Tonight on Survivor Philippines we’ll find out who won Survivor and takes home the million dollar prize. The final four castaways are Denise, Lisa, Malcolm, and Mike as we start tonight’s show, but there can only be one Sole Survivor!
At the first challenge of the finale we see the castaways arrive at the competition we previewed yesterday, “Dragon Slayer.” Time to find out who can complete the dragon puzzle first and win an advantage in the final challenge. Yep, that’s the prize here: an advantage where it means the most.
The men take a lead to the first bag but when it comes time for the third and final bag we see Mike in the lead with Denise and Malcolm tied for second. Mike arrives at his puzzle first but everyone is close behind and soon working on their last part of the challenge. Denise is making a lot of progress in her puzzle with Malcolm close behind and the rest far behind. Malcolm quickly catches up to Denise and passes her by to win. Malcolm wins the “advantage” for the final immunity challenge.
Now it’s time for the final challenge. It’s a balance and “zen” competition. The final four Survivor Philippines castaways will hold two handles together with a segment in between which holds a metal ball. Every five minutes they’ll squeeze together an extra segment to make it longer and longer. This looks like a nightmare to me, but that’s why I’m at a keyboard instead, I suppose.
Here’s the kicker from Malcolm’s “advantage.” If he drops his ball he gets a second chance. For everyone else, once they drop they are out.
All players make it to the second round as they pick up a second and third segment between the two handles. Not long after Malcolm drops his ball and thanks to his win from the previous challenge he gets a second chance. I’m wondering how much his nerves are shot from the first drop. Yeah, he’s done. Malcolm is shaking and falling apart while next to him Mike is standing fully still. There he goes. Malcolm drops his and is the first person out of the final challenge.
With just a few seconds left in the second round Denise goes from solid to shakes and drops her ball. That means only Lisa and Mike will move on to the third round with another two blocks. One of these two players will win immunity and secure a seat at the end.
Both Lisa and Mike move on to the next round and just when it looks like Mike has lost it we see Lisa’s blocks collapse leaving Mike in the winner’s circle. Mike has won immunity and moves on to the final three more than a decade after he was evacuated from the game. Quite a redemption for him.
We arrive at Tribal Council and as the debate grows things are looking bad for Malcolm. I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t get voted out tonight and just barely miss the final three. Jeff collects the votes and reads them out loud. Sure enough, three to one, Malcolm is voted out. The final three on Survivor Philippines is Mike, Lisa, and Denise. Now it’s time to find out who will win it all.
At the final Tribal Council we discover, unsurprisingly, there are a lot of Bitter Bettys in the crowd but perhaps the most shocking moment was at the very last jury member’s questioning. Penner steps up and announces to the entire group about Lisa’s background as a TV star. Now we’ll have to see if that makes any impact on the votes and considering we see Penner voting for Denise he may have indeed been trying to sway the jury.
Jeff collects the votes and now the show shifts to the live portion to announce who won Survivor Philippines. Wow! Denise wins after Jeff reveals she has at least four of the jury’s votes. Congratulations to Denise!!
Are you happy with how the jury voted? Who did you want to win Survivor?
Now we find out who won “favorite player” of the season. Jeff reveals it was the closest vote ever with just a 0.7% difference and it came down to Malcolm and Lisa. Lisa ended up winning the $100K “favorite” prize. Congrats to Lisa.
Hah! Another bonus for you during the reunion show when Jeff starts to bring up Dawson kissing him on the check. Instead of letting him discuss the topic she rushes across the stage and kisses him right on the lips. Jeff says she doesn’t kiss as well as his wife. Good cover, Jeff.
Now for what you were waiting for: next season. Sure enough, just like we told you last week, season 26 will introduce Survivor Caramoan: Fans Vs. Favorites. Check out that link for spoilers about the new cast leaks.
Thanks for another great season, everyone! We’ll see you again in February for the premiere of Survivor 2013.
