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The new day dawns on this season’s finale with everyone looking for a hidden immunity idol.
Mike says it’s the biggest scavenger hunt ever; Alison says she has been on the chopping block once too often, so she really needs it. Angelina, however, is the one to find a clue to the hiding place of an idol, which is in the rock wall, behind the water well. She’s told to find a buried ladder and dig it up.
She does that, and decides to hide the ladder and search later, but when she goes to re-read the clue, which she had tucked into her bra, it isn’t there. She’s dropped it somewhere, so she decides to search now in case someone else finds the clue and the ladder, but all she gets for her trouble is freaked out and scratched up.
First Immunity Challenge
The players must race through an obstacle course and then use a ball on a rope to hook and release a series of large puzzle pieces, which turn out to be steps that need to be placed in the right spots in order to climb a staircase. At the top of the staircase is a 63-piece puzzle of this season’s logo. The first to solve it wins immunity and a food reward.
Kara and Mike take early leads, but Nick comes from behind to win immunity, and he gets to choose one person to join him in the feast. He picks Angelina, but then Jeff Probst tells him he can pick one other. Everyone has pleading looks, but Davie tells him that Nick doesn’t owe him anything, so he shouldn’t pick him.
Nick apologizes, and picks Mike. Alison is devastated as once again, she misses out on a reward. It’s hard, she weeps, to always be the one in the cross hairs.
Nick, Mike and Angelina head off to their food reward, which happens to be at the well. Angelina tries not to think about the idol. As they eat, Angelina says it should be the three of them in the finals, but they are conflicted on whom to vote off next — Davie or Alison. Nick wants Alison off, plus he doesn’t want to be the only remaining David in the game.
As they discuss whether Alison has a hidden idol, Angelina decides to tell them about the clue and enlist their help. Mike searches for the lost clue, wine glass in hand. He finds it and then Angelina is able to retrieve her idol.
Angelina tells Alison that she can sway the vote, and you know, she’s been crucial in the last three votes. We’re not sure what game Angelina is playing but it doesn’t appear to be the one the others are playing. Angelina can’t help lording it over Alison and making her sweat.
Mike had agreed to vote off Alison, but he thinks Davie is the bigger threat, and now he has to trick Angelina into thinking it’s her decision to vote out Davie. Angelina is reluctant. Alison has done her wrong too many times, she says.
First Tribal Council
Probst asks Nick how winning immunity felt, and he says it felt pretty good. Angelina says a lot of names were discussed at camp on who was next to go, but Alison said there really were only two, her’s and Davie’s. Angelina says she could have voted for Alison in the past two Tribal Councils, but didn’t, so who knows.
Nick says he’s more relaxed, and it can help him play the game aggressively. He says the others should be on the same page with him, which comes across as a vague sort of threat. Davie says as the numbers get smaller, the bonds get tighter. Mike says you have to look at what will make you move forward.
That move, apparently, was to vote off Davie, four to two. As Davie leaves, he said whomever orchestrated his ouster gets his vote for a million dollars, unless someone makes a bigger move.
We learn that Davie had been turned down for this season, but less than 40 hours before filming was to start, something happened, Probst says vaguely, and they called Davie to rush to Fiji.
Back in camp, Nick is upset that Angelina and Mike lied to him. He can’t play with these people, he says. Nick feels like Mike is setting him up although Angelina says he’s not. Nick is determined to win immunity again.
Mike, Kara and Alison are mocking Nick about being so upset, and minutes after reassuring Nick that Alison is next to go, Mike says that he needs to just get rid of him.
Second Immunity Challenge
The survivors must stand atop tall poles in the water. They must lower leaky buckets to collect water, and then hoist it up and pour it in a tube, which will cause a key to float to the surface of a second pipe. Once they have the key, they have to jump in the water, swim to shore, use the key to unlock puzzle pieces, and you know the rest.
Alison is wobbling so hard, she can barely stand, but she manages to get her key first. Nick gets his key next, followed by Kara, Mike and lastly, Angelina. Nick quickly pulls ahead and wins immunity, again.
Angelina’s plan is to make Tribal Council all about her. She wants Mike to convince Kara and Alison to vote for Angelina, and then she’ll play her idol to earn points with the jury. Mike says that seems like one more lie and he’s not really comfortable with that. He tells the camera that they don’t need the drama and he doesn’t want to be part of something to benefit her, not that he thinks it will.
Mike doesn’t care about lying to Alison, but he feels bad about lying to Kara, so he tells her about Angelina’s big plan, which also includes making a fake idol for Alison. Kara then tells Alison everything, and suggests voting off Mike. As Nick wasn’t happy with Mike’s blindside of Davie, he’s not against voting him off.
