Idol Speculation: “Survivor David vs. Goliath” Finale: Diary of a Whiny Castaway

Yes, the title joke is blatantly stolen from Mike White. No, I’m not sorry. That joke was too good not to reuse.

Apologies in advance if this blog is a bit short by my usual standards for a finale. Although I for once took the precaution of using some personal time to come in late to work tomorrow, I still have to go, and therefore any shortening of time is good for me.

Pretense is thrown out the window post Tribal-Council. There’s idols in them thar hills, and our plucky contestants mean to find them. Everyone goes out to search in a hilariously edited montage that does a good job of misdirecting us, having the music swell multiple times when different people are looking in trees. Ultimately, Angelina fulfills her own prophecy of the season by finding an idol, or at least a clue to one. Taking a leaf out of the “Survivor Kaoh Rong” playbook, the idol is hidden in a hard-to-reach place, and requires a tool (specifically a ladder) to get. I actually kind of like this execution better than the original, because there’s not really a way to find a substitute for a tool. True, this does limit individual ingenuity, but it also makes the inclusion of a ladder feel, well, not pointless.

Angelina, for all the flak I’ve given her (and will continue to give her), is not an idiot, and so decides that putting up a very noticeable ladder in a common area of camp MIGHT be noticed during a massive idol hunt, and so waits for a more opportune moment. Or at least she would, but she lost the clue telling her of the idol’s location, and thus she decides to act immediately. Unfortunately for Angelina, she goes a bit too far, scaling the entire cliffside trying in vain to find the idol. I’d make fun of this, but bear in mind that this is the show that once featured Dan Kay (“Survivor Gabon”), the man who somehow interpreted a clue telling him to look “Across the lake…[in] a sandy crater.” as a call for him to look IN the lake. Comparatively, Angelina hit a bullseye.

This does mean that Angelina, while doing a good job of hiding the ladder later, cannot sneak back into camp unnoticed. Now, with everyone out idol hunting, Angelina’s behavior should not seem that suspicious. She’s walking, looking for the idol, just like everyone else. But no, because it’s Angelina, it has to be convoluted as hell. She feigns a back injury, even going to far as to have Dr. Alison take a look at it. I can’t deny that it’s a good bit of deception, but it seems pointless for something that could really hit home to a lot of people. Remember, this season’s first boot was a medical leave due to back injury. Maybe not something you want to play on the sympathies of, particularly this season.

Our first immunity challenge is your standard obstacle course/puzzle combo that bears little mention, though I must say I find the puzzle odd. Not difficult, mind you, but odd. It’s basically a square jigsaw puzzle, but the usual strategy of working from the edge in is actually the OPPOSITE of the easy way to do things here. With everything cut at nice right angles, there’s no way to tell what is and isn’t an edge piece, except by color, but at that point you’re better off building the logo portion and working from there.

Also, I notice that we now have taken steps to prevent what happened last season on this sort of challenge, where Probst makes it clear that you must step away and declare that you have finished to win. I hereby dub this the “Wendell Holland Contingency”.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, this challenge comes down to the puzzle, and Nick pulls out a win. In addition, he gets spaghetti dinner for himself, and ultimately two others. His first pick is Angelina, which is understandable. After all, she’s a potential ally of his, and she did just hurt her back. Though if I were Nick, I would emphasize this point more. Maybe it’s just me, but it would seem REALLY suspicious if someone claimed to hurt their back, but didn’t want medical to at least take a look. I’d be emphasizing to Probst “Yeah man, I really feel bad for Angelina. I mean, she hurt her back and all. Came back to camp moaning and groaning. Sure hope nothing’s seriously wrong with it.”, in the hope that a medical evacuation might get me one step closer to that prize. Nick’s second choice is Mike, which I can understand. After taking Angelina, there’s not really a “right” or “wrong” choice here. What there is is bad justification, which is what Nick has. At this point, he’s clearly taking his old Jabeni tribemates, and fair enough. But you want to HIDE that fact, so that no one cottons on, and tries to break up your alliance. Instead, Nick flat out states that this is what he’s doing.

