An "Insider" Look at the Survivor: Palau Finale: Holding On

Wow, what a game! As I said before, I love the guys who play the game all-out, and Tom was definitely that person. It’s the first time I can remember that you looked at a Survivor contestant on day one and thought, “He is a favorite to win this,” and he actually does. It would be like Rupert winning Pearl Islands or Hunter winning Marquesas. It had a lot to do with him being in a strong alliance (and voting out Gregg before the predetermined time), a lot to do with his tribe dominating (no chance of getting voted out early or Pagonged), and a lot to do with Tom just flat-out dominating the game. Others will blame poor strategic performance by the other Koror, but that’s a small part of it. Tom won this game, and Tom deserves his victory.

Jennifer’s Final Words: She lasted 37 days, she fought to the end and she feels really good about that. It’s been THE most amazing experience she’s ever had. She enjoyed every day, no matter what was going on. She even cherished the craziness. She doesn’t regret anything, she played the hardest she could and the best game she could. She hung in there for 37 days. She guesses she should have learned to make fire at some point. She’s thrilled, and can’t wait to take a shower and eat some food, maybe listen to some music.

She thought the fact that she never made a fire might come back to haunt her, because when Janu was sent out by herself she had to make fire. After that, Caryn made an effort to learn, and it was a really stupid mistake not to learn. Maybe it should be added to “What Guatemalan Survivors Should Have Learned.” But they always had guys doing it and she took it for granted.

She’s proud of the way she played. It’s a very social game and she tried to be nice to people and not make too many promises. She wanted to stay friendly and not be annoying, and she liked the way she played. At the end, she’s glad she can say she doesn’t have any regrets.

The experience was incredible, she takes a lot for granted – family, friends… food (laughs). Who knew that she could survive in the wilderness for 37 days and be a part of a social game that really messes with your head? She tried to sink in the surroundings as much as possible, and she’ll never forget it.

She learned that she has a really high tolerance for a lot of things, like people skills, so many things she can’t begin to explain. She didn’t know how to deal without the comforts and she thinks she did really well. She kept a positive attitude and she’s happy about that. Not shocked, she thought she’d do all right, but it makes you look inward.

She proved that she is not the girly-girl that people think she is. She did all those challenges in her skirt, which is funny because she never wears a skirt back home. She did have to prove it early on, because she got pegged as the girly girl right away. She knew it would happen because of the way she looks, and she’s glad she was able to do it. She thinks people ended up respecting her and her game.

Jennifer, the Day After: She feels fantastic. She feels like she didn’t really get voted off. She did her best, losing at the Immunity Challenge was a bummer, but she fought her way through it. She didn’t get voted out by her peers and she’s happy about that.

The game is incredible. She has the utmost respect for the way the game goes. The rules change when it gets to the final four, and she’s glad she got to play it out. It just didn’t go her way. Of course, it could have gone a different way, but someone (Katie) made a choice. But she did what she could, she stirred things up at camp which was out of character for her. All along, she tried to play her game and not play with people’s emotions or lie to people. At the end, it came down to whether she thought she was getting a fair shot at it rather than just roll over and take what they were going to give her. That will come up later, she notes, if people think she played the game until that moment. As we know, that was her jury question for Tom, so it’s obviously something that bothered her.

The experience tested her in a number of ways. That was a huge test, whether she would roll over and accept what they were giving her. It was condescending in a way, saying that she played a “classy” game. She thinks it meant “you did not play.” And then when she was open with people – she could have been sneaky about it, but she confronted people – when people asked, she told them, “this is what I want.” It’s what she had to do for herself. It shocked people, it was like, “Holy crap, she decided to play all of a sudden!”

She thinks they saw her as a tribe member who tried hard at the challenges. She did work around camp, she can’t say she did a LOT at camp, but she contributed. As far as being a strategic player, she thinks people thought she was along for the ride. She and Gregg played similar games in that they kind of held back, not trying to make alliances or going to several groups. They saw her as someone to keep around because she helped out and then she was expendable later. But in the end, who doesn’t like her? She knew she wasn’t going to be like Katie, who wasn’t a threat and made some enemies. Meow! She didn’t make any enemies as far as she knows.

It’s a really “sucky” feeling to get your torch put out. She wonders if he HAD to say “the tribe has spoken” because it didn’t really. Maybe there was some way he could have said it differently. And of course, when she comes back next time, he’ll probably say the thing where she was voted out last time. But it’s logistics (actually, it’s semantics. Logistics is the management of details, like a task on The Apprentice.) But it’s a horrible feeling even though she feels great about the way she played and that she got to the final four. But she’s going to replay it forever, what could she have done differently. It’s just something she’s going to have to live with.