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It was just the thought that they might possibly hate him, that made him cry. If he were female, he wouldn’t have gotten much love. Which is exactly why I could never be on Survivor. I’m also one of those people who care way too much about what people think about me.
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They became close during the game. Maybe because they both felt like outsiders, or maybe Coby secretly wanted to be a showgirl.
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I agree with the first part, except I think Stephanie was more deserving. But, unless I’m rembering wrong, Tina was not as coniving, and domineering as Tom. I hated his, “this is how’s it’s gonna be”, attitude.
LOL, I said the same thing to my wife. Of course, that would be the Best Survvor Ever. 
Bravo! […standing ovation…] The only good that came of it for me was that I found myself suddenly pulling for Tom to win, which never would have happened otherwise. Maybe we can talk Ian into selling his Corvette and giving us all twenty dollars. We’ll tell him we won’t like him if he refuses.
You know that co-opting Coleridge just to have Ian hanging around your neck is a literary mortal sin, right?
Yup. I’m going to Hell anyway. Might as well enjoy the trip!
I’m just amused at the idea of Ian hanging around the neck of anyone as short as we are. 
I guess I’m too late to really add anything new, but I just gotta say: Ian, you turned what was maybe the best SURVIVOR series into the worst. What a complete idiot.
Another note for future survivors: You just might have to start a fire some time. Buy a Boy Scout handbook and read up on that. It is, literally, not rocket science.
That’s not the way I saw it. Tom wasn’t relentless, and he absolutely wasn’t shitty. All he was doing was asking Ian to be straight with him. He was, in actuality, giving Ian one last chance to redeem himself! Tom was saying, “Look, I know you lied to me, just own up to it now and we can move on.”
Ian is the biggest idiot to ever play Survivor. Not only was it the dumbest move ever in the history of the game to tell Tom that if he’d won, the decision would be hard, but then Tom gave him the chance to redeem himself, and he couldn’t see it! Ian kept flailing around, trying to save himself by saying he was just playing the game, knowing that he’d admitted, in no uncertain terms directly to the camera, that he had been planning to vote Tom off. He had to know that he’d already lost Tom’s confidence in the game at that moment, and that when Tom saw the show with Ian’s direct admission, Tom would know that Ian had been lying. So what was he trying to save? He’d lost the game at that moment, and Tom’s friendship in the future. If he’d been a man and just owned up and said, “Yes, Tom, I was planning to vote you off if I’d won, you’re just too strong a player.” He would, at the very least, have gained some of Tom’s respect back.
Tom had every right to be on his moral high-horse, because until Ian’s profoundly dumb-ass comment, Tom was still planning on sticking to his agreement with Ian and take him to the final two, even though it was a Colby-esqe move that reduced his own chances of winning!
In Ian’s defense, he would have won the million if he had gotten lucky with his lock combination.
Ian was the first to start trying combinations, but Tom guessed right first by dumb luck.
Also, it isn’t like he gave up on the final challenge immediately. He tried to beat Tom for almost 12 hours, and after that he may have thought it was impossible to beat Tom.
It kind of looked to me like Tom had a more systematic approach to going thru the lock combination. At one point, I thought Ian might be backtracking and using combos he’d already tried.
But, the fact of the matter is, Ian should have done whatever he needed to do, including lying thru his teeth, to get Tom to take him to the final 2. This is a game of poker-- you don’t get style points for not bluffing.
You might be right, but I don’t see it that way. That’s what’s great about the game, perception means everything.
More particularly, I don’t think Tom was trying to give Ian a chance to redeem himself. It seemed to me that he was like the police trying to get a confession after they already had all the evidence lined up. Our definition of relentless, in would appear, differs.
All that being said, I haven’t liked Tom from the get-go, so any chance I can hack on him I take.
That certainly wasn’t what it looked like to me. It looked like Tom was giving Ian a chance to salvage their friendship and possibly their alliance. Tom WANTED to take Ian with him to the final two…he certainly didn’t want to take Katie. Ian was just to fucking stupid to realize it.
Wow, this would fit in another thread, but I just don’t get how anyone could not like Tom. He demonstrated his integrity when he indicated, quite clearly, that he intended to honor his word to Ian and take him to the final two, even though it was also quite clear that that wasn’t the best move, strategically. It was only after Ian (again, quite clearly) indicated that he did not have that same level of integrity that Tom came after him, and then only to get him to admit what was already known! I didn’t see it like the police trying to get a confession, but rather like a parent who’s caught their kid with a hand in the cookie jar, but denies it. The parent will go somewhat easier in the kid if he just admits it! It was clear to me that if Ian had only been a man and stood up and said, “Tom, you’re right, I was going to vote you off,” things would have been a lot easier for him.
