In the most anticlimactic penultimate episode ever, Joe’s age finally caught up to him in Survivor: Kaoh Rong Episode 13 when he became the third person this season to be medically evacuated. That leaves a final four of Aubry Bracco, Cydney Gillon, Michele Fitzgerald, and Tai Trang competing to be the Survivor: Kaoh Rong winner.
Meh. I still want Caleb to win. But his buddy Tai has proved to be quite the force in this game despite at first glance seemingly being out of his element.
Oh, and Mark the chicken still survives.
He had planned to play his idol at 5 regardless, but now Tai’s hidden immunity idol is useless because it can’t be used after 5, the third one this season to not be used. Not that they haven’t had an impact. They just haven’t been getting used to nullify votes.
Aubry is concerned about Michele because she hasn’t made enemies on the jury.
For the reward challenge, they will crawl under a net, toss tiles through a target, balance those tiles while crossing a balance beam, and lastly look for matching pairs. Aubry is the only one having much success, but she apparently doesn’t know what the word pair means. In the end, Aubry realizes her mistake and wins reward, a meal.
She can choose whether to bring someone or not, and she picks Cydney. Why play favorites like that if Jeff’s not forcing you to do so, especially this late in the game? Tai and Michele should probably be getting the hint since this is exactly the same thing Aubry did last week.
Michele and Tai discuss what just happened, but there don’t seem to be any real alliances here. Everybody is up for whatever, as long as it’s not them.
For the immunity challenge, they will race back and forth across the water retrieving keys and then solve a three layer puzzle. Aubry builds up a good lead retrieving the pieces, and logic would suggest her as the last standing member of the Brains tribe to be the favorite to win. Tai is the first to advance to the second level and the third level. Michele is kind of in it, while Aubry and Cydney are lost. Then Tai all of a sudden slows way down, and Michele wins immunity.
Despite the fact that she keeps going out of her way to bring Cydney on rewards, Aubry feels her only option is to force a tie. On the other side, Michele wants to get rid of Aubry, so Cydney will go with that plan. They approach Tai, hoping he will just make the easy Aubry vote, rather than forcing a fire making challenge that Aubry is not so sure she can even do. If Aubry does go, Tai’s probably on his own next time if there is a final two instead of a final three, so with that in mind, it makes sense to at least give her a shot to control her own destiny because it’s not like he’s at risk either way.
Votes
Aubry
Cydney
Aubry
Cydney
There is a tie. Tai and Michele don’t see a reason to revote. Cydney and Aubry must compete in a fire making challenge.
Aubry is the first to make fire. As her blaze continues to grow, Cydney isn’t even competitive. Just as it looks like Aubry is going to win, her fire slowly dwindles to nothing. Luckily for her, Cydney is still having nothing resembling success. Aubry wins, and Cydney has been eliminated. Cydney’s waterworks as she leaves suggest she would have had a strong case for a sympathy vote.
Tai just got what he wanted, but Michele fears he just handed Aubry the game. Given the number of evacuations, it would seem there’s still another challenge.
There is another challenge, but there’s also one last twist. They are not competing for immunity. They are competing for the right to vote out a jury member. An interesting twist, though I’d still rather see a final two like classic Survivor instead of the final three where one person is usually just taking up space.
They have to bring balls across a balance beam and build a stack. Michele is consistently in the lead throughout the challenge, and as Aubry’s stack comes crashing down in a last second come from behind attempt, Michele wins.
Michele has already made it clear that she’s afraid of Aubry, which means her winning should be just as beneficial to Tai. Michele thinks there’s one clear vote, Joe. The other likely Aubry vote is Neal. On the flip side, Tai’s former allies Scot and Jason may vote for him, assuming they’re not bitter. Then they start rambling about how they need to get rid of someone who may persuade other votes, perhaps a loud mouth like Scot or Jason. I’m not convinced this is even a consideration or worth the time they are spending on it.
Vote
Neal
Neal is clearly bitter as he leaves, so he can just blow his hot air in departing because he’s now irrelevant. It’s a pretty safe assumption that he was an Aubry vote and that Michele made the right choice. Of course, there’s the risk that Tai’s the bigger threat, but I don’t think anyone has made it quite so obvious they are voting for him.
Nick tells Michele to be intelligent, Tai to be aware, and Aubry to be confident.
Debbie asks a very Debbie question. Does Tai have multiple personalities? Then she tells Aubry she’s very proud of her.
Julia, perhaps the weakest player there tonight, calls Michele the weakest link, and claims that her big move was getting rid of her. She then says Tai was weak after the merge when he had multiple alliances, a secret advantage, and a hidden immunity idol.
Joe says he’s going to ignore Michele, but he pretends to humor Tai.
Jason asks Michele whether she just got lucky, and he asks Tai a question that he’s already answered, why he left Scot and Jason.
Cydney also asks about her own elimination.
Scot mostly just wants to make Tai and Aubry squirm, but he concludes by saying that Michele is the only one who got stronger as the game continued.
Before the vote is revealed, they have one last piece of business to attend to. They have to say goodbye to Mark.
Votes
Michele
Aubry
Aubry
Michele
Michele
Michele
The Survivor: Kaoh Rong winner is Michele Fitzgerald. She’s not an unlikable winner, which perhaps is the point because that means bitter jury members can’t take it out on her, but I’m not sure I can think of what she did.
As Jeff asks Tai questions, someone apparently famous starts yelling. Sia wants to give $50,000 to Tai and $50,000 to a charity of his choice.
Survivor will return again for season 33, Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X. I’m not sure this is a good thing or a bad thing.