Idol Speculation: “Survivor Cambodia” Finale: The Best of the Worst

Welp, I said before this episode aired that, if neither Spencer nor Keith won, that this would become my favorite season of all time. I don’t want to spoil too much in the opening paragraph, so I’ll simply say that neither of those people won. This means that my final verdict on this season is: It’s my second-favorite all the time.

Is the utterly hypocritical? Absolutely. But I do have reasoning for it, which I will explain. I’ll just be explaining it towards the end of the blog. I have to keep some secrets, you know. For now, I’ll just be getting to starting talking about the actual episode.

And of course, it wouldn’t be an episode of “Survivor Cambodia”, if we didn’t begin with:

MATT’S MESS-UP!

An apt way to end this season, but the mess-up, for once, is relatively minor. It seems that, despite losing out on the “Second Chance” vote, Max Dawson (“Survivor Worlds Apart”) DID manage to show up. how else do you explain Jeremy inexplicably talking about the personality of Scorpios when dissing Abi-Maria. Then again, perhaps I’m just upset that said dig seems a bit lame. I suppose nothing can really top Malcolm Freberg’s “Mack Truck” dis on “Survivor Philippines”, though, so no surprises there.

We begin the episode proper with Keith being incredulous. His natural state, I assure you. Basically, Keith can’t understand why they would vote out Abi-Maria when she was easy to beat. Keith goes on about wanting to have her in the end more than, say, Spencer or Jeremy. This only confirms for Spencer that he made the right move in targeting Abi-Maria, but I would point out to him that this also means that HE can’t use her as a goat at the end. Really, this is less a case of Keith confirming Spencer’s point, and more a case of Keith just being really bad at articulating his point.

But enough of that! We have to talk about Kimmi! Yes, after 36 days, she’s finally getting up and doing something! And no, this is not like the “Women’s Alliance” from a few episodes ago, where it seems like it’s going to be this big game-changer but then just kind of fizzles out and dies, this actually goes somewhere! Welcome to the game!

To be fair, I get where Kimmi’s game has been. I said last blog that a big part of this season has been making your big move, but also knowing when to make it. Kimmi has sat quietly, flown under the radar, and waited for the perfect time to make her move. Granted, she’s had a few OTHER perfect times to make her move, but this is a good one as well. Really, my problem with this development is not from a strategy perspective, but a viewer perspective. While Kimmi has definitely played a smart game up until this point, it’s a boring one. Seeing her only really participating in a big way NOW makes it seem like she’s been lazing about for most of this game. It’s sort of the same problem that Natalie White had on “Survivor Samoa”. Contrary to what Russell Hantz would have you believe, Natalie WAS playing a good game. It’s just that said game involved very little actual movement. For Natalie, the best strategy was to sit and wait, let Russell dig himself a hole, and build bonds with the jury and play off their sympathies. Brilliant strategy, but boring to watch. Kimmi’s kind of in the same boat here.

We’re here to talk about GOOD seasons, though, so lets get back to Kimmi. Her move is actually pretty solid. She plays off the fact that her current alliance (Jeremy, Spencer, and Tasha) will split the votes between Kelley and Keith. This means that, by defecting to Kelley and Keith to vote out either Spencer or Jeremy, they can win. It’s actually quite brilliant. It gives Kimmi a move to call her own, and eliminates amongst the biggest threats of the game. I just wish Kimmi had made similar moves earlier.

Challenge Time? Come a bit early, hasn’t it? Well, as a function of having so many people left at the end, and fearing a fan riot if a Final Four were at Final Tribal Council, “Survivor” has to move up its vote-out schedule. Basically, from now until day 39, we’ll be having an immunity challenge and a Tribal Council. I’m actually kind of mixed on this. It definitely is better than having a Final Four finish, and I’m happy that we don’t have to sit through any “Challenge Advantage” challenges again. The drawback, for me, is that we don’t get to see any strategizing pre-immunity challenge. We may see a BIT here and there after Tribal Council, but for the most part it immediately goes to the challenge. Feels a bit rushed, you know. Ideally, I feel like the solution would have been to have a double-elimination earlier in the season, and just have the final episode start at Final Five.

