By Guest Correspondent ChoHey, it’s Cho and I’m back with another Survivor Recap! This finale is going to be a doozy so let’s get right into it! We start off with a touching scene of Rob and Sandra. Rob tells us that he found happiness and everlasting love on the show while Sandra has found a lot of money that has helped her.
Everyone is instructed to grab their personal belongings and visit the island of the idols. Tommy is the only one left who hasn’t been there, so we get his impression of what it’s like to be there. The idols instruct them that they will be living the last few days on their island with special island on the idol buffs! This is kind of cute. It’s essentially the day 29 breakfast that they usually get. Rob & Sandra wish them luck before leaving the island and the game for good. The last few years of twists have been such a wasted potential. They need to have 15 minute episodes on youtube for more behind the scenes of these epic twists.
A Survivor Scavenger Hunt
The scheming begins quickly: Dean targets Janet as the major jury threat, but Noura wants to blindside Dean the snake instead. It’s great seeing more of the camplife of the island of the idols. Tommy ends up going on a wild goose hunt. He has discovered that there’s some sort of scavenger hunt happening. He shows Dean a red coconut that he found, because he’s colorbind and needs help. Dean is totally useless, but luckily, Tommy finds the next clue.
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Dean the lazy snake starts actually putting effort into the scavenger hunt, admitting that Tommy should have never told him about the clues. Why do people trust Dean?! He ends up finding the next clue and then the next immunity idol! Dean finds it hilarious that Tommy is still fruitlessly searching for the idol and revels in him being a villain at this stage of the game. Things are looking pretty sweet for Dean at this point with his plethora of advantages and fake advantages!
The Forbidden Romeo & Juliet
The Final 5 Immunity Challenge is always really intense to watch! It’s typically the biggest in terms of production. The winner will also win steak, salad and baked potatoes! Tommy, Dean and Janet are suddenly in the lead fighting for immunity, and I’m screaming for Janet! Lots of close calls occur, but Dean ends up winning the F5 immunity, which gives him A LOT of power at this upcoming tribal council. He ends up sharing his meal with NOURA as a way to make amends for their beef. Janet is visibly upset that he didn’t pick her. He declares that “DK Dean” is no longer a goat in this game!! He might be right, but I don’t buy it quite yet.
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Noura thanks Dean for putting their differences aside to bring her to the reward. She says that her relationship with Dean has been challenged, but she feels like she’s on a date with Dean now. Noura says he’s slick, warm and this flirting on the date was great! She asks if he’s ever dated someone as crazy as she is. She says that Dean is growing on her. After dragging Dean for weeks in the game, she says they totally get along well because they’re both Aries. This is totally Nouramal!! Dean says they need to go to the end of the game together if either wants a shot at winning.
Janet’s Master Plan
Love Janet to death, but she has the dumbest plan ever: get the others to vote against her so that she can play her idol against Lauren and blindside her biggest jury threat. The only problem is that she’s trusting Tommy with this plan. He immediately sells her out to Lauren and says that he’s gonna have Dean play his idol nullifier on Janet’s idol so that she goes home instead. Lauren is worried that Dean will want to split her and Tommy up. She’s right, because Dean says his biggest threat is Lauren over anyone else in the game. Dean is left with the most power in the game.
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We get to tribal council, and I’m just upset that my two favorites left, Lauren and Janet, are both in danger of going home at this point. Elaine looks like she hasn’t left the island. Janet exposes herself as the strongest fire-maker in the tribe which makes her a huge threat. Janet continues to smile through this despite it being a concerning fact about her. She says she can’t help that she’s the fire lady. It’s time to vote. Janet plays her idol, but it is nullified by Dean. Jeff reads the votes: Loren, Janet, Janet and Janet is voted out unanimously. Ok, thanks for reading guys, that’s a wrap this season!
Dean Distracts Noura & Cho
Noura is excited that she’s become popular with everyone coming to her for her vote in the final four. Noura is fucking hilarious. In the middle of a confessional, she pauses, because she sees “pretty Dean” stretching on the beach. She is literally a mood in this moment. Dean’s body IS impeccable after starving for 37 days. Now, Noura’s rambling about her dating life outside of the game. She exclaims: “it’s finally about me!” Both Dean and Tommy are promising their allegiance to her to the end.
