Post by Amanda Kimmel on Jul 7, 2011 0:02:11 GMT -5
Eighteen castaways were stranded in the southern African nation of Namibia for an all-out battle for a “million dollar” cash prize and the title of Sole Survivor. They were divided into two tribes based on a pre-game questionnaire about their favorite and least favorite seasons of Survivor.
On Aarde, the tribe of earth, we had:
On Weerlig, the tribe of lightning, we had:
Episode One: “Total Drama Island”
Alliances began to form like crazy, even across tribes, such as Monica teaming with Heidi and Brett and Rob aligning. Scout recruited Brett, Jimmy, and Jenna on Aarde while J.T. and Heidi started flirting. The immunity challenge involved teamwork; for Weerlig, Monica, Rob, and Sierra worked together to ensure victory, forging an alliance in the process despite Rob also being with Austin and Becky. Brett dropped the ball early for Aarde, sending them to Tribal. As a bonus for winning the immunity, Weerlig got to kidnap someone from Aarde, and they chose Jimmy Johnson. Jimmy received a clue to a hidden immunity idol and was given the opportunity to join the tribe that kidnapped him. He declined the offer, but shared his clue with Rob. Rob found the Hidden Immunity Idol by luck (or perhaps by a PW rigging it…) and didn’t tell anyone about it, as he was uncertain which alliance he was going with and was also nervous about an all-female squad. Back at Aarde, Scout tried to be a leader and target J.T. or Fabio because she hadn’t talked to them and Brett, who liked Fabio, protected him. Scout thus went after J.T., but this was met with criticism since J.T. had asked people to talk to him if they were ready to do the challenge and no one ever did. Upon finding out, Heidi immediately went to J.T. and informed him that he was being targeted, but Scout falsely concluded that it was Matty who told him and made that public, which enraged Matty. J.T. and Heidi brought Matty and Brett into their alliance, but did not trust Brett. At the first Tribal Council, J.T. and Matty got into a heated argument with Scout; Scout urged the tribe to separate the two, as they had apparently aligned with one another (they had) and keep her since she was a “team player.” J.T. and Matty shot back by trying to crack her “thick skull” and cite her for causing drama, making accusations, arrogantly thinking she was running the show, and not being a “team player.” Scout yelled for J.T. to name who told him, but would not admit to who gave her the idea to vote out J.T. even though it was her idea. She was called a hypocrite by her tribemates. Scout, however, asked Amanda to break the rules and post votes when not all were in and angrily quit when Amanda gave her a penalty vote instead. Nobody missed her, as she would have been voted out unanimously anyway.
Episode Two: “The Ever-Merciful Ancient Namibian Cat God”
Due to Scout going psycho and quitting, there was fallout at Aarde, but thanks to Brett, Fabio, and Stephenie leading the charge, they were able to win decisively at the immunity challenge. Monica was kidnapped by randomization and was given a clue to buried treasure, which she shared with Heidi. Neither of them could find the idol and Monica chose to stay with Weerlig. As Tribal Council loomed, things heated up at Weerlig, with various people being targeted at various degrees: Ashley for proposing multiple alliances and trying to control everyone, Becky doing so by being hard to talk to and the least active on the boards, and Rob since he’d sat out of the challenge due to personal problems. In the end, the votes were for Becky, who was sent home with an 8-0 vote.
Episode Three: “The Kiss of Death”
The tribes were surprised the following round when a Double Tribal Council was announced. Each tribe’s members would compete against each other for Individual Immunity and the right to kidnap someone from the other tribe, which would grant them immunity and the opportunity to attend the other tribe’s Tribal Council. Brett won individual immunity for Aarde while Darrah won it for Weerlig; they chose to kidnap Monica and J.T., respectively. None of the four of them had any luck finding the immunity idols, though Rob still had his… somehow.
Aarde’s Tribal Council was first. Fabio, Stephenie, Heidi, and Brett planned to target Jimmy for being the weakest link, but Heidi had other ideas. Seeing Stephenie as a threat for winning season one, Heidi talked to Jenna L., who talked to Jimmy to vote her out. Unable to get the votes, Jimmy freaked out and tried to get votes for Matty since he perceived Matty as the weakest. When he went to talk to Stephenie, he revealed that Heidi and Jenna were after her, so Stephenie decided to chase them instead. Although she wanted Heidi gone, she, Fabio, Brett, and Jimmy agreed on Jenna L. as the weaker and ruder of the two. Heidi, suspecting Jimmy betrayed her, and went after him with a little encouragement from Brett, who was trying to protect Stephenie. After the mass confusion and many changed votes, Jenna was blindsided 4-3.
Weerlig was also a hullabaloo, as it also had various people targeting each other. Before she was kidnapped, Monica expressed that she wanted Stephen out as she did not trust him, John wanted Monica out because he didn’t like her bossy attitude (but she was kidnapped and thus unavailable), Ashley thought John was a snake and wanted him gone, and Monica, Rob, Darrah & Sierra hated that Ashley was making contradicting alliances with everyone through an impersonal approach. At Tribal Council, two blindside plots converged: Ashley believed she was blindsiding John, but Rob, Darrah, and Sierra had other ideas and Ashley was voted out 4-3.
Episode Four: “Emotional Warfare”
The next round brought a tribe swap, where the kidnapped J.T. and Monica picked new tribes.
NEW AARDE: J.T., Darrah, Heidi, Stephen, Matty, Austin, Brett
NEW WEERLIG: Monica, Stephenie, Rob, Fabio, Sierra. John, Jimmy
This caused various amongst people. Austin was eager to vote out the people who didn’t tell him that Ashley was the target, Sierra was distressed about losing her ally Darrah (whom J.T. had selected first due to their alliance), Fabio panicked, and many others were surprised. At the new Weerlig, Sierra and Rob started scheming to blindside Monica with Fabio. Fabio told Stephenie, who told Monica, who confronted Rob. The once-strong alliance of Rob, Monica, and Sierra was shattered, as the proposal became to vote out Sierra for throwing Monica under the bus. Monica, trying to take the blame off of herself, told Sierra that Rob was after her. Although she pondered quitting, Sierra opted to fight in the challenge. The immunity challenge was a non-live version of a challenge supposed to be live (yay Fridays), and despite their struggles at camp, Weerlig came out on top and kidnapped Darrah. Matty and J.T. were accused of losing the challenge for Aarde, and though J.T. wanted the Aardes to stick together and vote out Austin or Stephen, Brett decided that Matty was a useless inactive and targeted him. Brett believed the others were voting for Austin, but Austin flopped to the Aardes. Stephen ignored Brett’s plea to vote for Matty and voted J.T., effectively voting himself out 3-2-1. Matty’s self-vote disqualified him from the following immunity challenge.