Onto the challenge itself. Taken from “Survivor Redemption Island”, this challenge has people running up steps to put in further puzzle steps, and then solving a pretty cool 3-D slide puzzle at the top. First puzzle solved wins immunity. Certainly a difficult challenge, but toned down from how it was originally. On its first go, EVERY step was a puzzle step. Now, there are basically sections of puzzle steps. This makes it seem like the challenge has no teeth, but on the other hand, given that Boston Rob collapsed after running this particular challenge, that’s probably for the best.

Probst goes on to talk about how they’re no longer doing challenges that any of the contestants have previously played before, which is code for “We picked ending challenges from seasons that had no contestants make it this far.”, but I like the spin he puts on it. Basically, those remaining have, to one degree or another, redeemed their past failures. Now they get to write a new legacy. It’s appropriately epic, but with just the right amount of cheese to prevent it being too grandiose. However, I will slightly question Probst’s “Never played this before.” claim, specifically with this challenge. While it’s true that, strictly speaking, no one HAS played this challenge who’s left on this season, Spencer did play a very similar challenge at the final five of “Survivor Cagayan”, and won it as well. Not exactly the same thing, but it seems like Spencer may have a leg up on the others.

Sure enough, Spencer wins. Now let’s see Kimmi’s plan put into action. She goes off to talk with Keith, wisely reinforcing what he has to do with this particular plan for it to succeed to make sure he doesn’t slip up. Unfortunately for Kimmi, the word “Subtle” does not describe her. Spencer and Tasha both wisely notice that she’s going off and speaking with people she shouldn’t really be going off and speaking with if she were going to stay true to their alliance. Figuring out that she plans to exploit the split vote, Spencer and Tasha swear NOT to split the vote.

When the foursome actually meet up, Kimmi actually pretty casually brings up the split vote idea, with guys going for Kelley and girls going for Keith. The minute Kimmi leaves, though, Tasha and Spencer start shaking their heads. Jeremy, however, is more trusting of Kimmi, particularly after he confronts her and she does a pretty convincing job of acting offended and upset at the accusation. This might seem like stupidity on Jeremy’s part, but it makes sense if you think about it. Throughout the entire game, with all of the crazy switch-ups, Kimmi and Jeremy are the only two people consistently on the same tribe. With all that loyalty built, plus paranoia about another idol, it makes sense why Jeremy would be overly trusting of Kimmi.

You know how I said the Jeff Varner boot was one of the most exciting Tribal Councils ever, and that nothing this season could possibly top it. Meet the topper. This Tribal Council was nothing short of FANTASTIC! We got really subtle gameplay from a lot of people, particularly Kelley and Keith, at least for the first part. But, as if subtle jabbing wasn’t enough, Spencer just goes and blows the whole thing open, stating out loud that Kimmi has turned against the alliance. Kimmi once again does a good job acting indignant, but Spencer doesn’t buy it. We go up to vote with many excellent sound-bytes, and everything blown wide open.

As everyone goes up to vote, I do have to say that while Spencer’s can opening was a lot of fun to watch, I’m not sure it was the best move for him. Jumping ahead a bit, Kelley, the intended target of the night, plays her idol, presumably in direct response to Spencer’s line of questioning. Had Spencer NOT done that, and just let Jeremy play HIS idol, Kelley, the biggest threat left, goes home. Bam. Done. Much better outcome. No complains, though. It did make for an exciting Tribal Council.

