Survivor: Fiji Finale Live Blog

8:00 - Welcome to the Survivor: Fiji live blog! Loved by 3 or 4 readers, it's time to bring it back! Jeff is just recapping stuff right now, so I'll give you a quick thought or two about Thursday's episode.

Yau Man was stupid to trade the car for the immunity idol. That put a target on him, which we saw at the tribal council. He could have just taken the car and went from there, but he overplayed his hand and I think he's going to pay for it at the next tribal council.

Dreamz was kinda stupid to take the car. If he keeps immunity at the final four, he goes to the final three and loses. If he gives it away, he loses to Yau Man. I don't think he actually knows that he is hated by the jury.

(Edited to add: I forgot about Stacy who was the stupidest of them all. She tipped Yau Man off at tribal council that he could be getting votes, which he suspected. And she missed two opportunities to get further in the game: One, she could have told Earl and Yau Man about the plan to vote Yau Man out and maybe made a final three allaince. Or she could have suggested to vote out Earl instead.)

8:10 - Wow, Cassandra is actually talking about the game! You might actually believe that she's been playing the game. Too bad she can't win.

8:13 - Great immunity challenge - somebody is going to get hurt.

8:15 - Cassandra is the most useless challenge player ever.

8:17 - Okay, how stupid do you have to be to not realize that you are in the water that you need to cross via a drawbridge?

8:18 - Sorry Boo, you can't avoid getting voted out this time (even if you don't realize it quite yet.)

8:20 - Quick vote prediction - Earl gets 3 votes (and uses the immunity idol), Boo gets 2 votes, and a priceless shot of Boo realizing that he is gone when Earl plays the hidden immunity idol.

8:24 - Boo is showing some play here. And he has the smartest method of sticking around.

8:27 - Okay, Boo could be overplaying his hand. Dreamz could get the sympathy vote? After being given a car and screwing people over? Not a chance.

8:30 - And the overextension continues. Boo is reinforcing that he is a major target and is putting his faith in Yau Man. Ultimate, it comes down to whether Yau Man trusts Boo over Dreamz.

8:32 - Here comes the idol, and the jury is shocked.

8:33 - I guess Yau trusted Dreamz over Boo. Which is fair because Boo played way too hard in the end. And Boo is right - if Dreamz keeps immunity it will be funny (and sad).

8:40 - Dreamz is going to try hard to get Yau Man the necklace, which is good to hear. It looks like Dreamz is gone unless he somehow gets Cassandra to vote with him against the loser of Earl/Yau.

8:42 - Hey, it's fallen comrades time!

8:42 - I shouldn't have laughed, but they showed Gary wiping out as part of his montage in the fallen comrades clips.

8:43 - Rocky just called himself a straight shooter, and Lisi just said she lacked the ability to stick it out.

8:44 - Michelle's clips included her falling off of the tower at the blindfold challenge. How does Sylvia's fall not make it?

8:45 - They just showed Boo's fall from the hammock! Whoever did the clips deserves a medal for including the funny, embarassing moments for those of us who were stupid enough to watch them!

8:53 - Is this a Survivor Immunity Challenge or a Torture Chamber?

8:54 - They looked shocked that the final 3 would meet the jury. Why?

8:54 - It's interesting to see the strategies of the immunity challenge - Yau Man and are laying flat back with their legs extended, whil Earl and Dreamz have their legs bent.

8:57 - Shockingly, Cassandra is the first to go. (That's not entirely fair, because the challenge is brutal, maybe second only to the Thailand final three challenge.)

8:58 - Dreamz is struggling to hold on. He's probably next to go.

8:58 - Yau Man is taking the water directly on his head. But Earl is gone next. So in theory Yau Man is in the final three.

8:59 - I think that Jeff Probst and Mark Burnett orgasmed as soon as Yau Man fell. This is almost exactly what they wanted. (What they actually wanted to see was Yau Man dropping off because he thought he was guaranteed the immunity necklace.)

9:04 - They didn't know it was final three to immunity! Wow that made that deal completely different. And Yau wants to vote out Dreamz?

9:05 - Yau Man just showed a bit of untrusting, which could screw him over.

9:07 - Oh criminy Dreamz is talking himself into keeping the immunity necklace.

9:08 - Can't anybody do any math? 2 days left, 4 people, means final 3 to the jury!

9:09 - Oh for the love of god. Somebody needs to explain to Dreamz that if he doesn't give the necklace up he's not going to win.

9:11 - Earl with the quote of the night - "I wouldn't have been in this situation."

9:12 - And the final knife is twisted.

9:13 - I'd love to say that I wouldn't do what Dreamz did, but I can't say that. Still, I would have never talked about how much my word meant to me.

9:14 - Congratulations to Earl, winner of Survivor: Fiji.

