Ah, blindsiding the blindsiders. What a fitting end to this season of Survivor.
The final four -- Parvati, Amanda, Cirie and Natalie -- went into what they thought was their final immunity challenge. Amanda won, and stuck with her alliance, sending Natalie packing.
But then the shocker: there would be another immunity challenge, taking them to a final two. Amanda won yet another challenge and tearfully voted out Cirie.
After one last night, Amanda and Parvati then faced the jury. (And I'm going to live-blogging and switching to present tense.)
Eliza is up first. She talks to Parvati about respecting her strategic game, but not the other things she did that made her seem like a mean person. She then tells Amanda that she also respects her strategic game, but finds her to be very superficial otherwise. (Her exact words are more along the lines of: "Your voice often made me literally want to kill myself.") Nice.
Jason asks Amanda if she would have told Ozzy about the plan if she'd known about it. Amanda says yes. He asks Parvati about her redeeming qualities, and she says her protectiveness and loyalty to her main alliance (Amanda and Cirie). And also that she didn't kill Gloria the chicken.
Alexis asks Parvati what makes her a better role model than Amanda for young girls. She says she is more outspoken and bolder. She then talks to Amanda about what part of her game was genuine -- adding that they were laughing at her tears in the last TC since she acted so hard during the play of the immunity idol.
Natalie asks Parvati how playing the flirt card in the game, "How does that translate in the bedroom?" Huh? Parvati admitted to flirting with girls and guys to get her way at home and in the game. She calls Amanda out for her "glazed-over look" on her face, and was that her strategy or was that just who she was. Amanda says she is a little reserved and that she believes she played a strategic and intellectual game.
Erik says that a few days ago, he 100 percent would have been voting for Amanda, but now he has a lot of questions. He says he felt thrown under the bus at two TCs. Amanda says everything she said at the TCs was honest, that she was hurt during those times. She says she's sorry, but he says it's too late, and he doesn't buy it.
James tells Jeff is finger is all right. James says he's not going to be mean, he thinks Amanda has it in the bag. So he asks Parvati to ... be more honest? She says, "Gotcha, sucka." He says that isn't what he is looking for. Parvati says she had no chance to win sticking with James and Ozzy, so she had to make the move against Ozzy when she did.
Cirie congratulates both of them. She asks Amanda why she deserves the million more than Cirie. Amanda says she thinks Parvati made bolder decisions and "was the powerhouse." She asks Parvati why Cirie should be in the final two instead of her. Parvati says she played a brilliant under the radar game, but she couldn't compete with a mother of three. Parvati asks for like the third time if her answer was good enough.
Ozzy says he thinks he's the biggest idiot up here and that he is to the bottom of his heart hurt by Parvati's move. He says she put a price on their friendship and she discarded him like garbage. (HELLO, IT IS A GAME, OZZY.) He says he doesn't want to talk to her, but he adds that the worst thing was she took away 14 more days he could have spent with Amanda. (Oooh, showmance lives!) He tells Amanda that he was not and is not faking his feelings for her -- "I honestly feel like I started to fall in love with you." Call me callous (or burnt out), but that was kind of barfy.
The votes we see: Erik votes for Amanda, saying she played a good game; Alexis votes for Parvati; Natalie votes for Parvati; and Ozzy votes for Amanda. Eliza has to be all dramatic and not cast her vote for like seven years, of course.
To the live finale, where suddenly makeup is in abundance.
Votes: Parvati, Amanda, Parvati, Amanda, Parvati, Amanda, Parvati and Parvati.
So ... Parvati is the winner, and she is shocked. She's not the only one! What do you think?
(I'll update a little later with more from the finale.)
(Hey, there wasn't a car challenge!)
Back to the reunion: Parvati talks about her strategy and her move to bring in Natalie and Alexis without Amanda's knowledge.
Jeff Probst talks about the records Amanda has broken: largest number of days in the game, two seasons in a row, two original alliances making it to the end, but never winning. She says it's hard to go back to real life after all that, but she's trying to adjust. She says she doesn't trust people and questions things a lot more. He asks how it feels not winning again: "It sucks!"