I couldn’t be any happier about Tom winning. Who else in the Final Four deserved it as much? And as far as Tom being less than nice (or whatever you want to call it) - if he’s in his 40s, then he most likely is a lieutenant in the FDNY, whose job it is to manage people and situations and keep things running smoothly. You have to be a certain type of person to do that and keep your wits about you under pressure. Some heavy duty psychology is probably the worst thing that he is guilty of. I didn’t hate Katie, but she really didn’t personify the ultimate Survivor to me. I picked Tom to win from the first show, as did many others here.
My VCR cut off before the preview for the next show. Mayan ruins? Cool.
Seemed smug and arrogant to me. As it turns out, he backed it up. So I guess it ain’t braggin’ if you can back it up.
Now, if we flip it, would we be calling Tom stupid if he took Ian to the final two? Clearly, the best move for either of them would have been to take Katie to the final two.
Tom is the best player ever to play Survivor. Not only was he extremely likeable and diplomatic, as evidenced by his comments at TC and by the final vote, but he rocked at challenges.
Though, honestly, I think Burnett couldn’t have picked an IC more geared towards a fireman than the obstacle course. And the grapple hooks and rappel definitely favored a man. Jenn was in the game until then. Even if Katie had made it to the rappel, she very well may have fallen off because she doesn’t have the upper body strength to carry her own weight.
Coby’s dislike of Tom was so childish. He was the ONLY person to vote for Katie to win over Tom. Even Ian, who I was CONVINCED would vote for Katie didn’t do so at the end, even after he handed her to the jury on a silver platter.
I was really hoping that Tom would hand the keys to the car to Ian. (Yeah, I know he already has a Corvette, but still…)
I think the people who think Ian is an idiot will live to regret their words. Ian has a Corvette. And he has so much honor that he gave up a million bucks to reclaim it. Trust me, he’ll be dating a supermodel before long.
I really would have liked to have seen a stand off between Ian and Tom in the finals. THAT would have been an interesting final vote. Both players were very likeable and strong competitors. I don’t know who I would have voted for.
A great season of Survivor.
And now my bitch of the day. I cannot BELIEVE that the producers are so freaking stupid that they lobbied to allow their players to live among the ancient ruins of the Mayans. That is so disturbingly disrespectful to the people of Guatemala that I am speechless. Could you imagine the outrage if some foreign t.v. producer wanted to camp out on our sacred Indian burial grounds for their reality show? We are now using a country’s priceless artifacts for our entertainment? Bad, bad form indeed.
Is something wrong with Tom’s right arm? Kind of looked like he had only half a bicep, although I didn’t see any surgical scares or anything.
As for Ian rataining his “honor”, well, that just isn’t the point of the game. When I sit down to play liar’s dice with my best friend, we lie our asses off, but neither of us loses any honor, and we’re still best friends afterwards.
Not only that, but the rappel greatly favored a short man. Ian’s legs were dragging in the water for a dozen feet at least, noticeably slowing him down, whereas Tom was able to tuck his legs up and maintain top speed. I’d forgotten this until I read your post; at the time it was something I made a mental note to comment on. (Yeah, my mental rolodex sucks ass.)
I’m pretty sure they are expressly forbidden to share prizes with other contestants in any way. Only Boston Rob has ever gotten around this prohibition.
Well, sure, when you put it that way it sounds repugnant beyond belief.
I can’t really refute the underlying principle, though I might be able to ameliorate it. Native Americans still exist. The Mayans are long since extinct. So instead of desecrating a living people’s heritage, the Mayan ruins are more of an archeological curiosity. I’d put it up there with exploiting Stonehenge, or more accurately, those big man-made hills from thousands of years ago in Europe. What are those things called again?
Still, your point has merit.
Also, I agree with you that a final two of Tom and Ian would have been awesome.
And in all fairness, I gather that there are so many Mayan ruins in the jungles of Central America that even keeping the jungle off them is impossible. So to me it’s more like they’re using one building in a tumbling down ghost town; none of them are in use or are going to ever be worth anything anyway, so might as well get some good out of them.