Survivor: Edge of Extinction finale

Oh no – it’s the finale of Survivor! That means I have to go for months without Survivor on TV! Perhaps I can convince Mr Juz it’s time for him to watch Australian Survivor season 2 (the one with AK, Sarah, Luke and Jericho) as he only got into Survivor a year ago.
Who do you think comes back from Extie Island? And will they be booted back there straight away? Do the Extie Islanders get to go to Ponderosa at that point in the game or must they continue to suffer until the final vote is cast?
And don’t forget to watch the Extie Isle reunion show afterwards. I’m looking forward to Jeff asking Queen of Extie Isle Reem questions.
For those watching live TV on Go, it starts at 7.30pm but they are also doing a 10am screening to coincide with the US – che k your TV guide. And the reunion starts at midnight! Hopefully they will post it online earlier.



Facebooktwitterredditmail

40 Comments

  1. I am so excited but likewise so disappointed that it means the END of survivor.
    Not that I thought that this was a great season – I am lukewarm on the Edge twist.
    I suspect the losers from the extinction island challenge FINALLY get to go to Ponderosa and have a shower and a burger. Hope so anyway. Not that I think that a fed and bathed Reem would be any more pleasant. In any other season we would have been done with Reem now – it seems so weird that a person who was literally booted after a couple of days and hadn’t even met the players gets to choose what happens. Or will they use the challenge to work out who exactly gets on the jury? Otherwise it’s a massive jury with everyone except the quitters.
    I think Joe or Chris will come back from Extie, but it could also be David.

    I hope Rick wins, but it seems pretty hard to get him there. My final three picks are Rick, Julie and Joe (or whoever comes back from extie). Julie will be the goat, surely – and everyone very motivated to take her along.
    But really, it is anyone’s guess as it could go a million different directions! My head is spinning trying to work out the permutations. For example, Wentworth blabbed to everyone on Extie that Lauren has an idol. I don’t know whether this knowledge has been shared with later evictees, but given there isn’t much to do there but chat, presumably they all know this. So the returning player might be motivated and able to blindside her. Do returning players have any kind of advantage or immunity? That will impact the game.

    So exciting anyway, even if I really don’t have a clue what will happen.

    I wish I didn’t have to be at work today so I could watch it!

  2. Don’t go into the Nine Now version part way. It’s a live broadcast so you will be spoiling yourself. I hope they put the full version up soon.

    • Chris wins – someone who was barely there won. Exile island is stupid – why don’t they also just introduce someone who has been standing in a nearby 7Eleven into the game 2 days before it ends.

  3. Nooooooooooooo 😩
    I was so invested in Devens story and effort and comedy- that’s the heartbreaking aspect of survivoUr – someone you barely register wins.

    • I hope they now say “ok, we tried it – let’s never do that twist again”. In an interview afterwards Devens said Chris had letters from people on Extie. He gave one to Julie written by Ron, telling her to trust Chris. Seems very unfair. What did you think of the promo for next season? The giant statues of Rob and Sandra’s heads were hilarious

      • oh really? Letters seems way over the top. The whole extie twist was woeful. I hated it.
        Even though it delivered Rick back into the game and we got to see a lot of game from him, I am not a fan. I do like that they realise they have to change, but this just was not a good change.

        I haven’t got to the promo bit yet but have seen a few social media pics and comments on the statues which are indeed hilarious!

    • I turned off after Devens got out. But I did turn on later to see them draw the names. My consolation was that Devens will have a good career out of it.

    • Noooo… OK, if there was a lot, really a lot of money to a worthy charity, then maybe it is alright. But I definitely prefer the long locks. If it was getting a little hard to manage, somewhere in the middle would be fine too. But that cut is too short.

  4. What an anticlimax – a clever one, but still..
    IMO, Rick is the best player I have ever seen, and therefore once again Survivor is not won by the best. Interesting Jeff asking Joe whether anyone like him can win. Joe prevaricated, but the big answer is “no way”.

    If I can get over the disappointment of Rick, I can see why Chris won. I have had to eat my words, as I have said several times that a returnee could not win. But the move he pulled was the only, only way that he could earn any respect for gameplay, and kudos to him for being brave enough to do it. In reality, it was an easy decision to make – only the best firemaker could beat Rick, and he knew that he himself was the best.

    It does feel strange that the winner is someone who feels unknown to the viewer – whatever we knew from earlier we have forgotten, and we were shown very little of Extie.