Episode Five: “Not Happy Angry Pengiun”
Round five brought a bonus reward puzzle, with rewards available for anyone who beat Amanda’s first time on a puzzle. Nobody on Aarde did it, and Sierra won it for Weerlig. Sierra was awarded an Auto-2x nullifier good through the final 7. Stephenie won an HII clue. At Weerlig, Sierra and the visiting Darrah schemed to get Rob to give his Hidden Immunity Idol to Darrah if Aarde lost. Sierra was unsure if Darrah was safe or not but believed she wasn’t and cautioned Rob, but he seemed unsure. The immunity was one-on-one brawls; as Matty had been DQed, he automatically lost a point for Aarde. This and the endless drama at camp did not discourage Weerlig, as they relentlessly pounded Aarde into oblivion, winning 6-0. Weerlig kidnapped Brett, who was luckily on the outs at Aarde. As they hugged after the challenge, Rob slipped Darrah his Hidden Immunity Idol as she went back off to Aarde. Sierra observed and immediately told Monica. At Aarde, J.T. and Darrah concocted a scheme where the votes would be directed at Darrah and she’d play her newly-acquired HII and blindside Matty. J.T. lied to Heidi that Darrah was after her, which cemented both of J.T.’s alliances. Heidi wanted Darrah gone, though Austin did not. Tribal Council came around and Darrah played her immunity idol, surprising Matty and sending him to pre-jury by a 1-0 vote.
Episode Six: “I Run Shit”
At Aarde, Darrah relished over her newfound control of her tribe due to her idoling Matty out. At Weerlig, Rob began to contemplate quitting, which annoyed Sierra and Monica. The kidnapped Brett reunited with his allies Fabio and Stephenie and, when presented with the chance, defected to Weerlig. This left Aarde with only 4 members. Vote changers were given out for winning a heat in the challenge this round, being claimed by Austin, Sierra, Stephenie, Heidi, Jimmy, and Brett. Aarde lost the immunity challenge because Darrah disappeared without a trace. Austin showed considerable effort in winning his three match-ups and was awarded Individual Immunity due to the inactivity of his tribemate. As Heidi was kidnapped, Austin became the only vote at Tribal Council. He voted to eliminate Darrah for not showing up at the challenge and because he found out how close she was with J.T.
Episode Seven: “Welcome to the Love Cell”
Due to the lopsidedness of the tribes, they were randomly reshuffled. In a rare case, Stephenie, Fabio, and Sierra were all sent to Aarde but nobody else changed tribes. This meant:
Aarde: Austin, Fabio, Heidi, J.T., Sierra, Stephenie
Weerlig: Brett, John, Jimmy, Monica, Rob
Next was a controversial immunity challenge, which Weerlig dominated through being sneaky (though fairly). They kidnapped Austin, and strange suspicions of a Brett-Austin alliance surfaced, though were untrue. Aarde was unhappy with losing and Sierra went apeshit and was given a warning for disrespecting the hosts. Rob attacked Amanda’s integrity and threw her under the bus by lying that she deleted one of his posts; she became forever pissed at him and disqualified him from All-Star contention. Back in the game, Fabio and Stephenie faked a reunion with the original Aarde, getting Heidi and J.T. to vote for Sierra to thus waste her reward. J.T. and Heidi wanted to vote for Fabio instead and convinced Sierra to do so as well. She contemplated it, but eventually decided that her allegiance was to Weerlig. Angry at being used, she was able to expose J.T. as REALLY being none other than Tara the Terrible, aka Erinn from Tonga. At Tribal Council, Sierra and Heidi played their vote changers, but they only canceled each other out and Heidi was booted 3-2, becoming the first member of the jury.
Episode Eight: “Don’t Worry, I’m Flexible”
J.T. was livid that Sierra had betrayed him [her], going as far to attack her integrity. Aarde finally caught a break, winning the next immunity challenge since Weerlig threw it. J.T. wanted Jimmy kidnapped, while the rest wanted Monica. Monica was ultimately chosen by random draw, thus making it eight rounds in which she had never cast a vote; Sierra, feeling uneasy, let Rob borrow her auto 2x nullifier and everyone quickly found out about it. At Aarde, Monica reconnected with Sierra after their separation, talked alliance and found the Hidden Immunity Idol together. Monica held onto it. Back at Weerlig, paranoia set in that Jimmy and J.T. were in an alliance. Brett and Rob also felt extremely uncomfortable about John, seeing as he was hard to get a read on. However, Monica had convinced John that Brett was in an alliance with Austin, even though Brett and Austin had hardly spoken. Rob, however, didn’t believe Monica since HE was Brett’s alliance. Rob decided to target John since he was unpredictable, while leaving Jimmy in would make Monica go after Jimmy and J.T. go after Brett. Brett told Jimmy the vote was for John and told John the vote was for Jimmy. Jimmy got paranoid that Brett was lying to him, and at Tribal Council, John was voted out by a 3-0 vote, sending him to the jury. Jimmy had used his vote changer changing Brett’s vote to Rob, thus using up half of Sierra’s auto-nullifier; John self-voted due to an accident; and Brett wasted his vote changer on Jimmy, who voted for John anyway.
Episode Nine: “Finger On the Panic Button”
The next round, of course, brought the merge and all hell broke loose. The new Waarheid tribe (Afrikaans for “truth”) was a hot mess. People were after each other like crazy while they questioned whether it was a final two or final three jury vote. Brett wanted Sierra out, Monica and Jimmy were after each other, and some of the original Weerligs wanted to get rid of J.T. However, instead of an immunity challenge, things got hectic with an ELIMINATION challenge. J.T. finished last and was thus sent to the jury. Sierra finished first and received a clue to a new Hidden Immunity Idol.
Additionally, six people received double votes for keeping their confessionals up to date: Austin, Brett, Fabio, Monica, Rob, and Sierra. These were good until the final five.
Episode Ten: “Would You Like to Play Some Football?”
Immediately after the challenge, an auction was held:
1. Immunity advantage - FABIO for $220
2. SECRET HII clue - SIERRA for $300 [her second]
3. 2x nullifier good for three rounds - STEPH for $300
4. Dummy item - a rock - ROB for $500 [he named it Bob]
5. Take someone's money, but make them bypass TC [no vote or attendance] - MONICA for $500 [made herself bypass TC]
6. Access to voting chart for pre-jury contestants only - AUSTIN for $500
7. Vote tripler - BRETT for $500
8. SECRET: Double vote info & a blocker - JIMMY for $500
Fabio donated $280 to Sierra after he won his item to thank her for using her vote changer. Rob was not too happy about his rock, but everyone else began scheming. Monica was unhappy to see J.T. leave and reaffirmed her alliance with Fabio and Stephenie even though she had made herself exempt from Tribal at the auction (ten rounds into the game and Monica had yet to cast a vote). Jimmy’s reward was quickly exposed, which made him even more of a target. The immunity challenge was Majority Rules, where Monica was labeled as the biggest threat and Jimmy as the most hated. Fabio won immunity and Austin got a clue to the immunity idol, which he couldn’t decipher. Sierra figured out that he got the clue and thought he had the idol. Brett thought telling Sierra that Austin was the target was a good idea to watch her movement, but Fabio told Sierra the real plan was to blindside Jimmy after Rob had already thrown the idea at her. Eventually, Rob told Brett that Sierra was down with it, and an extremely paranoid Brett, still stymied by the Majority Rules results, struggled to find out who blabbed and why. He did not know that Fabio and Stephenie were also working with Monica. He was not comfortable being a control freak but felt as if he had no choice. Jimmy tried to make a deal with Austin, then backstab him, but it didn’t matter as Jimmy was voted off 6-1 and became the fourth member of the jury. Austin also burned his vote changer to avoid having a vote against him.
