Australian Survivor finale

We’re finally here! The finale screens on Ten from 7.30-9pm, followed by the precorded “live” reunion 9-10pm. At least it was only recorded a few days ago in Sydney.
I stupidly booked to have dinner out tonight but it’s an early one, so hoping to do a mini recap tonight.
Comment away and, for people who don’t want spoilers, please avoid the comments section.
#TeamJericho

MINI RECAP
We start with the usual look back over the season, which only serves to remind us poor Petey was once not a walking skeleton. Get that man some Hungry Jacks, stat!
Aha – they are doing the walk of the fallen comrades, which US Survivor ditched ages ago because the finalists struggled to talk about people they barely knew.
Remember Joan, the escape room owner, who pissed everyone off by being bad at puzzles and, even worse, declaring she’d slept like a log? Yeah, barely.
Tarzan was a bit of fun, Mark and Sam were idiots for showing their closeness but at least they found love out of it.
Jacqui, whose game was over the minute Henry jumped ship; Kent and his fabulous “dickhead strategy”; AK, the inventor of the chicken idol, who started off so annoyingly but quickly became one of my fave players to watch.
Ben, who finally managed to win some praise from JLap just before he left; Odette who, umm, yeah; Jarrad (best hair ever seen on Survivor and one of my early winner picks); and Annaliese, who got a raw deal and went home when according to “normal” Survivor rules she would have been safe.
Henry, oh Henry – what casting gold you and your flamingo shirt were; Tessa, likewise great casting and clawed her way back from a rocky start to be a power player; and Sarah, who was one of my early winner picks.
Luke, who was at times frustrating but always entertaining and I loved his cheekiness at tribal votes; Ziggy, challenge beast and waster of idols; Locky, who irritated me so much but showed some strategic chops towards the end; and Michelle, who failed to make fire and lost her spot at the last tribal council. If you are on Survivor, ALWAYS learn to light a fire.

FINAL CHALLENGE
Tara, Pete and Jericho must have been packing death when they realised the final challenge was the same as last year, which saw Lee, El and Kristie battle it out on the clifftop, their hands on the idol.
This year they have chosen to hold the challenge at sunset to add to the atmosphere and make it more dramatic when they fall off.
No way are these guys lasting as long as Lee and Kristie did last year – six-and-a-half hours and they have the added disadvantage of the water being colder at night.
Look, we all know Tara is going out first. She doesn’t have the endurance of Jericho and Pete. Tara has copped it a fair bit from the viewers throughout the season – from me mostly for her lack of strategic play – but I can’t say I’d ever be able to stand on a couple of tiny stumps while icy water gushed over me. Pete kindly tries to distract her by asking her about horses.
And she’s out – two hours and 55 minutes, which is about two hours and 30 minutes longer than I thought she’d go for.
Those poor boys are getting absolutely drenched now – the tide is much higher than last year’s daytime challenge. Production must be thrilled they decided to push it back. Poor Petey has zero body fat to keep him warm. Jericho looks solid, with his intense stare and no visible shaking, although that’s how it was with Lee last year and look how that ended.
After five-and-a-half hours, shivering Pete says: “Jonathan, can I have a hand getting down, please?” He obviously watched last year when poor Kristie crashed to the jagged rocks below and had to be carried away by her dad. JLap helps a weeping Pete while Tara helps a stoked Jericho. After a hug from JLap, Pete gets a cuddle from Jeri and they all huddle round the fire to warm up. And just as they are having a lovely bonding moment, and Jeri is giving an inspirational speech about what they’ve achieved, a massive wave comes up and dumps on them, dousing the fire in one go. And that’s Survivor for you!

TRIBAL COUNCIL
It’s time for Jeri to decide if he wants to take Tara or Pete to the final two. I’m thinking he will take Pete, to try and gain the jury’s respect.
Tara tells JLap that if Jeri takes Pete to final two, that it’s an “easy ride out”. Cue wry smiles from the jury. Pete denies he’s a goat and says Tara is in fact the goat, and everyone on the jury knows it. Tara gets a bit feisty and Pete responds with reason. He tells Jeri the jury will respect him for taking a riskier option, himself, to final two, because Tara was just in Locky’s shadow.
Tara says taking Pete to the end is disrespecting the game. Well, at least she’s having a crack.
Jeri can’t wait to vote and, at the voting booth as the music pounds away, pauses with his texta in hand for dramatic effect.
JLap reads the vote: Peter.
He voted out Peter! I am shocked BUT I wonder if his thinking is that his pitch will be he wants Tara to get the runner-up prize? Presuming there is one. And Pete will vote for Jeri because he won’t vote for Tara to win half a mill. And Pete still had mates on the jury.
Pete gets a hug from JLap on his way out.