Fortunately, he might have an idol to back him up. To further torment Angelina, the spaghetti feast is held by the water well, where the aforementioned cliff is. Talk turns to whether Alison (the current target for the night, more on that later) has an idol. Mike speculates that she does not, but turns to Angelina for her opinion. All Angelina has to do here is say “No.” Very simple, but effective, lie that keeps her secrets to herself, but also keeps her alliance in power. Instead, Angelina breaks down, and enlists their help in getting the idol, which she eventually claims. I can’t fault her too much here, since these are her close allies, and having more information does prevent people panicking and messing up plans accordingly. That said, I feel like had Angelina played this a little better, she might have had her proverbial cake and eaten it as well. Having a confident alliance AND an idol no one knows about.

On the subject of cake, I must dispute this being a “reward”. Food is good and all, but you gave them RED VELVET CAKE? Shame on you, “Survivor”.

Moving onto the target for the night, in a gorgeous transition between groups (our diners say “cheers” with wine, and then we cut to the same shot with cups of rice with our losers), we see that, indeed, Nick’s Jabeni comment was not unnoticed. All agree that something needs to be done about that group and… do absolutely nothing. Davie’s hitched his horse to Nick, and that’s that. Dammit, Davie, if you weren’t so charming, I would have a real issue with you right now!

So, our diners get to decide the target tonight. Alison’s name is brought up (to no one’s surprise, since it’s basically tradition at this point), but it’s not who you think it would be. Angelina is the most gung-ho about getting her out, along with Nick. Now Nick, it makes sense why he’d want Alison out. Davie is the only other really viable target, and keeping Davie around is good for Nick. It’s someone who’s arguably more of a jury threat than he is, gives him another ally to work with, and in general keeps Nick in control. For Angelina, though, what’s the benefit? Davie’s probably not going to work with her, and while Alison’s a threat, so is Davie. Alison could probably sway a jury very well, but there are counter arguments to her game. In regards to Davie? To steal another quote, this time from Teresa Cooper (“Survivor Africa”) “What can you say that’s bad about Davie? Nothing!” Only Mike is the lone voice of dissent, quickly becoming our outlet of good strategy now that he’s off the “Goliath Strong” train. He makes all the points that I’ve just made, thereby making him the smartest person left in the game.

But how to make his pitch? Nick’s clearly never going to go for it, and while it would be in Angelina’s best interest to eliminate Davie, she’s dead-set on Alison leaving the game. Mike rightly points out that for his persuasion to work, he’ll have to make Angelina think it was her idea. Naturally, when he pitches the plot to her, he instead frames it purely strategically, and does nothing to convince her to come up with the idea herself. Again, BRILLIANT idea from Mike. Now if only we could see it actually be done.

For all my complaining, there is actually decent mystery going into this Tribal Council. True, the smart thing has usually been done in terms of vote-offs this season, and if I were a gambling man, I’d go for Davie going home, but I could also see scenarios where Alison is the target. Still, the smart thing continues to happen, and Davie is evicted. You can bet that I’m sorry to see him go. Davie may not have been the biggest character this season, but that’s more of a testament to how many big characters there were this season than to Davie himself. The dude exudes charm from his every orifice, and it’s a shame that he had to go. It also means we’ve lost our last arguably universally liked potential winner this season, but more on that later.

Oh, and as he leaves, Davie states that the one orchestrating his elimination will get his vote. Bur sure, show, keep telling us that the new Final Tribal Council format changes minds. Clearly these people are coming in with NO preconceived notions of who they want to win whatsoever.

There are good ways to handle being blindsided, and there are bad ways to handle being blindsided. Nick somehow manages to find a worse way. Ok, ok, I exaggerate somewhat, but the dude really does not acquire himself here. His assessment of the situation is spot-on: Mike insisted on getting his way, leaving Nick proverbially out in the cold. Nick has every right to be upset. However, by whining about it for all to hear, you lose shots at potential allies and any chance you might have of getting by without immunity. When people are rolling their eyes at your loss, there’s little helping you.

Our second immunity challenge has contestants stand atop a tall pole. there, they must haul up leaky buckets of water to use to fill a bamboo chute, raising a key. This key unlocks a block puzzle, with the first person to solve that puzzle winning immunity. Yes, this is a reused challenge. No, I don’t care. Why? Because this is the same challenge that Kass McQuillen had that amazing comeback on during “Survivor Cagayan”, and anything that reminds me of that is a thumbs-up in my book.

