, but Jeff should never show this type of favoritism to anyone. At least he made a point to talk to some people that he hadn’t talked to before that we don’t always get each season. I do miss the rites of passage if only because of the prereunion bits that replaced it.

Now it’s time to figure out the three dumbest moves of the season. I don’t think that I’ll mention all of the nominees that could happen of it since I’m not really as into this part as I could be. Wardog gets the bronze award for playing too hard and too openly. The silver goes to Lauren for wasting her idol and then setting into motion the events that would lead to her own elimination. The gold goes to Aubry who did not sense that she was in danger and got voted out with both an idol and advantage in her pocket. It is interesting to note that so far, all the women who have been voted out with idols had played the game before their game ending mistake the second or third time.

When it comes to the breakout character of the season, there are a lot of people that I’d want to give the award to, but I can only give it to one. The people in consideration that haven’t won are Wardog, Reem, and Wendy. But I have to give the award to Rick as he provided most of the best moments of all of this season.

Now let’s get to the ranking of this season and the tribe swap in general. I have 29 tribe swaps ranked thus far, although that might not be the number of swaps that have happened thus far. This season will rank as 24^th out of all of them. Out of the 38 seasons total, I’ve decided that this will be 23^rd out of all of them. Some have not liked this season as much as others. I’m more okay with it, but I know that have been a lot better ones. I also couldn’t rank it lower than some others.

There’s not much else to say as I close out this post and end this season in general. I am almost done with watching Survivor: Borneo again to do a review of Sue’s time on the area. I then can hopefully get to do my look back on Survivor: Gabon. Any posts of that will be on Sundays. If I get Survivor: Blood versus Water on DVD, then I will do a look back on that again. If I’m doing a look back at one season and then introduce another look back, that will be on Fridays.

Something that you should know is that I am going to take a break from updating this blog for a bit in order to focus on other things in life. You should get a blog post of some sort before June is over. But do not expect there to be the usual posts next week or a bit afterwards. I should be back some Wednesday or other day of the week with new posts in the future at some point. So I will be back or plan to be, it just will not be what you are used to. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.