A winner is crowned in the closest final vote, ever!
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Survivor: Cook Islands Blog
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| One, that meant that his alliance members couldn’t stab him in the back. And two, it meant that Adam was going home.
Adam managed to get on my nerves more than any other castaway this season. His combination of cockiness and terrible strategy just didn’t win me over. However, once the Aitu four managed to pull off their incredible turnaround, Adam became a lot more bearable, and dare I say, enjoyable. Once he realized that his days were numbered and their was nothing to gloat about, he wasn’t such a bad guy. I would almost say that it wouldn’t have killed me to watch him walk away with the million bucks, except that I know the second Probst announced him as the winner he’d have that dumb grin on his face and would arrogantly strut over to Candice and stick his tongue down her throat on live TV. Thank goodness the tribe has spoken. 2. You know, there’s such a thing as being too loyal. Before Adam got voted off, he approached Ozzy and Sundra about outing the hidden immunity idol. Using Adam’s logic, Ozzy and Sundra would join him in a vote for Yul. This would force Yul to use up the idol, knocking Adam out of the game as he would have the second-most votes. While this wouldn’t be the nicest thing for the two of them to do, it was certainly the smart move. I realize that I criticized Yul, Becky, and Sundra for considering turning on Ozzy. But in my eyes, this would’ve been a totally different situation. Yul was never in jeopardy of being voted out. By taking Adam up on his offer, they would just level the playing field. Perhaps taking the idol from Yul like that would’ve been a little questionable, had the Aitu four really been a group of four individuals. But everyone and their mother knew that Yul and Becky were working together. Had either one of them won individual immunity at the next challenge it would have guaranteed that either Ozzy or Sundra was going home. Outing the idol would be more about simple self-preservation than taking Yul down a notch. Sure, there was always the possibility of Adam snitching to Yul and Becky about Ozzy and Sundra’s intents and then forming a three-way alliance with them. But that mishap could have simply been avoided by telling Adam that they weren’t going to vote Yul and then doing it anyway. Anyway, all this was to say that Ozzy and Sundra made an overly loyal, but also unstrategic move. Did it cost them in the end? Well, Yul knows how to build a fire, so it probably wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the game. But I’ll get to that later… 3. Worst. Gimmick. Ever. As you know, I was extremely wary about having 20 castaways on this show. It just meant that there were too many survivors to eliminate and that we’d be subject to gimmicks like double tribal councils, etc. However, never in a million years did I think that the extra castaways would end up polluting the very fabric of the game. That’s right, I’m talking about having three people in the final immunity challenge. Look, I’m all for adding a twist if it will add an extra wrinkle to the game. Exile Island is the biggest gimmick ever, but it’s a strategic goldmine. Even having two hidden immunity idols like they’re doing next season is fine. What I have a problem with is a gimmick that makes the game dumber. When it was just two people in the final, it was a huge deal to win that last challenge. Not only does that give you a 50% shot of winning the million, but it also let you pick your opponent. It let people who weren’t as good be dragged along just for that purpose. It made people knock of those who were a big threat to pull off the victory in the end. You really had to think about who you might be competing against or potentially sitting across from and adjust accordingly with alliances, votes, etc. This time with three people in the final, it didn’t really matter if you won the last challenge, because you still had a 66% chance of moving on and the person who wins doesn’t get to select his opponent. Furthermore, it allowed Yul a free pass since he still had the hidden idol. He didn’t even have to participate! Maybe it was a surprise, but it was a bad one. It totally took this season out of contention for the best ever. Three people in the final is just lame. 4. An absolutely amazing immunity challenge. I’ll give credit where credit is due. After completely botching the game with the stupid lily pad final challenge last season, the producers came up with a mesmerizing challenge