9:15 - Yau Man is shocked that Earl voted for him, which is true. Earl could have saved Yau Man, but he chose to go for the guaranteed win.

9:16 - The real question is now who will ask Dreamz how he will explain to everybody (and especially his son) as to why he was willing to sell his integrity for a chance at $1 million. My guess is Rocky, the straight-shooter.

9:22 - Everybody thinks they are going to get ripped. I think Earl is probably going to get off pretty easy. And Dreamz is going off, about his decision and how he feels good about it, which means he doesn't.

9:24 - That's what Cassandra did - she was the official timekeeper!

9:25 - Cassandra threw her underwear out about three weeks ago. I feel as though you, the reader, should also know that.

9:26 - Oh my god. Cassandra just said she can't swim and that everybody else is lucky that she can't because the food would be there sooner.

9:27 - Cassandra thought that the odds were against her - which is true for the first part. Once the tribes became one the odds were on her side of making the final three.

9:27 - The traditional

9:28 - Dreamz thinks he is standing next to Oprah because of his success. Um, I can't explain what that means.

9:29 - We get the Earl overlooking everything shot again, harking back to the first episode. Foreshadowing his ruling of the game?

9:30 - Dreamz is shown sitting and thinking, possibly contemplating what he did to make the final three?

9:31 - Cassandra is shown walking the path, to symbolize her journey? (Okay that was a stretch.)

9:32 - Opening statements:

Earl - Says hi to everybody. He's played an honest and clean game (Lisi reacts). He made the right move to position himself best. He was never voted for, he never had to win an immunity challenge and he's still here. He doesn't want the sympathy vote, he wants the respect vote.

Cassandra - She got in an alliance and never wavered (Final 6?). She started out weakly, but felt she was a friend to everybody and was somebody who would listen to everybody.

Dreamz - He told everybody his story. Um, he's playing the sympathy card. Those who know him know what the money would mean to him and what he would do with the money. So vote for him so he can help himself with the money. Oh, and others as well.

(Is Dreamz trying to throw the vote away so Earl can win? If you aren't going to at least try to say that you made moves that helped you and eliminated much of your competition, then why not just keep your word?)

9:39 - Michelle is up first. She sounds like she has a cold. What is the greatest hardship you faced?

Dreamz had to already sleep in dirt, so he was reliving it. It was his first

Cassandra had to overcome her inability to swim. Michelle asks if her fear of water earns Cassandra a million. Cassandra goes back to the friend card.

Earl says he was a member of the original

Edguardo asks Earl how he found out about the other immunity idol on the other alliance. He says Dreamz.

Mookie asks Dreamz if he told anybody about the other idol. Dreamz immediately says yes, but he considered it

Alex is very bitter. Alex is very very bitter. He attacks Cassandra for taking Stacy as a "friend" and using her for her vote

Lisi is very bitter as well. Lisi says that Cassandra's water shoes are ugly and she's unprepared for the game. She says that Cassandra was over her head and propelled by greed which starts a fight. She asked Dreamz how many zeroes there are in a million. When Dreamz says 6, Lisi says "interesting". Dreams thinks Lisi is calling him stupid (which I thought as well), but Lisi does not respond. And she asks Earl about the Yau vote. Earl says he wasn't acting, and was shocked that Yau Man was getting voted out and Dreamz did not live up to his bargain.

Stacy says the only difference between him and Dreamz is that Earl is more sophisticated. She asks if she should give Dreamz the million because of need. Earl says everybody needs the million, or else they would not be there. He then goes into his upbringing, which was also hard with being raised by a single mom, drugs being in his family, etc. Stacy looks satisfied. Good answer by Earl.

Rocky - How did you manipulate the best. He uses the term "kicker" and demands that everybody begin the answer with "I'm the best kicker because..."

Casssandra can't answer. Dreamz was able to manipulate the game so he wasn't on the chopping block. Rocky says that that was an answer. Earl had to be the biggest kicker because nobody thought he was playing the game. Rocky also says that that was an answer.

Boo gives props to Yau Man. He gives a fantastic question about whether Dreamz as a Christian was playing the game or if he went back on his word. Dreamz says he was playing straight through. Boo then calls Dreamz an immature Christian and he believes in Dreamz and that he will become a strong Christian and will be able to look the devil in the eye and say "No I do not want the bauble that you dangle in front of me". If you did not see the show, you need to see it for this exchange. It was incredible.

Yau Man admits a mistake in trusting Dreamz and he gives Dreamz the opportunity to admit he switched his mind. Dreamz says he didn't and says he outwitted, outlasted etc. Yau man then asks Earl about why he would vote Yau Man out. Earl says point blankly that it's because Yau Man would win.

And now, it's contemplation time. Based on the jury questions, Earl wins.

9:57 - Voting time. Nobody's vote is revealed like normal. Does Earl clean sweep?

