What a finale! History was made tonight on the finale of Survivor: Ghost Island. That’s right, I made the correct winner pick for the first time since season 13, Cook Islands. It feels good to add another tally to the win column. But in actual historical news, we did see a Survivor first and what a first it was. After the 10 jury members cast their vote for the winner, Probst comes back and says he’s going to read the votes. Of course I, and likely the castaways, and well, probably everyone else watching the show, assumed he was only joking. But then he takes the top off the urn and pulls out a vote.
Aside: Yeah, two was probably unnecessary. But come on. Leslie Nielsen. Couldn’t resist. Anyway.
Even at this point, I didn’t fully believe he was going to read the votes. But sure enough, he starts reading them off. Like I’m assuming most fans did, I assumed what was likely happening: We were witnessing the first ever tie in Survivor history. And sure enough, the vote ends deadlocked. Five for Wendell, five for Dom. As we recently found out, in this scenario, the player not involved in the tie (Laurel) casts the final, and deciding, vote.
This was awesome. And Laurel was the perfect person to be in this position. She had long been a position of potential power, had she chosen to take it. She had gone back and forth about voting out Dom and/or Wendell for weeks. And now here she was, forced to cast a vote for one of them. Except this time, it was what just might be the most iconic vote in the show’s history. I’d say maybe only the fourth and final vote for Richard back in Borneo could rival this one, if only for the significance in the show’s lore.
This vote, however, Probst keeps for the traditional live finale. Yet again Probst disappointed fans everywhere by simply walking the votes in. No jet ski, no subway ride, no skydive, no motorcycle ride. Nothing.
Come on, Probst! Give the people what they want! He reads the vote, confirming Wendell’s win.
Since we’re already here, let’s talk about the rest of that Final Tribal Council, before getting back to the rest of the episode. While I still don’t like the forced topics of “Outwit, Outplay, and Outlast,” the open discussion format worked wonders for this season. It’s been great not to have to deal with all the terrible, pointless questions that would inevitably come up with the “each jury member asks a question” format. “Why did you vote me out?” “Why should you not win?” “Is Kellyn making that face right now because she hates my question?” You know, the standards.
The open format provides for a much freer discussion, so even if someone brings up a point like that, production will likely have so many other moments to choose from that those boring moments can easily be edited out. Speaking of not being boring, Sea Bass was gracious enough to gift us one last A+ quote. In talking to Dom about his idol theatrics (we’ll get to that later), he thinks Dom overdid it a bit.
“That was brutal. I’m a lover. I played from my heart. I didn’t even have strategy, you know?”
Sea Bass is awesome; I love that man. Yeah he wasn’t the greatest player and didn’t seem to be making any real strategic efforts (which he confirmed with that quote) but man was he enjoyable to watch.
Furthering that point, what ends up being shown on TV is the most interesting topics, likely driven by the most interesting players. Nothing against Angela, Chelsea, Jenna, and Libby, but I don’t think we got more than a word or two (if even that) from any of them. And that fits their narrative for the season. We didn’t see much from them at all. That was likely because they weren’t very compelling in their confessionals. If that was the case, it’s reasonable to assume that would have carried over into the FTC discussion as well. This was just a long-winded way of me saying I’m all in on this FTC format, and I hope it sticks around for a good long while. So that’s the end of the season. But how did this finale get us there? Let’s go back and take a look.
Back at camp after the previous Tribal Sea Bass is finally getting sick of hiding behind Dom and Wendell. “I’m a big boy too,” he says. Tell me your mind didn’t immediately go to this commercial at that line.
He talks about his extra vote advantage and how the time might be now to make a big move. And that kids, is called foreshadowing.
We get to the first Immunity Challenge of the night, and man what a challenge it was. It wasn’t necessarily the challenge itself that was so great. The challenge was a solid, standard “Race through a maze, collect puzzle pieces, solve puzzle.” late-game immunity challenge. It was the size of the whole thing. Probst pointed out what we could all tell, that this was “one of the biggest mazes we have ever done on Survivor.” Wendell finishes the puzzle first and this time there’s no way he’s forgetting to call Jeff over to confirm the win. Wendell gets his first immunity win of the season and it could not have come at a better time. With this win, plus his idol, he guaranteed himself a spot in the Final 4.
This win also came with a reward in the form of a steak dinner waiting back at camp. He gets to choose one person to join him. His first choice is Sea Bass, “repaying the favor.” He gets to choose one more and Wendell wants to “share the wealth a bit” and picks Angela. Now is it a coincidence that both Sea Bass and Angela ultimately voted for Wendell to win? Maybe, but it certainly couldn’t have hurt Wendell when it came down to it.