With Nick winning immunity, Alison is firmly on the chopping block at this point. Even Mike has little reason to keep her. This should satisfy Angelina’s vendetta, right? No, she wants more. Well, she does have that idol that she found, and tonight’s the last night she can play it. No, she wants more. Not content with a mere idol play, Angelina wants a CORRECT idol play. Thus, she concocts a convoluted plan where Mike gets Kara and Alison to pile their votes on Angelina so that Angelina can then negate those votes. Now, for all my snark, this is a good plan for Angelina. It makes her look even better in front of the jury, and at this point, she needs every advantage she can get. The flaw here is that there’s no incentive for MIKE to execute this plan. Why, at this juncture, would someone do something that makes someone ELSE look better, and gains them no visible benefit? Unless they were an idiot, they wouldn’t and Mike is not an idiot. He spills the plan to Kara, who in turn spills it to Alison. This show of trust and good faith leads Kara to target Mike. Wait, what?

Ok, ok, with Nick and Angelina immune, Mike is the only other viable target for Kara and Alison as a pair, but really? Mike just displayed about as complete a trust in you as could be imagined, and you reward him with betrayal? Typical “Survivor”, but still weird nonetheless.

Yeah, if it wasn’t already clear, this misdirection does not live up to its predecessor. Nick may have a vendetta to fill, but he also wouldn’t sabotage his game this way. There’s no way Alison doesn’t go home, so instead, let’s take a moment to acknowledge Mike’s big blunder for the night. He foolishly decides to take a leaf out of Spencer Bledsoe’s playbook, circa “Survivor Cambodia”, and berate a contestant for little reason shortly before Final Tribal Council. In this case, Angelina, the obvious target, makes a token effort at switching the target, noting how Mike is a “threat”. She doesn’t even put any emotion behind it, instead just going for a calm, logical argument. This leads to Mike going off on her, stating that she’s lost her dignity, and in general makes her out to be scum of the earth for not just rolling over and dying. Need I say more about the wrongness of Mike here. In general I like you, man, but a loss of respect points!

Alison leaves, and while I do personally like her on the show, I can’t be too sorry to see her go. She was a decent enough strategist, but wasn’t a stand-out character, and so there’s not too great a loss. Personally, though? Miss her a great deal.

Also, fun fact: With Alison’s departure, this marks the first time since the inception of the “Two tribe to three tribe swap” that a member of the newly created tribe has not made the Final Tribal Council.

Our final immunity challenge is “Simmotion”. Because, you know, THAT wasn’t an underwhelming final challenge in past seasons!

With Nick’s victory in this challenge, his winning of the season is now all but assured, but sure, let’s put up the pretense of some actual debate here. Everyone comes to Nick to state their case in admittedly a pretty funny scene, what with people saying things that contradict each other. Nick then throws out the pretense of debate by stating what we all knew to be true: that Angelina will never win, so he’s taking her, and letting Mike and Kara duke it out. I admire the bluntness, but I think this move could have been pulled off better with a bit more subtlety. If I’m Nick, I really want Kara to win this final challenge, both because Mike is the biggest threat to my winning the game, and because of my vendetta. To do so, I need Mike not to practice fire-making. Hence, I tell Kara that she’s going to fire making in private, I tell Angelina that she’s safe but ask her to practice making fire to keep up pretenses, and I spin Mike a tale about how I’m taking him to the finals. Why would Mike buy this? Recall that Mike is a superfan, and thus knows all about the show, in particular the last couple seasons. If you recall, the winner of that fire-making challenge won both times, in part due to that last chance to boast before Final Tribal Council. Tell Mike that you don’t want him to have that advantage, and thus won’t risk him winning that challenge. A bit weak, admittedly, but it has a logic I could see Mike buying.

Mike is nervous before the challenge, while Kara is confident. Naturally, this means Mike wins. As if that wasn’t enough, evidently the “Orange Curse” from “Survivor Ghost Island” carried over to this season, as Kara was at the unlucky orange station this time around, and lost. As to her exit, I’m not really sorry to see Kara go. There’s nothing offensive about her, but on “Survivor”, she was kind of a nice, quiet non-entity, and thus no real loss for the show.

