Two Memorable Moments from the Survivor Finale

I just finished watching the final episode of Survivor 36 with a few friends, 2 dogs, and 1 cat (the other cat wasn’t interested). Spoilers follow. Here’s a dog photo to separate non-spoiler and spoiler content:

So, two big, memorable things happened in this episode. Well, two and one thing that didn’t happen.

First, Dominic was in a really tight spot in the first tribal council. Basically, he knew that he was going to get the most votes, and he only had one immunity idol. He wanted to save that idol for the next tribal council. So he made a big show about another idol (which only he knew was fake) to move the votes off him. And it worked! He preserved his idol. It was a massive bluff.

Second, Survivor does this really neat thing now where when they get down to the final 4 people, the person who wins immunity selects one person to join them in the final tribal council, and the other two compete in a firemaking challenge. So the person who wins immunity has a huge choice to make. Dominic won it, and he almost–so close–chose to give away his immunity and compete in the challenge as a way to ensure that his biggest competitor would be ousted. However, in the end he chose to retain the idol.

Third, in a Survivor first, the final vote was a tie. A tie! Because there are three final contestants, the tie is broken by whomever isn’t a part of the tie (there are 10 votes cast). While it wasn’t super climactic after that, as the tiebreaker was clearly allied with Wendell (a worthy winner), it was still awesome to see something new happen in the 36th season of a show.

Survivor remains one of my favorite shows on television, and I can’t wait for next season. If you watch it, what did you think about the finale?

5 thoughts on “Two Memorable Moments from the Survivor Finale”

  1. Does not get old! I was rooting for Wendall, though Dom did play an awesome game, Wendall just played a little better, it was a tough call though as they both were the best of the lot. I loved that it came down to Laurel. Wendall was right to give Laurel protection earlier. I don’t think it was just that action that won it for him, it was just there long time relationship. So Dom did make a big mistake picking Laurel…I would have loved to see him do the fire, that would have maybe won him the game, or lost if he played against one of the women and they actually beat him. An exciting season. Wendall just showed such grit, and class. A worthy Survivor!

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  2. I thought that Wendell did a few empty gestures, like “protecting” Laurel and taking Sebastian & Angela on the reward dinner. Nobody really called him on it, especially at the time he did them.

    I also would have liked to have seen more about why Sebastian was so angry about Dom with the fake idol. He was going to vote out Dom, Dom got told and made a desperate move, but Sebastian acted like he did something very wrong.

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  3. It was a good finale. I think Dominic played a slightly better game but Wendall was right behind him so he was definitely a worthy winner. With that said, it would have been awesome if Dominic had acted on his idea and decided to face Wendall for the fire-making challenge. He was smart not to do since Wendall seemed to make fire very quickly but it would have been awesome TV. Also, big props to the jury members for not being bitter and voting for Laurel out of spite… I know the social game is part of Survivor but it bothers me when the better player doesn’t win because of a bitter jury.

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  4. I am not sure I liked the free flow conversational style of the jury questioning. I am not opposed to it being switched up, but I don’t feel we got to hear from everyone. I have thought about what Jeremy said about the empty gesture of wendall taking sea bass and angela on the reward. I thought it was smart, to get votes….and he did get Sebs (and Angela’s?) vote so?? also, IMO, it was wise to keep his enemies closer rather than letting them foment back at camp. So I think there were more levels to it than an empty gesture. But it might have been….

    Greatest joy was I got to watch a good part of the season with my daughter who lived with me for the first time in 5 years. She is 19 and left today to go work for the summer and then college prep. We had had a rough week with a fair amount of drama, which happens around partings, Aspie like meltdown stuff, but we came together for cake and to watch the Survivor finale and in brought us back together, and that means something to me. We were able to sit down for a couple hours and spend fun time for the last time in awhile. I love Survivor!

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  5. PS A story: Also man, Survivor has taught me a lot about how to play difficult situations. It is a long story, but 5 years ago I had a treacherous roommate steal my rental, and the landlady used my health as an excuse to evict me, which is illegal. I used my Survivor training that info is power to Outwit and Outplay these two scoundrels, who basically ended up financing my move because I was able to leverage the information I had. Pure Survivor, and I look to it as a great triumph of both my smarts, my ethics, and ability to negotiate. I may have outlasted as the landlady ended up evicting the other guy when she found out he actually was the scoundrel not me. But it is all good, I fell into a much better and sustainable little house where I have been able to live by myself which is awesome!

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