Survivor Finale Recap

I can't believe the day has come and passed. Survivor 26 is over and now begins the Survivor off-season. First let's talk about the finale itself, then we will get in to the live show.

This was a great season after the merge hit. There was so much going on. But I would be lying if I told you that the finale was great. It wasn't. What makes Survivor great is when it is crazy and unpredictable. Going in to the finale, everyone knew Cochran was going to win. There was just no way he wouldn't win. The only possibility I could see playing out was if Erik, Eddie, and Sherri joined together and voted him out at the final five. But Erik getting medically evacuated eliminated the possibility of that happening. Based on the editing for the season, it was pretty clear that Cochran was going to win. Dawn was painted in a negative light, so you knew the jury wouldn't give her many votes, if any. Sherri got a solid amount of airtime before the tribe swap, but then she pretty much disappeared. Erik didn't really show up until after the merge when people were trying to get his vote, and he still never made a move that shook up the game. Really, there was no way Eddie was winning. So really, there was no way Cochran was losing. This was his game. He played a good one and he deserved it. I was happy for him to win, and he gave a great jury performance as I expected. However, I don't think this was a very good finale. It wasn't really up in the air and as I said, you knew who was going to win.

Some people are comparing this finale to the Redemption Island finale, where Boston Rob completed his perfect game and finally won the million. People will say that was one of the worst seasons and that it was completely predictable. I disagree, I didn't mind the season as much as everyone else did, and in fact going in to the finale I wasn't sure if he would win. Another thing people hated was the Redemption Island twist, which gave people that were voted off a chance to come back in to the game. Redemption Island complicated things, because the way Matt Elrod was dominating, it made you think he might win out, win the last two immunites, get to the final three and win because of how good a guy he was and how much everyone liked him, and how they got to hang with him before they went to the jury. There was a possibility that Grant or Mike would win too. There was also the idea that Phillip could wow people with his jury speech. I didn't think he would win, but I thought he might steal some votes. Also something else that is worth noting, is how Rob could have gotten screwed by his alliance. Throughout the final few episodes, Ashley Underwood tried to start a final three girls alliance with Natalie Tenerelli and Andrea Boehlke (same Andrea on this season) and vote out Boston Rob. If Natalie goes with this plan, Rob's game is over. And I think it was close to happening. This is why I vouch for Ashley to be brought back on a future season. The fact is, RI was much less predictable than the end of this season. Last season's finale was so much more unpredictable than this one. Last season we had no idea who was going to win between Mike Skupin, Malcolm Freberg, Lisa Whelchel and Denise Stapley. Maybe this has to do with the editing, but again, the show's SO much better when you don't know what's going to happen.

With all that said, I'm not going to say I didn't enjoy the finale. I did. I was really happy for Cochran and he deserved it. It was a great story that he won. Much like myself, he's been watching the show for thirteen years, and he's a super-fan. I've been watching the show with my mom for the past thirteen years, and to see Cochran win was awesome and a great way to celebrate Mother's Day.

I'm glad they did the "fallen comrades" walk where they talked about and paid tribute to all seventeen players that weren't fortunate enough to make it to the final three. That's a part of the show that I enjoy.

By far the weirdest part of the finale was Erik getting med-evac-ed. No one has ever been med-evac-ed or quit this late in the season, and it was sad that everything he had worked for had gone down the drain. I feel like they should have helped him a bit more, and at least given him a bit more time before pulling him from the game. When Boston Rob fell over in the second episode of Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, they gave him water to help him rehydrate. Couldn't they have given Erik a bit of water and maybe a granola bar or something, especially this late in the game? I felt really sad for the guy that this was the way his season ended, and due to the edit he got this season, I don't expect him to come back.

About an hour before the finale, I was dog-walking. As I was walking my grandma's dog, I was listening to famous jury speeches on the YouTube app on my iPhone. I love me a good jury speech. Maybe this summer I can rank the top ten jury speeches ever. A good jury speech doesn't have to come from bitterness, it can also come from passion. For example, Erik Cardona's speech at the end of Survivor: Samoa on why Natalie White played a better game than people were giving her credit for and why Russell Hantz shouldn't automatically win. I was listening to those to get me prepared for the jury speeches that night. So now let's talk about the jury, because there was a lot to be talked about.

There were some solid speeches and questions. I was looking forward to Phillip as a juror after his performance trying to get the jury to vote for him his first time playing. Joel McHale even showed the clip on The Soup.

Yes, it would have been interesting to see what Phillip would do if he was in the final three. But his speech was funny. Telling Sherri she was no longer a member of Stealth R Us. We all laughed at seeing that.

I expected Reynold to maybe give us something good. He's been very positive and enthusiastic and I could see him giving an Erik Cardona speech, however he isn't a student of the game so maybe he didn't know what to say. His question to Dawn was weird, and I still don't know what to make of it.

Eddie's was kind of funny, but also an odd question. Cochran responded to it perfectly though, saying that he would drink with The Three Amigos, but he would have two girls next to him. Perfect response.

