That’s just because it was so poorly designed. All they had to do was sit on a buoy for as long as possible. The only challenging part was the boredom.
With the exception of Aubrey – who I’m sure won’t win – I agree.
If you haven’t caught Michaela’s Ponderosa video, it’s worth a look.
She’s so funny and giddy you would think it’s her not-evil twin. Her smile lights up a room.
I think the one thing everyone can still agree on is that if Cerie makes it to the end she will be the unanimous winner, so I expect her to go right away. Unless she pulls one of her mind-fucks on Tai and gets him to give her an idol. I wouldn’t put it past her and Tai is the one guy it could work on.
Assuming Cerie goes first, the all hell breaks loose. There are no strong alliances and everyone is extremely paranoid. Anything could happen.
I expect more pow-wows at Tribal Council and last minute decisions. And I have no idea who’s going to win. If they had the final vote at five (minus Cerie) I have no idea who would win.
Hard to believe that 3 of the remaining six players still has not received a vote yet.
Troyzan, Sarah, and Cerie have not got any votes yet, even pre-merge.
Aubry and Brad have got two votes (all post merge) thus far and Tai has had 7 votes, 2 of them pre-merge.
Thanks for that. I’ve always liked Michaela, but now I like her even more. I just wish she could have been that chill during the game.
I haven’t liked her much, but that Michaela would be one of my favorites! She seems very nice and fun!
I don’t think she deserves it this time, but I would be okay with it because I totally think she deserved it last time.
Had a social engagement tonight that got cancelled. YAY!! I get to stay home and watch Survivor. How pathetic is that!! 
Dang there are a lot of commercials in the reunion show. Lots of the cast getting the “Silent” treatment.
Man, was that first TC tonight crazy! Lots of “firsts”.
I’d been expecting Sarah to win for weeks now, so it certainly wasn’t surprising from that angle. But still a decently entertaining finale. The vote at 6 went down pretty much how I expected - all the Idols and advantages led to someone getting screwed, and unfortunately it was Cirie. And Culpepper managed to Colby himself, both by becoming the sixth person to win five immunities in one season (Colby, Ozzy, Tom, Dietz, Mike Holloway) and then completely blow the decision of who to take to the final 3. Though I think it showed just how disliked he was that even against a hypothetical final of Tai and Troyzan he would’ve landed in a 5-5 tie and needed Troy’s vote to decide it. Man, he was really looking like an ass in his treatment of Tai at the end. (Also, interesting rule… I wonder if they bring it up because next season will end that way? Have they shot it yet?)
Can’t be upset with Sarah winning I guess, out of the final 4 she was definitely my choice. She’s boring personality-wise but she definitely made a lot of moves, and hard to argue with being on the right side of every vote. She did a good job of staying in the middle, playing the various alliances when needed yet never gathering scorn. She would’ve gone home at 6 without the legacy advantage, but also earned it quite skillfully.
Next season has a dumb name but so far the ‘theme’ tribes have worked pretty well, especially since they’re clearly casting Survivor fans instead of people out of central casting in Los Angeles.
Also, fuck Varner. At first I felt like he might’ve learned his lesson, but then throwing in a shot at his job for firing him, and then plugging a book deal? Unless all the proceeds of that book go to pro-trans groups or something, he’s still a piece of shit.
I would’ve been OK with either Brad or Sarah winning. Obviously Troy was a loser. It probably was the editing that made me think this, but Brad blew it with Tai. I could see how the way he treated him would come back and haunt him. Lots of folks don’t like the Alpha Male.
The Crazy part was Cirie getting voted out by not being voted out.
My notes as I watched:
Tai is so dumb. Two other players are at each others’ throats, and you throw yourself under the bus and admit to targeting Sarah so they can make up and unite against you? Why?
I had been starting to root for Culpepper, but he overplayed his hand so badly with Tai.
Crazy that none of the conversations at F5 involved getting rid of Sarah.
LOL at Troyzan saying he can beat anyone there.
So once again, no votes for Sarah at F4? Do Brad and Troyzan really think Tai would be harder to beat than Sarah? Seems to me everyone but Tai voted wrong at F4, because Sarah should have voted Troyzan in case Brad and Troyzan were secretly targeting her.
FTC:
LOL at the claim that Sierra was the brains of Brad’s operation.
It’s embarrassing when they talk to Troyzan. They should just skip that, because his protestations are so cringeworthy. At least he finally saw the writing on the wall and gave up the attempt in his final speech.
Sarah risked burning Sierra as a juror in order to impress other jurors. Super interesting strategy.
Reunion:
Oh, Troyzan. Trying to vote out of turn. Sigh.
I liked what Ozzy had to say when he got the chance to talk.
Between this and the Sarah thing, you definitely have some unusual “hot takes”! 
Cosigned on both points.
I assume they have, so that’s a good point. And yeah, I thought it was really boneheaded to vote Tai out instead of Sarah, but it does seem surprising that it would have been so close. Had Tai won over Culpepper (and Troyzan), that would definitely go down as an infamously poor choice by the jury.
Yeah, agreed. And Probst just set him up again and again–kind of disappointing.
Michaela is absolutely beautiful, her smile could light up the dark side of the moon.
FWIW, Sarah was NOT on the right side of every vote, as technically no one was on the right side of the Cerie vote. The vote was 3 votes for Sarah, 2 votes for Tai, 1 vote for Aubry.
Zeke had a interesting shirt on, cockatoos was the print. I guess it was symbolic.
So Ozzie and Debbie were lobbying for Brad. Was that really a good thing for Brad?
According to wiki, as I don’t think they showed it, Sierra was the third vote for Brad (along with Debbie and Ozzie)
Was that Brad’s wife who ran interference when Sarah went to hug/kiss her husband after it was announced that she won.
So Survivor is back with season 35. Heroes vs Healers vs Hustlers. That’s got to be better than Blood vs Water 3.
Also, why was Brad wearing a potato sack for a shirt the lat few days?
It’s amazing how different he folks look a few months later and all cleaned up. I don’t think I would have recognized any of the final 3 if I saw them on the street. Brad’s strategy of voting out Tai was brilliant-- if he had done it 4 votes earlier. I kept saying they needed to get rid of Tai because he was so unpredictable. Getting rid of him right at the end made no sense. Sarah was so obviously the bigger threat, but of course we’re seeing the edited version, so you never know quite what the players are thinking.
I thought Brad came across as kind of a racist douche and his short sleeve dress shirt with tie at the reunion show made him look like Bill Murray playing an assistant principal in a Wes Anderson movie.
I think there were too many advantages in this season, they need to scale that back.
I didn’t mind it so much this one time, but I would hate to see this become the norm.
Please, please don’t bring Tai back again. I’m sure he’s a great guy IRL, but he’s jus not cut out for this game. I really don’t like retreads as it is, but when they keep bringing the same people back again and again and again, it really gets old. I love Cirie, but I don’t even want to see her mug on the show again.
The next season looks ok, but Hustlers??? It sounds like they were grasping at straws trying to think of a name for a 3rd group that started with “H”. I would have preferred Heroes, Healers and Hackers.
How about Heroes, Healers and Hos?