# Survivor Finale/Reunion: 5/14/06 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 14, 2006, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-finale-reunion-5-14-06/356754 "2006-05-14T21:07:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-finale-reunion-5-14-06/356754/61 "2006-05-15T18:33:30Z")
> [@McDeath\_the\_Mad](#): > > Does anybody else think that the final immunity challenge wasn’t fair across the board? > > It was totally skewed depending on how much you weigh. All 3 people had pretty much equal balancing skills, but Danielle weighed the least, so her platform was above water and Terry and Aras’ platfroms were under the water. > > I think a traditional pure endurance challenge would have been better. Then we would have seen a Terry/Aras final two. It would have been interesting to see how the voting would have went there! > > MtM The endurance challenges are skewed towards the men. I found it to be a nice change to see one skewed towards women - they are usually better at balancing, at least in part because of a lower center of gravity. It is even possible that the producers designed a challenge geared towards Danielle to introduce more suspense as to who would be chosen for the final two. It is obvious that both Terry and Aras would have chosen to take Danielle to the two. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-finale-reunion-5-14-06/356754/62 "2006-05-15T18:36:13Z")
I’m just trying to figure out what starvation-induced insanity caused Aras to throw the single most important immunity challenge in the freaking game. Did he just want to be the nice guy and let Danielle have a win before he beat the pants off her at final TC? I did like the point that Shane made, though–he was _amazingly_ coherent last night–about how it looks like they’re in better shape than they really are out there. Sure, they’re sitting on the beach, catching some rays, carrying a little firewood… try doing it after you haven’t eaten anything but snails for three days, then try and run some of those races. I’m amazed they’ve had so few medevacs in the history of the show; this one makes two, with an additional medical visit. Aside from that, they’ve gone pretty much on their own intestinal fortitude. Does anybody know if they still get a hidden first aid kit? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-finale-reunion-5-14-06/356754/63 "2006-05-15T18:56:20Z")
> [@jebert](#): > > Yeah, that was a highlight of the season, except I never thought for a moment that they were real. After watching HeiDDi in Survivor: Amazon, Danielle’s looked plenty natural to me. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-finale-reunion-5-14-06/356754/64 "2006-05-15T21:42:35Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > I’m just trying to figure out what starvation-induced insanity caused Aras to throw the single most important immunity challenge in the freaking game. Did he just want to be the nice guy and let Danielle have a win before he beat the pants off her at final TC? I haven’t seen the reunion show yet so I don’t know if they covered this or not, but do you really think that Aras threw the challenge? He fell off twice and looked pretty wobbly after that. He did obviously nod and so did she. I just thought it was a last ditch effort to grab at anything he could because he knew he was going down. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-finale-reunion-5-14-06/356754/65 "2006-05-15T22:10:44Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > I’m just trying to figure out what starvation-induced insanity caused Aras to throw the single most important immunity challenge in the freaking game. Did he just want to be the nice guy and let Danielle have a win before he beat the pants off her at final TC? I haven’t seen the reunion show yet so I don’t know if they covered this or not, but do you really think that Aras threw the challenge? He fell off twice and looked pretty wobbly after that. He did obviously nod and so did she. I just thought it was a last ditch effort to grab at anything he could because he knew he was going down. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-finale-reunion-5-14-06/356754/66 "2006-05-15T22:15:45Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > I’m just trying to figure out what starvation-induced insanity caused Aras to throw the single most important immunity challenge in the freaking game. Did he just want to be the nice guy and let Danielle have a win before he beat the pants off her at final TC? I haven’t seen the reunion show yet so I don’t know if they covered this or not, but do you really think that Aras threw the challenge? He fell off twice and looked pretty wobbly after that. He did obviously nod and so did she. I just thought it was a last ditch effort to grab at anything he could because he knew he was going down. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-finale-reunion-5-14-06/356754/67 "2006-05-15T22:24:53Z")
:smack: Would a mod please help me with my triple post? Apparently the “Report this post” is disabled for your own posts. ---