Episode Eleven: “My Grandma Could Do Better”
The next round, Monica asked Sierra to “blindside” her, so she’d play the idol and get rid of Rob. Not believing that Monica would actually play her idol, Sierra went forward with the plan with the thought of getting rid of Monica. Meanwhile, Brett concocted a plan to blindside Sierra using his double and triple votes and brought it to Fabio. Sierra also lied to Stephenie that Brett and Rob were after her, which fueled Brett’s fire to blindside her even further. Sierra won immunity in an endurance posting challenge, and Brett’s plan was put on hold. For lasting 90 minutes, Sierra also received a clue to the third Hidden Immunity Idol; Monica received the first clue despite being punched in the face for asking Amanda to show bias. Sierra shared her clues with Monica, but neither could find the idol. Desperate, Brett instead targeted Monica until Rob told him that Monica wanted to use her HII to get Brett out since he could multiply his vote by six and was still pretending he had a vote changer. Things continually changed for multiple reasons: Monica’s vote yet again changed to Austin because she felt less secure with him. This enraged Sierra, who wanted Brett’s rewards gone with him. Monica changed her mind again to vote for Fabio, then AGAIN vote Brett, and, as a precaution, decided to use her HII as well. Austin eventually found out about it, under the premonition that Brett was gunning for him. Rewards began to fly, and Brett wanted to engineer that Austin went and Monica would play her HII. Little did he know that Monica and Austin sniffed him out, and both packed double votes. Sierra, knowing Brett was after her, voted alongside Monica and Austin, and Monica played her HII and the 1x Auto-nullifier she got from Sierra, the latter on Austin, to boot Brett 5-1-Ø, sending him to the jury with a vote tripler and a vote doubler. Stephenie’s vote changer expired after this.
Episode Twelve: “The Absolute Truth”
After Tribal, Rob was FUMING because he did not see the vote for Brett coming (Brett had). Sierra and Monica, wanting to get away from his anger, both decided on their own volition to search for the immunity idol. They converged upon the spot at the same time, and Sierra managed to smuggle it away. The two laughed it off and began plotting. They decided to reaffirm their alliance with Stephenie and Fabio to vote out Austin or Rob, then blindside Fabio since Monica didn’t trust him. Fabio meanwhile thought Monica was going to take him to the final four. Meanwhile, Austin wondered why Monica applied her Auto-nullifier to him, as she had not told him. Sierra told Rob that she thought Monica was after the two of them, but Rob didn’t believe it since Sierra had lied to him the prior round and wanted to target Monica since he knew Sierra was packing serious heat and Monica was not. Rob won immunity, and the scrambling started. Fabio became conscious of Monica’s plot to blindside him and opted to gun for her with Sierra, who developed strong distrust for her “showmance” thanks to Fabio telling her that Monica wanted to blindside her. However, Fabio started to distrust Sierra since she was getting overly emotional and talking to everyone like crazy because of the fallout with Monica. Fabio was worried that the others had found out about his final four deal with Sierra, Monica, and Stephenie and was paranoid that Sierra had turned Monica after him, but felt as if her social rampage may have been unintentional. Still, he felt obliged to vote Monica since he felt that Sierra had turned her against him. Monica too felt animosity toward Sierra, and she targeted Sierra despite the latter having an HII. She told Rob to target Sierra, who then told Sierra, who then decided to play her HII to get rid of Monica; Monica told Austin as well, but he knew that he was her insurance policy and that she’d be voting for him. After she realized that she was doomed, Monica apologized to Sierra and offered to target Austin, but it was too late. At Tribal Council, Monica became the sixth member of the jury, sent packing by a 4-2 vote with two double votes and Stephenie’s 2x nullifier being used.
Episode Thirteen: “Lie Like a Rug”
The castaways were greeted with an unpleasant surprise when they checked treemail the following morning and had 24 hours to take a quiz about events that happened during the game. It was never made clear what the challenge’s purpose was until they went to the challenge arena, in which it was revealed that Rob had won immunity from the quiz. Back at camp, the vote immediately was split between Stephenie, season 1’s winner, and Austin as they knew Fabio had a double vote and Sierra had a Hidden Immunity Idol. Sierra also lied that she had acquired a second double vote and was going to use it to vote twice for Stephenie. In reality, Sierra was pondering the thought of using her idol to save Austin. Rob contemplated voting for Stephenie, as he saw her as a major jury threat, and Sierra waffled on who the biggest threat to her game was. At Tribal Council, Sierra surprised everyone, including a shocked Austin, when she gave him her immunity idol and blindsided Stephenie 3-Ø, sending her to the jury. Although angry, she was pleasant in her exit, then badmouthed Sierra when she couldn’t wring her neck.
Episode Fourteen (Finale): “End of the Line”
The final immunity challenge brought an intense struggle in which the final four braved various tasks to complete a puzzle; in the end, Fabio won. The Tribal Council immediately ensued, and all four of the finalists wished each other luck and said they were proud to be there and had enjoyed an incredibly awesome drama fest. Fabio and Austin voted for Rob; Sierra and Rob voted for Austin, and a tiebreaker immediately commenced. Austin won, sending Rob to the jury.
Two changes were made on the jury: Darrah replaced Heidi, since Heidi could not be reached, and Monica was expelled for telling Fabio to vote for Rob, losing her jury spot, her All-Stars seat, and the respect of everyone else. She was replaced by Stephen.
In their opening statements, the final three highlighted the best parts of their games. Austin promoted his quieter gameplay, but explicitly said he was not ‘under-the-radar’ because people still knew who he was, he just wasn’t a power player like the others. Sierra felt lucky to be in the final 3, and said she was ready to prove her case to the jury of why she deserved to win the most. Fabio defended his game as “laying low” and playing an honest social game. He also analyzed the games of the two players alongside him, calling Sierra a loose cannon with a big mouth and dubbing Austin as a floater that did nothing to deserve a million dollars, and saying that he overall played the most balanced game.
Rob was the first juror to ask questions. He was not bitter, but asked Fabio about his pre-game alliances which were needed to make it far. Fabio replied that Stephenie was his only and that he didn’t feel that influenced him making the final three very much. Rob asked Austin how he valued various portions of the game, but Austin’s answer was wishy-washy. When asked why she deserved to win the game the most, Sierra replied with a rant explaining her best moves and her loud though strategic gameplay, becoming more aware of what she’d done to make the end.
John went next. He openly admitted that he was rooting for Sierra, but said his vote was still up in the air. He asked Austin for his big gameplay moves, which Austin said were working with Sierra, breaking up Darrah and J.T., and adapting to situations. John asked Sierra who the most satisfying boot was for her; she said Monica given that the bitch had been using her from the beginning. John’s question for Fabio regarded how he played a part in each of the juror’s boots. Fabio kept it honest, but at the same time made it sound like he hadn’t done much of anything to control the game.