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The last immunity challenge is one that Noura could possibly do super well at. It’s basically a stacking challenge that would cause an angel anxiety. Dean and Noura do battle. My disdain for Dean lessens as I become smitten over his body being on screen for such an extended amount of time this episode. Funny how a hot body can make you forget such feelings! Noura ends up clenching her 3rd immunity win this season! She cries thinking about how she was going to be the first person voted off, now she’s at the end. I’m proud of her this season!!
Noura Threatens to Sabotage Lauren
Norua describes her game: bold, zesty, flavorful, interesting, unique, healthy, fun and different! She is the most hilarious person we’ve seen in quite some time. She talks a mile a minute and talks a bunch of nonsense. Brevity is not her strong suit. Noura calls Lauren “the queen” and tells her she’s going to fire. Lauren cries furiously. Tommy’s bullshit lie worked on Noura: because “he can’t make fire”, she puts Dean against Lauren with the hope that he will beat her.
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Lauren and Norua get into the BIGGEST fight! Lauren says you don’t vote out your number 1 the way Norua just did. Noura defends herself by saying Lauren is the biggest threat and suggests that Lauren be humble and congratulate Noura on her win. A good ole “how dare you?!” leaves Lauren’s mouth, but then Noura goes on to THREATEN to take all the machetes away from Lauren so that she can’t practice! This is why Noura loses in the final 3. LOL Noura calls Lauren selfish and says it doesn’t make sense for her to go to the end with her and Tommy and not have a shot. This part is true. Lauren promises her that she’s going to ensure that that happens. The fight with Noura inspires Lauren to actually build a fire. She goes into the fire making challenge feeling motivated that she can beat Dean.
We get to tribal council, and I am praying that Lauren wins the fire making challenge against Dean! Karishma is still serving LEWKS on the jury! Fashions aside, we get into why Noura made the decision she did. She makes it clear that she wants someone to take Lauren out in the fire making challenge. Lauren and Noura fight some more about their damaged relationship. The fire making challenge begins. They both get fire, and it’s actually so close that my heart is racing. Dean beats Lauren in the fire making challenge. Lauren takes it well. This season is ending miserably.
Day 39 Is Here!
Cue the sappy music and confessionals from everyone on day 39 enjoying their breakfast. Brunch is my favorite meal of the deal. What about you? The two boys are counting Noura out and thinking that it’s a race between the two guys. Tommy weaponizes Noura’s desire to attack Dean on his game and how he’s been a sheep this entire game. I think Tommy has this in the bag pretty solidly! Dean does spit some truth when he says that he started of with not much but ended up with a pretty impressive resume. Noura says that being a winner is all about being a disruptor. She’s definitely an entrepreneur. We walk into the last tribal council where the jury will judge the finalist on their game and worthiness of the title: sole survivor!
OUTWIT
Noura struggles in this aspect as the jury calls her out on being too emotional and having no strategy. They literally tell Noura to stop as she gets ready to go off on a huge tangent. Tommy and Noura gang up on Dean about him being a follower in the game. Tommy gets called out for being fake to his core by promising everything to everyone. Noura exposes him for helping Dean in the fire making challenge over Lauren who he just lied and said was his number 1 ally. Tommy admits that it was tough telling his students that he would have to lie and cheat in the game.
OUTPLAY:
Noura is called out for her stupid decision to make Dean compete in fire against Lauren instead of making Tommy play. Tommy is given props for convincing her to bring him to the end. Dean reminds us that Tommy won 0 immunity challenges and advantages where as he has earned his way to the end. Dean says that Tommy’s social game is the only strength he has. When Dean starts spouting off all the advantages he received over the course of the game due to his hustling. OK DEAN IS TURNING ME ON! Tommy retaliates that Dean was never going to be voted out because he’s a goat. Dean then gets called out for promising everyone final 3s which he accused Tommy of doing earlier.
OUTLAST
Tommy says he made big moves without idols, advantages and immunities. Noura says she was authentic to her true self, won challenges and she thrived. Dean says his back was against the wall the entire game but he ended up in the end with a ton of “jewelry”.
