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| Tai facing heat |
We arrive at the finale with a recap of the journey that got us here and a quick reminder of how many advantages and idols are still in play...should be an explosive night, then. Sarah questions Cirie about who the "rat" was, and she names Tai. Tai confesses he did say Sarah's name, and now she's mad at him instead. His game blown up, Tai tries to earn some goodwill by letting Brad know that he has two idols...but Brad isn't sure he trusts him.
The immunity challenge is a giant maze with bags of puzzle pieces hidden inside that the contestants have to grab and bring back to complete a compass puzzle. They split off into two groups to navigate the maze, with Tai following Brad and both taking hard falls. Troyzan is in the lead but drops his bag off at the wrong station. Brad begins the puzzle first, with Aubry next. Brad is almost done but then sees he has pieces missing. He gets it in the end, winning immunity again. And it's a much more humble celebration this time.
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| In a tight spot |
Brad gets to pick people for a reward dinner, and chooses Troyzan and Sarah. Together they discuss putting votes on Aubry and Tai, to make sure they get Tai's idol. Brad goes to Tai and tells him to play one idol, but also makes a demand for him to give him one. Tai is pretty hesitant to do so, and doesn't like Brad's attitude. Cirie and Aubry both make a case for him to vote with him, but Tai breaks down, knowing he has no real friends.
At tribal council, Aubry compares the post-tribal talk to a therapy session. Tai is mad that he's the bad guy when he's only done what everybody else has done. Sarah denies that the three people who ate together are an alliance and claims it's everybody against Tai. Brad gives a warning for people not to make deals with Tai.
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| Enjoying the show |
After the vote, Tai stands up and plays both idols...one for himself, and one for Aubry. Sarah then decides to play her legacy advantage, making her immune too. Troyzan then gets up as well to play HIS idol, and the jury are going wild at this point. With 5 people immune, Cirie is now out by default...no need to even read the votes. This is an extraordinary way for a legend to go out, and Probst even notes this himself.
The final five now face an immunity challenge that involves transporting balls across a course using paddles. Sarah gets the furthest on it, but then drops. Brad manages to get a ball across whilst everyone else struggles. Soon, everyone else is just watching Brad take home an easy win...the NFL guy has immunity again.
Brad calls this the easiest vote of the season, expecting Aubry to go. Aubry makes her pitch to Sarah and Tai that they need to vote Troyzan out, since him and Brad are tight. Brad basically berates Tai into voting for Aubry, which once again he doesn't appreciate.
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| Coming up just short again |
At tribal council, Troyzan talks about how he thought he would be good at challenges but Brad is blowing him out the water. Aubry, feeling on the outs, reiterates her pitch. Sarah takes it on board but isn't sure that their incentives line up. Probst asks who is concerned that there might be players left that they can't beat, and only Troyzan says he's confident he can beat anybody, which is hilarious. Aubry is voted out, but she seems kinda happy to be on the jury, and plans to give the remaining players a real roasting.
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| Probst almost gets drenched |
For the final immunity challenge, there's a slide they have to go down, a climbing frame they have to climb to get bags of puzzle pieces from, and a lighthouse puzzle to complete. Sarah gets the early lead, until Brad overtakes her when she gets stuck on her third lock. The puzzle then comes together for Brad very quickly, with only Tai particularly close. Brad marks his 5th win of the season, tying the record.
Brad is relaxing now that he's secured his spot at the end, and thinks he has the whole game in the bag. Now he has it out for Tai because of personal reasons, even wanting to blindside him just for fun. Tai tries to convince Sarah to force a tie and make fire. Sarah isn't sure she wants to do that, because she doesn't quite know how to read Tai's chances with the jury.
At tribal council, Tai and Sarah know they're on the block, but Tai makes the case for them to join forces since there must be part of her that's unsure about how they're voting, Brad says that Tai has no leverage, and Tai confronts him about talking to him like a child. Troyzan is surprised to hear it might be a tie, but is ready to make fire if he needs to. Tai is voted out though, hugging Troyzan and thanking Jeff on the way out. For someone who gets quite a bit of shit for his gameplay, he ended up pretty close to winning.
Troyzan says he's fulfilling a dream by making day 39, and talks up his social game that got him to the end. Sarah says she worked her ass off and made moves. Brad openly admits that he's not nervous about what's to come, thinking his immunity wins and aggressive style will speak for itself.
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| It's good to be the king |
At tribal council, Jeff recaps the numerous records broken in this crazy season, and then decides to debut a new format for the jury questioning. It's now more of an open discussion with Jeff leading the way. This feels like a direct response to him not getting the winner he wanted in
Kaoh Rong...I guess Michele is the real game changer.
The first topic is who outwitted. Zeke decides to be Sarah's champion and points out how brilliant a move it was to get Sierra to give her the legacy advantage despite voting her out. Andrea says she feels pretty disgusted at the way Sarah abused her personal relationships, and the jury greets her with uproarious laughter when she tries to say they were real. Ozzy gives Brad props for being a challenge dominator, and nominates himself as his champion.
Cirie tells Brad and Troyzan she thinks Sierra was the brains of their operation, but Brad counters that getting J.T. to spill the beans during the Malcolm vote was a key move of his doing. Michaela tells Brad she thinks he didn't make personal relationships. Sarah, who has the opposite problem, defends her dirty gameplay by comparing it to being an undercover cop. Troyzan gets a question for the first time when Michaela asks him what he did. Ozzy is unconvinced by his answer and calls him a passenger, whereas Aubry calls him "Sandra without the sass". Sierra defends her alliance partner a bit though, and says he did have a role in the decision making.
Tai wants to know from Brad why he was a jerk to him and Brad says he was playing the game. Hali then asks him to clarify if condescension was his strategy, which he denies. Zeke calls Sarah the main driver of the game. Moving on to the outplay portion, Brad is declared the clear winner, but Sarah points out that would be expected from a former athlete, and reveals how she got the secret advantage.
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| Nice to see them go back to a final 2 this year |
For their closing arguments, Brad points out that you can play without lying and that he won his way to the end when he needed to. Sarah tells the jury she had to strike at them before they beat her and reminds them that she was the only one in on every vote. Troyzan pretty much knows he has no shot, so just thanks them for being part of his dream.
Time to vote, for the final time! Zeke and Michaela give Sarah their vote along with props for her impressive showing, whilst Debbie and Ozzy are both team Brad. We switch to the studio, where Jeff starts reading them out. It looks like a fairly close vote for once, with 3 votes for Brad and 7 for Sarah. The criminal makes off with the cash!
STAR OF THE WEEK: SARAH LACINA
She might not have been considered one of the headliners when the season was first announced, but she played a strong game that can measure up to anyone's. Flipping from side to side, lying like crazy...clearly she learned some things from her Cops R Us buddy Tony.
Reunion notes:
- As much as I hate the hypothetical votes Probst always does - and clearly Brad hated it too - it was worth it to finally solve the mystery of what happens in an FTC tie.
- Malcolm sure is a good sport about his elimination.
- Varner getting to plug his book was disgusting...I immediately regret any benefit of the doubt I ever gave him.
- Heroes Vs Healers Vs Hustlers is a bottom-of-the-barrel theme and a really awkward title...but as I've said many times before, none of that matters if the cast is good. Turtleneck guy is my instant favorite.