Survivor Micronesia: Fans Vs. Favorites
Stir the Pot!, Part 2
By Jim Van Nest, Survivor Analyst
May 14, 2008
BoxOfficeProphets.com
We join the action as Cirie, Parvati and Amanda come back to camp after the final immunity challenge. The first thing they notice is that Gloria the chicken has still not left camp. Amanda tells us that deciding who to take with her is the hardest decision she'll have to make. Cirie tells us that she thought she'd win this one for sure. But, she didn't. And since Amanda and Parvati are such good friends, she fully expects to go home tonight. Parvati and Amanda are talking about the vote and Amanda is very bummed about the whole thing. I mean, I can certainly understand. Who would want to have a second shot at a million dollars? As they continue to talk, Parvati is talking as though the decision has been made. Amanda is trying to justify voting out Cirie by saying that Cirie would have taken Parvati had she won.
Next up is Amanda talking to Cirie. Cirie's not feeling too sorry for her plight. She tells us that she feels more loyal to Parvati. Cirie tells her that she thinks Amanda will have a better chance of beating her in the final. Amanda is worried that Cirie can and will talk her way into the million. She's very nervous about giving Cirie the opportunity to talk to the jury. She tells us that the wrong decision here could cost her the million dollars.
As we begin Tribal Council, Jeff starts with Amanda. He mentions how tough the decision is. She says that it's a blessing and a curse. She's thrilled to be playing for the million, but as she fights back tears, she will have a hard time picking one person over the other. Cirie believes Amanda's grief is legit. Parvati as well. Parvati tells Jeff that she wouldn't want to be making the decision. He asks Amanda what cons there are to taking the other two. She says that Cirie is a good talker and that could be dangerous. And Parvati has played a very social game and has a lot of friends on the jury. As he breaks it down to the whole million dollar thing versus voting out someone she cares about. She breaks down into tears again. And as she sobs, you can actually feel the jury pulling away from her. No one over there feels bad for her. Any one of them would gladly switch places with her. This is the kind of stuff that she really needed to try to avoid. We all understand that it's a tough choice and you hate making it, but suck it up, Buttercup...that's what you signed up for.
And as Jeff tallies the vote, I find myself seeing absolutely no way that she votes for Parvati. And the eighth member of the jury is...Cirie. As Amanda continues to blubber, Parvati exchanges a knowing smile with Natalie. Well, that's one for Parvati already. Of course, Amanda has Ozzy, so it's very much 1-1 right now. As Jeff explains the whole "power shifts to the jury" thing, you can actually see the weight being lifted from Amanda's shoulders. They head back to camp to enjoy their final day on the island and to prepare for the final Tribal Council.
We come back from break as the girls wake up on Day 39. Both are in good spirits and Amanda looks about ten years younger without the weight of the world on her shoulders. They head out to Tree Mail, once again, with the hopes of finding a feast and that's exactly what they find. Finally, they can celebrate their accomplishment. And oh, by the way, Amanda is now logging her 78th day on Survivor. No one has managed to spend that much time on this show before. Two final Tribals in a row. Both seasons filmed within six months of each other.
Amanda breaks down the difference between her and Parvati. She says she played the loyal game while Parvati did whatever it took to get to the end. She thinks there are people that don't like her on the jury and that might work to her advantage. Parvati tells us that her game was more cut throat and cold blooded. She plans to stand up and own that she's been a powerful player throughout this game and she should be recognized as such. And after all this time, we're finally down to the Final Tribal Council.
Jeff goes through the whole final tribal speech. He then gives them each a chance to make an opening statement. Amanda starts. She says that she came into the game wanting to play a loyal game and wanting to fight all the way to the end. She says she knows she wouldn't be sitting there if not for all of them. Parvati says she came into this game as "the flirt". She says she knew she had to switch it up this time. She wanted to play a more aggressive game and she felt like she did that as they pulled off some of the biggest surprises in the show's history. And with that, we now flip over to the jury. Who will bring the heat? Who will have the stupid question? And most importantly, who will walk away with the title of Sole Survivor?
We come back from break and Eliza is the first one up. She starts by saying that she has no idea who she's going to vote for tonight. She tells Parvati that taking out Ozzy was a great move and she respects it. She, however, doesn't respect the things she did that she didn't have to do to get to where she is - talking about Eliza behind her back and making fun of her. She says those things didn't get her to where she is and that she might just be a mean person, so she will have a hard time giving her the vote. On to Amanda, she says she played a great game, but listening to her talk made her want to kill herself sometimes. She says that Amanda was so superficial. She goes on to say that she will be listening tonight as she has not made up her mind about who to vote for.
Jason's up next. He starts with Amanda and asks her that if she had been let in on the plan to vote out Ozzy...would she have told him? She gives a definitive yes. He then asks Parvati what kind of her redeeming qualities in the game gave been. She says she was protective of her alliance and was loyal to them all the way to the end. She also brings up the whole not killing the chicken thing. Um...okay.
Alexis comes in next. She starts with Parvati. She works with young girls and wants to know what makes Parvati a better role model for young girls. Parvati says she is much more outspoken and outgoing than Amanda and that she puts herself out there a lot more while Amanda is much more likely to go with the flow. Alexis then tells Amanda that they were laughing at her for all the tears shed for voting out Cirie. She wants to know what part of Amanda was genuine. She says it was all genuine and that she only cried the one time when voting out Cirie and that was absolutely legit.