(In the break we get an ad for 7.30pm Monday, when there’s a Survivor episode of Family Feud, featuring Jeri, Luke and Locky – I missed the other players.)

DAY 55
They get the traditional final day brekkie feast. Jeri talks about wanting to provide for his parents, after their tough life in poverty in the Philippines. He talks us through his “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” strategy. I wonder if everyone at Ponderosa knows he is the Cookie Monster?
Tara says they are mates now but she is going to get all gangsta at tribal, listing the many near misses she has survived. I’m glad she’s obviously put a lot of thought into it.
Here we are at tribal and instantly Pete looks 10 years younger without the beard, and after a feed.
They’ve stuck with a traditional address to the jury.
Tara pitches her strategy as being a social one, surviving tribe switches and using Locky as a shield until it was time to ditch him. And she reminds them her vote was the one that gave Jeri a chance, by sending him and Michelle to the fire challenge.
Jeri tells the jury he was a cut-throat player in disguise, and reveals he used his Cookie Monster alliance to get further in the game. He says he made big, game-changing moves and takes ownership of his game.

THE JURY’S QUESTIONS
Michelle is first and she wants to know the biggest move they orchestrated in the game. Tara’s is trying to get Locky out from Day 40, so she could have 15 days to prove she could do it on her own. But we won immunity until Day 49. Jeri reiterates his Cookie Monster strategy, using Luke, Sarah and Henry as shields and making them field special. (Tara whispers: I need a drink.)
Annaliese wants Jeri to prove he wasn’t riding Luke’s coat tails. Jeri says he was Santa with the whip and Luke was his reindeer, and that he forced him to be logical. Tara says something about something.
Locky just wants to tell Tara he is proud of her for trying to get him out. And he wants to know if Jeri truly loved their day swimming in the ocean. Of course, Jeri says yes.
Ziggy does the “why should your opponent win”. Jeri says Tara evolved, making more moves as the game progressed. Tara says Jeri is tiny but a hard worker around camp and he slept at the bottom of their feet in the shelter “like a dog” because there was no room. Aww, poor Jeri!
Jarrad finally gets some air time and seems to be enjoying himself. He asks if they lose, where did they go wrong. Jeri says it could be sending home Tessa from the jury. Jarrad reminds Jeri of their pact to underline the name of the person the night that he was voted out – when Jeri cheekily underlined Jarrad’s name. He says he will be sending Jeri a message tonight with an underlined vote. Surely this can only mean he is voting FOR Jeri. Jarrad respects game play.
Next is Sarah (are they leaving Luke until last because they expect him to create chaos?).
Sarah says Jeri’s game was more panicked than he pitched, and that he needs to clarify his strategy of pretending to be a good guy. It doesn’t really go anywhere.
The rain starts and it’s Luke’s turn. He tells Tara she is a good person and moves straight on to Jeri. He tells Jeri he did not ride coat tails.
The Man Who Appears To Be Pete But Is Actually His Ten Years Younger Brother asks Tara to name a move she made while under Locky’s wing. She claims credit for trying to convince everyone to get AK out, even though it didn’t work.
Pete asks Jeri to describe his game in three words: Adaptable, flexible,under-the-radar and deadly.
Ah, they’ve saved the Yoga master for the final question. Henry is going to go hard: “Namaste, y’all. Let’s finish with a bang.” So sad he is not wearing the flamingo shirt.
Henry tells Tara he was playing the game from day one of 55 and asks when she started playing the game. She says not until Locky left the game, six days ago. Henry decides to do her pitch for her, telling her that her social game got her this far and that she was the one who decided to send Jeri to the fire challenge. He tells the jury that all the people with “big moves” were voted out, so perhaps Tara is in fact the smart one, saving her moves until the end. I get the feeling that Henry is making up for the fact that he never got to do his own final tribal speech, so he’s spent the time at jury villa writing one for the finalists.
Henry says Jeri should have shielded him and Sarah, that he lied and, yes, it was a bad move to vote Tessa out. Jeri fires up, telling Henry he had to stir up trouble between other people so that they became targets and his own name wasn’t written down. “I can confidently say that, yeah, I have your blood on my hands, and I’m fine with that.” Boom, mike drop!

