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

The next clip run is what I call the “fire-extinguishing tiebreaker.” It’s going well initially, as there’s no danger of a fire breaking out. Smokey the Bear confided in me, this was his favorite part of the whole season!

Yul says it was windy, but Dalton says he doesn’t see a lot of hair flying about. Dalton has Yul confirm that it lasted about two hours.

Dalton asks Yul, were you confident in getting Sundra’s vote, or did you think maybe you were better off if Becky didn’t win and was on the jury instead? Yul says he made a lot of ethical compromises in the game but wanted to stay loyal to those loyal to him, and Becky was his first allegiance.

Dalton asks about Becky getting shut out in the vote. Becky told Yul later, “she’s glad she didn’t divert any votes.” Yul acknowledges that Becky was part of all the strategy discussions. All agree that the editing was not favorable to her, and Jenna opines that the season had many other big personalities and Becky got lost among them.

Petra of Washington asks Yul about Sundra and wonders “if she could light your fire.” He calls her stunning and a friend. He was loathe to move it to another level and jeopardize their friendship. Dalton says, “Also, again… she’s not a grandmother,” and Yul adds, “Give her another 20 years…”

Theresa in California wins a DVD before even asking her question. She asks Yul if he’d run for political office.

He’s enjoyed his background in politics, but he thinks he’s too shy for the spotlight and doesn’t crave it. He feels more comfortable working behind the scenes. He thinks he’d do okay once elected, but fundraising and campaigning, not so much. This isn’t a thing he’s made a final decision about. In the world of politics, is that a “Yes?” Hmm…

The final caller of the season is Judy in LA. She is an Ozzy fan and considers Ozzy and Yul a yin/yang scenario. I’m not sure about that, for neither is the dark side, but we’ll leave the Eastern philosophy for another time. Judy asks Yul if there was a final Tribal Council question he was dreading. Good question, she should have been given a Blast game! Yul says, “No.” He wanted to be honest and avoid “P.C. answers.” He expected to be addressed about integrity and manipulation, so he tried to deflect that up front. I guess it worked, as the expected topic didn’t really come up.

Dalton asks Yul, over the past few months, did you, think you had won, and did you expect Adam to hold up his part of the deal? Yul replies that he thought he had a good shot and that it would be close with Ozzy. He was pretty sure about Adam holding to his word because he is a “straight-up kind of guy.” He also doubted Parvati would give him her vote.

It’s time for Jenna Morasca’s “Question of the Week.” Tossing us a curveball, she asks, “Are you going to pay your taxes?” Ha! Yul jokes, “Yes. Either that, or, move to Canada where you don’t get taxed on prize winnings.” Jenna says, “Yes! I think that’s why they don’t let Canadians play Survivor.” Why, because Mark Burnett feels so warmly toward the Internal Revenue Service?

On a serious note, besides what Yul has already said, he intends to do something for his parents. They made many sacrifices for him and his brother when they came to America. I can’t think of a better answer to end the season than that!

Dalton runs the preview of the upcoming Fiji edition. Two-caste tribes (one living in luxury and the other almost destitute), nineteen new survivors ranging from a Harvard lawyer to a once-homeless street performer, fierce battles, an Exile Island more treacherous than ever, two hidden idols and a twist to complicate the game, and, “One of the more controversial decisions ever made by a Survivor will have America talking.”

Jenna anticipates the last one may mean a fistfight “because everything else has been done!” Dalton jokes that it means Ozzy will return, win every challenge, and get his million dollars. Well, nineteen certainly is a strange number of players.

That’s all the time there is. Both hosts loved the season, especially after the mutiny. Dalton says that you couldn’t go wrong with either winner, and Jenna agrees. The hosts give kudos to the crew, and Jenna and Yul dance us out.

In Conclusion:

That was a good episode of Live! There were many back-stories I hadn’t heard before. Yul’s multidimensional appeal was apparent. If you ever decide to suffer through actually watching one of these webcasts, this would be the one. It’s available in the CBS archives.

I really enjoyed the whole season too, even if many of the early boots seemed pretty obvious. Billy, Cao Boi, and Flica were all greatly entertaining. Then Jonathan started to play hard and those who responded emotionally got left behind. On the other side of the coin, I wish the tribes had stayed ethnically separated longer, the opening episodes need to be longer than an hour, and finally, Survivor: Live needs have more time allocated for the finale-night players. Bottom line, superior casting made for a very good season.

My thanks to those who have written to me throughout the season, including those of you who wrote sharing potential trivia questions. I need all the help I can get!

Everyone is invited to share his or her opinions about all this good fun at the eAddress below. I’ll be back next season to report again on the Survivor Live webcasts!

Brian lives in Toronto where he can be reached at Uncle_bto@rogers.com. He’d like to hear your opinions and promises to respond to all serious email!

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