As I mentioned, the line of questioning leads Kelley to play her idol, which makes Jeremy wisely uncomfortable, and he plays his idol. Since neither Jeremy nor Kelley is an idiot, both read the situation correctly, and nullified three votes against them apiece. This means that, for the first time in “Survivor” history, we have a Tribal Council with no votes cast. Man, I know I hate it when people go overboard about what a “Survivor” first is, but this season really deserves that title. The resolution to this, as you might expect, is that everyone goes to vote again, but Jeremy and Kelley are now also immune. Everyone gets the chance to plead their case, and Spencer tries valiantly to sway Kimmi back to his side, trying to counter her complaints about how he replaced her in the alliance. This is somewhat undone, though, by Keith playing the part of Hayden Moss (“Survivor Blood vs. Water”), and silently insisting behind everyone backs that this is not the case. As one would logically guess, this leads to another 3-3 deadlock, this time between Kimmi and Tasha. Keith once again channels his inner “Survivor Blood vs. Water”, this time going with Gervase Peterson, as he encourages them to go to rocks. Probst then gives Jeremy, Tasha, Kelley, and Keith the chance to come to a unanimous consensus. Usually these don’t come to a consensus, but this time there’s a catch that may change things. With three people (Spencer, Kelley, and Jeremy) having immunity, and the people voted for (Tasha and Kimmi) automatically being immune in a rock-drawing situation, Keith would, by default, be voted out, as the only one not immune. It seems like this would be crazy, but for the moment, Keith seems up for it, noting that he’s had a good run, and Kimmi’s in it for the kids. This is the point where Keith needs to be voted out immediately. If you vote out Kimmi, it makes the rest of you look like jerks, and him the noble hero who tried to keep a single mom in the game. Keith just became MUCH more dangerous, and really needs to go. However, self-preservation kicks in, and Kimmi leaves anyway. Frankly, I’m not sorry to see her go. She was getting better as the season progressed, but compared to those left, she wasn’t all that exciting a character. Still, as she said she had a pretty good run, and it was nice to see her back.

After the requisite post-Tribal scene of Kelley and Keith discussing how screwed they are, we head to our second immunity challenge, basically a ropes obstacle course used on “Survivor South Pacific”, complete with a rotation puzzle. A bit generic, as challenges go, but a nice and exciting nonetheless. I lambasted it when it first appeared, but that’s because it was the final immunity challenge, which I feel should always be endurance. Here? I think it works quite well!

Then again, perhaps I’m riding the high from how much Kelley Wentworth owns this challenge, using more brains than anything. Certain obstacles are tougher than others, so Kelley goes to the toughest first. This means she takes it on with the most energy, and gets it out of the way, while everyone else avoids it. I expected Jeremy and Keith to own this challenge, since it does seem similar to fireman skills, and they both do pretty well. By all saving the hard obstacle for the end, though, they make a bottleneck, which slows them down enough for Kelley to take victory. Good for her. Also, I find it hilarious that Spencer, the puzzle guy, couldn’t get a single piece in, even after looking off of Kelley’s puzzle.

The logical choice now would seem to be Keith, and a brief pow-wow between Jeremy, Spencer, and Tasha seems to confirm this. Of course, Kelley being Kelley, she’s not going down without a fight, and her solution is… a fake idol. Ok, not a horrible plan, since inducing paranoia at this few numbers is always good if you’re on the bottom, and overplaying could backfire. Again, though, this plan also has a chance of backfiring, and doesn’t give you a lot of options. If I’m Kelley, I make an open play against Spencer. For Jeremy and Tasha, he’s a huge threat to win who has no idols. He seems to be ideally placed. Better to unite for one vote and take him out now, than Keith who is less likely to win.