    I though it was a classic moment at final TC when Julie basically said that she used her emotions to manipulate people. She lost any votes she might have got in that moment. I think I understand that she was desperately trying to find something in her resume that sounded like intentional gameplay, but she twisted it all wrong, and Lauren in particular was scalded by the realisation that she had been played.

    I thought Jeff’s emphasis on people’s personal growth on Extie was overplayed. It is inevitable that a person, reduced to the very basics of survival and left with many hours of solitary time, will experience some personal crisis. In modern life, most personal issues are suppressed by distraction and busyness, so removing the distraction will force confrontation. I didn’t like the way Jeff was taking credit for that, as if that is the aim of Survivor. It is a game, and the fact that some people do experience personal revelation is a side issue. He also made a big thing of highlighting “diversity” by pointing out Wendy’s tics.

    • I’m not sure how to do it, but they really need to tweak the rules so that mediocrity is not a winning strategy. I think Chris is a fair winner, although I would’ve preferred Devons. Chris was certainly not a mediocre player like Gavin, Julie and the other members of the Get Devons Movement. Overall, the season was dominated by the mediocre to an unusual extent.

      Julie may not have meant to say that her emotional outbursts were a strategy, although she did. Gavin’s best effort was questioning the theme, an approach so feeble it could be skewered by SkirmishMutt.

  5. Controversial opinion – even though I was firmly team Devens and I didn’t like the EoE stuff AT ALL, I am good with Chris winning. I actually think he hustled super hard and was very impressive in comeback and I cannot hold it against him that the way the game was setup was DUMB. Even more controversially, I agree with Wardog’s comments that the game wasn’t on trial, it was the players. And the way the game was setup Chris played better than Gavin. In my view! I know it’s controversial, lol.
    Chris having the balls to do the fire against Rick was hard core and probably got him some key votes, as he was quite right that if Rick was in final he had it in the bag.Sure, he had nothing else to do on EoE but practice making fire, but hey. It was powerful and avoided the Dom/Wendell situation where Dom couldn’t beat Wendell.
    It would have been devastating to me if Rick had lost at finale, but Chris against Gavin (Julie didn’t even count in anyone’s eyes) was very different.
    Tricking Lauren who had clung to that idol for SO LONG was incredible. I was screaming at the TV, lol. Chris was masterful. And he was very impressive in challenges.
    I got home too late to see the reunion show – it was hard enough staying up for the finale! But I have now read social media and see that Sia gave Devens $100k, WOW.
    I love Joe’s new look – lose the facial hair and he’ll be really amazing!
    Overall nothing like as good as previous seasons, but I was still captivated.
    Strangely, I had selected Chris as my original winner in a survivor fans competition, but in the last vote went for Rick. d’oh! Should have stuck to original and I might have won it. . . .

    • Your comment came up simultaneously with mine, and I agree with you that out of the three left, Chris deserved the win. And like you, Chris was one of my early picks to win.

      The comment of Wardog’s showed exactly what was wrong with this season. The fact that the format of the game had come into the final TC, and was being discussed as if it was “on trial” showed that the format was flawed. It was good that he brought the discussion back on track, but, yes, the format should have been on trial.

      I agree that tricking Lauren was good, too. When Chris and Lauren were talking it didn’t feel like a trick, it just sounded logical. Her face at the final TC when she realised it was a deliberate ploy was priceless.

    • I agree. I thought Gavin was pretty much a nonevent. Devons went down a little in my opinion for campaigning for Gavin from the jury. Of course I wanted Devons to win, but Chris played a very, very clever end game. I hope Devons does better in his next season.

      I think Reem Island could work, but it needs a lot of tweaking. I’d prefer to see more exile challenges (every 3 eps perhaps) with losers heading to Ponderosa and winners returning to the main beach, and a challenge of some kind to get to Reem Island in the first place. I hate the idea of actual letters from exile.

      • Agree with challenges to avoid the jury being so big and having so much influence in the game. And no more Re-entries after final eight or so. And no more coming back with an idol in your bag. A clue I would be ok with, it an advantage to give to another player. And if you are doing Extie Isle, show us more of what goes on there

  6. Next season: I must admit I like the novelty of the concept (at first glance).

    However, Sandra seemed nothing special in the returnee season I saw her in, and the other guy is a mystery to me. Following straight on from this season, they are going to have to do something really special to knock Rick from the pedestal of Best ever player.

