Survivor Cook Islands Finale & Reunion, 12/17 [SPOILERS]

Cafe Society
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I don’t know what the jury expected Becky to do. She made a good alliance (Yul), and her smartest move was knowing she was safe and not doing anything. The only way I think she could have helped herself was to do some of the negotiating with the other tribe. Then maybe people would have respected her more. Though she wasn’t thinking about that and Yul clearly had every aspect of the game thought out. Which is why the smarter surviver won.

I thought Ozzy was going to win because it looked like he was making friends with the Raro members while Yul was voting them off. That is probably why he got all his votes. Sure he had his hand in voting people off, but it looked like everyone thought Yul was pulling all the strings and resented him more. Then Yul was smart enough to play that role to his advantage and promise Adam that he will vote Johnathan off at his request, even though Yul did not have much choice in the decision.

Does anyone know why each member of the jury voted the way they did? I know Adam and Candice were probably grateful to have Jonathan voted off. I can guess Brad and Johnathan simply liked Yul better than Ozzy. Though why did Rebecca vote for Yul?

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[QUOTE=Lakai]
Sure he had his hand in voting people off, but it looked like everyone thought Yul was pulling all the strings and resented him more.
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I saw the final vote as a reflection of the fact that (for the first time), the jury didn’t have a personal axe to grind - most of them seem to have honestly voted for who they thought “out-witted” or “out-played”. I think the old Raro tribe understood that Yul was doing to them exactly what they would have done to him (and, in fact, planned to do until Jonathan turned the tables). For all the bullshit, juvenile eye-rolling and “you’re so boring”, they actually voted based on the ethics within the game. Very refreshing, IMHO.

Now, had Yul followed through with his “Jonathan is my best F2 partner” strategy, you might have seen some fireworks. Reunion niceties aside, that shit was personal.

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Yul has social skills, but let’s face it: he advanced mostly because he had the immunity idol. Nobody was willing to risk voting against him because of that.

I still think Ozzy played a better overall game.

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I think Becky’s failing is she neglected the social aspect. If you’re trying to emulate Amber or Jenna Morasco, you gotta spend a lot of time socializing. If she acted more like Parvati, she would’ve gotten some votes (which may have actually hurt Yul).

Although Ozzy was great as a fisherman and farmer, he didn’t do enough socializing, either. I think Yul had the better overall game, because there were many situations where he demonstrated diplomacy and strategy at the highest levels. He not only figured out the clues to locate the hidden idol, but he used it in new, original, and ultimately correct ways.

Knowing Jonathan was the key and getting him to switch was an incredible feat. But did you notice how loyal Sundra and Becky were? Little things like revealing ownership of the idol and offering it to Becky were played exactly right and kept his tribe cohesive. When you compare that with Raro, the difference is like night and day.

When approached, Yul heard people out and tried to help them. When Adam and Candice wanted Jonathan out, Yul listened and appeared to help make it happen. When Jonathan wanted his hat, Yul remembered.

Most people in Yul’s position would’ve kept Jonathan around or kept the idol secret and never offered up. Yul’s brilliance is considering all possible moves and flawlessly executing the best one each time.

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[QUOTE=spoke-]
Yul has social skills, but let’s face it: he advanced mostly because he had the immunity idol. Nobody was willing to risk voting against him because of that.
[/QUOTE]

The Raros wouldn’t even consider the possibility that anyone had the HII until Yul showed it to them. Had they listened to Jonathan, who brought up the possibility that Yul might have the HII, the Raros could have targeted Becky or Sundra at that key tribal council and kept the power they held by being in the majority. Instead, they sat by dumbly while Yul played Jonathan and the Raros like a Statovarius.

Let’s consider for a moment what Adam would have done with the HII had he, through some miraculous alignment of the stars, uncovered the HII. Let’s see, the first thing he would have done would be to tell Candice and Pavrati. They would have high-fived each other and whooted, thus revealing to the group that he had the HII. Then the three of them would have sat on their collective asses, gloating, and ordered Ozzie to get them more food and Jonathan to get more firewood. And one tribal council later, Adam would have had no more HII, thanks to Yul’s brilliant maneuvering, and Pavrati would have been sitting on the confessional, bewildered, and wondering what the hell happened.

Power is short-lived, if not useless, if you don’t know how to wield it effectively.

BTW, I was glad that Yul won and that Ozzy won $100k + a car. In retrospect, I wish that Ozzy would have won because he needed the money more than a Harvard educated attorney, but I’m still happy with the outcome. Ozzy’s tears broke me up.

I also agree with the “I liked them better before they got cleaned up” camp. Ozzy was just so strange looking with a clean shaven face and sans curls. And Becky looked good, but not like herself. The only one who didn’t look remarkably different was Yul.