It turns out Kelley makes a damn good fake idol, and this also means that all idols looking different come into play for the FIRST TIME this season. Man, for how much they built that twist up, it really took its sweet time being relevant. Now, her idol’s not Bob Crowley (“Survivor Gabon”) levels of good, but few are. Certainly it induces the paranoia she needs. In a hilarious scene, Jeremy tries to subtly get Keith’s attention to mouth who they want to vote for, being unable to talk since Tasha is napping right next to them. Keith, being Keith, fails to notice, even going so far as to look the other way. After about a solid minute of hilarious miming, Jeremy is able to mouth “Spencer” to Keith, implying that Jeremy would like to vote out Spencer. Keith relays this information to Kelley, and the pair agree to vote for Spencer. After all, either he or Jeremy need to go, and if Jeremy’s willing to play, why not go with it? From Jeremy’s end, he now has the best of all possible worlds. He makes Spencer a target rather than himself, and can basically choose how the vote goes tonight. Speaking of which, the misdirection in this episode is excellent! I didn’t bring it up last vote, but I REALLY wasn’t sure how it would shake out, and this one is no different. Jeremy is definitely a good strategist, and has been playing beyond my expectations this season, but he’s not the best. He’s prone to being overly paranoid and making mistakes, so I could see him flipping to vote out Spencer. His idea move, of course, would be to stick with his alliance. If Keith plays no idol, he goes, but if he does, then a major threat is gone, and Jeremy doesn’t look like a traitor. Pretty sweet deal for Jeremy.

It’s pretty hard to top that first Tribal Council there, but this one gives it a good try Keith once again demonstrates some subtle gameplay I wouldn’t have expected from him, and Kelley also gets in a few good hints. A fun watch, but it feels kind of standard after the last Tribal Council. In the end, Jeremy once again plays it smart, and Keith leaves. Man, I’ve really got to stop doubting Jeremy. Just when it seems like he’s going to make a big blunder, he does the smart thing. As to Keith’s leaving, you’re doubtless SHOCKED to learn that I’m not at all sorry to see him go. The man brought very little strategically or entertainment wise, though I will say I found him less insufferable this season. Probably it’s because this cast was so good that there was stuff to watch other than Keith, so when he DID occasionally show up, it was fine. In contrast, on “Survivor San Juan del Sur”, there wasn’t much BUT Keith to watch, so his antics got old really fast. So yeah, glad to see him gone.

We head on over to our final immunity challenge, which means the drawback of not getting to see the “Fallen Comrades” bit. I know they haven’t done it in forever, and it’s a relic of a bygone age at this point, but I enjoyed it, and it would have fit this season, especially with how well people knew each other this time around. Sad to say, but our Final Immunity Challenge is really nothing to look at this time around. It’s “Simmotion” from “Survivor Tocantins”, basically catching balls as they go through a maze. It’s a clever little challenge, and it IS an endurance challenge, which is good for the final challenge, but it just doesn’t feel grand. For my money, I would have gone with doing “Hand on a Hard Idol” from “Survivor Borneo”. It just would have felt right. I may have given the show crap early on for how much it seemed to be trying to be “Survivor Borneo”, but the occasional throwback to the original season is nothing to sneeze at. Ah well.

You’d expect Jeremy, the strength guy, to be out quickly in this challenge, but he wins it pretty handilly, and talks about how he won it for Val and his kids. This seems like a pretty nice scene, and it is, with a lot of genuine emotion. you’ll be a lot more cynical, though, when you realize Jeremy is going to KEEP invoking the wife and kids. With the EXACT SAME PHRASING each time! At LEAST change up the word choice, man!

After Spencer, Tasha, and Jeremy celebrate, Spencer goes to give Kelley the “sorry you lost” speech, but mentions in passing that he thinks he has a good shot to win in the end. With nothing left to lose, Kelley brings this information to Jeremy, who says he might be ok with it going to a fire-making challenge. No, Jeremy, no. Look, I get that I’ve said that you’re not the greatest strategist the world has ever seen, but this would be REALLY bad strategy. Like, Mike Holloway (“Survivor Worlds Apart”) bad. And you’d never do something that stupid. Yes, sad to say this is the one Tribal Council this episode without any tension in it.

