262 replies to this topic

[TWoP Pembleton]

The final four survivors scramble to secure their place at the final Tribal Council. Meanwhile, a crucial reward challenge allows castaways to compete for a highly coveted advantage, on the special two-hour season finale.

Please note that I'm setting this to open at 10:30 ET, but usually the winner isn't announced until a few minutes into the reunion episode. Please wait to post in here until the winner is announced.

In addition, CBS has the late NFL game on Sunday, so the show might start late. Again, please wait until the winner is announced to start posting, even if the thread is open.

And finally, there are no prizes for being the first to post. Please don't just post, "Yay, Winner!" or "Boo, Winner!" Wait to post until you have something to say. Some people can't read the thread until later or the next day, and having to wade through page after page of posts with no substance is annoying.

[MKL122788]

Oh buddy, justice.

EDIT: Now that I have stopped jumping for joy,

Starting at the beginning,

Malcolm, Malcolm, Malcolm...didn't you learn that when someone asks you to commit, you lie before you waver. Huge mistake to not have Denise on your side. You could've easily beaten Lisa in a fire making challenge to stay around.

About the torches, it was really nice to see that everyone had some perspective...oh, except Russell. He was still traumatized by his tribe.

The challenges had a logical outcome. Malcolm was the best at challenge balance. When it came to physical composure, I knew Skupin was going to win. When it was him and Lisa, in particular, having long, strong arms in that thing was an absolute advantage.

Lisa was absolutely brutal to Malcolm in that tribal, and I think her former tribe completely lambasted her for the evolution of that game.

I thought that Denise at the final tribal took the steam out of everyone elses argument. She was smart to apologize for Abi for the delivery but not the message. Awesome. I thought Lisa might get some votes, but RC and Carter really seemed to only want people to not get completely swept.

A well-deserved win from one of the better balanced players we have seen.

Edited by MKL122788, Dec 16, 2012 @ 11:11 PM.

[ReiMehari]

So does this mean the jury voted bitterly or rationally?

[dallasgypsy]

What a bitter group at the Final Tribal Council.

[bandita]

Penner made my night. He called it for Denise if she made it to the finals. I wondered if he would out Lisa and then BAM...there it was. I don't know if it was the editing monkeys toying with me but Lisa knew she lost when Penner outed her and Denise appeared not to know. BUT someone said that an extra scene indicated Denise knew right away. So maybe the face was surprise that Penner outed Lisa.


Penner has been on this show two other times. His Hollywood past would already be known for anyone who paid attention.

Denise deserved it. She really had to outplay outwit and outlast


RC- that laugh..I would want her out more than Abi ( I think)

Edited by bandita, Dec 16, 2012 @ 11:10 PM.

[dizzyd]

WTG Denise. Also well answered on the FTC.

Not sure why Malcolm was so pissed, it was either her or him going home that night. If they were still wokring together they should have sent it to a tiebreak, but he knew she was voting for him and he was voting for her. He should have been mad at the other 2, so that was completely misdirected and not very attractive.

[Eeyore63]

That jury was so bitter (except for Carter) that I had no idea how it was going to go down. I can't believe Penner outed Lisa like that, but when they showed his vote for Denise and what he said, I thought she might have a chance. I guess it was pretty much a blowout.

[skeeter22]

So does this mean the jury voted bitterly or rationally?

Based on her jury performance, and the jurors themselves, I'm beginning to think Denise actually didn't deserve to win.

[enlightenedbum]

Well. That was a pretty awful episode with the outcome I preferred. Recycled final immunity challenge with a dumb, obnoxious reward that Malcolm helpfully invalidated by being strangely terrible at the immunity challenge. Waffling on an obvious decision, even though really it was a choice of who to give the money to. And then an obnoxious jury with shitty questions and shitty answers given by the F3. But I guess Denise was the least shitty? She most deserved to win of those three, but was not impressed with her post-merge game, really.

[suckeredin]

Geez Malcolm, you did notice whose name you wrote down didn't you?

[mojoween]

I didn't realize until halfway through the show how much I DIDN'T want Lisa to win. She kept her word...right up until the end when she didn't. Then lost anyways! Ha.

I read the Ponderosa forum and thought RC's laugh might have been exaggerated. Boy was it not. I could not listen to her talk for more than five minutes without running away.

Denise, I'm eh with you winning but you didn't outwit Malcolm. You just didn't.

I don't think there has ever been a more perfect vote than Carter's for SKOOPIN.

[jsm1125]

So happy that Denise took the title!

I love Penner, but I was cringing during his jury speech. I am fairly happy that RC didn't seem bitter during her speech.

