After the five-minute season recap, the Survivor season finale was off and running. It was night 36 and the final four were returning to camp after the last Tribal Council. Denise, Todd, Courtney, and Amanda were so happy they took off their clothes and danced around the campfire. Not really! They all hugged each other and talked about how far they'd come.

They received tree mail the next morning and guess what it was about. There would be a reward challenge for food! The challenge involved them tackling Survivor's version of the Great Wall of China. They had to cross and build a bridge before carrying building blocks back to the start line where they would "reconstruct" a section of the wall. The first one to finish would win a meal for one containing pizza, beer, soft drinks, and brownies.

The race was between Todd and Amanda the whole time. Denise and Courtney were both playing catch-up from the very beginning because they had a hard time building their bridge. Todd and Amanda breezed right through that and began working on their building blocks way ahead of them. In the end though, Amanda was the winner. Jeff told her she could keep it a serving of one or she could share the meal with either one or two people. It was a hard decision for her but she chose to share the meal with Todd because she said she wanted to "pick his brain."

During their meal, Amanda told Todd outright that she didn't trust him. He was shocked and said that he's been honest with her since day one, and that he wanted it to be her in the final two with him. Back at camp, Courtney asked Denise whom she wants to vote out next and Denise quickly said Todd. Courtney responded back that indeed he was a "slippery little sucker."

Todd was paranoid of the "girl power" when he returned back to camp and decided to chat up Denise. While he was telling Denise he felt that either Amanda or Courtney would win, Courtney was trying her best to listen in on their conversation. She went off to tell Amanda what she'd overheard; Todd came up on them and stopped their conversation. He told them he felt paranoid and asked the two if Denise would be the next one going and they both said yes.

The next day brought a new tree mail that told them they'd be honoring the memories of their former tribe mates on the way to their final Immunity Challenge. Yes, I know: I hate this cheesy part too. This season, because they're in China after all, they lit a string of fireworks in honor of each person before they met Jeff at the steps of some huge statue for their final challenge. This final Immunity Challenge involved balancing porcelain dishes on the end of a long and wobbly balancing arm. If the dishes fell, you were out. The last person left balancing their dishes would win immunity.

They started off with a big plate and then a large bowl before stacking on other assorted cups, bowls, and plates. Twenty-seven minutes into it and Todd began shaking a bit. After adding another small bowl, he began tilting his dishes too much and down they fell. Todd was out. Next up was another rice bowl and Amanda decided to add hers upside down while Courtney and Denise added theirs right side up. Courtney's arm began wobbling after that and lost it. Courtney was out. It was down to Amanda and Denise.

Denise asked if Amanda wanted to make a deal but Amanda told her that she didn't want to give up yet. After another rice bowl (upside down for her again), she told Denise that she didn't want to deal and that she wanted them to fight it out. Right after that, Denise's stack lost its balance and her dishes came crashing to the ground. Amanda won the final immunity and was guaranteed a spot in the final three.

Back at camp, Denise began her talk of how she only makes $7.00 an hour back at home and how she has kids and how they have more opportunities in their lives than she does and blah, blah, blah. I can't stand it when survivors pull this strategy out of their hats. Todd and Courtney told Amanda that they're voting for Denise to go and that Amanda can vote any way that she wants. Denise had already said she was voting for Todd so if Amanda voted for Todd she would still have a shot in the tie vote.

At Tribal Council, Denise gave one of the stupidest answers ever in response to a Jeff question of why they shouldn't let her go to the final three. She said that because she has kids the jury would be sympathetic towards her. She didn't say that she played a good game. She didn't say that she made the right alliances. She pulled the kid card yet again. Blech. Then when Denise mentioned that Amanda "had her back," Amanda stopped her and said she didn't mean today. That blurt caused Todd to mouth the word "burn" and made Amanda look even worse than she'd just made herself to be.

After tallying the votes, it was indeed Denise going home. The tribe had spoken. The power was now in the jury's hands and all they could do was try to persuade the jury to vote for them during questioning the next day. Back at camp, Amanda was upset at Todd because she said that he made her look bad in front of the jury and was mad at him for his comment. She was so upset she didn't even feel like celebrating being in the final three and told Courtney and Todd to celebrate by themselves.

On day 39, they awoke to find breakfast items in place of the usual tree mail. Ah yes, another Amanda blurred ass shot. I would have shed a tear if I hadn't seen that one last time. They ate breakfast, burned some trash, and then rowed away to experience jury questioning at their final Tribal Council.

We've witnessed final Tribal Council a million times so there's no need for me to cover everything because it happened the same way it always does. Each of them got the chance to say their final words to the Council. Amanda said she aligned herself with the right people and won challenges when she needed to; Todd felt that he lied and backstabbed in his game relationships, but his personal relationships with everybody were real; and Courtney said she thought she did a good job figuring the game out as she went along and was proud of herself for making it to the final three.

The jury questioning, for the most part, was the same old same old too. They asked the typical "Who lied about what?" and "Who lied to whom?" sort of questions. They were all rather nice about it except for Jaime. She came across as quite the bitch during her dirty laundry line of questioning. The tone of her voice, the looks she gave them, and her interrupting them reminded me of a child kicked off the playground after one ride on the slide. That's right! She was the first person on the jury remember? Denise was the only one that didn't have questions for them -- she decided instead to just make a simple statement to them and then left it at that.

It was finally time for them to vote and the only votes we saw were Jaime voting for Todd to win, Erik voting for Amanda to win, and Denise voting for Courtney to win. Now it was time for the cheesy transition to the live show. Oh my goodness! There was no cheesy transition!

They all looked so different, but especially Courtney. She had on tons of makeup, had put on a few pounds, and had her hair dyed a platinum blonde. She was looking like quite the Debbie Harry. (If you don't know who that is then Google is for you.) Amanda looked really weird with makeup on (I think she's prettier without it) and Todd looked like, well, like Todd.

It was finally the time we'd been waiting for: Jeff's tallying of the votes. The first vote to win went to Courtney, the second to Amanda, and the third to Todd. All tied up! The fourth vote went to Courtney and the fifth vote went to Todd. The sixth vote went to Todd. Sorry Amanda, you're out of it. The seventh and final vote went to Todd! Todd wins Survivor China!

He was so shocked at first and it seemed to take a second for it to sink in. When it did sink in, he ran to his family out in the audience giving them big hugs and kisses.

What can you say? I felt Todd deserved it. Would you have rather seen Courtney or Amanda win? What did you think about this finale episode? What do you think about next season with the super fans vs. show favorites theme? I'm not quite sold on that idea just yet.

Until next season everybody! Take care of yourselves.

*********

Have a question related to reality TV? Email HamsterDame!
HamsterDame's blogs: Silly Reality and Silly Hamsters.

Recommend (0)

|  Comments (0)

|  Email

|  Share

Share  Facebook Digg del.icio.us