Not to say that we get a bad Tribal Council! It once again pales in comparison to our opening Tribal Council, but that’s a tough act to follow. As it stands, we get a great open debate between Spencer and Kelley about who should go, one that I’d say actually doesn’t do Spencer a whole lot of good. He basically threatens Jeremy, saying that if he gets voted out, he’s campaigning against Jeremy in the end. Not that this argument is bad, but Spencer is so forceful, so determined with it that it makes him scary. Kelley is more subdued, but Spencer’s doing a better case agains himself than she is. True, she’s still the bigger threat. As Spencer himself says, it’s a case of the pot calling the kettle black, but he just makes himself seem so put out that it could make someone like Jeremy want to vote for him just on principle. Also, when Probst asks Jeremy if he’s ready to do various things, Jeremy says “yes” in exactly the same tone of voice each time. Hilarious.

As always this season, though, Jeremy plays with his head, and sends Kelley home. Definitely the right move, as she was the biggest threat left in the game, but I am sorry to see her go. Unlike most people named “Kelly” on “Survivor”, Kelley was a great strategist who brought interesting new dynamics and fun confessionals to the game, and played excellently. It’s a shame she wasn’t rewarded this time around, but hopefully she gets a third chance at some point. She really deserves it in my book.

Day 39 begins with a bright orange sunrise and a bright orange bird. Pretty sweet, but I still miss the cute baby monkey. We get our usual final day feast, as well as the “Scale and Mirror” twist from “Survivor Cagayan”, though this one causes less drama. We also get our usual “How far we’ve come” confessionals from our finalists. Tasha gets teary-eyed, but doesn’t really say anything memorable, Spencer talks about how his game has evolved, and Jeremy, yet again, talks about his wife and kids, as well as his emotional journey. From what little we’ve seen, and predicting what arguments people have for the win, Tasha is unlikely to win, but it should be a close battle between Spencer and Jeremy. What’s interesting to me is that it’s really framed as a battle of logic versus emotion between the two. Spencer, as you’d expect, plays the logical “I improved my game.” card, while Jeremy goes for his emotional journey. Granted, that’s not an entirely apt comparison, since Spencer claims his game evolution was an emotional one, but it is an odd switch-up.

We’ve got a 10 person jury this time around, and while most of them are interesting in terms of questions, for the sake of time, I’m only going to hit the highlights. Savage berates both Jeremy and Spencer for being arrogant, at which point I can’t help but roll my eyes at the idea of SAVAGE of all people giving others crap about being arrogant. He asks both of them to justify their actions. Spencer pretty much apologizes, but Jeremy says that that’s how he was feeling at the time, and that while it may have been immature, it was genuine. Seems to me like Spencer answered the question better, but I get the feeling Savage will vote for Jeremy anyway. Savage is big on “honor”, and Jeremy played the game in a more Savage-like way, and so would be seen as more honorable. Ciara spouts more crap about how this season is “Unlike any other season.”, which I’m frankly sick of at this point, but I bring it up because here we see a textbook example of how to answer a jury question on “Survivor”. Jeremy responds that the caliber of player is what made this season different, citing Ciera and her desire to play as an example. Bam! Answers the question in a clever way that makes everyone feel good about themselves, and praises the question-asker when it was not explicitly asked for! That’s how you answer a jury question! Kelly makes a callback to her season by asking everyone to pick a number for the win, and for once, people make logical choices. Jeremy says “two”, whereupon Tasha says “three” and Spencer “four”. Stephen, in a funny parallel to “Survivor Tocantins”, basically asks Jeremy “Is it true that you’re the greatest human being who’s ever lived?” Abi-Maria brings up a bunch of notes that she doesn’t use. Kimmi refers to Spencer as a “bully” for how he treated Kelley at the previous Tribal Council. Kass calls out Spencer’s “Zero chance of winning the game.” remark from “Survivor Cagayan”, and even though his response to that is the most genuine we’ll see from him tonight, I feel like Kass still probably won’t vote for him. Actually, this is shaping up to be a pretty even vote tonight. Thus far, I feel like we’ve got a 4-4-1 split, with Kass, Savage, Stephen, and Abi-Maria voting for Jeremy, Ciera, Kelly, Joe, and Keith voting for Spencer, and Kimmi voting for Tasha. This makes a certain amount of sense. Tasha doesn’t have much of a resume, but played a good enough social game to earn a vote or two. Spencer’s answers have been the most articulate, but you can tell there’s a lot of BS in them. Those who can’t see through the BS vote for him. Jeremy’s answers, by contrast, aren’t as good, but come across as more genuine.