At camp, there’s a plan a-brewin’ to finally get Dom out of the game. Sea Bass tells Donathan and Angela about his extra vote and how he wants to use it to vote out Dom. They’re both on board; Angela in particular is excited, going so far as saying, “I like the opportunity to be part of a plan. I’m in the loop for once.” Oh, Angela. If that doesn’t scream “You have no chance to win,” I don’t know what does. Wait, it appears I spoke too soon.
Angela IMMEDIATELY tells Dom about Sea Bass’s advantage and that they’re gunning for him. So much for being part of that plan, Angela. Well, better luck next time, I guess. (There won’t be a next time).
The first Tribal Council of the evening was a doozy. Donathan tries to act like he knows he’s going home and that’s accepted his fate. But Dom is having none of it, saying, “I don’t buy it for one second. He’s been speaking at every Tribal Council and all of a sudden he’s got nothing to say? Who’s buying it? I’m not buying it. I believe there is something going on that he’s not telling us, so I’ll let him start and if he has nothing to say, I’ll take over the story.” Donathan keeps up his ruse so Dom continues, outing to everyone that knows exactly what their plan is before showing off the tricks he’s got up his selves. “My pockets are loaded. And I’m prepared to just break out pockets. I got gear. I got merchandise.”
He proceeds to take out both is real and his fake idol, which he claimed had matured into a real idol, something that would be very believable, given how some of the other idols and advantages had worked throughout the season. Wendell wants to get it on the fun, too. Even though he has Immunity, he also pulls out his real and fake idols. And all of a sudden he’s wearing three different necklaces. All we’re missing is that Flavor Flav clock and we’d be all set.
This is when Dom his (first) move and hands the fake idol over to Jeff — before the votes have been cast. His next move comes soon after, as he elects not to play his real idol. Unbelievable. I get the thinking. He knows if he can make it through this vote without using his idol, he has a guaranteed pass into the Final 4. But still, he knows he was the target coming into the vote. Could he really be that confident that his ploy had worked? Well ultimately it did as the plan was left on the cutting room floor as Shaggy Rogers Sea Bass is voted out. (I bet you didn’t know Shaggy’s last name was Rogers, did you? I honestly didn’t even know he had a last name until I fired up the ol’ Google machine.)
This Tribal was great; it had everything. Plus Dom, and to a lesser extent, Wendell, made these big, loud actions right in front of the jury. Those are the things that get remembered.
On to Immunity #2. Each player swam to platform, climbed up, slid down, ran through a series of obstacles, collecting puzzle pieces along the way. The fun twist here was that the puzzle was only four pieces. Four! I thought it would be a joke, whoever got to the puzzle first would win hands down. If I’m remembering correctly, Wendell did get to the puzzle portion first, but damn that puzzle turned out to be way more difficult than I thought. But nevertheless, Wendell pulls it out again. Now he has Immunity plus that idol that can only be used at the next Tribal Council. What to do, what to do. It doesn’t take too long to find out.
At the subsequent Tribal, Dom plays his idol and Wendell plays his extra idol for Laurel. He even gives a little speech about it, how Laurel reminds his of his sister, Lauren. This was all well and good, but it ultimately meant nothing, as Wendell and Dom had already settle on Donathan. But still, it’s a showy move in front of the jury, and could help sway Laurel to his side if she were to become the last member of the jury.
And finally the last Immunity Challenge of the night and of the season. Each player is to balance on a wobbly beam, using a pole to stack balls on a stand. After the required series of falling stacks, Dom pulls out the win, his third of the season. The group finds they have one last visit to Ghost Island before the next Tribal Council. Dom also gets a note that he is to read in private.
That note gives Dom another decision to make, though this one is just ceremonial in nature. He gets to choose which “cursed” urn the FTC votes will be placed in. He three to choose from: Australian Outback (where Colby took Tina to the end, and lost); Cagayan (Woo took Tony to the end, and lost); and Game Changers (Brad Culpepper took Sarah to the end, and lost). Dom chooses the Cagayan urn, which was the correct choice. But not because of any “curse reversing” or anything like that. No, that urn was simply the coolest looking of the three.
That leaves us with just one last decision to see Dom make, and that is who to bring with him to the end, and who gets sent to the stupid, terrible, needs-to-go fire making challenge. It played out exactly how it did last season. Both times, the player who easily would have been voted out (Ben and Wendell) was sent to the challenge and won, earning their spot in the Final 3. Not only does this twist give players an undue second chance at life, it rewards them by giving them a huge, public moment right in front of the jury.