One upside to the new Final Tribal Council format: I don’t have to spend time dissecting each individual jury question, and can just talk about those points that stand out to me. This season has two. One is Gabby giving Angelina credit that part of the negative perception of her might be due to her being a woman. And yeah, this is a fair point. We expect genders to conform to certain types of gameplay, and when they don’t, we get offended. I can see this happening in general, and in particular, I can see it in Angelina’s case. However, I still have to criticize her game. Trumpeting one’s own accomplishments is not something to scoff at, and arguably necessary for winning the game. It is not Angelina’s actions that make her bad at “Survivor”. Now, it’s her execution of those actions that make her bad at “Survivor”. You want to bring up your accomplishments, but NATURALLY. Work them subtly into the conversation, almost let people remind themselves of it. By shoehorning yourself in everywhere, and reminding people of your “altruistic” acts, you come off as forced, desperate, and as Davie pointed out, disingenuous. So yes, Angelina may be unfairly piled upon because of her gender. That does not excuse other parts of her poor gameplay.

The other thing to mention about this Final Tribal Council? Well, while some are more talkative than others, most everybody gets in one or two points, and seems like a contributor. Save for Carl, who just waits until the end, and caps things off with a zinger. I cannot think of a more appropriate way to end Final Tribal Council for this season.

While Nick is the clear frontrunner, with Mike still in the mix, there is at least a bit of mystery. True, Mike did kind of shoot himself in the foot on the Alison boot, but he’s still charming, and has some friends on the jury. Adding onto this, the editors pull a few tricks to make it look as though Mike might actually win. He’s saved for last in the pre-Final Tribal Council summary (a spot usually reserved for the winner), he gets many nice “growth” confessionals for himself, and when the votes are read, Nick first gets one, then Mike gets three, implying a blowout. Clever move, editors. They’re getting better. You’ve got to admit it. They are getting better.

Nick’s win, in a way, actually explains a lot about this season, and how it was marketed. Much like “Survivor Kaoh Rong” before it, this season was not hyped much before it aired, yet as the season progressed, it turned out to be so good, people began to question what was happening. So, like with “Survivor Kaoh Rong”, it was speculated that the ending was so bad that it brought down the season. And while this season’s outcome is nowhere near as unsatisfying as that of “Survivor Kaoh Rong” (though, to avoid starting a flame war again, that season’s problems were largely the fault of the EDITORS, nor Michele, Aubry, or the jury), it’s still not what we would want to see. It’s weird to say this about a season with a generally likable cast, and no major antagonists, but the villain kind of won in this case. I don’t see any real hate for anyone in the case (which is one of the things that makes this season so great), but think about our finalists. Did you really want any of them to win? Probably not. You wouldn’t be unhappy at their winning, but you’re not jumping out of your seat with excitement either. Don’t get me wrong, Nick EARNED his victory, playing from the bottom and still managing to come out on top. But Nick is kind of a modern-day Richard Hatch (“Survivor Borneo”). From a strategic perspective, he was fine, and did nothing that was particularly offensive. But did you really WANT to see him win. Their annoying personality traits differ (Hatch was more arrogant, while Nick more whiny, though both had those aspects to their personalities as well), but the outcome is the same: A winner who’s not scum of the earth, but who you can’t fully get behind either. It leads to an underwhelming outcome, is what I’m saying.

Speaking of underwhelming, let’s talk reunion show! Actually, despite my snark, this is the best the reunion show’s been in quite a while! True, it’s still too short, and I’m mad some people didn’t get questions, but you know what? We had questions we ACTUALLY wanted to hear about, and talked to a variety of people, not just our finalists. Hell, even the segments mid-show kind of worked. Davie was charming, and if you’re going to get strategy input from a past contestant, Zeke Smith (“Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X.” is a good choice. He’s smart, but not overused, and leads to a good bit about how he and his boyfriend met. If you’re going to interrupt show time with this, then this is the way to interrupt it. I’m sure some people want me to talk about the preview for next season, but I’m going to save that for the end, after I give my overall thoughts on the current season. It will be clear then why.