And so, it all comes down to Kelley, who decides the entire vote. Just maybe not in the way you’d expect.

Kelley asks a pretty open-ended question, which you’ think wouldn’t amount to anything. But then, Jeremy pulls out the bombshell, the ace in the hole for him. He goes on about Val and his unborn child, whom he reveals to everyone is a boy. And the jury just collapses. Everyone is blown away by this revelation, and you can tell Jeremy just won himself a lot of votes. how many votes? Well, put it this way: No name is shown on any card for this final vote. Every time they do this, it means the vote was a landslide victory, a complete shutout. Since there’s no way Jeremy ISN’T getting votes, guess who wins?

Yep, we have our third “perfect game” in “Survivor” history, with Jeremy getting all votes at the Final Tribal Council, and receiving no votes during his time in the game, though with the asterisk that three votes for him technically exist, and were just nullified. Before I rant about this, let me say that Jeremy is a deserving winner. He played a much better game, flying below the radar, and made every move pretty much right. That said, I feel that his victory is tainted by the use of underhanded tactics. The trouble is Jeremy using his wife to gain sympathy votes in the end feels a lot to me like the “Dead Grandma” lie of “Survivor Pearl Islands”. While Val actually IS pregnant, and I do think Jeremy’s emotion is genuine, it doesn’t feel fair for everyone else that Jeremy used that tactic. It feels underhanded and personal, way below the belt for this game. And yeah, I know, fairness isn’t a part of “Survivor”, but it just rubs me the wrong way that Jeremy effectively USED his wife like a tool to win “Survivor”. On top of that, while I’m definitely cool with Jeremy winning, it feels like a travesty that neither Spencer nor Tasha got any votes. They played good games. They deserve some acknowledgment of it.

Is this what brings down the season, preventing it from being number one? Well, partly, but I feel like it’s symptomatic with the larger issue I have with the season: its directionality. Early on, it was clear this season would be one of the greats, but the question was just how great. As this season progressed with consistently good episodes, I knew it had to make the top 3 or so, and I began to toy with the idea of it being my new favorite season. As we saw episodes that should have been bad, but were still good, I became convinced that putting it anywhere less than 2 would be an insult. But there again, did it make number one. I tried to compare it to “Survivor Micronesia”, my overall favorite season, but the trouble was they were good in different ways. “Survivor Cambodia” was overall more consistent in its awesomeness than “Survivor Micronesia” (note again the making of boring episodes interesting), and had a somewhat better cast. However, it never reached some of the heights of ridiculousness that “Survivor Micronesia” reached, though Erik Reichenbach voting himself out is a pretty high bar to set. What really got me thinking, though, was the overall trends of the season. “Survivor Micronesia” started out as an excellent season, but progressed to phenomenal as time went on. Basically, it got better the longer it ran. In contrast, I feel that “Survivor Cambodia”, while excellent throughout, didn’t reach the same heights later as it did earlier. The episodes were still spectacular, but just not quite as spectacular as some of the early season stuff we saw. If you’ve got the choice between a better beginning or a better ending for a season of “Survivor”, I say the ending should be better, so that’s a point in the “Survivor Micronesia” column. To solve my dilemma, I decided to wait and see how the finale for “Survivor Cambodia” turned out before making my judgement, and I deem it not quite as good. This episode could actually be a microcosm of the season: all good, but the stuff early on was just more amazing than the stuff later. Not the episodes fault, since things do have to be shown in order, but with Jeremy’ semi-underhanded way of winning, and especially in such a landslide, it just makes this season not quite number one with me. Perhaps, if the vote had been close, kept the tension right up until the end, it might have been different, but the landslide victory, coupled with a stronger beginning than ending, just keep “Survivor Cambodia” out of the number one spot.