Darrah came up third, and despite having been placed on the jury, she was in an extremely foul mood. She asked the final three to compare all jury members and their fellow finalists to animals and asked something specific about each person’s alliance dynamics. Austin replied that he wanted to stay true to Weerlig after the first switch, but couldn’t because he had to protect himself. Fabio said he values trust in allies above all else, and that he likes to align with bigger targets and he felt that Brett and Stephenie fit this picture.
J.T. was fourth, and (s)he expressed his (her) discontent toward Sierra, saying “she was full of bullshit.” Sierra responded angrily, telling J.T. off for not reading her confessionals in J.T.’s game (which also happened to both Amanda and Brett) and for J.T. to fuck (her)self. J.T. asked Austin to name three moves he wished he could have made to change the outcome of the game and how they would impact the game. Austin replied with 1) not lying to Sierra about his alliances, which led to Heidi’s demise, 2) not become an outcast by telling Monica she was being blindsided, and 3) voting out Fabio over Stephenie, since he thought Stephenie was weaker in the final immunity challenge despite having won season 1’s; Fabio and Sierra said that would not have happened, since neither them nor Rob would have voted for Fabio. J.T. also declared that (her) former lover Fabio had “gained his balls back” but pressed him on why he aligned with Steph over (her) and asked how far (s)he would have made it into the merge had she not been eliminated by the challenge. In his reply, Fabio defended two big moves in using Sierra’s vote changer to take Heidi out and blindsiding Monica; he also said that he had not known J.T.’s alias until it was far too late to work together, so he aligned with Steph instead. He also disclosed that J.T. was a target anyway, as everyone but Monica wanted to get rid of (her). Sierra blew up at him, saying that she used her vote changer on her own volition and that Fabio played no part in blindsiding Monica, he just jumped ship since she was the target and he didn’t trust her.
Next was Jimmy. He asked Sierra why she lied to him the week he went and if she saw him as weak; she replied by saying that he was unpredictable, but at the same time the easiest person to beat. She did not want an easy ride to the finals, so she joined to vote him out. Jimmy then asked Austin about the biggest move he made in the game other than winning the tiebreaker, which he said was aligning with Sierra and staying loyal to her despite her not being completely loyal to him. Jimmy felt as if this was not answering his question, and he expressed that he would not vote for Austin. Jimmy also asked Fabio about his favorites from reality shows, making it obvious that he was favoring voting for Fabio. He asked all three of an ideal replacement final three: Fabio said Rob/J.T./Steph, Sierra named Brett/Rob/John, and Austin
Stephen, the earliest boot to ever be a juror, came next. He asked the final three to compare all players in the game to an actual Survivor contestant and explain why they deserved the money more than the two people sitting next to them. In replying to his questions, Fabio got into a huge argument with Austin and Sierra, as both felt that he was not giving them credit where credit is due because he compared them to Daniel Lembo and Carolina Eastwood, respectively. Austin felt he was more like a ninja, a cutthroat competitor who sat back and only got involved when necessary, more like a Chris Daugherty. This enraged Fabio, as Chris was who he played as in season 1.
Stephenie went next and gave the same questions to all three: their biggest move to make the finals, how she helped them get there, any regrets, and why she should vote for them. Fabio thought he played the most well-rounded game, that Stephenie was his key ally, that ousting Monica was his best move, and he regretted listening to her bullshit when she ordered him to vote Rob out (leading to her expulsion from the jury). Austin had no regrets, but said he played hard and could not have made the end without winning the pre-merge individual immunity. Sierra said her best move was betraying J.T., whom she could not trust, and that she did it specifically so she could solidify an alliance with Fabio and Stephenie. She preached her hard social game, but admitted she regretted much of her relationship with Monica, including telling her too much, believing her, and getting confrontational when Monica wanted to dump her.
Brett closed the show. He asked each of the final three who he was planning on voting for and why. Fabio said himself because he believed he talked to Brett the most; Sierra said Austin based on a (wrong) gut instinct; and Austin said Sierra because he thought Brett respected her game the most. When she was sober, Sierra changed her answer to Fabio because he was the less annoying of the two. Brett further asked about loyalty, which all three said were crucial to their games. He also asked why they deserved a final three spot more than him and about his role in them getting there. Fabio said he did not make himself a bit target while Brett was, yet Brett was a key ally in him making it through the merge alive. Austin agreed about Brett being a major target, but said that Brett played no role in him getting to the end aside from being voted out over him. Sierra said she saved herself by winning immunity the round Brett left, and thus sort of replaced him in alliances and managed to make the final three.
In the end, Sierra was crowned the Sole Survivor with votes from Stephen, Darrah, John, Rob, and Brett. Fabio was the runner-up with the votes of J.T., Stephenie, and Jimmy. Austin was in third place with no jury votes.
ALL STARS:
Sierra Reed, the loudmouth. She knew how to find her rewards. She also knew how to use them, and knew how to get people on her side. She may have talked a bit too much for her own good, but what can you say? She won!
Brett Clouser, the control freak. He wanted his way, and he was determined to find some way to get it. He took the opportunity to defect from his tribe, and it paid off for him as he managed to last until 7th when he was blindsided. A sharp player, he's earned a spot in All-Stars!
Rob Mariano, the mob boss. played a solid social game despite making enemies, and when a certain thunder**** on the jury screwed him over, Rob was robbed of a place in the final three. Would he have won if he had made it there? Only one way to find out.
Judson “Fabio” Birza, the all-rounder. He played all aspects of his game well: He won a couple of challenges, he interacted with people and got them to like him, and he never stood out as the biggest threat to anyone. He tried his hardest and ended up in the final three, winning three jury votes.
Austin Carty, the chameleon. People knew he was there, but he was nearly invisible. He pulled out a few magic tricks and dodged bullets, sometimes with help, sometimes without, and managed to sneak his way into the final three. He played an underrated social game and has earned another chance to prove himself.
Darrah Johnson, the flirt. She used her seductive ways to get in control, but then a stroke of bad luck completely destroyed her. Having not performed in a challenge cost her greatly, and her flirtatious game ended up making her a huge threat if she came back. She made good moves, enough to earn a chance to make more of them.
Jimmy Johnson, the wizard. Regularly tried to come up with new plans even though they didn't always work. Always managed to find a way out of bad situations. Very clever, and it is this that got him voted out. He deserves another chance to see if he can get around that.
Namibia seriously blew my mind on a regular basis. I never expected to be able to host a season that had such awesome, unpredictable gameplay, and I really hope Malaysia can live up to it - and trust me, that's going to be a TOUGH act to follow. [Unfortunately, Malaysia didn't even come close... damn inactives].
Love, Amanda
On Aarde, the tribe of earth, we had:
- Brett, a T-shirt designer
- Former NFL coach Jimmy Johnson
- Heidi, a model
- Jenna, an aspiring actress
- Fabio, a college student
- Matty, a personal trainer from L.A.