TIME TO VOTE
Sarah votes for Tara, which is a bit of a surprise.
Luke, of course, votes for Jeri.
Henry plays up his time at the voting booth with a bit of pretend pondering and hair pulling.
JLap tells the contestants all that’s left is to read the votes and THEY DIDN’T KNOW THE FINALE WAS BEING HELD MONTHS LATER IN AUSTRALIA! Ha – that is classic. JLap is loving it.
Cut to the “live” finale (filmed in Sydney last week) and we get to see everyone’s plump-looking faces. Jeri is in a colourful bow tie and Tara has a new do and a lace dress. It’s always weird seeing them in “real clothes”.
JLap reads the votes: Jeri, Jeri, Tara (that’s Sarah’s vote with the horseshoe, I think), Tara, Tara, Jeri, Jeri, Jeri wines and it’s the underline vote from Jarrad! Yay.


Jeri’s family storms the stage. JLap has to break his way through the crowd to hand over the cheque for $500,000.
Cue montage of Jeri moments, including that classic time he scoffed cookies while his tribemates were mere metres away, lolling on the beach.

THE CONTESTANTS CHAT WITH JLAP
I’m so glad Ten sprang for a reunion show this year. Let’s hope they can afford to do another season of the show. JLap says he loved the Cookie Monster saga and OMG Jeri is actually wearing a Cookie Monster tie. They talk about the start of his lifelong friendship with Luke, who chimes in now that Jeri is rich he’ll start charging him rent on any visits.
Tara is gracious and philosophical about not winning. She confesses she did not even know you had to build your own shelters on Survivor. Oh, Tara.
Time for more light relief, with an AK montage. Michelle takes a dig at Ben and says he would have bought the chicken idol if he were on the same tribe as AK.
Here’s a Tarzan montage and he gets a big cheer from the crowd. The talk turns to idols and JLap basically tells Ziggy she wasted the super idol.
Tessa says it was heartbreaking to be voted off the jury but that if it was Pete in the final two she would have voted for him. Sadly, JLap does not ask if she would have voted for Jeri or Tara. And he does not ask the jury who they would have voted for in a Peter/Tara final two.
No mention of Jacqui’s health battles and they have not talked about the lovebirds yet.
Cue montage of Henry pretending to teach yoga and throwing challenges. JLap tells a shorter-haired Henry that he gave him extra time at tribal to play his idol, thinking he would definitely play it, and tells him he was a dope, but that he played a good game. I quite like JLap letting a bit of his personality show in this questioning and he seems to have been paying attention this season, now he is more comfortable in his role as host. Henry talks about losing his mum to cancer six weeks before he got the call up for Survivor. Then they move on to his alliance with Jacqui and he pulls out the idol they found together and finally hands it over.
Oh no, it’s an embarrassing montage of Sam and and Mark cuddling. Yes, they are still together. Sam reckons she knew there was a problem in the rafting challenge that Henry threw but she thought it was just Ben being rubbing. Aw, poor Ben cannot catch a break.
Now, it’s a Luke montage. Ah, I’d forgotten about that time he swam out to save Sam. Luke is wearing a T-shirt that says “King”. Luke says he was not a fan before being cast and had only watched some YouTube of the show. I’m guessing he saw a lot of Cagayan clips, because that spy shack inspiration had to come from somewhere. JLap questions Luke about all the clothing he amassed throughout the show, which he says started when Sam left her hat behind.

Time for a challenge montage mostly showing people crashing and falling over, reminding us what a great job the challenge design team did this year. Honestly, these guys do a better job than the US sometimes, and no doubt on a much lesser budget.
Locky and Michelle get about five seconds of air time and we hear briefly from Aimee, who refers to being dropped on the head as a baby. Hmmmm.
Time to talk Aussie mateship, but thank god we did not get another season of players dourly declaring mateship was sacred and people who tried to strategise were worthless snakes. Remember how irritating that was? Urgh.

Oooh, JLap is in the audience with winner Kristie and Phoebe from last year, who give the contestants props for their efforts. Now it’s a montage of people “lying” but it’s all of three things: Henry stealing jam, Ziggy getting the super idol and Mark neglecting to tell people about his military background. JLap has a quick chat with Annaliese about being painted as a jam thief, then he’s wrapping up without talking to Joan, Kent, Ben, Odette or that woman who was voted out second who doesn’t eat fast food. Surely Kent would have come up with a soundbyte or two?

