Survivor 44 Finale
🔥 BURNING QUESTION HEADED INTO THE 44 FINALE 🔥
Who will win?
I think it’s pretty clear that someone from TIKA will win tonight. Carson, Carolyn and Yam Yam to this point have done enough to win this season. I think it’s possible for Lauren to win and 99.999% certain, Heidi will NOT win. To this point we have seen an unwavering loyalty from Carson, Carolyn and Yam Yam to stay together through final 7 and final 6 votes. If they all make it to the final 3, (deep exhale), I think you will see votes to win cast for all 3 of them. Slight edge to Carson but in that scenario it’s a crapshoot.
Having said that, if Carolyn gets to the final 3, with any combination, my money is on her to win. Carson may have been the most strategic, the smartest, and as articulate as you’d expect a NASA engineer to be, and Yam Yam is as likeable as the Spice Girls in 1998, but my money is on Carolyn because I think she’s the total package of strategic, under the radar, likeable, and the best story for a winner in some time.
Does Survivor NEED Carolyn to win?
Sure, if Carson wins we will point to his strategy, his preparation, and his intelligence as the reasons why he was able to outwit, outplay, and outlast the rest. No doubt, if Yam Yam wins we will point to his likability, his charisma, and his underestimated killer instinct to take down those who tried to take him down first. In the new era of Survivor we wouldn’t be shocked to see a Lauren win given she’s the last RATU standing, an inspiration to her kids at home and at her school.
Then, there’s Carolyn. The clear darling of the season. A truly one of a kind, never before seen, never to be replicated Survivor personality. She’s a 🦄 in real life and in the game too. In this new era of Survivor we have seen 3 unlikely, underestimated, and unorthodox winners in Erika, Maryanne, and Gabler. Carolyn fits that group perfectly. The difference is we all have rooted for Carolyn from the beginning and from the beginning she has been this season’s protagonist. In 41, 42, and 43 we saw the unlikely hero rise up and win the title of Sole Survivor, but in this season, I think we need the protagonist, the one who’s won us over from the beginning, to in the end triumph against all odds and be the last one standing. The ending to the storybook we’ve written in our head should be the one that plays out tonight. Rooting for you Carolyn.
Survivors ready?
JEFF INTRO
All I can say is WOW! I don’t know how Jeff does it. He simply walks along the tiki torch lit beach and with and efficiency for words recaps how we got here and what’s in store for tonight. Bravo Jeff, give this guy another Emmy!
2 Immunity Challenges
2 Tribal Councils
1 Fire Making Challenge
Then, they will read the votes live in Fiji (as they have in 41, 42, 43) and start the after show as the pizza and champagne floods in to put a bow on an awesome season of Survivor! #LFG
VA VA - Night 23
New beach, new beginning, and a whole new game. Heidi played her idol at final 6 to save herself and everyone’s thinking the same thing - there’s another idol out there - and it could be the ticket to the end. I love the desperation and anxiety that the new beach brings. People are on edge as they should be. I can’t imagine how hard it is to find an idol in general and I wonder how hard it would be to find one at night with no light. You have to look right? I like to think I would. Full throttle, peddle to the metal.
VA VA - Day 24
We start Day 24 with a recap of each player’s game juxtaposed with each player’s hunt for the idol on the new beach. I love the slow mo shots, the extreme close ups, the drone shots on the sand spit meeting the ocean, and the music jolts when a player is within feet of the idol tied up to a tree branch.
The strategy talk ignites with Lauren throwing Carson out there to Yam Yam and Heidi and then Carolyn. Carolyn follows up that notion with all of the reasons that Carson will win. I appreciate that Carson is acknowledging his threat level and that he can beat everyone in the end. I appreciate that he looked down on the idea of Lauren beating him in FTC in his voiceover as he’s sitting on the beach with her.
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE
HOW COOL WOULD IT BE TO WALK INTO THIS FINAL 5 CHALLENGE AND ALL THAT AWAITS!!! The colors, the structures, the massive size of it, the puzzle in the end, and the stakes of being guaranteed Final 4!!!
REWARD - Sanctuary with spaghetti and meat sauce, chocolate cake, carrot cake (unusual reaction) fiest.
Phase 1 - climbing up the structure and untying keys 1-3
Phase 2 - fling free key 4 via pole
Phase 3 - unlock rope to drop ladder up to puzzle
Phase 4 - up the ladder to the puzzle
Carolyn and Yam Yam are pathetically out of it from phase 2. Heidi and Carson get up to the puzzle first and Lauren is lagging in 3rd.
It all comes down to assembling the circular puzzle. Carson smartly collects all the edge pieces first and assembles the outer edge with the only complication being keeping it from falling over. Doesn’t matter. Carson kicks everyone’s ass in the puzzle and wins immunity. For the second time he wins immunity and is guaranteed final 4. Plus, he wins the night at the sanctuary.
