An excellent end to an excellent season. I am so ready to talk about this episode. Now that finals are done I can finally share my thoughts. Now let’s go!

We start with Jeff at the reunion introducing everyone except Alec and Jeremy. We knew about Alec but, where is Jeremy. We have no recap of everyone’s games and head right into everyone looking for the idol.

We hear from a few people on why the idol is important to them. Then, Angelina finds a clue. She has to find a ladder to retrieve the idol behind the well. As she looks for the ladder, her clue falls out. Angelina realizes this and calls herself a noob and suddenly I have a flashback to an episode of The Simpsons this year that parodied Survivor where Marge keeps using the word noob in 2018. Angelina proceeds to climb up a cliff and gets stuck. In order to cover up her search, she pretends to fall on her back and gets sympathy. This is probably the best move Angelina has made all game. Angelina is determined to be a woman who finds an idol but before that, we head to the immunity challenge.

Immunity #1

In this challenge they must climb over a hurdle, hook a ball to drop their first puzzle, carry their entire family on their back and solve a 63 piece puzzle of the logo. In addition to immunity, the winner gets a spaghetti dinner. The best moment of the challenge was Jeff reminding them that they have to call him in order to win. They don’t want another Wendell fiasco. Nick wins and takes his Jabeni crew of Mike and Angelina on reward. Alison is sad to be left behind yet again and we cut back to camp.

The three Jabeni members go to the reward and leave Kara, Alison and Davie to have rice cheers. Davie is confident that Nick has his back. At the same time, Nick, Angelina, and Mike make a final 3 deal. They agree to go after Alison (How Original!) and Angelina tells her allies about the clue. She recounts her tale of almost dying and Mike shakes his head during the story. Mike is the best part of this scene. Mike gets sassy when he is drunk. They go get the ladder and drunk Mike finds the lost clue before sober Angelina. Mike gets hit by a plant and calls it a bitch. He also sarcastically wishes Angelina good luck on the ladder. Angelina gets the idol and goes full circle on the women finding idols story.

They go back to camp and Alison wants to sway Angelina to keep her and get rid of Davie. Alison is all emotional about leaving and Angelina is just like, “Yeah”. Her deadpan yeah got me. Mike is talking to Kara about getting rid of Davie despite promising Nick to keep him. This is a good move since Nick would choose Davie over Mike. With it between Davie and Alison we go to our first tribal of the night.

Tribal #1

The jury comes in and Christian unfortunately shaved. The big point of this tribal is the big rivalry of Angelina and Alison that started at the merge tribal. I wish we saw more of this other than subtle background moments. Mike gets a great line when he says, “Are you saying people are lying?”. Mike is on fire tonight. We go to the vote and Davie is eliminated 4-2. Nick says he did not know and Davie says, “Of course you did Nick”. That was shockingly snarky for Davie. Davie howls out and we have the final 5.

Davie was a great player and I want to see him back. Jeff interviews him on stage and reveals that Davie was a last-minute alternate.

Back at camp, Nick is throwing a tantrum. I was thinking are the editors setting up a Nick loss. Nick’s hot head nature comes out and he needs to win immunity

Immunity #2

This is the Kass challenge aka fill a tube with water using a bucket then solve a puzzle. Jeff reminds the contestants that final 4 fire is a thing and they head on their perches. Alison has trouble balances and holds up the challenge a little. Nick wins immunity and Alison is on the chopping block again.

Angelina wants Alison gone but she wants it to be big so she wants Mike and Nick to get the girls to vote for her so she can idol out Alison. Also, Angelina makes a fake idol for Alison to find. This is overcomplicated and unnecessary. Mike is annoyed so he spills the plan to Kara. This ends up putting Mike in danger and Kara and Nick are in the middle. Alison finds the fake idol resulting in this great image.

Before we get to tribal we must talk to Zeke from season 33 and 34 about strategy. Also, we must talk to his boyfriend from the TV SHOW Crazy Rich Asians. Back to the relevant stuff.

Tribal #2

The main point of this tribal is Mike being an ass to Alison with his dignity comment and B+ vote. Alison goes unanimously and Bye Alison.