And that’s the end! Will we get a season three? I really hope so.



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58 Comments

  1. So we’ve come to the end.

    I think ultimately that it’s been a good season. There were a lot more players (which was a step up from last year, where boring passive gameplay made things tedious in the middle half), and we got to watch a lot of back-and-forth. Pity all the good players knifed each other early on, but that’s the risk you take. I think production didn’t interfere as much (sure, there were one or two dodgy moments, but ultimately, we’re still ahead of last year), and I can’t say some of those tribal councils (and castaways) weren’t entertaining.

    As for Tara’s decision last night … and remember, I’m still honour-bound to say lovely things here … I think she was spooked by what Tessa said, that she was the least-deserving and she shouldn’t really be there. So she over-compensated with a massive (and probably self-defeating) move to keep Jericho and knife Peter and Michelle (I mean, she was voting to force a fire-making contest, but given Michelle’s general uselessness, Tara was basically keeping Jericho and ousting Michelle). I agree that it wasn’t a smart move, but she freaked out and panicked about it. And hell, I’m on team Jericho (even with evicting Tessa from the jury), so I’m hoping he can make this.

    (I don’t think Tara would’ve won anyway. Peter has Summer-towel connections on the jury and Michelle can talk a lot, so I think Tara’s chances were bad no matter who she sits next to).

    • In reality the only person that Tara would have a real chance against would be Michelle. I will be totally shocked (and annoyed) if she wins.

  2. That final immunity challenge, gosh, that was hard to watch. It’s so obvious how difficult it is for the contestants, just watching them close to tears. I really liked that the boys were trying to keep Tara in it by distracting her. And poor Pete. I was close to tears when he begged Jonathon to help him down (I mean, he must weigh like 20 kgs, by now, so Jonathon wouldn’t have struggled too much). Watching him curled up on the ground crying, that was hard to watch. Poor bastard.

    But what I really liked was that, even though he won, Jericho was all about taking care of Peter when they both got down. Giving him a hug, telling him to take his wet jumper off, giving him verbal and emotional support (after something that must’ve felt like being tortured for 6 hours). Jericho might have this dark and evil side (who’s fond of using metaphors about people dying), but I liked that side of the kid.

    My thought is that he’ll keep Tara and deep-six Pete. I can’t imagine this happening any other way.

  3. Holy crap, Tara. Where has this fire been for the last 54 days? She was fired up at that tribal council. To be fair, I think Peter was being maybe unnecessarily catty (and both parties seemed to forget that there was a half a million dollars on the line, and that’s the reason they both wanted to be there).

    But I like this new Tara. She’s feisty.

  4. I actually think I would’ve done the same thing. I think Tara’s far easier to beat in front of the jury than Pete.

    Pete’s probably gonna hold a grudge anyway, but all’s fair on Survivor. Anyway, at least he’s finally off the show. SOMEONE GET THAT BOY SOME FOOD.

  5. In front of the jury…

    Tara — I wasn’t much of a game player, but at least I was nice. (ouch)
    Jericho — I wasn’t nice, but at least I played the game. (ouch)

    • Yeah, I didn’t see the so-called Nice Tara? I saw early Tara on top as smug and insufferable. I saw bottom of the heap Tara as whiny and teary as she couldn’t be smug and insufferable – when her entitled world fell apart she did NOT strategise and work hard like Tessa did, she hoped for the best. And got SUPER lucky with a fake out vote off.
      But social Tara? Nope. That didn’t make the edit of the show I watched! I reckon she knew she had no ‘big moves’ to bring so decided that claiming ‘social’ was her thing.

  6. Wow, so out of all the castaways on the jury, Jarrad was the bitter and angry jury member. There’s always one, but who would’ve guessed it?

    Although I gotta say, I remember the moment where Jericho knifed him in full view of everybody, but Jarrad was the only one who knew, and I thought that was hilarious. I can understand why Jarrad was a bit mad about it, though.

  7. I was surprised Tara got 3 votes.
    Jericho played the game , Tara didn’t know how the game was played.
    Also relieved that Michelle and Peter were finally voted out.
    For a small dude, Jericho played a mean game of survivor.

  8. During tribal council Tara really annoyed me because she looked smug (and I hate smug) anything negative or that she perceived as negative was said about Jericho. I was really surprised that Henry gave Jericho such a hard time. It seems that some of the people that I thought would have valued game play (i.e. Sarah) didn’t. I haven’t seen the final vote count yet so will be interested to see where else Tara got votes.

