Our "Winners At War" finale... set much differently than normal. In Jeff's garage? Yep, the pandemic even affected our Survivor finale. Everyone participating remotely. It WAS different. I sort of missed the live show - a little (the winner always deserves a thunderous round of applause, not just quiet hugs from three family members). We got a pre-show Zoom look at all our players. But for the most part, it was all game: very little pre or post show fun. Didn't really seem fitting for such a HUGE season! But the end game show was a great one. Full of ups and downs, lots of emotion. Lots of drama. So let's get right to it. Now I admit, I didn't re-watch the show. Just too long (three hours of nonstop game!), but I'll do the best I can to touch on the important bits. Beginning with.... ... EoE Return Challenge, right off the bat. Our final five of Denise, Tony, Ben, Sarah and Michelle show up, the get told they are her to watch, not play. It's the final Edge of Extinction battle! For some reason, we hear Tony say, upon seeing the set up: "Wow. Look. There's a puzzle at the end. Jeff, is this the first time Survivor has ever done this?" How unusual, Tony. The challenge: the tribe will be attached to a rope. They will race through a fence obstacle first, followed by a post obstacle. Then they will dig up some rope to build a rope bridge. Then race to the end, where they must land two balls in a puzzle maze. Natalie, Parvati, Yul and Wendell all were able to purchase advantages to skip the fence obstacle. Natalie was able to get the advantage to skip the dig too. Her third one was the rope bridge was partially built before she got to it. That is a LOT of advantage. The race is on.... but Natalie (with all her advantages) gets stuck at the start, all tangled in her rope and unable to get out of the first section. Good thing all those advantages were there for her, because despite the delays she still manages to catch up. Wendell is first to the maze and starts rolling his balls early (Sorry. My inner Probst sneaked out!) He gets the first ball in, then Natalie catches up and gets started. She gets her first one in pretty fast. Soon Tyson catches up as well. For a minute, it looked like Wendell was going to get it - but then, he drops his second ball (stop giggling WM!) and Natalie gets the win! As she takes her place with the final five, we got a lengthy goodbye from our remaining Edge of Extinction players. A lot of emotion here from all the "old school" players: Kim, just happy she got to compete again and was very satisfied with how she played. Tyson "needed to play Survivor again to know I didn't need it anymore": his family and kids are enough. Amber: "Only there for Rob. When I got my win, most people thought I didn't deserve it; they just hated him more than they hated me." To which Rob says, "Amber is a champion." Aww. Sweet. Parvati: "Been a different ride, but I'm proud of who I was in this version of the game." Ethan: "This was the perfect bookend to my life." Probst talks about the giant weird family Survivor players and fans have become over the years. That is why this Survivor phenomenon is so special. Sidenote: Boy, isn't that a bit true even for our little channel! If you had asked me years ago if there would ever come a day when my love for a dumb RTV show would connect me with a group of strangers around the world - who would all become my friends just because of our love chatting about a TV show together - I would never have believed you. But here we are now, forty seasons and twenty years later, all part of that weird Survivor family Probst was talking about... kind of IS a bit of a phenomenon! (Catlover! Imagine if that same soothsayer would have then said the love for this show would cause you to take the initiative in CREATING your own channel on Disqus to keep the community going (Year 2000 Catlover: "What's 'Disqus'?" Soothsayer: "No idea. Don't think it's been invented yet."), well - you would hve believed it even less!) Anyway, a Tony confessional: "Seeing all the Edge people and hearing their hardships there did hurt me emotionally. But I have to put that aside for now. I have a game to win.. er.. hmm... I mean play. Not going to let off the gas at all... I'm going to push it through the floor!" A quick look at the entire cast... hearing their reasons for playing again. Nice to see them all - but as Tony said, lots of game to play so lets move on! Back at Camp Natalie knows she has some work to do to get her foot in the door with these five remaining players. She makes a real effort to convince them that the jury sees Tony as the one controlling everything. "After all, I can tell them anything I want. They won't know if I'm lying or not". (Ironically, she wasn't lying at all: the whole jury DID think that Tony was the one controlling everything!) Tony hears some of the talk and gets immediately concerned. A private talk with Sarah proves that Sarah doesn't quite buy it with Natalie. "Is she savvy enough to be playing us so well? Does the jury REALLY see Tony as the winner or is she just saying that to get me to vote against him?" Well Sarah: a little of both. I guess you didn't watch her season. Natalie is definitely savvy. She's smart. She's physically strong. She is a strategic thinker. I would not - in any way, shape or form - underestimate Natalie. First Immunity Challenge... ...which involves a giant water slide. Always fun! The challenge is race through an obstacle, collect a bag, race up a tower, drop the bag and slide down the above-mentioned water slide. Do this over again until you have all three bags of puzzle pieces. First to complete the three-tiered puzzle wins. Denise, Tony and Sarah on one side; Ben, Natalie and Michelle on the other. Details, details. This is a good challenge but a grueling one. All that running up and down stairs must have been brutal so late in the game (well, except for Natalie, who seemed to run up and down steep mountains for thirty days on Edge of Extinction!). Michelle is lagging behind through most of the challenge, unable to keep up with the pace of everyone else. It is Ben who gets to the puzzle first. Tony next. Denise and Sarah catch up too. They are all five deep into the puzzle when Michelle finally arrives. But... Michelle has an ace up her sleeve! She actually has done this challenge before - in fact, she was the winner of this challenge on her season. So it was familiar to her. Once there, it takes no time for her to figure out how to solve it. She very quickly laps them all by getting tier one done first. The rest all looking over to see if they can catch any clues from her. "You bunch of cheaters!" (Nope. Pefectly legal. Get your head back in the game. Michelle!) In the end, Michelle does manage to conquer this puzzle first What a comeback! Michelle wins immunity (and judo kicks the three-tier puzzle over!) Tony seems to be the only one clued into the fact that Natalie COULD have arrived with an idol from EOE (you know, just like EVERY OTHER final EOE player did!) "Better to assume she has something than to assume she doesn't. But wow - how will I ever be able to sell this to my intelligent, experienced alliance? Won't they automatically assume I don't know what I'm talking about?" He speaks to Ben, who thinks the cop is not playing it cool. He's panicking. Plus, he is not willing to turn on Denise. Now, we know that Natalie DOES have an idol so Tony is right to be concerned. Natalie has surmised that there is a top four and that Tony and Sarah are the ones controlling the game. She picks up that this alliance is Tony, Sarah, Ben and Denise. That would make Michelle the best person to align with. Michelle has immunity and is untouchable. Natalie can protect herself with her own idol. It's time to start dismantling the top four group. While Sarah and Ben are annoyed with Tony for assuming the worst - that Natalie she has some kind of advantage up her sleeve (Sarah: "Stop panicking. If she had an advantage, I would know since I've spent a couple of hours talking to her. I can always make people spill their guts in ten minutes or less.") Natalie and Michelle are off making plans of their own. Michelle declares that she does not have any allegiance to anyone ("Of course not. Ive been kept out of every tribal council loop for the entire season!") and that she would gladly work with Natalie to break up the alliance. Natalie is mostly concerned with flushing Tony's idol. Michelle talks to the group. Tells them Natalie is paranoid. But Tony doesn't really buy it. He feels they want to flush his idol. Now, here is where Sarah kind of blew it. So convinced she was that Natalie didn't have an idol, she refused to hear any concerns from Tony about it. "Calm down, dude. Sarah knows what's going on." Oh Sarah... Tribal Council A bit of discussion about what it was like to have Natalie rejoining them at camp. No way to know if what she is saying is true. Which all leads to a passionate speech from Sarah about how women playing hard in Survivor is viewed differently than when men play hard in Survivor. Which leads to Probst admitting that he, himself, has been guilty of this ("Women wanting to quit the game makes me gentle and understanding with them. Men wanting to quit makes me despise the pathetic weaklings and I must resist the urge to pick them up by the necks and literally toss them off the island.") Vote happens.... Natalie surprises them all (except Tony, who fully expected it) and plays an idol. "SEE!" from Tony. "Why did I ever align with you idiots!" He then plays his own. Ben quickly follows suit. That's three idols played. Natalie, Natalie, Natalie, Ben, Ben, Ben... none of those votes count. So a re-vote happens. Only Denise and Sarah are eligible. Ben, Tony, Natalie and Michelle will vote. IF there is a tie again between Denise and Sarah, they will decide it with a fire-making challenge. Revote happens. And sadly, on the revote it is Denise who ends up leaving the game. We will miss the little munchkin of muscle. Back at Camp... ...Tony is up all night hunting for the new idol. He knows he really needs to replace the one he just squandered. But then... "Here comes the sun. And here comes everyone else". All up hunting for an idol. It is, of course, Natalie who finds it... the girl is pretty darn savvy. She shares the news with Michelle. Next Immunity Challenge For this challenge, race through a series of obstacles collecting a key along the way. They key will unlock two sandbags. First to land both sandbags on target wins immunity and a spot in the final four. This one begins in the water, up a ramp, over a beam where they collect they keys, onto the beach, under a net.. then finally to