Hi Alison! Alison despite her lack of screen time was one of my favorites. She was one of my two winner picks and I am sad she lost.

We skip straight to the Immunity Challenge

Immunity #3

Hell Yeah! Simmotion is one of my favorite challenges. It takes some skill but anyone can win. Angelina kisses the ball for good luck but she is first out. Then, Mike fails at 2 balls and finally Kara falls in the transition to 3 balls meaning,

Nick has won final immunity and the choice of who is making fire. Don’t need a separate paragraph because Nick straight up tells them that he is taking Angelina. Kara succeeds at her fires and Mike struggles.

Fire Challenge

Nick does exactly as he told them and Kara and Mike go to fire. Both take some time but Mike gets a flame and wins. This sends Kara to jury without a single vote cast against her the whole game. Fun Fact: Kara is the only one to leave the game regularly without a vote to her name. Cirie was out by default, Sugar made it to the end and others were medevacs or quits.

Kara was a good social player and a bit overhyped. She could win at the end but, I think that Nick would have beat her.

Let’s cut straight to Final Tribal since nothing happened at the day 39 breakfast but, we do have to talk about Jeff doing his seasonal let a child vote. This kid was Simone.

Final Tribal

We start with the Outwit portion. Elizabeth says that they are undecided and I don’t believe that for a minute. Most of the time, the jury has already decided. Nick’s main points are information and timing. I think it’s a good answer since those factors are important. Angelina talks about being adaptable and freaking mentions the rice. Davie calls her out on the rice thing, Thank You Davie! During Mike’s turn, he mentions how he did not trust Gabby and apologizes to Alison. Jeff asks if they are done and Christian says, “Fuck No”. Never thought that would come out of Christian. They move onto Outplay and Dan calls Mike out for being lazy. Mike defends himself and Davie asks Nick and Angelina what makes Nick a Goliath and Angelina a David. Davie had my good will until he asked the theme question. Angelina is a David because she was not physical and she climbed a 1100 ft wall. I missed the first 30 minutes of the episode so I could not tell if she was exaggerating. Nick is a Goliath because he is. Finally, the Outlast portion where each finalist gives a closing statement. Angelina hit rock bottom then built herself back up. Nick brought up his mom and fought his way to the end. Mike had to ask himself throughout if he was worth it and he succeeded after doubting himself. It is time to vote. John votes for Nick and Christian votes for Mike. Gabby is crying in the booth and Dan trips on his way there. Jeff leaves and Alec says “Later”. Oh the irony.

We reveal the votes and by a vote of 7-3, Nick Wilson wins Survivor David vs. Goliath! Nick deserves it because he played a great game and interesting note that other than Christian, the votes for Mike were from people who saw his tantrum earlier. If Nick blew up more, he would have lost. Congrats to Nick and thank you for the winner flair! Mike was a great 2nd place. He proved himself throughout the season and was better than he had any right to be. Angelina is an entertaining but not great player. We will see her again in probably season 40. Now on to the surprisingly ok reunion!

Reunion

Simone voted for Nick. This reunion was good. There was no Sia, no military buddies and overly long montage and no CBS promo. We find out the ladder was 8 feet. Jeff shows a clip of Jacketgate and Lyrsa has a tattoo of a cat wear that jacket. Hot take: I like the tattoo. Natalie is mad about how she was portrayed on the show and no one sticks up for her. Although, it looked like Natalia was about to put her hand up. Then, Jeff talks about the weight loss this season, Davie lost 36 pounds, Kara lost 26 pounds, Dan lost 52 pound, Alison lost 27 pounds but, they do not beat Big Tom’s record of 80 pounds. I surprised we got a Big Tom reference out of all things. We check in with Pat and his back is fine. After that is the season 38 promo. I will talk about that in another post.

Overall, I liked this finale even if it was a bit standard but after HHH and Ghost Island we need a standard finale. I will deep dive into the season on a later date. Congrats to Nick and thank you all for making my first season as a blogger a positive experience. I will be taking a break till 2019. I will be covering next season as well as Celebrity Big Brother and BBCAN7. Hope to see you all then. Enjoy the off-season

Grab your stuff and head back to camp!