May 30, 2018

Survivor Ghost Island: Wendell is the Sole Survivor (After a Tie)

5/30/2018 Posted by Mel Got Served , No comments
Week 13 - Finale!

While Donathan's outburst at the last Tribal Council makes his target ginormous, the plan is to target likeable, strong Sebastian. Wendell remembers to call Probst's name after finishing his puzzle this week and wins a steak and potato reward. He brings Sebastian and Angela along to the feast to butter them up before jury (literally and metaphorically). Finally, Sebastian is ready to make a big move and with Wendell winning immunity, that target is on Domenick. The group speculates that Domenick is bluffing about having two idols and will want to keep it for final five, so the move is to use Sebastian's extra vote to blindside him. Then Angela spills the bean to Domenick and it. is. on. At Tribal Council, Domenick calls out the tribe for concocting a plan against him, then busts out his two idols - one of which is the David Wright fake he found awhile back, but bluffs it's gained power. Jumping on the bandwagon, Wendell puts on his big ass Eric Reichenbach immunity necklace and gets it's a bro-down with Donathan. The tribe votes, no idols are played, and Domenick admits the idol he prematurely gave to Probst is a fake. Sebastian doesn't end up playing his extra vote, which is yet another curse to carry on as he is voted out of the game.

Wendell wins Immunity yet again and guarantees his spot in the final four, which was already guaranteed since he has a Hidden Immunity Idol. Domenick is also safe with his Idol, so buddies Dom and Wendell ponder the options of who to eliminate to further their game. At Tribal Council, there's talk about making the right picks to move forward or else you could lose at the end. Plus, whoever sticks around will have the chance to make fire at the Final Four, a meh twist introduced last season which remains in play. Since Wendell is immune, he hopes he can use Erik's cursed idol to reverse the curse. Donathan argues his case to stick around because he's not good at challenges, but it doesn't help. Wendell gives his no longer cursed idol to Laurel, who plays it on herself. Donathan is voted out of the game, but don't worry because Sia decides to give him money because this is still a thing that happens.

Domenick wins the final Immunity Challenge of the season is to balance while stacking balls on stands. This victory gives Dom the ultimate power of picking who will automatically advance to the final three and which two will head to a firemaking death match. On a trip to Ghost Island as a group, Dom gets one last "prize": he gets to choose which cursed vote urn of the past to use at final Tribal. He picks the urn which gave Tony the win after Woo's awful, but integrity-filled choice. Dom needs to pick the right woman to beat his biggest ally and rival in the firemaking challenge, but Laurel is adament she'll fail and while Angela is confident in building fire, she also knows Wendell is great at it. Domenick wonders if he should make the ballsiest move of all time: forgoe his immunity and face Wendell himself in a firemaking duel. But he decides against that. Dom brings Laurel to the finals, leading to a fire face-off between Wendell and Angela. Wendell is apprehensive of sitting in the cursed orange slot, so he switches with Angela, then wins. Angela becomes the final member of the jury and Dom, Wendell, and Laurel make the final three together.

The final three share a group hug and celebrate with their day 39 breakfast. And then they're off the final Tribal Council, which is the newish City Hall format which Jeff Probst moderates and it's more of a conversation with the jury. Laurel's argument is she played from the bottom from day one due to being on Malolo and was loyal to her allies to the end. However the jury doesn't understand why she would keep the two strongest players around and not make the move, which she explains would benefit others but it wouldn't benefit her. Wendell played strategically but also invested in getting to know her tribemates and make bonds. While Dom and Wendell worked well together, Dom's side is he wanted to make a move against Wendell but couldn't due to immunity, while Wendell says he would hide behind Dom's antics to let him take the heat. Plus Wendell made camp life comfy! He says he was strategic while trying to play clean. Dom defends his overdramatic idol fakeout which offended the jury and hurt poor Sea Bass' feelings. He owns his moves and is proud of it. The jury gets up and votes and this is the ideal time for Probst to peace off on a jet ski... BUT NO!

At the final Tribal Council, Jeff Probst decides to read the jury votes aloud and it's a 4-4 tie between Domenick and Wendell. The tie-breaker comes in the form of the 3rd place member of the final 3: Laurel. Laurel has to cast the vote for the winner of Survivor: Ghost Island and that's revealed at the reunion. And with that last vote the winner of Survivor: Ghost Island is.... Wendell! The "reunion" is barely a half hour and the final 3 get to say maybe two sentences and a couple other fan faves get a sentence in. Probst brings back ice cream scooper Erik and grave digger James to apologize for calling them cursed, then has a horribly fake bit with Kevin Hart. The night ends with a preview of Survivor: David vs. Goliath and hopefully it's a little better than this season, which had a solid ending for a subpar season.

Lastly, I must congratulate this season's Pre-Show Winner Prediction champions! Whereas yet another season my winner tanked, three did what most of us could not do. Congratulations!

[All images credited to CBS]