Survivor 42, Episode 13 - It Comes Down To This
The finale of Survivor 42 is here! The final 5 of Maryanne, Mike, Romeo, Jonathan, and Lindsay has been able to outwit, outplay, and outlast the rest to this point and tonight a winner will be crowned.
Walking in, my rankings for a winner are
5. Jonathan
4. Romeo
3. Lindsay
2. Mike
1. Maryanne
Before the finale begins it’s important to note that both Mike and Maryanne have Immunity Idols to play at Final 5. Mike’s is public knowledge but Maryanne’s isn’t. Lindsay’s amulet idol died with her game last episode when she made her game altering snafu airing on the side of caution by not playing her idol to save Omar. Romeo and Jonathan have only their vote.
JEFF WELCOMES US
Tonight’s episode will have 2 Immunity Challenges, 2 Tribal Councils, 1 Fire Making Showdown and the announcement of the winner of Survivor 42! Jeff has the ability to lead us in like the greatest play by play guys of all time.
IT’S TIME, LFG!!!
KULA KULA (New Beach)
Coming to a new beach, no shelter, no camp, and back to square one. This wrinkle is a big one. Maryanne’s confidence is through the roof and Lindsay doesn’t have a leg to stand on. Lindsay just went from SUPER CONFIDENT with the Immunity Necklace around her neck and her buddy with her to being on the bottom. She voted for Jonathan and it didn’t go her way. Now, she has to deal with the rath of being in the inferior position. Lindsay is broken. Cries to Mike
Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo’s game all this time. He’s ready for the final 5 with a fake Immunity Idol. Love it.
SCRAMBLE CHALLENGE
GOOD FORTUNE IS TUCKED IN THE TOES OF THE SLEEPING GIANT
The word scramble has a final advantage available to whoever can find it first. Lindsay was BEYOND ahead of the rest of them. It wasn’t even close. She earns a slight advantage at the final Immunity Challenge and Maryanne is happy.
A moment to just say how pathetic it is that the other 4 couldn’t even unscramble each of the words and get out looking for the advantage. I mean come on. 40 minutes and still nothing. Seems impossible to believe. Plus, I have to say it to toot my own horn, I would absolutely annihilate the word scramble. As a member of the 1/6 Wordle Club and frequent Newsday Jumble master, I would have given Lindsay a really tough time finding that advantage.
I realize that it’s hard for us the viewers to truly understand the extent of relationships and exactly where people’s relationships stand. At this point I get that Mike and Jonathan are very close, the miss on the last Romeo vote was the cherry on top telling me about their relationship, but the Lindsay and Maryanne is a bit more of a mystery. I get that they were TAKU 4 from the get go and that until Omar was blindsided it seemed like they were all at least not working against each other, but it feels like Omar and Lindsay were close but now that Omar has been ousted, Lindsay and Maryanne are naturally tighter.
Maryanne made her big move to get Omar out last time and now says she wants Lindsay in the final 3 with her. Head shaker for me. I would think she would want Jonathan and Romeo. They have the least case to be made at a final, but I guess Lindsay isn’t far behind.
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE
This is a good one folks. Reward of pasta, garlic bread, meat sauce, cake, salad, and red wine. Plus, the most important immunity yet.
Lindsay plays her advantage and now she has to undo 1 knot instead of 6 to untie her 6 bags of puzzle pieces. I like this being the advantage. One, she still has to complete all 6 parts of the obstacle course. Second, she has to do as much running, crossing, and jumping as everyone else. Last, the knots is the baby bear’s porridge of advantages, just right. If she runs it flawlessly, she gets to the puzzle with enough of a lead that she should win, but if she has any hiccups, it closes her advantage door and allows others to even the playing field. If she didn’t have to complete a whole obstacle, it would have been too much of an advantage and almost insurmountable a lead for everyone else to overcome.
Rope bridge crossing, planks, circles on ropes, Tarzan rope balance beam, make your own plank bridge, and a pull yourself across.
This challenge is awesome. I love that everyone has to do all 6 obstacles and hits that net everytime they complete one. My favorite part is how everyone is intersecting throughout the challenge like 5 pinballs in the machine at once. It’s like watching Nascar, you admire what everyone is able to handle and complete despite working in such close proximity with everyone else and without wiping out.
