I was so pleased with this season's Survivor show, and very happy about the winner. When it was down to the last 4, I thought either one of them was deserving, in various ways. I think Steven's character did show at the time when he lost and was just glad he no longer had to worry about who to pick for the final two. He no longer had to pick it, but JT had that tough decision to make. The hard part of this game is near the end when you need to vote off people that you have really gotten to know and even depend on. It was almost like a Cinderella ending, with the "Happily ever after!" Now we can imagine the rest becoming a big sucess with a happy fulfilling family........

o.k. here is ours so far. Son Nick pick James (the guy who couldn't dive). Daughter Amanda picked Wendell. DH Randy picked the coach, haha. (I think his name is Brendan, is that your older handsome man Lily?) I, Kathy, went back and forth quite a few times, I like Stephanie, Donathan and Morgan. I regretfully picked Morgan, now I'm having buyers remorse lol. Son in law Nick hasn't even watched it yet. I picked her because she blasted through that challenge, dove once and released the balls when the other team struggled forever. Now thinking about it, I think she might have been the one at the very beginning that said don't pick me for puzzles. She also I believe got the legacy advantage from Seth Rogan, hahaha, aka Jacob, but then squealed and said I have such a big mouth. Doggone it, I feel, at least for now, I should have gone with Stephanie or Donathan. I was getting my phone out to put in the mass txt that I picked Wendell but our daughter beat me to it.

"I loved the way the final votes were read but trying to figure out how and when that was planned." "A tie could happen anytime, it would only take 1 person to vote for the 3rd person to make a tie." Last season, in one of the Q & A sessions that Dalton Ross does with Jeff Probst, the subject of a tie came up and Jeff said that if there were a tie at the final tribal, then the person not involved in the tie would cast the final, deciding, vote. If you think about it, this is what they do in "regular" tribal councils when there is a tie vote to oust someone. The folks who are tied do not get to vote again, and everyone else votes again with votes only being cast for one or the other of the folks who are tied. Ok, now for "how and when it was planned." When everyone is done voting at a tribal council, Jeff always says, "I'll go tally the votes." Then he comes back and dramatically pulls them from the urn and reads them. If Jeff just grabbed the urn and brought it back to his post and started randomly pulling them out and reading them, it would not be nearly as dramatic as it has been. That's because when he goes off to "tally the votes," he actually looks at each one, and then they are arranged in the urn in a manner that will provide the most drama as they are being read. In last night's case, when Jeff previewed the votes and saw that there was a tie, he knew he HAD to read them out loud to the group right then and there, because he knew that Laurel would have to cast the deciding vote. No, he couldn't have waited and had Laurel cast the vote at the beginning of the reunion show, because it would have been a tainted vote. Think about it -- when they are on location, they have no idea what is going on. They only know what they see and hear. They don't know what another player is saying to the camera in the "confessional" interviews; they don't know what other players and saying to each other behind someone's back, etc. By the time the live shows rolls around, they've been home for several months, and they've watched every episode on tv, just like we have. That final vote needed to be cast in a manner that represented what Laurel felt at the time, uninfluenced by outside factors.

Finally watched the 2nd half last night. I was glad to see the Godfather get blind sided... always like a good blindside! lol I think the remaining casts are a lot better physically matched now that the big guys are all out. Gabby bugs me - always crying over something stupid. Carl didn't talk to me wah wah wah. There's Christian comforting her and making sure she is ok. And the previews showing she wants to get him out? OMG! That made me so mad! What a traitor. I always like when a STRONG player wins - the ones who ride coattails and get to the end make me so mad. Gabby would be one of those. I hope her plan gets back to Christian and backfires on her!