For now, let’s dissect how accurate my preseason predictions were. Yes, I know there’s normally a “Top 5 and Bottom 5” here, but, though it pains me to say so, I think I have to stop trying to do those segments at the beginning and end of a season. I’ll do it if somethings stands out, and I’ll still try and do at least one list a season, but the sad fact is, I’m running out of topics that aren’t an overly-narrow superlative. If I’m going to keep this up, I need to pace myself, and that means fewer a season. Plus, this keeps the blog shorter, which as mentioned before, is somewhat high on my list of priorities with my job. Now, onto my inaccurate predictions.

BI-Wrong. Just straight-up wrong. Man, what a depressing way to start out this recap.
CARL-He made it slightly farther than I thought, but given how I nailed his personality, I’ll say I was right on this one overall.

CHRISTIAN-Again, pretty much dead right, both in personality and time in the game.

DAVIE-He didn’t win, but he came close, and was charming. Another correct call. Huh. Maybe I undersold myself.

ELIZABETH-Not the worst call I’ve ever made, but I was wrong nonetheless. I definitely underestimated her.

GABBY-Wrong, thankfully, though due to the editing, I didn’t end up loving her as much as I thought I would.

JESSICA-Completely right. Enough said.

LYRSA-I guess I can technically count this as another win, since I had her time in the game pegged, but her personality and game overall were so much better than I credited that it still feels like I was wrong.

NICK-Wrong. I thought he had no shot. Turned out he did.

PAT-Wrong, though with a medical evacuation, it’s always wrong with an asterisk.

ALEC-Wrong on time in the game, though right on brains.

ALISON-She played a quieter game than I anticipated, but I was otherwise right with her.

ANGELINA-Wrong. WAY wrong. “Unmemorable” is not a word I would now use to describe Angelina.

DAN-Pretty much right, though I overestimated his intelligence.

JEREMY-I’ll admit, I forgot what I wrote about him initially. Turns out I was right on the money. Go me.

JOHN-The guy was a pleasant surprise. Much better at the game than I thought, making me wrong in his case.

KARA-Wrong on time in the game, still pretty right on personality.

MIKE-Wrong. Dude had more game than I give him credit for.

NATALIA-Wrong. Flip her and Angelina around, though, and I would have been right. Live and learn, I guess.

NATALIE-I end on the note of me being right. I can live with that.

I’ll be blunt: This season is better than it has any damn right to be. You hear about a season called “David vs. Goliath”, and you think it’s a parody. It sounds like an incredibly forced theme hiding the generic Fiji location, and giving us nothing for it. Yet, with a combination of innovative, but not forced, twists, limited focus on the theme, and one of the most likable casts we’ve had in a while, this season turned out amazing! I’m not quite as bullish on it as some people, mostly because I don’t think “Survivor Ghost Island” was that terrible (and i think some of the hype for this season is purely in comparison), but it is definitely a top-tier season for me. This is weird, because for all my compliments, nothing about this season truly stands out. With the possible exceptions of the idol nullifier vote, and Gabby’s attempted coup against Christian, there are no stand-out dramatic moments to make this season truly great. Rather, what makes it great is an overall technical competence and a return to charming basics. In that vein, I personally would compare this season favorably with “Survivor Philippines”, another season that, while it had no real stand-out moments, earned its way in by being consistently good. I would actually give this season the edge over “Survivor Philippines” in this equation, since while the dramatic moments of this season generally came from advantages, rather than players, the moments stand out nonetheless, whereas “Survivor Philippines” really has nothing in that department.

It is in that spirit that I ask the fanbase this: Give “Survivor Edge of Extinction” a chance. Yes, every rumor we hear about the season sounds horrible. Yes, it seems like a poorly conceived idea that only a moron with money and a computer would come up with. But so did “Survivor David vs. Goliath”. I admit, I’m not the most optimistic about what I’ve been hearing. If there’s a lesson to take from this season, however, it’s that even a dumb-sounding idea can work with the right group of people. So please, give the next season a chance to prove itself before dismissing it as awful automatically.

Also, OH MY GOD YOU GUYS, AUBRY’S COMING BACK! THE SEASON HAS TO BE GOOD FOR HER SAKE! SHE’S A TOP-TIER PLAYER WHO DESERVES TO BE ON A TOP-TIER SEASON!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.