The puzzle will decide it all. Jonathan is first to the puzzle after Lindsay drops a plank and squanders her lead via the advantage. Romeo and Maryanne are a full bag behind. The puzzle is in the shape of a circle with the picture of the snake eating itself tribal immunity on it. Mike is gaining momentum and a lead with Lindsay behind him. Mike completes the outside of the circle and begins to fill in the center. The challenge is the weight of the puzzle above and not knocking it over.
It’s down to Mike and Lindsay. The puzzle being round is the X factor. it’s totally complicating the end of this competition in all the right ways. Mike and Lindsay’s puzzle looks like it’s going to fall like a tower of Jenga. Wow. I’m literally on the edge of my seat.
HOLY CRAP!!!
🚨SOUND THE FIRE ALARM🚨
“I’VE BEEN WAITING 21 YEARS FOR THIS…MAN, MY KIDS ARE GOING TO BE PROUD”
- MIKE
WOW! Awesome, just awesome. Chills through my body, tears welling up. His kids are going to be proud? I’m proud! Anyone could see their “dad” in Mike. Anyone could root for Mike. Anyone could see Mike easily getting killed in this challenge, but he didn’t. He didn’t. At 57, the blue plate special himself wins an Immunity Challenge in the Final 5. His first win. Not only does he beat the Incredible Hulk (maybe more Bruce Banner TBH) and Lindsay the other alpha challenge beast, uh who also had an advantage at the challenge, the 57 year old beats people who are ALL HALF HIS AGE. Most impressive challenge win this season. I think the challenge wins don’t mean much, but for Mike to win, and at this stage, will mean something to the jury. Plus he wins a food reward for him and Jonathan (his pick).
The last bit of Mike’s win is he still has an idol. He doesn’t have to play it, but he can use it as another move to be made. At the food chow down, Jonathan asks Mike to play his idol for him if Lindsay or someone else plays an idol for Lindsay. After the food, Lindsay makes her last plea to Mike. The problem is Mike has given his word to Maryanne and sort of his word to Lindsay.
Ultimately, Mike is going to hurt someone and Maryanne is likely to benefit most because her idol is the only secret in the game.
If Mike saves Lindsay, Mike breaks his word to Maryanne, Jonathan gets voted out and probably still votes Mike for the winner.
If Mike gives idol to Maryanne, Mike keeps his word, Maryanne pulls out her idol and plays it on Lindsay, blindsides Jonathan and scores major points.
If Mike gives idol to Jonathan, Mike keeps someone into final 4 that he can beat and the pressure is on Maryanne to play her idol for Lindsay and blindside Romeo.
Mike’s best play is to actually save Lindsay and let Jonathan find his way to the jury. Anything other than helping Maryanne.
TRIBAL COUNCIL
The jury learns about Lindsay winning the Word Scramble and final 5 challenge advantage but still lost by one piece to Mike. Lindsay is the big target for the vote and the one feeling most desperate to everyone.
How do you stop trying? - Probst
Oh come on now Jeff. Way to lob one in there for Lindsay. I don’t know that she needed that level of an off speed pitch because Lindsay is doing everything to fight til the last bit. Downplaying her social game. Saying she’s only capable in the physical game. I’d like to hear her call out people’s games, call out who should be targeted in this vote, say she is the one who is easy to beat in the end and more stuff like that.
What’s the vote about? - Probst
Romeo answers it to be “the fighter”. The fighter, the person who didn’t give up to the end. This is Romeo’s summation of what the vote is about and Lindsay seems good with it. I think she just gave in…or….
Feels like the fighter is about the get some HGH and steroids shot into their game by an idol.
VOTES
Lindsay 4
Jonathan 1
Maybe not.
Mike played his idol for Maryanne, “saving” her. Romeo announced his fake idol and through it into the fire. (cue embarrassed feeling from jury), and most of all, Maryanne DIDN’T PLAY HER IDOL for Lindsay. Hmmm.
WHY DID MARYANNE NOT PLAY HER IDOL?
Who she thought she could beat at the end. Mike had immunity so that leaves Jonathan, Romeo, and Lindsay. Of those 3, Lindsay would be the most difficult to beat at the end. I think that’s why Maryanne kept her idol in her pocket. She even said she thought she could eek it out against her.
Let’s say she plays her idol, saves Lindsay, and thus blindsides Jonathan. Great move for the jury to see. Lot of reasons to like that move. But, blindsiding Jonathan puts a vote for Mike on the jury, not for Maryanne.