- Stephenie, a pharmaceutical sales rep
- J.T., a cattle rancher
- Scout, a motivational speaker
On Weerlig, the tribe of lightning, we had:
- Rob, a Boston sports maniac
- John, a registered nurse
- Darrah, a mortician
- Austin, an aspiring author
- Becky, an attorney
- Sierra, a model
- Monica, a law student from San Diego
- Pro wrestler Ashley Massaro
- Stephen, a corporate consultant from New York
Episode One: “Total Drama Island”
Alliances began to form like crazy, even across tribes, such as Monica teaming with Heidi and Brett and Rob aligning. Scout recruited Brett, Jimmy, and Jenna on Aarde while J.T. and Heidi started flirting. The immunity challenge involved teamwork; for Weerlig, Monica, Rob, and Sierra worked together to ensure victory, forging an alliance in the process despite Rob also being with Austin and Becky. Brett dropped the ball early for Aarde, sending them to Tribal. As a bonus for winning the immunity, Weerlig got to kidnap someone from Aarde, and they chose Jimmy Johnson. Jimmy received a clue to a hidden immunity idol and was given the opportunity to join the tribe that kidnapped him. He declined the offer, but shared his clue with Rob. Rob found the Hidden Immunity Idol by luck (or perhaps by a PW rigging it…) and didn’t tell anyone about it, as he was uncertain which alliance he was going with and was also nervous about an all-female squad. Back at Aarde, Scout tried to be a leader and target J.T. or Fabio because she hadn’t talked to them and Brett, who liked Fabio, protected him. Scout thus went after J.T., but this was met with criticism since J.T. had asked people to talk to him if they were ready to do the challenge and no one ever did. Upon finding out, Heidi immediately went to J.T. and informed him that he was being targeted, but Scout falsely concluded that it was Matty who told him and made that public, which enraged Matty. J.T. and Heidi brought Matty and Brett into their alliance, but did not trust Brett. At the first Tribal Council, J.T. and Matty got into a heated argument with Scout; Scout urged the tribe to separate the two, as they had apparently aligned with one another (they had) and keep her since she was a “team player.” J.T. and Matty shot back by trying to crack her “thick skull” and cite her for causing drama, making accusations, arrogantly thinking she was running the show, and not being a “team player.” Scout yelled for J.T. to name who told him, but would not admit to who gave her the idea to vote out J.T. even though it was her idea. She was called a hypocrite by her tribemates. Scout, however, asked Amanda to break the rules and post votes when not all were in and angrily quit when Amanda gave her a penalty vote instead. Nobody missed her, as she would have been voted out unanimously anyway.
Episode Two: “The Ever-Merciful Ancient Namibian Cat God”
Due to Scout going psycho and quitting, there was fallout at Aarde, but thanks to Brett, Fabio, and Stephenie leading the charge, they were able to win decisively at the immunity challenge. Monica was kidnapped by randomization and was given a clue to buried treasure, which she shared with Heidi. Neither of them could find the idol and Monica chose to stay with Weerlig. As Tribal Council loomed, things heated up at Weerlig, with various people being targeted at various degrees: Ashley for proposing multiple alliances and trying to control everyone, Becky doing so by being hard to talk to and the least active on the boards, and Rob since he’d sat out of the challenge due to personal problems. In the end, the votes were for Becky, who was sent home with an 8-0 vote.
Episode Three: “The Kiss of Death”
The tribes were surprised the following round when a Double Tribal Council was announced. Each tribe’s members would compete against each other for Individual Immunity and the right to kidnap someone from the other tribe, which would grant them immunity and the opportunity to attend the other tribe’s Tribal Council. Brett won individual immunity for Aarde while Darrah won it for Weerlig; they chose to kidnap Monica and J.T., respectively. None of the four of them had any luck finding the immunity idols, though Rob still had his… somehow.
Aarde’s Tribal Council was first. Fabio, Stephenie, Heidi, and Brett planned to target Jimmy for being the weakest link, but Heidi had other ideas. Seeing Stephenie as a threat for winning season one, Heidi talked to Jenna L., who talked to Jimmy to vote her out. Unable to get the votes, Jimmy freaked out and tried to get votes for Matty since he perceived Matty as the weakest. When he went to talk to Stephenie, he revealed that Heidi and Jenna were after her, so Stephenie decided to chase them instead. Although she wanted Heidi gone, she, Fabio, Brett, and Jimmy agreed on Jenna L. as the weaker and ruder of the two. Heidi, suspecting Jimmy betrayed her, and went after him with a little encouragement from Brett, who was trying to protect Stephenie. After the mass confusion and many changed votes, Jenna was blindsided 4-3.
Weerlig was also a hullabaloo, as it also had various people targeting each other. Before she was kidnapped, Monica expressed that she wanted Stephen out as she did not trust him, John wanted Monica out because he didn’t like her bossy attitude (but she was kidnapped and thus unavailable), Ashley thought John was a snake and wanted him gone, and Monica, Rob, Darrah & Sierra hated that Ashley was making contradicting alliances with everyone through an impersonal approach. At Tribal Council, two blindside plots converged: Ashley believed she was blindsiding John, but Rob, Darrah, and Sierra had other ideas and Ashley was voted out 4-3.
Episode Four: “Emotional Warfare”
The next round brought a tribe swap, where the kidnapped J.T. and Monica picked new tribes.
NEW AARDE: J.T., Darrah, Heidi, Stephen, Matty, Austin, Brett
NEW WEERLIG: Monica, Stephenie, Rob, Fabio, Sierra. John, Jimmy
This caused various amongst people. Austin was eager to vote out the people who didn’t tell him that Ashley was the target, Sierra was distressed about losing her ally Darrah (whom J.T. had selected first due to their alliance), Fabio panicked, and many others were surprised. At the new Weerlig, Sierra and Rob started scheming to blindside Monica with Fabio. Fabio told Stephenie, who told Monica, who confronted Rob. The once-strong alliance of Rob, Monica, and Sierra was shattered, as the proposal became to vote out Sierra for throwing Monica under the bus. Monica, trying to take the blame off of herself, told Sierra that Rob was after her. Although she pondered quitting, Sierra opted to fight in the challenge. The immunity challenge was a non-live version of a challenge supposed to be live (yay Fridays), and despite their struggles at camp, Weerlig came out on top and kidnapped Darrah. Matty and J.T. were accused of losing the challenge for Aarde, and though J.T. wanted the Aardes to stick together and vote out Austin or Stephen, Brett decided that Matty was a useless inactive and targeted him. Brett believed the others were voting for Austin, but Austin flopped to the Aardes. Stephen ignored Brett’s plea to vote for Matty and voted J.T., effectively voting himself out 3-2-1. Matty’s self-vote disqualified him from the following immunity challenge.
