Surviving the Cook Islands, the Finale: Brains vs. Brawn

We’re down to five – the Aitu four and Adam – and by the end of the next two hours (give or take), there will be only one. On Thursday, Parvati was sent packing. Will Adam follow her immediately or will the four start to break up? Let’s not waste any more time chit-chatting about it – let’s find out!

After eight minutes of looking back at the entire season, we arrive at day 37, the day after Parvati was booted. Adam is alone in the shelter complaining he had nobody to snuggle with last night. Awwww. The Aitu four are talking about him, saying he’s given up.

Sundra tells us that there is a problem – they were the underdogs and made it this far, but they never discussed what they’d do when they got to the final four. She’s afraid there are going to be some hard feelings.

Becky similarly says to us that they have made it this far by sticking together. Now, though, it’s becoming individual, and Ozzy will be really tough to beat. So they might want to get rid of him when they have the chance.

Ozzy calls it “somehow poetic” that they made it so far together, but he also knows he’s a “huge threat” and believes that winning immunity is crucial for his progression in the game.

Treemail! The letter comes with a spider web and says:

North, south, east, west
Every direction is a test
Slither, run, balance, soar
… Guarantee a spot in the final four.

They show up at the challenge and host Jeff Probst says he hopes they’re “ready for some fun today.” They wonder just what his idea of “fun” is! Well, there are rope webs and stuff all around them, but let’s let Probst tell us about it. He says they will race around a ropes course to eight different stations, collecting a bag of puzzle pieces at each station and bringing each back to their table before they can go back onto the course. Once they get all eight bags, they will use the puzzle pieces to create an eight-point compass rose. Once the puzzle is assembled correctly, a flag will raise. Oh, and by the way, Probst says in 13 seasons of Survivor, this is the most difficult puzzle they’ve ever had. Hmmm, that might even things out with Ozzy a little bit. Maybe.

And they’re off! Some of the stations involve things like putting one plank after another on two ropes or going through a rope crawl-through or walking over a rope netting or moving from plank to plank held up by ropes that swing. Yul is first back with a bag, then Becky, Adam, and Sundra. Where’s Ozzy? Believe it or not, he has fallen off and has to go back to where he got his bag and start the return over again!

Yul has his second bag, as do Adam and Becky. Yul has his third before Ozzy has his first. Sundra has her second and Adam has his third. Ozzy gets his third when Yul pulls ahead with four. Ozzy now has three and is throwing himself at the course. Sundra also has three now, and Yul goes up to five. Ozzy has four and Yul hasn’t done the plank one that gave Ozzy the most trouble. Ozzy has five, Becky four, and now Yul six. Yul falls off and has to restart one portion while Adam returns with number five.

Ozzy pulls into a tie with Yul at six. Becky is back with her fifth. Ozzy brings back his seventh and jumps into the lead. Yul ties him but has the planks to do. Adam has six. Ozzy almost falls off but saves himself, and returns with the final bag. Becky has her sixth and Adam his seventh. Yul gets his final bag.

Adam gets his last one while Ozzy and Yul are staring at the pieces. Becky has her last one too, as does Sundra a couple minutes later.

Adam appears to be making progress on his puzzle, but it’s hard to say. Ozzy looks close too. Probst calls them “neck and neck,” and then, like that, Ozzy is done and the flag goes up. Ozzy wins again!

The tribe returns to camp and Ozzy says it was close but he was glad to pull it out. Now the competition is among the Aitu four and he looks at Yul as his biggest competitor. Yul tells us Aitu has made it to the final four, and he can still use his idol in the final four, so he feels pretty good.

Adam goes to lie down and tells us Yul is in control of the game (no, really?). Adam would like to somehow get the idol out of Yul’s hands to stir things up before he goes home. He presents the idea to Ozzy, saying if Ozzy and Sundra will join him, the idol will be gone and Adam will still go home. Ozzy gives a definite maybe.

Adam works on Sundra, and we don’t see her give him any sort of answer at all. She tells us she wants to make final two and it is still a game, after all.