  9. I’m happy with that ending.

    Jericho was just a capable little dude. He was funny and cheeky, but he also had this, “I’ll do whatever I have to go scrape through unnoticed” thing, which worked.

    As it turns out, yeah, Jarrad did end up voting for Jericho (it was the last vote Jonathon read out. It was even underlined, like Jarrad promised). I’d like to know the voting breakdown as well, I hope it goes up on Tenplay.

    It was nice that by the time Pete appeared on the jury, he’d actually had something to eat. I’d be most curious about his vote, since both Tara and Jericho screwed him over pretty badly.

    As for the reunion … JERICHO IS WEARING A COOKIE MONSTER BOW-TIE. For that, alone, I would’ve given him the cash. He’s so cute and adorable!

    Another early highlight from the reunion … when Luke and Jericho start misbehaving, Jonathon just turns to the audience and groans, “This is what I had to put up with for fifty-five days”, and it was hilarious.

  10. It could be because I don’t like her but it seemed to me that as the votes were being read out Tara thought she had it won. For all Tara’s bluster about her great social game – if it had been that good she wouldn’t have needed the producers to save her early on. I was hoping they show the final vote breakdown during the reunion show.

  11. I also loved that Jericho is so tiny, that when he was announced as the winner and everybody crowded around him? All we could see was his little arm waving in the centre of the crowd, and someone had to actually pick him up just so Jonathon could give him the cheque.

  12. Another funny moment from the reunion…

    Jonathon asked Sam whether she suspected something was wrong, during the challenge that Henry was trying to throw (just to eliminate her). And Sam has experience in kayaking, so she knew that something was wrong. And according to her, her very first thought was, “What’s Ben doing wrong?”

    I nearly fell off the chair laughing. Good on you Ben.

  13. For the record, the votes from Tenplay …

    Luke voted for Jericho.
    Jarrad voted for Jericho (he admitted to finding the underline thing funny).
    Henry voted for J Co (which I assumes means Jericho).
    Sarah voted for Tara.
    Annalise voted for Jericho.
    Michelle voted for Jericho (thanking him for claiming his own moves and not claiming credit for other people’s moves. Ouch).
    Peter voted for Tara.
    Locky voted for Tara (which wasn’t a surprise).
    Ziggy voted for Jericho (claiming his strategy was superior to Tara’s).

    • Thanks Windsong so really the only surprise was Sarah voting for Tara. Peter could have gone either way and Locky was always going to vote Tara. 6 votes to 3 is a pretty convincing win I think.
      Where was everyone else tonight? I though more people would have been commenting on the outcome.

      • I was watching First Dates before turning over for the result of Every Goat Has It’s Day.

        Thanks for recap Juz and Windsong for voting breakdown.

      • I am astonished that Sarah picked Tara.
        The rest, pretty much as expected – Peter had too short a time in jury villa to be anything but bitter toward Jericho, and I thought some of his comments were quite unpleasant actually. . .suggesting his bitterness might linger quite a long while!

  14. We couldn’t watch totally live as we have a soccer mad person in our house. . . So had to come late to the party.
    I thought Jericho really could go on forever in that competition. He looked completely solid. Hats off to Tara for lasting way longer than expected! Very pleased Peter had a meal and recovered. That is a horrid challenge – absolutely loved the way their special final 3 moment warming by the fire was killed by a massive wave. Perfect.

    Pleased that he won it, hats off for the cookie monster bow tie – that would have given him my vote immediately – but kind of good for Tara that she got votes at the end so not humiliating for her. Most of the jury seemed very humourous and good natured. Michelle of course had to get in a dig toward Tara about claiming moves, but actually – that was the most we heard from her, so not too bad!
    I thought Jarrod was awesome with his underline message.
    Sounded like they were grooming Luke for something else – with the ‘would you do it again question’ – I suspect ten realises they have a reality tv star on their hands with him.

    • I also was amazed by how solid Jericho looked during the challenge. Maybe he had a great poker face, but he didn’t even look too uncomfortable. He looked like he could’ve been there for hours longer.

      I really adored how everybody’s priority, once it was over, was each other’s well-being. Peter probably knew that he was gone, which is why he was so devastated that he couldn’t last longer. But yeah, the second Jericho told him to take off his coat because it was soaking wet, I was like yep, we’ve got our winner.