And Billy…oh, my. Just shut up, dude.

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I can’t complain about the final vote, but Ozzy has to be right as one of the top players ever. He did well on the mental challenges, not just the physical ones. I’d put him is the same class as Ethan.

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[QUOTE=blondebear]
I can’t complain about the final vote, but Ozzy has to be right as one of the top players ever. He did well on the mental challenges, not just the physical ones. I’d put him is the same class as Ethan.
[/QUOTE]
That should be right *up there *as one of the top players…

Preview, preview, preview!

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[QUOTE=PunditLisa]
And Billy…oh, my. Just shut up, dude.
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They let Billy off really darned light. Jeff could have humiliated the guy, but they just let him speak his paragraph and the show moved on, which is probably fine. But part of me wanted the Stalker and Stalkee to have a little confrontation on live TV. Ah, well.

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[QUOTE=PunditLisa]
Let’s consider for a moment what Adam would have done with the HII had he, through some miraculous alignment of the stars, uncovered the HII. Let’s see, the first thing he would have done would be to tell Candice and Pavrati. They would have high-fived each other and whooted, thus revealing to the group that he had the HII. Then the three of them would have sat on their collective asses, gloating, and ordered Ozzie to get them more food and Jonathan to get more firewood. And one tribal council later, Adam would have had no more HII, thanks to Yul’s brilliant maneuvering, and Pavrati would have been sitting on the confessional, bewildered, and wondering what the hell happened.
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:smiley: Oh, that’s so funny. And you’re so right.

When Jonathan hinted to them that Yul might have the Immunity Idol (when he knew he did), they refused to believe that Yul could have it - that’s how stupid they were.

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[QUOTE=PunditLisa]
BTW, I was glad that Yul won and that Ozzy won $100k + a car. In retrospect, I wish that Ozzy would have won because he needed the money more than a Harvard educated attorney, but I’m still happy with the outcome. Ozzy’s tears broke me up.
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Check out this interview with Yul and what he says about Ozzy’s plans for the money.

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[QUOTE=squeegee]
They let Billy off really darned light. Jeff could have humiliated the guy, but they just let him speak his paragraph and the show moved on, which is probably fine. But part of me wanted the Stalker and Stalkee to have a little confrontation on live TV. Ah, well.
[/QUOTE]

Actually, I thought Billy came off just fine. Jeff tried to make him feel stupid, and Billy just basically said, “you know what? I was hot and tired and everyone was giving me a hard time and I needed to try to salvage something, so I said somethign stupid, which happens to everyone.”

Not so bad.

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[QUOTE=jsc1953]
Check out this interview with Yul and what he says about Ozzy’s plans for the money.
[/QUOTE]

Wow … Yul comes off a little bit assy, there. Who cares if Ozzy wants to spend the money on hookers and blow? If he wins it, it’s his money, and he’s entitled to do with it whatever he wishes. And for all he knows, Ozzy was blowing smoke up his ass, anyway, because it’s none of Yul’s damn business how Ozzy would or would not spend money that he rightfully won – nor is it any of the Jury’s business, either, and I always hate it when that question comes up. Should I not be allowed to win the lottery because the first thing I want to do when I win is buy a Corvette?

I mean, don’t get me wrong – I think Yul is a great guy, and I have a great deal of respect for Yul and his history of charitable works. But, those are Yul’s choices, and no one else’s. One of the reasons why Ethan is near the top of my list of all-time favorites is because he puts his money where his mouth is. But it’s a game show, and while it’s nice to want to change the world by being on it, it’s not a requirement. It still exists primarily to entertain. Damn. Did people question Ken Jenning’s motives for winning squillions of dollars on Jeopardy!?

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rockle, I’m going to disagree with you slightly, there. It’s the jury’s business if they care to make it their business. There’s no rule in Survivor that the jury must make their decision based on best gameplay/sportsmanship/cleverness/ruthlessness/whatever. The rules only say that the jury decides the winner. If the jury members decide to base their vote on the final candidates’ motivations for winning the million, then it’s their prerogative to do so. It can’t be any worse than the juries who awarded based on inoffensiveness (Sandra Twine-Diaz) or niceness (Tina) or simple immunity-monsterness-and-the-blessing-of-being-in-Final-2-beside-a-lazy-skank (Fireman Tom).

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Call me a cold-hearted bastard* but I wasn’t moved when Ozzy started watering up talking about his lack of a dad. It mostly made me feel uncomfortable and I thought to myself “sorry kid - assuming those are more than desperate crocodile tears - but what’s that got to do with anything?”

I was extra confused during the reunion show when Jeff brought it up and Ozzy seemed to stumble and mumble something about his dad being in the audience, and something about the man who raised him.