That said, however, this is still one of the greatest seasons of all time! We had an excellent cast who really brought their “A” game, spectacular twists that all really worked, and a great locale. If you love this season above all others, I really can’t fault you in any way. This one was a home run for the show, and I’m proud to have blogged it for you.

The reunion show, as per usual, won’t be talked about. It’s a pretty nice one, but nothing stands out. That said, I am not all that optimistic about “Survivor Kaoh Rong” from the preview. As many have gather, this is another “Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty” season, doubtless trying to capitalize on the popularity of “Survivor Cagayan”. My stance on reusing twists is well known by now, so I wasn’t going to like the preview from the beginning, but what’s worse, the “Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty” aspect WASN’T what made “Survivor Cagayan” work. Rather, it was a spectacular cast who all came to play. If you want to recapture the “Survivor Cagayan” magic, focus on getting a great cast, not reusing twists. To further the “copying” idea, they’ve even got an NBA player on the season! The emphasis on the harshness of the season and the medical evacuations also leads me to have little faith in the season. After all, if that’s your main selling point, there must not be a lot to work with. That said, I DID like a couple members of the cast that they showcased, and that makes me believe this next season might not be a total loss. The two who particularly stood out to me were Debbie, the lady with a bunch of jobs, who seems like she’ll be a fun character, and the older guy I am henceforth dubbing “Yau-Man 2.0” (“Survivor Fiji”).

But, as per the ending of any season, I have to do a:

TOP 5 AND BOTTOM 5!

There’s not a lot that stood out about this finale that I haven’t covered in a previous list, but I have gushed about the merged tribe flag from this season, so that’s what we get to talk about. Let’s dive right in!

TOP 5

5. Enil Edam (“Survivor Caramoan”): I almost put this flag on the “Bottom 5” list, because Erik’s drawing style really doesn’t lend itself the caricatures he was trying to do of everyone who made the merge. But the center of the flag, ooh man, that give me shivers! A perfectly painted sunset with the season’s helicopter overhead. That is awesome, and puts it in the top list.

4. Barramundi (“Survivor The Australian Outback”): I normally don’t like a cartoony style for a flag, but this one made it work. It fit the more casual feel of the season, and the image of a giant fish eating the tribe name is just too good to ignore.

3. Alinta (“Survivor Vanuatu”): This season was subtitled “Islands of Fire”, so of COURSE your flag has to have a volcano on it! The drawing itself is very well done, but what puts this one so high is the lettering. Most merge tribe flags have big, block lettering on them, but Scout managed to give the lettering a distinctive style that really makes this flag stand out above others.

2. Orkun (“Survivor Cambodia”): I’ve gushed about the beauty of this flag before, so I feel no need to do so here. To look at it is to marvel at the beauty of the color and the design, and while the tribe name itself is a bit hard to make out, you can’t help but love it.
1. Gitanos (“Survivor Exile Island”): Having a professional artist to do your flag for you really helps you out. Not only was this one beautifully and uniquely constructed, but Bruce was able to pretty well reconstruct a lot of the motifs from the season, and it really helped. This flag stands out even amongst other well-painted flags.

Honorable Mention: Hae Da Fung (“Survivor China”): Another cool looking flag, with a great yin-yang symbol featuring the old tribe colors and mascots. Lettering’s really unique as well. It would definitely have been on the list proper, had it not been for the fact that said cool yin-yang symbol wasn’t the work of the contestants. Production put it on there, which in my book, disqualifies it from consideration.

BOTTOM 5

5. Moto Maji (“Survivor Africa”): I’m doing a bit of a disservice here, since this flag isn’t all that bad. A nice, big symbol over a pretty standard rendering of the tribe name. What bothers me is that the tribe name was supposed to be Swahili for “Water” and “Fire”, and they tried to reflect that in their flag. I saw WATER in the symbol… but no FIRE! FAIL!

