Survivor 47 — Season Finale Part 2 Reaction

jfish
11 min readDec 24, 2024

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Survivor 46 is over! A new winner is crowned after tense firemaking and a testy final tribal council. Let’s dive into it!

Winning Fire By the Teeniest of Margins

Because of the result of the final five vote, I was interested if this episode we were going to get any last second fireworks because it seemed all but certain that Rachel was going to win the season. The final challenge only solidified what felt like a jog to the finish as Rachel, the best puzzle person remaining, ran away with the immunity on the puzzle. She brings zero drama to her upcoming decision by confirming to everyone on the beach that she is taking Sue with her to the final three, which means Teeny and Sam were going to fire. The show leans into the dramatics of a pretty mid showdown given that neither Sam nor Teeny are likely to win, but in the moment seeing an incredulous come-from-behind victory by Sam in a fire making challenge he had no business of winning brought a bit of excitement, and at least set up some level of doubt as to whether Rachel was running away with this win. Rachel leaving Teeny to do her dirty work only for Sam to win in a cathartic fashion in front of the jury left her on the sidelines looking pretty drab, not that it actually moved the needle with the jury at the end of the day.

There isn’t much more to say. Firemaking, when it doesn’t include the favorite to win the season, is frivolous spectacle and uninteresting. The overdramatic hyping up of these two castaways was not compelling to me. It doesn’t help that I recently rewatched the ending of Survivor Cagayan, a great homestretch of a season without firemaking, as my implicit comparison to this finale. It keeps me yearning more and more for the death or revamping of the firemaking final four. If they like firemaking so much and feel it is essential to the Survivor ending, why not have everyone in the final four compete in it and whoever gets last goes home?

I guess the other interesting thing they did is really lean into the fact that Rachel “made history” by winning her fourth challenge. It is an impressive feat to win four challenges but I have to question, was it too much glazing? Like should we be celebrating so hard that she accomplished something that has already been accomplished by four other women, when it isn’t even the actual Survivor record? Do you see where I’m coming from or am I just being a hater? I think the emphasis on the stats was heightened due to the fact that later on in the episode they were going to be a little dismissive of Rachel’s accomplishments… I’ll get to that shortly.

Teeny’s failure of a season ends in yet another moment of failure. Teeny built her fire quickly, but not with enough power or in the right position. It made me wonder: if you were in that spot where you have a strong fire but it isn’t in the right position to burn the rope, would you physically try to pick up the burning base and move it slightly? Would you risk serious burns to make the final challenge?

Sparks Fly at FTC — Sam Puts Up a Fight

What do you have to do when you feel like you have to climb an insurmountable mountain to win Survivor? You have to go for the jugular and hope for the best. Sam made tribal council interesting by lobbying aggressively against Rachel and honestly, making some good points. It had me doubting if Rachel was actually going to sweep the jury, which is an editing success from the show to instill some uncertainty in what was on paper a foregone conclusion.

After a quick dismissal of Sue from serious contention, Final Tribal Council became a war between Rachel and Sam, and it got feisty. Sam from the start took opportunities to swipe at the flashy moves Rachel made, pointing out how she became a social pariah, constantly found herself on the wrong side of the numbers, and needed lucky advantages and immunity necklaces to get to where they both ended up… basically things I brought up last week in my writeup. It was certainly a tribal council talking point that, as Andy mentioned, Rachel’s game went the way of Mike Holloway and Ben Dreibergen, players that Rachel herself did not want to emulate. And it was ironic that Sam pointed out the “idol in the fries” that fell into Rachel’s lap at the auction and saved her in a huge way at the final six vote. I was surprised that Survivor leaned into those negative narratives and turned what I thought would be a Rachel coronation into a Rachel cross-examination. The jury must have wanted to put Rachel’s game under a microscope, and were hesitant to sing the praises of a castaway whose game fell off the rails a few times throughout the season.

Rachel welcomed the mudslinging and wasn’t afraid to punch right back at Sam. She brought the same dismissive energy right back at Sam and turned some of his arguments against him, most notably the insinuation that her threat level was propped up by narratives that Sam took credit for pushing during the game. She rightly pointed out that she was always the bigger target than Sam yet her rivals were unable to finish the job. She also pointed to her idol play as a clutch move and highlighted her midnight spying as a key part of her knowledge of the vote.