The tribe arrives at the first Tribal Council of the episode and I’m thinking Adam’s plan is another red herring – Ozzy and Sundra will stay true. Probst brings in the jury and Nate is hopping along on an injured leg, using a stick for support. I guess jury duty can be dangerous. But we get no explanation.

Probst dives right in: “Did anything happen today to help change Adam’s fate?” Ozzy simply says, “No.” So, Probst wonders, “Adam’s done?” Adam replies, “Yes, Jeff, I am done.” He says he had his opportunity and it didn’t work. The other four have blinders on and are set on them being the final four.

How will the game change after this vote? Becky says Yul, Sundra, and herself will fight for immunity much harder, because now it won’t be Ozzy winning for the four of them but winning for himself. Probst finds this interesting, because she basically admitted they’ve been riding Ozzy’s coattails and letting him win the challenges. She says it helped them but she wouldn’t say they were riding his coattails. Personally, I wouldn’t say they were letting him win – he kicked their butts time and again. Like she was letting him do that.

Ozzy says he doesn’t care, he just wants to win. That’s the way he’s been playing, making it as far as he could on his own. Smart guy – he’s already making his arguments to the jury right now!

Adam chimes in that Ozzy’s job is to win the challenges, Yul is the brains of the operation, “and I’m not sure what these people do” – referring to Becky and Sundra, of course. The former Raros on the jury chuckle. Adam continues that they’re all boring and don’t like to take risks. “But it’s worked out for them.”

Did he try to work anything today? Adam says he tried to get them to target the idol so they would each have an even shot instead of Yul having the advantage. Becky is asked why it doesn’t hurt her to keep the idol in the game. Yul has it, Ozzy keeps winning challenges, so that means either Becky or Sundra leave next time if things stay the same. Becky says personally for her, it’s not the right time for it to come out. Adam jumps in to point out that if Yul wins immunity, he can protect someone else, like Becky. Becky smiles. Bingo.

Probst notes that one of them is vulnerable, but Adam says they’ve been riding Yul the whole way, so they don’t want to mess that up. Yul says one possibility why people aren’t targeting the idol is that they got to this point by being really tight. There have been no cracks in the alliance. Probst says that’s easy to say when you’re the guy with the idol!

With that, it’s time to vote. We see none of them, and so Probst tallies and reads them: Adam, Yul, Adam, Adam. Good try, Adam, but no go. Buh-bye.

Probst says the four of them did what seemed impossible by making it to this point. But now the game changes. “It’s going to be fun to watch it play out.” With that, he sends them back to camp.

In his last words, Adam says the Aitu four beat them fair and square. He played the game the best he could but just came up a little short. He congratulates them and wishes them all luck. Man, and he said they were boring?!

When the foursome return from Tribal Council, they are cheering and yelling. Sundra talks about how amazing it is that they managed to eliminate eight Raros. Yul also notes that the winner of this edition will come from a minority background. To him, it shows that the strongest teams come from diverse backgrounds. (I’d like to note that the Raro team had players from all four original tribes, so Yul’s comment here is pretty much meaningless.)

The next morning, Ozzy is up to watch the sunrise. He tells us if he doesn’t win immunity, it could be his last morning, so he wants to enjoy it. He’s focusing his energy and getting ready to hopefully win.

Treemail again! This one tells them to go on the usual trek to reflect on their fallen comrades. Each one is to be picked up and brought to a fire at the end. Then they will arrive at their final immunity challenge. Final? Yul is confused! They’re not sure exactly what that means. It’s been a pretty poorly-kept secret for viewers, as it was even discussed in TV Guide. But as it hasn’t been mentioned on the show itself yet, I won’t go into any more detail at this point.

Becky says the fact that they get to go through this trip together as the Aitu four is really special, because normally only the final three do it. And so they take off in their boat to find the torches.

Sekou is first, saying in voiceover that he didn’t plan to be the leader but sometimes you just have to step up. Billy says he rediscovered that he’s a dream-chaser, not a player. Cecilia considered herself a person who plays it safe, but she’s discovered she’s not as scared as she thought she was. J.P. says the game is brutal – you cannot rest at any time.