      I also imagine that channel 10’s editors must’ve been doing handstands when the three castaways were warming themselves by the fire, and a giant wave drenched them and put the fire out. What a beautifully perfect moment. That was television gold, right there.

      I also took one look at the Cookie Monster bow tie, and thought , just give him the cheque now.

      A few people on Facebook were asking for a Luke and Henry spin-off, and yeah, sign me up.

    • Maybe they’ll try & recruit him to be on I’m a celebrity. Was surprised this year had no Survivor contestants from last year.

  15. Not sure what I can watch now. I will take up American survivor more thoroughly now, but so far I’m not into it.
    I thought it was an awesome season that petered out (no pun intended) before a pretty okay finish. Tara’s ousting of Michelle was a good highlight of the last few episodes. And who knew watching someone try to light a fire could be gripping tv?
    The challenges were pretty great this year – I don’t remember griping at all about them. The contestants were well chosen on the whole. Way better than last year in my view. Hopefully they choose next year with the ‘player’ mindset not the mate one, as it makes for way better TV.
    Can’t imagine that they would be able to unearth reality gold like Sarah, Henry and Luke again, but try hard!

  16. Great series, epic final episode, satisfying end.

    Have yet to watch the reunion show, as well as read everyone else’s comments but want to get a few thoughts out first:

    * I was almost convinced that Jericho had overplayed that final TC. Some of the things he said definitely would have put some jurors off. Luckily, most of them rewarded good game play. (Bit puzzled as to why Sarah didn’t vote for him though considering she’s a self-described strategist and gamer).

    * Awesome idea to stage the challenge at night. Made it 5 times as hard, not just because the water was colder but apparently also because they couldn’t see the waves coming so a particularly strong one could just knock them off balance.

    * Is there a runner up prize in the same way that US Survivor gives cash rewards to the 2nd place and 3rd place finishers?

    * Really appreciated the answers they both gave when asked why they thought the other one was deserving to be there at the end. It sounded heartfelt and really showed how far each of them came during the course of the 55 days.

    * Have really warmed to JLP as host now that’s he’s settled into it and lost his awkwardness.

  17. Thanks for the recap Juz. And you’re right about the spy shack. He admitted on Studio 10 that he got the idea from US Survivor.
    That challenge looks hideous & in the dark too. Can’t believe Tara lasted nearly 3 hours. Thanks for reminding us how long they lasted last year Juz, I was trying to remember. So they went an hour longer last year. Those little poles look so uncomfortable. I can imagine them digging in to their feet. They would be so cramped & stiff standing in that position for all those hours. I really felt for Pete, he seemed to be in so much pain & was shivering with cold while Jericho didn’t seem too bothered at all. When he asked Jonathan to help him down my heart went out to him. Then when they were all huddling in front of the fire this fucking wave crashes over them & puts it out.
    If the US version ever films in Samoa again I wonder if they’ll copy this challenge.
    I’m happy Jericho won, he deserved it. But wow, I hardly recognised Tara, she looked so different.
    Let’s hope they renew it for next year & maybe film in a different location.

    • I assume being as small as he is Jericho has small feet and that would be an advantage in standing on the poles. Having said that, remember the challenge holding the rope – Jericho certainly proved his mettle in that one.

  18. Did anybody else see Locky cringe at the “i love you” moments with Tara? He kept glancing in the audience (assuming at his gf) and twice in the microsecond he spoke for mentioned how he and Tara are friends. Just friends. We are friends. Not that we assumed anything more but he was quick to point it out.
    Really really enjoyed this season as a whole though.

    • You can’t blame him, it must have been pretty embarrassing for him when she said he’s hot. I felt embarrassed for him and I wasn’t really a Locky fan.

  19. Thanks once again to Juz for giving us a platform to discuss, enjoy, bemoan and vent our spleens. And thanks to all the others who posted, old and new for your opinions. I really value having people to ‘talk’ to about these shows as my friends don’t watch them.

    • Same! my boss watches but we don’t get much opportunity for detailed conversation. I’ve loved the chats here 🙂
      Thanks again Juz and all participants.

