With the elimination of Teresa in Survivor: Africa Episode 13, the alliance of four Boran members remains standing as the final four: Ethan Zohn, Kim Johnson, Lex van dn Berghe, and Tom Buchanan. This alliance made one stupid move after another, surviving in spite of themselves because the other tribe was so fractured. Considering that everybody followed Lex around like a bunch of lemmings, he deserves the credit for getting his team this far, although he’s certainly made himself a lot of enemies in the process of his advancement through his unnecessarily aggresive moves against friend and foe alike.
Before she left, though, Teresa did manage to stir the pot, which is enough to cast doubt in Lex’s mind about Tom. Big Tom has said since the Brandon vote that he didn’t trust Lex, and maybe he should have done something about it then because now Lex is ready to turn on him. Lex’s plan is to talk to Tom and confront him about it. Tom denies having said anything to T-Bird, but he does acknowledge having told Kim she could vote for Lex. Following their discussion, Tom says that their alliance still stands. Lex seems comfortable with their alliance, but Tom doesn’t want to shake hands with him again because they already have one deal going. As much as Kim hopes to get in the middle, the guys plan to remain loyal to each other. She has had numerous occasions to change the course of her game, but she’s failed to take advantage of any of them.
It’s the “How closely have you paid attention to your tribemates (and feel free to guess if you need to)?” challenge. Big Tom knows he’s in trouble. Lex feels that Kim has the best chance of winning this, which would be a first for her.
What rank did Frank reach in the army?
Staff sergeant. Nobody is right.
Which Survivor listed manipulating men on their application as one of their favorite hobbies?
Kelly. Everybody is right.
Who was the first to hit a target in the archery competition?
Lindsey. Tom gets a point.
Whose children are these, and what are their names?
Teresa’s Ellie and Tyler. Giveaway question. Everybody gets it right.
In which city and state is Jessie a deputy sheriff?
Orlando, FL. Everybody is right, remembering back quite a ways.
Which Survivor has a tattoo of a black widow spider, and for an extra point, where is it located?
Brandon. Everybody is right. It’s on his back. Lex and Kim get the bonus question.
With that lame bonus point, Kim and Lex pull into a tie with Tom.
Who are Sage Hunter and Jocelyn Rose?
Frank’s children. Everybody is right on another obvious question.
Which female Survivor does not have anything pierced, including her ears?
Kelly. Kim is correct and wins immunity, spoiling the final three alliance plans.
Votes
Tom
Lex
Tom
Tom
With 3 votes, Big Tom has been voted off the island. Nobody would want to go up against him in the end. While he could not be dubbed a mastermind, he’s made a lot of friends along the way.
Jeff Probst comes to wake up the final three early the next morning. Lex is sick. He’s had diarrhea and spent all night up going to the bathroom about a dozen times. We found out later that he was offered medical attention that would take him out of the game for a couple hours, but he refused that assistance for fear that it would cause him to lose the game. This is not the state you want to be in going into what you know is going to be an endurance competition.
The final immunity challenge is to put each foot on a stump and one hand on an idol. Once they do that, they are not allowed to move them. Last person standing wins. Ethan’s the first one out at 2 hours and 26 minutes, odd because he’s up against a sick guy and an old woman. Although we didn’t see it, Ethan’s elimination came after he was distracted by his cameraman, who threw up due to the heat. There’s no talk of a deal between the two who remain standing. The only talking going on is that Lex knows he’s screwed because he was sick all night. At 3 hours and 21 minutes, Lex falls, and Kim wins immunity, guaranteeing herself a spot in the final two, despite her original plan to let the boys just walk away with it.
Vote
Lex
Having controlled the game almost since the beginning and having been a target almost as long, Lex has finally been voted out. Either way, it would be hard for the jury to justify a Kim vote. Had she done something like joined in the all girl alliance, voting for her would make some sense, but merely following the alliance of three guys and then winning a couple of immunities to keep them from voting her out isn’t going to cut it. Granted, it could be argued that Ethan just followed Lex around the whole time.
Why did Kim bring Ethan with her? Lex felt he deserved it, whereas Ethan maybe didn’t think that way.
Brandon says he doesn’t like one of these people and can’t wait to vote against him. Yeah, there’s a real shortage of Brandon disliking people this season. Kelly wants to watch them both squirm because she didn’t vote for stupid Lex and shouldn’t have been voted off when she was. Big Tom already decided who he’s going to vote for, so his question will not be serious.
Kim can’t ask the jury to vote for her because it will be hard for her to change their minds since they already know who she is.
