Well, Survivor: Nicaragua has come to an end, and what an end it was … or was it? Even Jeff Probst has admitted this hasn’t been the best season especially coming off of last season’s Heroes vs Villains, but when you come down to it there were three mostly good players in the final three.
The last few days in Nicaragua got really interesting as Fabio finally turned on his game play and won three immunity challenges back to back. The first win finally paved the way for Dan’s elimination. I’m still baffled as to why he was kept around that long, but if it was only because he would have been an easy person to win against, I was hoping that he did win just to show the ones who kept him what a bad strategic move that would have been.
Especially if Sash had taken Dan to the finals. Poor Sash, thinking that all of his great strategy of outwitting, outlasting and outplaying the others would give him a million dollars. Has no one learned anything from Russell Hantz? You have to be sociable and friendly and at least stab someone in the back with a smile on your face. Yes, Sash did play a very strategic game but he did it with such cold precision that not one jury member voted for him. The fact that some just felt he was a snake, a New York City river rat and plain spineless spelled out that things were just not going to end well for him (and telling someone that you “believe” you’d take them to the finals is not the right answer).
And what can we say about Chase? Good looking, maybe possessing of some musical talent, check. The smartest player on this season? Not so much. He couldn’t even figure out that Marty was calling him “dumber than a bag of hammers” at the final Tribal! No matter how hard he tried to convince everyone as to how well he played the game and how great his strategy was, the only example of great game play he could muster up was from day six when he got Shannon voted out, but he was smart enough to vote out his biggest threats in the game, especially at the end with Jane and Holly. At least during the reunion he finally admitted that he was a paranoid mess during the game. That he managed to get four votes out of nine just shows how much people liked him over Sash.
The real success story this season is certainly Fabio (aka Jud). I’m not as convinced as he is that he played a good game because, as Sash rightly pointed out, Fabio was generally clueless when it came to voting at Tribal. No one seemed to ever share information with him and when they did, he hemmed and hawed more than Chase about voting out someone he liked. So, he may have known more about what was going on than anyone thought, or he simply turned it on when it counted and voting out Holly instead of Sash for final three was probably his best move after the three immunity wins. Fabio won the game because everyone hated Sash and even though it came down to a single vote, I have to think that his genuine emotion at the final tribal when speaking about his family helped him secure the votes he needed.
Will future Survivor contestants study this and past seasons to try and figure out how to play the game? Can you be ruthless and strategic like Sash yet boundlessly joyful and goofy with no apparent game play like Fabio? There has to be a balance and no winner will ever not step on any toes to get to the finals, but take a lesson from the Sashes and the Russells of the game and at least try to get along with everyone while you’re plotting their demise. It almost worked for Chase!
And congrats to Jane for winning the viewer vote with the most votes and the largest margin ever over the others. And another big congrats to Shannon for proving he’s just as big of an ass as we all thought he was.
“Beauty fades, dumb is forever.” – Dan to Chase
“Dude, I have been crazy for a while.” – Fabio
“Marty, did you fluff off Jane?” – Jeff, after Jane described why she hated Marty so much
“I didn’t know that rain forest was going to be a ‘rain’ forest.” – NaOnka
“NaOnka, your mom just threw you under the bus.” – Jeff, after NaOnka’s mom described herself as the good girl of the two
Clacked by Chuck Duncan 
on Dec 20, 2010 @ 09:34 EST5EDT
. . . . .
I’m completely on board with Fabio winning this season of the competition. Big freakin’ deal if he stepped it up in the final three challenges and smoked the others? You gotta give the dude credit. The others may nay-say ’til the cows come home, but Fabio did what he had to do to place himself in the Top Three. And with flair.
It didn’t surprise me in the least that Sash didn’t garner one single vote. My feeling for him aren’t anywhere near Dan’s loathe for him, but the dude did not deserve to win.
What did surprise me was how close it came down with Chase in the running neck and neck with Fabio. That was a kick in the pants. And again: Glad he didn’t win.
NaOnka should never have been on the council. Nor Purple Kelly. Both should have been tossed out on their asses. It’s reprehensible that either of them simply laid down the way they did. They should be lambasted. Any idea how may others would give their right arms to get in the game? I have no opinion of them and am glad their tastes are out of my mouth.
Overall, a rather lackluster edition of Survivor. There were moments, but not enough of them.
I absolutely loved Fabio winning this thing. He was my first choice for a long time, because he just seems like a good, decent person. I was really glad Chase didn’t take it down (but yeah, dude can sing, so no hard feelings for his future).
I do wonder how much longer this show will run, though. Jeff really seemed to be fed up with a lot of these people (Sash and Shannon in particular). I have to wonder how many seasons he has left in the tank if he’s getting that mad at contestants.