Alison finds the fake idol and Angelina does a creditable job of looking happy for her and sad for herself. Note to future players: Study Angelina’s game, and then do absolutely nothing the same.
Second Tribal Council
Probst asks Nick about being blindsided at the last Tribal Council. He says he was pretty hot. Angelina says she talked to him and they made peace. Alison says now she has nowhere to hide, and she names Mike as a threat. Mike says no way. He says there’s a difference between leaving it all on the island or playing with some dignity.
Nick says the decision is not on who he wants to get rid of, but who does he want to sit next to in the finals and who can take him to that point.
After the vote, Probst asks for hidden idols. Alison says she’ll play her idol, but she is 100 percent sure it’s fake. Alison then whips out her idol and makes a little speech about it. Awkward.
Votes go to Alison and Mike, and it’s Alison that is the newest jury member, and Angelina, who didn’t get a vote, has a bit of egg on her face instead of being covered in “Survivor” glory.
Final Immunity Challenge
This one is an oldie but a goodie. Players have one hand tied behind their backs and place a ball in a roller coaster sort of device. The ball goes in, loops through, and comes out the other end. The players must catch it and drop it back in. At set intervals, they’ll have to add more balls. A gate in the middle sends the ball to the right exit and then the left.
Everyone survives the first and second rounds, but Angelina drops a ball when trying to manage three of them. Mike is next to go. Nick and Kara add a fourth ball, but Kara is out almost immediately, giving Nick his third immunity win in a row.
At Tribal Council, Nick will pick one person to join him in the final, and the remaining two will have to make fire to win their spot. Probst predicts that Nick is going to be very popular back at camp.
Angelina says Nick’s winning is her winning, too. It’s the final twist that a David holds the fate of three Goliaths.
Everyone is pitching why they need him to pick them. They all say that there’s no way Nick can lose.
In an insulting sort of speech, although Angelina doesn’t see it that way, of course, Nick announces that the only way he can lose is to be sitting next to Kara and Mike, so he’s picking Angelina. Kara and Mike will be making fire.
Mike is very nervous about having to make fire in front of everyone, and both he and Kara pledge to fight like Goliaths to burn their way into the finals.
Last Tribal Council
Nick says he actually cried tears of joy after winning immunity, and the tears quickly turned into oh man, now he has a decision to make. He’s taking Angelina, who is so happy and honored.
Mike and Kara start on the fire challenge. Their little blaze must be high enough to burn through a piece of twine above the fire, releasing a flag. Mike manages to get fire, but every time Kara gets some flame, it quickly goes out. Mike’s fire grows and he becomes the last finalist.
The jury has its say
Elizabeth tells the trio that most of the jury is undecided, so please cut the crap and be honest. Christian wants to know about how they outwitted them.
Nick says he had one-on-one relationships with people, forming individual alliances that they even named. He also brings up the big move where two idols and a nullifier were played and the out-numbered Davids beat the Goliaths.
John asks for some of Mike’s moves, but Angelina decides she wants to talk first. She talks about how she went from the weakest position to one of the strongest. And oh, she kept the tribe from starving by getting them rice. Davie says that the whole point of a selfless act is to be selfless. Thank you Davie.
Mike says he made individual alliances too, and he didn’t with others, not because he thought they were a threat, but because he didn’t think they couldn’t help him. He also says he couldn’t compete on a physical level, so he played the role of an older guy, just happy to be there for the experience.
Gabby congratulates Angelina for being the last woman standing and points out how there is a double standard for women.
Davie asks Angelina how she is a David and how Nick is a Goliath, the opposite of their tribes. Angelina talks about how she was an underdog and worked so hard to find that idol. She ends up saying she climbed a 100-foot cliff but, thankfully, no rice was mentioned.
Alison asks if Angelina made that fake idol just to humiliate her. Angelina says oh no, not at all. Nick shakes his head and says oh yeah she did.
More emotional speeches follow from Nick, who talks about being the underdog, his mom’s fatal drug overdose and finding all the stones he could to hurl against the Goliaths, and Mike, who says while people talk about the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it was never about the gold for him, it was about the rainbow.
And then it’s time to vote.
The winner is Nick.
Kara, Alison and Christian vote for Mike. Davie, Gabby, Carl, Elizabeth, Alec, Dan and John vote for Nick. No one voted for Angelina.
And if you stuck around for the reunion show, you might have noticed that Alec was missing. He broke the non-disclosure rules by posting a photo of him and Kara on social media, and was uninvited to the show.
Thanks for staying with us through the season. We’ll be back in the spring with “Survivor: Edge of Extinction.”
