Reality TV Thoughts

Ten years after the airing of Survivor Kaoh Rong, Aubry Bracco has finally gotten her Survivor victory. And for her patience, she becomes one of two Survivor winners to earn $2 million for their victory, joining Tony Vlachos. And much like her loss on Kaoh Rong, Aubry’s win on 50 is controversial. She beats out the overtly strategic finalist and a goat that’s a nice person with no win equity. Along the way, Tiffany loses her chance at $2 million by one puzzle piece and Rizo becomes the first ever two-time firemaking loser on US Survivor. Oh, and Jeff Probst makes one of the most hilarious live TV blunders of all time.

Going out Guns Blazing

Tiffany was the only one to not vote Cirie out at the last tribal council. Now, back at camp, she is pissed and knows she’s on the chopping block if she doesn’t win immunity. She’s not going to just pull a Mitch and lay over and die, though. She’s going to give this all she’s got. She’s more fired up than ever and unfortunately, Aubry just happens to be in her line of fire. As Aubry tries to comfort Tiffany, asking if she needs to talk with her, Tiffany has a mild blow up, telling Aubry that she doesn’t need her fake sympathy. In confessional, she rants about Aubry being a snake. So much for their swapped Kalo friendship…

At the immunity challenge, Tiffany gives everything she has left. Despite falling slightly behind Jonathan and Joe in the obstacle course, she catches up to them on the puzzle. It’s a dead-heat, and everyone else starts worrying about a Tiffany win. Jonathan takes a break from his puzzle to throw up. Unfortunately, he is still able to clinch the immunity win as Tiffany is in the middle of placing her last puzzle piece. This is an absolutely devastating moment for Tiffany, but as already stated, she refuses to give up.

Tiffany’s last resort is to turn Jonathan and Joe against Aubry. She tries convincing them that Aubry is a huge threat to win but it falls on deaf ears. She’s frustrated at tribal council and compares herself to Joe, saying they’ve both won three immunity challenges but she’s the only one that is being targeted. This is something she caught flack from Jeff and Jonathan for, but it has merit. In her exit interviews, Tiffany explained that the reason she felt that way was because Jonathan told her at camp that the reason she was targeted and not Joe was because she was a girl. If this is true, and I believe it is because there is no reason for her to lie, then it is an example of poor jury management and possible sexism from Jonathan. I wouldn’t be surprised considering what Lindsey said about him after 42 and it adds credence to Survivor 47’s Rome’s claim that an unnamed player approached him with an alliance to make sure another woman doesn’t win before the season started. The editors hid that moment to protect their darling and make Tiffany look bitter. Alas, it doesn’t matter as Tiffany is voted out in a simple 4-1 vote.

Tiffany Nicole Ervin: An Unintended Fan Favorite

Tiffany was done dirty by the editors on 50. She was one puzzle piece away from winning the entire game, but was made irrelevant during the premerge and and given a middling edit throughout the merge. Despite that, she still became a fan favorite and came out to a standing ovation at the reunion. The editors did not intend for her to be a fan favorite, but she became one anyways. The few times the editors decided to put her on the show, she shined bright for her tenacity, underdog run, and amazing confessional skills. If she comes back after this season, I’ll be rooting for her and hope that the editors give her an edit she deserves.

Reverse Your Curse

We’ve reached the final four and all of these player have made it to this point in their previous runs. Aubry won a firemaking tiebreaker to get to final tribal on Kaoh Rong, but infamously lost to Michele. Joe was taken to the end by Kyle on 48, but then got ’embarrassed’ at final tribal council. And then both Rizo and Jonathan were firemaking losers on their original seasons. They all have curses that they wish to fix, but not all of them will be able to. Of the four of them, Aubry seems to be the most self aware of her position in the game and her prior mistakes. She doesn’t need to be the top strategist for the jury to award her the win, she just needs them to like her. She also knows that at this point, the other three are against her. She can’t afford to lose right at the end again.

To nobody’s shock, Simmotion won the fan vote to become the final immunity challenge of Survivor 50. To Aubry’s fortune, this was one of the challenges that she bought a replica of and practiced right before 50. She is able to clinch the victory in a fan-favorite challenge, beating out Joe to secure her spot at final tribal. Safe from firemaking, she has a big decision to make, one that she’s not going to mess up. The other three, hoping that they were going to be able to oust Aubry, will now have to rethink everything.

