Survivor SA Panama Summary
Episode 13
After a quick recap of events in the previous episode we are taken to Day 28 at the Burba camp.
Day 28
Zayn can’t understand why Gareth is gone and Jacinda comments on how shocked Zayn looked at Tribal Council. Zayn explains that it is vital to win the next Immunity Challenge as he is sure Vanessa and Mzi won’t vote against each other so if Jacinda and Zayn don’t win either of them will go.
Vanessa can't believe the game has reached its final stages and they now stand a 25% chance of winning a million rand, she admits she is willing to fight for it.
Immunity Challenge
Mark explains that the day's Immunity Challenge signals the beginning of the end. The final moments in Survivor will be determined at this challenge. The Survivors will face the toughest obstacle so far in the game in their quest to win a million rand.
They will be standing on four planks bound by rope over the water. Every ten minutes a plank will be removed until there is only one plank left. It will then be a competition to see who can outlast the other Survivors by balancing and maintaining their composure to win immunity.
The first person to fall will leave Survivor. The next two to fall will carry on to another challenge. The person who wins immunity is guaranteed a place in the final 2.
Mark congratulates the final four on coming this far and wishes them the best of luck as the challenge begins.
Nothing eventful happens in the first 10 minutes and Mark removes the first plank. With the survivors down to 3 planks, Zayn comments that the first 10 minutes felt like they took very long. He jokes that they don’t make these challenges for super-sized guys and continues to talk and comment. He says if anyone falls from him distracting them it would be his fault and they will blame him for going out of the competition. Still talking, he mentions that when the game started he couldn't see his feet and now he can.
Mark removes the second plank and reminds the Survivors that after ten minutes it is going to get a lot tougher with only one plank left. The time comes to remove the third and final plank and leave the Survivors with one plank and their own balance to rely on. Almost immediately after Zayn jokes that they will now separate the ballerinas from the men he falls and is eliminated from Survivor South Africa.
It is now down to Jacinda, Mzi and Vanessa. Jacinda tells Mzi that she really wants to go through to the final two and she thinks she deserves to be there. Mzi agrees and tells Jacinda that Vanessa doesn’t want to go through to the final 2 and that Vanessa wants Mzi and Jacinda to be there. Mzi tells Jacinda that Vanessa will stand down for her. Jacinda doesn’t believe Mzi, and he says that Jacinda can ask Vanessa. This discussion goes back and forth. Finally Jacinda tells Mzi that she wants to hear from Vanessa what is going on. As Mzi moves to his right to speak to Vanessa, he sways on the plank and moves his foot onto the supporting structure, he is out of the immunity challenge. Mzi leaves the balancing structure and is very shocked, he says he is still supposed to be up there and had another 6 hours of standing in him.
Vanessa tells Jacinda that Mzi did something there that she doesn’t appreciate, she deserves to be there as much as anybody and Jacinda agrees.
Jacinda starts bending and straightening her knees, rocking the structure slightly, she try's to unsettle Vanessa and get her to fall, but it doesn't work, she tells Vanessa she had to give it a try.
Jacinda finally falters slightly and starts swinging her arms to keep her composure, but she loses her balance. The challenge is over after 3 and a quarter hours and Vanessa has guaranteed herself a place in the final 2.
Mzi and Jacinda will compete for a spot in the final two and the opportunity to meet Vanessa at Tribal Council.
Back at the Burba camp, Vanessa cannot believe that she has reached the final 2. Mzi tries to convince Jacinda that if Vanessa and Jacinda had gone through to the final challenge Vanessa would have stepped down for the million. Jacinda isn't convinced and thinks Mzi was trying to be a smooth talker and was willing to try anything to get to the final 2. Mzi says to Jacinda that the alliance between him, Vanessa and her is what kept Jacinda in the game. Jacinda sees it differently, Zayn fell out of the challenge, he is out of the game and that is why she is still there.
Day 29
Jacinda and Mzi leave the Burba camp to compete for the final seat for the top 2. Vanessa says she would welcome both of them as competition.
Immunity Challenge
Jacinda and Mzi’s final challenge will be a head-to-head water obstacle course. They will race to opposite ends of the course where there are 3 keys they must bring back to the centre one at a time. If they fall off one of their planks on their way to the keys they will have to start crossing that plank again. When they have all 3 keys at the centre, they can jump in the water and race to a raft. Once on the raft, they will use the keys to unlock a chest and remove puzzle pieces. The first person to complete the puzzle will be the winner of the challenge and will have earned a spot in the final 2.
The challenge begins and Jacinda is marginally ahead of Mzi throughout. He struggles to cross the balance beams and falls in the water more times than Jacinda. With Mzi still with one key to retrieve, Jacinda has all three keys and makes her way to the raft to start working on the locks. Jacinda has opened her 3 locks and retrieves the pieces from her chest for her puzzle. As she struggles with her puzzle, Mzi crosses the suspended bridge for his last key. He collects the other keys he has retrieved and heads towards the raft. He unlocks his chest while Jacinda continues to work on the puzzle. He is almost even with Jacinda as she struggles to solve the puzzle. Mzi is the first to think he has finished the puzzle, Mark tells him he is wrong, he needs to form a prism, which he hasn't done. Jacinda is next to indicate she has solved the puzzle and Mark confirms that she has correctly completed it. Mzi is leaving the game to join the jury. He is very disappointed and is given a moment to say goodbye to Jacinda.
