Simply one of the sweetest moments of justice on the show ever. You see a lot of situations come up in Survivor where you just wish so hard that things would go a certain way, and in this case they did. Man was that was an awesome tribal council. The way Jeff just disdainfully chucked the board in the fire was classic.
A++++ would see again!
Fantastic episode for James and for Todd, who I’m liking more with every episode. I loved their comments on their competition:
Todd on Courtney: “Deal with it… Bitch!”
Todd on Jaime: “She’s on the small bike in the back, pedaling as fast as she can.”
James on Courtney: “She does tend to spray off and fall in love with every swinging dick or Harry that floats or smiles at her.” (Did I completely mis-hear this line?)
There was some tension thanks to the two over-emotional wildcards in the camp, Courtney and Jean-Robert. (Incidentally, what was the point of JR threatening Todd, other than to put his paranoia on full display?) However, this was only a diversion from the episode’s real highlight: Fake idol exposed, then boot. That was probably the most embarrassing yet deserved ejection I’ve seen in a while, and it was almost cruel. Still, it’s a bit cheapened by the fact that most of the Survivors are playing so incompetently. None of these people deserve to be on a future All-Star lineup.
Peih Gee must be one of the most deluded ‘masterminds’ ever to play this game. Does she have no idea how pissed off James was just two tribal councils ago? And now she thinks they might be ‘cool’? “We sacrificed one of our teammates for you.” Who? Sherea, who’d flipped allegiances shortly after your tribe threw that challenge? When Peih Gee goes for her power play next episode, I fully expect her to fall flat on her face.
The preview also reminded me of something I wondered about during this episode: Why hasn’t Todd reclaimed the first Hidden Immunity Idol from James?
Todd is in a bit of a bind now. One the one hand, he does have a solid alliance of 5, giving him the numbers. One the other hand, James is a massive threat down the road and Todd is weasilly enough that he knows people may come to resent him.
James just flat out kills me. “Oh please let that happen. I don’t think I’d be able to stop laughing.” He said exactly what I was thinking in almost exactly the same words.
I was disappointed that the previous episode didn’t work out according to Todd and James plan. Watching James deflect the vote with an immunity idol after deliberately throwing a challenge would have been just perfect karma after the PG/Jamie stunt.
PG’s faith in James is the result of desperate wishful thinking. Her confirmed alliance was only Jamie. Eric went along with their plan very reluctantly. Frosti now seems to be turned, being in tight with Courtney. She doesn’t have the numbers, and can only desperately hope against all odds that James is somehow "cool’ with them. Because without that, she is now an alliance of one, with an outside chance of 2 or 3 and she knows that she must be squarely on the chopping block.
James little diatribe just cracked me up. I really hope he sticks around for a while. From the preview, it looks like Todd recognizes that James hold two idols is a huge threat, but if he blindsides James, I wonder how much longer he can survive without others doing it unto him.
Her best line was something along the lines of “I don’t trust James at all now.” Delusion is wonderful on TV.
We were only shown a preview, but I don’t think it’ll be a power play next week. It’s more like fighting for survival, something I much prefer to simply accepting fate. It drives me nuts when people don’t at least attempt to save themselves. I’d be running around lying to everyone if my head was on the chopping block.
“Did you hear what she said?”
“So and so says you are next after me.”
I’ve always had my doubts about James’ strategic chops, but with two immunity idols, his game had boiled down to gauging the tribe’s mood and playing them if ANYONE was acting weird. Heck, had he played one last week (when it turned out he wasn’t in danger), he might have lasted longer by sending the message that he was willing to go nuclear at the slighest provocation. Too bad he wasn’t suspicious enough this time; I thought the responses given to Jeff’s loaded questions (particularly Denise’s) should’ve put him on orange alert, at the very least.
Hard worker, awesome at challenges, and one of my all-time favorite Survivors, but none of that really matters if you’re the guy who gets voted out with two idols in the bag.
In other news: Peih Gee still doesn’t have a grasp on reality (“We can get James on our side…”) and missed a golden opportunity to really shake up the game once she got the tip-off. Next week, it ought to be very interesting to see Todd go toe to toe with Amanda. On a related note, I wish they’d stop blurring her butt. I’d also like to see Courtney with an extra 20-30 pounds in the reunion.
