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Perhaps it’s more a comment on the sad state of my life than a testament to the quality of this season of Survivor, but I’m seriously feeling a loss that it’s over. As Jeff Probst said at the beginning of the reunion show, the feedback is that this is the best season since the first, and I completely agree. And really, it went all the way to a very surprising result — kind of similar to the first season, in which I’m pretty sure most people thought Kelly would win over Richard.

The episode started with several scenes of celebration among the Final Four. They’d succeeded in getting all women to the finals, and in unprecedented fashion. There was more of the silly “pot-stirring” business, and plenty of basking in the no-men status of the island. The first immunity challenge had Natalie out to a huge lead initially, which could’ve been suspenseful in a “What will they do now?” sense, but it seemed fairly likely their solution would’ve been to vote off Cirie. Nonetheless, Natalie lost her lead and Amanda won immunity, and the female lovefest (”You all did so great!”) continued. Natalie thought she was doing some clever manipulation by talking to Parvati about how much this game has changed her personality, so much so that going into that Tribal Council I can’t say I was sure what would happen. Amanda and Parvati had a quick exchange about how Cirie just kind of coasted and didn’t “deserve” to be in the Final Three as much as Natalie (which was adorable since just about every one of those blindsides of the last few weeks had either been entirely Cirie’s idea or was at the very least perpetuated beautifully by her craftiness), and Cirie looked almost entirely defeated. Cirie correctly asserted at TC that she was at the bottom of the alliance of three, which immediately put Amanda on the defensive, and caused Natalie a boost as I guess she thought that their minor bickering could cause a big enough rift that Amanda would decide to vote off Cirie, but alas, it did not. The Amanda/Parvati/Cirie alliance indeed stayed intact. This was a smart move on the part of both Amanda and Parvati as it would allow them a certain credibility in a final tribal council (as in, “See? We at least stayed loyal to one alliance.”), but more likely was precipitated by their thinking that Cirie would get fewer votes for the $1M than Natalie would, as per their earlier bizarre discussion about Cirie being a weak player.

There was no celebration about being the Final Three. Amanda accused Cirie of having thrown her under the bus at Tribal Council (which is exactly what she did last season at this point in the game, and was wildly incorrect since she’s the one who kept pursuing the matter with Cirie in front of the jury), and they argued for a bit and then broke down into tears. (Thankfully Parvati did actually back up Cirie’s assertion that she was obviously the “lowest” of the alliance of three.) Hugs all around! The ladies were melting down; I felt kind of bad for them. All that strategy looked like a lot of fun, but once they got there and had to turn on each other, the fun was over.

Somehow, they were shocked that there would be one more Tribal Council and another immunity challenge, leading to a Final Two instead of Final Three. Why they were shocked is beyond me since they’d yet to do a “Hold this and concentrate for a really, really long time” endurance challenge or the Fallen Comrades Tribute. (We in the audience did have the advantage or already knowing, since all the ads told us there’d be three more Tribal Councils in the finale.) They were, however, understandably disappointed.

I have nothing to say about the Fallen Comrades tribute, as they’re often dull but necessary.

Amanda won immunity, which killed me. At that point I was rooting for Cirie because it was the one kind of challenge she could pull off, and she desperately needed it. It was not to be. Amanda was (I think sincerely) not enjoying being in the position of having to send one last person home. Parvati did a terrible job of convincing her that she shouldn’t take Cirie to the finals (telling Amanda that Cirie had pissed off a lot more people on that jury than Parv had — um, isn’t that a great reason to bring someone to the final TC?), but in the end Amanda stayed loyal to Parvati as expected. I honestly have no idea which would’ve been a better strategic decision. I might’ve made the same choice in Amanda’s shoes since a handful of people really did loathe Parv, but you never know. I think her tears at Tribal Council were real, so I think the eye-rolling from the jury was somewhat unwarranted, though who can blame them?

Cirie crying and apologizing to her family for coming up one short yet again was heartbreaking.

Amanda blew it once again at the final Tribal Council by claiming to have always been sincere, honest, and loyal. This was precisely her downfall last time. She should not have tried to apologize to Erik, she should’ve owned it. She should’ve told him that she had to tear him apart at the last few Tribal Councils in order for her plan to succeed, but instead she claimed it was sincere. When Alexis accused her voting-off-Cirie tears of being staged, she should’ve said that they were real but due to earlier performances she cannot blame them for thinking otherwise. Instead, she fell back on the doe-eyed good girl act, and it backfired again.

A few non-sequitur thoughts about the final questions:
- Eliza is frighteningly intense.
- Natalie is hilarious. I still don’t know what she was asking, but it was certainly something about how Parv’s flirtatious manipulation in Survivor “resonates in the bedroom.” Whatever it was, I loved it.
- Cirie managed to force the ladies to give her some credit for her gameplay. It wasn’t really relevant to her final vote, but the girl just wanted her due.
- Ozzy. I don’t even know what to say. He had absolutely no perspective (how did Parvati put a price on their friendship? Wasn’t he the one saying their friendship was over because she kept him from winning $1M?) and then further embarrassed himself by declaring his love for a woman he’d spent less than a month with. I appreciate that he’s crazy about the girl, but there’s a time and a place. (You know, the reunion show.)

I was a little surprised at the results. First of all, as usual, the ladies had looked better in the jungle than all gussied up for television. Second of all, I was truly surprised that Eliza voted for Parvati — all the others, sure. But I was thinking a tie could actually happen (and would love to know how it’d be handled).

A question. Didn’t the runner-up for Survivor used to get $100,000? Is this not the case anymore? Has this been replaced by the Player of the Season award voted on by viewers? That seemed to be the implication. In which case, bummer for Amanda again. And lucky for James again. Once he gets voted off for a legendarily stupid move and wins $100K, then he gets sent home for a finger injury and wins $100K. Really? The viewers don’t vote for someone with good strategy? Okay.

And now a few non-sequiturs about the reunion show:
- Joel. Scary, insecure. Wow, he really hasn’t gained any ability to laugh at himself. A “good edit?” He couldn’t just chuckle and admit defeat?
- Jonny Fairplay. Wow does Jeff Probst hate him. I love it.
- Mary? I barely remember her, but did she say that three weeks after meeting that dude from another season, he proposed? Or did I not understand correctly?
- Ozzy. Trying to make fun of Denise the Lunch Lady from last season and no one really picking up on it. Oops!
- Cirie, still looking heartbroken about this whole thing. Ouch.
- Natalie. She apparently has layers and is very complicated.
- Alexis is kind of brilliant. I really wish she’d gotten more screentime.
- Poor Erik. Poor, sweet Erik.

While I appreciate their promoting next season and will certainly watch it, I don’t think it can compete in a million years with this one. What could they possibly come up with? Any guesses about twists? Did Parvati win this one? Are you relieved Ozzy didn’t propose to Amanda? How scary is Joel?

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