Live Blogging of Survivor Finale

7:14 pm - A happy Mother's day to all 23 of my regular readers. We are coming to you live from the headquarters of the 'Muse, getting ready for the Survivor finale and trying to get freaking Hamachi to work as I want it to.

7:21 pm - To waste some time, I've been watching the British Poker Open and Gus Hansen once again pulled a hand out of his ass, busting David Ulliott on a 5 outer. The Devilfish was none the too pleased, to say the least.

7:49 pm - For your edification: Dalton Ross on the last episode. The key thing that is found in there is how we are in our current predicament of not only having a "to be continued" cliffhanger, but why we are going to see a final three episode. (The short answer: It was supposed to start in March to avoid the Olympics, but the combination of American Idol and moving almost immediately from their normal Thursday spot made them start in February.)

8:00 pm - And...we're off. Granted, we have a good 510 minutes of summary of what happened (including a reminder of Cirie's manipulation to get rid of Tina). And we're also getting the "Cirie played the game well" story, so I'm officially predicting that Cirie will be getting the boot.

8:14 pm - That is a huge flame from Danielle. Also, she appreantly fell out as we get the digital blurring effect.

(Random other Danielle's cleavage note: I have to think that Burnett was happy with what Danielle wore (or didn't wear) to tribal council.)

8:17 pm - And there she be. Danielle wins, Cirie loses. And now, back at camp, Aras is the outsider, which might be the oddest side effect of them all.

8:20 pm - So Danielle was just talking about the Aras/Terry rivalry, and then Terry congratulates Aras on his fishing expedition.

8:21 pm - Reward challenge? Oh you kidder Mark Burnett. You managed to add some fun to this.

8:26 pm - That was some good stuff right there. The challenge had a couple of puzzles which freed 2 sets of 2 pegs. Those pegs were used to climbed up a slope, and then were inserted to free a flag. First one to raise their flag wins.

Aras had an early lead, but Terry kept on coming. Aras then slipped and almost fell, but his shirt caught on one of his pegs. He and Terry were neck and neck, but Terry got his pegs into the slot first and won the challenge. What did he win? A meal of steamed vegetables, chicken breasts, water and a banana. He also got to take a cot back to camp and sleep on it. A huge advantage going into the final immunity challenge.

(As a follow up to the 8:20 post, Terry called Aras the "Ultimate competitor" after the challenge, and said that he always brings his A-game. Trying to get Aras' vote, or a true respect of Aras' game play?)

8:36 pm - The old "reflect on old Survivor montages" period of the final episode. Let it be said - Misty is still hot. And the visual of the burning skull was kinda cool.

8:47 pm - Interesting final immunity challenge - a combination of the Panama Islands final immunity challenge and, uh, I don't know what. And everybody not talking and trying not to move at all to respond to Jeff is fun.

(Quick followup note: Aras was mentioning that Terry should be feeling the pressure after winning the reward challenge, as though he was trying to talk himself into not feeling pressure. Something to keep in mind.)

8:49 pm - Danielle just talked, saying they should have brought their drop line to fish.

8:51 pm - They get to crawl to their next platform and establish their balance without worrying about falling. Terry is having trouble with the third platform.

8:52 pm - Terry down! Aras is also losing it.

8:53 pm - Uh, I think we just saw a double cross. Aras looked at Danielle, who was very steady, looked back, and just jumped into the water. Danielle gave him a knowing look. Wow. If Danielle does screw over Terry after giving him her word, she might as well just go up to the jury and say "I ain't winning this. I just didn't want Terry to win."

(Updaterery: I just watched it again, and Danielle nodded at Aras before he jumped off. The unspoken "If I jump off, will you take me" question was asked and answered. I might have to take 24 hours, but Danielle might have just jumped to the top of the list of "stupidest Survivors ever", along with "stupidest Survivor plays ever".)

9:03 pm - Wow. Danielle just admitted to committing to Aras, but is already bailing on that. And she is talking to Terry, saying that if she had the hidden immunity idol, Terry would already be in the final two. Terry is doing a great job of making his case and making her feel comfortable about her decision. Meanwhile, Aras is putting the pressure on, doing a horrible job by putting pressure on her. If we're looking at storylines here, the ultimate payoff would be Terry making it because Aras couldn't play the people better than Terry. (Of course, this means that she's taking Aras.)

9:12 pm - The only way Danielle could save herself would be to claim stupidity and say that she wrote down the person's name who she wanted to bring with her.

9:13 pm - And there it is. Aras, just don't be stupid and you are a million dollar winner.

9:20 pm - Danielle was almost onto the right line of making a decision when she justified her decision of Aras over Terry when she mentioned Casaya. The problem is she veered into "slap in the face of alliance mates" territory instead of "try to deflect blame for boots to alliance mate".

