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   Wacky Wanda's S13 Finale/Reunion Commentary

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MediaScribe
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Wacky Wanda's S13 Finale/Reunion Commentary
« on: Dec 18^th, 2006, 9:28pm »

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Here's Wanda's final commerntary of the season. A big thank you to her for including us. We look forward to reading her thoughts next season!

Cliff-Hanger Finale: YESSSS! Colby Donaldson taught the Survivor world in season two that it is not safe to take the most worthy competitor with you to the Final Two spot. Tina Wesson was fantastic, and edged Colby out in a 4-3 decision for the million dollars. Since then, the number two spot has been carefully relegated to weaker players, and the best player of the game has often ended in the third spot. Votes at the finale have usually been landslides -- no suspense. Survivor finally fixed the problem: Let the jury decide among the final three!

First, let's consider what would have happened if they had not done this. Ozzie, winner of the last immunity challenge, would have taken Sundra with him to the Final Two, and Ozzie would have secured the million dollars in a 7-0 or 9-0 vote. Yul, whom the jurors by a one-vote margin considered the better player, would have been in third place and out of the running for the million. Survivor fans, based on the car-poll, preferred Ozzie by a narrow margin. Almost everyone loved them both and agrees that Yul and Ozzie deserved first and second (or second and first) places. The problem of the no-brainer finale from seasons 3 through twelve has been solved: Now the player who is arguably the best but who loses the final immunity challenge can still be in one of the top two places instead of third place. YAY!

Second, let's review some of the third place finishers from recent seasons. Last spring, Terry Deitz was widely considered the best player in the game, and he finished third because he was too good to compete against in the Final Two. Guatemala: plenty of folks liked third-place Rafe better than Danni or Steph, and neither of them would dare to go against Rafe in the Final Two. Palau: Tom Westman was the champ, but no one doubts that third-place Ian would have gotten more votes than second-place Katie. Vanuatu: Third-place Scout was a bigger threat to Chris Daugherty's win than Twila was. (Twila was a great contestant, but the "swear on my son's life" seemed to rankle her tribemates.) The Amazon: Rob Cesternino took third, while Jenna was first and Matt (who like Ozzie cleaned up on all the challenges) was second. Rob is viewed as perhaps the greatest mastermind and play-maker in Survivor history. And how about Lex in Africa finishing "behind" second-place Kim? In sum, the "third place" club has been a real mark of honor, while second place has often been the spot for under-the-radar players, pawns, and lazy coat-tail-riders. Cheers to Survivor for giving the jury a chance to vote among the final three. There was admittedly a small risk of ending with a tie, but with all due respect to Becky and Sundra, these gals who could barely make a fire with matches were classic "second-place-club" material, and it was good to see champs Ozzie and Yul both in the top two spots.

Let's keep the suspense by having more Final Three finishes rather than flat-climax endings with only two choices on the ballot.

Notable: In the first twelve seasons of Survivor, six winners were male (Rich, Ethan, Brian, Chris, Tom, Aras) and six were female (Tina, Vecepia, Jenna, Sandra, Amber, Danni). Season 13 has now had a male winner. I certainly hope the new "Final Three" format is followed for all future seasons -- but will this bring more male winners? We will see.

I loved both Yul and Ozzy, but I think the jury's decision narrow decision was the right one. Yul was physically very competive, but socially he was outstanding, and we have to conclude that in the end, the social game is even more important than athletic prowess. Did Yul play "shamelessly" for the jury votes? I would hope so! Anybody who is not thinking that far ahead shouldn't be a winner. I was really glad to see Yul take the initiative to get Jonathan's hat back to him. Yul was honest about the fact that he believed that should help to earn him Jonathan's vote, but Yul was also sincere in saying that he considered Jonathan a friend, and he would do that kind of thing for a friend regardless of whether he got "paid back" for it later. Yul was also honest about the fact that he was playing a game that involves manipulation and deception which he would not employ with friends in the "real world" but which everyone should expect as part of the game when playing "Survivor." Yul played the game with great people skills and with the most honesty anyone could expect while playing that type of game. I think that Yul also has an edge in maturity that will enable him to make the best use of the million dollars.