Carson is given one pick to take to the sanctuary and he chooses….Yam Yam. Not Carolyn. Now, you may be thinking why take Yam Yam and not Carolyn? Well, Carson is a bad mother f-er and I know he has a reason for making this choice and not choosing his Survivor mommy - Carolyn. My guess is that he knows that Heidi and Lauren aren’t threats to win nor beat him and Carolyn is. By taking Yam Yam and leaving Carolyn behind, Carson has a 1 on 1 with Yam Yam to explain why they should take down Carolyn in this vote.
SANCTUARY
Just when you think the vote will be simple, Carson shows another level of unwavering loyalty to Carolyn.
CRAZY!!!
Yam Yam says to his all the reasons that Carolyn is the target and should be the “easy” vote. I couldn’t agree more, yet Carson wants to target Lauren. Ok, so why target Lauren? I think Carson is thinking about the fact that 4 members of the jury are RATU members and Lauren is the last one standing. Second, Carson is banking on the possibility of taking Carolyn down at final 4. Finally, I think Carson feels he is the number 1 player and can beat anybody, especially those that he was allied with and knows the most about their game. By that logic, eliminate the person with the most former tribe members on the jury and live to fight the next battle knowing you have guaranteed yourself at least a chance at fire.
BACK AT CAMP - LOSERS
Lauren knows that she’s a target but Carolyn, Heidi, and Lauren have the opportunity to talk it out and make their move. Lauren seizes the day to throw Yam Yam out there citing him throwing Carolyn’s name around for last Tribal. The question really comes down to will Carolyn break away from Yam Yam or not?
PRE-TRIBAL SCRAMBLE
The indication we get is that nobody is talking to Carson and Yam Yam and the vote is going to be Yam Yam or Lauren. What I love about Lauren is she reads the tea leaves and realizes that it comes down to finding the idol and controlling what she can control. I think she found it.
I think an important takeaway here is Carson’s paranoia. We are led to believe that he is stream of consciousness the whole time and is flip flopping back and forth between Lauren, Heidi, Carolyn, and back to Lauren.
Prediction: Lauren plays an idol to save herself and Yam Yam goes home.
TRIBAL COUNCIL - Night 24
Lauren comes out hot pushing the narrative that nobody talked to her. Carolyn and Heidi disagree. Carson and Yam Yam are calculating. Jeff asks the question about idols and I think Lauren has it. Tribal is boiling down to Lauren or Yam Yam. That’s where the narrative is heading.
Lauren is in tears as the music sombers up and she recaps her game. Now we see others in tears.
“I’m so proud of who I’ve become.” - Lauren
The moment is owned by Lauren’s pure, raw, and inspiring emotion. It’s clear that Survivor is a unique game that truly strips you down to bare bones and tests you. Lauren was tested as every player is and she has come out the other side a new person, a better person, and a refreshed person with a new lease on life.
VOTES
Lauren 3
Yam Yam 1
Heidi 1
The final four is set and TIKA’s 3 are still in tact. Heidi, Carson and Carolyn all voted out Lauren making her the next member of the jury. The TIKA 3 are likely going to let the fire challenge be the deciding factor that knocks one of them out. Lauren’s exit from the game completely takes out RATU leaving 5 of them on the jury to vote for a TIKA or the lone SOKA Heidi.
5th place feels right for Lauren. 5th place says you accomplished enough in the game to make it this far, you had enough skills to outwit, outplay, and outlast many, but you didn’t have that extra juice to put you over the top. I think that fits Lauren’s exit in this season at this point. She wasn’t the Ricard type who finished 5th because if they didn’t vote him out now then he was going to win.
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE - Day 25
Another familiar challenge awaits up the stairs to the platform overlooking Fiji with the Final 4 challenge in front of them. This challenge is potentially worth $1,000,000. The stakes couldn’t be higher as immunity is back up for grabs one last time.
The challenge is the one handed ball on the track game. It has been seen in many seasons prior with the same stakes and same breathtaking view. #LFG
The balls are rolling, the sound of metal is piercing, the anxiety on their faces is gut wrenching, and the stakes are so big you can taste it. The moans and groans were too much and Carolyn drops. Her only hope to get to FTC is fire.
3 balls are rolling now and the music picks up. My heart is pounding.
Now, 4 balls.
Music intensifies again with Yam Yam missing his ball and exiting the challenge. Just like that it’s down to Carson and Heidi. Will there be a SOKA in the Final 3 or will Carson win his 3rd immunity.
Ball drops.
Carson is out. Heidi is in.