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Jeff reads the votes for the winner of season 39 Island of the Idols: Tommy, Dean, Tommy, Dean, Tommy, Tommy, Tommy and the winner is Tommy! This must be amazing for a teacher to win a million dollars pre-taxes! As always, let me know in the comment section what you thought of the outcome tonight as well as the shit festival that will be this non-live reunion! I want to thank everyone for joining me in another season of my favorite show on TV! During the hiatus of Survivor, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE for you all to keep up with me on the following platforms: Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, Twitch and even my podcast where I give relationship advice! I really appreciate your support as always!
Thanks for another season 0f great recapping. I still haven’t watched yet. Is there one for the reunion?
No recap for the reunion. It’s a bit weird to recap to be honest. There was a lot of focus on societal issues, specifically involving Kellee. Sia gave away a fuck ton of money. And they announced the next season which is going to be EPIC!
I’m super excited to know everyone’s impressions of the finale. Especially the reunion.
Also, with information finally out about the ALL WINNERS ALL STAR SEASON 40, maybe I can do some additional posts to hype you all up on what will undoubtedly be the best season since Heroes vs Villains. Let me know your thoughts on this.
Sia gave $12k or $15K to Jamal for his pontifications on race relations, or the women’s stuff or something.
She gave 100K each to Elaine and Janet for being so likable. Elaine was the first to be told and she was sitting next to Janet. Janet cried and hugged Elaine when she won. Then seconds later she got the same cash award. It was sweet.
Kellee was scared shitless when she had a one on one with Jeff Probst about the fiasco with Dan. It was very uncomfortable to watch. It would have better if she had spoken from her seat with all the others. Jeff apologized to her and told her she did the right thing and he and production didn’t handle the situation as well as they should have.
I was happy with the Tommy win, I’m always for the teachers. That said, I found myself rooting for Noura at the end as well. She played a good game and won a lot of immunity challenges. She managed to hide behind Karishma for a while since both had personalities that didn’t quite fit in. Jeff said Noura was “peculiar.” Which I thought was rude.
Jamal and the white kid he spoke with about the do rag comment are now roomates in Rhode Island or wherever he lives.
Thanks for this. I guess do to all the time they spent on Kellee they didn’t have Sandra & Rob come out with the players to talk about their game play.
Back to Kellee and the Dan situation. Is there video of the jurors being told of Dan’s eviction?
Did Kellee remind y’all a little bit of a hostage being told what to say by their captor?
YES, She was clearly terrified.
Thanks Cho for all your recapping. The reunion and discussion with Kellee I was hoping for it to go smoothly. She was such a nervous wreck, .Yay for season 40!!!!!! No surprise, (returning players)
I’m ready, February is pretty soon.
I thought it was a great season, and Noura provided just the amount of punch to be amusing. Did she not notice when the jury was moaning for her to stop! Did she ever think she was going to win? I would have been so unhappy if Dean won, very thrilled for Tommy. Cant wait until next season! Thanks Cho!
Thank you Cho! Great recap
It was unusual not to at least see all the non jury contestants
I got bored with Jeff probst ‘S analysis of how they’re going to try and do better etc. with any issues that come up. I want to hear more from the contestants rather than Jeff
CBS should give more money to the contestants instead of sia giving her personal money.
This year it seems the contestants lost less weight I wonder if they’re giving them more food.
I really liked this episode! Ok I loved that Noura won final immunity and her antics that followed were so great n fun! Like when she made them wait so she could chill in the ocean, when she compared her popularity to phone calls from boys and finally her crush on Dean!
I’m glad Elaine got $$ from Sia, not so much Janet, and that was kind’ve weird that Jamal got such a different amount.
The Kellee talk/interview was going ok up until the end when Jeff was like “and I extend my hand to you…blah blah” then they shook hands. There’s (at least to me) a micro expression she has that she realizes he’s just towing the company line.
Oh and that was weird that Jamal and young guy are roommates but there was no explanation of why he wasn’t there.
I’m looking forward to 40/20 and your recapping Cho!!
Jack didn’t attend the reunion because he’s now dating Elizabeth. Apparently she didn’t want to sign the NDA for the reunion (which I assume contained issues that couldn’t be addressed i.e. Dan, etc) so he sat it out in solidarity with her.