Vanessa and Jacinda will form the final 2 at tribal council that night. The jury will decide between the two of them who is more deserving of winning the million rand.
Vanessa is very pleased to see Jacinda and they share their final meal together, she thinks it is bittersweet that Mzi is out of the game as he had worked hard to get there, but she is still happy for Jacinda though.
The final two are given the chance to say goodbye to the former members of their tribes. Kind words flow about the Survivors who have left: Danielle could lift team spirit in one sentence; Nico was one crazy, eccentric son of a gun; Jude told it straight; it took a while for Brigitte and Vanessa to get along but in the end she was a very cool chick; Zayn is walking out the show half the man he came in literally; Mzi the hunter-gatherer in the tribe and a hard guy to loose.
After the retrospective Jacinda comments that it was actually quite sad as the realisation sets in that they are the final 2, watching the tree burn with their tribe mates pictures made the reality so much more real.
As Jacinda and Vanessa prepare for their final Tribal Council Jacinda knows the only thing standing between her and the million is the jury’s opinion of her. Vanessa says it’s a bit scary as now the jury gets to have a say, she hopes they won’t be too hard on them.
Tribal Council
Mark welcomes Jacinda and Vanessa and brings in the jury.
The jury members talk about what they are hoping to get out of tribal council:
Brigitte will base her vote on loyalty, Zayn is looking for honesty, integrity and fairness, Lezel will look at commitment and how hard the final 2 played the game, Mzi will look for some degree of responsibility with the money, Gareth wants to use his question to make the contestants sweat as this should be the hardest part of the competition and how they perform at Tribal Council will determine how much they need the million.
Each member of the jury has the opportunity to say anything they like to the finalists, it can be a comment or a question, but the final two will have an opportunity to respond accordingly. Once the questions are done the jury will vote for who they think is the Ultimate Survivor.
Brigitte comments that there was a time when there were four Rana members left, she asks Jacinda if she had to substitute a Rana member with anyone from Aguila who would it have been and why? Jacinda says she wouldn’t have traded any of the Rana members, but Brigitte says she has to choose. So Jacinda decides that she would have taken Mzi for Zayn, as she didn’t get on as well with Zayn as with her other tribe members
Lezel states that Vanessa seemed like such a reluctant player at the merge and asks Vanessa whether that is a fair comment. Vanessa says it is a fair but at that point it was more about a numbers game and waiting for your turn to be up. She admits she played as an observer but has played as hard as Jacinda
Gareth asks of the final two why the other finalist doesn't deserve the million? Jacinda says that Vanessa went through a slump and that she didn’t and that could be why she doesn’t deserve the million as much. Vanessa admits that Jacinda has been one of stronger contenders and that there is no reason why she doesn’t deserve a million.
Zayn is full of charm and tells the final two how beautiful they still are. He asks Jacinda if she was always upfront and honest with him or whether she was minimal with information for her own survival? Jacinda feels she is almost 100% sure she was upfront and honest, but then Zayn asks why she didn’t tell him about the agreement to vote Gareth off? She says that it wasn't her decision to target Gareth, but that Mzi approached her and she didn’t approach him. Zayn says it seems as if she was prepared to screw them to win, but Jacinda defends herself and says she played the game wanting to wake up the next morning on the island.
Zayn tells Vanessa that she suffered from the perception that she was on the coattails of stronger tribe members, he wants to know what she would say to those who feel that: Vanessa argues that Survivor isn’t a game of brute force, even though it initially felt that way, as the game played out she was given the opportunity to show her strengths with balance and aim etc and that is why she deserves to be in the final 2.
Mzi asks the finalists what they are gong to do with the million. Jacinda wants to use the money to help her mom who has fought a long and hard battle, she is going on 60 and wants to retire but since she has no pension she isn't able to. She would like to set her up in a coffee shop and be involved with it as an investment, but more importantly it will be good to know that her mom will draw a financial income for the rest o f her life. If she has anything left she would buy a new car.
They both give their final responses to the jury:
Jacinda comments that if she has to look at the Survivor series from a different perspective she knows she used emotional detachment as a tool to get her through the game, she apologises for offending others, she knows that everyone is different with opinions and viewpoints and maybe she stepped on toes and she is sorry for that. The whole ride has been worthwhile and even if she leaves without a million she is walking away a better person.
Vanessa knows they have all come a long way in this game. Being together for the final couple of weeks since the merge has been the most hectic and emotional time. She realises that it has tested all her strengths and weaknesses and she now knows how far she is willing to go to get what she wants. She admits she hit a lot of lows, but it’s part of being human and she wasn’t scared of showing that. It’s Survivor for a reason, people fall down, get up and dust themselves off and carry on. She admits she didn't want to continue at times and as she becomes emotional and starts crying, states that it was difficult being a fish out of water. She has emerged from this experience learning a lot about people and it has been an opportunity to know them all.
The jury must vote and write down the name of the person they think is most worthy of being the sole survivor and recipient of one million rand. Brigitte, Lezel, Gareth, Zayn and Mzi vote. Mark collects the votes for the last time, he will not reveal the result, but will see them in South Africa. He leaves the Tribal Council area, walks to the beach where he locks the final vote count in a chest and carries the chest to a waiting boat.
Mark is shown flying in a helicopter over Johannesburg. He is calm and collected as he lands and carries the chest to a Hyundai Tucson. We are taken to Randburg for a live reveal of the results.