Aubry’s mind is made up pretty quickly. She’s going to take Joe to the end. She correctly sees him as the smallest jury threat and also has a genuine friendship with him. It’s an easy decision. Joe is very emotional when Aubry tells him this. He will get his chance to plead his case to the jury for $2 million. A jury that will certainly take him seriously…

Unfortunately for Jonathan and Rizo, that means the two of them will face off in firemaking. One of them will fail to reverse their curse but the other will heal at least some of their wounds. Rizo struggles with firemaking, to the point Joe decides to help him like he helped Eva on 48. It was a genuinely sweet moment. Also funny, as Rizo does the “R-I-Z-G-O-D Rizgod baby!” bit even as he holds back his tears. We are sure to get a suspenseful firemaking challenge…

Jeff’s Blunder

Instead of a traditional reunion, Jeff and production decided to sprinkle in interviews with eliminated castaways and fun segments across the finale. It starts with Jeff presenting Cirie with a weird ‘Survivor Spirit Award,’ then interviewing Tiffany after her elimination, presenting Rick Devens with the Mr. Beast coin, and giving Ozzy a graphic tee. After Aubry announces her decision at tribal council to put Jonathan and Rizo in fire, the finale cuts back to the reunion. Jeff stands at the front of the stage, the jury members behind him. He brings out Rizo, who is confused, but just goes along with Jeff, even as he asks him questions he would ask to eliminated castaways. He caps it off by telling Rizo to take the final seat on the jury. It is only after this that Jeff learns the firemaking challenge hadn’t been shown yet. Jeff does a brilliant job at handling the situation, simply explaining what happened after the ad break and playing into the joke. It ultimately doesn’t really matter, as Jonathan blows Rizo out in firemaking.

Rizgod: Legacy Cemented

We have now had two straight seasons of Rizgod, 26 episodes! And it is safe to say, he may not have won, but he cemented his Survivor legacy. His idol shenanigans and unique attribute of being the first two-time firemaking loser will keep him in our minds, but he also just has a very endearing personality. He seems like an amazing guy and it was so fun to watch him meet and play with his Survivor heroes this season. There is no doubt he will be back at some point, I hope not too soon, though. It would be very interesting to see him in five years on Survivor 60, when he’ll have a hopefully lower threat level and a lot of new perspectives.

The Final 3: Aubry’s Redemption

Here Aubry is, at the final three once again. She got her ideal scenario with Rizo losing firemaking, now it’s all about winning over the jury at final tribal council. It’s time to heal her wounds. As she heals her wounds though, she’ll unintentionally give someone a whole new set of wounds.

Before that, the final three must celebrate getting to the end of the game with their day 26 breakfast. In addition to the feast, they are surprised with their loved ones. It was such a nice surprise to see the loved ones, as I had given up hope of there being a loved ones visit after there wasn’t one last episode. But they’re here, at the last possible opportunity. A very pleasant surprise.

It’s finally time for final tribal council. The final three now stand in front of the jury, ready to plead their case. Aubry is ready to argue that while she may not have been out in front, she did control crucial votes and has a strong legacy to back her. Jonathan is ready to argue his strategic growth from 42 and how he became the most dominant strategic player on 50. And Joe….

It quickly becomes clear that the vote is between Aubry and Jonathan. Stephenie and Chrissy are both fierce Jonathan defenders. Stephenie rides for Jonathan so hard that Tiffany wonders if she’s ever going to ask a question. Ozzy gives a great speech that shows his growth in the game. He questions Joe and Jonathan about how they spent so much time talking about needing to take out the middle but are now separated by the middle. Jonathan is confused about what he even means. Joe’s most notable moment is when Cirie talks about ‘Joetations.’ She and other jury members felt like they had to play around Joe and babysit him in the game. Tiffany gives another great jury performance, giving a fair chance to all jury members to answer the questions. She even gets to the bottom of the Ozzy blindside, which becomes one of the big talking points at final tribal. She asks Joe who convinced him to turn against Ozzy and he admits it was Aubry. Christian caps off the jury questions perfectly with a question about the three players’ stories and legacies. Aubry gives a summary of what she’s learned across her Survivor journey, Jonathan talks about strategic growth, and Joe talks about how he was always willing to be vulnerable. With jury questions over, it is time to vote. While Jonathan’s pregame alliance of Chrissy, Stephenie, and Coach all vote for him to win, everyone else votes for Aubry, making her the season 50 champion. To end the season finale, Jeff reveals the Sia Award recipient… Cirie!