Lindsay getting voted out and leaving on the terms she and Maryanne did, puts a vote on the jury for Maryanne.
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE - SIMMOTION
Mike is ready to leave it all on the final challenge platform. Romeo is competing for all the people he coaches. Jonathan is ready to leave it all out there, and Maryanne is drawing on knowing that her whole family is watching her do this and she’s hoping that this moment will unite her family.
Did she just make a final Tribal Council speech? Save it for the final Tribal!!!
With one hand behind your back you drop a ball into the contraption, catch it, and put it back. As time goes on, balls are added and the challenge kicks up intensity.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. Winner is guaranteed final 3 and the option of who to join them at the final 3, thus sending the other 2 to make fire.
In the warmup phase of the game, Mike has the one ball slip out of his hand and he’s out. Wow. The beautiful Fijian water and setting all of a sudden turns dark on Mike as he loses all say in his Survivor destiny.
Jonathan, Maryanne, and Romeo move on to 2 balls. Big props to the editors of the show. They definitely love putting this challenge’s video together. The clicks, the swirling, the overhead angles, the drone shots. Even just the raw metal of each player’s contraption is intimidating. it’s great.
Oops. Maryanne’s out.
Jonathan and Romeo cruise into 3 balls and the 4th ball stage is here, but as quick as it’s here is as quick as it is too much for Jonathan.
Romeo WINS! Romeo gets to have his day. Romeo gets to prove his point to the women he coaches. Romeo gets to have his “Miss America” moment of triumph after being the “in case” vote and the voiceless for what seems like all season.
In the wake of Romeo doing the unthinkable and winning the iconic final four Immunity Challenge let’s look at how Mighty Casey has indeed struck out, aka Jonathan is not the challenge beast that we thought. In the tribe vs tribe vs tribe phase, he was single handedly winning challenges for TAKU, but the individual portion of the game has seen him relinquish his vale and saddle up as a bridesmaid. Who is Wolverine without his metal hand spikes? Who is Willy Wonka without his candy factory? It’s Jonathan without his challenge winning, just an average guy without a superpower nor a chance to win Survivor.
Back to Romeo…
WHO DOES ROMEO TAKE WITH HIM?
First, Romeo doesn’t have much of a chance to win the whole thing and he can’t boot out both Mike and Maryanne. If that were the case and Romeo went up against Jonathan, he’d have a much better shot. Nonetheless, Romeo must choose another player to be secure in the final 3 with him and thus send the other 2 to the fire making challenge. Let’s make the case for each.
Romeo takes MARYANNE - Jonathan vs. Mike in fire. Romeo and Maryanne voted Omar out together. She still has the underdog written all over her. She isn’t Mike and Jonathan aka the macho guys.
Romeo takes JONATHAN - Maryanne vs. Mike in fire. Romeo secures the person he knows has a worst chance of winning than him.
Romeo takes MIKE - Maryanne vs. Jonathan in fire. Romeo can’t beat Mike. Can he beat anyone though?
PRE-TRIBAL SCRAMBLE
Mike gets his hands on Romeo first and makes the point that he needs to send Mike against Maryanne. If Romeo sends Mike against Jonathan and Mike wins, then Mike and Maryanne are up against Romeo. Disaster for Romeo. If he saves Jonathan, then Mike and Maryanne square off in fire and one of them gets eliminated. This increase Romeo’s chances, at least, at winning 2nd place.
Mike reassures Jonathan that if he gets the shot to go to the final 3, he should take it, but ultimately, this comes down to Mike making fire. The man has to dial up his best Montag from Fahrenheit 451 and reverse his instincts to put fires out and now instead, start them. He knows that he’s going to make fire, but how good is he at it? How good is anybody at it? The one thing that we know is Romeo has the choice, and if he’s smart, he’ll save Jonathan and eliminate either Mike or Maryanne.
TRIBAL COUNCIL
My heart is pounding and I’m only watching. I can only imagine what the tension is like at this moment. There is so much at stake and yet a giant decision and competition lurking ahead.
Mike knows it’s him. Mike thinks it’s Jonathan he will be facing. But why give no fight? or did he put up a fight and coming into Tribal it didn’t matter? Hard for viewers to know only seeing the edit that we see, but I still feel like I wish Mike or Jonathan would have stood up, called it out, and straight up said to Romeo how dumb it would be to take Maryanne and list all the reasons. But, it’s just not their style I guess. This bromance was headed for a Mustafa and Scar like ending, one brother bearing the blood of the other brother’s demise.