And Cho, no matter how long I looked at sneaky, snaky Dean’s body during challenges or anything else, I couldn’t muster up anything but disgust. Lol. I DID laugh at Noura swooning over him during their “date” like a love-sick teenager, though. As an Aries, I stopped laughing when I heard that both of these charm school rejects were Aries, too. Yikes!
What!!? They’re dating? Are u being snarky or is this real info, bc I don’t believe it!
Thank you Cho for the recaps all season..
If S40 is all past winners, I won’t be able to watch until I have seen every season.
I don’t like twist with the idol nullified. What’s the point of an immunity idol? I have no idea what season they started with that twist, but I don’t like it.
Also, if the new thing is two people going up against each other making fires to get to F3, then why would anyone (like Janet) be nice enough to start fires all season?
I’m okay with Tommy winning, but I really don’t know why he deserved it. I wanted Janet to win, but she was a bit too trusting.
So, is S40 really going to be all winners?
That was a rough couple of hours. I had quit watching after Kelee was ambushed and treated badly. Didn’t care much at the end who won. Didn’t care for the societal preaching this season. Just do the right thing. And they didn’t. Poor Kelee. No teachable moments. She made it clear that the changes the producers say they are implementing in the future, she had asked for. Glad it’s all over. This was NOT an entertaining or fun season. Not sure I’ll be watching in the future.
Cho- Thank you for a great season of recaps. I have mixed feelings about the entire season. I really like Jamal. His ability to leave his anger aside and educated Jack on their differences still blows my mind.
Thanks for the awesome recaps all season, Cho!
Okay I was trying to bite my tongue and not say anything negative because I’ve been a Debbie Downer lately. I actually just watched it all this morning so I’m fresh in my reactions. I won’t post a rant but I feel like I must say that I’m thoroughly disgusted with CBS and how they handled the Dan stuff. It’s not like it’s foreign territory for them given the recent history with some of their previous executives. Just seemed like too little too late and I cringed through the entire Kelee and Probst exchange. I’m seriously re-thinking season 40 even though it’s going to have Rob, Ambuh, Sandra and so many legendary players. Hopefully I’ll get over it by February but that’s not too far away. And for the record, they should have upped the winnings to $2mil a while ago; a million doesn’t go as far as it did when the show started especially after taxes. Not that a million is anything to sneeze at, it’s just not factoring into inflation IMO. I lost a tiny bit of respect for Probst for his performance but I guess he doesn’t want to lose his job either. I also think that he could’ve used a different word than peculiar to describe Noura to her face on national tv, seeing as it wasn’t live and I’m sure what we saw was already edited a lot. It just wasn’t satisfying overall. I’m glad it was Tommy and NOT Dean though. Thank goodness for Sia; happy for her recipients but I think it’s ridiculous that she has to use her own money after she was trying to do a good deed. CBS’s pockets are much deeper than hers. Smh. Well so much for not ranting, lol. Whatever I decide, I will continue to read your recaps, Cho. Thanks again for your commitment and excellence in doing them!
I wonder how Sia decides the amount to give a person. Also, didn’t CBS used to give 100k to the fan favorite? I recall Rupert won it. Guess with Sia they decided they don’t have to.
Fan favorite is Big Brother. SIA just started doing it and now she is sort of required too because people EXPECT IT.
Typical, people certainly can suck. Expecting a requirement of cash, sucks. Now will players strive for Sia’s cash? Ugh.
I think a note from her, or a phone call is better.
Thank you for all the recaps Cho, and for your engagement in the comments!
This season was really tainted for me because of how the Dan situation was handled. I’m glad the season is over. I wanted a Janet win and Noura grew on me. Tommy was kinda boring but whatever. Bring on the season of winners!!
As you may or may not recall, but my fam certainly has not heard the end of it, I picked TOMMY…DAY 1 ON THE BEACH! (Because he looks amazingly like my ex as a young man. Didn’t really like him…or Tommy, lol).
I think the Kelli thing was pre-recorded? Awkward and I also would rather have spent the time with Rob and Sandra. Or maybe they could have brought Susan Hawk on to talk about quitting the show after squeezing past naked Richard Hatch?
Loved the Season, the recaps and all the comments! So psyched for the Winners!
I remember Fan fave money too, CBS is so cheap.
Love Survivor! Been watching since season 1. I don’t watch it for social commentary. I watch for entertainment, not “teachable moments”