Stephannie would have loved to stay a little longer, but if your mind’s not completely there, you’re not at your best. Cao Boi repeats what we’ve heard before – that he’s most vulnerable among his own people, the Asian community. But they changed his opinion of them. Cristina says being a police officer made it more difficult to play this game because she’s a role model.

Jessica knew she was strong, but is stronger than she realized. She hopes she left some of her spirit behind with the tribe. Brad says the best part was stepping outside his comfort zone. “It was the best and worst experience of my life.”

Rebecca says you don’t always have to be the toughest person. Jenny doubted herself and didn’t think she could do Survivor, but she did it. Nate had a lot of fun and the game taught him to go with what he feels inside. Candice is a very competitive person who always wants to win. With Adam and her, she could feel he was a genuine person and what you see is what you get. She didn’t win, but she played the game the only way she could – all out.

When they get to Jonathan’s torch, Ozzy thanks it profusely. Jonathan says he had so much fun. “A 44-year-old Jew in Survivor” who lasted to day 33 is okay. He lost 30 pounds and feels fantastic.

Parvati felt like she was running the show for a while, but they all thought she was a wimp who couldn’t hold her own. She kind of shocked herself. Adam is frustrated that he got so close without winning. But he won’t let it haunt him – he’s learned a lot about himself, including that he isn’t afraid to say what he’s thinking.

The final four burn the torches while holding hands at the fire. When it’s all over, they head to the final immunity challenge. Probst tells them they will be standing on a small steel perch in the water. Each one has been individually proportioned to their foot size – so no problems like Yul described in the earlier pole-hanging challenge. Every 15 minutes, a section of the perch will be removed, making it smaller and smaller. When they are down to the last piece, it will be less than half the size of a postcard. The last person standing, of course, wins immunity.

This will put the winner in the final three. Probst continues that this is so important because for the first time ever, the final Tribal Council will include three people! Three people will take part in the final vote, three will be eligible for the million dollars. Yul has got to be thinking, “Bonus!” He has immunity no matter what. At this point, he’s only competing to help Becky.

The four go to their perches, and they’re on! Yul begins squatted down while the other three are standing. Ozzy is popping his lips to a tune only he can hear. After 15 minutes, everybody has to release the first section. Another 15 minutes pass, and the second section is released. Yul is still squatted down while the others remain standing.

Fifteen more minutes have passed, so the third piece is removed. And Becky immediately falls! Yul gets back into his squat again. Ozzy is looking shaky, but steadies himself.

Now it’s time to release the final piece. Ozzy looks like he’s about to go in… but saves himself again! Yul stays in his squat. Sundra is on one foot and the ball of her other. Wait, Ozzy looks like he’s about to go and actually takes one foot off, but he recovers again.

Probst asks Ozzy how his toes are, and he says fine. He adds that the sweat is the biggest problem for him, making his “nether regions itchy.” Sundra starts to laugh a bit and almost loses her balance!

Probst tries to engage Sundra and Yul in conversation, but doesn’t get much out of them. Yul says his toes and ankles hurt, and then tries to step up out of his squat – but loses his balance and falls in! So it’s down to Sundra and Ozzy. Becky looks depressed.

Ozzy once again looks like he’s going to lose his balance, but once again recovers nicely. We’re at the two-hour mark, meaning it’s been an hour on the smallest section of the perch. Sundra almost loses her balance but catches herself. Ozzy has a couple.

Sundra is trying to move her feet to a more comfortable position while Ozzy just looks like he’s gritting himself through the pain. Another half hour passes. Bobble after bobble, they keep catching each other – until Sundra loses it and goes into the water. Ozzy wins again!

Time for a quick bit of analysis. I think if Ozzy is smart, he will go along with Yul and Becky to vote out Sundra. Why? Because Yul and Becky are such a pair that they might split any votes that would otherwise go to one or the other.

