Episode 14 - Well, At Least He Got A Truck

Winner: Earl

Tribal Council #1:

Immunity: Yau-man

Voted Out: Boo

Votes:
Cassandra, Dre, Earl & Yau-man voted Boo
Boo voted Dre

Who's Left: Cassandra, Dre, Earl & Yau-man

HC's Take: Why aren't Boo, Cassandra and Dre voting Earl out at this stage? Answer, they don't know any better.

Tribal Council #2:

Immunity: Dre

Vote Out: Yau-man

Votes:
Cassandra, Dre & Earl voted Yau-man
Yau-man voted Cassandra

Who's Left: Cassandra, Dre & Earl

HC's Take: First off, was anyone shocked by Dre not giving up immunity? Though, his fate with the jury was sealed the moment he reneged on the deal with Yau-man. Second, Earl did the right thing in not forcing a tie in voting with Cassandra. After all, he's already won at this point, but it would have been interesting if this game went to the traditional final two if Earl would have been willing to let his only ally in the game go without a fight?

Tribal Council #3:

The usual hypocrisy from the jury (what planet are Alex and Lisi on anyway), but in the end it was a unanimous vote for Earl to win.

HC's Take: Earl was easily the best player in this game and the deserved winner. He ran the show since the merge and, with the knuckleheads that represented his opposition, had pretty much won this game since the tribes swapped.

If Earl was my favourite from this season, Alex was easily my least. The man bemoans that he was beaten by inferior players yet seems to be ignorant of the fact that Moto (his original tribe) was up six to four at the merge and was then handed Ravu's number three player on a platter putting them up six-three. That's twice the numbers, Alex, and you still couldn't turn it into a win for your side. Note how different this was from Marquesas, who was actually up seven-two to see John and Tammy go down due in a coup from the tertiary players in their tribe (Neleh, Paschel and Kathy). Alex went down not from a coup, but from his own apathy towards tribe mates (specifically Stacey and Boo) who migrated to Earl and Yau-man because, at least, they treated them with some measure respect.

I certainly didn't agree with all of Earl's moves, but he certainly was the better player.

All and all, I enjoyed this season (man, that's two in a row!). I particularly liked the tone set by Earl and Yau-man that this indeed was just a game and that players shouldn't take the fact that everyone else is also trying to win personally.

HC