Mike was right. Romeo TAKES MARYANNE!
The choice for Romeo was to take who he likes best or who he thought was the best move strategically. He chose who he likes. He chose Maryanne over the two bros. Ultimately, it won’t matter for Romeo because he wasn’t going to win anyway, but I wonder if he knew that and acted accordingly.
My hope now is for Mike to defeat Jonathan at fire.
If Jonathan wins 🔥 - Maryanne wins 8-0 with absolutely no debate
If Mike wins 🔥 - Maryanne and Mike duke it out and the chances for a close vote are there.
Let’s go Mike!!!
FIRE MAKING - MIKE VS JONATHAN
The fireman does it. Crushes it. It’s obvious to call out Mike’s accomplishment in this moment, but there is something that stands out above the rest. Both Jonathan and Mike in this moment of supreme disappointment and other worldly triumph, they both are able to reel it in and deliver on national television the most humble, level headed, head in the right place perspective possible. Can’t say I would do the same.
👏👏👏
In the end, Jonathan outlasted 14 others to make it to the final 4. If this was season 15 of Survivor, Jonathan would have never made it to this point in the game. He would have been targeted as a challenge beast and terminated. However, this is the new era of Survivor where the “Jonathan” archetypes can make it far but perhaps because this type of character is incapable of having a total game, a game that included a stellar social game. I think that the future Jonathan’s will continue to make it far but not win because of this unshakeable perception that everyone has for them and the likely stigma that they possess of having a weak case to win the game.
DAY 26
Final 3 is set. Mike, Maryanne, and Romeo. The final 3 couldn’t be more different. The jury chimes in via confessional about each of the final 3 and what they are looking for from each of them.
MIKE - needs to admit to being a snake, own his game, don’t be a man of integrity
ROMEO - the cockroach who survived the apocalypse, not the elephant in the room.
MARYANNE - needs to own her game, her moves, and convince the jury why she deserves to win.
FINAL TRIBAL COUNCIL
Omar kicks it off with a refresher on Darwin’s Theory and how even the cockroach who survives the apocalypse of Survivor 42 and Survival of the Fittest Gameplay to fight tonight. In other words, Omar gives the overture to the 3 finalists to fight for their case to win and that the votes are open. It’s time to lay it all out there and own your game because it might just win you $1,000,000.
SOCIAL
Tori brings up her perceptions of Mike being an honorable man, a handshake guy. Maryanne is a bubbly and young, talkative, and silly, not taking the game seriously. Romeo is quiet, reserved but also capable of paranoia.
Mike - played as honorable a game as he could, backstabbed Rocksroy and he apologizes for it.
Don’t apologize Mike. Don’t ever do it. The jury doesn’t want to hear that.
Maryanne - had to lay low because she saw all young people getting voted out.
Maryanne had a strategy to “not take the game seriously and have no strategy”. AKA hey Tori, how did that karate chop of an answer to your face feel?
Romeo - played how he did out of necessity because he went from “boss to employee”.
Hai is next to piggyback on Romeo for throwing “hinkie votes to rile people up”.
Romeo owns gaslighting Hai because he became close with Drea and then through the “hinkie vote” at Hai.
The jury wants to hear Romeo own it. They want to hear everyone own their game and their moves.
Omar gives Mike a chance to own his game, he doesn’t quite get there. Chanelle gives him another chance to own the handshake deals that were in fact lies. Mike doesn’t own it. He gets defensive. Never good. Hai jumps on top of him too. Lindsay calls out Mike’s social game. Now, Jonathan redirects him to own his game and Drea bails out Mike’s social game saying it was “on point”. Mike’s social game was spiraling for the jury’s vote to win. People respect Mike, they like Mike and understand the game he played to get to the final 3 but he didn’t own it. Not good Mike.
Omar shifts the focus to Maryanne’s social game sloppiness. Maryanne evolved over the course of the season more than anyone. Lindsay asks about a social move that she specifically went to for a vote and the answer is obvious, the Omar vote.