Could someone explain that to me?
*I say that as someone who is in fact a bastard who grew up without a father.

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His biodad was the one he was talking about at the vote, and his adoptive father was the one at the reunion show.

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Whats the payoff for the players. A mill for one but whats the breakdown later. Does no12 get more than 13.?

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[QUOTE=jayjay]
rockle, I’m going to disagree with you slightly, there. It’s the jury’s business if they care to make it their business. There’s no rule in Survivor that the jury must make their decision based on best gameplay/sportsmanship/cleverness/ruthlessness/whatever. The rules only say that the jury decides the winner. If the jury members decide to base their vote on the final candidates’ motivations for winning the million, then it’s their prerogative to do so. It can’t be any worse than the juries who awarded based on inoffensiveness (Sandra Twine-Diaz) or niceness (Tina) or simple immunity-monsterness-and-the-blessing-of-being-in-Final-2-beside-a-lazy-skank (Fireman Tom).
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Yeah, I know. Sorry. I’m crabby today, for reasons that have nothing to do with any of this. HOWEVER … I do still think it’s slightly “unsportsmanship” of Yul to question the worthiness of Ozzy’s intentions, relative to his own. Or something like that. And honestly, I expected “better” of Yul, for lack of a better word. I mean, he already beat Ozzy – what purpose does it serve to further badmouth him? That’s all. Like I said, it’s not really any of Yul’s business how Ozzy wants to spend the money, and it’s moot anyway, since Ozzy didn’t win it anyhow. I don’t know why it bothers me; it just does.

So, I retract the “shut UP, Jury” portion of my earlier post, but not necessarily the “shut UP, Yul” portion, if that makes any damn sense, which it probably doesn’t.

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Yul was definitely a bit “assy” in his comments, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s 100% right. Build a surfer commune for his buddies so they can withdraw from society? That’s a pathetic use of a million dollars. While you’re raging about mean ol’ Yul, consider that he didn’t (appear to) bring it up at the final tribal council. (But who knows, what with editing.)

The best thing about the three hour finales is taping them and watching with a FFWD button. That would have been painful to slog through; multiple times during the reunion they came back from a lengthy commercial break to say “we’ll be right back” and then dove right into another lengthy commercial break. The whole three hours took me under two hours to get through.

Nice tension on the pole standing challenge; I was worried for Ozzy but he pulled through admirably. Too bad he didn’t win it all, but at least Becky didn’t. Adam’s remark about “I have no idea what these two do” was perfect.

All in all, a great season. It was riveting up to the finale, which was meh. But that doesn’t detract from how great the bulk of the season was. The challenges were especially good this season.

And DAMN if Parvati and Ozzy do NOT clean up well. Wow. (Model boxing?! Bwahahahahah!)

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[QUOTE=Ellis Dee]
Yul was definitely a bit “assy” in his comments, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s 100% right. Build a surfer commune for his buddies so they can withdraw from society? That’s a pathetic use of a million dollars. While you’re raging about mean ol’ Yul, consider that he didn’t (appear to) bring it up at the final tribal council. (But who knows, what with editing.)
[/QUOTE]

My point was … pathetic, according to whom? In all honesty, I don’t have a problem with someone spending their own money that they worked their own ass off to get however the heck they please. I think what I object to, mostly, is the idea that Yul seems to think that Ozzy was less deserving, somehow, because of how Ozzy wanted to spend Ozzy’s (hypothetical) money. I don’t believe that people on this show – or any show, for that matter – are obligated in any way to spend their money for “good” instead of … not “evil,” exactly, but “idle.” To say

seems unfair to me. It’s a waste to Yul, of course, but why should Ozzy have to explain his intentions on someone else’s terms? I don’t think Yul is being “mean” – hell, I don’t even disagree with him – I just don’t like the double standard, or whatever the heck it is. I don’t like that these comments came out after the fact, and not during the final Tribal Council. (I would actually feel better about it in that case, because Yul would have been making a case for money that he didn’t already win.) Basically, I don’t like Yul cashing the check and then saying that Ozzy didn’t deserve to win because he wasn’t up to Yul’s standards. Which is, as Jonathan might say, “bollocks.” To me, anyway.

But, again, I could be talking crazy, because I haven’t had enough sleep.

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[QUOTE=Ellis Dee]
And DAMN if Parvati and Ozzy do NOT clean up well. Wow. (Model boxing?! Bwahahahahah!)
[/QUOTE]
Say, what is model boxing? I tried Wikipedia, but all I could find was box modelling, and that doesn’t seem correct.

Everyone in the live audience did seem to snicker at Parvati’s attempts to make it sound serious.