James made a mistake in evaluating his alliance. He didn’t smell it out and too bad for him. I’ll miss James. His comments were always entertaining.
Peih Gee does seem to have missed an opportunity to take some control. Tipping off James would have sniped off Todd. Furthermore, you would have a pissed-off James who, though he may not be on PG’s side, would at least be inclined to go head-hunting amongst his former alliance members. This would have given PG a chance at further advancement.
At this point, playing along with Amanda gets her one more round, but unless she wins immunity, she’s likely to get the heave ho the next time out.
Hmm, not a lot of discussion about the finale, which I thought was a good end to the series. So here’s my closure:
Winners
Todd: Great job at the Tribal Council, and at making the point that he played a superior game, a hard sell against most juries. Yet he also knew when to resort to flattery. He may have been completely transparent about it, but it worked.
Courtney: Considering how much I disliked her at the start of the series, I was glad to see her make it to the final three and give excellent answers for someone with such a long shot. It was great watching her twist the knife into clowns like Jamie and Jean-Robert, and still emerge a vote away from the win. If she’d held back with JR (“Did YOU win an immunity?”), she might have scored the biggest upset of all, but we’d be robbed an exquisitely painful moment. “Actually, I hate kids,” was also wonderful.
James: Classy at Tribal, and honest at the reunion show. I’m happy he got the $100K popularity prize, which, incidentally, made way more sense than Rupert’s million dollar consolation some years back. And he’s still a beautiful man.
Losers
Amanda: I was actually rooting for her, since she was supremely confident at those final challenges, and such a sympathetic character. Unfortunately she was also far too sympathetic to the losers, and generally made a hash out of her responses to the jury. I thought that she might have been faking the moist eyes; too bad for her that she wasn’t. Still, she looked gorgeous during the final Tribal, and pulled off a good Francoise Hardy look when the votes were tallied.
Jean-Robert: Delusional, egotistical buffoon who apparently learned nothing from the experience. I was expecting him to burst into tears at both the Tribal and the reunion, and for James to bust out laughing in response.
Jamie: Apparently she couldn’t remember what she was being indignant and “in-yer-grill” about. It was pathetic watching her interrupt both Amanda and Courtney, but I loved how Courtney cut her down with an eyeroll and a shrug. During the reunion, I wish Jeff had called her and Peih-Gee out for the thrown challenge.
Denise: AKA Captain Bringdown. She killed her chances when she told her sob story to Amanda before the penultimate vote. I’m glad Mark Burnett cut her a check, though. Can I add that $50K also made more sense than Rupert’s million dollars?
I look forward to the upcoming Super Fans vs. Survivor Favorites. And I know I’m not alone! Admit it!
Todd was a pretty deserving winner, in my opinion, and, in particular, played the final tribal council just right. It’s just a game folks and I beat you. His frank answer to Jean-Paul probably won it for him. I wouldn’t have admitted that I played him in the after-interview.
I was disappointed in Amanda. She played a game nearly equal to Todd but couldn’t get over her self-loathing in the final tribal council. It was silly. She deserved to lose for not voting Todd out when they were down to four but she could have made a much better case for herself. Admit to the lies, for one. Don’t lie to the last jury member for no reason, for two. Make a claim to the sleazeball throne. I detest when people don’t own up to their behavior. Apparently, so does a typical jury.
Anyone else think that the lunch lady’s former boss just lost his/her job? No school board wants that kind of bad publicity. The reasons they gave for denying a return to work were beyond silly, meaning someone petty and stupid is looking for work right now. By now, I’d guess the lady crowned with the mullet found a better job than janitor.
Side note: I love how straight forward Jeff is in the interview process. James made the worst blunder in Survivor history. I’m glad he said so.
I wasn’t a fan of Todd but I think he probably deserved it out of those three. Man I really felt bad for James, I could see where he was coming from wanted to save the idols for the next 2 councils but damn if you have a bad feeling use it. Chances are he would of won immunity one of the times. Oh, was a pretty good season. Next season might be interesting but I doubt there will be any alliance switching once they merge if they start off as two strong groups against each other.