Episode Five: “Not Happy Angry Pengiun”
Round five brought a bonus reward puzzle, with rewards available for anyone who beat Amanda’s first time on a puzzle. Nobody on Aarde did it, and Sierra won it for Weerlig. Sierra was awarded an Auto-2x nullifier good through the final 7. Stephenie won an HII clue. At Weerlig, Sierra and the visiting Darrah schemed to get Rob to give his Hidden Immunity Idol to Darrah if Aarde lost. Sierra was unsure if Darrah was safe or not but believed she wasn’t and cautioned Rob, but he seemed unsure. The immunity was one-on-one brawls; as Matty had been DQed, he automatically lost a point for Aarde. This and the endless drama at camp did not discourage Weerlig, as they relentlessly pounded Aarde into oblivion, winning 6-0. Weerlig kidnapped Brett, who was luckily on the outs at Aarde. As they hugged after the challenge, Rob slipped Darrah his Hidden Immunity Idol as she went back off to Aarde. Sierra observed and immediately told Monica. At Aarde, J.T. and Darrah concocted a scheme where the votes would be directed at Darrah and she’d play her newly-acquired HII and blindside Matty. J.T. lied to Heidi that Darrah was after her, which cemented both of J.T.’s alliances. Heidi wanted Darrah gone, though Austin did not. Tribal Council came around and Darrah played her immunity idol, surprising Matty and sending him to pre-jury by a 1-0 vote.
Episode Six: “I Run Shit”
At Aarde, Darrah relished over her newfound control of her tribe due to her idoling Matty out. At Weerlig, Rob began to contemplate quitting, which annoyed Sierra and Monica. The kidnapped Brett reunited with his allies Fabio and Stephenie and, when presented with the chance, defected to Weerlig. This left Aarde with only 4 members. Vote changers were given out for winning a heat in the challenge this round, being claimed by Austin, Sierra, Stephenie, Heidi, Jimmy, and Brett. Aarde lost the immunity challenge because Darrah disappeared without a trace. Austin showed considerable effort in winning his three match-ups and was awarded Individual Immunity due to the inactivity of his tribemate. As Heidi was kidnapped, Austin became the only vote at Tribal Council. He voted to eliminate Darrah for not showing up at the challenge and because he found out how close she was with J.T.
Episode Seven: “Welcome to the Love Cell”
Due to the lopsidedness of the tribes, they were randomly reshuffled. In a rare case, Stephenie, Fabio, and Sierra were all sent to Aarde but nobody else changed tribes. This meant:
Aarde: Austin, Fabio, Heidi, J.T., Sierra, Stephenie
Weerlig: Brett, John, Jimmy, Monica, Rob
Next was a controversial immunity challenge, which Weerlig dominated through being sneaky (though fairly). They kidnapped Austin, and strange suspicions of a Brett-Austin alliance surfaced, though were untrue. Aarde was unhappy with losing and Sierra went apeshit and was given a warning for disrespecting the hosts. Rob attacked Amanda’s integrity and threw her under the bus by lying that she deleted one of his posts; she became forever pissed at him and disqualified him from All-Star contention. Back in the game, Fabio and Stephenie faked a reunion with the original Aarde, getting Heidi and J.T. to vote for Sierra to thus waste her reward. J.T. and Heidi wanted to vote for Fabio instead and convinced Sierra to do so as well. She contemplated it, but eventually decided that her allegiance was to Weerlig. Angry at being used, she was able to expose J.T. as REALLY being none other than Tara the Terrible, aka Erinn from Tonga. At Tribal Council, Sierra and Heidi played their vote changers, but they only canceled each other out and Heidi was booted 3-2, becoming the first member of the jury.
Episode Eight: “Don’t Worry, I’m Flexible”
J.T. was livid that Sierra had betrayed him [her], going as far to attack her integrity. Aarde finally caught a break, winning the next immunity challenge since Weerlig threw it. J.T. wanted Jimmy kidnapped, while the rest wanted Monica. Monica was ultimately chosen by random draw, thus making it eight rounds in which she had never cast a vote; Sierra, feeling uneasy, let Rob borrow her auto 2x nullifier and everyone quickly found out about it. At Aarde, Monica reconnected with Sierra after their separation, talked alliance and found the Hidden Immunity Idol together. Monica held onto it. Back at Weerlig, paranoia set in that Jimmy and J.T. were in an alliance. Brett and Rob also felt extremely uncomfortable about John, seeing as he was hard to get a read on. However, Monica had convinced John that Brett was in an alliance with Austin, even though Brett and Austin had hardly spoken. Rob, however, didn’t believe Monica since HE was Brett’s alliance. Rob decided to target John since he was unpredictable, while leaving Jimmy in would make Monica go after Jimmy and J.T. go after Brett. Brett told Jimmy the vote was for John and told John the vote was for Jimmy. Jimmy got paranoid that Brett was lying to him, and at Tribal Council, John was voted out by a 3-0 vote, sending him to the jury. Jimmy had used his vote changer changing Brett’s vote to Rob, thus using up half of Sierra’s auto-nullifier; John self-voted due to an accident; and Brett wasted his vote changer on Jimmy, who voted for John anyway.
Episode Nine: “Finger On the Panic Button”
The next round, of course, brought the merge and all hell broke loose. The new Waarheid tribe (Afrikaans for “truth”) was a hot mess. People were after each other like crazy while they questioned whether it was a final two or final three jury vote. Brett wanted Sierra out, Monica and Jimmy were after each other, and some of the original Weerligs wanted to get rid of J.T. However, instead of an immunity challenge, things got hectic with an ELIMINATION challenge. J.T. finished last and was thus sent to the jury. Sierra finished first and received a clue to a new Hidden Immunity Idol.
Additionally, six people received double votes for keeping their confessionals up to date: Austin, Brett, Fabio, Monica, Rob, and Sierra. These were good until the final five.
Episode Ten: “Would You Like to Play Some Football?”
Immediately after the challenge, an auction was held:
1. Immunity advantage - FABIO for $220
2. SECRET HII clue - SIERRA for $300 [her second]
3. 2x nullifier good for three rounds - STEPH for $300
4. Dummy item - a rock - ROB for $500 [he named it Bob]
5. Take someone's money, but make them bypass TC [no vote or attendance] - MONICA for $500 [made herself bypass TC]
6. Access to voting chart for pre-jury contestants only - AUSTIN for $500
7. Vote tripler - BRETT for $500
8. SECRET: Double vote info & a blocker - JIMMY for $500
Fabio donated $280 to Sierra after he won his item to thank her for using her vote changer. Rob was not too happy about his rock, but everyone else began scheming. Monica was unhappy to see J.T. leave and reaffirmed her alliance with Fabio and Stephenie even though she had made herself exempt from Tribal at the auction (ten rounds into the game and Monica had yet to cast a vote). Jimmy’s reward was quickly exposed, which made him even more of a target. The immunity challenge was Majority Rules, where Monica was labeled as the biggest threat and Jimmy as the most hated. Fabio won immunity and Austin got a clue to the immunity idol, which he couldn’t decipher. Sierra figured out that he got the clue and thought he had the idol. Brett thought telling Sierra that Austin was the target was a good idea to watch her movement, but Fabio told Sierra the real plan was to blindside Jimmy after Rob had already thrown the idea at her. Eventually, Rob told Brett that Sierra was down with it, and an extremely paranoid Brett, still stymied by the Majority Rules results, struggled to find out who blabbed and why. He did not know that Fabio and Stephenie were also working with Monica. He was not comfortable being a control freak but felt as if he had no choice. Jimmy tried to make a deal with Austin, then backstab him, but it didn’t matter as Jimmy was voted off 6-1 and became the fourth member of the jury. Austin also burned his vote changer to avoid having a vote against him.