Jonathan jumps in to denounce Maryanne coming up with the Omar vote. Mike and Jonathan were the originators of the Omar move at 6 despite not executing it. The big takeaway here is that Maryanne isn’t defending herself. She answers directly about her Omar vote and giving credit for the origin of the Omar vote to Mike and Jonathan
Jonathan swings the same question to Romeo and he cites relationships with everyone. He has no chance.
PHYSICAL
Probst throws it over to Rocksroy who wants to know what work everyone did and the skills they brought. Maryanne weaved palm frawns for the shelter and Omar’s prayer mat, and she scaled fish. Mike “didn’t stop moving” and Hai trumpeted Mike building their shelter. Lastly, Romeo has never camped and couldn’t swim, so all he has to say is how proud he was of winning a challenge and wearing the necklace after the last Immunity Challenge.
There’s a reason the paragraph above was short and a reason the segment regarding “PHYSICAL” aspects of the game is short and sweet. I understand this and I understand perfectly clear why, but I wish that it carried a little more weight than it does. We see so much of this piece of the game as a viewer and it carries so little weight.
STRATEGY
Drea wants to know everyone’s biggest move on their own.
Romeo was about self preservation for always being on the bottom. He tried making the fake idol to get the heat off of him. Hai asked Romeo about taking Maryanne and Romeo thought it was taking someone who played a similar game to him.
Mike blindsided Hai and then Mike BEGINS TO ADMIT AND REALIZE HE DIDN’T PLAY AN HONORABLE GAME AS HE THOUGHT. It feels like Mike played from a position of control and seeking control in every way he could but he didn’t do enough to own it again in this moment. Again he’s defending himself.
Maryanne’s big move was voting Omar out but most of all positioning/insuring herself into the final 3. She runs through every scenario that she ran in her head to make sure she was taken to the end and by voting out Omar, she did just that. Most importantly, Maryanne delivers this point with multiple exclamation points and confidence and it just lands so strongly.
What did you learn about yourself?
Romeo played the bottom game and admits THAT HE DIDN’T WANT TO PLAY THAT WAY BUT IT WAS THE GAME HE WAS DEALT. More than anything else, Romeo learned to be comfortable with his sexuality and who he is and live freely. In this moment, I’m so happy that Romeo has made it this far in the game and has experienced levels of growth unmatched by anyone else.
Mike learned that the older generation can compete and play this game despite his age. He did it to prove to his kids that he can still do what he thinks he can do. People at Mike’s age don’t live outside of boundaries but rather inside them. For that, I flash forward to myself at 57 and want to pledge to myself to be malleable like Mike at that point still able to challenge myself to learn, grow, and keep experiencing life.
Maryanne learned that she self sabotages herself and not playing her idol for Lindsay was a step forward in progressing her own growth. Maryanne was so close to playing the idol for Lindsay but instead had a breakthrough moment to give herself the chance to succeed. As a 20 something year old with her whole life ahead of her, Maryanne’s reflection of her growth is impressive.. Win, lose, or draw, I’m betting on Maryanne in life everytime.
Really impressed by this final 3 and the entire Tribal. Prediction at this moment: Maryanne wins 6-2
VOTES
The new era of Survivor was ushered in by Survivor 41 and backed up by 42. Both seasons were shot in a COVID influenced world and so changes to the game were necessary. One such change was the reveal of the votes for a winner. In 41, Jeff dropped a bomb that after 41 seasons they were finally going to reveal the votes on the island (even though this happened in season 1) and have the after show as fresh as a newborn baby. It worked. i liked it. Was it totally different and thus requiring people to accept a significant change, yes. Was it fine in the end? Yeah. It was great.
For 42, Probst drops the same final twist on the cast that he did for 41, reading the votes right on the spot. After an initial moment of utter shock, the players settle in by tampering their excitement to brace themselves for this unprecedented surprise. They love it and so do I. It’s as raw as it can get.
So let’s do it…let’s get to the votes and crown a winner of Survivor 42! LET’S GOOOOOO!
THE WINNER OF SURVIVOR 42 is…MARYANNE! She wins 7-1 over runner up Mike and 3rd place Romeo. Congratulations to Maryanne who started the game as the inconsolable young girl hysterical over Jackson’s medical evacuation from the game on day 1 to the Beware Advantage bunny rabbit eating in the mailbox, and finally to her full transformation into Scarface making big time game assassinations of Omar and closing the deal by communicating so effectively to the jury her strategic game to seal the deal.
