Survivor: Caramoan - FINALE

PLEASE LET ME BE ON THE SHOW!

It is bittersweet to be writing this post tonight... Excited at the amazing finale, but sad say goodbye to Survivor for a few months once again... At least I know Jeff Probst has his bags packed and is still going to host the show for the next year! I was almost afraid that with Boston Rob's appearance, they were going to announce him taking over for Jeff as host. Not yet, people, please!

But let's talk about the season, shall we? It has definitely been a roller coaster, with some awful moments and some really standout/epic ones, but ultimately I'm SUPER happy with the outcome, both on the Sole Survivor front (called it!) and on the Player of the Season front (Malcolm, I love you.).

In my final video of the season, I go over my thoughts on the Reward Challenge advantage, the Eddie vs. Dawn in Final Three dilemma, the Final Tribal speeches and questions, and some thoughts on next season's Blood vs. Water theme...

Can't wait to hear your thoughts, and look out for my upcoming Best Survivor Players of All Time post to complement my Favorite Survivor Players of All Time, and my soon-to-be updated (yet again) Hottest Guys and Girls of Survivor!

Survivor: Caramoan - Episode Thirteen

All smiles... for now.

Just when I thought the season was out of surprising twists and blindsides... here we are.

Let's recap a little here: for the past twelve episodes, I've been pretty frustrated with Brenda's gameplay, aside from her impressive physical strength and hotness. She was playing the 'lay-low' card, hoping that'd bring her the million dollars. While that's a possible outcome, I like to think that Jury members in general value taking risks and making moves and showing strength more than just liking a person, and luckily, it seems like this Jury is going to take its job seriously -- at least I hope. [That means that if Eddie makes it to the end somehow, I hope Malcolm won't necessarily just vote for him because he was his amigo... Reynold, let's not even go there.]

Then, we find ourselves in an episode where all of a sudden, the unthreatening, non-strategic Brenda becomes this huge threat to win, by continuously showing strength in challenges and then pulling the sympathy card by giving up her time with her Dad to offer up extra special time to 4 out of the 6 remaining contestants -- a twist which I found totally excessive by the way. Taking two additional people with you is huge already, and I think she should have done that. No one could have said she did the wrong thing. I mean come on, her reunion with her Dad made Jeff cry! Not to mention that she did peg Cochran as a threat and was planning to eliminate him after voting out Eddie. Which DAWN ESSENTIALLY TOLD COCHRAN.

So, while really hard to watch and borderline cruel, voting out Brenda was the best move for Cochran to win. Getting Dawn on board for that was huge, because I think Dawn would stand a better chance to win against Brenda than Cochran... and not at least letting Eddie know to vote for Brenda for that extra name was a big gamble too. If Dawn hadn't flipped, that would have been the end of Cochran. Brenda's exit interview was certainly the most difficult and heart-wrenching to watch I can remember, but ultimately, she should have played a more strategic game -- while still being humble if that's what she was aiming for.

I talk about all this in greater detail, and a few more things, in my video below... Can't wait to hear your thoughts. Next up.... the finale!!!

Survivor: Caramoan - Episode Twelve

From Survivor Top 8 to Survivor Top 6... Families next!

Double elimination this episode, with one predictable (and self-fulfilled) outcome and one "stealthy" blindside. We've got our traditional stupid and short-sighted Eddie/Reynold moves, some Stealth R' Us strategy with Andrea and Cochran, and some good ol' fashioned "I've got the power" talks that don't actually mean anything. Ultimately, a decent episode I'd say, though still up to par with the two-three we saw in past weeks.

Another thing I talk about in this vid is Malcolm's Survivor After-Show episode (thanks for the must-watch tip, Kevin!), which makes me feel a little better about his elimination and less like he dropped the ball by not looking for the Idol further. I'd highly recommend watching if you have a 'mo (even if the intro is a bit corny, haha). It also confirms a lot of things I said about Malcolm's gameplay in the past few weeks, teehee.

In other news, I met Andrea last week! She was at the same yoga class as I was, practicing about 3 mats away from me. We chatted very briefly after the class and it was perfect timing given her stellar balance performance at the challenge that aired just a couple of days later. Can I please meet Malcolm next???!!

Looking forward to your comments... and don't forget to check out the Ponderosa videos too! Here's Andrea's first one, and here's Reynold's.