Anyway, the four return to camp and Sundra jokingly says, “Ozzy, give a girl a chance!” Heh. He tells us he is “so pumped” about winning, and Sundra completely stunned him because he thought she would have been gone much sooner.

Sundra tells us she’s disappointed – she really thought she had it and was going to shock the jury. Yul says either Sundra or Becky will be voted off. He and Ozzy chat, with him saying if he votes for Becky, she will feel betrayed. Ozzy says it’s definitely different for him because he doesn’t have any tie to either of them. He thinks unless “something gets figured out,” it’s going to be a tiebreaker. I guess I don’t see why he would want to vote out Becky, given what I said above, but okay.

Ozzy tells us that since the mutiny, they’ve tried to be as fair and equal as possible. Therefore, the fairest thing he can think of is to cause a tiebreaker. Ah, okay, now I see. I don’t agree, but I see.

Yul talks to Becky, telling her that Ozzy recognizes how strong Sundra was and noting that Ozzy doesn’t want to be the one making the decision about who leaves. (You know, it occurs to me that Yul could use this against Ozzy in the finals. If a juror brings up that Yul made the decisions about booting them, he could say that at least he was willing to make those decisions, and then relate what happened here.) Anyway, he continues that if she wants the idol, he will give it to her. He’s willing to expose himself to that risk.

Becky tells us that the jury might think it’s bad to have a sneak attack like that, but it’s her or Sundra, so… Mind you, the sneakiest thing for her to do would be to tell Ozzy and Sundra she has the idol, and get rid of Yul, who is truly her competition at this point (since she can’t get rid of Ozzy). It’s a hard choice, and we don’t know what she decides.

Sundra asks Yul if there are going to be any surprises at Tribal Council, and he says no. She asks if Becky asked for the idol. No again – which is technically true, since he offered it to her. Yul tells us he has made so many compromises and broken so many promises, but he’s always tried to stay true to his friendship with Becky.

They arrive at Tribal Council and the jurors return. Probst says that after this vote, three of them will move on to the final Tribal Council, with the person voted out becoming the ninth and final juror. To review, Probst says Yul and Ozzy appear to be safe.

Probst notes that last Tribal Council, they had a plan (not to go after the idol). How does Sundra feel now? She says not going after it was a risk, but she is willing to live with it.

Ozzy is asked if there was any discussion at camp about who deserves it. Ozzy says right away he suggested it should be a tie. The women agreed that seemed fair, so neither of them went behind the other’s back (as far as he knows). So he’s voting against Becky, Yul’s voting against Sundra, and they’ll let the cards fall where they may.

Probst points out that Yul could give the idol to somebody without the others knowing, which gives him power. He says the idol could potentially have been played, but they came up with a solution that seemed fair to everyone. Probst says to Sundra that if Yul did want to play the idol, what he just said is what he’d say anyway. Sundra says she knows. If she gets played then she’s “the big sucker” and that’s on him.

Did it go through Becky’s head that maybe he’d give it to her? Of course! But if she were to accept the idol, how would the jury look upon that?

How did Yul’s thought process work? He says he came into the game with a naïve thought that he could play a completely clean game, and quickly realized he couldn’t. The idol could be played, but he still tried to stay true to loyalty. Still, you make a lot of compromises in this game.

With that, it’s time to vote. Surprise – Becky votes against Sundra! And Becky returns the favor. So nobody’s trying to outthink Yul and vote against him in the hope he’s handed over the idol.

Probst tallies and reads the votes: Becky, Sundra, Becky, Sundra. A tie. Do either of them have the idol? Both shake their heads no. So it’s a tiebreaker – a fire-making challenge.

They each sit at a fire-making station with flint and steel, coconut husks, and wooden kindling. They have to build a fire to burn through the rope. And they’re off! Both are methodical, building a stick structure first. Sundra tries to get a coconut husk sparked, with Becky following suit. Neither of them is having much success. The jury looks bored. I feel bored.

