That was a really good finale. More show and less Probst in the studio undoubtedly helped, as it gave us maybe an extra 25 minutes of show footage.
So lets go back to my finale rankings from before the episode.
So, my finale rankings, in order from most likely to least likely to win:
Tony
Sarah
Natalie
Michelle
Denise
Someone on the Jury
Russell Hantz
An Inanimate Carbon Rod
Ben
I think it was a pretty fair assessment, although given her run to F3 I'd probably rate Nat and Sarah as even. Truthfully, I was hoping Sarah would win the fire making, because that would've guaranteed the first female winner since... Sarah. A fairly easy win for Tony, but I thought that Natalie gave a good accounting of herself, all things considered.
I am thrilled that Tony won. I had feared the exiled would feel a bond with Natalie and throw lots of votes her way. Tony upset people when he voted them off, but since Natalie was voted out first, she never ran the chance of offending people in the same way, which was to her advantage. I am happy that Michelle received no votes.
I think that, against someone without Tony's resume, Nat probably would've taken this. I know Rob dinged her for not doing a fire duel with Tony a la Chris, but years of watching Survivor and Top Chef have shown me that giving up immunity is about the dumbest thing you can do. Chris got lucky, but Chris also had nothing on his resume beyond a Highlights of Qualifications that said "Lasted 38 days in Fiji". At least this EoE had some level of gameplay that Nat could point to. Suffice it to say, she earned that second place.
As for Michelle, I felt that getting no votes in this season was not a mark of disrespect, but one that gave more respect to how Tony and Natalie played. In a new player season without Tony and Natalie sitting beside her, I could see Michelle winning. It is super hard to play from underneath and not look like a goat, but Michelle accomplished that. She should be proud of that.
Ben... I'm going to give props to Ben. I think he realized that a win wasn't in the cards for him, so I really think he gave thought to what he wanted out of the show. And thus he fell on his sword so that Sarah could add to her CV. A selfless act, and my hats off to him... but a good Survivor player would never do that.
It was a very positive tribal but I think that Jeremy did have some sour grapes towards Tony and expressed them. It was only a short clip in the whole tribal. We really only see what they want us to see, being positive was nice for a change.
There were probably three locked in votes at Tribal. Sarah and Ben were voting Tony, and Jeremy was voting Natalie. Nothing Tony said was going to change Jeremy's vote, so a little venom for getting outsmarted was not unexpected for me.
My favorite is still Boston Rob. I wish that he had been able to make his way back into the game. I loved at the vote when he said "You played a great game but it would have been perfect if you had took out Tony" or something to that effect.
Which was a poor take, because what if Natalie had lost? She'd be the one that gave up immunity to make fire and got booted instead. She'd end up on a list with Erik for "dumbest moves while holding individual immunity". Guaranteed shot at 2 million? You take that shot and let someone else fight for it. I still think Chris was dumb for doing it on EoE, but I understand why.