Natalie steps up to the plate next. She tells them both that they have her respect and she asks Parvati about playing the flirt card. She then asks her how that resonates into her bedroom. Jeff interrupts to ask Parvati if she even understands the question. It would seem that she doesn't. So Natalie tries to explain it better and makes it clear as mud. I'll just give you what I got out of it. Natalie seems to be asking if Parvati might just swing both ways and if she would want to go on a date sometime. To her credit, Parvati tries to answer the question and just says that on the show and at home flirting helps her get what she wants. Natalie moves onto Amanda and tells her that she always seems to have a glazed over look on her face. She asks her if that was her strategy for the game or her personality. She tells her that it's neither one, and that she played a good strategic and physical game.
Erik comes up next and says that five or six days ago, he was 100% voting for Amanda. He says that lately he has a lot of questions. He tells her that she pretty much ripped him apart and why did she think she could do that? She says that he was not loyal to her and that there was no reason why she shouldn't do the same to him. He slams her a little bit more and then goes to sit down.
James comes up next. He doesn't even address Amanda. He asks Parvati about the move with Ozzy and how she came up next to him the next day with a bunch of "fluff". He wants to give her the opportunity to try that over again and address him in a better manner. After some back and forth, she finally says that he had to go because there was no chance to beat him and Ozzy.
And with that, Cirie takes the stage. She congratulates both of them and she asks Amanda why Parvati deserves the million more than her. And Amanda launches into an infomercial about how great Parvati played the game and how she was the powerhouse who made those decisions happen. She then asks Parvati why she should be sitting in her seat and Parv should be on the jury. She says Cirie played a brilliant game, but it was under the radar. She also says she couldn't compete with a mother of three.
And our final jury member is Ozzy. He starts with Parvati. He says that he is truly hurt by what Parvati did to him. He acknowledges it was a great move, but he never in a million years thought she could do that to him. That she would just throw away his friendship over money makes him sick. And how can she dare to call herself a role model when she's willing to treat a friend like that. He then says the worst part was that she took away 14 days that he could have spent with Amanda. As the background music changes, he tells Amanda that he was not playing her and was not faking his feelings for her. He says he's having feelings that he's never felt before and he has started to fall in love with her. He finishes by saying that she's amazing and he wants everyone to know what and that he's glad that he didn't win Cook Islands, so that he could be here and meet her.
And with that, it's time to vote. Jeff explains that they are voting FOR someone. Get that, Jason? You're voting for who you WANT to win. As they vote, we see Erik's surprise vote for Amanda saying that he's willing to forgive and forget if she is. Next up is Alexis voting for Parvati saying that she deserves it and will do amazing things with it. We then see Natalie's vote for Parvati with no comment and Ozzy's vote for Amanda saying she deserves it a million times more than Parvati. The most obnoxious vote of the night goes to Eliza who decided to milk her fleeting seconds of screen time by agonizing over her vote for God only knows how long. She finally casts her vote and Jeff takes the bucket and heads on out.
As the lights come up on the live vote reading, Jeff makes his way into the auditorium and up on stage. He goes through all the usual explanations and then gets to reading the votes. The first vote is Alexis' vote for Parvati. Next up is Erik's Amanda vote. Then we see Natalie's vote for Parvati and Ozzy's vote for Amanda. Fifth vote goes to Parvati and the sixth vote for Amanda. At this point, I'm wondering what they do if there's a tie. The seventh vote is for Parvati. So one more vote for Amanda and we have a tie. As it turns out, the winner of Survivor: Micronesia - Fans Vs Favorites is Parvati Shallow. So once again, Amanda takes a very winnable game into the final tribal council and blows it. And she blew it on Cirie's question. She basically gave the jury everything they needed to know to cast their votes for Parvati. Good lord, the girl learned nothing from China. And there you have it folks, another Survivor is in the books and another Survivor ends with someone I didn't want to win winning it all. But I have to be honest; after all the stupidity on this season, I have a hard time getting too angry with the result. Overall, this is still one of the top three seasons of the show ever...it just ended with less than favorable results.
Before I head out, I want to make one final plea to everyone to load up that CBS Feedback Forum inbox with links to these columns asking, nay demanding that they put a REAL fan who really knows how to play the game on the show. They haven't finished casting Season 17 yet, and they definitely have a season 18 coming next year. So there's no excuse not to put me on. So how 'bout it, CBS? Mark Burnett? Jeff Probst? What could it possibly hurt to give this small time columnist a shot at the greatest game out there? For those who've forgotten, the link to CBS is right here: CBS.com Feedback. So send it and send it often! Thanks to all of you for your support through this entire campaign of mine. I know it won't work, but it sure has been fun trying.
And finally, we did get a preview of Season 17 of Survivor. Looks like they're headed back to Africa. But they seem to be heading more to the coast this time around as it appears to be a much lusher locale than the previous foray into the Dark Continent. So, if everything stays the same, I'll see you guys right back here in the fall for Survivor: Gabon. Until then, take care!