Dom even considered giving up his immunity, and sending himself to the fire challenge against Wendell. He knew neither Angela nor Laurel stood any real chance at beating Wendell. He knew they knew it, and he knew Wendell knew it. If you’ve been reading my recaps, you likely read that sentence and know what’s coming next…
That’s right. It’s been so good to me, I’m glad I can fit it one last time during this Survivor season.
Ultimately Dom keeps immunity and brings Laurel with him to the Final 3. Angela and Wendell go to the fire stations, get situated, compose themselves…what’s that? It’s already over? Did Angela even know it started? Wendell completely and thoroughly crushed her here. Did this final triumphant image of Wendell sway anyone’s vote? Can’t say for sure. But, just like his decision to take Sea Bass and Angela on the reward, and giving Laurel his immunity idol, it certainly didn’t hurt his chances.
We already covered the Final Tribal, so that brings us to the end of another Survivor season. I rather enjoyed this season. And I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I FINALLY made another correct winner pick. Nope, not at all. There are a few main reasons. For so long, the show was setting up a Dom and Wendell showdown. Anything less than that at the FTC would have been a letdown. Think about if Angela had won the fire challenge. Or if Dom had made one of the biggest moves ever in Survivor (the biggest move ever?) and put himself in there against Wendell and won.
Either way we would have been left with a Final 3 of Dom, Angela, and Laurel. There would have been no need to even have the Final Tribal. Probst could have written Dom a check right there from his own personal account, they could have gone back to Ponderosa and partied the night away. But we were gifted what was the tightest Final Tribal of all time. And that’s something that can’t be taken for granted.
On another note, how hard must that have been for Laurel? Keeping that secret for so long? Other than whoever the few people are from CBS who know the final result, she was the only person who knew. I don’t know how much juries talk about the final vote in between the time their season finishes filming and the time it airs. But even if there is some talk, I bet it’s unlikely enough would spill the beans where you could say with certainty who the winner was.
Not this time though, not for Laurel. I don’t know about her, but I might have had a nervous breakdown if I were in her place. For sure I would have at least given up drinking from the moment I left Tribal Council until the moment that vote was read. I can easily see myself letting it slip on some random Saturday night out. Wouldn’t that just be the worst? Good on her for keeping it to herself for all this time.
Might as well talk about the reunion sh…and it’s over. That was a disappointment. Even though they can be hit or miss, I always look forward to the reunion show. But this season the show itself went so long and they spent all their extra time promoting the new CBS show TKO, hosted by Kevin Hart. It looks eh. It’s just a rip-off of the (I’m assuming) far superior Most Extreme Elimination Challenge.
Not sure how I feel about next season, Survivor: David vs. Goliath. Definitely feels like one of those themes that simply won’t matter any more once the first swap happens, if it even lasts that long. I’ll be putting something together with some personal suggestions for changes, fixes, new ideas, etc. for the show. Don’t know when it will be out, just sometime before the start of the next season. But you can bet there will be a mention or two about the season themes.
And I’ll leave you with this, an overview of theGhost Island cast and who I would like to see come back (or not) from this season.
Definitely want to see play again
Wendell – Of course
Dom – Obviously; one of the most entertaining players in a long time. A great mix between gameplay ability and personality.
Kellyn – I decided I’m in on Kellyn. I went back and forth the later part of the season, but she’s good for the show.
Michael – Might not last too long after this performance but he would make a great returnee.
Chris – The Noble One, of course he needs to come back. Too much fun not to be brought back.
Brendan – I think he has a lot of game left to play. Was fun to watch while he was out there.
Can take or leave
Laurel
James
Chelsea – Surprising, I know. But I think she got kind of a raw deal on the edit. She gave off some flashes here and there that she had more to offer.
Sea Bass – Strictly from an entertainment standpoint.
Libby – Same reasoning as Chelsea. If you follow her anywhere on social media, she seems much more fun and engaging than she came off as on the show. I’d like to see her get another chance to show what she’s got.
Morgan
Des
Jacob
No thank you
Angela
Stephanie G.
Bradley – Was hoping for a sort of Spencer 2.0. Was sorely disappointed. I don’t think I’d complain if he came back, but I certainly won’t be petitioning for his return.
Stephanie J – I liked her more than I thought I would, but she was just too much while giving us too little. Like Bradley, I wouldn’t be upset if she got to play again, but I think the show can move on from her.
Donathan – He was fine, but he wore on me by the end of the season.
