The Backstory:

Ah, we come to the final four immunity challenge of Survivor: Pearl Islands. For the first four seasons of Survivor we had the final four (or three) contestants face the jury and answer questions about the other players lives. We learned that Rich knew nothing about his tribe mate’s outside lives and we learned that Kelly remembered Sonja’s last name. Adorable. Actually, it was really impressive how Kelly remembered Sonja’s last name even though she didn’t know a challenge like this was coming up.

Sue literally wrote “I don’t know”

This challenge was a good game changer because it really didn’t take one ounce of physical ability to win like most challenges did, but it showed the kind of person that you were. Since immunity was very important thing to have at this stage of the game, it was an interesting challenge since anyone could win.

Whole other controversy

That shows how important the social game is. In fact, Survivors even began to prepare for this upcoming challenge.

In Thailand, when the challenge wasn’t even done we had Penny ask Brian and Clay questions about their fallen comrades. Brian flubbed and Clay remembered.

“But did you really bother to get to know who I am? Brian did you know where I grew up? Do I have any siblings?” – Penny

Brian gets both questions wrong while Clay goes on to to talk about her favorite sports teams, her in laws and her childhood. (He also gets her jury vote)

The Amazon steered away and did the giant blindfolded maze challenge, which was great to watch where Butch accidentally gropes Jenna Morasca but I digress.

But first, let us take a look at the final four of Survivor: Pearl Islands

We had Sandra, Jon, Darrah & Lill.

Darrah was a little bit of a hot streak when it came to the immunity challenges. She had won the last three.

First she could spell. (Pictured here with her liaison)

Then she could shoot

Finally she could reach her hand into small holes to retrieve balls.

The other players knew that Darrah could theoretically make it into the finals by winning the remaining immunity challenges. Right before this challenge, Lill and Sandra had decided to join Jon and vote off Darrah if they could. There only stood one thing in her way..

No not you.

This

Coming into the second to last final challenge of Survivor: Pearl Islands we saw the the players walk into tribal council and take their seats. As an original fan it was great to see Fallen Comrades back! But alas, it was not meant to be. In fact we were about to see one of the stupidest things that Survivor had ever done to their players.

How were they screwed?

Jeff brings the final four players and the jury into the Tribal Council area. He tells them that they will be voting off the 13th player from the game but before that he informs them that they have an immunity challenge to get to first.

“Immunity is back up for grabs, and tonight it truly is up for grabs. Once again the ghosts of your past will play a role in this game. Here’s how it’s going to work. The four of you will compete as individuals for immunity. In addition, the jury will compete as a group in this immunity challenge. If the jury wins immunity has no value to them but has a huge consequence to you because nobody will have immunity when we go into tonight’s tribal council.”

“Fuck us, right?”

Lill hears the new rules of the game and immediately falls apart.

This is fair right? Four people as individuals answering trivia questions against a group of 5 adults?

Great, Thank you Kim. Welcome back.

Rupert hears the rules and absolutely loses his shit.

Although Jon gets closest to winning against the jury in the immunity challenge, the collective power of five people hands them immunity.

The Result:

Darrah is now without immunity and is promptly voted out by the remaining three.

And this little bitch goes on to claim the million dollar prize.

“Motherfucker I won”

Scale of Production Twist:

This one smells like a bucket of rotten fish dumped in the jungle. Thanks Christa.

I’d give it a 7 out of 10. I don’t think it was intended to spoil any individual player’s chance at immunity per say, but it absolutely wasn’t fair.