I must say that Abi looked gorgeous tonight.

This episode seemed to drag on though.

[katesus7]

Skupin lost me with his constant talk about his "story" and he thought he could beat Malcolm (which, Bwah!) because of his "story" and how he wanted to beat the best, and Lisa and Denise didn't factor into that. Also, Skupin? Your "story" sucked. "I played this game before, therefore everyone wanted me gone, therefore I deserve to win". Uh, yeah, Skupin, your actual story is "I got hurt a lot, and it became the only thing about me worth showing for most of this show". He can suck it.

Also, Malcolm lost me a bit in his exit interview (although I will give him a huge pass, because of course he's going to be pissed) that he had to force them to play the game? or some nonsense? and that because of that they finally saw him as a threat? Uh, no, Malcolm, Lisa wanted your ass gone about 5 jury members ago. She had your number from the beginning, you didn't have anything to do with that.

I so wanted Lisa to beat Skupin in that challenge, but alas. Although, I kind of liked that set-up tonight with the challenges. That the physical challenge with a puzzle aspect gave the winner an edge in the inevitable final endurance challenge. I felt it kind of evened out the playing field a bit, and didn't skew towards one kind of challenge prowess.

Loved Denise and Lisa's opening arguments. "First off, I will make no apologies for being in this final three". Denise? You are my hero, for that one sentence. It was even better than her doing the unthinkable - turning Pete's question around into "This is why YOU sucked at this game" by basically telling him he was an idiot to vote out RC, and she benefited from that.

The only other thing I have to say about the jury questions is that Penner is a complete piece of shit. I thought Artis would take the prize as the most bitter jury member, but Mr. Penner, Mr. Three Time Player, Mr. Knows It's Just a Game, sat there and pontificated, and decided to just go ahead and call Denise a bitch. For no good goddamn reason. I was never on board with thinking of him as a 'great' player, but I always liked him. Hate him now. Espcially since he said she played flawless in his jury vote! What the hell? That was awful.

Although good on Lisa for her reply to his outing her. "And everyone knows what you did 25 years ago?"

Finally, Yay Denise! Love her! Although, I'm not going to lie, a part of me was so very sad that Blair Warner couldn't manage to win Survivor. I think my head would've exploded from the extreme wierdness of it all.

[crashdown]

Skupin: “Although it might seem like the smart thing to do would be to take you puny women with me to the Finals, the only truly honorable thing would be to take this dazzling young male warrior god (and my wife would certainly love me a lot more if I did that). That way I can pound my chest and beat him in a completely manly way.” Poor, deluded, sexist Skupin—it makes it all the nicer to see Denise trample all over you to the win!

[lleykian54]

So does this mean the jury voted bitterly or rationally?

I'd say more bitterly because to be honest, on the one hand, I do think Denise epitomized the outlast part having been to every single tribal council and not getting voted out. But a lot of that seemed to be more luck than anything. It's possible the editing just didn't show it too much because they were so obsessed with Lisa and her journey to finding herself but I honestly can't think of much that Denise did in this game strategically.

But kudos to her, not my favorite winner by any means but certainly not my least. And honestly, I was a bit surprised by some of the anger in the jury, especially since some of them made Abi look sweet. Penner was particularly vitriolic I thought.

Edited by lleykian54, Dec 16, 2012 @ 11:09 PM.

[nydude]

That has got to be one of the mosted hated trios in a finale. It seemed like people just chose who they hated the least.

[ReiMehari]

I'm glad Denise won. I've been a fan from near the beginning.

Still, I'm surprised she won, or at least, there wasn't more dram with the final reveal.

I'm wondering if this means she got Abi's vote. She had to have, right? Since they didn't show any more votes for anyone else?

Edited because a semicolon is NOT an apostrophe

Edited by ReiMehari, Dec 16, 2012 @ 11:14 PM.

[ECAmber]

Random thoughts:

I finally figured out who Carter reminds me of: a kind hearted, blonde Napoleon Dynamite.

I get that Malcolm was angry... it was the first and last TC from when he was voted off. And he was PISSED off when he was leaving. One night at Ponderosa to cool your heels isn't enough to not shake that off. So I get his behavior.

I'm surprised Denise got it so rough. It looks like she got all the votes except Carter and RC. And can we assume that anus-eyes Abi also voted for Denise?? Because I just don't see that happening... I think it was that last thing about how their philosophies didn't mesh that gave Abi pause with Denise. I want to watch that little bit again though... looked like something turned in Abi though.