Episode Eleven: “My Grandma Could Do Better”
The next round, Monica asked Sierra to “blindside” her, so she’d play the idol and get rid of Rob. Not believing that Monica would actually play her idol, Sierra went forward with the plan with the thought of getting rid of Monica. Meanwhile, Brett concocted a plan to blindside Sierra using his double and triple votes and brought it to Fabio. Sierra also lied to Stephenie that Brett and Rob were after her, which fueled Brett’s fire to blindside her even further. Sierra won immunity in an endurance posting challenge, and Brett’s plan was put on hold. For lasting 90 minutes, Sierra also received a clue to the third Hidden Immunity Idol; Monica received the first clue despite being punched in the face for asking Amanda to show bias. Sierra shared her clues with Monica, but neither could find the idol. Desperate, Brett instead targeted Monica until Rob told him that Monica wanted to use her HII to get Brett out since he could multiply his vote by six and was still pretending he had a vote changer. Things continually changed for multiple reasons: Monica’s vote yet again changed to Austin because she felt less secure with him. This enraged Sierra, who wanted Brett’s rewards gone with him. Monica changed her mind again to vote for Fabio, then AGAIN vote Brett, and, as a precaution, decided to use her HII as well. Austin eventually found out about it, under the premonition that Brett was gunning for him. Rewards began to fly, and Brett wanted to engineer that Austin went and Monica would play her HII. Little did he know that Monica and Austin sniffed him out, and both packed double votes. Sierra, knowing Brett was after her, voted alongside Monica and Austin, and Monica played her HII and the 1x Auto-nullifier she got from Sierra, the latter on Austin, to boot Brett 5-1-Ø, sending him to the jury with a vote tripler and a vote doubler. Stephenie’s vote changer expired after this.
Episode Twelve: “The Absolute Truth”
After Tribal, Rob was FUMING because he did not see the vote for Brett coming (Brett had). Sierra and Monica, wanting to get away from his anger, both decided on their own volition to search for the immunity idol. They converged upon the spot at the same time, and Sierra managed to smuggle it away. The two laughed it off and began plotting. They decided to reaffirm their alliance with Stephenie and Fabio to vote out Austin or Rob, then blindside Fabio since Monica didn’t trust him. Fabio meanwhile thought Monica was going to take him to the final four. Meanwhile, Austin wondered why Monica applied her Auto-nullifier to him, as she had not told him. Sierra told Rob that she thought Monica was after the two of them, but Rob didn’t believe it since Sierra had lied to him the prior round and wanted to target Monica since he knew Sierra was packing serious heat and Monica was not. Rob won immunity, and the scrambling started. Fabio became conscious of Monica’s plot to blindside him and opted to gun for her with Sierra, who developed strong distrust for her “showmance” thanks to Fabio telling her that Monica wanted to blindside her. However, Fabio started to distrust Sierra since she was getting overly emotional and talking to everyone like crazy because of the fallout with Monica. Fabio was worried that the others had found out about his final four deal with Sierra, Monica, and Stephenie and was paranoid that Sierra had turned Monica after him, but felt as if her social rampage may have been unintentional. Still, he felt obliged to vote Monica since he felt that Sierra had turned her against him. Monica too felt animosity toward Sierra, and she targeted Sierra despite the latter having an HII. She told Rob to target Sierra, who then told Sierra, who then decided to play her HII to get rid of Monica; Monica told Austin as well, but he knew that he was her insurance policy and that she’d be voting for him. After she realized that she was doomed, Monica apologized to Sierra and offered to target Austin, but it was too late. At Tribal Council, Monica became the sixth member of the jury, sent packing by a 4-2 vote with two double votes and Stephenie’s 2x nullifier being used.
Episode Thirteen: “Lie Like a Rug”
The castaways were greeted with an unpleasant surprise when they checked treemail the following morning and had 24 hours to take a quiz about events that happened during the game. It was never made clear what the challenge’s purpose was until they went to the challenge arena, in which it was revealed that Rob had won immunity from the quiz. Back at camp, the vote immediately was split between Stephenie, season 1’s winner, and Austin as they knew Fabio had a double vote and Sierra had a Hidden Immunity Idol. Sierra also lied that she had acquired a second double vote and was going to use it to vote twice for Stephenie. In reality, Sierra was pondering the thought of using her idol to save Austin. Rob contemplated voting for Stephenie, as he saw her as a major jury threat, and Sierra waffled on who the biggest threat to her game was. At Tribal Council, Sierra surprised everyone, including a shocked Austin, when she gave him her immunity idol and blindsided Stephenie 3-Ø, sending her to the jury. Although angry, she was pleasant in her exit, then badmouthed Sierra when she couldn’t wring her neck.
Episode Fourteen (Finale): “End of the Line”
The final immunity challenge brought an intense struggle in which the final four braved various tasks to complete a puzzle; in the end, Fabio won. The Tribal Council immediately ensued, and all four of the finalists wished each other luck and said they were proud to be there and had enjoyed an incredibly awesome drama fest. Fabio and Austin voted for Rob; Sierra and Rob voted for Austin, and a tiebreaker immediately commenced. Austin won, sending Rob to the jury.
Two changes were made on the jury: Darrah replaced Heidi, since Heidi could not be reached, and Monica was expelled for telling Fabio to vote for Rob, losing her jury spot, her All-Stars seat, and the respect of everyone else. She was replaced by Stephen.
In their opening statements, the final three highlighted the best parts of their games. Austin promoted his quieter gameplay, but explicitly said he was not ‘under-the-radar’ because people still knew who he was, he just wasn’t a power player like the others. Sierra felt lucky to be in the final 3, and said she was ready to prove her case to the jury of why she deserved to win the most. Fabio defended his game as “laying low” and playing an honest social game. He also analyzed the games of the two players alongside him, calling Sierra a loose cannon with a big mouth and dubbing Austin as a floater that did nothing to deserve a million dollars, and saying that he overall played the most balanced game.
Rob was the first juror to ask questions. He was not bitter, but asked Fabio about his pre-game alliances which were needed to make it far. Fabio replied that Stephenie was his only and that he didn’t feel that influenced him making the final three very much. Rob asked Austin how he valued various portions of the game, but Austin’s answer was wishy-washy. When asked why she deserved to win the game the most, Sierra replied with a rant explaining her best moves and her loud though strategic gameplay, becoming more aware of what she’d done to make the end.
