Well, we made it to another Survivor finale. Australian Survivorfinished earlier this week, and now Survivor South Africa closes the book on their return. Different as these two seasons may be, it’s been nothing short of fantastic having this amazing show back in our lives. How did Immunity Island finish up? Does challenge beast Chappies have one more win in him or can Anela or Nicole pull off the upset? Do they show the entire reunion show first, saving the votes and winner reveal for the literal last two minutes of the show? Read on to find out!
Immunity Challenge
In the understatement of the season, the stakes for this challenge are massive. If Chappies wins, he not only holds the record for individual immunity wins, he rolls into the Final Tribal Council as the clear favorite to win. If either Nicole or Anela wins, they are all but certain to take the other with to the end. While that would be the most boring combination, it would be the most interesting matchup. Chappies would easily win against either Nicole or Anela. But if it’s those two, I think I’d give the initial edge to Nicole, but could see it going either way.
This final immunity challenge is a Survivor classic, harkening all the way back to season 1, Survivor: Borneo. The final three stand on two posts, staggered in heights, while touching an idol. Lift a foot off either post or remove your hand from the idol, and you’re out.
Anela is the first to fall. Down to Chappies and Nicole, challenge beast Chappies goes down. Balance beast Nicole wins the all-important final challenge, securing her spot in the final. She’s proven before to be very good at this type of challenge, so this result is hardly a surprise.
Pre-Tribal
Chappies believes he has about a 50/50 chance of Nicole taking him to the end. Nicole hasn’t played a big game, but she’s still a smart player. She has to know taking Chappies only cements her spot as the runner-up. Anela has tried to play a bigger game, but without much success. His own opinion of his game, by all accounts, is much higher than the reality of what he’s actually achieved in the game. But, it only matters how the jury perceives it. And, for this vote, how Nicole believes the jury perceives it.
Tribal Council
This was a pretty low-key, innocent Tribal. Chappies and Anela make their final pitches to Nicole, with Chappies waxing poetic about his time in the game. He makes a valiant effort, but it all sounds like someone who knows his time is up. And it is, as Nicole votes him out, making the final jury member and going to the final with Anela.
Final Tribal
This was a pretty tame Final Tribal. I think it probably had something to do with Nicole and Anela being who they are. Nicole was one of the most well-liked people on the cast (she even had several moments where she was joking around with the jury members, showing a strong friendship and comfort level with them), and Anela had pretty good relationships as well. Outside of Santoni against Anela, there were no real grudges, no scores to settle.
There honestly wasn’t anything all that interesting said or revealed, so I’ll just hit a few quick points.
Santoni, Shaun, Marisha, and Tyson all made statements rather than asking questions. It’s their moment, their prerogative to say and do what they want in this moment. But personally, I really don’t like this. If votes are truly up for grabs, a statement by the juror with no response from the finalists does nothing to serve that purpose. And in this case, that meant only 5/9 jurors even asked a question. Again, I’m not going to fault anyone for doing what they want here. But I wouldn’t be opposed to a rule change that jurors have to ask a question. Or, Survivor South Africa could go the U.S. route and make Final Tribal an open forum.
I don’t think there was any one moment that either player won or lost the game, but, for me, there were a couple key takeaways. Nicole had an answer focusing on being underestimated. She came into the game assuming she would be underestimated, and she reveled in that. It proved self-awareness – something I’ve always believed to be one of the most critical skills to have in Survivor and helped show the grit and determination with which she played the game.
The other big thing isn’t any single answer, but rather how Nicole and Anela answered the questions. Nicole’s answers were short, concise, and to the point. Anela’s were more long-winded and roundabout. To be fair, both could easily be a negative. But here, I think it really benefitted Nicole and hurt Anela. For Nicole, if you can effectively get your point across in fewer words, do so. Don’t use 10 words when 5 will do. On the Anela side of things, in my opinion, it came across as him not really having a good answer for many of the questions. He kind of had to talk his way into one. It felt a little like Michael Scott, that he was trying to find it along the way. There’s nothing from the jury that indicates they felt the same; that was just my interpretation.
Reunion/Winner
Yes, these get combined, because Survivor South Africa decided to really change things up here. Rather than the traditional move of going straight from Final Tribal into the reading of the votes, they did the full reunion show before the votes. They even showed Nicole and Anela making a trip back the Wild Coast Sun resort first! In a vacuum, I didn’t like it. But with the chaotic nature of this season, it actually felt pretty fitting. In addition to the reunion show, Chappies wins the Fan Favorite vote, winning a new Mahindra SUV.
But now for the main event. Nicole wins in a landslide 8-1 vote, with Anela owning receiving Shaun’s vote. I’m not surprised Nicole won, but I am a bit surprised it was this one-sided. I thought a 6-3 vote would have felt about right.
With this final two, Nicole was the right winner. She wasn’t flashy, she maybe didn’t have the biggest moves, but she was resilient, won a couple individual immunities, and played a fantastic social game. In the grander scheme of things, and thinking of the cast as a whole, neither would be very far up the list of who I would say would be “deserving” winners. But hey, that’s just how Survivor works. And as Boston Rob told Michele in Winners at War, if you won, it’s because you deserved to win. Nicole made it to the end, something perceived bigger threats Kiran, Tyson, Chappies, and others could not do. She must be commended for that. While it may not be a particularly exciting win, I have no complaints.
And there we have it, another international Survivor season finishes off a successful and fun return. After waiting for over a year for new Survivor, and with Survivor 41 premiering next week, we’re getting all we can handle, and it’s amazing. But to close out Survivor South Africa: Immunity Island, it was an extremely fun season. Much like season 6, Philippines, it was a very steady season. It had its share of highs, with no real low moments. Some quieter episodes, sure, but every episode had something. And just like the aforementioned 6th season, the absolutely dynamite cast helped propel the season the entire way.
We can now look ahead to an upcoming 9th season, though nothing official has been announced. But there should be every expectation that Survivor South Africa will return. So until then, dear readers…
…Or until next week, when I get to begin Survivor 41 coverage. Might as well take a quick moment to pitch that. I’ll be doing my regular recaps here (nothing there as of this writing, but you can find any coverage for Survivor 41here). I’ll also be recapping every episode on my Talking Llama podcast. You can subscribe on Apple here, everywhere else here. Those will be out each Thursday morning. We have our season preview episode up now, if you want to give that a listen. We’ll see you next week for the first scoop of the Survivor 41 crispy!
