Tonight, on Survivor: The big finale. WHO WILL WIN? Yeah, there's really no suspense about that this season.
Back at camp after the Coach boot (Say it with me...HELL YES), Stephen, JT, Taj and Erinn celebrate being the final four. JT and Stephen begin talking about jury votes for each other right in front of Taj and Erinn, which is interesting and should have set off some sort of alarm in their heads. They both seem to think that the other will get more votes. Stephen, in particular, thinks JT avoided voting for Coach tonight so that he could get his vote, which is probably true, and which also makes Stephen doubt JT. "I'm loyal to JT, but more to myself and my own odds of winning," Stephen says. You mean you aren't just lying down and letting JT take home the victory? But that's what everyone else has been doing! HOW DARE YOU?
On the morning of Day 37, Stephen and Taj discuss their biggest threat: JT. "If JT loses immunity, dot dot dot," and yes, he actually says the words "dot dot dot". "I don't think I can do that, but...better him than me," Stephen says. Taj is like "Oh yeah, I totally wouldn't do that either!" but you can tell that they both totally would and just don't want to be the first to say it. OMG, they're like the Ross and Rachel, if Ross and Rachel wanted to annihilate their enemies.
JT and Erinn go to get the treemail and are like "Oh no" when they looking into the basket. This is because they pull out a bug, which of course makes them afraid that they're going to have to eat something gross and/or let gross things crawl on them. Things besides Coach, that is.
Immunity Challenge! A huge obstacle course shaped like a spider, with a trampoline in the center and eight legs radiating out awaits the Survivors. They have to navigate through the legs of the spider (which are netted tunnels) to retrieve three bags of puzzle pieces and then solve a web shaped puzzle, which will win them immunity.
We can assume, of course, that JT gets out to a nice lead. JT and Taj actually cross paths at one point inside a tunnel, and he just sort of...launches himself over top of her. JT gets started on his puzzle first, but the puzzle is pretty complicated, allowing some of the others (particularly Erinn) to make up some ground and almost even the playing field. In a very close finish, JT narrowly edges out Erinn and takes home the immunity necklace.
Back at camp, Taj states what we all think will be the obvious conclusion, which is that Erinn is a goner. However, Erinn's not going down without a fight. "I don't want to make it seem like I'm scrambling," she notes, trying to learn from the mistakes of Debbie. Well, non-arithmetic related mistakes, anyway.
Erinn gets Stephen and JT alone, pointing out that Taj has played a really great social game and is friends with everyone. When Stephen and JT get alone time, Stephen says that he knows they can both beat Erinn. JT seems down to get rid of Taj. "As long as me and you are solid, I don't care what we do, man," he says loyally. Oh, JT. Just try to make out with him and get it over with.
Tribal Council. Coach's new status as a member of the jury has done nothing to negate his irksomeness: he has not shaved his beard or cleaned himself up at all, and he wanders in with his stupid dragon cane. Probst asks Stephen how in the hell Jalapao ended up beating all of Timbira, because that's pretty impressive. "We just sort of formed a plan to get close with different people, and it worked." The real answer, of course, is that Coach's ego left a huge weak spot that led to the implosion of Timbira, and the Jalapaos were smart enough to take advantage of that. Probst asks Erinn what it feels like to be the last Timbira member, and she notes that she's "proud of herself but not, in, like, a vengeful way", she says, because she is actually proud in a spiteful way. Wouldn't you be if stupid Coach and stupid Debbie and stupid Tyson and stupid Sierra were all sitting over on the jury after treating you like crap for a month?
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Comments (12)
Well, I was really hoping that Stephen could have talked his way into the win, but he just seemed to go limp and let JT have it. I'm guessing they already had an agreement worked out there -- after all, Stephen gets the 100k for second place, right?
And the fact that people were falling all over themselves to lick up JT's droppings was part of his strategy -- which he pulled off really well. So he definitely deserves the win.
For once, I'm not dissatisfied with the winner. Although the whole season seemed kind of limp. Hopefully they'll toughen up the challenges for next season.
1 of 12 | Posted by itchy | Posted on May 20, 2009 5:13 PM
Although Stephen was a very good player in the game, he missed the essential point... you can't go to the end with the most-liked player in the game, whether you're in an alliance or not. And, if you're going to try and sell yourself to the jury, you can't sell yourself as a floater! You have to point out exactly what moves you made... DUH! He should have pointed out that he found the Idol with Taj, brought JT into their alliance, and protected JT from being voted out at certain points in the game.