John went next. He openly admitted that he was rooting for Sierra, but said his vote was still up in the air. He asked Austin for his big gameplay moves, which Austin said were working with Sierra, breaking up Darrah and J.T., and adapting to situations. John asked Sierra who the most satisfying boot was for her; she said Monica given that the bitch had been using her from the beginning. John’s question for Fabio regarded how he played a part in each of the juror’s boots. Fabio kept it honest, but at the same time made it sound like he hadn’t done much of anything to control the game.
Darrah came up third, and despite having been placed on the jury, she was in an extremely foul mood. She asked the final three to compare all jury members and their fellow finalists to animals and asked something specific about each person’s alliance dynamics. Austin replied that he wanted to stay true to Weerlig after the first switch, but couldn’t because he had to protect himself. Fabio said he values trust in allies above all else, and that he likes to align with bigger targets and he felt that Brett and Stephenie fit this picture.
J.T. was fourth, and (s)he expressed his (her) discontent toward Sierra, saying “she was full of bullshit.” Sierra responded angrily, telling J.T. off for not reading her confessionals in J.T.’s game (which also happened to both Amanda and Brett) and for J.T. to fuck (her)self. J.T. asked Austin to name three moves he wished he could have made to change the outcome of the game and how they would impact the game. Austin replied with 1) not lying to Sierra about his alliances, which led to Heidi’s demise, 2) not become an outcast by telling Monica she was being blindsided, and 3) voting out Fabio over Stephenie, since he thought Stephenie was weaker in the final immunity challenge despite having won season 1’s; Fabio and Sierra said that would not have happened, since neither them nor Rob would have voted for Fabio. J.T. also declared that (her) former lover Fabio had “gained his balls back” but pressed him on why he aligned with Steph over (her) and asked how far (s)he would have made it into the merge had she not been eliminated by the challenge. In his reply, Fabio defended two big moves in using Sierra’s vote changer to take Heidi out and blindsiding Monica; he also said that he had not known J.T.’s alias until it was far too late to work together, so he aligned with Steph instead. He also disclosed that J.T. was a target anyway, as everyone but Monica wanted to get rid of (her). Sierra blew up at him, saying that she used her vote changer on her own volition and that Fabio played no part in blindsiding Monica, he just jumped ship since she was the target and he didn’t trust her.
Next was Jimmy. He asked Sierra why she lied to him the week he went and if she saw him as weak; she replied by saying that he was unpredictable, but at the same time the easiest person to beat. She did not want an easy ride to the finals, so she joined to vote him out. Jimmy then asked Austin about the biggest move he made in the game other than winning the tiebreaker, which he said was aligning with Sierra and staying loyal to her despite her not being completely loyal to him. Jimmy felt as if this was not answering his question, and he expressed that he would not vote for Austin. Jimmy also asked Fabio about his favorites from reality shows, making it obvious that he was favoring voting for Fabio. He asked all three of an ideal replacement final three: Fabio said Rob/J.T./Steph, Sierra named Brett/Rob/John, and Austin
Stephen, the earliest boot to ever be a juror, came next. He asked the final three to compare all players in the game to an actual Survivor contestant and explain why they deserved the money more than the two people sitting next to them. In replying to his questions, Fabio got into a huge argument with Austin and Sierra, as both felt that he was not giving them credit where credit is due because he compared them to Daniel Lembo and Carolina Eastwood, respectively. Austin felt he was more like a ninja, a cutthroat competitor who sat back and only got involved when necessary, more like a Chris Daugherty. This enraged Fabio, as Chris was who he played as in season 1.
Stephenie went next and gave the same questions to all three: their biggest move to make the finals, how she helped them get there, any regrets, and why she should vote for them. Fabio thought he played the most well-rounded game, that Stephenie was his key ally, that ousting Monica was his best move, and he regretted listening to her bullshit when she ordered him to vote Rob out (leading to her expulsion from the jury). Austin had no regrets, but said he played hard and could not have made the end without winning the pre-merge individual immunity. Sierra said her best move was betraying J.T., whom she could not trust, and that she did it specifically so she could solidify an alliance with Fabio and Stephenie. She preached her hard social game, but admitted she regretted much of her relationship with Monica, including telling her too much, believing her, and getting confrontational when Monica wanted to dump her.
Brett closed the show. He asked each of the final three who he was planning on voting for and why. Fabio said himself because he believed he talked to Brett the most; Sierra said Austin based on a (wrong) gut instinct; and Austin said Sierra because he thought Brett respected her game the most. When she was sober, Sierra changed her answer to Fabio because he was the less annoying of the two. Brett further asked about loyalty, which all three said were crucial to their games. He also asked why they deserved a final three spot more than him and about his role in them getting there. Fabio said he did not make himself a bit target while Brett was, yet Brett was a key ally in him making it through the merge alive. Austin agreed about Brett being a major target, but said that Brett played no role in him getting to the end aside from being voted out over him. Sierra said she saved herself by winning immunity the round Brett left, and thus sort of replaced him in alliances and managed to make the final three.
In the end, Sierra was crowned the Sole Survivor with votes from Stephen, Darrah, John, Rob, and Brett. Fabio was the runner-up with the votes of J.T., Stephenie, and Jimmy. Austin was in third place with no jury votes.
ALL STARS:
Sierra Reed, the loudmouth. She knew how to find her rewards. She also knew how to use them, and knew how to get people on her side. She may have talked a bit too much for her own good, but what can you say? She won!
Brett Clouser, the control freak. He wanted his way, and he was determined to find some way to get it. He took the opportunity to defect from his tribe, and it paid off for him as he managed to last until 7th when he was blindsided. A sharp player, he's earned a spot in All-Stars!
Rob Mariano, the mob boss. played a solid social game despite making enemies, and when a certain thunder**** on the jury screwed him over, Rob was robbed of a place in the final three. Would he have won if he had made it there? Only one way to find out.
Judson “Fabio” Birza, the all-rounder. He played all aspects of his game well: He won a couple of challenges, he interacted with people and got them to like him, and he never stood out as the biggest threat to anyone. He tried his hardest and ended up in the final three, winning three jury votes.
Austin Carty, the chameleon. People knew he was there, but he was nearly invisible. He pulled out a few magic tricks and dodged bullets, sometimes with help, sometimes without, and managed to sneak his way into the final three. He played an underrated social game and has earned another chance to prove himself.
Darrah Johnson, the flirt. She used her seductive ways to get in control, but then a stroke of bad luck completely destroyed her. Having not performed in a challenge cost her greatly, and her flirtatious game ended up making her a huge threat if she came back. She made good moves, enough to earn a chance to make more of them.
Jimmy Johnson, the wizard. Regularly tried to come up with new plans even though they didn't always work. Always managed to find a way out of bad situations. Very clever, and it is this that got him voted out. He deserves another chance to see if he can get around that.
Namibia seriously blew my mind on a regular basis. I never expected to be able to host a season that had such awesome, unpredictable gameplay, and I really hope Malaysia can live up to it - and trust me, that's going to be a TOUGH act to follow. [Unfortunately, Malaysia didn't even come close... damn inactives].
Love, Amanda
© 2010 Amandy Productions Ltd.