As an amateur body language expert, it seemed to me that Rachel was more nervous than she thought she would be by the time the jury went to make their votes, probably worn down a bit by Sam’s attack plan. But for Sam’s FTC strategy to work, he needed a jury that was looking for reasons to not award Rachel the million dollars. Rachel had earned the respect of the jury and had champions supporting her amongst the group, such as Caroline and Genevieve.

My respect for Sam’s game has grown over the past week. He found a way to make it to the end of Survivor 47 as a shifty underdog, without any of the luck that Rachel had. Sam unfortunately had little control in determining his own fate in the way that Rachel got to, which ultimately left him short of the million dollars. But I highly respect his strategic maneuvering and in a final three with Teeny instead of Rachel, I think he would have slaughtered his competition. There were just too many flashy threats to take out this season, and while Sam was a threat, he wasn’t on the level as the eventual winner.

Rachel Lamont — Bringing Flashy Back to Survivor Winner’s Circle

The New Era of Survivor has been dominated by the controlled, under the radar winners. Rachel brings a fresh change of pace as a Survivor winner that had to scrape and claw her way to her victory, using advantages and challenge dominance to bolster her reputation and dominate the jury vote 7 to 1.

Rachel held the spot of a smart alliance member in the Breadwinners alliance in Gata before the merge, forgoing an alliance with Andy for an alliance with Anika and Sierra. All was well until Anika’s blindside at the hands of Sam and Sierra. Then her position went from bad to worse right at the merge, when Rachel was the victim of a poor rock draw twist that put her in a split tribal council situation against the entire Tuku tribe. She would have been voted out pre-jury if not for a Deus Ex Machina moment by Sol. Sol gifted her the Safety Without Power advantage that allowed her to safely walk out of that tribal council. Once the dust settled she seemed to recover her place by taking over Andy’s spot in the Gata alliance, because she was a reliable Survivor player when compared to Andy’s erraticism. This ended up being a misplay by Sam and Sierra, as Andy flipped sides to put Gata squarely on the bottom of the totem pole.

Rachel’s game began to turn around again at this low moment. During the Survivor Auction she was given a clue to a hidden immunity idol in her food reward. She procured the clue without anyone noticing, and cut the idol out of the tribe tarp to gain an advantage that was a secret to everyone around her. She could have wrongly played the idol at the next tribal council but used a savvy Shot in the Dark play to read the room and determine that she could keep the idol in her pocket. The target quickly shifted as Kyle’s immunity dominance loomed large over the merged tribe, which allowed for Rachel to quietly make some new bonds. She gravitated toward Caroline and Sue, and confirmed the alliance after taking a risk on a Survivor journey. During a journey she completed a puzzle against the clock to earn the Block-a-Vote advantage, and she parlayed this into the Underdog alliance, where she had an agreement with Teeny and Andy and a stronger alliance with Caroline and Sue. It looked like the Underdogs would sail to the finish line but Operation Italy flipped over the chess board and put Rachel in the place of target number one, seemingly sentenced to a sixth place finish.

Rachel knew she had an ace up her sleeve, the hidden immunity idol. Post vote, Rachel snuck to the beach and listened in on a Operation Italy celebration party, learning that if she didn’t win the next immunity she was going home. When Genevieve beat her in the challenge, Rachel played the part of a death-row convict, obtaining the knowledge of Andy’s sneaky strong game. She pulled out her idol in dramatic fashion and flipped the game again, sending Andy to the jury. Rachel would use her challenge prowess to win immunity in final five and final four, sending Genevieve to the jury and bringing her goat Sue to the final tribal council. From there, she championed her ability to withstand all the late-game opposition she faced to win the title of Sole Survivor.

Rachel’s eventful victory would not have happened if she wasn’t a strong baseline Survivor player. She was a versatile strategist and a good social player, which allowed her to minimize her threat level for as long as she could, and when the heat was on her the most she performed in the immunity challenges to keep herself safe. While she did get helped out by a lot of luck throughout the season, her skill as a Survivor player should not be minimized or dismissed, as she was a highly respected castaway by her peers and she played the game laid out in front of her the best she could.