I do agree that no matter what, what it comes to is that the juries (in the majority of seasons) only value physical brawn, no matter how strategic a game was played. If you're not the physical player, you have to actually make moves within the game that people will recognize as game-changing. Getting the people to vote out Tyson, while still keeping Sierra isolated was a master stroke and Stephen should have taken credit for it (since it WAS HIS IDEA!).
It was almost as if Stephen was playing for second place, which was my main problem with Sugar last season. If you really want to win Survivor, you have to play wire to wire. JT did, Stephen didn't.
2 of 12 | Posted by slutty_whore | Posted on May 20, 2009 5:46 PM
This was the first time in a long time I would have been satisfied with either person winning...until Stephen revealed he wouldn't have kept his word to JT. Then I was firmly in JT's corner.
3 of 12 | Posted by cattyfan | Posted on May 20, 2009 8:37 PM
Cattyfan, I don't think that is what Stephen said. He mostly said he wasn't sure. He only said he would go against JT when pressed because that was clearly the answer that they wanted to hear. I'm not sure why everyone gets down on Stephen for saying he would have to think about whether he would bring JT to the end. JT clearly had to think about whether he would bring Stephen to the end. The only difference is that we got to see what decision JT finally ended with but we will never know what Stephen would have done.
(I've not read the recap yet only the comments. :p)
4 of 12 | Posted by Snootchy Bootches | Posted on May 21, 2009 5:29 AM
Cattyfan, I don't think that is what Stephen said. He mostly said he wasn't sure. He only said he would go against JT when pressed because that was clearly the answer that they wanted to hear. I'm not sure why everyone gets down on Stephen for saying he would have to think about whether he would bring JT to the end. JT clearly had to think about whether he would bring Stephen to the end. The only difference is that we got to see what decision JT finally ended with but we will never know what Stephen would have done.
(I've not read the recap yet only the comments. :p)
5 of 12 | Posted by Snootchy Bootches | Posted on May 21, 2009 5:33 AM
Erm... that was weird.
6 of 12 | Posted by Snootchy Bootches | Posted on May 21, 2009 5:35 AM
congrats JT! and thanks for the recaps!
stephen was really portrayed as a whiney little byatch there at the end, which i'm not sure is off the mark. such a strange relationship he and JT have. bromance, fo sho.
pretty good season. sierra definitely acted like a 12 year-old all the way, proving why they hated her (b/c i had been wondering). coach was fun to watch.
looking forward to the recap of the reunion!
dax
7 of 12 | Posted by idax | Posted on May 21, 2009 9:03 AM
Schoonie - Great Recaps (again) all season. Always made my day.
On the forum side I have been plugging the Ponderosa videos. If you haven't checked it out, they actually did one with Stephen and JT showing up at Ponderosa after the final tribal council. It's worth watching because it gives a different perspective than the editing on the tribal council. Stephen and JT seemed pretty cool about the whole thing - not the drama that you might expect. It was a weird, but satisfying, "conclusion."
Thanks for all the recaps and look forward to next fall.
8 of 12 | Posted by Channel Dasher | Posted on May 21, 2009 9:16 AM
Thanks for the entertaining recaps. I always read them at ew.com and then head over hear for your vastly superior take.
9 of 12 | Posted by Emmyloo | Posted on May 21, 2009 10:07 AM
"The part of Debbie will be played by Paula . . . " BRAVO!
10 of 12 | Posted by willintherace | Posted on May 22, 2009 11:07 AM
Great, spot-on recap. I hope that Debbie and Sierra see this recap and realize how stupid their questions were.
11 of 12 | Posted by tv freak | Posted on May 22, 2009 1:57 PM
I just finished reading this. (I was on vacation.)
okay, okay, I wanted the whole thing to end in a big wedding under a tree. I didn't get that but this was almost as good.
First, Smitten and JT pledge their loyalty to each other. Then they have a fight. Then one feels betrayed. How is it resolved? In the end they end up together, side by side, [one in black and one in white (okay, yellow)]. The two of them looked like the top of a big gay wedding cake.
P.S. uh, the reason why Jeff seemingly hates Stephen is cause Jeff's jealous of Stephen and JT's "relationship."
I really enjoyed your recaps Schoonie and I look forward to the ones in the fall.
12 of 12 | Posted by Mr Dangerous | Posted on June 4, 2009 7:49 AM