Joe Hunter: Honesty and Integrity But Likable

Joe has shown on both of his seasons that he is a good guy. His relationship with Eva, relationship with Rizo that was mostly hidden, and all around strong values make him seem like a stand-up guy. He seems like one of the most chill people to talk to outside of the game and there’s a reason most of his castmates only have nice things to say about him. As a Survivor player though… Positives first. It is impressive, no matter the circumstances, that he’s reached final tribal council twice. However, his win equity is just so low. On 48, he was the main power player, pushing the honesty and integrity narrative of the season. Through the narrative he pushed, though, he burned the jury and was manipulated by Kyle and Kamilla. Now on 50, he was nowhere near being a power player. In fact, players like Cirie and Emily felt that they had to play around Joe. And he came to the end with no one thinking he stood a chance to win. At this point, I just don’t think Joe is meant to play a cutthroat or strategic Survivor game. His values don’t allow him to play that way, and that’s okay. But personally, he is just not the kind of player I would want to see play again.

Jonathan Young: Bitter Jurors? Bitter Loser

I get it. It must hurt so bad to be so close to $2 million dollars and feel like you did everything you could to win. It’s impossible to pinpoint why Jonathan lost, but the one thing that’s clear is that his social game leaves a lot to be desired. The blow up with Dee, which he seemed to truly believe was a masterful move, making snide comments to Devens when he was merely trying to save himself, licking the rice even after Tiffany tells him to stop. These things add up and they result in a jury not willing to vote for him. But the way Jonathan has handled his exit interviews: blaming Cirie for poisoning the jury against him and saying that Aubry only won because of her legacy. It just comes off as bitter. I’ve tried (and often failed) to stay impartial towards Jonathan in all of these reviews, moving past my own biases and dislike of him in order to be fair. I was disappointed to see him on the cast and disappointed to see him get so far. Despite my own opinions, I want to give an honest autopsy of his game. He did show lots of strategic growth. If he just looks within himself and fixes his social game, he could actually become the “whole package.”

Aubry Bracco: The Ultimate Underdog

Aubry was one of the more polarizing choices for Survivor 50. I was unsure how to feel about her return until I listened to her preseason interviews, after which I became more excited about her inclusion on the season. This season was all about redemption and healing for Aubry. It was clear how hurt she was by how Edge of Extinction ended for her and she wanted to feel the love she had felt for the game before. But her game on this season was… weird. As she’s admitted, she started off on the wrong foot, being on the bottom of both her original and swapped tribes. Her infamous rivalry with Genevieve was the highlight of her game for the first six episodes. After that, she was loosely aligned with the nerd alliance in the early merge. She did some things to lower her threat level. Firstly, she burned her idol, the same idol that would later put targets on Ozzy and Rizo’s backs. She let the big players take each other out and then, when put in a terrible spot during the split tribal, used the information Ozzy gave her to save herself. In the endgame, she had already made up in her mind who she needed to sit next to at the end to win. She joined in to vote out the three biggest jury threats in Devens, Cirie, and Tiffany. Even if everyone else in the final four was targeting her, she knew she needed them at the end to win. After clutching the win in Simmotion, she took the biggest goat to the end and made the two, slightly bigger threats, fight for their lives. Then, she gave a great speech about what she’s learned over her Survivor journey. That’s all it took to win. It may not have been a flashy or dominant game, but it was a winning one. Sure, her legacy may have helped her win, but ultimately, members of the jury like Cirie were excited to vote for her even without any flashy moves.

Conclusion: Surprised

I was not particularly excited coming into the finale. The final five left a lot to be desired, especially considering we had lost most of the big players in the last few episodes. Nothing besides the Rizo blunder and how nice it was to see Aubry finally win really stuck in my mind. But writing this review, I began to like this finale way more than I though I would. The final four, even if it was a final four I found to be very lackluster, all had something to prove. They all had curses they needed to reverse, something that can only happen in returnee seasons. Technically, two of them reversed their curse from the past. But while one of them ends the game healed and a multi-millionaire, the other ends it with one curse reversed and a whole bunch of new wounds. The other two suffered from their exact same curse, but seem content with their experience anyway. It’s a very interesting conclusion to the season and one I can’t wait to explore further in my season review.