    • If you don`t even know who Rob is, then you`re possibly not really in the position to be declaring anyone ‘best ever player’.

      For me, Parvati has to be right up there. Great social game and a beast at endurance challenges, something I particularly admire in a Survivor player.

      Some of you also seem to forget that Devens was also a major beneficiary of this season`s format. But for Exile Island he would have been gone and forgotten about long before final tribal.

    • What makes a person win is possibly a combination of them, the competition, their alliances and luck. Winning one season doesn’t necessarily make you an ongoing Survivor champion. Besides, really? Do I have to see Boston Rob and Sandra AGAIN? I don’t like either of them. I would rather have new players. Besides, the idea sounds stupid, on paper anyway.
      I was disappointed Devens didn’t win. But it was a clever twist from Rick. I just hope Devens gets a good job in tv out of it. No doubt he will.

    • Rob was part of the first “couple” to make it to the end. His girlfriend beat him and they married and went on to do Amazing Race. After Rob and Amber, Survivors knew the danger of a couple.

    • It looks like Rob is a legend that I don’t know much about. Now you mention it, I think I remember him on TAR. But he must be quite a bit in the past, as I have been watching Survivor now for about 10 years. Over that time I have seen the game change quite a bit – I wonder how he would go now, especially as Sandra was ordinary on the season I saw when she returned. The new players are just so expert on all aspects of the game now.

      I will be interested to see what they bring to the next season.

      • Sandra & Rob aren’t actually playing the game. They will be on a separate island & mentor the players.

        • Rob and Sandra are just there to be crowd pleasers – they both play a style of game that is not current. And they could never actually win again. I do look forward to watching contestants geek out when they see them. However, they would have a wealth of knowledge I guess about keeping mentally strong and Rob is a gun at shelter building.

          • It might be like on Masterchef when they bring in a guest judge. The contestants have to pretend to be blown away.

  7. So, if they tried EofE again, here are some changes I think might help:
    1. More players to start with (this season only had 18), but no second chance for the first four (straight out, no jury).
    2. Like others have suggested, a challenge of some sort to win the right to get to the Island. I wonder if some would fail just because they have just been through a stressful TC. I favour puzzles.
    3. Only one second chance challenge. When there are 6-8 with the chance, just one challenge to return one player. That way, they would be back in the game long enough to do something. Losers go to the jury and to Ponderosa.
    4. After that single challenge, the island is off the table and all further eliminated players go to jury (and Ponderosa).
    5. Keep the advantages happening on the island, and the ones they can send back, especially for those who have just been eliminated.
    6. Think up a better name than Eof E – that was corny and overdramatic. Keep it simple.

    • That was the difference between previous exile islands & this one. Once three people were there they would compete in a challenge where the loser would go home & the other two would remain. So they were getting rid of people. That jury was HUGE.

    • It should always and forever be Reem Island. I assume they went for the E of E silliness to hide how close it actually was to previous Exile Islands.

  8. I wish Australian Survivor would try preferential voting. You get a ballot with all the names in random order. You’d number all the names. You’d need more thab half the votes to send someone home. An immunity idol would not cancel your vote, just transfer it on to your next preference.

    It might get rid of the coalitions of nonentities emerged so strongly in the Edge of Extinction and that have happened in other seasons as well. It could make the game more interesting and a whole lot more people would come to understand how their vote works in parliamentary elections.

  9. Twitter was divided between people who hated Devens & thought he would win & those that were pissed off when he lost the fire challenge & thought he was the only one who deserved to win.
    That last challenge was one of those maddening ones where someone would have almost all their blocks up & just like that they would all topple off.
    That was very gutsy of Chris to give up his immunity idol. The last person who did that got promptly voted out. Poor Eric. Critics are complaining he didn’t play the game for the whole time. No but he was stuck on Extinction Island & doing it pretty tough. It was a miserable place & it was far worse for the players stuck there than the ones still actually ‘in the game’. No rewards, no semi comfortable camp. Everyone seems to be overlooking that. He played the best way he could with what he was given.

    • Early in the season we were seeing Reem and Keith fumble about and complain. Then suddenly the whole place dropped out of sight after Keith and Wendy left.

    • Not sure if they could show much less. Considering the winner did come from the island, surely they should have shown us more, so that we could be more invested in them?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *