Okay, let's go over the pool results first. Andrea came back from Redemption Island but was immediately voted out again which did not make a huge impact on the pool, besides creating more distance between entries. Entries that had Rob got double points (180) for the final tribal council.
Everyone who won a prize were first time winners! LeeAnn squeaked by Devin to take 1st place, forcing him to take 2nd. Amy jumped from 5th to 3rd, forcing Brad to take 4th. Kristie had no competition for last place. So the prizes are:
- 1st, $225: LeeAnn (played 3 seasons)
- 2nd, $90: Devin (played 1 season)
- 3rd, $70: Amy (played 5 seasons)
- 4th, $45: Brad (played 3 seasons)
- Last, $20: Kristie (played 1 season)
Prize winners, please send me your mailing address where I can mail a cheque, OR preferably, your email address if you have Interac e-Transfer setup. I prefer e-Transfers because I don't have to worry about cheques getting lost in the mail, and it gets taken out of my bank account right away. I just completed my very first two e-transfers recently (both sending and receiving) and it was quick and easy.
Okay, some stuff I want to say about the season finale in a very random order:
- I'm tired of the "I'm over here and you're over there" reasonings for finalists used against the jury. If a finalist hasn't played the game well enough to give themselves a good chance to win the game at the end, they might as well be sitting on the jury anyway. What I'm saying is, riding coattails will almost never get you enough votes to win at the end so you must as well try something drastic to put you in a winning position. I think it's really embarrassing for finalists who get no votes.
- I was very bitter when I only found out at the reunion show that Ashley and Natalie knew that Rob had the immunity idol. Had I known, I wouldn't have been cursing at the girls for not flipping on Rob during that tribal council of 5 remaining.
- Russell, at the reunion show, should have given his tribe a harder time about throwing the challenge, nailing home the fact that soon afterwards they lost every immunity challenge and got picked off one by one.
- I think everyone was disappointed with Phillip's speech to the jury. We were all hoping he would play the "faked insanity to insure my place at the finals" card, but it turns out he really is that... strange (as a nice way of putting it).
- Natalie and Phillip actually thought they had chances of winning after admitting they owe their success to Rob? Dave was very accurate during his jury speech to the other jurors regarding this.
- As Probst said it, Rob played the most perfect game in the history of Survivor. He had total control over his large alliance, wasn't a jerk to anyone (which cost Russell $1M during his first season), found the immunity idol and kept it a secret (mostly), and even won individual immunity challenges himself. Congrats Rob.
Survivor is still successful enough to do another season! Two previous contestants are returning again (I'd rather they didn't), as well as Redemption Island (not sure how I feel about that). I hope this season isn't full of blind sheep following the shepherd - too scared or stupid to pull drastic moves - like the last two seasons. See you all again in September for season 23. Hope you all enjoyed and still enjoy the pool.
Have a great summer,
Jay