I’m surprised that PG was in the running for fan favourite. I thought she was just an annoyingly bitchy. Anyhow, I’m glad James won. His entertainment value on the show, if not priceless, was worth at least $100,000.
After watching the tribal council, it looked to me that Todd was going to take it. I was surprised at just how weak Amanda was with her answers at Tribal. In the end, Todd did deserve to take the first prize. But what was with that rocka-a-billy hairdo?
Todd definitely deserved it - I liked Amanada too, but I knew it would be a terrible mistake for her to take Todd to the final, because they both played the same game, except he was obviously more in charge and got credit for the strategic decisions – and unlike past years, they really didn’t screw anyone over so badly that it bred a lot of resentment.
Todd won the game just by flattering Jean-Robert in his response, which was pretty hilarious. But Todd was always going to be much better than Amanda at fielding questions and coming up with convincing responses. He probably was one of the most persuasive final candidates the show’s ever seen.
More respect for Courtney after the last few episodes. She’s not a dope, at least, but a bit of a misfit.
Re: the Lunch lady lied!!! She didn’t lose her job - she voluntarily took the janitor job, prior to going on survivor, because it was an increase in pay - she scammed Mark Burnett out of $50k. Courtney’s line - “you don’t get to win just because you’re a loser at life” was one of the greatest Survivor lines ever. http://www.tmz.com/2007/12/18/did-survivor-lunch-lady-lie-to-swipe-50k/
I’m disappointed that the next show isn’t a 2nd all-stars, as originally planned, and instead is a team of new players vs a team of old players. In case you haven’t heard, here’s the team of returning players:
Wait, there have been over 14 seasons of Survivor? Holy fuck.
Yeah, they’re heading into the 16th – been two a year since the show started in 2000. Most of the people on the last season were just kids when the show began.
Two seasons per year, seven years, sounds right.
For the first year, we just stopped watching about 4 shows in this year. Survivor has been a fun family show tradition for us for years, but it just feels like the same old same old now - jungle setting of some kind with some kind of water nearby, mostly young kids in bikinis and shorts with a few older ones thrown in, at least one bumpkin type, and the same challenges with slight modifications. We checked in on occasion, but unless they do something really different - like put them in a snowy climate (which they won’t do, because they want to show the skin) - it’s just a feeling of “we’ve seen that a dozen times”.
I watched this whole season and while I agree that Todd probably deserved to win…who cares? There was no one really likable beyond James who was moderately likable. There was no one I was really pulling for, no one I really cared to see when or lose. This is probably the most apathetic I’ve been about any survivor yet.
I think maybe last year ruined me. Between Earl (This my island) and Yao-man (lovable Mr. Strategy), I was REALLY pulling for people, cared, etc.
And I too wish it was a real all stars survivor. The first one of those was great fun.
Agreed. I was vaguely rooting for Amanda in the end but she did a terrible job making her case at the final tribal council. I think Aaron and James were the two most compelling personalities this season. Aaron got taken out by Pegei’s retarded effort at strategic thinking and James missed a huge clue at tribal council that would have tipped him off to Amanda’s play. (No one raised their hand when Jeff asked “Who here feels safe tonight?” If they were sticking with the plan they would have felt very safe. Their paranoia betrayed their untrustworthy-ness.)
To jeff lackey’s point, the first few weeks of every season I think the same thing but then the personalities start to emerge more as everyone works out the dynamics and that’s when the show starts to get interesting. The setting is the least interesting thing about the show. But yeah, the personalities were less interesting this season.
Yeah, I definitely think this was one of the worst seasons. Poeple I had high hopes for, like the WWE gal and Jean-Robert and Chicken – were complete busts. The only people I actually liked or respected were Todd, Amanda and James, and even James was disappointing because he was so terrible strategically (and actually won zero individual immunities - so much for being a threat).
The best part of the season was watching the morons - Jean-Robert and Jamie, get pwned.
I’m not sure why everyone picks on Jamie and Peigee for throwing the challenge – given the “twist”, it was the only thing they could’ve done. There was no way they could’ve swayed Aaron and James over to their side. Sure, they could’ve done it with more tact, and they should’ve stuck with it, and it would have been foiled by James’ immunity idols anyways – but it was still the correct decision.