Well here we are, the finale of Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers. And like the few weeks prior, the show gave us another great episode. We’ll get to all of it but we had a great final immunity challenge, more idol play, and a divisive twist at the final four.
Back at camp after Tribal Council, the four (Chrissy, Devon, Mike, and Ryan) are once again recovering from Ben’s idol play. As they’re talking about what a great play it was, Ben goes off on his own. And what does he do but find yet another idol. The guy can’t be stopped. While last week the group of five was getting slammed for not following Ben around as he was idol-hunting, this time was a little more forgivable. Tribal had just ended, they very well may have thought there was no way the idol would have already been replaced. During all this, the other four are talking about how great it is to be in the final five and, assuming Ben does not win immunity or find another idol (whoops) they’re in the final four. Yes that’s great, but they sound as if they don’t realize there would still be one last vote-off at four. I’m sure they discussed it, but the way the scene played out, they didn’t seem to realize that they’re perceived good times would soon be coming to an end one way or another.
So we get to the first challenge and it’s for both reward and immunity. It’s a water challenge and the contestants have to maneuver through a course and solve a colored ball puzzle. It was a good challenge, the course was pretty much like any other water course, but the puzzle was a nice new addition, having to move and rotate balls around so the each ball was in the slot that matched its color. Chrissy ended up winning, her third immunity victory, and chose to take Devon and Mike along on the reward, a feast back at camp. She didn’t seem to hesitate in choosing those two over Ryan, but curiously nothing we saw showed Ryan feeling too down-trodden about it. Maybe the four really was as strong as the impression they gave off. To their credit, Chrissy, Devon, and Mike look for idol clues at the reward. It’s a very reasonable thing to do, and there very well may have been one had Ben not already found the replaced idol. They come up empty but decide to use Chrissy’s fake idol to hopefully trick Ben into thinking it was the real idol. They played it very well to Ben, but obviously he wasn’t falling for it since he was already in possession of the idol at this point.
When discussing the upcoming vote with Ryan, Devon voices his suspicion of Ben, that he’s worried he might pull out another idol. He floats the idea of putting down Mike’s name, as a just-in-case. Ryan tries to talk him out of it but Devon remains unconvinced. And I have to side with Devon on this one. This the final five, mere days away from making it the Final Tribal Council. This is no time to shy away from making a move. You need to pull out all the stops or it could be your torch getting snuffed.
At tribal this time, Ben gives no indication that he has an idol. The camera keeps cutting to Devon as he continually looks suspicious as Ben is speaking. You can tell he’s still seriously contemplating voting Mike as a safety net. And vote Mike he does and it ends up being the correct play. Ben plays his idol and his vote was for Devon. Devon’s vote triggers the re-vote and Chrissy and Ryan keep Devon alive by both voting Mike. Depending on the rest of the game, this could have been a game winning move by Devon. The good doctor is gracious in defeat, which is always nice to see in this kind of blindside. The last thing we need at this point in the game is a potential bitter jury member, allowing his or her personal feelings to cloud their judgement at the final vote. This vote left us with a rare strong final four. Any of the four would be, at worst, a respectable winner for the season. Typically there is going to be a goat or two left at this point. It’s fun to see a group of strong players left so late in the game. And they met the challenge and gave us a great end to the game.
The final immunity was nothing short of fantastic. In theory, it sounds quite simple. But in practice, it was anything but. Each contestant had to spell out the words Heroes, Healers, Hustlers on an unstable platform. These kinds of balancing challenges are always great. Someone will inevitably be this close to victory, only to have everything come toppling down out of nowhere. It makes for great drama, and the more it happens within a given challenge, the better it is. And boy, did this one deliver. It looks like Ben is going to win until he calls Jeff over to confirm the victory. But no, Ben put the “U” in Hustlers upside down. He attempts to fix it and disaster strikes. Everything. Falls. Down. Devastating for Ben. But then the Survivor gods smile down on us and Ryan, Chrissy, and Devon follow suit shortly after as their letters drop. Ben is right there again, this time with all the letters placed correctly. But as he goes to lock in his station, he doesn’t have the touch and it all comes down again. Chrissy takes the opening and manages to place all her letters and lock it in, cementing her fourth individual immunity win, tying the record for individual immunities in a single season by a woman. But wait, there’s more!
Chrissy, as winner of the challenge, also received one final secret advantage. Sure, why not add yet another advantage/secret twist into the game right before the final four Tribal? While this season finished strong, there were simply too many advantages included in the game. The good thing was that most were limited to being usable only at a specific tribal council. But still, I thought this season over-did it a bit. Hopefully the show will reign in it some going forward. Though it doesn’t seem like that will be the case, not right away at least. More on Season 36 later in the post.