to finish off Cook Islands. It basically came down to a balancing act and thanks to some incredibly close calls and great video editing, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. For me, the final challenge was on the same intensity level as an overtime Patriots game. That may not mean much for those of you who don’t know me, but lets just say that ceilings get broken and clothes start coming off in those situations. Thankfully there was no structural damage or nudity this time, but I was extremely pumped when Ozzy finally pulled out the win! 5. An absolutely lame fire-making challenge. When Becky and Sundra squared off in a fire-making challenge to see who would go on to the final tribal council, things started off slowly. I joked to my girlfriend, “30 minutes later”, figuring it would only be a matter of seconds before somebody’s coconut husks ignited. I then laughed hysterically when “30 minutes” actually appeared in the bottom corner of the screen. I laughed even harder when “1 Hour” popped up later. I then started choking from laughing when Jeff Probst stopped the challenge, gave the girls matches, and they still couldn’t get a fire lit. This gave way to a series of jokes involving things like, “Now we’re going to give you gasoline and a lighter” and “Now we’re going to give you a flamethrower.” After an hour and a half elapsed, Sundra ran out of matches, pretty much disqualifying her. Becky finally won the challenge, but not before losing her self-respect. Episode 14 Second Elimination: Sundra
6. Brains or Brawn? When Ozzy won the final immunity challenge, I thought he had the million dollars wrapped up. Becky and Sundra just weren’t strong enough, and Yul appeared to have rubbed a lot of people the wrong way with his “puppet master” role. Ozzy was incredibly dominant in challenges and really hadn’t ticked anyone off. I figured that if he sat there and didn’t say anything dumb or overly arrogant, the game was his. I was wrong. Apparently, the people who were initially upset with Yul as the Godfather, actually ended up respecting him for it. So a tribal council that I expected to be a landslide, ended up being very close. And basically, it came down to whether the person voting valued brains or brawn. Normally, I’d go with brains, seeing as I have a fair amount of that and am lacking a little on the brawn side of things. However, Ozzy was my pick from the beginning so I had to stay with him. I really like both Ozzy and Yul. I probably like Yul a little better since Ozzy can definitely come off a little cocky at times. However, Yul is also a little too much of a politician. You can never get a straight answer from the guy. For example, when Candice asked him a “Yes or No” question: “Are you shamelessly playing the jury”, and told him that if he said anything other than yes or no she’d vote for Ozzy, Yul just could not restrain himself from saying “Yes, but I don’t agree with the shamelessly part”. I believe Candice backed down and went for Yul anyway, but that response really nailed home the fact that Yul has to qualify everything and can’t just stand firm on something. Everyone on that jury knew that the answer to Candice’s question was really somewhere between yes and no, but Yul just couldn’t pick an answer and stand by it. I would’ve thought that the fact that Yul was clearly putting on a show would have tipped the scales in Ozzy’s favor, but… 6. The Ultimate Stomach Punch. Yul ended up pulling out a 4-3 vote over the Ozster to take home the million.
Third Place: Becky, 0 Votes Second Place: Ozzy, 3 Votes Winner and Sole Survivor of Cook Islands:
Yul Kwon, 4 Votes It was very tough knowing that one vote kept me at 4/12 instead of 5/12 in picking the winner after the first episode. But I still feel my stats after Cook Islands are fairly impressive nonetheless. My early picks to win who have… Made the Merge: 12/12 Made the Jury: 11/12 Made the Final Four: 8/12 Made the Final Two: 7/12 Won the Game: 4/12
Am I a complete loser for actually keeping track of my Survivor picks stats? Absolutely.
Do I think that if they had just kept it to two in the final, Ozzy would have run the immunity table and ended up defeating Becky in a landslide victory? Absolutely.
Am I still happy for Yul? Absolutely.
Was Ozzy the most frustrating and yet most exciting person to root for in Survivor history? Absolutely.
Was I dead on in picking Ozzy, and then going for Becky and Yul as numbers one in two in my “who I wish I’d voted for” after Episode Two? Absolutely.
Am I excited for Survivor Fiji? Do I even have to answer? |
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