Surviving the Fiji Reunion: It All Comes Back to Dreamz

Survivor: Fiji has ended with a great finale, even though my choice for a winner (Yau-Man) didn’t get the win. Now it’s time to move immediately to the live reunion!

We begin with several clips of Earl in the game, talking about how he was going to keep his friends close and enemies closer, how everything would go through him, how he would not again let people convince him to do things he knew were wrong, and him chopping a snake in half on Exile Island because he just couldn’t take the chance – how appropriate.

Back in New York City, host Jeff Probst says Earl never once had his name written down until it mattered, when it was written down by all of the jurors. Not bad for a guy who never won an individual immunity challenge and didn’t even know he was coming on the show until two days before flying to Fiji!

Earl says he remembers the call to come on the show and he didn’t know what he was getting himself into, but he figured it out when he got there. He says it was on-the-job training. He’d seen the first season and some of the show since then, but he’s a busy guy and doesn’t watch a lot of TV. Now he’s a big fan!

Probst says it seems his relationship with Yau-Man seemed to be the hub of everything. When did that relationship form? Earl says they formed an alliance on day one. Did they have an agreement to get to a certain point in the game? Earl says they were supposed to go all the way to the end together. But the closer they got, strategy changed, and they said top five or four, every man for himself.

What was it about Earl that made Yau-Man trust him? Yau-Man says they were stuck in the horrible conditions on Ravu and Earl had the best work ethic and became much closer to him than anybody else.

What’s the status of the friendship today? Earl says they will be friends for life, and Yau-Man shakes his hand.

Was there one key moment for Earl to win? He says it was unfortunately when he had to vote out Yau-Man. He was the biggest competitor at that point. Probst points out that for that to happen, it goes back to Dreamz not giving up immunity. Earl says he was shocked – he was already thinking about what he would say to the jury when he was up against Yau-Man in the finals!

Earl says when Dreamz reneged on the deal, he was like, “Wow, I just won a million dollars.” Heh. Probst asks if Earl really knew it then. Earl says it came down to basic thinking and he knew the jury would be mad.

What if Dreamz had kept his word? How many jury votes would he have gotten? At least six jurors (Boo, Lisi, Rocky, Mookie, Alex, and Stacy) raise their hands, which would have been enough to give him the win. Ouch. You know, that really has to hurt Yau-Man a little. I mean, Dreamz screwed him over when he had no chance of winning himself, and because of it, he took a million dollars from Yau-Man.

Probst is thinking along the same lines I am. He says Dreamz affected three lives. He cost himself and Yau-Man a million bucks, and he gave it to Earl. Earl thanks him while Dreamz jokes about how he’s a good guy. I bet Yau-Man would disagree.

After a commercial break and a few Dreamz scenes from the show, Probst has some questions for Dreamz. But first, Probst asks him to give some perspective on how the way he grew up changes him coming into this game. Dreamz says it actually helped out a lot because he never thought of stopping because of the conditions. He was more affected by falling in and out of humanity – making friends vs. playing the game.

Probst wondered if he was going to be socially overwhelmed. Was he ever unsure how to act, or did he have a plan the second he got there? Dreamz planned before he got there. When he got there, the plans changed according to who was there. But the first day he got there, he talked to Earl and said they should make it to the final five. But then they were separated. Dreamz stuck with Cassandra but the other two were eliminated.

So, Probst asks, from day one he knew what he was doing? Dreamz says no. New question: Was he making it up or did he know what he was doing? Was he in charge of the decisions? Dreamz says he was never in charge of anything. He had to slither his way through. But his decisions were unpredictable because if he saw somebody’s plans were going through and they’re competing for a million dollars, only one plan could go through. Yeah, I replayed that several times and still don’t know what the heck he just said.

Probst is apparently in the same boat, and so he asks: “Did you know exactly what you were doing from day one?” Dreamz says he doesn’t know what Probst is saying, and Probst says he knows exactly what he’s saying, and then turns to the audience to say this is exactly what it was like for 39 days. Ha!

Trying again, Probst asks Cassandra if Dreamz was flying by the seat of his pants or playing the part of a guy flying by the seat of his pants. She says he was playing the part. He knew exactly what he was doing and he had thought it out. He’s a smart guy. She trusted him because they communicated well, and he knew what people were thinking and how they would act in different situations and different scenarios. He would run them through his head and then would come back and tell her how he thought it would go down. The thing that amazed her was the way he got back in the good graces of people after having made some difficult decisions.