Survivor: Exile Island Finale [Spoilers, duh]

[John Crichton]

Those who know me around here know my greatest guilty pleasure: Survivor!

I didn't start routing for him until 2 weeks ago but, Yay Aras! Terry and Cirie were probably most deserving of being in the final 2 (Cirie, the mastermind. Terry, Captain Challenge) but I was happy with the outcome. Danielle would have been a fool to take Terry to the finals. She may have gotten one vote if she did. Against Aras, she had a fighting chance.

Aras, obviously, was the stronger player. He made relationships (good and bad) with everyone on the jury. His head was on the chopping block more than once and he wiggled out.

Terry's only mistake (which wasn't really a mistake, more of a calculated gamble) was not giving D the hidden immunity idol. That would have cemented her in their alliance. It's too hard to turn someone who has been loyal to a group for over a month in just 3 days. It would take a considerable gesture to do so. That may have been it.

The final immunity challenge was a letdown. The guys had no chance of beating Danielle. The small female had a serious advantage in the balance challenge. The big guys had no shot at all. She had no trouble from the start and it was easy to see that the guys would have been lucky to make it to the final pad, which I actually thought would happen. I don't have an answer, but I think the Survivor producers need to come up with a different final immunity challenge than an endurance/balance one. An obsticle course isn't fair as it punishes those not in shape, a balance challange kills and bigger guy and an endurance challenge is typically easier for the females but the fairest of the 3 - however it is BOORING.

All said, this was a terrific season. The personalities were all there: the good one (Cirie), the unstoppable force and good guy (Terry), the super-annoying one (Courtney), the crazy one (Shane), the tag-along (Danielle) and the easy to route for (Aras). The "bad guy" would be up to personal preference. Mine was Terry. I was simply sick of him winning all the immunity challenges. It made the hidden idol useless. Yeah, it sorta had an impact but not really.

The Exile Island concept is great and should be included again. The hidden idol should also re-appear. I'm also hoping something else new will pop up in the next season.

Now, I'm off to watch the reunion show...

 

[John Crichton]

And the next Survivor: Cook Islands. Looks like more of the same, which is a good thing. And Exile Island returns! Nice.

Thoughts?

 

[Drew]

I agree regarding the final challenge. What about a gauntlet of multiple kinds of events with a best 2 out of 3 kind of deal?

 

[stevelabny]

My problem is that the contestants NEVER seem to acknowledge that the final challenge is gonna be a balance/endurance that favors small females and always manage to take one to the final 3.

I can deal with the final challenge always being the same type of thing, as long as it didnt seem that the other challenges were catered to the "storyline" This year, the immunity challenges were much more physical than usual allowing Terry (and therefore Aras, as Aras stated last night) to stay in the game.

The finale kinda died 15 minutes in when Cirie lost the tiebreaker, they really don't do enough to discourage ties. With Cirie gone, I wanted Aras to win just so Mr self-righteous and Ms fly under the radar wouldn't.

 

[JoeBlank]

I too was sorry to see Cirie go. I like her personality, and she played the game well.

With the editing it is tough to judge just how arrogant or abrasive Terry, or anyone else, might have been. I guess you can judge some from the perceptions of the other players, since they are seeing each other almost all of most every day, whereas we only see about 20 minutes of each day.

Of the two remaining, I was rooting for Aras of Danielle.

While the final challenge always seems to be endurance and balance, this one seemed much more weighted towards the balance side. Still, I have to keep telling myself that the producers would never stack the challenges to benefit certain players. If that info got out, it would damage the credibility of the show too much.

 

[Silver Moon]

On Thursday night when they showed the previews for Sunday which included clips of the climbing wall of Aras, Terry and Danielle but not Cirie. So we knew she was going to lose the tie-breaker. I really wish they hadn't done that spoiler. So based upon that it was obvious to me that (1) Danielle would win the balancing challenge; (2) She would pick Aras over Terry; (3) Aras would win. I wish something had happened to change my predictions but it went exactly as anticipated.

 

[stevelabny]

On Thursday night when they showed the previews for Sunday which included clips of the climbing wall of Aras, Terry and Danielle but not Cirie.

Did they really? I saw the clip of Terry and Aras but I didn't notice Danielle. That's awful.
The week before that, during Amazing Race, they showed a commercial for the final four episode WITH ARAS WEARING THE IMMUNITY NECKLACE. D'oh.
Someone over at CBS is getting way too sloppy.

 

[John Crichton]

Are you sure? Because I looked for it and she never even made it to the wall. By the time both guys hit the top she was still on her final red "combination lock" puzzle for her last bag of pegs. Just watched for it on TiVo.

And I thought that commercial for the final four with Aras having the necklace was for the finale, not the week before. If that's, we already knew he had immunity and were just waiting for the tiebreaker. CBS usually doesn't make those types of mistakes, especially with their huge money making hits like Survivor.

 

[stevelabny]

The commercial aired during Amazing Race, which was on the night before the Final Four episode, there wasn't another AR episode between the Thursday and Sunday Survivors.

It was a fast clip of them sitting at tribal council, that I only caught because when I paused the Tivo to say something to my gf, it paused on Aras wearing the necklace. Then I went on a 5 minute rant about it.