After a season that started slowly, built up to some great episodes, fell back into week after week of nothing happening, Survivor: South Pacific had the potential to go out with a bang, but still ended on kind of a whimper due to some majorly bad decisions.
So what exactly did we learn from the season finale? Hopefully, the message to future players is that God really does not care if you win Survivor, and He’s probably even more likely to make sure you don’t win if you keep making deals based on being a “good Christian” and make decisions based on praying for a name to write down on a piece of paper. We saw Brandon get burned by putting his faith before his game play, and we saw Coach completely manipulate people into believing they were safe because he gave his word as a “good Christian.” I hope that after the outcome of this season, people will think twice about using religious beliefs to play a game that requires manipulation, lying and betrayal to get ahead.
During the family visit, we saw Coach make a final three deal with Ozzy. Ozzy beat Brandon in the final Redemption Island duel, managed to win the first immunity challenge and seemed to be on solid ground. Of course, Ozzy may have shot himself in the foot, first by telling Albert about the secret deal he and Coach had made and then bringing it up again at Tribal, making Coach look like a fool. Rick got voted out, and back at camp Coach confronted Ozzy about revealing the secret deal. Ozzy said he’d been burned too many times in the past to truly trust anyone, but his honesty won Coach over … briefly.
Ozzy fell apart at the second immunity challenge, opening the door for Sophie to secure her spot in the final three. Ozzy tried to get Coach to hold to his word and at least cast a tie vote, but Coach again went against everything he claims to be and voted Ozzy out.
Things got a little heated at the final Tribal as the jury members had a chance to ask questions … but they did more attacking than questioning. Ozzy said no one wanted to vote for Albert, Coach or Sophie, and he called Coach’s honor a load of bull. To Jim’s question about game play, Albert said he was the one who carried Coach to the end. Dawn wanted to know Sophie’s strategy, to which she replied she saw Coach as a young girl whom she could manipulate the same way the men have done in the past. Rick let Coach and Albert have it for playing fast and loose with religion to get ahead, and said Sophie just lied her way to the end. Brandon insisted on a yes or no answer from Albert about his knowledge of the vote that got him sent to Redemption Island. As Albert hemmed and hawwed, Brandon got louder and louder with his insistence on an answer, to which Albert finally said no (although after they came back from that Tribal, Coach confronted Albert about knowing the vote and not giving immunity back to Brandon).
The vitriol continued with Whitney calling out Coach for using religion to manipulate people, called Albert sleepy and Sophie condescending. The only kind words came from Edna, who pointed out that manipulation is a part of the game and people have used religion to manipulate people for centuries, and they all signed up for it so there should be no hard feelings. Keith asked if Coach would have used the hidden immunity idol on himself (since it was a “tribe idol”), and he said he would have if he needed to. Then Sophie revealed the whole scam of praying for the idol which was already in Coach’s pocket. Brandon’s eyes looked like there going to pop out of his head.
Cochran was actually impressed with how Coach was able to trick people into believing they were safe, but didn’t like how he always used the word “honor.” Coach, after taking quite a lashing, seemed a broken man at that point and said he came into the game with the best intentions of wanted to do things right this time, but ended up doing more things wrong because he’s a terrible strategist (which may have won him a few votes). Sophie and Albert then both took credit for all the strategy. When casting his vote for Coach, Cochran said he did play a good game and hoped the rest of the jury weren’t bitter.
But bitter they were, apparently, as Sophie took home the million dollars. Coach’s bad decisions to keep Sophie over Cochran or Rick cost him a million dollars according to the jury poll Jeff took at the reunion. Had Coach kept Ozzy, that would have also cost him a million dollars. The reunion also brought Russell Hantz back to critique his nephew, and after Brandon said not many in his family respected his game play, the audience booed Russell for claiming to bring greatness to the game while Brandon brought nothing. Poor Brandon said that he couldn’t make his own family happy, but he’s happy with how he played. Ozzy won the Player of the Season viewer vote, and Probst joked that a Brandon vs Russell season would be fun. Uh, no, it would not so don’t even consider it! Next season has enough potential to shake things up with no returnees (YAY!) and two tribes living on the same beach. Let’s hope this new dynamic puts some spark back into the game. See you in February.
Clacked by Chuck Duncan 
on Dec 19, 2011 @ 01:21 EST5EDT
I felt so sorry for Brandon. Poor guy is trying to improve himself and there was no one there to support the effort. Very sad.
*POST AUTHOR*
Yeah, and his wonderful uncle didn’t help matters. I’m glad he got booed.
I think the right person won. Ozzy’s statement that no one wanted to vote for any of the 3 could be construed as an arrogant statement with the implication that everyone wanted to vote for him. Which was probably true.
And if Coach had voted out Sophie instead of Rick, then she wouldn’t have won the final immunity, it would have probably gone to Ozzy, and he would have won anyway. And what was up with Albert on that last immunity? Was he trying to sabotage Sophie or was he just being stupid?
I think Sophie won 1) due to the female girl comment about Coach. That was hilarious. And 2) she’s young enough to come across as sincere about becoming aware of her behavior and recognizing her faults.
*POST AUTHOR*
Yeah, I was wondering why Albert was always in the same place at the same time as she was. I bet it was a form of sabotage since he already felt she had a good shot at winning.
I don’t want to see Hantz v. Hantz either. Not a good plan for future family stability. Besides, watching Brandon navigate the game is very unpleasant.
*POST AUTHOR*
That would be a season I’d refuse to watch. Hopefully the audiences boos at Russell put any notions of that to rest!
Most boring Season since Amazon. First time I didn’t care to watch the Reunion because I didn’t care about anyone or anything.
I have to say, I didn’t think I would like Brandon at the beginning but I really did end up liking him at the end. My hope is he finds joy in his life.
*POST AUTHOR*
You had to kind of feel sorry for him, especially after what he said about his family at the reunion and then how his uncle Russell treated him. I would have rather seen his wife and kids in the audience than have more screen time for Russell.
Two tribes on the same beach sounds pretty awesome, especially since we’re going to get a chance to meet some new people. The casting department has probably tens of thousands of people to choose from, so I’m sure they can get 16-18 who will be damned interesting to watch.
*POST AUTHOR*
You would think they would have enough submissions to find some interesting people. Unfortunately, since they’ve started shooting seasons back-to-back, the casting process leaves them little time to go through the submissions they receive and they end up recruiting a lot of people they find on the streets in L.A. That’s why so many of them look like models, because they’re out of work actors. Viewer submissions play a much smaller role in the casting process than it used to. I say they should only have one season of Survivor and The Amazing Race each year so they can go through submissions and really cast interesting people.
Is it mandatory that the jury cast votes? I ask because if I were on that jury, I would have opted to put a big “X” on the ballot. IMO none of them deserved the $$.
*POST AUTHOR*
Yeah, they have to vote.