the target. Ben gets there first, followed by Natalie, Tony then Sarah. Michelle comes up last. Will we get a repeat of Michelle comes from behind to win? Not a chance. Ben lands one. Tony lands one. Ben and Tony battle it out and in the end... Tony WINS Immunity!! Natalie wants to break up the top three. That is clear to her. Tony is concerned she has an idol so he and Sarah got to work. Tony in the Spy Nest. Sarah leading Natalie to the water to get within earshot of Tony. And it pays off. Natalie does admit to Sarah that she has found the idol. So now they know. As the girls walk away.... ...Tony drops out of the tree. "That was the worst experience of my life. They talked for an hour. I almost died. But... I saw it. She has the idol." Tony and Sarah decide they must vote Michelle to protect Ben. Michelle knows she is the obvious target. But Ben has other thoughts. He gives Sarah permission to write his name down. "Use it for your resume so you can say that you were not dragged along in the game." This was an interesting moment with Ben. For some reason, it was more important to him to leave the game on his own terms - giving Sarah permission to vote him out - in order to preserve the friendships made in the game. Indication of a lot of soul searching with him, I think. (But...with two million dollars, you can BUY new friends, Ben!) Tribal Council Discussion about the "personal scrutiny" that the game of Survivor does to you. The journey is worth everything. Ben says this season is about growth for him; he wants to go home with friends and proud of who he was in the game. Tony talks about how your presepctive on the game changes when you are playing it then when you are watching it on TV. I suppose those of us who are only aware of what the edit lets us see would agree that it WOULD be different then actually being IN the game. Anyway, vote happens. Natalie plays her idol. Ben, Michelle, Ben, Michelle, Ben. Aw Ben... Sarah took you up on it! At least he is leaving the game happy. Final Immunity Challenge This is one we've seen many times both in the US and pretty recently on Australian Survivor (#GoDirtyHarry) Such great hand/eye coordination required for this one (also, extreme concentration). I'd be terrible at it... I know I would. Sadly, Tony is the first to miss and becomes first one out. Sarah goes out next, making it a battle between Natalie and Michelle. And it is... NATALIE who wins the challenge! This puts Natalie in that enviable position - deciding the fate of the other three at the final tribal council. Who will she take with her? Who will be making fire? Natalie didn't tell them what she wanted to do back at camp, so all three of them spent the day practicing fire-making. I think for most of us, the assumption was that Natalie would take Michelle, forcing Sarah and Tony to battle each other. She might forever wonder if she made the right choice (She most certainly did. She admitted she was weak at firemaking. Tony was seen coaching Sarah; he would never have done that for natalie. Tony would have spent the entire afternoon practicing alone. If Natalie had attempted a "Chris" move in the hope of impressing the jury, she would have ended up ON the jury!) Tribal Council Natalie chose to take Michelle... which was no surprise, really. Tony and Sarah, the Cops R Us alliance to the end would, would never turn on each other. Natalie and Michelle both know this. To make them battle it out in the fire-making challenge is the only sure way to be certain they are not both at final tribal council. It is an intense battle. For a minute, it looked like Sarah was going to win but then Tony somehow managed to get the win. After some genuine heartbreaking declarations of love ("If we're going to get shot, I want it to be by each other, not by someone else" my choice for the night's a/k/a/ title), Sarah joins the jury. Final Tribal Council Lots of good questions from the jury. I thought all three made a good case for themself. I admit, Natalie being the first booted out of the game did make me feel that she shouldn't win the game no matter how much I respect her as a person and how strong of a player she is. It was glorious watching Tony talk about his game, making the jury laugh at his antics - his brilliant antics, in my opinion. "How did you manage to vote us all out without anyone getting mad at you!" (It's a gift that only Tony can give). Michelle had a harder time making a good case for herself. But she should be proud of how well she played. As should Natalie. It was a huge feat for her to overcome the Edge and get back in the game. So let's get to the final vote. The vote to declare who wins. Tony, Natalie, Natalie, Tony, Natalie, Tony, Natalie, Tony, Tony, Tony, Tony, Tony, And The Winner is! TONY!!! A fantastic ending to an epic season. Congratulations Tony! You deserved this one!! Thanks to all of you for your continued support of our little site here. I know I don't say it often enough, but I appreciate each and every one of you for making this such a fun playground to play in! ______________________ Btw, I heard Jeff say "Committed to being on in the fall". Hope he's right about that. I know production was shut down for season 41 after the game began. Will be interesting to see how play resumes after such a long break...
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