Thirty minutes have gone by. Now the jury looks really bored! I can’t blame them! Hell, even Probst looks bored! Now a full hour has gone by. Jurors are yawning. By now, I’m laughing. This is hysterical! Didn’t either of them ever start a fire at camp? Finally, Probst has had enough! He tells them to stop. They’re going to switch to matches. I’m dying of laughter here.

And they’re off again! Sundra lights a match. Yay! She gets the husks caught and it’s looking good. Becky can’t even light a match! Sundra is trying to keep her flame going and hey, Becky has a flame too! Well, that was short – both fires go out.

Sundra relights and is nurturing it. Becky too. And again they’re out. Now it’s been a total of 90 minutes, and Probst is getting short with them, noting that after 38 days, they should both know how to make fire.

Both of them have dismantled their stick structures. Sundra gets a fire that goes out again. Sundra is out of matches and she just sits and watches as Becky gets a fire that looks good. Does she still have the flint and steel? If so, she should go back to that and at least try. But Becky’s fire is going well. It’s high enough – the rope light and burns. Becky wins!

Probst snuffs Sundra’s torch, which seems redundant – he should have just had her try to keep it lit and it would surely have gone out on its own!

In her final words, Sundra says the fact that she made it this far as “ignited” so many things in her. Interesting choice of words there, considering. She is proud of herself. And whichever of her allies wins the million had better take her out to dinner!

The next morning, the three finalists toast to themselves with coconuts. The three of them say various things about how happy they are to be there. Becky, in particular, tells us that she’s happy she didn’t take the idol from Yul because she’s sure the jury will already be hitting her with questions about riding coattails. She thinks she’s played a “very social game” and is proud of it. Uh, yeah. I think at this point she has the worst chance of any of them.

Ozzy is sitting on the beach when two native women row up with some fresh fruit, wine, and other refreshments. Ozzy calls to Yul, who comes running immediately. The two of them want to dig in, but Becky is nowhere to be found. Ozzy finds this somewhat symbolic, since he thinks that’s how the jury vote will play out – in fact, he’ll be surprised if she gets any, especially after last night’s “embarrassing display of fire-making skills.”

She finally arrives and joins them. Yul says of Becky that finding a really good friend is worth more than a million dollars. Hmmm. I’m not so sure about that. He adds that he tried to play the game with as much integrity as possible, though he knows that he failed in some respects. But he hopes the jury won’t hold it against him that he beat them.

Ozzy hopes final Tribal Council will go well and he has a lot of pride. He’s “a surfer up against two lawyers.” He believes what he’s done speaks for itself.

The final three arrive and the jurors do as well. Probst tells Ozzy that immunity doesn’t come into play anymore, so he can take off the necklace. I think Ozzy knew that and just wanted to remind the jurors how he got there.

Each of the final three will first make an opening statement. Then the jurors get to give their questions or comments. Then they will vote. Hmmm. No final words? Or did he just forget to mention it? We’ll see, I guess.

Yul begins. He says he wanted to play a certain way, not just an individual game where he got himself to the final. He also tried to affect and influence the game more than anybody else, including by bringing everybody in his alliance/tribe to the final four. He doesn’t think it’s coincidence that this happened, but that he played a key role in leading the team. He won’t lie about the fact that he occasionally had to deceive people, but he stayed loyal to the people who were loyal to him. He would love their votes and feels he earned his way here by playing every facet of the game.

Becky says she came into the game knowing she wouldn’t be the strongest or the fastest or the smartest. She knew she would have to rely on her social game and the way she could connect with people. She wanted to form an alliance with people she trusted. She really tried to be fair and honest and true to her character while playing the social game.

Ozzy says that from the beginning, he was the underdog. His people were the first ones voted out and he found himself in a scary position. But he never let that stop him, so he tried as hard as he could and did what he could, which meant providing for others. He knew if he didn’t fish and get food, he was gone. He never tried to hide who or what he was or how strong he was. He embraced every aspect of the game wholeheartedly with his soul. He thinks his actions and reputation speak louder than any words.