He asks Cirie how many nights she has thought about that last immunity challenge. She says every single night. He asks if they knew their strategies would work, and she says only because of the guys who were left at the time.
Natalie says she has some haters "on MySpace," but that she has a lot of layers (and she is an amazing human being, OK, then!) and being ruthless is one of them
Alexis says it was tough being the only woman who got blindsided.
Jeff asks Ozzy if he considered playing the idol at that TC, and he says a hundred times. But he says he really trusted Parvati, so he held onto it. He says he had tough words for her at the jury, but he's over and he respects her a lot. Whew.
He talks to Jason about getting the fake idol and having the real one, seeing Ozzy get played and he admits he has had some sleepless nights. But at least, he says, he has it on his desk as a souvenir.
Going into the break, Jeff calls Erik the dumbest Survivor ever (and also mentions that James is delighted because all this season's madness is superseding his getting voted out with two immunity idols in his possession).
Penner says the faves had an advantage because among them, they had "about a year" of experience coming into the game. Yau-Man says the disadvantage is that the fans know their game.
Ami says doing this twice was great and now she is doing a lot of charity work with Survivors.
Jeff says Erik was the quintessential fan since he was a longtime fan, starstruck and so excited to be there. Erik says he lost it when he found out he was going to be on the show and that reaction in his hometown has been amazing. He agrees that it was a "life lesson" in that TC where he gave up immunity. He says he didn't expect the social part of the game, where you make friends, but also have to use people "like pieces." Pretty astute observation, actually. He says the move was "off the charts" dumb, but now that he has seen what has to be done to win the game, he knows he's "not that guy."
Jeff asks James, as "an expert on dumb moves," who of Ozzy, Jason or Erik made the dumbest move. He says Erik, and, "Thank you, you won." Jeff says they all adore Erik, but lets James pass along the "imaginary crown."
Then we get a montage of injuries, weather and other difficulties.
Jonathan Penner says his leg is a lot better. James says his finger is better, but lots of therapy and antibiotics are pretty intense. Then he tells a story about how he and his dad were working and a bunch of people gathered around. A woman who was tearing up, said, "My mother loved your abs," and she wanted him to take his picture with no shirt on. He says he likes to make people smile, so he did it.
Jeff talks to Kathy about why she left. She says she was isolated and uncomfortable and just couldn't handle it. Jeff, who hates quitters, gives her credit for enduring a lot before giving up.
Then we relive Ozzy and Amanda's romance. Ozzy: "Jeff, you know how these Survivor girls are!" Then he makes a joke about losing his waiting job because he's so popular and now has to clean the toilets. Ow, Denise joke! But yes, they are still together.
Mary is also in a Survivor romance -- she is engaged to Ryan from a previous season. But since she wasn't on the show that long, no one really cares.
Next, it's the results of the Player of the Game award: Amanda, Ozzy and James are the top three, and the winner (of $100,000) is James.
Fairplay introduces his daughter, Piper Addison Fairplay (her name is actually Fairplay?? Is that his legal name now?), and his fiance, Michelle from America's Next Top Model.
Then he talks to "Survivor couple" Joel and Chet. Joel tries to blame everything on editing, but Jeff points out that it wasn't all editing, that Chet lasted two people longer than him. Chet is glad me kept on making it through.
Jeff calls Tracy an underrated player, and she says she tried everything she could to stay in the game.
Mikey B is up last -- he says his mother, a huge fan of the show, passed away last month, and that he didn't know how ill she was because she didn't want him to know, but her sisters are there representing her.
Next location: Survivor 17 will be in Gabon, Africa. Bonus knowledge: It will be shot in HD.
Tonight's American Idol kicks off with the "Let's Get Ready to Rumble" guy introducing David Cook and David Archuleta like they are boxers, complete with silk robes. So which one of these Davids will take the Idol title?