Meanwhile, Oscar the Great has $110,000 and a new Ford Mariner, and that should get him through college debt-free, which is a better head-start in life than most kids will get. Ozzie was such a huge threat that I expected him to be out very early after the merge. His tribemates missed their one chance to catch him without the immunity necklace. I doubted that Ozzie would make it to the final four, but I'm really glad he did. Ozzie's skills, his intelligence, and the breaks resulting from his Survivor experience will make him a young man worth watching. The world is his oyster. We loved you, Oz! Way to go!

(One small disappointment with S-13: No car challenge. But we're glad they secured one for Ozzy to win. So presumably the "car curse" still holds, though it took a different shape this time.)

Going beyond the final four, we'll make a few comments here yet on numbers five, six, and seven.

Five: Adam. Sorry, but I did not see in him whatever it was that Candace saw. I saw a lazy, sometimes-lucky, lip-locker with a great smile, and that was about it. For every challenge he won (which was one, if you were counting), he bombed another (the balance-beam fiasco -- and I admit those boards looked mighty thin and hard to traverse). Adam should have gone out earlier, and Jonathan should have been the last whitey standing.

Six: Parvati Shallow. First, what do one's ancestors have to be like to get the name "Shallow"? Second, the "Parvati" thing. My favorite (shhh... don't tell the others!) nephew Trevor, who is a genius, "wiki-ed" the name a couple weeks ago and wrote me the following: "Parvati: Hindu goddess, wife of Shiva, the god of destruction. Fitting, as her laziness has contributed to the Raro implosion. Characteristics symbolized by the eponymous goddess include fertility, asceticism, and power. Well, one out of three ain't bad." I couldn't say it better, so I'll let it at that.

Seven: Jonathan! A lot of us really loved this man and were so sorry to see him go! In my book, he should have been in the final three. There was so much that was likable about him in spite of his sporadic social bumbling. He had more of a work ethic than all the rest of the "white tribe" put together, and his candor was adorable. His facial expressions were so alive all the time, and especially notable while enjoying the visits of everyone's loved ones or reacting to tribal council comments. Not since Coby of Palau have we had such candid, reactive expressiveness. And yes, those blue eyes! He's a doll!

Other reunion show comments: Sekou's Survivor song was cool. Billy was a jolly-great-sport about all the flak he took, with show after show recapping his misinterpreted love-at-first-sight with Candice. Jessica/Flica is incredible! You couldn't pay most people to walk around for a day with a multi-colored mop-top like that, but she's livin' it and lovin' it, and while she's having fun being alive, she's bringing smiles to everyone around her. Yep, this show had some fantastic characters!

So --- it's a wrap! Was the "Four Races Survivor" a good experiment? Absolutely. The final five included all four of the original race-based tribes. The white tribe had the greatest numbers for the longest time, but in the end, the Caucasians were the first tribe to be completely annihilated. There was no hostility between races. Some folks (Nate, for example), were so completely into playing the game with what they thought was objectively the best strategy for them that their initial tribemates accused them of abandoning the racial alliances they thought should be automatic and everlasting. Everyone seemed to agree that it was the personality, character, and skills of the individual that determined each person's success in the game, and race had little or nothing to do with any given vote. I agree with Jeff Probst. This was one of Survivor's greatest seasons.

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Re: Wacky Wanda's S13 Finale/Reunion Commentary
« Reply #1 on: Dec 19^th, 2006, 9:19pm »

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on Dec 18^th, 2006, 9:28pm, MediaScribe wrote:

Here's Wanda's final commerntary of the season. A big thank you to her for including us. We look forward to reading her thoughts next season!

Cliff-Hanger Finale: YESSSS! Adam should have gone out earlier, and Jonathan should have been the last whitey standing.

OMG... I laughed out loud when I read this... I love Wanda.. she is always a "hoot"... If there's a second All-Stars they better have Wanda back!!!!!

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