Survivor Caramoan: Fans vs. Favorites Finale Recap - May 13, 2013

Another season of Survivor has concluded after last night's finale.  Fans vs. Favorites was a very enjoyable season for me.  Lots of big moments, big game moves, blind sides, surprises, and more.  Going into the finale, we down to the final five but that ended up being a final four within minutes.  During tribal council, Erik ended up getting very dizzy headed.  Upon getting back to camp, he was in need of medical help.  After checking him out, medical pulled him from the game as his body had quit on him.  We have seen him in recent episodes really complaining about how hungry he was and it was an interesting point that was brought up among the rest of the group about how he had been on every reward.  Yet, that was not enough food.  It shows just how bad of shape that his body was in.  So, that leaves us with the final four of Cochran, Dawn, Sherri and Eddie.  The reward challenge is held with the reward being an advantage in the final immunity challenge.  It was a card stacking competition.  Cochran looked out of it from the beginning unable to get on a roll with it but he was the one who made the big comeback to win it.  That advantage would pay off in the final immunity challenge.  He won a close challenge completing his puzzle first and choosing who he would take to the final three with him.  Lots of talk about what Cochran should do.  Would he take Dawn or turn on her?  Was Eddie a better option?  Sherri was a lock no matter what to go to final three so it was between Dawn and Eddie.  Eddie was voted out and that gave us our final three.  You just knew that this had all kinds of potential to be a wild final tribal council.  The jury took their turns asking questions.  Most questions went to Cochran and Dawn as that was where the jury focus was.  Sherri did not even seem to be a consideration from the jury and her back and forth with Erik probably finished any tiny chance that she had with the jury.  She also got booted from Stealth R' Us by Phillip.  LOL.  Malcolm's motivational speech for Dawn got her rolling with him telling her to "own everything that she did".  Don't back off of it and just stand up for what she did in the game and to stick to it.  She did do that explaining why she made certain moves.  She definitely took heat from the jury as was expected cause a lot of her moves was the demise of several of those jury members' games.  Brenda was the one that we were all waiting on as she definitely had the most heat toward Dawn.  I still say Brenda being voted out was one of the coldest things I've seen in Survivor history.  I'm saying that from giving up the reward and immunity in the same episode.  That is along with the retainer incident that was brought up here.  Brenda was the one that went to the trouble to help Dawn find her retainer after it was lost in the water.  Dawn had said that she would quit the game instead of dealing with that embarrassment of being seen without it.  So, Brenda said that she wanted her to step up and even the score showing herself without the retainer.  Dawn finally did it.  Cochran did great with his jury questioning and had the right answers.  I loved his "what animal would you compare your game to" answer which was a chameleon.  He said that like a chameleon he was able to change his colors and adapt to whatever change happened with people getting voted out.  Excellent answer and the jury seemed won over with it too.  So, on to the voting itself.  Cochran wins after they show five votes sealing the victory.  Jeff Probst sent out a tweet earlier on Twitter saying that the final vote was indeed 8-0 for Cochran to win so it was unanimous.  So, there is that for anyone wanting to know the final vote.  I am very happy with Cochran winning as he played this game hard.  Seeing how much he has evolved since his other season being on the show has been amazing.  The super fan became a confident player this season and the reward was that million dollar prize.  Definitely one of the most well deserved Survivor winners ever and one of my favorite Survivor winners ever.  With the reunion show, we had some fun things in there.  A surprise with Brenda revealing that she was pregnant.  She was live via satellite cause she was due any time and couldn't travel.  Her and Dawn were put on the spot talking to one another.  Jeff pointed out that the two hadn't spoken since the finale.  Dawn asked for forgiveness and Brenda accepted.  Boston Rob was there and gave his commentary on Phillip's play.  I laughed at his comment about how he had the guidelines all right but the execution wasn't that great.  Boston Rob was pushing his Survivor and life guidelines book.  Loved having him on the finale.  The best to play the game in my opinion.  No real other surprises on the finale and it was mostly business as usual.  Malcolm's soap opera acting role was shown and he was also the winner of the fan voted money award.  The tease for next season involved "Blood is thicker than water".  This has been a major rumor for a couple of weeks now that this next season will involve something around families.  So, that is it for another season of Survivor.  Really enjoyed it.  Lots of big moments and fun.  The Malcolm, Eddie, Reynold hidden immunity idol will be something that will be played for ages in Survivor history as it was great TV.  This group all around was wild at blindsiding with what happened to Andrea and Brenda.  I was disappointed when both of them got voted out obviously.  We'll see what Survivor brings us in the fall.