Something I was thinking about yesterday was, if I was a juror, what would I say? I thought about how if I was on the Fans tribe, I would defend Sherri's game. Sherri played a really good game before the tribe swap. Who knows how things might have played out if Shamar hadn't gotten med-evac-ed and if they had voted Eddie or Reynold out instead of Laura. This whole season could have played out differently. If this wasn't a Fans vs. Favorites season, she might have dominated the game. But once she got to the merge, she was put in a really bad situation. So what did she do? She did the best she could and that was to kiss up to Stealth R Us. She was very tight with Phillip, and losing him was even more bad luck she encountered. Erik getting med-evac-ed was bad luck too. If he had stayed around maybe she would have gotten Eddie and Erik to vote Cochran and Dawn and create a new final three. She did the best with what she could do, and she was sitting in the final three with Cochran and Dawn. No matter what their strategy was to get there, she made it just like they did. I wouldn't say that I would vote for her over Cochran, but she deserves respect for at least getting to the end. Hopefully she positioned herself to get another chance to play on another season. I'm not sure if that will happen or not. She didn't get a lot of airtime, but based on the rumored cast for the next season, anyone at random could really get asked back. So she made the most of what she was given. Was her performance good? I wouldn't say so. It might not have been a great idea to tell Erik to shut up and sit down. She was pretty nervous. What helped Cochran though was the fact that no one was criticizing him. When people attack you, it shakes up your confidence, and when people compliment you it boosts it.

I don't know what to say about Dawn's performance. She put herself in a position where she couldn't win, and going with Cochran to the end didn't help that. There was a lot of talk about Brenda's speech. Was it fair or foul? I think it was fine. She had a reason behind it. It made for some good TV drama. It wasn't the worst thing that happened during the show (*cough cough*... Brandon Hantz).

That actually is a good part to transition to the next topic. The Survivor reunion. Some players publicly expressed their distaste for the way the show handled the finale. CBS wouldn't allow Brandon to be there because he threatened Phillip. Russell also threatened Phillip, and he wasn't allowed in to the show either. CBS had all the pre-jury people sit in the audience, instead of sitting on the stage with the rest of them. They most likely did this to prevent having to talk about Brandon Hantz and why he wasn't allowed there. But they are the ones that cast Brandon Hantz on this season. We didn't want him on the season. We were right not to want him. We didn't want him at the finale, and I'm glad they didn't have him there. But I mean come on, the rest of the people shouldn't have to suffer as a result of his stupidity. Contestants Allie Pohevitz, Corinne Kaplan, and Erik Reichenbach were just a few of the people that publicly stated how they were upset about the finale. The pre-jury people all spent money on their outfits, they paid to fly their families out there. All for them to just sit on the sidelines and have the camera on them for three or four seconds at most? This was bad. It was cruel. There had to be a better way to handle it.

Looking at the reunion show as a fan, I wanted to hear from the pre-jury people. I always want to hear from everyone that was on the season. They were all a part of the season, and they should each get at least one question. I want to hear what people have to say. And there were some characters from the first part of the show that we should have heard from. Corinne always has something to say. Why not ask Francesca what it was like to be the first player voted out first twice? Shamar created a lot of drama. Matt was sort of interesting. And that wasn't just it. Erik, who made it to the final five, didn't get a question. Why not at least ask him what his plan for the end game was? Or at least ask him how he was now? Check up on Shamar who was also med-evac-ed. Michael Snow didn't get asked anything. I don't remember Eddie or Sherri getting asked anything. Sherri, who finished tied in second place didn't get asked a question (unless you're counting the question to her before they read the votes)!

I enjoyed some of the finale. They had some past players there, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested in hearing Boston Rob talk about Phillip and his new book. That was pretty short. It was really random why they spent time talking to Rudy Boesch from the first season, and then showed the Richard Hatch clip. I don't know what that was all about. If we're going to talk to past players, why not people who have SOME connection to this season? I would have liked it if they asked Boston Rob about Andrea's game as he played with her too and she played a really good game before Cochran took her out.

Perhaps the worst part of the finale was when Jeff went out and started asking a little girl questions about the show. She didn't really add anything to it, and it was a waste of time. She had trouble talking. I don't want to sound like a jerk or anything, she was a cute little girl but this was just a waste of time.

Something else I noticed was this was a lot shorter. I'm cool with them talking to past players and stuff, but if they're going to do that, they should extend the time and make it a full hour show and talk to people who were actually on the season. I understand all the frustration for these poor people that had to sit on the sidelines during their own live show.

They gave us a hint at next season, which is called Survivor: Blood vs. Water. The season is most likely going to be a season of former players vs. their loved ones, or maybe on the same tribe with their loved ones. Whether or not I like the idea can be saved for a different article. But this was a disappointment. I love seeing the trailers for the upcoming seasons, and there was a lot of potential for a good one here. They could highlight some of the memorable loved one visits on the show. Instead they just showed a clip of blood in water, showing that "blood is thicker than water". This was disappointing. C'mon CBS, you can do better than that.

I think that just about covers it all. Overall, I really liked this season. Cochran was a good and deserving winner. Maybe I will write another post talking about his win and maybe review the season a little more, I didn't expect this blog to be this long. Thank you for reading my blog all season, I hope to write more about the show this summer and I will see you all in the fall. What did you think about the finale? What did you think of the decision to have the pre-jury people separated from everyone else? What did you think of Brenda's speech? Was that fair or foul? Were you satisfied with the way the season ended? There are many things to be discussed, and I want to hear all your thoughts! Comment below, or on Twitter @vellvita7 or on the blog Facebook fan page. Again, thank you for reading!