Survivor: South Pacific Final Episode Live Thoughts

"I think I'm just not made to play this game"
- Brandon after getting voted out

(I really wasn't going to do a live blog, but the fact that at Redemption Island you don't get a poem when you get tree mail annoyed me for some reason. Like RI was an after thought or something.)

- Coach hates it when people bullshit him. But hey, when he bullshits Brandon, it's all good.

- Sophie seems to think that Albert looks poorly after not giving up the immunity necklace to Brandon. OTOH, I think he'd look poorly if he did give up the necklace, so take immunity and run.

- Congrats to the challenge people for remembering that Ozzy is kinda good at this holding on to a pole challenge.

- The symbolism of Brandon dropping off while Ozzy is at the top of the pole is kinda telling.

- While I'm here, quick thoughts on the remaining players' chances of winning:

Rick: In theory he would have a chance, but the fact that he has gotten virtually no screen time or confessional time would mean that the editors have done something inconceivable and made the winner invisible. I don't like to rely on editing tells to determine how a season goes, but this is one that I take seriously.

Albert: He has very little chance, unless he's up against Coach and Rick. Even then, he is reliant on the jury being pissed at Coach (which I don't think they are), and them respecting Albert (again, I don't know that I see it.) On the bright side, soon he will be posting freely on 2+2 and that will make things more interesting.

Sophie: She seems to think she's a lock if she goes against somebody who isn't Ozzy. I don't see it. She certainly is the most likely to be able to explain herself at final tribal, but I don't get what her argument is going to be at the final tribal. Is she really going to try to portray herself as being Coach's follower? Or is she going to explain that she was in on the decisions with Coach, but he made final call, and she just manipulated him? I don't see the jury seeing it that way at all.

Ozzy: Win, and you are in. It's as simple as that. I think he has all of Savaii unless he messes it up at final tribal.

Coach: The prohibitive favourite. Unless he messes up final tribal, he should be able to win, because he hasn't really upset the Savaii members that much.

- Coach immediately tries to get in Ozzy's good greaces, which is great, but he doesn't see to understand that Ozzy can see through it, and everybody else might actually see it as a problem that he is talking to the enemy.

- A great variation on the tile tower stacking. Throwing in having to balance the tower is great.

- Sophie shows a lot of desperation with her anger at Albert not picking up her tiles for her. Not a good sign.

- Ozzy wins, of course. Best of luck, Upolu.

- Hmmm, Coach thinks that Rick is the one who should go? Albert is thinking of voting out Sophie? Might Ozzy's plan to cause issues amongst the other four actually work?

- Wow, Ozzy pulls out the fact that Coach promised Ozzy to take him to final tribal. That might just do it and flip Albert to the final four.

- Rick takes the biggest shot by pitching to stay around to OZZY, which is actually genius.

- DID OZZY JUST DESTROY SOPHIE IN AN ARGUMENT?

- Wait, Sophie might be hitting back with "I've grown" argument. TIME TO VOTE HER OUT!

- Coach keeps the idol, which of course makes sense. He knows he doesn't have to use it.

- Albert just blew his game. Coach might have as well.

- Sophie has to be the one who gets voted out next. Even ahead of Ozzy.

- Wow, Ozzy uses Amanda Kimmel as the reason he blew up Coach's game. Well done sir.

- And now Ozzy says to make Albert and Sophie should have to make fire to get to final tribal? Brilliant way to play to Coach's sense of honour.

- This final immunity challenge looks insane.

- I guess it's a variation on the standard multiple station challenge, but still, it looks like it would be crazy.

- Well, Ozzy's out.

- Wait, maybe not.

- Nope, he's out.

- And Sophie wins immunity and final tribal.

- I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be that satisfied with her winning the game either.

- Just to clarify that last thought, she's a better version of Natalie White, who cried in a tribal council to essentially nullify Coach's gameplay argument. Her 3 immunity challenge wins are pretty impressive, don't get me wrong, but beyond that it goes back to what I said prior - what is her argument to winning? That she isn't Coach? But Coach hasn't been that offensive.

- Great confessional from Ozzy, with him saying that something tells him Coach is going to change his mind, then the other three cheering Sophie's win.

- Man, Ozzy is kinda good at making his pitch with Coach. I doubt it will do any good though.

- Coach made the right decision. I just don't know that it mattered any longer.

- The Sophie/Coach vs. Albert dynamic is kinda interesting. I don't know that it will mean anything, but it's the twist that has been there for a while.

- Nice drop of higher power by Albert. And him making it about a social experiment and an experience is strong.

- Sophie tries to play the outwit card. I think she kinda failed.

- Coach shouldn't try to play the compassion card. But his opening statements weren't horrible, and showed some proper self reflection.

- Oddly enough, Sophie presented herself as who she is, but might have had the worst presentation. Which is shocking.

- Okay Jim, time for your amazing question!

- Ozzy dropped a bomb on the final three by saying that nobody wants

- Jim's question: Why shouldn't the other two win or be there? Albert gets first crack and Jim warns him that if he starts out with a compliment of the other two, it's throwing away his vote. So Albert compliments Jim by saying he loves how Jim is approaching the game. Ozzy cracks up.

- Apparently Albert gets the only crack at it.

- Dawn asks what Sophie's game was, and Sophie plays the girl power card while identifying Coach as a little girl.

- Rick asks Coach if he wants to say anything to Rick, and Coach apologizes. He yells at Albert about using the god thing to get Brandon to give him the immunity necklace.

- Brandon won't let Albert play the "I didn't know you were going home, but I expected you were going to" card, and makes him look terrible to the jury. Enjoy third place Albert.

- And then Whitney goes on about hating everybody. Sophie says she will change.

- Edna tries to swing things to Coach's side by preaching that religion is the oldest way to manipulate people.

- Sophie blows up the Immunity Idol story!

- The Cochran gives Coach a chance to explain himself, and Coach gives the greatest speech of all time. Sophie then throws herself to be Coach's strategist after Coach claims to not be a great strategist, which isn't going to help her cause. Just let Coach admit he did horible things and make the jurty try to decide if his admitting it is good enough. When you interject yourself to that speech to try to score points, you confirm that you are a petulant little child and more importantly, you look like the used car salesman that you claimed not to be.

- Final summary of the performance? I think Coach beats Sophie 5-4, though I could see Sophie winning 5-4 with Brandon being the deciding vote.

- You know the Coach Wade vote was Cochran.

- Yup, still not satisfied with Sophie winning. But it's not like there was a perfect choice.

- So it's confirmed that if Coach did vote Sophie out instead of Rick, either he or Ozzy would have won. Well, his mistake.

- Well, that's it. I'll be back tomorrow to discuss this season more, and eventually my season rankings and winner ranking will show up as well.