**Author:** ![Roadfood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc348/32.png) [@Roadfood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadfood)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2006, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-finale-reunion-5-14-06/356754/68 "2006-05-15T22:37:30Z")
> [@McDeath\_the\_Mad](#): > > Does anybody else think that the final immunity challenge wasn’t fair across the board? > > It was totally skewed depending on how much you weigh. All 3 people had pretty much equal balancing skills, but Danielle weighed the least, so her platform was above water and Terry and Aras’ platfroms were under the water. > > I think a traditional pure endurance challenge would have been better. Then we would have seen a Terry/Aras final two. It would have been interesting to see how the voting would have went there! I totally, completely agree. My wife was the first to say that it looked like the challenge was deliberately designed to let Danielle win. A pure endurance challenge would have been better, Terry would have won, but we wouldn’t see a Terry/Aras final two; Terry would definitely have taken Danielle with him. Even putting their pact aside, Terry himself said that Aras was a great competitor and it was clear that he (Aras) was better liked. Terry’s best shot would be with “coattail-rider” Danielle. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-finale-reunion-5-14-06/356754/69 "2006-05-16T01:02:31Z")
> [@Roadfood](#): > > Terry would definitely have taken Danielle with him. Even putting their pact aside, Terry himself said that Aras was a great competitor and it was clear that he (Aras) was better liked. Terry’s best shot would be with “coattail-rider” Danielle. Exactly. Danielle was going to the finals no matter who won the immunity challenge. And she was destined to lose badly in the vote to whomever she was up against. And BTW, she does have a great cleavage, but those funbags are definitely enhanced. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-finale-reunion-5-14-06/356754/70 "2006-05-16T02:51:20Z")
> [@Frostillicus](#): > > Danielle […] does have a great cleavage, but those funbags are definitely enhanced. > [@jebert](#): > > I never thought for a moment that they were real. hehheh. You guys say that like it’s a bad thing. > [@amarone](#): > > The endurance challenges are skewed towards the men. I found it to be a nice change to see one skewed towards women - they are usually better at balancing, at least in part because of a lower center of gravity. It is even possible that the producers designed a challenge geared towards Danielle to introduce more suspense as to who would be chosen for the final two. It is obvious that both Terry and Aras would have chosen to take Danielle to the two. Interesting thought that the producers intentionally tailored the challenge to up the drama. I can’t fault them for that. But endurance challenges don’t particularly favor either gender. That’s what makes them so good for the final challenge. A balance challenge does favor women, though not as much as a strength challenge would favor men. As pointed out earlier, though, this particular challenge grossly favored lighter contestants, which is a crock of shit, IMO. Cirie would have fared no better than Terry. (I think they weighed the same, based on that “hold your water” challenge.) So while drama is good, having a loaded final challenge is just wrong. One thing I forgot to mention earlier is how amazed I was that Terry managed that final effort to stand up with mere seconds left in the transition clock. Sure, he fell shortly thereafter, but it didn’t look like he was ever going to be able to stand up. But when the moment of truth came, he just snapped right up. Truly impressive. ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-finale-reunion-5-14-06/356754/71 "2006-05-16T13:13:56Z")
It would be interesting to see the producers throw off the whole “bring the weakest to the final TC” gambit by having the last challenge be a hard one and grant immunity to the first two to finish. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-finale-reunion-5-14-06/356754/72 "2006-05-16T13:15:44Z")
I agree women generally ought to have an advantage in balance, but against a yoga master? I was impressed at how solid he looked on the 1st 2 pads - was surprised he looked so unsteady on pad #3. ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-finale-reunion-5-14-06/356754/73 "2006-05-16T15:33:21Z")
I never imagined that Terry wouldn’t be in the final two. I figured the old alliance against him might still hold and not give him the million (unlikely) but I never thought that he would lose the final challenge, and then not get picked by the person who did win. It all makes sense now. They gave Terry a very bad edit. He was one of the more honorable players the show has ever seen. He wasn’t annoying, and he rarely mis-stepped. However, the shows producers knew that if they had him being too popular people would be pissed that he didn’t win it. They needed to try and paint him as arrogant to ween people off of him so to speak. It sucks that anybody from the other tribe ended up winning. They were by far the most useless and annoying survivor tribe ever. Aras sucks. Dannielle sucks. They were picked randomly, but were a perfectly horrible team that was great to root against. ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-finale-reunion-5-14-06/356754/74 "2006-05-16T15:37:53Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > I agree women generally ought to have an advantage in balance, but against a yoga master? I was impressed at how solid he looked on the 1st 2 pads - was surprised he looked so unsteady on pad #3. Dannielle was a former gymnist, IIRC. They both had an edge. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-finale-reunion-5-14-06/356754/75 "2006-05-16T15:38:05Z")