9:59 - Jeff congratulates everybody, and he's bringing the votes back to the States to reveal them there. Jeff's method of leaving? Unknown, we only see him walking down the steps fo doom. And now here he comes in the same outfit as he wore in tribal council. The dedication he shows is awesome.

10:01 - Here comes the vote (after the Jeff speech):

Earl (who is looking a bit healthier)
Earl
Earl
Earl (here comes the clean sweep)
Earl!

10:03 - Rocky pushes Earl to his family instead of the survivors. And here come the other players who weren't a part of the jury.

10:04 - Jeff confirms that Earl did win 9-0 for the first time ever. I'll post where he ranks in terms of best Survivors ever later this week, after I have a chance to think about it.

10:06 - We get Earl highlights, and how he dominated the game, ending with his looking over the island. Jeff has changed.

10:07 - Earl didn't know he was coming to Fiji until 2 days before he left. And he has never really watched the show before (the first season he saw). But he became a big fan of the show!

10:08 - The Yau/Earl alliance started day 1. They eventually changed from to the end to top 5 and top 4. Yau Man appreciated Earl's work ethic, and that he included Yau Man in the tribe.

10:10 - The key moment that won Earl the game was voting Yau Man out. Earl was shocked that Dreamz didn't give up immunity, but then thought "I just won $1 million". Jeff polls the jury, and 6 people would have voted for Yau Man (Michelle, most notably would have voted for Earl.) Jeff then notes that Dreamz changed 3 lives - Yau Man, because he cost Yau $1 million, Dreamz because he cost himself $1 million, and Earl, because he gave him $1 million.

10:11 - We go to break with highlights of everybody falling down, finishing with Michelle's fall. I shouldn't have laughed, but I did. Again, they avoided Sylvia's fall, which was the funniest of them all.

10:18 - Dreamz highlight clips. Jeff asks Dreamz about his much different perspective. Dreamz wasn't affected by the elements but had an issue with falling into and out of immunity.

10:19 - Jeff asks if he was playing from day 1, Dreamz said no that's not what I said. Jeff reiterates the question twice before getting frustrated and moving on to Cassandra (saying "this is exactly what it was like during the taping"). Cassandra said that he was playing the role of somebody who was flying by the seat of his pants. She was also impressed with his ability to get into

10:23 - And here comes the truck. After the clips, the audience boos, which makes Boo start waving to the crowd. Jeff asks if Dreamz was going to keep the deal from the start, or not. Dreamz never intended to keep it. Dreamz thought about giving it up, but he went back into game mode. Jeff then asks Earl if he thought Dreamz would keep his word when Yau Man asked if Earl thought Dreamz was going to keep his word or not. Earl did believe it (but apparently Cassandra knew he wasn't).

We move to Yau Man. "Love many, trust few, do wrong to none". Yau Man believed that Dreamz would keep his word, until he hesitated in responding to Jeff. Yau Man thinks that Dreamz is smart, and has flashes of brilliance that he doesn't know what to do with. Apparently Yau Man wanted to convince Dreamz to give up the necklace, but he let his pride and stubborness get in the way by stopping him from doing what his gut thought was right.

10:35 - Rocky's turn. We get Rocky's outbursts. Rocky said hello to everybody who talked to him, and explained he was not the angry person he looked like.

Off we go to Anthony/Rocky. Jeff talks about Anthony getting nudged by Rocky to stand up for himself. Anthony agrees but disagrees, which you would expect from him. Jeff then starts to jump around. Alex was in lawyer form at last final tribal council. Lisi finds it hard to hide her feelings. Jeff gives her props for being a go to person along with Rocky. Boo did tear his ACL in that mud challenge. Michelle planned on winning the million dollars, but didn't. Edgardo missed his family because of being blindsided.

Up next, Gary, and somebody who gained weight to prepare for the show.

10:47 - We're back, and the finale is apparently the 200th episode. Gary is up, and he was evacuated because of a thousand fire ant bites. He also has a tatoo of Survivor: Fiji. Mookie is asked what the worst part was. He said going to tribal council each and every time. Stacy is asked about the personal hits she took in the poll challenge. She says she got grounded by the challenge. Liliana gained 20 pounds because she didn't want to be voted out because of malnutrition (she ended up having to lose weight). Rita's kids are very proud of her. Sylvia designed a house that will be on a HGTV called "Extreme Building". Erica's hair is totally different. Jessica was able to bound with amazing people (and she's looking hot). A sneak peek of the next location is next!

10:54 - We're going to China! They're going to be on a lake. And it's going to be a new group, which puts to rest the All-Star rumours. Earl is on the Daily Show tomorrow morning. htpp://www.pedaids.org Happy mother's day to Earl's mom (who is getting half of the money?), and we'll see you in China.

I'll check in later in the week with more thoughts. Until then, a fantastic show to finish off an up and down season.