Surviving the Amazon Reunion

Probst moves ahead to when she was voted out. He notes that she did have the power – not as long as she thought – but for while. What happened? Christy points to Rob and says it was this man over here. Probst says he doesn’t think so. She had the vote. She says she didn’t play backstabbing games or sneaky or make sure the plan was really working. Probst counters that she didn’t have a plan!

He asks Jenna and Heidi, if Christy said she was going to vote with you, what would the result have been. They both say it would have happened. Heidi says they each promised her that if they made it to the final three, one of them would take her to the final two. Hmmm. I’m skeptical, and I suspect Christy was as well. So what about Rob? He says all she had to say was, “Rob I’m in.”

Speaking of Rob, it’s time to talk to him. Probst asks him to describe to future contestants what the key is. Rob says they should read all of David Bloomberg’s articles on RealityNewsOnline and… Wait, no, he didn’t say that. But I can dream, right? Anyway, he says to always know where you stand and have working relationships with every person. You don’t need to be their friend or have an alliance with them, but you need to know where they stand and where they think they stand. Then if you find out you’re not in the bigger group, you have to flip the situation. Sometimes you need to lie, backstab, cheat, steal, whatever. So, Probst asks, back in Survivor: Thailand, when Brian told Jan that Helen was fourth and she would be third, you say she shouldn’t have just accepted it but figured out a plan? He says yes, you need to go to whoever else is out there.

Now they jump to Dan and Ryan on (or, more accurately, off) the balance beam. Uh oh. Ryan covers his face, Dan laughs. Probst says it seems like it was Dan’s fault yet Ryan was the first out. What’s it like to think you’re the hottest guy there and then be sent packing? Ryan responds that first he liked the jetski thing (in the finale), that was really cheap. (What? You know, Ryan, you only get one thing to say at the reunion – you probably shouldn’t have made it a dumb comment like that.) He continues that he didn’t have much strategy. All the guys were strong willed. After he didn’t cross, it was over.

On to Daniel, who Probst points out had malaria after he got back. Dan says it was the most excruciating two weeks of his life. Living with Roger was a walk in the park compared to what he went through with that. Heh. See, Ryan, that’s how you make a clever remark in a short period.

After another commercial, Probst says happy Mother’s Day to his mom on TV. Aww. But I still am wondering why they put the finale on Mother’s Day instead of the usual Thursday. I guess I’ll never be a TV executive.

Next season: Survivor: Panama! Each tribe will have their own island! And the marooning will be unlike anything experienced by previous survivors. (What, are they gonna be parachuted in?)

Back to the just-finished series. Probst says people are still talking about Heidi and Jenna taking off their clothes for peanut butter and chocolate (and I suspect they will be talking about it for some time to come!). What reaction did they get? Probst notes that Jenna lives at home – what did her parents think? She says her parents never are disappointed in her, but she can’t say they were proud. She was starving, it was done, let’s get over it and move on. She told her dad when he there for the visit, figuring the love at seeing her would overshadow it, and then he broke it to her mom. Heh, gotta hand it to her for that one. She says she can’t say it was her shining moment, but she loves food. OK, I still don’t get this. Probst was going to bring out food anyway to entice them to jump out of the challenge (as he did after Jenna and Heidi did their stripping routine). So I still don’t understand why they needed to strip for it!

Probst moves to Heidi, noting that she’s a school teacher, so why would she risk that? Heidi admits it was tough going home, but she has a supportive family. She lost close to 20 pounds at that point and looked disgusting. Probst asks if she’s saying the reason she stripped was hunger. Yes. There was no way she was losing out. She couldn’t help it. Again, why couldn’t she have just jumped to get it? Sigh.

Deena was not ready to strip for food, but apparently there was one time when she was about ready to throw in the towel. She says yes, even though she came in with a boatload of body fat, they lost the Coke challenge and she got depressed. She was thinking she’s an attorney, she makes too much money for this – get her out of there. (No, Deena, that’s a different show.)

Back to Heidi, Probst notes that when he was going over material for the reunion, he found that Heidi has the highest IQ score of all of them – even higher than rocket scientist Dave. Oy. There goes my faith in IQ tests. But as one former contestant told me (I won’t name the person), they want to see the test!

Probst continues and says that the high IQ didn’t come out on show. Heh. Why not? Heidi says thank goodness it didn’t. She knew she had athleticism and intelligence. If both came out, there was no way she’d have made it. You have to check your pride in this game. Well, there’s no doubt that she did that!

As we come back from commercial, the camera scans the audience from the furthest back it’s been. It’s not quite enough to see me, but it is enough for another web person to hold up a drawing of an unhappy person they’d brought along in case Jenna won (they had a happy one for if Matt had won). Actually, you could see the edge of my buff that I was swirling for about a fraction of a second. Woohoo!

As we approach the end, we find that Rob’s Magic 8-Ball did actually survive Butch’s fire and still works, despite being half-melted. To end on a nice moment, Roger and Dan are asked if there is any reconciliation? Yeah. They both agree and share a manly hug. Awww.

So there we have it! The sixth season of Survivor is over, but the arguments over what the jury was thinking will continue for quite a while to come, if the e-mail I’m receiving is any indication. If you haven’t already make sure to read Why Butch Lost, Why Rob Lost, Why Matthew Lost, and Why Jenna Won. I’ll likely have a follow-up soon to address some of the comments I’ve received, so watch for that as well!

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at rno@pobox.com.

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