The “advantage” is that Chrissy gets to choose one of the other three remaining players to advance to Final Tribal with her. The other two will compete against each other in a fire-making contest, with the winner claiming the third and final place. While I’m not excited about this twist sticking around, as Jeff Probst would later confirm, I guess I’m okay with it as a one-time thing. In a season full of twists and secret advantages, one more big one at the very end does make some sense. I understand the reasoning (or at least what my perceived reasoning is) behind it. At the final four, so often the vote is clear cut the best player/biggest threat remaining. If that person doesn’t have immunity, he or she will no question be voted out. Just as Ben would have been had it not been for the new twist. But now, it at least gives them a fighting chance to make it Final Tribal where, in theory, they would deserve to be. It also could create some more drama, which production will always be on board for. While Devon was excited about the opportunity to prove himself, it’s not always going to go that smoothly. He could have just as easily gotten mad at Chrissy for making the decision she did. I don’t think this one decision influenced his voting for Ryan at the end, but it sure could have. But it does feel a bit like creating drama for drama sake. The show gives us plenty of drama as it is, do we really need to manufacture more with a twist like this? And now that the players know it’s coming (though it’s not yet clear if the contestants in Season 36 will know about it or if it will be a surprise twist to them as well) what’s to stop the final four vote being switched to the final five? If there is a big target everyone wants out, that player will simply be voted out at five, to prevent them from getting the chance to win their way to the end. Plus, if you work the game so your chosen group of three make up three out of the last four players, you should be rewarded for that game play. But I do love the Survivor production team continues to change and improve the game in unexpected ways. Not every idea can be a winner of course, but the only way to find the true winners is to give any reasonable idea a shot and see how it works. I’m hopeful that I will be proven wrong, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
We get to Tribal and Ben can barely contain his excitement as Chrissy reads aloud the note explaining what’s about to happen. But Devon is also pumped. He’s looking forward to having a chance to prove himself in front of the jury. And while it would have been a good look, he gets crushed, absolutely crushed, by Ben. So now Ben, against all odds, has made it to Day 39. You would think the game would be his to lose, but at Final Tribal, you never know what can happen.
On Game Changers, I was initially a bit skeptical of the change made for Final Tribal, with the more open discussion instead of the jury asking a question one by one. I was afraid it would be too easy for one aggressive member to take over and control the narrative of the conversation. Well, after tonight, any doubts I had are gone, though one complaint remains. It still really bothers me that they try to force the “Outwit, Outplay, Outlast” themes of the show into the conversation. It just feels so forced. Once the conversation gets flowing and opens up, it really is quite enjoyable. And this was a great Final Tribal, with one exception. Dr. Mike was surprisingly quiet throughout most of it. All we saw was him asking Ryan the simple question of what he learned from playing. For such a super fan, I certainly would have expected him to be much more involved in the conversation. Everyone so far is doing a pretty good job of selling themselves. Ryan, always the great talker, is able to work around his perceived shortcomings and give his game a better image. And Chrissy and Ben are able to play up their strengths from the game quite effectively. After Final Tribal, I initially thought Chrissy was going to win. She gave an impassioned speech about how being a mom made her the embodiment of this season. “All moms are not only heroes, but we are also healers and we are also hustlers.” Normally I would cringe when a contestant tries to work in the title or theme of their given season in speech like that, but this time it worked. While I would wager she had that one in her back pocket, waiting for the right time to use it, it came off to me as natural. But once Ben started talking about dealing with PTSD, and how he hoped his performance on Survivor would bring hope to other veterans struggling with the effects of PTSD, that should have been the point it was clear he was going to win. And he did, with a 5-2-1 victory over Chrissy and Ryan, respectively.
That brings us to one of my personal favorite moments of every Survivor season: Jeff handing the winner the $1 million check and acting outrageously casual about the whole thing. Maybe $1 million doesn’t mean much to someone who’s worth $40 million, but it’s a big deal to the rest of us. I don’t know, it’s small but it’s something I’ve been noticing the last few seasons and it gets me every time.
I do wish they could have spent more time on the reunion show, however. It didn’t start until shortly after 9:30 CT, leaving very little time, leaving most of the contestants to just sit there and smile as they wondered if Probst would even knowledge their existence as a Survivor contestant. Maybe next time CBS can cut down on the fan interactions. I’m sure Maggie and Grant and Ava are lovely people, but nobody cares what they’re thinking about the finale. Lose those minutes and get even a little more air time for the reunion.
Well that closes the book on yet another season of Survivor. It didn’t start out great, it was fine, but once it found its legs, it really got going. Lots of strong players made it far, with a very entertaining and deserving final five, final four, and final three. The last 3-4 weeks were all great episodes so the strong finish definitely raises my overall thoughts on the season as a whole. We’ll close with a brief preview of season 36: Survivor: Ghost Island.
Probst touched on a few points and Dalton Ross of Entertainment Weekly posted an interview with him that goes into more detail. You can read that here. But the basic gist of it is that Ghost Island will deal with famous mistakes of players from previous seasons. On the reunion show, Probst brought out Lauren’s shell that Dr. Mike threw in the fire and one of the idols James was voted out while holding way back in China. Going further, Probst says “And every idol or advantage in the game will be from a previous season. These are the actual, authentic items from past seasons.” I’m cautiously optimistic about how this will play out. Doubting the Survivor production team isn’t often a smart decision. But while it’s a cool bit of fan service to include the actual items from famous missteps, how will that actually impact the game? And couldn’t that provide an advantage to super fans as they might recognize the pieces (the idols from China are extremely unique and anyone who has seen that season would likely be able to immediately identify them right away) for what they are without any clue or indication? That being said, I would be shocked if it’s as simple and straightforward as that. So we’ll just have to wait and see what they have in store for us.
Survivor: Ghost Island will premiere February 28, 2018.
