Survivor: Cook Islands - Survivor Live, The Finale, Part 2, Sole Survivor Yul Kwon

For the last time this season, we hear the great introductory music from Trailorchoir. Next to the themes from Survivor and Idol (all versions), this simple, rocking beat is one of the best pieces of theme music in the reality world, and it excites me every time I hear it. That even includes the endless riff that fills the ten minutes or so immediately before the broadcast. Well done, gang!

But before we get started, my final trivia question: I’m going easy on you here, no tricks. I note that throughout the season, Yul picked up five votes in his way to the title. Since there was too much activity for a trivia question in the last article, let’s base an easy two-parter around that fact. Question one: Name the Survivor winners who never received a vote against them. Part two: Which winner garnered the most votes along the way? To see the answer, drag your cursor between the square brackets that follow: [ Tina, Ethan, Brian, Sandra, and Tom never got a vote against them. The winner with the most votes against them is Aras, from last season. Remember Aras? His fellow competitors remembered him, eight times. ]

Action begins with Jenna offering Dalton a Blast DVD for predicting the winner before the season started. Sorry, he already has one.

The show opens with the big moment at the reunion show, with Jeff reading Yul’s winning vote and the subsequent pandemonium.

Pre-show, Dalton asked Yul why he will win the game. His answer is very prophetic and Dalton reads it out. Yul said, “Survivor requires a combination of physical skill, mental fortitude, and the ability to socially navigate. And, there’s a lot of luck. Outside of the luck department, I think I have the different components you need in the right combination to be successful. I think I’m a pretty decent athlete. Mentally, I think I’m good at puzzle-solving. And, I can relate to different types of people… who are not part of the mainstream.” He concludes, “I think I can leverage my skills and experiences, and hopefully win with a little bit of luck.”

Jenna says that an example of his luck was finding the hidden idol. She says every winner was lucky at some point; there was a key decision that went their way.

She asks, “How lucky do you think you were you to find the idol? How long did you look for it?”

Yul says he was lucky in general and calls luck the most important factor. For example, get on the wrong alliance and you’re done. He advises, “Take advantage of the good luck you have, and try to mitigate the bad luck.”

I have to agree. In my last article I talked of the factors it takes to win, and I forgot to talk about luck. Luck is a big, big component in anyone’s victory in this game. You can’t foresee the twists that are part of every season and to not get tripped up by one is one example of the importance of luck.

Yul says, “I was sent there (Exile Island) when there were enough clues to figure it out.” He says he arrived at Exile Island too late in the day to search, but he thought about the clues overnight. “I think I kind of figured it out. Then in the morning I started out digging, and I couldn’t find it at first. Then I realized, if I was a little bit shorter, the trees would line up with the islands in a different way.” That led him about three feet over to the right spot, and he found it. Bloody brilliant, I say!

Dalton asks Yul if he were one of the other three, would he have made the play Adam suggested to force the hidden idol to be played? Yul says no, they were really that tight as a tribe. He’s proud they were able to maintain that solidarity.

Yul tells us that pre-merge, the idol was not an issue, as only Becky knew he had it. Post-merge, he never perceived any intent from the majority to force it out. He thinks everyone felt he’d use the idol for the benefit of everyone in the alliance. Therefore, they had no incentive to force it out.

Jenna asks Yul about showing the idol at the food auction. Yul blames the editing and says that everyone knew by then. Yul says, “The only person who didn’t know was Jeff Probst.”

Dalton asks about the possible flip against Ozzy. Clarifying, Yul says he didn’t want to get rid of Ozzy. “I wanted Ozzy around all through the immunity challenges. The worst-case scenario I could see was if a Raro made it to the finals, because of the Raro majority on the jury. Against anyone in my own alliance, I thought I had a pretty good shot.”

Asked if he ever thought about taking Jonathan to the final two, Yul says he did not because, “In order to do that, I would have to screw over everyone in my whole alliance.” He also saw Jonathan as a smart and potentially dangerous player, possibly the only one who could organize a move to force out the hidden idol. Jonathan would not sit passively by and wait for Yul to take him to the final two and eventually, Yul felt Jonathan would turn against him and try to go to the final with Becky or Sundra.

The first call is from Stacey in Georgia. She asks which was more uncomfortable, being naked in the hot tub with Ozzy and Parvati, or being the meat in the big native girl’s sandwich? Yul jokingly says, “Both. I liked being in between those large women, because it was cold and rainy. In there, it was really warm.”

Gerry in California liked the assessment of Yul’s skills that opened this show. He asks about Yul reacts to Sundra’s comment on this show yesterday, when she called Yul “a person second only to Jesus.” Yul says he was flattered. “I think the world of Sundra; she has a huge heart.” He hastily adds, “I don’t compare myself to Jesus.”

Jenna asks if the Aitu four were fueled by the mutiny. Yes. Ozzy was more of an outsider at that point, but confronted with such long odds, they were forced to overlook any personal differences and, “we had to work together, we had no other choice. And ultimately, it worked to our benefit.”

Dalton asks what he would have done if there were still several seconds left after Candice and Jonathan mutinied. Had there been more time, he would have had them all step off. He informs us, “We weren’t allowed to talk to each other, though.”

Dalton inquires about Adam’s promised vote. He feels that kind of statement has to be a bluff, though. I still disagree. Once Adam makes the offer, he has to stand behind it or else he’d regret it forever.

Yul says, “I was not comfortable with that situation.” Had Yul not complied, Adam told him, they were all “going to vote for Ozzy, followed by Sundra, followed by Becky, and you’re dead last. So if you want to have any chance of winning this game, you’re going to have to do what we asked you to do.” At the time, he was seeing the potential threat Jonathan represented and Yul knew Jonathan could flip again. Everyone else wanted Jonathan to go home anyway, so he took the opportunity to play “Puppetmaster.”