Time for the jurors to strike back. Nate begins by giving them all props. He says Yul played like the gangster boss, playing the game completely smart. Ozzy played it the opposite, as the warrior. But he wants to know how Ozzy played better than Yul from a strategy standpoint.

Ozzy says he played a pivotal role in deciding the final eight. He found himself early on being the Yul of his tribe. He convinced his tribe to throw the challenge and get Billy voted off. He was controlling things. Once they merged, he relied on himself more than anybody else. He played up the “surfer dude” role as a strategy, and it got him there.

So Becky has the mob boss and the warrior – why does she deserve the million over them? She says she knows she was lucky to be with these allies, but whenever he says Yul was the puppetmaster, you don’t know all the conversations they had on every decision. It wasn’t Yul making the decisions by himself.

Probst asks if Nate’s satisfied and he says, “No.” He adds that it’s a million dollars and wants to know if Becky is saying she ran it – was she the boss? She says no, there was no boss. They were able to go to the final four together because they worked together. She knows they might think she played safe and didn’t take risks, but she did, by rejecting the idol the previous night. Yul offered it to her and she said no because she didn’t want to slide into the top three, she wanted to earn it.

Jenny’s up next. What does Yul think is more important in winning, physical or strategic? He says clearly in his case he thinks it’s about social strategy. If it were all about physical skills, it would be a different game. He was happy to let Ozzy set himself up as a huge target, which he did, in order to deflect attention away from himself. The ultimate outcome is that everyone in his tribe made the final four. She wishes them luck and has no other questions – or at least nothing the editors deemed worthy of sharing with us.

Parvati comes up to congratulate them and then says she is stunned that Becky declined the idol. She is standing between giants and wants Becky to convince her that she wants to win the game. Becky says she wouldn’t have been able to be proud if she accepted the idol and snuck into the final three – she’s not a sneaky person. She wanted to regret making a decision and she wants to win it in a way that makes her proud. Nothing more from Parvati.

So that brings up Rebecca, who says she thought Yul was strategically flawless and Ozzy was flawless in the challenges. She wants them to each tell her something she doesn’t know to help her decide between them.

Yul says one of the reasons he wanted to do Survivor was that minorities are underrepresented in the media. He wanted America to see Asian-American men as they truly are, and he wants to be a spokesman for minorities on TV going forward.

Ozzy says he has similar interests and goals in changing stereotypes. The opportunity to come out and dominate in many different aspects will change the perception of what a Mexican is. Using his position, he thinks he can become a positive role model and they have the opportunity to change the world a little bit.

Rebecca thanks them both and says that helped her a lot. Um. It did? How? Whatever.

Adam is up next. He thinks the Aitu four have been “painfully boring” through Tribal Councils. Wah, wah, wah. Shut up. He wants them to get to the point. He wants Ozzy to “talk trash” about the other two and why they shouldn’t win.

Ozzy says Yul didn’t work as hard as he could, which is one of the worst things you can do. He thinks Becky rode coattails. And after that long, Becky should have been able to make fire. With that, Adam sits down, but I can’t imagine he didn’t ask the same question of the other two, so the rest was probably edited out.

Candice says she thinks it’s cool that they made it after “the infamous mutiny” even though she’s not sitting there. She has a question for Yul: Whenever he is asked a question, he beats around the bush and says what people want to hear. She doesn’t want to give him the opportunity to do that again, so she is asking him a yes-or-no question. She wants to be clear – if he says anything other than “yes” or “no,” she will not vote for him.

Her impression is that Yul has been shamelessly working the jury. Is that true? Yul pauses for a moment and then says, “Yes.” She thanks him and says she knows it was tough for him. He can’t contain himself and says the “shamelessly” part caught him but the other jurors are like, “oooooh,” and Candice pauses as well. He says he answered yes first! Candice says she’s going to have to think about it because he broke the rules.

Brad comes up and gives them all kudos. He notes that he had about a 15-second conversation with Ozzy “in my entire life.” What has been the most challenging experience in Ozzy’s life and how did he overcome it?