4. #Huyopa (“Survivor San Juan del Sur”): A pretty standard rendering of the tribe name, group initials, and nothing else, but what sets this one apart is adding in the hashtag directly to the name. Granted, I ranted about this in my “Worst Merge Tribe Names” list, but it still bothers me, and bothers the flag by extension.

3. Chuay Jai (“Survivor Thailand”): This one really just lands on the list for a lack of effort. It’s a poorly drawn “Survivor” logo that’s hard to make out, with, once again, everyone initials. Nothing to see here! Move along!

2. Te Tuna (“Survivor South Pacific”): I’ll admit, perhaps I’m being harsh. After all, this one did TRY and add some variety to the flag, but it has not central grounding image, and what’s there is pretty poorly drawn. I feel bad criticizing people’s drawing skills, since my own aren’t so hot, but this flag just looks childish to me.

1. Aitutonga (“Survivor Cook Islands”): Really a placeholder for all “Name and initials” flags, but this one always stood out to me by… not standing out to me. I know it makes no sense, but of the boring flags “Survivor” has had, this one seems to most boring to me, and therefore should be put out to exemplify all of its kind.

Honorable Mention: Balboa (“Survivor Pearl Islands”): The flag itself was fine, but I put it on here because I feel like there’s some wasted potential. You have a black flag on a pirate-themed season, and you DON’T have a skull and crossbones?

Still with me, dear reader? Good. We’re in the home stretch. I just need to critique my early opinions of the contestants, and sign off!

Vytas: Wrong. While I still say he’s a good player, I evidently wasn’t the only one who spotted it, and he got voted out much earlier than I expected.

Shirin: Wrong. While the quirky, crazy energy was still there, it got to people more than I would have guessed, and led to a much earlier exit than I predicted.

Peih-Gee: Wrong. She didn’t change nearly as much as I though, and as such went out much earlier than I expected.

Jeff Varner: He was out early, which I didn’t see, but I’ll give myself some credit that I think I predicted how he would play down pat.

Monica: Technically, she WAS the first one out when her tribe first went to Tribal Council, so I’m counting this one correct. Waste of a space.

Terry: Well, the man did learn from his mistakes (at least to some degree), and might have gone farther had it not been for his family emergency. I’ll give myself this one.

Woo: He played pretty much how I expect, but went out a bit earlier.

Kass: Wrong. I’m impressed at how she improved her game, and while she didn’t last as long as her first outing, she still made it pretty far.

Savage: While the man lasted longer than I thought, I’m saying I was right on this one. He acted in pretty much the same way I thought he would, and I still didn’t enjoy it.

Kelly: Wrong. I once again nail personality and gameplay, but flub time in the game.

Ciera: Wrong. She hung in there far better than I thought she would.

Stephen: Thankfully wrong. It seemed like he might be out early like I thought, but he managed to turn his game around, at least for a while.

Joe: Pretty much right. Didn’t really learn from last season, and out almost as soon as he became vulnerable. Hung on a bit longer than I expected, though.

Abi-Maria: Completely right. She learned nothing, and got dragged along for it.

Kimmi: Wrong. While I was correct in that Kimmi hadn’t learned as much about the game as she thought, she was able to overcome that and last longer.

Keith: Wrong. While his gameplay didn’t change, it still took him pretty far.

Kelley: Right. She played aggressively and lasted a while, like I thought.

Tasha: Though she didn’t win, she came close, and played pretty similarly to how I thought she would. I’ll give myself this one.

Spencer: Right. He played pretty similarly and lasted about as long as I expected. He might even have overcame himself to win, were it not for Jeremy’s pregnancy ploy.

Jeremy: Wrong. Not as wrong as some others, but I didn’t give the guy enough credit on his strategy or his odds.

And there you have it! Great season, great cast, hopefully the next one can prove me wrong. Normally I’d take a hiatus here until the cast for next season is announced, but I do actually have one bit of off-season content I’d like to do while the iron is hot. Be on the lookout for the next few weeks for “Matt’s 2nd Second Chance Fantasy Roster”!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.