Ethan wanted to prove that honest people could get where they’ve gotten. For the most part he’s right, although cutting both Clarence and Kelly before they got rid of the other tribe (or at least a reasonable amount of the other tribe) stands out as something that most people in the final two would not have done.
Brandon, who said he had made up his mind already, tells the final two he has no idea who he’s voting for. Neither of them really got to know him, and neither liked him enough to keep him around three days longer than Frank. Yeah, still bitter about Frank. Out of the 7 jury members, which person would they like to see sitting next to them? Ethan answers Lex because of how he played the game, and it would be a greater achievement to be able to beat Lex. Kim would have to go with Lex as well. Part two of the question: who deserved to be there the least? Just a name. No why. Ethan: Brandon. Now that’s funny. Kim: Tom. Kim voted against someone who would never vote for her, but Ethan considered Brandon the swing vote, so this is perhaps not the best answer.
Lex asks what the first selfless act they will perform when they get back home will be. Kim is going to look into the project they’ve been discussing, the Wamba Project, to help fight AIDS. Ethan would like to give his time to an inner city soccer league, having been inspired by his trip to the village and playing hacky sack with the kids.
Frank wants to know the big five characteristics needed to get this far. Ethan: will power, strength, integrity, intelligence, and luck. Kim: respect, thoughtfulness, flexibility, love, and understanding. Let’s just all sing Kumbaya now.
Kelly was surprised and disappointed by Kim’s conduct, but thanks her for giving Lex the chance to do his own walk of shame. But if Kim thinks she did this with high integrity, think again. Then there’s Ethan, who didn’t try to make any relationship with her. Pick a number between 1-1000. Kim: 3. Ethan: 888. This may seem a little obvious here, but shouldn’t Ethan have said 4, thereby ensuring Kim could only win with 1, 2, or 3?
Little Kim asks who on the jury did they learn the most about themselves from and who did they learn the least about themselves from. Kim J learned the most from Kim P, who had the guts to call off a wedding rather than do what’s expected of her. She was also able to forgive Brandon for making sure she lost the game. As for the second part of the question, Big Tom. Not that she’s picking on him. Ethan learned the most from Teresa, who was almost like his safe place in this game. She had a lot of will power to win and be there. Least would be Kelly. He acknowledges that he didn’t take time to get to know her.
Big Tom’s taken some hits from Kim, but he’s just going with his original plan. If a hyena came through camp and ate the mush then licked his hind end, did he do it because that was the animal instinct or to get the taste of the mush out of his mouth? Ethan’s response: to clean its hind end because he didn’t mind the taste of the mush as much as Tom did. Kim is obviously pretty well over Big Tom and doesn’t appear to try to find the humor in this question.
Teresa asks what they would take back about one of the jurors. Kim didn’t sell Kelly out, but didn’t know enough to go to her defense either. Ethan goes back to that vote as well, and he thought it came from Frank and did make some effort to get rid of Frank as a result.
Brandon says he’s voting for Kim because Ethan answered his question wrong. Yet, well before the vote, he told the camera that he didn’t like someone and was looking to vote against him. Don’t try to get a job as an actor, dude, because nobody’s buying it. Someone as bitter as Brandon isn’t going to change his mind over just one question.
Kim P says she thought she would vote for Ethan, and she is someone we can actually believe. She voted for Kim presumably because of her compliments toward her when she was trying to win her vote.
Big Tom’s about as fed up with Kim J as she is with him. She rode coattails to get where she is, and he shouldn’t have felt sorry for the weak link when she was costing them all those challenges.
Kelly’s vote comes down to a number, the room number from The Graduate, 568.
After the vote, Jeff’s question is whether there’s anything they’re willing to admit to now that it’s all over. Kim was scared a lot, which she may not have covered as well as she thought. That changed for her in the final immunity challenge, the first time she really stood on her own.
Then Ethan’s asked about anything about the final tribal council that surprised him. Kelly, letting it all come down to a number.
Votes
Kim (Brandon)
Ethan (Tom)
Kim (Kim P)
Ethan (Lex)
Ethan (Teresa)
Ethan (Frank)
Ethan (Kelly)
By a vote of 5-2, Ethan Zohn is the Survivor: Africa winner.
Kim says that she took Ethan with her because she knew she couldn’t beat either of them, so she decided to take the person she thought deserved it most next to herself. Teresa is right there with her, having decided early on that she was going to vote for Ethan because she wanted it to be him if it couldn’t be her.