  20. Not feeling too great last night, plus totally underwhelmed by the final three. I saw a bit of pretribal, “I derserve it the most” to camera. I heard Jericho claim he “deserved it more than any other contestant, was more “worthy”. I heard Tara praising herself. And that was not even to the Jury. So given I was already feeling a bit nauseous, I passed. As I said, it’s the revenge of the short poppies; getting even for all the times they weren’t the brightest, best, smartest, strongest, nicest or prettiest. All the times the awards were won by a Sarah, or a Henry or a Tessa or an AJ. They can gather like worker ants and take down anyone who could easily beat them at a jury, then praise themselves for beating a goat”. But that’s Survivor and I watch it for the interactions, so I will continue to watch in the hope that someone strong, hardworking, smart, and sociable gets through. It has happened in the US ones, but it’s rare. They get taken out early by the ants. 4 ants can kill one butterfly. Sorry, not a fan of Jericho who seems like he would be slimey and sneaky in real life to. And we caught a glimpse of his spite whwn he spoke to Michelle, although he quickly tried to hide it. And Tara… I stick with “no self awareness and annoying”.
    I won’t treat myself to watching this morning. But one question; if Tara knifed Lochie because he was the best left at challenges, and she thought he was too well liked, why keep Jericho?” I think Tara was just stupid. But her stupidity nearly got her 1/2million dollars.

    If I liked either Tara or Jericho, maybe my summation might be different.

    • I agree she was stupid but as I said a couple of days ago I really don’t think she was in with a shot at actually winning. The only one she would have had a chance against was Michelle and I’m not sure which way that would have gone. Hope you feel better soon.

      • Ta. Pyjama and bed day.
        To be honest, I think Michelle would have beaten Tara. I mean Tess said it, didn’t she, that Tara was the least deserving.

  21. Out of the two I’m glad Jericho won. I didn’t like him much either though.
    Tara was just plain old lucky. There was no “nice or social” game. Even glammed up still looked like she was on desperate wives of Dubbo. I heard that on the radio.

  22. Did anyone else notice that Michelle was gunning for a Holden ad? Both on the Project and in the reunion show she managed to mention characteristics of the car she won. The thing is Lee was actually popular with some of the viewing audience, I don’t know of any comment I’ve seen that was a positive reaction to Michelle – there’s about 6 other contestants that Holden would pick to spruik for them before Michelle would have a look in. (Locky, Ziggy, Tessa, Henry, Tarzan would be my picks or even Aimee would have a shot before Michelle and she was only in it for five minutes).

  23. Finally getting to comment after a series of unfortunate events (soccer, recording problems, birthday parties and gastro!) meant that I only got to watch the full on Saturday! Of course by then I knew the result, but I still enjoy the ride.

    I will try not to rehash too much, just add a few points.
    Jer vs Tara pitches: I think only Jer could have got away with basically telling everyone they were fools for trusting him – his babyface innocence was still working for him. I thought Tara did an excellent job, that is she emphasised her strengths very well. The problem was that she had very little material to work with! I think her best line was that she had achieved more in 6 days than others in the whole time. Good line but would only have worked if she had a weaker player next to her.

    Love that at least someone realised that the raft wasn’t moving properly! Also loved JLP trying to find Jer to give him the cheque.

    Reunion: Best reunion show I have watched by far (remembering that I have only seen about six of the US seasons). Lots of contestants able to talk, great questions, JLP relaxed and revealing little nuggets about how the show works (only five pieces of clothing – why do some only ever wear one?), no PC grandstanding by the host spending half the show on minor incidents and thrashing them to death, no introduction of irrelevant ‘celebrities’ or sponsor segments. Loved every moment, and so Aussie. But why did they have Phoebe next to Kristie – didn’t she get eliminated before the merge in the last series? Great to see Lee and Elle still going strong. Glad they didn’t speak to Pete, he ended up being my second most disliked player in the season (after Michelle) and he probably would have brought things down by still being bitter and catty.

    Overall, really enjoyed the season. I hope the US don’t poach our challenge setters – they nailed it. One of the great things about Survivor is that the next season of players will have learned from this one not to let the weak players band together. And then they will probably get done over by a strong one – oh well.

    Thanks for sharing the season, everyone.

    • Thanks, Fijane. I think they had Phoebe because she does a lot of social media stuff for the show – lots of charity gigs, podcasts etc. And she lives in Sydney, so they did not have to pay airfares.

    • I think because he was next to freaks like Locky and Mark it was hard to put him in perspective. Was he wearing the signature salmon pink tank top?

      • No . In khaki. Probably over dressed for the hot weather. The salmon top would have suited better. The hair and beard gave it away. Was tempted to ask him if he’d seen a chicken idol hidden nearby.

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