> [@Debaser](#): > > It all makes sense now. They gave Terry a very bad edit. He was one of the more honorable players the show has ever seen. He wasn’t annoying, and he rarely mis-stepped. However, the shows producers knew that if they had him being too popular people would be pissed that he didn’t win it. They needed to try and paint him as arrogant to ween people off of him so to speak. Yeah, but then there’s that whole “outwit” thing, at which he truly did suck. Terry’s sole working strategy for the game was “don’t lose immunity challenges,” which, granted, can get you really far in the game, as Terry, Tom from last season and Colby from Australia demonstrated. But with Terry, every single time he went to TC post-merge, he threw his vote away because up until the F4 vote, he couldn’t be diplomatic to save his teammates’ lives. Even then, the only reason Danielle sided with him was because she was afraid of getting voted off by Terry out of spite for not siding with him… ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-finale-reunion-5-14-06/356754/76 "2006-05-16T16:05:34Z")
Danielle is dumber than a box of hair. When Aras threatened her with losing his and Cirie’s votes if she took Terry to the final two, she obviously let that sway her decision (you could tell from the reaction in her face and body language). How stupid does one have to be not to realize that no matter which of the guys she took to the final two, she wasn’t getting either Aras’ or Cirie’s votes _anyway_. With Aras in the final 2 alongside her, she doesn’t get his vote because he _can’t_ vote, and she doesn’t get Cirie’s because she votes for Aras. But she was too stupid to figure that out and call him on it to his face. What a twit. Neither of them deserved the money, but ultimately I’m glad _she_ didn’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-finale-reunion-5-14-06/356754/77 "2006-05-16T21:32:51Z")
Two things that just occurred to me about this show/season: 1. They’ve stopped letting people bring food back from the reward challenges. 2. They didn’t ask Shane if he had started smoking again, even though they talked about his smoking before the show, and how he was using that opportunity to quit smoking. You’d think he’d have been all proud to talk about it if he had stayed away from demon tobacco… ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-finale-reunion-5-14-06/356754/78 "2006-05-16T23:31:45Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > 1. They didn’t ask Shane if he had started smoking again, even though they talked about his smoking before the show, and how he was using that opportunity to quit smoking. You’d think he’d have been all proud to talk about it if he had stayed away from demon tobacco… Yes they did, in the reunion show. He said something to the effect of “I lit up 30 seconds after you snuffed my torch out”, and that he made up for lost time by smoking 3 cartons the first week. > [@Debaser](#): > > It all makes sense now. They gave Terry a very bad edit. He was one of the more honorable players the show has ever seen. He wasn’t annoying, and he rarely mis-stepped. However, the shows producers knew that if they had him being too popular people would be pissed that he didn’t win it. They needed to try and paint him as arrogant to ween people off of him so to speak. Didn’t occur to me, but I agree completely. > [@Ethilrist](#): > > Yeah, but then there’s that whole “outwit” thing, at which he truly did suck. In fairness, he tried multiple times to manipulate the vote. He even had some decent reasoning on his side a couple times. (Not every time, obviously.) He was no Cirie, but except for her, I think pretty much everyone this season sucked balls at the outwit part. Were Aras, Danielle, Shane, Courtney, or Sally any better at the outwit part than Terry? Were any of them any good at it at all? I’d say no; if Le Mina had been winning the challenges instead of Casaya, then the InShane alliance would have fared no better at the outwit part than the He Man’s Women Haters Club. > [@Shayna](#): > > How stupid does one have to be not to realize that no matter which of the guys she took to the final two, she wasn’t getting either Aras’ or Cirie’s votes anyway. With Aras in the final 2 alongside her, she doesn’t get his vote because he can’t vote, and she doesn’t get Cirie’s because she votes for Aras. Excellent point. I’m embarassed to say that it didn’t occur to me, either. ---
**Author:** ![adhemar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@adhemar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhemar)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-finale-reunion-5-14-06/356754/79 "2006-05-17T00:00:33Z")
not to mention, if Terry had given the Hidden Immunity idol to one of the other players to make an alliance with him, what would stop that person from double crossing him? From what I could see, he couldn’t have just said he was giving it to Danielle after she was voted out (or voted into the tie) he would have had to give it to her before. There could have been a plot to get him to give it up and then vote him out. I thnk giving it up befor the final four wouldn’t have been too smart wither since he never knew when he would need it. If he gave it away, y’all would be saying he made a stupid move then too. ---
**Author:** ![Farmwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8dc957/32.png) [@Farmwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmwoman)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2006, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-finale-reunion-5-14-06/356754/80 "2006-05-17T01:56:16Z")
Why did Shane have wallpaper samples hanging out of his sleeves? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-finale-reunion-5-14-06/356754.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-finale-reunion-5-14-06/356754.md?page=5)