And wow... Penner pulled the win right out of Lisa's hands. That really hurts. She was annoying, but I blame the editing, not her. I didn't realize that she pissed Penner off that much for him to basically destroy her end game like that.

Awesome awesome TC though.

[crashdown]

That jury was so bitter (except for Carter) that I had no idea how it was going to go down.

Carter has never looked so much like a stoner dude as he did during this tribal council. They must have a nice stash over there on Ponderosa!

[alapaki]

Well, I have to hand it to the editors for putting the result, at least for me, in question.

Denise's FTC statement was, basically "You all suck". I'm a little surprised that it worked, but that might just be because I got the point of over-thinking things. My gut instinct was that either Malcolm or Denise would win. And that played out.

[Unconditional]

Denise played a very elementary game. It was good enough to win this season but few others. I do like that with her win the show is still setting records 25 seasons into it's run with a player making it through every single tribal council only to end up winning. The editing was strange this season in the sense that even though there was this recurring "no one can beat Malcolm or Denise" theme, after the merge Lisa got so much attention and so much of her gameplanning was shown while Denise just disappeared for the last ~10 episodes and then reappeared at the end to take the money. So bizarre.

Decent winner to an underwhelming season. Glad Skupin got to play again and fared so well coming from one of the most negative, bitter, delusional tribes ever. Penner also had a great showing while being targeted constantly. Why do I have a feeling that this season is ripe with returnees for future seasons?

[ZoloftBlob]

I didn't realize that she pissed Penner off that much for him to basically destroy her end game like that.

Personally I thought Penner was uber bitter because he realized his last shot to win had just played of out. His outing of Lisa was done to fuck her over because he was bitter and that's my lasting memory of him. He's a bitter little bitch because Blair Fucking Warner did better on her first outing of the game than he managed on all three attempts.

She might get a second chance. He sure as hell won't get a fourth... and that makes me laugh.

[KaveDweller]

I'm surprised that Artis was so bitter in his question, because his exit speech made him seem like a great sport about the whole thing.

I was thinking Denise didn't win, because Skupin and Lisa kept talking about how she was such a jury threat. And it seemed like Lisa was coming off a bit better to the jury. But, I'm okay with her win.

[Kerri Johnson]

I'm sure Jeff kept a picture of Malcolm and cried himself to sleep the night he was voted off.

[enlightenedbum]

Penner was an ass in his first juror speech in Cook Islands, too. He's just not a good jury member. And he voted for the person he was meanest to then, too.

[fashionista79]

I'm still trying to figure out Malcolm's anger. At the reward when he chose Lisa and Skupin, Malcolm was perfectly fine with solidifying a F3 that didn't include Denise. Yet he got angry that Lisa and Skupin didn't hold to their word when he couldn't hold his word to Denise? Also, I was about tired with him getting pissy about people calling him a FTC threat.

Speaking of pissy, Penner's move of telling the jury what job Lisa held over 20 years ago reeked. I wonder how he feels about Kent being in the game?

Lastly, I'm sort of meh on Denise's win. This F3 were just...there.

[lleykian54]

Also, Malcolm lost me a bit in his exit interview (although I will give him a huge pass, because of course he's going to be pissed) that he had to force them to play the game? or some nonsense? and that because of that they finally saw him as a threat?

Actually I think his comment was that maybe he played too hard and came on too strong to the point that it eventually led to him being seen as a major threat which yeah, was kind of what happened. Although I wouldn't say I thought he came on too strong with his game-play because he didn't go on a crazy Immunity run after the merge, he wasn't running around making deals with everyone, wasn't blind-siding people. But again, I feel like there was a lot editing didn't show in favor of showing Lisa Welchel: The Survivor Story.

[fivestone]

Yeah, I lost a lot of respect for Penner with his FTC behaviour. I would have understood Skupin or Denise outing Lisa - all part of the game, right? But outing Lisa served no beneficial purpose for Penner whatsoever, and I think that's pretty low of him.

[jsm1125]

Though I'm glad that RC seemed to be one of the few jurors who wasn't bitter, her laugh drove me up the wall tonight.

I was a little surprised that Malcom seemed to be targeting Denise of all people during his jury question. As far as I'm concerned, their alliance ended when he didn't give Denise the HII, even though he was safe, during the F5. He cleaned up great though!

[me5671]

I agree with the posters above who were unpleasantly surprised with Penner's jury speech. It was entertaining, but to me it came across as odd and petty. I always thought he was good sport, that he understood it was just a game, and that he respected the game. With that speech, he basically threw that legacy away. I'm truly puzzled by it.

Anyway congrats Denise!