Who Won Survivor: Recap
May 12, 2008 · Print This Article
Los Angeles (CMR) - I was at my dentist’s last week, which wasn’t all that unusual because there’s always something wrong with my teeth. I blame genes. But what was unusual was my dentist prepping for my root canal and asking me if I had watched the previous night’s Survivor. “How could Erik be so dumb?” he lamented. The hygienist and receptionist agreed, claiming this season was absolutely insane. It didn’t stop there. The most adorable old woman sitting in the waiting room piped up: “I love that show! I want Amanda to win.”
I told my boyfriend about my dental experience (after whining about the pain a bit first) and he informed me that his boss and colleague had had the Survivor watercooler discussion too. Girls on my ball team at Sunday morning practice yesterday were all talking about how they couldn’t wait for last night’s finale, making predictions and proclaiming their ultimate winners.
In my head, I was thinking, “hold on a second. I’m usually the person defending the show to you people when you tell me it’s dumb… what’s going on here?”
Survivor got good again. Really good. Unbelievably, freaking good. That’s what’s going on here.
When a second “All-Star” season was announced, there were raised eyebrows at some of the favourites picked for the job. Notable names were left out, whereas competitors such as Johnny Fairplay returned to the chagrin of many. And the fans — the fans just couldn’t seem to get it together enough to figure out how to stay strong and actually win a competition. Many people watching at home were groaning at the absurdity of these people and wondering how the heck they could claim to be the game’s biggest fans.
But as the season played out, there was a reason to watch every single episode — and talk about it the next day. No longer did we see contestants pick an alliance, refuse to flip, take everyone else out one-by-one, culminating in an ok or so-so season with an easily predictable winner.
Let’s recap why this season was so bloody brilliant, shall we?
- Not one, but two hot and heavy Survivor romances
- Johnny Fairplay deciding to quit the game after three days
- A fireman dragging a beauty pageant coach around an obstacle course in pure disdain
- The yelling match between Cirie and Jonathan
- Kathy’s emotional breakdown to the point where she had to leave the game
- A puncture wound that was improperly stitched up and terribly infected, leading to Jonathan being forced out of the game
- Chet’s injured foot forcing him to call it quits (he was going to be medivac’d out had he stayed past Tribal Council)
- James being forced from the game thanks to a severely infected finger, and his subsequent arrival for jury duty with an IV bag
- Ami’s torn ACL (did anyone else notice the brace on last night’s live reunion?)
- Alexis’ bone contusion on her knee (she just finished physio a couple of weeks ago)
- Ozzy’s fake hidden immunity idol which led to the best conversation about stupidity between Jason and Eliza we’ve probably ever seen on Survivor
- Ozzy’s blindside the next episode when he didn’t play his hidden immunity
- Jason’s blindside the episode after that when he didn’t play his hidden immunity
- Alexis’ blindside when the girls turned on Amanda, who actually played the hidden immunity idol
- Erik giving up his individual immunity and then being tossed from the game
- A shocker for the final three when it turned out the rules had been switched back to a final two (I knew it as soon as I saw they hadn’t done the walk of Survivors past going into what turned out to be the second-to-last immunity challenge)
- Ozzy’s total jury freakout, à la Susan from Borneo towards Parvati, and proclamation of love towards Amanda
- A woman winning the show for the first time since Guatamala, and for the seventh time in 16 instalments
I know a lot of people weren’t rooting for Parvati to win, but let’s look at this logically: between her and Amanda she spent the most time with Jason, Eliza, Natalie and Alexis. That’s four votes right there. Jason hardly even knew Amanda. And as much as she was mean and flirted with everyone (what was up with her and Natalie, are they together?!?) Parvati orchestrated this entire game. Amanda couldn’t have made it as far as she did without Parvati. I’m not sure Amanda could have won against Cirie, but I think she would have had a better shot since they were together the entire time, and Cirie didnt’ win any challenges (to my recollection).
Parvati’s win came as a bit of a surprise when you consider this season’s editing, but when it comes down to who will do better with the million bucks, well Parvati is a charity organizer, whereas Amanda is an aspiring fashion designer.
I was rooting for Amanda too, but I’m just saying.
The sad news is that there is no way next season can live up to the spectacle that was Micronesia. Gabon looks to be a beautiful place, and I’m excited to see the nature and animals that live there, but I’m scared it will be to Micronesia what Vanuatu was to the first All-Stars: awful.
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