Ozzy says the most challenging experience in his life would be his relationship with his father. For whatever reason, the man can’t be around and doesn’t want to take responsibility, so he’s always had to make the effort to get to know him and his family in Mexico. To not have his father around… to know that the person who created you doesn’t want you around… (pause for a crying break)… it’s the hardest experience. Whoa, major pity points there for Ozzy, as if he needed them.

Sundra comes up and asks what one thing they have discovered about themselves or life in general from this experience. Ozzy he discovered love (no, this isn’t Billy talking about Candice). He says there is nothing there except for your mind, soul, and body. He doesn’t want to sound like a hippy, but it’s really just about loving and cherishing every moment.

Becky says she was always set by time and schedule, and letting everything go was very scary to her. She has learned to take a moment to herself.

Yul realized a new self-confidence. He came with a lot of fears and self-doubt, and to know he could make it through all the way makes him believe in himself.

Now we have Jonathan. This should be good. He congratulates them and says it was his pleasure to play the game and is thrilled for the three of them, who played hard and played well – and played him! Heh.

He says Yul is brilliant and polite, but polite is half the word of “politic.” So Yul could consider running for office. His future constituents have watched the season – explain to people who would vote for him how telling half-truths, which are also half-lies, keeps in line with his integrity.

Yul says what Jonathan said is absolutely true – he’s done a lot of deceiving in this game and a lot of manipulation (you know, I just don’t think Yul has done quite as much lying as people make it out to be!). But Survivor is a game, he says, and people came in knowing what the game was about. If he were outside the game, he would never do this to unsuspecting people. He has the ability to manipulate people, but if you look at the overall game, he stayed true to the original people he allied with. I gotta hand it to Yul, this was the perfect answer. I just don’t know if the jurors will agree.

Jonathan says Ozzy is obvious extraordinarily talented and can do “almost supernatural things.” On occasion, he has found Ozzy arrogant, with an attitude of entitlement. He acts as if he is a prince. He’s a little uncomfortable giving a million dollars to a 25-year-old kid who has issues of entitlement. So he wants to know how a million dollars will make him a better person and how Ozzy will make the world a better place.

Ozzy says if he had a million dollars, he would go back to school because going to school has been hard for him, as he’s had to pay for it himself. So the first thing he would do is complete a higher education. After schooling, he would like to change the world for the better.

And that’s that. Time to vote. I expect Jonathan to vote for Yul based on strategy. But I think Ozzy will get many of the other votes. Will he get enough? I don’t know. And Becky will be lucky to get a single one.

Jonathan says he admires them all tremendously, but Yul outplayed them all, so indeed that’s how he votes. Parvati votes for Ozzy, saying he’s the ultimate competitor and that the fire he brought to the game captivated her. He played his heart out and totally deserves to win. And that’s all we see.

Probst goes to get the votes, but of course we know he’s not going to show ‘em right away. Instead, he walks off with them and reappears in the Hollywood studio.

Before reading the votes, Probst says to him this has been one of the most enjoyable seasons they’ve had in quite a while. But it comes down to the final three.

Probst reads the votes: Yul (Jonathan’s vote), Ozzy (Parvati’s vote), Yul, Yul, Ozzy, Ozzy, Ozzy, Yul. Probst draws out this moment as long as possible. The final vote is for… Yul!

Yul wins!

Yul is joined on-stage by his family, who all share a group hug. And then the rest of the non-juror Survivors come in for the reunion, which you can read about right here. But that ends the finale episode, with the reunion to be posted separately.

Woohoo! Actually, I’d have been happy with either Yul or Ozzy winning at this point. Obviously, I’m a huge proponent of strategic play, but Ozzy dominated the challenge aspect of the game, and that cannot be ignored. He kept himself alive in the game, but I think the jury probably gave it to Yul because Yul not only kept himself alive, but wrapped the game around him and his intentions. I have to say I was glad to be proven wrong – that it wasn’t a fatal move for Yul to eliminate Jonathan when he did.

All in all, an excellent season.

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