Survivor One World Season Finale May 13/12

We begin the final show of the season with a shot of the first ever, all female final five. Tarzan is gone and the mood is buoyant. They reminisce about how far they've come from the first few cold, wet fireless days of the competition. Kim and Sabrina go for a walk to collect tree mail. Sabrina wants to get rid of Alicia next but Kim wants to go with Chelsea. What they both agree on is that Christina is the logical third to take before the jury. The tree mail promises a challenge involving strength, balance and memory. When they assemble in front of Dimples he explains that they will be unknotting a rope in order to remove a board that will release a gate. They go through the gate and travel over a balance beam maze. When they have successfully negotiated the maze they run over a suspended net, locate each of five bags, untie them and carry them to a table. In each of the bags are (wait for it) puzzle pieces. They must assemble the puzzle, then figure out the numerical answers to three clues hidden in the puzzle. Finally they must use these three numbers to unlock a combination lock. Kim falls behind Chelsea early on but smokes the puzzle to win her third consecutive immunity challenge. When the five women return to camp they are still one big happy team. Kim tells the others that she likes them all. Privately she tells us that she has many options (remember she still has an immunity idol) and that she needs to determine which is her best course of action. Chelsea tells Kim that she can win no matter who she takes with her to the final three. She also thanks Kim for always having her back and being someone she can trust. Chelsea also makes it clear that she expects Kim will give her the immunity idol. Oh ouch. Wasn't Kim just talking about voting Chelsea off? To keep her optons open, Kim set it up so that two women will be voting for Alicia and two will be voting for Chelsea. That way Kim can cast the deciding vote, as soon as she figures out who it is to be. At Tribal Council we learn that Kim has spared Chelsea (but made no move to turn over the idol) and Alicia is joining the jury. With Alicia goes Lorelee from our pool. After Tribal Council Christina realizes she has been lied to. She is still the strong choice for third but she is no longer sure that she can depend on what she is being told. She tells us she has been "holding back" at immunity challenges but now she needs to go "full throttle". Before that, though, the remaining four must do the obligatory memory walk culminating in burning the names of their former team mates. They didn't do this last season and I, for one, didn't miss it a bit. But it looks like it's back. Day 38 brings the final immunity challenge. The women must use a long fork to lift a clay bowl. They must then use the fork to move the bowl along a narrow metal channel. Once they accomplish that they stack the bowl on top of the metal frame. The frame is on a spring so the whole gizmo is bouncy and not at all stable. In total they must move 10 bowls through the apparatus and stack them one on top of the other. Kim and Christina duke it out on this one and Christina does seem to have found some new inner strength. However, Powerhouse Kim wins again, making this her fourth consecutive challenge win. At camp Christina tells Kim that she doesn't want to be blindsided. If she is the next to go she wants to be told outright. Kim obliges by telling her that she is the next to go. Kim has apparently decided that she can win against Sabrina and Chelsea. Even when she is ready to go to Tribal Council though, Kim is having second thoughts and wondering if he choice to keep Sabrina is sound. She does keep Sabrina though, and the votes goes against Christina who takes her eviction with an air of resignation that even Dimples can't shake her out of. Christina takes pool members Roberta and Cheryl with her to the jury. Day dawns on day 39...the last day in the Survivor calendar. We see Sabrina having a pre-dawn cry on the beach. She tells us she was laid off from her teaching job at a tough New York school. She wants to be able to share her Survivor experience with her school kids but won't have the opportunity. We also learn that Kim has recently divorced and that the success she has had in Survivor has helped her learn to trust her decisions and her instincts again. Both women get their game face back on in time to join the others for the traditional last day Survivor champagne breakfast. Then it's off to face the jury. As usual, each gets an opportunity to address the jury and tell them why they should win the million dollar prize. The opening speeches are all a little lacklustre (in my opinion). Each of the jury members then has an opportunity to ask questions of the three finalists. There is little venom in this group. Everyone is quite respectful. The biggest surprise is Kat who, rather than being angry with Kim, tells the rest of the jury that life is too short to be angry. The votes are cast and whisked away to Los Angeles for the live unveiling of the winner. Kim's gamble to take two strong women with her to the jury and trust that the jury will vote for her based on her game play pays off. She is the winner of the million dollar grand prize as well as the 100,000 prize for the most popular player based on viewer's votes. Donna has been a faithful member of our Survivor pool from the outset but has never won until tonight. Congratulations Donna! The next Survivor will take place in the Phillipines. It will include several Survivors from past seasons who had to be medically evacuated. To this group will be added some new faces. This means Colton will be back. Sigh. I will send you a note when the next season is due to start. Until then, enjoy your summer and... Outwit, Outplay, Outlast Pat (aka Kat I'm a big girl now Edorsson)