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Biggest Reveal: Sue is Actually 59 Years Old!

Hey, she got to land the plane on her season-long ruse to mildly positive reception. It did not make the tangible impact she wanted it to. While the jury appreciated Sue the person, Sue the player did not have a discussion worthy game for final tribal council. She ended up the goat we all assumed she’d be.

Most Orthogonal: The Reunion

Let’s just put the reunion down, please. Survivor casts don’t want to argue and potstir. It’s literally just background noise for watch parties to chat about the result. People only stay for the next season preview which reveals nothing about the season except faces we don’t know making nothing-burger statements about how great they will be at Survivor.

Legacy Talk — Rating Rachel’s Win Against Other New Era Winners

The Rachel win is going to be a controversial one to discuss in the future, because it walks like Mike Holloway and quacks like Ben Dreibergen, but because Rachel’s “queen” people don’t want to lump her in with historically low-tier winners. Amongst New Era winners, it probably sits in the middle. It isn’t on the tier of Erika or Dee, who had more control/agency in the game, and it isn’t on the tier of Maryanne, whose big move to blindside Omar took a lot more skill in my opinion than Rachel’s idol play. It comes down to personal preference of under the radar vs. #BIGMOVEZ when comparing it to Kenzie and Yam Yam’s win. Right now I put it above Kenzie and Yam Yam, but I need to reevaluate Survivor 44 and 46 and those winner games before I put my opinion in stone. Gabler is obviously on the bottom.

The Returner Heat Check

SEASON 50 LOCKS: NO ONE

Yeah, I said it. I’d be okay if there were no Season 47 players in the upcoming returner season. There is an ensemble of enjoyable and intriguing players, but to me no one on the level of a Carolyn or a Jesse or a Maryanne or an Emily or a Q.

POSSIBLE RETURNEE CANDIDATES: Genevieve, Andy, Rachel, Sol

However, I do expect they will cast someone for Season 50 from this season, and it is going to be one or two of these four. The most likely to me is Genevieve and Andy, who had the most compelling stories of the season and have unfinished business as the fifth and sixth place finishers. Rachel’s win closes the door for me personally on an imminent return, but her popularity soared this season with her flashy plays and could necessitate a return down the line. While Sol didn’t have a big impact in the game of Survivor 47, his chill guy persona and vest game garnered him a cult following that could propel him to a Survivor return.

UNLIKELY TO RETURN, BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE: Rome, Kyle

It feels like ages since Rome was on the season… funny how he has been so forgotten. But alas, Rome could be cast on a future season for the sake of throwing a live grenade into a starting tribe. Kyle’s less strategic approach to Survivor proved to be a nice change of pace on Survivor 47, and could earn him a spot in a future season, but I do worry that he isn’t strategic enough to be seriously considered.

THE HALI FORD ZONE: Sam, Caroline

Sam and Caroline played good games of Survivor and were generally liked and respected, but they didn’t stand out this season because they made no flashy plays. Honesty, these two castaway just feel like good one-season players. If they were cast on another season I think it would garner mild approval but would be no one’s favorite.

BECAUSE GABE BEGGED FOR IT: Gabe

Maybe the manifestation worked… I personally hope it doesn’t. Sorry Gabe.

NO WAY: Jon Lovett, T.K., Aysha, Kishan, Anika, Tiyana, Sierra, Teeny, Sue

A few of these castaways feel like wasted potential (Anika, Sierra, Kishan, etc.) but there are only so many spots on returner seasons, and with the list of contenders to return getting longer and longer, I just don’t think they will ever get the call to play again.

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Survivor 47 is over! Final thoughts before the short winter break? Survivor 47 isn’t on the tier of my favorite new era seasons, but it had its moments. We definitely got some signature strategic moments that are going to make the season rewatchable. Operation Italy was a top-tier New Era move that made this season worth the price of admission. In my opinion though, this wasn’t my most favorite cast of the new era. Between big moments there were times that the season dragged and the personalities were not able to carry the excitement through.

Survivor 48 is only a few weeks away, so be on the lookout for my preseason preview in mid February!

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jfish
jfish

Written by jfish

Reality TV connoisseur writing about the shows I like, especially Survivor. I also watch the Challenge, Love Island, and more.

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