Survivor: South Pacific

[The Quasi Juice]

Yeah, Sophie played a great game. I had a feeling she'd win since Cochran flipped after the merge, guaranteeing her survival until the end. Her immunity wins at crucial times certainly helped, can't believe she beat Ozzy in that challenge considering his lead. The producers were clearly hoping for Ozzy to make it 'till the end because that challenge was the exact same one they used in Cook Islands for the final five and Ozzy won it.

Coach played a good game, but at the same time also a bad one. The way he handled being the don of the alliance was impressive at times. His bad decisions started towards the end of the merge. Whereas Boston Rob would have kept Edna and Cochran around, Coach was too dead set on making it 'till the end with the core five. His assessments of the game sucked too; Sophie was clearly the biggest threat, while Brandon wasn't at all. Albert did see this but Coach just ignored it completely.

Amazing season. Couple of random notes now that the season is over:

- Please no Russell vs. Brandon. It wouldn't even be all stars against each other, because Brandon is a horrible strategic player. Still, my prediction would be that Brandon makes it further than Russell. If Russell has to return, put him on another all stars season with Brandon in the same tribe. Hilarity will ensue.

- The reunion made me like Cochran again. He knows he was a mess on the island and should have done better, fair enough. We'll probably see him return.

- I am so happy Keith and Whitney's alliance didn't make it to the end. I can't stand them.

- Jim is still an asshole. I do agree with Jeff he seemed like a good player, but was just on the wrong end of the stick. Another guy who could possibly return in the future. He reminds me of Jonathan Penner.

- I still like Albert. He was right about most scenario's in the game, and tried to shake it up a few times. He overdid it though and got caught.

- I like that at the reunion they made fun of the obsession of God during the season.

- The Hantz family sounds terrible, I really feel for Brandon.

- Sophie's performance at the final tribal was good, except for jumping in at the end saying she did all the strategising when Coach said he's shit at it. Came off as petty and too eager to get a point across

Edited December 19, 2011 by The Quasi Juice

[RPS]

Yeah, I felt as though the Sophie win was being hinted back way back to when they discovered the hidden immunity idol and Coach lied to the rest of the tribe and than prayed with the tribe. Sophie got a confessional basically saying she saw through Coach and found his actions to be a bit icky. It just seemed out of place up until that point because the editing was all Coach has reformed his ways and look at how he is redeeming himself. My guess is that probably wasn't the case and Coach was probably just as a big of a joke as he was before but great editing covered it up.

EDIT: Also kind of surreal that it's not out of the question to have an All Winners season in the future... have been watching Survivor since day #1 and didn't think the day would come.

Edited December 19, 2011 by RockPaperScissors

[The Quasi Juice]

All Winners is technically possible but will never happy for obvious reasons, which is a shame. I'd love to see guys like Todd, Hatch and Yul back.

[bill_da_bill]

I thought this was a good season, not a great season. It was fun to watch, but I'll admit I never had the whole "I can't wait until next" feeling. And I never found myself really pulling for anyone during the show, except the last few episodes while Brandon was there as he really grew on me, as everyone else seems to feel.

I think Sophie was a deserving winner. She doesn't go down in the top tier, or even top two tiers of survivor winners, but she also isn't in the bottom group either. She didn't make bold moves, but she didn't have too. She let the people she was aligned with shoot themselves in the foot and she took advantage of it. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. She was very nervous at final tribal, but she did well enough to keep the lead she had going in.

Honestly, I thought Albert was really good at final tribal, the best of the three ultimately. Unfortunately for him everyone on the jury saw him as a smooth talking scam artist and so while he was saying the right things and giving great answers, they all went in one ear and out the other. I'd love to see Albert come back for another season because I do think he was a strong player, he just basically shit the bed down the stretch and I think he'd learn from that.

Other players I wouldn't mind seeing again are Cochran and Brandon, and honestly Jim. I agree that Jim was just unlucky and got stuck on a team of horrible strategists with Dawn, Whitney, Keith and Ozzy.