live reunion show

I’m not ashamed to admit that I still get the tingles watching the Survivor Finale each and every season. Watching the Finale is an event in my home, in that it is the rare occasion that my wife and I watch live TV that isn’t news or sports, and isn’t a show that has been DVR’ed or downloaded. It’s a ritual that all of us share, feeling that excitement of not knowing what outcome we’re about to see play out before our very eyes. There is no need to avoid spoilers or to stay off of Twitter, because whatever is about to happen hasn’t happened yet. There is a weird feeling of impatience that washes over me when I’m not able to fast-forward through a commercial break.

Yes even at its worst, Survivor is better than most shows on TV. I’ll take a mediocre season of Survivor over any other season of any other Reality Competition Show out there. As this season drew to a close, I had to give myself a small pat on the back though, because my predictions rarely – if ever – come true. Just after the merge, when this season looked like it was just going to be one of those average, ho-hum seasons of Survivor, and people started to leave the show, I pleaded with my followers to stick this season out. I had a feeling that there were some strong players left in the game, and that once we had whittled it down, that this season could still have potential to be great. My eyes and ears began to perk up over the last few weeks when Survivor: HHH gave us several strong, dramatic episodes in a row, and this two-hour Finale did not disappoint (even if the Live Reunion Show that followed did). Not in the least. In fact, not only did I get the tingles, I felt myself on an emotional roller coaster that carried all the way through the final vote reading. By my measure, this was not a good end to to a mediocre season…this was a GREAT end to what became a pretty strong season.

The Finale was not without controversy (Twitter was all up in arms about a few specifics, which we’ll get to). But before we get ahead of ourselves, the normal disclaimer: Please remember that this recap assumes that you have already seen this week’s Finale Episode of Survivor: HHH, so if you have not and don’t want to be spoiled, please come back later! It’s important to add too that while we WILL hit on all of the important developments of the episode, this is not a linear “blow-by-blow” recap, and is more of a discussion and reaction of what we just witnessed together.

CLICK THE CONTINUE READING BUTTON FOR MORE, AND THIS IS YOUR LAST *SPOILER* WARNING!