9:23 pm - I guess I didn't count on "medical evacuation" as a way for Danielle to win.

9:33 pm - So Aras is actually alive. And he's talking about the fall and subsequent injury making him feel more human. Meanwhile, Danielle says that this hasn't taught here anything that she didn't already know about herself, only "clarified" it. Guess who's winning the million?

(Forgot to mention that I think this is the first time that everything in the camp wasn't burned down. Which is nice.)

9:36 pm - Wow, the jury is trying to play this seriousness up. (Except for Shane's laughter at Aras' "intergrity" comment.)

9:37 pm - Danielle's opening statemnt was a lot better than Aras'. She acknowledged that she had to deceive people to get where she was, and laid it out there. Meanwhile, Aras claimed to play the game with integrity and tried to get to know everyone. At this point, it's obvious that Aras doesn't understand that really, only Terry has the high road on the integrity issue (mostly because he was in the minority throughout the game). The Shane comment should be very interesting, because he's going to try to accuse Aras of not having integrity. Whether he goes completely crazy or not remains to be seen.

9:42 pm - The questions:

Sally:

You can tell Sally is a fan because she asked a very interesting question - who of the Casaya 6 was most instrumental to getting you to the final 2? Both say Cirie for obvious reasons. Danielle gives a concrete example of coming back from Exile Island, while Aras plays the friend card.

Bruce:

Bruce asks about beyond the million dollars, what you would you do with the experience (or something). Danielle wants to give speeches (which draws an odd reaction from Shane), Aras wants to make himself better before worrying about others.

Terry:

Don't worry, Terry isn't bitter. He makes mention of Danielle's deceive point, and says he didn't have to. He also makes a joke about hoping Danielle's family and friends don't tell her that she should have taken "that navy guy".

He asks them to rank themselves on how they did in the challenges. Aras gives himself a nine, while Danielle gives herself an 8. Danielle's defense is that other than the hamburger debacle (which she claims to regret) she gave "110%".

Austin:

Austin asks for the most positive move they made which furthered them to the final two, along with a deceptive move with furthered them.

Danielle goes with keeping Bruce over Bob-dog as her positive move (which was in a sense, since Bob more helpful physically and might have posed a threat to Terry), while naming the Courtney vote as the deceptive move.

Aras says that his move he most proud of was telling Melinda she was going(?). He didn't get her hopes up. He wasn't proud of voting Shane and lying to him. But he tries to say that he played the game with integrity, which just sounds like back pedalling.

Courtney:

Courtney says "Oh boy" and sighs before asking her question:

She forgot her guns and dropped them in the sea of forgiveness. She wanted to play the game with integrity but both stabbed her in the back. But she's dropped it and she learned a lot about herself. Which leads to her question: What did you learn about yourself?

Aras first refers back to the stabbing in the back, mentioning that Courtney put Aras' name down. Courtney tells him that he did lie to her, and he starts back pedalling again, saying that he never professed to being completely honest. Aras says that his ego was smashed.

Danielle says that she didn't believe how mentally strong she can be.

(Courtney has some great comebacks which I will get to eventually.)

Cirie:

Cirie asks why should she vote for the person next to them.

Danielle: Aras was unbelievable, respectful, honorable, strong minded, great morale for the team, great person

Aras: Danielle was there when I hurt my hand. She put aside her worries for that. Danielle points our her "drug him up" joke.

Shane:

Shane is disappointed that it is them. Terry is most deserving according to him. Here's why:

Danielle: Useless at camp. Outwit? Shane doesn't know about it. He doesn't know anything about her. She can complete coherent sentences.

Aras: They had an agreement, but Aras broke it. When it came down to it Shane made the tough decision to put down Danielle's name, but Aras put Shane's name down.

Danielle didn't lie to Shane, but Aras did. Aras is a good young kid, but his intentions aren't good enough. But he's broke and freeloading off his dad.

Shane can't bring himself to vote for either, but he can't abstain, so he asks them to to choose a number between 1 and 1 million. Aras chooses 4, and Danielle chooses 10 (which is close to the Price is Right option that should have been used, but maybe Shane has a deeper meaning here?)

Danielle might have the edge here again. Aras did too much back pedalling

9:58 pm - Final comments:

Danielle: Wanted to come into the game and be herself. She played the game with honesty and integrity, but had to deceive somebody at some point. She tells Shane that she feels that she grew skill wise, and maybe Shane just didn't see it. As for Outwit, she found the right people to align herself with, and she stuck with them. She did all three parts of the game. And she plays the "the cash can help me" card.

Aras: Knows it is a hard choice. She played the game the best way he could. He worked hard at camp, at challenges, and at making real relationships with each and every one of them. He apologizes to Shane, but thought that Shane was trying to screw him first. The hugs were real, dammit! And then Aras plays the "cash can help me" card, by saying that he's homeless and freeloads off his dad. Unless that was a joke, this veered quickly off into the ditch. Whoever the jury votes for is good enough for him.