Congratulations to Heidi for winning the Final 4 Immunity Challenge and guaranteeing…wait she’s about to throw herself into fire? Is Heidi trying to make a late push at zero votes in the end??? Ok, I know I’ve been pessimistic about the possibility of Heidi, my preseason pick to win, winning the game, but I love her immediately putting out there the idea of her going into the fire making challenge.
If Heidi goes into fire, I think she has to go up against Carson. He’s the big dog, he’s the leader in the clubhouse, and the biggest threat. Yam Yam may be the worst at making fire and it would be easier to take him down, but that would defeat the purpose of throwing yourself into fire. I think Heidi should put herself into fire and be the one to take down Carson. It’s her best chance to make any case to the jury and then she has to hope that her former SOKA tribe will vote for her to win and not TIKA.
If she skips fire, she is surely guaranteed zero votes and likely being the goat at FTC, and I don’t mean greatest of all time.
PRE-FIRE SCRAMBLE
When we return to the beach we are greeted with 4 machetes and flints and the story of each player. Carson is doubting himself despite his preparation at home being under 3 minutes. Yam Yam is fearful of having to face a TIKA in fire but knows this challenge would be a needed boost. Carolyn has been practicing for 5 years for this moment and on top of it, Carolyn has sucked at every challenge so seeing her be put in and able to triumph would be incredibly poetic.
Again, for the umpteenth time, we are led to believe that the decision in the game would be pretty straight forward. Carson is the biggest threat and the worst at making fire. So he should go in. What we weren’t expecting was Yam Yam’s heart of gold to transcend the game so he doesn’t have to see his friend (Carson) fail at fire in front of everyone. So Yam Yam HELPS CARSON GET BETTER?!??!?!
I don’t get it. This benefits Yam Yam ZERO PERCENT!!!
Carson cries. Yam Yam comforts him. Yam Yam holds his hand to guide him to making fire more effectively. Carson even doesn’t know why Yam Yam would help him. I get it that the game goes beyond money Carson, but this transcends everything. Do people not want the $1,000,000? Are they casting the most incredible human beings on earth? The suspense is killing me. The drama is palpable. I LOVE THIS SHOW!!!
TRIBAL COUNCIL - Night 25
Heidi comes into Tribal and still doesn’t know what she’s going to do. On the one hand, this is incredibly dramatic and anxiety inducing. On the other hand, I think this is exactly how Heidi’s game has been. She’s indecisive and doesn’t have a strategy.
I love that Carson played the angle that if he was in Heidi’s position, he would go into fire.
HEIDI’S PICK TO GO TO FINAL TRIBAL
THANK YOU HEIDI!!!! CAROLYN IS IN THE FINAL 3!!!!
The weird little girl that once was is now in the final 3 with a chance at winning $1,000,000. She did it. She was authentically herself and she made it. She’s in the final 3 and I couldn’t be happier.
HEIDI’S CHOICE TO GO TO FIRE
Carson
Heidi
Heidi puts her money where her mouth is. #LFG. Heidi put Carson in and she puts herself in also to make her final pitch to the jury and take down the top dog, herself. I love it. It confirms the game we thought Heidi played all season long and the idea that we as viewers had that Carson was the #1 threat and Heidi was the long shot. She needed to do this and she did. No regrets. I respect the move.
Heidi’s decision also guarantees Yam Yam the 2nd spot at Final 3. Yam Yam joins his day 1 ally Carolyn with a chance for the million bucks.
FIRE MAKING CHALLENGE - HEIDI vs. CARSON
Heidi jumps out to the early lead getting her flame to burn first with Carson trailing close behind. Heidi’s kindling lit up quickly and burned high enough to raise the flag in a new Survivor record 3:02. Carson is out. Heidi is in. We have a TIKA on the jury.
Wow!!! That’s how it’s done folks. The FINAL 3 is set. The power now shifts to the jury. But before we leave this Tribal, as cool a move as Heidi just made was, let’s be clear, if Heidi wins…
It will be a major let down - like Jesse losing last season at fire, it sucks. Jesse should have won and didn’t. Carson played the best game (arguably) and now he’s out, but worse would be Heidi getting a disproportionate boost to her case for being the Sole Survivor. Should winning fire at Final 4 against Carson, the worst fire maker of the final 4, provide Heidi enough of a boost that she can actually win? Seems outrageous.
It reinforces the critics of fire making at 4 - because it’s only one challenge, it’s only one task, and you put in the dominant player all game and then you beat them at this one skill and all of a sudden they win? Seems outrageous.
It will be because the SOKA and RATU jury was BITTER - in other words, the jury is all of Heidi’s former tribe mates at SOKA, all of RATU (minus Matthew) and the sole TIKA in Carson. It’s possible that the jury will look at Carolyn and Yam Yam and just say no and go with Heidi.
