FINALENooo! Vanessa’s win was very disappointing and boring.
It’s got nothing to do with whether or not Vanessa’s a nice person ‘cos this sort of thing means nothing to me when it comes to choosing a final winner. The thing is I just can’t take it when a Survivor who hasn’t taken any risks at all throughout the season manages to walk away a million bucks richer.
I just knew that the way I wanted things to go so that Mzi could win wasn’t gonna happen when he tumbled off the balance thing in that unbelievably ridiculous final four challenge.
It was only
the very end and most important challenge of everything which means it should have been filled with brain-frying three-dimensional battles and dilemma’s. The fact that everything came down to how well they could balance defeated the point of what they’ve been through entirely.
If Vanessa had had to choose who she wanted to take to the final two I wouldn’t have minded as much but instead the final battle between Jacinda and Mzi was all about exactly the same rubbishy one dimensional thing.
After that it was a downward spiral into yawny predictability that was sealed the moment Mzi lost the challenge to Jacinda.
There was just no ways the jury was ever going to give her the cash for actually outwitting, outlasting and outplaying them. Oh nooo, instead everyone was there to judge how much integrity and honesty she had because of course the jury are all perfect people who know exactly what these two words actually mean.
Not.Also, they were very concerned about how the money would be spent, so concerned in fact that we only got to hear what Jacinda would spend it on but not Vanessa. What the stuff was up with that? It was too incredible that they left out answers to jury questions like that in the most important scene of show.
The same thing happened in Survivor Africa where we only got to see answers from one of them in different instances, which obviously has to do with the copious amounts of time wasted doing other recap stuff.
Another verry irritating thing was the fact that the pop culture title up for grabs was completely changed. Instead of the winner being the Sole Survivor they’re now the ultimate Survivor which drives me round the bend. The whole point of referring to them as being Sole is because of the dynamics of the word and how it relates to their souls and how epically universal it makes the experience of it. Ultimate doesn’t mean anything like this.
As much as the jury needed a slap, the true fault of the predictability definitely lay in the structure of things, from Dead Man’s Island onwards.
I didn’t have a problem with it when it looked like it could save Mzi who’d done so much up until he left but the way things turned out I’ve realized that I do. Essentially it boiled down to Jacinda having no chance at all - the odds that she’d have more people against her because she’d gotten rid of them were just too high for her to have a chance.
Nothing that Jacinda said in her answers could have saved her - espesh considering how Zayn turned on her in exactly the way she predicted he would. The crazy thing with him was that he didn’t even have a proper relationship with Vanessa and yet he gave her the win.
I reckon Jacinda’s answer to Brigitte’s excellent question about who she’d have swapped in Rana contributed to him being so decisive about this. She had to choose one person, she chose Zayn and in her answer she should have given a clearer explanation as to why.
She also didn’t explain her coldness and distance as part of her strategy properly. I took her to mean that she took on a role she thought would serve her best in the show and wasn’t the self that her family and loved ones know. In a way it was an act, but also not and the fact that she went out on a limb and did it was brave I thought.
It’s not an easy thing to do stuff you could be loathed for and yet she never flinched in anything she did. She also never put anyone down, she maintained her independence constantly and she never once took anything personally.
Whether they liked her or didn’t, it was disappointing that they didn’t decide to give her the cash for that.
All that said though it was still very groovy wishing things were different while not blinking for a moment while watching it unfold - particularly as I was watching as part of the live studio audience. Speaking of which - I couldn’t believe it - did you notice how the two who got the biggest applause from everyone (besides Nico and Mzi) were Jude and Sanele? I don’t understand how the two who Survived least could be seen as greater hero’s than some of the others!
Also, what was up with the Survivors making things so difficult for Mark? It wasn’t all of them but a couple of them responded to his questions in such a way that they cut off where he was trying to go entertainment-wise completely. He dealt with it well I thought and was generally looking super.
It’s always fun seeing everyone looking so shinily juicy and glam in their make-up and, even when it’s not your fave choice of winner, it’s still cool seeing someone winning a million buckaroonies.
I was pleased for Vanessa as she clasped the killer cheque at the press conference afterwards, as was everyone else. All the Survivors seemed happy enough with how things turned out and were much more concerned with partying the night away than not getting the cheque themselves.
As was I - I started boozing from the moment those firework things went off at the end of the show and didn’t stop for a full three and a half hours as I scooped who was up to what at the Survivor After Party.
Pics and goss coming up on Tuesday!