10:00 pm - Jeff gives the vote speech and we get people voting.

Bruce votes for Danielle. It was a great pleasure to play with you and you will touch a lot of people.

Sally puts a smiley face and then makes her vote. Based on pen position, it is Aras.

Courtney goes to make her vote, and uses Shane as leverage to get off of her seat. Shane is not happy, especially when Courtney does it to get back up to her seat.

Terry votes for Aras and makes a joke about being used to writing his name down.

Missing vote predictions:

Austin - Danielle
Sally - Aras
Shane - Danielle
Cirie - Aras
Courtney - Aras

And off we go to New York.

10:02 pm - And we are now in New York. Danielle looks like she hasn't gotten any sleep. Shane is wearing, um, something odd.

First vote: Aras (Terry's vote)
Second vote: Danielle (Bruce's vote)
Third vote: Danielle (Shane's vote - the answer to the question was 999,999)
Fourth vote: Aras (Sally's vote - smiley faces can be seen)
Fifth vote: Aras
Sixth vote: Aras

Aras wins Survivor: Exile Island!

(Justice was kinda served.)

Congratulations to Aras ensue. He hugs his family, and here come the other survivors. Misty~!

I look forward to the "would Terry have been the better choice" question. (Answer - probably not.)

10:09 pm - A clip of Terry and Aras fighting with each other.

Jeff has a piece of advice for Aras: pay your taxes!

Discussion of the Terry/Aras rivalry, and an interesting point comes up - Terry's winning of immunity challenges kept Aras around because otherwise Terry loses, gets voted, and the immunity idol gets played, and Aras gets the boot via Terry's vote.

Terry also fesses up to being frustrated when he lashed out at Cirie.

Danielle gets questioned about choosing Aras over Terry (Jeff doesn't buy her last second choice claim). She says that she was taking a shot, and that everybody had taken a liking to Terry and he would have been tougher to beat. Both played the game the best.

And Jeff does the poll~! Who would vote for Danielle: Bruce and Cirie.

Danielle also brings up the point I made before about Aras having to take some of the blame for voting people up, while Terry didn't.

Aras gives the secret of the mohawk and how it stayed up through 39 days. All the girls helped with it.

10:22 pm - We come back with Cirie hating leaves and from there the evolution of Cirie we get to see. I might be sick to my stomach.

Apparently there was a lot of reasons for Cirie not to be put on the show, but her spirit shone through.

Cirie was actually funny in her segment. And touching. And then they go to HB and I'm getting nauseated with the saccarhin. Luckily Jeff saves us by turning to Shane. But it was to talk about Cirie. Ah well.

And now we turn to Bruce and his ailment. It started 12 days before he was removed from the game. And apparently he was threatened with losing his job, but was only suspended without pay.

Before we go to break, Terry presents Cirie with a trophy for winning the "Survivor fishing tournament".

10:35 pm - After a commercial for "Click", Adam Sandler's new movie", Jeff goes into commercial ties and segues into "Shane is crazy" clips.

Apparently Shane was losing his mind. And apparently he went through AA. More talking about how crazy he was abounds. This turns to Shane being the hated guy and how he kinda realized that he was going to be the best person to take to the final two. Shane apologizes to Danielle, her boyfriend and family and then says that he realized that he was going to have to be like "Fairplay" at that point, but that by the end of the game, everybody got used to his outbursts and kinda started to like him.

Talk moves to Boston, and then to Mother's day, which turns to Tina and our touching moment segment of the show ((C) 2006). They talk about Tina's loss of her son, and we get to hear a remarkable story about how she received an email from the other people involved in Charlie's accident.

10:49 pm - We come back to the Austin/Danielle time on Exile Island, which brings us to Austin. Austin was comparing it to Noah's journey. And apparently Austin found God because of his time on Exile Island.

Dan can take stuff away from this even after being in space.

Courtney also can take stuff away from this.

Sally's family relations are brought up. It did help, but not directly. (And she's looking good.)

Nick and the back row are asked, what didn't we get to know about them. Nick says "not that much. I was hungry."

Bob says that he is surprisingly cuddly.

Ruth-Marie says that her personality was a way cuter out there than shown.

Misty~! will never give up. (To applause?)

Melinda can handle whatever is thrown her way.

Who is going to win the car? Cirie.

Coming back, we will see where Survivor is going to go next.

10:56 pm - Survivor is going to...the Cook Islands! (Apparently one of the most stunning places ever seen). And Exile Island returns, with new twists and stuff. Wow. I didn't expect to see Exile Island return, though I'm glad to see it. Much like the tribe switch, it's effect will probably be seen much more prominetly in the second season it is in play, not the first.

More reflection and stuff to come tomorrow.