For Carson, like anyone eliminated at this point, on the one hand it’s a complement, but on the other hand, it totally sucks. He deserved to be there this deep into the game and he had a real chance to win. Like Jesse, his threat level was too great and in the end he needed to be taken down. He worked the game and his alliance better than anyone and it took the wild card winning the final immunity and then throwing herself in to take Carson down.
DAY 26
26 days ago this journey began with this.
26 days and 13 episodes later, we are ready to crown a new champion and $1,000,000 winner.
FINAL TRIBAL COUNCIL - WINNER PREDICTION
After watching the deliberations, the edit really leaves the viewer uncomfortably uncertain as to where the jury’s votes will go. Right now, I look at a paused screen with the 8 jury members on it and think to myself, “who are they voting to win?”. I will likely be way off so here goes nothing…
Carolyn 5 (Carson, Frannie, Matt, Danny, Lauren)
Yam Yam 3 (Jaime, Brandon, Kane)
Heidi 0
My winner prediction is Carolyn 5-3-0.
WINNER VOTES
It’s incredible to think about the magnitude of this moment.
Yam Yam 7
Heidi 1
Carolyn 0
Welp, I was TOTALLY wrong! Yam Yam 7-1-0. I was predicting with my heart and not with my brain. Let me say this, it’s total crap. Seriously. She didn’t get one vote. She came in 3rd. It hurts that she didn’t get a single vote. From what I saw, she didn’t sell herself enough. In Survivor, often times there is that 3rd place finisher who receives zero votes to win and Carolyn, to me of course, didn’t fit that mold. I NEVER would have guessed that.
Heidi cam in second via Danny’s vote. Wow!
Congratulations to Yam Yam, the winner of Survivor 44! He swayed Frannie, understood relationships, and impacted the game via his control and influence of the TIKA alliance. Yam Yam certainly played well enough to win and he did. His win proved that knowing where the votes are going and being on the right side of the vote is pivotal to winning in the new era of Survivor.
I am perfectly happy with Yam Yam winning. Was I rooting for Carolyn, yes. Was I rooting for Yam Yam too, hell yeah I was. I was saying it from the beginning that the season was better with them in it. His personality is infectious and we knew it from the get go.
Remember this?
This was our first look into 44 way back when closing out Gabler’s charitable donation. The guy who couldn’t wait to not eat, not sleep, and poop in the ocean just took a bigger poop on anyone who ever doubted him and anyone who counted him out from the first glimpse of him with those vibrant colors to the end when the colors had faded. However, the lesson here is that the colors and vibrancy that make Yam Yam who he is, never faded. Through every up and down, through every twist, and through every vote, Yam Yam stayed true to the person we met in the teaser all the way to the million dollars.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Survivor 44’s major takeaway for anyone paying close attention was about being true to who you are always. On a winning streak?, be true to yourself. Getting your teeth kicked in?, be true to yourself. Don’t know how you are going to survive the next problem or challenge in life?, be true to yourself and it will always work out.
That’s what you have to love about Survivor. Everyone who watches the show has their reasons for watching, the kinds of players they root for and against, and the hunger to watch the stories of the season unfold with the breathtaking sites and sounds of Fiji. What we each take away from it depends on you, how you watch, who you watch with, and how you fulfill your own Survivor journey.
For me this season, being true to myself has been unapologetically rooting for Carolyn and Yam Yam because I’m the type of person who roots for the protagonist, roots for the fan favorite, and thinks that there’s a person that “should” win. Last season it was Jesse and this season was Carolyn with Yam Yam close behind. I believe that people like Carolyn, Yam Yam or a Jesse in 43 are the ones we collectively want to see win, think deserve to win, in reality should win, and are the favorites to win.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence when players like Helen go home early and players like Brandon and Kane are hardly seen in the edit of the show. It’s because they are NOT the straw that stirs the drink, the star, the headliner, or one in a million personality. Those are the people I root for. The dynamic, outgoing, and most electric personality players always have my heart and my vote.
This season has been a journey here on my blog. As my final blog for 44 comes to an end I can proudly say that I gave it my all this season. I remained true to myself in the face of everything that unfolded this season and never wavered from it. I’m proud to be able to communicate a piece of me, my voice, and my passion for Survivor through this platform and appreciate all who supported and encouraged me to continue to use this blog as a creative outlet and as a means for connecting with the Survivor community.
Thank you to my wife Nicole for being by my side every step of the way this season and for dealing with watching on my terms and under the frequent pausing for me to blog a thought, pose a question, or discuss the chaos on screen and off blog together.
Thanks to all who’ve read the blog and connected with me through Survivor. Be sure to outlike, outcomment, and outshare the rest. Looking forward to 45 coming this fall.
The blog has spoken!
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